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Anna Kournikova

Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova (Russian: Анна Сергеевна Курникова, Ánna Sergéyevna Kúrnikova; born June 7, 1981) is a tennis player. She is one of the best known tennis players, especially among those who do not follow the game. Anna was born in Moscow, Russia to Alla and Sergei Kournikov; her family later emigrated to the United States, and she currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Tennis career

Anna dazzled the world at age 13 and 14 in international junior tennis, winning several tournaments including the 1995 Italian Open. Anna Kournikova was 14 years old when she ended 1995 as Junior European Champion U(nder)18 and Junior World Champion U18.

Kournikova debuted in professional tennis at age 14 in the Fed Cup for Russia, the youngest player ever to participate and win. At age 15, she reached the fourth round of the 1996 U.S. Open, only to be stopped by then-top ranked player Steffi Graf.

Anna was a member of the Russian delegation to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. As a 16-year old, she reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Kournikova’s first of two Grand Slam doubles titles came in 1999 at the Australian Open in the Women’s Doubles event with partner Martina Hingis, with whom she played frequently.

Kournikova proved a successful doubles player on the senior circuit, winning sixteen doubles titles, including two Australian Opens and being a finalist in mixed doubles at the US Open and Wimbledon, and reaching #1 in doubles in the Women’s Tennis Association tour rankings. Her career doubles record was 200-71. However, while she was ranked as high as #8 as a singles player at one point, she only reached a WTA singles final four times in 130 tournaments, never won one, and spent the bulk of her career ranked out of the top thirty. She had a record of 209-129 as a singles player.

Although, her final years marred by injuries, Kournikova has not played on the WTA tour since 2003, she still plays exhibition matches for charitable causes. In late 2004 she participated in three events organized by Elton John and by fellow tennis stars and good friends Serena Williams and Andy Roddick. She played for Tsunami relief January 2005 with John McEnroe, Andy Roddick and Chris Evert.

Anna was also a member of Newport Beachbreakers in the World Team Tennis (WTT) competition in July and November 2005, playing doubles only. In November 2005 she teamed up with Martina Hingis, reviving the "Spice girls of tennis", playing against Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur in the WTT finals for charity. In her ‘Elle’ column July 2005 Kournikova stated that if she were 100% fit she would like to come back and compete again.

Media publicity

Anna Kournikova on the cover of Maxim magazine in 2004.Much of Anna’s fame — more, many have argued, than she ever gained in her tennis career –has come from publicity surrounding her personal life as well as numerous modelling shoots. A number of her relationships with other celebrities, including romantic involvement with pop star Enrique Iglesias (in whose video, Escape, she appeared) and with hockey star Sergei Fedorov, have featured prominently in the tabloid press. Photographs of her scantily-clad form have appeared in various men’s magazines, including a much-publicized Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and other popular publications such as FHM and Maxim. Kournikova was named one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003. She has also been voted "hottest athlete" on espn.com and "sexiest woman in the world" by FHM readers. By contrast, ESPN — citing the degree of hype as compared to actual accomplishments as a singles player — ranked Anna 18th in its "25 Biggest Sports Flops of the Past 25 Years".

Kournikova had a small role (as a motel manager) in the 2000 film Me, Myself and Irene, starring Jim Carrey.

Books

Anna Kournikova by Susan Holden (2001)
Anna Kournikova (Women Who Win) by Connie Berman

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Mary Kidman (born June 20, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American-born Australian actress, producer and singer.

Biography

Early life and career

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Dr. Anthony David Kidman and Janelle Ann (nee MacNeille), who were of Scottish and Irish descent, and were both born in Australia. At the time, her father was a cancer research specialist in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Nicole was four years old, when Tony Kidman took on a lectureship at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Kidman started taking ballet lessons when she was four, and this led to studies at St. Martin’s Youth Theatre in Melbourne, the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, and then at the Philip Street Theatre, where she majored in voice production and theatre history. She studied at North Sydney Girls High School, but dropped out when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; Kidman concentrated on her family responsibilities until her mother’s recovery.

