Anne Hathaway Biography

Birth name
Anne Hathaway
Date of birth (location)
12 November 1982
Brooklyn, New York, USA

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With her long dark hair, large expressive eyes and obvious talent, Anne Hathaway was earmarked as one to watch from the time she made her primetime acting debut as eldest daughter Meghan Green in the short-lived Fox drama series "Get Real" (1999-2000). The Brooklyn-born, New Jersey-raised player developed her craft as a child performer in theater, earning her stripes in several productions at the famed Paper Mill Playhouse (including "Gigi" with Gavin MacLeod and early stagings of the musical version of "Jane Eyre"). Hathaway was reportedly also the first and (to date) only teenager accepted into the acting program at The Barrow Group based in Manhattan.

Although she had attempted to land Broadway roles, Hathaway found her height (five feet eight inches) and youth detrimental. (She was too tall to be accepted in children's roles and too young-looking to portray adult parts.) She was perfect for TV and films, though, and soon landed the part of the overachieving high schooler on "Get Real" which earned her positive critical reviews. Segueing to the big screen, Hathaway was cast in the independently produced fact-based tale of a missionary to Tonga "The Other Side of Heaven" (scheduled for a fall 2001 release). Audiences, however, first saw the actress as Mia, an awkward San Francisco teen who learns she's actually royalty, in the comedy "The Princess Diaries" (2001), directed by veteran Garry Marshall. Holding her own with such talented co-stars as Julie Andrews (as her grandmother), Hector Elizondo (as an adviser) and Heather Matarazzo as Mia's pal, Hathaway proved a supple comic and displayed a commanding screen presence that could easily lead to a long and distinguished career.

Anne who attended Millburn High School is the daughter of stage actress Kate McCauley and Gerard Hathaway an Attorney and has 2 brothers. She has the same name as William Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway.

Hathaway accidentally fell off of her chair during her audition for the role of the klutzy princess in The Princess Diaries. She was hired on the spot.

She was named one of People Magazine's 'Breakthrough Stars of 2001' and one of Teen People Magazine's 25 Hottest Stars Under 25 in its June 2002 issue.

Anne won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance as Lili in the City Center Encores! production of Carnival (2002)

Prior to majoring in English and minoring in Women's Studies at Vassar, Hathaway was nominated for the Paper Mill's "Rising Star Award" for the best high school performance by an actress in New Jersey. Later on Hathaway received a nomination for the 2002 Teens Choice Award in the Best Actress/Comedy (Princess Diaries) series category.

Ayumi Hamasaki Biography

Date of birth: October 2cnd, 1978, Fukuoka, Japan
Zodiac: Libra
Nickname: Ayu
Height: 5' 1"

Biography:
Despite her child-like persona, you can't help but sense Hamasaki was never truly a child. Born in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu, she was just a toddler when her father walked out. "I don't even know if he's dead or alive," she says. Raised by a single mother and a grandmother, she began modeling locally at seven, in part to earn money for the family. It was an unusual and lonely childhood in this country of steadfastly nuclear families, but Hamasaki says she wasn't aware of what she was missing. "I thought mommy's life was strange, not mine," she says. "I didn't understand my loneliness until I moved to Tokyo." Hamasaki made that move at 14 to pursue an acting and modeling career. Old magazine spreads feature the sweetly smiling young starlet clad in bathing suits or prim outfits that would never make it to her own wardrobe. After bit parts in five low-budget movies and a handful of TV dramas, she tired of acting and, with her tiny frame, did not have a future in modeling. Canned by her talent agency and dropping out of school in the 10th grade, Hamasaki frittered away her days shopping at trendy shibuya boutiques and her nights dancing at the massive Velfarre nightclub in Roppongi.

