Ass From The Past #4 – Karyn Parsons

Throughout the nineties leading into the noughties (with the continuous repeats),  I was always a big fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The comedy it delivered, the morals that were attached to certain episodes and the brilliant casting to bring it altogether made it, for me, one of the top TV Series of it’s time. For this next Ass From the Past entry, it will be for the actress who played the eldest daughter Hilary in the Banks family, Karyn Parsons.

Karyn started getting into acting at the age of 13 and got her first TV role in 1987 in “The Bronx Zoo”. After a few more appearances on other TV shows, she finally found the big break she was looking for, starring as Hilary Banks in “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.  With myself living in the UK, I only knew Karyn for starring as Hilary, who’s character also appeared in other US TV sitcoms, such as Blossom and Out All Night. I can remember her character for her ditsy, but annoyingly snobbish persona, with the alluring verity that she was unbelievably attractive, making it a love/ hate relationship for people worldwide. Since Fresh Prince finished in 1996, Karyn went on to co-create and also star in her sitcom “Lush Life”, which lasted one season. She was last seen on our TV screens (according to imdb.com) in 2002 when she was a regular in “The Job” starring alongside Denis Leary.

 

Like most celebrities who I try to contact, my first port of call was Twitter. I found Karyn with ease and asked her outright if she was interested in answering any questions that I had for her. I didn’t believe I would get a response as, with this blog being only a few entries old, I saw Karyn as a popular celebrity to the previous ladies and so I didn’t expect anything to happen. I was wrong. Karyn replied quite quickly saying that it was okay to ask away and to reach out to her on her website Sweet Blackberry. Shell shocked, I went straight to her website to immediately send her my questions before she changed her mind. Unfortunately at this moment in time, she has yet to answer my questions, being busy with her Sweet Blackberry project along with being a full time mum is very time consuming. If there is any progress with Karyn, then I will swiftly update the blog with her answers.   From fictional weather girl of yesteryear to the reality of modern, professional grace, my concept of Karyn hasn’t changed at all. In fact, the motivation and will that she enforces into delivering Sweet Blackberry to children across America is a powerful, attractive quality in itself and I will highly recommend you check out her story-telling project by clicking here. If you fully support Karyn’s project and want to help her even more, you can make a donation here to help Sweet Blackberry grow even further.

Ass from the Past #2 – Katelyn Rosaasen

For the second Ass from the Past entry, I was struggling to think of someone  who immediately came to mind from memories past, seeing as though I didn’t think I would be writing another entry and put no thought into anyone in particular. However people asked me for a new post so I decided to act upon it.  After a lot of thinking and people-asking, I just could not get any decent results. I decided to go through my old music collection and came across a nostalgic beauty. It came from watching The Offspring’s “Want You Bad”. I remember this stunning woman at the time of the song’s release as she was also in Linkin Park’s “Crawling” music video. I never found out her name or who she was….until now.

After a quick google search, I have found out gents (and/ or ladies) that her name is Katelyn Rosaasen.

Katelyn was known for appearing as the main woman in Linkin Park’s “Crawling” video as well as Offspring’s “Want You Bad” video. She also briefly appears in Saliva’s “Your Disease” and a brief stint in NSync’s “Gone” according to the eagle-eyed fans on one of her fansites, who also say she has starred in adverts for KFC, Pepsi and a European Gum advert, which I found really hard to find.

With her only being known for these events, it is hard to pinpoint the exact facts of her life so far, which concludes that she is a private person and just prefers to stay out of the limelight, or decided to take another path in her life that didn’t involve the public eye.

I got to work on trying to contact her and originally wrote this blog several months ago with no success, apart from finding her instagram profile and what I believed to be her Facebook page. I decided to send her a message on facebook with some small hope that she may reply just like Lindy Christopher did, but to no success and the possibility that it was a fake. However after re-visiting the situation, it seems she has now signed up to twitter a few months ago. As soon as I discovered her profile, I immediately contacted her hoping for a positive response. This time I was more successful, with her replying and being more than willing to answer my questions. Here is what she had to say:

 

Out of all the music videos and adverts you have done, which one was the most fun to do/ favourite to film?

My favorite print job I ever did was for the Fornarina campaign in Italy. The location was amazing and the shoot was so much fun. My favorite music video I’ve ever done was probably the Crawling video. Linkin Park was amazing to work with, the nicest guys, and filming was so much fun. The want you bad video was great too. I made a lot of good friends working on that video.

