Celebrity Bios & Photos

Kumi Koda

2009-08-04T09:21:00.007-07:00

Kumiko Koda (神田來未子, Kōda Kumiko) (born November 13, 1982), better known by her stage name Kumi Koda (倖田來未, Kōda Kumi), is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Kyoto, known for her Urban and R&B songs. Having debuted in 2000 with the single "Take Back", Koda gained fame for her seventh single, "Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba", the songs of which were used as themes for the video game Final Fantasy X-2. Her popularity grew with the release of her fourth studio album Secret (2005), her sixteenth single "Butterfly" (2005), and her first greatest hits album Best: First Things (2005), reaching the number-three, number-two and number-one spot respectively.

Though her early releases presented a conservative, quiet image, since as early as 2003 Koda has adopted a sexier and more provocative style. Because of this image, she has become a fashion leader among young women, setting trends such as the ero-kakkoii style. She has also won many fashion awards such as, the "Best Jeanist Award" and the title of "Nail Queen" three times since 2006. Since the rise in her popularity, Koda has lent her face and songs to many advertisements. In 2006 and 2007, Oricon awarded with Koda the title of best-selling artist.

On January 31, 2008, a day after the release of her sixth studio album, Kingdom, Koda became the center of controversy when she made a comment on Japanese radio show, All Night Nippon.

On March 14, 2007, Koda released her thirty-fifth single ("But/Aishō"), another greatest hits album (Best: Bounce & Lovers), and a DVD of her second tour Live Tour 2006–2007: Second Session. Her second single of 2007, "Freaky", reached the top spot on the Oricon, giving Koda her fourth number-one single. Koda performed at the Japanese leg of Live Earth in Tokyo on July 7, 2007, and attended Ap Bank Fes '07, an conservationist-themed concert, hosted by Kazutoshi Sakurai of Mr. Children on July 15, 2007. At the end of 2007, Koda released two singles, "Ai no Uta" and "Last Angel", a collaboration with Korean boy band TVXQ better known as Tohoshinki in Japan. "Last Angel" was used as the theme song for the Japanese release for Resident Evil: Extinction. On December 1, she held her first performance at Tokyo Dome for her third nationwide and first arena tour. Koda became the seventh solo female singer to perform at Tokyo Dome with an estimated audience of 45,000 people. Having sold more than 7.3 billion yen worth of CDs and DVDs, Koda was again the best-selling artist of the year in Oricon's 2007 year-end rankings.

Koda released her thirty-ninth single "Anytime" on January 23, 2008; it was followed by her sixth studio album Kingdom, which was released in the same format as her previous album. With a little over 420,000 copies sold, Kingdom debuted atop the Oricon. On January 31, Koda hosted All Night Nippon; discussing her manager's recent marriage and plans on having children, Koda remarked that "When women turn 35, their amniotic fluid goes rotten, so I'd like them to have a child by 35". Because of the controversy instigated by the comment, Avex released an apology stating that as a consolation, all promotion of Kingdom would cease. Additionally, several of Koda's commercial endorsements were placed on hiatus. Koda herself made a public apology on Fuji TV. Despite the controversy, Kingdom remained on top for a second consecutive week. Two months after her controversial statement, Koda released Live Tour 2007: Black Cherry Tour Special Final in Tokyo Dome, her fourth live DVD. Her fourth nationwide tour Koda Kumi Live Tour 2008: Kingdom commenced on April 12, 2008.

Koda's fortieth single "Moon" was released on June 11, 2008. Like "Freaky", "Moon" contained four tracks. The single contained "Moon Crying", used as the theme for Asahi Television drama Puzzle, and a collaboration track with Black Eyed Peas' Fergie Koda again attended Avex's annual summer concert A-Nation '08. She appeared at all eight shows in Japan and performed with other Avex artists such as Every Little Thing, Ai Otsuka, Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki, TVXQ, and Maki Goto. In October, Koda released her forty-first single, "Taboo". With around 66,000 copies sold in its first week, "Taboo" debuted at the number-one position and became Koda's fifth single to reach the top. Koda released her forty-second single "Stay with Me" on Christmas Eve, which debuted atop of the chart selling 58,000 copies. Koda's seventh studio album, Trick, was another number-one album for the singer, selling 253,000 in its first week. The album stayed at the number-one spot for a second week selling 56,000 copies. Although the album debuted at the number-one position, this was her lowest selling album since her third studio album, Secret.

Koda's forty-third single, "It's All Love!", was released on March 31, 2009. The single is an collaboration with her younger sister, Misono. The second song from the single, "Faraway", was used for the theme song for the manga-based movie Subaru. It's All Love! debuted atop the Oricon and made the sisters the first siblings to top the chart in its initial week. In addition, two albums were released on March 25, Out Works & Collaboration Best and Koda Kumi Driving Hit's [sic]. The former is a compilation of the tracks that are collaborations with other artists and the latter is a remix album. Out Works & Collaboration Best and Koda Kumi Driving Hit's debuted at #7 and #6 respectively. On July 8, 2009, Koda released her forty-fourth single, "3 Splash".

Since the start of her career Koda has been writing the lyrics to her songs. On her second studio album, Grow into One, Koda wasn't as much involved with the writing of the lyrics, as only four songs were written by her. Koda's control over the writing of the lyrics grew with her thirty-third single "Yume no Uta/Futari de... ". The single was originally intended to be a single song about "happy love", however Koda felt the melody had represented both the elements of happiness and sadness. She wrote the lyrics for both songs to represent the sadness and the happiness. In doing so Koda ended up creating two songs with the same melody. She remarked, "It was a first time experiment for me, but I was able to convey how happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin." Koda lists Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, and Beyoncé Knowles as her inspirations; she has also stated that when she produces, she "is like a different person"; thus, she refers to herself in the third person and "looks at [herself] objectively".

Koda was not as involved concerning the composition of her songs. "Milk Tea" (ミルクティー, Miruku Tii), from Black Cherry, marked the first time she composed a song. Her involvement in the composition stage grew during the production of her seventh studio album Trick.

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Lindsay Lohan

2009-07-18T03:09:00.003-07:00

Actress teen pop star Lindsay Lohan entered the world of show business at the tender age of three as a Ford model, which led to television commercials for the Gap, Pizza Hut, and Wendy's. She did more television work as she grew up, including stints on soap operas like Another World and The Guiding Light, as well as roles in The Bette Show and Get a Clue, a Disney Channel movie. Lohan's Disney connection, which included starring as the twins in a remake of The Parent Trap, continued into her teens and helped her expand her career into music: along with co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in 2003's Freaky Friday, she also performed the movie's theme song, "Ultimate."

The following year, Lohan starred in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and contributed two songs to its soundtrack. Buoyed by these successes as well as her starring role in Mean Girls, Lohan hosted the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and won an award for Female Breakout Star. She also signed to Tommy Mottola's Casablanca Records, releasing her debut album, Speak, in December of 2004. The next year saw celebrity start to catch up with Lohan. While she continued her relationship with Disney, filming a remake of Herbie: Fully Loaded, Internet and tabloid rumors spread about everything from her health and love life (she's dating Wilmer, she isn't dating Wilmer....) to her late-night party habits and diva behavior. It didn't help that Speak was less than a success.

By the end of 2005 Lohan's persona as the wild and damaged teen siren -- whatever its ratio of truth to fiction -- had outshone her accomplishments as an actress and a singer. And it was into this caustic tabloid climate that she released her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw). Though the album was critically panned, it was certified gold early in 2006. Later that year, Lohan was switched from Casablanca to Motown Records by Universal Music Group. Though she focused more on her film career in 2006 and 2007 and continued to have a swirl of tabloid attention and media controversy around her -- including her arrest on May 26, 2007, for suspicion of driving under the influence and a subsequent stay at Malibu, CA's Promises Treatment Center -- Lohan planned work on a third album in the second half of 2007.

On July 24, 2007, Lohan—in the wake of her second DUI arrest—withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote her starring role as a stripper in the thriller-mystery film I Know Who Killed Me. Lohan plays a young woman who appears to suffer from split personalities after being rescued from a serial killer. The film premiered "to an abysmal $3.5 million" and made $9,595,945 at the box office worldwide. and earned Lohan two nominations for worst actress at the Golden Raspberry Awards. She came in first and second, tying with herself.

In May 2008, Lohan appeared on ABC's Ugly Betty television series, her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me. Subsequently guest starring in a total of four episodes, spanning seasons two and three in 2008, Lohan played Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of America Ferrera's character Betty Suarez.

Lohan's latest film project, Labor Pains, in which she plays a young woman who pretends to be pregnant to avoid being fired, is not being released to theaters in spring 2009 as originally planned. Instead, it will appear as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009 and be released on DVD a month later. It was announced in May 2009 that Lohan has landed the lead role in the upcoming 2010 film The Other Side, alongside Jason Lee, Woody Harrelson, Alanis Morissette and Eddie Izzard. She will star as a grad student who discovers a mystery involving the strange residents of a remote island. She is also set to appear in Dare to Love Me which is also slated for a 2010 release.

Jessica Simpson

2009-07-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, and television personality 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 ventured into the country music market in 2008 and released Do You Know.

On October 26, 2002, at age 22, Simpson married Nick Lachey. She famously announced she had remained a virgin until her marriage. In November 2005, after months of tabloid speculation, Simpson and Lachey announced they were separating. Simpson filed for divorce on December 16, 2005, citing "irreconcilable differences." The couple's divorce was publicized worldwide and was reportedly finalized on June 30, 2006.

Simpson told Jane magazine in October 2006 that she knew her marriage to Lachey was over when he refused to join her on a charity trip to Africa, even though it was on their third wedding anniversary.

The couple sold their Calabasas mansion, in which Newlyweds was filmed, to Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield for an undisclosed amount. Simpson received increased publicity following her divorce, reportedly having romances with her Employee of the Month co-star Dane Cook and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. On February 6, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Simpson said she was stung when her ex-husband jumped back into dating after their high-profile breakup. "Oh, it hurt me," the 26-year-old singer-actress says in an interview in the March issue of Elle. "Two or three weeks later? Yeah, I'd say it kind of hurt me."

Following her divorce, Simpson had an off-and-on relationship with musician John Mayer. Dating rumors started in August 2006 with a People magazine article, but kicked into high gear when Simpson and Mayer spent New Year's holiday together in New York City, both attending Christina Aguilera's New Year's Eve 2006 party. The couple eventually parted ways for good in May 2007.

In November 2007, Simpson began dating Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. The relationship is controversial among some Dallas Cowboys fans, as she is blamed when Romo has poor football performances as exemplified by a December game in which the Cowboys lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. Some of the Cowboy's fans have given her the nickname Yoko Romo in comparison to Yoko Ono who many Beatles fans blame for "ruining" John Lennon. This was further fueled when the Cowboys lost to the Giants in the divisional playoffs, when Romo & Simpson went on a trip during the Cowboy's bye week. FOX broadcaster Terry Bradshaw called into question Simpson and Romo vacationing in Mexico.

"If only Tony had called me and said, 'Terry, Jessica [Simpson] and I are going to go to Mexico,' I would've told him: 'You crazy? Don't do that! The paparazzi is going to find you, man. You're a star. She's a star. It's just going to happen,' " Bradshaw said in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Even President Bush jokingly endorsed the "Jessica jinx" after the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl in 2008. During the traditional White House reception for the winning team, the president quipped, "We're going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democrat National Convention."

On July 13, 2009, People magazine reported that Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson have called it quits. A source close to the pop star told the magazine that Romo broke up with Simpson on July 9 — the night before her 29th birthday. "She is heartbroken," said the source. "She loves Tony. But it's been difficult lately. He's busy with his career, and she's getting ready to shoot her show (The Price of Beauty). They decided to part ways."

Carrie Prejean

2009-07-13T19:29:00.005-07:00

Caroline Michelle "Carrie" Prejean (born May 13, 1987) is an American model and former beauty queen from Vista, California. She held the title of Miss California USA 2009, and placed first runner up in the Miss USA 2009 pageant. She gained nationwide attention over her answer to a question about same-sex marriage. She was eventually dethroned on June 10, 2009, with the producers of the Miss California USA pageant citing continued breach of contract issues as the reason.

Prejean has appeared as a model for Target, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, and Nordstrom. She has also appeared in Bliss magazine, as a model for E!: Entertainment Television, at the 81st Academy Awards, and in an interactive model search competition for the NBC game show Deal or No Deal.

Biography:

Prejean was born in San Diego, California to Francine Coppola and William Prejean. She was raised in an evangelical Christian household in Vista, California. Prejean's parents divorced in 1988. A custody battle went on for more than a decade.

Prejean graduated in 2005 from Vista High School. She is currently a senior at San Diego Christian College, a small, evangelical liberal arts college located in El Cajon, California, and attends The Rock Church, where she volunteers with their outreach ministries. Prejean also volunteers with Luv-em-Up Ministries in El Cajon, where she works with children with developmental disabilities. Prejean is studying to become a special education teacher and also volunteers for Best Buddies, a non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities, and for the Special Olympics.

In 2005, Prejean competed in the Miss California Teen USA pageant and placed first runner-up to Stephanie Brink. In 2007, she competed in the Miss California USA 2008 pageant and initially placed third runner-up; later a judging error was discovered and she was promoted to first runner-up.

Prejean returned the following year and won the Miss California USA 2009 title, succeeding Raquel Beezley as California's representative to the Miss USA pageant. She had received breast implants paid for by the Miss California Pageant a few weeks before Prejean competed at the nationally televised Miss USA 2009 pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 19, 2009, and placed first runner-up. Prejean's answer to her final question during the pageant became the subject of controversy.

Aishwarya Rai

2009-03-26T00:54:00.008-07:00

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan (Birthname: Aishwarya Rai, Tulu: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯಾ ರೈ) born 1 November 1973 is an Indian actress and former Miss World. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model and gained fame after winning the Miss World title in 1994.

Rai was born in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai. Her family belongs to the Bunt community of Mangalore. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai who works in Navy and has also co-produced one of Rai's movies, Dil Ka Rishta (2003). At an early age her parents moved to Mumbai where she attended the Arya Vidya Mandir high school in Santa Cruz. Rai then entered Jai Hind College at Churchgate for one year, and then moved to Ruparel College in Matunga to finish her "HSC" studies. She did well in school and planned to become an architect and went on pursuing studies in architecture. She can communicate in several languages, including her mother tongue Tulu, as well as Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil. She started studying architecture but gave up her education to pursue a career in modelling.

While pursuing her studies in architecture, Rai began modeling on the side. In the 1994 Miss India contest, she won the second place behind Sushmita Sen, and was crowned Miss India World. She went on to win the Miss World title the same year, where she also won the Miss Photogenic award. She abandoned her studies after winning the pageant and spent one year reigning as Miss World in London. Rai then started working as a professional model and then moved on to her current profession as an actress.

Rai made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Iruvar (1997) with Mohanlal, The film was a commercial and critical success and won many awards including Best Film award at the Belgrade International Film Festival, two National Film Awards, and two Filmfare Awards South. Rai made her Bollywood debut in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya opposite Bobby Deol, which also released that year; the film did not do well at the box office. and was also panned by critics. However, her third project, S. Shankar's Tamil film, Jeans (1998) was a critical and commercial success, earning her the Filmfare Best Actress Award South. The film, which portrayed Rai in a dual role, took Rai two years to complete.

In 1999 Rai starred in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam opposite Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, the film was centered around a Love triangle and won critical acclaim and was her first Bollywood box office success. She won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award for the film. In the same year she appeared in Subhash Ghai's Taal , in which she played the role of a young village girl Mansi, who becomes a big Pop star after being hurt by her lover played by Akshay Khanna, the film was an average performer in India but was a big success among the international audience, especially in the United States, where it became the first Indian film to reach the top 20 on Variety's box office list. the film gave her another nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare; her performances in the films was applauded by critics and earned her critical acclaim .

In 2000, she appeared in Mansoor Khan's Josh alongside Shahrukh Khan and Chandrachur Singh, in which she played a Catholic girl named Shirley who falls in love with the sibling of her Brother's enemy. The film was a commercial success. Later that year she appeared in Satish Kaushik's Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai opposite Anil Kapoor. It was a moderate success and her performance earned her a Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination. Later that year she played a supporting role in the Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, the film was a major commercial success and became the second highest grosser of the year, it also earned her a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award nomination. Later that year, she also starred in the Tamil film Kandukondain Kandukondain, alongside Mammooty, Ajith Kumar and Tabu.

In 2002, Rai appeared alongside Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas, an adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay famous novel by the same name. She played the role of Paro (Parvati), the love interest of the protaganist played by Khan. The film received a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. and became the highest grossing film of the year both in India and overseas. Devdas won numerous awards including 10 Filmfare Awards, and Rai received her second Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance. In 2003, she acted in Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali film, Chokher Bali, an adaptation of one of Rabindranath Tagore's novels by the same name. She portrayed the character of a young woman called Binodini, who is left to her own devices when her sickly husband dies soon after they are married. That year she also appeared in her home production Dil Ka Rishta alongside Arjun Rampal and Rohan Sippy's Kuch Na Kaho alongside Abhishek Bachchan, none of which succeeded.

