Chinese Models & actress
Angelina Jolie Voight
Full Name : Angelina Jolie Voight
Date Of Birth : 4 June 1975
Place Of Birth : Los Angeles, California
Sign : Gemini
Height : 5'7
Hair : Brown
Eyes : Blue
Children : Maddox Chivan (adopted from Cambodia, 2002), Zahara Marley (adopted from Ethiopia, 2005) , Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt (fathered by Brad Pitt), Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt (adopted from Vietnam, 2007)
Father : Jon Voight
Mother : Marcheline Bertrand
Brother : James Haven Voight
Significant Other : Brad Pitt
"Acting is not pretending or lying. It’s finding a side of yourself that’s the character and ignoring your other sides. And there’s a side of me that wonders what’s wrong with being completely honest."
-Angelina Jolie
Raised mostly by her mother after her parents divorced while she was still a baby, Jolie moved around a lot with her mother and brother. She also did a fair amount of traveling as a professional model, living in such places as London, New York, and Los Angeles before settling for a time in New York as a student at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and New York University, where she first started acting in theater productions. The fledgling actress soon moved on to film with a small role in 1993's Cyborg 2, followed in 1995 by her turn as a computer hacker in the more widely seen Hackers. The film gave her her first taste of recognition, as well as an introduction to Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller, to whom she was married for a short time.
After appearing in a number of mediocre films, Jolie finally hit it big in 1997 with her Golden Globe-winning performance as George Wallace's wife in the highly acclaimed TV movie George Wallace. The role, coupled with her Emmy-nominated performance in the title role of HBO's Gia, provided Jolie with a new level of professional respect and recognition. She was soon appearing on talk shows and in magazines, answering questions about everything from her multiple tattoos to her famous father to her brief marriage.
She was also netting roles in high-profile projects: In 1998 Jolie headlined an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Anthony Edwards, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe, and Madeline Stowe in Playing By Heart. The following year, she was part of another high-voltage cast in Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, co-starring alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Although the film was neither a critical nor a financial success, it did little to diminish the rapid ascent of the career of the actress, who was in hot demand for projects that would further elevate her already rising star. In 2000, Jolie's star received one of its greatest boosts to date when the actress won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a volatile mental patient in Girl, Interrupted. Later that year, her personal life also got a boost in the form of her April marriage to Billy Bob Thornton.
Onscreen, Jolie was hard to miss in 2000. She starred in a number of films, including the crime thriller Gone in Sixty Seconds, in which she co-starred as a car thief alongside Nicolas Cage, and Original Sin, a thriller that featured her as the bad-seed bride of a Cuban tycoon (Antonio Banderas). If she was hard to miss in 2000, Jolie was impossible to escape in 2001 with her turn as shapely video-game adventuress Lara Croft in the long anticipated film adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider video-game franchise. Carrying on the tradition of video-game movies that are light on plot but heavy on the action, Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life (2003) scored with summer audiences and quickly shot to number one at the box office despite disparaging reviews citing an incoherent story line, unlike Life or Something Like It, the 2002 romantic comedy-drama that critics and audiences alike would rather not have seen.
On July 18th, 2002, Jolie filed for divorce from Billy Bob Thornton, claiming that their priorities no longer meshed after having adopted a child. Though the famously quirky couple were no longer, Angelina's film schedule remained hectic. In 2003 she would play a rich-girl-turned-humanitarian in Beyond Borders, while 2004 promised a host of parts for Jolie, including a role in Oliver Stone's Alexander; an epic biography of Alexander the Great starring Colin Farrell, as well as a role alongside fellow Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow in The World of Tomorrow, and a turn as a tough FBI agent in Taking Lives. She has since adopted several more children and became involved with leading man Brad Pitt, who fathered her daughter Shiloh.
Filmography
Below are all movies and TV Shows Angelina has been acted in.
