AKA Myint Myint Aye

Born October 31, 1966
She was born Myint Myint Aye (Burmese for "high high cool"), the name given to her by a Burmese priest to a Burmese father and an English mother in Rangoon.
In 1980, at the age of thirteen, she successfully auditioned, after being spotted singing in a launderette by a friend of Malcolm Maclaren's, as the lead singer for the newly formed band Bow Wow Wow and changed her name. The group's biggest hits were the songs "Go Wild in the Country" and "I Want Candy". Lwin created some controversy by posing nude (at the age of fifteen) for the cover of See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah! City All Over Go Ape Crazy, the group's first full-length album.
Lwin left the group in 1983 to embark on a solo career, releasing Fever in 1986 (RCA 8061). She formed a new band, Naked Experience, as well as collaborating with other musicians and songwriters such as Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Divinyls) and Ellen Shipley (Belinda Carlisle), releasing classics like "Carsex" and dance tracks like "Do What U Do", produced by Steve Lironi (Hansen). She reunited with former bandmate Leigh Gorman to reform Bow Wow Wow for a tour in 1997, and has had a frequent small-venue concert schedule since 2003. Appearances since their reunion have included Eshan Khadaroo of Beat Kitchen and Adrian Young from No Doubt filling in on drums for the original member Dave Barbarossa.
Lwin has also been recording original material as a solo artist, and is a featured vocalist on numerous transatlantic dance tracks with producers like Tony B and the Utah Saints. Some mystery surrounds her collaboration with the Utah Saints, as both her official site and the Utah Saints official site mention the collaboration but it appears never to have been available to buy. Her songwriting brought her into partnerships with Guy Chambers (a collaborator of Robbie Williams) and Michael Lattanzi (producer of Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, Sly & Robbie, Anastasia).
Since 2000 Annabella has performed several concerts for global charities like UNICEF and Save the Children Fund, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for needy children. She featured as a vocalist for Camp Freddy members, Dave Navarro and Billy Morrison for a Fundraising Tsunami concert. She also co-wrote and co-produced a solo song with record producer Carey Beare, donated exclusively to the Hands and Hearts Organization for Tsunami Relief in the Spring of 20.

AKA Piper Lisa Perabo

Born: 31-Oct-1976
Birthplace: Dallas, TX
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Slap Her... She's French
Brother: Noah Perabo
Brother: Adam Perabo
Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey. Her father, George William Perabo, is Portuguese and her mother, Mary Charlotte Ulland, is Norwegian. Piper's parents chose to name her after the classic actress, Piper Laurie. Her brothers, Noah and Adam, are also actors. She graduated from high school at Toms River High School North and then attended Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio) where she graduated summa cum laude in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater.
In high school she appeared in each yearly musicals. Her senior year, she was Katie in "Meet Me In St. Louis"; junior year, Cousin Fan in "Mame"; sophomore year, Lady Brighton in "Me and My Girl"; and freshman year, a dancer in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." She was also president of the National Honor Society and the editor of the school literary magazine, Polaris. In 2007 she visited her high school to see "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying".
Perabo graduated from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College in 1998 with a BFA in theater. After graduating, Piper studied acting at the LaMama Theater in New York and had small roles in two plays. She was a waitress in New York City at an upscale restaurant prior to being officially discovered. Perabo enjoys classical music, literature and fishing. Piper is close friends with actress Lena Headey, her co-star inThe Cave and Imagine Me & You.
Career
In 2000 Perabo was cast in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle as lead character FBI agent Karen Sympathy. Her following role in Coyote Ugly brought her into the public eye. She played the role of Violet Sanford, a.k.a. "Jersey," a young woman who moves to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter. She had to take lessons in voice, guitar, piano and bartending to prepare for the role. Despite poor reviews, the film was a modest box-office success and she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Music Moment for "One Way or Another."
In 2001 Perabo starred in an independent Canadian movie called Lost and Delirious, playing a boarding school student who falls in love with a female classmate. The next year she starred as a French exchange student in Slap Her... She's French, which was shelved in North America for two years, then released under the new title She Gets What She Wants. The film was released under its original title in Europe. In 2003, she had a role as the eldest child, Nora, in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) which she reprised in its 2005 sequel.
Other recent films include The i Inside (2003), Perfect Opposites (2004), George and the Dragon (2004), The Cave (2005), Edison (2005), and The Prestige (2006).
She has also appeared as a nutritionist on the Fox TV show "House".

AKA Grace Barnett Wing

Born: 30-Oct-1939
Birthplace: Chicago Hope Hospital, Evanston, IL
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Jefferson Airplane and Starship
Father: Ivan W. Wing (investment banker)
Mother: Virginia Barnett Wing (singer)
Brother: Chris (b. 1949)
Husband: Gerald Slick (known as Jerry, m. 26-Aug-1961, div.)
Boyfriend: Spencer Dryden (1967-69)
Daughter: China Wing Kantner (b. 25-Jan-1971)
Husband: Skip Johnson (m. 29-Nov-1976)
Grace Slick was born in Chicago to Ivan W. Wing (of Norwegian-Swedish extraction) and his wife Virginia Barnett, She attended Castilleja, a private, all-girls school in Palo Alto, California, near San Francisco. Following graduation, she attended Finch College in New York from 1956-1958 and the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida from 1957-1959.
Before entering the music scene, Slick was a model for a short time in the early sixties.
Slick maintained a friendship with Janis Joplin that began early in her music career and lasted until Joplin's death by drug overdose on October 4, 1970. She also had a friendship, as well as a sexual relationship, with Jim Morrison. According to her biography, it began during their 1968 European tour but no real romance was involved[citation needed]. Jeff Tamarkin's Jefferson Airplane biography, however, makes no mention of such a relationship. She was also good friends with The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia.
Slick was married twice, to Gerald "Jerry" Slick, a cinematographer, and then to Skip Johnson, a Jefferson Starship lighting designer. She has one daughter, China Wing Kantner (born January 25, 1971). China's father is former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner, with whom Grace had a relationship from 1969 through 1975. During her stay in the hospital after the baby's birth, Grace sarcastically told one of the attending nurses (who Grace thought to be annoyingly pious) that she intended to name the child "god", with a small g. The nurse took Grace seriously, and her reports of the incident caused a minor stir.
Career
During her musical career, Slick was a member of several rock bands: The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson Airplane's successor bands, Jefferson Starship and Starship.
Notable songs that she recorded with Jefferson Airplane/Starship include "White Rabbit" (which she is reputed to have written in 30 minutes), "Somebody to Love", "We Built This City", "Lather" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". The songs Somebody to Love and White Rabbit appeared on Rolling Stone's top 500 greatest songs of all time.
Slick's solo albums include Manhole, Dreams, 'Software' and Welcome to the Wrecking Ball. Dreams, produced by Scott Zito, is thought by many critics to be Grace Slick's finest hour as a vocalist.
Alongside her close contemporary Janis Joplin, Slick was an important figure in the development of rock music in the late 1960s. Her distinctive vocal style has exerted a definite influence on other female performers, such as Sandy Denny and Dolores O'Riordan. Like Joplin, Slick's uncompromising persona and powerful voice helped to open up new modes of expression for female performers, giving a new legitimacy to the role of the female lead singer in the male-dominated world of rock music.
Grace was given the nickname "The Chrome Nun" by David Crosby, who also referred to Paul Kantner as "Barron von Tollbooth". Their nicknames were used as the title of an album she made with bandmates Paul Kantner and David Freiberg entitled Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun.
Run-Ins with Law Enforcement
Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are both alumni of Finch College. Grace was invited to a tea party for the alumnae at the White House in 1969. She invited the political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort, and planned to spike President Nixon's tea with LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering by White House security personnel, when Slick and Hoffman were recognized.
In 1971, she was charged with driving under the influence after crashing her Mercedes into a wall near the Golden Gate Bridge while racing with Jorma Kaukonen. She suffered only a concussion, and later used the incident as the basis of her "Never Argue with a German if You're Tired or European Song", which appears on the "Bark" album (1971).
In 1978, Grace arrived drunk at a Jefferson Starship concert in Germany. She verbally attacked the crowd and attempted to sing. The next day she left the group. She was admitted to a detoxification facility at least once. Slick has publicly acknowledged her alcoholism and commented on her use of LSD.
She was reportedly arrested in 1994 for assault with a deadly weapon, after pointing an unloaded gun at a police officer (after, according to her, the officer came onto her property without explanation). A remarkably similar situation is described in Grace's song "Law Man", released on the "Bark" album in 1971.
Retired Life
Slick left Starship in 1988 at age 48. Following a brief Jefferson Airplane reunion the following year, she retired from the music business. During a 1998 interview with VH1 on a Behind the Music documentary featuring Jefferson Airplane, Slick stated that the main reason she retired from the music business was that "all rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire."
After retirement, she turned her attention to painting. She has done many renditions of her fellow '60s musicians such as Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, and others. In 2000, she began displaying and selling her artwork.
She has generally stayed away from music, although she did perform on "Knock Me Out", a track from In Flight, the 1996 solo debut from former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry. The song also appeared on the soundtrack to The Crow: City of Angels.
In a 2001 USA Today article, she said, "I'm in good health and people want to know what I do to be this way, ...I don't eat cheese, I don't eat duck — the point is I'm vegan..."
Grace released her autobiography, Grace Slick: Somebody to Love? A Rock and Roll Memoir in 1998.
In 2006, Grace suffered from diverticulitis. After initial surgery, she had a relapse requiring further surgery and a tracheotomy. She was placed in an induced coma for two months and then had to learn to walk again.
Artistic accomplishments
Slick's longevity in the music business helped her earn a rather unusual distinction: the oldest female vocalist on a Billboard Hot 100 number one single. "We Built This City" reached #1 on November 16, 1985, less than three weeks after her 46th birthday. The previous record was age 44 for Tina Turner, with 1984's number-one hit, "What's Love Got To Do With It". Turner (who is, coincidentally within a month of Slick's age) turned 45 two months after the song topped the charts. Slick broke her own record in Summer 1987 at age 47 when "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" topped the U.S. charts. Her record stood for 12 years, but was ultimately broken by Cher, who was 53 in 1999 when "Believe" hit number one.
Slick did vocals for Jazz Numbers, a series of animated shorts about the numbers 2 through 10, which aired on Sesame Street. Jazz #2, for instance, appeared in the first episode of the first season of Sesame Street, November 10, 1969.
She was inducted into into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 (as a member of Jefferson Airplane).
She was ranked #20 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll.
Aside from singing, she also sometimes played piano, keyboards, and flute for the bands.
During her musical career, Slick was a member of several rock bands: The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson Airplane's successor bands, Jefferson Starship and Starship.
She was known not only for her provocative lyrics but also for her alcoholism and public persona. Notable songs that she recorded with Jefferson Airplane/Starship include "White Rabbit", "Somebody to Love", "We Built This City", "Volunteers", "Lather" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". Jefferson Airplane's albums Surrealistic Pillow and Volunteers were ranked in the top 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Their hit songs Somebody to Love and White Rabbit also appeared on Rolling Stone's top 500 greatest songs of all time.
Slick's solo albums include Manhole, Dreams, 'Software' and Welcome to the Wrecking Ball. Dreams, produced by Scott Zito, is thought by many critics to be Grace Slick's finest hour as a vocalist.
Alongside her close contemporary Janis Joplin, Slick was an important figure in the development of rock music in the late 1960s. Her distinctive vocal style has exerted a definite influence on other female performers, such as Sandy Denny and Dolores O'Riordan. Like Joplin, Slick's uncompromising persona and powerful voice helped to open up new modes of expression for female performers, giving a new legitimacy to the role of the female lead singer in the male-dominated world of rock music.

Born: 30-Oct-1975
Birthplace: Boring, OR
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Redhead on Strangers with Candy
Brother: (biologist)
Maria Thayer is an actress best known for her roles as Rory in Accepted and Tammi Littlenut in Strangers with Candy. She also played Grace and Leo's daughter, Laila (at age 18), in the series finale of Will & Grace (May 2006).

AKA Winona Laura Horowitz

Born: 29-Oct-1971
Birthplace: Winona, MN
Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Actress, shoplifter
Father: Michael Horowitz (bookstore owner)
Mother: Cindy Istas (video producer)
Sister: Sunyata Palmer (half-sister, from her mother's first marriage)
Brother: Jubal Palmer (half-brother, from her mother's first marriage)
Brother: Yuri Horowitz
Boyfriend: Christian Slater (actor, dated 1989-90)
Boyfriend: Johnny Depp (actor, dated and briefly engaged 1990-93)
Boyfriend: Dave Pirner (musician, dated 1993-96)
Boyfriend: Matt Damon (actor, dated 1996-2000)
Born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, she was named after the nearby city of Winona. She was given her middle name, Laura, because of her parents' friendship with Aldous Huxley's wife, Laura Huxley. Her mother is Cindy Horowitz (née Istas), a practicing Buddhist and author of 'Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writings on the Drug Experience', and her father is author and editor Michael Horowitz. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Records show her father's family were originally named Tomschin when they arrived on the Kroonland at Ellis Island in 1906, but went under the name Horowitz when they resided in Manhattan. Ryder has one sibling, a younger brother, Yuri (named after Yuri Gagarin), an older half-brother, Jubal, and an older half-sister, Sunyata. Notable family friends include her godfather, LSD guru Timothy Leary, and beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
In 1978, when Ryder was 7 years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a commune near Elk, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre (1.2 km²) plot of land. As the remote property had no electricity or television sets, Ryder took to reading. Her mother did, however, show her some films on a screen in the barn and consequently, she developed an interest in acting.
At age ten, Ryder and her family moved on again, this time to Petaluma, California. During her first week at the Kenilworth Middle School, she was bullied by a group of her peers who mistook her for an effeminate, scrawny boy. As a result, she ended up being homeschooled that year. In 1983, when Ryder was twelve, she enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons. She graduated from Petaluma High School with a 4.0 GPA.
Ryder has also revealed that she suffers from aquaphobia due to the trauma caused by an incident in which she nearly drowned at age 12. This caused problems when she had to act in some of the underwater scenes in Alien: Resurrection in 1997, and the scenes had to be reshot numerous times.
Career
Early works, 1985–1990
In 1985, Ryder sent a videotaped audition to appear in the film Desert Bloom and was rejected. Despite this, David Seltzer, a writer and director, soon noticed her and cast her for his 1986 film Lucas in the role of a friend of the main character. When asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested "Ryder" as her surname as a Mitch Ryder album which belonged to her father was playing in the background. Her next movie was Square Dance (1987), where her teenage character creates a bridge between two different worlds — a traditional farm in the middle of nowhere and a Big City. The film considered the question of how much of our behavior derives from our genetic background, how much is influenced by society (i.e., the nature vs. nurture debate), and what the ethical implications are. The Los Angeles Times called Ryder's performance in Square Dance "a remarkable debut". However, both films failed to gain Ryder any notice, and were only marginally successful commercially. Ryder's next role was in Tim Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice, in which she played a gothic-dressing teenager named Lydia Deetz, suffering from depression. Lydia's family moves to a haunted house populated by ghosts played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Michael Keaton. Lydia quickly finds herself the only human with a strong empathy toward the ghosts and their situation. The film was a moderate success at the box office, and Ryder's performance and the overall film received mostly positive reviews from critics.
In 1989, Ryder starred in the independent production Heathers. The film was a satirical take on high school life, with Ryder playing Veronica Sawyer, a character who is strongly opposed to violence as a way to resolve conflicts and is ultimately forced to choose between the will of society and her own heart. Upon taking the role, Ryder's agent begged her to turn it down, saying the film would "ruin her career." Ryder later fired that agent. The film was a flop at the box office on its initial release, but has achieved cult classic status from high sales and rentals. Marked by controversy in its depiction of violence in teenage life, critical reaction was lukewarm, but Ryder's performance was critically embraced, with The Washington Post stating Ryder is "Hollywood's most impressive inge'nue [sic] ... Ryder ... makes us love her teen-age murderess, a bright, funny girl with a little Bonnie Parker in her. She is the most likable, best-drawn young adult protagonist since the sexual innocent of Gregory's Girl". Later that year, she starred in Great Balls of Fire!, playing the thirteen-year-old bride of Jerry Lee Lewis. The film was a box office failure, but became a moderate success with critics. In April 1989, she played the title role in the music video for Mojo Nixon's Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child.
In 1990, Ryder appeared in three films, the first playing the primary role in Edward Scissorhands (1990), alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. The film would reprise Tim Burton and Ryder, who had previously worked together on Beetlejuice. Edward Scissorhands would become one of 1990s highest grossing films, and was deemed by The Austin Chronicle as an "utterly enchanting fairy tale". Later that year, she withdrew production on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III, after she had attended to Rome, Italy for filming, and stated that one morning she "could simply not get out of bed". The illness caused Ryder to cancel the project. This caused a state of difficulty for finding a role to replace Ryder. Eventually, Coppola's daughter Sofia Coppola was given the role.
Ryder's next role was in the family comedy Mermaids (1990), a cast which included Cher, a young and then-unknown Christina Ricci and Bob Hoskins, which became a moderate success. For her role as Charlotte Flax, Ryder received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. At the same time Ryder performed alongside with Cher and Christina Ricci the video from The Shoop Shoop Song the theme from Mermaids. Following Mermaids was Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael, which failed to generate much attention.
Major success, 1991–1995
In 1991, Ryder played a young taxi driver who dreams of becoming a mechanic in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth, challenging society's widely accepted gender roles. The film was only given a limited release at the box office, but received critical praise. She also starred in 1991's melodrama House of the Spirits, set in Chile in 1926 and capturing the upheavals of the political side of the country. Ryder played the love interest of Antonio Banderas. Principal filming was done in Denmark and Portugal. The film was poorly reviewed and a box office flop, grossing just US$6,265,311 on its US$40 million budget. The following year, Ryder starred in the dual roles of Dracula's reincarnated love interest Mina Murray and Dracula's past lover Princess Elisabeta, in Bram Stoker's Dracula, a project she brought to director Francis Ford Coppola's attention.
In 1993, Ryder starred in The Age of Innocence (alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis), a film based on a novel by Edith Wharton and helmed by director Martin Scorsese, whom Ryder considers as "the best director". Ryder portrayed a young woman, captured in plots within plots within plots of the society where every sentence pronounced has at least three different meanings. Her surroundings reflect the interpersonal and societal conflicts raging within and around her via many scenic references and multi-layered utterances. Her role in this movie won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as an Academy Award nomination in the same category.
Her next starring role was in 1995's How to Make an American Quilt. Later in 1994, Ryder was handpicked to play Josephine March in the classical literature film adaptation of Little Women. Ryder received widespread praise, with noted critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times remarking that "[Ryder] gives a strong and sunny performance". She also received an Best Actress Oscar nomination the following year. That same year, Ryder starred in Reality Bites, playing a young woman searching for direction in her life. She also made a guest appearance in The Simpsons, in the episode "Lisa's Rival", as Allison Taylor.
Continued success, 1996–2000
Ryder made several film appearances in 1996. Her first role was in Boys, a film in which her character seems to be pitted against the whole world, with love her only true friend. The film failed to become a box office success, and attracted strong negative critical reaction. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that "Boys is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of Before Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot substituting for clever dialogue." In 1996, she starred in Al Pacino's debut as a director, Looking for Richard, which became a failure commercially, yet drew moderate critical attention. She also starred as the lead in The Crucible alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Joan Allen. The film centered on the Salem witch trials and the hysteria that prompted the deaths of many without trial. The film was expected to be a success, considering its budget, but became a large failure at the box office. Despite this, it received critical acclaim, and Ryder's performance was given laudatory praise, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine saying, "Ryder offers a transfixing portrait of warped innocence." Later that year, Ryder was described as one of "world's most beautiful women" in the "100 Most Beautiful" issue of People Magazine. Ryder was turned down for the lead role in Conspiracy Theory (1997), being called "too young", which went to Julia Roberts. In December of 1996, Ryder accepted a role as a humanoid robot in 1997's Alien: Resurrection, alongside Sigourney Weaver, who had appeared in the entire Alien trilogy. Ryder's brother, Suri, was a major fan of the film series, and when asked, she took the role. The film became one of the least successful entries in the Alien film series, but was still a success all things considered, grossing $161 million worldwide. Weaver's and Ryder's performances drew mostly positive reviews, and Ryder won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress. Ryder then starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), after Drew Barrymore turned down Ryder's role, in an ensemble cast. The film satirizes the life of multiple celebrities.
In 1999, she performed in and served as executive producer for Girl, Interrupted, based on the 1993 autobiography of Susanna Kaysen. The film had been in project and post-production since late 1996, however it took time to surface. Ryder was deeply attached to the film, considering it her "child of the heart" Ryder starred as Kaysen, who had a borderline personality disorder. Ryder starred alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Angelina Jolie. While the lead role of the film was Ryder's character, and anticipated to be a comeback for Ryder, the film instead became the "welcome-to-Hollywood coronation" for Jolie. Also in 1999, Ryder was parodied in the South Park movie. The following year, she starred in the romantic comedy Autumn in New York, alongside Richard Gere. The film received mixed reviews; however, according to Box Office Mojo, it grossed more than 90 million stateside. In 2000, she played a nun of a secret society loosely connected to Roman Catholic Church determined to prevent Armageddon in Lost Souls, which did not do well at the box office. Ryder also refused to do any promotion for Lost Souls. Later in 2000, she was one of several celebrities who made a small cameo appearance in Zoolander.
Hiatus, 2001–2005
Ryder had a hiatus after her shoplifting incident. The new book Conversations With Woody Allen reports that film director Woody Allen wanted to cast Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2000, but was unable to do so because he could not get insurance on them. "I couldn't get insurance on them . . . We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them," said Allen. "We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on "Celebrity"] and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again" Allen added.
In 2002, Ryder appeared in two films. The first was a romantic comedy titled Mr. Deeds, alongside Adam Sandler. This was her most commercially successful movie to date, earning over $126 million in the U.S. alone. She played a cynical reporter for an unscrupulous television program. The second film was the science fiction drama S1m0ne in which she portrayed a glamorous star who is replaced by a computer simulated actress due to the clandestine machinations of a director, portrayed by Al Pacino.
2006–present
In 2006, after an extensive hiatus, Ryder appeared in Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, a futuristic movie based on Philip K. Dick's critically acclaimed novel. Ryder portrayed Donna Hawthorne alongside Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson. Live action scenes were transformed with rotoscope software and the film was entirely animated. A Scanner Darkly was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival. Critics disagreed over the film's merits. Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times found the film "engrossing" and wrote that "the brilliance of [the film] is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books." Similarly, Matthew Turner of ViewLondon, believing the film to be "engaging" and "beautifully animated," also praised the film for its "superb performances" and original, thought-provoking screenplay. Ryder also recently appeared in the comedy The Darwin Awards, starring alongside Joseph Fiennes. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2007.
Ryder also confirmed to Entertainment Weekly she is reuniting with screenwriter Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers, for the surreal black comedy Sex and Death 101 (2007). The story follows the sexual odysseys of successful businessman Roderick Blank, played by Simon Baker, who receives a mysterious e-mail on the eve of his wedding, listing all of his past and future sex partners. Filming wrapped July 6, 2006, and is set for release in 2007. "We will be doing a sequel to Heathers next", Ryder said. "There's Heathers in the real world! We have to keep going!" In a recent interview for Entertainment Weekly Ryder was quoted as saying,
“ I don't know how much of the movie is official; it's a ways away. But it takes place in Washington and Christian Slater agreed to come back and make an Obi-Wan-type appearance. It's very funny. ”
Ryder will also soon appear in David Wain's new comedy The Ten, along with Jessica Alba, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt, and Adam Brody. The film centers around 10 stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. Filming wrapped on September 7, 2006. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival 2007 on January 10, 2007. A theatrical release date has been set for August 3, 2007.
It has also been announced Ryder will play the female lead opposite Wes Bentley and Ray Romano in Geoffrey Haley’s offbeat romantic drama The Last Word. Filming is set to begin on March 19, 2007
Personal life
Relationships
Ryder has had many high profile relationships with actors. She was engaged to actor Johnny Depp for three years beginning in July 1990. During their relationship, Depp had a tattoo placed on his arm reading "Winona Forever," which he had altered to "Wino Forever" after their separation. Ryder later had serious relationships with Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and actor Matt Damon. Ryder also told W Magazine in a July, 2002 issue that she is close friends with comedian and actor Jimmy Fallon. She was also close friends with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, until they reportedly "grew apart".
Polly Klaas
In 1993, Ryder became involved in the Polly Klaas kidnapping case. Klaas lived in the same town where Ryder grew up, Petaluma. Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for the 12 year-old kidnap victim's safe return. After Polly's death, Ryder starred in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and dedicated it to her memory. Little Women was one of Polly's favorite novels. The producers at first wanted to remove the dedication, but Ryder said she would not do any publicity for the film if it was removed, so it was retained. In December of 2002, during Ryder's sentencing for shoplifting, her attorney Mark Geragos detailed Ryder's efforts in the Klaas kidnapping during his defense arguments. DA assistant Ann Rundle then accused Ryder of "building her career over the body of a dead child." Ryder was visibly upset by the accusation. Mark Klaas, Polly's father, was expelled from the courtroom while attempting to voice protest.
2001 shoplifting incident
On December 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested for shoplifting $5,500 USD worth of designer clothes and accessories at a Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, California. Los Angeles District Attorney Stephen Cooley produced a team of eight prosecutors. Cooley filed four felony charges against her in what was described by a British newspaper The Guardian as a "show-trial", since the prosecution demanded the trial be televised. Ryder hired noted celebrity defense attorney Mark Geragos. Negotiations for a plea-bargain failed at the end of summer 2002. As noted by Joel Mowbray from the National Review, the prosecution was not ready to offer the actress what was given to 5000 other defendants in similar cases, an open door to a no-contest plea on misdemeanor charges.
During the trial, she was also accused of using drugs without valid prescriptions. According to a probation report, Ryder had filled up to 37 prescriptions written by 20 doctors, using six different aliases, in a three-year period. The defense produced the written prescriptions for the drugs that the police found in her purse, and the prosecution consequently dropped the charge.[citation needed] Ryder was convicted of grand theft and vandalism, but was acquitted on the third felony charge, burglary. In December of 2002, she was sentenced to three years' probation, 480 hours of community service, US$3,700 in fines, and US$6,355 in restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue store—and was ordered to attend psychological and drug counselling by the judge.
The charges were eventually reviewed, and on June 18, 2004 the felonies were reduced to misdemeanors.
Other interests
Since the age of fourteen, Ryder enjoyed skateboarding but was encouraged to give it up by agents after she became a successful actress. In her spare time, Ryder enjoys reading 1960s literature, and books by Jane Austen. She has cited The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger as her favorite novel.

Born: 29-Oct-1967
Birthplace: Burbank, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Nostradamus
Father: Eddie Fisher (singer)
Mother: Connie Stevens
Sister: Carrie Fisher (half-sister)
Sister: Tricia Leigh Fisher
Husband: Christopher Duddy (film industry, m. 31-Dec-1996)
Daughter: Skylar Grace Fisher-Duddy
She was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Connie Stevens. Her younger sister is actress Tricia Leigh Fisher. She has a half sister, actress Carrie Fisher, and a half-brother, Todd Fisher, from her father's previous marriage to actress Debbie Reynolds.
Her parents divorced when she was age two and she was raised by her mother. She was unaware that she had any other siblings until sometime after watching Star Wars (1977), when she was told that the actress starring as Princess Leia Organa was her half-sister.
Joely began performing on stage in her mother's Las Vegas act at age seven. She and Tricia toured the world with Stevens, attending many different schools and having tutors. They then attended Beverly Hills High School. Joely went to the University of Paris for one semester. While on her way there, she stopped off in New York and dropped in unannounced on her father, reestablishing relations with him. She then attended Emerson College, but left before graduating to begin an acting career. Having a weight problem as an adolescent, she played the "fat friend" in summer stock.
As the child of celebrities, she was named Miss Golden Globe at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards.
Career
Her movie debut was in the part of Averil in the comedy Pretty Smart (1986), which starred her sister, Tricia. Joely then played Kris in TV's Schoolbreak Special drama Dedicated to the One I Love (1991) opposite Danielle Ferland. Next came the feature I'll Do Anything (1994) starring Nick Nolte, which helped her career as bigger roles followed.
She had a variety of guest roles on shows such as Growing Pains, Blossom, Caroline in the City, The Outer Limits, Grace Under Fire and Coach.
Finally, in 1994, she landed her most prominent role when she was cast as the vain and insensitive Paige Clark on the sitcom Ellen. She played the role until the series ended in 1998. That same year she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination.
She followed 'Ellen' with the role of Dr. Brenda Bradford in the feature movie Inspector Gadget (1999) opposite Matthew Broderick.
Fisher's Broadway debut was as a replacement in the revival of Grease (1994). She was also a replacement in the revival of Cabaret (1998).
From 2003 until 2005, she starred in the Lifetime network's drama series Wild Card as insurance investigator Zoe Busiek. After that, she had a recurring role as Lynette's bitchy boss Nina on Desperate Housewives.
Since 2006, Fisher has starred opposite actor Brad Garrett in the Fox sitcom 'Til Death.
Personal Life
She is married to cinematographer Christopher Duddy (married December 31, 1996 – present). She and Duddy have two daughters: Skylar Grace Fisher-Duddy (born June 14, 2001) and True Harlow Fisher-Duddy (born February 2, 2006). Fisher practiced natural childbirth and had a home birth with True.

