Penelope Cruz

"The most important lesson I've learned in this business is how to say no. I have said no to a lot of temptations, and I am glad I did." -Penelope Cruz

biography

Penelope Cruz Sanchez was born in Madrid, Spain, on April, 28, 1974. Raised along with brother Eduardo and sister Monica, Penelope was always fond of the arts, particularly ballet and jazz dancing. Her passion for dance led to her decision to abandon traditional schooling, focusing her time and energy instead on the graceful art of classical ballet.

"Pe," as she is nicknamed, may not have her high school diploma, but she is very much educated. Before making the transition to acting, Penelope had completed nine years of classical ballet training, three years of Spanish ballet training and four years of theater at Cristina Rota's New York school.

penelope cruz in belle epoque
Penelope Cruz's big break in Spanish film came in 1992's Jamon, jamon. 1992 also witnessed her first foray onto international screens, with her role in Belle epoque -- a massive success that garnered eight Goya Awards (Spanish Oscars), as well as an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It was with Belle epoque that Penelope's star power received its first worldwide exposure.

penelope breaks into american films
After starring in other Spanish films such as Alegre ma non troppo (1994) and La Celestina (1996), Penelope resurfaced in America again in Abre los ojos (a.k.a. Open Your Eyes), which screened at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Penelope took on a few English-language films in the late '90s, but it was a production from her native land that finally launched her into the spotlight.

Pedro Almodvar's Todo sobre mi madre (1999) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, then went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Penelope stood out in this project as a pregnant nun, and shortly thereafter made her American film debut with Woman on Top (2000).

Next, Penelope starred alongside Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses (2000). This movie flopped, but that didn't hinder Penelope's rise to fame.

penelope in blow and vanilla sky
2001's Blow, starring Johnny Depp, wasn't a commercial hit, but both projects gave Penelope the visibility she needed at the time. It was her role in Vanilla Sky that same year that catapulted her into the spotlight.

Vanilla Sky was an American adaptation of 1997's Abre los ojos, and while Penelope played the same character, Tom Cruise replaced the Spanish leading man. By the time the film was released, word had spread that Tom and Penelope were an item, hot off the heels of Tom's separation from Nicole Kidman.

penelope cruz in gothika and sahara
2003 saw Penelope alongside Halle Berry in Gothika and a host of talent that should have known better in Bob Dylan's vanity-disaster, Masked and Anonymous.

In 2004, Penelope took on roles in Chazz Palminteri's Noel and with Charlize Theron in Head in the Clouds. She was also cast opposite Matthew McConaughey (one of her many costars-turned-boyfriends) in Sahara (2005).

In 2005, she added Chromophobia, Bandidas (with Salma Hayek) and Tu vida en 65 minutos to her resume. She was also cast in Pedro Almodvar's Volver (2006) which won her a Golden Globe nomination.

Penelope cruz's charities
Extremely active in social causes, Penelope has volunteered for NGOs overseas and donated her proceedings from certain films to charities. She also likes to keep stray cats.

Alicia Silverstone

Alicia (pronounced Uh-liss-ee-uh) Silverstone was born on October 4, 1976 in San Francisco, California. The daughter of Monty, a real estate investor and financial consultant, and Didi, a former airline stewardess, Silverstone traveled to England with her family during summer vacations to visit relatives.

Silverstone's time in the spotlight began as a model at the age of 6, after her father began taking pictures of her to submit to modeling agencies. Although her heart was really in acting, Silverstone landed several modeling gigs for companies such as Levi's Dockers and Marshalls. The modeling jobs led to television commercials -- such as a spot in a Domino's Pizza ad -- which eventually led to appearances on sitcoms, most notably as a "dream girl" in The Wonder Years in 1992.

alicia silverstone in the crush

In 1993, Alicia Silverstone finally landed her first starring role in a feature film, entitled The Crush. Playing a teenager obsessed with an older man, Silverstone refused to pose nude in the film and a body double was hired for "behind" shots. Actually, Silverstone refuses to pose nude to this day. The film -- dubbed a Fatal Attraction for teenagers -- was a hit and earned Silverstone MTV Movie Awards for Best Villain and Best Breakthrough Performance in 1994. A couple of made-for-TV movies followed, namely Torch Song and Scattered Dreams, which were both released in 1993.

alicia silverstone is the aerosmith chick

Marty Callner, the director of the Aerosmith videos, caught Silverstone's performance in The Crush and knew she would be perfect for the Aerosmith video "Cryin'." This was to be the first of a now famous trilogy of Aerosmith videos, as Silverstone was also cast in those for "Crazy" and "Amazing" (co-starring Steven Tyler's daughter, Liv Tyler). When "Cryin'" was released, it was voted the No. 1 video of all time on MTV.

alicia silverstone stars in clueless

Before hitting it big with the sleeper hit of 1995, Clueless, Silverstone worked on three other films that were released in 1995: Hideaway, The Babysitter and Le Nouveau Monde. But it was Silverstone's role as spoiled rich girl Cher Horowitz in Clueless that launched her career.