Then a friend who worked at the club, owned by the record label Avex, invited her out for a night of karaoke that forever changed her life. The friend had also invited Masato ("Max") Matsuura, who introduced himself to Hamasaki as a producer. "I'd never heard of Avex," Hamasaki recalls, laughing. "When he asked if I wanted to pursue a singing career, I said, 'No way.' He was this older guy, and I thought the whole thing sounded fishy." Over the following year, though, Matsuura persisted. Finally she relented to his request that she at last attend vocal training, only because "I had nothing better to do." But the classes were dull and the teachers harsh. "I felt like I'd gone back to school," she says. "If there are rules and regulations, I can't help it, I want to break them."

Finally she confessed to Matsuura that she'd skipped most of the classes. But instead of writing her off, he proposed sending her to New York for some real training. "I thought he was kidding," she says. "I mean, I was 17." Reluctantly she went, staying in a midtown hotel for three months, taking singing classes a few blocks away. "New York was a relief-not all hierarchical and rule-bound," she says. When Hamasaki returned to Japan, Matsuura proposed another challenge. Because she has trouble voicing her thoughts, Hamasaki had over that year corresponded with Matsuura through letters, which must have echoed of simple yet poignant lyrics. "He read them and said, 'Why don't you try writing songs?'" The idea that she could express herself in song imbued her with a new sense of direction. "No one had ever asked anything of me before, or expected anything of me," she says of Matsuura, whom Hamasaki and everyone at Avex calls by his title, senmu, or managing director. "Part of me was flattered; part of me was terrified but didn't want to admit I couldn't do it. Plenty of people had patted my head and said, 'Aren't you cute.' Senmu gets mad, but when he praises me, I know I've won it. He's the one who found me and drew me out." He stuck by her, too, when superstardom didn't occur overnight. Her first two singles in 1998 stopped at No. 20 on the charts; her next four barely broke the Top 10. Then Love~destiny~ busted into the No. 1 slot in April 1999, and every one of her singles have hit the top ever three since. The responsibilities that came with her ascension as a recording star were a fair trade-off for the joyous release of writing. "The 'Hi, this is Ayu' person on TV," she says, slipping for a moment into her alter ego's nasal, anime-character voice, "is the person I know they want to see. I understand it's my role to realize people's dreams. I'm O.K. with that so long as my songs are my own. No one can take my song away from me."

She is complicit in the brutal arithmetic of fame: trading the freedom she cherished for the right to tell her story through songs. Indeed, she has transcended mere songstress status and become something even more venerated in our consumer driven society. "It's necessary that I am viewed as a product," she says. "I am a product."

Asia Argento Biography

Asia Argento was born in Rome, Italy, on September 20, 1975, to renowned Italian horror film director Dario Argento (the son of producer Salvatore Argento) and his companion, actress Daria Nicolodi.

born to be wild

It was fitting that Asia, who would go on to lead a life that could only be described as unique, would find herself immediately positioned counter to the status quo: The city's registry office refused to acknowledge "Asia" as an appropriate name, and instead officially inscribed her as Aria Argento.

Nevertheless, Asia retained the name that her parents had chosen for her, and embarked on a lifestyle of eccentricity and privilege that comes with growing up in the entertainment industry. For three days following her birth, her parents projected Gone with the Wind on the living room wall.

As Asia grew older, she was gradually exposed to other genres of film, notably her father's slasher movies, beginning when she was six years old with a viewing of Deep Red -- a film which, incidentally, starred her mother. It wasn't long before the Argento household was hosting horror screenings for the neighborhood kids, the popularity of which increased after the Argentos became the first owners of a Betamax player in all of Italy.

asia argento keeps it in the family

Given her lineage and environment, it seemed natural that the young Asia be predisposed to pursuing a profession in entertainment. At the age of nine, she began following in her mother's footsteps, making her debut acting performance in Sergio Citti's Sogni e bisogni.

In 1989, she was cast in the leading role in Cristina Comencini's Zoo, for which she earned an Italian Ciak Award -- the rough equivalent of a Golden Globe. In 1989, she appeared in La Chiesa, and later that same year she played a part in Nanni Moretti's Palombella rossa.