AKA Julie Fiona Roberts

Born: 28-Oct-1967
Birthplace: Smyrna, GA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Pretty Woman
Father: Walter Roberts (b. 1933, stage actor, d. 1977, throat cancer)
Mother: Betty Lou Roberts (b. 1934, real estate agent)
Father: Michael Motes (stepfather)
Brother: Eric Roberts (actor, b. 1956)
Sister: Lisa Roberts Gillan (actress, b. 1965)
Sister: Nancy Motes (stepsister, b. 19-May-1975)
Boyfriend: Liam Neeson (actor, dated late 1980s)
Boyfriend: Richard Gere (actor, dated 1989)
Boyfriend: Dylan McDermott (actor, dated 1989)
Boyfriend: Kiefer Sutherland (broken engagement in 1991)
Boyfriend: Jason Patric (actor, dated 1991-92)
Husband: Lyle Lovett (singer, dated 1992-93, m. 25-Jun-1993, div. 22-Mar-1995)
Boyfriend: Ethan Hawke (actor, dated mid-1990s)
Boyfriend: Matthew Perry (actor, dated mid-1990s)
Boyfriend: Daniel Day-Lewis (actor, dated mid-1990s)
Boyfriend: Benjamin Bratt (actor, dated 1998-2001)
Husband: Danny Moder (cameraman, b. 1969, dated 2001-02, m. 4-Jul-2002, three children)
Daughter: Hazel Patricia Moder (b. 28-Nov-2004, twin, with Moder)
Son: Phinnaeus Walter Moder (b. 28-Nov-2004, twin, with Moder)
Son: Henry Daniel Moder (b. 18-Jun-2007, with Moder)
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American film actress and former fashion model. She shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere. Her career includes films such as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, and Ocean's Eleven, which have collectively earned box office receipts well over $2 billion. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2001 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich after two previous nominations during the 1990s.
Since then, Roberts has become the highest-paid actress in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual power list of top-earning female stars for four consecutive years (2002-2005). An unprecedented $25 million was paid to Roberts for her role in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2007, Roberts' net worth was estimated around US$140,000,000.
Roberts was also the first actress to appear on the cover of Vogue and the first woman to land on the cover of GQ. She has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" a record-setting eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001 Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, beating out then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush.
Early life
It is commonly mistaken that Julia's birth name is "Julie," however, Julia has said in interviews that "Julie" was a nickname given to her by classmates in elementary school, and she never took well to it. Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, and her Minneapolis, Minnesota-born mother, Betty Lou Bredemus, was a one-time church secretary and real estate agent. Her parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces and later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Georgia; the two divorced in 1971. Her mother later re-married to Michael Motes and had another daughter, named Nancy Motes who was born in 1976. Roberts' father died of cancer when she was ten. Her older brother and sister, Eric Roberts (from whom she was estranged for a while) and Lisa Roberts Gillan, are also actors. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, and after attending Georgia State University, she headed to New York to join her sister Lisa Roberts Gillan and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She reverted to her original name "Julia Roberts" when she found that there was already a "Julie Roberts" registered with the Screen Actors Guild.
Her niece Emma Roberts, who she used to take to the sets when she was younger, has joined her father and aunts in the acting business. Recently, she gained a starring role on the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous and has appeared in the films Blow (2001), Aquamarine (2006) and Nancy Drew (2007).
Career
1986—1989, Early career
Roberts made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (she gets just two words of dialogue), which, although completed in 1986, was not released until 1989. She once appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions. Roberts first caught the attention of moviegoers with her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988; the same year she had a role in the last episode of season four of Miami Vice. The following year she was featured in Steel Magnolias as a young bride battling diabetes and garnered her first Oscar nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) for her performance.
1990—2000, Breakout role and eventual success
Roberts first catapulted to worldwide fame when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella story Pretty Woman in 1990. Roberts was able to win the role after the first two choices for the part, Molly Ringwald and Meg Ryan turned it down. The role also earned her a second Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress. Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her demented husband and starts a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, which was followed by a two-year period of no acting roles other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?"
In 1993, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in the successful The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel. She also starred alongside Liam Neeson in the 1996 film Michael Collins. Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, primarily because she was cast in roles that strayed too far from her film persona. She broke her losing streak with the hugely popular comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), and eventually regained her earlier reputation as an actress who could open a movie and guarantee box office success. She then starred with Hugh Grant in the popular 1999 film Notting Hill. In that same year she also starred in Runaway Bride, another movie with the famous Julia Roberts-Richard Gere duo.
2001—2006, continued success
In 2001, she won critical acclaim and finally received a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. Whilst presenting the Best Actor Award to Denzel Washington the following year she made a gaff when she said she was glad Tom Conti wasn't there. She meant the conductor Bill Conti who tried to hasten the conclusion of her speech the previous year but named the British actor instead.[6] Subsequently, Roberts would team up with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal, and Ocean's Twelve.
In 2005, she was featured in the music video for the hit single "Dreamgirl" by the Dave Matthews Band. Roberts is reported to be a longtime fan of the band.
2006—present, hiatus
Roberts recently enjoyed her Broadway debut as Nan in Three Days of Rain opposite Alias and Kitchen Confidential star Bradley Cooper, and The 40 Year Old Virgin star, Paul Rudd, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Although the play grossed nearly one million dollars in ticket sales its first week out and continued to be a commercial success throughout its limited run, most critics have heavily criticized Roberts' performance and the play itself. The New York Times' critic Ben Brantly, a self proclaimed 'Juliaholic', described her as being fraught with "self-consciousness (especially in the first act) [and] only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays." Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stage design categories, but took home neither prize. Julia Roberts did, however, receive a Broadway.com audience award (a minor theatrical prize) for her performance.
Influence
As of February 25, 2007, Roberts's films have grossed $2,203,765,451 at the American box office making her the biggest female movie star in history and reaching this feat with only thirty films to her name. She was also placed at the pinnacle of the Ulmer Scale, a comprehensive guide to the global star power of actors and directors in independent and studio films created by James Ulmer, ahead of such other luminaries as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. This was partly owing to her ability to attract filmgoers solely on the basis of her name's appearance above the title and without the support of a male co-star, something few other actresses are able to do.
Personal life
Roberts's personal life has often been in the spotlight, a fact reflected in her Notting Hill, a romantic comedy about a famous actress falling for a bookstore owner played by Hugh Grant. Her character, Anna Scott, was said to be closely modeled on Roberts herself. (When asked in one scene how much she was paid to appear in a movie, Scott replies "fifteen million dollars" — precisely the amount Roberts had received to appear in the film.)
Relationships
Roberts' has had numerous famous boyfriends, including Kiefer Sutherland, Lyle Lovett, Daniel Day-Lewis, Matthew Perry, Liam Neeson, Benjamin Bratt and Dylan McDermott. For a time, she lived with Liam Neeson. Roberts met Sutherland in 1990, when he was her co-star in Flatliners . Sutherland left his wife and children and moved in with Roberts. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with a wedding of June 14, 1991. Roberts cancelled the wedding when she discovered Sutherland had had an affair with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Roberts went to Europe with Jason Patric after she and Sutherland broke up. Eventually, she married country singer Lyle Lovett after the couple had known each other for a few weeks. The wedding was planned on very short notice and was held in Marion, Indiana. Two years later, in March 1995, the couple announced that they were separating.
At the Christmas '98 premiere of Stepmom, Roberts appeared with actor Benjamin Bratt. In late June 2001, Roberts and Bratt announced they were breaking up. "It's come to a kind and tenderhearted end," she said of their relationship.
Roberts met her current husband, cameraman Danny Moder, on the set of her movie The Mexican in 2000 and they began an affair. He was already married to Vera Steinberg Moder at the time and it has been widely reported that Roberts offered Danny's then wife $250,000.00 to agree to a divorce. After Moder's divorce was finalized, he and Roberts wed on Fourth of July 2002, at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
On November 28, 2004, they became the parents of fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus Walter. They had their third child, son Henry Daniel Moder, on June 18, 2007 in Los Angeles.
Roberts bought a penthouse in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood. She reportedly loves to shop anonymously, buying her own organic greens on weekends at the market in nearby Union Square. She and her family divide their time between their homes in New York City, Malibu, Venice Beach, California, and their 50-acre retreat in Taos.

AKA Lauren Michael Holly

Born: 28-Oct-1963
Birthplace: Bristol, PA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Pavement
Father: Grant Holly (literature professor)
Mother: Michael Ann (art professor)
Brother: Nick Holly (literary agent)
Brother: Alexander (d. 1992 fire)
Husband: Danny Quinn (actor and son of Anthony Quinn, m. 1991, div. 1993)
Husband: Jim Carrey (actor, m. 23-Sep-1996, div. 29-Jul-1997)
Boyfriend: Edward Burns (actor, ex-)
Husband: Francis Greco (investment banker, m. 10-Mar-2001)
Son: Alexander Joseph Greco (adopted, Jun-2001)
Early life
Holly was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Her father is an English literature professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Both of her parents were educators, her mother being an art history professor at the University of Rochester. She was raised in upstate Geneva, New York and graduated from Geneva High School with the class of 1981 where she was a cheerleader. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1985 with a B.A. degree in English Literature.
Career
At the age of twenty-three, Holly joined the cast of the iconic ABC television soap opera, All My Children, as Julie Chandler (1986-1989). The actress portrayed the comic book character, Betty, on television's Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again in 1990. One of her best known film roles was as Mary Swanson, Lloyd Christmas' love interest in the movie Dumb & Dumber. She is also well-known for portraying Linda Lee Cadwell, the wife of legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993). She also achieved popularity as Police Officer Maxine Stewart in the long-running TV series Picket Fences. In 2005 she joined the cast of NCIS as Director Jenny Shepard.

AKA Dylan Marlais Thomas

Born: 27-Oct-1914
Birthplace: Swansea, Wales
Died: 9-Nov-1953
Location of death: St. Vincent's Hospital, New York City
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Remains: Buried, Laugharne, Wales
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Poet
Nationality: Wales
Executive summary: Most influential Welsh poet
Wife: Caitlin Macnamara (m. 11-Jul-1937, until his death, two sons, one daughter)
Son: Llewelyn (b. Jan-1939)
Daughter: Aeronwy (b. Mar-1940)
Son: Colm Garan Thomas (b. Jul-1949)
Girlfriend: Elizabeth Reitell
Dylan Thomas was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, in Swansea, Wales. His father, David, who taught English Literature at the local Grammar School, brought his son up to speak English; his mother, Florence, spoke Welsh. His middle name, Marlais, came from the bardic name of his uncle, the Unitarian minister Gwilym Marles (whose given name was William Thomas). He had one sister, Nancy, eight years his senior.
His formal education began at seven, at Mrs. Hole's Dame School. He later attended the boys-only Swansea Grammar School in the Mount Pleasant district of the city. It was in this school's magazine that Thomas saw his first poem published. He left school at 16 to become a reporter for 18 months.
His childhood was spent largely in Swansea, with regular summer trips to visit his mother's family on their Carmarthen farm. These rural sojourns, and the contrast with the town life of Swansea, provided inspiration for much of his work, notably many short stories, radio essays and the poem Fern Hill. He was considered too frail to fight in World War II, so he served the war effort by writing scripts for government propaganda.
Early work
Thomas wrote half his poems and many short stories when he lived at the family home. And death shall have no dominion is one of the best known works written at this address. His highly acclaimed first poetry volume, 18 Poems, was published on December 18, 1934. The publication of Deaths and Entrances in 1946 was a major turning point in his career. Thomas was well known for being a versatile and dynamic speaker, best known for his poetry readings. His powerful voice would captivate American audiences during his speaking tours of the early 1950s. He made over 200 broadcasts for the BBC. Often considered his greatest single work is Under Milk Wood, a radio play featuring the characters of Llareggub, a fictional Welsh fishing village. Richard Burton starred in the first broadcast; he was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film.
Marriage and children
Dylan Thomas met his wife, Caitlin Macnamara, in a Fitzrovia pub, The Wheatsheaf, in the Spring of 1936. A drunken Thomas proposed marriage on the spot, and the two began a courtship.
On July 11, 1937, Thomas married MacNamara at Penzance register office. They had three children. The marriage was tempestuous, with rumours of affairs on both sides; Caitlin had an affair with Augustus John before, and quite possibly after, she married Thomas. It is widely suspected that Thomas' tumultuous personal life was a direct result of his frequent and heavy drinking. Their first child was born on January 30, 1939, a boy whom they named Llewelyn Edouard (died in 2000). He was followed on March 3, 1943 by a daughter, Aeronwy. A second son, Colm Garan Hart, was born on July 24, 1949.
Alcoholism and death
Thomas liked to boast about his drinking, saying "An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do." During an incident on November 3, 1953, Thomas returned to the Chelsea Hotel in New York and exclaimed, "I've had 18 straight whiskies; I think this is a record."
During a speaking tour at New York, Thomas became sexually involved with Katinka Loeser the wife of writer Peter De Vries. De Vries caught the two together and challenged Thomas to a drinking contest. De Vries was a much bigger man, and Thomas lost. He collapsed on November 9, 1953 at the White Horse Tavern, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan after drinking heavily; he later died at St Vincent's Hospital. The primary cause of his death is recorded as pneumonia, with pressure on the brain and a fatty liver given as contributing factors. His last words, according to Jack Heliker, were: "After 39 years, this is all I've done." Following his death, his body was brought back to Wales for burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne. His wife died in 1994, and was buried alongside him.

AKA Natalie Anne Merchant

Born: 26-Oct-1963
Birthplace: Jamestown, NY
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Musician
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: 10,000 Maniacs
Her paternal surname Merchant is of Sicilian origin and was originally Mercanto before being Anglicised. The name O'Shea is on her maternal side; they are of Irish extraction.
As a child, her mother listened to music (Beatles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin) and encouraged her children to study music, but she wouldn't allow TV after Natalie was 12. "I was taken to the symphony a lot because my mother loved classical music. But I was dragged to see Styx when I was 12. We had to drive 100 miles to Buffalo, New York. Someone threw up next to me and people were smoking pot. It was terrifying. I remember Styx had a white piano which rose out of the stage. It was awe-inspiring and inspirational." "She [her mother] had show tunes, she had the soundtrack from West Side Story and South Pacific. And then eventually... she'd always liked classical music and then she married a jazz musician, so that's the kind of music I was into. I never really had friends who sat around and listened to the stereo and said 'hey, listen to this one', so I'd never even heard of who Bob Dylan was until I was 18.". During 1988-1989, Natalie claimed she still didn't have a TV: "I grew up in a house where no one watched the news on television and no one read the paper. I've been discovering these things as I get older, and the news has affected me more than it ever has before." Her mother raised Natalie and her siblings alone, as Natalie's parents divorced in 1972. Her mother later remarried.
She is married and has a daughter. She likes gardening and painting. Some paintings can be seen at her official website.
She has been a vegetarian since 1980. She once said: "The '60s aesthetic has never really appealed to me, the tie-dyed Deadhead running barefoot through the forest on LSD. I don't think that's really me. But I've been a vegetarian for 17 years and I consider myself an environmentalist inasmuch as I can be, considering the job that I have. I prefer living in the countryside rather than the city; I find it more sane and sustaining for myself.
Career
Merchant was the lead singer of the band 10,000 Maniacs, joining in its infancy in 1981 while she was a student at Jamestown Community College.
She left the band in 1993 to pursue a successful solo career. Her debut solo album Tigerlily (1995) had three Top 40 singles in the U.S.: "Carnival", "Jealousy", and "Wonder". In 1997, she first performed "Planctus", a song for voice and piano written for her by Philip Glass. In 1998, Merchant released Ophelia, supported by co-headlining the concert tour Lilith Fair. The following year she released Live in Concert, containing covers and solo songs as well as a few from the 10,000 Maniacs era.
In 2001, Merchant released her album Motherland and went on an extensive tour of North America and Europe. She parted ways with Elektra Records in 2003 and released a folk album of traditional songs called The House Carpenter's Daughter in September of that year on Myth America Records, her own label.
In 2004 Elektra Records released Campfire Songs by 10,000 Maniacs, which includes a number of songs recorded during Natalie's tenure with the band. In 2005 Elektra Records released Retrospective: 1995-2005, a collection of her solo hits. It was also released as a limited-edition two-CD package featuring rare and previously unreleased songs.
Merchant plays the piano, and has written and produced almost all of her songs. She has sung alongside Michael Stipe, Susan McKeown, David Byrne, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, among many other artists. She has also collaborated with Billy Bragg (and Wilco) a number of times, including the 1998 album Mermaid Avenue. Like Bragg's, her work touches on social and political themes, and she has actively raised such issues both in her songs and through the causes to which she lends her name, such as Amnesty International and the American Indian Movement.

AKA Vincent Leonard Price

Died: 25-Oct-1993
Born: 27-May-1911
Birthplace: St. Louis, MO
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: Cancer - Lung
Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Master of the macabre
Wife: Edith Barrett (m. 23-Apr-1938, div. 4-Jun-1948, one son)
Son: Vincent Barrett Price
Wife: Mary Grant (m. 25-Aug-1949, div. 1972/73, one daughter)
Daughter: Victoria Price
Wife: Coral Browne (actress, m. 24-Oct-1974, d. 29-May-1991)
Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Vincent Leonard Price and Marguerite Willcox. His father was president of the National Candy Company. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder", the first cream of tartar baking powder, and secured the family's fortune. Vincent Jr. attended St. Louis Country Day School. He was further educated at Yale in art history and fine art. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity and the Courtauld Institute, London. He became interested in theater in the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage from 1935.
He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself as a competent actor, notably in Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger. He also played Joseph Smith, Jr. in the movie Brigham Young (1940), as well as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). During the 1940s, he appeared in a wide variety of films from straight-forward drama to comedy to horror (he provided the voice of The Invisible Man at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948).
In 1946 he reunited with Gene Tierney in two notable films Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There where also many villanous roles in slick film noir thrillers like The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues Regiment (1948) and The Bribe (1949) with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Charles Laughton . He was also active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar, aka. The Saint, in a series that ran from 1947 to 1951.
In the 1950s, he moved into horror films, with a role in House of Wax (1953), the first 3-D film to land in the year's top ten at the North American box office, and then the monster movie The Fly (1958).
Price also starred in the original House on Haunted Hill (1959) as the eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. (Geoffrey Rush, playing the same character in the 1999 remake, was not only made to resemble Price, but was also renamed Steven Price.)
1960's
In the 1960s, he had a number of low-budget successes with Roger Corman and American International Pictures (AIP) including the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965).
These were followed by numerous other roles throughout the 1960s in which he played characters in horror films who were often closely modeled on the Corman Poe films. In 1968 he played the part of an eccentric artist in the musical Darling of the Day opposite Patricia Routledge, displaying an adequate if untrained singing voice.
He often spoke of his pleasure at playing "Egghead" on the Batman television series. Another of his co-stars, Yvonne Craig (Batgirl), often said Price was her favorite co-star.
In an often-repeated anecdote from the set of Batman, Price, after a take was printed, started throwing eggs at series stars Adam West and Burt Ward, and when asked to stop replied, "With a full artillery? Not a chance!", causing an eggfight to erupt on the soundstage. This incident is reenacted in the behind-the-scenes telefilm Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt.
It was also in the 60's that he began his role as a guest on the game show The Hollywood Squares, even becoming a semi-regular in the 70's, including being one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980. He was known for usually making fun of Rose Marie's age, and using his famous voice to answer maliciously to questions.
Later career
Price accepted a cameo part in the children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario Canada, on a local station. In addition to the opening and closing monologues, his role in the show was to recite poems about the show's various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes.
He has also appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he created a series of campy, tongue-in-cheek villains. Price also recorded dramatic readings of Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone.
He greatly reduced his film work from around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and increased his narrative and voice work, as well as advertising Milton Bradley's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture. Price's voiceover is heard on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare from 1975, as well as the TV special entitled Alice Cooper-The Nightmare. He also starred for a year in the early 1970s in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. He also made a guest appearance in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch, in which he played a deranged archaeologist.
In the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde, in the one man stage play Diversions and Delights. Written by John Gay and directed by Joe Hardy, the play is set in a Parisian theatre on a night about one year before Wilde's death. In an attempt to earn some much-needed money, he speaks to the audience about his life, his works and, in the second act, about his love for Bosie, Lord Alfred Douglas, which led to his downfall.
The original tour of the play was a success in every city that it played, except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed it at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado on the same stage that Wilde had spoken to the miners about art some 96 years before. Price would eventually perform the play worldwide and to many, including his daughter Victoria, it was the best acting that he ever did.
In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price. That same year, he performed a sinister "rap" on the title track of Michael Jackson's monumental "Thriller" album. In addition to the album being a mega-seller, the video was a huge hit for MTV. It included a stunning sequence in which Jackson transforms into a werewolf and was a major landmark for music videos. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective from 1986.
From 1981 to 1989, he hosted the PBS television series Mystery!. Also, in 1985, he was voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul who aided Scooby-Doo and the gang in capturing thirteen evil demons into an ancient chest. During this time (1985-1989), he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990).
A witty raconteur, Price was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, where he once demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. He also was a frequent panelist on Hollywood Squares during its initial run.
Price was also a noted gourmet cook and art collector. From 1962 to 1971, Sears, Roebuck offered the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art, selling about 50,000 pieces of fine art to the general public. Price selected and commissioned works for the collection, including works by Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. He also authored several cookbooks.
Family
Price was married three times and fathered a son, named Vincent Barrett Price, with his first wife, former actress Edith Barrett. Price and his second wife Mary Grant donated hundreds of works of art and a large amount of money to East Los Angeles College in the early 1960s in order to endow the Vincent and Mary Price Gallery there. Their daughter, Victoria, was born in 1962.
Price's last marriage was to the Australian actress Coral Browne, who appeared with him (as one of his victims) in Theatre of Blood (1973). He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a US citizen for him.
Death
Price was a lifelong smoker. He had long suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's disease, which had forced his role in Edward Scissorhands to be much smaller than intended.
His illness also contributed to his retirement from Mystery, as his condition was becoming noticeable on-screen. He died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993. The Arts & Entertainment Network aired an episode of Biography highlighting Price's horror career the next night, but because of its failure to clear copyrights, the show was never aired again. Four years later, A&E produced its updated episode, a show titled Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, which aired on October 12, 1997; it is often rebroadcast and is available on DVD. The script was by Lucy Chase Williams, author of The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995). In early 1991, Tim Burton was developing a personal documentary with the working title Conversations With Vincent (footage of the director interviewing Price was shot at the Vincent Price Gallery) but the project was never completed and eventually was shelved.

AKA William George Perks

Born: 24-Oct-1936
Birthplace: Penge, Kent, England
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Bassist (Rolling Stones)
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Former Rolling Stones bassist
Wife: Mandy Smith (model, m. 1989, div. 1991)
Bill Wyman (real name Bill Perks) was born at Lewisham Hospital, Pied Heath Road, Ladywell, Lewisham, South London the son of a bricklayer and spent most of his early life in Penge, then in the county of Kent, England. He attended Beckenham and Penge Grammar School from 1947 to Easter 1953, leaving before the GCE exams after his father found him a job working for a bookmaker and insisted that he take it.
Music Career
Wyman took piano lessons from ages 10 to 13. After his marriage, he bought a guitar, but wasn't satisfied by his own progress. After hearing a bass guitar at a Barron Knights' concert, he fell in love with the sound of it and decided that this was his instrument. He created the first fretless electric bass, by removing the frets from a bass guitar he was reworking, and played this in a local south London band, The Cliftons. He began calling himself Bill Wyman using the surname of a friend with whom he had done National Service in the Royal Air Force.
When drummer Tony Chapman told him of a fledgling rhythm and blues band called The Rolling Stones who needed a bass player, he applied for the job and was officially hired in December 1962, as a successor of co-founder, Dick Taylor. Although The Stones were impressed by his instrument and amplifier (and his abilility to provide the band with cigarettes), they weren't too fond of Wyman's style and personality (probably influenced by the six-year age gap). Although he developed into a strong bass player and a key-element in the group's sound, Wyman always remained something of an outsider in the Stones during the following decades. Wyman's work as a Rolling Stone after the first year or so of being in the band, both in the studio and during concerts, rarely involved vocals. One notable exception was the song "In Another Land", released both on the Their Satanic Majesties Request album and, oddly enough, also as a solo Bill Wyman single. A second Wyman penned song, "Downtown Suzie", was released on a collection of Rolling Stones outtakes, with the title of the song altered by Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein without informing either Wyman or the band.
In the 1970s and early '80s he released three solo albums, none of which was particularly successful. The last one, 1982's eponymous new-wave rock offering, gave him a European hit single, "(Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star", a parody on his French rock star exile status.
The mid eighties also saw Wyman compose original music for two films by Italian film director Dario Argento - 1985's Phenomena and 1987's Terror At The Opera.
He also produced/managed some groups like rockers Tucky Buzzard.
Wyman kept a detailed daily journal of his days with the Rolling Stones. He used this journal extensively in writing his history of the Rolling Stones Rolling with The Stones and also his Stone Alone autobiography.
Evidently Wyman maintained a friendly relationship with guitarist Mick Taylor, the first member of the Rolling Stones to voluntarily leave the band. He continued to work with Taylor on solo projects from time to time after Taylor left the band.
Along with Charlie Watts, Wyman kept a low profile in comparison to Jagger and Richards. Although his personal life was sometimes stormy and his affair with 13-year-old Mandy Smith highly publicised, he came through his tenure as a Stone relatively unscathed. Wyman was, by all accounts, the most sensible and level headed of all the Stones, refusing to partake in the dizzying effects of drink and drugs. This could have been, to some extent, due to his age - he was the oldest member by some years. Always on the outside, it was said that he never really "joined" the band after thirty years.
Wyman says he created the essential riff to "Jumpin' Jack Flash", although Mick Jagger and Keith Richards dispute the claim and are credited with writing the song (Keith Richards even played the bass on it, much to Wyman's chagrin).
In the 1980s, distance grew between the other band members and Wyman due to, amongst other things, the Mandy Smith affair (see below). After having contributed to the album Steel Wheels (1989), he decided he'd had enough of it, but took some time to finalise his decision. The Stones regretted his leaving but didn't seem too weakened by it. Instead of choosing a permanent replacement, they recruited several bass players to support them during recordings and concerts, the first of whom, Darryl Jones, made the strongest impression.
Wyman continues to tour with his backing band, The Rhythm Kings, which has featured such musicians as Martin Taylor, Albert Lee, Gary Brooker, Terry Taylor - formerly with Tucky Buzzard, Mike Sanchez and Georgie Fame.
Following his 70th birthday in October 2006, he undertook another British tour.
Musical instruments
Wyman is an adept musician, teaching himself to play several instruments including autoharp, guitar, vibraphone, glockenspiel, piano, organ, synthesizer, percussion and cello. He has also contributed backing vocals. His innovative bass sound came not only from his home-made fretless bass, but from the "walking bass" style he adopted (largely inspired by the odd couple of Willie Dixon and Ricky Fenson) and his tight work with Charlie Watts. Their sound not only anchored the group, but exemplified the "heartbeat and pulse" idea behind ideal rhythm sections.
Personal life
At age 47, Bill Wyman began a relationship with 13-year old Mandy Smith, with her mother's blessing. Six years later, they were married, but the marriage only lasted a year. Not long after, Bill's 30-year-old son Stephen almost married Mandy's mother, age 46. That nearly made Stephen a stepfather to his former stepmother. (If Bill and Mandy had remained married, Stephen would have been his father's father-in-law and his own step-grandfather.)
He was also very close to the late Rolling Stones founder/guitarist Brian Jones. In books and other reflections made in the Stones' later eras and his "post-Stones" life, he is the only band member who (vocally) holds Jones in any kind of esteem, though Watts has said many glowing things about Brian's musical prowess – for example, at several points in Stanley Booth's True Adventures of the Rolling Stones. He was also the only member of the group that didn't visit Brian Jones' home to inform him of his dismissal. He did attend Jones's funeral a month later.
Outside of music
Away from the Stones, Wyman pursued numerous interests including opening up the now successful "Sticky Fingers Café" in 1989, a celebrity rock 'n roll-themed bistro serving American cuisine. These days he divides his time between his manor in Suffolk and a house in the south of France.
Former Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham admits that of all the Stones, Wyman is the one most at peace with himself, and he continues to prove that there is life after thirty years in one of the most successful band of all time
He is also an amateur archaeologist and has a hobby of Relic hunting, going as far as having a letter published in The Times about his hobby (Friday 2 March 2007.) There is even a metal detector that bears his name on the market.

