New Series: The Beauty of British Song!

This month I'll be focusing on pictures of beautiful British female popular singers, after giving them inexcusably short shrift in my two earlier "The Beauty of Song" editions.

Are we ready, then? Jolly good! Let's go!

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet has done two major movies since I last featured her here in 2007. Both of them were released in 2008.

In The Reader, the British actress played an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard who has an affair with a teenager who witnesses her trial for war crimes when he becomes an adult - a role Winslet admits to being very difficult - and in Revolution Road, she starred as a suburban housewife who can't escape the ennui of her existence. This movie reteamed her with her Titanic co-star Leonardo Di Caprio, who played her husband. This time around, DeCaprio appeared to be like the man Rose DeWitt (Kate Winslet's character in Titanic) was relieved to have avoided marrying.

Currently, Kate Winslet is set to play the title role in a miniseries version of the 1945 Joan Crawford movie Mildred Pierce.

That's it for retrospectives. I'll be back with new subjects soon.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Teri Polo

Being a fan of Teri Polo feels like what it must have felt like for Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" fame to be a fan of Joe Shlabotnik, a baseball player (fictional, of course) who kept ending up in the minor leagues. I hope against hope that she's going to be a bigger star than she is.

Teri Polo did enjoy success as Pamela Byrnes in the Meet the Parents movies, but it's only as Pamela that she's been able to attract the masses. Alas, she has to her credit two failed television series, three failed television pilots, and a couple of forgotten movies.

She remains active, though. She recently appeared in the cable television movie Expecting a Miracle and, at this writing, is set to appear in a third Meet the Parents movie.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman, featured on this blog in September 2007, is thought of as being from Australia, but she was actually born in Hawaii to Australian parents living in Honolulu and lived there for four years. As a result, she has dual Australian and American citizenship.

More recently she appeared in the historical adventure movie Australia and in the movie version of the sexually explosive Broadway musical Nine.

She's married to country singer Keith Urban.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Katherine Heigl

When last we left Katherine Heigl on this blog in August 2007, she was starring in the ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" as Dr. Isobel Stevens, and filming the movie 27 Dresses.

She's no longer on that show, having left to focus more on her family, but I suspect that her rising movie career also has something to do with it.

Not only has 27 Dresses since been released, but Heigl has also appeared in 2009's The Ugly Truth, and she's starring in the coming movie Life As We Know It, which she's also producing. It's set for an October 2010 release as I type.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox has come a long way from her appearance in a Bruce Springsteen video.

In September 2009, she returned to network television as the star of ABC's "Cougar Town," a sitcom about a middle-aged Florida real estate agent who still thinks she's hot.

Well, actually, she is. :-D

"Cougar Town" is so titled because "cougar" is an unflattering, frankly misogynistic term for a middle-aged woman who aggressively goes after younger men, which Cox's character Jules Cobb has a tendency to do. As "Cougar Town" is proving to be more of an ensemble comedy than just a Courteney Cox vehicle, the show is likely to be retitled in time for the start of its second season.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Julie Bowen

When I last featured television actress Julie Bowen, who first made a name for herself as Carol Vessey on the late and lamented NBC comedy-drama "Ed," she was on ABC's "Boston Legal."

That has changed.

Julie Bowen - still looking as gorgeous and fresh-faced as she did in 2000, when "Ed" debuted - now stars as Claire Dunphy in "Modern Family," a sitcom about an extended family comprised of three separate units - a traditional nuclear family, a gay couple and their adopted daughter, and a third unit involving the family patriarch married to a young and sexy trophy wife with a son from a previous marriage.

Claire is the mother in the nuclear family. In addition to dealing with a vain older daughter, a nasty younger daughter, and a dimwitted son, she has to contend with the whims of her doofus husband Phil, who is sort of like the guy Carol Vessey could have easily married if she hadn't wed Ed Stevens first.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: The Return of Louise Vyent

With her striking looks and wonderful poise, Louise Vyent left an indelible impression in many a fashion magazine and catalog in the late eighties and early nineties. That's precisely why I continue to revisit her. :-)

I don't know of many models who could make the ensemble above look chic, yet still bring life to conservative outfits such as the one below.