In 2004 she appeared in Gurinder Chadha's Bollywood-style English adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Bride and Prejudice alongside Martin Henderson. In the film she potrayed the role of Lalita Bakshi, the film's counterpart of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen's novel. This was followed by Rajkumar Santoshi's Khakee alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Jayapradha, in the film she played a negative role for the first time in her career. In the same year she appeared in in her second film with Rituparno Ghosh, Raincoat alongside Ajay Devgan. The film was highly acclaimed by the critics, whereas Rai received rave reviews for her performance.

In 2005 she appeared in Shabd a film based on a love triangle alongside Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan. The film was a box office flop wheraeas it received average reviews from the critics. Her next release that year was Paul Mayeda Berges's The Mistress of Spicesbased upon the novel The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in which she starred alongside Dylan McDermott. The film received negative review by critics and was also a commercial failure. The same year she made a special appearance in Shaad Ali's Bunty Aur Babli in a hugely popular seven-minute dance sequence for the song "Kajra Re", alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.

In the year 2006, Rai starred in J P Dutta's Umrao Jaan an adaptation of the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. She potrayed the role of a real life courtesan and poetess by the same name from 19th century. The film was a critical and commercial failure, though Rai's work was generally well received. Critic Taran Adarsh wrote, "Aishwarya Rai looks ethereal. She has looked heavenly and performed so convincingly. She emotes through her expressive eyes and the consistency in her performance is evident from start to end". Later that year she appeared as a master thief, Sunheri, in Yash Raj Films's Dhoom 2 directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, with an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Uday Chopra. The film turned out to be a blockbuster and became the highest grossing film of the year in India. The film also sparked a controversy for a scene containing a kiss between her and Hrithik Roshan. Her performance earned her a sixth nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award.

In 2007 she appeared in Mani Ratnam's Guru as Sujata, speculated to be based on the life of Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani, it was a rag to riches story about an ambitious small town man who ends up as the owner of the biggest corporation in India. The film was premièred at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, making it the first Indian film to have a mainstream international premiere in Canada. The film was critically acclaimed and performed well at the box office, becoming one of the highest grossers of the year. Rai won the critical acclaim, with one critic writing, "Aishwarya Rai stuns you with a powerful performance. Known for her angelic looks all the while, the actor will make people sit up and notice the reservoirs of talent in Guru". Rai got her seventh nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award for the film. In the same year she starred in Jag Mundhra's British film Provoked as Kiranjit Ahluwalia(an NRI woman who killed her abusive husband after facing severe domestic violence) alongside Naveen Andrews. The film was panned by critics and was also a commercial failure, though rai received positive reviews from critics. In the same year she appeared as a female Indian warrior from Kerala named Mira, in Doug Lefler's epic film The Last Legion alongside Sir Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth and Thomas Sangster. The film was a critical failure.

In 2008, she starred alongside Hrithik Roshan in Ashutosh Gowariker's historical drama Jodhaa Akbar which was a critical and commercial success playing the role of Jodha Bai, the wife of the Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, played by Roshan; and also co-starred with husband Abhishek Bachchan and her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan in Sarkar Raj, playing the CEO of a major power company proposing to establish a new power plant in rural Maharashtra.

Rai returned to the Tamil film industry and is working with Rajinikanth for the movie Endhiran, directed by S. Shankar, in an interview to the news channel Aaj Tak she confirmed a fee of Rs 6 crores for the film, making her the highest paid actress in India. She is also slated to co-star with Vikram in Mani Ratnam's next film, Ashokavanam which is also to be simultaneously made in Hindi, titled Raavan, with Abhishek Bachchan in the lead. She set to appear in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next film opposite Hrithik Roshan, Vipul Shah's next film opposite Akshay Kumar, Abhinay Deo's next film produced by Farhan Akhtar and Vishal Bharadwaj's next directorial venture.

In 2009 Rai was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions to Indian cinema. In the same year she refused to accept the second-highest Order Of France, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as her father was suffering from serious illness, and she wanted her whole family to attend the award function. She is only the fourth Indian actor after Amitabh Bachchan, Nandita Das and Shahrukh Khan to be chosen for an Order Of France .

Jennifer Aniston

2009-03-23T23:24:00.008-07:00

Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, and grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of the actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. Aniston's father is a Greek American, born Yannis Anastassakis, on the island of Crete, Greece, while her mother is of Italian-Scottish descent and was born in New York City. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick (older) and Alex Aniston (younger). Aniston's godfather was the actor Telly Savalas, her father's best friend. She lived in Greece for one year as a child with her family, and they later relocated to New York City. Her father has appeared in the soap operas Days of our Lives, Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow. Aniston attended the New York Rudolf Steiner School and graduated from Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She worked in Off Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave. She supported herself with several part-time jobs, including working as a telemarketer and bike messenger. In 1989, she moved to Los Angeles, California.

Aniston moved to Hollywood and was cast in her first television role 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 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, and Burke's Law. After the string of canceled shows, along with her appearance in the critically derided 1992 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 Courtney Cox was discovered to be best suited for the part of Monica. Thus, Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She played the character of Rachel from 1994 until the show ended in 2004.

The program was 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 (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), 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.

Jennifer Aniston was cast in a Heineken commercial which was later banned due to branding issues. Later, in 1994, Microsoft invited Aniston, along with Friends co-star Matthew Perry, to shoot a 30-minute promotional advertisement for their new operating system, Windows 95. She gained critical acclaim for her performances in The Object of My Affection (1998), a comedy drama about a girl who falls for a gay man,[20] and in the low-budget 2002 film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The latter film opened in relatively few theaters—under 700 in total—taking $14M in the U.S. box office. In late 2005, Aniston appeared in two major studio films, Derailed and Rumor Has It.

In addition to her career as a TV actress, Aniston has enjoyed a successful film career. Her biggest box office success to date was her appearance in 2003's Bruce Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title character Jim Carrey. Aniston then starred in the 2004 film, Along Came Polly opposite Ben Stiller. In 2006, Aniston appeared in the low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival, received a limited release. 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.

In 2007, Aniston guest starred in an episode of Courteney Cox Arquette's series Dirt. Aniston played Arquette's snobby rival Tina Harrod. 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, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion 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. According to Forbes in October 2007, Aniston was the top-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry. In 2008, Aniston landed the seventeenth spot on Forbes Celebrity 100 list based on "earnings and fame." Forbes listed Aniston's earnings as $27 million.

Aniston appeared in the third episode of Season 3 of NBC's 30 Rock playing Liz Lemon's old college roommate who stalks Jack Donaghy.

Aniston appears naked in a series of photographs that are published on the cover and inside pages of the January 2009 issue of GQ. She tells the magazine that she feels more comfortable today than she did in her twenties or early thirties. "I'm healthier. I'm more at peace in my mind and with my body," Aniston says.

On December 25, 2008, Marley & Me, in which Aniston starred alongside Owen Wilson, was released. It set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales.It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed #1 at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. As of February 15, 2009 its total worldwide gross was $161,608,269.

Her next film in wide release, He's Just Not That into You, opened in February 2009. The movie made $27.5 million, ranking #1 at the box office in its opening weekend. While the film received mixed reviews, Aniston along with Jennifer Connelly, and Ben Affleck are often praised by critics as being the stand-outs in the film.

As of 2009, Aniston's movies have grossed $806,211,361 domestically.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-02-23T19:28:00.008-08:00

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming science fiction/action film due for release on June 24, 2009. It is the sequel to 2007’s Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, the most important of which is Egypt.

The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay met his shooting date with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting from May to November 2008 predominantly took place in the United States, including the majority of scenes set in outside countries, a minimum of which was conducted in those actual nations.

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth. The evil Decepticons need to capture him for information.The climactic battle takes place at the Giza pyramid complex, where a temple is located within. Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will show the Transformers who visited Egypt before the pyramids were built, and “all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons’ masterplan.” Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those Ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.

This time, the story finds Sam and Mikaela under attack by the evil Decepticons because of something Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth.

To acquire this knowledge, the invading Decepticons need to capture Sam instead of kill him. Meanwhile, the U.S. military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots to fight back the villains’ attack.

Some of the most important newcomers are in the robot cast: Decepticons Soundwave, a fearsome communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers. And on the Autobots’ side is Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots.

here is the preview:

Megan Fox

2009-02-17T01:02:00.011-08:00

Megan Denise Fox was born on May 16, 1986 in Rockwood Tennessee as the younger of two daughters. Known as one of the fastest rising young stars in Hollywood, this olive-skinned beauty has French, Irish and Native American ancestry, which contribute to Megan’s one-of-a-kind exotic looks. She is best known for her role as Faith Ford’s on-screen daughter, Sydney Shanowski in Hope & Faith and Mikaela Banes from Transformers film.

Megan grew up in a very poor household, but this did not stop her parents from encouraging her interest in arts at an early age. At age 5, Megan started to attend drama and dance classes. The Fox family left Oak Ridge and moved to Port Saint Lucie Florida when Megan was 10 years old. With her parents’ support and her dedication, Megan never stopped her training, even while she was completing school. By the time she was 13, Megan began to do some acting, but it was in modeling that her beauty and talent became the talk of town in the entertainment industry. Megan Fox won multiple awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head Islands, South Carolina, even though she was only 5”4 in height and was considered short for the runway.

With her modeling awards, Megan decided to pursue acting and eventually moved to Los Angeles. Producers saw Megan’s potential instantly and by 2001, Fox made her film debut in the straight-to-video release starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie, “Holiday in the Sun” where she played Brianna Wallace. She then graced the world of TV when she grabbed a role in a low-key soap opera, “Ocean Ave.” and continued to attract a small following after appearing in a single episode of comedy series, “What I Like About You” in 2003.

In 2004, Megan Fox went back into the big screen and joined a group of female teens, including Lindsay Lohan, in the “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”. She then had a small role in the TV movie, “Crimes of Fashion” and a guest appearance in “Two and a Half Men”, three episodes in “The Help” and the TV movie, “Crimes of Passion”. Megan later on grabbed a 29-episode deal on the sitcom “Hope & Faith” with Kelly Ripa.

The more Megan Fox received TV exposure, the more Hollywood took notice of her star potential. By 2005, Megan Fox was featured in a 5-page spread in the November issue of FHM, along with her fellow female actresses. In 2006, FHM named Megan #68 in the magazine’s popular “100 Sexiest Women in the World” list for the year.

Throughout 2007, Megan has been featured in some of the top men’s magazines in the industry, including the March issue of FHM, June issue of GQ, July issue of Maxim and September issue of Arena. She also joined the list of Askmen.com’s “2007 Most Desirable Women”, ranking #37. From #65 in 2007, the stunning Megan Fox has been honored FHM’s #1 “2008 Sexiest Women in the World”, beating Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel to the top spot. She also ranked #16 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list.

In 2007, Megan Fox’s biggest break to date came when she was cast in the highly anticipated film, Transformers. Megan played Kylea, the love interest of lead actor Shia LaBoeuf’s character Sam Witwicky, as they tried to save the world and the group of alien robots from the evil decepticons. She later became part of the cast of “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”, alongside Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges. In the movie, Megan Fox portrays a young Hollywood star named Sophia Maes, who gets her first taste of fame in a biopic of Mother Theresa.

In 2009, Fox appear in Diablo Cody’s “Jennifer’s Body”, alongside Adam Brody and Amanda Seyfried. Megan would also appear in the sequel of Transformers “Revenge of the Fallen” after director Michael Bay told Fox to gain 10 pounds stating that he “doesn’t like skinny girls”. She also signed on for one more Transformers sequel.

Megan Fox is very well known for the number of tattoos on her body. In 2008, she had nine tattoos, which Megan admits that she gets them whenever she has “a feeling about anything”. One of her tattoos is a poem located at her ribcage with the phrase "There once was a little girl who never knew love until a boy broke her heart". She also has “Brian” on her right hip, a ‘star & moon’ symbol on her right ankle, a symbol for strength on her neck and a double-wave circle pattern on her left wrist.

The most popular of Megan’s tattoos are the quote from the Shakespeare play King Lear on her right shoulder with the words “We will all laugh at gilded butterflies” and a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her right arm. Megan explained that Monroe reminds her of “how Hollywood can chew you up and spit you out”. Fox also plans to add more tattoos to her collection of body art in the future.

Since 2006, Megan has been engaged with actor Brian Austin Green, known for Beverly Hills 90210 and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Fox and Brian are both animal lovers with nine animals living with them in Los Angeles. These include four dogs – a Boston terrier named China, a Pomeranian dog named Sid Vicious, a Bulldog named Spanky and a cairn terrier named Sullivan; two birds named Roxy and Bowie; two cats – a Bangal cat named Rosh and an Abyssinian cat named Luna; and a pig.

Aside from being a sexy young icon in Hollywood, Megan Fox loves to read comic books and play video games. She is a huge Def Leopard, Van Halen and Nirvana fan and loves many rock bands. Megan is friends with Kellan Rhude, Jennifer Blanc, Michael Biehn and Amanda Seyfried and calls Transformers co-star Shia LaBeouf as one of her favorite people ever.

Sexy Mayra Verónica

2009-02-16T00:50:00.011-08:00

Verónica was born in Havana Cuba in August 20, 1980. In 1984 she came to the US with her mother (Mayra Rodriguez), leaving behind her family including her father (Arturo Aruca) and sister (Giselle Guzman). Her father came a year later and reunited with Veronica and her mother, while her sister was unable to meet them until thirteen years later. Mayra grew up with barely any money, and food was difficult to access. Veronica has spoken about her difficult childhood, and is since estranged from her father and unwilling to reconcile. As a child Veronica wittingly made her way through ballet school, by finding paying clients (other girls from her school who could afford the training) and survived very difficult circumstances at home. In Junior High her body began changing, she got her now famous curves, and began noticing the effect she had on boys was anything but usual.

Her first boyfriend at the age of 15 was an artist of the same age who often painted her in little to no clothing. She continued school and after joining a local beauty pageant(she was 3rd princess or runner up) she met a photographer who would do all the pictures for the event, and noticed the photographer did not have much of an interest in the winner or any of the other girls but was instead captivated by Mayra's photos and kept inviting her to his studio for free sessions. From this Mayra obtained her first modeling book and was signed by a local agent in Miami. This local agent sent her out for an audition for a local TV entertainment news show "Miami Hoy"(at the time Mayra was at Florida International University majoring in Psychology and Theater) she did not know much about being a reporter but figured she could act like one. She got the part and began as a correspondent and after a job well done was promoted to celebrity reporter and Host for the program. Here she got the opportunity to meet and interview celebrities like Donald Trump, Oscar de la Renta, Hugh Heffner, Dennis Rodman, and many more... throughout this time Veronica also traveled to NY to continue acting training at the famed Lee Strasberg Institute to fine tune her craft...until the station (owned by Media One) was bought out by AT&T and later closed.

During this time Veronica also managed to land a made for TV movie called the Suitor and fit in commercial campaigns for Nike, L'Oréal, Coca Cola, and more. Veronica then got a call from the Univision station, a new show was to begin hosted by Don Francisco, the top rated talk show host on the Network...and they wanted her to be their only model, but there was one catch. Due to her ample curves, her last appearance on screen for the day would entail her backside presence on camera before turning around to face the camera. Veronica did it gladly. Once the show aired, the model with the great backside became the talk of latins everywhere, so much so that even the American press got involved. FHM magazine, the top men's magazine of the time,contacted Veronica's publicist to ask for a feature spread on their magazine. Veronica agreed and after much mail requesting her return she went on to do the cover of the FHM exclusive collection book, which included top sex symbols of the decade, such as Pamela Anderson, Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra etc. and other covers for FHM, Maxim, Edge, Smooth, SSX, Smoke, Blackmen's, Open your Eyes and more.

Her popularity on such covers made her website at the time one of the top requested websites with over 4 million hits biweekly. With this came many emails from soldiers stationed in Iraq asking for her posters and by now famous calendars. Veronica had her management send in a care package of approximately 5000 posters and it wasn't long before the marines named her favorite pin up girl for the US marines and the USO asked her for a tour with our troops.The tour was a special Thanksgiving tour with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:General Cartwright, actor Wilmer Valderrama,comedian Russell Peters, traveling to six countries in six days, including Iraq, Afghanistan,Germany, Turkey, Africa, and Greenland. The troops' response was overwhelming and although Veronica had decided not to do any more calendars, she quickly changed her mind and decided to do one in 2008 dedicating all proceeds to the USO. Upon her return from the tour she was asked to appear on FOX's Bill Oreilly and was quickly named a modern day Betty Grable.

During her time with the Univision Network, Veronica had the opportunity to meet top ranked music producers who collaborated with her on her first music album. It was titled Vengo Con To' (Im coming at you with everything) It was also a popular time for the reggaeton music movement and Veronica's album included as its first single "Vengo con to" which was later quoted by King magazine: "Mayra Veronica's moaning make Madonna's Erotica sound like bubblegum pop...chew on that Daddy Yankee" The song soared to number one on the top station in the country, in New York and the video, banned from Latin Television because her curves seemed too much for TV. Europe did not seem to mind and Mayra signed a deal with a German Label for the release of the album there.

