Bird in Cage

__gwyneth_paltrow__
Gwyneth Paltrow is the daughter of producer Bruce
Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. After attending the
Spence School in New York City, she moved to California
where she attended the University of California in
Santa Barbara, majoring in Art History. She soon quit,
realizing it was not her passion. She began acting in
the Williamstown Theatre play "Picnic, " with her
mother. In 1991 she appeared in her first film, Shout
(1991) with John Travolta. She met Steven Spielberg and
was cast in his film Hook (1991). After a bit part in
the 1995 film Se7en (1995) she began dating her co-star
Brad Pitt. She appeared in The Pallbearer (1996) and
Emma (1996) and received her first Oscar nomination in
1999 for her role as Viola in John Madden's,
Shakespeare in Love (1998)

__jody_foster__
One of the saddest by-products of the Hollywood fame
game is the Teenage Burn-Out. Once puberty robs them of
their angelic looks and innate cuteness, child stars
traditionally have a terrible time keeping their feet
on the ladder. In a time when image and box office
records mean everything, they've not only become
another person but also carry the burden of not being
able to provide what they once did. Think Macaulay
Culkin, or the awful fall of Drew Barrymore. It should
have happened to Jodie Foster, too. In fact, many
people think it did. Popular wisdom has it that she
broke precociously through as a 12-year-old whore in
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, enjoyed a brief spell of
success then disappeared, only to struggle heroically
back with her Oscar-winning performance, ten years
later, in The Accused. But this is far from the truth.
Jodie had actually been a Face from the age of 3,
starring in TV commercials. Then came many TV and film
roles, meaning that, come Taxi Driver she was already a
seasoned veteran. After that burst of teen stardom, she
chose college over a short-term career, then returned
in a series of deliberately chosen "interesting" roles,
as she studied techniques on both sides of the camera.
And now, due to these efforts, she's a producer,
director, double Oscar-winner AND, as 2002's hit Panic
Room proved, a $10 million-a-picture actress, capable
of carrying a Number One movie on her own. She was born
Alicia Christian Foster on the 19th of November, 1962,
in Los Angeles. She was nicknamed Jodie by her three
older siblings - Buddy, Lucinda and Constance. Her
father, Lucius, left the family when mother Evelyn
(known as Brandy) was pregnant with Jodie. And it was
the ambitious Brandy, who worked for a film producer
and thus had connections, who first pushed Jodie into
the spotlight. Actually, she first pushed Buddy. By the
mid-Sixties, he'd already made many appearances on TV
and in commercials (he'd later leave it all behind and
eventually become a construction worker). Then came a
big campaign for Coppertone sun lotion. Buddy was up
for the ad but, seeing young Jodie, the casting
directors had her star instead. So, at age 3, having
her swimsuit pulled down by a dog and revealing her
little bottom in one of the most popular adverts of its
day, she first became nationally known.

__mylene_farmer__
Mylène Gautier was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, a suburb (now borough) of Montreal. Her parents moved from France in the late 1950s as Farmer's father, Max, pursued an engineering contract on a dam. Her family returned to France when she was eight, settling in the Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray. In her teenage years, Farmer was passionate about horse-riding, qualifying as a riding instructor at the equestrian centre in Saumur. At 17, however, Mylène Farmer discovered acting and she abandoned the stables to take a three-year course at the Cours Florent, a drama school in Paris. Changing her name to Mylène Farmer as a tribute to her idol, 30s Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, she began to earn a living as a model acting in several TV ads.

In 1984, Farmer met Laurent Boutonnat, a young film student also enrolled in Cours Florent, when she replied to a newspaper ad for an actress for a small film he was working on. Farmer and Boutonnat became friends and forged a creative partnership, writing and producing the music. Boutonnat, whose ambition was to become a film director, was the force behind Mylène’s videos. Much of Farmer's fame and success can be attributed to elaborate and theatrical music videos which are seen as short films. Her concerts and videos are compared to those of Michael Jackson and Madonna ("Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" lasts 17 minutes, while "California" was directed by Abel Ferrara and cost $700,000).

