Model Joanne McCoy

Joanne McCoy is a model from the 1980s who was active not in New York or Paris but in Boston.

She was represented by the Maggie agency in that city.  Both of these photos are from 1988.

Fun fact:  She was at the Maggie agency at the same as another model you might have heard of, then-future and now-former U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA).   

Stage actress Taylor Louderman

Actress Taylor Louderman is not associated with the movies.  But she's appeared in Broadway musicals based on movies. 

She originated the role of Regina George in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, based on the movie of the same name exploring the adverse effects of cliques on high school girls, and she played Campbell in the musical Bring It On, based on the movie of the same name by about the competitive world of cheerleading.

The former role led to a Best Actress in a Musical Tony nomination in 2018.

Ms. Louderman also starred in Kinky Boots, a musical based on a more obscure movie made in Britain (and also sharing the same name) about a boot factory struggling to stay in business.  And if you saw the 204 NBC live production of Peter Pan, you may remember her in that.  Wendy Darling? That was her.

Not yet thirty as of this writing, Ms. Louderman, it's safe to say, has a brilliant stage career ahead of her.  Maybe she'll even star in a musical that's not based on a movie. ;-)        

Japanese actress Machiko Kyō

In the 1950s, Machiko Kyō was as ubiquitous in Japaense cinema as Sophia Loren was in Italian movies.

She gained international fame as the wife of a man killed in a fight in 1951's Rashomon, the Akira Kurosawa classic in which three people remember the killing in three different ways.

Ms. Kyō went on to star in other legendary Japanese movies,.such as the 1958 drama Sorrow Is Only For Women and Kon Ichikawa's Odd Obsession, a 1959 drama about a man who suspects that his wife is having an affair with their daughter's fiancé, and Yasujirō Ozu's Floating Weeds (1959). She did only one Hollywood movie - 1956's The Teahouse of the August Moon,  as a geisha girl named Lotus Blossom. The Teahouse of the August Moon is a comedy about the American occupation of Okinawa after World War II.  Her American co-stars included Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Eddie Albert, and Harry Morgan.

At 94 years of age at this writing, Machiko Kyō was active as an actress into her eighties. She now lives in her hometown of Osaka.

Model/actress Winnie Hollman

Winnie Hollman is a top model from the 1970s.  I first showed her in a department store ad that also Gunilla Bergström and Margrit Ramme when Margrit, a friend of mine, was the only model I could identify in that picture.  Now, Winnie Hollman gets her own post. :-)

Having originally come from Denmark, Winnie Hollman appeared in numerous ads and magazines, and she later appeared in a few films, such as the fashion thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (seems logical).

One other thing she's known for is having been one of Jack Nicholson's many girlfriends.  She's the mother of his daughter Honey.

Model Yasmeen Ghauri

Part Pakistani, part German, and all Canadian, the Montreal-born-and-raised Yasmeen Ghauri was one of the top models of the early 1990s.

And that was a big deal at the time, as the modeling profession began to produce more divas than stars.  Yasmeen Ghauri was a star, by all means, as the above photo from Cosmopolitan's October 1992 issue demonstrates.

She was a spokesmodel for Chanel, Christian Dior, Valentino, and Anne Klein at about the same time, and she appeared on the cover of Elle and in editorials for the British and Italian editions of Vogue.  

And by 1996, after about six years in the spotlight, it was all over.  She retired to raise a family . . . at the ripe old age of 25.  Like Marciano - Rocky, not Georges - she knew when to quit and she went out on top.

Fun fact: Yasmeen Ghauri's first major appearance anywhere was in the promotional video for Elton John's single "Sacrifice," where she was paired with singer Chris Isaak.  She was not yet twenty.

Model and designer Zohre Esmaeli

Zohre Esmaeli is a model from Afghanistan who is based in Germany.  Her story is so awesome and inspiring that I can't do it justice by merely going over the highlights here.

Her family fled Afghanistan during the Taliban regime in the late nineties by crossing the border  and traveling overland over 6,200 miles to Germany.  Ms. Esmaeli was barely a teenager then, and she almost didn't survive the trip.

Once settled in Germany, she resumed her school studies, but she began modeling at sixteen years of age when she was discovered in Frankfurt.  Her career took off after she moved to Stuttgart.  She has appreaed in numerous fashion magazine, sich as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Madame, and Marie Claire.

Zohre Esmaeli also designs clothes, under the brand name "Zoraya."  She debuted her first line in November 2015 for a charity fashion show in Berlin.

It's quite obvious that, despite her Afghan background, the German fashion world has accepted her as its own. :-)

Stage actress Jennifer DiNoia

If you've only seen Jennifer DiNoia as she looks below, you haven't seen her in her best-known role as a stage actress.

That's because she has played the green-skinned Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in various productions of the musical Wicked.  

She has played Elphaba in various touring companies and in at least four different countries, but she has also performed the role where it matters most - London's West End and New York's Broadway.  Ms. DiNoia played Elphaba in the West End in late 2014 and 2015 and also played her on Broadway from March 2015 to May 2015 and again from August 2016 to July 2017.  In many instances she was a standby for an actress playing Elphaba in different productions.

Jennifer DiNoia maybe more associated with this role than any other actress except Idina Menzel.  

Fun fact: She was in the original American production of the Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You in Las Vegas. 

CNN newswoman Kaitlan Collins

Katilan Collins is a recent addition to CNN's on-camera news staff.  Before she joined the Cable News Network in 2017, she'd been an entertainment reporter and a White House correspondent at The Daily Caller for three years.

Why would I feature here a woman who once reported for a conservative news site?  Because of what she did at her current job.  When Donald Trump gave a statement to the press about trade negotiations while seated with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Ms. Collins asked the current White House occupant about everything but that - Michael Cohen, secret tapes involving a possible cover-up, Vladimir Putin - and the White House responded by banning her from the premises . . . for doing what a reporter is supposed to do.   

I'm a freelance reporter when I'm not working on this blog or writing commentary on this blog's sister blog, Miscellaneous Musings.  So I'm doing here what every other reporter and news organization is doing - standing up for Kaitlin Collins.  And, lest you think this is purely political . . . well, aside from the fact that I am aware of Ms. Collins's conservative bona fides despite my own disagreement with political conservatism, I need only share with you what Bret Baier of Fox News - yes, Fox News - read in a statement on behalf of his employer in Ms. Collins's defense and against Trump:

"Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a question regarding the news of the day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant and shouldn't be asked. This decision to bar a member of the press is retaliatory in nature and not indicative of an open and free press. We demand better. As a member of the White House press pool, Fox stands firmly with CNN on this issue of access."

And so do I.

Free speech rocks.  That's why, despite whatever negative thoughts some people might have to a blog celebrating feminine beauty, I continue this blog without apology.  And that goes double for what I write my other blog.