This movie, a '90s version of Emma, earned Silverstone many awards, including the American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture, The National Board of Review of Motion Picture Award for Best Breakthrough Performer, the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Female Newcomer, as well as the MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female. In 1996, Alicia appeared in True Crime.

After the success of Clueless, Barry Josephson of Columbia Pictures signed Silverstone to a $10 million three-picture deal, the first of which was Excess Baggage (1997). Silverstone not only starred in the film, but it was also the first film produced by her company, First Kiss Productions. Unfortunately, Excess Baggage did not enjoy the same box-office numbers as Clueless.

alicia silverstone does batman & robin

Silverstone's next film role was as Batgirl in Batman & Robin (1997), the fourth release of the Batman series. Batman & Robin did, on the other hand, attract moviegoers. In 1999, things started to pick up for Silverstone, as her role in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past was more impressive and reminiscent of the Silverstone audiences saw in Clueless.

Silverstone was next seen in the summer release Love's Labour's Lost (2000), directed by Kenneth Branagh (whom she was rumored to have been dating; Alicia denies the rumors). She took lessons for her part in the musical adaptation of the William Shakespeare play.

In 2001, she produced the animated family television series Braceface, a project to which she also lent her voice. Then she starred in Rock My World (2002) and the crime comedy Scorched (2003), alongside Rachael Leigh Cook and Woody Harrelson. In the meantime, Alicia proved she could do theater work by touring North America in 2002 with a production of The Graduate, sharing the stage with Kathleen Turner and Jason Biggs.

alicia silverstone in miss match

Seemingly out of the spotlight for a while, she made a comeback in the fall of 2003 with a starring role in the NBC series Miss Match, earning her a Golden Globe nomination. Although the show won a lot of acclaim, it was canceled after only one season. Recently, she padded her resume with Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Silence Becomes You (2004), Beauty Shop (2005), and she acted alongside Ewan McGregor in 2006's Stormbreaker.

The owner of many dogs, Silverstone is actively involved with several animal rights groups, such as The Ark Trust and PETA.


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Kate Winslet

Kate Elizabeth Winslet, born 5 October 1975, is a BAFTA Award-winning English actress. She is noted for having played a wide range of diverse characters over her career. Though her best known role may be that of Rose DeWitt Bukater in the highest-grossing film of all time, Titanic (1997), she was also highly regarded for her first role as Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures (1994).

Although Winslet has not won an Academy Award, she has been highly favoured by the Academy, and holds two records in that area: the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, and the most Oscar nominations of any actor before the age of 30 (having received a total of four nominations by that age). In addition, there have been only two occasions where two actors playing the same character in the same film have both been nominated for an Oscar; Winslet was a nominee in both instances (for "Titanic" and "Iris").

On November 22, 1998, Winslet married director Jim Threapleton. The two have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on October 12, 2000. After a divorce in 2001, Winslet began a relationship with director Sam Mendes, whom she married on May 24, 2003, on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie, was born on December 22, 2003.

The media, particularly in England, have enthusiastically documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to lose weight in order to conform to the Hollywood ideal. In February 2003, the British edition of GQ magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally enhanced to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent.

She has exceptionally big feet which she claims to have inherited from her mother. (She was bullied and teased about them as a child, as well as for being obese). Her feet are so big in fact (size US 11, although she is only 5'6" 1/2 tall) that she mostly wears heavy-duty men's workboots. She claims she likes wearing them since they make her feel as though her feet are "firmly on the ground".

"Demanded" the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, insisting to director James Cameron, "I am Rose. I don't even know why you're seeing anyone else!"

Is good friends with actress Emma Thompson and has been since they filmed Sense and Sensibility together. Thompson said that if Winslet slimmed herself down to movie-star shape, Thompson would never speak to her again.
Winslet has earned four Oscar nominations and four Golden Globe nominations, as well as one BAFTA Award and three further BAFTA nominations. Premiere Magazine named her performance as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the 81st greatest film performance of all time.

