Ayumi Hamasaki

Biography

Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎 あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi?, also 浜崎歩) (born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress. Also called Ayu by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the “Empress of Pop” due to her popularity and widespread influence in Japan. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for XX. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.

Because of her constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry, Hamasaki’s popularity extends across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, and Taiwan. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex “product”.

Since her 1998 debut with the single “Poker Face”, Hamasaki has sold over 50 million records in Japan, ranking her among the best-selling singers in the country. As a female singer, Hamasaki holds several domestic records for her singles, such as the most number-one hits, the highest sales, and the most million-sellers. From 1999 to 2009, Hamasaki had at least one single each year top the charts. Hamasaki is the first female singer to have eight studio albums since her debut to top the Oricon and first artist to have an album debut at number-one for 11 consecutive years.

Hildhood and Early Endeavors

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Hamasaki was raised by her mother and grandmother. Her father had left the family when she was three and never again came into contact with her. Because her mother worked to support the family, Hamasaki was primarily taken care of by her grandmother.

At age seven, Hamasaki began modeling for local institutions, such as banks, to supplement the family’s income. She continued this career path by leaving her family at fourteen and moving to Tokyo as a model under SOS, a talent agency. Her modeling career did not last long; SOS eventually deemed her too short for a model and transferred her to Sun Music, a musicians’ agency. Under the name of “Ayumi”, Hamasaki released a rap album, Nothing from Nothing, on the Nippon Columbia label. She was dismissed from the label when the album failed to chart on the Oricon. After this failure, Hamasaki took up acting and starred in B-movies such as Ladys Ladys!! Soucho Saigo no Hi and television dramas such as Miseinen, which were poorly received by the public. Growing dissatisfied with her job, Hamasaki quit acting and moved in with her mother, who had recently moved to Tokyo.

Hamasaki was initially a good student, earning good grades in junior high school. Eventually, she lost faith in the curriculum, thinking that the subjects taught were of no use to her. Her grades worsened as she refused to put her mind to her studies. While living in Tokyo, she attempted to further her studies at Horikoshi Gakuen, a high school for the arts, but dropped out in the first year. Because Hamasaki did not attend school or have a job, she spent much of her time shopping at Shibuya boutiques and dancing at Velfarre, an Avex-owned disco club.

1998–1999: Rising Popularity

Hamasaki’s debut album under Avex, A Song for XX (1999), was “unassuming”: its singles were not major hits, and the tracks, composed by Yasuhiko Hoshino, Akio Togashi (of Da Pump), and Mitsuru Igarashi (of Every Little Thing), were “cautious” pop-rock songs. However, Hamasaki’s lyrics, introspective observations about her feelings and experiences that focused on loneliness and individualism, resonated with the Japanese public.[17] The songs gained Hamasaki a growing following, and the release of the album was a success: it topped the Oricon charts for five weeks and sold over a million copies.[ For her achievements, she earned a Japan Gold Disc Award for “Best New Artist of the Year”.

With Ayu-mi-x (March 1999), the first of a series of remix albums, Hamasaki began moving beyond the pop-rock of A Song for XX and began to incorporate different styles including trance, dance, and orchestra. Composed by Yasuhiko Hoshino and Dai Nagao (of Do As Infinity), the singles released later that year were dance tunes and earned Hamasaki her first number-one single (“Love: Destiny”) and first million-selling single (“A”). Her second studio album, Loveppears (November 1999), not only topped the Oricon charts, it sold nearly 3 million copies. The album also showcased a change in Hamasaki’s lyrics. Though the lyrics of Loveppears still dealt with loneliness, many of them were written from a third-person perspective. In support of Loveppears, she held her first tour, Ayumi Hamasaki Concert Tour 2000 A.

At Velfarre, she was introduced to her future producer, Max Matsuura, through a friend. After hearing Hamasaki sing karaoke, Matsuura offered her a recording deal, but Hamasaki suspected ulterior motives and turned the offer down. He persisted and succeeded in recruiting her for the Avex label in the following year. Hamasaki started vocal training, but skipped most of her classes after finding her instructors to be too rigid and the classes dull. When she confessed this to Matsuura, he sent her to New York to train her vocals under another method. During her foreign sojourn, Hamasaki frequently corresponded with Matsuura and impressed him with her style of writing. On her return to Japan, he suggested that she try writing her own lyrics.

2000–2002: Commercial peak

From April to June 2000, Hamasaki released the “Trilogy”, a series of singles consisting of “Vogue”, “Far Away”, and “Seasons”. The lyrics of these songs focused on hopelessness, a reflection of Hamasaki’s disappointment that she had not expressed herself thoroughly in any of her previous lyrics and a sense of shame of her public image. Likewise, many of the songs she wrote for her subsequent studio album, Duty (September 2000), involved feelings of loneliness, chaos, confusion, and the burden of her responsibilities. She described her feelings after the writing as “unnatural” and “nervous”. The musical style was darker as well; in contrast with Loveppears, Duty was a rock-influenced album with only one dance song, “Audience”. Duty resonated with fans: the “Trilogy” were “hit singles” (“Seasons” was a million-seller), and the album became Hamasaki’s best-selling studio album. At the end of 2000, Hamasaki held her first New Year countdown concert at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium.

In 2001, Avex forced Hamasaki to release her first compilation album, A Best, on March 28, putting the album in “competition” with Hikaru Utada’s second studio album, Distance. The “competition” between the two singers (which both claimed was merely a creation of their record companies and the media) was supposedly the reason for the success of the albums; both sold over 5 million copies. In support of Duty and A Best, Hamasaki held a tour of Japan’s domes, making her one of few “top-drawer” Japanese artists to hold a concert at the Tokyo Dome.

