British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been hospitalized in Sao Paulo and is being treated by one of Brazil’s top infection specialists, the hospital’s press office said on Tuesday.

Campbell, a frequent visitor to Brazil who earlier this month celebrated Carnival in the northeastern city of Salvador, was hospitalized Sunday in Sao Paulo’s Sirio Libanes Hospital.

The 37-year-old model made headlines recently for interviewing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the February issue of British GQ magazine.

Campbell wrote that she had hoped to get a sense of “Hugo Chavez the man.”

“I found him to be fearless, but not threatening or unreasonable,” she wrote. “I hope Venezuela’s relations with America will improve in the immediate future.”

In August, a judge allowed a lawsuit against Campbell to proceed, and ruled the supermodel’s stormy past can potentially be used against her.

Former Campbell maid Gaby Gibson said the fashion plate verbally abused her on a number of occasions and then physically attacked her in January 2006. The Romanian immigrant said Campbell had become furious when she couldn’t find a pair of Stella McCartney jeans.

“I’ve had it with you, f—ing b–ch,” the suit quotes Campbell as saying before she allegedly punched or kicked at the back of Gibson’s head.

In June, Campbell settled a lawsuit with a former employee who claims she abused her verbally and physically on three continents.

Amanda Brack, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sued Campbell in July 2006 for unspecified money damages, accusing her of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress. Brack’s papers said the abusive incidents started a month after she began working for Campbell in February 2005.

Last March, the catwalker was released from a garbage truck garage in Manhattan after completing five days of community service for assaulting her maid.

The model pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for throwing a phone at her maid over a missing pair of jeans.

Her maid, Ana Scolavino, required four stitches to her head, since the phone apparently was crystal-encrusted.

Campbell said it was an accident because she did not intend to hit her.

In an agreement negotiated with prosecutors, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge sentenced Campbell to the five days of community service, to take anger management classes and to pay $363.32 in restitution to Scolavino, as well as covering her hospital bills.

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