Nicole Kidman as Powder Puff in the 1983 film BMX BanditsHer first appearance on film came in 1983 when, as a 15 year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had secured a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek, and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s she appeared in several Australian movies and TV series, notably including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam (1986), Emerald City (1988), and Bangkok Hilton (1989). In 1989 she appeared in the successful thriller Dead Calm as Rae, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), held captive on a Pacific yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). The role gained her considerable notice in the United States.

Marriage to Tom Cruise

Her American debut was in Days of Thunder (1990), a stock-car racing movie, in which she played opposite Tom Cruise. Although Cruise was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time, he and Kidman began an affair. Cruise divorced Rogers and the couple married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. They adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, and lived in Los Angeles, California, Australia, Colorado, and New York.

After ten years, the marriage was dissolved in 2001: there was much media speculation about the reasons for this, but both celebrities maintained their privacy and were guarded in their public comments. One persistent rumour claims however that Kidman’s desire to bring up their children Catholic, and her critical views on Scientology caused problems in her marriage with Tom Cruise, who is an outspoken follower of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Hollywood career

After Days of Thunder, Kidman starred with Cruise in Ron Howard’s Far and Away (1992).

1995 was to bring much success. Kidman featured in the all-star cast of Batman Forever and later that same year starred in To Die For, a satirical comedy that earned her high praise from critics, and talk of an Academy Award nomination for her performance, although this did not materialize. She did, however, win a Golden Globe award, and five other best actress awards for her comic portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto.

DVD cover of To Die For depicting Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone MarettoKidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, Stanley Kubrick’s final film. It was the third time she had co-starred with Tom Cruise.

Kidman’s most professionally successful year thus far is 2001, with her Oscar-nominated performance in Moulin Rouge! and a well-received starring role in the horror film The Others. While in Australia filming Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her knee, so that Jodie Foster had to replace her in the Panic Room. The following year Kidman came back to win the same praise from critics for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role. In the same year she took a hand at production for the film In the Cut.

In 2004, Kidman appeared in the remake of The Stepford Wives alongside Glenn Close, Faith Hill and Bette Midler. In September of the same year, Birth, in which the 37-year-old actress’ character falls in love with a 10-year-old boy (played by Cameron Bright) who attempts to convince her that he is a reincarnation of her dead husband, met with a mixed reception. Despite this, the film was nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Kidman is author Philip Pullman’s number-one choice to play Mrs. Coulter in the proposed film version of the first volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Awards

Film awards

Kidman won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours: for the same film she won a BAFTA award. Kidman was nominated in 2002 for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Academy Award winning musical, Moulin Rouge!.

She has also been nominated seven times for a Golden Globe, the first time being in 1992 for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Kidman won her first of three Golden Globes in 1996 for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture for the film To Die For, her second win was in 2002 again for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Motion Picture for Moulin Rouge!, her third win was in 2003 in the Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture for the film The Hours. She was nominated four consecutive times in the Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture Golden Globe, in the years 2002-2005, for the following films in chronological order: The Others, The Hours, Cold Mountain, and most recently Birth.

Kidman has won one British Academy Award (BAFTA), it was for her performance in The Hours. She was nominated for the BAFTA two other times, in 2002 and 1996. In 2003, Kidman was given the American Cinematheque Award. She won two MTV Movie Awards in 2002 for Moulin Rouge!. She has been nominated for three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.

In addition to those accolades, Kidman has received Best Actress awards from the folowing critics’ groups or award giving organizations: Australian Film Institute, Berlin International Film Festival, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Boston Society of Film Critics, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Empire Movie Awards, Golden Satellite Awards, Hollywood Film Festival, Kansas City Film Critics Circle, Las Vegas Film Critics Society, London Critics Circle, Prestige Academy of Motion Pictures & Television, Russian Guild of Film Critics, Seattle International Film Festival, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association.

Charitable work

Kidman publicly supports a variety of charities and causes. She has been a high profile Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Australia since 1994. She has worked to help raise money for and draw attention to the plight of and the most disadvantaged children in Australia and around the world. In (2004) she was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. Kidman was selected as the New South Wales Australian of the Year 2005. In 2005 she visited the tsunami-hit regions of SE Asia.

