Movie Info

Good Luck Chuck is a 2007 comedy film starring Jessica Alba and Dane Cook.
This movie began filming in June 2006 in Vancouver and Edmonton, with some scenes shot in Los Angeles.
Contents[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 Critical reception
5 Box office performance
6 Pop culture references

//

[edit] Plot
The movie begins in 1985 in a flashback scene where Chuck (Connor Price) refused to kiss a goth girl (Sasha Pieterse) when he was ten years old, she placed a curse on him: every single woman he sleeps with will break up with him and marry the next man she meets.
Chuck, now in his thirties (Dane Cook) and running a dentist practice in the same building as his best friend Stu (Dan Fogler) who works as a plastic surgeon, Chuck finds himself unable to tell girls he loves them. This leads to an eventual breakup, but soon leads to his ex-girlfriend getting married. At one such wedding, Chuck becomes enamored with Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba), a sometimes clumsy girl who nevertheless appears quite friendly. Chuck tries to ask Cam out on a date, but she gently refuses him.
While working at her penguin habitat, Cam accidentally slips and breaks her tooth (later in the film, Cam says that the penguins that she takes care of are Gentoo penguins when they are in fact African penguins). Having Chuck's card in hand, she calls him and he agrees to work on her tooth. After the dental treatment, he asks her to go out with him instead of paying him. She's reluctant to go out with him, but she eventually agrees. During the time that Chuck still has eyes for Cam, Stu starts to become convinced that there's something about Chuck's pattern of girls getting married as soon as he has sex with them. This is only compounded when an article on a dating site tells of Chuck's prowess. Stu eventually convinces Chuck to embrace the now many women who visit his practice, arguing that there's nothing better than having a bunch of guilt-free sex. However, after having sex with a bunch of women, Chuck wants to stop and have a serious relationship with Cam.
Worried that the curse is real, Stu convinces Chuck to date and sleep with an extremely overweight and ugly woman to see if she'll get married afterwards. Chuck tries to get Stu to date the woman after the deed to see if they get married, hoping that the curse will prove to be false. However, Stu chickens out and only pretends to ask the woman out. This proves to be a problem when he eventually gives in to Cam's advances and has sex with her. Chuck is now convinced that Cam wants to go out with the author of a book about penguins, who Cam has raved about. Chuck attempts to track down the girl who placed the curse on him when they were kids. Now a happily married woman with a child, the former goth girl tells Chuck that the curse wasn't meant to be real. Still convinced that Cam will date and eventually marry the book author, Chuck tries desperately to get Cam's attention and ask her to marry him. His attempts, though, cause Cam to become convinced he's stalking her and she breaks up with him.
Now deciding to let fate take its course, Chuck puts Cam in touch with the book author, and the two seem to connect instantly (notably, the book author at times appears to be as clumsy as Cam). Stu visits Chuck and convinces him to chase after Cam, who is now headed to Antarctica with the book author. After buying $17,000 worth of tickets (since he wasn't sure which flight Cam might have been on), Chuck confronts Cam. Cam reveals that the book author is already married to someone else, and that she's only going for a week - not the 6 months Chuck thought. Chuck hands Cam a ring box, and Cam opens it to reveal a pebble, a reference to the penguin mating ritual in which a male penguin finds a stone and brings it to the female penguin he wants to be with. Cam calls out for Chuck, who left the plane, and Chuck runs back to Cam, the curse having finally been broken (the adult woman who placed the curse on Chuck in the first place is shown to pull out a voodoo doll she placed a pin through, and pulls the pin out). Now both in Antarctica surrounded by penguins, Chuck and Cam kiss, but their tongues get frozen together.

[edit] Cast
Dane Cook as Charlie / Chuck
Jessica Alba as Cam Wexler
Dan Fogler as Stu
Chelan Simmons as Carol
Connor Price as Young Charlie
Troy Gentile as Young Stu
Sasha Pieterse as Goth Girl

[edit] Trivia
Jennifer Love Hewitt was offered the role of "Cam Wexler", but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts. The role then went to Jessica Alba.
The original script was titled "The Warm-Up Guy".
The quartet that sings to Cam is Antique Gold, the 2006 Seniors Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
In the movie, the building where Chuck and Stu work at is named the Seltaeb building. Backwards, "seltaeb" is "beatles". Seltaeb was also the name of the corporation which in 1964, oversaw product licensing arrangements for The Beatles.
Originally, New Line Cinema was set to distribute, but they gave the film to Lionsgate shortly before production. A similar situation occurred when the studio gave distribution rights for Alpha Dog to Universal Pictures, but that case was related to controversy over real-life events.

