Cecilia Cheung Biography

Cecilia Cheung (pinyin: Zhāng Bózhī, Cantonese: Cheung Pak Zhi, born May 24, 1980) is a Hong Kong actress and singer.

Cheung was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese father and a half Chinese-half British mother. Her father is an active member of a local gang. Her parents divorced when she was just a child after which she was sent to Australia to live with her aunt at the age of fourteen. Cheung has an elder half-sister Dai Pek Chi (an airline pilot), two younger brothers, Cheung Ho Long (張浩龍) and Cheung Pak Man (張柏文) and also a younger half-brother from her father's side. She is also the daughter-in-law of Patrick Tse (謝賢) and Deborah Li, and wife of Nicholas Tse (謝霆�'), mother of Lucas Tse. She also has a cousin who currently lives in England.

In 1998, while helping a hair stylist friend at a catwalk show, she was offered to appear in a TV commercial advertising lemon tea. Later, Cheung made her film debut as a young nightclub hostess in Stephen Chow's The King of Comedy (1999), followed soon after by Fly Me to Polaris (1999). The latter role earned her the award for Best Newcomer at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In the same year, Cheung launched her singing career with her first Cantopop album Any Weather (1999).

For Derek Yee's romantic drama Lost in Time (2003), Cheung won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards. She played a young woman who lost her fiance to a traffic accident which left her as a grieving single mother struggling to make ends meet.

Cheung first dated Hong Kong actor and singer Nicholas Tse in early 2002, but was then dumped by Tse late that year when Tse got back with his ex-girlfriend, singer Faye Wong. Later she was rumored to have dated a younger Siyuan Lu before the relationship ended in 2003. Cheung suffered serious depression and eating disorder after the break up. Cheung also dated a Dutch expat named Jeroen for a brief period.

Cheung and Tse were first reported "getting back together" in early 2006 and on July 31, 2006, Tse officially admitted dating Cheung in an interview with Hong Kong commercial radio station 881/903.

In September 2006, Tse showed off his wedding ring at the Hong Kong International Airport, announcing he and Cheung were married in a secret wedding ceremony in the Philippines.

On the January 8, 2007 episode of TVB's Entertainment Scoop (東張西望), Cheung was publicly confirmed by Nicholas' father, Patrick Tse to be approximately three months pregnant with the couple's first child.

Around March 2007 on the episode of TVB's Entertainment Scoop (東張西望)it is said that their child is due in August (N.B which is the same month as Tse's birthday). It is confirmed by Cheung's husband Nicholas Tse that she is expecting a baby boy.

On August 2, 2007, it was reported that Cecilia Cheung and her husband were both in the maternity ward awaiting for their child to be born. However no specific photo was enclosed with such report. The very next day, Cecilia gave birth to a 6.5lb baby boy named Lucas.

Celine Dion Biography

Singer. Born March 30, 1968, in Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada. The youngest of 14 children of Adhemar and Therese Dion, she grew up in a close-knit musical family. Her parents formed a singing group, Dion’s Family, which toured Canada when Celine was still an infant. They later opened a piano bar, where the five-year-old Celine would perform to the delight of customers.

At the age of 12, Dion recorded a demo tape of a song she had written with her mother. They sent the tape to the manager and producer Rene Angelil, who handled the career of the popular French singer Ginette Reno. After hearing the tape and inviting Dion to perform for him in person, Angelil signed her immediately under the condition that he would have complete control over her career. He mortgaged his own home to finance her debut album, La Voix du bon Dieu (The Voice of God). .

By the age of 18, Dion had recorded nine French albums and won numerous Felix and Juno awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy). In 1988, she won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland, and her performance was broadcast live in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and Japan. After this taste of international acclaim, Dion began looking to the south, and American stardom. She recorded her first English language album, Unison, in 1990. Like all of her English language albums to date, it was a collaboration with the songwriter-arranger-musician David Foster. Driven by the top-five single "Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Unison sold over one million copies worldwide. Dion’s real breakthrough into pop music stardom came in 1992, when she recorded the theme to Disney’s hit animated feature Beauty and the Beast, a duet with Peabo Bryson. The song became a No. 1 smash, winning both a Grammy and an Academy Award. It was featured on her second English album, Celine Dion, which became her first gold record in the U.S. and sold more than 12 million copies internationally. The undeniable success of her self-titled effort, which also included her second No. 1 hit, "If You Asked Me To," allowed Dion to launch her first headlining tour in the U.S.

Dion quickly capitalized on her newfound fame, releasing the top-selling The Colour of My Love in 1993. The album showcased the romantic power ballads that Dion had become known for, including "When I Fall in Love" (featured on the soundtrack for the hit film Sleepless in Seattle), "The Power of Love," and "Because You Loved Me" (from the soundtrack to Robert Redford’s sentimental Up Close and Personal).