Movies in production

Emma’s War, Fur, American Darlings, Wedding Season, and the animated musical Happy Feet are future movies for Kidman. Kidman was cast in The Producers but had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts. She was replaced by Uma Thurman. Eucalyptus would have been Kidman’s first native film since Moulin Rouge! but filming was halted after producer Russell Crowe determined that the script needed to be re-written. The current movie starring Kidman out in 2005 is Bewitched, a revamped version of the classic sitcom. She just finished filming the Diane Arbus bio-pic Fur, and is currently filming Oliver Hirschbiegel’s science fiction movie, The Visiting in Washington D.C. There is a rumour that Kidman may star in an upcoming yet-to-be titled Baz Luhrmann Australian period film.

Singing

Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams in the "Something Stupid" music videoNot known as a singer prior to Moulin Rouge!, Kidman had several well received vocal performances in the film. Her collaboration with Ewan McGregor on the song Come What May, from the film’s soundtrack debuted and peaked at 27 in the UK Singles Chart. Later, she collaborated with Robbie Williams on the song Somethin’ Stupid, a cover of the old swing song on Williams’ swing covers album Swing When You’re Winning, debuting and peaking at 8 in the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at number 1 for three weeks in the UK, also becoming the UK Christmas number 1 Single for 2001. She was reportedly offered a recording contract from a very high-profile record company following the success of Moulin Rouge!, but turned it down, believing that a full-time singing career was not her destined path.

Other notes

A female shark under GPS observation in South Africa is named after her.
As Kidman was born in Hawaii, she is an American citizen by birth. She has dual nationality and carries both Australian and U.S. passports.
Kidman’s sister Antonia is an entertainment reporter for an Australian television program, and also has her own very successful parenting program title ‘The Little Things’ set to be syndicated around the world.
Kidman is also a well renowned fashion paradigm and a frequent "Best Dressed" staple.
In August 2004, the Australian magazine BRW listed Kidman as the richest Australian woman under the age of 40, with an estimated worth of 155 million A$ (Australian dollars), or $107 million in United States dollars.
In January 2005, Kidman won interim restraining orders against two Sydney-based paparazzi photographers.
Listed 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported $14.5 million in 2004-2005.
Is known as one of the few A-list actresses who take risks on smaller indie/art films, doing Dogville in 2003 and Birth in 2004.
Celebrity News reports that Nicole Kidman is engaged to Keith Urban and pregnant with his child.

Statistics

Height:179cm Weight:60kg

Filmography

BMX Bandits (1983)
Bush Christmas (1983)
Wills & Burke (1985)
Archer’s Adventure (1985)
Windrider (1986)
Watch the Shadows Dance (1987)
The Bit Part (1987)
Emerald City (1988)
Dead Calm (1989)
Days of Thunder (1990)
Flirting (1991)
Billy Bathgate (1991)
Far and Away (1992)
Malice (1993)
My Life (1993)
To Die For (1995)
Batman Forever (1995)
The Leading Man (1996)
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
The Peacemaker (1997)
Practical Magic (1998)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) (documentary)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
The Others (2001)
Birthday Girl (2001)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Panic Room (2002) (voice only)
The Hours (2002)
Dogville (2003)
Dogville Confessions (2003) (documentary)
The Human Stain (2003)
Cold Mountain (2003)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Birth (2004)
The Interpreter (2005)
Bewitched (2005)
Fur (2006) (currently in post-production)
Happy Feet (2006) (voice) (currently filming)
The Visiting (2006) (currently filming)
The Lady from Shanghai (2006) (currently in pre-production)
Emma’s War (2006) (currently in pre-production)
American Darlings (2006) (currently in pre-production) (also as executive producer)
Wedding Season (2006) (announced)
The Land of The Setting Sun (2007) (announced)

TV Work

Skin Deep (1983)
Chase Through the Night (1983)
Five Mile Creek (1983-1985)
Matthew and Son (1984)
Winners (1985) (miniseries)
Room to Move (1987)
An Australian in Rome (1987)
Vietnam (1987) (miniseries)
Bangkok Hilton (1989) (miniseries)

Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan (née Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra, November 19, 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut) is an American actress who specializes in romantic comedies, but has worked in other film genres as well.