I am… (January 2002) marked several milestones for Hamasaki. Hamasaki increased her control over her music by composing all of the songs on the album under the pseudonym “Crea”; “Connected” (November 2002) and “A Song Is Born” (December 2001) were the exceptions. I am… also showed evolution in Hamasaki’s lyrical style: it was a retreat from the themes of “loneliness and confusion” of some of her earlier songs. Moved by the September 11 attacks, Hamasaki revised her vision of I am…, focusing on issues such as faith and world peace. “A Song Is Born”, in particular, was directly influenced by the events. The single, a duet with Keiko Yamada, was released as part of Avex’s non-profit Song+Nation project, which raised money for charity.[ She also dropped the planned cover and opted instead to be portrayed as a “peace muse”, explaining,

I had a completely different idea for the cover at first. We’d already reserved the space, decided the hair and makeup and everything. But after the incident, as is typical of me, I suddenly changed my mind. I knew it wasn’t the time for gaudiness, for elaborate sets and costumes. It sounds odd coming from me, but I realize what I say and how I look has a great impact.

The outlook inspired by the September 11 attacks extended beyond I am…. In 2002, Hamasaki held her first concert outside Japan, at the MTV Asia music awards ceremony in Singapore, a move interpreted as the beginning of a campaign prompted by a sluggish Japanese market. At the ceremony, she received the award for “Most Influential Japanese Singer in Asia”. In support of I am…, Hamasaki held two tours, Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2002 A and Ayumi Hamasaki Stadium Tour 2002 A. In November 2002, as “Ayu”, she released her first European single, “Connected”, a trance song from I am… composed by DJ Ferry Corsten. It was released in Germany on the Drizzly label. Hamasaki continued to release singles (all of them remixes of previously released songs) in Germany on Drizzly until 2004.

After performing at the 2002 MTV Asia music awards, Hamasaki felt that by writing only Japanese lyrics, she was not able to bring her “message” to other countries. Realizing that English was a “common global language”, she used it for the first time on her next studio album, Rainbow (December 2002). Though she did not compose as much as on I am… (only nine of the album’s fifteen songs), she was still heavily involved in the production. The album was stylistically diverse; Hamasaki included rock- and trip-hop-influenced tracks as well as “summery”, “up-tempo” and “grand gothic” songs and experimented with new techniques such as gospel choruses and the yells of an audience. The lyrics were also varied: themes in the album included freedom, the struggles of women, and “a summer that ends in sadness”. “H”, the album’s second single, became the best-selling single of 2002. Hamasaki starred in a short movie, Tsuki ni Shizumu, which was created to be the video for the album’s third single, “Voyage”.

Personal life

Hamasaki dated singer-actor Tomoya Nagase since her brief acting career, and they publicly announced their relationship in 2001.[108] Six years later, the media circulated rumors that the couple were about to get married; however, on July 13, Hamasaki announced that they had broken up. Though Hamasaki did not explain the reason for the split, she stated that they had parted amicably and the two remained friends.

In a January 8, 2008 entry on her TeamAyu blog, Hamasaki revealed that an inoperable condition, possibly tinnitus or Ménière’s disease, had caused complete deafness in her left ear. She disclosed that she had been diagnosed with the condition in 2006 and that the problem dated back to 2000.[134] Despite the setback, Hamasaki stated that she wished to continue singing, and that she would “not give up” on her fans and that “as a professional”, she wanted to “deliver the best performance for everyone”.

Style and influence

Because of the widespread influence of her music, Hamasaki has often been compared to Madonna, whom Hamasaki cites as one of her influences,along with soul musicians Babyface and En Vogue and rock bands Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. She also admires Michelle Branch, Kid Rock, Joan Osborne, Seiko Matsuda, Rie Miyazawa, and Keiko Yamada; these diverse influences have led to the variety of her own music.

Hamasaki began commissioning remixes of her songs early in her career, and this also influenced the diversity of her music. Found on many of her records, these remixes span different genres of electronic dance music including Eurobeat, house, and trance, as well as acoustic genres such as classical and traditional Chinese music. She has employed Western as well as Japanese musicians; among those she has worked with are Above & Beyond, the Lamoureux Orchestra of France, and traditional Chinese music ensemble Princess China Music Orchestra.
Hamasaki’s live performances are often lavish productions that use “grand-scale props”. Performances of “Mirrorcle World” in her 2008 tour of Asia used a floating ship.

Hamasaki has released more than a hundred original songs; through them, she has covered a wide range of musical styles, such as dance, metal, R&B, progressive rock, pop, and classical. She uses different instruments and techniques including piano, orchestra, gospel choirs, guitars, traditional Japanese strings, music boxes, and effects such as yells, claps, and scratching. She frequently employs others to compose; as she has explained, “I’m not a professional; I lack even basic knowledge about writing music.” However, she started to compose her own melodies after her staff had failed to compose a tune for “M” that appealed to her.Wanting to produce works faithful to her visions, Hamasaki took control of most aspects of her artistry. I am… is representative of this stage in Hamasaki’s career; she directed the production of its songs, videos, and artwork. Later in her career, however, she began delegating many tasks, including composition, to her staff.

Hamasaki is often involved in the artistic direction of her live performances; they are often lavish productions that use a variety of props, extravagant costumes, and choreographed dances. She has used large video screens, fireworks, simulated rain drops, trick stage floors, and suspended devices. She is also involved in the artistic direction of her promotional videos and tries to convey in the videos the meanings or feelings of their respective songs. The themes of the videos are varied; she has made “sad and fragile” or “emotional” videos (“Momentum”, “Endless Sorrow”), “refreshing” videos (“Blue Bird”, “Fairyland”), and humorous videos (“Evolution”, “Angel’s Song”, “Beautiful Fighters”). Some of her videos contain short storylines: the video of “Voyage” depicts Hamasaki as a woman in a mental hospital whose previous incarnation was a woman in feudal Japan who was sacrificed to the moon; the video of “Endless Sorrow” features a young boy living in a society where speaking is forbidden by law. Additionally, the videos of “Fairyland”, “My Name’s Women”, and “Jewel” are among the top twenty or so most expensive music videos, making Hamasaki the only non-Anglophone to hold such a distinction.

Aurelie Claudel

Aurélie Claudel (born August 7, 1980 in Saint-Mars-d’Outillé, France) is a French model. She is one of three children and has two brothers. She comes from a relatively prominent family (her father was a distinguished notary). She is a descendant of the famous French sculptress Camille Claudel.[citation needed]

She was approached in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris by Dawn Wolfe at the age of 13. Her father thoroughly disapproved of her quitting school and pursuing a career in modeling but she did it nonetheless. She has made appearances in Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Allure, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire, and perhaps most notably, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and Victoria’s Secret catalogs. Her campaigns include Bloomingdales, Armani Exchange, Calvin Klein, J. Crew, Nautica, Oscar de la Renta, and Tommy Hilfiger, among others.

She has walked for Gucci, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Nina Ricci, and Victoria’s Secret.

Claudel appeared as “The Pregnant Model” in an editorial for the April 2006 edition of US Vogue, called “The Shape Issue”.

Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne Whibley (born September 27, 1984), better known by her birth name Avril Lavigne (pronounced /ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/), is a Canadian singer-songwriter, fashion designer, and actress. Lavigne has sold more than 30 million copies of her albums worldwide. She is currently one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the United States, with over 10.25 million copies certified by the Recording Industry Association of America. She has been dubbed as the ‘pop-punk princess’ by various sources.

Lavigne broke into the recording industry with her debut album, Let Go, released in 2002. As of 2009, over 16 million copies were sold worldwide, more than 6 million of which were sold in the United States. Her second and third album, Under My Skin and The Best Damn Thing, reached number one on the Global charts. Lavigne has scored five number-one singles worldwide, including “Complicated”, “Sk8er Boi”, “I’m With You”, “My Happy Ending” and “Girlfriend”.

SEE THE DETAILED BIOGRAPHY BELLOW THE WALLPAPERS

Biography

Early years

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born to a French-born father, John, and a Franco-Ontarian mother, Judy, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada on September 27, 1984. Her father named her Avril after the month “April” in French. She has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle. Lavigne’s mother was the first to spot young Lavigne’s talent. At the age of two, Lavigne began singing church songs along with her mother. The family moved to Napanee, Ontario, when Lavigne was five years old.

In 1998, Lavigne won a competition to sing with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain on her first major concert tour. She appeared alongside Twain at her concert in Ottawa, appearing on stage to sing “What Made You Say That”. She was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folk singer Steve Medd, who invited her to contribute vocals on his song, “Touch the Sky”, for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She also sang on “Temple of Life” and “Two Rivers” for his follow up 2000 album, My Window to You.

Music career

In November 2000, Lavigne was signed by Ken Krongard, an A&R representative to Arista Records, who invited the head of Arista, Antonio “L.A.” Reid, to hear her sing at the Manhattan studio of producer Peter Zizzo. Signed as a singer, Lavigne was pitched with songs written by others. However, she dismissed them, insisting she wanted to write herself. For a year, Lavigne and Arista had conflicts in musical direction. She collaborated with the production team The Matrix, and the ensuing album is called Let Go.

Let Go (2002–2003)

Lavigne released her debut album, Let Go, on June 4, 2002 in the United States, where it reached number two. It peaked at number one in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This made Lavigne, at seventeen, the youngest female soloist to have a number-one album in the United Kingdom until that time. By the end of 2002, the album was certified four-time platinum by the RIAA, making her the best-selling female artist of 2002 and Let Go as the top-selling debut of the year. By May 2003, Let Go had accumulated over 1,000,000 sales in Canada, receiving a diamond certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association. As of 2009, the album has sold over 16 million worldwide. RIAA has certified the album six-time platinum, denoting shipments of over six million.

Lavigne’s debut single and the Let Go’s lead single, “Complicated (Avril Lavigne song)”, went to number one in Australia and number two in the United States. “Complicated” was one of the best-selling Canadian singles of 2002. Subsequent singles “Sk8er Boi” and “I’m With You” reached the top ten in the United States. Lavigne was named Best New Artist at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, won four Juno Awards in 2003 out of six nominations, received a World Music Award for “World’s Best-Selling Canadian Singer”, and was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for “Complicated” and Best New Artist.

Lavigne appeared in the video to “Hundred Million” by the pop-punk band Treble Charger and “Bethamphetamine (Pretty, Pretty)” by the hard rock singer Butch Walker. Lavigne covered Green Day’s “Basket Case”, which she performed at the Try To Shut Me Up Tour.

Under My Skin (2004–2005)

Lavigne co-wrote “Breakaway” with Matthew Gerard, and was recorded by Kelly Clarkson for the soundtrack to the 2004 film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. “Breakaway” was later included on Clarkson’s second album, Breakaway, and released as the album’s lead single. Lavigne has also covered The Goo Goo Dolls’ mega-hit “Iris”, produced by Eric Book, and performed with the band’s lead singer John Rzeznik at the Fashion Rocks concert in 2004. She also recorded the theme song for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

Lavigne’s second album, Under My Skin, was released on May 25, 2004, debuting at number one in several countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan,the United Kingdom, and the United States. Lavigne wrote most of the album’s tracks with Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk. Kreviazuk’s husband, Our Lady Peace front man Raine Maida, co-produced the album with Butch Walker and Don Gilmore. Lavigne went on a “Live and by Surprise” twenty-one city mall-tour in the U.S. and Canada, starting on March 4, 2004, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to promote Under My Skin. Each performance consisted of a short live acoustic set of songs from the new album. She was accompanied by her guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld.

Lead single “Don’t Tell Me” went to number one in Argentina and Mexico, the top five in the UK and Canada, and the top ten in Australia and Brazil. “My Happy Ending” went to number one in Mexico and it reached the top ten in the U.S. making it her third-biggest hit there, but third single “Nobody’s Home” did not make the top forty in the U.S., and it only went to number one in Mexico and Argentina. The fourth single from the album, “He Wasn’t”, reached top forty positions in the UK and Australia, and was not released in the U.S. “Fall to Pieces” was released as the final single from the album, but did not do as well as previous singles.

Lavigne won two World Music Awards in 2004 for “World’s Best Pop/Rock Artist” and “World’s Best-Selling Canadian Artist”. She received five Juno Award nominations in 2005, picking up three, including “Fan Choice Award”, “Artist of the Year”, and “Pop Album of the Year”. She won the award for “Favorite Female Singer” at the eighteenth Annual Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

The Best Damn Thing (2006–2008)

Lavigne represented Canada at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, performing her song “Who Knows” during the eight minutes of the Vancouver 2010 portion.

