Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Chyler Leigh










Chyler Leigh Potts in Charlotte, North Carolina, the daughter of Yvonne Norton and Robert Potts.She was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, until the age of twelve when she moved with her mother and brother Christopher Khayman Lee to Miami, Florida. During eighth grade she started modeling. She soon moved on to acting by appearing in local television commercials and a syndicated teen news show called Hall Pass. Leigh did not graduate from high school and she took the California High School Proficiency Exam.

Leigh started acting at an early age and debuted in the film world at age 15 in 1997's Kickboxing Academy. In 2001, Leigh had the lead role in the film Not Another Teen Movie as Janey Briggs. She also appeared in Marilyn Manson's music video "Tainted Love", a song which appeared in the film. She was ranked 65 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002.

In 2002, Leigh was cast in two short-lived TV series: Girls Club, in which she played lawyer Sarah Mickle, and That '80s Show, in which she played punk rocker June Tuesday. She then became a series regular on the ABC legal drama The Practice, but was let go at the end of the season due to budget cuts. Following that, she joined the cast of Reunion in September, 2005. In ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Leigh first appeared as a woman in Joe's bar who tried to pick up Derek Shepherd. In the third season finale, it was revealed that she was Lexie Grey, Meredith's half-sister.She was made an official series regular for season four.


On July 20, 2002, she married actor Nathan West and together they have two children. Their son, Noah Wilde, was born in December 2003. She gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Taelyn, in September 2006.Leigh and West worked side-by-side in 2000 on the television series 7th Heaven playing Mary Camden's troubled friends, Frankie and Johnnie. On December 28, 2008 it was announced that Chyler and her husband were expecting their third child.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Renee Zellweger








Renee Kathleen Zellweger is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, SAG Award-, and Golden Globe-winning American actress and producer, who has established herself as one of the highest-paid Hollywood actresses in recent years.

Zellweger was born in Baytown, Texas, an eastern suburb of Houston. Between junior high school and high school her family moved to Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business.Zellweger's mother, Kjellfried Irene , is Norwegian-born and of Sami origin,and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States in order to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas.Zellweger described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".She has an older brother, Andrew.

In junior high school, Zellweger actively took part in several sports, including soccer, basketball, baseball and football.She attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader, a gymnast, and a drama club member. Zellweger acted in several school plays and was voted the "Best Looking" of her class before graduating from high school in 1987. After high school, she went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in English language.Zellweger was a good student, and made the Dean's List several times. At the beginning she took a drama class only because she needed a fine arts credit to complete her degree, but the experience made her appreciate how much she loved acting.During this time, she supported herself by taking jobs as a waitress in Austin, Texas and worked maintenance at The Velvet Touch in Flint, Michigan.In 1991, Zellweger graduated from university with a BA degree in English. She considered moving to Hollywood but decided to stay in her home state, Texas, to seek more experience. Her first job after graduation was working in a beef commercial, at the same time she started to audition for roles around Houston.

While still in Texas, Zellweger appeared in several films. She appeared in A Taste for Killing (1992) as Mary Lou, then had a minor role in ABC TV mini series named Murder in the Heartland (1993). The following year, she appeared in Reality Bites (1994), the directorial debut of Ben Stiller, and in the biopic film 8 Seconds, directed by John G. Avildsen. Zellweger's first main part in a movie came with the 1994 horror movie Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which she acted alongside Matthew McConaughey. She played Jenny, a teenager who leaves a prom early with three friends and ended up getting into a car accident, which leads to their meeting a murderous family.Her next movie was Love and a .45 (1994), in which she played the role of Starlene Cheatham, a woman who plans a robbery with her boyfriend. The performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, winning roles in the films Empire Records (1995) and The Whole Wide World (1996).Zellweger first became widely known to audiences around the world with her role in Jerry Maguire (1996), where she played the romantic interest of Tom Cruise's character.She won the role over Mira Sorvino and Marisa Tomei. Since then, Zellweger has won acclaim in roles such as One True Thing (1998) opposite William Hurt and Meryl Streep, and in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty opposite Morgan Freeman. The role garnered the actress her first of three Golden Globe Awards, but she was in the bathroom when future co-star Hugh Grant announced her name.Zellweger later protested: "I had lipstick on my teeth!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Lucy Liu









Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress. She became known for her role in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002) and has also appeared in several notable film roles, including Chicago, Kill Bill, and the Charlie's Angels films. She signed on to join the cast of Dirty Sexy Money.