The album's popularity landed Veronica a large deal with Universal Motown who put out a second single from the album, titled "Mamma Mia" which also did very well on radio. It wasn't until the third single "Es Tan Dificil Olvidarte" dedicated to the fallen troops,which was redone by Jose Miguel Velazquez ,that Veronica's voice was recognized by Billboard making her top 20 on the Pop Contemporary charts. Veronica continued her work with the troops by visiting the wounded at camp Lejeune, and was then asked by the New York Stock Exchange to ring the NASDAQ bell in Time Square on July 2, 2008 for Fourth of July week. Veronica decided to bring awareness to two of the organizations for which she's an advocate and spokesperson,The USO and UNICEF, and brought them to the bell ringing ceremony.Veronica is now working on her first English release through Universal Motown.

Elected President Barack Obama

2009-01-18T23:56:00.011-08:00

Barack Obama was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Ann Dunham, a European American from Wichita, Kansas of English and Irish descent. Obama's father was Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student. The couple married on February 2, 1961; they separated when Obama was two years old and divorced in 1964. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Soeharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the family moved to Indonesia. There Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, such as Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School, until he was ten years old.

He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for five years, and then in 1977 went back to Indonesia, where she worked as an anthropological field worker. She stayed there most of the rest of her life, returning to Hawaii in 1994. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.
Of his early childhood, Obama has recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind." In his 1995 memoir, he described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his "greatest moral failure."

Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was mature for his age, and that he sometimes attended college parties and other events in order to associate with African American students and military service people. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. He worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000. His achievements included helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, and elected president of the journal in his second year. During his summers, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990. After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.

Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.

Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of ten and seven hundred volunteers; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain's Chicago Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.

Obama served for twelve years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching constitutional law. He was first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. He also joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.

Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
Political career

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the General Election, and reelected again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.

In mid-2002, Obama began considering a run for the U.S. Senate; he enlisted political strategist David Axelrod that fall and formally announced his candidacy in January 2003. Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun not to contest the race launched wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates. Obama's candidacy was boosted by Axelrod's advertising campaign featuring images of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and an endorsement by the daughter of the late Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator for Illinois. He received over 52% of the vote in the March 2004 primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather's experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government's economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War and highlighted America's obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity, saying, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Though it was not televised by the three major broadcast news networks, a combined 9.1 million viewers watching on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and C-SPAN saw Obama's speech, which was a highlight of the convention and confirmed his status as the Democratic Party's brightest new star.

Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004. Two months later and less than three months before Election Day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan. A long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes established legal residency in Illinois with the nomination. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.

Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005. Obama was the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He was the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus. CQ Weekly, a nonpartisan publication, characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007, and the National Journal ranked him as the "most liberal" senator based on an assessment of selected votes during 2007. In 2005 he was ranked sixteenth, and in 2006 he was ranked tenth. In 2008, Congress.org ranked him as the eleventh most powerful Senator. Obama announced on November 13, 2008 that he would resign his senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session[clarification needed], to focus on his transition period for the presidency. This enabled him to avoid the conflict of dual roles as President-elect and Senator in the lame duck session of Congress, which no sitting member of Congress had faced since Warren Harding.

Legislation

Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, and the Coburn–Obama Transparency Act, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending. On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama, along with Senators Thomas R. Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain, introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.

Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee. Obama is not hostile to Tort reform and voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, neither of which have been signed into law.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008. He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Committees

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before he became President of Palestine, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi condemning corruption in the Kenyan government.

2008 Presidential Campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The choice of the announcement site was symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care.

During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations. On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.

A large number of candidates initially entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. After a few initial contests, the field narrowed to a contest between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, with each winning some states and the race remaining close throughout the primary process. On May 31, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat all of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegates at the national convention, each with a half-vote, narrowing Obama's delegate lead. On June 3, with all states counted, Obama passed the threshold to become the presumptive nominee. On that day, he gave a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7. From that point on, he campaigned for the general election race against Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.

On August 23, 2008, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Obama's former rival Hillary Clinton gave a speech in support of Obama's candidacy and later called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation as the Democratic presidential candidate. On August 28, Obama delivered a speech to the 84,000 supporters in Denver. During the speech, which was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide, he accepted his party's nomination and presented his policy goals.

After McCain was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, there were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain in September and October 2008. In November, Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote and a wide electoral college margin. His election sparked street celebrations in numerous cities in the United States and abroad.

President-elect of the United States

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173 and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Chicago's Grant Park, Obama proclaimed that "change has come to America".

Inauguration

On January 8, 2009, the joint session of the U.S. Congress met to certify the votes of the Electoral College for the 2008 presidential election. Based on the results of the electoral vote count, Barack Obama was declared the elected President of the United States and Joseph Biden was declared the elected Vice President of the United States. Obama is scheduled to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States at noon EST (17:00 UTC) on January 20, 2009, in an inaugural ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

An Excellent Human Beat Box

2009-01-15T23:18:00.005-08:00

This guy is not a celebrity but you'll be amaze to him. I've seen many human beatboxer but this one is really good. But what is beatboxing?

Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing is connected with hip hop culture although it is not limited to hip hop music.

Marisa Tomei

2008-12-28T23:08:00.007-08:00

Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York. While attending Boston University, Marisa Tomei was cast in the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns; she subsequently left school and played the teenager Marcy Thompson on the show from 1983 to 1985. She made her feature film debut in 1984 in The Flamingo Kid, starring Matt Dillon. After leaving As the World Turns, she appeared in Off-Broadway productions like Daughters (1985) before moving to Los Angeles. In 1987, she landed a role as a roommate of Lisa Bonet's character during the first season of the sitcom A Different World, a short-lived spinoff of The Cosby Show.

After her next major film, Oscar (1991), starring Sylvester Stallone, bombed, Tomei gave what appeared to be a bona fide star-making performance in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny, costarring Joe Pesci and The Karate Kid's Ralph Macchio. Critics agreed that Tomei's sharp comedic performance as Mona Lisa Vito, the wisecracking auto mechanic who falls in love with Pesci's Vinny, merited good reviews and even the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress she received. When the 27-year-old Marisa Tomei's name was read aloud on Oscar night as the winner, however (she beat out four well respected British actresses: Judy Davis, Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson, and Vanessa Redgrave), the shock was almost universal, and nasty rumors persisted that the award’s presented, the elderly Jack Palance, had read the wrong name.

Tomei’s Oscar win failed to produce the kind of career boost usually expected, as she went on to star in a number of films that didn't do justice to her talents and that barely made it onto the radar screen at the box office. She gave a good performance as the silent screen actress Mabel Normand in Chaplin (1992), starring Robert Downey Jr., but her first project as a romantic lead, in the weepy romance Untamed Heart (1993), costarring Christian Slater, was a critical and commercial disappointment. Tomei next appeared opposite Michael Keaton in The Paper and reteamed with Robert Downey Jr. in Only You (both 1994).

After costarring with veteran actresses Anjelica Huston (1995's The Perez Family) and Gena Rowlands (1996's Unhook the Stars), she earned her best reviews since My Cousin Vinny for the eccentric comedy Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), in which she played the flaky cousin of the main character, a precocious teenage girl played by Natasha Lyonne. Also in 1998, she returned to the small screen for the Showtime feature My Own Country (also featuring her younger brother Adam) and the CBS miniseries Erich Segal's Only Love, and made her first appearance on Broadway in a revival of Wait Until Dark, with the director and actor Quentin Tarantino.

Tomei's fortunes improved with a string of film roles in 2000, beginning with the small independent film Happy Accidents, costarring Vincent D'Onofrio, which screened at Sundance in 2001. She also costarred opposite Keanu Reeves and James Spader in the more mainstream thriller The Watcher, and had a featured role in the hit comedy What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. In early 2001, she appeared as the sidekick of Ashley Judd's character in the romantic comedy Someone Like You.

In 2001, Marisa Tomei emerged as a serious dramatic actress with an acclaimed performance in In the Bedroom, playing a mother of two whose estranged husband kills her younger lover. Tomei's affecting supporting performance earned her rave reviews, and a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

The next several years saw Tomei in many light-hearted films, including a voice role in the children's animated feature, The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002), and lead roles in the Mike Myers comedy, The Guru (2002) and the Adam Sandler vehicle, Anger Management (2003).

Tomei also proved her mettle as a romantic lead in the film remake of the 1966 romantic comedy, Alfie (2004), as well as the indie film, Factotum (2005).

After a stint on the small screen in Dennis Leary's firefighter drama, Rescue Me, and the comedy The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud, Tomei returned to feature films. Her recent role across from Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008), has earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Amanda Bynes

2008-12-21T05:01:00.005-08:00

Amanda Laura Bynes (born April 3, 1986) is an American actress, former show host on Nickelodeon, singer and voice actor. After appearing in several successful television series on Nickelodeon in the mid-to late 1990s and early 2000s, Bynes transitioned to a film career, starring in several films aimed at teenage audiences, including She's the Man (2006) and Hairspray (2007).

In 2006, she was named one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25", and in 2007, was on the Forbes list as the 5th highest paid celebrity under 21, earning $2.5 million.

In 1993, Bynes was trained as an actress by Arsenio Hall and Richard Pryor at a comedy camp, and began professionally acting at the age of seven, appearing in a television advertisement for Buncha Crunch candies. During her childhood, she also appeared on stage in versions of Annie, The Secret Garden, The Music Man and The Sound of Music. After taking acting classes, Bynes became a regular cast member of Nickelodeon's Figure It Out and All That (both in 1996). Bynes remained a regular cast member on All That until its presumed cancellation in 2000, though she appeared in the sketches since shooting and preparing as the star of her own sketch show The Amanda Show, also on Nickelodeon. The Amanda Show features a combination of comical skits and sketches, including Amanda Bynes playing Judge Trudy, a judge based on Judge Judy that always rules in kids' favor, and Penelope Taynt, an Amanda-obsessed fan.

Bynes made her film debut in 2002's modest box office success, Big Fat Liar, where she starred opposite Frankie Muniz. Her first solo leading role was in 2003's What a Girl Wants with Oliver James. Subsequently, Bynes starred in The WB Television Network's sitcom What I Like About You and had voice parts in 2003's Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure and 2005's CGI animated comedy, Robots. She also co-starred in an episode of The Nightmare Room as Danielle Warner, and in Arliss as Crystal Dupree. Bynes appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's July 2003 edition with nine of Hollywood's most popular female young stars, including Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Alexis Bledel, Raven-Symoné, Evan Rachel Wood, the Olsen Twins, and Mandy Moore. Although she is often compared with them, Bynes has said that "It's like being the hot girl at the high school party. I was never that girl. I grew up with terrible acne and feeling insecure. I was tall and skinny. I didn't feel pretty at all, and guys didn't even like me. That's why I got into comedy."[13] Bynes has also said that her relatability to teenage audiences may stem from the fact that she is "more similar to them than some... socialite or whatever".

In 2006, Bynes starred in She's the Man, a comedy based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; in the film, Bynes disguises herself as her brother in order to join the boys' soccer team due to the fall of the girls' team. Producers had originally wanted to cast singer Jesse McCartney as Bynes' brother, noting a physical resemblance between McCartney and Bynes disguised as a boy, but McCartney was unavailable. Around the time of the film's release, Bynes commented that she would like to start appearing in more mature roles, and believes that she is still developing her acting skills and maturing as an actress, saying that she is "getting better" with each role. Bynes appeared in another romantic comedy, Lovewrecked, which was shot before She's the Man but released after it, showing in cinemas outside of the United States in 2005 and 2006 and debuting in the U.S. on the ABC Family network on January 21, 2007. She also portrays Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, a film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. The movie, which was her first musical role, began filming in Toronto in September 2006 and was released on July 20, 2007. Bynes has stated that she enjoyed appearing in a "fun, quirky part in a big ensemble movie". Bynes next starred in another comedy, Sydney White, released on September 21, 2007. The film is based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Bynes playing a freshman in the college Greek system, co-starring alongside Sara Paxton and Matt Long.

In 2008, Bynes appeared in the Lifetime Television movie Living Proof as the student assistant of Harry Connick Jr.'s character, who creates the Herceptin drug for breast cancer.

In April 2009, Bynes filmed the pilot for an ABC's sitcom titled Canned, but the series failed to make the network's fall lineup.

The Dragonball Evolution Movie

2008-12-10T22:12:00.004-08:00

"Dragonball is adapted from the manga created by Akira Toriyama; the work was also turned into a Japanese anime series that played all over the world. It tells the story of an alien sent to destroy Earth, who has a change of heart and decides to join the humans in their fight against various aliens and bad guys. Justin Chatwin is starring as the hero Goku, while James Marsters will play the villain Piccolo in the sci-fi adventure.

[Based on] The King Piccolo Saga [Dragonball], also known as the Piccolo Daimaoh Saga (Demon Lord Piccolo Saga) is the penultimate saga from the anime Dragonball. It occurs after the Tien Shinhan Saga and precedes the Piccolo Junior Saga. It includes the battles between Goku and King Piccolo's sons, Goku's first encounter with the Samurai warrior, Yajirobe, Goku's quest to find the Holy Water, his final battle with young King Piccolo, and the birth of Piccolo Junior.

Appearances also made by Yamcha and Bulma but regretably not Pu'ar or Oolong, nor even Krillin. Ox King and his Daughter Chi Chi are speculated.

Here is the preview:

Jennifer Tilly

2008-12-09T17:14:00.005-08:00

Tilly was born Jennifer E. Chan in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California. She is the second of four children of Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman, and Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher and former stage actress. Following her parents' divorce when she was five, she was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island, British Columbia, Canada. Her mother divorced again when she was a teenager and moved to Victoria, where she attended Belmont High School. Her sister is actress Meg Tilly. Tilly began her acting career in her teenage years through a theatre program at Stephens College in Missouri.

Acting

Tilly had small roles in TV shows and movies beginning in 1983. She had a recurring guest role on Hill Street Blues as Gina Srignoli, a mobster's widow who becomes romantically involved with detective Henry Goldblume. Jennifer Tilly also appeared as Garry's girlfriend on It's Garry Shandling's Show, which aired on Showtime in the mid 1980's.

Tilly's breakthrough film role was as a singing waitress in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) in a part that was specially written for her by Steve Kloves. That same year, she played a small part in the cult classic horse racing movie, Let it Ride with Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr, that Tilly later said "should have done better."

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a hopelessly bad actress in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). In 1994, she also had a small role in the The Getaway with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. Tilly was ranked #23 in Celebrity Sleuth "25 Sexiest Women of 1995."

Tilly appeared in Bound, which revolves around a lesbian relationship her character has with Gina Gershon. She played Samantha Cole in the 1997 Jim Carrey hit Liar Liar. In 2000, Tilly appeared in the film Dancing at the Blue Iguana in which she played a stripper and part-time dominatrix.

Tilly gained some additional popularity in recent years for providing voice-over work as killer doll Tiffany for the Child's Play series of movies. In the most recent installment, Seed of Chucky, she plays a dual role, not only providing the voice for Tiffany but also playing an exaggerated version of herself.

Tilly is a semi-regular cast member on Family Guy, voicing the Griffin family's permanently pregnant neighbor, Bonnie Swanson. She has also done vocal work for the films Monsters, Inc., Stuart Little, and Home on the Range, as well as the children's series Hey Arnold, In Disney's The Haunted Mansion, she does the voice-over for Madame Leota and works from the neck up. She has been active in the theatre, winning a Theater World Award for her performance in the off-Broadway play One Shoe Off.

Tilly has also had a starring role in the US television comedy Out of Practice starring Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing. The series was canceled shortly after.

Poker

On June 27, 2005, Tilly won a World Series of Poker bracelet (and $158,625) in the Ladies' No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em event, outlasting 600 other players. She followed up this accomplishment on September 1, 2005, by also winning the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Tilly has appeared in the GSN Poker Royale series. She appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars but was eliminated in the preliminary round.

Tilly played in the Celebrity Poker Showdown which aired June 14, 2006, on Bravo. Tilly was knocked out in third place by Bravo’s online poker champion Ida Siconolfi (the first non-celebrity to appear on the show) when her A♣ K♥ failed to improve against Ida's starting hand of K♣ K♠. Tilly appears as a celebrity, rather than a poker pro, in ESPN's Pro-Am Poker Equalizer.

In a television interview, Tilly stated that at this point in her career she is more interested in pursuing poker than acting. As of 2008, her live tournament winnings exceed $450,000.

Tilly also appears in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions 2007 Edition video game (along with current boyfriend, Phil Laak) that was released in 2007 by Activision.

Personal life

Tilly married The Simpsons producer Sam Simon in 1984, but they divorced in 1991. She is currently dating poker professional Phil "Unabomber" Laak and is nicknamed "The Unabombshell" within the poker circuit. Laak is 14 years younger than Tilly.

Tilly has two cats, Corky and Violet, and is an avid lover of fashion. She is a suppoter of gay and lesbian rights.

Elisha Cuthbert

2008-12-03T19:35:00.005-08:00

Elisha Ann Cuthbert (born November 30, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids, and for her role as Kim Bauer in the American action-thriller television series 24. She had her first lead role in the 2003 feature film, Old School followed by The Girl Next Door. She has also had starring roles in the 2005 House of Wax film and the 2007 horror film Captivity.