AKA Tila Nguyen

Born: 24-Oct-1981
Birthplace: Singapore
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: Asian
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: TV Personality
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Pants-Off Dance-Off
Tila Nguyen, also known as Tila Tequila, is an American model, entertainer, and singer residing in West Hollywood, California. She is known for her appearances in Stuff, Maxim, Time, her role as host of the Fuse TV show Pants-Off Dance-Off and her position as the most popular person on MySpace as of April 2006. She was raised in Houston, Texas. Her new MTV show A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila premiered on October 9, 2007.
Early years
Nguyen was born in Singapore, while her family was emigrating from Vietnam after the Vietnam War. A few years later, they moved again to the Houston, Texas neighborhood of Alief, where they lived in rundown housing for most of Nguyen's childhood until they were admitted to a gated community run by a strict Buddhist temple. The family left the community when Nguyen was eight.
As soon as she entered middle school, Nguyen developed a tomboy attitude and got in fights. Her behavior eventually got her sent to a boarding school for six months before being transferred to another school. As soon as she reached high school, she used her sister's identification card to enter nightclubs, where she began experimenting with drugs and joined a gang. In an interview with Import Tuner, Nguyen said she had been searching for a sense of identity: "I was really confused then, 'cause at first I thought I was black, then I thought I was Hispanic and joined a cholo gang". Later she made some friends outside the gang who briefly helped turn her life around, however her past caught up with her, and she fled to Queens, New York at the age of sixteen. She then began to focus on her studies and jobs.
Modeling and acting
Nguyen's career began at the age of eighteen when she was discovered at the Sharpstown Mall by a Playboy scout and was offered a chance to model nude for the magazine and did a test shoot, then eventually moved to Southern California and was featured as Playboy’s Cyber Girl of the week on April 22, 2002, and soon thereafter she became the first Asian Cyber Girl of the Month.
Nguyen gained further popularity through the import racing scene. She has been featured on the cover of Import Tuner magazine, at car shows such as Hot Import Nights, and in the video game Street Racing Syndicate. In 2003, she was a contestant on VH1's Surviving Nugent, a reality TV show where participants performed compromising tasks and stunts for rock star Ted Nugent. She was also the most frequent host on the first season of Fuse TV's dance show, Pants-Off Dance-Off, on which a group of contestants strip to music videos. Tila has also previously worked with VH1 as a commentator on WebJunks's 40 Greatest Internet Superstars.
Nguyen was featured on the cover of the April 2006 issue of Stuff magazine; in the interview, she claimed that her nickname "Tila Tequila" came about when she was in middle school after she had experimented with alcohol but then had a severe allergic reaction to it. She was later included in Stuff’s 100 Sexiest Women Online. She appeared on the August 2006 Maxim UK cover and was named #88 in their Hot 100 List.
Nguyen made an appearance as one of the 12 Strangers in the first game on the April 6, 2007 episode of NBC's game show Identity. Her identity was that she has "over one million MySpace friends," a number which, as of that date, stood at 1,771,920. On March 4, 2007 Nguyen made a cameo appearance on the show "War At Home"
A Shot At Love
On March 26, 2007, Nguyen announced in her MySpace blog that she would be filming a reality show for VH1. Filming started in May 2007, but the show was moved to VH1's sister network MTV that summer. On October 9, 2007 at 10pm Eastern Standard Time on MTV, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila aired. The program is a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 straight males and 16 lesbian female contestants compete for Tila's love, the twist is the contestants were not aware of Tila's bisexuality until the end of the first episode. The ten episode series is produced by 495 Productions and MTV.
The show was at the heart of a brief verbal scuffle between Nguyen and conservative Christians after an article appeared on The Christian Post on September 13, 2007. After seeing the article, Nguyen wrote an impassioned response in her blog on September 28, 2007, criticizing churches for "bashing" on the gay community while thanking God for saving her life.
Tila's Hot Spot
In 2001 Nguyen started up her website entitled "Tila's Hot Spot". Originally it was a website featuring her information, quotes, blog, and pictorials including some content which required adult verification and a monthly payment fee to view. Later the site format was revamped by TAJ Designs Inc. to feature all ages content and information to promote her current career, business ventures, personal information, and a premium membership section including videos, non-nude picture galleries, blogs, and chat sessions.
During 2005 Nguyen launched Tilafashion.com, a site featuring her custom line of fashion clothes for men and women originally using the slogan "So hot you'll just want to take it all off!" In 2006 Tila created a website entitled "Tila Zone" which features content to use on Myspace and other social networking websites including layouts, widgets, and clipart
Music career
Nguyen used modeling as a stepping stone for other ventures. At age twenty, she took interest in rock music and started looking for bands willing to have her join. She eventually assembled a band called Beyond Betty Jean, for which she was singer and songwriter. Following the breakup of Beyond Betty Jean, Nguyen started working in recording studios to sharpen her vocal skills and write music. Nguyen became the lead singer of a band called Jealousy, which has released songs over the Internet. Jealousy has appeared on MySpace Records' inaugural compilation album, released through MySpace Records and Interscope.
A major turn in Nguyen's music career occurred during the April 24, 2006 taping of MTV's Total Request Live. In an interview with the TRL VJs, will.i.am announced that Nguyen was signed to the will.i.am music group, a record label under A&M Records. However, she is releasing her debut single and album without a label.
Nguyen released her first single "I Love U" through iTunes on February 27, 2007 which made its way to the top of the ITunes charts in 24 hours . She shot a music video for the song, which is available for free after the song is downloaded. A preview for the video debuted on February 14, 2007 on her MySpace page. The video has also been released via mobile phones. On March 6, 2007, Tila's video was the #1 most downloaded on Apple's iTunes. In March, 2007, Washington-based record label The Saturday Team released a CD called The Sex EP, by Tila Tequila. On July 27, 2007, Italian website MusicBlob revealed that The Saturday Team and distributor Icon Music Entertainment Services sued Tila over breaching her contract related to the album.

AKA Caprice Valerie Bourret

Born: 24-Oct-1971
Birthplace: Hacienda Heights, CA
Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Model, Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Model and actress and singer and whatever
Father: Dale Bourret
Mother: Valerie Pion
Sister: Tiffany (b. 1994)
Boyfriend: Robert Tchenguiz
Boyfriend: Alexander Jackson Davis (brother of Brandon Davis)
Former Wonderbra model. Much more popular overseas than in America, Bourret has been a resident of the United Kingdom since 1996. Her breasts are insured for £50,000. The model has taken a scattershot approach to exploiting her fame. Her most successful venture is a line of lingerie "Caprice", sold at Debenhams department stores in England. In 2003 she launched Caprice Ceramic Hair Straightener, with a suggested retail price of £49.50 but can generally be had for about £18.99. She attempted a singing career with "Oh Yeah" (1999), "There Goes Your Heart", and "Once Around the Sun" (2001), but that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere. A travel show, Caprice's Travels, was shown on Sky and ITV1 in 1999.
Bourret (pronounced Bour-Ray) was born in Hacienda Heights, California to working class parents Dale Bourret and Valerie Pion; her family is Jewish and originates from a French-speaking area of Canada. After growing up in Whittier, California she moved to the United Kingdom in 1996 to further her career in modelling. An appearance in a revealing dress at the 1996 British National Television Awards ceremony helped gain her public recognition.
Modeling career
Bourret became a cheerleader at age 13. Contrary to a popular trivia item, she never won the title of Miss Teen California, nor even participated in the pageant. In the years following, Bourret became one of the UK's better known models. She has had her breasts (now insured for £50,000) augmented, which may have led to her selection as a model for Wonderbra. She appeared on the covers of GQ, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Maxim, FHM and the 1998 Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated. Bourret also posed nude in the March, 2000 issue of Playboy magazine. She was voted GQ magazine's Woman of the Year and Maxim's International Woman of the Year in three consecutive years. She has also been featured in television ad campaigns for Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. She continues to be the face of Paradise Poker.com, and also appears on billboards and advertisements in London.
Lingerie line
Bourret is becoming known as a business woman, having launched a series of lingerie, using her image and name. The lingerie is sold by the UK department store chain, Debenhams and lingerie retailer figleaves. The line was well received and deemed a success, having sold millions of items, and is now in its sixth season. Consequently, Bourret has decided to expand her designing interest into a larger industry, and is now planning to market her lingerie line in North America and Australia.
Has recently launched her own range of hair straighteners.
Other work
In 1999, Bourret released her first single as a pop singer, "Oh Yeah" (#24), then follow-up single "Once Around the Sun" (also #24), which was co-written by '90s one-hit wonder Chesney Hawkes.
Bourret is also moving into an acting career, having appeared on stage in London in The Vagina Monologues and Rent. She has also appeared in the low-budget films Hollywood Flies, Nailing Vienna, and Jinxed In Love, the soap operas Hollyoaks and Dream Team, and the one-off comedy show Hospital.
In 1998, Caprice became the host of a UK television series, "Caprice's Travels". The series involves Bourret's tour through several major holiday destinations across the world. Bourret has also hosted Friday Night's All Wright as well as several award shows, including the European MTV awards and the Monaco World Music Awards in 1997, the British National Television Awards in 1996, 1997 and 1998, and several series for the television channels VH1 and E! Entertainment.
In early 2005, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, where other contestants implied that she was only taking part in order to boost sales of her products. During a boozy game of 'spin the bottle confessions' on the show, she confessed to thinking about having a lesbian romp.
She also was a cast member on the fifth season of the VH1 reality series The Surreal Life and has previously appeared in the reality shows Celebrities Under Pressure, Celebrities Disfigured, Three Celebrities and a Baby, and Road Raja.
Bourret travelled to Los Angeles, where she played in the World Poker Championship, coming in at 120th out of 700, beating actors Ben Affleck, Matthew Perry, Tobey Maguire, and James Woods.
In May 2006 Caprice captained the England Women's team in the Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six tournament, in which they lost to Brazil in the final.
In June 2006 she starred in the English independent movie Perfect Woman, produced by Olympus Productions Limited.
She is currently in South Africa as producer for a run of the hit off-Broadway musical Debbie Does Dallas at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre from January 16 to February 18, 2007.
Charity work
Bourret is active as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a chairman for ChildLine, and is a committee member of Jewish Blind and Disabled, Action on Addiction and Breast Cancer Awareness.
Personal life
In August 2006 Caprice, defended by Nick Freeman, was banned from driving for one year and ordered to pay £2,500 costs when she was found guilty of drunk-driving. It also emerged that she had the previous year deceived her lawyers with a forged letter reported to be written by Nancy Davies. She fooled them into using it to obtain money illegally for her from a newspaper who had said her future mother in law called her a golddigger. Caprice repaid the money and avoided facing a criminal charge.
On February 20, 2007 The Sun newspaper reported that Caprice had been admitted to the London rehabilitation clinic, The Priory, to seek help for depression. The report alleged that Caprice is undergoing addiction therapy. However, Caprice's agent, Jonathan Lipman, has dismissed the allegations as untrue. He insisted that Caprice is "very happy", and added that she was holidaying with her boyfriend.

AKA Dwight David Yoakam

Born: 23-Oct-1956
Birthplace: Pikeville, KY
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Country Musician, Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Country star, This Time
Girlfriend: Sharon Stone (actress, dated 1993)
Girlfriend: Karen Duffy (actress, dated 1997)
Girlfriend: Bridget Fonda (actress, dated 1999-2001)

AKA Maria Izabel Goulart Dourado

Born October 23, 1984
Location São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
Height 5 ft 9.5 in (1.77 m)
Hair color Brown-Blond
Eye color Brown
Measurements 32-23-35
Goulart is of Italian-Brazilian descent. She has four brothers and one sister.
While shopping for groceries with her mother, a hairstylist suggested that she should become a model. She moved to the state's capital São Paulo and started modeling with the booker Ney Alves.
Modeling career
During Goulart's first ever fashion show appearance, she experienced a wardrobe malfunction. The unfortunate incident made many Brazilian newspapers and remains her most embarrassing moment. She was able to put her rocky start behind her and returned to the runway to model collections for A-list designers such as Bill Blass, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Jill Sander, Chanel, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Stella McCartney, among many others.
She first appeared on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in the 2005 and made her Victoria's Secret Angels debut on 2006 . She has also posed for photos with top photographers such as Terry Richardson, David Sims, Greg Kadel and Vincent Peters for such publications as French and Japanese Vogue, French magazine and Numero magazine.
Notable Appearances
During an appearance on Late Night with Conan O' Brien in May 2006, O'Brien asked, "What kind of guy do you look for?", Goulart simply replied "You."
Goulart re-appeared on Late Night with Conan O' Brien February 28, 2007. O'Brien asked to dance with her, Goulart then suggested dinner after the show. Goulart then mentioned that "In Brazil we have a saying - You're married, but you're not dead."
Izabel Goulart appeared in an episode of Two And A Half Men.
She made a guest appearance in the season 3 premiere of Entourage alongside fellow angel Alessandra Ambrosio.

AKA Shelby Lynne Moorer

Born: 22-Oct-1968
Birthplace: Quantico, VA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Country Musician
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Country/rock singer/songwriter
Sister: Allison Moorer (musician)
She grew up in Jackson, Alabama. Her father was a local bandleader and her mother a harmony-singing teacher, and as children, she and her younger sister Allison Moorer --later a country recording artist in her own right-- sometimes joined their parents on-stage to sing along. But Lynne's personal history is steeped in family tragedy. While the family was living in the small town of St. Stephens, Alabama, Lynne's father, an abusive alcoholic, shot and killed her mother and then himself when Lynne was 17. Lynne and her younger sister Allison did not actually witness the shooting, as has widely been reported. Shelby and her sister briefly lived with an aunt until Lynne turned 18, whereupon she married a friend from home. The marriage lasted only a year. Lynne began supporting herself and her sister by playing music in local clubs and eventually the two moved to Nashville where she landed a recording contract with Epic Records, after appearing in TNN's Nashville Now in 1987.
After that she sang a duet with George Jones, in 1988's top 50 hit "If I Could Bottle This Up", and a record deal with Epic, where Lynne teamed with legendary producer Billy Sherrill for her 1989 debut album Sunrise. The follow-up 1990's Tough All Over, took more of a Reba McEntire-esque direction, and 1991's Soft Talk found Lynne moving into slick country-pop.
Lynne placed several songs on the country charts during this period, but none managed to break into the top 20. Critics generally regarded her as a promising talent, and she even won the ACM's Top New Female Vocalist in 1990.
However, she was tiring of the lack of control she was afforded over her image and musical direction. She split from Epic and signed with the smaller Morgan Creek label, debuting with 1993's Temptation, an exercise in Bob Wills-style Western swing and big band jazz. Unfortunately, the label folded not long after, and she moved on to Magnatone for 1995's Restless, which marked a return to contemporary-style country. Afterward, Lynne disappeared from recording for several years.
Lynne moved to Palm Springs in 1998 and released the confessional, eclectic I Am Shelby Lynne in 1999 (released in US in 2000) to wide critical acclaim; on the strength of the album Lynne won a Grammy award for "Best New Artist", despite the fact that she had been recording and releasing records for more than ten years.
Her 2001 follow up album, Love, Shelby featured a slicker, more pop-influenced sound. This album was a moderate commercial success but received mixed reviews. In 2003, Lynne released the critically-acclaimed Identity Crisis. Though, not a commercial success, many magazines rated the album among the best of 2003. 2005's Suit Yourself has also been well received by critics.
Also in 2004, Lynne was featured in a duet version of alternative rock band Live's song "Run Away." This rendition can be found on the band's greatest hits compilation Awake: The Best of Live.
She portrays Carrie Cash in the 2005 Johnny Cash biographical film, Walk the Line.
In 2007, Shelby appeared in an episode of Alexandra Wentworth's Headcase on Showtime.

Born: 21-Oct-1971
Birthplace: Paris, France
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: Multiracial
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Relative, Model
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Daughter of Mick and Bianca
Born at the Belvedere Nursing Home in Paris.
Father: Mick Jagger
Mother: Bianca Jagger
Husband: Piers Jackson (div. 1996)
Daughter: Assisi
Daughter: Amba
Boyfriend: Josh Astor
Boyfriend: Dan Williams
Boyfriend: Pharrell Williams (dated 2003)
Boyfriend: Dan Macmillan (Viscount Ovenden)
Boyfriend: Ben Elliot
Boyfriend: Euan McDonald
Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger,born at Belvedere Nursing Home in Paris, France and is the only child resulting from the marriage of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger. Jade is of English-Nicaraguan ancestry, and spent her early years living with her parents on London’s fashionable Cheyne Walk. After her parents’ divorce in 1980, Jagger spent most of her time living in Manhattan with her jet-set mother and was often dropped off at the Factory to be babysat by Bianca’s friend, pop artist Andy Warhol. Jagger attended the Spence School in Manhattan for a few years before being shipped off at age 14 to the all-girls boarding school St. Mary’s, in Calne, England.
When she was 16, Jagger was expelled from St Mary's when she sneaked out of school to meet her boyfriend at the time, Josh Astor. A few years later she met boyfriend Piers Jackson when the two were studying for their A-Levels at Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies in Cambridge, UK. She and Piers did not marry, but had two daughters together, Assisi Lola Jackson (born 1992) and Amba Isis Jackson (born 1996). Their relationship lasted about eight years. Since then, Jade has been romantically linked to Ben Elliot, Euan McDonald, Dan Macmillan, and rapper Pharrell Williams.
Jade is the half-sister of Karis Jagger-Watson (born 1970), Elizabeth Jagger (born 1984), James Jagger (born 1985), Georgia Jagger (born 1992), Gabriel Jagger (born 1997), and Lucas Morad-Jagger (born 1999).
Jagger currently lives with her two daughters and boyfriend Dan in London and on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, and is currently promoting her lifestyle venture concept JEZEBEL, which fuses music, clothing, and lifestyle through original recordings, remixes, unplugged sessions, and fashion. She is also prominently marketed as the force behind the interior design for a new condo building (called "Jade") which opened in late 2006 in the Chelsea section of New York City. In 2006, her ten-year position as Creative Director and jewelry designer with the high-end English jewelry firm Garrard ended.

AKA Kimberly Noel Kardashian

Born: 21-Oct-1980
Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Socialite
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Friend of Paris Hilton
Father: Robert Kardashian (attorney, b. 22-Feb-1944, d. 30-Sep-2003)
Mother: Kris Jenner
Sister: Kourtney Kardashian (b. 1979)
Sister: Khloe (b. 1984)
Brother: Robert (b. 1987)
Boyfriend: Ray J (shown with her on sex tape)
Kimberly Noel Kardashian is one of the four daughters of lawyer Robert Kardashian. Kardashian's media attention has been primarily attributed to her close friendship with Paris Hilton, the famous men she has dated and her frequent appearances around the Los Angeles club scene. She has also been the subject of attention due to a sex tape of Kardashian and her then-boyfriend Ray J. Prior to the release of this film, Kardashian announced her intention to pursue legal action to block distribution of the tape. This was the first public acknowledgment of the existence of the tape, which she had previously denied. Despite the impending lawsuit, adult retailers started offering the tape for pre-order in February 2007. Vivid Video made the sex tape available online in March 2007. On April 30, 2007, Kardashian settled with Vivid Entertainment, who paid $1 million to an unidentified source for the video. Vivid will hand over nearly $5 million to Kardashian and stop distributing the tape by the end of May 2007. In July, reports surfaced that Kardashian would be posing for Playboy although it has not been confirmed Kardashian played Pete Wentz's love interest in Fall Out Boys music video "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs".
In August, Ryan Seacrest Productions signed Kardashian to appear in her own new series for E! Entertainment Cable channel featuring Kardashian and family members produced by Seacrest. The show's announcement came days after the cable network's cancellation of its series The Simple Life featuring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. That month, Kardashian inked a deal to become a Pussycat Doll in the Las Vegas show at Caesars; her performance would begin in September. By September, Kardashian would appear on the cover of King Magazine and Complex Magazine.
Playboy
Kardashian will officially pose nude for the December 2007 edition of Playboy. The announcement was made on September 22, 2007 on E! that she is trying to bring brunettes back to the magazine. She is also going over the pictures with Hugh Hefner in between September and November before it hits shelves in early November.
Background
Kardashian is of Armenian descent. Her stepfather is 1976 Summer Olympic Games gold medalist Bruce Jenner. She has nine brothers and sisters altogether: three full sisters, two half-sisters, three step-brothers, and one step-sister from Jenner. One of her step-brothers is reality tv star and model Brody Jenner. Her godmother is Kathie Lee Gifford.
Kim was previously married to The Underdogs producer Damon Thomas. They divorced in 2004.
Kardashian has been linked to dating celebrites Reggie Bush, Ray J, Scott Storch, Terence Howard.

