Lizzy Caplan Photos and Biography

Posted in Celebrities on Jan 8th, 2008 | 0 comments

Elizabeth Anne Caplan (born June 30, 1982) is an American actress. She is known for her role in the 2004 film Mean Girls and for starring in the comedy The Class.

Caplan was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in a Reform Jewish family. She attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles where she starred in such productions as Much Ado about Nothing and You Can’t Take It with You.

Caplan began her television acting career in 1999, when she played the minor role of Sara on the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks. She had a series of guest appearances on other shows, and has been a guest on Sharon Osbourne’s talk show.

Lizzy also appeared in Jason Mraz’s music video for You and I Both. Another of her major television characters came on Smallville, a series about Superman as a teenager. She debuted on that show on November 6, 2001, playing “freak of the week” Tina Greer on the episode “X-Ray”. She reprised her role on the show on January 14, 2003, in the episode “Visage.” For two episodes she also appeared on the series, Once and Again, as a girl named Sarah, playing an ex-girlfriend of Katie Singer (Mischa Barton).Season 3 of this show starred Mischa Barton and Evan Rachel Wood.

Like Parker Posey, Valerie Harper, and Eve Arden, actress Lizzy Caplan was a brassy brunette with a knack for sharp-tongued comedy. The young Caplan managed to impress audiences in a wide variety of film and television projects – most notably the 2004 feature “Mean Girls.” The dependable player also top-billed in the CBS comedy hit, “The Class” (2006- ), where she played – what else? – a smart and sassy young woman who had a way with a quip.

Born Elizabeth Anne Caplan on June 30, 1982 in Los Angeles, CA, Caplan attended Alexander Hamilton High School and initially studied piano, but clashes with her teachers led her to switch interests to performing.

Main roles in school plays lead to her branching out into the professional acting world, and her first on-screen appearance came in the form of the TV-movie, “From Where I Sit” (2000), starring David Paymer and Marcia Gay Harden. Caplan also appeared in four episodes of the critically acclaimed series “Freaks and Geeks” (NBC, 1999-2000) as Jason Segel’s impossibly upbeat and disco-loving girlfriend Sara. She contributed a brief appearance in the pilot episode of “Freaks” producer Judd Apatow’s equally short-lived follow-up series, “Undeclared” (Fox, 2001).

Caplan graduated to leads in 2002, starting with the short film “Hardcore Action News,” in which she plays a morose teenager whose pregnancy is exploited by an unscrupulous news program. The MTV-produced comedy “Everybody’s Doing It” followed, with Caplan as a teenager pressured into signing a sexual abstinence agreement at her high school.

A chance to handle a dramatic role came with two appearances on “Smallville” (The WB, 2001- ); Caplan played Tina Greer, a young woman whose exposure to Kryptonite gave her the ability to change her appearance. Like many Caplan roles, Tina had a darker side – a childhood filled with neglect – that prompted her to find attention by committing crimes.

Caplan’s luck as a television series regular continued to be hit-and-miss at best. Her first attempt, “The Pitts” (Fox, 2003) – co-produced by Seth MacFarlane and Mike Scully of “The Simpsons” (Fox, 1989- ) – about a family with catastrophic bad luck, lasted just five episodes. She made it through four episodes of the final season of “Tru Calling” (Fox, 2003-05) before that show was axed as well. Her highly publicized 2005 series “Related” (The WB), about the lives and romances of four sisters in New York, made it to episode 19 before the network shelved it.

In the meantime, she enjoyed a successful career as a film actress, starting in 2002 with a minor role in the Jack Black comedy, “Orange County.” Her breakthrough, however, was widely considered to be “Mean Girls.” As the black-tressed Janis Ian, sardonic sidekick to high school newcomer Lindsay Lohan, Caplan’s comedic skills attracted considerable attention from critics and audiences. She returned to drama with the thriller, “Love is the Drug” (2006), in which she played the seductive crux of a high school love triangle that goes terribly awry.

An undaunted Caplan returned to television with the ensemble sitcom, “The Class,” revealing in interviews that she nearly did not accept the part of Kat Warbler because of its similarity to Janis Ian of “Mean Girls.” The show, created by David Crane of “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004) fame, saw its ups and downs in its time slot, but the prognosis for a second season seemed positive. Much of the reason for its viewer base has to do with the amusingly tentative relationship between Caplan’s funky, cynical photographer and Jason Ritter’s (son of John) Ethan, a kind-hearted pediatrician who loses his fiancé in the series’ first episode.

Although she was already an experienced actress, she gained much notice in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, where she played alternative styled girl Janis Ian, named for lesbian singer-songwriter Janis Ian. In 2003, she starred in the television series The Pitts, playing Faith Pitt. In the second season of Tru Calling, she played Avery Bishop, a friend of Tru Davies.

Caplan landed a starring role in 2005, playing Marjee Sorelli, the troubled sister in Related, a one-hour dramedy on The WB. The show was cancelled after one season. In 2006, Caplan played the starring role of “Sara Weller” in Wesley Strick’s thriller, Love is the Drug. And after Related ended, Caplan was cast in the CBS sitcom The Class, which premiered on September 18, 2006 and lasted one season. The final episode aired March 5, 2007.

Caplan also, along with Jason Ritter, presented a People’s Choice Award for Favourite Soundtrack From a Movie, in January 2007.

On May 16, 2007, the CBS sitcom The Class was announced as officially canceled. The Class was taped in front of a live studio audience in Burbank, California on Stage 24, the same soundstage that popular sitcom Friends was filmed on. Lizzy along with her co-star Heather Goldenhersh appeared on the talk show The View in early 2007.

Lizzy has just finished the upcoming J.J. Abrams project Cloverfield, where she plays Marlena Diamond. Her character is described as a “sarcastic outsider” who isn’t close friends with the group, she is the outsider in their midst. She is currently filming the romantic comedy My Best Friend’s Girl where she plays Ami, the room mate of Kate Hudson’s character Alexis, which is due out in 2008 along with Cloverfield. She is also lending her voice to the character of Faith Pitt, in the animated version of her cancelled tv show The Pitts in 2009.

Caplan resides in the Hollywood Hills, with some room mates. She has a cat named Lisa Turtle, which she named after her favorite character on Saved By The Bell. She dated Friends star Matthew Perry in 2006 after she was introduced to him by fellow Friends star Matt LeBlanc, who was dating her Class castmate Andrea Anders.

Cloverfield Film Review Photos and Trailers

Posted in Films and Movies on Jan 8th, 2008 | 2 comments

Cloverfield is a 2008 American monster movie produced by J. J. Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. First publicized in advance screenings of Transformers, the project is slated for a January 17 release in Australia, a January 18 release in the United States, and a February 1 release in the United Kingdom. Paramount Pictures is carrying out a viral marketing campaign to promote the film Clover Field.

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.”

To prevent the leaking of plot information, instead of auditioning the actors with scenes from the film, scripts from Abrams’s previous productions were used, such as television series Alias. Some scenes were also written specifically for the audition process, not intended for use in the film.

Despite not being told the premise of the film, Lizzy Caplan stated that she accepted a role in Cloverfield solely because she was a fan of the Abrams-produced television series Lost, and her experience of discovering its true nature initially caused her to state that she would not sign on for a film in the future “without knowing full well what it is.” She indicated that her character was a sarcastic outsider, and that her role was “physically demanding.”

Trailer:

Cast:

• Michael Stahl-David as Robert Hawkins
• Mike Vogel as Jason “Hawk” Hawkins
• Odette Yustman as Beth McIntyre
• Lizzy Caplan as Marlena Diamond
• Jessica Lucas as Lily Ford
• T. J. Miller as Hudson “Hud” Platt
• Greg Grunberg
• Blake Lively

Production: J. J. Abrams conceived of a new monster after he and his son visited a toy store in Japan. He explained, “We saw all these Godzilla toys, and I thought, we need our own monster, and not King Kong, King Kong’s adorable. I wanted something that was just insane and intense.” In February 2007, Paramount Pictures secretly greenlit Cloverfield, to be produced by J. J. Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. The project was produced by Abrams’ company, Bad Robot Productions.

The casting process was carried out in secret, with no script being sent out to candidates. With production estimated to have a budget of $30 million, filming began in mid-June in New York. One cast member indicated that the film would look like it cost $150 million, despite producers not casting recognizable and expensive actors. Location filming, shot in digital video using hand-held video cameras, took place on Coney Island, with scenes being shot at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park and the B&B Carousel.

