Hair

So great they had to name her twice, Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara was born July 10, 1972, in Barranquilla, Colombia. The Emmy nominated Latina’s luxurious locks and sassy sense of humor (“Jay!”) have been spicing up episodes of ABC’s Modern Family since 2009.

Sometimes, life’s a beach, like when you’re just cruising along one and a photographer discovers you. Right away, Sofía, who was in her late teens at the time, landed a Pepsi commercial that aired throughout Latin America. The commercial led to runway and catalog work, and then to a job co-hosting a travel series on the international Univisión Spanish-language television network, which made her a fixture on international TV.

A young mom at 19 living in an unstable country at the time (her older brother was murdered in 1998 in an unresolved crime), Sofía took an opportunity with Univisión to move to Miami, and when her contract with the network ended, she went to work for ABC.

Like Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, the character she plays on Modern Family, Sofía usually wears her hair long, dark and wavy, but she’s actually a natural blonde. On why she chose to go dark, she says, “I would go to auditions and they didn’t know where to put me because I was voluptuous and had the accent — but I had blonde hair. It was ignorance: They thought every Latin person looks like Salma Hayek. The moment I dyed my hair dark, it was, ‘Oh, she’s the hot Latin girl.'”

I think she looks just as great as a blonde. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Wait — Carey Mulligan is British? I had no idea that Drive’s leading lady (two words: SEE IT!) hailed from across the pond until this morning, when I finally put two and two together and realized that she was the same gal who starred in An Education (94% on rottentomatoes), another movie I really enjoyed, despite it being way depressing.

Born Cary Hannah Mulligan on May 25, 1985, Carey would not take no for an answer when it came to her career. She was just a child when she took her older brother’s lead, performing in school plays after watching him in a production of The King and I. Her parents disapproved of her pursuing acting as a career and insisted she go to college instead. They hoped she’d outgrow the phase, but she was having none of that. After rejections from three drama schools, Carey wrote a letter to the headmistress of the school she was attending at the time and asked for help.

She explained how she didn’t want to attend college and asked the headmistress for a favor — an introduction to Julian Fellowes, an English actor, novelist and film director who she’d seen speak at the school. The headmistress obliged, and Fellowes then introduced Carey to the casting agent who helped her land the role of Kitty Bennett in 2005’s Pride & Prejudice alongside Keira Knightly.

That performance and a few more stints on TV and the stage lead to her breakthrough leading role as the 16-year-old Jenny in 2009’s An Education, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe, an Academy Award and a Screen Actor’s Guild award.

At just 26, Carey has already worked with some big names in Hollywood — director Oliver Stone and actor Michael Douglass in last year’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and, of course my man Ry-Ry in Drive. She’s currently working with Leonardo DiCaprio on the upcoming film version of The Great Gatsby.

As for her hair, Carey likes to keep it short and loves to play with color.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

When you’re only 26 and already the first artist in history to spend a whole year, 52 consecutive weeks, with songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Top 100, the future looks bright.

Must be all that good California livin’ that Katy Perry (born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984) was able to soak up from such a young age. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by pastor parents who introduced her early to gospel music through the family ministry, Katy was regularly singing in church by the age of 15. She quickly got the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills and teach her how to play guitar.

Her first album, Katy Hudson (2001), was made up of Christian gospel music, but by then the 17-year-old was already moving away from her religious roots.

“It was a gradual thing, not like a super ‘OK, done with that, next!’ kind of thing,” recalls Perry. “I changed a lot between the ages of 15 to 23, and the things that I thought when I was 15 and 16 didn’t make sense when I was 21 and 22, just because my perspective had changed. I’d seen more of the world. I’d lived more life and met more different types of people.

“When I started out in my gospel music my perspective then was a bit enclosed and very strict, and everything I had in my life at that time was very church-related. I didn’t know there was another world that existed beyond that. So when I left home and saw all of that, it was like, ‘Omigosh, I fell down the rabbit hole and there’s this whole Alice in Wonderland right there!'”

I wonder… Does that make her husband Russell Brand the Cheshire Cat? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Not only does actor Ryan Gosling cause grown women to swoon at the sight of his abs, but homeboy’s also a good samaritan, as demonstrated by this on-the-fly video of him breaking up a fight on a busy New York street.

He swoops in around the 30 second mark… BAM!

Under other circumstances I might scream “HELL TO THE NO!” to the man-pri pants (eww!), but I was momentarily blinded by his bulging biceps (we take the good with the bad).

Born Ryan Thomas Gosling to mom Donna, who worked as a secretary, and dad Thomas, who worked in a paper mill, our boy’s backstory begins on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario.

His parents divorced when he was young, leaving his mom to raise both Ryan and his older sister, Mandi. The three appear close, as Ryan often attends red carpet events with his mom and sis on his arms (insert collective “awww”).

Ryan cut his performance chops at a young age, singing with Mandi at weddings and performing with his uncle’s Elvis Presley tribute act (!). His first big break, however, came when he was 12 and landed a gig on the The Mickey Mouse Club as a Mouseketeer alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

Fast forward to 2004, when a then 24-year-old Ryan (and his abs) starred in The Notebook opposite Rachel McAdams.

That pretty much sealed the deal, ya know? A star was born.

I’m thinking about starting a petition to permanently prohibit him from wearing shirts (for the good of womankind!)… I was moved to act after seeing him in all his ab-a-licious glory in Crazy, Stupid, Love. the other night.

I fear Ryan’s tum might be kept under wraps in his next film, though, a political drama called The Ides of March, set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next Wednesday.

Oh, well. A girl can dream! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S.

No question about it — Hilary hearts hair. The new mommy-to-be loves experimenting with colors and styles and rarely keeps the same combo for more than a month at a time. Her explanation for the quick changes: boredom. While experimenting with her color a while back, she just couldn’t get it exactly the way she wanted. “I was at the salon two days a week for the past two weeks and it was driving me crazy,” she said. “But you know when you’re just not happy? You’re like, ‘I need this tweaked and fixed…'”

Yes, girl, Lloyd and I completely understand. 🙂

Born Hilary Erhard Duff on September 28, 1987, Hilary and her older sister Haylie started down the path toward stardom early, encouraged both by their mother and the fun they had doing a production of The Nutcracker Suite at the ages of six and eight.

They moved with their mother from their home in Houston, Texas, out to California, auditioning for several years there and appearing in a number of commercials, until 2000, when Hilary was picked to star in an upcoming NBC sitcom. She was dropped from the cast before it aired, but a week later auditioned (and got the job) to play the lead character in a new show that would be called Lizzie McGuire.

BAM! Superstar.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen