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.

The unofficial transition from "Fall" to "Holiday" season happens in the film industry over the next few weeks and specialty distribs react by breaking out their big awards guns, from this month's "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk," to December's dozen or so options. But a lucky few will bleed business between seasons and it appears Sony Pictures Classics' promising trio of "Rachel Getting Married," "Synecdoche, New York" and "I've Loved You So Long" are good possibilities to be among them. None...

Born Julie Marie Pacino on Oct. 16, 1989 in Queens, N.Y. ... parents are Jan Tarrant and Al Pacino ... has a younger sister, Olivia and a younger brother, Anton ... favorite academic class is english ... lists her biggest athletic thrill as making the state Final Four in 2006 ... admires New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter ... favorites include the television show "The Office", actor Brad Pitt, the movie "Superbad" and musical group Red Hot Chili Peppers ... hobbies include watching movies with her best friend ... majoring in english with a career goal of becoming a filmmaker.

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).

A gregarious actor with a smile that lights up the screen, Cuba Gooding, Jr. experienced the highs and lows of show business growing up as the son of his famous singer father. As he explained to the Los Angeles Times on January 5, 1997: "We lived in a big house and had chauffeurs, we'd go backstage at the concerts and then in the fifth grade . . . bang! Rock bottom." When his parents divorced, he moved with his mother, brother and sister out of the limelight and began facing financial hardships, which included stretches of being evicted and living in a car, as well as time on the welfare rolls. While the family was staying in a cheap motel in suburban Orange County, Gooding befriended future personal assistant Shawn Suttles and production company partner Derek Broes, and the three perfected their breakdancing moves, christening themselves the Majestic Vision Breakdancers.

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.

 Christopher Walken is that rare actor who made the successful transition from child player to adult star. Born and raised in Astoria, Queens, he studied dance as a youngster and, from the age of 10, appeared in live musicals and dramas in the so-called "Golden Age of Television" in the 1950s. (He also occasionally traded off with his brother Glenn playing the character of Mike Bauer on the CBS daytime serial "Guiding Light" between 1954 and 1956.) The tall, angular blue-eyed performer was in his mid-teens when he made his Broadway debut (then billed as 'Ronnie' (short for Ronald) Walken) in Archibald MacLeish's award-winning verse play "J.B." in 1959.

 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.

In the late 1990’s, pop music was overtaken by a stream of teen stars whose good looks, attitude, catchy songs and powerful hype machines often overshadowed their talent--or lack thereof. The anomaly of this teen invasion was Christina Aguilera, who backed up the hype with a powerful set of pipes that validated her pop star status. Possessing a four-octave range, Aguilera faced constant comparison to another blonde ex-Mousketeer, Britney Spears, when vying for the role of pop music’s top diva. Her eponymously titled debut album, released in August 1999, took the music world by storm and eventually sold over 10 million copies. Though she also rivaled Spears and Jessica Simpson as the pop star with the most wholesome image, Aguilera would eventually break that mold to become something she was more comfortable with: herself.