Her casual look was no less captivating. (The photo below is from a Dillard's catalog.)

Now a photographer in New Jersey (a point of fact I made before), Louise Vyent has expanded her photographic talent to specializing on portraits of teenagers. In addition to her main Web site (the link to which I've provided once again), she has a separate page for her teenage portrait business. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Heidi Klum With and Without Makeup

Heidi Klum, perhaps the most famous high-profile fashion model of all time, looks stunning at her most glamorous, as seen below in this photo from November 2007.

But she looks even more beautiful without makeup.

She has that wonderful "Fraulein next door" look. :-)

Whether in the public eye or not, Heidi Klum has a lot of class.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Beverly Johnson, Casually

Exactly what makes Beverly Johnson a top model after so many years?

Maybe it's her ability to strike a casual, natural pose like this one without even trying.

Interestingly, she originally aspired to be a criminal justice lawyer.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Dutiel, Double Image

I didn't think I'd be returning to the subject of former Lancôme model Nancy Dutiel so soon, but I just had to share this picture!

This double image, showing her in both black and white and in color, really brings out her beauty in a unique way. Double images of Nancy Dutiel were regularly used in her early Lancôme print ads, accompanied by the slogan "From sensible to sensational." :-D

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Dutiel, In Close-Up

This stunning close-up photo of Nancy Dutiel is from early in her tenure as the spokesmodel for Lancôme in the United States.

As I've indicated here before, Nancy Dutiel's stint with Lancôme was very brief, but it produced some memorable print ads and even a few captivating TV ads, where she displayed her incredible figure and poise as well as her undeniably beautiful face. Isabella Rossellini, who replaced her, may have had star power, but Nancy Dutiel had a unique blend of sexiness and style that made her such a lovely presence.

This picture should certainly make that obvious. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Donahue

With her trim figure and fresh appearance, Nancy Donahue was undoubtedly one of the greatest high-profile fashion models of the 1980s. That's why I'm featuring her again here.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Nancy Donahue was discovered by Mademoiselle magazine while in college after she won a modeling contest. She appeared in numerous magazines and ad campaigns throughout the eighties, and while she had plenty of beauty and glamour, she also projected a unique Boston Irish sensibility and panache that no one else could match. :-)

These days, Nancy Donahue is an entrepreneur, having co-founded a company selling a beauty product that . . .

On second thought, why not check out her product for yourself at this link? :-) The site explains it better than I can.

The picture above is a more recent photo of Nancy Donahue, demonstrating how ageless her beauty really is. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Estée Lauder Women: Karen Graham

You saw this coming, of course. :-)

I don't know if what can say about Karen Graham that I haven't already said, but it's amazing that I'm still finding pictures of her that I haven't seen. But then, her fifteen-year stint as Estée Lauder's official spokesmodel and a three-year comeback at the turn of the millenium would produce a lot of pics, wouldn't they? :-D

The above ad shows a conservatively dressed Karen Graham in muted, autumnal tones. The picture below is much more sexy. :-D

This photo, from a 1981 Cinnabar ad, shows our heroine in a strapless, low-cut red dress. How regal. ;-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Estée Lauder Women: Shaun Casey

Shaun Casey, you will recall, served as an Estée Lauder spokesmodel concurrently with Karen Graham in the early eighties before both were replaced by Willow Bay. Although Ms. Casey's run was brief, it produced memorable Victor Skrebneski photos like the black-and-white one below.

Very nautical looking. :-)

I forget the Lauder product this was meant to advertise, but does that really matter? :-D

The Latest Numbers

I have now posted 349 different women on this blog.

