Rose McGowan Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Jan 26th, 2008 | 0 comments

Appearing as a cross between Betty Boop’s evil sister and a very curvaceous Hell’s Angel, actress Rose McGowan made an undeniably distinct impression on Hollywood in the late ’90s. With her sharp tongue and brash sensuality, McGowan has been a source of both titillation and discomfort to an industry that still hasn’t quite figured out what to do with women who are both unapologetically smart and sexual.  

Rose Arianna McGowan (born September 5, 1973) is an American actress best known for her role as Paige Matthews in The WB TV series Charmed, and the cult-classic The Doom Generation.

She has also appeared in several major Hollywood films, with leading roles in Scream, Jawbreaker, and the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse.

McGowan, the second-eldest of six children (plus two half-siblings), was born in Florence, Italy, the daughter of Terri, an American writer of French descent, and Daniel McGowan, an Irish -born artist.

Daniel McGowan ran an Italian chapter of the Children of God to which both he and his wife held membership until 1978. McGowan spent her early childhood amid the group’s communes, often traveling Europe with her parents. Through her father’s art contacts in Italy, McGowan became a child model and appeared in Vogue Bambini and various other Italian magazines.

Her parents returned to the United States when she was 10, when they divorced. She subsequently relocated to Oregon and then Gig Harbor, Washington, where she also met childhood friend actor Rey-Phillip Santos. McGowan did not speak English until she moved to the U.S.

McGowan’s formative years were spent with her father in Seattle, Washington, attending Roosevelt High School and Nova Alternative High School. At the age of 15, she officially emancipated herself from her parents. McGowan pursued a possible career in the film industry during her late teens, and also enrolled in a beauty school as a back-up.

McGowan made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a bit role in the 1992 Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man. Her role in the 1995 black comedy The Doom Generation brought her to the attention of film critics, and she received a nomination for “Best Debut Performance” at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards. McGowan was subsequently cast in a supporting role in the 1996 hit horror film Scream.

McGowan spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in a variety of independent films, including roles in Southie, Going All the Way, and Lewis & Clark & George.

In 1997, she appeared in the critically acclaimed short Seed, directed by San Francisco-born filmmaker Karin Thayer, and played opposite Peter O’Toole in the 1998 film adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel Phantoms. Notably, McGowan also starred in the 1999 comedy Jawbreaker, where she played a high school student who tries to cover up a classmate’s murder. That role earned McGowan a nomination for Best Villain at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.

In 2001, McGowan was cast as Paige Matthews in the popular The WB television series Charmed, as a replacement lead actress after Shannen Doherty’s departure from the show. She was offered to be a producer after the seventh season, but turned it down. The series ended its run on May 21, 2006.

Rosario Dawson & Rose McGowan Do Rolling StoneIn May 2005, McGowan portrayed actress/singer Ann-Margret in Elvis, a Golden Globe-winning CBS mini-series about the life of Elvis Presley. That same year, she lent her voice to the video game Darkwatch as a femme fatale named Tala. The game was published by Capcom for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

In 2006, McGowan had a brief role in Brian De Palma’s Academy Award-nominated film The Black Dahlia. The following year, she starred in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse, released on April 6, 2007.

Cast in utterly divergent roles, McGowan appears in both portions of the film, as go-go dancing Cherry in Planet Terror, and as Pam in Death Proof. McGowan attended the 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival to promote Death Proof along with Robert Rodriguez, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Zoe Bell, and Quentin Tarantino.

According to Variety, McGowan has signed on to play B-movie staple Susan Cabot in the upcoming film Black Oasis. Director Stephan Elliott (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) has penned and will direct the film based on a Premiere article by John H. Richardson.

McGowan was the face of American clothing company Bebe from 1998 – 1999. She was also the cover model for the Henry Mancini tribute album Shots in the Dark, which was released in 1996.

In addition to clothing endorsements, McGowan has appeared on numerous magazine covers, including Seventeen, Interview, Maxim, GQ, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. She has also frequently been featured on Maxim, FHM and Stuff magazine’s sexiest women lists.

In 1996, McGowan was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in The Doom Generation. A few years later, at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, she was nominated for “Best Villain” for her role in Jawbreaker.

In 2005, McGowan won “Best Sister” at the Family TV Awards, for her role on Charmed. In 2006, Blender included her on their list of the sexiest women of TV and film.