AKA Danielle Jane Minogue

Born: 20-Oct-1971
Birthplace: Melbourne, Australia
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer/Songwriter, Actor
Nationality: Australia
Executive summary: Love's On Every Corner
Kylie Minogue's little sister.
Father: Ron Minogue (accountant)
Mother: Carol Jones (dancer)
Sister: Kylie Minogue (singer, b. 28-May-1968)
Brother: Brendan Minogue (cameraman, b. 30-Aug-1983)
Husband: Julian McMahon (actor, m. 2-Jan-1994, div. 1995)
Boyfriend: Jacques Villeneuve (1999-2001)
Boyfriend: Stelios Haji-loannou (2001-)
Danielle Jane Minogue is an Australian singer-songwriter, television personality and occasional actress, model and fashion designer. Minogue rose to prominence in the early 1980s for her roles in the Australian television talent show Young Talent Time and in the long-running Australian soap Home and Away, before commencing her career as a pop singer in the early 1990s.
Minogue achieved early success with hits such as "Love and Kisses" and "This Is It", though by the release of her second album, her popularity as a singer had declined, leading her to concentrate on other fields such as television presenting. The late 1990s saw a brief return to music after Minogue reinvented herself as a dance artist with "All I Wanna Do", her first number one UK Club hit. In 2001, Minogue further returned to musical success with the release of her biggest worldwide hit to date, "Who Do You Love Now?", while her subsequent album, Neon Nights, became the most successful of her career. In the UK, she has achieved eleven number one dance singles, becoming the best performing artist on the UK Upfront Club Chart. Minogue is currently signed to All Around the World and, in 2006, released her second official "best of" compilation, The Hits and Beyond. In 2007, Minogue became a talent judge on Australia's Got Talent and The X Factor.
Minogue's private life, including her marriage to Australian actor Julian McMahon and engagement to both Canadian Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve and former Bros band member Craig Logan, has been much discussed in the media. She has promoted gay rights causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work to increase awareness of AIDS.
Childhood and beginning
Minogue was born in Melbourne, Australia, to accountant Ron Minogue and dancer Carol Jones. Minogue's father was born in Australia but his family comes from County Clare, Ireland and her mother emigrated to Townsville, Queensland as a young child from Maesteg, Wales in 1955. She is the youngest of three children. Her sister, Kylie, is a dance-pop singer and actress, and her brother, Brendan, works as a news cameraman in Australia.
Minogue began her career as a child on Australian television. From the age of seven, she had appeared in several soap operas, including Skyways and The Sullivans. In 1979, she became a regular performer on the weekly music programme Young Talent Time. She recorded her first solo recordings for the programme, including a cover version of Madonna's hit single "Material Girl"; during this time, she also performed live at several sold-out nationwide concert tours. In 1988, Minogue departed from Young Talent Time to continue her acting career, appearing as the rebellious teenager Emma Jackson on the soap opera Home and Away. Minogue remained on the programme for only a year, but proved to be popular among Australian audiences when she was nominated for a "Silver Logie" for the country's "Most Popular Actress on Australian television".
In September 1988, Minogue released her own fashion range entitled Dannii. She became interested in fashion design while appearing on Young Talent Time. Minogue had designed the clothing she had worn on the show, and the positive response from the audience resulted in her releasing her own line. Minogue's debut line, Dannii, sold out across Australia in ten days, and was followed by three additional summer lines in 1989.
1990-1995: Early career
Minogue signed a recording contract with Australian-based Mushroom Records in January 1989. Her first album, Dannii, was released the following year and reached number twenty-four on the Australian albums chart. Outside Australia, the album was released in 1991, under the title Love and Kisses, and became a top ten hit. Minogue's debut single "Love and Kisses" peaked at number four on the Australian singles chart and was certified gold. In the UK, the song reached the top ten on the singles chart.
She released Love and Kisses and..., a re-worked version of her debut album, in April 1992. The album, a collection of dance songs, comprised tracks and remixes from Love and Kisses. It peaked at number forty-two on the UK albums chart, and sold nearly 60,000 copies. Several remixes by producer and DJ Steve "Silk" Hurley were successful in European dance clubs. Minogue credits these remixes for providing her with a "new image and sound to work with" on future releases.
Later that year, Minogue made her feature film debut in Secrets, which co-starred Noah Taylor. The film revolved around five Australian teenagers who become stuck in the basement of a hotel in an attempt to see The Beatles. The film was not well received by audiences or critics, with Minogue's performance being described as "not all that convincing".
Minogue released her second album Get into You—which included the songs "Show You the Way to Go", "This Is It" and "This Is the Way"—in October 1993. The album contained uptempo dance tracks and mature vocals, but despite her past chart success, failed to make the British top fifty. The following year, Minogue returned to television as a presenter, co-hosting Channel 4's morning show The Big Breakfast in the UK.
In 1995, Minogue released the singles "Rescue Me" and "Boogie Woogie", a collaboration with dance act Eurogroove. Released only in Japan, both songs reached number one on the Japanese singles chart. She began recording her third album in 1995; however, Minogue and her record label, Mushroom Records, parted ways in late 1995 following a contract disagreement.
1996-2001: Girl, presenting, and theatre
In 1996, she resumed her co-hosting duties on The Big Breakfast, presenting the Eggs on Legs road show segment. That same year, Minogue briefly hosted the children's show Disney Time and co-hosted, with Gareth Jones, the teenage Saturday morning entertainment show It's Not Just Saturday for sixteen weeks. Minogue made her stage debut in April 1997 as Rizzo in the musical Grease: The Arena Spectacular. In Australia, the show sold over 450,000 tickets during its first season. She resumed her role as Rizzo the following year, performing in New Zealand. At the 1998 MO Awards, Minogue was nominated for "Best Female Musical Theater Performer" for her role. Also in 1997, Minogue hosted Top of the Pops, a British music chart television programme, before returning to her recording career later that year.
Minogue's interest in dance music and clubbing heavily influenced her third album Girl, released in September 1997, which featured collaborations with musicians such as Brian Higgins of Xenomania. The album presented a more sophisticated and adult style of dance music, but despite generally positive reviews, failed to make the British top fifty, although the Unleashed Tour in late 1998 sold out in Britain. Minogue's single "All I Wanna Do", which the Daily Mirror described as a "bass-bumping, shuddering return", peaked at number four on the UK singles chart and was certified gold in Australia. The album's follow-up singles, "Everything I Wanted" and "Disremembrance", failed to reached the top ten, but reached number one on the UK dance chart.
Mushroom Records released two budget compilation albums in December 1998, as part of the label's twenty-fifth anniversary. Released only in Australia, The Singles comprised Minogue's most popular single releases, while The Remixes contained popular remixes. In January 1999, following her performance at the 1998 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Minogue released the festival's first official theme song, "Everlasting Night". It appeared on the compilation CD Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras of 1999, and its music video, co-directed by Minogue, featured drag queens whom she had met while performing at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras the previous year.
Minogue returned to the theater in the 1999 production of Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The play received mixed reviews; critic Matt Grant wrote that Minogue "lacks true conviction as she ploughs through the lines without capturing their full force", while Fiachra Gibbons singled Minogue's performance out, noting in her review that Minogue's "disco-queen-from-hell delivery works well" for her character, Lady Macbeth. Two years later, she appeared as Esmeralda in the musical production of Notre-Dame de Paris in London's West End. The musical received poor reviews from British critics who called it "lame" and its songs "reminiscent of [the] Eurovision song contest". At the 2002 Maxim Awards, she won "Best Stage Performance" for her role. In 2001, Minogue also appeared in the stage play The Vagina Monologues, which co-starred Kika Markham and Meera Syal.
In November 2001, Minogue released the single "Who Do You Love Now?", a collaboration with Dutch dance act Riva. Described by Sound Generator as a "nice serene and dreamy vocal on the dance floor anthem", the song peaked at number three on the UK singles chart, and reached number one on the dance charts. In the United States, the song was released to dance clubs, and reached number one on the Billboard Dance Club chart. In 2001, Minogue signed a six album deal with London Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music International.
2002-2004: Neon Nights and radio programme
In 2002, Minogue made headlines when the British National Party, a far right and anti-immigration political party, claimed that she supported their cause following comments she had made in an interview with Britain's GQ magazine. In the interview, Minogue was quoted saying that French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen had "struck a chord with people", and that "even the street signs [in Australia] are written in Asian". Minogue responded to the British National Party's claims in Gay Times magazine saying, "I am not a racist. That is not how I live my life. I have a Jewish manager, I perform in gay clubs, I come from a multi-cultural background and I am very proud of that".
In March 2003, Minogue released her fourth album, Neon Nights, which the BBC called "a pleasant cocktail of pop sophistication, club culture and accessibility". It consisted of 1980s inspired dance-pop songs and provided Minogue with some of the strongest reviews of her career. Neon Nights peaked at number eight on the UK albums chart (her highest ranking since her debut), and produced three top ten singles. The second single, "I Begin to Wonder", declared one of the "best things" on the album by Ireland's RTÉ, became her highest charting single, peaking at number two on the UK singles chart. Following extensive airplay by North American dance radio, Warner Music Group released the album in the United States in late 2003. Singles "I Begin to Wonder" and "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" were also substantial successes on the U.S. dance charts.
Minogue hosted her own radio programme, Dannii Minogue's Neon Nights, in June 2003. Broadcast in Australia and the UK, Minogue played songs by up-and-coming DJs, as well as her own music. Minogue was released from her recording contract with London Records in May 2004 due to low record sales. Later that year she signed a new contract with independent dance label All Around the World Records.
2004-2006: The Hits & Beyond
In October 2004, Minogue released the single "You Won't Forget About Me", a collaboration with the dance act Flower Power. Described by MSN Entertainment as a "real grower" and noted for its "snip snapping house beats and '80s flecked synths", the song peaked at number seven on the UK singles chart and became Minogue's third single to reach the top five on the United States Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
"I Can't Sleep at Night" was intended to follow in August 2005 but was shelved in favour of "Perfection", a collaboration with the Soul Seekerz which was eventually released at the end of November 2005. It made number 11 in the UK and 13 in Australia.
In February 2006, Minogue made headlines when surveillance tape stills from London strip club Puss 'N Boots were published by News of the World, a British tabloid newspaper, showing Minogue and a female lap dancer in full-contact sexual activity. A spokesman for Minogue downplayed the event and called it a "harmless girls' night out". The story, dubbed "Lezzigate" by fans hit the headlines again in 2007, coenciding with the launch of X Factor. The dancer involved, Jupiter, also sold her story.
Later that year, Minogue released The Hits & Beyond, her first official greatest hits album. Mushroom had previously ended her 4 album contract in Australia with a Singles collection only available in her home country but many of her avid, worldwide fans were able to purchase the album through import. Her first official greatest hits album comprised six new songs, including the album's lead single "So Under Pressure" which became her 14th Top 20 hit in the UK. The album debuted at number seventeen on the UK albums chart and only fell to number 24 the week after.
"So Under Pressure" was inspired by the cancer diagnoses of her sister Kylie Minogue as well as that of an unnamed friend. It became her tenth song to reach number one on the UK Upfront Club chart. Minogue has described the recording of "So Under Pressure" as a "real achievement" as she was "brave enough to put all [her feelings] into words". In September 2006, Minogue's cover of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" appeared on Spirit of Christmas, a compilation CD of holiday songs available through Myer department stores across Australia.
In November 2006, Minogue performed Sister Sledge's 1979 song "He's the Greatest Dancer" on BBC One's Children in Need telethon. A studio version of the song, remixed by Fugitive, appeared on the dance compilation Clubland 10, released in November 2006. The following month, "He's the Greatest Dancer" was released to UK dance clubs as a promotional single. It reached number one on the Upfront Club chart. In Australia, the song was released in April 2007 and peaked at number.
2007-present: television and return to music
In 2007, Minogue was a judge on the Network 7's variety show Australia's Got Talent. She is currently appearing as a judge and mentor in the fourth series of ITV's music talent show, The X Factor, alongside Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh. It was revealed on September 29 that she is mentoring the boys category during the show. She had chosen Leon Jackson, Rhydian Jones and Andy Williams to represent her in the live rounds of the competition.
October onwards will see a total of five releases from Minogue; first, on October 29, reissues of her 1997 and 2003 albums Girl and Neon Nights, each containing a double-disc, the second disc of which includes remixes. On November 5 Minogue will release Unleashed, a collection of previously unheard material from her time with London Records, and The Video Collection, which includes every one of her music videos as well as bonus features. Finally, on December 3, a new single is to be released, entitled Touch Me Like That. The song is to be credited as Dannii Minogue vs Jason Nevins, and received its premiere on BBC Radio 1 on the Scott Mills Show, on the morning of October 3.
Personal life
Relationships
In January 1994, Minogue married Australian actor Julian McMahon, whom she met in 1991 while working on the television series Home and Away. Minogue and McMahon were married for less than two years and divorced in 1995. Referring to the divorce, Minogue said that it was her "biggest regret and biggest downfall". In October 1995, she posed nude in the Australian edition of Playboy magazine. Commenting on the reason she posed nude, Minogue said she "just had a marriage break-up. Most women go to the hairdressers - I did Playboy. I chose the photographer, the location, what I did or didn't want to wear and everything else about the pictures. I found it a really liberating, empowering experience." The edition featuring Minogue sold out in under four days and became one of the best-selling editions in Australia.
Minogue became engaged to Canadian Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve in October 1999, but their relationship ended in 2001. In early 2002, Minogue began dating music producer and Bros bassist Craig Logan, whom she met while recording material for Neon Nights. Media reports in March 2002 claimed Minogue and Logan were engaged, but in December 2002, it was announced that they had ended their relationship.
Media portrayal and other activities
In 1983, Minogue's older sister, Kylie, appeared with her on Young Talent Time before commencing a commercially successful music career in 1987. Minogue has often been compared to Kylie and has struggled to find respect from critics and is often portrayed as a "wannabe" by the media. Both Minogue and her sister deny a sibling rivalry, but she admits that she finds it "hard to be compared all the time to Kylie."
Internationally regarded as a gay icon, Minogue has performed multiple times at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and the London nightclub G-A-Y, to which she was the first of the Minogue sisters to do so. She credits her gay following for much of her success, commenting that gay culture has "always been a part of [her] music." Minogue openly supports gay rights causes for social equality and believes that same-sex marriages should be accepted by all government bodies.
Minogue is an ambassador for the Terrence Higgins Trust, an organization that works to increase awareness of AIDS. She joined the charity in hope that her endorsement would encourage people to discuss safe sex and the disease more openly. In 2004, she posed nude, wrapped only in a red ribbon, to promote World AIDS Day in Australia and the UK. She has long been a supporter of breast cancer research and, in October 2003, performed in a London comedy show titled Funny Women. The show raised money for breast cancer research, as well as awareness of domestic violence.

AKA Alberta Peal

Born: 19-Oct-1920
Birthplace: Cleveland, OH
Died: 14-Sep-2002
Location of death: Inglewood, CA
Cause of death: Diabetes complications
Remains: Cremated, Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: Black
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Comic
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son
Daughter: Clara Johnson
Daughter: Estella Small
Sister: Lynn Hamilton
LaWanda Page, was an American actress, perhaps best known for her portrayal of Aunt Esther in the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Page started her career in show business in small clubs, working as "The Bronze Goddess of Fire," an act which included her lighting cigarettes with her fingertips. She performed this routine on an episode of Sanford and Son, in which Fred held a circus in his side yard.
Page was convinced by her friend Redd Foxx to become a stand-up comedienne. Page recorded several live comedy albums for the Laff Records label in the late 1960's and early 1970's; One release, Watch it, sucka!, was titled after Aunt Esther's catch phrase to cash in on her newfound TV fame.
On Sanford and Son, Page's "Aunt Esther" character was the sister of Elizabeth, Fred Sanford's (Foxx) late wife. Page was Foxx's only choice to play Aunt Esther. Esther would sometimes be accompanied by other stalwart ladies from her church, or by her henpecked, slightly inebriated husband, "Woodrow".
Aunt Esther was a genuinely funny combination of a devout church-goer and a 'tough-as-nails' realist, often sparring with Fred over both the state of his soul and the lack of his success, and getting insulted by Fred in return over his opinion of her homely looks. On occasion she would call Fred an "old fish-eyed fool." She once referred to Fred, during a public prayer, as a "snaggle-toothed jackass;" Fred once told her that, if they pressed her face into some dough, they could make "gorilla cookies." In another 'tender moment,' when Aunt Esther reminded Fred that her name was in the Bible (i.e., the book of Esther), Fred was reminded that "Samson slew the Philistines with your jaw-bone (i.e., that of an Ass; Judges 15:15)." Her "church lady" image was in direct contrast with the "blue" material of her stand-up act and record albums.
Page also portrayed her character on several episodes of Dean Martin's "Celebrity Roasts." She also acted in several episodes of other television shows, including Amen and Martin, and Diff'rent Strokes, and appeared in the Steve Martin film My Blue Heaven. Page's career experienced a brief revitalization in the early 90s after she appeared on several tracks of the debut album by RuPaul called Supermodel of the World, particularly the hit song Supermodel (You Better Work). She also appeared in several music videos from the album. Shortly before her death she appeared in several comical Church's Fried Chicken television commercials with the catchphrase of "Gotta love it!" She also made a cameo appearance in the hit movie 'Friday' and stole the show with a movie opening one-liner.
Page succumbed to diabetes in September 2002. She is interred in an outdoor crypt at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Her daughter Evangelist Clara Estella Roberta Johnson died on June 4, 2006, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 69.

Born: October 19, 1990
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Janet Ava Leon (born October 19, 1990) hails from Gothenburg, Sweden. She is half Persian and half Spanish. She joined the pop group Play in late 2003. After Play's lead singer Faye Hamlin left the group to pursue further schooling in October 2003, Janet received a phone call from Play's manager, Laila Bagge, to whom she had sent an audition video in the past. Janet had also been an acquaintance of original member Anais Lameche prior to joining Play. After meeting Janet, the three remaining members of Play, Anais Lameche, Rosie Munter, and Anna Sundstrand welcomed her into the group. On December 15, 2003, an official press release announced that Janet had officially joined the group and had begun recording a new album with them.
Previously, Janet had been part of a band with some friends called "Walking Spanish," that had performed at music festivals around Sweden. Janet stepped into Play as the new lead singer and mezzo-soprano power vocalist, though she was the youngest member of the group. Janet's first album as a part of Play, Don't Stop the Music, was released on March 9, 2004. A subsequent Christmas album followed in November entitled Play Around the Christmas Tree. Janet appeared in two Play music videos, both for the song "everGirl."
Recently, Janet has been doing some solo work, recording a song for Build-a-Bear Workshop and another song for Kohl's clothing brand everGirl. She also recorded songs for the 2005 Rock Angelz music album to promote the Bratz dolls franchise. She was featured on the Lindsay Lohan remake "Change the World" (background vocals) and lent her vocals in the song "Nobody's Girl". Since the members of Play formalized the group's breakup in September 2005, Janet has been recording her solo album. She is currently in the studio working with world-renowned writers and producers, such as Andreas Carlsson and Anders Bagge.

Born: 18-Oct-1939
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Died: 24-Nov-1963
Location of death: Dallas, TX
Cause of death: Assassination
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Assassin
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Assassin of John F. Kennedy
Military service: USMC (enlisted 24-Oct-1956)
Father: Robert E. Lee Oswald (deceased at time of LHO's birth)
Mother: Marguerite Claverie Oswald
Brother: Robert Oswald (older)
Wife: Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova
Daughter: June Lee Oswald (b. 15-Feb-1961)
Daughter: Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald (b. 20-Oct-1963)
Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 �NC November 24, 1963) was, according to two United States government investigations, the assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. A former Marine who defected to the Soviet Union and later returned, Oswald was arrested on suspicion of killing the president and Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit. Oswald denied any responsibility for the murders. Two days later, before he could be brought to trial for the crimes, while being transferred under police custody from the police station to jail, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby on live television.
Although polls suggest most of the people in the United States agree Oswald had some role in the assassination, 7 in 10 believe he was part of a broader conspiracy and 7% believe he was not involved at all.
Early life and Marine Corps service
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Robert Edward Lee Oswald Sr., died shortly before he was born. His mother, Marguerite Claverie (1907�NC1981), largely raised Lee alone along with two older siblings: his brother Robert and his half-brother, John Pic, Marguerite's son from a previous marriage. Oswald did have a step-father for several years, and his mother sent him to an orphanage for several years when she was too poor to take care of him and his brothers. The family was Lutheran. His mother is said to have doted on him to excess. She has also been characterized as domineering and emotionally volatile, however. Lee's youth was plagued by extreme mobility; before the age of 18 Oswald had lived in 22 different residences. Because of the short-lived stay in each location, he had attended 12 different schools, mostly around New Orleans and Dallas, but also in New York City.
As a child Oswald was withdrawn and temperamental. After moving in with John Pic (who had joined the US Coast Guard and was stationed in New York City), they were asked to leave due to an incident where Oswald allegedly threatened John Pic's wife with a knife, and struck his mother. Following charges of truancy, he had a three week court-ordered stay for psychiatric observation in a facility called "Youth House". Dr. Renatus Hartogs described Oswald as having a "Vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations," and diagnosed the fourteen-year-old Oswald as having a "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies" and recommended continued psychiatric intervention. Oswald's behavior at school appeared to improve in his last months in New York. In January 1954, his mother Marguerite decided to return to New Orleans with Lee, which prevented Lee from receiving the care the psychiatrist had recommended. There was still an open question before a New York judge if he would be taken from the care of his mother to finish his schooling.
Oswald left school after the ninth grade and never received a high school diploma. Throughout his life, he had trouble with spelling and writing coherently. His letters, diary and other writings have led some to suggest he was dyslexic. Nonetheless he read voraciously and as a result sometimes asserted he was better educated than those around him. Around the age of fifteen, he became an ardent Marxist solely from reading about the topic. He wrote in his diary, "I was looking for a key to my environment, and then I discovered socialist literature. I had to dig for my books in the back dusty shelves of libraries." At 16 he wrote to the Socialist Party of America, stating that he was a Marxist who had been studying socialist principles for "well over fifteen months," and asked for information about their youth league.
Even as a Marxist, Oswald wished to join the US Marine Corps. He idolized his older brother Robert and wore Robert's US Marine ring. This relationship seems to have transcended any ideological conflict for Oswald, and enlisting in the Marines may have also been a way to escape from his overbearing mother. He enlisted in the USMC in October 1956, a week after his 17th birthday.
While in the Marines, Oswald was trained in the use of the M-1 rifle. Following that training, Oswald was tested in December of 1956, and obtained a score of 212, which was 2 points above the minimum for qualifications as a sharpshooter. In May 1959, on another range, Oswald scored 191, which was 1 point over the minimum for ranking as a marksman.
Oswald was trained as a radar operator and assigned first to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, California, then to Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan. Though Atsugi was a base for the U-2 spy planes that flew over the Soviet Union, there is no evidence Oswald was involved in that operation. Oswald's experience after joining with the Marine Corps was by all accounts unpleasant. Small and frail compared to the other Marines, he was nicknamed Ozzie Rabbit after a cartoon character. His shyness and Soviet sympathies alienated him from his fellow Marines. Ostracism only seemed to provoke him into being a more staunch and outspoken communist. For his steadfast beliefs, his nickname ultimately became Oswaldskovich. The Marine had subscribed to The Worker and taught himself rudimentary Russian. Oswald was tried at a court-martial twice: initially because of accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized handgun and again later for starting a fight with a sergeant he thought responsible for the punishment he received from his first court-martial. He was demoted from private first class to private, and briefly served time in the brig. He was not punished for yet another incident; while on sentry duty one night in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle. By the end of his Marine career, Oswald was doing menial labor.
Life in the Soviet Union
In October 1959, Oswald emigrated to the Soviet Union. He was nineteen, and the trip was planned well in advance. Along with having taught himself rudimentary Russian, he had saved $1,500 of his Marine Corps salary, got an early "hardship" discharge by (falsely) claiming he needed to care for his injured mother, got a passport, and submitted several fictional applications to foreign universities in order to obtain a student visa (and possibly help avoid Marine Corps reserve duty).
After spending only three days with his mother in Fort Worth, he departed by ship from New Orleans on September 20, 1959, for the Soviet Union, first arriving in France, then England and eventually Finland as part of a package tour. When he arrived in the Soviet Union and showed up unexpectedly at the US Embassy in Moscow, he said he wanted to renounce his U.S. citizenship. When the Navy Department learned of this, it changed Oswald's Marine Corps discharge from "hardship/honorable" to "undesirable."
Oswald told a reporter in Moscow, "For two years I've had it in my mind, don't form any attachments, because I knew I was going away. I was planning to divest myself of everything to do with the United States." To another reporter he said, "I would not consider returning to the United States," and referred to the Soviet government as "my government." His wish to remain in the Soviet Union was initially applauded by the Soviets, but although he had some technical knowledge acquired in the Marines they soon discovered he had little of real value to offer the Soviet Union and his application for Soviet residency was rejected. In response, Oswald made a bloody but minor cut to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub. After bandaging his superficial injury, the cautious Soviets kept him under psychiatric observation at the Botkin Hospital. Although this attempt may have been no more than an attention-getting ruse, the Soviet government feared an international incident if he attempted something similar again.
Against the advice of the KGB, Oswald was allowed to remain in the Soviet Union. Although he had wanted to remain in Moscow and attend Moscow University, he was sent to Minsk, located in modern-day Belarus. He was given a job as a metal lathe operator at the Gorizont (Horizon) Electronics Factory in Minsk, a huge facility that produced radios and televisions along with military and space electronic components. He was given a rent-subsidized, fully furnished studio apartment in a prestigious building under Gorizont's administration and in addition to his factory pay received monetary subsidies from the Russian Red Cross Society (a Soviet organisation entirely separate from the international medical aid organization). This represented an idyllic existence by Soviet-era working-class standards. Oswald was under constant surveillance by the KGB during his thirty-month stay in Minsk. Oswald gradually grew bored with the limited recreation available in Minsk. He wrote in his diary in January 1961: "I am starting to reconsider my desire about staying. The work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances. I have had enough." Shortly thereafter, Oswald opened negotiations with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow looking toward his return to the United States.
At a dance in early 1961 Oswald met Marina Prusakova, a troubled 19-year-old pharmacology student from a broken family in Leningrad now living with her aunt and uncle in Minsk. While later reports described her uncle as a colonel in the KGB or MVD, he was actually a lumber industry expert in the MVD (Ministry of Interior) with a bureaucratic rank equivalent to colonel. Lee and Marina married on April 30, 1961, less than six weeks after they met. Their first child, June, was born in February 1962.
After nearly a year of paperwork and waiting, on June 1, 1962 the young family left the Soviet Union for the United States. Even before November 22, 1963, Oswald enjoyed a small measure of national notoriety in the U.S. press as an American who had defected to the U.S.S.R. and returned.
Dallas
Back in the United States, the Oswalds settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where his mother and brother lived, and Lee attempted to write his memoir and commentary on Soviet life, a small manuscript called The Collective. He soon gave up the idea but his search for literary feedback put him in touch with the area's close-knit community of anti-Communist Russian immigrants. While merely tolerating the belligerent and arrogant Lee Oswald, they sympathized with Marina, partly because she was in a foreign country with no knowledge of English (which her husband refused to teach her, saying he didn't want to forget Russian) and because Oswald had begun to beat her. Although they eventually abandoned Marina when she made no sign of leaving him, Oswald had found an unlikely friend in the well-educated and worldly petroleum geologist George de Mohrenschildt, who liked playing the provocateur and enjoyed putting people off with his disagreeable and sullen Marxist friend. A native Russian-speaker himself, de Mohrenschildt in the manuscript to his intended memoir (had he not died before its completion) wrote that Oswald spoke Russian "very well, with only a little accent." Marina meanwhile befriended a married couple, Quaker Ruth Paine, who was trying to learn Russian, and her husband Michael.
In Dallas in July 1962, Oswald got a job with the Leslie Welding Company but disliked the work and quit after three months. He then found a position in October 1962 at the graphic arts firm of Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall as a photoprint trainee. The company has been cited as doing classified work for the US government but this was limited to typesetting for maps and produced in a section to which Oswald had no access. He may have used photographic and typesetting equipment in the unsecured area to create falsified identification documents, including some in the name of an alias he created, Alek James Hidell. His co-workers and supervisors eventually grew frustrated with his inefficiency, lack of precision, inattention, and rudeness to others, to the point where fights had threatened to break out. He had also been seen reading a Russian publication, Krokodil (Russian: „K„‚„€„{„€„t„y„|", crocodile"), in the cafeteria. (Ironically, this magazine was largely a satire of the performance of the Soviet system, not of the West; by this time Oswald had long become dissatisfied with the U.S.S.R., as noted). On April 1, 1963, after six months of work, Oswald's supervisor terminated Oswald's employment at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall.
Attempted assassination of General Walker
Ten days after being fired, Oswald attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker with the rifle shown in his backyard pose photos of March 31.
General Edwin Walker was an outspoken anti-communist, segregationist and member of the John Birch Society who had been commanding officer of the Army's 24th Infantry Division based in West Germany under NATO supreme command until he was relieved of his command in 1961 by JFK for distributing right-wing literature to his troops. Walker resigned from the service and returned to his native Texas.
Walker ran in the six-person Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1962 but lost to John Connally, who went on to win the race. Walker became involved in the resistance to using federal troops to racially integrate the University of Mississippi that led to a riot on October 1, 1962, killing two people. He was arrested for insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and other charges. But a federal grand jury declined to indict Walker, and the charges were dropped on January 21, 1963.
Oswald considered Walker a "fascist" and the leader of a "fascist organization." Five days after the front page news that Walker's charges had been dropped, Oswald ordered a revolver by mail, using the alias "A.J. Hidell," and began talking about sending Marina and their daughter back to Russia.
In February 1963 the general was making news with an evangelist partner in an anti-Communist tour called Operation Midnight Ride. In a speech Walker made on March 5, reported in the Dallas Times Herald, he called on the United States military to "liquidate the scourge that has descended upon the island of Cuba." Seven days later, Oswald ordered by mail a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, using the alias "A. Hidell."
While Walker was on tour, Oswald surveilled Walker's home on the weekend of March 9, taking pictures of the house and nearby railroad tracks which were later found among Oswald's belongings at the Paine home when they were searched after the Kennedy assassination (these photos were later matched to the same camera Marina used to take the backyard poses). Though he did not leave specifics of his plans in writing, Oswald did leave a note in Russian for Marina with instructions for her to follow should he be jailed in Dallas, or otherwise disappear.
Oswald attempted the assassination on April 10, 1963. Walker was sitting at a desk in his dining room (working on his federal income tax returns) when Oswald fired at him from less than one hundred feet (30 m) away. Walker survived only because the bullet struck the wooden frame of the window, which deflected its path, but was injured in the forearm by bullet fragments.
The Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting. Oswald's involvement was not suspected until the note for Marina and some of the photos of Walker's house were found following the assassination of JFK, after which Marina Oswald told authorities about Oswald's attempt on Walker's life, which she said Oswald had told her about after the fact. The bullet was too badly damaged to run conclusive ballistics studies on it, though neutron activation tests later showed that it was "extremely likely" that the Walker bullet was from the same cartridge manufacturer and for the same rifle make as the two bullets which later struck Kennedy.
New Orleans
Oswald returned to New Orleans, arriving on the morning of April 25, 1963 looking for work. After Oswald got a job as a machinery greaser with the Reily Coffee Company in May, Marina was driven there by family friend Ruth Paine. Oswald was fired for inefficiency and dereliction of duty on July 19.
During this period, Oswald began to consider returning to the Soviet Union or going to Cuba. He had Marina write to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. about the possibility of their returning to the Soviet Union. His Marxist ideals became focused on Fidel Castro and Cuba and he soon became a vocal pro-Castro advocate. The Fair Play for Cuba Committee was a national organization and Oswald set out on his own initiative as a one-member New Orleans chapter, spending $22.73 on 1,000 flyers, 500 membership applications and 300 membership cards. He told Marina to sign the name "A.J. Hidell" as chapter president on one card.
Most of Oswald's activities consisted of passing out flyers to passers-by on the street. He made a clumsy attempt to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups and briefly met with a skeptical Carlos Bringuier, New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro Cuban Student Directorate. Several days later, on August 9, Bringuier and two friends confronted a man passing out pro-Castro handbills and realized that it was Oswald. During an ensuing scuffle all of them were arrested and Oswald spent the night in jail.
The arrest got news media attention and Oswald was interviewed afterwards. He was also filmed passing out flyers in front of the International Trade Mart with two "volunteers" he had hired for $2 at the unemployment office. Oswald's political work in New Orleans came to an end after a WDSU radio debate between Bringuier and Oswald arranged by journalist Bill Stuckey. Instead of discussing Cuba as he had successfully done during a previous radio program, Oswald was publicly confronted with the lies and omissions he had made concerning his life and background and became audibly upset.
Oswald's five months in New Orleans were carefully scrutinized after the JFK assassination, most notably by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison in his unsuccessful attempt to link Oswald to wealthy local businessman Clay Shaw, a former president of the city's International Trade Mart. Garrison's attempt to establish connections between the two included W. Guy Banister (a retired FBI agent and former New Orleans Police Assistant Superintendent turned private investigator and anti-communist) and Banister's friend David Ferrie, an anti-Castro activist and one-time employee of the attorney for Mafioso Carlos Marcello.
Ferrie and Oswald had been simultaneously members of the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans in 1955, when Oswald was 15. Numerous witnesses have reported them attending the same CAP meetings, and both appear in a CAP group photo. The HSCA found no evidence they had any significant contact when Oswald was a teenager.
The 1979 HSCA stated in its Report that it found evidence that Oswald, while living in New Orleans in the summer of 1963, had established contact with David Ferrie as well as with other non-Cubans of anti-Castro sentiments. The Committee found "credible and significant" the testimony of six witnesses who placed Oswald and Ferrie together in Clinton, Louisiana in September, 1963, where the Congress of Racial Equality was organizing a voter registration drive for black people in the area. Yet none of the six witnesses had reported this allegation to authorities after the assassination, and their original statements given four years later in 1967 for Jim Garrison's investigation contained numerous contradictions to their testimony at the Clay Shaw trial in 1969, and to their testimony to the Committee in 1978.
Mexico
While Ruth Paine drove Marina back to Dallas in late September 1963, Oswald lingered in New Orleans for two more days waiting to collect a $33 unemployment check. He boarded a bus for Houston but instead of heading north to Dallas he took a bus southwest towards Laredo and the U.S.-Mexico border. Once in Mexico he hoped to continue on to Cuba, a plan he openly shared with other passengers on the bus. Arriving in Mexico City, he completed a transit visa application at the Cuban Embassy, claiming he wanted to visit the country on his way back to the Soviet Union. The Cubans insisted the Soviet Union would have to approve his journey to the USSR before he could get a Cuban visa, but he was unable to get speedy co-operation from the Soviet embassy.
After shuttling back and forth between consulates for five days, getting into a heated argument with the Cuban consul, making impassioned pleas to KGB agents, and coming under at least some CIA interest, the Cuban consul told Oswald that "as far as [he] was concerned [he] would not give him a visa" and that "a person like him [Oswald] in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm." However, less than three weeks later, on October 18 the Cuban embassy in Mexico City finally approved the visa, and 11 days before the assassination Oswald wrote a letter to the Soviet embassy in Washington DC, which said, "Had I been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana as planned, the embassy there would have had time to complete our business."
Return to Dallas
Oswald left Mexico City on October 3, and returned by bus to Dallas, where he looked for employment. Through Ruth Paine he found a job filling book orders at the Texas School Book Depository, where he started work on October 16. During the week, he lived in a rooming house in Dallas, and spent the weekends with his wife at the Paine home in Irving, Texas, about 15 miles (24 km) from downtown Dallas. On October 20, the Oswalds' second daughter was born. During this period, the FBI was aware of Oswald's whereabouts in Texas, and agents from the Dallas office twice visited the Paine home in early November when Oswald was not present, hoping to get more information about Marina Oswald, whom the FBI suspected of being a Soviet agent.
On November 16, a local newspaper reported that President Kennedy's motorcade would be going through downtown Dallas on November 22, "probably on Main Street" one block from the Texas School Book Depository, which it would have to pass to get onto the freeway to the President's luncheon site. This was confirmed by exact descriptions of the motorcade route published on November 19. On Thursday, November 21, Oswald asked a co-worker for a ride to Irving, saying he had to pick up some curtain rods. The next morning, after leaving $170 and his wedding ring, he returned with the co-worker to Dallas, carrying a long paper bag with him.
Oswald was last seen by a co-worker alone on the sixth floor of the Depository about 35 minutes before the assassination.
Assassination of JFK
Main article: John F. Kennedy assassination
The 1964 Warren Commission report on the John F. Kennedy assassination concluded that at 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, Oswald shot Kennedy from a window on the sixth floor of the book depository warehouse as the President's motorcade passed through Dallas' Dealey Plaza.
Further information: lone gunman theory
Texas Governor John Connally was also seriously wounded along with assassination witness James Tague who received a minor facial injury. On the evening of November 22, in an impromptu news conference, Oswald denied shooting president Kennedy or officer J. D. Tippit.
Oswald's flight and the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit
According to the Warren Commission report, immediately after he shot President Kennedy, Oswald hid the rifle behind some boxes and descended via the Depository's rear stairwell. On the second floor he encountered Dallas police officer Marion Baker who had driven his motorcycle to the door of the Depository and sprinted up the stairs in search of the shooter. With Baker was Oswald's supervisor Roy Truly, who identified Oswald as an employee, which caused Baker, who had his pistol in hand, to let Oswald pass. Oswald bought a Coke from a vending machine in the second floor lunchroom, crossed the floor to the front staircase, descended and left the building through the front entrance on Elm Street, just before the police sealed the building off. He would be the only employee to leave early that day; his supervisor later noticed only Oswald missing, and reported his name and address to the Dallas police in the building.
At about 12:40 p.m. (CST), Oswald boarded a city bus by pounding on the door in the middle of a block, when heavy traffic had slowed the bus to a halt. On the bus was Oswald's former landlady, who recognized him. About two blocks later, he requested a bus transfer from the driver and exited the bus. He took a taxicab to a few blocks beyond his rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley Ave. He walked back to his rooming house at about 1:00 p.m., went into his room briefly, and came out zipping up a jacket. His housekeeper, Earlene Roberts testified that "he was walking pretty fast - he was all but running." Oswald left the house and was last seen by Roberts standing by a bus stop across the street.
He was next seen walking about eight-tenths of a mile away. Patrolman J. D. Tippit encountered Oswald near the corner of Patton Avenue and 10th Street, and pulled up to talk to him through his patrol car window. Tippit then got out of his car and Oswald fired at the police officer with his .38 caliber revolver. Four of the shots hit Tippit, killing him, in view of two eyewitnesses. Seven other witnesses heard the shots and saw the gunman flee the scene with the revolver in his hand. Three other witnesses identified Oswald as fleeing the scene. Four cartridge cases were found at the scene by eyewitnesses. It was the unanimous testimony of expert witnesses before the Warren Commission that these used cartridge cases were fired from the revolver in Oswald's possession to the exclusion of all other weapons.
A few minutes later, Oswald ducked into the entrance alcove of a shoe store to avoid passing police cars, then slipped into the nearby Texas Theater without paying (even though he had $13.87 in his pocket). The shoe store's manager noticed Oswald and followed him into the theater where he alerted the ticket clerk, who phoned the police.
The police quickly arrived en masse and entered the theater as the lights were turned on. Officer M.N. McDonald approached Oswald sitting near the rear and ordered him to stand up. As Oswald said "Well, it is all over now" and appeared to raise his hands in surrender, he struck the officer. A scuffle ensued where McDonald reported that Oswald pulled the trigger on his revolver, but the hammer came down on the web of skin between the thumb and forefinger of the officer's hand, which prevented the revolver from firing. Oswald was eventually subdued. As he was led past an angry group of people who had gathered outside the theater, Oswald shouted that he was a victim of police brutality.
Oswald was held on suspicion first as a suspect in the shooting of Officer Tippit and was questioned by Detective Jim Leavelle. Shortly afterward Oswald was also booked on suspicion of murdering both President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. By the end of the night he had been arraigned for both murders.
While in custody, Oswald had an impromptu, face-to-face brush with reporters and photographers in the hallway of the police station. A reporter asked him, "Did you shoot the President?" and Oswald answered, "I have not been accused of that." The reporters answered that he had been. "In fact, I didn't even know about it until a reporter in the hall asked me that question," Oswald added. Later Oswald said to reporters, "I didn't shoot anyone," and "They're taking me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!"
Unedited footage of the impromptu face-to-face also shows Jack Ruby lingering amongst the reporters.
Police interrogation
Oswald was interrogated several times during his two days of detention at Dallas Police Headquarters. He denied killing President Kennedy or Officer Tippit, denied owning a rifle, said two photographs of him holding a rifle and a pistol were fakes, denied knowing anything about the forged Selective Service card with the name "Alek J. Hidell" in his wallet, denied telling his co-worker he wanted a ride to Irving to get curtain rods for his apartment, and denied he had been seen carrying a long heavy package to work the following morning.
Oswald's murder
At 11:21 am CST Sunday, November 24, while he was handcuffed to Detective Leavelle and as he was about to be taken to the Dallas County Jail, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded before live television cameras in the basement of Dallas police headquarters by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner who had been distraught over the assassination.
Unconscious, Oswald was put into an ambulance and rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where JFK had died two days earlier. Doctors operated on Oswald, but Ruby's single bullet had severed major abdominal blood vessels, and the doctors were unable to repair the massive trauma. At 48 hours and 7 minutes after the President's death, Oswald was pronounced dead. After a full autopsy, Oswald's body was returned to his family.
Oswald's grave is in Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth. The inexpensive coffin was provided at the expense of the state. The November 25th burial and funeral were paid for by Oswald's brother Robert. Reporters acted as pallbearers. When his mother died in 1981 she was buried next to Oswald with no headstone. Originally his headstone read Lee Harvey Oswald, but this marker was stolen and replaced with one which only reads Oswald. His wife Marina, who was sequestered by federal agents the day after the assassination and later released, married Kenneth Porter in 1965 and her two daughters June and Rachel took Porter's last name.
Investigations
The Warren Commission created by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy and that he acted alone (also known as the Lone gunman theory). The proceedings of the commission were closed, but not secret, and about 3% of its files have yet to be released to the public, which has continued to provoke speculation among conspiracy theorists.
In 1968 The Ramsey Clark Panel met in Washington, DC to examine various photographs, X-ray films, documents, and other evidence pertaining to the death of President Kennedy. It concluded that President Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind him, one of which traversed the base of the neck on the right side without striking bone and the other of which entered the skull from behind and destroyed its right side.
In 1979, an investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, concluded that Oswald assassinated President Kennedy "probably...as the result of a conspiracy." The HSCA prepared an initial report concluding that Oswald acted alone until a Dictabelt recording purportedly of the assassination surfaced and the Committee revised their conclusion. This acoustic evidence has itself been called into question and many believe it is not a recording of the assassination at all. The attorney for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, G. Robert Blakey, told ABC News that there were 20 people, at least, who heard a shot from the grassy knoll, and that the conclusion that a conspiracy existed in the assassination was established by both the witness testimony and acoustic evidence. In 2004, he expressed less confidence in the acoustic evidence. Officer McLain, whose motorcycle the Dictabelt evidence comes from, has repeatedly stated that he was not yet in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. The HSCA was unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy. It also had insufficient evidence to identify any group responsible.
In 1982 a group of twelve scientists appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, led by Professor Norman Ramsey of Harvard, concluded that the acoustical evidence and the team behind its submission to the HSCA was 'seriously flawed', and has effectively been debunked.
Possible motives
The Warren Commission could not ascribe any one motive or group of motives to Oswald's actions:
It is apparent, however, that Oswald was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment. He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it. Oswald's search for what he conceived to be the perfect society was doomed from the start. He sought for himself a place in history - a role as the "great man" who would be recognized as having been in advance of his times. His commitment to Marxism and communism appears to have been another important factor in his motivation. He also had demonstrated a capacity to act decisively and without regard to the consequences when such action would further his aims of the moment. Out of these and the many other factors which may have molded the character of Lee Harvey Oswald there emerged a man capable of assassinating President Kennedy.
1981 exhumation
In October 1981 Oswald's body was exhumed at the behest of British writer Michael Eddowes, with Marina Oswald Porter's support. He sought to prove a thesis developed in a 1975 book, Khrushchev Killed Kennedy (re-published in 1976, in Britain as November 22: How They Killed Kennedy and in America a year later as The Oswald File).
Eddowes' theory was that during Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union he was replaced with a Soviet double named Alek, who was a member of a KGB assassination squad. Eddowes' claim is that it was this look-alike who killed Kennedy, and not Oswald. Eddowes's support for his thesis was a claim that the corpse buried in 1963 in the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas did not have a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before.
When Oswald's body was exhumed it was found that the coffin had ruptured and was filled with water; leaving the body in an advanced state of decomposition with partial skeletonization. The examination positively identified Oswald's corpse through dental records, and also detected a mastoid scar from a childhood operation. Contrary to reports, the skull of Oswald had been autopsied and this was confirmed at the exhumation.
Assassination theories
Critics have not accepted the official government conclusions and have proposed a number of alternative theories which assert that Oswald conspired with others or Oswald was not involved at all and was framed. However, many of these theories contradict each other, and no single compelling alternative suspect or conspirator has emerged.
One government investigation, the HSCA, ruled out many of these theories but concluded that, while Oswald was the assassin, that Kennedy was "probably" killed as the result of a conspiracy. However, the HSCA report did not identify any probable co-conspirators and its conclusion has been criticised for its reliance upon acoustic evidence that has been called into question.

