Rachel Bilson Hits Japan
Rachel Bilson Hits Japan
Her Valentine’s Day release “Jumper” found itself atop the box office after it’s first week in theaters, but Rachel Bilson can’t sit back and enjoy the movie’s success just yet.
The former star of The OC was spotted landing at Narita International Airport on Sunday (February 24), ahead of upcoming promotional duties for her new flick.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old brunette babe recently gave big props to Legally Blonde actress Reese Witherspoon, who just so happens to be her role model.
Rachel told press: “I would love a career like hers. She does both comedy and drama so well. I also think she balances her career and family life.”
Bilson also admitted that she has a plan B if acting roles dry up, but with the success of “Jumper” - that time doesn’t seem to be coming very soon.
She said: “I would love to be a pre-school teacher - I enjoy being with kids. And I would be really content raising children. I love my career but one day I’ll balance it with a family.”
Stump the King - Kyle Chandler
This week’s question was rather easy.
Judy writes…
“I’m trying to find about a tv show that was in the 1990s that was cancelled. It was about a guy living in the city. He would look at the newspaper. The newspaper told the future. He would see a disaster and then save the person. Do you know the name of this tv show?”
I’m sure most of you recognize that the show in question is Early Edition starring Kyle Chandler.
I was a huge fan of Early Edition and loved Kyle Chandler. Since then, I have always thought it was interesting that he has taken so many different types of acting roles.
On EE he was a good-hearted guy trying to do the right thing. On What About Joan he was a jerk with a soft side in love with a goofy girl and on The Lyon’s Den he was an immoral douchebag.
Now it seems he has taken parts of all those characters for his role on Friday Night Lights. Just an observation.
Now for this week’s question…
Which talk show host appeared as himself on Early Edition?
Jeff was the first one with the correct answer. Nice job, Jeff.
Traci Lord Biography
Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968), also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords, is an American actress. She first achieved notoriety for her underage appearances in pornographic films and Penthouse magazine (she was 16 years old in her first film), but has now made the transition into more mainstream acting roles.
Traci Elizabeth Lords was born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968, in Steubenville, Ohio to parents Louis and Patricia Kuzma. She made her stage name by combining the first name of her high school best friend, Traci, and the last name of her favorite actor from Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord. At twelve she fled from her abusive, alcoholic father to Lawndale, California with her mother and three sisters. Later, while attending Redondo Union High School, she had an abortion and after having a nervous breakdown, ran away from home. While living with her mother’s ex-boyfriend, who posed as her stepfather, she used a friend’s birth certificate and a fake driver’s license indicating that she was twenty-two years of age to fake her way into the porn industry at the age of fifteen, starting with Jim South’s World Modeling Agency.
Shortly after, she was modelling for widely distributed adult magazines, most notably Penthouse, in the same September 1984 issue that exposed Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams. She quickly became one of the most popular starlets in town, and by now ventured into Adult movies. Her first being “What Gets Me Hot!” followed by “Those Young Girls”, both made in the first half of 1984. Lords’ youthful appearance and enthusiastic sexual performances propelled her to stardom and she is considered by many to be one of the first porn queens. By the time she was 18, she’d appeared in 100 adult films. (According to Lords in her autobiography, however, approx. 80 of those films were composed from leftover and re-edited footage from the original 20 films that were shot.). But in 1986, federal authorities discovered she was underage while making movies and they arrested her, as well as the owners of her movie agency and X-citement Video, Inc. See United States v. X-Citement Video.
The ensuing prosecution against the agencies cost the pornographic film and distribution industry millions as they were obliged by law to remove hundreds of thousands of her videotapes, films and magazines from store shelves to avoid the risk of prosecution for trafficking child pornography.(In her book, Lords suggested hypocrisy on the part of the porn movie producers, writing that they did get richer from the scandal’s publicity.) Lords herself was never charged, since as a minor she was unable to give informed consent to perform sex acts on film for money. Instead, the agents and producers who accepted her fake IDs were charged and people affiliated with the films in question experienced legal troubles for years. Only one of her films, Traci, I Love You was actually produced after her eighteenth birthday, and is the only one of her films commonly and legally available in the United States.
