Vanessa Marcil Photos

Vanessa Marcil  Sally Vanessa Ortiz; October 15, 1968 is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Brenda Barrett Corinthos on General Hospital, Gina Kincaid on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sam Marquez on Las Vegas. Since mid-2010, she goes by the name Vanessa Marcil-Giovinazzo.

Vanessa Marcil Photos

Marcil acted in a number of theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the soap opera General Hospital in 1992. She garnered three Daytime Emmy Award nominations (1997, 1998 and 2003) for her portrayal, winning in 2003 as Outstanding Supporting Actress. In February 1998, she was named Outstanding Lead Actress at the Soap Opera Digest Awards.

Vanessa Marcil Photos

In 1994, she was cast in the Prince music video, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", and made People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful list the next year. She made her feature film debut in the 1996 film The Rock, in which she appeared opposite Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris.

Vanessa Marcil Photos

After six years on General Hospital, she left the show in 1998, to star in the made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive, and had a recurring guest role on the police drama High Incident produced by Steven Spielberg. Marcil joined the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 in November 1998 as Gina Kincaid and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons.
 In 1999, she starred in two independent films: Nice Guys Sleep Alone with Sean O'Bryan and This Space Between Us with Jeremy Sisto.

She returned briefly to General Hospital in 2000 and from 2002 to 2003, as Brenda Barrett, in a recurring role.

In 2001, Marcil was awarded the Sojourn Service Award and has supported Sojourn Services for Battered Women and their children by hosting charity events and making appearances on Wheel of Fortune, playing for funds for the organization. Through her fundraising efforts, she hopes to increase awareness of domestic violence and inspire battered women to take control of their lives.

Vanessa Marcil Photos

Marcil formerly starred in the NBC television series Las Vegas as Samantha Jane "Sam" Marquez. She has been featured in several Men's magazines, including Stuff, FHM, and Maxim. She was named #19 on Maxim's Hot 100 of 2005 list and was featured on the cover of the issue that included the list, as well as #92 in the 2006 FHM Hot 100 list.[9]

In fall of 2008, Marcil guest starred on Lipstick Jungle, playing Shane's new talent manager. As of November 2008, she hosts and is the head judge of Lifetime's reality television show, Blush: The Search For the Next Great Makeup Artist.

On August 11, 2010, she returned to the role of Brenda Barrett on General Hospital, in a full-time contract role.

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Valerie Bertinelli

Bertinelli was born in Wilmington, Delaware to Irish/Italian-American parents Nancy (née Carvin) and Luke Bertinelli (a General Motors executive). She had an older brother, Mark, who died at 17 months from an accidental poisoning before Valerie was born. Along with her other three brothers, one older and two younger, the family lived in Claymont, Delaware, and Clarkston, Michigan.

 They later moved to Oklahoma City before moving to the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, where Bertinelli studied acting at the Tami Lynn School of Artists. She attended Granada Hills High School until 1978 but did not graduate. As of January 2008, she was pursuing the last few credits needed for her high school diploma. She was raised Roman Catholic

One Day at a Time

Following her appearance in an episode of Apple's Way, Bertinelli was approached by producer Norman Lear to audition for the role of cooperative daughter Barbara Cooper in a news it com called One Day at a Time. The show debuted in late 1975. For the show's first season, Bertinelli was 15 and her character was written as a tomboy. The following year, in the show's first full season, Bertinelli's character was revised to be more appealing to a traditional male demographic. Bertinelli appeared in 207 out of the 209 episodes before the show left the airwaves on May 28, 1984. At one point, she and Bonnie Franklin, who played her mother Ann Romano, were involved in plans for a spin-off series, but it was never produced.

Three decades later, in 2005, during the One Day at a Time Reunion Special, Bertinelli was reunited with fellow cast members Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, and Pat Harrington, Jr. to watch memorable clips from the original show's nine seasons. They talked about actors who had left the show as well as Phillips' drug problem, which had wreaked havoc on the set and caused Phillips to be fired from the show.

Post-One Day at a Time

After One Day at a Time, Bertinelli continued to act. In addition to starring in several made for TV movies and mini-series, she starred in two sitcoms in the 1990s, Sydney and Café Americain. In 2001, she joined the cast of Touched By An Angel, opposite Roma Downey and Della Reese, for the show's last two seasons

 Valerie Bertinelli, who had struggled with weight issues over the years, has lost a total of 50 lb (23 kg) as of March 2009, and had become a spokesperson for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. She appeared in several Jenny Craig commercials along with Kirstie Alley and other celebrity Jenny Craig participants.

Although Bertinelli is compensated for her Jenny Craig appearances, she has stated that she considers herself a health and weight-loss activist rather than a hired weight-loss spokesperson. In 2008 she released the autobiography, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound At A Time, which culminates in a description of her Jenny Craig experience (the book's title contains a wordplay on One Day at a Time). In 2009, she wrote a follow-up book Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life without Opening the Fridge.

On March 4, 2010, Bertinelli appeared as guest co-host on ABC's The View in the absence of Whoopi Goldberg. She now stars in the TV Land series Hot in Cleveland,a situation comedy which debuted in June 2010, along with Betty White, Wendie Malick, and Jane Leeves. The show's second season aired in January 2011, and in February 2011 it was renewed for a third season. She will get her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

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