Known primarily for her eccentric persona, including brightly-colored, odd hairstyles and a thick Queens accent, Lauper made her mark in the entertainment industry with her debut album, "She's So Unusual" (1984), which produced four Top 5 hit singles, including her signature song "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and the poignant ballad "Time After Time". Her follow-up albums, while critically praised, generally failed to repeat her early success. Lauper assumed a behind the camera role, co-directing the video "I Drove All Night" from her third album, "A Night to Remember" (1989). She has since directed her own videos which are noted for their arresting collage-like images generated through cross-cuts and dissolves.

A blonde Southern beauty with a fearless attitude – which some described over the years as foolhardy – Cybill Shepherd was a former beauty queen who rose to fame in the early 1970s, after a star-making turn in director Peter Bogdanovich’s Oscar-winning “The Last Picture Show.” Her fame waned by the middle of the decade, thanks to a string of flops and a highly public break-up with her Svengali director/boyfriend, Bogdanovich, but she returned with a vengeance as the sassy P.I. Maddie Hayes on the smart TV comedy, “Moonlighting” (ABC, 1985-89) and as campier TV version of herself on the hit sitcom, “Cybill” (CBS, 1995-98).

Whether it was a sexy role in “Summer School” (1987), a smart role on “Ally McBeal” (Fox,1997-2000) or a troubled role on “Melrose Place” (Fox 1992-97), earthy blonde beauty Courtney Thorne-Smith delighted fans for almost twenty years, providing her own wit, depth and charm to “good girl” parts, which in lesser hands, could have come across as thankless and bland.

Thorne-Smith was born on Nov. 8, 1967 in San Francisco, CA and later graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA. She realized her love of acting while performing in a kindergarten production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Her father, a computer market researcher, and her mother, a therapist, divorced when she was seven years old, leaving her to live with one or both of them at different stages of her childhood and teenage years. She began her career with the Ensemble Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA while still a student in high school.

British actor Colin Firth achieved international renown in 1995 with his arguably definitive screen portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." He began his career in West End dramas and on the big screen in period, often literary adaptations, before a number of successful romantic comedies including “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001) and broader historic dramas like “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” (2003) turned him into “the thinking woman’s heartthrob.” The moniker stuck throughout his career, but Firth continued to showcase untapped facets of his talent in independent films, family-friendly hits, and gutsy cable movies just the same.

To look upon the face of Claire Danes is to discover an exquisitely expressive canvas for all the emotional colorings of life. This remarkably self-possessed young performer brought startling authenticity as well as intelligence and complexity to her starring role in the landmark high school/family drama "My So-Called Life" (ABC, 1994-95). Danes' often heartrending portrayal of a fifteen-year-old coping with the rigors of adolescence contributed to the cult series' avalanche of kudos and won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nod for its rising star. The low-rated, short-lived program counted Steven Spielberg and Winona Ryder among its followers.

 Christy Carlson Romano Trivia

 For a world filled with comic book fans, Christopher Reeve had for years been the definitive Superman. For thousands suffering with paralysis and spinal cord injuries, in one tragic moment, he morphed suddenly from an actor perfectly cast onscreen, to a real-life personal inspiration and a champion of medical research and healthcare reform. Standing six-foot-four and sporting a jaw as square as his illustrated predecessor, the then-unknown Reeve became an overnight success when he was cast in “Superman: The Movie” (1978) – most notable for his evenhanded portrait of both the character’s sensitive vulnerability and commanding power in the face of injustice – all the while, wearing tights and a cape. Despite playing such an iconic role, he resisted typecasting in the wake of the film series’ success, sticking close to his original love of live theater when Hollywood failed to deliver worthy scripts.

 A child star who enjoyed that rare successful transition to onscreen adulthood, Christina Ricci’s continuing film presence was aided in no small part by the fact that her early roles did not depend on dimpled cuteness, but on an unnerving maturity that suggested her characters were smarter than their adult counterparts. Ricci spent her teens as a gloomy, precocious lead in Goth-tinged big budget comedies and heavier independent dramas – all of which best showcased her flair for unconventional teen females burdened by fear and identity issues. As the actress matured, she enjoyed increasing respect from the art house crowd, but had difficulty translating her persona as an intelligent, tough-talking, yet vulnerable outsider into the limited confines of Hollywood female characters.

 Christina Applegate first rose to fame as a teenager, playing the angel-faced yet promiscuous halfwit, Kelly Bundy, on Fox’s gleefully trashy sitcom "Married... With Children" (1987-1997). She had been a working actress since she was an infant, but Applegate managed to escape the fate of so many child actors by steering clear of the seductive Hollywood lifestyle; instead carving out a respectable adult career with her own sitcom “Jesse” (1998-2000) and a recurring role as Rachel’s sister on “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004), which earned her her first Emmy Award.

 Christina Applegate first rose to fame as a teenager, playing the angel-faced yet promiscuous halfwit, Kelly Bundy, on Fox’s gleefully trashy sitcom "Married... With Children" (1987-1997). She had been a working actress since she was an infant, but Applegate managed to escape the fate of so many child actors by steering clear of the seductive Hollywood lifestyle; instead carving out a respectable adult career with her own sitcom “Jesse” (1998-2000) and a recurring role as Rachel’s sister on “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004), which earned her her first Emmy Award.