[edit] Critical reception
The film received very negative reviews from critics. As of October 23, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, only 3% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 96 reviews.[1] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 19 out of 100, based on 21 reviews, indicating generally negative reviews.[2]
Roger Ebert gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, saying it was "potty-mouthed and brain-damaged" and "There is a scene in this movie where a penguin bites Dane Cook in the crotch. I'd like to find that penguin and buy it a drink." [3] [4]
Mark Kermode also threw barbs of a similar nature on his Friday afternoon film review spot on Radio 5 Live with Simon Mayo, condemning the film as a 'grisly, horrible, barfsome American comedy...with this really grotesquely loathsome guy', and naming it as his worst film of the year for 2007.

[edit] Box office performance
The film was the #2 movie at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend, grossing $13.6 million in 2,612 theaters.[5][6]
On it's opening weekend at the UK Box Office despite a hefty panning from critics, the picture managed to take the #1 spot
Many of these negative reviews have been put down to the intensly nude nature of the movie, with full screen shots of breasts commonplace. Jessica Alba is shown partially naked, takes of her bra and is seen to have sex with the male movie star during the film.

Jessica Alba Sexy

The incredibly stunning sexy Jessica Alba on the sexy red carpet of the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

Trailer

Good Luck Chuck Trailer,Jessica Alba is wonderful and sexy. Dane cook is nude. This movie is cool.

Dane Cook

Dane Cook
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Jump to: navigation, search
Dane Cook
Dane Cook in 2007
Pseudonym
Sav McCauleyGene WinterbuckForeign Guy
Born
March 18, 1972 (1972-03-18) (age 35)Arlington, Massachusetts
Medium
Stand up comedy, film, television
Nationality
American
Years active
1997-present
Genres
Stand-up Comedy
Subject(s)
observational comedy
Influences
Denis Leary, George Carlin, Richard Pryor
Website
danecook.com

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007)
Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and musician. He has released three comedy albums, Harmful If Swallowed, Retaliation (which went double platinum[1]), and Rough Around the Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden. Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album in twenty-eight years.[2] Cook performs on many television shows and in the fall of 2006 performed in his own HBO special, Vicious Circle. As an actor, Cook has appeared in fifteen films since 1997, including Mystery Men, the 2005 film "Waiting...", and starred in the 2006 comedy Employee of the Month with Jessica Simpson. He also appeared in the 2007 thriller film Mr. Brooks in a departure from his standard comedic roles.
Contents[hide]
1 Life and career
1.1 Early life
1.2 Early career
1.3 2005 - 2006
1.4 2007
2 Style
3 Controversy and criticism
3.1 Material/Plagiarism
3.2 Yuk-Yuks controversy
4 Other
4.1 The SUperFInger
5 Discography
5.1 Albums
5.2 DVDs
5.3 Singles
6 Filmography
7 References
8 External links
8.1 News articles & interviews
//

[edit] Life and career

[edit] Early life
Cook was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Donna and George Cook, a radio DJ. He has Irish ancestry.[3] Cook grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb and, along with his five sisters and one brother, was raised as a Roman Catholic.[4] He is a fan and collector of Fangoria magazine, claiming to own the first 100 issues.[5]