1. Wanted (2008) - Fox
2. Kung Fu Panda (voice) (2008) -Master Tigress
3. The Changeling (2008)
4. Atlas Shrugged (2008) -Dagny Taggart
5. Beowulf (2007) - Grendels Mother
6. A Mighty Heart ( 2007) - Marianne Pearl
7. The Good Shepherd (2006) - Catherine the Great
8. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) - Jane Smith
9. Alexander (2004) - Olympias
10. Shark Tale (2004) (voice) - Lola
11. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - Capt. Franky Cook
12. Taking Lives (2004) - Illeana Scott
13. Beyond Borders (2003) - Sarah Jordan
14. Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life: Tomb Raider 2 (2003) - Lara Croft
15. Life or Something Like It (2002) - Lanie
16. Original Sin (2001) - Julia Russell
17. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) - Lara Croft
18. Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000) - Sara 'Sway' Wayland
19. Girl, Interrupted (1999) - Lisa Rowe
20. Bone Collector, The (1999) - Amelia Donaghy
21. Pushing Tin (1999) - Mary Bell
22. Playing by Heart (1998) - Joan
23. Hell's Kitchen (1998) - Gloria McNeary
24. Gia (1998) (TV) - Gia Marie Carangi
25. Playing God (1997) - Claire
26. George Wallace (1997) (TV) - Cornelia Wallace
27. True Women (1997) (TV) - Georgia Virginia Lawshe Woods
28. Mojave Moon (1996) - Eleanor 'Elie' Rigby
29. Foxfire (1996) - Margret 'Legs' Sadovsky
30. Love Is All There Is (1996) - Gina Malacici
31. Without Evidence (1995) - Jodie Swearingen
32. Hackers (1995) - Kate Libby ('Acid Burn')
33. Cyborg 2 (1993) - Casella 'Cash' Reese
34. Lookin' to Get Out (1982) - Tosh
Nicole Kidman
Elegant redhead Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Australian parents Anthony (a biochemist and clinical psychologist) and Janelle (a nursing instructor) Kidman. The family moved almost immediately to Washington, DC, where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then, three years later, made the pilgrimage to her parents' native Sydney. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well (her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant). In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge -- as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion (then a film student). Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into movies at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and TV offers, including a lead in BMX Bandits (1983) and a turn as a schoolgirl-turned-protester in the miniseries "Vietnam" (1987) (for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award). With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (1989).
Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as Tom Cruise's doctor/love interest in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk hook, line, and sinker. After a whirlwind courtship (and decent box office returns), the couple wed on December 24, 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian film Flirting (1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the gangster flick Billy Bathgate (1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (1993/I). Despite her steady employment, critics and moviegoers still hadn't quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), but achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995). As a fame-crazed housewife determined to eliminate any obstacle in her path, Kidman proved that she had an impressive range and deadly comic timing. She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance. In 1996, Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen as a nuclear weapons expert in The Peacemaker (1997), adding "action star" to her professional repertoire.
She and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The couple's on-screen shenanigans prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's homosexuality); tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (mom was a feminist; dad, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mom eventually beat the cancer). She and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born in 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.
Kate winslet
She made her professional debut on television as a spokeschild for a popular British cereal and went on to attend a performing-arts high school. Following graduation in 1991, she launched her stage career, appearing in adaptations of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and Peter Pan.
After the success of her performance in Heavenly Creatures (a role for which she beat out 175 other actors), Winslet was cast as a princess in Disney's A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995).
That same year, she played the willful, passionate Marianne in Ang Lee's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. She earned a number of kudos for her work, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to receive good reviews the following year for her roles in Jude and Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Hamlet, but did not rocket to major stardom until she played the romantic lead opposite Leonardo Di Caprio in James Cameron's mega-blockbuster Titanic (1997). Nominated for an Oscar for her performance, Winslet became the youngest actress to garner her second Oscar nomination.
Following the overwhelming success of Titanic, the actress surprised many observers with her next project; rather than go for another high-profile film, she instead chose to star in Gillies MacKinnon's small independent Hideous Kinky (1998), which cast her as a young hippie who takes her children to Morocco in order to pursue spiritual enlightenment. Aside from the good reviews she got for her performance, she also got a husband out of the film: In 1998, she married James Threapleton, Hideous Kinky's third assistant director. Though the marriage wouldn't last long, romance returned to the young starlet's life when she announced that she was dating American Beauty director Sam Mendes in late 2001.
In 1999, she played another young woman in search of spiritual enlightenment, this time in Jane Campion's Holy Smoke. Starring as an Australian girl who joins a Hindu sect on a visit to India, Winslet's role required her to do many things, including standing naked and urinating in front of Harvey Keitel, who played the man hired by Winslet's parents to cure her of her fixation. Such difficult requirements didn't prove a problem for the actress, who had, thus far, built a glorious career on doing the unexpected.
After following up the next year as a laundress who is the Marquis De Sade's sole link to getting his erotic works to the outside world in Quills, Winslet was once in the spotlight for her Oscar nominated performance as a youthful Iris Murdoch in director Richard Eyre's Iris. In 2003 Winslet could be found in yet another biopic, this time cast opposite Kevin Spacey in the film The Life of David Gale. Based on the experience of a University of Texas professor and avid anti-death-penalty activist who finds himself facing execution after a false conviction, Winslet portrayed the reporter who broke the story in a desperate attempt to discover the truth behind the mysterious and brutal crime for which Gale was convicted Off camera, Winslet is known for her mischievous pranks and familial devotion. She has two sisters, Anna Winslet and Beth Winslet (both actresses), and a brother, Joss. Her daughter with Threapleton, Mia, was born in October of 2000.
Winslet married Mendes in 2003. Both were born in Reading. They have one child.
* 1975: Born on 5 October in Reading, Berkshire, UK
* 1986: Appears in Honey Monster commercial
* 1994: First big break in Heavenly Creatures
* 1995: Appears in Sense and Sensibility which earns her British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress
* 1996: Appears in Jude & Hamlet. Becomes international star for her role in Titanic and earns an Oscar nomination
* 1998: Marries James Threapleton. 1 child
* 2000: Wins a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children
* 2001: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Iris. Divorces Threapleton
* 2003: Marries film director Sam Mendes. 1 child
* 2005: Oscar nomination for Best Actress for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. First actress to receive four Oscar nominations before turning 30
filmography
* Gnomeo and Juliet (2006) (voice)
* A Doll's House (2005)
* The Marvelous Mabel Stark (2005)
* Ratropolis (2006) (voice)
* All the King's Men (2005)
* Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
* Finding Neverland (2004)
* Pride (2004) (TV) (voice)
* Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
* Plunge: The Movie (2003)
* The Life of David Gale (2003)
* War Game (2001) (voice)
* Iris (2001/I)
* Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001) (voice)
* Enigma (2001)
* Quills (2000)
* Faeries (1999) (voice)
* Holy Smoke (1999)
* Hideous Kinky (1998)
* Titanic (1997)
* Hamlet (1996)
* Jude (1996)
* Sense and Sensibility (1995)
* A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995)
* Heavenly Creatures (1994)
* "Get Back" (1992) TV Series
* Anglo Saxon Attitudes (1992) (TV)
* "Dark Season" (1991) TV Series 
Britney Spears
Famous as :
Pop singer
Birth Date :
December 02, 1981
Birth Place :
Kentwood, Louisiana, USA
Claim to fame :
Album "...Baby One More Time" (1999)
Britney Spears may have titled her new single "Me Against The Music," but she has rarely been more creatively in tune than she is right now. "I feel like I've hit a great new stride as an artist," she says with pride. "I've worked hard, and I feel like I've grown on so many levels."
In truth, "Me Against The Music" is hardly about declaring war against grooves. "Actually, it's about the intensity that people approach music with," Britney shares. "It's about getting totally lost in the music and pushing yourself to the edge in every way you can imagine. I love thoroughly immersing myself in music, and I wanted to capture that intensity in a song."
Britney's musical intensity and her evolution from a teen renegade into a provocative young woman are undeniable throughout "In The Zone," her fourth Jive Records collection. First and foremost, the project shows her flexing notably strong and mature songwriting muscles. She co-wrote 7 of the project's 12 sterling new compositions, collaborating with such heavy hitters as Red Zone ("Me Against The Music," "The Hook Up"), The Matrix ("Shadow"), Moby ("Early Mornin'"), and Cathy Dennis ("Toxic," "Showdown"). Also contributing hit worthy material to the album is R. Kelly ("Outrageous"), Ying-Yang Twins on �(I Got That) Boom Boom.
Perhaps most significant is the appearance of pop icon Madonna, who lends her voice to the single "Me Against The Music." Collaborating with one of her all-time greatest musical influences was a dream come true for Britney. "The experience was beyond words or description." she says. The two forged what has become a powerful bond while rehearsing for their now-notorious performance on the MTV Video Music Awards this fall. "As we were working together, there were moments when I simply could not believe that I was standing there on stage next to her. It was never even in the realm of fantasy for me."