Born: October 18, 1990
Location: Valparaiso, Indiana
Carly Brook Schroeder is an American film and television actress, known for playing Serena Baldwin, the daughter of Scotty Baldwin in the General Hospital spinoff, Port Charles. She also had a recurring role on the Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire. In 2007, she is playing the lead in Gracie, a film inspired by a real-life tragedy during the childhood of actors Elisabeth Shue and Andrew Shue.
Biography
Schroeder’s tag-along trip to her cousin’s audition in 1993 turned out to be her lucky day and the start of her career as an actress.
While there, the cute three-year-old was spotted by the casting director and asked if she would consider working for them. While Schroeder’s mother was hesitant at first, the prospects of earning money for a college education appealed to her.
After her first job, she began doing print work in Chicago for Sears, Roebuck and Company, Kmart, Spiegel, Land’s End, Chuck E. Cheese's, and many other print advertisers. Two years later in 1995, renowned child director Bob Ebel was so taken by Schroeder’s wide-eyed innocence and extra spark of enthusiasm, he asked her to do a few television commercials.
It was one of Ebel’s commercials - the one for Shake 'n Bake - which caught the eye of General Hospital cast member Kin Shriner. In 1997, American Broadcasting Company (ABC) decided that Shriner’s character, Scott Baldwin, should have a daughter. Since he would be working very closely with the new cast member, Shriner asked if he could participate in the selection of his television daughter, Serena Baldwin.
Two weeks before a decision was to be made, the studio was down to five candidates for the part and still uncertain of whom to cast. It was at this serendipitous time that Schroeder’s commercial for Shake ‘N’ Bake began to air on national television.
Shriner said stated that every time he turned on the tube, there was “this blonde-haired, blue-eyed, quirky little girl” that made him laugh. Knowing that Scotty Baldwin had found his daughter at last, Shriner immediately showed the commercial to GH casting director Mark Teschner and executive producer, Wendy Riche.
They agreed to fly Schroeder out from her hometown of Valparaiso, Indiana for the screen test. Her open, honest and friendly attitude quickly won over Shriner, Teschner, and everyone else she met. Schroeder returned home with a four-year contract.
Life on the set
The newly formed father and daughter team made their acting genuinely sincere on both General Hospital and the spin-off, Port Charles, with Schroeder performing in over 480 episodes during a six-year period. She was twice nominated for a Young Artist Award; once in 1999 and again in 2000, as well as a Young Star Award nomination in 1999 for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Daytime TV Program.
During this time, Schroeder also worked on several television shows and movies including two episodes of Dawson’s Creek (2000) as the soccer girl Molly Sey, as well as playing Susan Olsen in the television movie Growing Up Brady (2000). She also appeared in one episode of The George Lopez Show (2002) as Ashley.
Schroeder’s voice is featured in Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and also in Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999), serving as additional voices for the films. During this time, Schroeder worked with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for FOX News. She also appeared in several commercials, including Got Milk?, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and McDonald’s as well as getting cast in an unsecured Disney Channel pilot called Web Girl (working title: Virtually Casey).
While Schroeder might have been disappointed Web Girl wasn’t picked up by the studio, her worries would come to nothing due to her winning the role of the manipulative and rascally (yet lovable) prankster Melina Bianco in The Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire (2001-2003). Schroeder shot 12 episodes of Lizzie McGuire and also appeared in The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), reprising her role as the free-spirited Melina.
Time for the big screen
In 2003, with The Lizzie McGuire Movie under her belt, Schroeder auditioned for her first feature film and won the part of Millie in Jacob Estes’ Mean Creek. The story of a trip up river and a practical joke going tragically wrong, Mean Creek won wide acclaim and dramatic credibility for Schroeder and the rest of the cast, winning the Humanitas Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, and also being awarded the 2005 Independent Spirit Festival Special Distinction Award for best ensemble cast.
During this time, Schroeder made a return to television in an episode of Cold Case (2004). In August of 2004, she took a working vacation to France as she visited Cannes for Mean Creek’s entry onto the film contest, as well as a trip in January 2005 to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
Finding a true passion for film, she appeared in a small student film called We All Fall Down (2005). Schroeder also found time to squeeze in three other films that year; Firewall (2006), with Harrison Ford, Eye of the Dolphin (2006), and Prey (2007).
At this time, Schroeder again tried her hand at modeling, having done print work for Abercrombie & Fitch in 2005. She worked a few projects for designer Jessica McClintock in the early part of 2006, but had to postpone modeling when she had the opportunity to do her biggest role to date.
Getting a kick out of Gracie
An avid soccer player since the age of five, Schroeder finally had the chance in 2006 to combine two of her passions in a single project called Gracie.
Set in 1978, Gracie is an inspirational film about a teenage girl who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer at a time when girls soccer did not exist.
However, Schroeder was faced with a battle of her own when director Davis Guggenheim and Elizabeth Shue, producer were set on finding a real female soccer player and even initiated a nationwide casting call for the part of Grace Bowen.
Undeterred, Schroeder began an intense three-month work-out that included a daily regime of not only physical fitness, but training in advanced soccer skills with professional athletes and trainers.
Once she received the part, Schroeder trained even harder in order to hone her soccer skills. All this on top of the normal demands of shooting a feature film, including memorizing lines, taking direction and working with other actors.
A month before Gracie opened, Schroeder toured 19 cities in 33 days and premiered in June 2007.

AKA Margaret Ruth Kidder

Born: 17-Oct-1948
Birthplace: Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Gender: Female
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: Canada
Executive summary: Lois Lane in the Superman movie
Father: Kendall Kidder (mining engineer)
Sister: Annie
Husband: Thomas McGuane (novelist, m. 1975, div. 1976, one daughter)
Daughter: Maggie (b. 1976)
Boyfriend: Pierre Trudeau (former Prime Minister of Canada)
Husband: John Heard (m. 1979, div. 1979)
Husband: Philippe de Broca (m. 6-Aug-1983, div. 1984)
Boyfriend: Brian De Palma (2 years)
Kidder was born Margaret Ruth Kidder in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, one of five children of Jill, a history teacher, and Kendall Kidder, an explosives expert and mining engineer. She was born in Yellowknife because of her father's job, which required the family to live in remote locations. She has a sister, Annie, and three brothers, John, Michael and Peter. Kidder's niece, Janet Kidder, is also an actress.
Career
In the late 1960s, Kidder was based in Toronto, and appeared in a number of TV drama series for the CBC, including guest appearances on Wojeck, Adventures in Rainbow Country, and a semi-regular role as a young reporter on McQueen. Later, she made an appearance as a barmaid in Nichols, a short-lived James Garner vehicle made for American television. She also appeared in a number of low-budget Canadian movies in the early 1970s before going on to star in the Brian de Palma psychological thriller Sisters (1973) and the horror film Black Christmas (1974). A nude pictorial of Kidder, photographed by Douglas Kirkland, was published in the March 1975 issue of Playboy. The accompanying article was written by her as a condition of appearing: Kidder said "I don't want someone writing 'Margot Kidder has more curves than the Pacific Coast Highway' under my picture."
Kidder is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie and its sequels. Kidder brought more depth to the role than previous actresses, portraying Lane as an ambitious and headstrong, yet vulnerable and emotionally lonely woman trying to make it in a man's world. After she publicly expressed her disgust to the producers, Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind, over the firing of Richard Donner from 1980's Superman II, her role in 1983's Superman III consisted of less than 5 minutes of footage. Her role in 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was more substantial. In addition to the Superman movies, Kidder has starred in The Amityville Horror, Willie and Phil, Some Kind of Hero with Richard Pryor and The Great Waldo Pepper opposite Robert Redford. She has also made uncredited cameo appearances in Maverick and Delirious.
In 1983, Kidder produced and starred as Eliza Doolittle in a TV version of Pygmalion with Peter O'Toole. In the late 1980s she appeared in introductions for the Discovery Channel's "Best of the BBC" series of repackaged documentaries, among them Making of a Continent. She has also done extensive stage work, including The Vagina Monologues.
In 1994, Kidder played the bartender at the "Broken Skull" tavern in Under a Killing Moon, an IBM PC adventure game.
In 2004, Kidder briefly returned to the Superman franchise in two episodes of the television program Smallville, as Dr. Bridgette Crosby, an emissary of Dr. Swann (played by her Superman co-star, Christopher Reeve). Also that year Kidder made an appearance on a Canadian sitcom, Robson Arms, set in an apartment block in Vancouver's west end. She played a quirky neighbor of the main cast members.
In 2007, Kidder started appearing on the television series Brothers and Sisters, playing Emily Craft.
Personal life
In the past, Kidder dated former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. She has been married and divorced three times: to American playwright Thomas McGuane (by whom she had her only child, daughter Maggie [now Maggie Kirn], in 1976); to actor John Heard; and to French film director Philippe de Broca. None of the marriages lasted longer than a year. Since her divorce from De Broca, she has said that she prefers the companionship of her dogs.
Kidder raised some hackles in the early 1990s during the first Gulf War, when she ridiculed the press and the military for not seeing the larger consequences of their actions.
Kidder was involved in a serious car crash back in 1990, after which she was unable to work for two years, causing her serious financial problems.
Kidder has bipolar disorder, which led to a widely publicized manic episode in 1996. Kidder was found by police in a distressed state. She was placed in psychiatric care.
Kidder became a United States citizen on August 17, 2005, in Butte, Montana; she lives in nearby Livingston. She said the reason for her decision to become an American citizen is to participate in the voting process, to continue her protests against U.S. intervention in Iraq, and at the same time to be free of worries about being deported.

AKA Suzanne Marie Mahoney

Born: 16-Oct-1946
Birthplace: San Bruno, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Chrissy on Three's Company
Father: Frank Mahoney
Mother: Marion Mahoney (b. 1914, d. 1998)
Sister: Maureen Gilmartin
Brother: Daniel Mahoney
Husband: Bruce Somers (lawyer, m. 1965, div. 1968, one son)
Son: Bruce Somers, Jr. (b. Nov-1965)
Husband: Alan Hamel (m. 11-Nov-1977, two step-children)
Son: Steven (step-son)
Daughter: Leslie (step-daughter)
Somers was born Suzanne Marie Mahoney, the third of four children in Frank and Marion Mahoney's Irish Catholic household in San Bruno, California. Her father was an alcoholic who could become violent on occasion, as Somers recounted, often forcing her to hide in her closet. She suffered from dyslexia and was a poor student. After being expelled from parochial school for having love notes in her locker, Suzanne went to Crestmoor High School. Due to his drinking problem, her father was too inebriated to attend Suzanne's high school graduation in June, 1964.
In September, 1964, she was accepted at San Francisco College for Women (commonly referred to as "Lone Mountain College") on a music scholarship, a Catholic school that is now a campus of the University of San Francisco. She left during her Sophomore year, after becoming pregnant. She gave birth to her son Bruce Jr. on November 8, 1965, after marrying the boy's father, Bruce Somers. She left her husband three years later and began modeling. In 1971, her son was severely injured when he was hit by a car. Also at this time, Suzanne was arrested for writing a bad check to pay her rent. (Her mugshot would appear years later when she was on "Three's Company." But the negative publicity quickly subsided once Suzanne explained about her emotional and financial difficulties of having her son in the hospital.)
She began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s (including on various talk shows promoting her book of poetry, and bit parts in movies such as the "Blonde in the T-Bird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck as the femme fatale in the early 1970s) before landing the role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977. At the beginning of the 1980-81 season, Suzanne demanded a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode and 10% ownership of the show. When ABC refused, Somers boycotted the second and fourth shows of the season, claiming illness. She finished the remaining season on her contract, but her role was cut back to 1 minute per episode. After her contract expired, she sued ABC for $2 million, claiming that her credibility in show business had been damaged. It went to an arbitrator who decided that Suzanne was owed only $30,000 for a missed episode.
Further information: Three's Company: Cast changes
By this time John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt were not talking to Suzanne because of the contractual dispute she started. There is a rumor, that when John and Joyce carried Suzanne out of the apartment (they did this for a scene) they dropped her on the ground purposely. John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt deny this rumor. On September 11, 2003, Suzanne was informed of John Ritter's death by his widow Amy Yasbeck .
In 1968, Suzanne won a job as a prize model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel, who was married at the time. The two began dating, and Suzanne became pregnant while Hamel was still married. They decided that Suzanne should have an abortion, which she did, suffering severe bleeding for several days. She has been married to Hamel since 1977. Hamel was her business manager during the failed negotiations which led to her leaving Three's Company.
Before the feud with Three's Company producers and ABC even ended, rival network CBS knew that Somers was going to be available in the end. They eventually signed her to a contract and a development deal for her own sitcom, which was going to be called The Suzanne Somers Show in which she played an "over-the-top" airline stewardess. Once she was finally available, CBS gave Somers- and the public- a timeframe in which the show was supposed to premiere, but due to a change in administration at CBS's entertainment division in early 1982, the brass ended up passing on the project. Also, Suzanne claimed in her book After the Fall (1998) that the producers of Three's Company kept sending "cease & desist" forms to CBS stating that Suzanne couldn't use any of her Chrissy Snow characterization, and that chilled the creative process.
During the 1980s, Somers became a Las Vegas entertainer. She was the spokeswoman for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment that is squeezed between one's thighs. Thighmaster was one of the first products responsible for launching the infomercial concept. As well, she performed for U.S. servicemen overseas. She graced the cover of Playboy with a full nude pictorial twice : in 1980 and 1984. The 1980 pictures were taken years before, when Suzanne was a struggling model and actress, unlike the 1984 pictorial.
At the height of her exposure as official spokesperson for Thighmaster infomercials, Somers made her first return to a series, although not on network television. In 1987 she starred in the sitcom She's the Sheriff, which ran in first-run syndication. Somers portrayed a widow with two young kids who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a southern town. The show ran for two seasons. In 1990, Somers returned to network TV, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies, mostly for ABC. Her roles in these, including the movie Rich Men, Single Women, attracted the attention of Lorimar Television and Miller-Boyett Productions, who were developing a new sitcom. For Lorimar, this was asking Somers back, since they alone had produced She's the Sheriff.
In September 1991, Somers bounced back to series TV by starring in the successful sitcom Step By Step (with Patrick Duffy), which ran for seven seasons. Playing off her rejuvenated career, Somers also launched a daytime talk show in 1994, albeit briefly, aptly titled Suzanne Somers. During Step By Step's final season, on CBS, she began co-hosting Candid Camera with Peter Funt. A made-for-TV-movie starring Somers (based on her first autobiography, Keeping Secrets) was made about her life and growing up with an alcoholic father. She has released two autobiographies, two self-help books, four diet books, and a book about hormone replacement therapy.
As a business executive Somers has created a multi million dollar lifestyle empire. Through her companies ELO Somers and Port Carling Inc, of which Somers serves as president, Somers has created hundreds of personally branded fashion, diet, beauty and exercise products which are marketed through the Home Shopping Network, her website and through Suzanne, a direct sales organization in the vein of Avon or Tupperware.
Somers announced in spring 2001 that she had breast cancer and she was treated with conventional surgery and radiation therapy. Instead of pursuing elective chemotherapy after her treatment, Somers chose an alternative therapy using mistletoe injections.
Somers is also a supporter of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and a spokesperson for the Wiley Protocol. Her book, Ageless, includes interviews with 16 leading practitioners of bioidentical hormone therapy, but gives extra discussion to the Wiley Protocol.
In summer 2005 Somers made her Broadway debut in a one-woman show, The Blonde in the Thunderbird, a collection of stories about her life and career. The show was supposed to run until September, but negative publicity and disappointing ticket sales caused a late July closing. Somers blamed the harsh reviews (the New York Times: "...a swan dive into narcissism"; New York Post: "smug and remorseless") and told the Post: "These men [New York critics] are curmudgeons, and maybe I went too close to the bone for them. I was lying there naked, and they decided to kick me and step on me, just like these visions you see in Iraq."
On January 9, 2007, the Associated Press reported that a wildfire in southern California had destroyed Somers' Malibu home, and all she had left was the clothes on her back. Appearing on television, Somers told reporters they planned to rebuild. In March 2007, On the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Somers explained that she found her wedding band from her husband of 29 years while sifting through ashes of her home.
Somers has recently admitted in interviews that if there was ever a movie made about the life of Johnny Cash, she'd love to play his wife, June Carter Cash. When told Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar for famously playing that exact role in 2005's Walk the Line, Somers replied, "I have not seen any movie made after late 1994."

