Monday, January 22, 2007

Anjelina Jolie







Biography for Angelina Jolie
Birth name
Angelina Jolie Voight
Nickname
Angie Catwoman Ange AJ
Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)
Mini biography
Growing up in Los Angeles, Jolie was no stranger to the film industry, being the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight. She later trained and performed at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she was seen in several stage productions.She worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles, and has also appeared in music videos for such artists as 'Meatloaf', Lenny Kravitz, Antonello Venditti and The Lemonheads. In addition, she has acted in five student films for the USC School of Cinema, all directed by her brother, James Haven.
IMDb mini-biography by

Mini biography
Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning actress who has become popular by taking on the title role in the "Lara Croft" series of blockbuster movies. Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists, and she has a personal life that is avidly covered by the tabloid press.In her earliest years Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her parents at home -- her father was the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, and her mother was Marcheline Bertrand who had studied with Lee Strasberg. At age 11 Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She undertook some film studies at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16 she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos. Her exotic good looks may derive from her mixed ancestry which is Czech, French-Canadian, Iroquois and English.In the mid-1990s Jolie appeared in various small films where she got good notices, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). Her critical acclaim increased when she played strong roles in the made-for-TV movies True Women (1997) (TV), and in George Wallace (1997) (TV) which won her a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination. Jolie's acclaim increased even further when she played the lead role in the HBO production Gia (1998) (TV). This was the true life story of supermodel Gia Carangi, a sensitive wild child who was both brazen and needy and who had a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people who were close to her. Carangi became involved with drugs and because of her needle-using habits she became at the tender age of 26 one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS. Jolie's performance in "Gia" again garnered a Golden Globe award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.Angelina got a major break in 1999 when she won a leading role in the successful feature The Bone Collector (1999), starring along side Denzel Washington. In that same year, Jolie gave a tour de force performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) playing opposite Winona Ryder. The movie was a true story of women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Jolie's role was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", the role which won Nicholson his first Oscar. Unlike "Cuckoo", "Girl" was a small film that received mixed reviews and barely made money at the box office. But when it came time to give out awards, Jolie won the triple crown -- "Girl" propelled her to win the Golden Globe, the SAG Award, and the Academy Award for best leading actress in a supporting role.With her new-found prominence, Jolie began to get in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. Jolie divorced her "Hackers" co-star Jonny Lee Miller and in 2000 she married her "Pushing Tin" co-star Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie had now become the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. At her wedding to Miller she had displayed her husband's name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. During her marriage to Thornton, the spouses each wore a vial of the other's blood around their necks. In addition, Jolie was estranged from her famous father.In 2000 Jolie was asked to star in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). At first she expressed disinterest but then decided that the required training for the athletic role was intriguing. The Croft character was drawn from a popular video game. Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When the film was released, critics were unimpressed with the final product, but critical acclaim wasn't the point of the movie. The public paid $275 million for theater tickets to see a buffed up Jolie portray the adventuresome Lara Croft.Jolie's father Jon Voight appeared in "Croft", and during filming there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter.One of the Croft movie's filming locations was Cambodia. While there, Jolie witnessed the natural beauty, culture and poverty of that country. She considered this an eye opening experience, and so began the humanitarian chapter of her life. Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world and came to be formally appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels" whose profits go to UNHCR.Jolie has stated that she now plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, to be financed by her actress salary. She devotes one third of her income to savings, one third to living expenses, and one third to charity. In 2002 Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox, and in 2005 she adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Jolie's dramatic feature film Beyond Borders (2003) parallels some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, many of the movie's images were too depressingly realistic -- the film was not popular among critics or at the box office.In 2004 Jolie began filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with co-star Brad Pitt. The film became a major box office success. Jolie's marriage to Billy Bob Thornton had come apart in 2002, and there were rumors that Pitt and Jolie had an affair while filming "Smith". Jolie insisted that because her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man, therefore there had been no affair with Pitt at that time. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from his wife Jennifer Aniston in January 2005 and in the months that followed he was frequently seen in public with Jolie, apparently as a couple. Pitt's divorce was finalized later in 2005.Jolie and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together, and Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh that May. They say they wish to adopt another child as well. The couple continues to pursue movie and humanitarian projects.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

hi

Britney Jean Spears,One of the last teenage superstars of the millennium was born on December 2, 1981 in Kentwood, LA to Jamie and Lynn. Britney has an older brother Brian and a younger Sister Jamie Lynn. At the age of 4, Britney started dancing and entering pagents in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana. Her professional career began at the age of 8 when she auditioned for the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club.
Although she was too young for the show, a producer saw her potential and helped her secure an agent in New York City where Britney spent the next three years studying dance and music at the renowned Off-Broadway Dance Center and Professional Performing Arts School. She appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions as a child actor, including Ruthless (1991). She returned to the [ Walt ] Disney Channel for a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club, where she was featured for two years between the ages of 11 and 13.
After her stint on TV, Britney returned home but she still had dreams of making it in the music industry. Armed with desires and a powerful voice, Britney went back to New York when she was 15 and began to make the rounds of record labels. She sang accapella for executives at Jive Records who saw and heard right away that in the teenager, there were the makings of a star. Britney was signed soon after her audition and began work thereafter on what would become Baby One More Time.
Perhaps even more importantly than the accolades and the sales figures, Britney has become an icon to millions of fans worldwide and her infectious brand of pop/R&B has become the template for girl pop. At her young age, Britney Spears still enjoys being a girl. She loves colors that pop and shopping till you drop, romance novels and idyllic days at the beach.