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Mindy McCready

Mindy McCready’s debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, elevated her into Nashville’s music spotlight and established her as a promising singer.

Born and raised in southern Florida, McCready (born Malinda Gayle McCready) graduated from high school at the age of 16 with the intention of beginning her musical career early. Following her graduation, she took a part-time job in her mother’s ambulance company and began concentrating on performing her music. When she was 18 years old, she moved to Nashville. She had made her mother a promise that she would go to college if she failed to break into the music industry within the space of a year. After a few months in Nashville, she met producer/songwriter Norro Wilson, who directed her demo tapes to producer David Malloy. Impressed with her tapes, Malloy agreed to work with McCready. For the next year, McCready and Malloy refined the singer’s style and crafted a high-class demo tape. Eventually, Malloy took the tape to RLG Records, who signed McCready after seeing her perform a live concert; she completed the deal exactly 51 weeks after she moved to Nashville.

McCready released her debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, in April of 1996 to positive reviews. Within six months of its release, it had gone gold. If I Don’t Stay the Night followed in 1997, trailed two years later by I’m Not So Tough.

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Catherine McCormack

A flawless English beauty with flashing blue eyes, Catherine McCormack quickly rose to prominence after her portrayal of Murron, the doomed sweetheart of William Wallace, in Mel Gibson’s Oscar-winning epic “Braveheart” (1995). This native of Alton trained at the Oxford School of Drama where she began to hone her craft in stage productions of classical and contemporary work. She segued to the small screen where she was featured in Anna Campion’s “In the Woods”. The director chose McCormack for the pivotal role of a neurotic student in the ensemble of “Loaded/Bloody Weekend” (1994; released in the USA in 1996). While her role in “Braveheart” was ornamental at best, McCormack lent charm and charisma to the part. Audiences were impressed by her flowing hair and preternatural attractiveness rather than her acting ability. Similarly, “North Star” (1996), a little-seen adventure in which she played the kidnapped mistress of an Alaskan gold prospector, wasted her talents in an underwritten role where she was required to look good and act feisty.

Her first leading role in “Dangerous Beauty” (1998), as a 16th Century woman who, when spurned by her true love, becomes a courtesan seemed on paper to further typecast the actress for her appearance. It certainly didn’t hurt that she looked at home in the sumptuous period costumes, but McCormack crafted more than just a surface portrayal, mining the character for its wit, passion and power. Completely believable as a desired object of beauty (despite her protests of “I’m quite a gangly, awkward person”), she successfully carried the picture, although audiences and critics offered a rather cool reception. McCormack was once again better than her material playing a WWII-era girl attempting to stay true to her fiance in “Land Girls” (1998). Finally, in “Dancing at Lughnasa” (also 1998), she had a role worthy of her. As the unwed mother Christina, the youngest in a family of five sisters in 1930s Ireland, McCormack delivered a beautifully nuanced portrait of a romantic torn between her love for a dashing Welshman and her duty to her family. Returning to more contemporary times, she appeared alongside Kathy Burke, Jennifer Ehle, Dougray Scott and Douglas Henshall in the relationship comedy-drama “This Year’s Love” (1999).

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This voluptuous blonde became a media phenomenon based on her co-hosting duties of “Singled Out”, the MTV Generation-X version of “The Dating Game”. Jenny McCarthy was able to parlay her success on that show into a sitcom career, beginning with the sketch series “The Jenny McCarthy Show” (MTV, 1996) and her own NBC series “Jenny” (1997-98).

The second of four daughters, McCarthy was raised in Chicago and had always harbored dreams of a showbiz career. When she ran out of tuition money for nursing school, she attempted to find work as a model but was rejected by the local agencies. According to McCarthy, she approached Playboy magazine in 1993 as a last ditch effort to earn some much needed cash. Within a few months she was Miss October and went on to earn the title of Playmate of the Year. Taking her earnings (about $100,000), she decamped to L.A. to pursue an acting career. On the West Coast, she eventually hooked up with manager Ray Manzella who had guided the early careers of Vanna White and Pamela Anderson Lee. He sent her to an audition at MTV where she was quickly hired. During her two-year stint (1995-97) as co-host of “Singled Out”, she quickly established her onscreen comic persona; rowdy and obnoxious and willing to make a fool of herself, particularly by making odd faces. McCarthy became an almost overnight sensation and MTV put her to work on other shows (i.e., “Beach House”).

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Blonde for one role, brunette the next, actress Rachel McAdams has used more than appearances to conceal herself in the characters she has played. Though in her early career she often played the bitchy girl with a cruel streak to rival any teenaged pom-pommer—or third-world dictator—McAdams has also effectively played warm, genuine kind and high-spirited. And while still relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, McAdams possesses both the look and talent to become a major star.

Originally from London, Ontario—a picturesque Canadian town—McAdams craved the spotlight at an early age. At 4, she began competing as an ice skater, but over the years the pressure from competition, and her mother, soon wore the young McAdams out. All the while, McAdams was traveling to nearby Stratford to attend local theater and soon developed an interest in acting. At 12, she performed Shakespeare at the Original Kids Theatre in her hometown. She won her first acting award in 1995 for her role in I Live In A Little Town, a high school play that was featured in the Ontario Showcase of the Sears Drama Festival. After gaining valuable skills and experience as an Original Kid and in high school performances, McAdams attended York University where she performed in numerous student films and stage productions. She graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater.

