Showing posts with label American Actress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Actress. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Britney Jean Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop music singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. She is one of the most famous women of all time. Spears has sold over 83 million records worldwide according to Zomba Label Group, and has sold over 75 million albums worldwide. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 31 million albums in the U.S.

Spears is best known for her studio albums, music videos, and songs, such as "...Baby One More Time", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "I'm a Slave 4 U", "Toxic", for which she won a Grammy Award, and "Gimme More". In January 1999, Spears released her first studio album ...Baby One More Time, followed closely by the 2000 studio album Oops!... I Did It Again. Her third album Britney was released in November 2001, followed by a fourth album In The Zone in November 2003. The collection Greatest Hits: My Prerogative was released in November 2004. Her fifth album entitled Blackout is scheduled to be released worldwide on October 30, 2007.

Spears's fame in the music industry has led her to experiment with other forms of media, including film and reality television. As an actress, she is most noted for her starring role in the 2002 movie Crossroads. Spears has also made guest appearances in various other movies and television programs. Her success as a singer led her to several high-profile advertising deals and endorsements including her own perfume line.

Spears's personal life has gained much attention from the media. In particular, her marriage to back-up dancer Kevin Federline and the birth of their two children, Sean Preston and Jayden James. The couple's divorce in November 2006 was highly publicized and has been followed by a legal battle for custody of their sons.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne on Animax Music Station

Avril Lavigne on Animax Music Station


Name: Avril Ramona Lavigne
Birth date: September 27, 1984
Birth place: Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Height: 5′ 2″
Family: Parents, a brother and a sister
Husband: Deryck Whibley
Profession: Singer and song writer

Avril Lavigne Whibley, better known by her birth name of Avril Lavigne, (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian rock/punk-pop singer, musician and actress. In 2006, Canadian Business Magazine ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood, and in 2007 she won ninth place in the Jabra Music Contest for the Best Band in the World, based on fan votes from around the world.

Lavigne's birth surname is usually pronounced in an anglicized way as /ˈævrəl ləˈviːn/"La-Veen" (in French it is commonly pronounced /aˈvʁil laˈviːɲ/ (help·info)). Avril is French for "April", while la vigne means "the vine" or "the vineyard".

Lavigne's debut album, Let Go, was released in 2002, and went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide. And was certified six times platinum in the United States. Her second and third albums, Under My Skin (2004) and The Best Damn Thing (2007), respectively, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Lavigne has scored five number one songs worldwide to date and a total of eleven top ten hits, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", and "Girlfriend". She ranked # 50 on VH1's "50 Greatest Women Of The Video Era" show list.

Avril Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario to a devout Christian family. Lavigne's musical talent was first spotted at the age of two when her mother says Lavigne began singing along with her on church songs. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.

In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing "What Made You Say That".

She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd (a relation of the influential Canadian journalist, Ben Medd), who invited her to sing on his song "Touch the Sky" for his 1999 album Quinte Spirit. She also sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow up album, My Window to You, in 2000.

At the age of sixteen she was signed by Ken Krongard, the artists-and-repertoire (A&R) representative of Arista Records, who invited the head of Arista, Antonio "L.A." Reid, to hear her sing at the New York City studio of producer Peter Zizzo. She then completed work on her first album, Let Go. The Matrix, who worked extensively with Lavigne on the album, commented on her songwriting, saying, "We conceived the ideas on guitar and piano. Avril would come in and sing a few melodies, change a word here or there."

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Paris Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American celebutante, businesswoman, singer, model, actress, and television personality. She was an heiress to a share of both the Hilton Hotel fortune and the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. Paris Hilton is no longer an heiress to the Hilton estate, due to her grandfather Barron being disgusted by her behavior.

As an actress, she has appeared in several minor roles, most notably in the horror film House of Wax (2005). Some of her more recognizable screen work has been alongside friend Nicole Richie in The Simple Life. In 2006, she released her debut self-titled album Paris. Hilton has since garnered notoriety as a result of several legal incidents, the repercussions of which have caused Hilton to serve time in a correctional institution in 2007.