She was born and was raised with her brother, Alex Liu, in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York by Chinese immigrant parents.Liu has said that she grew up in a "diverse" neighborhood.Her family spoke Mandarin at home and she did not learn English until she was five years old.Her father, Tom, was a civil engineer and her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist,but they sacrificed those careers to come to the United States. Liu, at her parents' insistence, devoted her spare time to studying. She attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School and she graduated from New York City's prestigious Stuyvesant High School in 1986.She attended New York University for one year, before transferring to the University of Michigan where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures.At one point, Liu worked as a waitress in Michigan.

Liu began acting in 1989, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan's production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had originally only tried out for a supporting part.Liu had small roles in films and TV (including the "Hell Money" episode of The X-Files and "The March to Freedom" episode on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) before landing a role on Ally McBeal. Liu originally auditioned for the role of 'Nelle Porter' (played by Portia de Rossi), and the character 'Ling Woo' was later created specifically for her. Liu's part on the series was originally not meant to be regular but the enthusiastic audience response to the actress' 'feisty' Ling Woo secured Liu as a permanent cast member. It also earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.Liu cemented her reputation playing bad girls by portraying "Pearl" the sadistic dominatrix/hitwoman for the Chinese mafia in the film Payback (1999).

Liu next played O-Ren Ishii, one of the major villains in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film, Kill Bill. She won an MTV Movie Award for "Best Movie Villain" for the part. Subsequently, Liu appeared on several episodes of Joey with Matt LeBlanc, who played her love interest in the Charlie's Angels movies. She also had smaller roles as Kitty Baxter in the film Chicago, and as a psychologist opposite Keira Knightley in the thriller Domino. In 2006, she played leading lady and love interest to Josh Hartnett in the crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin. Other appearances include a cameo on the animated shows Futurama (as herself in the episodes "I Dated a Robot" and "Love and Rocket" and The Simpsons (on the season sixteen episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan"), a guest host on an episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in 2000,and the voice of Elise in SSX Tricky.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Shannon Elizabeth







Shannon Elizabeth is an American actress and former fashion model. Elizabeth came to prominence in the 1999 comedy film American Pie.

Elizabeth is Syrian and Lebanese from her father and her mother is Irish, English, German and Cherokee. She was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Waco, Texas.In high school, she was very much interested in tennis and at one point even considered a professional tennis career. She worked as a model before she began a career in film.

Elizabeth was in a relationship with actor Joseph D. Reitman for 10 years, including three years of marriage.The couple separated in March 2005,and Elizabeth filed for divorce in late June 2005.Some media outlets speculated that the cause of their breakup was Reitman assisting in a practical joke on Elizabeth for Ashton Kutcher's (who played her on-screen boyfriend Michael Kelso in That '70s Show) MTV television series Punk'd, a year before their divorce, which involved leading Elizabeth to think that she was caught on a sex tape.

Animal Avengers, a non-profit animal rescue organization founded by Elizabeth and her then-husband Reitman,is dedicated to rescuing and finding a home for homeless pets, reducing pet overpopulation, promoting responsible pet guardianship and preventing animal cruelty. Among the many fundraising events, Team Bodog raised over $50,000 for Animal Avengers in a celebrity poker night on October 8, 2005. The event was hosted by noted tournament director Matt Savage. Over the past year Shannon Elizabeth has participated in numerous other Bodog-sponsored charity events as well. After the September 11 attacks, Shannon recorded a public service announcement in which she said, "I'm half Arabic, but I am 100 percent American. What is going on affects me the same as everyone else.

Elizabeth is currently dating her former Dancing with the Stars partner Derek Hough. Elizabeth denied rumours of a marriage proposal from Hough, or that the couple was engaged.