[edit] Early career
Cook's first on-stage appearance at a comedy club was at a Catch a Rising Star show in Harvard Square, hosted at the time by comedian David Cross.[6] In 1998, Cook was featured on Comedy Central's stand-up comedy showcase Premium Blend. The following year he appeared on the comedy network's Comics Come Home and the straight-to-video Dennis Rodman vehicle, Simon Sez as Rodman's partner, Nick Miranda. He also had a cameo in the film Mystery Men and the music video for the song All Star by Smash Mouth, also featured in the film.
Two years later, Cook pooled $30,000 of his own money from savings and retirement accounts and launched www.danecook.com, his own interactive website, to further his career and stay connected to his fans.[1] Later, Cook would also become one of the first celebrities to make use of the global networking site MySpace. To date, Cook has over 2 million fans listed as friends on his profile. In 2002 and 2003, Cook was featured as the voice of three puppets on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, which featured real prank phone calls being recorded in a studio and then re-enacted by puppets. Four of Cook's calls were aired between July 2002 and April 2003. He took on the aliases of Sav McCauley, Gene Winterbuck, and Foreign Guy.
Included with Cook's first comedy album, Harmful If Swallowed (2003) was a DVD with the Comedy Central special. Later that year, Cook wrote, directed, and starred in 8 Guys.
Dane released his second 3 disc cd/dvd set Retaliation taking the number 4 slot on Billboards top 100.

[edit] 2005 - 2006
Cook was featured in the 2005 comedy Waiting... as Floyd the cook. Cook hosted SNL for a second time on the premiere of its thirty-second season, September 30, 2006. On January 13, 2006, after months of keeping a "BIG secret" from his fans, he announced via his website an April 15 gig at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden where his first HBO special, Vicious Circle, would be eventually filmed. His first show sold out during the pre-sale phase of ticket sales, and a second show was added for the same night. In all, Dane Cook's Boston concert drew 36,000 fans in two shows, on the same night. A documentary series and a scripted program are also in the works for HBO.[7] In the week prior to the televised gig, he performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas (April 8) and Allstate Arena in Chicago (April 13), the largest venues he has ever performed in those cities. Aside from airing on HBO, Vicious Circle is also being screened in select theaters and it features an additional 40 minutes of material.
September saw the release of Employee of the Month, Cook's first movie featuring him in the lead role. He co-starred alongside Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard. Response to this movie was lukewarm but made an acceptable box office performance.
At the end of December 2006, Cook released "I'll Never Be You" his first single. In the song, Dane sings from the perspective of a normal person ("My life stands still, watching where your life goes"), commenting with envy ("sometimes I picture myself beating you up") at a celebrity or otherwise popular person. He was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2006.[2]
Dane Cook's first HBO special, Vicious Circle, was aired on September 4, 2006. The double DVD was released on November 28, 2006. It is a 90-minute presentation which was filmed at TD Banknorth Garden in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts on a circular stage surrounded by the audience. The stage had on it the impression of his Super Finger hand gesture. Cook brought the same set to Madison Square Garden for back-to-back sold out shows on November 12, 2006.

[edit] 2007
On June 1, 2007, the film Mr. Brooks was released to theaters to generally mixed reviews. Cook played opposite Kevin Costner as Mr. Smith, a devious reporter, and he received generally positive reviews for his performance, with the New York Times saying that "...when he's onscreen, you can't look at anyone else". The same year, he starred alongside Jessica Alba in Good Luck Chuck and Dan in Real Life, as a man whose brother (fellow Massachusetts native Steve Carell) falls for his girlfriend. He also released another album, titled Rough Around the Edges on November 13, 2007.
On July 26, he became the first celebrity on myspace.com to hit 2 million friends. On August 28, 2007, Cook released the DVD collection The Lost Pilots for fans all around the world. Included are the two pilots titled Cooked 1 and Cooked 2. In the former, he plays a stand-up comedian who, after living in the easy life, loses it all and schemes relentlessly to get it back. In the latter, Cook is a charismatic guy who's always looking forward to his next life experience. His best friends, Mike, the perennial cynic, and Dakota, the-girl-next-door, accompany him as he tries to trade an antique electric chair for a knife wielding samurai monkey trained in the martial arts.
Recently, Cook has been doing October playoff commercials for Major League Baseball. He has also released his second single "Forward." He finished filming Bachelor No. 2 in his hometown of Boston with his co-stars Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin. Cook will be producing the film through his company Super-Finger Entertainment. And he embarked on his first ever 25 city/28 show Arena tour which he called "Rough Around The Edges," to promote the sale of his new album.