Some interior shots were filmed on a soundstage at Downey, California. The film was edited to look like it was filmed with one hand-held camera, including jump cuts similar to ones found in home movies. Director Matt Reeves described the presentation, “We wanted this to be as if someone found a Handicam, took out the tape and put it in the player to watch it.

What you’re watching is a home movie that then turns into something else.” Reeves explained that the pedestrians documenting the severed head of the Statue of Liberty with the camera phones was reflective of the contemporary period. “Cloverfield very much speaks to the fear and anxieties of our time, how we live our lives. Constantly documenting things and putting them up on YouTube, sending people videos through e-mail – we felt it was very applicable to the way people feel now,” the director said.

The decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty was inspired by the poster of the 1981 film Escape from New York, which had shown the head lying in the streets in New York despite not appearing in the film itself. According to Reeves, “It’s an incredibly provocative image. And that was the source that inspired [producer] J.J. [Abrams] to say, ‘Now this would be an interesting idea for a movie.’”

The film was titled Cloverfield from the beginning, but the title changed throughout production before it was finalized as the original title. Matt Reeves explained that the title was changed frequently due to the hype caused by the teaser trailer, “That excitement spread to such a degree that we suddenly couldn’t use the name anymore.

So we started using all these names like Slusho and Cheese. And people always found out what we were doing!” The director said that “Cloverfield” was the government’s case designate for the monster, comparing the titling to that of the Manhattan Project. “And it’s not a project per se. It’s the way that this case has been designated. That’s why that is on the trailer, and it becomes clearer in the film. It’s how they refer to this phenomenon [or] this case,” said the director.

Visual effects supervisor Phil Tippett and his company Tippett Studio were enlisted to develop the visual effects for Cloverfield. Since the visual effects were incorporated after filming, cast members had to react to a non-existent creature during scenes, only being familiar with early conceptual renderings of the beast.

Marketing: Filmmakers decided to create a teaser trailer that would be a surprise in the light of commonplace media saturation, which they put together during the preparation stage of the production process. The teaser was then used as a basis for the film itself. Paramount Pictures encouraged the teaser to be released without a title attached, and the Motion Picture Association of America approved the move. As Transformers showed high tracking numbers before its release in July 2007, the studio attached the teaser trailer for Cloverfield that showed the release date but not the title. A second trailer was released on November 16, 2007, which confirmed the title.

The studio had kept knowledge of the project secret from the online community, a cited rarity due to the presence of scoopers that follow upcoming films. The controlled release of information on the film has been observed as a risky strategy, which could succeed like The Blair Witch Project (1999) or disappoint like Snakes on a Plane (2006), the latter of which had generated online hype but failed to attract large audiences. Chad Hartigan of Exhibitor Relations Co. viewed the several issues with the potential of the film, including a lack of major stars, the underwhelming performance of Godzilla-style films in America, and the film’s slated release in January, considered a “dumping ground for bad films”.

Plot speculation: The sudden appearance of the untitled trailer for Cloverfield fueled media speculation over the film’s plot. USA Today reported the possibilities of the film being based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, a live-action adaptation of Voltron, a new film about Godzilla, or a spin-off of the TV show Lost. The Star Ledger also reported the possibility of the film being based on Lovecraft lore or Godzilla.

The Guardian also reported the possibility of a Lost spin-off, while Time Out reported that the film was about an alien called The Parasite. IGN also backed the possibility of the same premise, with The Parasite rumored to be a working title for the film. Online, Slusho and Colossus had also been discussed as possible titles. Entertainment Weekly also disputed reports that the film would be about a parasite or a colossal Asian robot such as Voltron.

Visitors of Ain’t It Cool News have pointed out 9/11 allusions based on the destruction in New York City such as the decapitated Statue of Liberty. The film has also drawn alternate reality game enthusiasts that have followed other viral marketing campaigns like those set up for the TV series Lost, the video game Halo 2, the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, and the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight. Members of the forums at argnet.com and unfiction.com have investigated the background of the film, with the “1-18-08″ section at Unfiction generating over 7,700 posts in August 2007. The members have studied photographs on the film’s official site, potentially related MySpace profiles, and the Comic-Con teaser poster for the film.

