Miss Universe 2011

Miss Universe 2011, the 60th edition of the Miss Universe pageant, will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 12, 2011 in location to be announced. Ximena Navarrete of Mexico will crown her successor at the end of the event.

Olivia Pinheiro has declined to represent her country in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant, according to a press release sent by Promociones Gloria, national license holder of Miss Universe in Bolivia, on Thursday, January 27, 2011 due to controversies about her real age. Local news programs inform that Promociones Gloria will choose the new Miss Bolivia 2011 in the month of June, and the winner from this contest will go on to represent the country in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant in São Paulo.

Britney Spears Biography

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. Britney Spears Biography signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999. During her first decade within the music industry, Britney Spears Biography became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s.

In 2001, Britney Spears released her third studio album Britney and expanded her brand, playing the starring role in the film Crossroads. Britney Spears Biography assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone released in 2003, which yielded chart-topping singles "Me Against the Music", "Toxic" and "Everytime". After the release of two compilation albums, Spears experienced personal struggles and her career went under hiatus. Her fifth studio album, Britney Spears Blackout, was released in 2007 and despite receiving little promotion, it spawned hits "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". In 2008, her erratic behaviour and hospitalizations caused her to be placed in a conservatorship. The same year, her sixth studio album Circus was released, with the global chart-topping lead single "Womanizer". After embarking on The Circus Starring Britney Spears, Britney Spears released greatest hits The Singles Collection, which featured U.S. and Canadian number-one single "3".

Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists in the history of contemporary music. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Britney Spears is the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States, with 32 million certified albums. Spears is also recognized as the best-selling female artist of the first decade of the 21st century, as well as the fifth overall. Britney Spears Biography was ranked the 8th Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard. In June 2010, Spears was ranked sixth on Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world; Britney Spears is also the third most mentioned musician in the world.

Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981, the second child of Lynne Irene (née Bridges) and James Parnell Spears. Britney Spears is of English heritage through her maternal grandmother, who was born in London, and of distant Maltese descent. Her siblings are Bryan James and Jamie Lynn. At age three, she started to attend dance lessons in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, and was selected to perform a solo at the annual recital. During her childhood, she also attended gymnastics and voice lessons, and won many state-level competitions and children's talent shows. Spears made her local stage debut at age five, singing "What Child Is This?" at her kindergarten graduation. Britney Spears said about her ambition as a child, "I was in my own world, I found out what I'm supposed to do at an early age". At age eight, Spears and her mother Lynne traveled to Atlanta for an audition in the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. Casting director Matt Cassella rejected her for being too young to join the series at the time, but introduced her to Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent. Carson was impressed with Spears's vocals and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School; shortly after, Lynne and her daughters moved to a sublet apartment in New York. Spears was hired for her first professional role, as the understudy for the lead role of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway musical Ruthless!.

Britney Jean Spears also appeared as a contestant on the popular television show Star Search, as well as being cast in a number of commercials. In December 1992, Britney Spears was finally cast in The Mickey Mouse Club, but returned to Kentwood after the show was cancelled. Britney Spears enrolled at Parklane Academy in nearby McComb, Mississippi. Although she made friends with most of her classmates, she compared the school to "the opening scene in Clueless with all the cliques. I was so bored. I was the point guard on the basketball team. I had my boyfriend, and I went to homecoming and Christmas formal. But I wanted more."

In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense. Lynne asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided he wanted to pitch her to record labels, therefore Britney Spears needed a professional demo. He sent Spears an unused song from Toni Braxton; she rehearsed for a week and recorded her vocals in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears travelled to New York with the demo and met with executives from four labels, returning to Kentwood the same day. Three of the labels rejected her, arguing audiences wanted pop bands such as The Backstreet Boys and The Spice Girls, and "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany." Two weeks later, executives from Jive Records returned calls to Rudolph. Senior vice president of A&R Jeff Fenster stated about Spears's audition that "It's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal. For any artist, the motivation—the 'eye of the tiger'— is extremely important. And Britney had that." They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney." After hearing the recorded material, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Spears had originally envisioned "Sheryl Crow music, but younger more adult contemporary" but felt alright with her label's appointment of producers, since "It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it—it's more me." She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from March to April 1998, with producers Max Martin, Denniz PoP and Rami, among others.