Born: 16-Sep-1971
Birthplace: Burlington, MA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: SNL Weekend Update Anchor
Father: Bill
Mother: Eileen
Brother: Gregory
Husband: Will Arnett (Gob on Arrested Development, m. 2003)
Poehler was born in Burlington, Massachusetts, to Eileen, a teacher, and Bill Poehler. She has a younger brother, Gregory. A 1993 graduate of Boston College, Poehler was a key member of America's oldest collegiate improv comedy troupe, My Mother's Fleabag.
Career
Saturday Night Live
On Saturday Night Live, she parodies stars such as Sharon Osbourne, Paula Abdul, Kelly Ripa, Madonna, Avril Lavigne, Sharon Stone, Nancy Grace, Michael Jackson, and Dakota Fanning. During her first season on SNL, Poehler was promoted from featured player to full cast member, making her the third person to have ever earned this distinction (after Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy). Beginning with the 2004-05 season, she co-anchored "Weekend Update" with Tina Fey, replacing the newly departed Jimmy Fallon. In a TV Guide interview, Fey said that with Poehler co-anchoring, there now is "double the sexual tension." When Fey left after the 2005-06 season to devote time to the sitcom she created, 30 Rock, Seth Meyers joined Poehler at the anchor desk.
Other projects
Poehler has appeared in films such as Wet Hot American Summer, Mean Girls, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, Blades of Glory (her husband, Will Arnett, was in the movie as well, they played the antagonists of the film, a brother-sister figure skating pair), Envy, Shrek The Third and Mr. Woodcock. In the past, she often appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Andy Richter's little sister Stacy, and as a recurring character in two episodes of the college dramedy Undeclared. She appears in the film Southland Tales, which premiered on May 21, 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and is set to appear in the 2008 film Spring Breakdown. She has also created an animated series for Nickelodeon called Mighty B, scheduled to premiere in 2008 about a "sweet, merit-badge-obsessed girl scout," to which she lends her vocal talents.
Poehler performed at Second City Chicago and the ImprovOlympic, and is a disciple of longform improv comic innovator Del Close. She was one of the four players on Comedy Central's Upright Citizens Brigade and is a co-owner of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. She can also be seen most Sundays at the theatre in the infamous ASSSSCAT, which has been performed for more than 10 years.
Poehler has done numerous impressions on SNL and in her other performances.
Poehler is also the highest grossing film actress currently employed on SNL. The films she has appeared in have earned a total of over $800 million worldwide.

AKA Victoria Leigh Blum

Born: 15-Oct-1955
Birthplace: Bronx, NY
Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Bond Girl, Beastmaster, That 70s Show
Husband: Barry Roberts (screenwriter, b. 1946, m. 1974, d. 2006 encephalitis)
Sister: Barbara Chase (actress, was married to Timothy Leary)
Tanya Roberts dropped out of school and married at 15. She lived a bohemian life with her loser husband, until her mother tracked them down, took Roberts home, and had the marriage annulled. She took years of acting lessons, and worked as a dance instructor at an Arthur Murray studio, and later as a model. Her first film was Forced Entry, a sleazy 1975 thriller about a serial rapist, and in the excellent Fingers she was seduced by piano player Harvey Keitel with the memorable line, "I love your pussy". She had a small part in the cheesy Zuma Beach with Suzanne Somers, but Roberts was still basically an unknown when she was hired as the last of TV's Charlie's Angels in 1980, replacing Shelley Hack, who had replaced Kate Jackson. The show, though, was past its prime, and was cancelled after 16 episodes with Roberts.
Roberts then had a few years as a semi-star, headlining the low-budget sword-and-sandal epic The Beastmaster with Marc Singer and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with Ted Wass. She was a Bond girl in A View to a Kill with Roger Moore, which could have been her big break, but she did little in the movie beyond looking gorgeous and screaming "Help, James", and the reviews were unkind. After that, she was generally relegated to schlock and "erotic thrillers", including Legal Tender with Morton Downey, Jr., Sins of Desire with Jan-Michael Vincent, and Deep Down with George Segal.
Her career had a brief resurgence when she was cast as Laura Prepon's lovably empty-headed MILF mom on That '70s Show in 1998, but Roberts left the show in 2001 to care for her ailing second husband. Her sister is erstwhile actress Barbara Chase, perhaps best known for a small role in Nine to Five with Jane Fonda. Chase was married to Timothy Leary for 14 years, making Roberts the drug-addled genius's sister-in-law.

AKA Sally Vanessa Ortiz

Born: 15-Oct-1968
Birthplace: Indio, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Gina Kinkaid on Beverly Hills 90210
Father: Peter Ortiz (contractor)
Mother: Patricia Marcil (herbalist)
Sister: Tina
Sister: Sherry
Brother: Sam
Husband: Corey Feldman (m. 6-Aug-1989, div. 1993)
Boyfriend: Tyler Christopher (broken engagement)
Boyfriend: Brian Austin Green (co-90210 star, dated until 2003)
Son: Kassius Lijah Marcil-Green (with Green b. 30-Mar-2002)
Boyfriend: Ben Younger (screenwriter)
Marcil, the youngest of four children, was born Sally Vanessa Ortiz in Indio, California, the daughter of Peter Ortiz, a contractor and self-made millionaire, and Patricia Marcil, an herbalist; her parents are separated. Marcil's father is Mexican and her mother is American of French, Italian and Portuguese ancestry. Marcil was named after actress Vanessa Redgrave.
Career
Marcil acted in a number of theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the soap opera General Hospital in 1992. She garnered three Daytime Emmy Award nominations (1997, 1998 and 2003) for her portrayal, winning in 2003 as "Outstanding Supporting Actress." In February 1998, she was named "Outstanding Lead Actress" at the Soap Opera Digest Awards.
After six years on General Hospital, she left the show in 1998 (returning briefly in '02) to star in the made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive, and had a recurring guest role on the police drama High Incident produced by Steven Spielberg. Marcil joined the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 in November 1998 as Gina Kincaid and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons. Marcil made her feature film debut in the 1996 film The Rock, in which she starred opposite Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris. In 1999, she starred in two independent films: Nice Guys Sleep Alone with Sean O'Bryan and This Space Between Us with Jeremy Sisto.
Marcil was awarded the 2001 "Sojourn Service Award" and has supported Sojourn Services for Battered Women and their children by hosting charity events and making appearances on Wheel of Fortune, playing for funds for the organization. Through her fundraising efforts, she hopes to increase awareness of domestic violence and inspire battered woman to take control of their lives.
Marcil currently stars in the NBC television series Las Vegas as Samantha Jane "Sam" Marquez. She has been featured in several Men's magazines, including Stuff, FHM, and Maxim. She was named #19 on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2005 list and was featured on the cover of the issue that included the list, as well as #92 in the 2006 FHM Hot 100 list.
Personal life
Marcil has occasionally denied that she married actor Corey Feldman, but Las Vegas marriage records show that the two married in a legal ceremony on August 6, 1988. Vanessa dated actor Carmine Giovinazzo from 1998-1999. She was engaged to General Hospital co-star Tyler Christopher, but the two never married. She dated former Beverly Hills 90210 castmate Brian Austin Green until early 2003 (they were widely reported to have been engaged, but Marcil denied this in an interview with Stuff magazine). They have a son, Kassius Lijah Marcil-Green, born on March 30, 2002. She is living with her boyfriend Ben Younger and her son in Los Angeles.

Born: 14-Oct-1970
Birthplace: Teplice, Czechia
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Model
Daniela Peštová (born October 14, 1970) is a Czech supermodel. She was born in Teplice, Czechoslovakia, and was discovered by the Madison Modeling Agency's Dominique Caffin. She had plans to attend college but after winning a modelling contest she moved to Paris to sign with Madison Modeling Agency. She later on moved to New York and from there her career took off.
She has appeared on the covers of GQ, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and ELLE. She has been modelling for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue for many years and has appeared on the cover three times, in 1995, 2000 and 2006. She has also modelled for L'Oréal and Victoria's Secret. Peštová married Tomasso Buti (former CEO of Fashion Café) in 1995, but they were divorced in 1998. The couple had a son together, Yannick Fausto (b. 1996). She has also a daughter, Ella (b. July 21, 2002), with her present partner, Slovak singer Pavol Habera. She has been dubbed "The Chameleon" for continuously changing her look. She speaks Russian, French and Italian fluently, as well as her native Czech.

AKA Kelly Kamalelehua Palzis

Born: 13-Oct-1962
Birthplace: Honolulu, HI
Gender: Female
Religion: Scientology
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: What a Girl Wants
Married John Travolta twice, the first time illegally.
Father: (div. soon after Kelly was born)
Mother: Carol
Father: Peter Palzis (stepfather, adoptive, mother's 2nd husband)
Brother: Christopher Palzis (half-brother)
Husband: Kevin Gage (actor, m. 1985, div. 1987)
Husband: John Travolta (actor, m. 12-Sep-1991)
Son: Jett (b. 13-Apr-1992)
Daughter: Ella Bleu (b. 3-Apr-2000)
Boyfriend: George Clooney (actor, ex-)
Boyfriend: Charlie Sheen (actor, cohabited 1989-90, ex-)
Preston was born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Linda, was an administrator of a mental health center, and her father, who worked for an agricultural firm, drowned when Preston was three years old. Preston's adoptive father was Peter Palzis, a personnel director, and her step-father was Lee Carlson. She spent time living in Iraq and Australia as a result of her biological father's work when she was a child. While living in Australia, she attended Pembroke School in Adelaide.
Career
Preston had a modeling career when she was a teenager. At sixteen, she was discovered by a fashion photographer who helped her get acting work in commercials and other small parts, which eventually developed into a successful movie career. She is a spokesperson for Neutrogena and appears in print and television ads.
She was featured in the chart-topping Maroon 5 music video, "She Will Be Loved" in 2004. The video features a love triangle and romantic scenes between Preston and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine.
Personal life
Preston's former boyfriends include George Clooney and Charlie Sheen. After living with Sheen for one year (and receiving a very large diamond ring from him), Preston ended the relationship in 1990 shortly after an incident in which Sheen accidentally shot her in the arm. She was married to Kevin Gage from 1986 to 1988.
Preston is currently married to John Travolta. They have a son, Jett Travolta (b. April 13, 1992), and a daughter, Ella Blue Travolta (b. April 3, 2000). Travolta married Kelly Preston twice. Their first wedding (September 5, 1991) was performed by a French Scientologist minister, but it was later declared legally invalid. They married again within the month. Both Preston and Travolta are Scientologists, and Preston appeared in the film Battlefield Earth (produced by Travolta, based on the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard).
Recently, she has taken up the issue of overmedication and children. Preston has advocated that schools are forcing or pressuring students and their families to medicate them for ADD unnecessarily. She has testified before the Florida state legislature encouraging the passage of a bill to ban such practice. A federal law to that effect became law in July 2005, though only schools receiving federal funding are subject to its terms.
She also devotes much of her time as a board member of the Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC), a non-profit organization dedicated to educating parents about environmental toxins and potential health hazards for children with illnesses. She joined after their son Jett was diagnosed with Kawasaki syndrome, an illness that she suggests affects children and results in severe allergies and asthma attacks.

AKA Susan Ellen Anton

Born: 12-Oct-1950
Birthplace: Oak Glen, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer, Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Played 5000 times at Radio City Music Hall
Second runner-up to Miss America in 1970.
Husband: Jack Stein (div. 1979)
Husband: Jeff Lester (actor, m. 15-Aug-1992)
Boyfriend: Dudley Moore
Susan Ellen Anton (born on October 12, 1950 in Oak Glen, California) is an American singer and actress, best known for her role as "Susan Williams" in the various Stop Susan Williams!-related television series, a recurring role on the TV series Baywatch, and television movies.
Anton first experienced fame by winning the Miss California contest in 1969. She was later named one of TIME magazine's "Most Promising Faces of 1979." She has also starred in her own variety show, Presenting Susan Anton, and acted in the films Goldengirl, Spring Fever and Cannonball Run 2. She recorded a couple of records. Her biggest hit was Killin' Time a duet with country singer Fred Knoblock. The song went to the top ten of the country charts and also placed inside the top 30 of the pop charts.
In the early 1980s Anton had a relationship with Sylvester Stallone, which occurred while he was married. In the early 1990s Anton dated English film and TV star Dudley Moore with much being made of their height difference (he was 5 ft 2.5 in. or 1.59 m tall, she was 5 ft 11 in.tall).
Susan Anton married Jeff Lester on August 15, 1992.
Allusions to intimacy with Krusty the Clown were made about her in an episode of The Simpsons in which Krusty asks an assistant on his TV show to, "Book that animal that always chomps on my groin". The assistant asks, "Susan Anton?" Krusty, angry, replies, "No, the lemur!"
She also appeared on Broadway in The Will Rodgers Follies, Hurlyburly and All Shook Up. She is currently staring in the Broadway musical "All Shook Up" which is on tour in larger cities nation wide. "All Shook Up" was performed at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas to rave reviews and a standing ovation.

John Travolta .......................... Bobby Long
Scarlett Johansson ................... Pursy Will
Gabriel Macht ......................... Lawson Pines
Deborah Kara Unger .................. Georgianna
Dane Rhodes ........................... Cecil
David E. Jense.......................... Junior
Clayne Crawford ........................Lee
Written by Sujit R. Varma
Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner Purslane Hominy Will returns to New Orleans for the first time in years, ready to reclaim her childhood home. Expecting to find her late mother's house abandoned, Pursy is shocked to discover that it is inhabited by two of her mother's friends: Bobby Long, a former literature professor, and his young protégé, Lawson Pines. These broken men, whose lives took a wrong turn years before, have been firmly rooted in the dilapidated house for years, encouraged only by Lawson's faltering ambitions to write a novel about Bobby Long's life. Having no intention of leaving, Pursy, Bobby Long and Lawson are all forced to live together. Yet as time passes, their tenuous, makeshift arrangement unearths a series of buried personal secrets that challenges their bonds, and reveals just how inextricably their lives are intertwined.
In Florida, the teenager Purslane Hominy Will (Scarlett Johansson) is lately informed by her mate that her mother passed away. She returns to her hometown, New Orleans, for the funeral and decided to live in her mother's house. However, she finds that the completely decayed house has two drunken dwellers: the former English professor Bobby Long (John Travolta) and his former assistant Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht), who has unsuccessfully been trying to write a book about the life of Bobby Long for nine years. She decides to share the place living together with them and after their initial difficult relationship, they disclose deep secrets and improve their lives.
A 2004 independent film based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. It was directed and adapted for the screen by Shainee Gabel. It stars John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson and Gabriel Macht. Johansson's performance was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The film grossed $964,308 worldwide.

AKA Michelle Christine Trachtenberg

Born: 11-Oct-1985
Birthplace: New York City
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Dawn Summers on Buffy
Father: Michael Trachtenberg
Mother: Lana Trachtenberg
Sister: Irene Trachtenberg
Boyfriend: Shawn Ashmore (actor, dated 2004-06)
Boyfriend: Jason Lewis (actor, dated 2007-)
She made her first television appearance in 1988 in a commercial for Wisk Detergent. She went on to feature in over 100 more commercials. She appeared in her first credited role as Nona F. Mecklenberg in The Adventures of Pete & Pete from 1994 until 1996. During the same period she played Lily Montgomery in All My Children. It was on All My Children that Trachtenberg first worked with future Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Trachtenberg's film career began in 1996 with the lead role in Harriet the Spy. She then returned to television for Meego, for which she won a Young Artist Award. She returned to film in 1999 for Inspector Gadget, as the gadget-master's niece, Penny. She also starred in the film Can't Be Heaven.
In the summer of 2000, Trachtenberg took up the role of Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She remained in the role until the show ended in 2003. After Buffy, she returned to film in EuroTrip, co-starring Scott Mechlowicz and Travis Wester and directed by Jeff Schaffer. She also had a recurring role in the HBO series Six Feet Under as Celeste, a spoiled pop star for whom Keith Charles serves as a bodyguard.
In March 2005, she played the title character in Walt Disney Pictures' family comedy/drama Ice Princess with Kim Cattrall. In this film, Trachtenberg plays a science whiz named Casey Carlyle who gives up her future academic life in order to chase her newfound dream of being a professional figure skater.
In November 2006, Trachtenberg guest starred in the sixth season of the Emmy-nominated crime drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the episode "Weeping Willow", she played the role of Willow, a kidnapped video blogger based on lonelygirl15. Trachtenberg also made a cameo in the Fall Out Boy music video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" and the Joaquin Phoenix-directed video "Tired of Being Sorry" for Balthazar Getty's band Ringside. She was recently cast as the female lead in an ABC comedy pilot called The Hill, set in Washington, D.C.
Trachtenberg will provide the voice of Tika Waylan for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-video animated movie based on the novel of the same name. The movie is scheduled for release in 3rd quarter 2007.
Michelle Trachtenberg played Buffy's mystically-created little sister on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She had worked with Sarah Michelle Gellar several years earlier on All My Children, and Gellar recommended Trachtenberg for the Buffy role.
As a TV kid, she played Iggy Pop's daughter on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and was nannied by space alien Bronson Pinchot in Meego. As an adult, she has a recurring role as the pop star Celeste on HBO's Six Feet Under. In movies, young Trachtenberg played the title role in Harriet the Spy and Penny in Matthew Broderick's Inspector Gadget. More recently, Trachtenberg made out with her own fictitious brother in Eurotrip, did double toe loops in Ice Princess, and helped Joseph Gordon-Levitt figure himself out in Mysterious Skin.
She graduated with honors from high school, with nothing but straight A's. Trachtenberg has long been active with Recording Artists, Athletes, and Actors Against Drunk Driving (RADD) and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE).

AKA Tanya Denise Tucker

Born: 10-Oct-1958
Birthplace: Seminole, TX
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Country Musician
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Country music singer
Father: Beau Tucker (construction worker, d. 23-Nov-2006 lung cancer)
Mother: Juanita Cunningham (homemaker)
Sister: LaCosta
Brother: Robert Lewis Mitchell (d. pneumonia)
Daughter: Presley Tanita (b. 5-Jul-1989, with Ben)
Son: Beau Grayson (b. 2-Oct-1991)
Daughter: Layla LaCosta Laseter (b. 25-Jun-1999, with Jerry)
Boyfriend: Don Johnson (1978)
Boyfriend: Glen Campbell (1980-81)
Boyfriend: Merle Haggard
Boyfriend: Andy Gibb
Boyfriend: Ben Reed
Boyfriend: Jerry Laseter (engaged)
Brother: Don
Tucker was born in Seminole, Texas, in 1958. She did much of her growing up in Arizona, however, as well as in Utah and Nevada, because her father pursued construction jobs. By age 5, Tucker was already riding horses. At age 6, she began taking saxophone lessons, and two years later decided she wanted to sing. Even as a child, she stunned people with her voice. She even met Mel Tillis, who invited young Tucker to perform with him on stage. In 1969, Tucker and her family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where Tucker performed regularly.
Tucker's father began sending out demo tapes of Tucker, one of which made its way to Nashville, Tennessee (the country music capital of the United States), where it captured the attention of Epic/Columbia Records producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill was so impressed with young Tanya's voice that he signed the young singer to Columbia Records in 1972.
The success of "Delta Dawn"
Initially, Sherrill was supposed to have Tucker record the tune "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA"; however, Tucker heard Bette Midler's version of the song "Delta Dawn" on the Tonight Show and ultimately decided that would be her very first single. "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" was then passed back to Donna Fargo and became a big-selling country-pop crossover hit. As for "Delta Dawn", the song was a big hit for Tucker, peaking at #6 in the Top 10 on the country charts, and even scraping the bottom of the pop charts. This made Tucker one of the youngest country stars ever. A year later, Australian singer Helen Reddy would score a #1 pop hit with her version of "Delta Dawn." Although most people remember Reddy's version of the song, Tucker's was the original.
Country star in the late 70s
Tucker's follow-up to the hit, "Love's the Answer" also went to #6 on the Country charts and proved a successful follow-up to "Delta Dawn". Her third release, "What's Your Mama's Name" became Tucker's first #1 Country hit. An album of the same name was also released the year it became a hit in 1973. Although Tucker was quite young, she was not afraid to sing any risky material, which could first be seen with the 1973 hit, "Blood Red and Goin' Down". Even more controversial was the David Allan Coe-penned "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)". Although the song was about sex, Tucker defended the song as just simply as it being "a noble and sweet love song". By this time, Tucker had already won the Academy of Country Music's "Top New Female Vocalist" award and had received a Grammy award nomination for "Delta Dawn." A Greatest Hits album was also in the works, and she was also on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1974 an album titled Would You Lay With Me In a Field of Stone was released, followed by another hit called "The Man That Turned Mama On." In 1975, Tucker switched to MCA Records.
In 1975, after her switch to MCA Records, Tucker released an album of new material, titled simply Tanya Tucker. It featured the #1 country hit "Lizzie and the Rainman," which also crossed over into the Adult Contemporary charts and became a hit there, getting Tucker's name noticed in other places besides country music. She had another #1 hit that year called "San Antonio Stroll." By now, Tucker was a huge country star, and was one of country music's most successful and popular female vocalists.
She changed her image completely in 1978 with the release of her TNT album, which gave her a sexier image, and her material also changed, with MCA trying to appeal her to pop/rock-style hits. Even though the album was not so well-liked by some people, it went Gold the next year. The album featured the #5 country music hit, "Texas (When I Die)," which became one of her signature songs as well as a Top 20 hit.
After the album, it was obvious that Tucker's album sales were declining. In 1980 she had a #10 hit called "Pecos Promenade." This song, along with another Top 10, would be Tucker's last major hit for a while. She also had the attention of quite a few male suitors, particularly Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, and Don Johnson. In 1980, Tucker recorded some duets with country-pop crossover star Glen Campbell. They started to date, even though Campbell was 22 years older than Tucker – not to mention still married. The couple got much attention from the tabloids. Tucker later claimed that Campbell abused her physically. Around the same time, Tucker was also battling addiction to drugs like cocaine and marijuana, as well as alcohol. She eventually sought help by entering rehab at the Betty Ford Center.
Despite having a Top 10 hit in 1982 with her album Changes, Tucker's career was in decline. By 1983, her singles were no longer making the Top 40, and it was obvious that as Tucker grew older, her popularity declined, as has been true of many child stars throughout the years.
Comeback in mid-80s & success into the 90s
Tucker was almost off the charts when in 1986 she signed with Capitol Records. She made a successful comeback with her album Girls Like Me, released that same year. The album was a big success, and featured the #1 hit, "Just Another Love", as well as the #3 hit "One Love at a Time", which was the first single released from the album. Her music was now more country pop-styled and up-tempo, but this material was what made Tucker popular again. The year 1988 was one of Tucker's most successful years on the country charts, in which she racked up three No. 1 country hits: "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love," "If It Don't Come Easy," and "Strong Enough to Bend." A Greatest Hits album followed in 1989, releasing a Top 5 hit to the country charts that year from the album called "My Arms Stay Open All Night," which peaked at #2.
Tucker pushed well into the 1990s with a #2 country hit, "Walking Shoes," along with a string of Top 10 hits which were, "Don't Go Out With Me" (1990), "It Won't Be Me" (1991), "Oh What It Did to Me" (1991), and "Down to My Last Teardrop" (1991). In 1991, Tucker also won the CMA's most coveted female award, Female Vocalist of the Year. That same night she won the award, her second child was born. Her second child was born out of wedlock, which brought Tucker back into the tabloids for a brief period of time. The previous year, she was named by CMT "Female Video Artist of the Year".
Tucker continued making hits into 1992, with "Two Sparrows and a Hurricane", as well as quite a few other Top 10 Country hits. "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" was named by the Academy of Country Music the "Video of the Year". By now, Tucker was a 20-year veteran in country music, even though she was only in her mid-30s. In 1994, "Hangin' On" was her last Top 5 hit, as well as her last Top 10 hit for a while. That year she performed at the half-time show at Super Bowl XXVIII. However, Tucker was able to stay in the Country Top 40 this time. In 1996, Tucker was one of the Top 10 most played artists of the year, and that time Capitol Records' biggest signed female artist. In 1997, she returned to the Top 10 on the Country charts for the last time with the hit, "Little Things", which peaked at #9. Into the new millennium, Tucker remained successful, even though her big hits were well behind her. She continued to make the Top 40 on the Country charts. In 2003, she had her last charting single with the #49 hit "Old Weakness (Coming On Strong)". That year, she was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
Tanya Tucker today
Since Tucker's hit-making days, she has published an autobiography that hit the bookstores in 1997 called Nickel Dreams: My Life. She has also continued to release albums. In 2005, she released an album called Live at Billy Bob's Texas. That same year, she contributed two songs to a tribute album to Bob Wills, called A Tribute to Bob Wills 100th Anniversary. The year continued to make Tucker busy, now with a new book called 100 Ways to Beat the Blues on Fireside, which included tips on pulling yourself out of the dumps, from some of Tucker's good friends, like Willie Nelson, Brenda Lee, Little Richard, and Burt Reynolds. Tucker also starred in her own reality show, Tuckerville, on The Learning Channel in 2005. The show is an in-depth visit of Tucker behind the scenes in her home with her family.
Gretchen Wilson makes reference to Tucker in her hit song "Redneck Woman."
Tanya is also releasing a new album this year (2007) titled Lonesome Town, and a new Live concert recorded at the Renissance Centre, back in December, will be released as well,
Tanya will sing a duet with country music icon Billy Joe Shaver on his latest album, Everybody's Brother, to be released on September 25, 2007. Tanya has stated she is going into the studio to do a duet with country legend George Jones, for a new Jones album, due out in 2008.

Born: 10-Oct-1978
Birthplace: Cliffwood Beach, NJ
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Nash Bridges
Boyfriend: Jaime Gomez (together 1998)
O'Keefe was born in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey and has Irish, Czech, Austrian, Polish and Swedish ancestry. When she was a child, the youngest of three sisters, she had a bowl haircut and was a self-described "dork." Her older sister was a model and she decided that she wanted to give it a try. She did, and says the modelling job brought her more confidence and more friends. She attended a Catholic school and grew from being the shortest in the class to the tallest (at 5'8"). Since leaving she has grown more and now stands at 5'10".
Career
Midway through her junior year she left school to star on the soap opera Another World, playing Marguerite “Maggie” Cory. She then got a role on Nash Bridges, playing Cassidy, the daughter of Don Johnson’s title character. She and her mother moved to Hollywood, so Jodi completed her schooling by mail.
She made her big screen debut in 1998 in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and later starred in such films as The Crow: Salvation, Whatever It Takes and Devil In The Flesh 2. She hit the spotlight when she portrayed her role as Taylor Vaughan in the teen flick, She's All That (1999). Jodi played Taylor Vaughan, the most popular (and conceited) girl in school and starred in it alongside Freddie Prinze Jr and Rachael Leigh Cook. When asked if it was hard to play such a character, Jodi replied, “Everybody knew a Taylor Vaughan in high school. Working in show business, you meet girls like that everyday.”
Jodi kept on filming both movies and Nash Bridges until the series ended in 2001. Later films have been Out For Blood where she played a vampire named Layla Simmons and Venice Underground. In 2005, she appeared for three episodes in the first season of Boston Legal.
Since then, Jodi has been at home and auditioning for roles.
O'Keefe was also in 3 Doors Down's video "Let Me Go", 2005, alongside Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives. She joins the cast of Prison Break in Fall 2007, her character working for The Company, a government organization.