Hilton began modeling as a child, appearing first in charity events. At 19, she signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency, T Management. Hilton has worked with modeling agencies such as Ford Models in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London. She has appeared in numerous advertising campaigns, including Iceberg Vodka, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano. In 2001, Hilton began to develop a reputation as a 19-year-old socialite, being identified as "New York's leading It Girl" whose fame was beginning to "extend beyond the New York tabloids".

Paris Hilton has a knack for attracting attention and always seems to be at the center of things. Sure, some people might feel that this isn't much of a virtue, but Paris is a born self-promoter -- despite her occasional protests to the contrary.

"Paris the Heiress" is first-born in the latest generation of the Hilton family, of swanky hotel fame. Fat trust fund aside, she is also known for being a high-society party girl, part-time model, and quasi-actress.

If America was a shocking pink luxury car parked behind a fast food joint, then Paris Hilton would be the gold plated ornament on its hood. Long before the celebutant hit the small screen with Nicole Richie in the rich-girls-do-real-work reality show, The Simple Life, Hilton was already famous for her wealth, party-hearty lifestyle and a home sex tape that launched a million plain brown mailing wrappers.

Her ever-evolving feuds with other Hollywood party pack stars, ever-changing taste in pets and men and endless string of mishaps – having her sidekick hacked and her warehoused possessions displayed online – naturally make her every gossip magazine's dream. But love her or hate her, it's impossible to ignore Hilton.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning American film and television actress, best known for her role as Rachel Green in the popular television sitcom Friends. Since Friends she has starred in several successful Hollywood films, including Bruce Almighty, Along Came Polly and The Break-Up.

Aniston moved to Hollywood and was cast in her first television roles in 1990, starring as a regular on the short-lived series Molloy and in the TV movie Camp Cucamonga. She also co-starred in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of the 1986 hit movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the same year; the series, however, was quickly canceled. Aniston then appeared in two more failed television comedy shows, The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred on Quantum Leap, Herman's Head, Burke's Law, on South Park in episode Rainforest Schmainforest. After the string of cancelled shows, along with her appearance in the critically derided 1993 horror film, Leprechaun, Aniston considered giving up acting.

Aniston's plans changed, however, after auditioning for Friends, a sitcom that was set to debut on NBC's 1994-1995 fall line-up. The producers of the show originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but she persuaded them that she was better suited for the role of Rachel Green. She was cast in the role and played the character from 1994 until the show ended in 2004.

The program was hugely successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained wide renown among television viewers. Her hairstyle at the time, which became known as the "Rachel", was widely copied. Aniston received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last two seasons of Friends, as well as five Emmy nominations, including a win for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series".

According to the Guinness World Book of Records (2005), Aniston (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the tenth season of Friends.

Aniston has starred in several theatrical films, including the cult hit Office Space and Picture Perfect (1997) .

She gained the most critical acclaim for her role in the low-budget 2002 film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The film opened in relatively few theaters - under 700 in total - taking $14M in the U.S. box office.

Jennifer's biggest box office success was her appearance in 2003's Bruce Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title character (Jim Carrey); the film grossed $243M at the United States box office and almost twice that worldwide. Aniston's 2004 film, Along Came Polly (opposite Ben Stiller), also did well at the box office after opening at the #1 spot.

In late 2005, Aniston headlined two major studio films, Derailed and Rumor Has It, both of which performed fairly at the box office, grossing over $36 million each despite little support from critics.

In 2006, Aniston appeared in the low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival, received a limited release, and grossed over $13 million. Aniston's next film, The Break-Up, which was released on June 2, grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend, despite lukewarm reviews. It has currently grossed over $118 million at the U.S. box office and over $203 million worldwide.

In addition to acting, Aniston has also directed a hospital emergency room-set short film named Room 10, starring Robin Wright Penn and Kris Kristofferson; Aniston has noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who directed a short film in 2006.

Forbes listed Aniston as the 10th richest woman in the entertainment industry for the year 2007. She is behind such powerhouses as Oprah Winfrey, J. K. Rowling, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez and is ahead of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Olsen twins. Aniston's net worth is approximately $110 million. Aniston was also included in the annual Star Salary Top 10 of trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter for 2006. Aniston has been signed to play a role in the up-coming thriller Wanted along with Meryl Streep and Martin Hernandez.

