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• 'Two Lovers': Vinessa Shaw is the best thing, even though Joaquin ...

  TwinCities.com - Found Sep. 20, 2009 ... his parents' candidate for a girlfriend, Jewish princess Sandra (the gorgeous and deeply talented Vinessa Shaw), and Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow...

• Rep: Chris Martin & Kate Bosworth Make-Out Story Not True

  Access Hollywood - Found Nov. 4, 2009 Her Guys To Figure Out Love related videos Two Lovers Premiere, New York Joaquin Phoenix and Vinessa Shaw attend the Cinema Society and... Gwyneth Paltrow getting two-timed? - Boston Herald Chris quashes kissing Kate story - Metronews Explore All

• Brighton Beach Memoirs: James Gray?s ?Two Lovers?

  Indiewire - Found Nov. 2, 2009 Withdrawn and awkward, he nonetheless manages to become friends with two women: Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the ostensibly homely daughter of his...

• Birthday Suit!

  Drifting: A Director's Log - Found Oct. 1, 2009 Ti West and Matt Newton (director of Three Blind Mice ), but the real exciting thing about this video was that Vinessa Shaw was in it.

• Fall Frights: THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006; Film Review)

  Fangoria - Found Oct. 20, 2009 Stanford, the naturalistic and empathetic performers also include Kathleen Quinlan as the sensible mother, Vinessa Shaw and Emilie de Ravin as...

• 3:10 to Yuma

  About - Found Oct. 14, 2009 Crowe, Peter Fonda, Logan Lerman, Ben Foster, James Mangold, Cathy Konrad, Kevin Durand, Dallas Roberts, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Zoe Kravitz...

• Soka University Holds Fifth Annual Peace Gala to Provide Scholarship ...

  24-7PressRelease.com - Found Oct. 2, 2009 This year, actress Vinessa Shaw will join Duffy as co-host of the event. Shaw has been seen in '3:10 to Yuma' with Russell Crowe and Christian...

• SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY ELECTS TWO MEMBERS TO ITS BOARD

  DBusinessNews.com - Found Oct. 9, 2009 ... the thriller Night Train starring Danny Glover, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski; Stag Night starring Kip Pardue, Breckin Meyer and Vinessa Shaw;

• Movie of the week - Two Lovers

  Moscow News - Found Aug. 31, 2009 ... seems to change for Leonard when two women almost simultaneously enter his life, brunette Sarah (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of his parents...

• What Are You Watching? Not Wolverine, I hope

  Pulse Journal - Found Sep. 17, 2009 ... a very fine performance as a disturbed man caught between two women: the steady loyal Vinessa Shaw and the unsteady, irresistible Gwyneth...

Vinessa Shaw extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Vinessa Shaw
Born	Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw July 19, 1976 (1976-07-19) (age 33) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Model
Years active	1981; 1991—present

Vinessa Elizabeth Shaw (born July 19, 1976) is an American actress and model. Shaw has starred in numerous motion pictures since the early 1990s, and is probably most well-known for her performances in Disney's 1993 Halloween film Hocus Pocus, the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror picture The Hills Have Eyes, as well as the 2008 romance film Two Lovers, in which she starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Contents 1 Childhood and early career 2 Film career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Childhood and early career

Shaw was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Larry Shaw and actress Susan Damante-Shaw (née Susan Jean Damante).¹² Her family's original surname was "Schwartz".³ Her name, Vinessa, spelled with an "i" rather than the common "a', was a variation of her grandfather's name, Vincent.⁴ Shaw made her first formal performance in a UCLA acting camp short at age 10, and subsequently toured with children's folk singer Peter Alsop at age 11. She also signed on with the Elite Models agency in 1989 at the age of 13 before beginning her acting career,⁵ and did a few modeling jobs and commercial work throughout her earlier career.