For the next several days, I'll be posting pictures of women previously shown here, including a few of them - actresses, mostly - who have gone on to new projects (movies, new television shows) since I last depicted them. Not a bad idea to catch up on what they are or have been doing, eh?

I'll get back to newly featured women later.

Actress Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington is an actress who has appeared in many roles in different dramatic media.

She has played, among other characters, the wives of two prominent men - one famous, the other infamous - in the movies. She played Ray Charles's wife Della Bea Robinson in the 2004 biopic Ray and the wife of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada in The Last King of Scotland.

In 2010, she made her Broadway debut in the David Mamet play Race.

One little-known fact about Kerry Washington is that she likes to keep momentos of roles she plays, such as an item of wardrobe associated with the character.

French actress Audrey Tautou

The world was introduced to Audrey Tautou in 2001 through French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie, about a shy, insular waitress in Paris who sets out to change other people's lives for the better. :-)

She's probably best known to American audiences for her role as Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code, which arguably solidified her status as an international star.

Other films Audrey Tautou has appeared in include Dirty Pretty Things, A Very Long Engagement, and Priceless.

Actress Zoe Saldana

Because of her role in the James Cameron blockbuster Avatar, Zoe Saldana is now a huge Hollywood star. But because what you saw of her was an animated, computer-generated blue-skinned extraterrestrial being based on live-action shots, she couldn't exactly capitalize on her looks.

That's what this blog is here for. :-)

Zoe Saldana has in fact appeared in numerous pictures since the turn of the millennium, including Center Stage, The Terminal and Vantage Point. Her other famous role is as the pirate Anamaria in 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of the Black Pearl.

Newswoman Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts has been associated with both ABC and/or its sister sports cable network ESPN since 1990.

She began her broadcasting career working as a sportscaster and reporter for various television stations in the South before joining ESPN's "Sportscenter." Roberts joined ABC's "Good Morning America" as a feature reporter in 1995 and became a co-anchor a decade later, with a stint as the show's news anchor and continued work on ESPN in between.

She handled her battle with cancer in 2007 and 2008 with great dignity.

Canadian actress Ellen Page

Ellen Page, who only turned 23 in February 2010, is already one of the hottest actress in the movies today.

The Nova Scotia-born Page first gained fame in the title role of Juno, a film about a pregnant teenager, which earned her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She has since appeared in films such as Smart People and Peacock.

Ellen Page currently appears in commercials for Cisco Systems, in which she returns home to Nova Scotia and visits Lunenburg, amazed by how people are electronically connected. Although the ads intimate that Page is from Lunenburg, she's actually from Halifax, where she still lives.

Actress Daphne Maxwell Reid

Daphne Maxwell Reid, the wife of actor and "WKRP in Cincinnati" alumnus Tim Reid, is best known for playing Will Smith's aunt Vivian in the three latter seasons of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," replacing Janet Hubert in that same role.

Wait a minute, you must be asking yourself, in case you're not familiar with that sitcom's first three seasons, Janet Hubert was Aunt Viv too?

No, Daphne Maxwell Reid was Aunt Viv Two. Janet Hubert was Aunt Viv One!

Seriously, Mrs. Reid has had a distinguished career as a television actress beyond "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air." She was in "Hill Street Blues" for six seasons, and she also starred with her husband in the critically acclaimed but short-lived restaurant drama series "Frank's Place." Today she owns and operates New Millennium Studios in Petersburg, Virginia with her husband and also serves on the Board of Visitors at Virginia State University.

Fun fact: Before she got into acting and married Tim Reid, the former Daphne Maxwell was a model and became the first black woman to appear on the cover of Glamour.

Actress Julianna Margulies

Julianna Margulies first came to many people's attention on the NBC hospital television drama "ER" as Nurse Carol Hathaway, a role she played for six years.