Teri Lynn Hatcher

Teri Lynn Hatcher (born December 8, 1964) is an Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress and author as well. She gained attention for her role as Lois Lane in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman co-starring with Dean Cain. Hatcher is also well-known for portraying Susan Mayer, in Desperate Housewives, an accident-prone divorcee. She is also a "Bond Girl", having played Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

Hatcher began her performing career as a young girl taking ballet lessons at the San Juan Girls' Ballet Studio in downtown Los Altos, California. She later studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater. One of her early jobs (in 1984) was as a cheerleader with the San Francisco 49ers. During this time she also appeared as one of the mermaids on the show The Love Boat in its final season.

Hatcher landed a co-starring role in 1993, opposite Dean Cain, in Lois and Clark. Her role proved to be the best move to gain the attention of audiences, and the one role she had most fallen in love with. While probably most noted for playing Lois Lane in the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997), Hatcher has also appeared in such feature films as Spy Kids (2001), the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Dead in the Water (1991), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), The Cool Surface (1994) and Heaven's Prisoners (1996). The last two films featured Hatcher's only on-screen nude scenes, but neither did well at the box office. The ABC had cancelled Lois & Clark in 1997, and Hatcher was very disappointed about the show's demise. She was also desperate in looking for work. She has made a guest appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation and had a recurring role on MacGyver as Penny Parker, a naïve, high-strung, young woman who always seemed to get into trouble.

he also had a guest appearance in an episode of Seinfeld, in which her character, Sidra, broke up with Jerry because she found out Jerry was trying to have Elaine surreptitiously determine whether Sidra had breast implants. In one of the more memorable lines in the show, she declared, "Oh, and by the way: they're real, and they're spectacular." Hatcher has also appeared in a series of popular Radio Shack television commercials alongside NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long. The pair remain close friends, and together have bought farm land on the outside of Los Angeles, with the intent of eventually raising endangered species. Hatcher said her plan to do so came about after reading an article featuring the world's top 25 endangered species.

She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1996. Hatcher beat out four other actresses for the lead role on ABC's Desperate Housewives, on which she stars as single mother Susan Mayer, a role for which she won the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award in January 2005. In 2005, Hatcher also won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award in the same category. In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the same role, along with co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, who won the award.

As of April 2006, Hatcher is one of the highest paid television actresses in the United States. She reportedly earns $285,000 per episode of Desperate Housewives. In May 2006, she released her first book, Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life. In conjunction with the book, she has also launched a line of apparel and merchandise. Furthermore she is prominently featured in an international campaign for Repeat Cashmere.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Megan Fox

Born in Tennessee on May 16, 1986, Megan Denise Fox started taking drama and dance lessons at the age of five and thrived from the very beginning. Despite a move to Florida when she was 10, Megan's parents did not let their youngest daughter forego her talent, and so the future actress continued her training.

By age 13, her dancing led to modeling opportunities and Fox excelled in this new arena. In 1999, she won several awards at the American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina. With this new credit, Fox began venturing into acting, and after she moved to Los Angeles, a future career in showbiz looked probable.Fox made her acting debut in 2001, appearing in the straight-to-video release Holiday in the Sun, a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film. She then garnered a recurring role in the low-key soap opera Ocean Ave. and appeared in an episode of the Amanda Bynes series What I Like About You. 2004 was the year Fox joined the legion of female teens overtaking Hollywood, as she appeared alongside Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, did the TV movie Crimes of Fashion and secured a spot on the Kelly Ripa-led sitcom Hope & Faith.

As Hollywood began to take notice of this budding star, Megan started joining the ranks of her fellow female actresses by posing in photo spreads, like her 2005 shoot for FHM. The following year, the magazine named her No. 68 on their 100 Sexiest Women of 2006 list. And in 2007, she continued her lasting relationship with the magazine for another spread in their March issue.

Megan's biggest break, however, came in 2007 when she was cast as the lead actress in the highly anticipated Transformers movie, in which she plays Shia LaBoeuf's love interest.

