Rinko Kikuchi, a Japanese movie star

Rinko Kikuchi is a prominent Japanese actress that has become a global movie star due to her acting skills, elegance, intelligence, style and beauty. However, we shall forget her movie Map of the Map of the sounds of Tokyo that is pretty awful, it was intended to show us Tokyo or Japan but we only see Rinko Kikuchi and the Spanish actor Sergi López without clothes on. That detail aside, Rinko Kikuchi whose real name is Yuriko Kikuchi  became the first Japanese actress nominated for an Academy Award in decades. Rinko Kikuchi was born in Kanagawa. (Japan)

RINKO KIKUCHI (photo credit rinkokikuchi.com)

Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu surprised everybody with his fabulous movie "Amores Perros" that let him to reach Hollywood, subsequently, he made 21 Grams that was another powerful story with important acting heavyweights such as Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro or Naomi Watts.

 Photo Credit: rinkokikuchi.com

His 3rd film was the one that gave him worldwide recognition, Babel, it is a tale of different stories taking place in Asia, America or Africa. Regardless of the success, Babel was not as good as his first project Amores Perros (that I strongly recommend anyone who loves movies as it can be deemed as one of the best movies of the last 20 years) except for the performance of a Japanese actress named Rinko Kikuchi. Rinko Kikuchi was nominated for many important awards, it was really the big thing to watch on Babel. Rinko Kikuchi  was nominated for best supporting actress on the big night of Hollywood for instance (Jennifer Hudson won the Oscar that year) she was the best nonetheless according to the Critics Association of Chicago and Austin (Texas). Babel won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe and received a lot of important nominations,  but  is Rinko Kikuchi who really should be praised for.

Rinko Kikuchi

Babel henceforth, Rinko Kikuchi has not been shining so strong until the last couple of years that Rinko Kikuchi has been starring some interesting movies such as Norwegian Wood. As a matter of fact, she is back in the business with the movie Pacific Rim and 47 Ronin alongside Keanu Reeves. Still, Rinko Kikuchi appears on the movie "Kumiko, the treasure hunter" and she will be in another  Isabel Coixet´s project called "Nadie quiere la noche". What is more, Rinko Kikuchi is also a fashion icon, she has appeared on several fashion campaigns such as for renowned and very relevant French label Chanel as you can see right now

RINKO KIKUCHI FOR CHANEL

 Rinko Kikuchi for Chanel

 Rinko Kikuchi

                     Rinko Kikuchi, a Japanese actress (and fashion icon)

                         official website of Rinko Kikuchi: www.rinkokikuchi.com

Leighton Meester as the best Gossip Girl actress

In my opinion, the best actress of television series Gossip Girl is Leighton Meester. her character is a perfectionist posh girl, competitive, harsh, cold hearted as hell whose name is Blair Waldorf and it is a great character. She is an actress with a huge talent, in fact, despite the success of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester is the best of the television series and has appeared on movies like Montecarlo with Selena Gomez o Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow. Furthermore, she has appeared with a great result in other television series as House, Entourage, Shark, Law and order...

Leighton Meester as the best Gossip Girl actress

I even believe Leighton Meester can win an award if one day she is lucky with roles because in the big screen she has only appeared on minor comedies that even has made her to be nominated to Raspeberry Awards (this is what happens when you shoot alongside Adam Sandler) something disappointed due to her outstanding acting skills. Besides, she has made some records, the song Somebody to love is her more popular song.

 

 Leighton Meester.

Leighton Meester Marijuana

A special anecdote of this actress is that her parents were drug dealers, they bring marijuana from Jamaica in such a huge level that they did have to face justice, when they were doing time, the mother of Leighton Meester was pregnant and was allowed to leave jail subsequently so that give birth, when Leighton Meester was born, her mum left her with the grandmother until Leighton Meester was adult. A special anecdote of Leighton Meester is that her parents were drug dealers, they would bring marijuana from Jamaica in such a huge level that they did have to face justice, when they were doing time, the mother of Leighton Meester was pregnant but was allowed to leave jail subsequently so that give birth, when Leighton Meester was born, her mum left her with the grandmother until Leighton Meester was adult.

To conclude and to make you bite your nails, we ought to say Leighton Meester had an affair with one of the secondary actors of the series, Sebastian Stanm whose character was called Carter Baizen. Moreover, one of her favourites movies ever is Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese and she is to star a movie called The Judge. Lastly, we must announce Leighton Meester has just got married to actor Adam Brody. 

Leighton Meester  best Gossip Girl actress

Anyway, Gossip Girl is a portrait of teenagers who attend to a private School in the most expensive and posh part of Manhattan, New York City. In concordance, the success in economical and monetary terms, social life is extremely relevant for them and as you know you are not to live in such privileged neighbourhood you laugh with their stories and their particular heritage in the two first seasons of the series, leaving the rest for the most fanatics. Gossip Girl cast is very interesting, above all the feminine albeit we must advise nonetheless, one can fall in love with Blair Waldorf and the actress Leighton Meester.

Leighton Meester Gossip Girl

Leighton Meester, as the best Gossip Girl actress

Gossip Girl

Leighton Meester as the best Gossip Girl actress

Taylor Momsen, before and after Gossip Girl

Another great actress is Taylor Momsen, her character is a poor soul, widely laughed at on school because of her naivety and humble backgrounds, yet in real life she is a tough girl (or this is what we suppose) she designed clothes with Madonna and has a rock band called The Pretty Reckless, she dropped out of school very soon because she considered it was not longer interesting for her as she was going to triumph without formation. Likewise, she was on the verge of being on the show Hannah Montana but she lost against Miley Cyrus something that I have found peculiar seeing how at that time they were going to be nice, good girls and now they are pop idols who create plenty of controversy.Taylor Momsen is  now focused on her rock band whose image is provocative and her acting career is a little forgotten, the song Make me wanna die is a good chance to discover The Pretty Reckless

                              MAKE ME WANNA DIE THE PRETTY RECKLESS

It is fully surprising Taylor Momsen´s  image in real life as while on the television series  acts as a humble sweet little girl, a gal whose dream is to labour within the fashion industry but as she is not from Manhattan but from Brooklyn she cannot compete against the money and ego other girls possess, in real life though seems she is not afraid of anything. Indeed, it has been said Taylor Momsen had several problems with Gossip Girl fellow cast members because of her strong character.Talking of her family on Gossip Girl, her brother (Penn Badgley actor who appeared on the movie Margin Call and was also dating Blake Lively) with whom particularly I cannot stand (the character I mean) wants to become a writer and be a household name in New York City. Still, I even stand less her father, a somewhat Peter Pan who does not want to grow up and keeps following a musical career when it is long past. This family is the worst element of Gossip Girl albeit what I dislike is the family no her character so much as Taylor Momsen acts great. We should clarify that Taylor Momsen abandoned the television series in the Fourth Season because she wanted touring with her band The Pretty Reckless and even to those problems she created while shooting Gossip Girl.

 Taylor Momsen

Taylor Momsen

Taylor Momsen

Taylor Momsen

 Taylor Momsen Gossip Girl

 Taylor Momsen The Pretty Reckless

Taylor Momsen

 Taylor Momsen

Jessica Szohr, Gossip Girl

Another good actress of Gossip Girl although much more secondary than the aforementioned is Jessica Szohr, her Hungarian and Somalis looks make her to own a special beauty and her acting skills are very positive, she acts as a humble girl with artistic aspirations. The problem came when after having dated one of the heavyweights of the television series Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass, idol of many people who want to be like him) in real life and having a tryst that torn the relationship, different characters of the television series behaved bad towards Jessica Szohr therefore she abandoned the series as a result. I think the screenwriters (poor souls when they have to invent such strange stories to kill a character) made her to go to Barcelona to study albeit seems she is working or at least she appears on the recent movie The Internship.

Due to different ups and downs that the cast suffered from and also because the television series is really focused on them, the two actresses and main characters the only two who started and ended Gossip Girl were Leighton Meester and Blake Lively. Others actresses came, yet they never substituted entirely Taylor Momsen and Jessica Szohr. 

 Jessica Szohr

 Jessica Szohr

 Jessica Szohr

 Jessica Szohr

 Jessica Szohr and Ed Westwick

 

                                                                     Jessica Szohr

Blake Lively

Surprisingly, the most popular actress of Gossip Girl is Blake Lively, she is with who I cannot stand. In fact, I truly believe she is the worst of the four main actresses. I do not think she is a good actress at all, notwithstanding my opinion, she has worked with Oliver Stone and Ben Affleck (Savages, The Town). She is married to the erstwhile Scarlett Johansson hubby, Ryan Reynolds who met on movie Green Lantern.

Blake Lively

Blake Lively for Chanel

Blake Lively is a celebrity and a fashion icon, she tends to appear on several fashion campaigns, she is the image of Gucci for instance, she is very popular amongst youngsters and the American society she even has a mighty cinematographic career something her Gossip Girl companions cannot assure. Indeed, she was chosen to shoot the recent movie Side Effects but in the end she was replaced by the great actress Rooney Mara. Similarly, she has won some cinematographic awards thanks to her performance on Gossip Girl although they are youthful ones such as Teen Choices. Blake Lively is an absolute celebrity in United States, something that should be surprising if we only see her acting skills, the last thing I heard of her is that she has decided to be a household name in the literary sector writing cooking books. Blake Lively´s character Serena has triumphed entirely as Blake Lively is doing outside Gossip Girl

Blake Lively

Blake Lively

Blake Lively for Gucci

The female cast of Gossip Girl

To say the truth, I am not  a big fan of  television series, let alone of those concerning teenagers, yet Gossip Girl is somewhat original and fun nonetheless as it is focused on the troublesome lives of boys and girls of Manhattan elite but with the new Social Media tools (Gossip Girl is an unknown personage that tells of everything that takes place within Manhattan Upper East Side to the one interested on it due to our beloved Internet) Gossip Girl is good on its two first seasons, it is not a masterpiece as you can imagine, everybody knows all television series are always overly complicated with love stories and these are always artificially extended so that obtain much more audience and money therefore, something that annoys me (Watch out fanatics of Game of Thrones!!!). Notwithstanding, I had plenty of fun watching Gossip Girl  on the first two seasons and it is interesting above all because of the group of actresses. Later on, the story gets so wearying that I could not be able to end it. One day thereafter  I watched a chapter of the last season and it was as if time would have not passed by as I were experiencing  the same tenor, the same boring plot, the same kind of jokes and conversations that made you feel you were watching a ludicrous story, it was as if they were repeating the same chapter all over again even though you were supposing watching the exciting finale season of Gossip Girl.

Saying that, I must admit I strongly enjoy with the cast, above all the female as it was refreshing to discover great young actress such as Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Ed Westwitck, Penn Badgley Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen or Jessica Szohr.

After this introduction I am to tell deeply of the four main  actresses of Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Jessica Szohr and Taylor Momsen STAY TUNE!!        

                                 

Gossip Girl