The Celebrity Face

Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released three comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed, Retaliation, and Rough around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garden. Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album in 28 years and went double platinum. Cook performed an HBO special in the Fall of 2006, Vicious Circle, and has made numerous television appearances. As an actor, Cook has appeared in fifteen films since 1997, including Mystery Men, the 2005 film Waiting…, and starred in the 2006 comedy Employee of the Month and the 2007 comedy Good Luck Chuck. He also appeared in the 2007 thriller Mr. Brooks, which was a departure from his standard comedic roles. Cook recently had a supporting role in the 2007 film Dan in Real Life.

Early life

Dane Cook was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of George Cook (who now works at a golf course but at different times managed and ran a lumber yard, a window business and a rock club in Cambridge) and Donna Cook, a homemaker.

Cook grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb in an Irish Catholic family. He is the second youngest of seven siblings; he has a younger sister, one older brother and four older sisters. He attended Arlington High School, where he starred in the school production of Grease. In high school, Cook was very introverted and to help break through his shell, he took up drama and eventually fell in love with improvisation and sketch comedy.

As a teenager, Cook became interested in comedy when his father, former radio personality George Cook, gave him a tape recorder and microphone. Later, he would learn what it meant to be a stand-up comedian. He was enthralled with comedians who were not afraid to sweat on stage—Richard Pryor and Robin Williams—and was equally taken by those like Steven Wright and Bob Newhart, who could ignite a crowd while standing in one place for an hour.

Cook graduated in 1990 and began doing comedy that same year. Cook started comedy by being part of a three-man improv troupe called Al and the Monkeys with Robert Kelly and Al Del Bene. The troupe toured together for four years before disbanding. As he tells it, Cook’s comedy did not grow from pain or a need to fill some emotional void, but for simply the fun of entertaining

Stand-Up

Cook’s first comedy performance was at an open microphone night at Catch A Rising Star that was M.C’d by David Cross. Originally Cook went to watch the show but when he found out that a man by the name of Ernest Glenn didn’t show up for his set, Cook went onstage under the name Ernest Glenn. Afterwards Cook spent the next several years honing his act in local comedy clubs as well as performing in bars, laundromats, and Chinese restaurants. For the first five years of his career, Cook honed his act in Boston while living at home with his parents.

In 1995, Cook moved out of his parent’s basement to New York City and began performing in earnest. He also spent that time working the Comedy Club and College circuits. Two years later, he shuffled 3,000 miles west to Los Angeles, where he still lives today.

Cook’s big comedy break came in 1998 when he appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. This started a relationship between Cook and Comedy Central that has lasted many years. In 2000, Cook did a half-hour special on Comedy Central Presents. Since then his special has won the Comedy Central Stand-up showdown twice in a row.

In 2003, Cook released his first CD/DVD entitled Harmful If Swallowed. The success of the album landed him a record contract with Comedy Central Records. The album is certified platinum. He released his second CD/DVD in 2005, entitled Retaliation. This album went double platinum and made Cook the first comic in 29 years to have an album at #4 on the Billboard charts. This earned him a place alongside best-selling comedy vets Bill Cosby, George Carlin, and Steve Martin.

The success of the album also landed him a comedy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and then afterwards he joined Snoop Dogg (who introduced him) in presenting the award for Best New Artist.

On April 15, 2005 Cook performed his first HBO Special entitled Vicious Circle filmed "in the round" at the TD Banknorth Garden. The same year Cook shot two pilot episodes for his own sitcom, Cooked. The sitcom never got picked up and the two pilot episodes were later released on DVD as the Lost Pilot Episodes. That same year he embarked on a 30-day 20-show college tour called Tourgasm with his long time friends Robert Kelly, Gary Gulman, and Jay Davis. The tour was filmed and was later made into a 9-episode documentary on HBO.

On December 3, 2005, Cook hosted Saturday Night Live. He performed the longest monologue in the show’s history and it was one of the highest-rated SNLs of the season". He would then go on to host the premiere of season 32 of SNL a year later.

In 2006 Cook headlined for Dave Attell’s Insomniac Tour and hosted the 2006 Teen Choice Awards alongside Jessica Simpson. The following year he won the award for Best Comedian. On November 12, Cook became the second comic to sell out Madison Square Garden. He did two sold out shows in one night. The show was filmed and would later be put onto a DVD to be sold on Cook’s third comedy album.

Cook won the Big Entertainer Award at the VH1 Big in ‘06 Awards, and Rolling Stone magazine’s Hot Comic of the Year.

On November 13, 2007, Cook released his third CD/DVD entitled Rough around the Edges. The Album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. During that time, he embarked on a tour of the same name. This was Cook’s first arena tour.

On April 10, 2007, Cook broke The Laugh Factory endurance record (previously held by Richard Pryor) by performing on stage for 3 hours and 50 minutes. Dave Chappelle would break the record five days later. On January 1, 2008, Cook again broke the club’s endurance record, by performing on stage for 7 hours

From May 23, 2008 to May 25, 2008 Cook renuited with Robert Kelly and Al Del Bene for 3 shows at The Coliseum in Caesars Palace. Then, from May 29, 2008 to June 4, 2008, the Trio went to Iraq to perform for the troops. During all of these shows Bene was the Emcee, Kelly was the Feature, and Cook was the Headliner.

Film

On October 6, 2006 Cook starred in his first leading role as the slacker boxboy Zach Bradley in Employee of the Month His co-stars were Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard. Following its release, the film became the #1 most requested movie on AOL. Despite the poor critical response, the film managed open to nearly $12 million in its opening weekend, debuting at #4 just behind Open Season.."

On June 1, 2007, Cook co-starred in his first dramatic role as the devious photographer Mr. Smith in Mr. Brooks along with Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, and William Hurt.