The most recent award won by McGowan was under the category Femme Fetale for the 2007 Spike TV Guys’ Choice Awards, which aired June 13, 2007. The award was for the role of Cherry in Grindhouse. McGowan is currently nominated for “Scream Queen” at the 2007 Scream Awards on Spike TV.

Personal life: McGowan used to live in Seattle, Washington, but currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She was in a very public three and a half-year relationship with rock musician Marilyn Manson, and often appeared with him at celebrity events in extremely provocative clothing, such as the chain-mail transparent dress and thong she wore to the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.

McGowan later ended their two-year engagement over “lifestyle differences.” She has since gone on to have relationships with fellow actor Kip Pardue, TV personality Ahmet Zappa, and Men’s Health magazine editor David Zinczenko. Prior to the release of Grindhouse, there was speculation that McGowan was dating Mexican-American director Robert Rodriguez.

In May 2007, it was reported that they confirmed their relationship while appearing hand-in-hand at the Cannes Film Festival. On October 12, 2007 it was announced by Zap2itcom that McGowan was engaged to Rodriguez.

McGowan has admitted to sleepwalking as a child. “The weirdest spot I ever woke up was a snow bank in Montreal. Now I just speak Italian in my sleep”.

McGowan is known as an activist for Boston Terriers. She herself has two, Bug and Fester, and has personally donated to various Boston rescues. McGowan reportedly encouraged friends to donate to Boston Terrier Rescue Net, and according to BTRN: “Having fallen in love with Bug and Fester, her friends donated generously. It amounted to a considerable contribution, which will go a long way in helping BTRN and the needy volunteers who selflessly give to deserving Bostons.”

McGowan and her friend Natasha Andres have recently started selling their own line of Pinken Mint purse caddies, which are hooks used to hang handbags from tables and chairs in restaurants as an alternative to resting them on possibly unclean floors. Celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Carmen Electra, and Virginia Madsen have been known to use the caddies.

According to an article in the New York Post, McGowan suffered serious injuries in a car accident early in 2007. Riding as a passenger, her car was struck by another vehicle and the force of the impact drove her eyeglasses into her face.

McGowan is quoted as saying, “I didn’t realize I was hurt until I put my hand to my face and felt the flap of skin. My glasses had sliced me under my eye.” After obtaining the services of a plastic surgeon, McGowan is reported to be suffering no long-lasting consequences from the incident.

Of her acting method, she has said “I’m not really one of those people who goes and writes some big backstory and agonizes over characters… For me personally, it’s just kind of more instinctive. But I don’t have kind of an acting background. I fell into it accidentally”. As a victim of sexual assault, McGowan continues to lead discussions on the subject among campus groups.

On her right shoulder, Rose used to have a distinctive tattoo of a woman. The design comes from a painting that Rose’s Grandfather had painted on the side of his WWII plane.

The tattoo clearly shows Rose’s love for the 40’s, and glamorous women from that period. Rose McGowan’s style is also very much like actresses from Black and White movies.

Although Charmed make-up artists attempted to cover the tattoo in most episodes, they were sometimes unable to cover it completely and you could just about see the outline. Her tattoo was on show in some of her films, for example Jawbreaker, in which she played bad girl Courtney Alice Shayne. During 2004 Rose decided to have her tattoo removed. Although it’s still slightly visible, its no longer the bold trademark tattoo it was. Rose McGowan also has some piercings. She has both ears pierced, and her belly button.

Music: While dating Manson, McGowan appeared in a music video for the song “Coma White”, and also performed backing vocals on the song “Posthuman.” Both of these songs are available on the album Mechanical Animals. Manson later wrote a track that is rumored to be inspired by their failed relationship “(s)AINT” found on the Golden Age of Grotesque.

McGowan appeared on a BT track called “Superfabulous” from his album Emotional Technology, which was also featured on the final Charmed soundtrack, The Final Chapter. The song has been featured in several films, including Win a Date with Tad Hamilton and Raising Helen.

She wrote and recorded a song titled “Protection,” which was featured in her 2001 film Strange Hearts. McGowan has also appeared in the Imperial Teen music video for “Yoo Hoo”, which was featured on the Jawbreaker soundtrack.