While Lavigne was in the studio in 2006 for her third studio album, Fox Entertainment Group approached her to write a song for the soundtrack to the 2006 fantasy-adventure film Eragon. She wrote and recorded two “ballad-type” songs, one of which “Keep Holding On” ended up being used for the film. Lavigne admitted that writing the song was challenging, making sure it flows along with the film. She, however, noted that “Keep Holding On” was not indicative of what the next album would be. The song, which later appeared on the album, debuted on radio on November 20, 2006, and later released for digital download on November 28.

Lavigne’s third album, The Best Damn Thing, was released on April 17, 2007. Lavigne went into a small tour to promote The Best Damn Thing. The album’s lead single, “Girlfriend”, topped the Billboard Hot 100, the week The Best Damn Thing debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. “Girlfriend” is Lavigne’s first single to have reached number one in the United States. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ranked “Girlfriend” as 2007’s most-downloaded track, selling 7.3 million copies in eight different languages. In December 2007, Lavigne, with annual earnings of $12 million, was ranked number eight in the Forbes “Top 20 Earners Under 25”.

In March 2008, Lavigne undertook a world tour named The Best Damn Tour 2008 to support the album. In mid August 2008, Malaysia’s Islamic opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, attempted to ban Lavigne’s show in Kuala Lumpur, judging her stage moves “too sexy”. Her concert slated August 29 was deemed promoting wrong values ahead of Malaysia’s independence day on August 31. On August 21, 2008, MTV reported that the concert had been approved by the Malaysian government. Lavigne was reported to be featured on Lil Wayne’s seventh studio album Rebirth, which will be released in June 2009.

Film career

Lavigne made a cameo in the film Going the Distance and also appeared in an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, performing “Sk8er Boi” with her band. Lavigne made her film debut in the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge, which is based on the comic strip of same name. She voices the character Heather, a Virginia Opossum. In August 2006, Canadian Business magazine ranked her the seventh top Canadian actor dominating in Hollywood in their second-annual ranking Celebrity Power List. She is ranked second with the most web hits, and sixth in TV mentions.

Lavigne acted in the Richard Gere film The Flock, as the girlfriend of a crime suspect. Lavigne appears in the film Fast Food Nation, which is based on her favorite book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.

The British publication The London Paper reported that she recently landed a lead role in an upcoming film. Lavigne revealed, “I’ve got a film role coming up — something you wouldn’t expect from me, something deep and dark.”

Other works

Entrepreneurship

Aside from musical and film career, Lavigne ventured into entrepreneurship. Lavigne launched the clothing line Abbey Dawn in July 2008, featuring back-to-school collection. It is produced by Kohl’s, which is the brand’s exclusive US retailer. Named after Lavigne’s childhood nickname, Abbey, used as an alias when she started her recording career, Lavigne designs for the company and concepts emanate from her. Kohl’s describe Abbey Dawn as a “juniors lifestyle brand”, which includes apparel and jewelry with skull and zebra patterns similar to the artwork featured on The Best Damn Thing. Lavigne wore some of the clothes in her line at various concerts before the launch. The designs were also featured on the internet game Stardoll, where figures can be dressed up as Avril Lavigne.

Lavigne will be releasing her first fragrance called Black Star, created by Procter & Gamble Prestige Products. The fragrance was announced via Lavigne’s official website on March 7, 2009. Black Star, which contains notes of pink hibiscus, black plum and dark chocolate, will be released on summer in Europe, and later in America and Canada.

Philanthropy

Lavigne has been involved in a number of charitable activities, such as Make Some Noise, Amnesty International, Erase MS, AmericanCPR.org, Camp Will-a-Way, Music Clearing Minefields, U.S. Campaign for Burma, Make-a-Wish Foundation and War Child. She has also appeared in ALDO ads with YouthAIDS to raise money to educate people worldwide about HIV/AIDS. Lavigne took part of the Unite Against Aids concert presented by ALDO in support of Unicef on November 28 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec Canada.

Lavigne worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2005 east coast tour. She covered ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ for War Child’s Peace Songs compilation. Lavigne recorded a cover of the John Lennon song “Imagine” as her contribution to the compilation album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Released on June 12, 2007, the album was produced to benefit Amnesty International’s campaign to alleviate the crisis in Darfur.

Personal life

Lavigne married Deryck Whibley, frontman to the band Sum 41, on July 15, 2006.

In the January 2003 issue of Seventeen magazine, she admitted to “snagging a bite of Matt’s cheeseburgers every now and again.” She said also she prefers not to eat meat, but will not say she’s a vegetarian “in case anyone caught her eating meat”.

Lavigne has a star tattooed on the inside of her left wrist that matches the style of the one used for her first album artwork. It was created at the same time as friend and musical associate Ben Moody’s identical tattoo. In late 2004, she had a small pink heart-shaped tattoo featuring the letter ‘D’ applied to her right wrist, which represents her now husband Deryck Whibley, a fellow Canadian singer who is the lead singer/guitarist of punk band Sum 41. They began dating in February 2004 and on June 27, 2005, Lavigne and Whibley became engaged. Whibley proposed to Lavigne by surprising her with a trip to Venice, a gondola ride, and then a romantic picnic.

The couple married in a Catholic ceremony attended by about 110 guests on July 15, 2006 at a private estate in Montecito, California. When asked if they were ready for kids the couple said “not right now but somewhere down the road.”

Lavigne said in a 2004 interview that her favorite party song was Hey Ya, by Outkast. She likes listening to Third Eye Blind, Oasis, Marilyn Manson, System of a Down and Blink-182, and loves especially the track I Miss You. Asked what she would put on a mix tape to a boy she liked, she answered: “Iris, by Goo Goo Dolls. I’d put a few Coldplay and Oasis songs. Radiohead – The Bends is one of my favorite albums”.

Musical style and public image

In Lavigne’s official MySpace page, she affirms that her music genre includes pop, rock, and the sub-genre punk rock. According to Allmusic, her styles encompass adult alternative, pop rock, pop punk, post-grunge and teen pop. According to Rockdetector she is alternative rock, pop punk, pop rock, post-grunge, punk and teen pop.

Lavigne had been featured in a comic series Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes. She stars as herself, a pop star who is idolized by the protagonist of the story.

