Who is Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell?

Who is Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell? , Watford, Hertfordshire) The world knows her as Ginger Spice, she is an English pop singer-songwriter, children's author, actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. Halliwell first became famous in the late 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, which became one of the most successful girl groups of all time, selling in excess of 55 million records worldwide.[1] As a solo artist, she has received four Brit Award nominations, released four number-one singles in the UK and sold around 4 million albums as a solo artist worldwide.

Halliwell was born 6 August 1972 to Laurence Francis Halliwell, who was of English/Swedish descent, and his wife Ana María (née Hidalgo), who was of Spanish descent from Huesca, Spain and who grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire.[2] For a brief time, Halliwell's mother tried to bring her up as a Jehovah's Witness. Halliwell took her A-Levels at Camden School for Girls having taken her GCSEs at Watford Girls Grammar School. Before starting her music career, Halliwell had worked as a nightclub dancer in Majorca (Spain),[2] a model and presenter on the Turkish version of Let's Make a Deal[2] and as a glamour model.[2] Following her rise to fame with the Spice Girls, nude photos[3] of Halliwell were re-published in a number of top-shelf magazines in the UK. During the documentary Spice Girls: Giving You Everything[4] broadcast on UK television on 31 December 2007, Halliwell repeated her claim to have only done 'harmless, topless shots', despite extensive evidence to the contrary, including pictures in her own autobiography.



Geri first found fame as one of the five members of the girl group the Spice Girls, and was dubbed Ginger Spice for her "liveliness, zest and flaming red hair".[5] She wore many over-the-top outfits, the most recognized being for her famous Union Jack dress that she wore for the 1997 Brit Awards.

Halliwell became renowned for her independent and feminist attitude. The group joined the most successful musical artists of the 1990s, selling over thirty-five million albums with the studio releases Spice and Spiceworld.[1] Their debut single "Wannabe" became the first of a string of number-ones in the United Kingdom (nine in total) and reached the top position in 41 countries around the globe, including Australia, Canada and the United States. Other successful releases followed, including "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1" from Spice, and "Spice Up Your Life", "Too Much" and "Stop" from Spiceworld.[6] As a songwriter, Geri - as part of the Spice Girls - set the record for the shortest time to achieve 6 no. 1 UK singles, taking 1 year 5 months from Wannabe's first week at no. 1 to the ascent of Too Much. This outpaced Lennon/McCartney, who took 1 year 6 months (From Me to You through I Feel Fine).

On May 30, 1998 Halliwell left the Spice Girls due to depression and differences between the group.[7] The first official confirmation was an announcement to the media by her solicitor on 31 May. Her action aroused controversy, her former band being due to embark on a North American tour, which they eventually completed without her.[8] Although she had already left the group, the Spice Girls released "Viva Forever", the final music video to feature Halliwell's likeness.[9] After she left, the other girls wrote a few songs about her which appeared on their album Forever, notably "Goodbye" (although it is said that Geri had helped write this song before her departure, but since the song was released after her departure, most people see it as a tribute to Geri) and "Let Love Lead the Way."[10]


Shortly after leaving the Spice Girls, Halliwell appeared in the fly-on-the-wall documentary Geri, a 90 minute piece for the UK television channel Channel 4 by Molly Dineen.[11][12]
In 1999 Halliwell launched her solo career and released her debut solo album Schizophonic, with lead single "Look at Me", produced by co-writers and old friends, Absolute. The single reached number two in the UK, just 700 copies behind Boyzone's "You Needed Me". The single would go on to sell over 1 million copies worldwide. Further singles from the album, "Mi Chico Latino" and "Lift Me Up", became UK number ones with the latter outselling Halliwell's former bandmate Emma Bunton. The fourth single, "Bag It Up", also reached number one. Geri set another two records for shortest time for a female songwriter to achieve her ninth and tenth no. 1 UK singles. "Lift Me Up" hit no. 1 3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks after Wannabe's first week at no. 1, and Bag It Up hit 4 months later. Melanie C, in contrast, took seven more months to achieve her tenth no. 1 single as a songwriter, with I Turn To You.

All-time leaders Lennon/McCartney took 3 years, 1 month, 3 weeks between From Me To You and their tenth no. 1 UK hit Paperback Writer.
Demonstrating her flair for outrageous promotion, Halliwell performed "Bag It Up" during the BRIT Awards ceremony in 2000, emerging between giant inflatable legs, ripping off her shirt and walking in stiletto heels over the backs of topless pink-haired men whilst performing the song.