Asia's breakthrough role came in 1992 with Le Amiche del cuore, a performance that demonstrated her range and capacity to make the transition from child actor to mature professional, capable of handling complex roles. The movie was well received at the Cannes Film Festival and by the industry community at large, including Dario Argento, who went on to cast his daughter in 1993's Trauma, her English language debut. Asia went on to act in two more of her father's films: 1996's La Sindrome di Stendhal and 1998's Il Fantasma dell'opera.

asia argento's on her own

Yet any suggestions that nepotism played a role in Asia's early successes are quickly squashed by her list of awards. She received the David di Donatello (Italy's response to Hollywood's Academy Award) for Best Actress in 1994 for her performance in Perdiamoci di vista!, and again in 1996 for Compagna di viaggio, which also earned her a Grolla d'oro Award. In 1998, Asia began flaunting her talents to the West, appearing in the American movies B. Monkey and New Rose Hotel (1998), alongside Christopher Walken, and Hostage (2005)with Bruce Willis.

Asia has also proven her ability to work in multiple tongues, adding French to the list of languages in which she has performed, with a role in 1994's La Reine Margot. That same year, she made her first foray into directing, calling the shots behind the short films, Prospettive and A ritroso. In 1996, she directed a documentary on her father, and in 1998 a second one on Abel Ferrara, which won her the Rome Film Festival Award. Her feature directorial debut came in 2000's Scarlet Diva, a film that she also and starred in.

asia argento's a bad girl

While Asia is certainly a celebrity in her native country, the coverage that the Italian press showers on her is not always favorable. She has drawn criticism for her openness toward drug use and posing nude, as well as the deeply erotic scenes she has performed in, particularly those that her father has filmed.

In 2001, a great deal of attention was drawn to an alleged hit-and-run that Asia was involved in, and her position in this incident wasn't helped by the fact that a bottle of absinthe was found in her car (the liqueur was to be used as a prop in a music video that Asia was directing).

In June of 2001, Asia gave birth to her first child, Anna Lou. The father is musician Marco Castoldi ("Morgan") from the Italian band Bluvertigo. In addition to her accomplishments in the world of film, Asia has written a number of stories for magazines such as Dynamo and L'Espresso, while her first novel, titled I Love You, Kirk, was published in Italy in 1999.

Anna Kournikova Biography

Anna Kournikova (née Anya Kournikova) was born on June 7, 1981, in Moscow, Russia, to Sergei and Alla. Her father, a lecturer at the sports university in Moscow and a part-time tennis coach, and mother, did not encourage Anna to play tennis for the fame, but rather for the health benefits of the sport.

anna's early tennis days

Anna Kournikova's talent was first discovered when she played at a weekly children's sports program at the age of 5, thanks to the racket she received from her parents for Christmas. She started to play and practice more often, in places such as Moscow's Soklniki Park and the prestigious Spartak Tennis Club, despite the fact that her family was far from wealthy.

While still in Moscow, Anna's first tennis coach was Larissa Preobraschenskaja, from 1985 to 1989. The budding tennis player trained and practiced while studying at school. In 1992, 11-year-old Anna moved to Florida with her mother to attend Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Bradenton. The tennis facilities made it easier for Anna, who had to commute from the gym to the tennis court to school while in Moscow.

anna kournikova goes pro

By the time she was 14, she had become the youngest player to win a Fed Cup match, and made sure people took notice of her when she won the European Championships and Italian Open juniors. When she turned pro in 1996, she stepped onto the scene as an ITF Junior World Champion.

Expectations were high and Kournikova delivered: she reached the fourth round in her first Grand Slam tournament, the 1996 U.S. Open and the semifinals in her first Wimbledon appearance in 1997.

1998 was a big year for the blonde beauty: Anna became the first Russian female to be seeded at the U.S. Open since 1976, reached the Top 10 of the singles rankings, and upset Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals at the 1998 German Open, becoming the ninth-youngest player to defeat a No. 1 tennis player before turning 17 (since 1968).

The following year, Kournikova won her first Grand Slam doubles title at the 1999 Australian Open, with partner Hingis. She managed to reach the fourth round in singles at all three Grand Slams, two Grand Slam doubles finals and one Grand Slam mixed doubles final.