McGowan has expressed interest in recording an album of her own. During an interview with Living TV, she said, “I was actually thinking of going back and doing more soulful tunes and older tunes…and I would love to, when I have a little bit more time.” In the Charmed episode “Sense and Sense Ability,” McGowan performed, in character, a cover of the Peggy Lee classic “Fever.”

In 2007, it was announced that McGowan would be performing three songs from the Planet Terror portion of Grindhouse. These songs will be released on soundtrack by the Varese Sarabande label. The songs are entitled “You Belong to Me”, “Useless Talent #32″ and “Two Against the World.” A clip of the Dean Martin classic “You Belong to Me” can be found on YouTube.

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Amber Benson Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Celebrities on Jan 26th, 2008 | 0 comments

Amber Nicole Benson, born on January 8, 1977, is an American actress, writer, film director, and film producer.

She is best known for her role as “Tara Maclay”, on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Benson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She had a mixed Christian and Jewish upbringing.

While still working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Benson wrote, directed, produced, edited, and acted in a digital video feature called Chance (2002) which also featured James Marsters.

After her time on Buffy, Benson began production on a series of animation film for the BBC with co-creator Christopher Golden and animation studio Cosgrove Hall. Ghosts of Albion: Legacy (2003) and its sequels are available on the BBC Cult website.

In 2006, Benson released her second independent feature film Lovers, Liars and Lunatics through her own production company, Benson Entertainment. The film was shot on film and was partly financed by the sale of limited edition “Triangle” Tara action figures. The project, initially called “The Dirty Script,” was ultimately titled “Lovers, Liars and Lunatics” by Producer, Diane Benson.

Benson also writes novels and comic books mostly in collaboration with Christopher Golden. In 2003, Benson worked with Golden, Terry Moore, and Eric Powell of Dark Horse Comics to create the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Tara comic book titled “WannaBlessedBe”.

During the same year, she worked with Christopher Golden and AJ (Ajit Jothikaumar) of Dark Horse Comics to create the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Tara comic books titled Wilderness #1 and Wilderness #2.

In 2005, Benson collaborated with artist Jamie McKelvie on a short story within the Image Comics collection Four Letter Worlds.

In 2006, Benson collaborated with artist Ben Templesmith on Demon Father John’s Pinwheel Blues published by IDW as a four-part split-book, Shadowplay (with work by Ashley Wood and Christina Z).

Benson and Golden have also collaborated on two supernatural thrillers: Ghosts of Albion: Accursed and Ghosts of Albion: Witchery. These books follow the fortunes of Tamara and William Swift, who first appeared in the BBC computer animated web movie Ghosts of Albion: Legacy.

In December 2006, Benson and Golden released yet another collaboration, the short novel The Seven Whistlers which is distributed through Subterranean Press in a limited number of signed copies. In September of 2007, Benson signed a three-book deal with Ginjer Buchanan of Penguin Books. The first book is tentatively titled Death’s Daughter.

In 2003, she collaborated with director James Kerwin to produce her play, Albert Hall, in Hollywood. Benson sang in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode “Once More, With Feeling”.

She provided vocals for the songs “I’ve Got a Theory / Bunnies / If We’re Together”, “Under Your Spell” (her solo), “Walk Through the Fire”, Standing/Under Your Spell (Reprise)” and “Where Do We Go From Here?” She also sang “Toucha Toucha Touch Me” (aka “Creature of the Night”) at VH-1’s celebrity karaoke tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

On the 2000-11-02 episode of the radio show Loveline, Amber (at age 23) revealed that she did not have a driver’s license, that her mother drove her to the studio, and stated that she was at the time still a virgin. As of 2007, Benson resides in Los Angeles, California. She is a vegetarian.

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Maggie Q Photos and Wallpapers

Posted in Celebrities on Jan 26th, 2008 | 0 comments

Maggie Q is an actress that crosses cultures and borders. She’s a hit in Hong Kong and now the U.S., and has starred in some real action-packed blockbusters. Plus, her bright smile and beautiful face show her inner diversity as well… a rough and tumble gal with an innocent demeanor.

Maggie Q, born Margaret Denise Quigley (stage name: Chinese: 李美琪; pinyin: Lǐ Měiqí, Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ (Lei Mei-Kei); born May 22, 1979), is an American actress and former fashion model. She initially gained fame in Hong Kong.