Elisha Cuthbert was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the daughter of Patricia, a homemaker, and Kevin, an automotive design engineer. She has two younger siblings, Jonathan and Lee-Ann and grew up in Greenfield Park, near Montreal, Quebec. In 2000, she graduated from Centennial Regional High School and moved to Los Angeles at the age of seventeen to pursue an acting career.

Early career

When she was seven, Cuthbert started modeling for various lines of children's clothing and also became a foot model. She made her first televised appearance as an extra in the horror-themed series for children Are You Afraid of the Dark?; she later became a series regular. Cuthbert also co-hosted Popular Mechanics for Kids, which was filmed in Montreal. Her reporting captured the attention of then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, who invited her to visit the White House.

Elisha Cuthbert landed her first role in a feature film in the family drama Dancing on the Moon (1997). She appeared in several other Canadian family-themed movies and an airplane thriller, Airspeed. Cuthbert starred in the Canadian television movie Lucky Girl in 2001 and was awarded a Gemini Award for her performance.

Soon after her move to Los Angeles, Cuthbert was cast in the role of Kim Bauer, daughter of CTU agent Jack Bauer in the television series 24. She appeared in the show's first three seasons, but not in its fourth; she guest-starred in only two episodes in the fifth season. She also reprised her role as Kim Bauer in 24: The Game. She has also said that she would like to play her role as Kim in the upcoming movie, 24: The Movie.

Commercial success

Cuthbert auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film, but the role went to Kirsten Dunst. She began her Hollywood film career with small roles in Old School and Love Actually in 2003. Cuthbert's next film, The Girl Next Door, cast her in her first lead role as an ex-porn star, Danielle, alongside Emile Hirsch. Cuthbert had initial reservations about taking the part, but was persuaded by director Luke Greenfield into accepting. She researched the role, speaking to actual adult actresses from Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment. Upon its release the film received comparisons to Risky Business - although Cuthbert claims her character was not directly based on Rebecca De Mornay's character - and was noted for Cuthbert's sex appeal. Critics were divided; some praised the film for its boldness, while others, notably Roger Ebert, decried it as gimmicky and exploitative. Ebert wrote that he saw Cuthbert's character Danielle as "quite the most unpleasant character I have seen in some time."

In her next big-screen outing, Cuthbert starred with Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray in the 2005 remake of the classic horror film House of Wax. Cuthbert, along with the rest of her castmates, was made up to look haggard. In one scene, her character was to attempt to open her mouth while her lips were sealed with glue. For the sake of realism, Cuthbert opted for real superglue over prosthetics. Despite her efforts, House of Wax was largely panned, with critics citing a range of flaws. It was called "notable for having some of the most moronic protagonists ever to populate a horror film," though out of those characters reviews tended to think Cuthbert "fares the best". Others noted Cuthbert as an "exception" playing her role "earnestly" and "fine".

Career transition

Cuthbert's next film project was the indie film The Quiet, which she not only co-starred in but also co-produced and helped finance. She played Nina, a temperamental 17-year-old cheerleader who suffers from sexual abuse. Cuthbert looked to her younger cousin for inspiration as to how to play a teenager. The Quiet, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in Los Angeles and New York City on August 25, 2006, before expanding regionally on September 1.

Cuthbert had also screen tested for the role of Lois Lane in Superman Returns, but she lost the part to Kate Bosworth. She had also been turned down for the lead in Fantastic Four.

Cuthbert appeared in the music video for Weezer's "Perfect Situation" in early 2006, where she played the group's fictional original singer who threw a tantrum that led to Rivers Cuomo, the unlikely roadie, becoming the frontman of the band. Cuthbert also had a small role in Paris Hilton's music video for the song "Nothing In This World".

In 2007, Cuthbert appeared in the film, Captivity, a thriller centered around a fashion model taunted by a psychopath who has imprisoned her in a cellar, a role for which she was nominated for a Razzie award as worst actress. In He Was a Quiet Man, Cuthbert played Vanessa, a quadriplegic. The film was in limited release in 2007 and release on DVD in early 2008.

Cuthbert is slated to voice Cleo, "the feline daughter of a wealthy kitty litter baron", in Cat Tale, an animated film set in a civilized world of cats and dogs.

For 2008, Cuthbert is scheduled to appear in two films. The first is the family comedy The Six Wives of Henry LeFay with actor Tim Allen, in which she plays his daughter. She will also appear in My Sassy Girl,which is originally a Korean film being remade, starring alongside Jesse Bradford. She is one of the stars in the Canadian mini-series Guns, due to premiere sometime in 2008. Cuthbert will reprise her character Kim Bauer in the seventh season of 24.

Cuthbert will return to television with the CBS drama pilot Ny-Lon. She will play a New York literacy teacher/record store clerk who embarks on a transatlantic romance with a London stockbroker. The project is based on a British series starring Rashida Jones and Stephen Moyer. Cuthbert is on the cover of the May 2008 issue of Maxim magazine. Cuthbert was honored as "sexiest hair" person.

Personal life

Cuthbert, who enjoys painting, is an ice hockey fan and Los Angeles Kings season ticket holder. In 2005 she maintained a blog on the NHL web site. She was previously in a relationship with Dallas Stars player Sean Avery and is now dating Calgary Flames hockey player Dion Phaneuf.

She regularly secures a place in FHM and Maxim's annual Top 100 Sexiest/Hottest lists. Her highest ranking was #4 in the 2008 UK Edition of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World list. She was ranked #14 in 2003, #10 in 2004, #5 in 2005, #22 in 2006, and #10 in 2007. The U.S. Edition ranked her #53 in 2003, #63 in 2004, and #54 in 2006. She was not listed in the U.S. 2005 list. Maxim named her #92 in its 2006 Hot 100 list, and features her in their Girls of Maxim Gallery. As of 2006, Cuthbert has stated that she would refuse to be photographed nude in film roles or magazines, and uses body doubles whenever necessary, specifying that she would "like to keep some things to [herself]". Most recently, Cuthbert was ranked #10 by AskMen.com readers in the list "Top 99 Women of 2007".

Kelly Rutherford

2008-12-02T19:03:00.001-08:00

Actress Kelly Rutherford became something of a regular fixture on television screens starting in the 1990s. With a sultry blond edge straight out of ‘40s film noir, the Kentucky-born actress dove into a steady string of network series, until hitting her stride as Megan Lewis, a resident on Fox’s primetime soap drama “Melrose Place” (1992-99).

Kelly Rutherford Deane was born on Nov. 6, 1968 in Elizabethtown, KY. Her parents divorced when she was three, but her mother, Ann Edwards, who was a model, raised her and her younger brother on her own. The trio uprooted itself several times to neighborhoods in New York, Florida, and Arizona before landing in Newport Beach, CA by the time Rutherford was ready to attend high school. With a dream of acting professionally, Rutherford made a beeline for New York following her graduation and quickly began supporting herself as a commercial actress, working in spots with the likes of future “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004) sitcom star Matt LeBlanc.

Rutherford’s first television series work came in 1987 in the form of the ABC soap “Loving (1983-1995). That October, she also nabbed a small part as a TV watcher in the action drama feature “Shakedown” (1988). She opted to return to California in 1989 for a greater shot at showbiz success and settled in Los Angeles, studying acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. While strengthening her acting chops, her teachers also encouraged her to amplify her sexuality, advice that came in handy when she returned to soap acting with the role of Sam Whitmore on NBC’s brief offering, “Generations” (1989-1991).

Despite the short-lived shows, Rutherford was beginning to appear on bigger casting radars. ABC hired her to fill out the ensemble of a primetime drama called “Homefront” (1991-93), a period piece about American life after World War II. She served up a memorable portrayal of Judy Owen, a baseball-loving bartender, but the show was cancelled after barely two seasons – despite its critical acclaim and cult following. Rutherford made no haste, though, and by January of 1992, was back on television screens in CBS’ movie of the week “Breaking the Silence” (1992).

In August of 1993, Rutherford was back doing series work with Fox’s western comedy “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” (1993-94), as the Old West stunner Dixie Cousins. The next year, she nabbed the role of Kim in her first big studio feature, the Julia Roberts vehicle “I Love Trouble” (1994). In 1995, Rutherford was private investigator Frankie Collett, a regular on Fox’s legal drama “The Great Defender” (1995-96), but, sadly, the show’s trajectory was even shorter than her previous ones, reassigned to a summer slot after a shaky debut. After the inevitable cancellation, she was back on the primetime lineup that September with another legal drama, CBS’ “Courthouse” (1995), portraying Christine Lunden.

Following her turns in the fictional legal system, Rutherford ran with true vampires as Caitlyn Byrne, a reporter romanced by a charismatic vampire leader on Fox’s “Kindred: The Embrace” (1996-97). After a month on the air, the show tanked, but Rutherford would spend her summer getting acquainted with her biggest audience to date – as a regular addition to the cast of Fox’s high-rated “Melrose Place.” Rutherford played Megan Lewis, a sweet-natured hooker who married scheming surgeon Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) in one of its many over-the-top storylines. She stayed on the immensely popular series until its finale in May of 1999.

From that point on, Rutherford continued to focus mostly on small screen work, with a varying degree of success. “Sherman Oaks,” a CBS soap opera pilot for the 1999-2000 season, failed to make the cut and, in between, she took on another series remake role as Helen Kimble, the murdered wife in “The Fugitive” (2000-01), also for CBS. She capped out 1999 on the network’s detective series “Nash Bridges” (1996-2001) and in a multi-episode role on the Fox comedy “Get Real” (1999-2000). In 2000, Rutherford chose to diversify a bit, returning to the studio film world in her first big budget film since “I Love Trouble,” playing Christine in the popular “Scream 3” (2000), before dipping into small-screen colonial America as Lady Marisa Cosway in CBS TV movie, “Sally Hemings: An American Scandal” (2000).

At the turn of the millennium, Rutherford was consistently courted for television series and “movies-of-the-week.” Beyond her status as a network staple, her personal life was in full swing, following her marriage to banker Carlos Tarajano in June 2001. Though CBS’ pilot for “Eastwick,” which followed the events of the feature film “The Witches of Eastwick” (1987) saw Rutherford playing a witch, the show again failed to develop. Feeling the strain, in January of 2001, Rutherford called her marriage quits, months after Tarajano was diagnosed with a heart condition and just a week before a television special produced by In Style magazine was to tout their celebrity wedding.

Despite the demise of her marriage, Rutherford continued working through her personal dramas. Ably cast over the years in tough-minded procedurals, she jumped from the CBS family over to ABC for its terrorist drama, “Threat Matrix” (2003-04). Her role as Special Agent Frankie Ellroy Kilmer barely lasted one season, as the series folded at the start of 2004. Without losing the intensity, Rutherford stayed in political mode, as NBC snatched her up to play another government agent, Sonny” Liston, on NBC’s Pentagon drama, “E-Ring” (2005-06). Taking some time off from a hectic career, Rutherford again found love, this time with Daniel Giersch, a businessman whom she wed in August 2006 and with whom she had a son, Hermés Gustaf Daniel, two months later.

Born:
November 6, 1968 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Job Titles:
Actor, Model

Family

Brother: Anthony Rutherford. born c. 1974
Mother: Ann Edwards. divorced from Rutherford's father

Milestones

1988 Film debut in bit role in "Shakedown"
1989 First regular TV role, on the NBC daytime soap "Generations"
1992 Played regular role of Judy Owen on the period soap opera "Homefront" (ABC)
1992 TV-movie debut, "Breaking the Silence" (CBS)
1993 Had recurring role on the Fox series "The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr"
1996 Joined cast of "Melrose Place" (Fox) as Megan Mancini
1996 Appeared as a regular on the short-lived Fox drama "Kindred: The Embraced"
2000 Joined an ensemble cast in Wes Craven's "Scream 3"
2002 Co-starred in the family drama, "Swimming Upstream"
2002 Had a recurring role on "The District" (CBS) as Deputy Mayor Melinda Lockhart
2003 Cast in ABC's "Threat Matrix," as Special Agent Frankie Ellroy Kilmer
2005 Cast as Samantha 'Sonny' Liston, on the TV series "E-Ring" (NBC)
Finally settled in Southern California after parents' divorce precipitated some nomadic years
Had a recurring role on the ABC daytime drama "Loving"; did a small scene opposite Luke Perry
Made ends meet in NYC modeling and doing commercials (one opposite actor Matt LeBlanc)
Moved to NYC to study acting after high school
Returned to Los Angeles

Rihanna

2008-12-02T18:58:00.005-08:00

Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988 in Saint Michael, Barbados, to Ronald and Monica Fenty. She has two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Afro-Barbadian and caucasian.

Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004, she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant.

In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." She eventually moved to Connecticut to live with Rogers and his wife. Rogers, along with his partner, Carl Sturken, helped Rihanna record material in the U.S. to send to various recording companies. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.

Rihanna released her debut album, Music of the Sun, on August 30, 2005 in the United States. The album reached number 10 on the Billboard 200. As of 2009, the album is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting shipments to US retailers of over 500,000 units. The album received mixed reviews by music critics. Rolling Stone magazine rated it 2.5 out of 5 stars and described as lacking the replay value, ingenuity and rhythm of the single with "generic vocal hiccups and frills" of US R&B inflecting upon her "caribbean charm".

Music of the Sun yielded two singles, the first being "Pon de Replay", which was peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became a global hit where it peaked within the top 10 across 15 countries. The second single, "If It's Lovin' That You Want" was less successful than "Pon de Replay", having managed a peak position of number 36 in the United States. In Australia, Ireland and New Zealand the single proved to be well-received reaching the top 10 in those countries.

Less than eight months after the release of Music of the Sun, Rihanna released her second album, A Girl Like Me, in April 2006. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA, having shipped over one million units. The lead single, "SOS," peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first number-one in the United States. The second single, "Unfaithful," was a worldwide hit. In 2006, before the release, Rihanna served as an opening act for Gwen Stefani to promote the album. Rihanna then started touring with Pussycat Dolls from November to February 2007 in the United Kingdom.

When Rihanna received an endorsement deal from Clinique, she recorded a song written by Ne-Yo entitled "Just Be Happy" as part of the deal to promote their Happy fragrance. Rihanna also recorded a song called "Winning Women" with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger for P&G's female deodorant Secret. During this time Rihanna made her acting debut in a cameo role to the film Bring It On: All or Nothing, released on August 8, 2006.

Rihanna went into the studio in early 2007 with Ne-Yo, Stargate, and Timbaland among others to record her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad. The album was released on June 5, 2007.

The album so far has yielded eight hit singles, including the worldwide number one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z. In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number one single in the United Kingdom for 10 consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running UK number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent 15 weeks at the top in 1994. Her other singles, "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" and Hate That I Love You were able to mirror the success of "Umbrella," with "Don't Stop the Music" reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while peaking at number one in various countries.

With the re-issue of her third album, titled Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, which was released on June 17, 2008, Rihanna released the singles "Take a Bow" — which became a worldwide number-one hit — the duet with Maroon 5, "If I Never See Your Face Again," and "Disturbia", the latter of which also peaked at the number-one spot on the Hot 100 chart, giving the artist her fourth number-one singles. Rihanna has five Billboard Hot 100 number ones hits both as a lead artist thus far ("SOS," "Umbrella," "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia"), as well as T.I.'s "Live Your Life", on which she is featured. This makes her one of the two female solo artist with the most number ones this decade, with the other being Beyonce. Good Girl Gone Bad has shipped over two million units in the United States, receiving a two-time platinum certification from RIAA; this gave Rihanna her best-selling album, to date.

Starting September 12, 2007, Rihanna toured Canada and the United States in support of the album with several shows and then crossed to Europe. The tour was called the The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour, and was the first tour headlined by her alone. A documented performance at Manchester Evening News Arena on December 6, 2007 was released as a DVD on June 17, 2008. Rihanna won Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist at the 2008 American Music Award.

On February 8, 2009, Rihanna's scheduled performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards was canceled. Reports later surfaced regarding an alleged altercation with her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, who was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats.

Rihanna's music has been described as a Reggae/R&B/Dancehall vibe. With the release of her debut album Music of the Sun and its lead single "Pon de Replay", Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic described Rihanna's musical style as "synthesize Caribbean rhythms and beats with standard-issue urban dance-pop: Caribbean-inflected urban, if you will." Rihanna is also described as utilizing "dancehall-lite beats and a reggae vocal cadence." NME describes the singer as a "heady mix of dancehall, reggae and R&B." Barry Walters of Rolling Stone considers Rihanna's A Girl Like Me to be "lightweight dancehall and R&B jams."[26] After the release of Good Girl Gone Bad, Allmusic's Andy Kellman credits Rihanna to be "as pop as pop gets."

Rihanna cites Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Fefe Dobson, Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Brandy, and Gwen Stefani as musical influences.

Jon Bream of the Star Tribune commented "in the tradition of Madonna and Janet Jackson, Rihanna has become the video vixen of the '00s ... Rihanna has perfected the pout, the long-legged strut and trend-setting hairdos that keep women and men alike checking her out on YouTube." George Epaminondas of InStyle considers Rihanna's music videos to be "cinematic" due to her "blend of lush island rhythms and swinging pop and ... mischievous sensuality." Rihanna commented that Marilyn Monroe and vintage clothing served for visual inspiration for the music video "Hate That I Love You"; in contrast, the "dark, creepy" scenes of "Disturbia" have drawn comparison to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Lori Loughlin

2008-12-02T18:24:00.005-08:00

Lori Loughlin was born Lori Anne Loughlin on the 28th of July 1964 in Queens, New York and moved with her family to Oceanside, New York., where she attended Oaks Public Elementary School #3, and then to Hauppauge, Long Island, New York, where she attended Hauppauge High School.