In parts of Europe and other regions where the minimum legal age for involvement in pornographic films is lower, Lords’ films and images in a variety of formats are still legally available.
The controversy still sparks debate. Government prosecutors declared that Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining she was drugged and made to do nonconsensual acts. But industry insiders, like Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Tom Byron, as well as boyfriends say they never saw her use drugs and that she was fully aware of her actions even if, as a minor, she could not legally consent. While Lords decries the pornographic film industry, she continues to use the stage name she gave herself as a minor.
The Justice Department was forced to drop all charges when it was revealed that the fake ID which Lords had used to dupe the pornographic film industry was a U.S. passport in the name of Traci Lords - the government had been duped, and any defendant would simply have been able to hide behind the government’s error.
Leaving her porn past behind her, Lords moved into mainstream films with success. She has played roles in a number of B-movies. At 18, Lords began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and soon after, starred in a remake of Roger Corman’s cult favorite Not of this Earth. Then in 1990, Lords’ mainstream career was legitimized when she was added to the cast that included Johnny Depp, Ricki Lake, and even Iggy Pop, in John Waters’ Cry Baby, playing the role of Wanda Woodward. Other movies on her resume include Blade, Extramarital, Black Mask 2:City of angels, and Chump Change, the latter of which won her a Best Actress Award at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
In addition to movies, Lords has also made many appearances in various TV shows, including Married… with Children, MacGyver, Highlander, Tales from the Crypt, Hercules, Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace among others, along with recurring roles in Profiler, Roseanne, and Melrose Place. From late in 2000 to 2001, Traci Lords appeared in the Francis Ford Coppola produced sci-fi series First Wave, playing “Jordan Radcliffe”, the newest member of a group called Raven Nation that combats extraterrestrial aliens.
In the 1990s, Lords began developing a career as a singer, performing vocals for Manic Street Preachers on the single “Little Baby Nothing”, and also appearing in the music videos of other performers and groups. In 1995, Lords made her solo debut, in collaboration with Juno Reactor and Jesus Jones’ Mike Edwards, called 1000 Fires. The album was a hit with critics and club audiences. The Juno Reactor-produced first single “Control” proved a smash, reaching a peak of #2 on the Billboard Dance Charts. “Fallen Angel”, the second single off the album, earned a lot of attention because one of its remixes (”Honeymoon Stitch Mix”) was produced and remixed by Chad Smith and Dave Navarro, with a strong indie and “alterna-chick” sound. The lavishly-produced video was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, who had also directed such high-profile videos as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away”, and Madonna’s “Fever”. Lords’ music isn’t a mindless dancefloor affair; she marries highly addictive beats and sonic landscapes to personal lyrics. “Father’s Field”, from 1000 Fires, may be the best example, in which a very suffocating musical framework gives place to a harrowing, personal account of sexual molestation as a child. After a couple of years of musical silence, Lords returned to the music scene in 2004 with a new, independently-produced recording, the double A-side “Sunshine”.
In 2003 she published her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All (ISBN 0-060-508-205), which made the New York Times bestseller list. In December, 2003, Traci wrote and directed a short film with Fox Searchlab entitled Sweet Pea, released and shown at film festivals in 2005. Loosely inspired by an experience recounted in her autobiography, it’s about a teenage girl who finds herself doubting everything in her life (God, family, etc.) after being raped by her boyfriend.
Jacinda Barrett Biography
Although Jacinda Barrett was born in Australia, her all-American good looks and convincing accent have paved the way for numerous acting roles in the USA. Tall and slim, with long honey blonde hair and a freckled, fresh-faced appearance that belied her sophisticated poise, Barrett left her home of Brisbane, Queensland at age 17 to pursue a modeling career on an international level. She hit the big time several years later in 1995 when she was chosen to be one of the seven strangers making up the cast of the fourth installment of MTV’s “The Real World”, set in London. This proved a major coup, offering the up and comer enviable exposure while the series showcased the ups and downs of her career and personal life. She was named one of People’s “The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World” list, and her visibility led to acting work beginning in 1998 when she had a guest role as sorceress Medea on the syndicated series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”.