In 2000, Kournikova and Hingis continued to do damage on the courts, and ended the season with a career ranking of No. 8. She even defeated Lindsay Davenport and Nathalie Tauziat on the way to the fifth semifinal of that year, in San Diego. She later moved down the rankings to No. 19 and beat Sandrine Testud before losing to Venus Williams. At the 2000 German Open in May, Anna experienced the first in what would become a string of injuries.

anna kournikova dates enrique

She continued to make appearances in high-profile tournaments, drawing in big crowds but unfortunately, not as many titles or wins. After 2003's Australian Open, she suffered a back injury that led to her withdrawal from that year's Wimbledon games. But even though Kournikova hasn't been on the tennis scene, she's still everywhere else.

In 2001, she had a bit part in the Jim Carrey comedy, Me, Myself & Irene, as a motel manager, and the following year, she starred opposite Enrique Iglesias in the pop singer's video for "Escape." FHM's "Sexiest Woman in the World" also made headlines thanks to her relationships with NHL players Pavel Bure and Sergei Fedorov (who she was allegedly married to), and her on-again, off-again romance with Iglesias (apparently, the two are engaged, as Anna's been sporting a fat diamond on her engagement finger since March 2004). The two are always spotted in South Beach, and even made the tabloids when they were apparently heard causing a ruckus in a hotel room.

anna kournikova in sports illustrated

Also stretching her modeling muscle, Kournikova graced the cover of Sports Illustrated's June 2000 edition, and was featured in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition in 2004.

Although she hasn't been a strong force on the courts, Anna still claims that her No. 1 dedication in life remains the sport that made her famous: tennis. Or was it Anna that made tennis famous?

Amy Smart Biography

Amy Smart was born in 1976 in Topanga Canyon, California. As a young girl, she gained a reputation as a tomboy and was the only girl on her Little League baseball team.

She started to model at age thirteen and moved into acting after landing a role in the 1994 MTV Rock The Vote campaign. She broke into show business with small roles in television movies before making her feature debut in the 1997 independent film, The Last Time I Committed Suicide.

smartship troopers

Smart later gained a small part in the Paul Verhoeven science fiction vehicle Starship Troopers. In How to Make the Cruelest Month, Smart played a seductress who betrays her sister. The horror film Campfire Tales followed in 1998, along with the Internet stalker thriller, Dee Snider's StrangeLand, written, produced and starring the front man of Twisted Sister.

Smart reached her widest audience, however, with a starring role opposite James Van Der Beek in the 1999 sleeper teen hit, Varsity Blues. The actress played Jules Harbor, a girl who dreams of escaping the football-obsessed culture of her town yet is linked to it as the sister of the high-school quarterback and as the sweetheart of his replacement, played by Van Der Beek.

Her portrayal of the intelligent Jules drew inevitable comparisons to Katie Holmes, co-star to Van Der Beek on the popular Dawson's Creek.

a jewel in the rough

Smart would next be featured as a supporting love interest in the touching comedy, Outside Providence, starring Alec Baldwin. Those who enjoyed her performance got to see more of her, when she was cast as Ruby, Noel's girlfriend on the WB's Felicity, from the 1999 to the 2001 season.

In 2000, Amy starred in the disappointing NBC miniseries, The '70s, before her appearance in the gross-out teen flick, Road Trip. She can now be seen on the current video hit, Rat Race, with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg, and you can catch her next in a small role in the upcoming film, Interstate 60.

In addition to her acting career, Smart is a spokesperson for an environmental group devoted to cleaning up the Santa Monica Bay.

Alyssa Milano Biography

Born in Brooklyn, New York on December 19, 1972, Alyssa Jayne Milano is the daughter of Thomas, a film music editor, and Lin, a fashion designer.

After seeing the Broadway play Annie at the age of 7, Alyssa knew she wanted to become an actress. One year later, she made her acting debut as July in the same musical and toured for 18 months. After that time, Alyssa left Annie to star in off-Broadway productions and TV commercials.

alyssa milano joins who's the boss?

