Baby Girl for Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams welcomed their first child, a daughter, over the weekend, PEOPLE reports in its latest issue.
In April, when PEOPLE reported on the pregnancy, Williams, 25, had been spotted attending prenatal yoga classes in Australia.
Ledger, 26, who most recently appeared in The Brothers Grimm and the skateboard movie Lords of Dogtown, split from actress Naomi Watts, a fellow Aussie, in April 2004.
Ledger and Williams costar with Jake Gyllenhaal in director Ang Lee’s soon-to-be-released gay cowboy romance, Brokeback Mountain, for which Ledger received near-unanimous raves on the film-festival circuit.
As Gyllenhaal tells PEOPLE: “Heath wears his heart on his shoulder. (With) that kind of sensitivity and strength his child will feel safe.”
Nicole Kidman Opens Up To Russell Crowe
Nicole Kidman Opens Up To Russell Crowe
In an interesting format, Nicole Kidman opened up in an interview conducted by fellow Aussie and actor, Russell Crowe.
This all took place on Oprah’s ABC special that pitted Oscar winner vs. Oscar winner in interviews designed to promote the Academy Awards ceremony, airing Sunday February 25th.
During the interview, in which Crowe eerily sounded like a reporting pro, Nicole spoke about having a child and her recently troubled husband, Keith Urban.
The actress spoke openly about how the country music singer’s stint in rehab has affected their marriage. “Keith is doing very well,” Kidman told Crowe. “We’ve been through a lot.”
As Russell began to ask another question, Kidman cut in: “Let me finish that because that will be seen as a superficial answer and I don’t like to give those. We’ve dug really deep. Three months into our marriage we had to dig really deep and that’s what we are doing and we are in the process of doing that.”
According to the National Ledger, Crowe commended Keith for his fight. “That’s very courageous of him to just pack up his toothbrush and go…and leave you…I know he’s a very proud man and a creative soul…and for him to just go right and do this thing for the rest of his life…it’s pretty cool,” Crowe said to a teary eyed Nicole.
The interview then changed its course. Crowe asked Kidman whether or not she has been on tour with Keith, with Nicole revealing that she has been on the road with her man.
Russell then followed up by asking if she had baby plans in the future.
“You’re the worst interviewer,” Kidman joked. She then revealed, “I hope so,” but did not reveal if she was indeed pregnant.
Kylie Minogue Gets Teary
Kylie Minogue Gets Teary
It was a momentous occasion as pop singer Kylie Minogue celebrated her 20 years of success in the music business. This past weekend, the singer along with family and friends commemorated her accomplishments with a killer party.
Minogue sported a floor-length Grecian-style gown fit for a princess. She arrived at a special dinner at Fulham Palace looking every bit the beautiful diva we’ve come to know her as.
During her manager Terry Blamey’s speech, Kylie shed a tear or two. Blamey reportedly referred to her as a “strong and sexy star.”
Along for the ride was fellow Aussie singer/actress Natalie Imbrugila (remember her hit, “Torn”?), along with former boyfriend Jason Donovan, and Minogue’s sister Danii. They danced all night, ending the party around 4am.
Melissa George Biography
A beautiful Australian import who went from competitive roller-skating champion to model to actress, Melissa George was relatively unknown in the United States through the 1990s, though in her native country and the United Kingdom, she was such a superstar that her 2000 wedding in Bali was invaded by helicopters carrying tabloid photographers. Discovered at age sixteen and cast on the popular nighttime soap “Home and Away” (aired on Australia’s Channel Seven), George quickly became a fan favorite through her portrayal of runaway Angel. Starring on the show from early 1993 through August 1996, Angel went from disheveled new girl in town to the center of the series, charming and lovable with just the right measure of trauma. The character’s journey took her from being discovered as a teen single mother to becoming half of the series young power couple to losing her mate to having his child and finally, to being swept away by a dashing young millionaire, her happy ending exit from Summer Bay.
Possessing an alluring fresh-faced beauty, the usually blonde George seemed to have her whole career ahead of her upon her “Home and Away” departure. She spent her initial time out of the TV series grind taking on projects in different fields, including her sleepwear line An Angel at My Bedside and her teen-aimed health and fitness video “Mind, Body & Soul”. Baring her enviable shape in Australian Playboy in 1997 was a seemingly controversial move than didn’t have much of a detrimental effect on her fan base, but rather kept her in the public’s mind. A recurring role that year on the US-Australian co-production “Roar” (Fox) marked her introduction to American audiences, starring opposite fellow Aussie up and comer Heath Ledger in the medieval-set adventure. The long dark hair with blunt bangs and revealing costumes she sported for the series likened the young actress to the similarly-themed “Xena, Warrior Princess”, though “Roar” failed to make the leap to a second season. The following year, George made her feature film debut with a small but pivotal role in the thriller “Dark City”, her mostly unclothed role memorable to the limited audience that caught the film. She was next featured in “The Limey” (1999), co-starring with Peter Fonda as a doomed young woman whose ex-con father (Terrence Stamp) goes on a mission to avenge her death.
