Jessica Alba - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Jessica Alba Profile

Birth Name - Jessica Marie Alba

Birth Date - April 28, 1981

Birth Place - Pomona, California, USA

Height - 5' 6"

Nationality - American

Profession - Actress

Education - high school graduated, Atlantic Theater Company in New York, Began studying acting at age 11

Relationship - Cash Warren (assistant director; dated 2005 - July 2007), Michael Weatherly (actor; born on July 8, 1968; engaged in May 2001; broke up)

Father - Mark Alba (Spanish/Mexican-American; real estate owner, once joined US Air Force)

Mother - Cathy Alba (French/Danish; born in Montreal)

Brother - Joshua Alba (actor; born on July 8, 1982)

Claim to fame - as Max Guevara on TV Series Dark Angel (2000)

Jessica Alba Biography

Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in Honey, Dark Angel, Sin City, Fantastic Four, Into the Blue and Idle Hands.

Alba was born in Pomona, California, to Mark Alba, who is Mexican American (though both of his parents were born in California), and Catherine (née Jensen), who has French and Danish ancestry; the two married while in their teenage years. Her maternal grandfather was a Marine NCO for 30 years, serving in the Pacific during WWII, and later as Asst. Drum Major for the United States Marine Band. Alba was raised in an Air Force family, along with her brother, Joshua (an actor who appeared with her in the season one finale of Dark Angel), and her grandparents, until she was seventeen years old. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California.

Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a burst appendix, and a cyst on her tonsils. This served to isolate her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her.

She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.

Alba had expressed interest in acting since the age of five. She took her first acting class at age twelve, and an acting agent signed her nine months later.

Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when the actress in one of the prominent roles dropped out.

Alba appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child; she was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.

Penelope Cruz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Penelope Cruz Profile

Name: Penelope Cruz

Birth Name - Penelope Cruz Sanchez

Born - April 28, 1974, Madrid, Spain

Height - 5' 5½''

Nationality - Spanish

Profession - Actress, Model

Relationship - Matthew McConaughey (actor; November 4, 1969; dating since summer 2004, met while filming Sahara; broke up in May 2006), Tom Cruise (actor; dated 2001-January 2004)

Father - Eduardo Cruz (auto mechanic)

Mother - Encarna Cruz (hairdresser, manager)

Sister - Monica Cruz (professional flamenco dancer; TV star; born in 1977)

Brother - Eduardo Jr (born in 1985)

Claim to fame - As Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Penelope Cruz Biography

Penelope Cruz Sanchez (born April 28, 1974, in Madrid), better known as Penelope Cruz, is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated Spanish actress. Originally a dancer, she soon moved into Spanish television, and since then she has appeared in a string of films in Spanish, English, French and Italian.

Cruz was born in San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain. Her parents are Eduardo Cruz, a retailer, and Encarna Sanchez, a hairdresser. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer, re-enacting TV commercials for her family's amusement, but she decided to focus her energies on dance.

After studying classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory, she continued her training under a series of prominent dancers. At 15, however, she followed another calling after she bested more than 300 other girls at a talent agency audition.

She received three years of Spanish Ballet training with Angela Garrido. She also had jazz dance training with Raúl Caballero and she studied at Cristina Rota (mother of Juan Diego Botto) school in Madrid. She speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian fluently.

Cameron Diaz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Cameron Diaz Profile

Name: Cameron Diaz

Birth Name: Cameron Michelle Diaz

Height: 5' 9"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 30, 1972

Birth Place: San Diego, California, USA

Profession: actress, model

Education: Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California

Relationship: Justin Timberlake (musician; born January 31, 1981; dated since 2003; split January 11, 2007), Jared Leto (actor; born December 26, 1971; 1999-2003), Matt
Dillon (actor; born February 18, 1964; 1996-1998), Carlos De La Torre (producer; 1990-1995)

Father: Emilio Diaz (oil foreman)

Mother: Billie Early (exporting agent)

Sister: Chimene Diaz (older)

Claim to fame: as Tina Carlyle in The Mask (1994)

Cameron Diaz Biography

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in blockbuster movies such as The Mask, There's Something About Mary, My Best Friend's Wedding, Charlie's Angels, Shrek, and Gangs of New York. Diaz was the second of three actresses (the others being Julia Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon) to join the coveted "$20 Million Club" after receiving this salary for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Diaz was born in San Diego, California to Emilio Diaz who worked as a foreman for an oil company, and Billie, an import-export agent. Diaz's father is a second-generation Cuban-American and her mother has Native American, English and German ancestry. Diaz attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg. During her school days, she was called Skeletor by her classmates because she was so thin.

Nicole Kidman - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Nicole Kidman Profile

Name: Nicole Kidman

Birth Name: Nicole Mary Kidman

Height: 5' 10½

Sex: F

Nationality: Australian

Birth Date: June 20, 1967

Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Profession: actress, producer

Education: St Martin's Youth Theater in Melbourne, Australia
Australian Theater for Young People in Sydney, Australia
Philip Street Theater in Australia (majored in Voice, Production and Theater History)

Husband/Wife: Keith Urban (country musician; met in January 2005; engaged on May
17, 2006; married on June 25, 2006), Tom Cruise (actor; married on December 24, 1990;
separated since December 2000; filed for divorced on February 7, 2001; divorced on August 8, 2001)

Relationship: Stephen Bing (producer; reportedly dating in November 2004), Lenny Kravitz (musician; dated in 2003), Fabrizio Lombardo (Italian; producer)

Father: Dr. Anthony David Kidman (author; biochemist; clinical psychologist)

Mother: Janelle Ann Kidman (educator; nurse)

Sister: Antonia Kidman (an entertainment reporter; born in 1970)

Son: Connor Anthony Kidman Cruise (born on January 17, 1995; adopted)

Daughter: Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise (born on December 22, 1992; adopted)

Claim to fame: as Dr. Claire Lewicki in Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990)

Nicole Kidman Biography

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Academy Award-winning Australian actress and occasional singer. In 2006, she became the highest paid actress in the film industry. In the same year, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour.

After making various appearances in film and television, Kidman received her breakthrough role in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Since then, Kidman's acting career has developed greatly. Her performances in several films, such as To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and The Hours (2002), have won her not only critical acclaim but also many film awards. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. Kidman is also a UNIFEM and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a singer and a successful recording artist.

She is also well-known for her former high-profile marriage to Tom Cruise, as well as her current marriage to singer Keith Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Her father, Dr. Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney. At the time of Nicole Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four years old and Kidman's parents now reside in Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman who is a journalist.

She started taking ballet lessons when she was four. She attended Lane Cove Public School in her primary years and later attended North Sydney Girls' High School. Kidman concentrated on her family responsibilities until her mother's recovery. She then trained at the Phillip Street Theatre. This led to studies at Sydney's Australian Theatre for Young People (of which she is now a patron).

Amy Adams - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Amy Adams Profile

Name: Amy Adams

Birth Name: Amy Lou Adams

Height: 5' 5"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: August 20, 1975

Birth Place: Vicenza, Italy

Profession: actress

Education: Alumna of the Chanhassen Dinner Theater in Minnesota

Claim to fame: won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her performance as Ashley in Junebug (2005)

Amy Adams Biography

Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress and singer perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated role as Ashley Johnsten in Junebug and her Golden Globe Award-nominated role as Giselle in Enchanted.

Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy, the daughter of American parents Kathryn and Richard Adams, who was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Italy. She grew up as one of seven children in Castle Rock, Colorado and was raised in the Mormon religion, although her family left the church after Adams' parents divorced when she was 11 years old. Throughout her years at Douglas County High School, she sang in the school choir and trained as an apprentice at a local dance company with ambitions of becoming a ballerina. However, after graduating from high school, she decided that she was "never going to be that good [at ballet], no matter how hard [she] work[ed]" and entered musical theater, which she found was "much better suited to [her] personality".

To support her community theater habit, Adams worked at Gap as a greeter and at Hooters as a hostess and a waitress, a fact which has "become [her] entire press career a while". She began working professionally as a dancer at Boulder's Dinner Theatre and Country Dinner Playhouse, where she was spotted by a Minneapolis dinner-theater director. Along with her family, Adams moved to Chanhassen, Minnesota, where she continued to work in regional dinner theater. While she was off work nursing a pulled muscle, Adams auditioned for the satirical 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was being filmed in Minnesota, and was cast in her first film role. Persuaded by her Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star, Kirstie Alley, Adams moved to Los Angeles, California in 1998. Shortly after, she was cast in Fox Network's television series spin-off of Cruel Intentions, Manchester Prep, in the role of Kathryn Merteuil. The series did not live up to the network's expectations and following numerous script revisions and two production shutdowns, it was canceled. The filmed episodes were then re-edited to be released as the direct-to-video film, Cruel Intentions 2.

From 2000 to 2002, Adams appeared in a series of small films like Psycho Beach Party while guest-starring on television series such as Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and The West Wing. She then appeared in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can as Brenda Strong, a role which was "supposed to be [her] big break" but she "was unemployed for a year after that". Adams starred in The Last Run in 2004 as well as voicing characters on animated television series King of the Hill. In the same year, she was cast in the television series, Dr. Vegas, in the role of Alice Doherty before she was fired after a contract dispute.

Joan Morgan UnPlugs with Hillary

from Vibe.com

Hillary Clinton Talks Chances for Clinton/Obama Dream Ticket
by Joan Morgan

Last weekend, author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley invited all four leading presidential candidates to New Orleans along with venerated members of the black cultural and political elite -Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Cornel West, Donna Brazille, and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee among them-to address the annual State of the Black Union Symposium.

That the Republican candidates Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain did not attend came as no surprise. More unexpected was the fact that Senator Obama, locked in a dead heat for the pivotal March 4 Texas and Ohio primaries, declined Smiley's invitation, offering to send his wife, Michelle instead. Smiley publicly criticized the Senator's decision and was lambasted by black folk across the country who derided Smiley for shortsightedness and egotism. Smiley, who's usually on the sunny side of black popular opinion, reported that members of his family experienced harassment and even death threats. Such is the intensity of Obama-mania at this stage of the campaign.

Sen. Clinton, who has watched her lead in money, delegates, and polls dwindle with alarming rapidity as Obama racked up 11 consecutive primary victories-and whose presidential hopes hang precariously on her ability to secure victories in Texas and Ohio-was there. "More than Obama, Senator Clinton needs to address this crowd," said Rev. Sharpton, "to explain some of the race-tinged language we've heard from people in her campaign that has polluted and polarized this race."

Considering the conflama, the Morial Convention Center was a fitting location. Fresh coats of paint and pretty words are not enough to exorcise the heartbreaking history of Hurricane Katrina or the uneasy spirits left in her wake. The sanitized stench of betrayal, broken promises, and ceaseless finger-pointing are a palpable part of the history of this venue. It is not an easy place to fake the funk.

Greeted by a standing ovation, the embattled Senator from New York took the stage and offered these poignant words:

"This campaign has taken all of us into uncharted territory as a party, as a nation, and as individuals. And yes, I think we can be both proud and grateful that we are breaking barriers and changing history for the good. But uncharted territory means the way forward isn't always easy. The high stakes and historic nature of Senator Obama's candidacy and mine have vested this campaign with an intensity and an excitement seldom seen in the political arena. And, as often happens, there have been some painful moments, too. Those of us who have fought together for decades, to right wrongs and break barriers, cannot allow differences in our choice of who should be elected to undermine our fundamental unity and determination to change the course of this country starting in November [applause] because we represent precious opportunity and urgent responsibility for our wounded nation."

After her address, and a question and answer session with Smiley that was broadcast live on C-Span, Sen. Clinton and I sat down for this exclusive interview. What followed wasn't only a frank admission of her weaknesses, but also a reiteration of her unique strengths.

Read the Full Essay @ Vibe.com

NBM BookNotes: Racial Paranoia

Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness by John L. Jackson, Jr.

The Civil War outlawed slavery, and the civil rights movement put an end to legalized segregation. Crimes motivated by racism are now punished with particular severity, and Americans are more sensitive than ever when it comes to the words they use to talk about other races and ethnic groups. Yet the country remains divided along racial lines.

This controversial book identifies a new paradigm of race relations that has emerged in the wake of the legal victories of the civil rights era: racial paranoia.

African-Americans distrust the rhetoric of political correctness, and continue to see the threat of hidden racism lurking below the surface of America's public conversations. Conspiracy theories abound and racial reconciliation seems nearly impossible.

Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness explains how this skepticism is cultivated, transferred, and reinforced; how it shapes our nation and complicates the goal of racial equality.

Racial paranoia isn’t just about people being hyper-sensitive, and it is hardly the same thing as old-fashioned racism. The nuances of those differences are at the center of current debates about the very possibility of democracy in a multiracial American society on the verge, potentially, of its first African-American President.


ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RACIAL PARANOIA

“For those who are repeatedly wounded by racism, the prophylactic defense of 'paranoia' may be every bit as involuntary as it is practical. In his insightful new book, John L. Jackson Jr. renders a rigorous and fresh examination of the new axis of race relations in America."
--Randall Robinson, author of The Debt and An Unbroken Agony: Haiti From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President

"Brutally honest and brilliantly original, Racial Paranoia diagnoses an urgent problem: the suspicion and the reality of racism on the down-low. John Jackson takes us on a stunning whirlwind tour through a landscape peopled by everyone from Frederick Douglass to Dave Chappelle. The picture that emerges is of a new reality where race is everywhere and nowhere, seen and unseen, felt and ignored. Jackson's insight into what he calls the de cardio racism inscribed on American hearts is destined to make this book a classic."
--Noah Feldman, Professor of Law, Harvard University, author of Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

"By listening to conversations about race and studying its endless iterations in popular culture, John L. Jackson, Jr., arrives at a nuanced and utterly convincing reading of how, when we talk about race, we pretend to talk about everything but race, and of how all of us learn to understand what's being said. This important new book will help us decipher and make sense of our national conversation about race."
–Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

"Having an honest conversations about race is as daunting as it was a century ago when W.E.B. DuBois acknowledged the color-line as the defining reality of American culture. Never one to be discouraged by such challenges, John L. Jackson, Jr., once again puts conventional wisdom on its head with a smart, imaginative and humorous conversation about race in contemporary America. With the publication Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness, I suspect Jackson will become everybody’s favorite public intellectual."
—Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man

John L. Jackson, Jr. is the Richard Perry University Associate Professor of Communication and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.