Farmer gained fame with songs featuring shocking yet poetic lyrics, and explicit music videos: "Maman a tort" was about the love of a young girl for her female hospital nurse. "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" contains hints of sodomy; the video, set in the 18th century, featured a caning. "Libertine" is said to feature the first full frontal nudity appearance by a singer on a major music video. "Que mon cœur lâche" was about love with condoms in the age of AIDS; the video for the song features a scene in which God tells Jesus he won't send him to Earth again because the last time "it was a disaster."

Farmer is the most successful and provocative female French recording artist, the only artist to have each of her studio albums gaining platinum status in France. She is also popular in Belgium, Switzerland, Russia and parts of Eastern Europe.

Among her best-known songs are "Désenchantée", "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces", "Sans contrefaçon", "Libertine", "C'est une belle journée", and "Rêver"

__Sophie_Marceau__
Sophie Marceau (n e Sophie Maupu) was born November 17, 1966, in Paris, France. Sophie Marceau began acting in films at 14. Up until that point, she grew up far away from studios spots. Back then, she was living in the Paris suburbs and her father was a truck driver. At that time, she learned from one of her friends that Claude Pinoteau (French director) was looking for new faces, for a teenagers movie call La Boum. This movie turned out to be a huge success. This led to the sequel La Boum 2 (1982) for which she received the 1983 Cesar for Most Promising Actress. She then bought back her contract with Gaumont when she was sixteen for one million French franks.

Sophie was honored with the Cesar (French Oscar) for Most Promising Actress, in 1983. Legally tied to her contract with Gaumont, the movie studio she had worked with, Sophie paid one million French francs to buy back her contract when she was 16 years old of course, she had to borrow the money to pay the large sum, but it was worth it for a newly independent Sophie. Sophie then broke away from the mold of a teenage star and moved onto more dramatic parts, in films such as 1984's Fort Saganne, and Joyeuse P ques (Happy Easter); 1985's L'Amour Braque (directed by her long-time boyfriend, Andrzej Zulawski) and Police; 1986's Descente aux Enfers (Descent Into Hell); 1988's L'Etudiante (The Student) and Chouans!; and 1989's Mes Nuits Sont Plus Belles Que Vos Jours (My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days), also directed by Andrzej Zulawski.

She was named Best Romantic Actress at the 1988 International Festival of Romantic Movies, for her role in Chouans! After a role in Pacific Palisades in 1990 and La Note Bleue, her third film by her companion, Sophie opted for lighter, fluffier roles, such as the comedy Fanfan in 1993 and La Fille de D'Artagnan a year later. She even ventured into theater with her role in Eurydice in 1991, which garnered her a Marceau a Moliere Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She took to the stage again in 1994, as Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion. But it was her role as Princess Isabelle in the Oscar-winning epic, Braveheart, that made international audiences take notice of the French beauty.

The same year that Braveheart madness was in the air, Sophie went behind the camera for a 9-minute film, L'Aube a L'envers, which opened for a film at the Cannes Film Festival. While Sophie tries to stay away from the Hollywood scene and not get caught up in the circuit, she has an impressive resume of American films such as her co-starring role in the David Spade comedy, Lost & Found and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, along with Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockhart. In 1999, she jumped to Bond Girl status as Elektra King, starring opposite Pierce Brosnan in the 19th Bond outing, The World Is Not Enough. Since her Bond fame, Sophie has starred in the French films La Fid lit , again under the direction of Zulawski and Belph gor Le Fant me Du Louvre.

On July 24th, 1995, Sophie gave birth to her first child, a boy named Vincent. She is unmarried, and lives in Paris with Andrzej Zulawski, a Polish director who is 24 years her senior. Sophie is an outspoken opponent of blood sports, and has joined Brigitte Bardot in protests against dove shooting in the Gironde and bullfighting in Provence. In addition to her work for animal welfare, Sophie is a patron of Arc-en-Ciel ("Rainbow"), an organization which helps sick children realize their dreams.