Keri Russell Scott Speedman

Keri Lynn Russell scott speedman (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress and dancer. After appearing in a number of made-for-television films and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002, and for which she won a Golden Globe Award. Russell has since appeared in several films, including We Were Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, Mad About Mambo, Wonder Woman, Mission: Impossible III, Waitress, August Rush, Bedtime Stories, and Extraordinary Measures.

Russell was born in Fountain Valley, California, the daughter of Stephanie (née Stephens), a homemaker, and David Russell, a Nissan Motors executive. keri russell scott speedman has an older brother, Todd, and a younger sister, Julie. Russell grew up in Coppell, Texas, Mesa, Arizona, and Highlands Ranch, Colorado, moving frequently because of her father's employment. Though keri russell scott speedman is best known for her acting, keri russell scott speedman started out at Starstruck dance studio in a suburb of Denver and it was her dancing, not her acting, that earned her a spot on the Mickey Mouse Club.

Russell first appeared on television as a cast member of the All-New Mickey Mouse Club variety show on the Disney Channel. keri russell scott speedman was on the show from 1991 to 1993 and co-starred with future pop stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, and Ryan Gosling.

In 1992, keri russell scott speedman appeared in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid alongside Rick Moranis and in 1993 had a role on the sitcom Boy Meets World as Mr. Feeny's niece. Keri had an appearance on Married with Children in a 1995 episode. Russell subsequently starred in several film and television roles, including the 1996 made-for-television film The Babysitter's Seduction. She also had a role on the short-lived soap opera series Malibu Shores the same year. In 1994, she appeared in Bon Jovi's music video "Always" with Jack Noseworthy. In 1997, she appeared in two episodes of Roar alongside Heath Ledger.

From 1998 to 2002, Russell starred as the title character on the successful WB Network series Felicity; keri russell scott speedman won a Golden Globe for the role in 1999. Russell's long and curly hair was one of her character's defining characteristics, and a drastic hairstyle change at the beginning of the show's second season was considered to be the cause of a significant drop in the show's television ratings. During the show's run, Russell appeared in the films Eight Days a Week, The Curve and Mad About Mambo, all of which received only limited releases in North America. Her next role was in the film We Were Soldiers, playing the wife of an American serviceman. The film was released in March 2002, two months before the end of Felicity's run.

When Felicity ended, Russell took a break from acting. She moved to New York City and took two years off to avoid the business of Hollywood, spending time with friends. Russell subsequently made her off-Broadway stage debut in 2004, appearing opposite Jeremy Piven, Andrew McCarthy, and Ashlie Atkinson in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig.[5] In 2005, she returned to television and film, beginning with an appearance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie The Magic of Ordinary Days, theatrical film The Upside of Anger (alongside Kevin Costner, Joan Allen and Evan Rachel Wood), and the television miniseries Into the West.

Although a number of her Felicity co-stars went on to appear in producer J. J. Abrams' series, Alias, Russell declined invitations to be part of the show. In a seminar at the Museum of Television and Radio, Abrams said, "I've asked Keri if she would ever do it, and I usually get this, sort of like, giggle — and then she hangs up". In 2005, Abrams asked Russell to join the cast of Mission: Impossible III, a film he directed, and she accepted. The film was released on May 5, 2006. In the summer of 2006, Russell was chosen to be a celebrity spokeswoman for CoverGirl Cosmetics. Before she was in Mission Impossible: III she was screen tested for the role of Lois Lane in Superman Returns but lost the role to Kate Bosworth, with whom she co-starred in The Girl in the Park.