The musical union of Britney and Madonna within the taut, classic-funk groove of "Me Against The Music" is quite real, though, and it reveals each of them at their most kinetic and soulful. The song's accompanying video clip, directed by Paul Hunter, shows Madonna enticing Britney through a maze-like underground club, only to disappear into thin air when Britney gets close enough to touch her. The clip is rife with symbolic gestures of Madonna passing the baton pop power to Britney --- an image that the young artist finds exciting, humbling, and perhaps a bit premature.
"There is only one Madonna --- and there will always only be one," she says. "My goal is to have a career that is equally as special, but one that is completely unique to who I am. I'm honored by all that Madonna brought to this song. I really love the flow we share --- both on the track and as friends. I think you can feel the chemistry and positive energy we shared. It's completely natural and relaxed."
The natural and relaxed vibe of "Me Against The Music" is indicative of every note and beat comprises "In The Zone," an album that runs the stylistic gamut from streetwise hip-hop and electro-trance to new-wave-etched rock and well-crafted pop. From top to bottom, Britney effectively expands the parameters of mainstream musical consciousness with songs that lure listeners with infectious hooks, and then captivates them with layers of clever lyrics and deft instrumentation.
"Putting this record together was an incredible journey for me," Britney says. "I had the freedom to explore and experiment with some of the most exciting people in music. In the end, that allowed me to make a record that is a pure reflection of where I am right now."
What we learn from album highlights like the rambunctious "(I Got That) Boom Boom," which features the Ying Yang Twins, and "Everytime," a stark, delicate collaboration with Guy Sigsworth, is that Britney has grown into a fearless artist. "Those songs are particularly special to me, because neither of them sounds like anything I've ever done before," she says. "'Boom Boom' is so rough and edgy and fun, while 'Everytime' is so raw and spare. It's me stripped to my core as a singer and as a songwriter. It's as honest as I've ever been in my music. I loved working with Guy on that track. He made me feel comfortable and safe enough to go the full distance, emotionally and as a performer." Britney also has high praise for Moby, who worked with her on the mid-tempo "Early Mornin.'" "He's such a pure-hearted guy," she says. "He's so cool. He played me a really cool track, and I thought it was brilliant. It's turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the album."
She describes "Early Mornin,'" which unfolds with a deceptively insistent, easy-paced dance groove as a day-after-the-party jam, which balances some of the more assertive, dance floor-friendly cuts on "In The Zone." "Some songs are generally about going out and wanting to have a good time," she says. "One of the things I did while working on this album was write about a lot things like going out with my girlfriends, everyday experiences that I was going through. 'Early Morning' is about just going out and feeling bad the next day." Elsewhere on "In The Zone," Britney shows her sultry side, particularly on the steamy, turntable-ready "Breathe On Me," a Mark Taylor production that she characterizes as being "very vibe-y, trance-y. It's about being with a guy and not even having to really be with each other, but just the intensity and the anxiety between not saying anything. You don't even have to touch me, just breathe on me."
Among the more sensual songs on the album is "Touch of My Hand," on which Britney seductively floats her voice atop an arrangement of pillowy strings and languid, Middle-Eastern-kissed guitar lines. "It's tastefully done," she says of the track. "And I think it's real. It's nice and it's real. It's whatever your take is. Some people may think it's a little much, but that's where I'm at with my life. ... It's not freaky freaky, it's just a little freaky." Stepping out on a creative limb has been the basis for Britney's entire career. Dubbed by MTV as "one of the last teenage pop superstars of the 20th century," Spears enjoyed her breakthrough success at the end of 1998. She appeared in local dance revues and church choirs as a young girl, and at the age of eight auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was too young to join the series, a producer on the show gave her an introduction to a New York agent. She subsequently spent three summers at the Professional Performing Arts School Center. She also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions as a child actor, including 1991's "Ruthless." She returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club, where she was featured for two years between the ages of 11 and 13. Her demo tape eventually landed in the hands of a Jive Records executive who quickly signed her to the label. She toured American venues for a series of concerts sponsored by U.S. teen magazines, eventually joining "N Sync on tour. It all added up to 1999's wildly infectious "...Baby One More Time" album to make its bow on the charts at No. 1. The set not only spawned a smash hit with the title tune, but also scored with the charming ballad "Sometimes" and the funky "(You Drive Me) Crazy." Before the album finished its impressive worldwide attack of the charts, it garnered Britney 4 MTV Europe Awards, including best pop performer, and 4 Billboard Music Awards, most notably female artist of the year.