In 1994, Dion happily merged her personal and professional life when she and Angelil were married. Angelil, 26 years her senior, had divorced his second wife during the 1980s, and he and Dion had begun a romantic relationship shortly after she had turned 19. Engaged in 1991, the couple tied the knot at Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica, in an elaborate ceremony that was celebrated throughout Canada.

s international stardom was solidified by her performance of "The Power of the Dream," at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. That same year, Dion’s Falling Into You won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album. The next year, however, would hold even greater glory for Dion with the release of the blockbuster film Titanic, costarring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, for which Dion sang the theme song, "My Heart Will Go On." By the time the film raked in a record number of Oscar nominations (it won 11, including Best Song), Dion’s ballad had become ubiquitous on radio stations around the world. Included on both the Titanic soundtrack album and Dion’s own Let’s Talk About Love, "My Heart Will Go On" propelled both to the No. 1 and No. 2 slots on Billboard’s album charts and a combined 50 million records sold worldwide. Let’s Talk About Love also featured collaborations with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, the Bee Gees, and Bryan Adams.

Dion received the National Order of Quebec, her province’s highest honor, in April 1998. Later that year, she appeared alongside Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain on the high-profile televised concert Divas Live (1998) on VH-1. While touring relentlessly and recording several albums (including S’il Suffisait d'Aimer and a holiday album, These Are Special Times), Dion was well rewarded at the Billboard Music Awards in late 1998, where she won six awards including Album Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for Let’s Talk About Love. Her extensive 14-country tour, which had begun in the summer of 1998, culminated in a gala concert in Montreal on December 31, 1999, in honor of the new millennium.

In the first months of 2000, Dion announced that she was taking time off from her career in order to focus on her family. She and Angelil had been trying to have children for years, and eventually decided to use in vitro fertilization to conceive. In May 2000, Dion underwent two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York in order to improve her chances of becoming pregnant. Her efforts were successful, and on January 25, 2001, Dion gave birth to a boy, Rene-Charles. She has revealed in interviews that she has stored another fertilized egg in the fertility clinic and plans someday to give her son a sibling. Angelil, who was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1999, is now in remission.

After a two-year hiatus, Dion returned in March 2002 with A New Day Has Come, which topped the charts in over 17 countries. A year later, she began a much-hyped 36-month engagement at Caesars Palace, the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino. Dion simultaneously released the album One Heart, which did not fair as strongly as its predecessor.

Charlize Theron Biography

Moviegoers were first introduced to the seductive charm of Charlize Theron in her feature film debut, MGM's 2 Days in the Valley. Starring with James Spader, Eric Stoltz, and Jeff Daniels, it was the bizarre story of what happens to the lives of ten people in the San Fernando Valley who cross paths over 48 hours. Theron played Helga, Spader's partner and love interest, who can't get enough of the danger that surrounds her. Even among an ensemble cast, Theron gave a standout performance.

In early 1997, Theron starred in Jonathan Lynn's Trial and Error for New Line Cinema opposite Michael Richards and, 2 Days in the Valley co-star, Jeff Daniels. In the fall of the same -year, she appeared on the big screen once again co-starring with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in the Warner Brothers thriller, Devil's Advocate.

Extraordinary talent was all Tom Hanks needed to see to cast Theron in his directorial debut, That Thing You Do!. The two time Academy Award-winning actor brought this story to film from the script he authored. It told the tale of a small town rock band, "The Wonders" and the hit song that brings them fame. Theron portrayed Tina, Guy's (Tom Everett Scott) hometown girlfriend who is less than dazzled by "The Wonders" overnight success.

Theron has risen to the challenge of a variety of roles in a rather short period of time. This incredibly talented actress began her career as a model in her native South Africa. She worked extensively in fashion capitols such as Milan and Paris before coming to the U.S.

Audiences saw Theron star in Woody Allen's Celebrity for which she received rave reviews and Mighty Joe Young opposite Bill Paxton for Disney. She starred opposite Johnny Depp in New Line Cinema's The Astronaut's Wife.

Theron played Candy Kendall in the widely acclaimed and Oscar- nominated The Cider House Rules by Miramax, which was based on the novel by John Irving. The same year she starred in John Frankenheimer's Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck. Next, Theron played Adelle in Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith and Matt Damon.

Other roles include Fox 2000's Navy Diver with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding, Jr., directed by George Tillman, Jr. In 2001, Theron was seen in The Yards, directed by James Grey. The drama starred Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway. Also released in 2001, were Sweet November, 24 Hours and Miramax's Waking Up In Reno.