Controversy and criticisms

On May 25, 2007, songwriters James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar sued Lavigne, her co-songwriter Lukasz Gottwald, Almo Music, and RCA Records, claiming that “Girlfriend” contains lyrics plagiarized from their song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, originally performed by The Rubinoos and released by Beserkley Records in 1978. In January 2008, following a confidential settlement, Dunbar and Gangwer said in a statement that they “are satisfied that any similarities between the two songs resulted from Avril and Luke’s use of certain common and widely used lyrics”. They completely exonerated Lavigne and Luke “from any wrongdoing of any kind in connection with the claims made by us in our lawsuit”.

In June 2007, Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, with whom Lavigne co-wrote the majority of her second album, Under My Skin, spoke to Performing Songwriter magazine about Lavigne’s songwriting ability and ethics. Kreviazuk claimed that the song “Contagious”, which appears on The Best Damn Thing, was based on a track she had sent to Lavigne in 2005. On July 6, 2007, Lavigne denied both accusations in an open letter on her website, admitting that she had “never heard the [Rubinoos] song in [her] life” and also that she is considering taking legal action against Kreviazuk with regards to her allegations, which she considers “damaging” to her reputation and a “clear defamation” of her character. On July 10, Kreviazuk made a full public apology and retracted the statements made in the aforementioned interview. She said that Lavigne “is an accomplished songwriter and it has been my privilege to work with her”. Kreviazuk and Lavigne share the same manager under Nettwerk Management.

Aishwarya Rai

Biography

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan (Birthname: Aishwarya Rai, Tulu: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯಾ ರೈ) born 1 November 1973 is an Indian actress and former Miss World. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model and gained fame after winning the Miss World title in 1994.

Often cited by media as the most beautiful woman in the world, Rai made her movie debut in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film Iruvar (1997) and had her first commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans (1998). She came to the attention of Bollywood in the movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her performance in the film won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. In 2002 she appeared in Bhansali’s next project, Devdas (2002), for which she won her second Best Actress Award at the Filmfare. After a low phase in her career during 2003-2005, she appeared in the blockbuster Dhoom 2 (2006), which turned out to be her biggest Bollywood commercial success. She later appeared in films like Guru (2007) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008), which were commercially successful and got her critical acclaim. Rai has thus established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses in the Indian film industry.

During her career, Rai has acted in over forty movies in Hindi, English, Tamil and Bengali including the international productions Bride & Prejudice (2003), Mistress of Spices (2005), The Last Legion (2007) and The Pink Panther 2 (2009) in English.

Early life

Rai was born in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai. Her family belongs to the Bunt community of Mangalore. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai who works in Navy and has also co-produced one of Rai’s movies, Dil Ka Rishta (2003). At an early age her parents moved to Mumbai where she attended the Arya Vidya Mandir high school in Santa Cruz. Rai then entered Jai Hind College at Churchgate for one year, and then moved to Ruparel College in Matunga to finish her “HSC” studies. She did well in school and planned to become an architect and went on pursuing studies in architecture. She can communicate in several languages, including her mother tongue Tulu, as well as Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil. She started studying architecture but gave up her education to pursue a career in modelling.

Miss World

While pursuing her studies in architecture, Rai began modeling on the side. In the 1994 Miss India contest, she won the second place behind Sushmita Sen, and was crowned Miss India World. She went on to win the Miss World title the same year, where she also won the Miss Photogenic award. She abandoned her academic education after winning the pageant and spent one year reigning as Miss World in London. Rai then started working as a professional model and then moved on to her current profession as an actress.

Film career

Early career

Rai made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil biopic film, Iruvar (1997) with Mohanlal, The controversial film was a critical success and won many awards including Best Film award at the Belgrade International Film Festival, two National Film Awards, and two Filmfare Awards South. Rai appeared in dual roles, opposite veteran actor Mohanlal, with one of her roles being a cinematic depiction of political leader and ex-actress J. Jayalalithaa. Rai made her Bollywood debut in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya opposite Bobby Deol, which also released that year; the film did not do well at the box office, and was also panned by critics. However, her third project, S. Shankar’s Tamil film, Jeans (1998) was a commercial success, earning her the Filmfare Best Actress Award South. The film was also noted for the song “Poovukkul”, written by Vairamuthu, dubbing Rai as the “eighth wonder of the world”, with the music video comparing her to seven other prominent world monuments.

Success, (1999-2005)

In 1999 Rai starred in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam opposite Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan. The film was centered around Rai’s character, Nandini, who is forced to marry Devgan’s character despite being in love with another man (Khan), and as her husband tries to get her to her previous love, she eventually falls for him. Rai’s portrayal won her critical acclaim, and the film became her first box office success in Bollywood. She won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award for the film. In the same year she appeared in Subhash Ghai’s Taal, in which she played the role of a young village girl Mansi, who becomes a big Pop star after being hurt by her lover played by Akshay Khanna, the film was an average performer in India but was a big success among the international audience, especially in the United States, where it became the first Indian film to reach the top 20 on Variety’s box office list. Rai received another Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare for her performance.

In 2000, she appeared in Mansoor Khan’s Josh alongside Shahrukh Khan and Chandrachur Singh, in which she played a Catholic girl named Shirley who falls in love with the sibling of her Brother’s enemy. The film was a commercial success. Later that year she appeared in Satish Kaushik’s Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai opposite Anil Kapoor. It was a moderate success and her performance earned her a Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination. Later that year she played a supporting role in the Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, the film was a major commercial success and became the second highest grosser of the year, it also earned her a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award nomination. Later that year, she also starred in the Tamil film Kandukondain Kandukondain, alongside Mammooty, Ajith Kumar and Tabu.

In 2002, Rai appeared alongside Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas, an adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay famous novel by the same name. She played the role of Paro (Parvati), the love interest of the protagonist played by Khan. The film received a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. and became the highest grossing film of the year both in India and overseas. Devdas won numerous awards including 10 Filmfare Awards, and Rai received her second Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance. In 2003, she acted in Rituparno Ghosh’s Bengali film, Chokher Bali, an adaptation of one of Rabindranath Tagore’s novels by the same name. She portrayed the character of a young woman called Binodini, who is left to her own devices when her sickly husband dies soon after they are married. That year she also appeared in her home production Dil Ka Rishta alongside Arjun Rampal and Rohan Sippy’s Kuch Na Kaho alongside Abhishek Bachchan, none of which succeeded.

