Popcorn Talk Network proudly presents Profiles with Malone and Mantz! In this vodcast series hosts Alicia Malone and Scott “Movie” Mantz break down and focus on some of the most prolific Hollywood directors, writers and actors in the entertainment industry – past & present. In today’s episode it’s all about Cate Blanchett.Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and an younger sister. When she was ten years old, her 40-year old father died of a sudden heart attack. Her mother never remarried, and her grandmother moved in to help her mother. Cate graduated from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and, in a little over a year, had won both critical and popular acclaim. On graduating from NIDA, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls”, then played Felice Bauer, the bride, in Tim Daly’s “Kafka Dances”, winning the 1993 Newcomer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle for her performance. From there, Blanchett moved to the role of Carol in David Mamet’s searing polemic “Oleanna”, also for the Sydney Theatre Company, and won the Rosemont Best Actress Award, her second award that year. She then co-starred in the ABC Television’s prime time drama Heartland (1994), again winning critical acclaim. In 1995, she was nominated for Best Female Performance for her role as Ophelia in the Belvoir Street Theatre Company’s production of “Hamlet”. Other theatre credits include Helen in the Sydney Theatre Company’s “Sweet Phoebe”, Miranda in “The Tempest” and Rose in “The Blind Giant is Dancing”, both for the Belvoir Street Theatre Company. In other television roles, Blanchett starred as Bianca in ABC’s Bordertown (1995), as Janie Morris in G.P. (1989) and in ABC’s popular series Police Rescue (1994). She made her feature film debut in Paradise Road (1997). She also married writer Andrew Upton in 1997. She had met him a year earlier on a movie set, and they didn’t like each other at first. He thought she was aloof, and she thought he was arrogant, but then they connected over a poker game at a party, and she went home with him that night. Three weeks later he proposed marriage and they quickly married before she went off to England to play her breakthrough role in films: the title character in Elizabeth (1998) for which she won numerous awards for her performance, including the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. Cate was also nominated for an Academy Award for the role but lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow. 2001 was a particularly busy year, with starring roles in Bandits (2001), The Shipping News (2001), Charlotte Gray (2001) and playing Elf Queen Galadriel in the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. She also gave birth to her first child, son Dashiell, in 2001. In 2004, she gave birth to her second son Roman. Also, in 2004, she played actress Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s film “Aviator” (2004), for which she received an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for playing a teacher having an affair with an underage student in “Notes on a Scandal” (2006). In 2007, she returned to the role that made her a star in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007). It earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She was nominated for another Oscar that same year as Best Supporting Actress for playing Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There” (2007). In 2008, she gave birth to her third child, son Ignatius. She and her husband became artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, choosing to spend more time in Australia raising their three sons. Because of that, her film work became sporadic, until Woody Allen cast her in the title role in Blue Jasmine (2013), which won her the Academy Award as Best Actress. Follow Alicia on Twitter! Follow Scott on Twitter! SUBSCRIBE TO PROFILES ON ITUNES!

Popcorn Talk Network proudly presents Profiles with Malone and Mantz! In this vodcast series hosts Alicia Malone and Scott “Movie” Mantz break down and focus on some of the most prolific Hollywood directors, writers and actors in the entertainment industry – past & present. In today’s episode it’s all about David Fincher. David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials and music videos after signing with N. Lee Lacy in Hollywood. He went on to found Propaganda in 1987 with fellow directors Dominic Sena, Greg Gold and Nigel Dick. Fincher has directed TV commercials for clients that include Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heineken, Pepsi, Levi’s, Converse, AT&T and Chanel. He has directed music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, most recently, A Perfect Circle. As a film director, he has achieved huge success with Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999) and, Panic Room (2002). Follow Alicia on Twitter! Follow Scott on Twitter! SUBSCRIBE TO PROFILES ON ITUNES!

Talk Network proudly presents Profiles with Malone and Mantz! In this vodcast series hosts Alicia Malone and Scott “Movie” Mantz break down and focus on some of the most prolific Hollywood directors, writers and actors in the entertainment industry – past & present. In today’s episode it’s all about Tom Cruise. If you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not-too-distant future he would be considered one of the top hundred movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. None the less, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought-after actors in screen history. Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Maphoter III, an electrical engineer, both originally from Louisville, Kentucky. He is of Irish, German, and English descent. Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move, and by the time he was fourteen, had attended fifteen different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next fifteen years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Within five years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the decade including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s and 2000s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average fifteen million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), and Jerry Maguire (1996) – for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth. Follow Alicia on Twitter! Follow Scott on Twitter! SUBSCRIBE TO PROFILES ON ITUNES!