Geri Halliwell

Geri Halliwell (born 6 August 1972, Watford, Hertfordshire) is an English pop singer-songwriter, children's author, actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. Halliwell first became famous in the late 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, which became one of the most successful girl groups of all time, selling in excess of 55 million records worldwide.[1] As a solo artist, she has received four Brit Award nominations, released four number-one singles in the UK and sold around 4 million albums as a solo artist worldwide.

Halliwell was born to Laurence Francis Halliwell, who was of English/Swedish descent, and his wife Ana Maria, who was of Spanish descent from Huesca, Spain and who grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire.For a brief time, Halliwell's mother tried to bring her up as a Jehovah's Witness. Halliwell took her A-Levels at Camden School for Girls having taken her GCSEs at Watford Girls Grammar School. Before starting her music career, Halliwell had worked as a nightclub dancer in Majorca (Spain),a model and presenter on the Turkish version of Let's Make a Deal and as a glamour model.Following her rise to fame with the Spice Girls, nude photos of Halliwell were re-published in a number of top-shelf magazines in the UK. During the documentary Spice Girls: Giving You Everything broadcast on UK television on 31 December 2007, Halliwell repeated her claim to have only done 'harmless, topless shots', despite extensive evidence to the contrary, including pictures in her own autobiography.

Geri first found fame as one of the five members of the girl group the Spice Girls, and was dubbed Ginger Spice for her "liveliness, zest and flaming red hair".She wore many over-the-top outfits, the most recognized being for her famous Union Jack dress that she wore for the 1997 Brit Awards.

Halliwell became renowned for her independent and feminist attitude. The group joined the most successful musical artists of the 1990s, selling over thirty-five million albums with the studio releases Spice and Spiceworld.Their debut single "Wannabe" became the first of a string of number-ones in the United Kingdom and reached the top position in 41 countries around the globe, including Australia, Canada and the United States. Other successful releases followed, including "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1" from Spice, and "Spice Up Your Life", "Too Much" and "Stop" from Spiceworld.As a songwriter, Geri - as part of the Spice Girls - set the record for the shortest time to achieve 6 no. 1 UK singles, taking 1 year 5 months from Wannabe's first week at no. 1 to the ascent of Too Much. This outpaced Lennon/McCartney, who took 1 year 6 months (From Me to You through I Feel Fine).

In 1999 Halliwell launched her solo career and released her debut solo album Schizophonic, with lead single "Look at Me", produced by co-writers and old friends, Absolute. The single reached number two in the UK, just 700 copies behind Boyzone's "You Needed Me". The single would go on to sell over 1 million copies worldwide. Further singles from the album, "Mi Chico Latino" and "Lift Me Up", became UK number ones with the latter outselling Halliwell's former bandmate Emma Bunton. The fourth single, "Bag It Up", also reached number one. Geri set another two records for shortest time for a female songwriter to achieve her ninth and tenth no. 1 UK singles. "Lift Me Up" hit no. 1 3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks after Wannabe's first week at no. 1, and Bag It Up hit 4 months later. Melanie C, in contrast, took seven more months to achieve her tenth no. 1 single as a songwriter, with I Turn To You. All-time leaders Lennon/McCartney took 3 years, 1 month, 3 weeks between From Me To You and their tenth no. 1 UK hit Paperback Writer.

Devon Aoki

Aoki was born in New York City, and grew up in California and London, attending highschool at The American School in London. Her Japanese American father, Rocky Aoki, a former Olympic wrestler, was the owner and founder of the Benihana restaurant chain until his death on July 10, 2008. Her mother, Pamela Hilburger, is a jewelry designer of German and English heritage.

Aoki was discovered in New York at a Rancid concert she had gatecrashed. She started modeling when she was 13, the same year Aoki was introduced by her godmother to Kate Moss, who would later take the young Devon under her wing. Moss pushed for Aoki to be signed, and she was signed onto Storm Model Management at age 14.

Aoki has modeled for the fashion houses Lancôme, Chanel, and Versace. Aoki is 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)— an almost unheard of height for runway models, who are usually at least 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) height.Aoki has done ad campaigns for Chanel Ready to Wear, Chanel Couture by Karl Lagerfeld, Versace by Steven Meisel, YSL by Juergen Teller, Alessandro Del Aqua, Hugo Boss, Moschino, Ungaro, Fendi, Junko Shimada by Bettina Kimenda and Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons.

Early on in her career Aoki made cameo appearances in several music videos, including Duran Duran's "Electric Barbarella", Primal Scream's "Kowalski" (with Kate Moss), Elton John's "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", Ginuwine's "In Those Jeans" video and, later, in Ludacris' "Act a Fool". Music from this video was featured in the soundtrack of 2 Fast 2 Furious, which Ludacris and Aoki both appeared in. In 2006, she made an appearance in The Killers' video "Bones". Aoki has also made a cameo appearance in the short films accompanying the new Sean Lennon album, Friendly Fire.

Aoki has been on the cover of I-D magazine three times. She was also the face of Lancome cosmetics for four years. Aoki posed for renowned Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee for Kee's 2006 charity photo-book "Super Stars", dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster, which consists of photographs of 300 Asian celebrities by Kee. The same year, Aoki posed for photographer Marc Baptiste’s book Nudes, but she has stated that she was wearing a dress: