Now in our fourth calendar year
What is the most memorable thing from this years Oscars? For me, it was Catherine Zeta-Jones winning her very first Oscar. CZJ is now a true Hollywood starlet. She has all the ingredients needed to be one too. She is married to another Hollywood star, Michael Douglas, and is absolutely breath taking. She can sing, dance, and act which is definitely a triple threat in H‘Wood. Even all that doesn't matter so much anymore, the final piece of the puzzle has been completed, she is an Oscar-winner.
Catherine Zeta (pronounced zee-tah) Jones was born in Mumbles, Wales on September 25, 1969. Birthday: September 25th, 1969 (she is 33). She shares this birthday with Michael Douglas, Barbara Walters, Heather Locklear, Will Smith, Christopher Reeves, and many others I am sure. My birthday is 7 days later! We’re all Libra’s, lucky us!
Catherine’s has had to overcome many obstacles in her life, some right from the beginning. It was her role in the 1996 TV movie “Titanic,” which was a pre-cursor to the movie, that caught the eye of Steven Spielberg who immediately pictured her with Antonio Banderas in “The Mask of Zorro”, 1998. 1998 was an especially good year for her personally too. Catherine also began courting Michael Douglas. The next year saw the release of re-made “The Haunting” which she played Theo, a bohemian lesbian painter. It was also this year that she came forward with her relationship to Michael Douglas. She was on the path to greatness and nothing stood in her way.
On January 1, 2000, Micahel Douglas proposed to her with a ten-carat Fred Leighton diamond, and she said yes. The following week Catherine announced that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. On August 8th, 2000 in Los Angeles Catherine and Michael welcomed Dylan Michael Douglas, weighing in at 7lbs 7oz. The couple married that November in a lavish ceremony At New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Since then she has been seen in 2000’s “High Fidelity” and “Traffic,” 2001’s “America’s Sweetheart’s,” and most recently 2002’s “Chicago.” Any day now she and Michael will welcome their second child in Los Angeles. The couple live in Bermuda and plan to raise their children there. Later this year catch her in “Intolerable Cruelty” with George Clooney.
Filmography:
1990- Scheherazade; a French film by Philip de Broca. Rare fact: There you have it folks. Brief and to the point. An interesting lady indeed. She also just won her court battle with Hello! Magazine over pictures from her wedding to Michael Douglas on November 18, 2000.
Next week: I respond to my critics! Plus: a brief bio of Roy Scheider (yes, I'm a big fan too).
When Catherine was 2 she suffered from a virus that hindered her breathing and forced her to have a tracheotomy. It left her a scar, which is still very evident on the bottom of her throat. She refuses to get it removed because she says, “without it, I wouldn’t be here today.” The scar is a reminder to her at how precious life really is. She has also had her nose broken, a kid slammed a door in her face, ouch. Even with all this she seems to have a knack for succeeding “Its funny, the harder I work, the luckier I get” she says. At the age of 4 she began to take tap dancing lessons and by the age of 10 was Britain’s Junior Tap Dancing Champion. How’s that for starters? At the age of 11 she got the lead in a local production of “Annie,” which brought out the acting bug in her. At the age of 13 she starred in the west-end production of “Bugsy Malone” which caught the eye of “Monkees” star Mickey Dolenz. She impressed everyone so much with her skills that she was whisked off to London to star in the production of “The Pyjama Game.”
At the age of 15 she acquired her first Guild card and was on her way. At the age of 16 she packed her bags, with her parents, Dai (a chocolate factory owner) and Patricia (a seamstress/homemaker), permission and left Wales to live in London and pursue her dreams. At 17, she landed herself the 2nd understudy role of “Peggy” in the London musical “42nd Street.” One evening, the lead got sick and the understudy was unable to perform so CZJ had the opportunity to step up and do it herself. The producer happened to be there that night and liked her so much that she got the part for the following eight weeks.
In 1990 she made her movie debut in a French film titled “Scheherazade” by director Philip de Broca. The following year she was offered the role that would make her a star in London. The show was called “The Darling Buds of May” and was an enormous hit in the UK for three seasons. CZJ found it hard to live a normal life all of a sudden and had a hard time dealing with the pressure. It was with then boyfriend John Leslie that Catherine learned how intrusive the paparazzi could get. She had many sexy photos published of her with him, some were of her and him half naked on a boat. All this was beginning to pull her down. The pressure from the show ending and a couple movie flops made her realize how easy it all came and went. If a movie did bad it was “Zeta’s Flop” no matter who else may have been in it. The final straw was when the paparazzi chased her down the road and whilst trying to get away she crashed into a lamppost.
She had some movies already under her belt before moving to America like “Christopher Columbus: the Discovery” (1992) with Marlon Brando and Eric Idle's “Splitting Heirs” (1993) with Rick Moranis.
1992- Christopher Columbus: the discovery; starring Marlon Brando.
1993- Splitting Heirs: co-starring Barbara Hershey, Rick Morranis, and Eric Idle
1994- Return of the Native
1995- Catherine the Great
1995- Blue Juice; co-starring Ewan McGregor. A surfer movie.
1996- The Phantom; starring Billy Zane
1997- Titanic; the made for TV version not the James Cameron version.
1998- The Mask of Zorro; Break-through role
1999- Entrapment; co-starring Sean Connery
1999- The Haunting; co-starring Liam Neeson
2000- High Fidelity; starring John Cusack. She had a very small part. Funny movie.
2000-Traffic; co-starring Dennis Quaid and Michael Douglas. Golden Globe nom.
2001- America’s Sweethearts; co-starring Julia Robert and John Cusack
2002- Chicago; Oscar Win! Co-starring Renee Zellweger, and Richard Gere.
2003- Intolerable Cruelty- co-starring George Clooney. Due in theaters in Oct.
- She speaks French fluently
- She had a tracheotomy at the age of two
- She began tap at the age of 4
- She was Britain’s Junior Tap Champion at the age of 10
- Was discovered by Mickey Dolenz
- Promotes, T-mobile and Elizabeth Arden
- ex-boyfriend John Leslie is currently under investigation for numerous rapes
- loves golf
- has a strawberry shape birthmark on her left ankle
- has a scar on her throat from her tracheotomy.
In two weeks: Danzig and the Misfits: What happened?
"Ashley Lauren's Hollywood" is ©2003 by Ashley Lauren Lewis. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2003 by Nolan B. Canova.