Model Anne Surette

Anne Surette is a fashion model from the early eighties.

She was associated with the Elite agency.

Model/author Barbara Summers

Barbara Summers had had a long and distinguished modeling career by the time she wrote "Skin Deep," a history of black fashion models like herself. Her portfolio included ads for clients such as Avon; the picture below is originally from an Avon ad.

Ms. Summers got into modeling by accident. The New England native was teaching French at a small college in Manhattan when she agreed to a shoot for a Mademoiselle article about clothes for professional women . . . like college instructors. Soon she was one of the busiest models in the profession.

As an author, she put out a collection of short stories, "Nouvelle Soul," and wrote a novel, "The Price You Pay." Ms. Summers also edited Brian Lanker's monograph book on famous black women, "I Dream A World." Her book "Skin Deep," published in 1998, is considered a definitive history of black women in modeling.

All three of these pictures - including the one above, in which Barbara Summers poses with her son Kimson - are from "Skin Deep."

Model Hilary Rhoda

Hilary Rhoda is the newest face of Estée Lauder, appearing my many of the company's ads. She has also appeared in several ads for other fashion brands and appeared on several magazine covers. The picture below is from a Lauder holiday advertisement.

Hilary Rhoda joined the Lauder ad campaign in January 2007, just before her twentieth birthday. She is not the exclusive spokesmodel for the company, however, having joined actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Gwyneth Paltrow and model Carolyn Murphy (Liya Kebede, alas, has moved on). The days of one Lauder spokesmodel - namely, Karen Graham in the 1970s - are over.

Supermodel Gail O'Neill

Gail O'Neill was one of many black fashion models who made a name for herself in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Gail O'Neill did a lot of catalog work, and she appeared on the covers of magazines such as Vogue and Mademoiselle - along with the hot picture below, which appeared on the cover of the Italian magazine Amica. :-D

She became a television journalist in the late nineties, reporting on movies for CBS' "The Early Show." In the 2000s, Gail also hosted CNN's "Travel Now" series and did a few specials for the HGTV channel.

Lisa Masterson, M.D.

After I've shown you so many actresses, models, and anchorwomen, it's a refreshing change to show you someone from a different line of work. And Lisa Masterson is just what the doctor ordered.

Because she is a doctor. :-)

Dr. Masterson is a co-host of "The Doctors," a daytime medical advice show produced by another doctor, Phil McGraw. Dr. Masterson is the only woman on the program, and her specialties are obstetrics, gynecology, and infertility.

In addition to her private practice in Santa Monica, California, she is on staff at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and runs the Ocean Oasis Medical Spa, which caters to women.

Actress Tina Louise

As anyone who remembers "Gilligan's Island" - that is, most of us - know, Ann-Margaret (relax, I'll get to her) wasn't the only gorgeous red-haired actress of the sixties, nor even the only gorgeous red-haired actress of the sixties known by two first names.

Tina Louise was an up and coming stage and film actress in the late fifties and early sixties who had appeared in movies like God's Little Acre and the Broadway musical Fade Out - Fade In. Then in 1964, she found herself playing a famous move actress stranded on an island with six other castaways in "Gilligan's Island." Her character, Ginger Grant, was clearly inspired by Marilyn Monroe, an actress who, like Ginger, bore an alliterative name that shared a surname with that of a U.S. President.

Tian Louise was never happy in the show, having apparently taken on the role at the urging of her agent. When the show ended after three seasons, she went on to appear in several theatrically released and televised movies, and she got good reviews in 1975's The Stepford Wives.

She's currently a volunteer reading teacher in New York City's public school system.

New York TV newswoman Kristine Johnson

Kristine Johnson is an anchorwoman at WCBS-TV in New York, the CBS network's home station on the East Coast.

The daughter of a Philippine mother and an American father, Kristine Johnson had previously been an anchor on NBC's "Early Today" and also an anchor on MSNBC's "First Look," but she chose a career on "local" broadcast news in New York - that local market being comprised of sixteen million viewers or so. She's been co-anchor of the noon and 5 PM newscasts since 2006 and the 11 PM newscast since 2007.

MSNBC newswoman Tamron Hall

Tamron Hall is one of the best reasons to watch MSNBC.

The Texas-born Hall is a daytime anchor on that cable news channel, and she currently co-anchors "The Big Picture" in the 3 PM Eastern hour with David Shuster. Their witty, playful banter is fun to listen to.

Prior to joining MSNBC, Tamron Hall was a general assignment reporter at KTVT-TV in Dallas, and she was a reporter and morning anchor at WFLD-TV in Chicago for ten years (1997 to 2007).

Actress Isla Fisher

Isla Fisher is a young and up-and-coming actress from Australia, born to Scottish parents and currently engaged to the outrageous comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

She first gained fame in Australia as Shannon Reed on the television serial "Home and Away" in the nineties She has appeared in many films in the past decade, including 2004's I ♥ Huckabees and 2005's Wedding Crashers.

Not all of her films have been favorably received. In 2009 she starred in the comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic as Rebecca Bloomwood, a young woman who works as a financial journalist to support her addiction to shopping. It was released just as the world was going through a recession that resulted from overspending and overconsumption, and suddenly being broke was no laughing matter.

Actress/singer Deanna Durbin

Last week, I paid tribute to Lauren Bacall, and this week I'm tipping my hat to another living legend of the 1940s.

Deanna Durbin starred in numerous Hollywood muscials of the forties, and she was known for her versatile voice as well as her glamourous looks. Her films included Can't Help Singing, her only Technicolor film, but she also did more serious fare like the film noir Chrismtas Holiday and the mystery movie Lady On a Train. Dissatisfied with the Hollywood starmaking machinery, the Canadian-born Durbin retired from movies in 1948 and moved to a farm in France. She's avoided the limelight ever since.

Model/author Waris Dirie

Waris Dirie was born and raised in Somalia, and became a model when she was discovered while living in England.

She had had a brutal childhood in Somalia, where she was brutally abused and forced into an arranged marriage to an older man. She managed to escape, which was how she made it to London and changed her life. She has become a spokeswoman for women's rights. Her autobiographical novel "Desert Flower," one of four books she's written, is being made into a movie.

TV newswoman Ann Curry

Ann Curry has been a regular presence at NBC News since 1990, when she became the network's Chicago correspondent. Her career took off almost immediately after that.

The multi-ethnic Curry (she's half-Japanese, and she's descended from four different European groups and the Cherokee nation through her father) worked as a television reporter in local markets in Oregon and California before moving to the national stage. She anchored "NBC News at Sunrise" from 1991 to 1996, then became a newsreader on "Today" in 1997, where she has remained. She's also anchored the news magazine show "Dateline NBC" since 2005, and she's been a reporter on several international stories.

Lauren Bacall

The one and only. Again, I'm using that phrase sparingly. :-)

Lauren Bacall is both one of the most beautiful and most enduring actresses in the history of American cinema. Her movie credits include some of the greatest movies of all time: To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo (all co-starring her first husband, Humphrey Bogart), How To Marry a Millionaire, Written On the Wind, Murder On the Orient Express, and The Shootist (John Wayne's last movie).

She also starred in two successful Broadway musicals, Applause (1970) and Woman Of the Year (1981). She won a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces, outshining Barbra Streisand in her own star vehicle. Why not? At 72, Ms. Bacall was still beautiful.

And in her eighties, she still looks great. :-)

The greatest picture even taken of Lauren Bacall was of a seductive pose she struck while visiting Washington, D.C. in February 1945, draped over an upright piano . . . played by then-Vice President Harry Truman.

And you thought the picture of Rosemary McGrotha as President was a hoot! :-D

Actress Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston gained notoriety as Rachel Green in the hit NBC-TV sitcom "Friends," which lasted ten years.

With her bubbly personality and blonde good looks, Aniston was a natural prospect for a movie career. (She had been in a horror film before "Friends," a movie she'd likely prefer to forget.) She made the transition to film gradually, with movies of the 1990s like Picture Perfect and The Object of My Affection, before winning rave notices for The Good Girl. More recently ,she has starred in the hits Marley and Me and He's Just Not That Into You.

As far as I'm concerned, her role as the harried waitress Joanna in Office Space will always be one of her greatest roles. :-)