She's mortified to have kept us waiting. She's so pleased to meet us. She's tired, a bit chilly and - "Do you mind?" - would prefer a chair closer to the fire. Sweet, accommodating, girl-next-doorish, slim as a sapling and yes, even this close, a knock-out in the looks department. Just as you might expect.
Just as she is imagined by millions who know her still as "The Body", despite that she is 40 and mother of Flynn, 6, and Aurelius Cy, 16 months.
Elle Macpherson - the former Sydney schoolgirl, Eleanor Gow - is settling in amid a flurry of theatrical, social niceties for an allotted "one-on-one" press interview (a treat and a privilege, we are told), on a lofty floor of the city's swank Park Hyatt Hotel.
After a solid fortnight of promotional appearances for a sheet company and her self-named lingerie line, 30-odd minutes of probing, intensely personal questions most of us would consider impertinent from a perfect stranger, should be a snack. Is it?
"I'm concerned," she says, gently pleading, at the end of it, "To be misquoted. Some things could be - um - misdirected. I'm concerned for my children - I don't want them to look at that (the article) in five years and say, 'Look mummy, you look like an idiot'."
It's happened before. Macpherson's honesty - some might call it naivete - has landed her in trouble. The "I-only-read-what-I've-written-myself" incident is legend. In a group of chums the odd clanger like that wouldn't matter; a giggle, and soon forgotten.
But celebrity brings a cruel kind of scrutiny and Macpherson appears to be a target for as many scoffers and cynics as admirers.
It's always been that way but even more so now she's 40. Her views on life and favourite brand of mouthwash are as compelling as when she was 20.
"I know!" she says, elegantly hoisting one slim, trousered leg and stiletto-ed foot onto the fireplace. "For me, it's a strange thing - I laugh - so much has been made about me turning 40 but I don't even think about it."
To be fair, she doesn't have to think about it like some women do. Maybe it's the expertly applied make-up, perhaps the careful professional styling, but her skin appears flawless, her hair is bouncy as a toddler's, and though she makes much of understanding the physical proportions peculiar to "my demographic", any noticeable signs of ageing must be well hidden in her lacey lingerie top, lean trouser suit and silk-covered, high-heeled pumps.