AKA John Winston Lennon

Born: October 9, 1940
Birthplace: Liverpool, England
Died: December 8, 1980
Location of death: New York City
Cause of death: Assassination
Remains: Cremated
Gender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Matter of Dispute
Occupation: Musician
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Beatle
Father: Alfred Lennon (seaman)
Mother: Julia Stanley
Father: John "Bobby" ("Twitchy") Dykins (stepfather)
Wife: Cynthia Powell (m. 1962, div.1968)
Son: Julian Lennon (musician) (b. 1963)
Wife: Yoko Ono (artist/musician) (m. 1969)
Son: Sean Lennon (musician) (b. 1975)
Mistress: May Pang (assistant, 1973-75)
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE, was an English songwriter, singer, musician, graphic artist, author and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney formed a critically acclaimed and commercially successful partnership writing songs for The Beatles and other artists. Lennon, with his cynical edge and knack for introspection, and McCartney, with his storytelling optimism and gift for melody, complemented each other. In his solo career, Lennon wrote and recorded songs such as "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance".
Lennon revealed his rebellious nature and irreverent wit on television, in films such as A Hard Day's Night (1964), in books such as In His Own Write, and in press conferences and interviews. He channelled his fame and penchant for controversy into his work as a peace activist, artist, and author.
He had two sons, Julian, with his first wife Cynthia, and Sean, with his second wife, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono. Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman in New York City on 8 December 1980 as he and Ono returned home from a recording session.
In 2002, respondents to a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted Lennon into eighth place. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon number 38 on their list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" and ranked The Beatles at number 1.
John Winston Lennon was born in the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred "Freddie" Lennon, during the course of a German air raid in World War II. He was named after his paternal grandfather, John 'Jack' Lennon, and Winston Churchill. Both parents played the banjo and sang (Freddie specialised in impersonating Al Jolson) though neither pursued music professionally. The names Lennon and Linnane, are anglicized versions of O'Leannain, or O'Lionnain, names which historically have been prevalent in Fermanagh and Galway. However, Dublin was the birthplace in 1858 of John's grandfather, John (Jack) Lennon who, like many men of his time, emigrated to Liverpool to seek better prospects of employment Freddie Lennon was not present at John's birth. He was a merchant seaman during the war and sent regular pay cheques to Julia, who was living with John in Newcastle Road, Liverpool. The cheques stopped when Freddie went AWOL. As Freddie was seldom in Liverpool, Julia started going out to dance halls and met a Welsh soldier called 'Taffy' Williams by whom she became pregnant in late 1944. When Freddie Lennon eventually came home in 1944 he offered to look after Julia, John, and the expected baby, but Julia rejected the idea. On 19 June 1945 she gave birth to a daughter, Victoria, who was given up for adoption after intense pressure from Julia's family (the girl was later re-named Ingrid). Lennon was not told about his half-sister's birth and never knew of her existence.
Julia later met John 'Bobby' Dykins and moved into a small flat with him. After comments on the still-married Julia 'living in sin' with Dykins and after considerable pressure from her sister, Mary "Mimi" Smith — who contacted Liverpool's Social Services and complained about John sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins — Julia reluctantly handed the care of John over to Mimi. (Julia later had two daughters - Julia and Jackie - with Dykins.) In July 1946, Freddie visited Mimi and took John to Blackpool for a long 'holiday', secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia and Dykins found out and followed them, and after a heated argument Freddie made the five-year-old John choose between Julia or him. John chose Freddie (twice) and then Julia walked away, but John, crying, followed her. Freddie then lost contact with the family until Beatlemania, when father and son met again.
Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived with his 'Auntie Mimi' and her husband George Smith (who had no children of their own) in a middle class area of Liverpool at 'Mendips' (251 Menlove Avenue). Family friends described Mimi as stubborn, impatient, and unforgiving, but she also had a sense of humour. Often when she criticised Lennon he would respond with a joke, and the two of them would be "rolling around, laughing together". Mimi confided to a relative that although she had never wanted children, she had always wanted John. Mimi and George gave Lennon all of their attention: Mimi bought volumes of short stories, and George, who was a dairyman at a local farm, engaged John in solving crossword puzzles and bought him a harmonica. Julia Lennon visited 'Mendips' almost every day and John often visited her; she taught John how to play the banjo and the piano. She also played Elvis Presley's records to John, and would dance around her kitchen with him. Lennon was later inspired by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard.
Lennon was raised as an Anglican, and like much of the population of Liverpool he had some Irish heritage. Lennon attended Dovedale County Primary School until he passed his Eleven-Plus exam. From September 1952 to 1957, he attended the Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool where he was a "happy-go-lucky" pupil, known for drawing comical cartoons and making fun of his teachers by mimicking their odd characteristics.
Julia bought Lennon his first guitar in 1957, a Gallotone Champion acoustic. It was an inexpensive model that was "guaranteed not to split", but insisted it be delivered to her house and not Mimi's. Mimi hoped that John would soon grow bored with it - she was sceptical of Lennon's claim that he would be famous one day, and often told him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." Years later, when The Beatles were successful, John presented Mimi with a silver platter engraved with those words.
George Smith died in 1955. On 15 July 1958, Julia was killed on Menlove Avenue — close to Mimi's house — when struck by a car driven by a drunken off-duty police officer. Lennon was 17 at the time. Her death was one of the most traumatic events in John's life and one of the factors that cemented his friendship with McCartney, who had lost his own mother to breast cancer in 1956. Lennon named his first-born son Julian after his mother, and later wrote the song, "Julia".
Lennon failed all his GCE O-level examinations by one grade. He was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art with help from his school's headmaster and his Aunt Mimi, who was insistent that John should have some sort of academic qualifications. It was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell, when Lennon was a Teddy Boy. Lennon failed his exams despite help from Powell, and was often disruptive in class with most of the teachers refusing to take him on in their classes. He also picked on anyone who was in any way different, using his quick wit and sense of humour to bully them. He dropped out before the last year of college.
1957-1960: The Quarrymen and the Silver Beetles
Main articles: The Quarrymen and Lennon/McCartney
Lennon started The Quarrymen, a skiffle band, in March 1957, while attending Quarry Bank Grammar School. Their first engagement was on 9 June 1957 at an audition for impresario Carroll Lewis, known as "Mr. Star-Maker." A few weeks later, on 6 July 1957, Lennon and The Quarrymen met guitarist Paul McCartney at the Woolton Garden fête held at St. Peter's Church. McCartney's father later allowed the Quarrymen to rehearse in his front room at 20 Forthlin Road. During their early friendship Lennon encouraged McCartney to steal cigarettes, sweets, or books from shops, and they found a shared interest in playing jokes on the other band members and on their teachers. It was around this time that Lennon and McCartney started writing songs with each other and separately. The first song that John completed was "Hello Little Girl" when he was eighteen years old. This later became a hit for the Fourmost.
McCartney convinced Lennon to allow George Harrison to join the Quarrymen - although Lennon considered Harrison to be too young - after Harrison played at a rehearsal in March 1958. Harrison joined the group as lead guitarist, and Stuart Sutcliffe (Lennon's art school friend) later joined as bassist. The band soon switched to playing rock 'n' roll, using the name 'Johnny and the Moondogs', but Lennon found it too musically associated with skiffle.
In mid-1958, the Quarrymen made their first recording: a cover of That'll Be The Day by Buddy Holly and a McCartney-Harrison original called In Spite Of All The Danger.
In 1960, the band changed its name five times. Stuart Sutcliffe suggested 'the Beetles' as a form of tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets, which he and Lennon then thought of changing to the 'Beatals'. They changed their name again to the 'Silver Beats', The Silver Beetles, and the 'Silver Beatles', but Lennon shortened it to The Beatles, to avoid being introduced as "Long John Silver of the Silver Beatles", which was too similar to 'Johnny and the Moondogs'. After a tour with Johnny Gentle in Scotland, they changed their name to the 'Beatles'.
Lennon was considered the leader of The Beatles, as he founded the original group. McCartney said, "We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader - he was the quickest wit and the smartest and all that kind of thing."
1960-1970: The Beatles
Main articles: The Beatles and The Beatles discography
Allan Williams started to manage The Beatles in May 1960 after they had played in his Jacaranda club. A few months later he booked them into Bruno Koschmider's Indra club in Hamburg, Germany. Mona Best ran the Casbah Club in the basement of her home in Liverpool, where The Beatles often played in 1959, and Mona's son Pete Best joined The Beatles on drums as soon as their first Hamburg season was confirmed. Aunt Mimi was horrified when Lennon told her about Hamburg. She pleaded with him to continue his studies, but was ignored. The Beatles first played at the Indra club - sleeping in small, dirty rooms in the Bambi Kino - and after the closure of the Indra moved to the larger Kaiserkeller In October 1960, they left Koschmider's club and worked at the "Top Ten Club", which was run by Peter Eckhorn. Koschmider reported McCartney and Best for arson after the two attached a condom to a nail in the 'Bambi' and set fire to it. They were deported, as was George Harrison for working under-age. Days later Lennon's work permit was revoked and he went home by train, but Sutcliffe had tonsillitis and flew home. When Lennon got back to 'Mendips', his Aunt Mimi threw a cooked chicken (that Lennon had bought for her) and a hand-mirror at him for spending money on a leather coat for Cynthia Powell (John's girlfriend, and later his wife) whom she referred to as "a gangster's moll".
In December 1960, The Beatles reunited, and on 21 March 1961, they played their first concert at Liverpool's Cavern club. They went back to Hamburg in April 1961, and recorded 'My Bonnie' with Tony Sheridan. Sutcliffe stayed with Astrid Kirchherr when it was time to go home, so McCartney took over bass. When Lennon was nearly 21 in October 1961, his Aunt Mater (who lived in Edinburgh) gave him 100 pounds, which he spent on a holiday to Paris with McCartney. Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles in the Cavern Club on 9 November 1961, and later signed them to a management contract.
The Beatles were driven to London by their road manager, Neil Aspinall, on 31 December 1961 and auditioned the next day for Decca Records, who rejected them. In April 1962 they returned to Hamburg to play at the Star-Club, but they learned that Stuart Sutcliffe had died a few hours before they arrived. This was another shock for Lennon, after losing Uncle George and Julia.
They finally signed a record contract on 9 May 1962, with Parlophone Records, after having been turned down by many labels. "Love Me Do" was released on 5 October 1962, featuring Lennon on harmonica and McCartney singing solo on the chorus line.
All Lennon-McCartney songs on the first pressing of Please Please Me album (recorded in one day on 11 February 1963) as well as the single "From Me to You", and its B-side, "Thank You Girl", are credited to "McCartney-Lennon", but this was later changed to "Lennon-McCartney". They usually needed an hour or two to finish a song, most of which were written in hotel rooms after a concert, at Wimpole Street, at Cavendish Avenue, or at Kenwood (John Lennon's house).
As recording technology improved, and they were doing more work in the studio than live, overdubbing was used so that Lennon might provide the harmony parts as well as the lead for his songs. The "Beatles" sound was a three-part harmony with Lennon or McCartney singing lead, and harmony provided by the others.
The group's decisions were democratic: if any member objected to an idea, the group wouldn't pursue it. The Beatles decided to stop touring after their San Francisco concert in 1966, and never performed a scheduled concert again.
Lennon resented McCartney taking control of the band after Brian Epstein's death in 1967, and disliked some of the resulting projects such as Magical Mystery Tour and particularly Let It Be ("That film was set up by Paul, for Paul," as he said later to Rolling Stone). He was the first to break the band's all-for-one sensibility, and also the rule that no wives or girlfriends would attend recording sessions, as he brought Yoko into the studio.
Lennon was also the first member to quit the group, which he did in September 1969 (Starr had left during 1968, but was persuaded to return; Harrison stated he was "leaving the band" on 10 January 1969 during the rehearsal sessions for Let It Be, but returned after negotiations at two business meetings). Lennon agreed not to make an announcement while the band renegotiated their recording contract, and blasted McCartney months later (with the negotiations complete) for going public with his own departure in April 1970. Phil Spector's involvement in trying to revive the Let It Be material then drove a further wedge between Lennon (who supported Spector) and McCartney (who opposed him). With the public unaware of the details, McCartney appeared to be the one who dissolved the group, depriving Lennon of the formalities. Lennon told Rolling Stone, "I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record," and later wrote, "I started the band. I finished it." Though the split would only become legal some time later, Lennon's and McCartney's partnership had come to a bitter end. McCartney soon made a press announcement, declaring he had quit The Beatles and promoting his new solo record. McCartney later admitted Lennon had been the first to quit, re-explaining the circumstances to CBS-TV's 48 Hours in 1989.
In 1970, Jann Wenner recorded an interview with Lennon that was played on BBC in 2005. The interview reveals his bitterness towards McCartney and the hostility he felt that the other members held towards Yoko Ono. Lennon said: "One of the main reasons The Beatles ended is because ... I pretty well know, we got fed up with being sidemen for Paul. After Brian Epstein died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us when we went round in circles? Paul had the impression we should be thankful for what he did, for keeping The Beatles going. But he kept it going for his own sake."

Born: 8-Oct-1968
Birthplace: Raleigh, NC
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: CSI: Miami
Father: William Procter (physician)
Mother: Barbara
Emily Procter was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was two years old when her parents William (a general practitioner) and Barbara divorced. Emily is a graduate of Ravenscroft School in Raleigh. While at East Carolina she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. After she received her degrees in journalism and dance at East Carolina University, she was employed as a television weather anchor at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina. Emily had originally intended to get into the theater department at her college in East Carolina, but the head of the theater department told her that he thought she did not have what it takes to become an actress and that it would not work for her. According to Emily's own words, this was a great inspiration to go out and do it anyway.
Career
After the move to Los Angeles, her father provided the costs for acting school for two years. Before even graduating, she had already landed a number of small roles in films such as Jerry Maguire (1996) and Breast Men (1997), where she appeared along with David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper. She has only appeared topless in her career twice in two scenes featured in Breast Men. During the 1995–96 season (season 3) of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, she portrayed Lana Lang the first blond actress to ever do so. She also briefly appeared in the 1997 TV movie The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! as Mavis. Procter also had a recurring guest role as Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes on NBC's The West Wing.
She landed her breakthrough with the role of Calleigh Duquesne in the television series CSI: Miami, which has been running on American television since 2002.
Private life
She has volunteered as an actress with the Young Storytellers Program.
She is very interested and knowledgeable in interior decoration and antiques. She puts these interests to good practical use in the 1921 Spanish-style home that she owns.
She is an avid poker player. She says she learned to play this game as a child when her father would play a game called "penny poker" with her. She has already participated in at least one celebrity poker tournament. She is also fascinated with flower jigsaw puzzles and tries to assemble them faster with each attempt.

AKA Kristanna Sommer Loken

Born: 8-Oct-1979
Birthplace: Ghent, NY
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: Actor, Model
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Raised on an organic fruit farm, upstate New York.
Father: Merlin Loken ("Chris")
Mother: Rande Porath (model)
Sister: Tanya (b. circa 1963)
Boyfriend: Justin Whalin (actor, ex-)
Girlfriend: Michelle Rodriguez (actress)
Loken was born in Ghent, New York to Merlin "Chris" Loken (a writer) and Rande Porath (a model); both her paternal and maternal grandparents were born in Norway and immigrated to Wisconsin's Norwegian American community. She grew up on her parents' fruit farm in Upstate New York.
Career
Loken started her acting career in 1994, playing "Danielle 'Dani' Andropoulos #3" on an episode of As The World Turns,[verification needed] and she appeared in several television shows and films, including regular appearances on the television shows Philly, Unhappily Ever After, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, and Boy Meets World. She is probably best known for her performance as the android T-X (Terminatrix) in the 2003 movie Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In 2004, she appeared in a German television movie, Die Nibelungen (also known as "Sword of Xanten"), which aired as a 2-part mini-series and set a ratings record. Subsequently, she starred as the leading character in the 2006 film version of the video game BloodRayne, and appeared in director Uwe Boll's film version of the video game Dungeon Siege, called In the Name of the King.
She appeared in 10 episodes of the fourth season of The L Word, which debuted in January 2007. Additionally, she also stars as the title character in SciFi Channel's series Painkiller Jane which began airing in April 2007.
Personal life
Loken stated in an interview with Curve magazine, "I have dated and have had sex with men and women and have to say that the relationships I have had with certain women have been much more fulfilling, sexually and emotionally, than of those with certain men... I connect with an aura, with energy. And if the person with whom I connect happens to be a female, that's just the way it is. That's what makes my wheels turn."
Loken first generated public speculation about her sexuality when she kissed P!nk at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo. The Advocate and other LGBT news sources in November 2006 reported Loken might be in a romantic relationship with actress Michelle Rodriguez, her co-star in Bloodrayne. Asked about the relationship in April 2007, Kristanna Loken said, "We're great friends. She'll always remain a great, close friend of mine. I'll always love Michelle.

Born: 7-Oct-1951
Birthplace: Seymour, IN
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer/Songwriter
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Jack and Diane
Wife: Priscilla Esterline (m. 1969, div.1981)
Daughter: Michelle
Wife: Vicky Granucci (m.1981, div. 1989)
Daughter: Teddy Jo
Daughter: Justice
Wife: Elaine Irwin (m. 1992)
Son: Hud
Son: Spec Wildhorse

AKA Britt-Marie Ecklund

Born: 6-Oct-1942
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: Sweden
Executive summary: The Man with the Golden Gun
Husband: Peter Sellers (actor, m. 19-Feb-1964, div. 18-Dec-1968, one daughter)
Daughter: Victoria Sellers (b. 20-Jan-1965)
Boyfriend: Phil Lewis (singer, LA Guns, together 1979-81, broken engagement)
Husband: Slim Jim Phantom (musician, The Stray Cats, m. 20-Mar-1984, div. 1992)
Ekland's father was a successful retailer and she has three younger brothers. Her mother died after a long battle with Alzheimers and Ekland was diagnosed with osteoporosis (which in her case she attributes to chronic dieting and low calcium), after falling at an awards show and fracturing her wrist and ankle. She has been associated with Alzheimer's and Osteoporosis organizations.
Career
Ekland appeared in the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. Other notable film appearances include The Night They Raided Minsky's, Baxter (co-starring Patricia Neal), The Double Man, Get Carter (in the 1999 BBC television series I Love the '70s she hosted the 1971 episode in homage to her role as "Anna" in the film), and the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man (for which her voice was dubbed to disguise her Swedish-accented English).
She was one of the first celebrities to do pilates (beginning in the 1970s) and she published a beauty and fitness book in 1984, followed by a fitness video in 1992. Ekland credits her personal Swedish trainer, Herb Genendelis, for a workout regimen that has kept her in "show biz shape".
Personal life
Ekland became famous as a result of her 1964 whirlwind romance and marriage to British actor and comedian, Peter Sellers, who proposed after seeing her photograph in the paper. She stood by him after he suffered a series of massive heart attacks shortly after their marriage, and in 1965 they had a daughter, Victoria. The couple made two films together, After the Fox in 1966 and The Bobo in 1967, before she divorced Sellers. Ekland also has a son, Nicholai (born 1973) from her relationship with record producer Lou Adler.
Britt Ekland had a much-publicised romance with rock star Rod Stewart; they were introduced in 1975 by Joan Collins and lived together for over two years, with Ekland giving up her career to focus exclusively on the relationship. (She is heard whispering on his song Tonight's the Night, Gonna Be Alright). Stewart has since admitted the relationship broke down because of his infidelity. After a highly public and acrimonious split she sued him for $12 million; the case was settled out of court. Following the split, Ekland became synonymous with the term "toyboy" having flings with, amongst others, Simon Turner (the King of Luxembourg), John Waite and Bay City Roller Les McKeown. From 1979-1981 she dated and became engaged to Girl frontman and future L.A. Guns singer Phil Lewis. In 1981 she was reported as having a fling with a 17-year old Spaniard. In 1984 she married rock musician Slim Jim Phantom who was almost two decades her junior and they had a son Thomas Jefferson (born 1988) before divorcing in 1992.
In the 1970s she was one of the most photographed and talked about celebrities in the world and in 1980 her autobiography "True Britt" was published. This inspired kiss-and-tell tales about Ekland, including Simon Turner's disputed allegation that Ekland liked to dress him in her clothes and make-up, and McKeown's subsequently retracted tales of group romps and an affair with Ekland's daughter Victoria.
She was portrayed by Charlize Theron in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). Theron invited her to be her date at the Cannes Film Festival, and she became emotional when she saw the film for the first time. There have also been reports that she was not happy with the film and claimed it is not an accurate representation of her life with Sellers.
She is a close friend of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne and is still a regular fixture on the rock and roll social scene. In the last few years she has appeared in several pantomimes in the UK.

AKA Elisabeth J. Shue

Born: 6-Oct-1963
Birthplace: Wilmington, DE
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Leaving Las Vegas
Father: James Shue (real-estate developer, former public defender)
Mother: Anne Wells Shue (bank executive)
Brother: William Shue (medical student, d. 1988 accidental impalement)
Brother: Andrew Shue (actor, soccer player)
Brother: John Shue (acquisition investor, co-owner of Mongoose Media)
Boyfriend: Val Kilmer (actor)
Husband: Davis Guggenheim (b. 1964, m. 1994, sep. 1996, reconciled)
Son: Miles William Guggenheim (b. 11-Nov-1997)
Daughter: Stella Street Guggenheim (b. 19-Mar-2001)
Daughter: Agnes Charles Guggenheim (b. 18-Jun-2006)
In sixth grade, frustrated that there were no girls' soccer teams, Shue tried out and won a spot on the boys' team, and played against boys for three years. When her high school wouldn't add a girls' soccer team, she took up gymnastics, and became captain of the team. Shue started acting professionally when she was a student at Wellesley College, with commercials for Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Burger King. With a baby-face that allowed her to play girls much younger than her age, she was perfect for teen roles without needing any of oversight required for child actors.

At 21 playing 16, she played Ralph Macchio's romantic interest in the original Karate Kid movie. The next year she co-starred in Call to Glory, a TV series about a military family in the early 1960s, with Craig T. Nelson as her dad. At 25, she was still believable as a harried high school girl in Chris Columbus's farce Adventures in Babysitting. She finally grew up in Cocktail, but went back to high school as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend in two sequels to Back to the Future (a different actress had played the part in the original).
Since then her better films have included the soap opera comedy Soapdish, the guardian angel sing-a-long Heart and Souls, and Hide and Seek. She was Oscar-nominated in 1995, for Leaving Las Vegas. Her worst performance is probably Molly, as an institutionalized autistic who undergoes brain surgery. She has politely but emphatically complained that most Hollywood movies give actresses nothing to do beyond gazing into the leading actor's eyes and playing "his girlfriend", "his wife", "his mother", etc. Between movies, Shue earned her BA in Political Science from Harvard in 2000.
Shue comes from a blue-blood Ivy League family that traces its genealogy back to the Mayflower. Her brother Andrew achieved some fame as an actor on Melrose Place and played professional soccer. Another brother, John, was captain of the Harvard soccer team, and produced Gracie, a film loosely based on 15-year-old Elisabeth's soccercentric response to the sudden death of her oldest brother, William. The film was directed by her husband, Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim. Her father-in-law, Charles Guggenheim, was a documentary filmmaker who was Oscar-nominated 11 times, and won four.

AKA Kate Elizabeth Winslet

Born: 5-Oct-1975
Birthplace: Reading, England
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: England
Executive summary: The female lead in Titanic
Father: Roger Winslet (stage actor)
Mother: Sally Bridges (stage actress)
Sister: Anna Winslet (actress, b. 1972)
Sister: Beth Winslet (actress, b. 1978)
Brother: Joss Winslet (b. 1980)
Boyfriend: Stephen Tredre (TV writer, b. 1963, dated and cohabited 1990-95, d. 8-Dec-1997 bone cancer)
Boyfriend: Rufus Sewell (actor, b. 29-Oct-1967, dated 1995-96)
Husband: James Threapleton (asst. director, m. 22-Nov-1998, div. 13-Dec-2001, one daughter)
Daughter: Mia Honey Threapleton (b. 12-Oct-2000, with Threapleton)
Husband: Sam Mendes (film director, m. 24-May-2003, one son)
Son: Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes (b. 22-Dec-2003, with Mendes)
Kate Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges, both of whom were actors. Her maternal grandparents, Oliver and Linda Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver! Her sisters are Beth Winslet and Anna Winslet, also actresses. Most of the people in her family are actors, so her continuing the time-honored tradition was perhaps a natural progression.
Winslet, raised as an Anglican, began studying drama at the age of eleven at the Redroofs Theatre School, a co-educational independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where she was head girl and was soon cast as a spokesperson for a cereal in television commercials. Although she seems to be living an almost idealistic existence, it wasn't always that way. Throughout her adolescence, she was severely bullied for being overweight and having exceptionally large feet (which she inherited from her mother).
Career
Winslet's career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science fiction serial Dark Season in 1991. This was followed by appearances in the made-for-tv movie Anglo-Saxon Attitudes in 1992 and an episode of the medical drama Casualty in 1993, also for the BBC.
Her film career took off with praise and recognition in 1994 when she starred in a joint leading role, as Juliet Hulme in director Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures, playing a vivacious and imaginative teen who helps her best friend murder her mother when they are not allowed to be together.
This role was followed by the successful film Sense and Sensibility (co-starring Emma Thompson), which made her well-known, especially in the UK. Winslet became famous world-wide after the 1997 release of Titanic, a massive hit which holds the record as highest-grossing film in history (not accounting for inflation) at more than 1 billion dollars in box-office worldwide. It went on to win 11 Academy Awards.
Winslet has been regarded as something of a critics' darling, generally receiving positive reviews for every one of her films. Despite Titanic's success, she has continued making lower-budget, independent films, including Hideous Kinky and Holy Smoke!; her roles in these smaller, more artistic films appear to be one of choice - she turned down the lead in Shakespeare in Love to make Hideous Kinky. She has also taken several roles in studio "period dramas" like Quills, Titanic and Finding Neverland. (For a time, she was given the nickname "Corset Kate").
In 2005, Winslet appeared in a television commercial for American Express. As part of the "My Life, My Card" campaign, the ad shows Winslet strolling around Camden Lock, in London, as she makes references to all the events that have happened to her film characters - such as going to prison for murder (Heavenly Creatures), being penniless and heartbroken (Sense and Sensibility), almost drowning (Titanic), losing her mind (Iris), having her memory erased (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and being in Neverland (Finding Neverland). During the ad, she is shown holding items relating to her films; during the reference to Sense and Sensibility she thumbs through a copy of the book, and when she references Finding Neverland, she's holding a hook.
Winslet also appeared in an episode of BBC's comedy series Extras in August of 2005, as a satirical version of 'herself'. She memorably told Andy and Maggie, the two characters who star in the series, that she was doing a film about the Holocaust because she was tired of losing out on Oscars, as she's been nominated four times, and that everyone who does a film about the Holocaust wins an Oscar. She also (while dressed as a nun) was shown giving phone sex tips to the romantically challenged Maggie. Ricky Gervais later said on NPR that she was his favorite guest star. Her performance in the episode did lead to her being nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Comedy Series, but she did not win.
As of March 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio signed to co-star in Revolutionary Road with Winslet as the Wheeler couple, a '50s couple who appear content on the surface but are withering internally. The film will be the first to reunite the notable duo, who have remained close since their first pairing in Titanic.
There are also talks that Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes and his production company, Neal Street Productions, purchased the film rights to the long-delayed biography of circus tiger tamer Mabel Stark. Winslet has stated that she has been eager to portray this complex woman for three years now and is looking forward to working with her husband on bringing this to the screen. (See Mabel Stark's page for more information on the project.)
Music
Winslet has also enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single "What If" from the soudtrack of Christmas Carol: The Movie, which reached #1 in Ireland and #6 in the UK (she also filmed a music video for the song). She has also participated in a duet with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Sandra Boynton CD, Dog Train, and sang in the 2006 film, Romance and Cigarettes. She also sang an aria from La Boheme, called "Sono Andanti", in her film Heavenly Creatures, which is featured on the film's soundtrack.
Personal life
On November 22, 1998, Winslet married director Jim Threapleton. The two have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on October 12, 2000. After a divorce in 2001, Winslet was reported to have been dating playwright Jeff Smeenge before a relationship with Sam Mendes, whom she married on May 24, 2003, on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie, was born on December 22, 2003.
The media, particularly in England, have enthusiastically documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to lose weight in order to conform to the Hollywood ideal. In February 2003, the British edition of Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally enhanced to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent. GQ subsequently issued an apology in the subsequent issue.
Winslet and her husband Mendes currently reside in New York City. They also own a manor house in the tiny village of Church Westcote near Stow-on-the-Wold. Kate and Sam spent £3 million on the secluded Westcote Manor, a rambling Grade II-listed house with eight bedrooms, set in 22 acres. They've reportedly spent more than £1 million on interior renovations as well as restoring the original water garden, mulberry garden and orchard, which all fell into disrepair when the former owner, equestrian artist Raoul Millais, died in 1999. As of 2006, it is reported Winslet and Mendes have a large lake house near Canandaigua lake, in Canandaigua, New York.

