New Year's Eve Greetings

I normally don't find myself in the middle of an A-Z round of new subjects going from one year into another, but I'm currently positioning my post schedule so that I will have featured one thousand different women here by this coming September 25, this blog's tenth anniversary.  So 2016 is going to be a big year here. :-D Expect, in addition to more new subjects, more special retrospective posts, and, a list of all of the women I've featured on this blog since its fifth anniversary in September 2011, when I put up my list of the first five hundred women to be featured here.  I've been compiling the list as time has gone by, not waiting to do it all at once like last time, so it should be much easier to post when the time comes! :-D  I hope to come up with a special Leap Day post for February 29, like I always do, and of course in December I'll have my biennial "Beauty of Dance" series, celebrating more lovely women in ballet and modern dance. :-)

In the meantime, since this is supposed to be a pictorial blog (in other words, enough of my yakking), here's a special New Year's Eve pictorial post.  Earlier this year, I showed a closeup of German model Margrit Ramme from a 1977 print ad.  Here is the full ad.

As previously noted, it's an ad for ladies' undergarments.  Yes, you can expect Maidenform ads from Maria Hanson's portfolio in 2016, though you don't know when exactly when they'll turn up. ;-)

Happy new year.

Greek model/politician Elena Kountoura

Elena Kountoura is a former model who made the transition to politics in her native Greece.

She modeled from 1984 to 1997, becoming the face of the Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido and working regularly with French photographer and designer Serge Lutens.

After a stint as a director for a Greek women's magazine, Ms. Kountoura got elected to the Greek Parliament in 2004, and served in that legislature on and off for about a decade.  A woman who leans to the left, she currently serves as the  Deputy Minister of Tourism under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Given the precarious state of Greek finances and the need for more tourism to help prop up Greece's economy, she has her work cut out for her.    

Model Jeanette Hallen

Jeanette Hallen is a model from the eighties and early nineties.

In her heyday, she appeared in ads for Neutrogena (form which the photo above is taken) and for Clairesse hair care products, as well as the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Redbook, among others. 

She's also done fashion and beauty editorials, from which the photo above is taken. 

Biographical data on her is scant. 

New Link Announcement: Catherine Roberts YouTube Channel!

Earlier this year, I announced a link to the Web site of model Catherine Roberts, who has had a distinguished career in her profession but for too long had not been a household name due to an emphasis on commercial modeling, rather than the editorial work that gets models credits and helps make them household names.  As today is Christmas, and with 2015 drawing to a close, I am presenting as a holiday gift a link to to another page Ms. Roberts has set up to promote herself . . . her very own YouTube channel!

By now, you've seen on her site all of the classic print ads she's done for Charles of the Ritz, Helena Rubenstein, and other clients.  You may have even remembered some of them, only finding out now who that beautiful woman is. :-)  Well, Ms. Roberts has also put together a YouTube channel to promote her television advertising work.  Some of you may remember these commercials, too, while though some of you may be seeing them for the first time; Ms. Roberts has already included at least one of them on her main site already.  They all show another facet of her work as a model and show just how versatile and demanding the modeling profession is.  A lot of work and effort go into making a 30-second spot, and it takes a good deal of dedication and devotion to make it work.  That's why Catherine Roberts remains an active participant in the modeling profession. :-) The link, like all links to modeling and photography sites on this blog, is just below the members list and the blog archive field in the upper right hand corner of the screen, six spaces down the list.

As I noted back in January 2015, Ms. Roberts has been a friend of mine since I connected with her as a result of she and other high-profile models discovering my blog.  I had long found it unfortunate that she has rarely been known by her name, which is the reason I've featured her here so often.  That's why I'm as happy to add her YouTube channel to my list of permanent links as I was to post a link to her main Web site at the beginning of this year.  I am always glad, because of the joyous association I've had with her, to help get more people her YouTube channel and see her TV work.  She epitomizes what is best about the modeling profession.

 

I'm sure you'd agree. :-)

Merry Christmas. :-D :-)

Mexican actress Edith González

You've probably never heard of Edith González, unless you watch Telemundo serials or live in a town in the Southwest that gets Mexican TV.

And if you happen to be Mexican, then you have heard of her. :-)

She has been in more telenovela serials in Mexico that you can count.  She made her debut at the age of five in the the 1970 serial Cosa juzgada, and she's been doing them ever since.  Among her other  serials are 1986's Monte calvario, 1990's En carne propia, and  2009-2010 Camaleones, which ran in 2009 and 2010 and yielded an impressive 135 episodes in that short time.

Among her movies are 1988's Pero sigo siendo el rey, 1990's Fabricantes de pánico, and 1996's Salón México La Jaibitaanción.   Her earliest cinematic role, however, was not a Mexican one but an English one; in 1974 she played Fanny, the sister of Ebenezer Scrooge, as a child in a Spanish-language adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

TV newswoman Lesli Foster

If you watch local TV news in the Washington, D.C .metropolitan area, you know all about Lesli Foster.

She's the weeknight anchor for the weekday evening news broadcasts of WUSA-TV, Washington's CBS affiliate.  She also heads the station's Consumer Unit, through which she covers consumer news and issues.

Ms. Foster got her start in broadcast journalism in her native Michigan, as a weekend anchor and reporter for WEYI-TV in Flint.  She was a TV reporter for WBAL-TV in Baltimore before joining WUSA-TV.  Both of her former employers are NBC affiliates.

Model CariDee English

CariDee English is the Carrie Underwood of modeling.

Like Carrie Underwood, Ms. English came to prominence through a talent show.  She placed first in the the seventh cycle of the TV talent show "America's Next Top Model" in 2006.   As a result she got a $100,000 contract with the CoverGirl cosmetics brand, a modeling contract with Elite agency, and a six-page fashion editorial and cover for Seventeen (though she was 22). She's gone on to model in several fashion shows and appear in several magazines since.  She's also known for her ads for Stelara, a drug for curing psoriasis. 

I'm always happy to put a little English on this blog. ;-) :-)  

Model Donna Denton

Donna Denton is a fashion model from the 1980s.

She was primarily active in the middle of the decade, represented by the Wilhelmina agency in New York.

British actress Emilia Clarke

Emilia Clarke has a distinguished role in a popular TV series.

 

She plays Daenerys Targaryen in "Game of Thrones," the television series based on George R.R. Martin's book series of the same name, about fantasy medieval kingdoms.  Daenerys is a heroine of the stories, going from a meek girl to a strong woman who helps save people from bondage by leading an army to liberate their cities, in the style of Joan of Arc.

The British actress is also moving toward motion pcitres.  As of this writing, she has made two movies, Voice from the Stone and Me Before You, that are in post-production.

TV newswoman Kristina Behr

You might say that Kristina Behr was born into TV news.

The Greater New York-based newswoman was born in to a family involved in television production, and she received her broadcasting education from Boston University, where she earned a journalism degree.  Today, Ms. Behr reports for WPIX-TV in New York City and also does freelance anchoring for the New Jersey cable news channel News 12 New Jersey.

Fun fact:  As a girl, Ms. Behr would get to go to television studio sets, and she got her hair cut by the same stylists who did hair for soap-opera star Susan Lucci. :-D 

Musical actress Annaleigh Ashford

Annaleigh Ashford is another bright star on Broadway.

The Denver-born actress and singer has done numerous musical in New York.  She's played the Good Witch Glinda in Wicked and Margot in Legally Blonde, among other roles, and she was the original original Lauren in the Cyndi Lauper/Harvey Fierstein musical Kinky Boots, for which she received a Tony nomination in 2013 for the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.  She did win the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play, as well as the Outer Critics Circle's and the Drama Desk Awards' 2015 awards for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, for her portrayal of Essie Carmichael in a production of You Can't Take It With You.  Ms. Ashford has also been played small roles on television shows such as "Law & Order "and "Nurse Jackie," and she has also played Betty Dimello in the Showtime period drama series "Masters of Sex."  

Through January 2016, she plays a dog - yes, a dog - adopted by a New York City couple in the title role of the comedy musical Sylvia on Broadway, a role that has caused some controversy for being played by a woman.

Ms. Ashford also has her own cabaret show, Lost In the Stars, that toured between February 2014 and January 2015. 

The Latest Numbers

As indicated earlier, I have posted pictures of 930 different women as of now.

I have decided not to post statistics of my top ten posts this time; none of them have changed positions since I last did so, and so there's nothing really new to report.  Needless to say, my March 2014 post of weatherwoman Stef Davis continues to surge.  And some people out there have a special attraction to TV newswoman Atia Abawi;  not only does my post of her stubbornly hold on to the number ten spot, the numbers of views have actually gone up of late, if only just a bit (1,801, up three from September 2015).

Back tomorrow with another A-Z round of new subjects, which will spill over into the new year.  You were expecting me to feature a month's worth of beautiful dancers?  No, I do that every other December, and in even-numbered years.