She began her career at age 12 as a print model. During her early teen years she appeared in television commercials, and was frequently seen in national print ads like the Sears catalog and Bradlees weekly flyers. In 1979, she received her first recognizable national television exposure playing a cheerleader with a cast on her leg in a TaB Cola commercial.

At the age of 15, Loughlin was cast on ABC's soap opera The Edge of Night, playing the part of Jody Travis, an aspiring dancer. After three-and-a-half years, prompted by the urging of Joel Crothers, Loughlin decided to try her luck in feature films and television. Her big break came when she was cast on the sitcom Full House playing the role of Rebecca Donaldson, which would be her most notable role to date.

After Full House, she starred alongside Bruce Campbell in In the Line of Duty: Blades of Glory, which was released in 1997. In 2000, Loughlin co-starred opposite Treat Williams in the Fred Olen Ray-helmed thriller Critical Mass.

She also made cameos on other sitcoms including Spin City, Seinfeld, and The Drew Carey Show. She also played the superhero Black Canary in the short lived Birds of Prey series.

From 2004 to 2005, Loughlin co-created, produced and starred in the WB drama series Summerland. She played Ava, the aunt who raises three children after their parents die in a car accident. The series was canceled due to low ratings on July 11, 2005. Loughlin starred on the ABC sitcom In Case of Emergency with David Arquette. She appeared in the film Moondance Alexander, co-starring Kay Panabaker.

She currently stars in the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff 90210 as Debbie Wilson.

Loughlin was in attendance at Comedy Central's The Roast of Bob Saget which was hosted by John Stamos, and premiered on August 17, 2008. At her table were Full House co-stars Dave Coulier and Jodie Sweetin.

Loughlin was married to Michael Burns from 1989 to 1996. In 1997, Loughlin married fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, the creator of the Mossimo clothing line. They have two daughters together, Isabella Rose (born September 16, 1998) and Olivia Jade (born September 28, 1999).

Amber Valletta

2008-11-25T18:41:00.004-08:00

Amber Valletta first came to international attention as a fashion model within the pages of Elle and Vogue and for advertising campaigns for DKNY and Versace. Her ease in front of the camera led to television hosting duties on MTV, which would later pave the way for roles in several prominent movies, most notably “What Lies Beneath” (2000) and “Premonition” (2007).

Born on Feb. 9, 1974 in Tucson, AZ, Amber Evangelina Valletta decided on social work as her career path while still a teenager. But her mother noticed her striking Portuguese looks and 5’9” height, enrolling her in a modeling school in Tulsa, OK, where the family had relocated early in her childhood. Her earliest experience came at a local mall, where she did runway work, but not long after cutting her long blond locks, her modeling career took off like a rocket when she – the unknown model, succeeded supermodel Cindy Crawford as the face of Carpezio handbags in 1993. Smelling a killing, her Tulsa-based agency sent her to Milan, Italy, where she landed a job with Vogue. This was quickly followed by a cover shoot for French Elle in 1996, which ensured her status as a model on the rise. Soon afterwards, Valletta attained supermodel status thanks to countless magazine shoots and advertising campaigns for the likes of Calvin Klein, Gucci, and Valentino, circa 1999-2002. She also frequented the runways of Europe and America for designers like Chanel, Gaultier, Christian Dior, and Dolce and Gabbana. During this period, Valletta also took a swing at the married life in a brief union with writer Herve Le Bihan in 1994; the couple was divorced two years later.

Valletta’s film and television career was launched in 1995 when, like Cindy Crawford before her, she and close friend and fellow model Shalom Harlow co-hosted MTV’s “House of Style” (1995-2000) during the 1995-96 season. She made her acting debut four years later as the abused wife of a charismatic young actor in the independent drama “Drop Back Ten” (2000), which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000. She also made her sole excursion behind the camera as executive producer of an enigmatic short film titled “Ticks” in 1999. This was followed by a key role as a young woman whose disappearance leads Michelle Pfeiffer to question the innocence of her husband (Harrison Ford) in Robert Zemeckis’ supernatural thriller “What Lies Beneath” (2000).

Subsequent movie roles required Valletta to do little more than look attractive and give her leading men a chance to act out Tex Avery-style reactions of lust – she was Nicolas Cage’s fantasy girlfriend in the dreary “Family Man” (2000), and the sole teacher on the side of Alex Linz’s new kid in school in “Max Keeble’s Big Move” (2001). Knowing she was lucky she was being taken seriously at all as a supermodel-turned-actress, Valletta took smaller roles opposite Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore in the woeful Danny DeVito comedy “Duplex” and alongside Kate Hudson in Garry Marshall’s comedy “Raising Helen” (2004) – if for nothing more than continuing to fine tune her acting skills. Despite the steady on-screen roles, Valletta was still best known as a model, and for having dated Leonardo DiCaprio in the late 1990s, though she earned a reputation in philanthropy circles for her charity work, starting as far back as 1995 with a fashion show to benefit the Tulsa Community Food Bank.

She also lent her name and celebrity to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – where she was a member of the advisory board – and has participated in events for and contributed to the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research and the Oceana Seafood Contamination Campaign, among others. In 2003, Valletta put her modeling and acting careers on hold to marry Olympic volleyball player Christian “Chip” McCaw, with whom she had a son, named Auden, in 2000. She returned to the movies the following year with her best role to date – as the beautiful celebrity and love object of nebbish Kevin James in the charming comedy, “Hitch” (2005). This was followed by the supporting role of a mother of a kidnapped child in the action film “Transporter 2” (2005).

Valletta dropped out of public view again in 2006 to spend time at The Meadows, a rehabilitation facility in Arizona. According to the actress, her stay was not caused by alcohol or drug-related causes, but instead due to stress. She emerged from treatment that year and returned to movie work in two supernatural thrillers – “Dead Silence” (2007) from “Saw” (2004) director James Wan, and the Sandra Bullock picture “Premonition” (2007). In both films, Valletta impressed audiences with her fragile characterizations, but neither feature performed well at the box office.

Valletta is married to Olympic volleyball player Christian "Chip" McCaw with whom she has a son, Auden. Before this marriage, she dated Leonardo DiCaprio in early-1998. Her first marriage, in 1994, was to Hervé Le Bihan. They divorced in 1996. On August 24, 2006, her publicist announced that she was going into rehab for non-substance abuse issues related to stress and image problems.

Valletta also serves as the spokesperson for Oceana’s Seafood Contamination Campaign, where she brings awareness of the dangers of mercury poisoning in various kinds of seafood. The decision to join Oceana's campaign was prompted by the mercury-poisoning experience of a friend and the fact that she is a mother.

In August 2006, the New York Daily News reported that Valletta completed a stint at The Meadow rehabilitation facility in Wickenburg, Arizona, for stress and non-substance-related issues. Valletta told People magazine, "As was correctly reported earlier this week, my stay at The Meadows had nothing to do with substance abuse or addiction; I am pleased to say I have seven years' sobriety. But I continue every day to heal and grow as a person".

In January, 2008, she participated in a video for Barack Obama produced by Will.I.Am called "Yes We Can" along with her son Auden, whom she was holding in her arms.

Heidi Montag

2008-11-25T18:29:00.004-08:00

Heidi Blair Montag (born September 15, 1986) is an American singer, television personality, fashion designer, model, aspiring actress and is best known for being on The Hills, alongside Lauren Conrad. Montag, along with Spencer Pratt, have made a joint fortune of $3 million in the last two years alone thanks to TV salaries, club appearances, photo shoots, and business deals. Her last name is the German word for Monday.

In the summer of 2005, MTV began filming the lives of Laguna Beach cast member Lauren Conrad and her college friends for her spin-off reality show, The Hills. Montag's reality TV career began with a few appearances on season two of MTV's Laguna Beach. Montag's friendship with Conrad led to a featured role in The Hills, which premiered on May 31, 2006. Montag was featured in the series sharing an apartment with Conrad while studying at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. Montag left the Fashion Institute in fall of 2005 when she was hired at Bolthouse Productions. According to Montag, she dropped out because she "did not find the school challenging". Within two years, Montag was promoted to event planner at Bolthouse, before being fired and then re-hired.

Montag appeared in every episode of seasons one and two of The Hills, and appeared in season three, which aired on MTV on August 13, 2007. In the summer of 2006, Montag started dating fellow Hills cast member Spencer Pratt, a former manager of Brody Jenner. Season 2 of The Hills (which aired from January through April 2007) focused on Montag's relationship with Pratt and its effect on her friendships with Conrad and fellow Hills cast member Audrina Patridge. On the Season 2 finale, Montag moved out of her apartment with Conrad to live with Pratt. Although Conrad maintained the two were still friends after Montag moved out, the friendship soon ended when Conrad blamed Montag and Pratt for spreading rumors about a sex tape featuring her and ex-boyfriend Jason Wahler. In October 2008, the pair reportedly ended their feud.

In August 2008, Lauren Conrad expressed feelings that The Hills is "definitely reaching its end" and cited the privacy pitfalls. Montag and Pratt have expressed an interest in adopting Conrad's lead role and narrator. In a recent radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, Montag said "I think that maybe Lauren is tired of [being on the show], but we’re just beginning," and that "We’re not even remotely sick of it." Whereas Pratt stated that, "sometimes the narrator has to throw their hate up on the wall and pass the mic", and expressed an interest in taking The Hills to a tenth season.

Montag has discussed taking acting classes, saying she hopes The Hills will help her jump start a film career. She has expressed a desire to have appearances in "some movies" in addition to "a couple of hit albums". In an interview with Blender magazine, Montag revealed her intentions of one day winning an Academy Award.

In November 2008, Montag, along with Spencer Pratt, shot scenes for an episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The two appeared as themselves in an episode aired in January 2009.

In February 2007, Montag started work on an album with producer David Foster. It was also reported that Montag is on a one-song contract with Warner Bros., not a full studio contract as both Montag and her then-fiance, Spencer Pratt, had claimed. On August 16, 2007, Ryan Seacrest premiered Montag's song, "Body Language", featuring Pratt rapping, on his KIIS-FM radio show. Both Montag and Pratt denied the song was her intended first single with Pratt telling Us Weekly that the tune, "was a song Heidi and I were doing for fun. Never would I rap on her first single!" In December 2007, another track by Montag and produced by David Foster entitled "Touch Me" was leaked online.

On February 5, 2008, Montag's first single, "Higher" received an online-only release on iTunes. Along with the single, the accompanying video shot by boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, was also available to purchase. The song and the video received a negative response from websites and readers across the internet, to which Montag responded, "I appreciate people taking the time to write any comment." The following month, Montag released her second single, "No More", through iTunes. In June 2008, Montag released two songs, her first official single (her boyfriend/partner helped film it), "Fashion" and "One More Drink." Montag also revealed interest in releasing a Christian music album.

On August 18, 2008, Montag released a song titled "Overdosin'". On September 2, 2008 another song recorded by Montag called "The Party's Wherever I Am", was leaked onto the internet.

Montag debuted her fashion line, Heidiwood, named after erections of her adolescent fans, at a fashion show at the Hollywood and Highland shopping center in Hollywood on April 11, 2008. The designs since then have been dropped from all Anchor Blue Stores and will re-release the line in 2009. Shortly after, she promoted her line in New York City, at MTV's TRL, among other places.

Kristen Bell

2008-11-25T18:12:00.003-08:00

Bell was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. She is the daughter of Tom Bell, a television news director, and Lorelei "Lori" Bell, a registered nurse. Bell is of Polish and Scottish descent. Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and she has two half sisters, Sara and Jody, from her father's second marriage. Bell has a lazy eye which affects her right eye. She inherited it from her mother, who had it corrected as a child. Bell claims that if she does not get enough sleep, it furthers the ailment. She nicknames her right eye "Wonky".

At the age of four, Bell claimed she did not like her first name and opted to change it to "Smurfette" after the character in the The Smurfs however, her mother convinced Bell to go by her middle name of Anne instead; she used the name Annie until high school. She attended Burton Elementary school in Huntington Woods where she studied singing and tap dancing.

Just before her freshman year of high school, Bell's parents decided to pull her from the public school system. She then attended Shrine Catholic High School in nearby Royal Oak, where she took part in the drama and music club. During her time at the school, she won the starring role in the school's 1997 production of The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy Gale and also appeared in productions of Fiddler on the Roof (1995), Lady Be Good (1996), and Li'l Abner (1998). In 1998, the year she graduated, Bell was named the yearbook's "Best Looking Girl" by senior class vote.

When Bell was 17, her best friend Jenny DeRita, whom she met at age 11 during a Detroit community theater production, was killed in an automobile accident. Bell said that it was "both the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me. [...] Once you learn not to take people for granted, you live a lot happier life."

Shortly after her high school graduation, Bell moved to New York and attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, majoring in musical theater. In 2001, during her senior year at New York University, Bell left a few credits shy of graduating to take a role in the Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

In 1992, Bell went to her first audition and won a dual role as a banana and a tree in a suburban Detroit theater's production of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Her mother had established her with an agent before Bell was 13, which allowed her to appear in newspaper advertisements for several Detroit retailers and television commercials. She also began private acting lessons. In 1998, she appeared with an uncredited role in the locally filmed movie Polish Wedding.

In 2001, Bell left New York University to take a key role as Becky Thatcher in the short-lived Broadway musical of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. That same year she made her credited film debut in Pootie Tang. However, her one line in the film was cut and her appearance exists only as a scene shown during the credit sequence. Additionally, she auditioned for the television series Smallville for the role of Chloe Sullivan, a part eventually won by Allison Mack. In 2002, she appeared in the Broadway revival of The Crucible with Liam Neeson, Angela Bettis and Laura Linney. Bell then moved to Los Angeles, California in 2002 because of her friendship with writers Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, and appeared in a handful of television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series. Bell had "tested like eight times and booked nothing and every show [she] tested for got picked up," including auditions for Skin and a Norm Macdonald series. In 2003, she landed a role in the Hallmark Channel movie The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay.

In 2004, Bell appeared in the Lifetime television movie Gracie's Choice, which received one of the network's highest ratings. She made her debut in a theatrically released film, with David Mamet's Spartan, as Laura Newton, the kidnapped daughter of a high-ranking U.S. government official, acting alongside Val Kilmer. Bell also guest-starred on the HBO's drama Deadwood in a two-episode story arc ("Bullock Returns to the Camp" and "Suffer the Little Children").

She then won the role of the title character in UPN's drama Veronica Mars, which was launched in the fall of 2004. Created by Rob Thomas, Bell starred as the seventeen year old detective Veronica, which put her alongside actors Enrico Colantoni who played her father, Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs III and Ryan Hansen. Veronica Mars was described as "a little bit Buffy and a little bit Bogart." Bell noted the parallels between the character of Veronica and her own life - Bell's parents had divorced and her best friend had also died, like that of Veronica. The series earned positive reviews from television critics, as did Bell's performance. Some critics felt that she was overlooked, however, and deserved an Emmy Award nomination. As a writer at the tvaddict.com commented, "[Bell's] complete lack of Emmy recognition proves that voters don’t actually watch the tapes before they vote."

In 2005, Bell starred in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, reprising the role she played in the short-lived 2001 off-broadway musical. The musical was a spoof of the 1936 exploitation film of the same name. Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical debuted on the Showtime network on April 16, 2005. On September 18, 2005, Bell performed the theme song from Fame on the "Emmy Idol" portion of the 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. She and the cast of Veronica Mars were nominated for two Teen Choice Awards in 2005: "Choice Breakout Actress" and "Choice Breakout TV Show".

In 2006, Bell won the Saturn Award for "Best Actress on Television" for her acting on Veronica Mars, while the series was nominated for "Best Network Television Show". Aside from working on Veronica Mars, in April Bell starred as Gracie in Fifty Pills, an entry for the Tribeca Film Festival. She appeared in a short independent film called The Receipt and the horror film Roman, which was directed by her The Crucible co-star Angela Bettis. Released on August 11, 2006, Pulse starred Bell as the lead Mattie. A remake of the Japanese horror film Kairo, the film grossed $27.9 million worldwide, however it garnered negative response from critics. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "despite the starring presence of Kristen Bell, [the] young actress has far less interesting material to work with here than she does as [the character] "Veronica Mars.""

Veronica Mars continued on UPN until the third season, in which the show was renewed and returned on the newly created The CW. On January 19, 2007 CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff announced that, while she was pleased with the gradual improvement of Veronica Mars's ratings, the series would be put on hiatus after February sweeps to air a new reality series, Pussycat Dolls Present. On May 17, 2007 Ostroff announced the cancellation of the series. The two-hour series finale aired in the United States on May 22, 2007, and on June 11, 2007 Thomas officially announced in an email to TV Guide's Michael Ausiello that Veronica Mars had been canceled by the CW. A Veronica Mars feature film and comic book series continuation had been discussed, and for a short time there was talk of another collaboration between Bell and creator Thomas that would be unrelated to the Veronica Mars series.