AKA Nicholai Olivia Hilton

Born: 5-Oct-1983
Birthplace: New York City
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Socialite
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Heiress, handbag designer
Father: Rick Hilton (executive, b. 17-Aug-1955)
Mother: Kathy Hilton (socialite, b. 7-Apr-1959)
Sister: Paris Hilton (socialite, b. 17-Feb-1981)
Brother: Barron Nicholas Hilton (b. 7-Nov-1989)
Brother: Conrad Hughes Hilton (b. 3-Mar-1994)
Boyfriend: Ian Somerhalder (actor, dated 2003)
Husband: Todd Andrew Meister (businessman, m. 15-Aug-2004, div. 9-Nov-2004)
Nicky is the second of four children born to Richard Hilton and Kathy Richards. Her sister is Paris Hilton, and her brothers are Barron Hilton II and Conrad Hilton III. On the maternal side of her family, Nicky is a niece of two popular child stars of the 1970s, Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who appeared in the motion picture Escape to Witch Mountain and TV shows like Nanny and the Professor, Little House on the Prairie, and later, ER. Her paternal grandparents are Barron Hilton and Marilyn Hawley.
Hilton moved between several homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and The Hamptons on Long Island, New York. She graduated high school from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York and attended college at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design, but did not finish her fashion degree.
Career
Fashion designer
She launched her own clothing line, Chick by Nicky Hilton in 2004 and has also designed a line of handbags for Japanese company Samantha Thavasa from 2002-05.
In 2007, she started her second line aimed at a more mature audience and higher pricepoint, called Nicholai, which had its debut fashion show for the spring/summer 2008 season on September 9, 2007 in New York City during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The video and photos from the collection can be viewed at the MBFW website.
Model
Hilton began her career as a fashion model. Hilton has done several runway shows for huge designers, and is a regular model for Heatherette, along with her sister Paris; they usually open and close the runway shows.
In 2005, Hilton, along with Kimberly Stewart, was the face of Australian underwear line Antz Pantz. Stewart remains contracted, however Hilton has since been replaced by Australian up-and-coming model Megan Maitland. Around this time, Hilton modeled for the cover of Lucire magazine for its New Zealand and Romanian editions.
She has also modeled for Frederick's of Hollywood.
Actress
Hilton made her acting debut in National Lampoon's Pledge This!, which also featured her sister. The movie was a straight-to-DVD and released on December 19, 2006. She also made a cameo in Pauly Shore Is Dead, with Paris.
In 2003, Nicky and Paris were each offered a role in a reality show called The Simple Life, but Nicky rejected the part. However, Paris went through with it, and her best friend Nicole Richie was given the role that Nicky refused.
Nicky, along with Paris, will soon star in a cartoon about her life.
Other business ventures
In 2006, she entered a partnership for the Nicky O Hotel. The first, the Nicky O South Beach, is a 94 unit suite condo hotel in Miami which opened in 2007. It features suites by famous designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Nicole Miller, Heatherette, and Betsey Johnson. The second Nicky O Hotel will open in Chicago in the spring of 2007. On February 12, 2007, Hilton was sued for breach of contract by her partners in the Chicago project.
Personal life
Hilton has dated MTV VJ Brian McFayden, Ian Somerhalder in 2003. Later, she married Todd Andrew Meister on August 15, 2004. But the marriage was later annulled in November 2004.[5] She was with Kevin Connolly from January 2005 to October 2006. She has been dating David Katzenberg since October 2006

Born: 4-Oct-1976
Birthplace: San Francisco, CA
Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Clueless
Appeared in the Aerosmith videos for "Crazy", "Crying", and "Amazing".
Father: Monty Silverstone (real estate investor, b. England)
Mother: Didi Radford (flight attendant)
Brother: David Silverstone (half-brother, b. 1972)
Sister: Kezi (half-sister)
Boyfriend: Adam Sandler (comic, ex-)
Boyfriend: Benicio Del Toro (actor, ex-)
Husband: Christopher Jarecki (musician, m. 11-Jun-2005)
Alicia Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California to Monty Silverstone, a real-estate investor, and Didi Radford, a former flight attendant. Silverstone's father is English-born and her mother is Scottish. Her father, a native of East London, is Jewish and her mother also Jewish upon marrying Silverstone's father. She attended San Mateo High School but did not complete her high school studies. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-sister, London rock singer Kezi Silverstone, and a half-brother, David Silverstone, both from her father's previous marriage. Silverstone visited England during the summer during her childhood. When she was six, she began modeling and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She acquired some early modeling and advertising work and was eventually cast as the 'dream girl' on American TV series The Wonder Years.
Career
1990s
Silverstone won a leading part in the 1993 film The Crush, playing a girl who sets out to ruin an older man after her teenage crush is spurned; she won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards for the role for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Villain. Silverstone became legally emancipated at the age of fifteen in order to work the hours required for the shooting schedule of the film. After seeing her in The Crush, Marty Callner decided she'd be perfect for a role in a music video he was directing for the band Aerosmith, called "Cryin", and then the following two videos "Amazing" and "Crazy". These were hugely successful both for the band and Silverstone, making her a household name (and also gaining her the nickname, "the Aerosmith chick"). They also got her noticed by film maker Amy Heckerling, who after seeing them decided to cast her in Clueless.
Clueless, became a sleeper hit and critical darling during the summer of 1995. Silverstone's performance was well received, and she was branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. As a result, she signed a deal with Columbia-TriStar worth $10 million. As part of the package, she got a three-year first-look deal for her own production company, First Kiss Productions. Silverstone also won "Best Female Performance" and "Most Desirable Female" by the MTV Movie Awards in 1996 for her performance in the film.
Silverstone's next role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin, which was neither a critical nor a financial success. Silverstone won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress. She suffered further bad press for allegedly striking a pedestrian with her vehicle in a crosswalk. She also starred in 1997's dark comedy Excess Baggage, which was the first movie to be released by First Kiss Productions. In the film, Silverstone played a chain smoking, underage drinking, rich brat who fakes her own kidnapping in order to get her father's attention. The film was not as critically or commercially embraced as Clueless After just one film, Columbia-TriStar let their production deal with Silverstone expire.
2000s
Silverstone appeared in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Love's Labour's Lost in 2000, in which she was required to sing and dance.
In 2001, Silverstone provided the voice of Sharon Spitz, the lead character in the Canadian animated television Braceface.
After removing herself from the public eye for a few years, she resurfaced in the 2003 NBC television show Miss Match, which was then cancelled after thirteen episodes. Silverstone's long hiatus was referred to in the pilot episode of the television series Get Real, as an exasperated Kenny remarked, "Why can't I fall off the face of the earth, like Alicia Silverstone?"
Silverstone later acknowledged that she hates the trappings of fame, insisting that being a celebrity is a horrific ordeal that she wouldn't want her worst enemy to suffer. According to Silverstone, "Fame is not anything I wish on anyone. You start acting because you love it. Then success arrives, and suddenly you're on show."
After the cancellation of Miss Match in 2003, she did a pilot with FOX called Queen B, in which she would have played a former high school prom queen named Beatrice (Bea), who has found out that the real world is nothing like high school.
In 2005, she co-starred with Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop, a spin-off of the BarberShop films. She played one of the stylists in the beauty shop.
For the pilot season of 2006-2007, she surfaced on a pilot being developed by ABC called Pink Collar, in which she would have worked in a law firm.
Silverstone's most recent movie, Stormbreaker, was released in the UK on July 21, 2006, and in North America on October 13, 2006. Silverstone filmed the role of Jack Starbright (Alex Rider's housekeeper and guardian) in the summer of 2005, several days after her wedding. She took the role because the opportunity to work with co-stars Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo, both of whom she has said she admires.
In November 2006, she starred in the television movie Candles on Bay Street for Hallmark Hall of Fame, based on the book by Cathie Pelletier under the pseudonym of K.C. Mikinnon.
Personal life
Silverstone married longtime boyfriend, rock musician Christopher Jarecki, in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe on June 11, 2005. The couple had dated for eight years prior to being married, after meeting outside a movie theater in 1997. They got engaged about a year before their marriage and Silverstone's engagement ring belonged to Jarecki's grandmother. They live in an eco-friendly Los Angeles house complete with solar panels and an organic vegetable garden. She bought the house, shared with a "menagerie of rescued dogs," in 1996. Silverstone drives a Mercedes Benz.
Political beliefs
Silverstone has strong political opinions and is noted for being an animal welfare and environmental activist. She also became a vegan in 1998 after attending an animal rights meeting. "I realized that I was the problem," she told InStyle Home in spring 2007. "I was an animal lover who was eating animals." In 2004, Silverstone was voted "Sexiest Female Vegetarian" by PETA.
Records also reveal that Silverstone contributed $500 to Dennis Kucinich's 2004 Presidential campaign.
On May 23, 2007, Silverstone was a guest on ABC's The View. Moments before she entered, hosts Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had a heated argument regarding the Iraq war. The video segment shows Silverstone entering and walking past Hasselbeck to greet the other hosts. Though the interview continued normally and featured easy conversation between Silverstone and Hasselbeck, Access Hollywood deemed the act a deliberate snub.

Born: 4-Oct-1979
Birthplace: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: She's All That
Father: Tom (social worker, former comic)
Mother: (cooking instructor, weaver)
Brother: Ben
Boyfriend: Shane West (actor, ex-)
Boyfriend: Rider Strong (actor, ex-)
Husband: Daniel Gillies (m. 14-Aug-2004)
Cook was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Thomas H. Cook, a social worker and former stand-up comic, and JoAnn, a cooking instructor and weaver. Cook attended school at Laurel Springs School and Minneapolis South High School. She began working as a print model at the age of 10, most notably in nationwide advertisements for Target and appearing on the boxes of Milk-Bone dog biscuits for medium sized dogs.
Career
At the age of fourteen, Cook began auditioning for acting work. Her modeling agency sent her to read for a short film, 26 Summer Street (1996). She first gained national attention when she was featured in a memorable This is Your Brain on Drugs public-service television advertisement, in which she proceeds to destroy a set with a frying pan as she listed the things that drugs harms. Consequently, Cook began her feature film career, debuting in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995) as shy 13 year old baby-sitter Mary Anne Spier. The movie was based on Ann M. Martin's book series of the same name.
Cook's two highest-profile lead roles to date have been in the films She's All That (1999) and Josie and the Pussycats (2001). Cook has also appeared in a number of independent films and in the 2005 television miniseries Into the West.
In 2000, she was the cover girl for the premier issue of FHM US (March/April issue). Cook also provided the voice for Chelsea Cunningham on the Kids' WB animated series Batman Beyond in the episode Last Resort and in the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. In 2002, she was ranked #26 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World".

ook has provided the voice of Tifa Lockhart in the video games Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, as well as the CG movie, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. She also starred in the video for New Found Glory's 2002 single, "Dressed to Kill". Cook's latest voice-over role is for the video game, Yakuza, where she voices the role of Reina, a beautiful barkeep. She has also appeared in Daniel Powter's Love You Lately.
Cook owns her own production company, called Ben's Sister Productions (in reference to her younger brother, an aspiring filmmaker). Cook eventually stepped away from the spotlight to focus on spending time with friends and family. She later returned to mainstream films when she signed on to a new casting agency. Cook was later cast in a role in the big screen adaptation of Nancy Drew, the female lead in the independent sports drama The Final Season, and playing a small supporting lead in Blonde Ambition.
Personal life
Cook has dated actors Vincent Kartheiser, Ryan Reynolds, Shane West, Rider Strong and Colin Hanks. She is now married to actor Daniel Gillies. Cook, a vegetarian, lives mostly in Los Angeles, but frequently goes back to visit her family in Minnesota.

AKA Gwen Renee Stefani

Born: 3-Oct-1969
Birthplace: Fullerton, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Singer, Business
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: No Doubt
Father: Dennis Stefani
Mother: Patti Flynn
Sister: Jill
Brother: Eric Stefani (musician, animator)
Brother: Todd
Boyfriend: Tony Kanal (musician, dated 1987-94)
Husband: Gavin Rossdale (musician, m. 14-Sep-2002, one son)
Son: Kingston James McGregor Rossdale (b. 2006)
One of four children born to Dennis and Patti Stefani, Gwen Stefani was raised amidst the progressive ideals and broad-minded attitudes of California's Orange County. In the 1980s she fell under the influence of her brother Eric's interest in punk and ska music, and after forming the ska-revival band No Doubt in 1986 he enlisted his younger sister as a singer alongside vocalist and band co-founder John Spence. Spence ended his own life the following year, and it was under such unfortunate circumstances that Gwen Stefani found herself assuming the role of lead singer for the group. After several years of maintaining day jobs while floundering on the local party circuit, No Doubt finally secured a contract with the MCA subsidiary Interscope Records in 1991; a self-titled release appeared the following year, but generated little public interest, and the label subsequently withdrew financial support from the band's performing and recording activities.
Disillusioned by the direction his project was heading, Eric Stefani delivered his walking papers to No Doubt in 1994 and shifted his efforts instead towards a career in animation (eventually joining the stable of animators that produced the television series The Simpsons). The future of the band was further brought into question by the dissolution of the eight-year relationship between Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal. It was during this uncertain period that a second album, Beacon Street Collection (1995), appeared: a self-produced, self-financed and independently-released collection consisting of material recorded over the previous two years. The album sold well enough to convince Interscope to finance recording sessions for their next effort, issued later in 1995 as Tragic Kingdom. Led by the popular single Just A Girl, Kingdom finally ushered No Doubt into the charts and brought Stefani in particular into the public spotlight.
After contributing the song New to the soundtrack of the film Go in 1999, No Doubt released its fourth album Return of Saturn in 2000. Critical response to its gloomier, less ska-oriented sound was mixed, and the band gradually distanced themselves the record, dropping its tracks from their live repetoire. Stefani and her cohorts took this outcome to heart and returned to the safety of upbeat, party songs for their next album Rock Steady (2001) -- an approach most clearly represented by the singles Hey Baby and Hella Good, both of which re-established them in the upper reaches of the charts. A singles collection (The Singles 1992-2003, rounded out with the Talk Talk cover It's My Life) appeared next, followed by the remix collection Everything In Time (2004); both of these, augmented by a DVD collecting their promotional videos and another with a live set from their Tragic Kingdom tour, were released in combination as the box set Boom Box.
In 2004 Stefani launched her solo career with the album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. -- the singer having already made steps to establish herself seperately from the No Doubt collective through guest appearances on albums by Prince (So Far, So Pleased on Rave In 2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)), Eve (Let Me Blow Ya Mind on Scorpion, 2001) and Moby (on his remix of Southside, also 2001). Its release was preceeded by the single What You Waiting For?, a popular dance track in Canada, Australia, the UK and (to a lesser extent) the US; this success was then improved upon by Rich Girl, a top 10 entry (a result of its unfortunate use as a Pepsi jingle) and her second collaboration with rapper Eve. This was in turn surpassed by the #1 position earned by the album's third single Hollaback Girl. As has been the case with many performers in recent years, Stefani sought to capialize on her popularity in 2004 by launching her own fashion line L.A.M.B.

AKA Ashley Nicolle Simpson

Born: 3-Oct-1984
Birthplace: Waco, TX
Gender: Female
Religion: Baptist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Musician, Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Jessica Simpson's nepotistic younger sister
Father: Joe Simpson (psychologist/minister)
Mother: Tina Drew
Sister: Jessica Simpson (actress-musician)
Boyfriend: Gregory Smith (dated c. 2002, ex-)
Boyfriend: Josh Henderson (2002-04)
Boyfriend: Ryan Cabrera (Jun-2004 to Aug-2004)
Ashlee Simpson made her acting debut in 2002 on the Christian-themed WB show 7th Heaven. Since then, she has distinguished herself from her elder sister and current MTV darling Jessica Simpson by acting more "punk rock" -- like another Kelly Osbourne or Avril Lavigne, only a touch less goth. The engineering of her celebrity at age 19 was documented on MTV's The Ashlee Simpson Show, which chronicles the production of her appropriately-titled debut album Autobiography (2004). The show mostly focuses on the ways in which she consistently fails her parents' and producers' expectations in terms of celebritization.
In one episode, she is painted into a doe-eyed blonde, only to redye her hair brown in a show of assertiveness. She dawdles behind a mixing console, chirping on her cellphone while an orchestra of ringers records overdubs for her first single, "Pieces of Me" (a sassy turn on the 1995 Jewel album). She's already tired when they call her in to record the vocal track; newly-brunetted Ashlee sings take after take, and eventually her voice starts to crack (flaws that are auto-tuned out of the final recording). The following day she has lost her voice completely. A visit to the doctor reveals that she has damaged her vocal cords, prompting a yonic spectacle in which her bloodshot, swollen larynx is shown in close-up, vocal folds flapping as she squawks out different vowels. The episode ends with Ashlee looking forward to a weekend of doctor-prescribed quiet.
After a less-than-stellar performance at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards in August, Ashlee hoped to redeem herself on the 23 October 2004 broadcast of Saturday Night Live. After performing her recent single, "Pieces of Me", during the first half of the show, she expected to treat the audience to "Shadow", one of the lesser-known "filler" tracks from her album. As the drummer played the opening beat, Ashlee writhed around on stage -- and then froze as the vocal track from "Pieces of Me" began to pipe from the speakers. Horrified, Ashlee jerked the microphone to her face, cupping it close to her mouth like she had during the first song, but the microphone was turned off. The vocal recording faded out as she bounced about the stage like a marionette, turning first to her drummer, then her guitarist, then her bassist, then her other guitarist, yet unable to locate which one of them had caused the wrong vocals to play. Realizing that the jig was up, Ashlee shambled offstage. The band continued to do what they had been paid to do: catching on quick and stifling their grins, they strummed their way into the chorus. The camera pulled back, showing the four musicians surrounding an empty spotlight, and the show cut to a commercial.
After the break, host Jude Law smiled and tried to finesse the situation: "Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say: live TV!" But Ashlee only sputtered: "Exactly!! I felt so bad that my band started playing the wrong song and I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd do a little hoe-down -- sorry!"

Born: 2-Oct-1970
Birthplace: Stratford, NJ
Gender: Female
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Faith on Hope & Faith
Father: Joe
Husband: Mark Consuelos (actor, m. 1-May-1996, three children)
Son: Michael Joseph Consuelos (b. 2-Jun-1997)
Daughter: Lola Grace (b. 16-Jun-2001)
Son: Joaquin Antonio (b. 24-Feb-2003)
Kelly Ripa was born to a Italian father and a mother of Irish and Italian descent. While attending Eastern High School in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, Ripa began acting in high school plays. This led to roles at local theaters and a regular spot on the USA Network's Dance Party USA – an afternoon teen music program. She was then cast as gothic teen turned suffering heroine Hayley Vaughan on the soap opera All My Children. Starting on the show in 1990, the character of Hayley quickly drew a large following.
In 1995 her character was paired with Mark Consuelos' character Mateo Santos. A romance blossomed between the castmates, with Ripa and Consuelos eloping in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996She did not invite her parents to the wedding. Eventually, they had three children — Michael Joseph Consuelos, born June 2, 1997; Lola Grace Consuelos, born June 16, 2001; and Joaquin Antonio Consuelos, born February 24, 2003. In a mutual decision, the couple left All My Children in December 2002.
In September 2003, Ripa was a co-star (with Faith Ford) on her first sitcom, Hope & Faith. She portrayed Faith Fairfield, a former soap star whose character is killed off and who moves in with her sister Hope's family, creating havoc for the family and often antagonizing Hope and her husband, Charlie. Hope & Faith was not renewed for a fourth season in May 2006 after the 2005-2006 season saw a significant decline in ratings.
In May 2007, Ripa stated that she most likely is done with acting for the time being. She said she is content to enjoy the light work schedule that Live with Regis and Kelly offers. She did say that she may be more more inclined to return to acting once her youngest son, Joaquin, is old enough to be in school full-time.
Kelly's father, Joseph Ripa, is an elected official for Camden County, NJ. Joe Ripa is a union executive who was first elected to the county's governing body, the Board of Chosen Freeholders, in November 2003.
Self-parody
On Saturday Night Live skits about Live with Regis and Kelly, the role of Kelly Ripa is played by Amy Poehler. When Ripa hosted SNL in November 2003, in the Live with Regis and Kelly skit, Poehler appeared as Ripa and Ripa as Angelina Jolie. In another skit, Ripa spoofed the ubiquitous hair coloring ads in which she has appeared (in this skit, Ripa prefers Tressant Suprême because a main ingredient is crack cocaine, thus explaining her stereotypical "peppy" persona). In another episode, she had a cameo as herself in a skit about Bangkok, Thailand, with Ben Affleck. She also appeared in an opening skit with Steve Martin as the host, where they have dinner until Martin finds out that Alec Baldwin is about to host the show again (Baldwin was about to tie Martin for the most times hosting a show).
In Hope & Faith, sometimes Regis Philbin or others connected with her actual professional life would be brought into an episode. The scripts would lampoon Ripa herself, with jokes that required knowledge of her real-life career, and further the storyline about Faith, her narcissistic character on the show.
She has also made fun of herself on Family Guy, voicing herself. In the episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail #1," Peter Griffin found a genie in a beer bottle and his first wish was to see Kelly Ripa behind the scenes. The genie opened a magic window onto Ripa's Live with Regis and Kelly dressing room, showing Ripa ripping off her human face to show an ugly alien face, then going to a tied-up human, ripping his heart out and eating it.
Kelly is presently developing an untitled half hour sitcom with her husband for the CW network loosely based on the experience of herself and her husband. It would portray two actors who navigate the behind-the-scenes insanity of the soap opera in which they star.
Controversies
On August 14, 2002, guest Judith Light created a stir on Live with Regis and Kelly when she got into a shouting match with Kelly after Kelly corrected Judith's pronuciation of "worcestershire". This became a recurring topic on the show, with the on-air talent frequently making light of the incident. On November 3, 2002, Light made a public apology to Kelly, where she also admitted to having a dangerous prescription pain killer addiction. The two have since reconciled, and are regularly seen eating at the Payard Patisserie Bistro in New York.
On November 17, 2006, Clay Aiken was a stand-in guest host on Live with Regis and Kelly. During an interview, Aiken covered Kelly Ripa's mouth with his hand. There was considerable reaction after Kelly mentioned the incident on her show 4 days later. Aiken mocked the controversy on the 2006 American Music Awards a few days later with Tori Spelling.
Awards and honors
Ripa won five Soap Opera Digest Awards for playing Hayley on All My Children in 1996, 1998 & 2000. She has been nominated for 8 Daytime Emmy Awards. Three of these nominations were for playing Hayley on All My Children, and 5 were for performing hosting duties alongside Regis.
In April 2006, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Special for co-hosting the 2005 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade with Regis Philbin and Ryan Seacrest.
On September 15, 2006, Ripa broke the Guinness World Record for custard pie throwing, tossing 24 banana cream pies in one minute at actor Wilmer Valderrama, as part of a Guinness World Record Breaker theme week on Live with Regis and Kelly. She beat the record broken by NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth on the previous day, when he threw 17 pies at Ripa herself.

AKA Camilla Belle Routh

Born: 2-Oct-1986
Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: When a Stranger Calls
Father: Jack Routh
Mother: Deborah Gould
Belle began appearing in print ads at the age of nine months. She progressed into commercials and began working in movies for network and cable television. Throughout the 1990s, she appeared in several made for television and direct to video movies, including Trapped Beneath the Earth, Annie: A Royal Adventure!, Poison Ivy II: Lily and Marshal Law. She had minor roles in several widely-released films, including A Little Princess, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Practical Magic, as well as the lead role as Lizzie in Back to the Secret Garden. She was also in a commercial for America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) during the late 1990s.
In 2005, Belle starred in the film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, playing the daughter of Daniel Day-Lewis' character. The film only received a limited theatrical release, but Belle was labeled an "impressive newcomer" by film critic James Berardinelli. The film was her first in nearly four years. The same year, Belle also had a major role in The Chumscrubber, which received only a brief and limited theatrical release.
Belle was subsequently cast in the lead role in Screen Gems' horror film remake, When a Stranger Calls. The film was released on February 3, 2006 and was considered successful at the United States box office, grossing over $45 million after an opening of over $21 million. Later in 2006, she acted opposite Elisha Cuthbert and Edie Falco in The Quiet, a psychological thriller in which she played a deaf-mute teenage orphan. Shortly after the release of When a Stranger Calls, Belle was cast opposite Steven Strait in the Warner Bros. film, 10,000 BC, a prehistoric epic to be directed by Roland Emmerich. The film is scheduled for a March 2008 release and began filming in the spring of 2006 in South Africa and Namibia.
As of 2006, Belle is the face of Vera Wang's new fragrance, Princess, by Coty Prestige.
Personal life
Belle was born Camilla Belle Routh in Los Angeles, California, daughter of Christina (née Gould), who designed a fashion line in her native Brazil, and Jack Routh. She attended the Marlborough School, an independent all-girls school in L.A. Belle, an aspiring classical pianist, speaks several languages fluently, including Spanish and Portuguese (her mother's native language). She has been actively involved in various charities and is an international spokesperson for Kids With A Cause, created to provide a helping hand to children suffering from poverty, hunger, lack of education, neglect or abuse.
Belle is friends with actors Justin Chatwin and Jamie Bell, whom she met on the set of The Chumscrubber. She is also friends with tennis star, Maria Sharapova. She was named after actress Renata Sorrah's character, Camila, in the Brazilian soap opera Cavalo de Aço. She likes to watch Brazilian soap operas with her mother and used to visit her mother's family in São Paulo.

AKA Randall Rudy Quaid

Born: 1-Oct-1950
Birthplace: Houston, TX
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Parents
Father: William Quaid (electrician)
Mother: Nita Quaid (real estate agent)
Brother: Dennis Quaid (actor)
Wife: (div., one daughter)
Wife: Evzenya Motolanez ("Evi", b. 1963, m. 1989)
In a career that spans over 30 years, he has appeared in over 90 movies. Peter Bogdanovich discovered him when Quaid was a student at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. He received his first exposure in The Last Picture Show, when escorting Jacy Farrow (played by Cybill Shepherd) to late-night indoor skinny dipping at a swimming pool. It was the first of several roles he has had which were directed by Bogdanovich and/or based on the writings of Larry McMurtry.
Quaid appeared in several National Lampoon's Vacation movies where he proved an impressive scene-stealer as Cousin Eddie, the dim-witted, bucolic in-law of Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Last Detail (1973) and won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years (1987). He was featured (with Margaret Colin) in two science fiction movies, the unsuccessful Martians Go Home and very successful Independence Day. Other movies include Kingpin, where he played the lovable Amish bowler Ishmael, alongside Woody Harrelson and Weird Science (the television version) cast member Vanessa Angel; a loser father in Not Another Teen Movie; and an obnoxious neighbor to Richard Pryor's character in Moving. He played the lead role in the HBO movie Dead Solid Perfect as a golfer trying to make it on the PGA Tour. Quaid is often considered to be one of the most versatile actors of his generation, easily adapting to suit incredibly varied roles in both comedy and drama. In fact he's often nominated for awards when playing complex dramatic characters.
In 2004, Quaid appeared on stage undertaking the starring role of Frank in the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell produced by the New School University at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. In The God of Hell Quaid's portrayal of Frank, a Wisconsin dairy farmer whose home is infiltrated by a dangerous government operative who wants to take over his farm, was well-received and reviewed by New York City's top theatre critics. It also marked the second time that Quaid starred in a Shepard play, the first being the long running Broadway hit True West.
In 2005, Quaid starred as Bill Geurrard in the Universal Pictures film The Ice Harvest. His chilling portrayal of a Kansas City mob boss was voted as one of the Top 10 Film Gangsters of all-time in a UK poll, the number one slot went to Marlon Brando. He had a pivotal supporting role in the SAG Award nominated ensemble drama Brokeback Mountain (2005) in which he played a homophobic rancher whose two male employees are the movie's main characters. On March 23, 2006, Quaid filed a lawsuit for $10 million plus punitive damages against Focus Features, Del Mar Productions, James Schamus, David Linde, alleging that they both intentionally and negligently misrepresented Brokeback Mountain as being, "a low-budget, art house film with no prospect of making any money" in order to secure Quaid's professional acting services at a considerably lower rate to his usual fee. The film then grossed over $160 million. The lawsuit was closely monitored by many actors who forgo their usual fees to make low-budget movies they believe have artistic merit. On May 5, 2006, Quaid dropped his lawsuit after he was advised that a financial resolution would be made. In 2007, Quaid portrays King Carlos the IV in Goya's Ghosts, a role for which he learned to play the violin, and he stars in the comedy Gary the Tennis Coach alongside Sean William Scott.
Television
Quaid received both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his 2005 portrayal of talent manager Colonel Tom Parker in the critically acclaimed CBS television network mini-series Elvis. Quaid's other television appearances include a season as a Saturday Night Live cast member (1985–1986), the role of real-life gunslinger John Wesley Hardin in the miniseries Streets of Laredo, and starring roles in the short-lived series The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire (2003) and Davis Rules (1991-1992). He was featured in the highly-rated TV movies Category 6: Day of Destruction and Category 7: The End of the World and starred in Last Rites, a made-for-cable Starz/Encore! premiere movie.
He also provided the voice of an animated Colonel Sanders character in a series of television commercials for fried chicken restaurant chain KFC.