Ryan studied journalism at New York University. She went into acting to earn extra money while in school. After her first role in a feature film, Ryan (now using her screen name) played Betsy on the daytime drama As the World Turns from 1982 to 1984. Directors for this show especially liked working with her because she could cry on cue.

After several TV film and smaller movie roles, her first full blown hit in a leading role was the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally. The movie was favorably received and typecast Ryan as a bubbly, charming, feisty but incurable romantic. She made several attempts to break away from this stereotype, and garnered some critical acclaim for her work in When a Man Loves a Woman (where she played an alcoholic) and Courage Under Fire (where she played a military officer killed in combat). Many of her films of the 1990s were hits not only in North America, but also abroad. She had a very popular onscreen pairing with Tom Hanks; some compared their chemistry to Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. They costarred in three films together, and their last (1998’s You’ve Got Mail) was Ryan’s last major box office success for some years to come.

Ryan married actor Dennis Quaid on Valentine’s Day in 1991 after co-starring in two films with him. Quaid and Ryan had one child together, Jack Henry, born April 24, 1992; Meg has been estranged from her own mother, Susan Jordan, for many years. The couple divorced on July 16, 2001 after she had an indiscreet affair with actor Russell Crowe, with whom she was working on a movie. When the film (Proof of Life) failed, director Taylor Hackford blamed Crowe and Ryan’s affair and the ensuing negative publicity it garnered. Some believed this affair, along with Ryan ageing beyond the "cute" persona of her onscreen characters, hurt her popularity with the American public. She has not had a major box office success since knowledge of the affair became public.

In 2003, she broke away from her usual roles, and starred in In the Cut, an erotic crime/thriller/mystery which was popular with neither critics nor the public.

Asteroid 8353 Megryan was named in her honor.

Filmography

Rich and Famous (1981)
Amityville 3-D (1983)
Top Gun (1986)
Armed and Dangerous (1986)
Promised Land (1987)
Innerspace (1987)
D.O.A. (1988)
The Presidio (1988)
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
The Doors (1991)
Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Flesh and Bone (1993)
A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
I.Q. (1994)
French Kiss (1995) (also producer)
Restoration (1995)
Courage Under Fire (1996)
Addicted to Love (1997)
Anastasia (1997) (voice)
City of Angels (1998)
Hurlyburly (1998)
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Hanging Up (2000)
Proof of Life (2000)
Kate & Leopold (2001)
Searching for Debra Winger (2002) (documentary)
In the Cut (2003)
Against the Ropes (2004)
In the Land of Women (2006) (in post-production)
The Women (2006) (in pre-production)
The Tortilla Curtain (2006) (in pre-production)

Laura Linney

Laura Linney (born February 5, 1964 in New York City) is an American actress.

She was nominated for a Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000 for her role in You Can Count on Me, and again in 2004 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Kinsey. Other films she appeared in include Mystic River, The Truman Show, and Primal Fear.

Her important television roles include "Mary Ann Singleton" in the television adaptations of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City books. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2004 for her recurring role as the final love interest of Frasier Crane in Frasier.

Her extensive stage credits on Broadway and elsewhere include Hedda Gabler, Holiday (based on the movie starring Katharine Hepburn), and The Crucible.

Linney was educated at the Northfield Mount Hermon School and Brown University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986. She also trained at the Juilliard School and the Moscow Art Theatre. Her father is the playwright Romulus Linney and her mother was a nurse.

Selected Filmography

Driving Lessons (2006) as Laura
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) as Erin Bruner
The Squid and the Whale (2005) as Joan Berkman
P.S. (2004) as Louise Harrington
Kinsey (2004) as Clara McMillen
Love Actually (2003) as Sarah
Mystic River (2003) as Annabeth Markum
The Life of David Gale (2003) as Constance Harraway
The Mothman Prophecies (2002) as Connie Mills
The Laramie Project (2002) as Sherry Johnson
The House of Mirth (2000) as Bertha Dorset
You Can Count on Me (2000) as Samantha ‘Sammy’ Prescott
The Truman Show (1998) as Hanna Gill as Meryl Burbank
Absolute Power (1997) as Kate Whitney
Primal Fear (1996) as Janet Venable
Congo (1995) as Dr. Karen Ross
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) as School Teacher
Dave (1993) as Randi
Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) as Young Teacher

Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an American actress, best known for her role as Kelly Bundy on the sitcom Married… with Children.