[edit] Style
Cook's style is principally observational humor. He tends to talk about his childhood, and his plans for the future, such as his "dream home". He will sometimes deliver jokes in the form of over the top rants. He has commented that:
“
I wanted to create a stage persona for myself that allowed me to really speak on (sic) anything I want... So I can be a storyteller, I can be jokey, I can be corny, I can be a little vulgar, I can be a lot vulgar. And I'm not afraid to go anywhere to get the point of the joke across, even if I have to just blabber like an idiot until it becomes apparent that I'm telling a joke and that the audience should laugh.
”
Cook uses slang vocabulary to match his talkative manner. For example: A bad relationship is a "Relationshit", Walgreens is "The Wall," and a sandwich is a "sangwich".[8] Similarly, he uses such acronyms as BAMF and SUFI, which are short for "Bad Ass Mother Fucker", which is originally believed to refer to 24's Jack Bauer[citation needed] , and "SUperFInger," respectively. He is also known to call Burger King, "the BK Lounge." He also shortens words to keep the same meaning. He has even been known to completely change words or phrases, like saying "Concernicus" instead of concerned, "Chicken Sangwich" instead of Chicken Sandwich, "agrain" instead of again, and "chat-chitting" rather than "chit-chatting". Afterwards he says, "Yeah, I just flipped that shit...they're just words, they don't control us...not anymore."

[edit] Controversy and criticism

[edit] Material/Plagiarism
After the release of his CD/DVD Retaliation, similarities were noticed between Cook's work and material recorded on Louis C.K.'s 2001 album Live in Houston.[8] The bits in question are Louis C.K.'s "Itchy Asshole," "Guy On A Bike," and "Naming Kids." In 2005, Dane Cook performed and released three similar routines on Retaliation.[9] These are "Itchy Asshole," "Struck By A Vehicle," and "My Son Optimus Prime," respectively.
In 2005, on the message boards of comedy website A Special Thing, C.K. posted a response to his fans who accused Cook of plagiarizing from him writing "Okay, this kid is stealing from me. And making lots of money. Three bits on one CD." Later, C.K. wrote "Just so you know, guys, I'm not going to do anything about this.... I'm not going to court over a bit called 'Itchy Asshole.'"[10] In an interview on the Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show in February 2007, C.K. stated that while the jokes are similar, the issue was "overblown" and may stem from a backlash against Cook's popularity. However, C.K. accused Cook of being "bullyish" and litigious towards comedians for having similar material to his despite Cook claiming elsewhere that comedians often have similar material and it is not a big issue to him. C.K. also stated "Too bad the guy [Cook] can't write enough." C.K. ended the interview by saying, "Fuck Dane Cook, he's a cunt."[11]
Comedian Joe Rogan has spoken on many occasions (including the December 1, 2006 broadcast of the Opie and Anthony Show) about Cook performing a bit on an episode of Premium Blend that Rogan had developed on I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday (sketch titled 'Tigers Fucking'), and claims to have performed the routine earlier in clubs with Cook present.[12] Rob Sheffield criticized Dane Cook's material in a Rolling Stone article from October 2006, claiming a joke he performed was originally done by Emo Philips.[13] Comedian Ron White has criticized Dane Cook for his lack of real material and for his inflated ego.[14] At a 2007 Irving Plaza show, comedian Zach Galifianakis commented, “I saw Employee of the Month the other day...it wasn't as good as I thought it was gonna be.” During his closing number he revealed a sign that read “Kill Dane Cook" before leaving the stage.[15] Less publicized accusations of comedic plagiarism by Cook emerged in September 2006 on Saturday Night Live by Demetri Martin of Daily Show fame. Clips on Youtube show a stand up bit Cook suppossedly lifted from Martin's 9/26/06 release of his live material These Are Jokes on some trouble buying shoes, where Cook goes as far as using the same incorrect shoe size (size 9) that Martin mentioned in his joke that was released 4 days before Cook's performance of a nearly identical shoe joke while hosting SNL on 9/30/06. [16]
In addition to such specific claims of plagiarism, numerous commentators have characterized Dane Cook's humor as unfunny,[17] banal,[18] and lacking jokes.[19]