In 2004 she appeared in Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood-style English adaptation of Bride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Bride and Prejudice alongside Martin Henderson. In the film she portrayed the role of Lalita Bakshi, the film’s counterpart of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s novel. This was followed by Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khakee alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Jayapradha, in the film she played a negative role for the first time in her career. In the same year she appeared in in her second film with Rituparno Ghosh, Raincoat alongside Ajay Devgan. The film was highly acclaimed by the critics, whereas Rai received rave reviews for her performance.

In 2005 she appeared in Shabd a film based on a love triangle alongside Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan. The film was a box office flop wheraeas it received average reviews from the critics. Her next release that year was Paul Mayeda Berges’s The Mistress of Spices based upon the novel The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in which she starred alongside Dylan McDermott. The film received negative review by critics and was also a commercial failure. The same year she made a special appearance in Shaad Ali’s Bunty Aur Babli in a hugely popular seven-minute dance sequence for the song “Kajra Re”, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.

(2006-present)

In the year 2006, Rai starred in J P Dutta’s Umrao Jaan an adaptation of the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. She portrayed the role of a real life courtesan and poetess by the same name from 19th century. The film was a critical and commercial failure, though Rai’s work was generally well received. Critic Taran Adarsh wrote, “Aishwarya Rai looks ethereal. She has looked heavenly and performed so convincingly. She emotes through her expressive eyes and the consistency in her performance is evident from start to end”. Later that year she appeared as a master thief, Sunheri, in Yash Raj Films’s Dhoom 2 directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, with an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Uday Chopra. The film turned out to be a blockbuster and became the highest grossing film of the year in India. The film also sparked a controversy for a scene containing a kiss between her and Hrithik Roshan. Her performance earned her a sixth nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award.

In 2007 she appeared in Mani Ratnam’s Guru as Sujata, speculated to be based on the life of Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani, it was a rag to riches story about an ambitious small town man who ends up as the owner of the biggest corporation in India. The film was premièred at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, making it the first Indian film to have a mainstream international premiere in Canada. The film was critically acclaimed and performed well at the box office, becoming one of the highest grossers of the year. Rai won the critical acclaim, with one critic writing, “Aishwarya Rai stuns you with a powerful performance. Known for her angelic looks all the while, the actor will make people sit up and notice the reservoirs of talent in Guru”. Rai got her seventh nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award for the film. In the same year she starred in Jag Mundhra’s British film Provoked as Kiranjit Ahluwalia(an NRI woman who killed her abusive husband after facing severe domestic violence) alongside Naveen Andrews. The film was panned by critics and was also a commercial failure, though rai received positive reviews from critics. In the same year she appeared as a female Indian warrior from Kerala named Mira, in Doug Lefler’s epic film The Last Legion alongside Sir Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth and Thomas Sangster. The film was a critical failure.

In 2008, she starred alongside Hrithik Roshan in Ashutosh Gowariker’s historical drama Jodhaa Akbar playing the role of Jodha Bai, the Hindu wife of the Muslim Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, played by Roshan. The film was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the highest Bollywood grossers that year. She earned her eighth nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare for her performance. Later that year she co-starred with husband Abhishek Bachchan and father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan in Ram Gopal Verma’s Sarkar Raj, playing the CEO of a major power company proposing to establish a new power plant in rural Maharashtra.

Rai returned to the Tamil film industry and is working with Rajinikanth for the movie Endhiran, directed by S. Shankar, in an interview to the news channel Aaj Tak she confirmed a fee of Rs 6 crores for the film, making her the highest paid actress in India. She is also slated to co-star with Vikram in Mani Ratnam’s next film, Ashokavanam which is also to be simultaneously made in Hindi, titled Raavan, with Abhishek Bachchan in the lead. She set to appear in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next film opposite Hrithik Roshan, Vipul Shah’s Action Replay opposite Akshay Kumar, Abhinay Deo’s next film produced by Farhan Akhtar and Vishal Bharadwaj’s next directorial venture.

In 2009 Rai was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions to Indian cinema.In the same year she refused to accept the second-highest Order Of France, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as her father was suffering from serious illness, and she wanted her whole family to attend the award function. She is only the fourth Indian actor after Amitabh Bachchan, Nandita Das and Shahrukh Khan to be chosen for an Order Of France.

Personal life

Aishwarya has previously dated Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi. She is married to Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan who is three years her junior. After much speculation concerning their relationship, her engagement to Abhishek Bachchan was announced on January 14, 2007. The announcement was later confirmed by Amitabh Bachchan. Rai married Bachchan on April 20, 2007 according to traditional Hindu rites of the South Indian Bunt community, to which she belongs. Token North Indian and Bengali ceremonies were also performed. The wedding took place in a private ceremony at the Bachchan residence Prateeksha in Juhu, Mumbai. Though the wedding was a private affair intended for the Bachchan and Rai family and friends, the involvement of the media turned it into a national extravaganza.

International media

Rai has been the most popular face of Indian cinema globally. In 2004 she was chosen by Time magazine as one of the World’s “100 Most Influential People”, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine, Asia Edition in 2003. She was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on 2 January 2005, which said that “at least according to thousands of Web sites, Internet polls and even Julia Roberts”, she was “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman”. In October 2004 a wax figure of Rai was put on display in London’s Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. She was the 6th Indian and the second Bollywood personality after her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan to get this honour.

In 2005 she became a global brand ambassador of L’Oreal alongside Andie Macdowell, Eva Longoria and Penelope Cruz. The same year, a special Tulip in Netherland was named “Aishwarya Rai” after her. Rai became the first Indian to appear on such shows as Late Show with David Letterman, and was the first Bollywood personality to appear on Oprah’s “Women Across the Globe” segment. In 2005, Harpers and Queen’s list of 10 Most beautiful women in the world ranked her at the 9th spot.

Ava Martinez

Ava Martinez is a sexy model.

Aurora Robles

Aurora Robles (born 1980 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico) is a fashion model.