Though a starring regular role in the proposed TV series remake of the popular “L.A. Confidential” seemed like a plum role for the actress, it turned out to be a false start, as the cancelled pilot went unaired, with viewers unable to see her take on Lynn Bracken, the role that Kim Basinger originated and for which she took home an Oscar. George proved impressed with her turn as a bank-robbing cheerleader in the teen black comedy “Sugar & Spice” in 2001, displaying both attributes with her cheekily passionate portrayal of a high-schooler obsessed with “Late Night” host Conan O’Brien. Later that year, David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” screened to raves at Cannes. Initially conceived as a TV series, the pilot was extended into a feature film with George in a supporting role.
That fall, the actress returned to US TV as regular alongside John Stamos in the sexy adventure series “Thieves” (ABC, 2001), playing the more tech-savvy of the two titular career criminals. Well-reviewed but also ratings-impaired, the series did prove to be George’s official entry into the Hollywood market, but not without a few more baby steps. In 2003 she landed a pair of appearances on the hit series “Friends” (NBC) playing the too-sexy nanny to Ross and Rachel’s daughter Emma, and she followed that turn with prominent guest spots on “Monk” (USA) and “Charmed” (WB) and a supporting feature role in the retro musical “Down With Love” (2003) opposite Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
Again poised for TV stardom, she was cast as Susan in NBC’s U.S. version of the BBC’s edgy hit sit-com “Coupling” (2003), but only filmed the pilot episode and was subsequently replaced by Rena Sofer. And lucky for George, as the limp sit-com—touted as the successor to “Friends”—was yanked after only a handful of airings and cancelled. Instead, that same season she took on a prominent supporting role on ABC’s action-adventure series “Alias” (2001- ) playing NSC Liaison Lauren Reed, whom show star Sydney (Jennifer Garner) learns married Sydney’s beau Vaughn (Michael Vartan) while the spy was comatose for many months. Turning back to film, she appeared in the remake of the horror classic, “The Amityville Horror†(2005). George played the mother of a family who moves into their dream home on Long Island only to find it possessed by evil spirits. Based on a true story, the spirits consume the mind of her husband (Ryan Reynolds), prompting him to repeat a series of grisly murders committed by the previous occupant.
George’s star continued to rise with a strong supporting role in the noir thriller, “Derailed†(2005), in which she played the schoolteacher wife of a Chicago ad executive (Clive Owen), an unhappily married man whose affair with a vibrant woman (Jennifer Aniston) leads to a pitfall of crime and deception after a sadistic robber (Vincent Cassel) breaks into their hotel room, holds them at gunpoint and pushes him into a series of blackmails that force the executive to choose between telling his wife and police or perform increasingly violent and dangerous criminal acts. Meanwhile, George spent her summer in 2005 filming “Turistas,†a low-budget thriller about a group of backpackers stranded in the remote Brazilian jungle after their tour bus was involved in an accident.
- Born:
on 08/06/1976 in Perth, Australia - Job Titles:
Actor, Model, Fashion designer
Family
- Brother: Brett George. born c. 1979
- Father: Glenn George.
- Mother: Pamela George.
- Sister: Kate George. born c. 1986
- Sister: Marnie George. born c. 1974
- Step-daughter: Marina Dabed. born c. 1995
Significant Others
- Husband: Claudio Dabed. Chilean; born c. 1965; met in June 1998; married in Bali on September 22, 2000; had daughter from a previous relationship
Education
- Warwick Senior High School, Perth, Australia
Milestones
- 1992 Named Western Australia’s teenage model of the year at age 16
- 1993 At 16, discovered by casting agent Liz Mullinar and landed the role of runaway Angel Brooks on the popular Australian primetime soap “Home and Away” (aired on Australia’s Channel Seven)
- 1996 Branched out with a sleepwear line and a lifestyle home video aimed at teens, “Mind, Body & Soul”
- 1996 Left “Home and Away” in August
- 1997 Had a recurring guest role on the adventure series “Roar” (aired in the USA on Fox), starring opposite Heath Ledger
- 1997 Posed topless in the March issue of Australian Playboy
- 1998 Made feature film debut with a memorable supporting role in the thriller “Dark City”
- 1999 Had a supporting role as the doomed daughter of Terence Stamp’s vigilante in “The Limey”
- 2000 Cast in the failed pilot “L.A. Confidential” as Lynn Bracken, the character originated by Kim Basinger in the feature
- 2001 Featured in “Mulholland Dr.”, a David Lynch mystery film initially conceived as a television pilot, screened to acclaim at Cannes
- 2001 Had female lead in the ABC fall series “Thieves”; show canceled after eight episodes
- 2001 Played a bank-robbing cheerleader smitten with Conan 0′Brien in the teen comedy “Sugar & Spice”
- 2002 Featured in the teen feature “New Port South” (filmed in 2000)
- 2005 Starred as Clive Owen’s wife in the psychological thriller “Derailed,” directed by Mikael HÃ¥fström
- 2005 Starred in “The Amityville Horror,” a remake of the 1979 film about a family that is terrorized after moving into a home that was the site of a mass-murder
- Cast as the female lead in the thriller “Turistas” (lensed 2005)
- Was a champion competitive roller skater thorough her early teens, winning bronze medals in national championships in 1989 and 1990 and taking the silver medal at the Junior Pacifics in 1991