[edit] Yuk-Yuks controversy
On July 24, 2006 Cook asked for a guest spot at the Vancouver Yuk-Yuks comedy club. Initially he was set to go up at the end of the night, but upon arriving at the club he requested to go up before the headliner. Cook's performance went on for longer than the management had asked him, so the club's manager and headliner (Peter Kelamis) cut off his microphone and tried to "play him off" with music. Cook thought it was simply a mistake and continued his set, but they later cut his mic and played the exit music again. Cook then dropped the mic and walked off-stage, furious. The show then ended, leaving Cook's fans confused and disappointed. Kelamis then refused to take the stage, and later referred to Cook's actions as "the most arrogant thing that I've ever seen in my life".
However, Mark Breslin, the founder of the comedy club chain, quickly apologized and blamed the club's Manager. Breslin stated in support of Cook, "I'm on Dane's side totally, 100 percent." Breslin also explained that Kelamis was the last show that evening and there was no reason he could not have gone on late, stating "the tradition is that stardom trumps everything".[20]

[edit] Other

[edit] The SUperFInger
The SUperFInger or SU-FI is a hand gesture. It consists of raising the middle finger, ring finger, and thumb on the same hand while lowering (or curling) the index and pinky fingers half way. Cook's website explains his idea behind the SU-FI:
“
One night I did a bit on stage about 5 years ago at the Laugh Factory. I was talking about how the finger is lame now and it's lost its pizzaz. I said I wanted to upgrade the finger and so from now on people should use both the ring finger coupled with the middle finger. I called it the SUperFInger (or SU-FI)
”
In 2005, Cook started his own company to produce his albums and videos, which he named SUperFInger Entertainment.[21]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums
2003: Harmful If Swallowed (CD/DVD) Comedy Central. #67 US. Certified Platinum
2005: Retaliation (2CD/DVD) Comedy Central. #4 US. Certified Double Platinum
2007: Rough Around the Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden (CD/DVD).

[edit] DVDs
2006: Vicious Circle DVD. HBO.
2006: Dane Cook's Tourgasm DVD. HBO. Comedy Central.
2007: The Lost Pilots DVD. Sony Pictures Television

[edit] Singles
Year
Title
Chart positions
Album
US Hot 100
US Modern Rock
US Mainstream Rock
US Pop 100
UK Singles Chart
Germany
2006
"I'll Never Be You"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2007
"Forward"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

[edit] Filmography
Year
Title
Role
1997
Flypaper
Tim
Buddy
Fair Cop
1999
Spiral
David
Simon Sez
Nick Miranda
Mystery Men
The Waffler
2002
L.A.X.
Terrell Chasman
The Touch
Bob
2003
Stuck on You
Officer Fraioli
8 Guys
Dane
Windy City Heat
Roman Polanski
2004
Mr. 3000
Sausage Mascot
Torque
Neil Luff
2005
Waiting...
Floyd
London
George
2006
Employee of the Month
Zack Bradley
2007
Farce of the Penguins
Voice
Mr. Brooks
Mr. Smith
Good Luck Chuck
Chuck/Charlie
Dan in Real Life
Mitch Burns
2008
Horton Hears a Who
Johnny Smooth
Bachelor No. 2
Tank

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba
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Jump to: navigation, search

Jessica Alba
Alba at the 2007 Spike TV Scream Awards.
Birth name
Jessica Marie Alba
Born
April 28, 1981 (1981-04-28) (age 26)Pomona, California, United States
Years active
1994 - present
[show]Awards
Other Awards
Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV)2000 Dark Angel
Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is a Golden-Globe nominated American actress whose TV and film credits include Dark Angel, Honey, Sin City, Fantastic Four, Into the Blue, Idle Hands and 2007's Good Luck Chuck. Alba rose to prominence following the television series Dark Angel, then expanding her résumé to film, predominantly within the confines of action and comedy. Alba appears frequently on the "Hot 100" section of Maxim, and was voted AskMen.com's No. 1 on their list of "99 Most Desirable Women" in 2006, as well as "Sexiest Woman in the World" in FHM in 2007.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life and family
2 Career
2.1 Early career
2.2 Film career
3 Public image
3.1 Reception
3.2 Charity
4 Personal life
4.1 Relationships
5 Filmography
6 Awards and nominations
7 References
8 External links
//

Biography

Early life and family
Alba was born in Pomona, California, the daughter of Catherine (née Jensen), who is Danish American on her father's side and French American on her mother's side, and Mark Alba, who is Mexican American (though both of his parents were born in California).[1] Alba's parents married while in their teenage years.[2][3][4] Her maternal grandfather was a Marine NCO for 30 years, serving in the Pacific during WWII, and later as Asst. Drum Major for the United States Marine Band. Alba was raised in an Air Force family, along with her brother, Joshua[5] and her grandparents, until she was seventeen years old. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled back in California.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a ruptured appendix, and a cyst on her tonsils. This isolated her from other children at school because, as she claims, she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her.[6]
She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood.[7][8] Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California. She graduated from high school at age 16[9] and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.

Career

Early career
Alba had expressed interest in acting since the age of five. She took her first acting class at age twelve, and an acting agent signed her nine months later.[10]

Alba in Edmonton on August 4, 2006 during the filming of Good Luck Chuck.
Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when the actress in one of the prominent roles dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national TV commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child; she was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into TV in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the TV series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 and as Layla in an episode of The Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After graduating from high school, Alba studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet.
Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa.
Her big break came when writer/director James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of the genetically-engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi TV series Dark Angel. Co-created by Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002, earning her critical acclaim as well as a Golden-Globe nomination.

Film career
Since then her most notable roles have included an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City and as the classic Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four. Jessica went on to host the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission Impossible 3, and The Da Vinci Code. Alba's pending projects include The Eye (a remake of the Hong Kong original) and Sisters, alongside Eliska Amor and Paz Vega.[11][12]

Public image

Reception

Cover of the March 2006 issue of Playboy magazine. Alba objected to being on the cover of the magazine and filed suit, but later dropped the action.
In 2006, readers of Askmen.com voted Alba No. 1 on 99 Most Desirable Women,[13] while in 2007, Maxim Magazine placed Alba on the number 2 spot of their "Top 100", after Lindsay Lohan.[14] Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June covers,[15][16] and in May, after eight million votes, FHM (UK and USA editions) named Alba the winner as "2007’s Sexiest Woman in the World".[17]
Alba has received successful public reception in popular culture. In 2001 Alba received a Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress for her role in Dark Angel. In 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, Alba appeared on Maxim's Hot 100 list. In 2006, Alba received an MTV Movie Award for "Sexiest Performance" for Sin City. In 2007, Alba received the Spike TV Guys' Choice Award for "Hottest Jessica".[18]
On the cover of the March 2006 issue, Playboy magazine named Alba among its 25 Sexiest Celebrities, and the Sex Star of the Year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported.[19]
Alba fears being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her.[20] "Somehow, I don't think this is happening to Natalie Portman," laments Alba. In the interview, Alba says she wants to be taken seriously as an actress but believes she needs to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hopes to be more selective in her film projects.

Charity
Alba's charity work includes participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children Villages, Soles4Souls, and Step up.[21]

Personal life
During preparation for Dark Angel, in which Alba trained for three hours every day, the actress began to starve herself and became obsessed with exercise, going on to say, "A lot of girls have eating disorders and I did too. I got obsessed with it." Alba recalls coming to a realization that she had a problem when she dropped to just 100 lbs and cites her natural introduction to puberty and her development of womanly curves as two things that caused her "concern" regarding her aesthetics. Alba, who also suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, says she has been cooking for herself since the age of twelve, in fear she will end up as fat as her family members.[22]
Alba was raised Catholic and still considers herself "spiritual".[2] In her adolescence, she became a born-again Christian,[23] but left the church after four years because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
“
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
”
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and the lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining:
“
I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life.[3]
”
As the daughter of religiously conservative parents, Alba, whose grandparents did not allow her to wear a bathing suit around the house, maintains a no-nudity clause in her contract, though she has claimed she had been open to the possibility of appearing nude in Sin City. She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties' ".[24]
Alba was given the option to appear nude by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety".[3]
Of her mixed heritage, and perceptions of her ethnicity, Alba has said:
“
I've got cousins galore. Mexicans just spread all their seeds. And the women just pop them out. My grandfather was the only Mexican at his college, the only Hispanic person at work and the only one at the all-white country club. He tried to forget his Mexican roots, because he never wanted his kids to be made to feel different in America. He and my grandmother didn't speak Spanish to their children. Now, as a third-generation American, I feel as if I have finally cut loose. My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, ... So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don't speak Spanish. So, to say that I'm a Latin actress, OK, but it's not fitting; it would be insincere. My grandfather was the only one in our family to go to college. He made a choice not to speak Spanish in the house. He didn't want his kids to be different. [Before] I always felt like such an outcast and now I feel like people are more diverse ethnically. I was always [self-conscious] of my puffy lips and darker skin when I was a kid, because I felt like I didn't fit in. And now its mainstream, and color isn't as big of a deal and if anything, it's better.[1]
”

Relationships
While filming Dark Angel, Alba began a four year romance with fellow castmate Michael Weatherly, which caused controversy due to their 12 year age gap.[25] He proposed to her on her 20th birthday.[26] They eventually broke up after a four-year relationship. In July 2007, Jessica spoke out about the break up. "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow The Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to be believe. I'm completely different."[27]
Alba is engaged to Cash Warren (son of actor Michael Warren), whom she met while making Fantastic Four in 2004.[28][29] She is expecting their first child in early spring or summer of 2008.[30][31]
Alba had at one time said she envisioned a much older man as her ideal partner, making references to Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, Robert Redford, and Michael Caine. "I have this thing for older men. They've been around and know so much."[32] Regarding children, Alba said, "I'm really girly when it comes to kids. I've been surrounded by kids my whole life because I'm the oldest of 15 cousins — I've been changing diapers since I was six. I want to have a couple, for sure".[33]

Filmography
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1994
Camp Nowhere
Gail
1995
Venus Rising
Young Eve
1995–1996
Flipper
Maya
(TV series)
1996
Too Soon for Jeff
Christy
(TV series)
1999
P.U.N.K.S.
Samantha Swoboda
Never Been Kissed
Kirsten Liosis
Idle Hands
Molly
2000
Paranoid
Chloe
2000–2002
Dark Angel
Max Guevara/X5-452
(TV series)
2003
The Sleeping Dictionary
Selima
Honey
Honey Daniels
2005
Sin City
Nancy Callahan
Fantastic Four
Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
Into the Blue
Sam
2007
Awake
Sam
Good Luck Chuck
Cam Wexler
The Ten
Liz
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Sue Richards / Invisible Woman
2008
Bill
Lucy
(completed)
The Eye
Allison
(completed)
The Love Guru
Jane Bullard
(post-production)

Awards and nominations
Teen Choice Awards
Won: TV - Choice Actress, Dark Angel (2001)
Nominated: TV - Choice Actress, Drama, Dark Angel (2002)
Nominated: Choice Movie Liplock, Honey (2004, Shared with Mekhi Phifer)
Nominated: Choice Movie Chemistry, Honey (2004, Shared with Mekhi Phifer)
Nominated: Choice Movie Actress - Drama/Action Adventure, Honey (2004)
Nominated: Choice Breakout Movie Star - Female, Honey (2004)
Nominated: Choice Movie Actress: Action/Adventure/Thriller, Sin City (2005)
Nominated: Movies - Choice Actress: Drama/Action Adventure, Fantastic Four (2006)
Nominated: Choice Movie: Hissy Fit, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Nominated: Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
ALMA Awards
Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a New Television Series, Dark Angel (2001)
Won: Breakthrough Actress of the Year (2001)
Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Television Series, Dark Angel (2002)
Nominated: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Sin City (2006)
Saturn Awards
Won: Best Actress on Television, Dark Angel (2001)
Nominated: Best Actress in a Television Series, Dark Angel (2002)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actress, Sin City (2006)
Razzie Awards
Nominated: Worst Actress, Fantastic Four (2006)
Nominated: Worst Actress, Into the Blue (2006)
DVD Exclusive Awards
Won: Best Actress in a DVD Premiere Movie, The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
Golden Globe Award
Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama, Dark Angel (2001)
Imagen Foundation Awards
Nominated: Best Actress, Fantastic Four (2006)
Young Artist Awards
Nominated: est Performance in a TV Drama Series - Leading Young Actress, Dark Angel (2001)
TV Land Awards
Nominated: Little Screen/Big Screen Star (Women) (2007)
TV Guide Awards
Nominated: Actress of the Year in a New Series, Dark Angel (2001)
Won: Breakout Star of the Year, Dark Angel (2001)
Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards
Won: Hottest Jessica (2007)
Young Hollywood Awards
Won: Superstar of Tomorrow (2005)
YoungStar Awards
Nominated: Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Daytime TV Program, Flipper (1998)