Robles has appeared in many top quality fashion shows in Mexico and Europe. She has been featured on the front pages of the April 2000 and December 2000 issues of the magazine Max, in Germany, the front page of the May 2002 issue of GQ in Germany, and the front page of the July/August 2000 issue of Gear.

Ateshia

Ateshia is a hot Canadian model.

Ateshia was born on December 9, 1980. Her hometown is Vancouver, Canada, her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is sushi, and her favorite item in her closet is her Black Lacy Bra. She currently works at a night club, but is also at school studying.

Asia Argento

Asia Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento (born 20 September 1975) is an Italian television and film actress and director.

Family and early life

Her mother is actress Daria Nicolodi and her father is Dario Argento, an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter, well known for his work in the Italian giallo genre and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies. Her great-grandfather was composer Alfredo Casella.

When Asia Argento was born in Rome, the city registry office refused to acknowledge Asia (pronounced [ˈaːsia] in Italian) as an appropriate name, and instead officially inscribed her as Aria Argento. She nonetheless uses the name Asia Argento professionally. Argento has said that as a child she was lonely and depressed due, in part, to her parents’ work. Her father used to read her his scripts as bedtime stories. At age eight, Asia published a book of poems. At the age of fourteen, she ran away from home. She was also an introvert and read to make up for having no friends.

In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine she stated that she was agoraphobic while she was writing Scarlet Diva and that she could not leave her apartment for months. She said: “I was afraid to go out of my apartment for a long time, I could only go out to work.”

Argento has mentioned in interviews that she does not have a close relationship with her father. She has mentioned that he was absent when she was a child. She has also mentioned that she did not have a happy childhood. Regarding her relationship with her father and her reason for acting, she has stated that:

I never acted out of ambition; I acted to gain my father’s attention. It took a long time for him to notice me – I started when I was nine, and he only cast me when I was 16. And he only became my father when he was my director. I always thought it was sick to choose looking at yourself on a big screen as your job. There has to be something crooked in your mind to want to be loved by everybody. It’s like being a prostitute, to share that intimacy with all those people.

Career

Asia Argento started acting at the age of nine playing a small part in a film by Sergio Citti. She also had a small part in a film written and produced by Dario Argento in, The Church (1989), when she was 14, and Trauma (1993), when she was 18. She also had her first nude scene during this film. She received the David di Donatello (Italy’s version of Hollywood’s Academy Award) for Best Actress in 1994 for her performance in Perdiamoci di vista!, and again in 1996 for Compagna di viaggio, which also earned her a Grolla d’oro award. In 1998, Argento began appearing in English-language movies, such as B. Monkey and New Rose Hotel, with Christopher Walken.

Argento has proven her ability to work in multiple languages, adding French to the list of languages in which she has performed, with a role in 1994’s La Reine Margot. That same year, she made her first foray into directing, calling the shots behind the short films Prospettive and A ritroso. In 1996, she directed a documentary on her father, and in 1998 a second one on Abel Ferrara, which won her the Rome Film Festival Award. She directed and wrote her first movie called Scarlet Diva (2000), which was co-produced by Dario Argento. Four years later directed her second movie, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004), based on a book by JT LeRoy, the pen name of Laura Albert, this time in the United States. According to a Paris Review interview with Laura Albert, Argento and Savannah Knoop, who played the role of JT’s public persona, became lovers.

In addition to her cinematic accomplishments, Argento has written a number of stories for magazines such as Dynamo and L’Espresso, while her first novel, titled I Love You Kirk, was published in Italy in 1999. She has modeled for and endorses the brand “Miss Sixty”. The band Hondo Maclean from South Wales, gained Argento’s interest when they wrote a track named after her. She liked the track so much she sent them pictures which they used as the cover of their 2004 EP Chasing Angels.

From 17 to 25 October 2006, Argento contributed a video diary to Nick Knight’s website, SHOWstudio. The title of the 54 entries/episodes was “Don’t Bother To Knock” and detailed Argento’s daily life with three entries (noon, 6 pm and midnight) posted every day. The content of the entries were partially controlled by a discussion forum and together formed a cohesive whole, a sort of “mini-movie” anyone could view for free. In the clips Argento discusses topics such as freaks, her father, Fellini and her sexuality; she also journals a pregnancy, a new love interest and her unraveling psyche. All of these issues come to a head before Argento’s final revelations and good-byes. The last visual of the diary is a digitally manipulated portrait of Argento taken by Knight, slowly burning away.

She appeared in Placebo’s music video, This Picture, and featured on a cover version of Je t’aime… moi non plus with Placebo frontman Brian Molko and dance producers Trash Palace. Argento has also starred in Catherine Breillat’s period drama, Une vieille maîtresse (The Last Mistress).

She dubbed the Italian version of the video game Mirror’s Edge in the role of the Runner Faith Connors.

Personal life

She speaks fluent Italian, Russian, and English. She can also speak French, which she learned for her role in Les Morsures de L’Aube.

Argento has been romantically linked with Vincent Gallo, Sergio Rubini, Michael Pitt, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

Her first child, Anna Lou, was born on 20 June 2001. Italian rock and roll musician Marco Castoldi (lead singer of Bluvertigo), also known as Morgan, is the father. She named her daughter after her half-sister Anna Ceroli, who died in a motorcycle accident. She and her daughter live in Rome.

Asia married film director Michele Civetta on 27 August 2008 in Arezzo. Her second child, Nicola Giovanni, was born on 15 September 2008 in Rome.

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd (born April 19, 1968) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actress, well known for playing a number of strong women characters in films such as Ruby in Paradise, Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy and High Crimes.

Early life

Judd was born Ashley Tyler Ciminella in Granada Hills, California, the daughter of Naomi Judd, a well known country music singer and motivational speaker, and Michael Ciminella, Jr., a marketing analyst for the horseracing industry. Judd has a half-sister, Wynonna Judd, who is also a country music singer. At the time of her birth, her mother was working as a nurse, and did not become well-known as a singer, along with her daughter, until the early 1980s. Judd’s parents divorced in 1972, and in 1974, her mother took her back to her own native Kentucky, where Judd grew up.

