Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Carolyn Murphy

Carolyn Murphy was born in Panama City, Florida and grew up mainly in Northwest Florida, with brief periods in England and Maryland, as a result of her parents’ divorce. Her career began when at the age of 16, her mother enrolled her in a modeling school. Soon, she was modeling locally in Florida, as well as abroad in Japan and Paris. After graduating from Choctawhatchee High School in 1991, Murphy went to New York.

Murphy enrolled at the University of Virginia, while modeling part-time. Mario Testino shot her for French Vogue, Missoni, Et Vous, and Gucci. In 1994 she was hired for Prada and appeared in major magazines like Harpers Bazaar and Vogue. Anna Wintour had Steven Meisel shoot her for American Vogue in 1995 and he began to use her for campaigns like Dolce Gabbana, Max Mara, and Calvin Klein.

In 1998, she was named VH1/Vogue's "Model of the Year". Barry Levinson chose her for the role of "Dubbie" in his film Liberty Heights. She was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses".". and considered a muse by Calvin Klein, landing a contract for the perfume "Contradiction"with fellow Liberty Heights costar, Justin Chambers. She was offered roles in "Pearl Harbor" and many others to follow. Also in 1998, during a photo shoot for Elle magazine, the photographer noticed her resemblance to the actress Gene Tierney and Elle dubbed Murphy "The blonde Gene Tierney".

In 2001, Estee Lauder signed Murphy to an exclusive contract. Her first advertising campaign for the brand’s “Defining Beauty” began appearing in 2002. She continues to appear in the advertisements today, recently posing for Estee Lauder’s new fragrance, Sensuous. She shot campaigns for Missoni, Versace and Tiffany & Co. In 2005 she was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.


Source article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Murphy

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Mila Kunis

Milena "Mila" Kunis (Russian: Милена "Mилa" Кунис; Ukrainian: Мілена "Miлa" Куніс; born August 14, 1983; play /ˈmiːlə ˈkuːnɪs/) is an American actress. At the age of seven, she moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles, California with her family. After being enrolled in acting classes to help learn English she was soon discovered by an agent. She appeared in TV shows and commercials, before her first significant role, playing Jackie Burkhart on the TV series That '70s Show. A year later, she was cast as the voice of Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy.

Her breakout film role came in 2008, playing Rachel Jansen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Subsequent film roles included Mona Sax in Max Payne, Solara in The Book of Eli, and Jamie in Friends with Benefits. Her performance as Lily in Black Swan gained her worldwide accolades, including receiving the Premio Marcello Mastroianni for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, and nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

She has received substantial media attention for her beauty, including often landing on the "Hot 100" lists for publications such as Maxim or FHM and routinely appearing on the cover of national magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and GQ magazine. Her star status was further enhanced when she signed on to be the face of the Christian Dior Spring fashion campaign. At the age of 18, she began a relationship with actor Macaulay Culkin that lasted eight years.

 Kunis was born in Chernivtsi in the Ukrainian SSR. She is the daughter of Elvira, a physics teacher and drug store manager, and Mark, a mechanical engineer and cab company executive. Kunis has an older brother, Michael.In 1991, when she was seven years old, her family moved to Los Angeles, California. Kunis is Jewish and has cited antisemitism in the former Soviet Union as one of several reasons for her family's move to the U.S. She has stated that her parents "raised [her] Jewish as much as they could", though religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union.

On her second day in Los Angeles, Kunis was enrolled at Rosewood Elementary School not knowing a word of English. "I blocked out second grade completely. I have no recollection of it. I always talk to my mom and my grandma about it. It was because I cried every day. I didn't understand the culture. I didn't understand the people. I didn't understand the language. My first sentence of my essay to get into college was like, 'Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven.' And that's kind of what it felt like moving to the States."

In Los Angeles, she attended Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School.She was mostly taught by an on-set tutor for her high school years while filming That '70s Show. When not on the set, she attended Fairfax High School, where she graduated in 2001.She briefly attended UCLA and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer, film producer, and humanitarian. Kidman began her career in 1983, starring in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Kidman followed this with other successful films in the late 1990s. It was her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) which earned Kidman her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf the following year in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005), and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades including a subsequent Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006.Kidman's work has earned her a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor, and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents were in the United States on educational visas at the time. Kidman can thus claim both U.S. and Australian citizenship. Her father, Dr. Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Kidman's ancestry includes Scottish and Irish. At the time of Kidman's birth in 1967, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He soon after became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the War in Vietnam, which was causing social unrest in both Australia and the United States, Kidman's parents participated in anti-war protests while they were living in Washington, DC.The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her parents now live on Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, a journalist and TV presenter.

Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at three and showed her natural talent for acting in her primary and high school years. Kidman revealed she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don’t like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don’t like going to a party by myself". In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to temporarily halt her education and help provide for the family by working as a massage therapist at age 17. She studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Victoria, and at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, with actress and friend Naomi Watts who had attended the same high school as she did. This was followed by attending the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here she took up drama, mime and performing in her teens, finding acting to be a refuge. Due to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received both encouragement and praise to pursue acting full-time.


Monday, May 21, 2012

Barbara Palvin

Barbara Palvin (born 8 October 1993 in Budapest ) is a Hungarian fashion model.Palvin was born in Budapest, Hungary. At an early age, Palvin took up soccer and singing, considering them her favorite hobbies.

Palvin was discovered on the streets of Budapest in 2006 at the age of 13. She shot her first editorial that year for Spur Magazine. Palvin subsequently moved to Asia where she continued a steady stream of bookings. Since then, Palvin has been on the cover of L'Officiel, Vogue Russia, Glamour Hungary and Jalouse Magazine, and has modeled for Armani Exchange, H&M, Victoria's Secret, and Pull and Bear. In February 2012, she became an ambassador for L'Oreal Paris.

Her runway debut was as an exclusive for Prada during Milan Fashion Week in February 2010. Palvin has also walked for Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Nina Ricci, Emanuel Ungaro, Christopher Kane, Julien MacDonald, Jeremy Scott, Vivienne Westwood, Etro and opened the pre-Fall 2011 Chanel show.

Palvin is ranked 40 on the Top 50 Models Women list by models.com. Palvin is often compared to Russian model Natalia Vodianova; British Vogue editor Miranda Almond said, "We chose Barbara because she is absolutely exquisite looking a cross between a young Brooke Shields and Natalia Vodianova". Palvin credits Vodianova and Kate Moss as her favorite models.


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Liv Tyler

Liv Rundgren Tyler (born July 1, 1977) is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994 film Silent Fall. She then appeared in supporting roles in Empire Records , Heavy  and That Thing You Do! . Tyler later achieved critical recognition in the leading role in Stealing Beauty. She followed this by starring in supporting roles including Inventing the Abbotts  and Cookie's Fortune .

Tyler achieved international recognition as a result of her portrayal of Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. She has appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy Jersey Girl, the indie film Lonesome Jim, the drama Reign Over Me and big-budget studio films such as Armageddon , The Strangers  and The Incredible Hulk .

Tyler has served as a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador for the United States since 2003, and as a spokesperson for Givenchy's line of perfume and cosmetics.
Tyler was born Liv Rundgren at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She is the first-born daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate (Miss November 1974), and Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith.Her mother named her after Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5, 1977 issue of TV Guide. She is of Italian, German, Cherokee, and Russian ancestry on her father's side, and her mother is German-American Tyler has three half-siblings: Mia Tyler (born 1978), Chelsea Anna Tallarico (born 1989), and Taj Monroe Tallarico (born 1992). Her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.

At Liv's birth, Buell claimed that rock star, Todd Rundgren, was Tyler's biological father. At age eight Tyler discovered that she was Steven Tyler's daughter after meeting him and noticing a resemblance she shared with his other daughter, Mia.When she asked her mother about the similarity, the secret was revealed. The truth about Tyler's paternity did not become public until five years later in 1991, when she changed her name from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept the former as a middle name. Buell's stated reason for the initial decision was that Steven was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of her birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have developed a close relationship. They also have worked together professionally, once when she appeared in Aerosmith's music video for "Crazy" in 1993, and again when Aerosmith performed many of the songs in the film Armageddon (1998) in which Liv Tyler starred.
 
Tyler attended the Congressional Schools of Virginia, Breakwater School and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City with her mother at age 12. She went to York Preparatory in New York City for junior high and high school after her mother researched the school to accommodate Tyler's ADHD. She graduated in 1995, and left to continue her acting career. When asked about the way she spent her early life, Tyler said: "For me, I didn’t get much of a childhood in my teen years because I’ve been working since I was 14. But that also kept me out of trouble. When everybody was doing acid and partying like crazy, I was at work on a movie in Tuscany ... having my own fun, of course, but it was a different kind of thing. I have no regrets. I love the way my life has gone."