She's appeared in several films, such as A Price Above Rubies and The Man From the Elysian Fields, and she also stars in the Andy Garcia movie City Island. She recently returned to TV in the CBS drama "The Good Wife," about a Chicago lawyer who returns to practicing law after her husband resigns his government attorney post amid a sex scandal.

Pennsylvania TV news anchor Kim Lemon

Kim Lemon is hardly someone who lives up to her name.

The television newswoman has been with NBC's Lancaster, Pennsylvania affiliate, WGAL-TV Channel 8 (odd for a VHF station to serve a minor-league market, you'll agree) since 1979, when she joined WGAL-TV as a reporter and weatherperson. After a few years co-hosting the local edition of a nationally syndicated news magazine, Kim Lemon became an anchorwoman in 1985. She anchors two early evening newscasts every weeknight.

She has been repeatedly named the best local news anchor in the Lancaster area.

German actress Diane Kruger

A highly visible presence in the movies in the past several years, Diane Kruger may very well be on her way to being the most successful actress to come out of Germany since Elke Sommer. :-)

Her movies include Wicker Park and Copying Beethoven, and she played Helen of Troy in Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 movie Troy. She played Bridget von Hammersmark, a German actress and saboteur, in Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie Inglourious Basterds (earning a nomination for a best actress Screen Actors Guild award for her role) and has played Dr. Abigail Chase in the National Treasure franchise.

Actress Gillian Jacobs

Gillian Jacobs is a young actress getting attention these days. :-)

She's been in a few television shows and movies before, but she has a high-profile gig now. She currently appears as Britta Perry, a community college student connected with a motley crew of students in a study group, in the NBC sitcom "Community."

Double meaning, there. :-D

Actress Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay was originally famous for her lineage; she's the daughter of actor-bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay and actress Jayne Mansfield. She established herself as an actress in her own right, as a star of NBC's "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."

Since 1999, she's played Olivia Benson, a New York City police detective investigating sex crimes.

Television actress Joanna Garcia

Joanna Garcia is a familiar face to televison viewers, especially to CW network viewers.

She's best known for her role on Reba McEntire's namesake CW sitcom, playing Reba's daughter Cheyenne. Ms. Garcia has also been on the CW series "Privileged."

At this writing, she's set to star in "Revenge Of the Bridesmaids," a new ABC Family series.

Actress Barbara Eden

Barbara Eden is an enduring icon of Hollywood, having appears in too many movies, musicals, and television shows to list. Her most famous role, of course, was the title role in "I Dream of Jeannie," one of those fantasy sitcoms popular in the 1960s.

Her other famous role was the 1978 movie Harper Valley P.T.A., based on the country song of the same name. Barbara Eden played Stella Johnson, a provocative woman in a small town who's given a hard time by the local parent-teacher association and decides to get even with her uptight counterparts.

It was made into a TV series in which Barbara Eden reprised her role.

Actress Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst made her cinematic debut in "Oedipus Wrecks," Woody Allen's contribution to the 1989 shorts compilation New York Stories, when she was seven.

More recently, the New Jersey-born actress has appeared in the satirical Nixon comedy Dick, played the title role in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, and performed in movies such as Mona Lisa Smile and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Her most famous role, however, has been in the Spider-Man movies as Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker's love interest.

Actress Joy Bryant

Oh ,what a Joy. :-)

Joy Bryant is a Bronx-born actress who began her acting at the beginning of the century after having been a model.

Her film credits include Showtime and The Skeleton Key, and now she stars as Jasmine in the NBC-TV drama series "Parenthood." Jasmine is a dancer whom Crosby, the immature son in the extended Braverman family, unkowingly fathered a child with after a fling. The storyline involving Jasmine and Crosby, who is white, is about their concerted efforts at raising their child.

Actress Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals first appeared in the movie Flashdance in 1983 as an aspiring dancer working in a steel mill. She has appeared in over fifty movies, including Devil In a Blue Dress with Denzel Washington, since then.

She also played attorney Bette Porter in the Showtime lesbian drama series "The L Word."

Exercise and fitness expert Denise Austin

Denise Austin is one of the leading experts and teachers in physical education.

Doesn't it show? :-D

The sister-in-law of tennis star Tracy Austin (Denise married Tracy's brother Jeff), Denise Austin started out as a fitness teacher and has gone on to produce fitness television shows and write columns on physical eduaction. The exercise expert was appointed to a four-year term on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 2002 and was re-appointed in 2006.

The Latest Numbers

I have now posted pictures of 332 different women on this blog.

A new alphabetical round of all-new subjects is coming very, very soon. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Louise Vyent

Louise Vyent was a ubiquitous fashion model back when George Bush the Elder was in the White House, appearing in magazines and television commercials. This stylish photo of Miss Vyent is dated October 1992.

She appeared in the Eddie Murphy movie Boomerang that year, which produced a major hit theme song ("End of The Road," by Boyz II Men, number one on the Billboard charts for fourteen weeks), but not much else.

Louise Vyent turned her back on Hollywood and became an interior design consultant, and she's now a professional photographer. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Check out her Web site here.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Anna Anderson and Alva Chinn

I didn't think I'd be revisiting any recent subjects on this blog, but I found this lovely picture of models Anna Anderson (at left) and Alva Chinn that I just had to share! :-)

They have wonderful smiles in this one.

Both Anna Anderson and Alva Chinn demonstrate here why they were among the most elite and most sought-after women in the modeling trade. They even made boring clothing like this look hot! :-D

Philadelphia TV news anchor Beverly Williams

Beverly Williams is a legend in Philadelphia broadcast journalism.

She anchored the news from KYW-TV, then an NBC affiliate, from 1975 to 1981, and again from 1989 to 2003. (KYW-TV became a CBS affiliate in 1995.) She was the first black woman to anchor a newscast in the Philadelphia market.

She also anchored the news at WTNH-TV in New Haven, Connecticut, and hosted the KYW-TV talk show "Eye On Philadelphia" from 2003 to 2006.

Beverly Williams left KYW-TV in September 2006, but she said she hoped to remain active in television news.

Actress Sofia Vergara

Sofia Vergara is a Colombian actress who started out as a model and was mostly known for her looks. As a result of being cast in ABC-TV's "Modern Family," that has definitely changed.

She plays Gloria Delgado-Prichett, the Colombian trophy wife of Jay Prichett (played by Ed O'Neill). Jay has to play dad to her son even as his gay son and straight daughter have started families of their own. The comedy of the show is based on the interconnected stories of these three very different households.

("Modern Family" also stars Julie Bowen, featured here in an earlier entry, as Jay's daughter Claire.)

Actress Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei has been a major star in the movies for the past several years.

The Brooklyn-born actress made a big splash in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny, about novice Brooklyn lawyer Vincent "Vinny" Gambini (played by Joe Pesci) defending his cousin on murder charges in the South. Tomei played Vinny's girlfriend.

Other films Marisa Tomei has appeared in include Slums of Beverly Hills and Anger Management. More recenly she played an exotic dancer in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler.

German actress Elke Sommer

Every European country seemed to have a young, glamorous international actress in the 1960s. France had Catherine Deneuve, Italy had Sophia Loren, and Great Britain gave us Julie Christie. And then there was Elke Sommer, representin' Deutschland! :-)

Born Elke Schletz in Berlin, Germany, Elke Sommer grew up in the Bavarian town of Erlangen and moved to England as a teenager, where she was discovered by move director Vittorio De Sica. She won recognition for her work in 1964's The Prize, with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson. Other movies in which she appeared include The Venetian Affair and The Swiss Conspiracy, as well as the second Pink Panther movie, A Shot in the Dark. She even performed successfully as a singer on the side!

More recently, Elke Sommer has concentrated more on painting than on acting, finding yet another artistic muse with which to express herself. She lives in Los Angeles now, and she turns seventy in November 2010.