On September 21, 2007, Cook starred as the dentist Charlie Logan in the release of Good Luck Chuck. with Jessica Alba and Dan Fogler. Critics viewed the film unfavorably, but it went on to gross over $55,000,000 worldwide as of January 17, 2008. It debuted as the #1 comedy in the US that week (#2 overall, behind Resident Evil). The Good Luck Chuck DVD sold over 210,000 copies in its first day of release (January 15, 2008).

On October 26, 2007, Cook co-starred as the cocky Mitch Burns in the release of Dan in Real Life along with Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. The film grossed $11.8 million in 1,921 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office. As of December 26, 2007, it had grossed $46 million.

On September 19, 2008, Cook will star as ‘Tank’ in the movie My Best Friend’s Girl with Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, and Alec Baldwin.

Style

Dane Cook’s style is principally energetic physical comedy. He combines observational humor and wordplay with a casual attitude. Cook says his onstage persona is a combination of the personalities of his mom, Donna , and his dad, George, “My mother is like a Looney Tunes cartoon. She’s wiggly,” Dane says. “She has the ability to tongue in cheek a lot, and do it in a way where she’s being physical. My dad is the polar opposite. He always had a little ‘what the fuck’ in his voice. Even if he knew nothing about what he was talking about, he could sell it. So I looked at these two extremely funny people and created a style of comedy from absorbing their actions."

His routines focus on his childhood, and his plans for the future, such as his "dream home". He will sometimes deliver jokes in the form of over-the-top rants with increasingly erratic body motions, pacing, waving, and jumping.

He explains that:
“ I wanted to create a stage persona for myself that allowed me to really speak about anything I want… So I can be a storyteller, I can be jokey, I can be corny, I can be a little vulgar, I can be a lot vulgar. And I’m not afraid to go anywhere to get the point of the joke across, even if I have to just blabber like an idiot until it becomes apparent that I’m telling a joke and that the audience should laugh. ”

Cook has also popularized what he calls the SUperFInger:
“ One night I did a bit on stage about 5 years ago at the Laugh Factory. I was talking about how the finger is lame now and it’s lost its pizazz. I said I wanted to upgrade the finger and so from now on people should use both the ring finger coupled with the middle finger. I called it the SUperFInger (or SU-FI) ”

In 2005, Cook started his own company to produce his albums and videos, which he named SUperFInger Entertainment.

Material

Numerous commentators have characterized Dane Cook’s humor as unfunny, banal, and lacking jokes. Comedian Ron White has criticized Dane Cook for his lack of real material and for his inflated ego; saying "(He) does not make me laugh, at all, in any way, shape or form." When asked about his opinion of Cook on The Howard Stern Show, comedian Nick DiPaolo said “he doesn’t make me laugh, but that doesn’t mean he’s not funny.” Andy Kindler, who has gone so far as to ridicule the purported unsophistication of Cook’s material on the Late Show with David Letterman, points out that much of Cook’s writing employs speculative premises, portrayed as axiomatic, resulting in observations that possess only the pretense of insight.

Delivery

Andy Kindler, known in industry circles for his exposing of common hack techniques and his derision of those who use them, often publicly criticizes and mocks Cook’s stage mannerisms in an effort to show such delivery to be devoid of significant style or development, constituting little more than a union of excessive pacing and exaggerated enunciation. A deliberate apparatus, Kindler propounds, used to impose a tone of frenzy on material that would otherwise reveal itself banal.

Plagiarism

After the release of his CD/DVD Retaliation, similarities were noticed between Cook’s work and material recorded on Louis C.K.’s 2001 album Live in Houston. The bits in question are Louis C.K.’s "Itchy Asshole", "Guy on a Bike", and "Naming Kids". In 2005, Dane Cook performed and released three similar routines on Retaliation. These are "Itchy Asshole", "Struck by a Vehicle," and "My Son Optimus Prime", respectively.

In 2005, on the message boards of comedy web site ‘A Special Thing’, C.K. posted a response to his fans who accused Cook of plagiarizing from him writing "Okay, this kid is stealing from me. And making lots of money. Three bits on one CD." Later, C.K. wrote "Just so you know, guys, I’m not going to do anything about this…. I’m not going to court over a bit called ‘Itchy Asshole.’" In an interview on the Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show in February 2007, C.K. stated that while the jokes are similar, the issue was "overblown" and may stem from a backlash against Cook’s popularity. However, C.K. accused Cook of being "bullyish" and litigious towards comedians for having similar material to his despite Cook claiming elsewhere that comedians often have similar material and it is not a big issue to him. C.K. also stated "Too bad the guy [Cook] can’t write enough." After pressure by the hosts for a statement, C.K. ended the interview by finally adding (possibly as a joke): "Fuck Dane Cook, he’s a cunt."

Comedian Joe Rogan has spoken on many occasions about Cook performing a bit on an episode of Premium Blend that Rogan had developed on I’m Gonna Be Dead Someday (sketch titled "Tigers Fucking"), and claims to have performed the routine earlier in clubs with Cook present.

Rob Sheffield criticized Dane Cook’s material in a Rolling Stone article from October 2006, claiming a joke he performed was originally done by Emo Philips.

Jim Breuer talked about Dane Cook’s reputation within the comedy industry, saying: "Everyone kills this guy… Not one comedian comes on (my Sirius radio show) and says `I’m so happy for him,’ which is weird. … They can’t stand this poor guy." He went on to explain that a lot of comedians "are upset because they really feel this guy has snatched a lot of material".