Following the cancellation of Veronica Mars, Bell had voiced interest in appearing on Heroes because she was a fan previous to being cast. On July 29, 2007, during a train ride back to Los Angeles from the San Diego Comic-Con with Heroes actors Zachary Quinto and Masi Oka, and writers from the series, the writers had mentioned that if she "ever want[ed] to come on Heroes, give us [writers] a call", to which Bell said she would love to. She was also spoken to about a role on Lost, but was not offered one despite speculation that she was to portray Charlotte Staples Lewis. Announced in August 2007, Bell was to portray Elle Bishop, a "mysterious young lady" with an "awesome power". She did not have to audition for the role of Elle, who made her first appearance in an October 2007 episode, and will appear in at least thirteen episodes during the run of the series. The casting of Bell, as Heroes creator Tim Kring explains, "was not easy to pull off", but because of the large ensemble cast of the series and multiple story arcs, "we found a way to jump into a small window in [Bell’s] schedule." Concurrently with filming on Heroes, she narrates as title character in the CW series Gossip Girl.

Shortly after the cancellation of Veronica Mars in early 2007, Bell filmed on location in Hawaii for her starring role as the title character in the Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She noted that the improvisational comedy in the film was "a lovely experience". The film, written by and also starring Jason Segel was released theatrically on April 18, 2008. Bell lent her voice and likeness to the video game Assassin's Creed which was released on November 13, 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and April 8, 2008 for the PC. In the spring of 2006, she finished filming the Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, which recently had its release date pushed to January 14, 2008. This was due to additional funding given to director Kyle Newman to shoot new scenes, however, the busy schedules of the actors only allowed for filming in September 2007, thus moving the release date to accommodate that. Bell will voice the character of Marybelle in the animated feature Sheepish, which also has a 2008 release date. She will also star in the comedy Serious Moonlight, alongside Meg Ryan. The film is in post-production and has an estimated 2009 release date. On March 31, 2008 Bell began shooting for the Mark Steven Johnson-written Disney film When in Rome in locations in Rome and New York. On October 15, 2008, TV Guide reported that Bell has signed on to co-star in Couples Retreat, a comedy chronicling four couples who partake in therapy sessions at a tropical island resort. Jason Bateman will play her husband.

Bell has also said that when she is free from film and television roles, she would like to perform on stage again.

Stephen Colbert

2008-11-23T18:13:00.004-08:00

Stephen Colbert was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina on James Island, the youngest of eleven children in an Irish Catholic family.The Colbert children, in order from oldest to youngest, are Jimmy, Eddie, Mary, Billy, Margo, Tommy, Jay, Lulu, Paul, Peter and Stephen.

His father, James Colbert, was the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. His mother, Lorna Colbert, was a homemaker. In interviews, Colbert has described his parents as devout people who also strongly valued intellectualism and taught their children that it was possible to question the Church and still be Catholic. The emphasis his family placed on intelligence and his observation of negative stereotypes of Southerners led Colbert to train himself to suppress his Southern accent while he was still quite young. As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors.

Colbert sometimes comedically claims his surname is French, but his family is actually of Irish descent. Originally, the name was pronounced [ˈkoʊɫ.bɚt]; Stephen Colbert's father, James, wanted to pronounce the name [koʊɫˈbεɹ], but maintained the [ˈkoʊɫ.bɚt] pronunciation out of respect for his own father (Stephen's grandfather). However, James offered his children the option to pronounce the name whichever way they preferred. Stephen started using [koʊɫˈbεɹ] later in life when he transferred to Northwestern University, taking advantage of the opportunity to reinvent himself in a new place where no one knew him. Stephen's brother Ed, an intellectual property attorney, retained the [ˈkoʊɫ.bɚt] pronunciation; this was shown in a February 12, 2009 appearance on The Colbert Report, when his youngest brother asked him, "[koʊɫˈbεɹ] or [ˈkoʊɫ.bɚt]?" Ed responded "[ˈkoʊɫ.bɚt]", to which Stephen jokingly replied, "See you in Hell."

On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two of his brothers, Peter and Paul, were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while it was attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were en route to enroll the two boys at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. Shortly thereafter, Lorna Colbert relocated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street in Charleston. By his own account, Colbert found the transition difficult and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood. Colbert later described himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of importance regarding the things with which other children concerned themselves. He developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, of which he remains an avid fan. During his adolescence, he also developed an intense interest in fantasy role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons, a pastime which he later characterized as an early experience in acting and improvisation.

Colbert attended Charleston's Episcopal Porter-Gaud School, where he participated in several school plays and contributed to the school newspaper but, by his own assessment, was not highly motivated academically. During his time as a teenager, he also briefly fronted a Rolling Stones cover band. When he was younger, he had hoped to study marine biology, but surgery intended to repair a severely perforated eardrum caused him inner ear damage. The damage was severe enough that he was unable to pursue a career that would involve scuba diving. The damage also left him deaf in his right ear. For a while, he was uncertain whether he would attend college, but ultimately he applied and was accepted to Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where a friend had also enrolled. There he continued to participate in plays while studying mainly philosophy; he found the curriculum rigorous but was more focused than he had been in high school and was able to apply himself to his studies. Despite the lack of a significant theater community at Hampden-Sydney, Colbert's interest in acting escalated during this time. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University's School of Communication to study performance, emboldened by the realization that he loved performing even when no one was coming to shows.

Stephen Colbert started his career in comedy by joining the reknowned Second City improv group in Chicago. There he met actress/comedian Amy Sedaris (sister of author and NPR favorite David Sedaris ) and comic Paul Dinello . Together, they developed the short-lived (but critically acclaimed) HBO sketch comedy series Exit 57 , which won five Cable ACE awards in 1995 for best writing, performing, and comedy series.

In 1996, he was hired to write and perform sketches for The Dana Carvey Show (aka the "Mug Root Beer" Dana Carvey Show , aka the "Taco Bell" Dana Carvey Show ). This was also a short-lived endeavor, but Colbert stood out as a Phil Hartman -like everyman capable of exuding both exuberance and despair in a single take. From there, he worked with Robert Smigel as the voice of Ace for Saturday Night Live's animated shorts Ace & Gary: The Ambiguously Gay Duo . Colbert has also contributed his vocal talents as Reducto and Phil Ken Sebben on Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law and several characters on Crank Yankers .

Colbert, Sedaris and Dinello struck a collaboration again in 1999, and developed Strangers With Candy for Comedy Central. Colbert has one dramatic role to his credit: on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent he portrayed an antiquarian document forger who lives with his crazy mother. The storyline for this episode appears to be "ripped" nearly frame by frame from an episode of CourtTV's Masterminds .

Since 1997, Stephen Colbert has been best known as a fake senior correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart . He worked alongside Steve Carell , who does the voice for Gary, the other half of the aforementioned Ambiguously Gay Duo . Colbert left the Daily Show in 2005 to create the spinoff The Colbert Report , satrizing the self-obsessed, hardboiled news commentators on Fox News and CNN. On 29 April 2006, Colbert was invited to speak at the annual White House Press Corps awards dinner, using the event to skewer both the assembled journalists and the attending politicians, among them sitting President George W. Bush .

Alexis Bledel

2008-11-23T17:57:00.006-08:00

Bledel was born in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Nanette, is Mexican, and her father, Martin Bledel, is Argentine; her father's family were Danish immigrants to Argentina. She has one younger brother, Eric, born 1986. Her first language is Spanish, and she did not learn English until she began school. In fact, her Sisterhood co-star America Ferrera was surprised during an interview with a Spanish magazine when Bledel started speaking Spanish.[citation needed] Bledel's mother encouraged her to try community theater when she was a child to overcome her shyness.[3] She subsequently appeared in local productions of Our Town and The Wizard of Oz before being scouted at a local mall and given work as a fashion model. She attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston and is Roman Catholic. She went to Page Parkes Center for Modeling and Acting and majored in film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for one year. She previously had appeared in the film Rushmore as an extra in four scenes.

Bledel made her TV debut on The WB series Gilmore Girls in 2000. She portrayed Rory Gilmore, the daughter of single mother Lorelai Gilmore. Initially, Rory was a high school student living with her mother, but later moved on to college at Yale University, where she, among other things, worked as the editor of the Yale Daily News. Bledel has said that she feels she can relate in some ways to Rory, both when it comes to some personal traits and her relationship to her own parents. She also sees the family structure and mother-daughter relationship on the show as something to which many people can relate. In 2002, Bledel was voted one of Teen People's "25 Hottest Stars Under 25". She appeared as the main character in the video for Less Than Jake's "She's Gonna Break Soon", lead single from their 2003 album Anthem. The single charted at number 39 on the UK charts. In 2005, she starred in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants based on the book by Ann Brashares. She played Lena Kaligaris, a talented artist on a journey with her three best friends, linked over the summer by a pair of magical jeans.

In 2005, Bledel made a shift from previous TV and film characters while portraying Becky, a prostitute, in the movie Sin City. "She's a very professional prostitute. She carries a gun and she kicks ass," said Bledel of Becky. Sin City is shot almost entirely in black-and-white, with splashes of color here and there, such as a red dress, blood or an entirely yellow evil character. In Becky's case, it was her eyes that kept their color, as director Robert Rodriguez claimed that he found Bledel's eyes to be "so amazing I had to keep them blue in the picture."

In the summer of 2007, Bledel wrapped filming of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants sequel. It has been announced that Bledel will star in The Post Grad Survival Guide as Ryden Malby. She has recently been cast in a new movie entitled The Letters, which is anticipated to be released in 2009. The Letters is a drama / thriller film by director Todd Fjelsted and is currently in pre-production. Bledel is set to star opposite Scott Porter in the upcoming film The Good Guy, also due for a 2009 release. In this, Porter plays a Wall Street businessman whose life begins to fall apart when he helps out a new salesman. Bledel will play Beth, Porter's girlfriend. Anna Chlumsky of My Girl will play her friend.

Bledel enjoys reading, hiking, taking photographs and spending time with her family and friends. She also likes to play the piano. Between scenes on Gilmore Girls, she headed to her trailer to play her keyboard. She also works with First Book, a nonprofit organization, which gives books to the poor. After drinking so much coffee due to her character Rory's strong appreciation for it on the first season of Gilmore Girls, she became sick of it. When Rory "drinks coffee," Bledel is drinking tea or Coca-Cola instead. She was ranked #87 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2005. She dated her Gilmore Girls co-star Milo Ventimiglia for three and a half years, beginning around December 2002, before separating sometime before July 2006.

During an appearance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, on April 25, 2006, Bledel revealed that she loves traveling to Europe, and that she has already been to the Tuscany region of Italy and loved it. In that same appearance, she also stated that she likes all types of foods, from gourmet cuisine to fast food specialities. In an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, she revealed that she plays recreational soccer. Her team is called "The Hustlers". Although she admits to not being so athletic in the past, she said that this soccer team was a fun way to stay in good shape and have fun at the same time.

Annika Sorenstam

2008-11-23T17:40:00.006-08:00

Annika Sorenstam is one of the greatest female golfers ever - many would say she's the best ever. Combining a cool efficiency with a passionate desire to win, Sorenstam was among the best players on Tour from her debut in the mid-90s through the remainder of the decade. But as the century turned, Sorenstam went on a run of success that rivals or surpasses anything else ever seen on the LPGA Tour.Sorenstam preferred tennis in her childhood, but took up golf at age 12. She quickly became good enough to start winning, but was very shy. She's said that she sometimes blew shots in order to finish second and avoid having to talk to anyone after a win.Sorenstam attended the University of Arizona where she was a two-time All-America selection and co-player of the year in 1991. She won the 1991 NCAA Championship and the 1992 World Amateur Championship.

Sorenstam turned pro in 1993 and was Rookie of the Year on the Ladies European Tour. She moved up to the LPGA in 1994 and, although she didn't win, was Rookie of the Year there, too. That first win finally came at the 1995 U.S. Women's Open, and Sorenstam took off on what might be the best career in LPGA history. From 1995 through 2006, Sorenstam won eight money titles and never finished lower than fourth. She won 69 tournaments and 10 majors in that span. Sorenstam was one of the best players throughout the mid- to late-90s, winning three times in 1997, six in 1997, four in 1998, twice in 1999, and five times in 2000. Then she rededicated herself to being the best, hitting the gym to add strength - and yards to her drives. She befriended Tiger Woods and picked up some of Woods' practice habits; she improved her chipping and putting.

Sorenstam's domination from 2001-2005 was complete: she was money leader, low scorer and Player of the Year every year. Her win totals included 11 in 2002 and 10 in 2005. She became one of the longest hitters on the tour without losing any of her pinpoint accuracy. Along the way, she became much more comfortable in front of the cameras, her public demeanor becoming more confident, and won over many more fans. At the 2003 Colonial, Sorenstam became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias to play on the PGA Tour. Sorenstam shot 71-75 and missed the cut, but earned plaudits for her play and the way she handled the publicity circus. The instructional book Golf Annika's Way was released in 2004.

Sorenstam dominated the LPGA Tour again in 2005, but her play slipped in 2006 - with "only" three wins, she was surpassed by Lorena Ochoa at the top of the LPGA pecking order. Sorenstam suffered a neck injury in 2007 that limited her schedule, and at the end of the year she had recorded only her second winless season on the LPGA. By early 2008, however, Sorenstam was back, with three wins early in the season. However, on May 13, 2008, Sorenstam announced it would be her final season on the LPGA Tour - she would leave competitive golf at the end of the year.

Winona Ryder

2008-11-19T23:51:00.005-08:00

Born Winona Laura Horowitz on October 29, 1971, in Winona, Michigan. While in her early teens, Ryder was enrolled in the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She made her film debut in the coming-of-age drama Lucas (1986). In many of her early films, she played a variety of roles. She was the eccentric, gothic Lydia in 1988's horror comedy Beetlejuice directed by Tim Burton. Ryder soon appeared as teenager who falls for the unusual title character in Edward Scissorhands (1990) with then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. In the dark comedy Heathers (1989), she played a high school girl battling for her place in the popularity food-chain.

Ryder graduated to more grown-up roles with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Her work on The Age of Innocence (1993) earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she received another nod from the academy with a Best Actress nomination for her role as Jo in Little Women (1995). While she gave a strong performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) as a young woman in a mental institution, Ryder made several forgettable films around this time, including the box office dud Autumn in New York (2000).

Ryder found herself under intense public scrutiny in December 2001 after she was charged with shoplifting more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, California. Several types of prescription medication were found in her possession at the time of the arrest. Every step of Ryder's journey through the judicial process made the news. Despite pleading not guilty, she was convicted of vandalism and grand theft in November 2002. Ryder was sentenced to 480 hours of community service and three years' probation. She was also ordered to pay several fines and undergo counseling.

Since then, Ryder has kept a relatively low profile and appeared in only a handful of films. In 2006, she had a leading role in A Scanner Darkly, the animated adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel. The futuristic story explores the impact of Substance D, a mysterious, addictive drug, on its main characters. That year, Ryder also had a lead role in the independent film The Darwin Awards, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

In a recent interview, Ryder stated that she has decided to be very selective about new projects. She told Entertainment Weekly in 2006 that she'd rather not work than do a bad film. Ryder has an eclectic mix of works-in-progress, including The Ten, a satirical look at the ten commandments, and Sex and Death 101, written and directed by Daniel Waters, the screenwriter of Heathers. Waters and Ryder have also discussed creating a sequel to Heathers sometime in the future.

During her more than 20 years as a performer, Ryder has been romantically linked to several different actors and musicians, including Johnny Depp and Dave Pirner from the band Soul Asylum. She and Depp were even engaged for a time in 1990s, and he had her name tattooed on his arm.

Kristen Stewart

2008-11-19T23:38:00.005-08:00

Stewart was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she currently lives with her family. Her father, John Stewart, is a stage manager and television producer who has worked for Fox. Her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart, is a scriptwriter originally from Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia. She attended school until the seventh grade, and then continued her education by correspondence. She has an older brother, Cameron Stewart, and is a guitar player. A fan of rock music, her favorite bands include Van Morrison, Radiohead, U2, The Beatles, The Specials, Laura Marling, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana and Beck. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, Kristen confirmed she is dating actor Michael Angarano. She is also very close friends with her Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Nikki Reed. Stewart has expressed a desire to live and work in Australia, saying, "I want to go to Sydney University in Australia. My mom's from there." Apart from acting, she is also interested in attending college in the near future, saying, "I want to go to college for literature. I want to be a writer. I mean, I love what I do, but it's not all I want to do—be a professional liar for the rest of my life."

Stewart's acting career began at the age of eight, after an agent saw her perform in her elementary school's Christmas show. Stewart's first role was a short, nonspeaking part in the Disney Channel TV production The Thirteenth Year. She subsequently appeared in the independent film The Safety of Objects, in which she played the tomboy daughter of a troubled single mother (Patricia Clarkson). Stewart had a major role in the Hollywood film Panic Room, playing the sullen, diabetic daughter of a divorced mother (Jodie Foster). The film received generally positive reviews, and Stewart garnered positive notices for her performance.

After Panic Room's success, Stewart was cast in another thriller, Cold Creek Manor, playing the daughter of Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone's characters; the film generally failed at the box office. Her first starring role followed, in the children's action-comedy Catch That Kid, opposite Max Thieriot and Corbin Bleu. Stewart also played the role of Lila in the thriller Undertow. To date, Stewart's most critically acclaimed role may be in the television film Speak (2004), based on the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. Stewart, thirteen at the time of filming, played high school freshman Melinda Sordino, who stops almost all verbal contact after being raped and who deals with enormous amounts of emotional turmoil. Stewart received great praise for playing the character, who had only a few speaking lines, but kept up a dark-witted commentary inside her head throughout the film.

In 2005, Stewart appeared in the fantasy-adventure film Zathura, playing the role of Lisa – an irresponsible older sister of two little boys, who turn their house into a spacecraft hurtling uncontrollably in outer space by playing a board game. The movie received praise by critics, but Stewart's performance didn't garner much media attention as it was noted that her character is immobilized during most of the movie. The following year, she played the character Maya in Fierce People, directed by Griffin Dunne. After that film, she received the lead role of Jess Solomon in the supernatural thriller movie The Messengers.

In 2007, Stewart appeared as teenager Lucy Hardwicke in In the Land of Women, a romantic drama starring Meg Ryan and The O.C. star Adam Brody. The movie, as well as Stewart's performance, received mixed reviews. That same year, Stewart starred in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed adaptation film Into the Wild. For her portrayal of Tracy – a teenage singer who has a crush on young adventurer Christopher McCandless – Stewart received generally positive reviews. Salon.com considered her work a "sturdy, sensitive performance", and the Chicago Tribune noted that she did "vividly well with a sketch of a role." Meanwhile, Variety magazine's critic Dennis Harvey commented skeptically, "It's unclear whether Stewart means to be playing hippie-chick Tracy as vapid, or whether it just comes off that way." After Into the Wild, Stewart had a cameo appearance in Jumper and also appeared in What Just Happened, which was released in October 2008. She also co-stars in The Cake Eaters and The Yellow Handkerchief, both independent films that have only been screened at film festivals.

On November 16, 2007, Summit Entertainment announced that Stewart would play Isabella "Bella" Swan in the movie Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling vampire/human romance novel of the same name. Stewart was on the set of Adventureland when director Catherine Hardwicke visited her for an informal screen test which "captivated" the director. She stars alongside Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward Cullen, her character's vampire boyfriend. The film began production in February 2008 and finished filming in May 2008. Twilight was released domestically on November 21, 2008. Stewart will be reprising her role as Bella in the sequel, New Moon, in 2009.

During a radio interview with Big O and Dukes of WJFK 1067, Jason Mewes stated that he is doing a movie called K-11 with Stewart and Nikki Reed, also of Twilight. The film, which is being directed by Stewart's mother, takes place in a dorm of the Los Angeles County Jail, and will feature both Stewart and Reed as male characters. Stewart was also cast to portray Joan Jett in The Runaways, a rock 'n' roll biopic of the titular band from writer-director Floria Sigismondi.

David Cook

2008-11-17T22:59:00.005-08:00

David Cook is an American Alt-rock, Post-Grunge singer-songwriter. He was born in Houston, Texas, raised in Blue Springs, Missouri, and currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His parents are Beth and Stan Cook. He is the middle of three brothers.

Cook's interest in music began early in life. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher gave him a solo in a school choir performance. He proceeded to perform in virtually every Christmas and PTA program. He received his first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, at the age of 12. He also participated in choir and drama programs in middle school and high school. At Blue Springs South High School, he performed in musicals, including The Music Man, West Side Story, and Singin' in the Rain. In addition to this, he was an active member in the Blue Springs South High School National Forensics League (or NFL), where he qualified for the national tournament twice for duo interpretation, an event that relies on performance and interpretation of a literary work.

He was also an avid baseball player during high school. After losing interest in sports, he focused more on music. He earned a theater scholarship to the University of Central Missouri, but he abandoned theater after two semesters, graduating from the school in 2006 with a degree in graphic design. After his college graduation, he relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to pursue a career in music.

Cook was the lead singer and guitarist of the band Axium from 1999 until 2006. He formed Axium in his junior year of high school with drummer Bobby Kerr. One of the band's songs, "Hold", was picked up by AMC Theatres Movie Tunes and was played before previews on over 20,000 screens nationwide. Axium was also named one of the top 15 independent bands in the country in the "Got Milk?" independent band contest, and it was chosen as the best band in Kansas City in 2004.

In 2006, after the breakup of Axium, Cook relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings (MWK), playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded one EP, Incoherent with Desire to Move On, with the band in 2006.

Cook released a solo independent album, Analog Heart, in 2006, for which he also designed the artwork. The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life. Cook also won the Urban Tulsa Weekly's "Absolute Best of Tulsa" award for "Best Locally Produced, Independent Album" in 2007. He had completed recording his sophomore album before his appearance on American Idol. His musical influences include Our Lady Peace, Alice in Chains, Big Wreck, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, Switchfoot Bon Jovi and Collective Soul.

Cook won the seventh season of American Idol on May 21, 2008, receiving 56% of the votes, with 12 million votes over David Archuletaas the runner-up. Cook then sang "The Time of My Life", the winning song of the 2008 American Idol Songwriter's Competition.

Mark Cuban

2008-11-17T22:47:00.006-08:00

Mark Cuban is the outspoken owner of the the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, billionaire internet entrepreneur, and chairman of the high-definition television station HDNet.

Mark Cuban was born on the 31st of July, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. From an early age Cuban had an entrepreneurial ambition to succeed, which may have been influenced by his family's working class upbringing. At the age of just twelve, the young entrepreneur was selling garbage bags to buy an expensive pair of shoes that his father's car upholstering wage could not (or would not) pay for.

Cuban continued his entrepreneurial ways and did several jobs while at school and university. He graduated with a business degree from the Indiana University in 1981, before moving to Dallas and starting a computer consulting company called MicroSolutions. MicroSolutions made Cuban a millionaire when he sold the company to Compuserve for $6 million in 1990.

His next major venture was with the Internet broadcasting company Broadcast.com. He and his university friend Todd Wagner saw Broadcast.com become a company with more than 300 employees and almost $100 million in annual revenue. In 1998 the company set a one record for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) by increasing nearly 250%, from $18 per share to $62.75 per share.

With the dot com crash looming, Cuban sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.04 billion worth of stock. This made the founders Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban instant billionaires (on paper at least). The services offered by Broadcast.com became Yahoo! Broadcast Solutions and eventually split into other services of Yahoo!. The url of broadcast.com now redirects to the Yahoo homepage, with no semblance of the company that was once worth $5.04 billion to the company.

The president of Yahoo! at the time, Jeff Mallett said "Broadcast.com is a pure-play growth acquisition rather than an integration of services."

Mark Cuban was fortunate enough to have diversified much of his stock holdings before the Dot Com crash of 2000 ate away at much of his new found fortune.

In 2000 Cuban bought the NBA basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. The former owner (Ross Perot, Jr.) had stated that the Dallas Mavericks was not for sale, but eventually gave into Cuban because of his persuasiveness and obvious passion for the team. On the NBA press release, Perot was quoted as saying "Mark is a very good salesman. Mark would not give up and I think I told him 'no' for about six months. I saw in Mark what I felt this organization needed. I saw his enthusiasm and his passion for the game as well as his passion for the Dallas Mavericks. Mark is a longtime fan, and I felt that is what we needed."

Cuban continues to be an active investor and supporter of the Internet, media, and technology industry. He is also the chairman and owner of the high definition television channel HDNet.

Mark Cuban married Tiffany Stewart in 2002. The couple had a daughter together in 2004.

The outspoken billionaire publishes his own blog at BlogMaverick.com where he speaks freely about basketball, technology, business, and the Internet
"You see, the thing about a blog is that its a great place to write about things you are interested in. Its a great place to generate discussion." Mark Cuban

Scarlett Johansson

2008-11-17T22:40:00.005-08:00

"Being a movie star is a quality that somebody sort of embodies and being a celebrity is something that people recognize in you. I just hope to make good movies." Scarlett Johansson, Interview magazine Scarlett stepped into focus as the traumatized young girl Grace MacLean in Robert Redford's moving film, The Horse Whisperer. The equestrian drama caught our attention with young Scarlett, just thirteen years old at the time, centered firmly on screen. Although she had worked in other films, The Horse Whisperer provided her with a breakthrough performance.

Now just barely twenty years old, Scarlett already has more that two dozen films under her belt with many more in the works, including Mission Impossible III, due for release in 2006, where Scarlett will share acting skills with super-hunk Tom Cruise.

Take the above-mentioned films, stir it with treasures like Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and Lost in Translation (2003), and one can see why Scarlett is indeed making good movies and firmly planting her skills among the stars.

Scarlett Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 in New York, NY to parents Karsten Johansson (building contractor) and Melanie Johansson. She has an older half-brother named Christian, an older brother named Adrian, an older sister named Vanessa, and is the twin to older brother Hunter. Always interested in acting, Scarlett graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002 and attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for Young People. At the young age of 8, she made her stage debut in the off-Broadway production, Sophistry, also starring young Ethan Hawke.

Scarlett has been linked to actors Jared Leto and the much older (17 years her senior) Benicio Del Toro.

"Whatever you do, don't go into acting for the fame, 'cause you're gonna end up unhappy. And I don't really think you can become an actress... you are an actress." Scarlett Johansson

Although Scarlett Johansson had several films under her belt, it was Robert Redford's 1998 film The Horse Whisperer that made audiences stand up and take note of the young actor. Playing Grace MacLean, a traumatized young girl, Scarlett showed great acting skill and her career began to climb.

Scarlett's career is starred with good performances in good films. In the year 2000, Johansson starred with Thora Birch (American Beauty, Hocus Pocus) in Terry Zwigoff's comedic drama Ghost World. The year 2003 proved to be Scarlett's most successful year. Starring with Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola's masterpiece, Lost in Translation, Scarlett earned not only the critic's phrase but also a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, also of 2003, gained Scarlett another Golden Globe nomination. This time for Best Performance by an Actress. Johansson starring as Griet, a youngest peasant girl who's beauty becomes an obsession with painter Johannes Vermeer, played by Colin Firth.

Scarlett Johansson's menagerie of films has kept the young star busy. In 2004 alone, four films were released with Scarlett's name among the credits: The Perfect Score (2004), A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), A Good Woman (2004), and In Good Company (2004). That year Scarlett also lent her voice to the children's animated film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

In 2005 fans will catch Scarlett in Michael Bay's The Island, Woody Allen's Match Point and Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia.

Due to begin filming in June of 2005, Scarlett will rub elbows with super star Tom Cruise in the much awaited action sequel Mission Impossible III. The movie is due for release sometime in 2006.

"I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual...those people have always been close to my heart." Scarlett Johansson

Awards:

BAFTA: Best Actress, Lost in Translation, 2004

Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Actress, Lost in Translation, 2003

Hollywood Film Festival: Breakthrough Actress, Lost in Translation, 2003

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award: New Generation Award, 2003

Venice Film Festival: Upstream Prize: Best Actress, Lost in Translation, 2003

Young Artist Award: Best Ensemble in a Feature Film, An American Rhapsody, 2002

Young Artist Award: Best Leading Young Actress, An American Rhapsody, 2002

Toronto Film Critics Association Award: Best Supporting Performance, Female, Ghost World, 2001

Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award, The Horse Whisperer, 1998

Alyson Hannigan

2008-11-17T22:34:00.004-08:00

An actor since childhood, Alyson Hannigan is known to TV viewers as Willow Rosenberg, one of the monster-fighting sidekicks from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar). Hannigan got her start at an early age, working on TV commercials in Atlanta, Georgia. When she was 11 she relocated to Los Angeles and found work guest-starring in several television comedies before landing the role of Willow.

Hannigan has appeared in feature films also, most notably American Pie (1999), American Pie 2 (2001) and American Wedding (2003). She returned to television in the series, How I Met Your Mother in 2005, and had a recurring guest role on the teen drama Veronica Mars in 2006.

In 2003 Hannigan married actor Alexis Denisof, a co-star of Buffy and its spin-off series, Angel.

Faith Hill

2008-11-17T00:34:00.002-08:00

Faith Hill (Audrey Faith Perry) was born on Sept. 21, 1967, in Jackson, Miss. Adopted at only a week old, she grew up in the small town of Star. She sang in church growing up and moved to Nashville at 19 to pursue a country music career. Hill's first Music City job was selling T-shirts at Fan Fair. She later landed an office job with singer-songwriter Gary Morris' Nashville company. Morris heard her singing along with the radio and asked her to perform on demo tapes. Hill's first professional gig was singing backup for songwriter-musician Gary Burr, who would later become her co-producer. She was discovered by a Warner Bros. executive while singing with Burr at Nashville's famed Bluebird Cafe.

Warner Bros. Nashville released Hill's debut album, Take Me as I Am, in 1993. She made country music history in January 1994 when her debut single "Wild One" held the No. 1 position for four consecutive weeks on Billboard's country singles chart. Hill was the first female country singer to accomplish the feat with a debut single since Connie Smith's "Once a Day" in 1964. The album was eventually certified triple-platinum.

The title track from 1995's album It Matters to Me gave Hill her third chart-topping hit and the album went on to sell 4 million copies. Tim McGraw and Hill married shortly after teaming up for the Spontaneous Combustion tour in 1996. Her first duet with McGraw, "It's Your Love," lodged itself at No. 1 for six weeks and brought Hill's first CMA award, for 1997 vocal event. It remained No. 1 for six weeks.

Hill's 1998 album Faith produced the crossover hit "This Kiss," which went to No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart and peaked at No. 7 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. The video for "This Kiss" earned a 1998 CMA award. On the strength of additional singles like "Let Me Let Go" and "Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me" (another McGraw duet), Faith sold more than 6 million copies.

Her 1999 album Breathe debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 and country albums charts and sold more than 8 million copies. The title track stayed at No. 1 for six weeks and reached the top of the adult contemporary and Top 40 charts as well. The steamy music video, in which she rolls around under a white bed sheet, gained Hill attention outside the world of country.

She earned three Grammy awards in 2000 -- for female country vocal performance, best country album and for country collaboration with vocals, for the McGraw duet, "Let's Make Love." The couple embarked on the co-headlining Soul 2 Soul tour in 2000. The outing raked in $49.6 million, making it the top country tour of the year. Hill was named female vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards in 2000.

Cry, her 2002 album, sold 2 million copies, and she filmed an NBC-TV Thanksgiving special to promote it. The title track won a 2003 Grammy for best female country vocal performance. She landed a supporting role in The Stepford Wives film in 2004 (aside Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler).

Hill released the album Fireflies in 2005, which rejuvenated her career. The first single, "Mississippi Girl," quickly reached No. 1 and she and McGraw launched the Soul2Soul2 Tour in 2006, which sold more than a million tickets. They also scored another hit duet, "Like We Never Loved at All."

Hill has performed at several high-profile events, including Super Bowl XXXIV, the 1996 Summer Olympics, VH1 Divas Live 2000 and the 2000 Academy Awards, where she stepped in at the last minute for an ailing Whitney Houston. Her image has graced the covers of countless national magazines, including People, US Weekly, Glamour, TV Guide, Redbook, Country Music and Country Weekly. She also has landed lucrative endorsements with CoverGirl, Pepsi and ALLTEL.

The Faith Hill Family Literacy Project, designed to help combat illiteracy worldwide, launched in 1996. Hill's concern for family literacy is a result of her own family's firsthand experience with the issue. Her father, one of 14 children, never learned to read after being forced to quit school in order to help support his family. Hill's dream is that "someday every person will be able to read."

Sophia Bush

2008-11-17T00:24:00.003-08:00

Biography

Birthplace: Pasadena, California
Birthday: July 8, 1982

A stunning brunette and former beauty queen, Sophia Bush made a name for herself as the seductive vixen Brooke Davis on The WB series "One Tree Hill"(2003- ). Though often cast as the flirtatious bad-girl, Bush's own down-to-earth persona added a touching vulnerability to many of her roles.

Born July 8, 1982 in Los Angeles to parents Charles and Maureen, the true-blue California girl attended Westridge School for Girls in her hometown of Pasadena. As a freshman, she developed a penchant for acting and became involved in school theater productions. In 2000, the beautiful senior was crowned Queen of the Tournament of Roses Parade. After graduation, Bush attend the University of Southern California (USC) for three years with a journalism major and theatre minor before leaving college to pursue her acting career. While matriculating USC, the outgoing young actress also served as social chair of her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Bush's first screen role arrived in the form of college student, Sally, in "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" (2002) opposite Ryan Reynolds. Next came a small role in the HBO arsonist thriller "Point of Origin" (2002), starring Ray Liotta and John Leguizamo. Soon, Bush was cast in her first major role opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nick Stahl in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (2003). Though Bush began principle photography on the film, director Jonathan Mostow changed his mind and deemed her too young for the role of Stahl's love interest, Kate Brewster. The 19-year old simply did not look the part of her mid-twenties character. Bush was soon replaced by actress Claire Danes.