Alyssa Milano made her television debut in 1984 with her role as Tony Danza's daughter on the popular sitcom Who's the Boss?, which ran for eight years. And only one year into the sitcom's run, Alyssa nabbed a small role playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter in 1985's Commando.

While her role on Who's The Boss? continued to garner her millions of fans and allowed her to create a best-selling exercise video in 1988 called Teen Steam, Alyssa also starred in a bunch of forgettable TV movies, including The Canterville Ghost (1986), Crash Course (1988) and Voices That Care (1991).

In 1989, a picture of Alyssa served as the inspiration behind Disney's The Little Mermaid and was used to create the image of Ariel in the classic movie.

alyssa milano releases albums

The '90s were a time when Alyssa wanted to shed her little-girl image and prove that she was a sexy adult woman. She did so by starring in Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993) and the sexually charged Embrace of the Vampire (1994) and Poison Ivy II (1996). It worked, as popular men's mag FHM voted her onto its 100 Sexiest Women in the World list four times.

But Alyssa didn't stop at TV and movies. In fact, she also released seven albums including Alyssa (1989), Look In My Heart (1989), Best In The World (1990), Locked In a Dream (1991), and Do You See Me? (1992) -- in Japan.

alyssa milano in fear and on melrose place

On the big screen, one of Alyssa Milano's most important roles came in 1996 when she starred alongside Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg in the surprise hit Fear (1996). Also in 1996, she appeared in To Brave Alaska, a made-for-TV flick about a couple fighting for their lives while abandoned in Alaska.

In 1997, Milano returned to television full time as troublemaker Jennifer Mancini in the primetime Aaron Spelling soap Melrose Place. She was cast as a regular for one season and became the enemy of fellow beauty Amanda, played by Heather Locklear.

alyssa milano on charmed

While her role on Melrose Place was hot in 1997, Alyssa Milano attended the Sundance Film Festival, where her new movie, Hugo Pool, also starring Robert Downey Jr., Sean Penn and Patrick Dempsey, premiered. At the festival, Alyssa was given the Spirit Award for women.

In 1998, Milano began portraying a witch on the WB's Charmed, alongside fellow witches Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs (Shannen Doherty quit in 2001 and was replaced by McGowan). She stayed on the show for eight seasons, leaving only when the show came to an end in 2006.

In January 1999, on New Year's Day, Alyssa wed musician Cinjun Tate (lead singer for the rock group Remy Zero), but she divorced him that same year in November.

alyssa milano in dickie roberts

Alyssa's major role in Charmed didn't stop her from appearing in big-screen projects. In 2003, Alyssa starred alongside David Spade in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and the following year, she did voice work for Dinotopia: Curse of the Ruby Sunstone.

Alyssa also continued doing TV commercials; she was well-known as the spokesperson for 1-800-Collect and for her very provocative commercials and print ads for Candie's perfume.

In addition, Alyssa got seriously involved in humanitarian work; in fact, she is a National Ambassador for UNICEF and she works with PETA.

alyssa milano in the blue hour

In 2007, Alyssa appears alongside Rachel Miner in the big-screen drama The Blue Hour. She also stars in Pathology.

In November of 2007 Alyssa Milano also began appearing regularly on the hit TV show My Name Is Earl.

Ali Larter Biography

Alison Gertrude Larter was born February 28, 1976, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She and her sister Kristen both enjoyed a stable upbringing, and there was little to distinguish the young Ali from other children her age, beyond her remarkable beauty.

budding beauty

By age 13, Ali embarked on what would evolve into a fairly successful modeling career under the tutelage of the world-renowned Ford Modeling Agency. It was thus that a portion of Ali's teenage years came to be spent in various locales, being whisked from one photo shoot to another. At 17, Ali's profession brought her to Japan, where she settled temporarily.