Viral tie-ins: Puzzle websites containing Lovecraftian elements, such as Ethan Haas Was Right, were originally reported to be connected to the film. On July 9, 2007, producer J. J. Abrams stated that, while a number of websites were being developed to market the film, the only official site that had been found was 1-18-08.com. At the site, a collection of time-coded photos are provided to visitors to piece together a series of events and interpret their meanings.

As part of the viral marketing campaign, the drink Slusho! has served as a tie-in. The drink had previously appeared in producer Abrams’ previous creation, the TV series Alias. Viral websites for Slusho! and a Japanese drilling company were launched to add to the mythology of Cloverfield. When Cloverfield was hosted at Comic-Con 2007, gray Slusho! t-shirts were distributed to attendees. Producer Bryan Burk explained the viral tie-in, “[It] was all done in conjunction with the studio… The whole experience in making this movie is very reminiscent [of] how we did Lost.”

Director Matt Reeves described Slusho! as “part of the involved connectivity” with Abrams’ Alias and that the drink represented a “meta-story” for Cloverfield. The director explained, “It’s almost like tentacles that grow out of the film and lead, also, to the ideas in the film. And there’s this weird way where you can go see the movie and it’s one experience… But there’s also this other place where you can get engaged where there’s this other sort of aspect for all those people who are into that. [...] All the stories kind of bounce off one another and inform each other. But, at the end of the day, this movie stands on its own to be a movie. [...] The Internet sort of stories and connections and clues are, in a way, a prism and they’re another way of looking at the same thing. To us, it’s just another exciting aspect of the storytelling.”

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Emmanuelle Seigner Biography and Photos

Posted in Celebrities, Singers on Jan 8th, 2008 | 0 comments

Emmanuelle Seigner (born June 22, 1966) is a French actress and former fashion model. Seigner was born in Paris, France to a photographer father and a journalist mother. She is the granddaughter of the respected French actor Louis Seigner (1903-1991) and sister of the actress Mathilde Seigner.

She was educated at a Catholic convent school, and began modelling at the age of fourteen, capitalizing on her beauty. She achieved international status as a professional model. She married the Polish film director Roman Polanski in 1989, and they have two children, Morgane and Elvis. He directed her in Frantic, with Harrison Ford and later in Bitter Moon, as well as The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp.

In addition to her high-profile marriage to internationally renowned filmmaker Roman Polanski, actress Emmanuelle Seigner has utilized her enigmatic beauty to striking effect in such films as Jean-Luc Godard’s Détective and Polanski’s dark supernatural thriller The Ninth Gate.

A native of Paris and the daughter of a prolific photographer father and journalist mother, Seigner was no stranger to show business. Grandfather Louis and aunt Françoise were both members of the renowned Comédie Française, a theater company with a history that reaches back as far as 1680. Raised at a convent school before embarking on a career in modeling at age 14, Seigner’s unusual beauty found the blossoming cover girl eventually making a segue into film.

Seigner made her screen debut in the 1984 romantic drama Year of the Jellyfish, and it wasn’t long before her acting career was gaining momentum with Godard’s Détective and the 1986 drama Cours Privé. A year after appearing as Harrison Ford’s missing wife in Polanski’s Frantic (1989), the screen beauty exchanged wedding vows with the diminutive director.

Subsequently appearing in such Polanski efforts as Bitter Moon (1992) and The Ninth Gate (1999), Seigner also found success in her own right when nominated for a Best Supporting Actress César for her performance in the 1998 drama Place Vendôme.

Her role as the mysterious neighbor in 1999’s Buddy Boy utilized her beauty to striking effect, and in 2003 Seigner took the lead as a stripper who escapes the seedy world of men’s clubs only to uncover a horrifying secret about her husband in Corps à corps. With her high-profile role in the 2003 action film Os Imortais, it appeared as if Seigner might finally be escaping the legendary shadow of her husband to build a respectable onscreen career of her own.

Seigner appears as the main character in the music video “Hands Around my Throat” by Death In Vegas. In 2006 she became lead singer of the French band Ultra Orange, and the group’s name was changed to Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle.

Lindsey Shaw Photos and Biography

Posted in Celebrities, TV on Jan 8th, 2008 | 0 comments

Lindsey Marie Shaw (born on May 10, 1989) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Jennifer Mosely on Nickelodeon’s sitcom, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. and Claire Tolchuck in Aliens in America.