Elizabeth, who describes poker as her "second career" has been called "one of the leading celebrity poker players."She visits Las Vegas up to three times each month to participate in poker games with the top players of the United States. Elizabeth played in the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker and won a special tournament celebrating the opening of a new poker room at Caesars Palace hotel in January 2006, beating out 83 celebrities and poker professionals to win $55,000. She has also cashed four times in the World Series of Poker in 2006 and 2007,[12] but again busted out of the Main Event early. In 2007, she advanced to the semi-finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in a field consisting of the top poker professionals before losing to eventual champion Paul Wasicka. Among the four opponents she defeated were three World Series of Poker multiple bracelet winners: Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, and Humberto Brenes.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Devon Aoki









Aoki was born in New York City, and grew up in California and London, attending highschool at The American School in London. Her Japanese American father, Rocky Aoki, a former Olympic wrestler, was the owner and founder of the Benihana restaurant chain until his death on July 10, 2008. Her mother, Pamela Hilburger, is a jewelry designer of German and English heritage.

Aoki was discovered in New York at a Rancid concert she had gatecrashed. She started modeling when she was 13, the same year Aoki was introduced by her godmother to Kate Moss, who would later take the young Devon under her wing. Moss pushed for Aoki to be signed, and she was signed onto Storm Model Management at age 14.

Aoki has modeled for the fashion houses Lancôme, Chanel, and Versace. Aoki is 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)— an almost unheard of height for runway models, who are usually at least 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) height.Aoki has done ad campaigns for Chanel Ready to Wear, Chanel Couture by Karl Lagerfeld, Versace by Steven Meisel, YSL by Juergen Teller, Alessandro Del Aqua, Hugo Boss, Moschino, Ungaro, Fendi, Junko Shimada by Bettina Kimenda and Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons.

Early on in her career Aoki made cameo appearances in several music videos, including Duran Duran's "Electric Barbarella", Primal Scream's "Kowalski" (with Kate Moss), Elton John's "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", Ginuwine's "In Those Jeans" video and, later, in Ludacris' "Act a Fool". Music from this video was featured in the soundtrack of 2 Fast 2 Furious, which Ludacris and Aoki both appeared in. In 2006, she made an appearance in The Killers' video "Bones". Aoki has also made a cameo appearance in the short films accompanying the new Sean Lennon album, Friendly Fire.

Aoki has been on the cover of I-D magazine three times. She was also the face of Lancome cosmetics for four years. Aoki posed for renowned Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee for Kee's 2006 charity photo-book "Super Stars", dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster, which consists of photographs of 300 Asian celebrities by Kee. The same year, Aoki posed for photographer Marc Baptiste’s book Nudes, but she has stated that she was wearing a dress:

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Julianne Hough







Julianne Hough is an American professional ballroom dancer and country music singer. She is most-widely known for her repeated appearances on ABC's program, Dancing with the Stars, which she won twice. She earned a Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nomination in 2007 for her choreography. ABC's 20/20 called her one of the "very best dancers on the planet."[1] Julianne's brother, Derek Hough, is also on Dancing with the Stars. Hough was signed to Mercury Nashville Records in December 2007. Her self-titled debut album was released May 20, 2008, debuting at 1 on the Billboard Country Album chart and 3 on the Billboard 200. This season Hough was partnered with Cody Linley.

Hough grew up one of five children from an LDS family in Salt Lake City. Her brother Derek Hough is also a professional dancer. She has three sisters named Sharee, Marabeth, and Katherine. All four of her grandparents were dancers, and her parents met while on a ballroom dancing team in college in Idaho.

Her formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, where she danced with Josh Murillo, among others, in Latin Ballroom; she began dancing competitively at nine. Her parents sent her and her brother to London for a year later to live and study with their coaches, Corky and Shirley Ballas, and to spare them the strife of divorce.The Ballas' helped tutor the two Hough children alongside their own son, Mark, while schooling them at the Italia Conti Academy. They received training in song, theatre, gymnastics and many forms of dance, including jazz, ballet, and tap.The three children formed their own pop music trio 2B1G when Julianne was twelve,performed at dance competitions in the U.K. and the U.S., and showcased in a UK television show.At fifteen, Julianne Hough became the youngest dancer, and only American, to win both Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival.