Born in Hollywood, California, her father, Robert Applegate, was a record producer. Her mother, Nancy Lee Priddy, was an actress-singer who survived breast cancer. Her parents split up after she was born and her father remarried.

Applegate quit school at age 17 to pursue acting. She still studies jazz and dance. She is friends with actresses Nicole Eggert and Gwyneth Paltrow. On October 20, 2001, she married longtime boyfriend Johnathon Schaech, in a small mixed-religion Palm Springs ceremony attended by family and close friends. She is a supporter of PETA.

From 1987 to 1997, she played Kelly Bundy on Married… with Children. From 1998 to 2000, she starred in her own sitcom called Jesse.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, she was nominated four times in the annual Youth in Film Awards, two of which she won.

While playing the title role in a revival of Sweet Charity, she injured her ankle, and it was announced that the musical would close in previews. She persuaded the producers to rescind their descision, and on May 4, 2005 she made her Broadway debut to moderately good reviews.

Filmography (actress)

Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Surviving Christmas (2004)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Employee of the Month (2004)
Grand Theft Parsons (2003)
Wonderland (2003)
View from the Top (2003)
Heroes (2003)
The Sweetest Thing (2002)
Sol Goode (2001) (uncredited)
Just Visiting (2001)
The Giving Tree (2000)
Out in Fifty (1999)
Jane Austen’s Mafia! (1998)
The Big Hit (1998)
Claudine’s Return (1998)
Nowhere (1997)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Vibrations (1995)
Wild Bill (1995)
Across the Moon (1995)
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991)
Streets (1990)
Beatlemania (1981)
Jaws of Satan (1981)

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd (born April 19, 1968 in Granada Hills, California) is an American actress. Her father is Michael Ciminella and her mother and sister are country singers, Naomi Judd and Wynonna Judd, respectively. Her birth name is Ashley Tyler Ciminella.

Early years

Her early years were without the comforts of what can be considered the bare necessities, such as running water, electricity, or a telephone.

She attended 12 schools in 13 years before college. She Left the University of Kentucky a semester short of a bachelor’s degree in French in 1990.

Actress

Her television appearances include the role of Lieutenant Robin Lefler, a Starfleet officer, in two 1991 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the part of Swoosie Kurtz’s daughter on the first season of the NBC drama Sisters.

Her film debut was a small part in Kuffs (1992) and her first major role was in Ruby in Paradise (1993), a hit independent drama. She had a role in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, but all the scenes she played in were cut from the final version of the film.

She found further critical acclaim in Smoke (1995) and publicity in Heat (1995).

By the end of the 1990s she managed to achieve significant fame and success as an actress. As a respected actor, she began to be offered leading roles in films that were bound to be successful at the box office, but still required acting skills, like Double Jeopardy (1999) and Someone Like You (2001).

Personal life

Whenever her schedule allows, she regularly attends UK basketball games, frequently sitting next to Donna Smith (wife of UK Coach Tubby Smith), or in the student section. She allowed her alma mater to release a calendar of her photos to help raise money for the sports programs. She is frequently sought out for celebrity camera shots during televised games (much like Jack Nicholson with the Los Angeles Lakers or Spike Lee with the New York Knicks).

She married Scottish Indy Racing League driver Dario Franchitti at Skibo Castle near Dornoch, Scotland in 2001.

Filmography

Bug (2006)
The Women (2006)
Norma Jean & Marilyn by HBO. She played Norma Jean.
De-Lovely (2004)
The Heart of America Tour (2004) (short subject)
Twisted (2004)
Frida (2002)
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
High Crimes (2002)
Someone Like You… (2001)
Where the Heart Is (2000)
Double Jeopardy (1999)
Eye of the Beholder (1999)
Junket Whore (1998) (documentary)
Simon Birch (1998)
Kiss the Girls (1997)
The Locusts (1997)
Normal Life (1996)
A Time to Kill (1996)
Heat (1995)
Smoke (1995)
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
Natural Born Killers (1994) (scenes deleted)
Ruby in Paradise (1993)
Kuffs (1992)

Jessica Alba

Jessica Marie Alba(born April 28, 1981 in Pomona, California, USA) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in movies such as Idle Hands, and her starring role in the TV series Dark Angel. She got her first starring movie role in Honey, and went on to appear in prominent roles in Sin City and Fantastic Four.