She has also received numerous awards and nominations from other organizations, including the Screen Actors Guild and the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Winslet won the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association (LAFCA) award for Best Supporting Actress for Iris. For Holy Smoke!, she was Best Actress runner-up at both the New York Film Critics' Circle (NYFCC) and the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC). Winslet was also NYFCC's Best Actress runner-up for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

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Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez (born July 24, 1969), commonly nicknamed J-Lo or J.Lo., is a well-known American actress, pop/latin/R&B singer, fashion designer, and dancer who is currently married to singer Marc Anthony.

Jennifer Lopez (born July 24, 1969), commonly nicknamed J-Lo or J.Lo., is a well-known American actress, pop/latin/R&B singer, fashion designer, and dancer who is currently married to singer Marc Anthony.

Angelina Jolie

Biography
Born June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, Angelina Jolie Voight is one of the 'in' women in Hollywood. Jolie meaning "pretty little girl" in French, catapulted from being model daughter of a famous acting pair Mircheline Bertrand and Jon Voight, to a top billed actress winning three Golden Globes and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film "Girl ,Interrupted".
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She is Extraordinary not only for her exotic looks but also for her first screen debut the age of five with her father. At the age of 11, she began studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. At the age of 16, she started to work as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles and appearing in music videos for the likes of Meatloaf, the Lemonheads, Lenny Kravitz and the Rolling Stones. However her love for acting and theatre brought her back to New York where she followed film studies before moving to Los Angeles to study acting in a more formalized setting at the Met Theatre Group amongst esteemed actors such as Ed Harris and Holly Hunter. Films like "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "Alexander" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" make big headlines in 2004-2005 and remind us why we love Angelina. During filming of the latter she met actor Brad Pitt and the two started dating. It was rumored that they finally tied the knot in November 2005 with a secret Buddhist ceremony; Angelina is a devout Buddhist. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are now proud parents of baby girl Shiloh .

Jolie has also been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees since 2001. She is very committed in helping others and frequently travels to Third World countries in order to bring media attention to the problems of the Third World.

Eva Mendes

Biography
Mendes was born in Miami, Florida (although many sources incorrectly state her birthplace is Houston, Texas) and was raised in Los Angeles. She attended California State University, Northridge but dropped out to seek a career acting. She worked her way up through commercials to music videos to guest roles in TV series to supporting film roles. While she has not had any lead roles, she has received attention in the supporting roles she has played. Mendes has worked in interior design and written children's books.

More:
Dropping out of school soon after being randomly discovered by an agent, Mendes appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. Working against typecasting despite her teen horror resumé, Mendes next took roles in Exit Wounds, Training Day, and All About the Benjamins. Mendes next began work on a children's book titled Crazy Leggs Beshee in which she wanted to introduce art, history, vocabulary, and values to children in a fun and easily comprehendable medium.

In 2003, Mendes' career took off, with the actress taking on large roles in an ecclectic quartet of high-profile films. In 2 Fast 2 Furious she played a customs agent working with Paul Walker to bring down a Miami drug cartel. Out of Time found her reteaming with Training Day costar Denzel Washington. Flexing her comedic chops, Mendes was the love interest of half a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You. And in Once Upon a Time in Mexico she played another government agent, this time opposite Johnny Depp.

Kim Kardashian

Birthday: October 21, 1980 (age 27)

Bio
Kim Kardashian stars on Keeping up with the Kardashians. The Hollywood socialite had sex with Ray J on tape and, well, sticks out her rear end a lot. That's the extent of her talent. She's a former close friend of Paris Hilton and girlfriend of Nick Cannon.


As 2007 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect and pay tribute to the stars who made this a year to remember. On that note, The Hollywood Gossip is announcing its 10 finalists for its first annual Celebrity of the Year award.

They’ve given us their best, their worst and, in a more than a few cases, their naked pictures. Now it is time for us to give a little something back with this special feature, because without these celebrities, we are nothing.

We previously profiled promiscuous drug addict Lindsay Lohan at #3. Now, without further delay, we present Celebrity of the Year finalist #2 … Kim Kardashian!

In 2007, Kardashian proved just how far a giant pair of boobs, large rear end and penchant for the spotlight can take a young lady born into millions of dollars.