Friday, May 18, 2012

Marion Cotillard

Marion Cotillard (French pronunciation:  born 30 September 1975) is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants. She has also appeared in such films as Big Fish, A Good Year, Public Enemies, Nine, Inception, Midnight in Paris, and Contagion.

In 2007, Cotillard starred as the French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, for which she won the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the César Award and the Golden Globe Award for best actress. She made film history by becoming the first person to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. In 2010, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the musical Nine.

Cotillard was born in Paris and grew up around Orléans, Loiret in an artistically inclined, "bustling, creative household". Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, and 2006 Molière Award-winning director. Cotillard's mother, Monique (now known as Niseema) Theillaud, is also an actress and drama teacher. She has two younger twin brothers, Quentin and Guillaume. Guillaume is a screenwriter and director. She began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays.

After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in television series such as Highlander, but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s with small but noticeable roles in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument. Cotillard appeared in the comedy La belle verte, directed by Coline Serreau. In 1998, she starred in Gérard Pirès' action comedy Taxi. In the film, she plays Lili Bertineau, who becomes Daniel's girlfriend. Cotillard reprised the role in two sequels. She then ventured into anticipation science fiction with Alexandre Aja's Furia 

Cotillard appeared in Pierre Grimblat's film Lisa as Young Lisa, alongside Jeanne Moreau, Benoît Magimel and Sagamore Stévenin in the Swiss war drama In The Highlands. She starred in Gilles Paquet-Brenner's film Les jolies choses, adapted from the work of feminist writer Virginie Despentes. In the drama, Cotillard portrayed the characters of two twins of completely opposite characters, Lucie and Marie. She was nominated for a César Award for her performance. In Guillaume Nicloux's thriller Une affaire privée she portrayed Clarisse, friend of the disappeared.



Sunday, May 13, 2012

Eva Green

Eva Gaëlle Green (Swedish pronunciation: born 5 July 1980) is a French actress and model. Green performed in theatre before making her film debut in The Dreamers . She achieved greater fame for her parts in Kingdom of Heaven and the James Bond film Casino Royale , for which she won a BAFTA.

Eva Green was born in Paris, the daughter of French actress Marlène Jobert and Swedish dentist Walter Green. Green was born two minutes earlier than her sororal twin sister, Joy (Johanne). Her mother, a pied-noir, was born in Algeria. Green's mother is Jewish.Green was raised without religion;she has said "I feel like a citizen of the world. Life and cinema don't have borders.She grew up in the 17th arrondissement of Paris where she attended the American School of Paris. Green has described her family as "bourgeois", and has said that her sister is very different from her. Green is a natural dark blonde; she has dyed her hair black since she was 15 years old. French-Swedish actress Marika Green is her aunt. The 1980s pop-star Elsa Lunghini is her first cousin, through their mothers.

Green was raised in France, attended and graduated from the American University of Paris, an English-speaking institution, and also spent time between Ramsgate, London and Ireland. Green was quiet in school, and developed an interest in Egyptology when she visited the Louvre at age seven.At age 14, after seeing Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H., Green decided to become an actress. Her mother initially feared that an acting career would be too much for her sensitive daughter, but later came to support young Eva's ambitions.

Eva Green was born in Paris, the daughter of French actress Marlène Jobert and Swedish dentist Walter Green. Green was born two minutes earlier than her sororal twin sister, Joy (Johanne). Her mother, a pied-noir, was born in Algeria. Green's mother is Jewish.Green was raised without religion; she has said "I feel like a citizen of the world. Life and cinema don't have borders."She grew up in the 17th arrondissement of Paris where she attended the American School of Paris. Green has described her family as "bourgeois",and has said that her sister is very different from her. Green is a natural dark blonde; she has dyed her hair black since she was 15 years old.French-Swedish actress Marika Green is her aunt. The 1980s pop-star Elsa Lunghini is her first cousin, through their mothers.

Green was raised in France, attended and graduated from the American University of Paris, an English-speaking institution, and also spent time between Ramsgate, London and Ireland. Green was quiet in school,and developed an interest in Egyptology when she visited the Louvre at age seven.At age 14, after seeing Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H., Green decided to become an actress. Her mother initially feared that an acting career would be too much for her sensitive daughter, but later came to support young Eva's ambitions.