Early life

Alba was born to Mark Alba (a Mexican mestizo of Spanish and Native Mexican descent) and Cathy Jensen (whose father was Danish and whose Canadian mother was of French, Italian and English descent). Alba was raised in a military family, living with her parents, her brother Joshua, and her grandparents until she was sixteen. She grew up a sports fanatic and terrorized teachers and grandparents alike with her rebellious behavior. Her father’s navy career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California when she was nine. Alba’s early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies, as she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, and suffered a burst appendix, a cyst on her tonsils, asthma, anorexia, and a kidney infection. This served to isolate her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as a child. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.

Acting career

Jessica Alba on The Tonight Show with Jay LenoAlba had expressed interest in becoming an actress since the age of five, took her first acting class at age twelve, and was signed by an agent nine months later.

Alba’s first appearance in film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere, as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role soon turned into a two month job when the actress in one of the more prominent roles in the film dropped out, and Alba was picked to replace her because her hair matched that of the original actress.

Alba appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney, and later was featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role as insufferable young snob Jessica in three episodes of the popular Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then won the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba had learned to swim before she could walk, and was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to good use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1995 she appeared in the film Venus Rising as Young Eve.

After graduating from high school at age sixteen, Alba studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director David Mamet.

In 1998 she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210, and as Layla in an episode of The Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999 she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S..

Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. Her big break may have been as the star of the popular Fox sci-fi TV series Dark Angel, which was co-created by writer/director James Cameron, who picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of genetically-engineered super soldier Max Guevera. The show ran for two seasons before being cancelled in 2002. Since then her most notable roles have been as an aspiring dancer/choreographer in Honey, the stripper Nancy Callahan in Sin City, and as the classic Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four.

Alba’s most serious award nomination to date is that of a Golden Globe for "Lead Actress in a Drama Series" during the first season of Dark Angel. She did not win.

She has stated that despite being an extremely ambitious actress who desires the level of fame enjoyed by stars like Tom Cruise, she once told James Cameron during filming on Dark Angel that she did not want to direct because it appeared to be too difficult an undertaking, but that he responded with the prediction that she would end up directing sooner than she expected.

Personal life

Alba was engaged to her Dark Angel co-star Michael Weatherly for a year. In January 2005 she began dating Cash Warren, a director’s assistant on Fantastic Four, whom she met when filming that movie.

Regarding children, Jessica has stated:

I’m really girly when it comes to kids. I’ve been surrounded by kids my whole life because I’m the oldest of 15 cousins - I’ve been changing diapers since I was six. I want to have a couple, for sure.

She announced on the UK teen site "Teen Today" in 2005, prior to the birth of her brother’s child, that she was beginning a children’s clothing line:

"About four of my girlfriends have babies so they have no time for me. I figure if I can do baby clothes maybe they’ll have more time to hang out!"

She is a self-professed animal lover (although she dislikes reptiles and rodents) who owns two pugs named Sid and Nancy.

Religion

During an interview with GQ magazine, Alba said that in her teen years she became a born-again Christian in rebellion against her parents, but later abandoned this. She explained:

One of the reasons why I chose not to be (a devout Christian) is because a lot of people gave me a lot of grief for just being a woman and made me feel ashamed for having a body because it tempted men. I didn’t understand what that meant because I was like, ‘God created this…’ That was a hard time in my life.

As the daughter of conservative parents, Alba, whose grandparents did not even allow her to wear a bathing suit around the house, maintains a no-nudity clause in her contract, though she has claimed she had been willing to be nude in Sin City. She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily-clad:

"They didn’t want me to wear the granny panties but I said, ‘If I’m gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."

