Julia Roberts new Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Dec 29th, 2007 | 3 comments

Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. She shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere, which grossed US$463 million worldwide.

She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2001 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich and earned Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Best Actress for Pretty Woman (1990). Her films, which also include The Pelican Brief, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, and Ocean’s Eleven, have collectively earned box office receipts well over US$2 billion.
Roberts has become the highest-paid actress in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter’s annual power list of top-earning female stars for four consecutive years (2002-2005). Her fee for 1990’s Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2007, Roberts’ net worth was estimated to be US$140 million.

Roberts was the first actress to appear on the cover of Vogue and the first woman to land the cover of GQ. She has been named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001 Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, beating out then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush. Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films (“Moder” spelled backwards; formerly Shoelace Productions).

A winsome beauty with a large, incandescent smile and a mane of hair, Julia Roberts was one of the few bankable female stars of the 1990s whose love affair with the public and world’s press continued into the next century. Critics have long speculated on the secret of her undeniable appeal, but it remained one of those enigmas of contemporary pop culture.

Roberts lacked the technical polish of some of her contemporaries, but was able to command the screen like no one else, even while surrounded by heavy hitters like Sally Field, Denzel Washington and Susan Sarandon. Her public life was also key to her longevity. From the trail of broken-hearted beaus she left in her wake to her self-imposed post-”Pretty Woman” exile to getting pregnant with twins – the public ate it all up with a spoon.

Born Oct. 28, 1967 in Smyrna, GA, Roberts originally planned to be a veterinarian, but later studied journalism instead. She was introduced to performing at an early age by her theatrical parents, who ran the Atlanta-based Actors and Writers Workshop out of their home. She made her screen debut opposite her brother Eric in “Blood Red,” although the 1986 film went unreleased for three years. Noticing that her old brother was scoring some success in Hollywood, Roberts decided to try acting as a career.

She first gained notice starring in two youth-oriented movies in 1988 – “Mystic Pizza” and “Satisfaction” (1988). In the former, Roberts played a memorably fiery Portuguese waitress. Only a year or two into her new career, the young actress earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as the doomed diabetic heroine, Shelby, of “Steel Magnolias” (1989).

With her performance as a warm-hearted prostitute who transforms cold executive Richard Gere in Garry Marshall’s saccharine but immensely successful rags-to-riches saga, “Pretty Woman” (1990), Roberts became one of Hollywood’s most popular and bankable stars – certainly its top female – and earned a surprise Best Actress Academy Award nomination. The iconic role would forever label her America’s “pretty woman” – even over a decade later. While her contribution made the routine thrillers “Flatliners” (1990) and “Sleeping with the Enemy” (1991) popular successes, she faltered a bit at the box office in late 1991 with the weepie romance “Dying Young.” She finished the year with the supporting role of Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg’s lavish but disappointing update of the Peter Pan myth, “Hook.”

Roberts’ toothsome portrayal of the feisty fairy revealed no insights into the tiny winged character, and she struggled gamely with the physical and artistic rigors of doing most of her scenes alone on a special effects soundstage. Rumors of bad blood between Roberts and Spielberg cast a pall on the project, sending the increasingly reclusive star into a self-imposed exile, which only fueled the press more.

It was at the peak of her early ’90s fame that Roberts took an unannounced break from acting to get her highly publicized personal life in order. Romances with co-stars Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott and most notably Kiefer Sutherland – whom she reportedly left for his best friend Robert Patrick only days before the wedding – all petered out, though her romance with the odd-looking actor/singer Lyle Lovett ended in a brief bare-footed marriage in 1993. Roberts made a cameo appearance as herself in Robert Altman’s “The Player” (1992) before making her much ballyhooed return to the screen after two years, reasserting her commercial magic opposite Denzel Washington in the political thriller, “The Pelican Brief” (1993), but lost a bit of ground opposite Nick Nolte in the middling romantic comedy, “I Love Trouble” (1994).

Her next few film roles proved spotty: she was passable as a journalist in Robert Altman’s high-fashion comedy “Ready to Wear/Pret-a-Porter” (1994), spunky as a woman coping with marital problems in the romantic comedy “Something to Talk About” (1995), and dour in the period horror film “Mary Reilly” (1996), all of which failed to find much audience favor. As Woody Allen’s leading lady in his musical comedy “Everyone Says I Love You” (1996), she fared slightly better (and displayed a pleasant if not spectacular singing voice). Cast opposite old beau Neeson as his love interest in Neil Jordan’s biopic of Irish revolutionary “Michael Collins” (also 1996), Roberts gave a gallant try but was hampered by a wavering Irish accent.

1997 saw the actress reassert her position as both America’s sweetheart and a box-office performer with her starring role in the hit comedy, “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” Cast as a scheming restaurant critic who sets out to break up the wedding of the man she thinks she loves, Roberts turned what could have become an unsympathetic character into an audience favorite through the sheer force of her natural charm and vibrancy. She was abetted by Rupert Everett’s scene-stealing supporting turn as her editor and a subtle script by Ron Bass that inverted many of the clichés of screwball comedy. Roberts’ much-anticipated teaming with Mel Gibson in Richard Donner’s “Conspiracy Theory” (also 1997), however, proved to be somewhat disappointing thanks to a muddled script.

Ron Bass was one of several writers who worked on the script of “Stepmom” (1998), a comedy-drama that cast Roberts as the much younger girlfriend of a divorced man coping with his two children and his saintly ex-wife. Most critics dismissed the film as pap but audiences lapped it up and made it a modest box-office success. She followed with a turn as a world-famous movie star who falls in love with a bumbling British bookseller (Hugh Grant) in “Notting Hill”, an uneven romantic comedy, which nevertheless, did well at the box office. The much ballyhooed reteaming with Gere under Garry Marshall’s guidance in “Runaway Bride” (both 1999) brought out the crowds, but the film could in no way compete with the “Pretty Woman” legacy that came before. Together these films earned over $300 million domestically, justifying the actress’ standing as the highest paid female actor.

Just as critics thought she was all charm and no real acting chops, Roberts took on the role of her life, essaying the real-life legal secretary who assisted in turning a water poisoning case into one of the largest class-action lawsuits in U.S. history, in “Erin Brockovich” (2000). Her stellar work under the direction of Stephen Soderbergh, earned her just about every accolade in 2001, including the Best Actress Oscar.

After such a heavy project, Roberts returned to comedy, playing the frustrated girlfriend of a low-level, somewhat bumbling gangster (Brad Pitt) in the “The Mexican” (2001). Although she and Pitt were not on screen together for very long, the pair shared a nice easy chemistry – but the actress had better rapport with James Gandolfini, as the hitman who kidnaps her as insurance. Despite fielding many offers and after already playing a movie star on screen, Roberts opted this time to play the personal assistant to the movie star (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the disastrous, critically reviled comedy, “America’s Sweethearts” (2001). To recover from that disaster, Roberts re-teamed with Soderbergh for a small role in his remake of “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001). Playing Tess Ocean, George Clooney’s perpetually disappointed wife, Roberts did her best to keep up with the hunky boys, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia.

Robert’s next project was also with Soderbergh, in the non-narrative sequel to his 1989 film “Sex, Lies and Videotape” – “Full Frontal” (2002). Roberts’ character, wearing an extremely unattractive hairdo, was shockingly uninteresting and unimportant to the story, such as it was. Worse was her limp turn in new buddy George Clooney’s directorial debut, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002), the supposed life story of game show producer/host-turned-government agent Chuck Barris, in which she played a spy femme fatale in a performance so purposefully arch as to defy belief.

Roberts fared better in her next project, the harmless “Mona Lisa Smile” (2003), playing Katherine Watson, a liberal-minded educator who takes a feminist position at Wellesley in the 1950s and quickly comes under fire for teaching her female students to aspire to something other than marriage and kids. While the film’s premise and storyline – a female spin on the familiar “Dead Poets’ Society” model – was predictable, Roberts’ delivered a mature and engaging performance that, in ways different from her previous efforts, had audiences once again rooting for her.

Just as Roberts began filming the anticipated sequel “Ocean’s Twelve” (2004), the actress, who was by then onto her second marriage to cameraman Danny Moder, announced to the world that she was pregnant with twins. Perhaps due to the impending birth, Roberts appeared to be having more fun than in the first “Oceans,” gamely playing off of her pregnancy and – in a harder-to-swallow plot spin – her character’s uncanny resemblance to movie star Julia Roberts. Just prior to the release of that film, Roberts made international headlines when she gave birth to a boy and a girl, Phinnaeus and Hazel, in November, 2004. Hot on the heels of that arrival was the debut of the Mike Nichols-directed drama “Closer” (2004), in which she played an American photographer in London caught up in the heated, sometimes erotic, often cruel love/sex gender war amid two shifting sets of couples (Jude Law and Natalie Portman; Roberts and Clive Owen). The highly literate film received excellent reviews and brought Roberts’ her best notice since “Erin Brockovich.”

After taking time off to enjoy her twins and family time on her Taos, NM ranch, Roberts returned to work – this time, surprising many by accepting a role on Broadway. In April of 2006, Roberts headlined the Richard Greenberg drama, “Three Days of Rain,” co-starring Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper. Although her reviews were lukewarm, the play sold out its 12-week run, proving Roberts’ appeal extended beyond the big screen and various magazine covers.
Roberts’s personal life has often been in the spotlight, a fact reflected in her Notting Hill, a romantic comedy about a famous actress falling for a bookstore owner played by Hugh Grant, another star with a high-profile personal life.

Roberts has had widely reported romantic relationships with numerous famous men, including Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott, Kiefer Sutherland, Lyle Lovett, Daniel Day-Lewis, Matthew Perry, and Benjamin Bratt. She was briefly engaged to McDermott, her Steel Magnolias co-star. She met Sutherland in 1990, when he was her co-star in Flatliners; he left his wife and children to move in with Roberts. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with an elaborate studio-planned wedding scheduled for June 14, 1991.

Roberts broke the engagement three days before the wedding when she discovered Sutherland had been meeting with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Roberts subsequently went to Ireland with Jason Patric, a friend of Sutherland’s. On June 27, 1993, she married country singer Lyle Lovett; the couple had met only three weeks earlier. The wedding took place on 72-hours’ notice and was held in Marion, Indiana, near where Lovett was appearing on tour with his band. Less than two years later, in March 1995, the couple announced their separation. They subsequently divorced.

In 1998, Roberts began dating Law & Order star Benjamin Bratt, who was her escort for the March 25, 2001 Academy Awards ceremony at which she won her Oscar. Three months later, in June 2001, Roberts and Bratt announced that they were no longer a couple. “It’s come to a kind and tenderhearted end,” she said of their relationship.

Roberts met her current husband, cameraman Daniel Moder, on the set of her movie The Mexican in 2000 and they began an affair. Though at the time, Moder was married to Vera Steinberg Moder, he filed for divorvce a little over a year later, and after it was finalized, he and Roberts wed on Fourth of July 2002, at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico.

On November 28, 2004, they became the parents of fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus Walter. Their third child, son Henry Daniel Moder, was born on June 18, 2007 in Los Angeles.

Roberts has long owned a penthouse apartment in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. She reportedly loves to shop anonymously, buying her own organic greens on weekends at the market in nearby Union Square. She and her family divide their time between their homes in Taos New Mexico, New York City, Malibu, and Venice Beach, California.

It is believed that Julia no longer owns the Venice Beach property. Shortly after marrying Moder, she purchased two beachfront lots in Malibu for $20,000,000 and began planning an exclusive compound that would be the family’s permanent home. She razed the original structure on the property and made plans for the construction of a new 6,144 sq. ft. mansion. The home is expected to be complete in time for Christmas 2007 and has 5 bedrooms and six bathrooms. The property also will have a tennis court and olympic swimming pool. When complete the market value could be as high as $40 million.

Roberts has never done a nude scene in her entire film career. This was especially noted in the movie “Flatliners”, where her top is open with the cardio sensors on her chest, but her breasts are covered with a bra.

Roberts has given her time and resources to UNICEF as well as to other charitable organizations. In Spring 1995, Roberts, an enthusiastic supporter of UNICEF, asked if she could meet some of the relief agency’s neediest recipients. On May 10, she arrived in Port-au-Prince, as she said, “to educate myself.” The poverty she found was overwhelming. “My heart is just bursting,” she said. UNICEF officials hoped that her six-day visit would trigger an outburst of giving: $10 million in aid was sought at the time.

In 2000, Roberts narrated Silent Angels, a documentary about Rett syndrome, which was shot in Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York. The documentary was designed to help raise public awareness about the disease. In July 2006, Earth Biofuels announced Roberts as a spokeswoman for the company and as chair of the company’s newly formed Advisory Board promoting the use of renewable fuels.

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Jeanne Carmen Biography and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Dec 29th, 2007 | 1 comment

Jeanne Carmen (August 4, 1930 – December 20, 2007) was an American model, pin-up girl, and B movie actress. Jeanne Laverne Carmen was born in Paragould, Arkansas. As a child she picked cotton, before running away from home at age 13. Still a teenager, she came to New York City and landed a job as a dancer in Burlesque, with Burt Lahr. Later she became a model, appearing in several men’s magazines. She also became a trick golfer, appearing with Jack Redmond.

While in her 20s, she came to Hollywood and appeared in B movies such as Guns Don’t Argue and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. She also appeared in Three Stooges shorts such as Happy, Wealthy, and Dumb.

A friend and one-time room-mate of Marilyn Monroe, in her later years Carmen was often asked about her memories of Monroe on TV entertainment programs.

On December 20, 2007, aged 77, Jeanne Carmen died from lymphoma at her home in Orange County, where she had resided since 1978.

She was survived by three children – Melinda, Kellee Jade and Brandon, and three grandchildren. At the time of Carmen’s death, a biographical film of her life was in early stages of development.

Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson, and Kate Bosworth were under consideration to play Carmen in the biopic.

Filmography: The Three Outlaws (1956) War Drums (1957) A Merry Mix Up (1957) Untamed Youth (1957) Portland Exposé (1957) I Married a Woman (Uncredited, 1958) Too Much, Too Soon (Uncredited, 1958) Born Reckless (1958) The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) The Devil’s Hand (1962) The Naked Monster (2005). Television: Mike and Buff (1 episode, 1951) 26 Men (1 episode, 1958) Riverboat (1 episode, 1959) Have Gun – Will Travel (1 episode, 1959) Tightrope (1 episode, 1960) The Dick Powell Show (1 episode, 1961)

Claudia Black Photos and Biography

Posted in Celebrities on Dec 29th, 2007 | 0 comments

Claudia Lee Black (born October 11, 1972 in Sydney) is an Australian actress, best known for her portrayals of Aeryn Sun and Vala Mal Doran in the science fiction (“sci-fi”) television series Farscape and Stargate SG-1 respectively.

There has been much debate on the various sci-fi bulletin boards concerning Black’s actual birth year. She herself has consistently declined to give an answer as to her birth year – when asked about her birth date she simply replies, “October 11″ leaving the year of her birth open for debate.

For her role in Farscape, Black was nominated Best Actress by Saturn Award in 2001 and 2002, and won the award in 2005. She has appeared in the feature films Queen of the Damned and Pitch Black. Black also appears as Vala Mal Doran in Stargate SG-1 as a regular cast member starting in season ten; she portrayed the same character in one season eight episode (“Prometheus Unbound”) and eight season nine episodes. In 2004, she was voted “#7 Hottest Scifi Babe” by Scifi WorldNet.

In the fall 2007 NBC TV show “Life” Black was cast in the supporting role of Jennifer Conover for the initial pilot. Due to Claudia’s second pregnancy, the part was recast and the role was given to actress Jennifer Siebel when the series was picked up. Interestingly, NBC still used footage of Black, and none of Siebel, when promoting the show’s debut.

Popular at sci-fi conventions, Black showed her talent at singing and playing the guitar at the Farscape conventions.

In order to film the mini-series Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, Black postponed her honeymoon in 2004. According to an interview with TV Guide, Black gave birth to a baby boy in December 2005. She appears pregnant in the story arc of Stargate SG-1 beginning with the episode “Crusade”. According to SG-1 co-star Michael Shanks, Black gave birth in November 2007.

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Michelle Trachtenberg Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Dec 29th, 2007 | 0 comments

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (born October 11, 1985) is an American television and film actress, perhaps best known for her role as Dawn Summers in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Trachtenberg made her first television appearance in 1988 in a commercial for Wisk Detergent. She went on to feature in over 100 more commercials.

She appeared in her first credited role as Nona F. Mecklenberg in The Adventures of Pete & Pete from 1994 until 1996. During the same period she played Lily Montgomery in All My Children. It was on All My Children that Trachtenberg first worked with future Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Trachtenberg’s film career began in 1996 with the lead role in Harriet the Spy. She then returned to television for Meego, for which she won a Young Artist Award. She returned to film in 1999 for Inspector Gadget, as the gadget-master’s niece, Penny. She also starred in the film Can’t Be Heaven.

In the summer of 2000, Trachtenberg took up the role of Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She remained in the role until the show ended in 2003. After Buffy, she returned to film in EuroTrip, co-starring Scott Mechlowicz and Travis Wester and directed by Jeff Schaffer. She also had a recurring role in the HBO series Six Feet Under as Celeste, a spoiled pop star for whom Keith Charles serves as a bodyguard.

In March 2005, Trachtenberg played the title character in Walt Disney Pictures’ family comedy/drama Ice Princess with Kim Cattrall. In this film, Trachtenberg plays a science whiz named Casey Carlyle who gives up her future academic life in order to chase her newfound dream of being a professional figure skater.

