Monday, June 22, 2009

Isla Fisher

Isla Fisher is significant to me because she's the last name I added to the list before we went to Australia.

I guess that can give you an idea of how long the list is.

We've been back since the beginning of March. I think I started back on these biography posts in April. So it's taken me two months to get through all those names.

The next few people on the list are ones I added while in Australia. After that are people I added when we got back.

This weekend, I added a whole huge bunch more of people.

Do I feel I've run out of Australians? No, definitely not. I'm thinking this thing could go on forever.

Anyway, back to Isla Fisher.

There are three things I know about her.

A) She was in The Wedding Crashers.
B) She's romantically linked to Sacha Baron Cohen (married? Engaged? Dating?)
C) She converted to Judaism

I guess I shall go and find out more!

I just saw photos of her while passing through Google. She looks a lot like the woman in Enchanted. I know it's not the same person though.

Maybe I should compare photos.

All right. Here is Fisher:

And here is Amy Adams from Enchanted.

I mean they don't look EXACTLY alike. But I do think they look enough alike to make me confused.

Okay. I'll go start talking to Lord Wiki.

Baby Isla was born 3 February 1976. She's a few years younger than me.

She's an Aquarius like my dad.

I'll go to the Birthday Website to find her numerology number.

She's a 1 like Tim. 1 is about independence and leadership.

Fisher was born in Oman. I know that's in the Middle East, but I'm not sure where. I'll go see.

Okay, Oman borders Saudi Arabia to the south. And it's Yemen's eastern neighbor.

Fisher's parents lived in Oman because Daddy Fisher was doing bank work for the United Nations. Originally her parents were Scottish.

Isla was named after an island in Scotland. The island is not Isla, but Islay. I wonder why they took off the y.

Fisher has four brothers.

What else?

I guess she didn't spend too much time in Oman. The family moved back to Scotland. Then when she was six, the family moved to Perth. I wonder why. I guess maybe it was a work-related thing?

Her acting career began at about the age of nine. She did commercials, and then won roles on Aussie shows....Bay City and Paradise Beach.

YouTube has a clip of her on Paradise Beach. She played a character named Robin. She looks MUCH older than nine so I'm guessing there was quite a space between her first commercials and first TV show appearances.

For school, Fisher went to Methodist Ladies' College. Lord Wiki says she did some acting there.

Here's something I didn't know. Fisher wrote novels. She did this when she was eighteen with the help of her mother. Ha! I wrote novels when I was eighteen WITHOUT the help of my mother. So there! Although Fisher's novels were published and bestsellers. Mine were not. Maybe that's where I went wrong. Maybe I should have had my mom help me.

The novels are called Bewitched and Seduced by Fame. Have any of you read them? I want to read them. I love teen fiction like that.

The books were published in 1996. I'm guessing the reason they were bestsellers is she was a popular actress. I'm not saying this means the books are bad. They could be very good. But even good books are hard to sell without publicity. And being an actress on a popular show is very good publicity.

All right. Here we go. When the books were published, Fisher was on Home and Away. And I know that's pretty damn popular.

I thought this would be a light and fun post for me today. But it turns out Fisher played an Anorexic on Home and Away. I personally think (from what I've seen just now on YouTube) that it was well done. They deal with the denial of the patient. I KNOW what anorexia is, but I DON'T have it. And they deal with the struggle of some parents. Do you invade your child's privacy and intrude on their boundaries, or do you allow them to starve to death?

In the late 90's, Fisher left the soap opera. She went to Europe for awhile. She did theater school in Paris. She did a show in the UK called Pantomine. I've never heard of that. I'll have to go read about it. I guess it's not the name of a show, but a type of show. They're usually done around Christmas time.

Lord Wiki says it's not often done in The United States. That might explain why I've never heard of it. He does say we have shows that originated as Pantomine. Peter Pan is given as an example. One of the trademarks of Pantomine is boys being played by young woman.

Another trademark is the actors throw out candy to the audience. I love that! When I was young my sister and I'd go to these rollerskating events on the weekends. I don't remember much, but I do remember them throwing candy to us.

Fisher's American career began in 2002. She appeared in Scooby-Doo. Wedding Crashers came three years later.

After that she was in a movie called London. I don't think I've ever heard of it. It's actually about a person named London and not the city. It doesn't look that interesting to me...personally.

I'm looking at all these movies she has been in recently. They don't sound that familiar to me.

There's The Lookout. It's a thriller crime type thing. It doesn't look like my type of thing. I could be wrong.