Yuk-Yuks controversy

On July 24, 2006, Cook asked for a guest spot at the Vancouver Yuk-Yuks comedy club. Initially he was set to go up at the end of the night, but upon arriving at the club he requested to go up before the headliner, Peter Kelamis. Cook went over his allotted time, and after several minutes of the "wrap it up" light flashing, the club cut his microphone and attempted to "play him off" with music. Cook acted as though it was a mistake and continued his set for another five minutes until the process was repeated. Cook then dropped the mic and walked off-stage, furious, and was heard screaming obscenities at club employees backstage. Kelamis then refused to take the stage, and later referred to Cook’s actions as "the most arrogant thing that I’ve ever seen in my life".

Mark Breslin, the founder of the comedy club chain, quickly apologized and blamed the club’s manager. Breslin stated in support of Cook, "I’m on Dane’s side totally, 100 percent." Breslin also explained that Kelamis was the last show that evening and there was no reason he could not have gone on late, stating "the tradition is that stardom trumps everything".

Other Behaviour

Cook is rumored to have been tossed out a ‘Smith & Wollensky’s Steakhouse’ after being "difficult". According to an employee: "His assistant ordered for him. He got a steak and sent it back three times… The chef was furious. Eventually we told him enough is enough." It is also rumored that during the tapings of Cook’s "World Series" commercial for TBS, which he did for free, he behaved rudely on set and "demanded blocks of tickets for postseason games in return for filming the commercials for free".

"Unfunniest Comic"

"Unfunniest Comic"In April, 2008 after a "March Madness" patterned tournament, Boston radio station WBCN DJs Fred Toucher and Rich Shirtenlieb named Cook "The Unfunniest Comic". Toucher explained Cook won the dubious honor because "he’s actually hated. People don’t hate others the way they do him. At least Foxworthy panders to rednecks. Dane’s stories are so weak you wouldn’t want to hear them over lunch."

Eviction Proceedings

In July, 2008, Dane Cook’s landlord began legal proceedings to have him and his girlfriend evicted from their apartment building after numerous complaints from their neighbours that they were letting Cook’s dog defecate in the common areas of the complex and not cleaning it up. The landlord claims that several warnings to the couple apparently went ignored, and that the dog continues to use the apartments’ common areas as a bathroom.

Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is an English actress. She is known for her roles in Mulholland Drive, the film remakes of The Ring, King Kong, Funny Games and her Academy Award-nominated role in the film 21 Grams.

Early life

Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, the daughter of Myfannwy "Miv" (née Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts, a road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd (her father’s manic laugh and mother’s comment about "cruisin’ for a bruisin’" are featured in Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon). Watts is pictured, in her mother’s arms, with her father, brother, Pink Floyd, and other crew members, in the hardback edition of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’ autobiography of the band Inside Out.

Watts has one brother, Ben Watts, a year older and now a photographer in the United States (she confessed that they fought like cats and dogs as children).

Watts’ parents separated when she was four years old, and when she was seven, her father died. Following her father’s death, her mother relocated the family to Llanfawr Farm, on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales, where they lived with Watts’ maternal grandparents, Nikki and Hugh Roberts.

Watts described her mother as a hippie "with passive-aggressive tendencies" and no money, who used to threaten to send her and her brother to foster care in order to get her parents to provide for them. Although her mother occasionally moved the family around Wales and England, usually to follow boyfriends, she always ended up returning to Llangefni. Watts lived there until she was 14. The family moved to Sydney in 1982. Her grandmother was Australian, which made it easier to obtain the documentation necessary, since Naomi and her family were entitled to Australian citizenship. Of her nationality, she has said, "I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and Wales and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot". But she has also clarified that she feels very much Australian after having lived there for many years and said, "I consider myself very Australian and very connected to Australia, in fact when people say where is home, I say Australia, because those are my most powerful memories."

In Sydney, Watts attended several acting schools, including North Sydney Girls High School, where her classmates included Nicole Kidman, with whom she is still close. In 1986 she took a break from acting and went to Japan to work as a model, but the experience, which lasted for about four months, was fruitless as Watts did not have the physical requirements for a professional runway model and could only hope to be working in promotions, which did not excite her. Watts describes it as one of the worst periods of her life. Upon returning to Australia, she went to work for a local department store and from there she went to work as assistant fashion editor with an Australian fashion magazine. A casual invitation to participate in a drama workshop rekindled her passion for acting, and prompted her to quit her job and dedicate herself to succeeding as an actress.

Career

Watts’ career began in Australian television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the melodramas Home and Away and Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..!. She was featured in a supporting role in the acclaimed 1991 Australian indie film Flirting, which starred future Hollywood up-and-comers Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton. As Watts made the transition from Australia to the United States, she landed a supporting role in the cult 1995 film Tank Girl, playing the part of "Jet Girl".

Finding quality roles in the Hollywood system at first proved difficult for Watts. She appeared in the short-lived series Sleepwalkers and numerous B-list productions such as films like Children of the Corn IV. Gradually, Watts garnered supporting roles in films such as Dangerous Beauty. In 2001 Naomi starred in The Shaft directed by Dick Maas which earned nothing but rotten tomatoes.

In 2001, Watts starred in David Lynch’s highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film, which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, won her the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the year.

Watts worked with director/screenwriter Scott Coffey on Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, where Watts had her breakout performance. Her next film, the semi-autobiographical Ellie Parker, grew out of the friendship forged between Watts and Coffey. In 2002, she starred in one of the biggest box office hits of that year, the English language remake of the Japanese horror film The Ring. The following year, she starred in the film Ned Kelly opposite Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush; as well as the Merchant-Ivory film Le Divorce with Kate Hudson. Her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress.

She produced and starred in the well-received independent film We Don’t Live Here Anymore. She reunited with Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman in David O. Russell’s ensemble comedy I ♥ Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the Ring, The Ring Two. She then starred in the much-anticipated remake of King Kong (2005). The role, which was immortalized by Fay Wray in the original film, proved to be Watts’ most commercially successful film yet. Helmed by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the film won high praise and grossed $550 million worldwide.