Fox made her film debut in the 2001 film Holiday in the Sun as the spoiled heiress and rival of Ashley Olsen. She then landed guest appearances on Ocean Ave., What I Like About You, Two and a Half Men and The Help from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, Fox starred in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen alongside Lindsay Lohan. She was subsequently cast in her first recurring role in a television series on Hope & Faith, in which she portrayed Sydney Shanowski from 2004 until 2006.

Fox won the role of female lead, Mikaela Banes, in the film Transformers, where she plays the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character Sam Witwicky. In June 2007, Fox was reportedly cast in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, also starring Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst. Ironically, the character Fox will portray is that of a young Hollywood starlet getting her first taste of fame.

Fox has appeared in a five page spread for the November 2005 issue of the popular men's magazine FHM and was ranked number sixty-eight on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2006. She also posed for the March 2007 issue of FHM, the June 2007 issue of GQ and the July 2007 issue of Maxim.

Fox is represented by The Gersh Agency.

Perhaps one of Fox's best known characteristics is her array of tattoos on her body:

* "There once was a little girl who never knew love until a boy broke her HEART." (left section of torso)
* "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies." (back, near right shoulder)
* Marilyn Monroe portrait (right forearm)
* Tribal waves symbol (left wrist)
* Star and crescent moon (inner right leg above ankle)
* Brian (right upper groin)

Haller Maria Berry

Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress. Berry has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards, and received an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in Monster's Ball. She is the only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress.

In the late 1980s, she went to Chicago to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called Chicago Force. In 1992, Berry was cast as the love interest in the video for R. Kelly's seminal hit, "Honey Love". Berry auditioned for a role in an updated Charlie's Angels television series by producer Aaron Spelling. She impressed Spelling and he encouraged her to continue acting.

In 1989, Berry landed the role of Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls (a spin-off of Who's the Boss?). Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the 1991 film Strictly Business. In 1992, Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. That same year, she caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaption of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry also played the sultry secretary whom Fred Flintstone was attracted to in the live action Flintstones movie as "Sharon Stone".

Playing a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995), Berry showed she could tackle more serious roles, holding her own opposite co-star Jessica Lange. She portrayed Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, and co-starred along side Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. In Bulworth, Berry received praise for her role as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives politician Warren Beatty a new lease on life, and as the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love both in 1998.

In the 1999 film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Berry portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. In this HBO biopic, Berry's performance was recognized with several awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. (She was also one of the producers of the project.)

Berry portrayed the mutant Storm in the movie adaptation of the popular comic book series X-Men (2000) and its successful sequels X2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In 2001, Berry appeared in the movie Swordfish, which featured her first on-screen nude scene.

Later in 2001, Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of an executed murderer, in the film Monster's Ball. Her performance was awarded the National Board of Review and the Screen Actors Guild prizes. The role earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress: she made history by becoming the first African American woman to earn a Best Actress Academy Award, but also received criticism for only accepting her reward as an African American instead of a Multi-Racial Women in so showing pride in all of her heritage.

As Bond Girl Jinx in the (2002) blockbuster Die Another Day she famously re-created the scene from Dr. No, bursting from the surf to be greeted by James Bond, as Ursula Andress had 40 years earlier. In late 2003, Berry starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Robert Downey Jr. Her next lead role was in the film Catwoman, for which she was awarded a "worst actress" Razzie award in 2005, which she accepted in person with a sense of humor and recognition that "to be at the top, you must experience the rock bottom".

Berry next appeared in the Oprah Winfrey-produced ABC telepic Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel, in which Berry portrayed Janie Crawford, an iconoclastic, free-spirited woman whose unconventional mores regarding relationships upset her 1920s contemporaries in her small community. Meanwhile, she voiced the character of Cappy, one of the many mechanical beings in the animated feature, Robots (2005). She has filmed the thriller Perfect Stranger with Bruce Willis and wrapped shooting Things We Lost in the Fire with Benicio del Toro. She is set to star in Class Act, based on the real life story of a teacher whose students helped her run for political office and "Tulia", which will reunite her with Monster's Ball costar Billy Bob Thornton.