 

What have you been up to since your appearances on the music videos? Are you still modelling?

I took some time off from modeling and acting to start my family. I got married in 2002, and now I have four amazing children. I’ve done a little modeling over the years, but I’ve put most of my time into my kids. I’ve just recently decided to go back to work and Pursue my passion once again.
If you never became a model or an actress, what do you think you would have done for a career?

If I never became a model I would have probably pursued music. I love music so much and I love to sing.

 

How long did you film in the foam for in the “Want You Bad” video? That couldn’t have been fun after a while. Also how hard was it to keep a straight face when the actor licked your ear and you licked his neck?

The Filming of the offspring want you bad video took a full day, the actual filming in the foam was probably about 3-4 hours. It was a pretty crazy time. So much fun. I’m not sure how I kept a straight face when Shane licked my ear, it was pretty gross to be honest, I think you just have to get into character, and you just go with it. The actor, Shane Powers was a great guy, super funny. It’s crazy cause the second girl in the video, Michelle Belegrin was his girlfriend at the time and we all became really close friends after that. I think the hardest time I had keeping a straight face was the last shot when they threw the foam in my face, they didn’t tell me they were gonna do that, so that was a real reaction on my part.

 
Are we likely to see you back on our screens or magazines any time soon? What does the future hold for Katelyn Rosaasen? 

Yes, I’m hoping you will see more of me on screen in the future. I recently signed with Wilhelmina Brown in Austin, and just recently moved back to LA to continue my career. Let’s hope everything goes well 🙂

 

After a decade passing from her appearances in the music videos and having four children, I believe she looks even better now than when she was back in the videos, which I thought wasn’t even possible. She was very approachable and humble to allow me to ask her questions and responded with great news that she is wanting to return to our screens and gave us an insight into certain parts of her life, which I am very thankful for.

If you’re on twitter and a big fan of Katelyn’s work then go pay her a visit and say hi (@KRosaasen) and say Martin sent you, unless you’re going to pester her then don’t bother. Keep an eye out for her come back, with the possibility hopefully arriving much sooner rather than later.

Ass From the Past #3 – Vanessa Angel

While I was flicking through the TV channels the other day I came across a classic film and the next lovely lady that I decided who I was going to write about. The film was Kingpin and the part was the cold nipples scene. After a quick Google search for her name (my memory is not as good as it used to be), it suddenly came back to me when the results returned as Vanessa Angel.

Vanessa Angel started off as a model back in the 1980’s and managed to model for certain magazine covers such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue. She then tried her hand at acting and got her first role in 1985 in the film Spies Like Us, studied professional acting after the film finished and went on to appear in small roles for films (Kings of New York) and TV sitcoms such as Melrose Place and Baywatch along the way. Vanessa then got the part as Lisa in the popular TV series Weird Science, in which was the show that brought my attention to her existence. I’m not too sure of the plot behind Weird Science as I mainly watched it to look at the ridiculously stunning woman during the times of fashion wearing tight clothing with no bra , but I remember the show being an all-round enjoyable experience, including a catchy theme tune. I jest of course, with the show being about two guys who make the perfect woman on their computer who just happens to come to life! During the high times of Weird Science, Vanessa got the part of Claudia in Kingpin and got to work alongside the likes of Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid and Bill Murray.

I got to work trying to find a way to contact Vanessa and noticed that she had a Facebook page. I was dubious at first whether it was actually her or not with there being fakes and fan pages out there, but after scrolling a fair bit through her status history, there were (what I would deem) personal photos i.e. birthday photos that I couldn’t re-find on Google search. I therefore came to the conclusion that it was actually her and messaged her asking if I could ask a few questions. She responded willingly and so this was our little “interview” if you like:

Did modelling always come first in your heart? Or did you always want to be an actress when you was growing up?

I never thought about being a model. I was awkward and skinny and not particularly confident in my early teen years! I loved acting and was part of my school drama club. We had a wonderful teacher who inspired me greatly and we put on plays, some quite advanced for our age, like Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. I never thought about doing it as a profession though. At 15 I blossomed a bit and I was discovered by these ladies who ran one of the top modeling agencies in London. They sent me out on some ‘go sees’ and I was very lucky to start working right away. It was a fun way to meet interesting people, travel and make money but for all upside there are a lot of difficult things that you have to deal with at such a young age. I was then fortunate enough to meet the director, John Landis, who cast me in “Spies Like Us’ and that opened the door to my acting career. I guess it was meant to be and I got given a chance to take my earlier interest in acting and turn it into a career.

A question you probably get asked a lot (as I find it on most bios about you) and that is about the Xena audition. Do you feel disappointed to miss out doing Xena? Or a slight relief that you don’t have to do the high pitched Xena war cry to fans every day?

Ha! Yes, looking back I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t end up playing Xena, war cry and all. The role became an icon of strength and has fans all over the world. When I signed on, they were introducing her in a 3 part episode of “Hercules’ and I was on hiatus from Weird Science. After people responded so well to the character, they then spun it off into a series, so I wouldn’t have been able to do the series anyway. I really believe I got so sick before the shoot so I could make room for Lucy Lawless to get the role. They had to replace me quickly and find an actress already in New Zealand. She ended up marrying the show runner, Rob Tappert, so it was destiny for them!

What is your most memorable moment from your acting career?

I don’t think I have one most memorable moment from my career. Each job has it’s own special experience and I’ve met some amazing people along the way. However, I was very excited when I got Weird Science and Kingpin was a big win for me.

Has there been anything that you have been told to wear in a film or model shoot where you thought to yourself “This is embarrassing/ awful”?

Yes! I’ve worn too many skimpy outfits in my career! When you’re young and impressionable, you just kind of want to please everyone and agree to things even though you feel otherwise. I feel good that I’ve never done any nudity in films, contrary to what people think. I had a body double in an early film I did. I think we evolve over time and feelings on things can change. Not that I think it’s shameful but I never felt comfortable enough and I’m a mom to a 12 year old daughter now too.

What does the future hold for Vanessa Angel?

Hopefully the future brings continued good health and opportunities. I’m a mom, so a lot of my energy centers around my daughter. A good part of my future will be supporting her and her journey. Career wise, I would love to continue acting. It gets more difficult at this stage and opportunities are less frequent but I hope I’ll have the chance to do a another series. I also have a small clothing line, VANE LA, that keeps me creative and I would like to expand that at some point.

Being in the modelling and film business for 30 years shows no toll on Vanessa (and that includes having a child too!) as she looks just as incredible as she did the day she started. You would never believe she is 47 and will probably have most women envious of her prolonged youthful looks. She came across wonderfully kind and treated me like a human being, as you sometimes wonder about how the celebrity world comes across to your average Joe, but there was no sign of snootiness and arrogance at all. Feel free to visit her on Facebook as she communicates with people and her fans regularly, as long as you don’t slobber all over her profile! Or if you are into fashion, then keep an eye on her VANE LA website.

Ass From The Past #1 – Lindy Christopher

Do you remember the days when you watched a TV show or a music video and there she was, a thing of beauty, dazzling the screen with her stunning good looks and you think “phwoar she’s nice”.

I do.

It was all brought back to me recently after watching old music videos on the internet when I came across her again on the Bowling For Soup video “Girl All The Bad Guys Want”. “Phwoar, I remember her” I said, but this time I thought to myself, “I wonder what she’s been up to after all these years…I wonder what she looks like now?!”

So the search began, with it ending 5 minutes later thanks to Google.

Her name, ladies and gents, is Lindy Christopher.

The next thing I decided to look up about her was “What else was she in?” Apparently she was also in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the episode “Hush” as Nora, but nothing else from what I could see. I found this peculiar as she seemed so nice (to look at) so I decided to find  out what else she decided to do. Ten seconds later, I noticed she had a twitter account and found out that she is now a photographer and a mum, loves tattoos by the looks of her photos and that she has also turned Vegan for her own reasons.

Without trying to sound like a stalker and to get more information, I followed and tweeted her, and when given time, she responded!

Here is our following conversation:

Overall she has still kept her good looks, not a fan of tattoos personally, but doesn’t take away her natural beauty. It looks like she needs a bacon butty or two, which is down to my personal taste, but that won’t happen due to her being a vegan and with her now being happy the way she looks. She comes across really nice and was great for even replying to me and didn’t make it obvious that she thought I was weird even though that’s what most people think.

You can see her work on her own website at http://www.lindychristopher.com to see her talented photography skills.

Do you remember an Ass From the Past that you want me to write about? Feel free to leave me a message and I’ll think about it