Christie Brinkley recalls moment she got 'stuck' mid-air on Sports Illustrated shoot

Christie Brinkley is one of the most famous and accomplished models in history, but not everything always goes according to plan — even for the pros.

At a panel during Toronto's Fan Expo Canada on Sunday, where Brinkley was joined by National Lampoon's Vacation co-stars Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron, the 69-year-old recalled a time when she was stuck on a spinnaker during a Sports Illustrated shoot.

"I got stuck on that spinnaker like 30-feet up in the air at the top of a giant sailboat," Brinkley said. "They forgot to tie the line on that would spill the wind out of that spinnaker and bring me down. I was just in this tiny, little bathing suit, hanging on.

"I was like, 'OK, I'm ready to come down. Hello!'"

That resulted in Brinkley having to jump down and land back onto the boat.

Despite that hiccup, Brinkley maintains that she loves nothing more than a Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

"We got beautiful beaches. They tell you, 'Your job today is to get a tan,'" Brinkley said. "Back in the olden days when I did it, it was more about being athletic. And then if they happen to catch a sexy pose, OK.

"So, I was busy jumping off of cliffs and hanging off of a flying spinnaker in the sky and sailing by on a boat. I went diving on the Rhône. They didn't use those pictures because the bubbles kept coming out of my nose."

Becoming a New York Islanders fan 'by accident'

To start off the Sunday event, Brinkley was quick to ask the audience if anyone in the crowd was a fan of Canadian legend Joni Mitchell. Brinkley proceeded to gush about how much she loves the artist.

"Anybody here a Joni Mitchell fan like me?" Brinkley shouted out enthusiastically. "I absolutely love her and because of her, ... I always wanted to ice skate on a river."

Speaking of ice skating, during the Q&A portion of the panel, Brinkley was asked about being a New York Islanders fan, with the star's history of doing commercials for the team.

But the model and actor admitted she really became a fan "by accident."

"My son said, 'Mom, do you think you could take me to an ice hockey game?'" Brinkley explained. "He called me while I was on a set modelling and I said to my photographer, 'My son wants me to take him to an ice hockey game and I'm not sure how you find the tickets and stuff, and how do we do that?'

"He said, 'Oh, Charles Wang (who used to own the Islanders) is my next door neighbour. I'll let him know.' So before I even finished that shot, he had already called up Charles Wang and Charles Wang said, 'Come down to the Islanders. ... You'll be in my box. I'll give you a place on the corner.' It was like a dream come true. My son couldn't even believe it when we got there and we had so much fun."

Brinkley said that resulted in her now-28-year-old son, Jack Paris Brinkley Cook, wanting to go back repeatedly, which led to her being more involved with the team.

"Then I started doing their commercials and I had a blog," Brinkley said. "It turned into a whole thing and for the next couple of years, I couldn't walk down the street without people going, 'Islanders!'"