The massive demand for new Britney material was satisfied when her 2000 sophomore collection, "Oops! ... I Did It Again," was released to a Spears-starved world in May. Once again, the title cut flooded radio airwaves, as did the anthemic "Stronger" and lovely "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know." She also racked up more awards that year by taking home an American Music Award as favorite new artist, a Billboard Music Award as album artist of the year, and 2 Teen Choice Awards. Britney would later earn Teen Choice Award honors in 2001 and 2003. Ever-prolific, the artist returned in 2001 with "Britney," a spirited, assertive collection on which she began to reveal her mettle as a tunesmith, not to mention as a vocalist of increasingly soulful depth. She earned high praise for the wickedly sultry "Slave 4 U," as well as for the forceful "Overprotected" and the gentle "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman." The album's was quickly followed by Britney's motion picture debut, "Crossroads," which proved that she has the talent and box-office pull to be a multifaceted superstar. "One of the true joys of my life and career has been trying out new things," Britney says. "I've loved every step of this journey I'm on. I love singing and dancing and acting and songwriting... it all energizes and inspires me." It's that philosophy that has sent Britney "In The Zone," a project that shows this ever-growing and ever-exciting at her absolute best... or as she would say, "for now." "I can't imagine ever reaching the point where I've hit the wall," she concludes. "There's always something new and challenging to tackle. I can't wait to see what happens next."
Hollywood Actress Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone has been around for so long that it is hard to believe she is only 28. She started modelling when she was eight, starred in her first film at 15, and made her name playing the superficial yet kind-hearted teenager Cher in the hit movie Clueless when she was just 18.
She is slim and gorgeous with a flawless complexion — the standard Hollywood look — and it is hard to believe that, after her role as Batgirl in Batman n Robin, for which she was required to put on weight, she would be faced with chants of 'Fat girl! Fat girl!' wherever she went.
She recalls:
'It hurt at the time but I just hope that I was an example to other young girls and showed them that you can be five or ten pounds overweight and still star in a movie.
'There was a point when I was so sick and disenchanted with every film studio's demand for physical perfection, that I thought it would be a good thing for all young girls to eat burgers and sweets as a form of rebellion. But I don't think that any more, because it's not healthy. Although I refuse to subject my body to two hours on a treadmill every day just to get hired.'Miss Silverstone knows all about being healthy. A committed vegan, she arranges for us to meet in a Los Angeles restaurant frequented by the young and pretty, and which offers a mind-boggling array of organic dishes. It comes as no surprise when she orders a non-dairy smoothie.
Once, when she was asked to describe herself, her summing up ran to just three words: 'deep, selfless, passionate'. Which goes some way to explaining why she once smuggled all her empty water bottles from her London hotel room back to California, fearing that they wouldn't be recycled otherwise. 'I've got to save the world,' she said.
She is a curious combination of perkiness and bite. Her perkiness enables her to put a positive spin on almost everything, while her bite emerges when you delve, in her opinion, too deeply into 'personal matters', which really don't seem that personal at all. But, given that she has worked in showbusiness most of her life, perhaps she deems such defence mechanisms necessary.
She begins perkily enough, however, discussing her latest film, Beauty Shop, a hit comedy in the U.S., starring Queen Latifah and Kevin Bacon. It's a lively enough movie with Alicia playing the lone white hairdresser, Lynn, in Queen Latifah's salon, although both are somewhat overshadowed by Bacon's narcissistic hairstylist, Jorge.
Says Alicia:
'Oh, he was just so funny. I had trouble keeping it together whenever he was on set. It was a great job to have. I got to sit in my trailer for hours and read a lot and organise my filing cabinets,' making it sound anything but a great time. 'It would be wonderful to do a sequel.' Still, when you've worked for as many years as Alicia has, then any free time you can get to sort out your filing cabinets must seem like a blessing, although it's baffling why anyone would want to take them to work and install them in their trailer.
After the success of Clueless, which took £150 million at the box office, Alicia landed a £7 million multi-picture development deal, and produced her first film at 19.
She has worked non-stop ever since, sometimes successfully, as in Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost, and sometimes not so successfully, as in Batman & Robin, which flopped. Her last TV series, Miss Match, was taken off the air after just one series, although she earned a Golden Globe nomination and rave reviews for her role as a divorce lawyer by day and matchmaker by night.
She has packed a lot into a short space of time and gives the impression of being much older than her years.
