Showing posts with label Actress. Show all posts
Janet Jackson
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Born in Gary, Indiana and raised in Encino, Los Angeles, California, she is the youngest child of the Jackson family of musicians. She first performed on stage with her family beginning at the age of seven, and later started her career as an actress with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976. She went on to star in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Diff'rent Strokes. At age sixteen in 1982, Jackson signed a recording contract with A&M, releasing her self-titled debut album the same year. She faced criticism for her limited vocal range, and for being yet another member of the Jackson family to become a recording artist. Beginning with her third studio album Control (1986), Jackson began a long-term collaboration with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Her music with Jam and Lewis incorporated contemporary R&B with elements of rap music, sample loop, triple swing and industrial beats, which led to crossover appeal in popular music. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her albums, choreography, music videos, and prominence on MTV, Jackson was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
In 1991, she signed the first of two record-breaking, multi-million dollar recording contracts with Virgin Records, which established her as one of the highest paid artists in the music industry. Her debut album under the Virgin label, janet. (1993), saw Jackson develop a public image as a sex symbol as she began to explore sexuality in her work. That same year, she appeared in her first starring film role in Poetic Justice; since then she has continued to act in feature films. By the end of the decade, Jackson was named the second most successful recording artist of the 1990s. All for You (2001), became her fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one the Billboard 200 album charts. In 2007, she changed labels, signing with the Island Def Jam Music Group and released her tenth studio album Discipline the following year.
Jackson is ranked by Billboard magazine as one of the top ten best-selling music artists in the history of contemporary music, having sold over 100 million albums worldwide.[1] The Recording Industry Association of America lists her as the eleventh best-selling female artist in the United States, with 26 million certified albums.[2] Jackson's longevity in the recording industry has rivaled that of several entertainers and her musical style and choreography have influenced a number of contemporary pop and R&B artists.
by wikipedia
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Angelina Jolie-Biography
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Angelina Jolie is the daughter of Oscar winning actor, Jon Voight, and actress Marcheline Bertrand. The name Jolie, which means pretty, was given to her in case she didn't want to use her father's name when she grew up. Her parents divorced when she was just a baby and she and her brother were raised mainly by their mom.While growing up, Angelina Jolie modeled professionally. Her very first acting gig was in her dad's film, Looking To Get Out at age five. When Angelina grew up, she settled in New York and attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She auditioned her heart out and got her first big break when she landed a role in 1995's Hackers.
In 1998, Angelina Jolie starred in the HBO movie Gia. It was the disturbing true story of supermodel and junkie, Gia Maria Carangi. Angelina snagged a Golden Globe for the performance. Jolie also won the same award, plus an Oscar, in 1999 for her role in Girl, Interrupted.
Angie's much talked about love life grabbed headlines when she met Billy Bob Thornton while filming the flick, Pushing Tin. The two married but then divorced in 2002 after they adopted a baby boy, Maddox, from Cambodia. Most recently, Angelina has started dating Brad Pitt, whom she met on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She is said to be the reason he divorced wife Jennifer Aniston! Brad Pitt has since made moves to adopt Angelina's two adoptive children, five year-old Maddox and one year-old Zahara.
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Regina Spektor
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
A veteran of New York's anti-folk scene, Regina Spektor makes quirky, highly eclectic, but always personal music. Born and raised in Moscow until age nine, Spektor listened to her father's bootleg tapes of Western pop and rock as a young child and also learned to play piano. She and her family moved from Russia to the Bronx, where she was immersed in American culture (at the time, hers was the first Russian family in the borough in 20 years). Eventually, Spektor and her family became part of a community that balanced her Russian Jewish roots with her new home's culture. She continued to practice piano anywhere she could, including at her synagogue, until her family got a piano of their own. Spektor further developed her classical piano training by attending the SUNY Purchase Music Conservatory. During her studies, she was exposed to blues and jazz artists, including Billie Holiday, for the first time; these sounds made such an impact on Spektor that they became a big part of her self-released 2001 debut album, 11:11. At the same time, she was also playing gigs anywhere she could in the city, in venues ranging from basements to parties to comedy clubs. With her frequent performances and another self-released album, 2002's Songs, Spektor developed a following that included Alan Bezozi, They Might Be Giants' drummer; he introduced Spektor to the Strokes' producer, Gordon Raphael. Raphael and Bezozi worked with Spektor on her third album, Soviet Kitsch, in New York and London (where she collaborated with the band Kill Kenada). Soviet Kitsch was initially self-released like her other work, but it eventually found a wider release with Sire Records. Tours with the Strokes, Kings of Leon, Mates of State, and the Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson further raised Spektor's profile. Tours of the U.K. and the success of "Us" as a single there led to the release of the CD/DVD retrospective Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories early in 2006; that summer, Begin to Hope, her first album of original material for Sire, arrived. ~ Heather Phares, All Music GuideSheila Kelley
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Sheila Kelley (born October 9, 1961) is an American actress. One of her most famous roles is that of Gwen Taylor in L.A. Law, which aired from 1990–1993. (Kelley did not return for L.A. Law: The Movie in 2002.) Kelley was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to a nurse mother and an engineer/inventor father.[1]
Following her role as a stripper in the film Dancing at the Blue Iguana, in which she performed a nude strip routine, she became a fan of pole dancing. Kelley has since become noted for her S Factor books and videos,[2] which instruct women in that art for exercise or pleasing their spouses.[3] She is married to the actor Richard Schiff.
Kelley formed The Elephant Company, a theatre group, in the 1980s. She also played the character, Charley Hayes, in the TV show Sisters and made an appearance on the TV show Wings.
(wikipedia)