Watts starred in The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber, released in December 2006. She has since finished the films Funny Games (a remake of the homonymous Austrian movie by director Michael Haneke) with Tim Roth and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen.

The press has labeled her the "queen of remakes" because she has starred in so many remakes, and she is scheduled to star in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). Watts will only state that there have been "discussions" about the "The Birds" remake.

In May 2006, Watts was named a special representative to the U.N. program for HIV/AIDS.

On July 24, 2007, The Courier-Mail reported that Naomi Watts had been cast as Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with Stuart Townsend and Joseph Fiennes, the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), also being cast in unspecified roles. On the next day, representatives of Watts, Townsend and Fiennes said that the rumors were not true.

Personal life

Watts previously dated director Daniel Kirby, playwright Jeff Smeenge, director Stephen Hopkins and Heath Ledger, her co-star in the film Ned Kelly. Since spring 2005, Watts has dated actor Liev Schreiber. The couple’s son, Alexander Pete, was born on July 25, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Watts is a close friend of Benicio del Toro, with whom she co-starred in 21 Grams. After filming The Painted Veil, she became attracted to Buddhism, claiming, "I have some belief but I am not a strict Buddhist or anything yet. There was a lot of excitement and energy there".

Watts is expecting her second child to Liev Schreiber. Watts is friends with actress Isla Fisher. Naomi claims that she wanted to become an actress since watching the film Fame.

Naomi Watts Interview:

GRAHAM FULLER: Are we from the same English town? I’m from Shoreham in Sussex.

NAOMI WATTS: (laughs) I’m from Shoreham in Kent.

GF: The next county along - close enough.

NW: I lived there until I was eight. My father worked as a sound engineer for Pink Floyd so there was a lot of that rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle; I hardly ever saw him. My mum raised my brother Ben (Watts, who photographed Naomi for this story) and me on her own because she split with my dad when I was four. She had no money, so we lived with her parents and her sisters. There are a lot of strong-willed matriarchs in my family. I’m the youngest woman and the shyest of them all. Mum had a series of bad boyfriends, and we moved around with them. There was talk of my mother and father reuniting at one time, but he died when I was about nine and it freaked my mum out. I think she felt she couldn’t bring us up alone and she passive-aggressively threatened my grandparents, saying she would send us to a foster home, so that they would take care of us, which they did.

GF: Where did they live?

NW: They had moved to northeast Wales and we went to live there with them. We took Welsh lessons in a school in the middle of nowhere while everyone else was taking English. Wherever we moved, I would adapt and pick up the regional accent. It’s obviously significant now, my being an actress. Anyway, there was quite a lot of sadness in my childhood, but no lack of love. My mum is a very demonstrative, loving person, but she’s had a really hard life.

GF: Did she remarry?

NW: yes. Then she went on holiday to Australia and felt it was the land of opportunity, so we all emigrated. I was uprooted again, this time to a whole new culture, one that took me a long time to fit into. At school, I hung out with the dorks because I knew they would accept me. It took me a while to find my way to the cool group.

GF: When did you start acting?

NW: Mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I’d been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up. Then I started taking more serious classes. I’d had the desire to act even back in Shoreham.

GF: Do you think it was related somehow to your father’s absence?

NW: Maybe I was lacking some kind of support and needed to be accepted or appreciated. My father had not only left the family, but he’d died, so perhaps as a child I felt doubly abandoned.

GF: Flirting (1991) was the film that got you noticed, right? Along with Nicole Kidman, Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor.

NW: Yeah, though I’d had other parts here and there. I’d taken a break from acting because I’d had a terrible experience modeling in Japan and I swore I’d never be in front of any camera again. Back in Sydney I got a great job producing fashion shoots for a big department store when I was 19. Then I was poached by Follow Me, and Alternative fashion magazine to Vogue. A friend I’d done acting classes with begged me to come to a weekend workshop. I resisted at first, but I did it and had a great time. That was it. On the Monday morning I quit my job and told them I had to follow my dream. Two weeks later I ran into (director) John Duigan at the premiere of Dead Calm (1989). We got to talking and I told him I was an actress and he said I should audition for Flirting. I thought, This could be one of those bullshit lines you hear at a party. But I called, auditioned and got a part. After that I was offered a role in a soap called A Country Practice, but I turned it down.

GF: Why?

NW: Naivete. I felt I didn’t want to get stuck on a soap for two or three years. Everyone thought I was mad. I probably should have done it, but it doesn’t make any difference. Eventually I got a few more high-profile jobs and then I came to Hollywood - again naively.

original and continue

Olivia Munn (born July 2, 1982) is an American actress, model and television personality. She began her career being credited as Lisa Munn. However, since 2006, she has been using the name Olivia Munn professionally. Also since 2006, Munn has been one of the faces of the cable network G4, hosting a number of shows for the network, the most prominent being Attack of the Show!, with co-host Kevin Pereira.

Early life

Lisa Olivia Munn was born in Oklahoma to mother Kim Munn and father Sam Munn. She is of Chinese descent on her mother’s side and of Caucasian descent on her father’s. When Munn was two, her mother re-married to a man in the Air Force. Although the family relocated many times, Munn was predominantly raised in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan, where the military assigned her stepfather. During this time, she had appeared in a number of local theater productions, and later became a model within the Japanese fashion industry.

Munn moved back to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career. In 2004, she interned at Fox Sports Net and worked as a sideline reporter for college football and women’s basketball. She has gone on to say that she disliked the experience, explaining "I was trying to be something I wasn’t, and that made me really uncomfortable on live TV." Munn had also gained a small role in the straight to video horror film Scarecrow Gone Wild. She also stars in the music video Hello Tomorrow by the band Zebrahead.