Berry is making the transition to working on the production side of film and television. She is working with author Angela Nissel to executive produce a comedy series based on Nissel's two memoirs, The Broke Diaries and Mixed: My Life in Black and White.[8] Berry has served many years as the face of Revlon cosmetics, and was recently named the face of Versace. She is featured in Maxim magazine's Girls of Maxim gallery.

Berry is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, commanding $14 million each for Gothika and Catwoman. In July 2007 she topped In Touch magazine's list of the world's most fabulous 40-something celebrities.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in Dark Angel, Sin City, Fantastic Four, Into the Blue and Idle Hands.

Despite constantly moving across the U.S., Alba knew she wanted to be an actress since the age of 5. Her career was ready to take off when an agent signed her, a mere nine months after 12-year-old Jessica took an acting class.

Jessica Alba's first film role, in the 1994 film Camp Nowhere, came her way by chance. She was cast with a bit part in the film after one of the characters dropped out of the production. Dark-haired Jessica was cast as the replacement, thanks to the fact that her hair matched that of the original actress.

She then ventured into smaller projects on the small screen, with commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney, and a recurring role in Nickelodeon's The Secret World of Alex Mack in 1994.

Following her Nickelodeon stint, Jessica, also a PADI-certified scuba diver, was cast as Maya in the 1995 series Flipper. During production of Flipper, Jessica was actually kidnapped after having received telephone threats. Thankfully, she was found unharmed in the trunk of a car.

While working with dolphins on the television series, Jessica was cast in the disastrous film Venus Rising, as well as the 1996 made-for-TV movie Too Soon for Jeff and an episode of Chicago Hope.

Jessica had a career year in 2005, appearing in one blockbuster after another. She donned a pair of buttless chaps in Frank Miller’s Sin City, sported a bikini in the underwater thriller Into the Blue, and then put the "fantastic" back into Fantastic Four. The three films have since grossed over $520 million worldwide, and lucky Jessica finds herself named AskMen.com’s Most Desirable Woman of 2006.

The adventure will continue for Jessica in 2006 as she joins forces with Hayden Christensen in the thriller Awake and rises to the top of the marquee in Sonic.

Lucy Liu

Lucy Alexis Liu (Chinese: 劉玉玲; pinyin: Liú Yùlíng; born December 2, 1968 in Queens, New York) is an Emmy Award-nominated American actress. She became known after starring in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002) and has also appeared in several notable film roles, including Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels.

After being introduced to mainstream audiences with David E. Kelley's hit FOX show Ally McBeal in 1998, Lucy lit up the big screen in movies such as Payback (1999), Shanghai Noon (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), and Quentin Tarantino's 2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

Having previously appeared in supporting roles in several films and as a regular on the CBS sitcom "Pearl" (1996-97), actress Lucy Liu skyrocketed to popularity in 1998 as the malicious Ling Woo on "Ally McBeal" (Fox, 1997-2002). David E Kelley, who originally auditioned her for the role of Nelle Porter (later played by Portia de Rossi), wrote the popular character for Liu, whose fiery performance in her first episode soon eventually led to a regular role. During her run on the series, Liu’s scene-stealing portrayal earned many fans and a share of the 1998 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Before making her name on "Ally McBeal,” Liu could be seen frequently in guest appearances on television, including a 1991 stint as a waitress on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (Fox). One of her more memorable turns came with a recurring part in 1995 as a woman whose young son was suffering from complications of AIDS on NBC's medical drama "ER". Additionally, Liu portrayed the self-hating girlfriend of Luke Perry's Los Angeles police officer in "Riot", a 1997 Showtime movie dramatizing different stories in 1992's racially charged Los Angeles riots.

