Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone born October 4, 1976) is an American actress, author, and former fashion model. She first came to widespread attention in music videos for Aerosmith, and is best known for her roles in Hollywood films such as Clueless (1995) and her portrayal of Batgirl in Batman & Robin (1997).

Personal life

Silverstone married her longtime boyfriend, rock musician (for the band S.T.U.N.) and basketball coach Christopher Jarecki, in a beachfront ceremony at Lake Tahoe, on June 11, 2005. After meeting outside a movie theater in 1997, the couple dated for eight years prior to their marriage. They got engaged about a year before their marriage and Jarecki presented Silverstone with an engagement ring that had belonged to his grandmother.

Silverstone and Jarecki live in an eco-friendly Los Angeles house complete with solar panels and an organic vegetable garden. She bought the house, shared with a "menagerie of rescued dogs," in 1996

Early life

Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Deirdre "Didi" (née Radford), a Scottish-born former Pan Am flight attendant, and Monty Silverstone, an English-born real-estate investor and part-time actor. Silverstone was raised in a "traditional Jewish household"; her father, a native of east London, is Jewish, and her mother converted to Conservative Judaism before marriage. Silverstone is the youngest of three children and also has a half-sister, London-based rock singer Kezi Silverstone, and a half-brother, David Silverstone, both from her father's previous marriage.[citation needed] Silverstone attended Crocker Middle School and then San Mateo High School, but did not complete her high school studies. When she was six years old, she began modeling and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She acquired some early modeling and advertising work and was eventually cast as "dream girl" Jessica on the episode "Road Test" of The Wonder Years.

Career

Silverstone won several awards for her film performances, including MTV Movie Awards, National Board of Review, Young Artist Awards, and an American Comedy Award. She has been nominated for an Emmy award and a Golden Globe Award. During her career, she turned down several key roles in films, including Dede Truitt in The Opposite of Sex and a role in Scream 3. She was also considered for roles in Scream 2, Bewitched, Little Women and Heartbreakers. She turned down the role of Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994; Tiffani Thiessen was cast instead.

2010s

She reprised her role in Time Stands Still alongside Laura Linney in the New York production of the play on Broadway, which premiered on January 28, 2010, directed by Daniel Sullivan, who described Silverstone as "a breath of fresh air. The play received good reviews with the New York Times praising Silverstone, saying she "brings warmth, actorly intelligence and delicate humour.

Silverstone will next appear in the teen romance The Art of Getting By, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and also as the adoptive mother of a 12-year old African American girl who enters a local butter sculpture competition in a small Iowa town, alongside Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Wilde and Ashley Greene in Butter. The movie is said to be inspired by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's battle to secure the Democratic nomination for president.

Political convictions

Silverstone is noted for being an animal rights and environmental activist. She became a vegan in 1998 after attending an animal rights meeting. "I realized that I was the problem," she told InStyle Home, in Spring 2007. "I was an animal lover who was eating animals. She has revealed she struggled with childhood vegetarianism stating "There were times when I would get selfish and eat meat—at eight years old it's hard to stick to your guns—and so through the years I was always starting and stopping trying to be a vegetarian. In 2004, Silverstone was voted, "Sexiest Female Vegetarian," by PETA. In 2007, Silverstone appeared nude in a print advertisement and 30-second commercial for PETA championing vegetarianism; the TV spot was subsequently pulled from the Houston, Texas, market by Comcast Cable. Silverstone has set up a sanctuary for rescued pets in Los Angeles.

Filmography and credits

Year                                Title                                   Role                           Notes

1993 The Crush Adrian Forrester MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance

1995 Le Nouveau monde Trudy Wadd

1995 Hideaway Regina Harrison

1995 Clueless Cher Horowitz

1995 The Babysitter Jennifer

1996 True Crime Mary Giordano direct-to-video

1997 Batman & Robin Batgirl/Barbara Wilson

1997 Excess Baggage Emily Hope also uncredited producer

1998 Junket Whore Herself documentary

1999 Blast from the Past Eve Rustikoff

2000 Love's Labour's Lost The Princess of France

2002 Global Heresy Natalie "Nat" Bevin a.k.a Rock My World

2003 Scorched Sheila Rio

2004 Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Heather Jasper-Howe

2005 Beauty Shop Lynn

2005 Silence Becomes You Violet direct-to-video

2006 Stormbreaker Jack Starbright

2008 Tropic Thunder Herself

2011 The Art of Getting By Ms. Herman