Film career

Shaw made her film debut in a little-known-of 1981 slasher film called Home Sweet Home, which dealt with a serial killer at Thanksgiving time. She then landed parts in a handful of television roles. She played a considerably large role in Walt Disney's 1993 Halloween family film Hocus Pocus alongside Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, and a young Thora Birch. Shaw completed roles in various independent films for the remainder of the 1990s.

In 1999, she was cast in a small yet significant role by the legendary Stanley Kubrick in his final film Eyes Wide Shut, playing an HIV-positive prostitute who is encountered by Tom Cruise. In a 2008 interview, Shaw stated that director Kubrick was "very influential" to her and that he "was the first person who encouraged her to continue acting".⁶ Following her role in Eyes Wide Shut, Vinessa played parts in a handful of films including the independent 2000 mystery-drama The Weight of Water with Sarah Polley and Sean Penn; the slapstick comedy Corky Romano alongside Chris Kattan; the romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights, playing the fiesty ex-girlfriend of Josh Hartnett; and a very small role in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda.

More low budget and independent films consumed Shaw's time until 2006, where she returned to the big screen in Alexandre Aja's remake of Wes Craven's exploitation-horror film The Hills Have Eyes, playing a young mother on a camping trip with her family who is attacked by bloodthirsty mutants in the new mexico desert. Director Aja had wanted to cast her in the film after seeing her performance in Eyes Wide Shut. Asked why she wanted to act in a horror film, Shaw responded "Well, I guess I could be good in it since I'm so frightened of those kinds of concepts. But this one in particular really attracted me because of the filmmakers. I really thought that they had a great stance on it. Like it's very different, very heartfelt, and heartbreaking because of the characters involved. So that's kind of what made the difference. It was more of an actor's piece, if you can believe that, in a horror movie."⁷ Shaw was featured on the official one sheet promotion poster for the film,⁸ which was a box-office success.

Most recently, Vinessa has been seen in the 2007 remake of the classic Western film 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, the indie drama film Garden Party, as well as a leading role in Two Lovers alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and was released theatrically in February 2009.

Personal life

Shaw dated late actor Jonathan Brandis whom she met while filming Ladybugs in 1992, and later dated actor Oliver Hudson, brother of Kate Hudson and son of Goldie Hawn. She attended the famed Barnard College in New York, but dropped out to pursue acting. Shaw was attending the college when she was approached by Stanley Kubrick for her role in Eyes Wide Shut.

She is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist, she chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo daily,⁹ and is a facilitator of the SGI-USA Buddhist Association for Peace, Culture, and Education.¹⁰ Shaw mentioned her practicing of the religion in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in February 2009. Shaw has been engaged to behind-the-scenes film Kristopher Gifford since 2008. ¹¹

Filmography

• Home Sweet Home (1981) .... Angel
• Long Road Home (1991) .... Clara Tarpin
• Ladybugs (1992) .... Kimberly Mullen
• Country Estates (1993) .... Heather Calhoun
• Hocus Pocus (1993) .... Allison
• McKenna (1994) .... Cassidy McKenna (pilot only)
• Coyote Summer (1996) .... Callie Carpenter
• L.A. Without a Map (1998) .... Barbara
• Eyes Wide Shut (1999) .... Domino
• Wayward Son (1999) .... Cordelia
• The '70s (2000) .... Eileen Wells
• The Weight of Water (2000) .... Anethe Christenson
• Corky Romano (2001) .... Agent Kate Russo
• 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) .... Nicole
• Melinda and Melinda (2004) .... Stacey Fox
• Bereft (2004) .... Molly
• Fathers and Sons (2005) .... Nell
• The Hills Have Eyes (2006) .... Lynn Carter
• Badland (2007) .... Nora
• 3:10 to Yuma (2007) .... Emmy Nelson
• Stag Night (2008) .... Brita
• Garden Party (2008).... Sally
• Two Lovers (2008).... Sandra

References

External links

• Vinessa Shaw at the Internet Movie Database

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