Thursday, October 27, 2011

How is Giger Involved In Penthouse Model's Death?

Anneka Vasta, who was the Penthouse Pet of the Year in 1975, was found dead on the beach January 4th. For some reason a picture with her and H.R. Giger are all over the Internet.

Vasta was best known for her role in the film Caligula, which film critic Roger Ebert famously walked out of for it's content. Her death is being heavily investigated, but I can't figure out why so many articles about her death feature the photo above with the caption: Anneka Vasta, left, posed for this April 1980 photo with Swiss artist H.R. Giger, who was nominated for an academy award for his visual effects for the movie 'Alien.'"

H.R. Giger (Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger) of course is the world renowned Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy award for his work as one of the concept artists from Alien.

At 59, they say her body was so slim and youthful that they thought she was a teenager. There are only a handful of pictures of her on the Internet, so I guess this is the one people want to use to emphasize how young she looked.

The photo is from a 1980 showing of his artwork for the movie Alien in the Hansen Galleries in New York City. Other than that photo there appears to be no connection between the two whatsoever. I just find it weird that her death is now closely linked to a photo of the concept artist from twenty years ago.

As a public service here are two other photos of the model Anneka Vasta you can use.


Check out H.R. Giger's website http://giger.com/
Do you find it strange that the photo of Giger is connected to a murder? Let me know in the comments.

Via - Today