Ali's homecoming to New Jersey proved a transient one, and at 19 she was on the road again, accompanying a boyfriend in his move to Los Angeles. While the boyfriend wouldn't last long, Ali's new home would, and, after taking a brief sojourn in Australia (to put some time and space between her and her ex), she set up camp on the West Coast. On the advice of a friend, Ali began taking acting classes, and was soon appearing in stage productions of Fine Line and Key Exchange.

life imitates art

While building a background in stage work certainly may have helped Ali toward breaking into film, luck had a hand in launching her into the entertainment spotlight in a rather unlikely fashion. In November of 1996, Esquire magazine published a satirical stab at the Hollywood publicity machine in the form of a hoax profile of an "Allegra Coleman," touted in the feature as "Hollywood's Next Dream Girl." Ali was chosen as the model to portray this fictional persona and immediately following the magazine's release, Esquire's offices were flooded with calls from agencies seeking to represent the purported hot "new star."

Even after the hoax had been revealed, its effects seemed to linger, and in a final ironic twist, Ali found that she was still the object of agencies' wooing. With her career having been accelerated through widespread exposure, Ali left the stage behind her and began auditioning for film and television.

a real dish

Ali's first professional role was in a 1997 guest spot on the television series, Chicago Sons, which was followed by a number of other brief appearances on Dawson's Creek, Chicago Hope and Just Shoot Me. Her first feature film role came in the 1999 independent comedy Casanova Falling, a movie which, although critically well-received and the recipient of that year's Palm Springs Film Festival Award for Best Romantic Comedy, failed to capture a wide audience.

Ali's next project alongside James Van Der Beek (whom she had worked with on the set of Dawson's Creek) in Varsity Blues proved much more fruitful. In addition to the film's success at the box office, Ali's appearance in it, at one point wearing nothing more than a few mounds of whipped cream, earned her an instant fan base. Her "Allegra Coleman" alias had provided Ali with passage into the entertainment industry, but it was her role in Varsity Blues that secured her a place in it.

further destinations

Ali's next two roles, as a co-star to Melissa Joan Hart in Drive Me Crazy and in the horror remake House on Haunted Hill, solidified her standing as one of Hollywood's hot young faces. Her following part, in the teenie thriller Final Destination, established her as one of the more talented among them. The movie turned out to be the sleeper hit of 2000, and Ali's performance in it as the pensive loner Clear Rivers was the object of much critical acclaim, in addition to winning her a Young Hollywood Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by a Female.

She went on to make three more films in 2001, as Jesse James' wife in the ill-fated American Outlaws, a fitness guru on trial for murder in Legally Blonde, a lesbian jewel thief in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In 2003 she starred in Final Destination 2. A Lot Like Love came out two years later.

Ali has made it clear in interviews that she has no interest in returning to television work and, given the progression of her career thus far, it would seem that she has no need to. But in 2006 she was offered a role on the new NBC drama Heroes where she plays a former internet stripper from Las Vegas who exhibits superhuman strength. We think they should try and integrate a whipped cream scene on that show as well.

Amelia Vega Biography

Amelia Vega Polanco (born November 7, 1984), known simply as Amelia Vega, is a Dominican woman who won the Miss Universe contest held in Panama City, Panama on June 3, 2003, becoming the first Dominican woman ever to win the Miss Universe title. She had been mentioned by various media outlets as one of the favorite candidates to win the crown before the contest took place. Vega proved herself to be one of the contest's loudest candidates, when she went and screamed in front of a camera during a filming of a contest practice. Several press agencies and websites covering the pageant, particularly GlobalBeauties.com, reported that Amelia was not very well-liked and that her attitude was quite controversial, and her victory was met with apparent indifference among the other delegates who seemed to favor eventual 1st runner-up Mariángel Ruiz of Venezuela over her. Despite backstage controversy, her victory was a clear-cut one and she has since become one of the most marketed faces to come out of the Miss Universe pageant.

Amelia Vega Trivia

• Lived in New York City for a while. Her father still resides there where he works as a doctor.
• Niece of singer Juan Luis Guerra
• Her mother, Patricia Polanco, was a former beauty pageant contestant for the Dominican Republic in the 1980 Miss World pageant.
• Speaks Spanish and English