Friday, August 31, 2018

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).   

Sunday, August 26, 2018

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. ;-)        

Friday, August 24, 2018

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.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

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.

Friday, August 17, 2018

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.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

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. :-)

Saturday, August 11, 2018

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. 

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

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.    

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

The Beauty of Anonymity, Model ID Update: Angolan model Maria Borges

I have already featured Maria Borges as an unidentified model from a Target ad, and I have also reported her ID in a subsequent post.  Here is my first proper post dedicated to this beauty from the African country of Angola. :-)


Maria Borges has not only modeled for middlebrow establishments like Target, she's also been a model for high-end cosmetics brands like L'Oreal and Bobbi Brown.  Among the designers she's wlaked the fashion show runways for are Anna Sui, Carolina Herrera, Diane von Fürstenberg, Dior, Gianfranco Ferre, Giorgio Armani, Givenchy,  Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren,  Salvatore Ferragamo, and too many more to list here. :-)


She has done numerous fashion magazine covers and became the first African model to appear on the cover of Elle in twenty years (and only the second African model African model to appear on the cover of Elle ever), after Alek Wek in 1997.

Maria Borges is a muse of Italian designer Riccardo Tisci.  She calls him her "godfather." :-D 

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Model Gunilla Bergström

I showed fashion model Gunilla Bergström earlier this year in a photo from a department store ad that also included Margrit Ramme. This is the first time I'm featuring her solo on this blog. :-)


Gunilla Bergström was active in the late seventies and early eighties.  She alternated between Paris and New York, represented by the Viva agency in the former city and the Elite agency in the latter.  

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Actress Malin Åkerman

Malin Åkerman has had an acting career in which she's had roles in all sorts of genres.


She's best known for playing Silk Spectre in the 2009 superhero movie Watchman, about a dystopian world in which an alternate history of the Cold War brings the world to the brink of nuclear war in 1985.

She's had roles in romantic comedies like 27 Dresses and The Proposal, as well as a part in the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.  Ms. Åkerman also had a supporting role as a commune resident in the 2012 comedy Wanderlust, about an overworked couple at the commune who try to take it easy. That same year, she also had a role in the hair-band musical movie Rock of Ages.


Ms. Åkerman has done numerous guest-star parts on TV, and she also starred as the title character in "Trophy Wife," an ABC series about a young woman married to a middle-aged lawyer.  It was a one-season wonder, not making it past the 2013-14 season.

Fun fact: Malin Åkerman was born in Sweden, but she grew up in Canada, where her family emigrated.