Vera Farmiga Biography
A porcelain-skinned, blue-eyed beauty, Vera Farmiga began her professional acting career in the mid-1990s counting among her credits performances in stage productions of “The Tempest”, “The Glass Menagerie” and “Hamlet”. Making her Broadway debut as an understudy in the 1996-1997 play “Taking Sides”, Farmiga followed up with a well-reviewed featured turn in the 1997 Off-Broadway production “Second-Hand Smoke”. That same year she was featured in the CBS “Hallmark Hall of Fame” TV-movie “Rose Hill”, and starred with then-unknown Heath Ledger on the Fox medieval adventure series “Roar”, playing female lead Catlin. A former slave turned dreadlocked battler, Farmiga’s Catlin was a fan favorite, though she would later admit embarrassment over the attention garnered for the role on the short-lived genre program. (The series did introduce her to her future husband, actor Sebastian Roache.)
1998 saw Farmiga make her big screen debut, acting in the drama “Return to Paradise”. In 2000 she played the daughters of Christopher Walken and Richard Gere in “The Opportunists” and “Autumn in New York” respectively, and made the most of her underwritten roles. 2001’s “15 Minutes” marked the actress’ breakthrough, in a part that somewhat utilized her own Eastern European background. (She was born to immigrants and raised in a Ukrainian community in New Jersey.) In the film, she played a Czech import who witnesses a crime and falls for the investigating detective (Edward Burns). Winning critical raves and audience notice for her supporting turn, Farmiga had already lined up a host of projects to continue her upward climb.
As a regular on the NBC drama “UC: Undercover” (2001- ), Farmiga finally took center stage, playing a strong-willed and crafty undercover investigator who keeps her cool in the toughest situations. Her portrayal of Alex Cross would expose the actress to a wide audience and offer her an enviable opportunity to play a featured and fully-realized female character. A supporting role in the episodic drama “Dust” (screened at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals in 2001) put the actress back on the big screen, where she would also be featured in the independents “Dummy” (2003) and “Nine Scenes About Love” (lensed 2000).
After a supporting role in the detective thriller “15 Minutes†(2001), Farmiga played a prostitute with a disgruntled john (Domenick Lombardozzi) in the ensemble drama “Love in the Time of Money†(2002). She then starred as a working class mother struggling to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while hiding her cocaine addiction in “Down to the Bone†(2003). Farmiga won Best Actress awards from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for her performance.
Farmiga returned to television with a regular role on “Touching Evil†(USA, 2004), a short-lived procedural based on the British series of the same name about an agent (Jeffrey Donovan) of the Organized and Serial Crime Unit who solves high profile crimes after a near-fatal injury. She then had a supporting role in “Iron Jawed Angels†(HBO, 2004), the award-winning biopic based on the true story of women’s rights activists Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor) and their struggle to earn American women the right to vote. Back in features, she had a memorable role as the daughter of a liberal senator (Jon Voight) in the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate†(2004). Farmiga was then set to be seen in “Running Scared†(2006), playing the wife of a low-level mobster (Paul Walker) trying to get back a stolen gun used in the fatal shooting of a corrupt cop.
Quick Facts
· Has six siblings, Vera is the second oldest of seven
· Ex-husband Sebastian Roche co-starred with Vera on “Roar” and they eloped to Bahamas to get married when the show ended in 1997
· Toured with a folk-dancing company in her teens
· Didn’t learn english untill she was six years old
· Was raised in an insular Ukranian community in Passaic, New Jersey
· Graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School: Class of 1991
· Graduated from Syracuse University
· Wears contact lenses
· Got the Los Angeles Film Critics Best Actress award for “Down to the Bone” in 2005
Aishwarya Rai Biography
Aishwarya Rai was born November 1, 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Born in a traditional south Indian family, Aishwarya started modelling at a young age. This green-blue eyed beauty stole ads for many prestigious firms, the ones which brought her into the limelight were the garden sari and the pepsi ad.
Aishwarya Rai is one of the highest-paid actresses in India’s prolific movie industry, the Julia Roberts of the Asian subcontinent. She began modeling at 14, came to fame as the gorgeous new neighbor in Indian Pepsi commercials, and won the Miss World beauty pageant in 1994.
In more than two dozen movies, Rai has never been kissed on screen. It simply isn’t done in Bollywood. Instead, when an on-screen scene reaches that moment, characters typically burst into song-and-dance sequences intended as metaphors for steamy passion. Rai has, however, attempted to broaden her fame by appearing in the English film Bride and Prejudice with Martin Henderson, a comedic singing-and-dancing adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She has signed to co-star in Singularity with Brendan Fraser in 2005.
So at some point soon, a script may require a smooch instead of a song. “It would definitely be a topic of discussion [in India],†she says. “They’re going to enjoy (the controversy)… In our society, you don’t really see people around the street corner kissing or being extremely or overtly physically demonstrative.â€
Rai is no stranger to controversy, having dated movie star Salman Khan — he is Muslim, she is Hindu. When Rai appeared at an Indian awards ceremony sporting a black eye, there were rumors that Khan had beaten her, but Rai explained otherwise. “For some perverse reason, no one wants to believe me, that I fell down the stairs. First the media calls me the woman of the millennium, a woman of substance. Then how can the same media make me out to be such a doormat? I’m a self-respecting woman, I don’t take nonsense from anyone. No one tries caveman tactics on me. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger can fall and get hurt, so why should I be any different?â€
After they eventually broke up, there were reports that Khan stalked her, and Rai admitted that there “were times when Salman got physical with me.†Her family filed a police complaint against Khan, when he showed up drunk and started pounding on her door and screaming late one night.
Rai made her film debut in 1991′s forgettable Mamagaru . Her other early films included bombs like Iruvar and Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya , and even the Tamil-Telugu hit Jeans which was disastrously received by India’s Hindi audiences. By 1998, critics were carping about Rai’s lack of talent and “three stock wooden expressions.â€
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam , of course, changed everything, and Rai’s spirited performance as the emotionally complex Nandini made her a star instead of a joke. Her other triumphs include Mohabbatein , Chokher Bali , and the epic Devdas.
In 2003, Rai was injured on the set of Khakhi when a driver lost control of his Jeep and ran into Rai, who landed on a cactus.