From 2004-2007 Lindsey starred in Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. She is currently starring in the show Aliens in America, which premiered fall 2007 on The CW.

American actress Lindsey Shaw was born on May 10, 1989, in Lincoln, NE. Lindsey is best known for her starring role as Jennifer ‘Moze’ Mosley on Nickelodeon’s sitcom “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide.” The actress has also appeared in the films “Aliens in America” and “The Great Lie.”

In 2002, Lindsey and her mother moved to San Mateo, California, where she attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. She is a client of Kansas City, Missouri’s, I and I Agency and loves to root for the University of Nebraska’s team, The Cornhuskers.

The archetyple middle-American everygirl, Nebraskan actress Lindsey Shaw first reached viewers in the mid-2000s when the then-teenager signed for a lead role in the Nickelodeon series Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide.

In that program – a silly and goofy sitcom about a 6th grader’s adventures at a new middle school – Shaw plays Mose, the lead character’s one and only female friend and the object of affections from the local tough.

Shaw was born in in Lincoln, Nebraska. For many years, Shaw and her mother traveled from Lincoln to Omaha, mainly because her agent was located there.

In 1998, Shaw became a client of Kansas City, Missouri’s I and I Agency, and upon doing so, traveled with her mother back and forth from Lincoln to Kansas City twice a month, doing print ads and commercials. In 2002, Shaw and her mother moved to San Mateo, California.

Lindsey finished middle school at St. Francis Xavier School in Burbank. She attended Notre Dame High School for her freshman year. Due to scheduling conflicts, she was forced to continue her schooling through Laurel Springs home school program. She is involved in various charities such as the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation.

Raye Hollitt Photos and Biography

Posted in Celebrities, Sports on Jan 8th, 2008 | 0 comments

Raye Hollitt (born April 17, 1964) is an American actress and female bodybuilder, also known by her stage name Zap, one of the original cast members of American Gladiators. She was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Raye Hollitt appeared in Season 1 of American Gladiators in 1989, taking off the second season (1990-91) for maternity leave, before returning for Season 3 and continuing on the show through 1995. She reappeared for an alumni show in the final season (1995-96). Hollitt married Ted Prior in 1990 and has one child. She is currently married to photographer George Kontaxis.

Raye Hollitt, best known for her role as “Zap” on the hit, syndicated television show The American Gladiators, was a formidable presence for 6 seasons Growing up in Harvey’s Lake, Pennsylvania, where she lived until the age of 18, Raye developed her competitive spirit by participating in such sports as softball, basketball, field hockey, track and field and volleyball. 

It was in 1982 that she knew where her life was leading. After moving to the mecca of bodybuilding in Venice, California, she began to pursue a bodybuilding career.  After winning the 1988 Ms. Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championships, Raye landed her first major role in the Blake Edwards hit film titled “Skin Deep” starring John Ritter.

In addition to her popularity as an American Gladiator, Raye has appeared on several television shows, namely, Blossom and Baywatch, as well as several top-name talk shows including: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,  MTV with Pauly Shore, Good Morning America,  Beach House w/Jenny McCarthy, the Muppet’s Tonight Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, The Joan Rivers Show, Montel Williams,  and the Jenny Jones Show.

1995 was a busy year for Raye, as she shot a 6-page celebrity pictorial for Playboy’s February 1996 issue.  Also that year, Raye was cast as Lt. Cassie Puller for the pilot of NBC’s “JAG” (Judge Advocate General) directed by Don Bellisario.  Her last film Brand X, where Raye plays a futuristic superhero was  released on video in  2001.  Raye was also cast as a regular on UPN/Paramount’s Manhunt as Rayne, a Survivor-like, reality-based television show.  The past two and a half years has kept Raye busy with the production of her own project, the Sagas of Reya, a series about the voyages of a female Viking warrior and her entourage.

The discipline of being a competitive bodybuilder has helped Raye to obtain and succeed at many of her goals that she set for herself.  Her motto is: ‘Believe and Achieve’.  Her personal data reads of a true athlete, standing  5 feet 7 inches tall and a toned body of 135 pounds.

She is a former paralegal. She posed for Playboy in February 1996. She appeared for many years in local television commercials for “Ye Olde Clock and Gift Shop” in Dallas, a small town just outside her hometown of Wilkes-Barre.