One of her earliest professional experiences was as an assistant choreographer on Gwen Stefani's Wind It Up music video.[citation needed] She was also featured in two television commercials and was an extra in an episode of Cold Case. She was also one of the "Million Dollar Dancers" in the short-lived network television game show Show Me the Money.

Hough's big break was when she appeared in the fourth season of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars, a televised ballroom dance competition. In her first season, she won with her partner, Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, making Hough the youngest professional dancer to win on the program. On November 27, 2007, Hough and her partner, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, became the winners of Season 5. Hough returned for season 6 with radio host/comedian Adam Carolla, but they were eliminated in the fourth week. In July 2008, Hough was nominated at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of "Outstanding Choreography" for her Mambo "Para Los Rumberos" on Dancing with the Stars,but lost to choreographer Wade Robson.

Hough's first country music single "Will You Dance With Me" was released to iTunes and Wal-Mart in May 2007 to raise money for the American Red Cross. The song peaked at 100 on the Billboard Pop 100 chart.She later signed with Universal Music Group Nashville.

Her self-titled debut album was recorded in Nashville and produced by David Malloy, who has worked with Reba McEntire, Eddie Rabbitt, among others. Hough's album, which met with mixed reviews,[13][14] debuted at 1 on the Top Country Albums chart on May 31, and also peaked at 3 on the Billboard 200.[15] Hough's second single, and the first to be released to country radio, "That Song in My Head" debuted on the Country charts in March.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Roselyn Sanchez







Sanchez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the youngest of four siblings - having three older brothers. She received her primary education in San Juan. At a young age, she showed an interest in both dancing and acting and would put on shows for her family. Sánchez enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico, where like her father and brothers she was to study marketing.However, this was not her calling and after three years she left the course. In 1991, at the age of 18, Sánchez moved to New York City, where she took classes in dancing, acting and singing.She returned to Puerto Rico and in 1992, she made her movie debut, having landed a small part as an island girl in the movie Captain Ron, which was partly filmed on the island, starring Martin Short and Kurt Russell

In Puerto Rico, she gained public attention as a dancer and co-host of an island's variety show called Que Vacilon. At that time, in 1993, Roselyn won the Miss Puerto Rico Petite contest and in 1994 she won the international title of Miss American Petite. The contest rose Sanchez to international fame. Sanchez has been named to numerous annual lists of beautiful women including Maxim Magazine Hot 100 in 2001, 2002 and 2006; AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women in 2005 and 2006; FHM Magazine 100 Sexiest Women in 2005 and 2006.

In 2001, Sanchez was cast as "Isabella Molina", an undercover United States Secret Service agent who was Jackie Chan's love interest in the hit movie Rush Hour 2. In 2003, she played the role of "Lorena" in the movie Chasing Papi starring alongside Jaci Velasquez and Sofia Vergara. Sanchez has already acted in 20 movies, including the role of Maria in Edison as well as the role of Karen Lopez in Underclassman. She also starred in the Puerto Rican film Cayo released in 2005. Also in the fall of 2005, she joined the cast of Without a Trace, where she plays Agent Elena Delgado.

She composed the musical Yellow, about a singer/dancer/actress who leaves Puerto Rico to hit the big time in New York, in which she played the principal part. The movie was filmed in 2005 and released in 2007.

Also in 2007, she acted as Monique, Peyton's ballet teacher, in The Game Plan, and appeared in the movie "Venus & Vegas". She is currently preparing for her role in The Perfect Sleep, a neo-noir drama, where she is co-staring with Patrick Bauchau, Tony Amendola, Isaac Singleton, and Peter Lucas.

Sanchez was married to actor Gary Stretch from August 9, 1998 to 2001. After her divorce, she started a relationship with Puerto Rican salsa singer, Víctor Manuelle. However, in December 2005, she announced that she had ended their relationship. The separation was amicable. She married actor Eric Winter on November 29, 2008 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sanchez is a supporter of animal rights and active member of PETA. She recently appeared nude in a PETA ad in support of anti-fur campaign efforts.She is the spokesperson of the Fundación de Niños San Jorge, which assists sick children from poor families.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nicole Kidman







Nicole Mary Kidman is an Academy Award-winning actress, a UN Citizen of the World award winning humanitarian and a UNIFEM and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honour.In 2006, she was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry.

