Rebecca Adlington

 

Rebecca Adlington (born February 17, 1989 in Mansfield, England) is an English freestyle swimmer and Olympic gold medallist. She attended the Brunts School in Mansfield.

Adlington is representing Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400 m, 800 m freestyle and 4×200 m freestyle relay swimming events. In the heats of the 400 m freestyle, she broke the Commonwealth record with a time of 4:02:24. On 11 August 2008 she won an Olympic gold medal in the same event, with a time of 4:03.22. She was the first woman to win swimming gold for Great Britain since Anita Lonsbrough in 1960

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Jemima Rooper

Jemima Rooper (born 24 October 1981, in Hammersmith, London, England) is an English actress.

Rooper expressed a wish to be an actress at the age of eight and contacted an agent. Her first professional roles were in the 1993 film The Higher Mortals and the 1994 film Willie's War. In 1996 she appeared in all episodes as George in Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.

She said:

I remember writing 'I want to act' on my bed in lipstick. I think I told my mum I wanted to be an actress and she said I needed an agent to do that. I must have said: "Well, I'm going to get one" - and I think that's why. She was devastated. She said: "Please don't be an actress, be a doctor or lawyer." But I was very tunnel-visioned about it all. I'm an only child and I spent a lot of time alone. I played a lot of imaginary games. I just wanted to dress up and be weird, I suppose.

In 2008 she will appear in the TV series Lost In Austen as well as Her Naked Skin, a new play at the National Theatre. She is attached to star in the film Hotel Caledonia.

Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988), is an American actress and singer. She made her debut in 2003 appearing in the Hollywood films Thirteen and Thunderbirds, before reaching fame in 2006 after appearing in the Disney Channel film High School Musical hit series. Hudgens began a music career and released her debut album, V, in 2006. Her sophomore album, Identified, was released July 1, 2008.

Hudgens confirmed, in an interview with Teen Magazine as of October 2007, that she is dating her High School Musical series co-star Zac Efron . In an interview, Hudgens' publicist stated that her music video for "Say OK" was their official "come-out" as a couple.

Melonie Diaz

Melonie Diaz (born April 25, 1984) is an American actress who was proclaimed queen of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Diaz was raised along with her elder sister in New York's lower east side by parents of Puerto Rican descent. She became interested in acting at the Henry Street Settlement and subsequently attended professional performing arts high school.

She recently completed a degree in Film Production at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has made numerous off-Broadway and workshop appearances include Medea at the Bullet Space, the Hip Hop Theater Festival at P.S. 122, and the New York City Fringe Festival.

She started her film career with a supporting role in Tom DiCillo's Double Whammy (2001) and later landed roles in Jim McKay and Hannah Weyer's From an Objective Point of View and Peter Sollett's Raising Victor Vargas (both 2002). Television work at this time included an episode of Law & Order and a pilot for Queens Supreme (both 2003).

Her breakthrough roles came as Blanca in Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown (2005) and as Laurie in Dito Montiel's A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) which earned her a Independent Spirit Awards nomination for Best Supporting Female. She was subsequently cast by Jamie Babbit in the lead role of Anna in Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007).

Ellen Page

Ellen Philpotts-Page (born February 21, 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is an Academy Award-nominated Canadian actress best known for her role as the title character in the 2007 film Juno. For this performance, Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

She is also known for her starring role in Hard Candy (2005), and as Katherine "Kitty" Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand. She also received attention in her native Canada for award-winning roles in Pit Pony and Marion Bridge, as well as television shows Trailer Park Boys and ReGenesis.

In 2008, Page was nominated for Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list and placed #61 on FHM's Sexiest Women in the World list. In June 2008, Page was named to Entertainment Weekly's future A-List stars list.

Mischa Barton

Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born January 24, 1986) is an English American film, television, and stage actress, perhaps best known for her role as Marissa Cooper in the American television series The O.C.

Mischa Barton was born in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom to an Irish mother, Nuala (née Quinn), a photographer, and an English father, Paul Marsden Barton, a foreign exchange broker. She has two sisters, Hania and Zoe. Barton moved to New York City at the age of four and became a naturalised citizen of the United States in Los Angeles on February 3, 2006. Barton graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2004, and attended classes at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the summer of 2006.

 

Barton was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, possession of marijuana, and driving without a valid license on December 27, 2007. She was stopped by police during the early morning hours in West Hollywood, California when she was seen "straddling the lanes and failing to signal for a turn". Police discovered during the traffic stop that Barton "was an unlicensed driver and was driving while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage". She was detained and released later the same morning from the West Hollywood Sheriff Station on US$10,000 bail.

On Thursday, January 10, 2008, Barton called into Ryan Seacrest's radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest (KIIS FM) and took full responsibility for her actions:

"I was pulled over... just that. Obviously, I’m 100% responsible for my actions in this case and I’m really disappointed in myself... I don’t know what to say about it, except that I’m not perfect and I just don’t ever intend to do something this stupid again."

Barton was subsequently charged with two misdemeanors: driving without a valid license; and a DUI.

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films Panic Room, Catch That Kid, Speak, Zathura, The Messengers, In the Land of Women, and the critically acclaimed Into the Wild. She recently finished filming Twilight.

Stewart was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her father, John Stewart (not to be confused with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart), is a stage manager and television producer who worked for FOX. Her mother is a scriptwriter who comes from Australia. She has an older brother, Cameron. Stewart is an avid surfer and currently lives with her family in Los Angeles.

She subsequently appeared in the independent film The Safety of Objects where she played the tomboy daughter of a troubled single mother (Patricia Clarkson). Stewart had a role in the major Hollywood film Panic Room, playing the sullen, diabetic daughter of a divorced mother (Jodie Foster). While the film received mixed reviews, Stewart garnered positive notices for the role.

After Panic Room's success, Stewart was cast in another thriller, Cold Creek Manor, playing the daughter of Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone's characters; the film generally failed at the box office. Her first starring role followed, in the children's action-comedy Catch That Kid, opposite Max Thieriot and Corbin Bleu. To date, Stewart’s most critically acclaimed role may be in the television film Speak (2004), based on the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. Stewart, thirteen at the time of filming, played high school freshman Melinda Sordino who stops almost all verbal contact after being raped and has to deal with enormous amounts of emotional turmoil. Stewart has received great praise for playing the character, who had only a few speaking lines, but kept up a dark witted commentary inside her head throughout the film.