She says:
'I love my life and I think I have a sense of balance now, but I've learned to play, too, which is something I never used to do. I started working when I was eight; I've always wanted to work so I don't feel I've missed out on a childhood. I was independent from the word go, and I can remember being mature for my age from about the time I was four. I was always being told what an old soul I was and was desperate to be out there working. I worked in a bakery at the age of 12 just to earn some extra money and show my dad that I could be self-sufficient. He was a very successful businessman and maybe I just wanted to prove a point.' Alicia's father, Monty, is a British-born property developer, while her mother, Didi, is a former Pan Am stewardess from Dunfermline, Scotland. The couple met in Florida, and Alicia and her older brother, David, were brought up in San Francisco.
Says Alicia:
'My mum's job meant that she was away quite a bit My dad worked long hours, too. Not that that was ever a problem or anything. I think it was a very European upbringing and Europeans tend to grow up faster than Americans. My parents were always really encouraging about the arts, but never pushy. We'd go to the theatre and see plays, and they'd also send me to summer camp, which I liked. Mum would be away for a bit, but then we all used to go on vacations, which was good.' At the age of 13, she discovered that she had an elder sister, Kezi, living in London. Kezi, the child of a relationship that Monty Silverstone had before he married Didi, couldn't have had a more different upbringing from her famous sister. For while Alicia was brought up in a secure home in relative affluence in the States, Kezi spent her childhood moving between several different foster homes, her mother unable to cope with the rigours of bringing up a child on her own after Monty left her just months after Kezi's birth.
In an interview earlier this year, Kezi said, 'It wasn't much of a childhood', although it is interesting to note that, like Alicia, Kezi also started modelling (though not until she was in her teens) and did some acting, too, with small roles in Footballers' Wives and Jonathan Creek. Now, she is best known for her musical career, having had a hit with her single What A Feeling.
But it was not until she was 18 that Kezi decided to contact Barnardos to try to trace her father (who, unbeknown to her, was also trying to find her), and in 1990, when Kezi was 19 and Alicia 13, they finally met. Alicia was told by her father, at first, that Kezi was a distant cousin (he wanted the girls to get to know one another before telling Alicia that she had a half-sister). After Kezi had returned to England, Alicia's father eventually came clean and told his youngest daughter the truth. She phoned Kezi straight away and, incredibly for someone so young and seemingly without a hint of rancour, told her, 'I've always wanted a big sister.'
Alicia is cagey when discussing her family, particularly this aspect of her childhood, but she admits that she and Kezi:
'get along really well. We all spent Christmas together — the whole family and Kezi's boyfriend, too. Unfortunately, we only had four days together, as I had to go to Lithuania to do a film, but it was great. We've always felt very bonded, right from the start, and no, I never felt jealous when I heard that I had a sister and it wasn't a shock to me at all. 'We became psychologically connected very quickly. Kezi lives in England and I'm out here, so although we kept in touch, it hasn't always been easy to meet up. But over the years, we've spent a lot of time together. One of our cousins died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, and although that was a horrible time, it was also when a lot of families were able to reconnect...
'It was so strange, but ever since I was a young girl, any chance I could get to hang around an older girl and be her friend, I would take it. When I was two, I was hanging out with five-year-olds, so maybe somewhere, subconsciously, I knew I had an older sister.'
When asked if they've ever discussed their respective childhoods, Alicia clams up — 'this is getting way too personal' — but she admits that they will
'see each other in the summer and Kezi will probably come out here. We have a very sisterly relationship and I'm really proud of her. I love her music — I think she has a great voice.' And has Alicia seen Kezi acting on TV yet? She looks startled.
'Kezi' acts? I didn't know she was an actress. Why wouldn't she tell me? I knew she'd done plays and musicals when she was younger, but I didn't know she was on TV, too.' Alicia's own professional career began at the tender age of six, when her father took some snapshots of her lying on a sheepskin rug in a bathing suit, and thought that his daughter had a future as a model. She modelled for a few years, an experience she claims not to have particularly enjoyed, but which 'enabled me to pay for acting classes. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to act and my dad was really encouraging.'
Alicia says that she loved acting lessons because:
'they were so cathartic both for me and for the others. At school, everyone was walking around as normal, but in acting class, people were sobbing about whatever experiences they had and were really opening up, which I found very inspiring and therapeutic.' Why would someone so young require therapy or catharsis?