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Valeria Raquel Mazza (born February 17, 1972) is an Argentine fashion model. She was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, and discovered when she was only 16 years old by hairstylist Roberto Giordano. She rose to fame in 1996 when she appeared on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover with Tyra Banks, and presented the San Remo Music Festival in Italy. Mazza has also appeared on the covers of Glamour, ELLE, and Vogue. In 1998, she appeared in the movie Paparazzi. Later that year she married businessman Alejandro Gravier, with whom she has three sons: Balthazar (b. May 29, 1999), Tiziano (b. March 12, 2002), and Benicio (b. February 23, 2005).

The pert, attractive, young Mathis is a third-generation performer (granddaughter of Austrian actress Gusti Huber, daughter of actress Bibi Besch). The New York and L.A.-raised teen got her first role–as an Amish girl–in the short-lived TV series “Aaron’s Way” (NBC, 1988). She continued to work in TV sporadically, her contributions consisting of the crime series “Knightwatch” (ABC, 1988-89) and supporting roles in the TV-movies “American Nuclear” (as James Farentino’s daughter, CBS, 1989), “Cold Sassy Tree” (TNT, 1989), and three 1990 movies, “Extreme Close-Up” (NBC), “82 Hours ‘Til Dawn” (CBS) and “To My Daughter” (NBC).

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In 1996, Heather Matarazzo delivered one of the year’s most striking film performances as the plain, bespectacled junior high student Dawn Weiner in “Welcome to the Dollhouse”. Only eleven years old when the film was shot, the Long Island native offered a compelling and touching performance of a misunderstood middle child, battered by the taunts of classmates (who call her ‘Weinerdog’) and the particular attentions of one boy (Brendon Sexton III) who demonstrates his affection with threats of rape. Despite subject matter that was at times painful to watch, the young actress never flagged, holding the audience’s sympathies even while displaying sibling rivalry. Like indie stalwart Lili Taylor, Matarazzo was willing to downplay her own unusual looks for the sake of the character.

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A versatile and pretty theater veteran with a distinctive voice and delicate features, Mary-Louise Parker was a well-traveled “army brat” who began her stage career in New York City during the mid-1980s. She earned a 1990 Tony nomination for her performance as a young bride who accidentally swaps souls with an old man in Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss” and later picked up an OBIE for her riveting portrayal of a victim of child abuse in Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “How I Learned to Drive” (1997). In between, she essayed roles as diverse as a woman driven to madness by the birth of a deformed child in “Babylon Gardens” (1991), a schemingly ambitious actress in the black comedy “Four Dogs and a Bone” (1993) and the vocally-challenged saloon singer Cherie in a 1996 revival of “Bus Stop”, opposite Billy Crudup. In 1998, Parker won critical kudos as a Cockney dominatrix who overhears a dying man’s confession and attempts to save his victims by traveling back in time in Alan Ayckbourn’s razor-sharp comedy “Communicating Doors”. The actress’ next stage appearance saw her offer an acclaimed turn (which netted her a Tony Award) as a mathematician coping with the legacy of her father in the Pulitzer-winning “Proof.”

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A dark-haired performer who has made a her name in the industry with an original take on high-concept comedic stage productions as well as notable TV and film acting skills, Mary Lynn Rajskub proved a versatile and dynamic player. Appearing in extensive productions on stage in California, Rajskub started out as a San Francisco Art Institute student who found her comic side in performance pieces that played upon her skewed sense of humor and knack for bringing out the laughs in uncomfortable situations. Noticed by comedians Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Rajskub was cast on their HBO concept comedy sketch series “Mr. Show with Bob and David” in 1995 and remained with the program until 1996 when she switched to the network’s “The Larry Sanders Show”, replacing friend Janeane Garofalo’s character as the show within a show’s new eager to please and often inappropriate booker.

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead was born on 28th November 1984 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. She grew up in Salt Lake City and North Carolina many years of her life and actually had an ambition to become a ballerina, for which she attended Geoffrey Ballet School in NYC at the age of 11 and started taking acting lessons too. Her most notable roles are in movies such as Sky High, Final Destination 3, The Ring Two and she has landed a role in horror remake ‘Black Christmas’, which is scheduled for a 2006 release.

A distant cousin of Ava Gardner.

Constance Marie (b. Constance Marie López on September 9, 1965 in East Los Angeles, California) is an American actress of Mexican descent.

Marie started her career as a dancer on David Bowie’s The Glass Spider Tour. She later began an acting career and won the role of Nikki Alvarez on the now defunct 1989 NBC soap opera, Santa Barbara. Marie later made her feature film debut alongside Jennifer Lopez in the 1997 biopic, Selena. Her other film credits include Tortilla Soup in which she played a divorced mother. She has guest starred on many television shows such as FOX’s Ally McBeal.

Currently, she plays Angie Lopez on the ABC sitcom, The George Lopez Show. From 2002 until 2004, Marie played Nina Gonzales on the critically-acclaimed PBS mini-series, American Family: Journey of Dreams.

She’s been in a relationship with yoga instructor Kent Katich since the mid-90s.

Possessing porcelain skin, long dark curls and classical, yet exotic, features, Julianna Margulies shot to stardom as the capable yet caring head nurse Carol Hathaway on the hit NBC medical series “ER”. Her character was supposed to be killed off by a drug overdose in the 1994 pilot episode but the actress had proven so likable she won not only a permanent spot on the show but also a 1995 Best Supporting Actress Emmy. Margulies remained with the show through the 1999-2000 season while Hathaway not only faced professional challenges as well as personal ones (broken romances, giving birth to twins). The actress turned down a contract valued at a reported $27 million to extend her stay on the hit series, choosing instead to seek different and challenging roles.

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