There's Hot Rod. That also looks like something I'd have no interest in.

There's Wedding Daze which has the alternate title of The Pleasure of Your Company. This movie actually sounds really good to me. At least I like the premise. IMDb describes the plot, THE NEXT GIRL I SEE is a comedy that shows us that love has nothing to do with perfection. After losing the woman of his dreams, Anderson is convinced he'll never fall in love again. But at the urging of his best friend, he spontaneously proposes to a dissatisfied waitress named Katie and an innocent dare evolves into the kind of love that both have been looking for all alongOh wow. I guess the movie has THREE titles.

There's Definitely Maybe. That one sounds pretty good to me. It's another romantic comedy. The plot sounds a LOT like How I Met Your Mother.

She had a part in Horton Hears a Who. I haven't seen that one yet. I heard there were some anti-homeschooling stuff, but I'm not sure whether it was really negative or just fun/silly.

Fisher was in Confessions of a Shopaholic. I think I remember hearing that it got awful reviews. I've read some of the books. I thought they were cute.

Now Lord Wiki talks about the personal stuff.

He says she lives with her fiance so I guess they haven't gotten married yet.

They live in Los Angeles and London. They met in Sydney.

She converted to Judaism after three years of study. Did she convert before she met Cohen? Is that why she converted? Or did she convert because she wanted to be Jewish and then later met him?

Fisher has a baby. I'm guessing Cohen is the father?

It seems her family is quite scattered.

Her mother and brothers live in Greece.

Her dad lives in Germany.


Anyway, I'm done with Lord Wiki. I'm going to go play with Jack for awhile, and then I'll do more research.

I'm back.

I'm going to look on IMDb. I usually like their trivia stuff.

Her first job was in a lottery commercial. Fisher was so excited for the roll that she hyperventilated and almost fainted. That's very cute. I like enthusiastic grateful people.

Her mother is a romance novelist. I wonder if she wrote any books besides the ones she helped her daughter write.

She's friends with Naomi Watts. Watts is best friends with Nicole Kidman. Does that mean Fisher is friends with Kidman as well. Do they have a circle-of-friends type thing going on?

From what I'm reading here, Fisher converted to Judaism because of Cohen.

As a child she loved Elvis Presley. She'd tell people she was going to marry him. She didn't learn until later that he was already dead.

After her baby, Fisher said she was not going to worry about losing weight. Good on her. I was the same way. I made no attempt to lose weight after Jack was born. I did go on a diet when he was about a year old. And then I went on THE diet when he was three. That was bad. But still. I at least didn't worry about my weight in those first several months.

Fisher has the same height as me. That's pretty cool. We're both 5 ft 3 inches.

I'm done with IMDb. Now I'm going to crawl over to a fan site.

Here's some biography stuff. She had a happy outdoorsy childhood. She said she wanted to write because her mom wrote. But after her two novels, she decided she didn't want to do it anymore. She feels writing is isolating. I agree with her to a point. It CAN be isolating. But it doesn't have to be. You don't have to write all day and night. You can isolate yourself, write, and then go out and be social.

Now I'm looking at the trivia page.

The actress Ann Margaret was Fisher's inspiration in becoming an actress.

She's a fan of Juno and Ellen Page. When my Sims 3 twins turned from toddlers into children they looked SO much like Ellen Page. It was almost spooky. Now they're teenagers and look less like her. One now looks like Francine Carrothers from The Electric Company.

She loves Morocco.

Okay and we have quotes.

Fisher says, Do I work out? Gosh no. I'm not a big fan of that. So how do you look like this? Um. I don't like to say it but I am fortunate in that I just have good genes. My mum is small and so am I.

When I first came out of the eating-disorder closet I came to the conclusion that almost all small people had an eating disorder. I mean minus people with Cystic Fibrosis and stuff like that.

I probably don't believe that anymore. I think sometimes people do have genes that make them have extreme weights. Some people are very fat. Some people are very thin.

I don't really buy into the idea that someone can't help being that thin. I mean unless they have a disease like Cystic Fibrosis or some other metabolic disorder. There are people who whine about being too thin. They don't want to be that thin. They want to gain weight. They hate that people judge them for being thin. What I want to know is are they on special diets to help them gain weight? If someone has genes that make them obese and they're unhappy with this, I'd hope they'd adjust the amount of food they eat. If someone has genes that make them very thin and they're unhappy with their weight, I'd hope they'd make adjustments.

Cystic Fibrosis is a whole different story. It's very hard for people with CF to digest their food. They have to eat huge amounts of calories and they STILL often stay horribly thin.

But if someone sits there looking like an eating disorder skeleton and says I don't have an eating disorder! I'm fine. If this person eats 1600-2000 calories a day, I'd say yes, they don't have an eating disorder. But I'd also say they're not working very hard to give themselves a healthy looking and normal body size.

I'm not trying to insult Fisher.

I think it's just so complicated. Most female actresses are VERY thin. Some are that thin because they have an eating disorder. Some are that thin because they have genes that enable them to eat normally without gaining weight. Either way though, the rest of us see them. And the rest of us compare our bodies to them. Some of us develop eating disorders. Other people don't, but their self-esteem may still fall down a few notches.

I don't know.....

I just think it would be nice if we had more adorable healthy-sized women on our TV and movie screens.

Some people say that doesn't matter. They say eating disorders are purely genetic. Thin models and actresses play no part.

I disagree.

I disagree from my own personal experience.

My desire to be very thin has returned. I keep trying to shake it, but it keeps returning. When I see super skinny actresses, that feeling gets stronger. When I turn on the television and see a beautiful actress that doesn't look like a skeleton, the bad feelings start to fade a bit. Some of my favorite TV shows feature actresses that have what I feel are very good bodies. The actresses are still slim. But they're healthy-looking slim. They have curves. I am grateful to these actresses because right now I need them.

And I know that sounds incredibly selfish and maybe even narcissistic. I want actresses to gain weight so I don't feel this pressure to be thin. Maybe it's like an alcoholic at a party with a lot of people drinking. Eventually you have to come to the point where you say other people have the right to drink. I can't ask them all to stop to make it easier for me.
So....I can't ask actresses to stop being super skinny. Instead, I'll just be very grateful towards the ones who are not.

Anyway, back to Fisher. She says, I miss Tim Tams and Bondi Beach and the smell of suncream. I think if you were to generalise about an Aussie then I'm an example of one.
I don't have to miss Tim Tams because we finally found them in America. You can buy them at Target.

She wants to play Lady Macbeth. She says it's one of the best roles out there. I agree.

Her first job was collecting and selling horse poop. Fun!

There's a lot Isla Fisher fan sites out there. I'm not going to look at all of them. I'm sure most of them have the same stuff.

This blogger confesses to having a girl crush on Fisher. She's like me--has a soft spot in her heart for Australians. The blogger says, Isla is living proof that you can have it all. She has a successful career, a fiance who she obviously hearts (she spent 3 years converting for him!), and an adorable daughter – not to mention she looks stunning while doing it all. I’m totally crushing on Isla Fisher.
I'm not sure I have a crush on Fisher yet. She's definitely cute. It's just I haven't seen her in a lot of stuff. She hasn't yet won my heart.

I don't think I have any current girl crushes. My last one was Amanda Seyfriend from Mamma Mia, but that's faded a bit.

I still have my old favorites....Alyssa Milano, Indina Menzel, Patricia Arquette..... Strangely, I don't think I've ever had a girl-crush on any Australian actresses. How nuts is that!

 I had a thing for Jessica Napier in McLeod's Daughters. But she's a Kiwi.

Well, Fisher might end up being first. I've found something to win me over. She didn't stop breastfeeding when her child turned a year old. Awesome. She jokes that she's going to breastfeed him until the kid goes to college. I used to joke about that too, but I was always a little scared it would end up coming true. It was like one of those half-jokes...or a I HOPE I'm joking here. I have a feeling almost all long-term breastfeeding moms fear they're going to have that kid who is still breastfeeding in college.

Anyway, good on Fisher for breastfeeding a toddler. And good on her for going public about it. I wonder if she received the grief that Salma Hayak received.

This article says she wore breastfeeding friendly outfits for Confessions of a Shopaholic. The article also says, unlike the character she played, she doesn't like shopping much. I'm beginning to like this girl more and more!

Here's an interview with Fisher. It talks a lot about fashion. She said she had to do a fitting that lasted twelve hours. She jokes that she lost the will to live at two hours. I'd probably be like that. I'm not sure I'd even last thirty minutes. I don't mind trying on clothes, but I get tired of it very quickly.

She loved the Shopaholic books. That's good. I find it a little sad when an actor is in a movie, based on a book, and they announce they never read the book before.

I forgot this. The character in the book is British. For the movie they turned her into an American. Why? If anything, why didn't they just make her Australian? Then Fisher wouldn't have to fake an accent.

