Black Eyed Peas to Star in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
In Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Budd has to clean up a particularly fouled strip club restroom, and right now I have to write a Black Eyed Peas casting post. Night capping the last few days of X-Men Origins: Wolverine news, BEP member will.i.am (the one who looks like Wyclef) will star as John Wraith aka Wraith aka Kestrel, a mutant with teleportation powers and a thing for explosives who, in comic canon, belonged to Team X alongside Wolverine, Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), Maverick, Mastodon and Silverfox (Lynn Collins). This casting news arrives via IESB. The musician-actor, real name William James Abrams, Jr., previously starred on the TV show Cane, and the big budget film marks his feature debut. No word if he’ll contribute to the soundtrack or will have a scene teaching Gambit how to rap obnoxiously.
In a flick more befitting a BEP, rapper Taboo (the one who looks like he has a crystal skull), will star in 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the second big screen incarnation of Capcom’s classic video game series. Taboo’s role has not been officially announced, but First Showing speculates he might be up for the still unfilled roles of Ryu, Ken, or Guile. If so, total hilarity. Also joining the film, which is directed by Doom’s Andrzej Bartkowiak, are American Pie’s Chris Klein (as Nash), the formidable Michael Clark Duncan (as Balrog), Korean American actor Rick Yune (Gen), and others. Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk is in the title role. Did Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia teach our society nothing in 1994?
Laura Elena Harring Biography
Laura Harring made history as the first Latina to be crowned Miss USA in 1985. A year after her reign, the striking brunette was married to a German count and had begun her acting career playing Raul Julia’s wife in the NBC TV-movie “The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory” (1987). After clashing with her husband over her desire to pursue an acting career, Harring obtained a divorce and landed the lead in “The Forbidden Dance” (1990) and a one-year (1990-91) stint on the ABC daytime serial “General Hospital”. Her career really took off, though, after she landed one of the leads in the David Lynch pilot “Mulholland Dr.” in 1999. When ABC passed on the project, Lynch received funding from producer Alain Sarde and StudioCanal to expand the material into a feature film which was released to glowing reviews in 2001.
Laura Elena Herring was born and raised in Los Mochis, Mexico. After her parents’ divorce and mother’s remarriage, she and her family relocated to Texas. Shortly after settling in San Antonio, Harring was the victim of a drive-by shooting suffering a head wound. Following her recovery, she was educated at boarding schools in Texas and Switzerland before embarking on a journey to various parts of the world. While working as a restaurant cashier in the Philippines, she was briefly detained by her love-smitten boss who had confiscated her passport. (It was returned to her after her mother intervened.) Returning to the USA, Harring found employment as a sales clerk in a clothing store. On a dare, she entered a local beauty pageant and won. One pageant led to another and she eventually represented Texas in the Miss USA contest.
When she was called upon to crown her successor, a sharp-eyed produced noticed her charisma and beauty and offered her a chance to act in the TV-movie. Harring made her feature acting debut in the forgettable horror sequel “Silent Night Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!” (1989) and followed up as a Brazilian woman out to introduce the Lambada to American audiences in the cheesy “The Forbidden Dance”. After her first soap stint, she was still relegated to less than stellar fare, like direct-to-video release “Dead Women in Lingerie” (1990). Garry Marshall tapped her to play a sultry tour guide of the titular sexual haven in “Exit to Eden” (1994) and she briefly returned to the world of daytime when she joined the NBC serial “Sunset Beach” in 1997 as policewoman Paula Stevens. Unhappy with the development of her character’s storyline, she opted out.
In 1999, Harring landed what was hoped would be her breakthrough, the part of a mysterious amnesiac who is befriended by a perky aspiring actress in Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” While she had to bide her time until the project found its ultimate form as a typical Lynchian film, Harring eventually earned a payoff. As Rita (who takes her name from Rita Hayworth), Harring delivered a terrific, dreamlike and sensual turn, nicely playing off co-star Naomi Watts. Even when the film ventures into oddball territory, she managed to captivate audiences. Between the reshoots and the film’s ultimate premiere at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, the actress continued to remain busy with a supporting role in the Adam Sandler comedy “Little Nicky” (2000) and a turn as the mother who fled Cuba with her son in the Fox docudrama “The Elian Gonzalez Story” (also 2000). Following her work as the femme fatale in “Mulholland Dr.”, Harring undertook (in her words) a “trashy, suburban character” in the action drama “John Q” (2002).
The following year, she was cast in the rat-themed horror remake “Willard,” which starred Crispin Glover as the title character. In “The Punisher” (2004), the second big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics’ gun-toting anti-hero, Harring was again a lovley vision onscreen and displayed a provocative and simmering chemistry with co-star John Travolta while playing his villainous character’s wife, Livia Saint–indeed, the film initially seemed to promise that Harring would get to be as evil, or worse, as Travolta, but the script ultimately did not deliver. After a turn opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in “The King” (2005), she joined the cast of FX’s gritty police drama “The Shield” in a recurring role of an attorney for the fifth season.
- Also Credited As:
Countess von Bismarck, Laura Elena Harring, Laura Elena Herring, Laura Harring, Laura Martinez Harring, Laura Martinez-Harring - Born:
on 03/03/1964 in Los Mochis, Mexico - Job Titles:
Actor, Cashier, Sales clerk
Family
- Father: Raymond Herring. of German descent; divorced from Harring’s mother in 1971
- Mother: Maria Martinez. Mexican; divorced from Harring’s father in 1971; remarried; moved Harring and her sisters to USA
- Sister: Rita Herring. born c. 1967
- Step-father: Gaston Lima. Cuban; married Harring’s mother; moved family to Texas; paid for Harring’s schooling at private schools in Texas and Switzerland
- Step-sister: Ana Maria Lima. murdered at age 24 in 1985
Significant Others
- Husband: Carl Edward von Bismarck. German count; Harring had been roommates with his sister Claudia; became engaged in 1986; married in 1987; divorced c. 1990
Education
- Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England
- Aiglon College, Villars, Switzerland
Milestones
- 1976 Was the victim of a drive-by shooting at age 12 while living in San Antonio, Texas; suffered wound to the head
- 1982 Stranded in the Philippines for eight months when the owner of the restaurant at which she was working as a cashier confiscated her passport because he was infatuated with her
- 1985 Won the title of Miss USA, becoming first (and to date only) Latina to hold that honor
- 1987 TV-movie debut in “The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory” (NBC)
- 1989 Feature film debut in “Silent Night Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!”
- 1990 Appeared as Carla Greco on the ABC daytime serial “General Hospital”
- 1990 Had lead role as a Brazilian woman who introduces the Lambada to the USA in “The Forbidden Dance”
- 1994 Had featured role in “Exit to Eden”
- 1996 Appeared in the film “Black Scorpion II: Aftershock”; aired on Showtime
- 1997 Portrayed policewoman Paula Stevens on the NBC daytime drama “Sunset Beach”
- 2000 Appeared in “Little Nicky”
- 2000 Cast as Marisleysis Gonzalez in the Fox docudrama “The Elian Gonzalez Story”
- 2001 Made guest appearance on the Sci-Fi series “Black Scorpion”
- 2001 Starred as a mysterious amnesiac in David Lynch’s halucinatory “Mulholland Dr.”; originally shot as a 1999 pilot for a potential ABC series; when the network passed, Lynch received funding to turn material into a feature film; screened at Cannes and as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival
- 2002 Appeared in the feature “John Q”
- 2003 Cast as Cathryn in the thriller “Willard”
- 2004 Played John Travolta’s wife in “The Punisher”
- 2006 Co-starred with Gael GarcÃa Bernal in “The King,” a low-budget American film by the British documentary-maker James Marsh
- At age 11, moved with family from Mexico to Texas
- Born and raised in Mexico
- Returned to USA and lived in El Paso, Texas; entered local beauty pageant in 1984