In late 2005, Munn began her portrayal of Milly Acuna, a teen surfer, over two seasons of the TV drama Beyond the Break on The N network. She enjoys surfing and continues to practice the sport. She originally auditioned for the part of Kai, but the producers wanted a "local girl". She also appeared in the film The Road to Canyon Lake.

Attack of the Show!

In 2006, Munn moved on to the G4 network, where she began co-hosting Attack of the Show! with Kevin Pereira on April 10, 2006. She was replacement for host Sarah Lane, who left the show along with Brendan Moran to get married. The network, devoted to the world of video games and the video game lifestyle, was at first hesitant to hire Munn. Although she admits video games were her "weak point", she was confident in her technical knowledge. On the show, Munn is featured with journalist Anna David in a segment of the program called "In Your Pants", which deals with sex and relationship questions from viewers. While working on Attack of the Show!, Munn hosted Formula D, a now defunct program about American drift racing, and an online podcast called Around the Net (formerly known as The Daily Nut), for G4.

Munn is a successful model and has booked campaigns for Nike, Pepsi and Neutrogena. She appeared on Fall 2006 cover of Foam magazine in September, and Men’s Edge magazine in August, and was featured in a pictorial in Complex magazine in November 2006. In February 2007, she appeared as "Babe of the Month" in a non-nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Munn also appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Men’s Health magazine. In September 2007, she was featured in the magazine, Italian Vanity Fair for their "Hot Young Hollywood" Issue.

Munn will make her debut in a large Hollywood film in the upcoming Rob Schneider movie Big Stan. She will play Schneider’s character’s receptionist Maria. Munn also has a significant role in the 2008 horror film Insanitarium, in which she plays a nurse at an insane asylum.

Personal

She once dated actor Bryan Greenberg.

Olivia Munn Interview:

LAist: So Kevin Pereira is the only guy my boyfriend would ever consider making out with. Why is that, you think?
Munn: Well, Kevin’s very heterosexual, but he loves to play Gay Chicken. Do you know what Gay Chicken is? Well, if we were playing Gay Chicken I would come up and put my hand on your leg, and then you would put your hand on my shoulder, and then who ever pulls away first loses. Kevin and Wil O’Neal, our gadget expert – they full-on tongued one time. Cause Will’s kinda dirty too. But yeah, somebody made a joke the other day about Kevin & I hooking up. But Kevin’s like a brother to me – it’s disgusting!

LAist: When I did a Google video search for Olivia Munn, the first things that pop up are 1) Olivia Munn deepthroats hot dog, 2) Olivia Munn Princess Leia, 3) Olivia Munn Lesbionic Woman. How do you do all of this and not lose your dignity?
Munn: That’s a good question – because you have to have dignity to maintain it. Let’s talk about the hot dog for a second – I had no idea this would be up on the front of all these big sites, like Defamer, Perez Hilton, not just G4 techie sites. I came into the office to do our read-through and we’re all going over it: “hot dog falls in mustard, Olivia puts it in her mouth –“ I was like whoa whoa whoa — can we reverse a bit? What makes you think I’d do this? And they said, ‘well, Olivia, you’re always game!’ And it’s true! I don’t take myself that seriously at all, so when something comes down, if it can be remotely funny, I’m gonna do it! They great thing is it’s a daily show, so the next day, I always have the opportunity to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia or something to regain my dignity. I always have the next day to make it up.

The thing about Princess Leia, I did not realize how big the Star Wars convention was– if I knew that I probably would have been throwing up like weeks before, cause I didn’t work out or anything before that. And I hate seeing those pictures, I absolutely dread it, there’s only one picture I’m okay with, cause the light’s hitting a certain way and I’m positioned a certain way, but I hate seeing those pictures.

Going to the Star Wars convention is like going to the mother ship, all our fans are there, and they’re really great. But we actually got in trouble because the head of the convention came to the G4TV event organizer and asked them, ‘hey, can you make sure tomorrow when Olivia comes in for the live show she’s not dressed like Leia again? The other vendors are getting mad cause nobody’s coming to their booths, and everybody’s following her around.’ And it was a big compliment but also a big embarrassment to me! so I’ll never do Leia again.

LAist: Well I have to say, as a chick myself, I never feel condescended to or objectified by what you guys do on the show. There are a lot of cool chick hosts on G4 who are clearly into what they’re doing.
Munn: There’s one fan in particular on the boards who gets on me for putting down women or making insensitive jokes – but the thing is, I just find it funny, it’s my sense of humor. I don’t take it seriously, if anyone’s gonna take our show that seriously – I mean, yes, there are a lot of times when we are debating something rather seriously, but in general, if something’s going to get a laugh, I’m gonna do it.

LAist: But you weren’t into video games before you started the show?
Munn: Not at first, and I didn’t want to come on to be that person who just pretends to be into it. When I’m acting, then I’m an actress, and I’m playing a role. But when I’m here every day I’m myself – I’m a heightened version of myself, obviously, I make a lot more jokes, and I’m pretty energetic. Otherwise I’m pretty tired all the time! I save it for 4-5 and let out all my energy then. But I didn’t think there was anything wrong with saying I want to learn about games and I’m very interested. Growing up in Japan and having brothers I do have a lot of respect for cars and for gaming and for technology, and I do take my computer apart – although now I have a Mac, so I don’t have to do that — but I’m very familiar with the tech side of the world.