Judd attended twelve schools before college, including the Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky and Franklin High School in Tennessee. She briefly tried modeling in Japan during school breaks. An alumna of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Kentucky, she majored in French and minored in anthropology, art history, theater and women’s studies. She spent a semester studying in France as part of her major, a move that mirrored her role as Reed in the television series Sisters. She was in the UK Honors Program and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, but did not graduate with her class, leaving the university early to drive cross-country in pursuit of an acting career in Hollywood, where she studied with well-respected acting teacher, Robert Carnegie, at Playhouse West. During this time, she worked as a waitress at The Ivy restaurant and lived in a Malibu, California house her sister bought her[citation needed], which burned down during the great Malibu fires[citation needed]. On May 9, 2007, it was announced that Judd had completed her bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Kentucky. In a May 2007 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Judd explained that she had completed her degree requirements in 1990, but had mistakenly thought she was one class short. She only needed to “sign a piece of paper” in order to graduate. DeGeneres then surprised Judd by presenting her with her diploma, which DeGeneres had acquired from the university. Judd was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky on May 9, 2009.

Career

Judd began acting on television and appeared as Ensign Robin Lefler, a Starfleet officer, in two 1991 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. From 1991 to 1994, she had a recurring role as Reed, the daughter of Alex (Swoosie Kurtz), on the NBC drama Sisters. She made her feature film debut with a very small role in 1992’s Kuffs. However, in 1993 Judd fought for and was cast in her first starring role playing the title character in Victor Nuñez’s Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winning, Ruby in Paradise. She received rave reviews playing Ruby Lee Gissing, a young woman trying to make a new life for herself, and it was this performance that would launch her career as an actress. Oliver Stone, who had seen her in Nuñez’s film, cast Judd in Natural Born Killers, but her scenes were later cut from the version of the film released theatrically. But the following year she gained further critical acclaim for her role as Harvey Keitel’s estranged daughter in Wayne Wang’s Smoke and also as Val Kilmer’s lover in Michael Mann’s Heat. That same year she also played the role of Callie in Philip Ridley’s dark, adult fairy tale, The Passion of Darkly Noon.

By the end of the 1990s, Judd had managed to achieve significant fame and success as a leading actress, after leading roles in several thrillers that performed well at the box office, including Kiss the Girls in 1997 and 1999’s Double Jeopardy. Several of her early 2000s films, including 2001’s Someone Like You and 2002’s High Crimes, received only mixed reviews and moderate box office success; although, she did receive positive recognition, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, for her performance in the 2004 biography of Cole Porter, De-Lovely, opposite Kevin Kline.

Judd is currently the magazine advertising “face” of American Beauty, an Estée Lauder cosmetic brand sold exclusively at Kohl’s department stores, and H. Stern jewelers. In June 2007, Goody’s Family Clothing announced that they were going to be releasing three fashion clothing lines with Judd in the Fall to be called – “AJ”, “Love Ashley” and “Ashley Judd.” Regarding the clothing line, Judd said, “I’m thrilled to be involved in a clothing line that provides simple, lovely solutions for women’s wardrobes. I’ve always loved items that you can throw on easily and know that you’ll feel and look good. This line does just that, while keeping with the best of current styles and trends.”

Personal life

Judd and her husband Dario Franchitti at the 2007 Indianapolis 500
Judd, as YouthAIDS Global Ambassador, speaks at an event in South Africa (January 2005)

During the 1990s, Judd dated baseball player Brady Anderson, singers Lyle Lovett and Michael Bolton, and actors Matthew McConaughey and Robert De Niro. In December 1999, she became engaged to Scottish auto racer Dario Franchitti, who was at the time driving in Champ Car World Series (he has since raced in IndyCars and NASCAR). The two were married at Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, Scotland, on December 12, 2001. She and her husband divide their time between a home in Scotland and their farm outside Franklin, Tennessee. Judd can be recognized in Gasoline Alley wearing a white hat, and was present at the 2007 Indianapolis 500 when her husband won.

When in Manhattan, Judd attends services at a charismatic missionary Baptist church.[citation needed] She also regularly attends University of Kentucky basketball games, frequently sitting next to Donna Smith (wife of former Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith), or in the student section. Last year, Judd was a guest columnist for a local Kentucky newspaper, writing about the NCAA championships. She is frequently sought out for celebrity camera shots during televised games. Judd posed for a poster wearing only a hockey jersey for fundraising purposes for their alma mater’s hockey team. She is also an avid practitioner of yoga, cooking and gardening.

In February 2006, Judd entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas and stayed for 47 days. She was there because of personal issues, including depression and isolation.

Judd is active in humanitarian and political causes. She was appointed Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, an education and prevention program of the international NGO Population Services International (PSI), promoting AIDS prevention and treatment, and speaks and demonstrates at pro-choice events. On October 29, 2006, Judd appeared at a “Women for Ford” event for Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr.

A long-running feud between Judd and Indy race car driver Milka Duno took place throughout the 2007 Indy Racing League season. After the final race of the 2007 season, the actress stated to the assembled news media that, “I know this is not very sportsmanlike, but they’ve got to get the 23 car (Duno) off the track. It’s very dangerous. I’m tired of holding my tongue. She shouldn’t be out there. When a car is 10 miles (an hour) off the pace, it’s not appropriate to be racing. People’s lives are at stake.”

Political activities

In 2009, Judd appeared in a one minute video advertisement for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, in which Judd condemned Alaska governor Sarah Palin for supporting aerial wolf hunting. In response, Sarah Palin stated that the reason these wolves are killed is to protect the caribou population in Alaska and called the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund an “extreme fringe group”.

Ashlee Simpson

Ashlee Nicole Simpson-Wentz (born October 3, 1984 as Ashley Nicole Simpson) is an American pop rock singer-songwriter, and actress. Simpson-Wentz, who is the younger sister of pop singer Jessica Simpson, rose to prominence in mid-2004 through the success of her number-one début album Autobiography and the accompanying reality series The Ashlee Simpson Show. Simpson received widespread criticism when she used a pre-recorded vocal track on Saturday Night Live in October 2004. Following a North American concert tour and a film appearance, Simpson released a second number-one album, I Am Me, in October 2005. Her third album, Bittersweet World, was released in April 2008. The following month, she married musician Pete Wentz and announced that they were expecting a child. On November 20, 2008, Simpson-Wentz gave birth to their son, Bronx Mowgli Wentz.