In November 2006, Trachtenberg guest starred in the sixth season of the Emmy-nominated crime drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the episode “Weeping Willow”, she played the role of Willow, a kidnapped video blogger based on lonelygirl15. Trachtenberg also made a cameo in the Fall Out Boy music video for “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”, Joaquin Phoenix-directed video “Tired of Being Sorry” for Balthazar Getty’s band Ringside, and Trapt’s video “Echo”.

She was recently cast as the female lead in an ABC comedy pilot called The Hill, set in Washington, D.C. Trachtenberg will provide the voice of Tika Waylan for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-video animated movie based on the novel of the same name. The movie is scheduled for release in 3rd quarter 2007.

Michelle Trachtenberg Wallpapers and Photos: http://www.snoron.com/michelle-trachtenberg/

Selma Blair new Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Dec 29th, 2007 | 0 comments

Selma Blair (born June 23, 1972) is an American actress. After numerous supporting roles in the 1990s, she starred in the film Cruel Intentions and the short-lived TV series Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane in 1999.

She has since had notable roles in Hollywood feature films such as Legally Blonde (2001), The Sweetest Thing (2002), Hellboy (2004), and Hellboy 2 (2008).

After training at The Stella Adler Conservatory, pretty dark-haired actress Selma Blair began her career with a series of small roles on film and television. In 1997 she appeared in small roles in the features “In & Out” and “Arresting Gena”, and had a larger part in the independent “Strong Island Boys”.

The following year, Blair acted in the series premiere of the Fox comedy “Getting Personal” and had a featured guest role in the CBS drama “Promised Land” as a troubled teenager with a drinking problem. She appeared in the 1998 USA Network TV-movie “No Laughing Matter” before landing a role in the ensemble of the teen comedy feature “Can’t Hardly Wait” (1998).

Blair had her first starring film role in the thriller “Brown’s Requiem” (1998), the little seen adaptation of crime writer James Ellroy’s first novel, and was chosen to head the cast of the coming-of-age midseason replacement series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” (The WB, 1999-2000), playing Zoe Bean, a witty and blunt Manhattan teenager. She was also tapped for the role of shy Cecile in “Cruel Intentions” (1999), a contemporary reworking of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” set in New York starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe.

Later, she was featured as Darcy in the music-themed straight-to-video release, “Girl” (also 1999). In 2001, she gave a memorable performance as an uptight Harvard Law student in the hit comedy “Legally Blonde”. Then Blair created a stir as a college student who writes about a degrading sexual encounter with her Pulitzer Prize-winning professor in Todd Solondz’s dark comedy, “Storytelling” (2002).

In 2003, she joined Jason Lee and Julia Stiles for the inept romantic comedy “A Guy Thing”, in which she was a bride-to-be whose wild child cousin (Stiles) gives her fiancé (Lee) second thoughts. Typically cast as the girl who loses the boy in a romantic triangle, Blair changed course and became a leading lady in the comic book adaptation “Hellboy” (2004), playing Liz Sheridan, a paranormal investigator with formidable pyrotechnic power and the potential paramour for the film’s demonic leading man (Ron Perlman).

Less successful was her turn in John Waters’ misfire “A Dirty Shame” (2004), for which she donned enormous fake prosthetic breasts to play an exotic dancer named Ursula Udders. In the critically-lauded corporate comedy-drama from Paul Weitz, “In Good Company” (2004), Blair played the wife of a young corporate hotshot (Topher Grace) who walks out on him and leaves him with nothing.

She next had a turn in the briefly released corporate thriller, “The Deal” (2005), playing a tree-hugging graduate student from Harvard asked by a an associate on a Wall Street (Christian Slater) to join his firm amidst an oil crisis with the Middle East. Then in the teen dark comedy “Pretty Persuasion” (2005), she was the wife of a high school drama school teacher (Ron Livingston) accused of sexual assault by three students with personal axes to grind. She also made a foray into horror with a leading role in the murky 2005 remake of the John Carpenter classic “The Fog.”

Blair was married to musician Ahmet Zappa on January 24, 2004, in Los Angeles. She filed for divorce at the Los Angeles Superior Court on June 21, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement to People, a spokesperson for the couple said, “Selma and Ahmet have decided to divorce, but love each other very much and will continue to be close friends”. She had a long term relationship with actor Jason Schwartzman before her marriage to Zappa. In February 2007, Selma told People magazine of her relationship with actor and writer Matthew Felker.

Selma Blair new Wallpapers and Photos: http://www.snoron.com/selma-blair/
Selma Blair Website: http://www.westlord.com/selma-blair/

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