When you’re here, you can’t help but see that there is so much intelligence and thought that goes into video games. So now I request every game and go home every night and play, and I’m not very good at it — I still have to play Guitar Hero on easy, but I enjoy it. I’m not a hardcore gamer but I do have a deeper respect – and a lot of girls play now! You look at something like Assassin’s Creed and it’s just ridiculous how cool it is and how it can appeal to so many. We get these people [game creators] on and you hear about the art and the backstory, and it’s just amazing.

original and continue

Ivanka Marie Trump (born October 30, 1981 in New York City, New York) is an American businesswoman and one-time fashion model. She is the daughter of Ivana and Donald Trump, and is currently Vice President of Real Estate Development and Acquisitions at the Trump Organization. Before working for her father, she worked for Forest City Enterprises. Trump joined forces with Dynamic Diamond Corp., a diamond trading company sightholder, to design and introduce a line of jewelry at the brand’s first flagship retail store called ‘Ivanka Trump’ on Madison Avenue. Ivanka Trump was reported in December 2007 to be in a relationship with Jared Kushner, owner of The New York Observer. However, it was reported that the couple split in April 2008.

Education

Trump attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, as well as Chapin in New York City. After graduation, she spent two years at Georgetown University, then transferred to and graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor of science in economics in 2004.

Modeling

Trump’s first cover was a 1997 issue of Seventeen. Since then, she has made her way down fashion runways for Versace, Marc Bouwer and Thierry Mugler. She has done ad campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger and Sassoon Jeans and was featured on the cover of Stuff in August 2006 and again in September 2007. She was also recently featured on the covers of Forbes, Golf Magazine, Avenue Magazine, Elle Mexico and in the October 2007 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. She placed #83 in the 2007 Maxim Hot 100. She has also placed #99 in the Top 99 Women of 2007 and then #84 in the 2008 edition on AskMen.com.

TV appearances

Miss Teen USA Pageant, which is partially owned by her father.

In 2003, she was featured in Born Rich, a documentary about the experience of growing up as a child in one of the world’s most affluent families.

During an April 2006 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Trump said that she and former boyfriend Bingo Gubelmann had broken up, yet they remain good friends. Leno commented that he could hear her father’s influence and inflections in her. David Letterman also made a similar comment when she appeared on Late Show with David Letterman on April 24, 2007.

Trump was a featured guest-judge on Project Runway Season 3.

She was also at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, event in April 2007 called the Creating Wealth Summit in which she spoke for about 30 minutes about making money and her latest projects.

She has been offered to appear on The Bachelorette, but she declined.

The Apprentice

In 2006, she filled in for Carolyn Kepcher on five episodes of her father’s television program The Apprentice 5, first appearing to help judge the Gillette task in week 2. Like Kepcher, Trump visited the site of the tasks and spoke to the teams, asking them pointed questions. She also evaluated contestants in the boardroom, pointing out critical errors and rebutting excuses they offered for losing the tasks. Though initially unsympathetic to the contestants, Trump later said,

“Whenever I see their breakdowns, I understand. They go virtually 24 hours a day, and each task takes about three days. Unless they win, they don’t get a day off… It’s an incredible amount of work…”

Trump replaced Carolyn Kepcher as a primary boardroom judge during the Apprentice 6 and The Celebrity Apprentice.

Personal life

Ivanka Trump was reported in December 2007 to be in a relationship with Jared Kushner, owner of The New York Observer. However, it was reported that the couple split in April 2008.

Comparisons to Paris Hilton

While the media have often compared Trump to Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune, Trump has objected to the comparison, explaining, “I work 13-hour days for my money,” in an interview with the London Express in 2007, and “I bought my house from my father — I have a mortgage, you know.” Trump asserted, “I think we are totally different individuals… If I were to go off the rails and become this party kid, I would not be able to afford my lifestyle. I’ve never had a sense of entitlement. I saw how hard my father worked for his money and it was always made very clear to me that things wouldn’t just be given to me.”

Rachel Hannah Weisz (born 7 March 1970) is an Academy Award-winning English actress. She became well-known after her role as Evelyn “Evie” Carnahan-O’Connell in the Hollywood films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and has since continued appearing in major film roles.

Early life

Weisz was born in London, England and grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her mother, Edith Ruth (née Teich), is a Vienna-born Austrian teacher turned psychotherapist. Her father, George Weisz, is a Hungarian-born inventor whose family fled to England to escape Nazi persecution. Weisz’s father is Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother has been referred to as either Catholic, Jewish, or having Jewish ancestry. Weisz was raised in a cerebral Jewish household and refers to herself as Jewish. Weisz has a sister, Minnie Weisz, who is an artist.

Weisz was educated at North London Collegiate School. She was then sent to Benenden School and eventually settled in St Paul’s Girls’ School. She then entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated with a 2:1 in English. During her university years she appeared in various student productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues, which went on to win a Guardian Student Drama Award at the Edinburgh Festival for an improvised piece called Slight Possession.

Career

Her breakthrough role was that of Gilda in Welsh director Sean Mathias’s 1995 West End revival of Noel Coward’s 1933 play Design for Living at the Gielgud Theatre. Having already worked for television, with parts in major UK series such as Inspector Morse (1993), Weisz started her cinema career in 1995 with Chain Reaction and then appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. She followed this work with more English films including My Summer with Des, Swept from the Sea, The Land Girls, and Michael Winterbottom’s I Want You. Although she received favourable critical recognition for her work to this point, her breakout into wide audience recognition came from a popular serio-comic horror movie The Mummy, in which she played the lead female role alongside Brendan Fraser. Since then she has starred in a number of films including The Mummy Returns (2001), which grossed higher than the original, as well as Enemy at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), Runaway Jury (2003) and Constantine (2005). Her stage work includes the role of Catherine in a London production of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer and Evelyn in Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things at the Almeida Theatre (also film).

In 2005, Weisz starred in Fernando Meirelles’s The Constant Gardener, a film adaptation of a John le Carré thriller of the same title set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. For this role, Weisz won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. In her home country, she was recognised as a leading role for the film according to the nomination from the BAFTA awards and winnings from the London Critics Circle Film Awards and British Independent Film Awards.

