Cocaine Kate is calendar girl

Posing provocatively in skimpy bikini against a rock face, this is Kate Moss making her modelling comeback.

The disgraced 31-year-old was dropped by Burberry, Chanel and H&M following revelations about her drug-taking which led her to be nicknamed Cocaine Kate.

But the Italian tyre firm Pirelli has decided to keep Miss Moss in its 2006 calendar.

Yesterday it insisted there was never any question of ditching her from the limited-edition publication, which is not available for sale and is sent out to a selection of recipients including company chairmen, celebrities and Prince Andrew.

Julie Naylor, communications manager for Pirelli UK, said yesterday: 'There was no chance that Kate would have been dropped from the calendar.

'We decided to stick with her because professionally she has always been great for us and a wonderful ambassador. What she does in her private life is no concern of ours.

'Despite rumours, Kate has not been dropped from the calendar, in fact she is very much part of it and appears four times throughout the calendar in a series of fantastic shots.

'She looks fabulous and the VIP clients who will receive the calendar, including Prince Andrew, will be delighted with it. I was on the shoot and everyone had a great time.'

Sources at Pirelli's Milan headquarters said, however, that the firm had no option but to keep Miss Moss in the calendar because it was too late for the four shots featuring her to be replaced.

'There was a lot of talk about whether we should scrap Kate from the calendar in the light of what happened,' said one. 'The problem was that the calendar had already been shot and produced and is now waiting to be distributed.

'It costs more than £1million to make and there was no way at such short notice that Kate's photographs could have been removed and replaced with someone else.'

Miss Moss is one of six women who appear in the calendar - the others are Jennifer Lopez, Giselle Bundchen, Karen Elson, Natalia Vodianova and Guinevere Van Seenus.