She taped two episodes as a guest character on the NBC show Scrubs in 2007. She played Melody, a sorority sister and good friend of Elliot Reid played by Sarah Chalke. The first episode aired on April 26, and the second on May 3. She starred in Waitress, a well-reviewed independent film in which she played Jenna, a pregnant waitress in the American South; it was the fourth film in a row in which Russell had played a pregnant woman. The film opened on May 4, 2007 and Russell's performance was positively received by critics, with Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun writing that Russell's performance had "aesthetic character" and "welds tenderness and fierceness with quiet heat". In the summer of 2007, Russell appeared in The Keri Kronicles, a reality show/sitcom sponsored by CoverGirl and airing on MySpace; the show was filmed at Russell's home in Manhattan and spotlighted her life.

Russell next appeared in August Rush, a drama released in November, 2007. She also appeared on the cover of the New York Post's Page Six magazine on November 11, 2007. She has completed roles in Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story (titled Rohtenburg for its German release), in which she plays Katie Armstrong, a graduate student who writes a thesis paper on an infamous cannibal murder case, and the thriller The Girl in the Park, opposite Sigourney Weaver, Kate Bosworth and Alessandro Nivola.

Russell later appeared in Bedtime Stories, with Adam Sandler playing the lead. In an appearance on The View on December 15, 2008, Russell said she got the part because Sandler's wife Jackie had seen Russell in Waitress and suggested her for the movie.

Russell portrayed Wonder Woman in a direct-to-video animated feature released March 3, 2009. keri russell scott speedman starred alongside Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford in the Tom Vaughan-helmed Extraordinary Measures for CBS Films. The drama, which started filming on April 6, 2009 and was released on January 22, 2010, was the first film to go into production for the new company. Russell played Aileen Crowley, a mother who tries to build a normal home life for her sick children while her husband, John (Fraser), and an unconventional scientist (Ford) race against time to find a cure. Robert Nelson Jacobs (The Water Horse) penned the screenplay, which was inspired by a Wall Street Journal article and subsequent book, The Cure, by Geeta Anand. Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher produced alongside Carla Shamberg. Ford was an executive producer.

Russell plays Emmy Kadubic on Running Wilde, a comedy television series airing on Fox's 2010 Fall schedule on Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c.

Russell and Shane Deary, a carpenter keri russell scott speedman met through mutual friends, became engaged in 2006 and were married on February 14, 2007 in New York. Russell gave birth to a boy, River Russell Deary, on June 9, 2007 in New York. Russell had a midwife-assisted hospital birth; she has described her pregnancy experience as "real great and easy". Prior to her marriage, Russell had once dated her Felicity co-star Scott Speedman during the show's run. Russell also dated fellow Mouseketeer (and eventual Malibu Shores co-star) Tony Lucca for eight years.

As of 2007, Russell resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Ask a Woman Who Knows - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Culture - The Atlantic

Excerpt:

Take a moment to consider this. We live in a world where it's okay to badger brilliant and accomplished human beings—who presumably have many, many fascinating things to talk about relating to their lives' works—about marriage and childbirth simply because they have female reproductive organs.

I'm not trying to be flippant about this, because really, it's depressing. And even more depressing is the fact that women have to be gracious while answering, because these questions assume that marriage and babies are ever-present, important issues on every woman's mind. Again, it's little wonder that women are making such small inroads in Congress.

Read the entire article (with videos) here:
Ask a Woman Who Knows

Jaime Bergman Biography

Jaime Bergman (born on September 23, 1975 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States) is an American model and actress who was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in January 1999, its 45th Anniversary issue. In addition to her magazine appearance

Jaime Bergman has appeared in several Playboy Wallpaper. Her centerfold was photographed by Stephen Wayda.

Bergman was the St. Pauli Girl for 1999, the first of the Playmate national spokesmodels for the beer brand. Jaime Bergman has also worked as a Prudential real estate agent.

From 2000 to 2002, Bergman played the character of “B. J. Cummings” in the Howard Stern Baywatch spoof, Son of the Beach. In July 2000, Jaime Bergman appeared on the cover of Playboy and in a new nude pictorial inside to promote the show.