After making various appearances in film and television, Kidman received her breakthrough role in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Her performances in several films, such as To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! , and The Hours , have won her much critical acclaim. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. She is also well-known for her former marriage to the actor Tom Cruise and her current marriage to the country musician Keith Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Dr Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney.Her mother, Janelle Ann , is a nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. At the time of Nicole Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. The family returned to Australia permanently when Kidman was four years old and Kidman's parents now reside on Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist.

Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School in her primary school years, and then she attended the North Sydney Girls' High School. She then studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, along with her friend Naomi Watts. This was followed by studies at the Australian Theatre for Young People.

Kidman's first appearance in film came in 1983 when, as a fifteen year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had secured a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam,Emerald City, and Bangkok Hilton.

Not known as a singer prior to Moulin Rouge!, Kidman had several well-received vocal performances in the film. Her collaboration with Ewan McGregor on the song "Come What May" from the film's soundtrack debuted and peaked at 27 in the UK Singles Chart. But there was much controversy to whether Nicole Kidman should have been dubbed due to her "shocking, not to mention boring" voice and many people said she "should never sing again for money, or in public". Later she collaborated with Robbie Williams on the song "Somethin' Stupid", a cover of the old swing song on Williams' swing covers album Swing When You're Winning. It debuted and peaked at 8 in the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at number 1 for three weeks in the UK. It was the UK Christmas number 1 Single for 2001.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bipasha Basu







Bipasha Basu

Bipasha Basu is an Indian Bollywood actress and model. She was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest for 1996 and is currently one of the mainstream actresses in Bollywood. She is often cited by popular magazines and newspapers as one of Asia's sexiest celebrity women.

Basu was born in New Delhi, India, into a Bengali family. She is the second of three daughters to her parents, the elder being Bidisha, and the younger—Vijayeta. Although she was born in New Delhi, her family later moved to Kolkata.

According to her, she had come into modelling and acting quite by accident, because initially she had planned to study medicine.Basu studied science till the 12th standard at Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir and later took up commerce at The Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College, an undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. In Kolkata, she did modelling and rampshows partime. Although, as pointed above, she intended to become a doctor, her aversion for dissections made her opt for chartered accountancy.However, in 1996, she met well-known model Mehr Jessia in Kolkata; the latter suggested that Basu take part in the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest. She eventually participated, and won the contest.

After winning the Ford Godrej Cinthol contest, Basu was flown to New York by the Ford Company, where she had a successful modelling career at the age of 17.

Basu made her film debut in Abbas Mustan's Ajnabee, with Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor. She played a married woman who goes all out to woo her husband’s married friend, and eventually won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for her performance.

In 2002, Basu starred in Vikram Bhatt's thriller Raaz. The film was a big commercial success and surfaced as the biggest hit of that year.For her performance in the film, she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare. One review in The Tribune noted, "...it is Bipasha Basu who steals the show with her fine performance.

Besides acting, Bips, as she is fondly called, did the famous video "Tu" for Sonu Nigam's album, Kismat back in her early days before she became an actress. She also made a guest appearance in Jay Sean's music video Stolen.

In 2006, she won popular acclaim for her performance in an Item number during the song Beedi in the film Omkara. The song was a national hit, and Basu's pictuarisation was appreciated.

In 2008 Basu starred in Race, her second collaboration with duo Abbas Mustan, with whom she debuted in Bollywood. Co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film performed well at the box office, and Basu's performance was appreciated by critics. Taran Adarsh of indiaFM described her performance as "her best work so far. She’s superb".She also received good reviews for her role in Bachna Ae Haseeno opposite Ranbir Kapoor.

Basu is currently dating actor John Abraham. The couple have been dating since late 2002. She previously dated fellow Bollywood actors Milind Soman and Dino Morea.

In 2006, Basu claimed to have been harassed by organizers of the India Day Parade in Edison, New Jersey. Basu was initially scheduled to lead the parade on August 13, 2006. Basu eventually appeared on stage late, according to her, because of the harassment. She said, "I wanted to attend the parade, but I could not." She explained that she was harassed physically and mentally in the car by two people who were taking her to the parade.