A rare reality TV star with a career rooted in the real world, Bethenny Frankel was born in New York City in 1970. She became intimately involved in the show business community as a large-scale event planner, helping produce movie premieres and award shows, but a love of food and a need to promote a natural lifestyle led her to change gears. She attended Natural Gourmet Cooking Institute, and soon started a ...

Australian Rebecca St. James began her successful CCM vocal career at the age of 16, releasing her self-titled debut on Frontline Records in 1994. The following year, she was nominated for a Dove award as New Artist of the Year. Also in 1995, Forefront released a five-track EP of remixes. God followed in 1996, with the holiday release Christmas appearing a year later. St. James returned in 1998 with Pray. T ...

Any fan of Kristin Chenoweth knows that the musical quality of her lilting timbre is more than just a nice speaking voice: the actress has been one of the most successful and well-known performers on Broadway for the past ten years. The sprightly 4'11" actress attended Oklahoma City University on a full scholarship to study voice before going on to earn her master's in opera performance. Chenoweth's first B ...

Russell Brand is a British comedian and actor whose success spread from United Kingdom radio and television to big-time Hollywood movies such as Get Him to the Greek. Brand became a popular host on the airwaves between 2006 and 2008 on the radio show The Russell Brand Show, and on the TV reality-show spin-off Big Brother's Big Mouth. Known for his scandalous remarks, skinny pants and riot of teased hair, Br ...

One of the best-known country singers in the world, Dolly Parton is known for her outsized talent, hair, and bosom. She began writing and performing songs as a girl and made her first record in 1960. She moved to Nashville, and in 1967 released the album Hello, I'm Dolly and landed a job on Porter Wagoner's syndicated television show. Parton and Wagoner had a string of hits as a duo throughout the 1960s and ...

Author and filmmaker Catherine Breillat has gained a reputation as one of the most controversial women in contemporary arts and letters for her work, which often focuses on the erotic and emotional lives of young women, as told from the woman's perspective. Born in Bressuire, France, in 1948, Breillat developed a reputation for challenging public mores early on; at the age of 17, she published her first nov ...

An actress of elegant, dark beauty, Hunter Tylo rose through the beauty queen ranks to become one of the most prominent models of the 1970s and '80s. Although that success alone might have been enough to satisfy the appetites of less-ambitious catwalk queens, Tylo went on to build an impressive acting career by alternating between daytime dramas and features. Born Deborah Jo Hunter in Fort Worth, TX, in 196 ...

She may have won with her version of American Idol's 2004 single "I Believe," but it was her passionate take on George Gershwin's "Summertime" that had everyone talking weeks after she had performed. That she delivers teen pop and classics from the American songbook with equal conviction is a testament to the versatility of singer Fantasia Barrino. Confident to the degree you could consider her brash, Barri ...

Isabella Rossellini was one of the twin daughters born to actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini in 1952. After growing up in Italy, she came to America when she was19 and studied at Finch College and the New School for Social Research. She then returned to Rome, where she worked as a translator and TV journalist (not unlike her New York-based half-sister Pia Lindström). Just for fun, Rossel ...

Journalist, first lady. Born Maria Owings Shriver on November 6, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. Shriver is the daughter of prominent politican and diplomat Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of John F. and Robert Kennedy. She graduated from Georgetown University in June 1977 with a B.A. in American studies and began her career as a newswriter and producer for Philadelphia's KYW-TV later that ye ...