Maggie Q was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to an American father of Polish, French Canadian and Irish descent, and a Vietnamese mother and is therefore Eurasian.

Her parents met while her father was stationed in Vietnam. Maggie is the youngest of five children. She has two sisters and two half-siblings from her mother’s previous marriage in Vietnam.

After graduating from Mililani High School she traveled to Japan and Hong Kong to earn money as a fashion model. In 1998 she got her first role in a Chinese-language TV series.

A former top model and established film actress in Hong Kong and across Asia, Maggie Q made her U.S. debut in “Mission: Impossible III.”

Born in Hawaii to an American father and a Vietnamese mother, Q moved to Hong Kong at the age of 18 to pursue a career in modeling. She quickly rose to the status of supermodel in many parts of Asia and appeared on more than 100 magazine covers including various Asian editions of Time, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Madame Figaro, Marie Claire, and Elle.

Q began her acting career in the highly acclaimed Asian television drama “House of the Dragon,” which opened the door to feature films.

She starred along side Paul Rudd in the movie “Gen-Y Cops” (2000), a film produced by Jackie Chan, who was so impressed by her acting in his movie, that he cast her in the award-winning film “Manhattan Midnight” (2001).

In addition to starring in numerous Chinese films, including the popular “Naked Weapon” (2002), Q also starred in several European films such as Italy’s Rai Entertainment film “The Counting House” (2006) and the Germany/Singapore two-part television movie, “House of Harmony” (2005).

After recovering from her first US press rounds for “MI:3,” Q stars opposite Dan Fogler, George Lopez and Christopher Walken in Spyglass Entertainment/Rogue Pictures’ “Balls of Fury” (lensed 2006), a comedy about an ex-ping pong champion who enters the secret world of ping pong to find the man who killed his father.

She began acting in Hong Kong and elsewhere in East Asia. Because of her non-Chinese heritage, many of her Asian film appearances are in English or dubbed in the Chinese language.

She has, however, stated that she took Mandarin and Cantonese lessons during her career in Asia and is able to speak both languages in varying degrees.

Among her first appearances in film was the lead roles in the Hong Kong action thrillers Gen-Y Cops and Naked Weapon, in which she played the sexy but vulnerable martial artist assassin Charlene Ching.

She has also played the titular role of Harmony in the German-Singapore telemovie collaboration Das Haus Der Harmonie, opposite leading Singaporean actress Fann Wong.

Recently she starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. She played Zhen, the only female member of his IMF team.

Maggie played Mai Linh, one of the computer-hacking extortionists in the 2007 Bruce Willis movie Live Free Or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard franchise. On August 29, 2007, Balls of Fury opened nationwide in the U.S., where Maggie portrayed the niece of table tennis guru Master Wong (James Hong).

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Love and Romance Wallpapers and Photos

Posted in Sites on Jan 26th, 2008 | 0 comments

Love and Romance Wallpapers and Photos

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Romance is general term to refer an intimate sexual relationship between two people. It is an exaggerated or decorated expression of love. It also refers to a feeling or excitement associated with love Historically the term romance did not necessarily imply love relationships, but rather was seen as an artistic expression of one’s innermost desires; sometimes including love, sometimes not. Romance is still sometimes viewed as an expressionistic, or artful form, but within the context of “romantic love” relationships it usually implies an expression of one’s love, or one’s deep emotional desires to connect with another person. “Romance” in this sense can therefore be defined as attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something or someone, in literature similar exaggerated narration is called romance.

Love is a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. The meaning of love varies relative to context. Romantic love is seen as an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in passionate or intimate attraction and intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships. Though often linked to personal relations, love is often given a broader signification, a love of humanity, of nature, with life itself, or a oneness with the Universe, a universal love or karma.

Love can also be construed as Platonic love, religious love, familial love, and, more casually, great affection for anything considered strongly pleasurable, desirable, or preferred, to include activities and foods. This diverse range of meanings in the singular word love is often contrasted with the plurality of Greek words for love, reflecting the concept’s depth, versatility, and complexity.

Love in early religions was a mixture of ecstatic devotion and ritualized obligation to idealized natural forces (pagan polytheism). Later religions shifted emphasis towards single abstractly-oriented objects like God, law, church and state (formalized monotheism). A third view, pantheism, recognizes a state or truth distinct from (and often antagonistic to) the idea that there is a difference between the worshiping subject and the worshiped object. Love is reality, of which we, moving through time, imperfectly interpret ourselves as an isolated part.

Although there exist numerous cross-cultural unified similarities as to the nature and definition of love, as in there being a thread of commitment, tenderness, and passion common to all human existence, there are differences. The definition of love is the subject of considerable debate, enduring speculation and thoughtful introspection. The difficulty of finding a universal definition for love is typically tackled by classifying it into types, such as passionate love, romantic love, and committed love. These types of love can often be generalized into a level of sexual attraction. In common use, love has two primary meanings, the first being an indication of adoration for another person or thing, and the second being a state of relational status.

10 TOP music moneymakers

Posted in News, Singers on Jan 26th, 2008 | 0 comments

Music’s Biggest Cash Kings Celebs: Josh Groban | Celine Dion | Miley Cyrus | Kenny Chesney | Justin Timberlake | Eddie Van Halentopics: Musicians.

Amid the gloom and doom that enveloped the music business in 2007, a select number of recording artists managed to find a way to generate mad money.

Forget the year’s hot new acts. veterans like the Police and Celine Dion were among the biggest commercial forces of 2007. Others included younger established stars such as Josh Groban and the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana.

To compile our list of pop’s biggest cash machines, Forbes looked at how much leading recording artists generated in U.S. music sales and North American concert grosses in 2007. Our estimates, which don’t calculate how much income each artist pocketed, include concert revenue data from Pollstar, music sales tallies from Nielsen SoundScan and pricing information from NPD Group. The numbers are meant to provide a snapshot, not a complete picture — revenue from licensing deals, merchandise sales, and mobile sales aren’t included.

Playing live was a big cash generator for all the artists on our list. By far the biggest tour of the year was the Police reunion, as Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland decided to bury the hatchet and hit the road for the first time since 1986. Financially, it was a no-brainer: The trio generated $133.2 million in concert receipts at an average ticket price of $112 — and that’s face value. In all, the band racked up an impressive $142.4 million in concert tickets and music sales.

The even unlikelier reunion of Van Halen with original frontman David Lee Roth also did well. This slightly revamped version of the band, with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang replacing longtime bassist Michael Anthony, charged about the same average ticket price as the Police but played fewer and smaller venues. Still, $56.7 million in North American grosses is nothing to sniff at.

Other big live draws were country singer Kenny Chesney, who grossed $71.1 million on the road; Justin Timberlake, who sold $70.6 million in concert tickets; and Celine Dion, who generated $65.3 million during the final year of her “A New Day…” show at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

For these artists, the cash generated from performing in front of their fans far outweighed the revenue they generated from sales of their music. For instance, Chesney’s total album sales, including his new release “Just Who I Am: Poets And Pirates,” reached 1.8 million units. Add to that 2.5 million song downloads and Chesney’s recorded-music sales totaled around $25 million — a strong performance but still far short of what he generated on tour.

But recorded-music sales accounted for a larger portion of the cash generated by other recording artists. Pop-country trio Rascal Flatts proved to be a big hit with both concertgoers and music buyers, grossing $41.5 million on tour and generating roughly that much in sales of albums and song downloads.

For the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, or more specifically the show’s star Miley Cyrus, recorded music sales accounted for the lion’s share of the cash she generated, despite the headlines generated by scalpers who charged astronomical prices for tickets to her sold-out shows. Hannah/Miley grossed $36 million on tour but generated more than $50 million in album sales and downloads.

Meanwhile, pop-classical vocalist Josh Groban hit pay dirt with his Christmas album “Noel,” which turned out to be the year’s best-selling album, with 3.7 million units sold. The sales were especially impressive considering that, as a holiday album, it had only gone on sale in October.

His album sales and song downloads generated an estimated $60 million in sales. Groban also did well on tour, grossing $43.1 million in 2007.

The boffo sales of Noel provided a badly needed boost to Warner Music Group, which released the album. It didn’t make up for the fact that Warner’s share price lost three-quarters of its value in 2007. But the success of Groban and other top cash generators proved that even as the recording industry struggles, some consumers are willing to spend serious money on their favorite artists. ~ By Louis Hau

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