"Look at Me" was released to radio in the United States in late 1999, receiving limited airplay. With only a radio single, Schizophonic debuted at number forty-two on The Billboard 200 before dropping out within the next month. This is still the highest charting by a solo Spice album in the United States; (Emma Bunton's Free Me peaking at no. 183, Melanie C's Northern Star peaked at no. 208 and Mel B's LA State of Mind peaked at no. 248 on The Billboard 200). The album was eventually certified gold, distributing over 500,000 copies.[13] "Mi Chico Latino" did not have a big impact on USA radio, and no further singles from Schizophonic or albums were released in the United States. 'Schizophonic' would go on to sell 2.5 million copies worldwide.[14]
Halliwell had a high-profile but short-lived relationship with Chris Evans during that time. She was also romantically linked to Robbie Williams.


In 2001 Halliwell followed up with her second album, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster. It also included her cover version of the Weather Girls' 1983 hit, "It's Raining Men", used on the Bridget Jones's Diary film soundtrack, and the video game, DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX. The song also won her the International Song of the Year award at the 2002 NRJ Music Awards.

The song became a huge hit, selling over 4 million copies worldwide.[15] It became the second best selling single of 2001.[16][17] The song had been added to the album at the last minute; another song, "Feels Like Sex", had already been slated as the lead single. (This song remained an album-only track. "Circles Round the Moon" was rumoured to be a single as Halliwell performed it on CD:UK and 12" Vinyl Promos were sent to clubs, but it was never released.) The follow-up singles were "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" (number eight) and "Calling" (number seven), the latter, stated by Halliwell was her favourite co-written track on the album. She even released a special French edition of the single, entitled "Calling (Au Nom de L'amour)". The album sold more than 1.3 million copies across the world (this album wasn't released in the USA).[18][19]

Geri has released two autobiographies in If Only (1999) and Just for the Record (2002), detailing her rise to fame and her turbulent celebrity lifestyle. She has also released two Yoga DVDs Geri Yoga and Geri Body Yoga.
In 2002, Halliwell was featured alongside Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh as a judge on the television series Popstars: The rivals which created Girls Aloud.

In the United States Halliwell has also pursued a television career, re-uniting with former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller to appear as a judge on the reality programme All American Girl and as a guest reporter on celebrity-based series such as Extra. She has also made appearances in the television series Sex and the City and a film, Fat Slags (2004), based on characters from Viz Magazine.


In 2004, Halliwell began a period of collaboration with channel Five, as was one of the hosts of the Party in the park event for the Prince's Trust, the presenter and main performer of the Tickled Pink Girls' night in Live! event and an appearance in a documentary There's Something About Geri.
In late 2004, Halliwell made a return to music with the single "Ride It", which reached no. 4 on the UK charts and no. 1 on the dance charts. The single was not promoted abroad, but still sold well throughout continental European countries reaching high positions, such as no. 3 in Spain. Plus the single was used for the US version of 'Queer as Folk'. This was the first single from her third album, Passion which was at that stage slated for a spring release after a second single. However, several months elapsed before another single was released, during which time she was apparently ordered to record some new tracks for the as-yet unreleased album by her record company, which was unhappy with the setlist.[20] Halliwell was planning her first solo tour around the UK and Ireland, but a bad management and tour schedule plus the label's pressure to record more songs and low ticket sales made her cancel the tour. Eventually a new single, "Desire", was released on May 30, 2005, reaching no. 22 in the UK singles chart and no.1 on the UK Dance chart. Released shortly after, the album Passion similarly received little attention from the public or critics, and stalled at no. 41 in the UK charts. It was rumoured that "Love Never Loved Me" would have been released as the third single from Passion, but it was not.

On June 28, 2007, Halliwell announced she was joining her former band-mates for "The Return of the Spice Girls", a concert tour that would see all five original members of the Spice Girls together on stage for the first time since Halliwell walked out mid-tour in 1998. Part of the setlist of the reunion tour features Halliwell performing solo, singing her hit single It's Raining Men. It was announced on 1 February that the end of the tour would actually take place in Toronto, on 26 February 2008.[21]

On April 12, 2007, it was announced that Halliwell had signed a six-book deal with Macmillan Children's Books.[22] The books feature nine year old Ugenia Lavender, as well as characters loosely based on Halliwell's celebrity friends. In interviews to promote the book series, Halliwell said she had no plans to return to a solo musical career in the near future.[23]
Geri's publicist has announced that Disney has begun pre-production on Ugenia Lavender & the Magical Christmas Adventure, a feature length movie based on the hit children's book character, with a release date expected to be in December 2009. Along with Ugenia, other popular characters expected to return in the movie are Bronte, Rudy and Trevor, and there will also be some very special guest appearances made by some of Geri's friends."George [Michael] has agreed to voice a new character for the movie" says Geri. She also lists other confirmed names to appear as Victoria Beckham,

Angelina Jolie, Katie Holmes, and one of her childhood heroes, Michael Jackson "who will play a misfit at school, who Ugenia really helps to come out of his shell."Dannii Minogue and Myleene Klass will also voice characters with Minogue possibly recording the classical theme song. The big screen version of the popular book series is said to have a budget of $30 Million.