Despite losing such a high-profile gig, the undeterred Bush continued auditioning and honing her craft. She landed small roles on the notable television shows "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (ABC, 1996-2003) and "Nip/Tuck" (FX, 2003 - ), as well as a role in the forgettable film "Learning Curves" (2003).

Bush finally got her big break when she won the role that would make her famous -- flirtatious cheerleader Brooke Davis on the WB's "One Tree Hill." Now a regular on a seemingly promising new show, Bush left USC and her Southern California roots behind to shoot the series in Wilmington, NC. The teen drama premiered in the fall of 2003 and quickly developed a loyal following, much like its flashier competition, "The O.C." (Fox, 2003 - ).

It was while working on location, that Bush began dating her co-star and on-screen love interest, Chad Michael Murray. The attractive pair's storybook courtship was closely followed by fans and press alike. The couple tied the knot to much fanfare on April 16, 2005, only to announce their separation five shockingly short months later. The same tabloids and teen mags that followed the courtship with near-religious fervor, utilized the same approach in pin-pointing the cause of the split and its unavoidable fallout on the set.

While continuing her popular "One Tree" role, Bush returned to the big screen in 2005, playing love interest to Steve Howey in the motorcycle action film "Supercross." In 2006, Bush continued to land big screen roles, taking a stab at the horror genre with "Stay Alive" and "John Tucker Must Die."

Also Credited As

Sophia Bush

Born

On July 8, 1982 in Pasadena, California

Job Titles

actor

Education

a, a

aa

a

Significant Others

Jon Foster
co-star from "Stay Alive" (2006); dating since 2006
Chad Michael Murray
met in 2003 on the set of the WB drama "One Tree Hill"; became engaged July 2004 in Australia; married April 16, 2005 in a seaside ceremony in Santa Monica, California; announced split September 2005, after five months of marriage; divorce finalized December 2006

Lauren Conrad

2008-11-10T19:26:00.002-08:00

MTV has had its share of reality superstars, from the trouble-stirring Puck of “The Real World” (1992- ) to the rocker-turned-family man Ozzy Osbourne of “The Osbournes” (TK). But no one has ever captured the attention of millions of MTV viewers simply because she experienced the dramatic highs and lows of high school and post-high school life more than Lauren “L.C.” Conrad, who starred in the massive hits, “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County” (2004-05) and “The Hills” (2006- ).
Lauren Katherine Conrad was born on Feb. 1, 1986 in the affluent town of Newport Beach, CA, the daughter of Katherine Lawrence and James Conrad. She had a younger sister named Breanna, who was a featured regular on the third season of “Laguna Beach” (2006), and a younger brother named Brandon. Growing up, the future reality star’s main passion was fashion design. A neighbor taught her how to draw and design outfits for her Barbie dolls. During Conrad’s senior year of high school, MTV started production on “Laguna Beach,” and followed her and several students with cameras for the show, documenting their relationships, break-ups, and high school high jinks.

In 2004, Conrad entered Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA where she met fellow “Hills” star Heidi Montag. After one semester at Academy of Art, Conrad moved back to Orange County before transferring to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. While interning at Three Dots clothing company in 2005, she accepted an extraordinary opportunity to intern at fashion magazine giant Teen Vogue . The combination of her internship and move to Los Angeles was the central focus of “The Hills,” a “Laguna Beach” spin-off series. Conrad was the star of the show, along with her roommate Montag and fellow Teen Vogue intern, Whitney Port. The authenticity of the girls’ internship (as opposed to a setup just for the show) was confirmed by the magazine’s West Coast Editor Lisa Love, saying Conrad had a successful interview before she got the job. Turning everything she touched to gold, Vogue ’s readership actually increased due to Conrad’s involvement, and in turn, she appeared on the magazine’s June/July 2006 cover – the very first intern in the magazine’s history to do so.

The drama of “Laguna Beach” paled in comparison to “The Hills,” with its intent to document what it was like being twenty-something and living in trendy Hollywood. The first season dealt with Conrad adapting to her new L.A. lifestyle, while dealing with her relationship with boyfriend and fellow “Laguna Beach” alum Jason Wahler. The season ended with the magazine intern turning down an opportunity to spend the summer of 2006 in Paris in order to spend more time with Wahler.

The second season of “The Hills” was even more explosive, with tensions between Conrad, her roommate Montag, and Montag’s new boyfriend Spencer Pratt, helping it earn an average of 3.2 million viewers. The girls spent less time with each other, and the conflict increased when Montag frequently broke off plans with her roommate to be with her boyfriend, before eventually moving in with him. A rumor swirled before the third season of “The Hills” even started, about a sex tape featuring Conrad and Wahler that eventually was proven untrue. Making things even icier, Conrad predicted it was made up by Montag and Pratt themselves. The friendship between the former roommates ended, and Audrina Patridge moved in to the apartment, making her Conrad’s new best friend and another “Hills” regular. Even though the show was a hit, “The Hills” was criticized regularly for marketing itself as a reality show, when there was evidence that some scenes were predetermined or re-taped.

Aside from her TV show, the Newport Beach native became a spokesperson for “mark,” a line of Avon cosmetics marketed towards young women. Conrad also appeared as herself in the comedy “Epic Movie” (2007) and won Teen Choice Awards in 2007 for Choice Female Reality TV Star (her second time), Choice Red Carpet Star, and Choice V Cast Video for “The Hills.” The girl who designed clothes for her Barbies made her lifelong dream of becoming a fashion designer come true in March 2008, when she debuted her clothing line “The Lauren Conrad Collection” during Los Angeles Fashion Week. However, critics found her designs – with pieces named after her friends like Audrina and Whitney – way too uninspired and overpriced.

Zac Efron

2008-11-10T19:20:00.003-08:00

Biography
Birthplace: San Luis Obispo, California
Birthday: October 18, 1987

It took just one TV movie to change young actor Zac Efron from a supporting player to a bonafide teen star. Of course, that TV movie was The Disney Channel’s tween pop cultural phenomenon, “High School Musical” (2005), which elevated Efron to major league heartthrob status for his eminently crushable turn as a high school jock who discovers his hidden love for singing. Prior to “High School Musical,” the Arroyo Grande, CA native had appeared in a string of supporting and minor roles on television, most notably in the WB teen drama “Summerland” (2004-05), which starred another reigning tween favorite, Jesse McCartney.
Born Oct. 18, 1987 in San Luis Obispo, CA, Efron made his TV debut only a few years before “Summerland” and “High School Musical.” He’d developed an interest in acting after his parents encouraged him to exercise his innate singing talent through lessons and later local theater. After culling an impressive list of stage roles – including a long-running production of “Gypsy” – Efron took the next logical step and began pursuing screen acting jobs. Guest shots on “Firefly” (Fox, 2002-04) and “ER” (NBC, 1994- ), as well as the highly scripted “reality series” “Room Raiders” (MTV, 2004- ) preceded his first substantial turn as the autistic son of Mary-Louise Parker and Aidan Quinn in the 2003 Lifetime TV-movie, “Miracle Run.” The performance earned Efron a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

More television followed, including several failed pilots, before Efron landed the role of Cameron Bale on “Summerland.” Initially intended as a guest spot, Efron’s casual charm and good looks endeared him to audiences, and he joined the show’s cast as a regular until its cancellation in 2005. That same year, Efron turned up as a featured player in teen pop singer Hope Partlow’s video for “Sick Inside,” before landing the lead role in a Disney Channel production that harkened back to such classic teen musicals as “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Grease.”

That film, helmed and choreographed by Kenny (“Dirty Dancing,” 1987) Ortega, turned out to be “High School Musical,” which earned spectacular ratings for the Mickey Mouse network and yielded a triple platinum-selling soundtrack album and a sales record-breaking DVD. The soundtrack also made Efron the first artist ever to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 charts with two singles in the same week. He would eventually have five singles from the soundtrack on the charts, though some of the glamour was blunted when it was revealed that Efron’s vocals had been “sweetened” by combining them with that of actor/singer Andrew Seeley.

The minor controversy did little to dampen the groundswell of popularity building behind Efron, which spread like wildfire when his appearances on the popular Disney Channel TV series “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” (2005- ) and “NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service” (CBS, 2003- ) aired while “HSM” was screening almost around the clock for Disney. A frantic April 2006 appearance with his “HSM” co-star Ashley Tisdale on MTV’s “TRL” (1998- ) confirmed his runaway popularity with the tween and teen audiences, and since then, Efron’s image has been inescapable on and between the covers of magazines that cater to that demographic.

While riding the “HSM” wave, Efron attempted to parlay his popularity into a Fox TV series entitled “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now” (2006), which was inspired by the Oakwood apartment complex in Los Angeles which serves as a temporary home for countless aspiring teen actors. The pilot was unfortunately not picked up for the 2006-07 season. But fans did not have to wait long for his next project.

In 2006, it was announced that Efron would be joining the cast of the highly anticipated film version of the popular Broadway musical “Hairspray” (2007). Much of the press was quick to point out that Efron, who was playing the show’s heartthrob, Link Larkin, would be doing all of his own singing (in an pre-emptive strike against any lingering doubts of his abilities). Interestingly enough, Efron seemingly balked on releasing a pop album, unlike his “HSM” co-stars Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, and Corbin Bleu, all of whom inked contracts with major labels for their own CDs.

Julianne Hough

2008-11-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

Two-time "Dancing with the Stars" champion grew up with her 10 siblings in Utah – one of which was brother Derek, a future dancer on the ABC show as well. A born entertainer, she has always loved singing, dancing and acting, so at the age of 10, she left her home and family to move to the other side of the world to live and train with her coaches in London. While living there, Hough partnered Mark Ballas (the son of her world renowned coaches Corky and Shirley Ballas). It was with Mark that Hough won all of her titles. Hough is the youngest (and only) American dancer to have become both International Latin Youth Champion and Junior Blackpool World Latin Champion. After graduating high school, Hough moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of acting, dancing and singing. She landed a role as a dancer on ABC’s game show, "Show Me The Money," and shortly after joined the "Dancing With The Stars" first tour as a company dancer. When "DWTS" dancer Kym Johnson injured her arm, Hough stepped in as her replacement and Cha Cha cha’d across America with season one competitor, singer Joey MacIntyre. She was also Assistant Choreographer on Gwen Stefani’s "Wind It Up" video. Some of her other professional accomplishments include International Latin Youth Champion, Junior Blackpool World Latin Champion and United States National Latin Youth Champion. Hough’s first season on "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, 2005- ) was quite successful. Her and partner, Olympic Gold Medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, were the season 4 champions. She took her next sports figure to the top in season five, helping Indy race car driver, Helio Castroneves to win the title in season five – back-to-back wins like fellow professional, Cheryl Burke before her. Coming off her success on the show, Hough is currently recording her debut country album and her single, "Will You Dance With Me" made it to #8 on the itunes country charts.

Is Jennifer Aniston pregnant?

2008-11-10T18:57:00.003-08:00

While rumours are abuzz that Jennifer Aniston is carrying John Mayer's child, the reality seems a bit different, for the stunner was spotted leaving a restaurant in West Hollywood - and she was ''not visibly pregnant''.

The reports by Star and In Touch magazines claimed that the ''Friends'' star was pregnant, and was probably expecting twins, reports Usmagazine.com

However, Aniston's publicist has denied her pregnancy reports

The 39-year-old actress sported a tight gray tank top and jeans as she made her way through the paparazzi mob stationed at the Robertson Boulevard restaurant.

Taylor Swift hits all the right words

2008-11-10T18:47:00.001-08:00

For the past decade, the term singer/songwriter has been liberally applied to hot young artists who rely on more experienced collaborators to hone their tunes, and to provide the savvy production that usually upstages the melody and lyrics anyway. But Swift cut her creative teeth in Nashville, where storytelling still matters; and for her sophomore album, Fearless, she wrote more than half the songs independently, and clearly had a big hand in the rest.

You just can't fake the kind of innocence and wonder that ring through the glowing title track and the moonstruck single Love Story, or the guileless urgency and unmannered precociousness marking more bittersweet songs such as Fifteen and White Horse.

Swift's grainy-sweet vocals have a similar freshness, even on the less memorable cuts. It's a pleasure to hear a gifted teenager who sounds like a gifted teenager, rather than a mouthpiece for a bunch of older pros' collective notion of adolescent yearning. — Elysa Gardner

Buzzing: Jennifer Hudson's Brother-in-Law to Stay Behind Bars

2008-11-10T18:41:00.002-08:00

Los Angeles (E! Online) – William Balfour isn't going anywhere.

The 27-year-old "person of interest" in the slayings of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew has been ordered to remain in prison while police continue to investigate the murders.

Balfour has been held at Illinois' Stateville Correctional Center since Oct. 26 on charges of parole violation stemming from a 1999 conviction on attempted murder.

At a parole hearing this morning—which could potentially have seen Balfour walk free—the Illinois Prisoner Review Board ruled there was reason to believe he had violated his parole for transgressions unrelated to the Hudson killings, including appearing in places where drugs were sold and, according to his girlfriend, being in possession of a gun that matches the description of the Hudson murder weapon.

"That's a very serious allegation," Prisoner Review Board Chairman Jorge Montes said. "If somebody's alleging they saw him with a gun that was used in the murder of three individuals, we would definitely hold him."

Another parole hearing has been set for Dec. 3.

As it is, today's hearing lasted just 35 minutes and featured some strong protests from Balfour.

"He seemed disturbed," Montes said, adding that Balfour "contested those allegations" about the murder weapon.

"He was protesting the introduction of that evidence and he denied it."

Balfour has not been charged in the Oct. 24 Hudson family murders but has so far been the only publicly named "person of interest" in the case and was questioned by Chicago police for 48 hours before being turned over to prison officials for parole violation.

At today's hearing, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board was tasked with determining whether Balfour would continue to be held behind bars, which would require evidence or probable cause that Balfour in fact committed a crime or somehow otherwise violated his parole.

Darnell Donerson, 57, Jason Hudson, 29, and Julian King, 7, were all declared dead of multiple gunshot wounds. While Donerson and Hudson were found shot in their Englewood home on Oct. 24, King's body was discovered three days later in an abandoned SUV.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the current girlfriend of Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister and Julian's mother Julia, confessed to her that he was involved in the shootings.
On Friday, Julia posted a message on her MySpace page reading, "Happy Birthday Mama!!!!" It would have been her mother's 58th birthday.

Pacquiao Knocks Diaz Cold in 9 to Capture the WBC Lightweight Title

2008-06-30T00:25:00.000-07:00

There are few things like watching a Manny Pacquiao fight ringside. His crowd of supporters certainly gives Ricky Hatton’s fans a run for their money in the noise department. They cheer at every flinch, feint, and punch thrown and landed by their hero. Combined with his dynamic fighting style, it adds up to an electric atmosphere unmatched by few. Saturday night’s fight between David Diaz and Manny Pacquiao for Diaz’ WBC lightweight title at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino was no exception.

Pacquiao, fighting his first fight at 135 lbs, came out the gates quick and aggressive as ever. Right off the bat he threw two right jabs and a left to the body of Diaz who looked to be mentally calibrating for Pacquiao’s obvious speed advantage while hiding behind his shoulder roll defense. Early on, Pacquiao appeared to be hitting a lot of gloves and elbows but would occasionally get through with blistering left hands.

Pacquiao looked sharp to open the second as he came at Diaz who obliged by diving inside and digging to the body. Crisp left hands punctuated the first minute of the fight and by the second half of the round, Diaz was stuck looking at Pacquiao and wondering how to cut through that speed.

The third was punctuated by a cut over Diaz right eye (presumably from a knife-like Pacquiao punch) that would plague him for the rest of the fight.

Through the middle rounds, Pacquiao would settle into a slower rhythm but would control the action with quicker footwork that set up brutal lefts and rights while keeping Diaz either at bay or turning and getting tagged.

The right side of Diaz face was a red curtain. Diaz for his part was getting to Pacquiao’s body and the Filipino phenom looked for a second like he might be slowing down. Unfortunately for Diaz, he had neither the tools not the energy to do anything about it.

In the eighth round, Pacquiao appeared sharp and ready to end things. The previous he had apparently been resting as he came out throwing tons of leather. He stunned Diaz with a left hand lead and flurried but backed off and took the fight back to center ring, keeping Diaz along the ropes. Then he drove in and raked Diaz with a blistering combo. Diaz looked ready to go as the bell sounded.

The fateful ninth saw the action slow down a bit as both men looked to box early. Diaz still seemed to be recovering from the previous rounds’ carnage but it would end suddenly as Pacquiao threw a right jab that Diaz slipped, leaving him open for a short left hand that he didn’t see coming. Diaz fell face first and was out before he hit the ground. The ref immediately called a halt to the action at 2:24 of the ninth.

“My first concern was Diaz,” said Pacquiao afterwards. “That he was okay. That’s what I was praying for in the corner.”

With the win, Pacquiao takes the WBC title and sets himself for lucrative matches with Ricky Hatton, Oscar De la Hoya, or possibly a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. The sky is the limit for the Filipino icon.

“I feel much stronger and powerful at 135,” said Pacquiao, which probably isn’t good news for the rest of the lightweights.

“It was a beautiful performance,” said trainer Freddie Roach. “He has never boxed better. I told him not to trade with Diaz because that is when he is dangerous. Stay in and out and do what you do best. “

Pacquiao obliged.