10 Dec 2011

Céline Dion Biography


NAME: Celine Dion
OCCUPATION: Singer
BIRTH DATE: March 30, 1968 (Age: 43)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Quebec, Canada
ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

Céline was born in 1968, the youngest of 14 children. Early in childhood, she sang with her siblings in a small club owned by her parents. From these early experiences, Céline gained the know-how to performing live. At the age of 12, Dion composed a song in her native French and sent it to a record company, where it garnered the attention of René Angélil, a respected manager. Angélil believed in Céline so much that he actually mortgaged his house in order to finance her debut album. Already very popular and successful internationally, Céline burst onto the U.S. stage when she recorded the theme song to Disney's hit Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Dion received the National Order of Quebec, her province's highest honor, in April 1998. Later that year, she appeared alongside Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, and Shania Twain on the high-profile televised concert Divas Live (1998) on VH-1. While touring relentlessly and recording several albums (including S'il Suffisait d'Aimer and a holiday album, These Are Special Times), Dion was well rewarded at the Billboard Music Awards in late 1998, where she won six awards including Album Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for Let's Talk About Love. Her extensive 14-country tour, which had begun in the summer of 1998, culminated in a gala concert in Montreal on December 31, 1999, in honor of the new millennium.

After a two-year hiatus, Dion returned in March 2002 with A New Day Has Come, which topped the charts in over 17 countries. A year later, she began a much-hyped 36-month engagement at Caesars Palace, the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino. Dion simultaneously released the album One Heart, which did not fair as strongly as its predecessor.

Dion returned to creating French-language albums with 2003's 1 Fille & 4 Types. Partnering with photographer Anne Geddes, she had a hit with the children's music album Miracle: A Celebration of New Life (2004). In 2007, Dion released two albums. Taking Chances nearly reached the top of the pop album charts, and D'Elles was another French-language recording.

Catherine Zeta Jones Biography


NAME: Catherine Zeta-Jones
OCCUPATION: Actress
BIRTH DATE: September 25, 1969 (Age: 42)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Swansea, Wales
Height : 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born on 25 September 1969, in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the daughter of Dai Jones, who formerly worked for a candy factory, and Pat Jones. Her brother David Jones (b. 1967) is a development executive and brother Lyndon Jones (b.1972) works at her production company. At 15 she had the lead in the British revival of "42nd Street". She was originally cast as the second understudy for the lead role in the musical but when the star and first understudy became sick the night the play's producer was in the audience, she was given the lead for the rest of the musical's production. She first made a name for herself in the early 1990s when she starred in the Yorkshire Television comedy/drama series "The Darling Buds of May" (1991). The show was a smash hit and made her one of the United Kingdom's most popular television actresses.

In 2002 Zeta-Jones starred as the homicidal entertainer Velma Kelly in the film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Chicago. Her singing and dancing skills impressed critics and audiences and helped her win an Oscar. She subsequently appeared in several comedies, including Intolerable Cruelty (2003), in which she played a cunning gold digger opposite George Clooney, and The Terminal (2004), a film directed by Spielberg and featuring Tom Hanks. In 2004 she starred with Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon in Ocean's Twelve, a sequel to the blockbuster Ocean's Eleven (2001). Her later films include The Legend of Zorro (2005) and No Reservations (2007).

In 2008, starred alongside Guy Pearce and Saoirse Ronan in Death Defying Acts, a biopic about legendary escapologist Harry Houdini at the height of his career in the 1920s. The film was well received by many critics. View London noted that "Zeta Jones also pulls off an extremely impressive Edinburgh accent and it's great to see her in a decent role for once." In 2009, Zeta-Jones starred in romantic comedy The Rebound, in which she played a 40-year old mother of two who falls in love with a younger man, played by Justin Bartha. The film was released in cinemas in several countries throughout 2009. The film is set to be released in the United States on 25 December 2010.




Cate Blanchett Biography


Birth Name : Catherine Elise Blanchett
Date of Birth : 14 May 1969, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Height : 5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Occupation : Actress

Born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Australia, Blanchett grew up in suburban Ivanhoe near the Yarra River. Her mother, June, a native Australian, was a schoolteacher and her dad, Robert, a Texas-born Navy seaman who wound up Down Under when his ship broke down, put himself through night school and had a career in advertising. But when Blanchett was only 10, her father died from a sudden heart attack.

A gifted performer who developed her talent at a young age, Cate Blanchett grew into an exceptional actress who achieved international acclaim with her stunning Oscar-nominated turn as a young Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's "Elizabeth" (1998). Prior to that role, the engaging Australian found herself thrust in the spotlight with just her third feature, "Oscar and Lucinda" (1997), starring opposite Ralph Fiennes.

2001 was a particularly busy year, with starring roles in Bandits (2001), The Shipping News (2001), Charlotte Gray (2001) and playing Elf Queen Galadriel in the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. She also gave birth to her first child, son Dashiell, in 2001. In 2004, she gave birth to her second son Roman. Also, in 2004, she played actress Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's film "Aviator" (2004), for which she received an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for playing a teacher having an affair with an underage student in "Notes on a Scandal" (2006). In 2007, she returned to the role that made her a star in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007). It earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She was nominated for another Oscar that same year as Best Supporting Actress for playing Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There" (2007). In 2008, she gave birth to her third child, son Ignatius. She and her husband became artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, choosing to spend more time in Australia raising their children.

Cat Deeley Biography


Birth Name : Catherine Elizabeth Deeley
Date of Birth : 23 October 1976, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, UK
Height : 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Occupation : Actress, model, TV presenter, singer

Catherine Deeley was born October 23rd, 1976, in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. The farthest thing from model material while growing up in England (or at least that's what she thought), Cat never had modeling on her mind and was more interested in hanging out with her younger brother Max and being the tomboy that she was.

Although she wasn't all too concerned with her looks and cared more about her grades, Cat participated in a regional BBC competition called The Clothes Show, at age 14. The fact that she didn't win was of no importance; she still had the looks to get her to the final rounds of the competition, and was spotted by an agent from Storm modeling agency.

Catherine Deeley later to be known as Cat Deeley is a successful British TV personality and a fashion model. Ten years back she catapulted to fame in a TV host show for children 'Ant & Dec' for which she also won a BAFTA award as the best presenter. Cat is known for her trait of doing TV shows in her bare feet and as far as reports go she could be the second such artist in the UK scene. The first one we remember was Sandy Shaw, the famous Eurovision singer who used to perform bare feet and who was credited with the single 'Puppet on a String'!

The British are known for their traditional 'prim and propah' demeanor, and Cat Deeley is no exception to this rule! She is bestowed with sensual beauty and is aptly labeled as a "real beauty with brains". One of the best dressed women on the TV screen and a star of the Oral-B jingle ad, Cat keeps purring all along - and not without reason! Some of her latest feathers in the cap are interviewing actor George Clooney, becoming the latest 'Eve' of the New Year Eve celebrations in Times Square (NY), presenting team on American Idol, talent scouting in the American show "So you think you can dance" and more.

She is regularly voted by British lad magazines as one of the sexiest women in the world. It isn't because she is overtly sexy, but more because she is an attractive children's show host. She has been harassed by feminists for posing in her underwear, but that won't stop her from doing the occasional risqu spread. She loves posing for men's mags and would even consider doing the bunny magazine if the price was right.

Cassie Ventura Biography


Birth Name : Casandra Ventura
Birth Date : August 26, 1986
Birth Place : New London, Connecticut, USA
Occupations : Singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress

Casandra Ventura (born August 26, 1986), professionally known as Cassie, is an American pop/R&B singer and former fashion model. She is best known for her hit 2006 single "Me & U".
Ventura became a recording artist unexpectedly. Shortly after being introduced to music producer, Ryan Leslie, her mother requested that she record a song for her as a birthday gift. Ventura approached Leslie about producing the song, and he put together a duet for them called "Kiss Me". Leslie played it for Tommy Mottola, former chairman of Sony and record mogul behind the careers of Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, and most notably Mariah Carey. He offered Ventura a management deal, and weeks later she struck a deal with Leslie to produce her debut album.

Cassie was a fashion model for the Wilhelmina modelling agency through which she worked with Adidas, Complex magazine and Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, among others. As early as 2002, she modeled for local department stores, the Delia's fashion catalogue and the popular magazine Seventeen.

R&B singer Cassie got her first taste of the music industry at 16 when she had the opportunity to speak with the producer Rockwilder, a meeting that inspired her to take formal voice lessons. This decision paid off nicely later on, when, after she'd graduated from high school and was working on her modeling career in New York, she became acquainted with producer Ryan Leslie. He encouraged her to pursue music more seriously, and in January 2005, Cassie's mother's request for a song provided the impetus to go into the studio with Leslie and record one. Tommy Mottola heard Cassie's work and signed her to a management deal, and with Leslie as her producer, the young singer joined P. Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment in 2006. That same year, her self-titled debut album was released; "Me&U," its lead single, reached the Top Ten.

Casey Affleck Biography


Birth Name : Caleb Casey Affleck
Date of Birth : 12 August 1975, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA
Height : 5' 9" (1.75 m
Occupation : Actor

Affleck was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He is the second son of Christine Anne "Chris" (née Boldt), a school district employee and teacher, and Timothy Byers Affleck, a drug counselor, social worker, janitor, auto mechanic, bartender, and former actor with the Theater Company of Boston. Affleck has Irish, Scottish, German, and English ancestry and is a distant cousin of actor Matt Damon. He was raised in a mostly Episcopalian family. Affleck is three years younger than his brother Ben. As a child he had numerous pets, including cats, snakes, guinea pigs and turtles. Affleck went to George Washington University and later transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in physics, astronomy, and Western philosophy, but never graduated. Affleck worked sporadically on television while finishing high school and attending college during the early 1990s.

While still in his twenties, the likeable and low-key Casey Affleck, who enjoyed a slow and steady rise as an actor, saw the show business mechanics from the inside out while watching his older brother Ben Affleck gain meteoric Hollywood success - as well as the inevitable and subsequently vicious backlash. Still, the younger Affleck saw himself on another path, eschewing studio-produced Frankenstein projects in favor of eclectic character parts. The promise of his early work in "To Die For" (1995) and "Good Will Hunting" (1997) did eventually lead him to the blockbuster types like "Ocean's Eleven" (2001) and its star-packed sequels. While nestled comfortably into one of Hollywood's most entertaining ensembles, Affleck still found a way to comfortably transform in a variety of projects, creating a witty, quirky onscreen persona along the way. How ironic then, that it was his superstar brother who, despite potential cries of nepotism, cast Affleck in the moody, haunting thriller that was Ben's directorial debut, "Gone, Baby, Gone" (2007) - making critics and audiences see his little brother as a real leading man in his own right at long last.

Carson Kressley Biography


Birth Name : Carson Lee Kressley
Date of Birth : 11 November 1969, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m)
Occupation : TV host, Fashion expert

Carson Lee Kressley was born on 11 November 1969 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. Growing up, he was very interested in horses and owned his first pony (named Sparky) when he was five years old. Carson still loves horses and is now a nationally ranked equestrian. In 1986, he graduated high school and went on to study at Gettysburg College from which he graduated in 1990 (magna cum laude and phi beta kappa) with degrees in Finance and Fine Arts.

As the fashionably flamboyant frontman for the non-musical quintet known as the “Fab Five,” Carson Kressley knew a thing or two about style. Openly gay (and damn proud of it), Kressley came to national prominence as one of the stars of the wildly popular reality show, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (Bravo, 2003- ). One of the most visible icons of the “metrosexual revolution,” Kressley was credited for helping destigmatize fashion for millions of clueless heterosexual slobs all over the U.S.

In 2005, Kressley made his film debut playing a bartender in the Hilary Duff/Heather Locklear chick flick, “The Perfect Man.” The following year, Kressley was cast in a made-for-TV family movie called, “The Year Without Santa Claus” (2006), with the stylist playing an elf to John Goodman’s jolly old St. Nick. In addition to his work on screen, Kressley also authored three books, including one for young children called You're Different and That's SUPER (2005).

A strong supporter of many philanthropic causes, Kressley uses his celebrity to advance many different concerns such as The Trevor Project, The Human Rights Campaign, The Empire State Pride Agenda, LIGALY, GLSEN, AIDS WALK, and the Al D. Rodriguez Liver Foundation. Kressley is also a trustee on the board of The True Colors Fund. He is the founder of Manhattan's Ali Forney Center's "Styled For Success" program, which provides career wardrobes for formerly homeless youth and he was the founding donor of the first scholarship program for GLBT youth in his hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Carrot Top Biography


Name : Carrot Top
Date of Birth : 25 February 1965, Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA
Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m)
Occupation :Actor, comedian, writer

Scott Thompson was born on February 25th, 1965 in Coco Beach, Florida. Today Scott is better known by his stage name Carrot Top, an American comedian known for his bright red hair and is often lampooned for his prop comedy style.

Becoming a pop culture icon is a difficult thing to achieve but Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson has done just that. With over two decades of comedic performance in his rear view mirror, Carrot Top is one of the most popular, recognizable and successful comedians in America. After years of playing out to sold-out shows throughout the country, he has now become a Las Vegas icon as well, recently inking a long-term deal with the Luxor Resort and Casino.

After getting his degree, Carrot Top worked as a courier for a bank while honing his comedy act. After his first full year as the comic, he quit comedy all together out of frustration. At the time, he was in dire financial straits. As his car was repossessed, Carrot Top took jobs delivering bread, cleaning office buildings and even shucking oysters. A year later, after a single show, he ran into a club owner inquired, "What do you mean you're not doing comedy?" That manager offered Carrot Top his club's 1987 New Years Eve show. That's when everything turned around for the red haired prop comic. By 1990, Carrot Top was booking gigs outside Florida. Comedy clubs gigs across the country followed, leading up to Carrot Top's first TV appearance on the Comic Strip Live.

Following the special, Carrot Top became a regular cast member on the New Hollywood Squares alongside Lance Bass, Ralphie May and Vivica Fox. Meanwhile he continued to make guest appearances right until the last episode was taped on May 31st, 2004. This was followed by a sitcom guest appearance as himself on the George Lopez show. In fact, most of his TV appearances from this point involved Carrot Top portraying himself. In 2005, he joined a cast of who's who in comedy as they presented their take on the dirtiest joke ever told in the Paul Provenza documentary the Aristocrats.

Carrie Underwood Biography


Birth Name : Carrie Marie Underwood
Date of Birth : 10 March 1983, Checotah, Oklahoma, USA
Height : 5' 3½" (1.61 m
Occupations : Singer-songwriter, actress

Carrie Underwood was born in 1983, on the 10th of March with the name: Carie Marie Underwood. She is both a songwriter and a singer, known for the genre of country pop. Underwood started becoming a famous artist after she won in American Idol's fourth season. Carrie Underwood is now known for her records' multi-platinum sales as well as winning in the Grammy Award for a number of times.

Acclaim for the album and single spilled over into 2006, when Some Hearts re-entered Billboard's Top Ten after Underwood's appearance on the 2006 American Idol finale. Meanwhile, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" won Single Record of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards (where she also won Top Female Vocalist); a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association; and Breakthrough Video and Best Female Video at the CMT Awards, making her the only double winner at the event. Despite her hectic career as a country music star -- which included carrying her Some Hearts tour through the fall of 2006 -- Underwood found the time to finish her degree and become a spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (who named her 2005's World's Sexiest Vegetarian). "Before He Cheats" was released as Underwood's third single late in 2006, and became her third country number one and her fourth total number one hit.

Early in 2007, Underwood began work on her second album, while "Wasted" became the fourth single taken from Some Hearts; she performed it on an episode of American Idol that March, and the following month, it hit number one on the Hot Country Songs Chart.

Underwood and Brad Paisley co-hosted the CMA awards shows in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2010 they hit the Billboard charts with "Remind Me," a cut from Paisley's album, This Is Country Music. As of the summer of 2011, Underwood was working on her fourth album.

In 2010, Underwood won her fifth career Grammy -- the best country collaboration with vocal award -- for her duet with Randy Travis, "I Told You So." Two months later she made her TV acting debut on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The superstar wed professional hockey player Mike Fisher on July 10, 2010.