In 2006 Weisz was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The same year, she starred in The Fountain and also provided the voice for Saphira in the much-criticized film Eragon. Her 2008 films include the Wong Kar-wai-directed drama My Blueberry Nights (in which she played an "anti-Southern belle") and director Rian Johnson’s upcoming The Brothers Bloom, in which she plays a wealthy American woman targeted by two con man brothers (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo).

On 7 July 2007, Weisz presented at the American leg of Live Earth.

She is signed to Independent Models in London.

Personal life

Weisz is engaged to American film-maker Darren Aronofsky. They have been dating since 2002. They have a son, Henry Chance, born on May 31, 2006 in New York City. The couple reside in the East Village in Manhattan. They are considering getting married in a traditional wedding ceremony at the oldest synagogue in New York.

Filmography

Rachel Weisz Interview

Actress Rachel Weisz has become a name to be reckoned with in Hollywood where she is now in the same league as other major British female power players such as Kate Winslet and Minnie Driver. The London-born actress first came to public attention in the BBC’s adaptation of Scarlet And Black in which her nude scenes with Ewan McGregor caused something of a stir.

Since then she has appeared in Chain Reaction, opposite Keanu Reeves, Second World War film The Land Girls and the re-make of The Mummy which sees her cast as an action heroine - a genre she is getting used to.

In her most recent film Enemy At The Gates, Weisz spent months being covered in mud and bruised while playing a sniper in the beleaguered Russian army during the siege of Stalingrad.

In The Mummy Returns she punches and kicks her way through the action - and even learned the Japanese sword-fighting martial art Sai, for her fight scenes with Venezuelan actress Patricia Velasquez, who plays the Mummy’s love interest.

"I suppose I’m doing things that aren’t traditionally feminine, whatever that means," admits Cambridge-educated Weisz. "It’s technically difficult and Patricia and I spent four or five months learning it, like in the mornings or after filming and in lunch breaks.

"As a child I was the best tree climber in our neighbourhood, I was like a little monkey. I’ve never been afraid of hurting myself or a little physical discomfort," Weisz says.

The fight scenes between the two women are reminiscent of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and although Weisz claims she enjoyed the filming, co-star Velasquez admits she and Weisz were not keen on it at first.

"When Rachel and I first read the screenplay and saw we had to fight we were not impressed," she smiles. "We thought it would be just gratuitous. Then we saw that what they had in mind was really quite spectacular."

Weisz smiles when she recalls reading the script which sees her once more teamed up with Brendan Fraser, as a librarian battling dark Egyptians forces. She admits even now she finds the concept amusing.

"I thought it was funny - a librarian in an action movie. Like someone stuck in the wrong genre," she says.

Despite her rise to fame, Weisz remains remarkably down to earth. She is ambitious but has resisted a permanent move to LA and, refreshingly for a Hollywood actress, confesses to having recently turned 30

"Turning 30 has come as something of a relief," she says. "I’ve felt a lot better as a person. The older you get the more capable you get at managing life."

Although Weisz appears to be managing her life just fine, she has never been entirely comfortable with life under the media spotlight. After enjoying high profile romances with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey and American Beauty director Sam Mendes, she discovered for herself what it was to be the object of media interest.

"I think actors have a choice of drawing attention to themselves or living on the outskirts," she says firmly. "I prefer being as far from the centre of celebrity as possible."

She claims to be on good terms with her exes. She still talks to Morrissey, whom she met while filming the football comedy My Summer With Des, on the phone and says: "He’s one of the most good-hearted people I’ve ever met. I felt really sorry for him during that business with Les Dennis’s wife."

Weisz is currently single and with her current heavy workload she admits it would be difficult to give the time needed to a relationship.

Following on from The Mummy Returns, she will be returning to the London stage to play an art student in the black comedy The Shape Of Things.

"You get to do it from the beginning, to middle to end in one night," she says, reflecting on her love of the theatre. "You can’t go back on it. As an actor it’s very challenging and very powerful."

But after completing the run, she’ll be straight back in front of the cameras as Hugh Grant’s love interest in About A Boy and will star in the biopic Marlowe based on the life of Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe.

She is even about to lose her trademark dark locks - turning bottle blonde to play a Marilyn Monroe-esque gangster’s moll in the upcoming Beautiful Creatures, a small independent production being touted as a British Thelma And Louise.

"This character’s a huge disappearing act because I’m so not like her. She hides beneath her looks because she’s frightened. She’s an abused trophy girlfriend," she says.

And With Weisz currently calling the shots in Hollywood, playing second fiddle to a man is not something you could accuse her of.

original

Sophia Anna Bush (born July 8, 1982) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Brooke Davis in the CW series One Tree Hill and for portraying Grace Andrews in the horror remake The Hitcher.

Early life

Sophia Bush, an only child, was born and raised in Pasadena, California to Charles William Bush, an advertising and celebrity photographer, and Maureen, a photography studio manager. Bush has French-Canadian and Italian ancestry, and attended Westridge School for Girls (Pasadena), as well as the University of Southern California. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, where she served as Social Chair.

In 2000, she was the Tournament of Roses Parade Queen. Bush attended USC for three years before landing the role of Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill (2003).

Career

Bush made her first big screen appearance in the comedy Van Wilder as Sally (the freshman who seduces Van and doesn’t know who Air Supply is). Since then, she has made appearances in several television shows including Nip/Tuck, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Punk’d. She was cast as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but was replaced by Claire Danes because the director thought she was too young. In 2003, she won the role of Brooke Davis in the television series One Tree Hill.

In between seasons of One Tree Hill, Bush has been cast in several films, such as Supercross, Stay Alive, John Tucker Must Die, and the remake, The Hitcher.

Bush received a "Rising Star" award at the Vail Film Festival for her work in The Hitcher. She has also won three Teen Choice Awards for her work in John Tucker Must Die and The Hitcher.

On April 20, 2007, it was confirmed that Bush will star in Francois Velle’s The Narrows with Kevin Zegers, Eddie Cahill and Vincent D’Onofrio. It is reported that she will play the beautiful, intelligent and self-assured Kathy Popovich. Filming began in New York on April 24, 2007 and is due for a 2008 release date. Bush is also starring in the film Table for Three, which is set to have a late 2008 release. The story centers on a suddenly single young man, Scott Teller (Brandon Routh), who invites a "perfect couple," Mary and Ryan (Bush and Jesse Bradford), to share his large apartment. When Teller meets the girl of his dreams, Leslie (Jennifer Morrison), he believes that Ryan and Mary are intentionally sabotaging his chances with her because they desperately need him in their life to hold their dysfunctional relationship together.

Personal life

On April 16, 2005, Bush married actor Chad Michael Murray, her One Tree Hill co-star. They dated for almost two years before they were married in Santa Monica. But then they announced their separation on September 26, 2005 after five months of marriage when Bush filed court papers to have their marriage annulled. In December of 2006, Bush and Murray’s divorce was made final. Bush was in a relationship with Stay Alive co-star Jon Foster after her divorce until August 2007. Later, rumors surfaced that Bush and Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo were dating. They were reportedly seen together in Texas.

In December 2007, it was reported by Rush & Molloy in the New York Daily News that Bush had "now hooked up with co-star James Lafferty"; the report also mentioned that a rep for the actress has denied there is any romance. Recently, photos surfaced of Lafferty and Bush at LAX and LAX Baggage Claim together, which fueled rumors of a possible romance.

In February 2008, Bush made several appearances in Texas in support of the Barack Obama campaign in the Texas Presidential primary election. She was joined in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco by fellow actor Adam Rodriguez. Touring mostly college campuses, they urged young voters to get involved politically.

Filmography

Sophia Bush Interview

You may know her from One Tree Hill, or you may know her from her recently released thriller The Hitcher. However, one thing you’ll never know Sophia Bush as is a drunk and ditsy tabloid spectacle. Through trials and tribulations, breakups and breakdowns, Bush finally figured out the best way to keep from becoming Hollywood’s whipping girl: stay away.

You began working when you were still young, basically a kid. Year by year, as technology continues to progress, it seems as though American society has become more and more obsessed with its stars, especially younger ones who may or may not be getting into trouble, trouble that is almost immediately pointed out and posted on a blog. Has it been hard to grow up when your personal life is half-way posted on IMDb at any given moment?

I’ve been bitten by it, and I’ve also been very fortunate because, unlike a lot of the kids in my age range in this business, I don’t work in Hollywood. I have spent every summer on location and I shoot my show on location, so I am home little enough that people don’t know my schedule and where I go and what I do. If I get photographed, 90 percent of the time, it’s at an event. The small piece of my personal life that did become part of the news media was odd because you can’t control how long or how much they’re going to talk about something; you can’t control their accuracy. If anything, I’m thankful that I have had so much time outside of that machine on location, because I have definitely learned that lesson.

Like it or not, the world constantly has its eyes on hot, young female stars—the Lindsay Lohans of the land. Is it difficult to be taken seriously as a young actress when certain scandalous ladies out there in a very similar line of work are making a lurid spectacle of themselves?

What I think makes it difficult to not be taken seriously is falling on your face drunk all the time or running around without your underwear on. It’s not that difficult to get dressed, and it’s not that difficult to keep yourself under a level of control. I have nothing against going out and having a great night with friends. Everyone wants to go out and have a couple of cocktails and dance and be silly and take some time off. But I think you have to choose what your priorities are. When you don’t show up to work or when you show up late, it’s not just your reputation that gets affected, it affects the 10 grips on your show. If you show up four hours late, they are four hours late to come home and they can’t put their kids to bed. That is the part I don’t think a lot of people take into consideration. A movie or TV set is a cohesive machine, every part works together, and if one person is selfish enough to throw that off, it affects every other person there.

It sounds like it’s satisfying to not be a part of that “young Hollywood” crowd that carouses about the town half-cocked and half-naked all the time.

I appreciate that when I am considered part of “young Hollywood,” it’s because of my work, not my ability to shotgun beers. That is how I want to be represented, not by my social habits. I love my job, I love acting, I love making movies, I love becoming someone else for 10 hours a day for the joy of finding someone else’s psychology. If I plan on doing this for the rest of my life, if I plan to still be working until I’m 60, I can’t blow it now. I’d rather do it slowly and properly than explode for being a party girl and not have a career in two years, it’s not worth it for me.

When you take a look at all the party pictures online and the split second shots of debauchery all over the tabloids, it really feels as though a lot of these people are searching for something and don’t have a clue where to find it.

It’s one thing to see somebody a little tipsy coming out of a club and having a good time every once in a while. But it’s a whole other thing to see somebody completely wasted every time, every night, at every Hollywood hot spot. I think it becomes a desire to be part of the in-crowd or something like that. I’m amused by it because the people who others might see or read about partying every night, I almost always see them when I go out occasionally. You can go when you want to go, you don’t have to go every night to guarantee you’re going to be let behind the velvet rope. I think you’re right, I think it’s about a need to be validated. I’d rather be validated by a director telling me that we nailed it during filming than by feeling that I have access to anywhere I want to go.

Does it change the vibe on the set when you’re working with a tabloid spectacle? Does it force you to take them less seriously? Do you sympathize with their confusion and their plight at all?

I don’t care what the press is about a person that I’m working with. I care about how they come to work every day. I don’t care who broke up with who or who is sleeping with who or who went out where. I don’t care what you do with your personal life. It’s when people take their personal lives into a space where it affects their performance at work, that’s when I would stop taking someone seriously.

original