Liu's up and coming film career began with a bit part in the 1996 hit "Jerry Maguire". The following year, she played an exotic dancer in the Harvey Keitel actioner "City of Industry". (The dedicated actress prepared for this role by performing for over a month in a Los Angeles strip club.) Had Liu not already come to the public's attention on "Ally McBeal," 1999's "Payback" may have proven to be her breakthrough role. She starred as Pearl, a leather-clad dominatrix who proved so likable that the initial script was rewritten to afford her more screen time. That same year, Liu could be seen in a featured role in "Molly", starring Elisabeth Shue as an autistic woman who becomes a genius and in "Play It to the Bone." The following year, Liu portrayed a kidnapped Chinese princess in "Shanghai Noon" and displayed her martial arts expertise as one of "Charlie's Angels." The latter film provided a major boost to Liu's public image, placing her in an on-screen pantheon of A-listers Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. As famously as she got on with her female co-stars, Liu did have to contend with numerous media reports of serious friction between herself and comedian Bill Murray, who played Bosley in the film.

Following the phenomenal success of "Charlie's Angels" in 2000, a wealth of exciting film roles fell into Liu's lap. In addition to immediately signing up for the glitzy sequel to the hit franchise, Liu starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the little-seen sci-fi thriller "Ecks vs. Sever" in 2002. She also nabbed a part in the much anticipated film version of "Chicago" (2002), turning in a juicy if all-too-brief performance as murderess Kitty Baxter; In 2003, Lui reunited with Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore for the action-packed, eye-candy heavy "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle."

The feature, again directed by McG, allowed Liu re-emphasized the ass-kicking style of female bonding the Angels trio--by then very close friends off-screen as well as on--demonstrated in the first film and in their media appearances together. Next, Liu got on board Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited fourth feature "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (2003), in a bravura performance as Japanese-Chinese-American O-Ren Ishii, Queen of the Tokyo Underworld and leader of the Crazy 88 Fighters. Liu also enlivened the 2004-2005 first season of the "Friends" spin-off sitcom "Joey" by playing the compulsively clean TV producer Lauren Beck on several episodes.

Jessica Ann Simpson

Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American pop singer and actress who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums. Simpson starred with her then-husband Nick Lachey in the MTV reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. She has also begun working as an actress, and is the older sister of Ashlee Simpson, a pop rock singer.

1999 saw the arrival of pop princesses Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who each received multi-platinum certificates. Simpson's label hoped for the same with her. As 1999 came to a close, Simpson released her first single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soon afterward her album Sweet Kisses was released. Simpson toured with boy band 98 Degrees to promote her new album. She was given a role in the music video for 98 Degrees' hit song "My Everything," playing Nick Lachey's love interest. At that time she and Lachey began dating. After dating for two years the couple cooled their relationship, stating that the "break" allowed them to concentrate on their music careers. Then on September 11, 2001, Lachey was supposed to be flying out of New York City with his group 98 Degrees. When Simpson heard of the attacks on the nation coming from the airport she immediately phoned Lachey to learn his whereabouts. After this scare the couple rekindled the relationship.

Meanwhile, Simpson's album Sweet Kisses had gone double platinum thanks to the success of her follow-up singles "Where You Are", 1999, and "I Think I'm In Love With You, 2001." The latter became Simpson's biggest radio hit at that point and was her first release of an uptempo single. But although her debut album sold 2 million copies, sales fell far short of those achieved by Spears and Aguilera, and unlike the two pop princesses, Simpson was not a worldwide household name. Columbia Records officials reportedly decided Simpson needed a change for her second album.

In 2001, Simpson recorded a follow-up album with what Columbia considered more radio-friendly, up-tempo tracks; the studio also encouraged her to lose weight in order to fit in with her competitors. The result in that was Irresistible, released in mid-2001 on the heels of the title-track first single. The new sound and image helped make "Irresistible" one of the biggest hits of her career; it peaked at # 15 on the Hot 100. "Irresistible" debuted at # 6 in June 2001 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and has sold 825,000 copies to date.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Jennifer Lynn Lopez (J Lo)

Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), popularly nicknamed J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, fashion designer, television producer. She is the richest Hispanic in Hollywood according to the website A Socialite's Life and the most influential Hispanic entertainer in America according to People en Español's list of "100 Most Influential Hispanics".

Well, it's no secret that Jennifer Lopez is one of the sexiest women in the world. She's a singer, an actress, a dancer, and a Bronx girl.

J-Lo got her big start on the TV comedy hit In Living Color as a Fly Girl dancer. But bigger and better things were on the horizon for Jenny as she moved onto the silver screen in Money Train (1995) and Selena (1997). And before we could say, "Hey, who's that hot Puerto Rican chick?" Jennifer released an album called On The 6. It was certified three times platinum, and every song and movie since (except for 2003's Gigli) has been J-Lo gold.

Personal life

Lopez's first marriage was to Cuban-born Ojani Noa on February 22, 1997. Lopez met Noa while he worked as a waiter at a Miami restaurant. They divorced in January 1998. Lopez later employed Noa as the manager of her Pasadena restaurant Madre's in April 2002, but he was fired in October 2002. After Noa sued Lopez over the termination, they drew up a confidentiality agreement. In April 2006, Lopez sued to prevent Noa from publishing a book containing personal details about their short marriage, contending it violated the confidentiality agreement.

In August 2007, a court-appointed arbitrator issued a permanent injunction forbidding Ojani Noa from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging" Jennifer Lopez. She was awarded $545,000 in compensatory damages, which included nearly $300,000 in legal fees and almost $48,000 in arbitration costs. Noa was also ordered to hand over all copies of materials related to the book to Lopez or her attorney.

She then had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with Sean Combs. On December 27, 1999, Lopez and Combs were at Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub, when gunfire erupted between Combs' entourage and another group. Lopez and Combs were being driven away from the scene when they were chased and stopped by the police. A stolen gun was found in the front seat of their vehicle.Lopez was charged with felony gun possession, but the charges were dropped, as she was riding in the back seat at the time.Lopez terminated her involvement with Combs shortly thereafter, and Combs reconciled with Kim Porter, mother of his three children.

Her second marriage was to her former backup dancer, Cris Judd. She met Judd while filming the music video for her single "Love Don't Cost a Thing". The two were married on September 29, 2001, at a home in a Los Angeles suburb. Their marriage ended in August 2002.

Lopez's subsequent relationship with actor Ben Affleck was highly publicized, with the media dubbing them "Bennifer". Lopez announced her engagement to Affleck in November 2002, after Affleck gave her a six-carat pink diamond ring worth a reported $1.2 million. Lopez promised interviewers that Affleck was indeed "the one", and that they would soon have a family. The marriage, planned for September 14, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California, was called off just hours before the event. During the week before the scheduled nuptials, Affleck had been seen by press carousing at a strip club in Vancouver with friends. The media blitz intensified when it was Lopez's own sister who called in live radio to tell Lopez where her fiancé had been the previous night. Lopez would only respond by saying it was a terrible way to begin the day, finding out about Affleck's behavior in that manner. Publicists announced a permanent split on January 20, 2004. Affleck has refused to speak of his relationship with Lopez, only citing intense media attention as the cause of the break-up. Their relationship was parodied on the South Park episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", which aired on April 16, 2003. There was a mild media furor as to whether Lopez would give Affleck back his ring after the break-up. Lopez did return it and it was discreetly placed for sale at the original jewelers. Affleck has since married actress Jennifer Garner on July 1, 2005 and they have a daughter, Violet, born on December 1, 2005.

Shortly after her break-up with Affleck, Lopez was seen out with singer Marc Anthony, a long-time friend she had worked with in music videos. They had briefly dated in the late '90s, before his first marriage and her second one. Lopez and Anthony were recording a duet together in early 2004, for Lopez's then-upcoming film Shall We Dance?. He had separated for the second time, in October 2003, from his first wife, the former Miss Universe, Dayanara Torres, with whom he had two young children. Lopez and Anthony married in a quiet home wedding on June 5, 2004, less than a week after his divorce from Torres was finalized on June 1. On the morning of the wedding, however, the media was tipped off and circled her backyard in helicopters. Photographs, alerting the rest of the world, soon followed. Reports fueled rumors that Lopez was pregnant but this was not the case.

