Rachel Weisz Pictures & Shout Out

An exotic-looking brunette with alabaster skin, a heart-shaped face, pouty lips and expressive dark eyes, Rachel Weisz caught the attention of her fellow Brits when she co-starred with Ewan McGregor in the BBC miniseries "Scarlet and Black" (1993). The following year, Weisz earned praise for her performance alongside Rupert Everett in the London stage revival of "Design for Living". In 1996, she made the move to the big screen in two very different films: in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty", and in Andrew Davis' "Chain Reaction". In the former, she was the spoiled daughter of a painter involved with a married lawyer who enjoyed nude sunbathing while in the latter she was a scientist teamed with Keanu Reeves in an effort to save the world. Weisz (complete with a flawless American accent) offered an incisive cameo as a bohemian Jewish girl who entrances Ben Affleck in "Going All the Way" (1997). She had her first real leading role and earned particular critical praise as a servant who becomes involved with a shipwrecked sailor in Beeban Kidron's period drama "Swept From the Sea" (also 1997).

After a return to the stage in which she undertook the role of mentally unstable Catherine in Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly, Last Summer", Weisz starred as a clumsy librarian opposite Brendan Fraser's adventurer in "The Mummy" (1999). Her next two high profile roles cast her opposite the Fiennes brothers in separated movies. With Ralph Fiennes, she played an adulterous wife involved with her dashing brother-in-law in the epic "Sunshine" (1999) while with Joseph Fiennes, she essayed a German-speaking Russian soldier fighting to save Stalingrad in the WWII drama "Enemy at the Gates" (2001). Weisz was also seen as an abused woman who joins with another victim of violence to extract revenge in "Beautiful Creatures" and reprised her role as the spunky book lover in "The Mummy Returns" (both 2001).

After taking a small, warm turn as a single mom and potential love interest for immature cad Hugh Grant in the delightful "About a Boy" (2002), Weisz turned femme fatale for the neo noir con game flick "Confidence" (2003), delivering a seductive performance as the dangerous dame in the middle. She reunited with her "Confidence" co-star Dustin Hoffman—along with John Cusack and Gene Hackman—to star in "Runaway Jury" (2003), a big-screen adaptation of author John Grisham's legal potboiler, playing a mysterious woman entrenched in a deadly effort to influence a verdict. The actress then was seriously miscast as Ben Stiller's wife in the disastrously unfunny comedy "Envy" (2004), a film that failed to utilize either her acting talents or her beauty. Again flawlessly adopting an American accent, Weisz returned to horror-adventure with the comic-book-derived "Constantine" (2005), playing a policewoman drawn into the horrific world of occult investigator John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) after the mysterious death of her twin sister.

She at last found a role equal to her considerable abilities in "The Constant Gardener" (2005), director Fernando Meirelles' gripping adaptation of the John LeCarre novel in which Weisz played Tessa Quayle, the charming but politically outspoken wife of a complacent British diplomat in Africa (Ralph Fiennes) whose murder sends him on a journey to unravel the dark, twisting secrets that led to her demise. Though the character death opens the film, Weisz appears throughout in extended flashbacks and delivers a startlingly three-dimensional and compelling performance that allows the audience to see Tessa from all the same angles as her husband and become fully invested in the mysteries surrounding her slaying. Thanks in large part to Fiennes' perfectly measured portrayal of a man who is forced to completely transform his character through the course of the film, LeCarre's meticulously plotted potboiler was elevated into an engrossing, moving and poetic view of unfolding human dramas against the colorful, chaotic African backdrop. For her part, Weisz earned a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. A very pregnant Weisz then cruised to an easy victory at the 78th Academy Awards, winning the Oscar for Best Performance for Actress in a Supporting Role.

• Born:
  on 03/07/1971 in London, England
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Katie Holmes Shout Out

A brunette beauty from a close-knit Catholic family in Toledo, OH, Katie Holmes accomplished what aspiring actors only dream of at the onset of their careers – she landed her first two professional auditions, resulting in her feature debut in the acclaimed "The Ice Storm" (1997) and a regular series role on the popular teen drama "Dawson's Creek" (The WB, 1998-2003). While such an accomplishment could easily have been written off as amazing luck, those who witnessed her work were not likely to discount her formidable talent and ease on camera.