Trivia

Her brother Joshua appeared with her in "And Jesus Brought a Casserole," the first season finale of Dark Angel, in which he played Krit, one of her X-5 brothers who wanted to help destroy Manticore.
She has a tattoo of a daisy with a ladybug on it on the back of her neck, and one of a butterfly just above her anal cleft. [3]
According to an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, her measurements are 34-24-34. [4]
Jessica Alba revealed that she envisions a much older man as her ideal partner, having stated, "Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Michael Caine I have this thing for older men. They’ve been around and know so much." [5]
Jessica is presently Tiger Beer’s new face in commercials.

Filmography

Camp Nowhere (1994)
Venus Rising (1995)
Flipper (cast member from 1995-1996) (TV series)
Too Soon for Jeff (1996) (TV series)
P.U.N.K.S. (1999)
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Idle Hands (1999)
Paranoid (2000)
Dark Angel (2000-2002) (TV series)
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
Honey (2003)
Sin City (2005)
Fantastic Four (2005)
Into the Blue (2005)
A Dream of Color in Black and White (2005) (currently in post-production)
Sonic (2006) (currently announced start of production) (also executive producer)

Shannon Elizabeth

Shannon Elizabeth Fadal (born September 7, 1973) is an American actress and model. Elizabeth came to prominence in the 1999 comedy film American Pie.

She was born in Houston, Texas to Gerald Edward Fadal (of Syrian and Lebanese descent) and Patricia Dianne Abbott (of French, English, and American Indian (Cherokee) descent); she was raised in Waco. In high school, Elizabeth was very much interested in tennis, and at one point even considered a professional tennis career. She worked as a model before she began a career in film. In August of 1999, she appeared nude in Playboy Magazine.

She married actor Joseph D. Reitman on June 15, 2002, but separated in March 2005, and filed for divorce in late June.

One year before their divorce, she was Punk’d by Ashton Kutcher’s crew members. It has been speculated by some that it was this—her husband Joe helped in fooling her into thinking she was caught on a sex tape—that was the cause of their breakup. 1

Elizabeth played in the 2005 World Series of Poker’s main event.

Selected filmography

Cursed (2005)
Johnson Family Vacation (2004)
Love Actually (2003)
American Pie 2 (2001)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Thir13en Ghosts (2001)
Tomcats (2001)
Scary Movie (2000)
American Pie (1999)
Jack Frost (1997)

Amanda Peet

Amanda Peet (January 11, 1972-) is an American motion picture actress.

Born in New York to a Quaker father and Jewish mother, Peet attended Friends Seminary with Liev Schreiber and studied history at Columbia University, where she auditioned for acting teacher Uta Hagen. During her 4-year period of study with Hagen, Peet appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing.

Her first screen performance was a television commercial for Skittles. Her early roles included a guest starring role on Law & Order, and she made her film debut in 1995, in Animal Room. Peet maintained a steady acting career in relatively obscure indie movies.

Her first major role was as "Jack" in the 1999 TV series Jack & Jill which aired for two seasons. Her first wide-release feature film came in 2000, with The Whole Nine Yards, opposite Bruce Willis, elevating her status from supporting actress to lead.

In 2000, she was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine.

She is currently engaged to actor/writer David Benioff. (July 22, 2005)

Filmography

Animal Room (1995)
Central Park West (1996) (TV series)
Winterlude (1996)
Virginity (1996)
She’s the One (1996)
Sax and Violins (1997)
Grind (1997)
Touch Me (1997)
Ellen Foster (1997)
Origin of the Species (1998)
1999 (1998)
Southie (1998)
Body Shots (1999)
Jack & Jill (1999) (TV Series)
Two Ninas (1999)
Jump (1999)
Simply Irresistible (1999)
Playing by Heart (1999)
Partners (1999) (TV Series)
Isn’t She Great (2000)
The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
Whipped (2000)
Saving Silverman (2001)
High Crimes (2002)
Igby Goes Down (2002)
Changing Lanes (2002)
Identity (2003)
Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
The Whole Ten Yards (2004)
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
A Lot Like Love (2005)
Syriana (2005)
The Martian Child (2005)
Griffin and Phoenix (2006)
Fast Track (2006)
Snow Angels (2006)

Jeri Ryan

Jeri Lynn Ryan (born February 22, 1968) is an American actress known for playing the shapely Borg Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager and for her relationship with Jack Ryan.