Lopez's guests had been invited to an "afternoon party" at Lopez's house and had not been made aware that they were actually going to her wedding. The couple had planned not to publicize their marriage early on, allowing more privacy and time together in an otherwise intrusive environment. Days after the wedding, Anthony refused to comment on their marriage during interviews which were scheduled earlier to promote a new album "Amar Sin Mentiras" (To Love Without Lies). In February 2005 Lopez confirmed the marriage, and added that "everyone knows. It's not a secret". A few months later, Anthony's daughter, Ariana, appeared at the end of Lopez's music video "Get Right" as her little sister. Regarding his marriage and family life, Anthony maintains a private and sometimes defensive stance with the media, which has influenced Lopez to set some boundaries with interviewers.

Recently, Lopez has collaborated on a feature film, El Cantante, with her husband singer-actor Marc Anthony. The film is in English, with a creative use of subtitles for songs with Spanish lyrics.


Oprah Gail Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is the American multiple-Emmy Award winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated talk show in television history. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a magazine publisher. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time,and the world's only black billionaire for three straight years. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Rankings as world's most influential woman

Winfrey was called "arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and Time.com. and arguably the most influential woman in the world by the American Spectator. Time named Winfrey one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, 2006, and again in 2007. Winfrey is the only person in the world to have made all five lists. At the end of the 20th century Life listed Winfrey as both the most influential woman and the most influential black person of her generation, and in a cover story profile the magazine called her "America's most powerful woman". Ladies Home Journal also ranked Winfrey number one in their list of the most powerful women in America and senator Barack Obama has said she "may be the most influential woman in the country".

In 1998 Winfrey became the first woman and first Black to top Entertainment Weekly's list of the 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry. In 2003 Winfrey edged out both Superman and Elvis Presley to be named the greatest pop culture icon of all time by VH1. Forbes named her the world's most powerful celebrity in both 2005 and 2007 Columnist Maureen Dowd seems to agree with such assessments:

“She is the top alpha female in this country. She has more credibility than the president. Other successful women, such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, had to be publicly slapped down before they could move forward. Even Condi has had to play the protegé with Bush. None of this happened to Oprah — she is a straight ahead success story.”

Vanity Fair wrote:

“Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope."

Bill O'Reilly said:

“I mean this is a woman that came from nothing to rise up to be the most powerful woman, I think, in the world. I think Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in the world, not just in America. That's — anybody who goes on her program immediately benefits through the roof. I mean, she has a loyal following; she has credibility; she has talent; and she's done it on her own to become fabulously wealthy and fabulously powerful.”

Biographer Kitty Kelly states that she has always been “fascinated” by Winfrey:

“As a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche,…There has been no other person in the 20th century whose convictions and values have impacted the American public in such a significant way. I see her as probably the most powerful woman in our society. I think Oprah has influenced every medium that she's touched”

Winfrey's influence reaches far beyond pop-culture and into unrelated industries where many believe she has the power to cause enormous market swings and radical price changes with a single comment. During a show about mad cow disease with Howard Lyman (aired on April 16, 1996), Winfrey exclaimed, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" Texas cattlemen sued her and Lyman in early 1998 for "false defamation of perishable food" and "business disparagement", claiming that Winfrey's remarks subsequently sent cattle prices tumbling, costing beef producers some USD$12 million. On February 26, after a trial spanning over two months in an Amarillo, Texas court in the thick of cattle country, a jury found Winfrey and Lyman were not liable for damages. (After the trial, she received a postcard from Roseanne Barr reading, “Congratulations, you beat the meat!”) In June 2005 the first case of mad cow disease in a cow native to the United States was detected in Texas. The USDA concluded that it was most likely infected in Texas prior to 1997.

In 2005 Winfrey was named the greatest woman in American history as part of a public poll as part of The Greatest American. She was ranked #9 overall on the list of greatest Americans.

Winfrey's reach extends far beyond the shores of the U.S., where 49 million U.S. viewers see her talk show weekly. The show airs in 117 countries around the world “from Australia to Zimbabwe.”

Winfrey has recently exerted political influence, endorsing presidential candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. This is the first time she has publically made such an endorsement. Winfrey will hold a fundraiser for Obama on September 8 at her Santa Barbara, CA estate.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie (born June 4, 1975) is an American film actress, a former fashion model, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She is often cited by popular media as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported.[1] She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of videogame heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best known and highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005).[2]

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention.[3] Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, and a biological child, Shiloh. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR.