Katherine Heigl - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Katherine Heigl Profile

Name: Katherine Heigl

Birth Name: Katherine Marie Heigl

Born: November 24, 1978, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Height: 5' 9"

Nationality: American

Profession: Actress, Former Model

Education: Attend school in New England

Father: Paul Heigl (accountant)

Mother: Nancy Heigl (Heigl's manager)

Claim to fame: Costarred opposite Gerard Depardieu in the Hollywood remake of the French romantic comedy My Father the Hero (1994)

Katherine Heigl Biography

Katherine Marie Heigl (born November 24, 1978) is an Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actress and former fashion model.

Heigl was born in Washington, D.C. to Paul Heigl, a financial executive/accountant, and Nancy, a personal manager. She has German and Irish ancestry and was raised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had a strict upbringing. She is the youngest of four children (in addition to siblings Meg (who is adopted), Jason and John (Holt) Heigl). Heigl lived in Virginia and then Denver before her family settled in Connecticut, where they moved into a large, old Victorian-style farmhouse in the wealthy town of New Canaan, where she spent most of her childhood.

In 1986, her 15-year-old older brother Jason died of injuries suffered in a car accident, after being thrown from the back of a pickup truck. When doctors determined he was brain-dead following an eight-hour operation, the family decided to donate his organs. The Heigl family was never in any doubt that Jason would have wanted his organs and tissues donated for transplant. Heigl is now a strong proponent of organ donation.

Fragments of a Feedback Loop

Greg Tate & Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson

Critical Noir: Generous Brilliance
By Mark Anthony Neal

***

What was apparent as Greg Tate and Arthur Jafa exchanged fragments of "feedback loops" long cultivated in the midnight hours of their friendship, is that they love and respect each other enough to challenge each other's thinking, but are secure enough in their own intellects to not feel threatened when one of them might get the cerebral upper hand--because even in those cases it raises the bar. Tate and Jafa's relationship highlights that genius for genius's sake matters little if not enveloped in a committed generosity. Understandably such generosity is difficult in an era where there is a marketplace for smart negroes--and certainly for those whose prose (if not ideas) play to certain mainstream notions of accessibility (i.e. Can an oblivious so-called white literate NPR listening public understand it?). Far too many of us I think, are unwilling to publically acknowledge when one of our peers produces something that really forces us to go back to the lab. All too often our measure of what matters is connected to cover story bylines and $2.00 a word gigs and our desire to protect our individual proximities to that kind of marketplace prestige. And this is not to suggest that Ellison, Murray, Painter, McKay, Tate, Jafa, and so many others did not have to create to live--but that ultimately it was the quality of the exchange of ideas that mattered more than a "mess of pottage."

Read the Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Anne Hathaway - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Anne Hathaway Profile

Name: Anne Hathaway

Height: 5' 8"

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: November 12, 1982

Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Profession: actress

Education: Millburn Highschool
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (major in English)

Relationship: Raffaello Follieri (property developer)

Father: Gerald Hathaway (attorney)

Mother: Kate McCauley (actress)

Brother: Tom Hathaway

Claim to fame: feature debut as the awkward teenager, Mia Thermopolis, in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001)

Anne Hathaway Biography

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress and singer. Hathaway made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney's family comedy The Princess Diaries (2001), which established her career. She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, and she had the lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (both 2004). Hathaway wanted to break the "G-rated" image, and consequently, in 2005 she co-starred in the adult-themed Havoc and Brokeback Mountain, both requiring extensive nude scenes, as well as The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she starred opposite Meryl Streep. That film has become the highest-grossing film of her career. Becoming Jane, in which she stars as Jane Austen, was released in 2007.

Hathaway's acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress and Streep as her idol. People magazine named her one of 2001's breakthrough stars and in 2006 she was listed as one of the world's 50 Most Beautiful People.

Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. She was named after the wife of playwright William Shakespeare. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots. She was raised in the Catholic religion with what she considers "really strong values", and wanted to be a nun during her childhood. However, at fifteen, she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother Michael was gay. Although she was raised as a Catholic, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation.

Hathaway was raised in Millburn, New Jersey and graduated from Millburn High School where she was in many school plays. She spent several semesters studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to successfully "grow up". Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and the first teenager admitted. She is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers appearing on stage to film roles.

Hathaway, a soprano, performed twice in 1998 with the All Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange. Three days after performing at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived 1999 television series Get Real.

Marion Cotillard - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Marion Cotillard Profile

Name: Marion Cotillard

Birth Date: September 30, 1975

Birth Place: Paris, France

Age: 32

Occupation: French Actress

Marion Cotillard Biography

Marion Cotillard (born September 30, 1975) is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, two-time César Award-, Czech Lion-, and Golden Globe-winning French actress, best known for her Oscar winning role as Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007).

Cotillard began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays. Her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s when she was cast in the Luc Besson production Taxi (1998) as Lili Bertineau, a role that she reprised in two sequels. She then earned very good reviews and the attention of cinephiles via her portrayal of twins who exchange their lives after one of them dies in Les Jolies Choses.

Although more widely known in France, Cotillard is building an international presence. In 2003, she had a small role in Tim Burton's film, Big Fish, which introduced her to English-speaking audiences. It was also her first both critically and financially successful film. She also played Sophie Kowalski in Yann Samuell's Jeux d'enfants (English title: Love Me If You Dare), which proved her ability to play a complex yet appealing modern romantic lead, though the film received mixed reviews. She appeared in two critically successful films in 2004: A Very Long Engagement, where Cotillard further demonstrated the range of her abilities by playing the murderous Tina Lombardi (garnering the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), and the drama mystery Innocence. In 2006, she appeared in Ridley Scott's A Good Year.

She was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the iconic French singer Édith Piaf in the biopic La Môme (English title: La Vie En Rose) before he had even met her, saying that in the eyes of Édith Piaf he noticed a similarity with Marion's own. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.

On February 10, 2008, Cotillard became the first French actress to be awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role since the BAFTAs combined the Best British and Best Foreign actress award into one Best Actress category, beginning in 1969. She is also the first actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for a French language performance since Catherine Deneuve for Indochine in 1992. She is the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a foreign language performance since 1972, when Liv Ullmann won for The Emigrants. As La Vie En Rose was also a Czech production, Marion Cotillard was nominated for the Czech Lion for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" on February 21.

On February 22, 2008 she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress, and two days later she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. After Claudette Colbert in 1934 and Simone Signoret in 1959, Marion Cotillard is the third French actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. She is the first Best Actress winner in a non-English language performance since Sophia Loren's win in 1961. She is also the first and so far only winner of an Academy Award for a performance in the French language. In her Oscar acceptance speech, the overwhelmed Cotillard proclaimed "thank you life, thank you love" and, speaking of Los Angeles, said "it is true, there is some angels in this city!"

On March 1st, 2008, Marion Cotillard won the Czech industries highest acting honor, the Czech Lion Award for Best Actress. Unfortunately, she could not attend the ceremony in Prague due to the filming of her next American film, Public Enemies.

Cotillard is currently in talks to play Luisa Contini in the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Nine.

Amy Ryan - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Amy Ryan Profile

Name: Amy Ryan

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Place: Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Profession: actress

Education: New York City's High School of Performing Arts, New York, New York, USA
Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center, New York, New York, USA

Claim to fame: playing Port Authority Officer Beadie Russell in the second season of HBO's The Wire and as a drug-addicted mother whose child has been abducted in Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone'

Amy Ryan Biography

Amy Ryan (born 30 November 1969) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.

Hired for the National Tour of Biloxi Blues right out of high school, Ryan worked steadily for the next decade Off-Broadway and in regional theater, where she originated roles in new plays by Neil LaBute, Arthur Miller and Neil Simon. Her Broadway debut came in 1993, as Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig. She replaced Calista Flockhart as Natasha in a 1997 revival of The Three Sisters when Flockhart left the play to do the television series Ally McBeal. In 2000, Ryan received the first of two Best Supporting Actress Tony Award nominations for playing the love starved Sonya in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. An appearance as Peggy in the 2001 Broadway revival of The Women followed, and she was again nominated for a Tony for playing Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire in 2005.

Following a brief stint playing a runaway on As the World Turns, Ryan began to be cast in prestigious television series such as I'll Fly Away, in which she played a high school temptress, and Brooklyn Bridge, where she played Marion Ross in flashbacks. After roles on ER and Chicago Hope, Ryan became a series regular on The Naked Truth as Tea Leoni's spoiled stepdaughter. By 2001, director Sidney Lumet was so impressed by Ryan that he cast her in 100 Centre Street playing three entirely different roles (Ellen, Paris and Rebecca). Ryan went on to feature prominently in the second season of HBO's The Wire, playing Port Authority Officer Beadie Russell, and has appeared in several episodes of NBC's Law & Order.

After her 1999 movie debut in Roberta, Ryan appeared in You Can Count on Me and Keane. Albert Brooks chose her to play his wife in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World in 2005, and 2007 brought both Dan in Real Life and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Her role as a star-struck sheriff's wife in Capote earned her positive reviews, but it was playing a hardened Welfare mom in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone that finally brought her national attention.

After being voted Best Supporting Actress for Gone Baby Gone by the National Board of Review as well as the critics circles in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC, Ryan's performance was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar.

Ryan's upcoming film Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, will premiere in the fall of 2008, and she is currently shooting Paul Greengrass's next project, Green Zone, opposite Matt Damon.

Keri Russell - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Keri Russell Profile

Name: Keri Russell

Birth Name: Keri Lynn Russell

Height: 5' 4''

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: March 23, 1976

Birth Place: Fountain Valley, California, USA

Profession: actress, dancer

Education: Kino Junior High School
Highlands Ranch High School outside Denver, Colorado
Mesa Stars Dance and Drill Team
Mickey Mouse Club

Husband/Wife: Shane Deary (contractor; engaged in 2006; married on February 14, 2007)

Relationship: Scott Speedman (actor; born on September 1, 1975), Tony Lucca (actor, singer; born 1976; met when both appeared in the New Mickey Mouse Club; together 1991-1999)

Father: David Russell (Nissan executive)

Mother: Stephanie Stephens

Sister: Julie Russell (younger)

Brother: Todd Russell (older)

Son: River Russell Deary (born on June 9, 2007)

Claim to fame: as Felicity Porter in TV Series Felicity

Keri Russell Biography

Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976) is a Golden Globe-winning American actress and dancer. After appearing in a number of made-for-television films and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002. Russell has since appeared in several films, including We Were Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, Mission: Impossible III, Waitress, and August Rush.

Russell was born in Fountain Valley, California, the daughter of Stephanie (née Stephens), a homemaker, and David Russell, a Nissan Motors executive. She has an older brother, Todd, and a younger sister, Julie. Russell grew up in Dallas, Texas; Mesa, Arizona; and Denver, Colorado, moving frequently because of her father's job.

Russell first appeared on television as a cast member of the New Mickey Mouse Club variety show on the Disney Channel. She was on the show from 1991 to 1993 and co-starred with future pop stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, JC Chasez, and Justin Timberlake. In 1992, she appeared in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid alongside Rick Moranis and in 1993 had a role on the sitcom Boy Meets World as Mr. Feeny's niece. Russell subsequently starred in several film and television roles, including the 1996 made-for-television film The Babysitter's Seduction. She also had a role on the short-lived soap opera series Malibu Shores the same year. In 1994, she appeared in Bon Jovi's music video "Always" with Jack Noseworthy and on Married with Children.

From 1998 to 2002, Russell starred as the title character on the successful WB Network series Felicity; she won a Golden Globe for the role in 1999. Russell's long and curly hair was one of her character's defining characteristics, and a drastic hairstyle change at the beginning of the show's second season was considered to be the cause of a significant drop in the show's ratings. As a result, new policies were enacted at the network requiring hairstyle changes by cast to be approved by the network's executives. Felicity 's ratings drop also coincided with the show's move to a Sunday night time slot, so it is unclear exactly how much effect the hairstyle change actually had. During the show's run, Russell appeared in the films Eight Days a Week, The Curve and Mad About Mambo, all of which received only limited releases in North America. Her next role was in the Mel Gibson-starring film We Were Soldiers, playing the wife of an American serviceman. The film was released in March 2002, two months before the end of Felicity 's run.

Kristin Chenoweth - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Kristin Chenoweth Profile

Name: Kristin Chenoweth

Birth Name: Kristi Dawn Chenoweth

Height: 4' 11''

Sex: F

Nationality: American

Birth Date: July 24, 1968

Birth Place: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA

Profession: Actress, Producer, Musician

Education: Broken Arrow High School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (graduated in 1986)
Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma (graduated in 1995 with BFA in voice and MFA in opera performance)

Relationship: Marc Kudisch (actor; born September 22, 1966; engaged in 1998; separated in 2001)

Claim to fame: Won Broadway's 1999 Tony Award for her portrayal of Sally in a revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Kristin Chenoweth Biography

Kristin Chenoweth (born July 24, 1968) is an American singer and Tony Award-winning American musical theatre, film, and television actress.

Chenoweth has a distinctive speaking voice; in FHM's March 2006 issue, she compared her voice to that of Betty Boop. Chenoweth is a lyric coloratura soprano, and ably sings in both the chest and head registers. She can currently be seen on television, portraying Olive Snook on the ABC dramedy Pushing Daisies and is the current face of Jude Frances jewelry.

Chenoweth was born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth (she added an "n" in her first name later because she thought that "Kristin" was a more operatic name than "Kristi") in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and was adopted at birth. Chenoweth's ancestry includes one-quarter Cherokee lineage. After studying drama at Broken Arrow High School under JoJo Nichols, Chenoweth attended Oklahoma City University, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta (Beta Omicron) Sorority. Chenoweth earned a bachelor's degree in musical theater and a master's degree in opera performance, studying under Florence Birdwell who taught Miss America 1981 Susan Powell and two-time Tony nominee Kelli O'Hara. While at OCU, she won the title of "Miss OCU" and went on to win second runner-up in the Miss Oklahoma pageant in 1991. She performed at Opryland USA. She won a "most talented up-and-coming singer" award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, which came with a full scholarship to Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts. Two weeks before school started she went to New York City to help a friend move. While there she auditioned for the Paper Mill Playhouse's production of the musical "Animal Crackers" and got the role of Arabella Rittenhouse. She turned down the scholarship and moved to New York to do the show and pursue a career in musical theater.

Kristin Chenoweth made her Broadway debut in a production of Molière's Scapin starring Bill Irwin, followed in the spring of 1997 by the musical Steel Pier by John Kander and Fred Ebb, for which she won a Theatre World award. The following season, she appeared in the City Center Encores! production of the George and Ira Gershwin musical Strike Up the Band and the Lincoln Center Theater production of William Finn's A New Brain. She has performed several times on the radio program A Prairie Home Companion.

During the 1998–1999 season, she performed the role of Sally in the Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The production won Chenoweth the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards as the season's Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She then starred in the Broadway comedy Epic Proportions, followed by appearances in ABC's television adaptation of the musical Annie (as Lily St. Regis), and in the leading role of Daisy Gamble in the City Center Encores! production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.