Geri's father, Laurence Francis Halliwell, died in Watford, in 1993, aged 71.
She was involved in love affairs with Jamie Morrison in 1998,

then with Chris Evans in 1999.

After that she had a short relationship with .

Robbie Williams in summer 2000, then in 2002 with

Damien Warner. While she was filming for Fat Slags

in May 2004 she had an affair with

Jerry O'Connell.

Another relationship seemed to have been with Darius Danesh from September 2004 to January 2005. In the summer of 2005 she met scriptwriter Sacha Gervasi in Los Angeles, they had a short relationship.

In October 2005, after Passion was a failure, Halliwell sacked her managers, the husband and wife team Paul and Katie Conroy, and went to Los Angeles, United States, to work on unnamed projects. Soon after, she was photographed by the paparazzi, having put on weight and looking exhausted. The tabloids reported that Halliwell was pregnant, which was subsequently confirmed. Gervasi is reported to be the child's father, but Halliwell has never publicly confirmed that;[24] On 7 March 2006, Hello! magazine published an interview with Halliwell she says, "It is tacky to kiss and tell, I would never deprive a child of the right to know its father."
On May 14, 2006, Halliwell gave birth to her daughter, Bluebell Madonna, by caesarean section at London's Portland Hospital with her sister by her side.[25] Explaining her name choice, she said, "What really clinched it for me was my mother telling me that the bluebell is increasingly rare – so it's a precious flower, which seems just right for my daughter." Her daughter's middle name came from two of Geri's heroines, the Virgin Madonna and pop singer Madonna.
On 23 April 2007 all the former Spice Girls except Melanie B attended the christening of Halliwell's daughter, with Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton and George Michael's partner Kenny Goss serving as godparents.[26]
On the Spice Reunion tour she met dancer Ivan Velez. In November 2008 it was reported she broke up with him on the phone[27].She has been dating Italian multi-millionaire Fabrizio Politi since December 2008; her management company confirmed their engagement a month later in January 2009[28].
She is currently having a house built in Streatley on Thames, just across the river Thames from George Michael's house in Goring-on-Thames.[29]

In 1999, after having left the Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell became a representative for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). As a goodwill ambassador, Halliwell toured the Philippines on a fact-finding trip. She visited with staff and clients of family planning clinics, women's groups in slum areas, and college students.
In 2000, Geri Halliwell appeared in the two part documentary series Geri's World Walkabout for the BBC which followed her work with the UN and other travels. Geri met with kids in Rio de Janeiro and visited child piano-prodigies in the United States, among other things. Alyssa Wheeler of Atchison, Ks.
Halliwell picked up UN work again in 2006, by visiting Zambia from 14 November to 16 November, to promote greater international awareness of the urgent need to reduce maternal death and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. Both aims are contained in the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the world's leaders in September 2000. She attended the first 2007 BBC Four Reith Lecture and can be heard asking questions on women's rights in the recording.[30]
Halliwell attended the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London on July 7, 2007[31] and introduced Duran Duran to the crowd.
In 2008, Geri Halliwell also pledged her support to the Kentish Times Christmas Toy Appeal, which aimed to collect second hand toys as Christmas presents for paitents in Child Wards in Bromley, Bexley, Woolwich and Dartford. Halliwell not only gave publicity to the campaign, but also donated toys from her own daughter's collection.[32]
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Who is Jessica Marie Alba?

Who is Jessica Marie Alba? [1] She is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002).[2][3] Alba later appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Good Luck Chuck both in 2007.[4][5]
Alba appears frequently on the "Hot 100" section of Maxim and was voted AskMen.com's number one on their list of "99 Most Desirable Women" in 2006, as well as "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 2007.[6][7][8] She also appeared on the cover of Playboy on March 2006, which was followed by a lawsuit, which was later dropped.[9] Alba has won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV) for her acting in the series Dark Angel.