I am now strongly disliking Jerry Bruckheimer. She started the movie a few months after giving birth. He worried she would not be thin enough. He would interrogate her about what she ate, and he set down rules about her diet. No muffins. No bread. No pasta. And although I'm against lying, I'm very glad Fisher did so. She ate all that stuff despite his rules.

I think this interview is the one that has been quoted in so many other articles and websites. I'm seeing a lot of things I've seen before, but here it's in its entirety rather than little sound bites.

It's sad that people quote from it without giving the source.

She said she doesn't have scales. She doesn't weigh herself. That's great...very brave.

I stopped weighing myself at one point. I think it was towards the end of my eating disorder. Tim suggested it. I stopped weighing myself everyday and started weighing myself once a month. But I'd get too scared and anxious on the monthly weigh-ins. Then I put the scale away. The problem is I had go to the doctor for my yearly check-up. I was so nervous. I even considered telling them Hey look. I had an eating disorder. I don't want to know what I weigh. Please don't tell me. But I was too embarrassed to say that. I guess also I was scared the nurse would say something nasty like Girl. Trust me you don't have an eating disorder. Look how much you weigh. That is NOT an eating disorder.

I doubt they'd say that though. I think the place I go to is pretty good. I never had an appointment when I was very thin, but I did go when I was close to be underweight (I had already gained back some of the weight). I started asking the nurse practitioner these questions about obesity; worrying that I had the wrong shaped body (apple instead of a pear). She reassured me I was thin enough and told me I really shouldn't be losing more weight. And then when I've come back close to thirty pounds heavier, no one there has said anything about my weight. I'm grateful for that; even though I'm still embarrassed.

Well, now I've lost a little bit of love for Fisher. She says she's GRATEFUL to Bruckheimer for getting her a trainer and making her lose weight. Maybe I shouldn't have been so impressed with her reaction; lying and eating behind his back. I think I'd be more impressed with the actress who stands up and speaks out. I'm not going on a diet. I just had a baby. Take me as I am or forget about it.

I'm a hypocrite saying that though. If it was me, I'd bitch about him behind his back. I'd cry and complain. Then I'd start limiting my diet to carrots and apples.

I'm looking at Google News now.

In this celebrity gossip site, she complains about being so small. If it's about height, I can give her a tiny bit of sympathy. But she's my height (although this article puts her at an inch shorter). I'm classified as petite, but I don't really think I'm THAT small. I don't think it's something to complain about. Being short and thin is not a huge handicap in the film industry.

A commenter on the Entertainment Weekly website agrees with me about Fisher looking like Amy Adams.

This article annoys me. It's celebrity gossip stuff, so I can hope it's not true. She complains about Hollywood's body fascism. We know she's not interested in dieting. Nor does she like exercising. She doesn't own a scale. Yet in this article she says she uses super strength tightening garments to hide the weight she gained after pregnancy. I see a picture of her. Either these garments are AMAZING, or more likely she's a small post-pregnancy person trying to look even smaller.

Fisher says, I really felt like there's so much pressure on young women in show business. There's so much body fascism. I don't buy into any of it. But I do have good genes.
There's just something not right about that. If she's against this fascism, why doesn't she just wear normal clothes? Why does she try so hard to hide the weight she's gained?

I don't know. Maybe I CAN be understanding. I was's kind of like Jack and education. Jack is naturally smart. It's in his GENES. I really don't have to put much effort into teaching him. Yet I'm against parents pushing their kids to learn. I'm strongly against parents doing flashcards with their babies, and/or pushing their kids to get into prestigious preschools. I hate all that. I think it's ridiculous when parents worry that their five and six-year-olds are not reading yet. But maybe it's easy for me to be against all that because I don't have to worry about it much.

I'm trying to see Fisher's viewpoint here. It's like saying this is NATURAL for me. I don't have to put effort into it. But I don't expect it to be easy for other people. I think we should lay off and be more relaxed about weight.

And so that's a fine attitude to have. It's fair. I just think I'd be able to take it more seriously if she didn't wear the tight fitting garments....if she let it all hang out once in awhile.

I guess the test would come if and when Fisher's genes finally fail her. If she gains some weight, and is no longer tiny, is she going to keep eating muffins, avoid exercising, and ignoring the scale....or is she going to get that weight off as fast as she can?

I can't be very impressed with a skinny woman who is relaxed about weight. I'm much more impressed with women who are my size and happy with what they weigh.

It's hard though. This article talks about how Fisher was criticized for being fat while pregnant. How pathetic and sad is that? There's a photo of her. She's still tiny.

The truth is it's hard to be brave in a world that is so superficial, judgmental, and cruel.