Barrett was subsequently cast in a regular role on NBC’s “Wind on Water”, marking her network series debut. While the surf-loving actress proved a natural for this beach-set series, low ratings led to its early demise. Later that same year, she had a guest role on the UPN series “Guys Like Us”, starring her boyfriend and fellow MTV series vet, former “Singled Out” host Chris Hardwick. In 1999 the actress guest starred on an episode of Fox’s acclaimed sci-fi series “Millennium” and had a recurring role as the fetching older woman who takes a liking to awkward Duncan (David Moscow) after seeing through the facade of womanizer Jack (David Rosenbaum) on The WB’s teen sitcom “Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane” (1999). When the series returned from hiatus in 2000, revamped as the college-age sitcom “Zoe…”, Barrett had been dropped from the cast, but soon reemerged on the network as a regular on the midseason drama “D.C.” (2000) playing the impulsive and ambitious Finley Scott, a young woman who ditches graduate school and heads to the nation’s capital to pursue her dreams. She added another short-lived political-minded drama to her resume, appearing as one of James Cromwell’s three daughters in “Citizen Baines” (CBS, 2001).
In addition to her modeling and television credits, Barrett began an entry into film with a featured role in the independent horror thriller “Campfire Tales” (1998). She honed her craft in indie fare while occasionally landing higher-profile gigs in films such as “Urban Legend: Final Cut” (2000) and the Sam Shepherd-penned telepic “See You In My Dreams” (2000). Barrett’s film career took a quantum leap forward when she was cast by director Robert Benton in his adaptation of Phillip Roth’s bestseller “The Human Stain” (2003). In a flashback sequence, Barrett delivered a touching performance as Steena Paulsson, the unsuspecting blonde, Midwestern girlfriend of young Coleman Silk, a man of mixed race passing as white, whose revelation to Steena is both surprising, cowardly and cruel. With her star on the rise, Barrett next garnered starring roles in high visibility projects, including the firefighting drama “Ladder 49″ (2004) as Joaquin Phoenix’s love interest, and the comedy seequel “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” (lensed 2003).
- Born:
on 08/02/72 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Significant Others
- Companion: Chris Hardwick. hosted MTV’s “Singled Out” at the same time that Barrett was featured on “The Real World”
Milestones
- — Cast opposite Barry Pepper, Willem Dafoe and Tom Wilkinson in “Mr. Ripley Return” directed by Roger Spottiswoode from the novel by Patricia Highsmith (lensed 2004)
- — Will star in the dramedy “The Last Kiss” an American remake of Italy’s 2001 film “L’Ultimo Bacio,” co-starring Zach Braff (lensed 2005)
- 1989 At age 17, left Brisbane to work as an international model (date approximate)
- 1995 Was cast in the London installment of MTV’s “The Real World”
- 1997 Featured in People’s “The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World” issue
- 1998 Made a guest appearance on an episode of UPN’s “Guys Like Us”, playing opposite series star and real-life boyfriend Chris Hardwick
- 1998 Made film debut in the anthology horror thriller “Campfire Tales”
- 1998 Played Medea in an episode of the syndicated fantasy series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”
- 1998 Starred on the short-lived NBC drama “Wind on Water”
- 1999 Appeared on an episode of “Millennium” (Fox)
- 1999 Had a recurring role on The WB’s “Zoe…” (then titled “Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane”) as the beautiful senior dating unlikely suitor Duncan
- 2000 Cast in regular starring role in The WB’s ensemble drama “D.C.”
- 2001 Co-starred in CBS drama series “Citizen Baines”
- 2003 Co-starred with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman in “The Human Stain”
- 2004 Cast in the comedy “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” starring Renée Zellweger
- 2004 Portrayed the wife of Joaquin Phoenix’s character in “Ladder 49″ which centers around Baltimore firefighters
- Cast in the remake of the disaster film “The Poseidon Adventure,” directed by Wolfgang Petersen (lensed 2005)
- Raised in Brisbane, Australia