Childhood

Ryan was born as Jeri Lynn Zimmerman in Munich, Germany to American parents. She has one younger brother, Mark. Her father was in the United States Army and raised the family on military bases all over the country including Kansas, Maryland, Georgia and Texas. Finally, at the age of 11, her family settled down in Paducah, Kentucky when Ryan was 11. After Ryan graduated high school in 1986 as a National Merit Scholar, she attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of Alpha Phi sorority. While in college, she enrolled in beauty pageants and swimsuit competitions to pay for tuition. In 1989, Ryan became Miss Illinois and won the Miss America swimsuit competition, while coming in fourth for the Miss America title in 1990. Ryan graduated college in 1990. She stands 5 ft 8 in tall.

Career

Jeri Ryan.After college, Ryan decided to pursue her dream of an acting career. Her husband encouraged her and even gave her a plane ticket to Los Angeles. She moved there and made her first acting debut as an extra in Planes, Trains & Automobiles, but was cut out of the final version. She continued to act in commercials and eventually TV shows like Melrose Place, Matlock, and The Sentinel as well as TV movies like Co-Ed Call Girl. Her big break came when she won a regular role as an extraterrestrial investigator named Juliet Stuart on the TV show Dark Skies. The show was cancelled after one season, but the role drew the attention of the science-fiction community.

In 1997, Ryan was cast to play Seven of Nine, a Borg drone freed from the collective on the science fiction series Star Trek: Voyager. The role drew her instant fame and her wardrobe made her a sex symbol among some science-fiction fans. It also drew criticism from some fans who felt that character was created to add sexuality to the show, and who felt that a disproportionate number of episodes that followed her addition to the cast focused on her character to the exclusion of others. However, her appearance also coincided with higher ratings and more positive critical reviews of Voyager, which were partly attributed to better screenwriting and partly due to her character being both intrinsically interesting and well-acted.

After Voyager ended in 2001, Ryan joined the cast of Boston Public in the role of Ronnie Cooke, a frustrated lawyer who quits to become a high school teacher. The show’s producer, David E. Kelley, wrote the role specifically for her. The show was cancelled in 2004.

Ryan has recently appeared in movies such as Down With Love.

Personal life

In 1990, while dealing blackjack at a charity event, Ryan met investment banker and future political candidate Jack Ryan. The couple married in 1991 and had a son, Alex, in 1994. Throughout their marriage, Ryan and her husband took turns commuting between Los Angeles and Chicago for their careers, but finally divorced in 1999. Ryan had mentioned in an interview for Star Trek that the frequent separation between Chicago and Los Angeles had been difficult for their marriage. The reasons behind their divorce were kept sealed.

In 2004, details of her divorce proceedings with Jack Ryan were unsealed by a California judge despite appeals by both parties to keep them sealed, claiming that the information could be harmful to their son if released. It was revealed that, six years before, she had accused Ryan of attempting to coerce her into sexual acts with him in public, and in adult clubs in New York, New Orleans, and Paris. This information led Jack Ryan to withdraw his Republican candidacy for an open United States Senate seat in Illinois. Ryan had previously enjoyed a strong showing in the polls, and the Republican party was left without a strong replacement candidate, so the unsealing of the Ryan’s divorce records may have made the difference in enabling Barack Obama to win the election.

After her marriage ended, Ryan began a relationship with Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga. Her most recent TV appearances have been as a recurring character, Charlotte, on the hit show, The O.C..

In February of 2005, Ryan announced the opening of her restaurant, Ortolan. Located on Third Street in Los Angeles, California, the restaurant serves French food with a modern interpretation. Ryan opened the restaurant with her boyfriend, Chef Christophe Eme.

Filmography

Movies

Down With Love (2003)
The Last Man (2002)
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 (2000)
Disney’s The Kid (2000)
Men Cry Bullets (1999)

Television

The O.C. (2005)
Boston Public (2001-2004)
Star Trek: Voyager (1997-2001)
Dark Skies (1996)
Pier 66 (1996)
Co-ed Call Girl (1996)
Matlock: The Fatal Seduction (1993)
In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco (1993)
Just Deserts (1992) (TV)
Nightmare in Columbia County (1991) (TV)

Computer games

Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force (2000)