Alba was born April 28, 1981 in Pomona, California[1] to Catherine Alba (née Jensen) and Mark Alba. Her mother is of Danish and French Canadian descent and her father is of Mexican American descent (both his parents were born in California).[11][12] She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas before settling back in California when she was nine years old.[3][12]
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a ruptured appendix, and a tonsillar cyst. This isolated her from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her.[13] She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood.[14][15] Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California. She graduated from high school at age 16,[16] and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.[17]

Alba expressed interest in acting since the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, California whose grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later.[18][19][3] Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job in a leading role when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.[2]
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack.[3] She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper.[2][3] Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.[20][3]

In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 and as Layla in an episode of The Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S..[2] After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director,

David Mamet.[17][21]

Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, o

Opposite Devon Sawa.[5]

Her big break came when writer/director James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of the genetically-engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. Co-created by Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002, earning her critical acclaim as well as a Golden Globe nomination.[22][5] Alba later revealed that she had suffered from an eating disorder while in preparation for Dark Angel.[23]

Alba's most notable film roles have included an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City and as the classic Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four,

of which movie critic Mick LaSalle said that her performance while talking for long periods of time was on "shaky ground". She then appeared in its sequel, in Into the Blue later that year, and Good Luck Chuck a few years later.[24][4][25] Alba went on to host the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission Impossible 3, and The Da Vinci Code.[26]
In 2008, Alba appeared in her first horror-film role in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original.[12] In February, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's Science and Technical Awards.[27] Later in the year, she starred in The Love Guru.[4] She has signed on to star in An Invisible Sign of My Own[28] to be released in 2009.[29]
Alba has been represented by talent agents Patrick Whitesell[30] and Brad Cafarelli.[9]


Alba objected to being on the cover of the magazine and filed suit, but later dropped the action.
In 2006, readers of Askmen.com voted Alba No. 1 on 99 Most Desirable Women,[7] while in 2007, Maxim Magazine placed Alba on the number 2 spot of their "Top 100", after Lindsay Lohan.[8] Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June covers,[31][32] and in May, after eight million votes, FHM (UK and USA editions) named Alba the winner as "2007’s Sexiest Woman in the World".[6] Alba continues to be regarded as one of the world's most attractive women, being named to Maxim's Hot 100 in 2008.

Alba has been well-received in popular culture. She received the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV) for her role in Dark Angel. She has frequently appeared on Maxim's Hot 100 list. In 2006, Alba received an MTV Movie Award for "Sexiest Performance" for Sin City.[8][33][10]

Her acting has also drawn criticism, however, as she was nominated for a 2007

Razzie Award for Worst Actress for her performances in

Awake,

Good Luck Chuck,

and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.[34]

She was also nominated for the same award in 2005 for her performances in Fantastic Four and Into the Blue.[35]
On the cover of the March 2006 issue, Playboy magazine named Alba among its 25 Sexiest Celebrities, and the Sex Star of the Year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported.[9]

Alba fears being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her, commenting, "Somehow, I don't think this is happening to Natalie Portman."[36] In the interview, Alba said she wants to be taken seriously as an actress but believes she needs to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hopes to be more selective in her film projects.[36] Alba also maintains a strict no-nudity clause in her contract. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety".[37] She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."[38]

Alba was a Christian throughout her teenage years,[39] but left the church after four years because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
“
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
”

Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and the lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life."[37] However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.[40]

While filming Dark Angel, Alba began a four year romance with fellow co-star Michael Weatherly, which caused controversy due to their 12 year age gap.[41] He proposed to her on her twentieth birthday.[12] They eventually broke up after a four-year relationship. In July 2007, Jessica spoke out about the break up. "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."[42]

Jessica Alba posing in a Declare Yourself bondage-themed print advertisement encouraging voter registration.
Alba had at one time said she envisioned a much older man as her ideal partner, making references to

Morgan Freeman,

Sean Connery,

Robert Redford,

and Michael Caine.

"I have this thing for older men. They've been around and know so much."[43] Regarding children, Alba said, "I'm really girly when it comes to kids. I've been surrounded by kids my whole life because I'm the oldest of 15 cousins — I've been changing diapers since I was six. I want to have a couple, for sure".[44]

Alba met Cash Warren,

Son of actor Michael Warren, while making Fantastic Four in 2004.[45][46] Alba married Warren in Los Angeles on Monday, May 19, 2008.[47][48] On June 7, 2008, Alba gave birth to a baby girl, Honor Marie Warren,[49] at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.[50] The first pictures of Honor Marie appeared in OK! magazine, which paid a reported $1.5 million for them.[51]

Alba's charity work includes participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children Villages, Soles4Souls, and Step up.[52] Alba endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season.[53]
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads by photographer Mark Liddell,[54][55] which feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, drew national media attention. Alba said of the advertisements, "It didn't freak me out at all."[56]

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