She sighs:
'Oh, you know. Everyone has to sort out stuff in their own head and I don't really remember what I was thinking about when I was 12.' At 15, she won her first movie role, as a teenager obsessed with a journalist twice her age in the film The Crush. While making the film, she caused a stir by going to court to became 'legally emancipated' from her parents and declared an adult, in order to get around child labour laws that would have interfered with her working hours.
The action, supported by her parents, was described in many newspapers as a 'divorce', something that still rankles with Alicia who insists that she:
'wanted to work and absolutely loved doing Crush. I wanted that job and 1I would have done absolutely anything to get it. All it meant was that I could legally give up school and work 23 hours a day as a slave. Anyway, I was 15, living by myself and making a movie with Cary Elwes — who wouldn't have fun doing that?' The Crush was followed by several appearances in Aerosmith videos, a few TV shows and then her role in Clueless, which shot her to worldwide fame.
After that, it was perhaps inevitable that a backlash would ensue and it did, almost immediately. Her first film venture as a producer, on the movie Excess Baggage, which she co-starred with Benicio Del Toro was a flop, as was her next film, Blast From The Past.
Then came Batman & Robin, which Alicia starred as Batgirl opposite George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell — a film notable for the vitriol of the reviews and the harsh assessment of Alicia's figure, encased as it was for much of the film in a skintight catsuit.
"Well, of course it hurt because I'm only human, but I looked at the people who were shouting "Fat girl!" at me and I thought it was ridiculous because they didn't look so great either. And then I felt that I didn't care what anyone said about me any more, and that even if I lost my career, I was going to do exactly what I wanted to do. 'The irony was that I became a vegan out of personal choice, and my body just got so healthy and skinny, and my skin became radiant, that I started looking fabulous anyway. So it all worked out in the end.'
And does Alicia think that far too much emphasis is put on looks these days, to the point where plastic surgery in Hollywood has got out of control? She screws up her face.
'I think it's a boring subject and I just don't care. I don't want to have surgery myself, but I don't want to judge people who do. And I'd rather talk about more interesting things anyway.' Which is all very well, except that the things that are interesting are the subjects she clams up on. She has been seeing Chris Jarecki, the singer of punk band S.T.U.N., for several years but won't talk about him; and, predictalbly when asked about rumours of on-set rormances with Benicio Del Toro and Kenneth Branagh insists, 'Just write that they're all true'', in a tone that gives absolutely nothing away.
HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS JENNIFER ANISTON
JENNIFER ANISTON recently received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Rachel on the long-running ensemble hit NBC television series "Friends." Aniston also has a host of feature film roles to her credit, most recently the Mike Judge-directed "Office Space" and Warner Bros. animated "The Iron Giant," in which she was the voice of Annie Hughes.
Aniston starred opposite Paul Rudd in "The Object of My Affection," directed by Nicholas Hytner. Her other film credits include "Picture Perfect," with Kevin Bacon, Olympia Dukakis and Jay Mohr; "‘Til There Was You" with Sarah Jessica Parker, Dylan McDermott and Jeanne Tripplehorn and "She’s the One" with director Ed Burns and Cameron Diaz.
Aniston began her professional training as a drama student at New York’s High School of the Performing Arts. After graduating in 1987, she won roles in such off-Broadway productions as "For Dear Life" at New York’s Public Theater and "Dancing on Checker’s Grave." In 1989, she landed her first television role as a series regular on "Molloy." Her other television credits include series regular roles on "The Edge" and "Ferris Bueller"; a recurring role on "Herman’s Head" and guest-starring roles on such series as "Quantum Leap" and "Burke’s Law."
Hollywood Jennifer Lopez
Hollywood Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969),[1] popularly nicknamed J.Lo, is an American Golden Globe-nominated actress, Grammy Award-nominated singer, record producer, dancer, fashion designer and television producer. She is the richest person of Latin American descent in Hollywood according to Forbes, and the most influential Hispanic entertainer in the U.S. according to People en Español's list of "100 Most Influential Hispanics".[2]
Starting in 1999, Lopez released seven albums, including two number one albums on the Billboard 200 charts and four Billboard Hot 100 number one singles. She won the 2003 American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and the 2007 American Music Award for Favorite Latin Artist. She has appeared in numerous films, and has won ALMA Awards for outstanding actress for her work in Selena, Out of Sight, and Angel Eyes. She parlayed her media fame into a fashion line and various perfumes with her celebrity endorsement.