With a promising turn as Libbets Casey, Tobey Maguire's love interest in Ang Lee's swinging 1970s set "The Ice Storm," Holmes made the most of her supporting role, proving a compelling screen performer. While this big screen debut won the actress acclaim, television would soon make Katie Holmes a household name. Interestingly, the young actress' refreshing grounding in homespun values almost caused her to miss her auspicious small screen debut. Asked to audition for Kevin Williamson's smart teen drama "Dawson's Creek" on the same day she was to debut as Lola in her high school production of "Damn Yankees," Holmes politely declined, citing that her commitment to fellow castmates and friends was more important. Casting agents wisely rescheduled, and Holmes won the role on the new series.

As Joey Potter, Dawson's proverbial girl-next-door, she played the injured innocent, sweet, but with an edge, the product of a background far removed from the Holmes' own traditional and happy home. Faced with an imprisoned father, dead mother, and an overworked sister who is not only Joey's guardian, but has a new baby of her own, the character's everyday traumas were handled with grace by the actress. Holmes weekly gave a standout performance on the popular series, even among a cast of palpably gifted and more experienced young actors.

Her skillful performance in the disappointing thriller "Disturbing Behavior" (1998) could not elevate that film above its uninspired predictability, and while Williamson's "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" (1999) showcased Holmes' glowing presence and unmatched watch-ability, it became apparent that it was high time she moved past the tired teen scream genre. A move in that direction came with her turn as a supermarket checkout girl caught up in a drug-related hostage situation in Doug Lyman’s indeed ensemble film "Go" (1999). She was reunited with Tobey Maguire in "Wonder Boys" (2000), the Curtis Hanson-directed adaptation of Michael Chabot’s novel which chronicled a middle-aged author (Michael Douglas) plagued by writer's block.

With "Go" and "Wonder Boys," in which she played a student pursuing her much-older professor, Holmes smartly chose feature film roles that played against her well-established "Dawson's Creek" girl-next-door persona, a challenge she continued to meet as more films came her way. In Sam Ramie’s thriller "The Gift" (2000) she played a bitchy, man-eating Southern beauty who is brutally murdered, essaying a grown-up nude scene designed more to put the character of sweet-faced Joey behind her than to titillate. She took the lead in screenwriter-turned-director Stephen Gagman’s woman-in-jeopardy outing "Abandon" (2002), her first turn at carrying a picture in a mature leading role, and also joined the cast of director Joel Schumacher's 2003 action fest "The Phone Booth."

Further honing her post-TV craft as her series entered its last season, Holmes took the lead in the indeed gem, "Pieces of April" (2003) playing a headstrong young woman trying to reconcile with her dying mother – a role than earned her much critical acclaim – and appeared in a supporting role in "The Singing Detective" (2003), an adaptation of the Dennis Potter book starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey, Jr. After that it was on to a role she had probably outgrown but sparkled in nonetheless, "First Daughter" (2004), in which she was cast as an independent-minded Presidential offspring off to college who falls for the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her by posing as a dorm advisor.

Holmes got her introductory shot at a big-screen action blockbuster when she was cast opposite Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne's childhood friend and love interest, Rachel Dawes, an incorruptible Gotham City district attorney – and a character created especially for the screen – in "Batman Begins" (2005). This effective re-launch of the popular film franchise focused on the character's shadowy origins, but minus the over-the-top gothic camp of the original Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher films. Just weeks before the film's debut, Holmes' private life was catapulted into the public eye when she and actor Tom Cruise announced that they were dating, an announcement met with some skepticism from the media and the public, given that word came prior to both having major summer movies poised to debut. Speculation that the relationship was a publicity stunt ran rampant, especially after some ill-advised public appearances – including their bizarre, love-professing visit to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (Syndicated, 1986- ), in which Cruise jumped unashamedly on the couch with fist-pumping exuberance. Holmes also adopted Cruise's management team and began taking courses in Scientology, which the superstar had long championed and began touting much more vocally during his many press interviews while promoting his blockbuster, "War of the Worlds" (2005).

After only three months, Cruise announced his intention to marry his new girlfriend while doing a press junket in Paris in June, 2005. By October, she announced that she was pregnant with their first child, prompting her to drop out of her co-starring role in the drama "Shame on You" (lensed, 2005). The paparazzi kept a close eye on her ever-bulging belly until Holmes finally gave birth – presumably, a "silent birth" sanctioned by Scientology rules – to daughter, Suri, in April, 2006. Because the couple had been so forthcoming with all other details of their life together, the press and public were surprised when no photos were released of their baby daughter for months. This only served to fuel the media's fire, all of whom – be it bloggers or tabloid writers – imagined a variety of humorous, sometimes far-fetched scenarios as to why this was. Finally, Cruise, Holmes and their 4-month-old daughter posed for photographer Annie Leibovitz for a 22-page spread in Vanity Fair, receiving much publicity for that first peek in September, 2006.