Jaime Bergman married Angel star David Boreanaz on November 24, 2001. They have a son, Jaden (Jaden Rayne Boreanaz, born on May 1, 2002), and a daughter, Bella (Bardot Vita Boreanaz, born on August 31, 2009).

Bergman's marriage to Boreanaz hit the headlines in May 2010 when Boreanaz admitted being unfaithful.

Agnes Bruckner Biography

Agnes Bruckner (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress. She began acting on television in the late 1990s and has since appeared in 7 films, including 2006's The Woods, Blue Car, and Murder By Numbers.

Bruckner was born in Hollywood, California to a Hungarian father and a Russian mother who have since divorced; her paternal grandfather was German. Her parents met in Hungary and immigrated to the U.S. in 1984 through a refugee camp in Italy. Agnes Bruckner Biography has two sisters and a brother.

Bruckner speaks some Russian and is fluent in Hungarian, having grown up speaking the language. Agnes Bruckner Biography has been involved in dance, ballet, and tap since the age of five and initially wanted to pursue a career as a dancer. At the age of eight, Bruckner worked as a child model at the suggestion of her mother, and also appeared in a beauty pageant. Bruckner grew up in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California and then lived in Portland, Oregon from age five to 10. She returned with her family to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, moving to Burbank, California.

Bruckner began her career at age 11. Agnes Bruckner Biography appeared in commercials, a few television pilots, and on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 1999. At the age of 15, Bruckner got her first lead role in the independent film Blue Car (2002), in which she played a high school student involved in an affair with her teacher, played by David Strathairn. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that Bruckner "negotiates this difficult script with complete conviction." Bruckner received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Female Lead" for the role.

In the 2000s, other minor roles in television and film followed, including roles in The Glass House (2001), and the thriller Murder by Numbers (2002) starring Sandra Bullock. Bruckner has appeared in episodes of the television series 24 and Alias. Agnes Bruckner Biography starred in the horror films Venom (2005) and The Woods (2006). Also in 2006, she appeared in the drama Peaceful Warrior, opposite Scott Mechlowicz and received a ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow Award, and played the lead role in Dreamland.

In 2007, Bruckner appeared in the horror/romance film, Blood and Chocolate. Upcoming film roles include: Say Hello to Stan Talmadge (2008), Kill Theory (2008), and Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2009).

Bruckner enjoys hip hop and R&B, as well as The Killers and The Fray. Bruckner has stated that she does not participate in "the Hollywood part of Hollywood", and travels or lives at home with her family during her free time.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah (pronounced /əˈliːə/), was an American recording artist, actress and model. Aaliyah was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At an early age,

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

Aaliyah appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At age 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive Records and Blackground Records by her uncle, Barry Hankerson. He introduced her to R. Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

The album sold three million copies in the United States and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After facing allegations of an illegal marriage with Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive and signed to Atlantic Records.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album, One in a Million; it sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and over eight million copies worldwide. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first major film, Romeo Must Die. Aaliyah contributed to the film's soundtrack, which spawned the single "Try Again".

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard history to achieve this feat. "Try Again" earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocalist. After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah filmed her part in Queen of the Damned. She released her third and final album, Aaliyah, in July 2001.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat". The pilot, Luis Morales III, was unlicensed at the time of the accident and had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system. Aaliyah's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Blackhawk International Airways, which was settled out of court. Since then, Aaliyah's music has achieved commercial success with several posthumous releases. With album sales estimated to be between 24 to 32 million copies worldwide, Aaliyah has been credited for helping redefine R&B and hip hop, earning her the nickname "Princess of R&B".

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York. Born an African American of Native American descent, Aaliyah Dana Haughton was the second and younger child of Diane and Michael Haughton. Enrolled at a young age for voice lessons by her mother, Aaliyah would perform at weddings, church choir and charity events. When she was five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. Aaliyah Dana Haughton attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where she received a part in the stage play Annie in first grade. From then on, she was determined to become an entertainer.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton beauty american

Aaliyah's mother was a vocalist, and her uncle, Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment lawyer who had been married to Gladys Knight. As a child,

Aaliyah traveled with Knight and worked with an agent in New York to audition for commercials and television programs, including Family Matters;

Aaliyah Dana Haughton went on to appear on Star Search at the age of nine. Aaliyah Dana Haughton then auditioned for several record labels and appeared in concerts alongside Knight at age 11.

Beauty Alexandra Maria Lara

Alexandra Maria Lara (born Alexandra Plătăreanu; November 12, 1978) is a Romanian-born German actress. She performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of historical and crime films. Lara is best known for her roles in Control (2007), Youth Without Youth (2007), Nackt (2002), Downfall (2004), About the Looking for and the Finding of Love (2005), and The Reader (2008).

Born in Bucharest, Lara is the only child of Valentin Plătăreanu, a Bucharest actor, and his wife, Doina, a homemaker. When she was four (in 1983) her family decided to flee to West Germany to escape Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime in Communist Romania. Although the family had originally planned to emigrate to Canada, they settled down in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, before eventually moving to Berlin.

After graduating at the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1997, Lara went on studying acting under the management of her father, co-founder of the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg, until 2000.

By age sixteen she was already playing lead roles in various television dramas. Since then her career has developed and she has become a respected film actress.

Her most famous role to date, which has resulted in international recognition, is as Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary, in the Oscar-nominated 2004 film Der Untergang (Downfall).

Due to her convincing performance in Der Untergang, Francis Ford Coppola wrote her a letter and gave her a leading role in Youth Without Youth (2007).

In 2007 she also appeared as journalist Annik Honoré in the film Control, the Ian Curtis biopic. In 2008, she served as a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury.

She played a lead role in Greek director Theo Angelopoulos's 2008 film The Dust of Time, opposite Irène Jacob and Bruno Ganz.

Speaking French fluently, she also appeared in several French productions, including Napoléon and L'Affaire Farewell.

More recently, she appeared in The Reader and Der Baader Meinhof Komplex which were both nominated for the 81st Academy Awards (best picture and best foreign language film, respectively).

In 2009 she married actor Sam Riley with whom she acted in the movie Control.

Taylor Quinn Cole at American actress

Taylor Quinn Cole (born April 29, 1984) is an American actress and former fashion model.

Cole was born in Arlington, Texas. Cole attended Mirabeau B. Lamar High School where she traveled with the Junior Olympics volleyball squad. It was also in high school she got her start as a model.

Cole moved to New York to further her modeling career. She's appeared in commercials and advertisements such as Crest toothpaste, Old Spice and Dooney & Bourke handbags.

When she visited her mother Deborah Quinn and stepdad actor, Shawn Christian in Los Angeles she landed an audition,

and eventually the role of Erika Spalding for the now-defunct WB show Summerland in 2004. She relocated to Los Angeles to film the series.

Taylor has also appeared in Ryan Cabrera's True music video and Papa Roach's video for "Scars". She also guest starred in the WB show Supernatural episode titled "Provenance",

where she played Sarah Blake, an art collector. She has also been seen playing guest roles in the CBS' show NUMB3RS.

Taylor has also appeared in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Bianca. Taylor stars as Desiree in the horror remake, April Fool's Day. Taylor had a part in the film 12 Rounds,

produced by WWE films and starring John Cena.

In December 2008, Cole appeared as Private Rachel Mills in the Heroes webisode series, The Recruit, and subsequently joined the main series in a recurring capacity playing the same character as of the start of 2009.

Taylor Quinn Cole stars also alongside Tiffany Shepis in The Violent Kind.

In April 2010, she guest starred on NCIS episode "Guilty Pleasure" as DC escort Charlotte Cook.

Since September 2010, she has starred in The Event as Vicky Roberts, an assassin for a covert organization.

Though Cole has mainly been focusing on acting, she still is signed to Los Angeles model agency Nous Models Management.

Tanja Dexters

Tanja Dexters (born February 6, 1977 in Mol, Antwerp, Belgium) was crowned Miss Belgium 1998 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1999 and Miss World 1998.