Elizabeth Hurley

From Free net encyclopedia

Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June, 1965) is an British actress, model, producer and designer, born in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Career
- 1.2 Personal life
  - 1.2.1 Breast cancer research
2 Filmography
3 External links

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Biography

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Career

Her Hollywood film career, while rather sporadic, has at times been noteworthy. Of Hurley's few films her greatest hits include, two Austin Powers movies (1997 & 1999) and Bedazzled (2000). She has also produced two films starring Hugh Grant, Extreme Measures (1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), under their jointly owned Simian production company. Additionally, in 2004 she was an executive producer on the film Method.

But her career can only really be said to have started when in 1989 she won a local newspaper Face of the Year competition, hosted by the Winchester Extra newspaper and gained a year's modelling contract with a prestigious London firm as first prize - see [1]. At the time she was a student at nearby Basingstoke College, in the town of her birth.

Beginning in 1995 Hurley began working exclusively for Estée Lauder as the company's sole model, launching the perfume "Pleasures" in her first month with the company. In 2001 Hurley's role was downsized with the arrival of youthful model Carolyn Murphy. In 2003 model Liya Kebede also joined the company, creating a trio of 'faces' at the brand. In late 2005 Hurley's unprecedented ten year reign as the face of "Pleasures" perfume ended when actress Gwyneth Paltrow was signed to the line. Sales for the perfume, since Paltrow's arrival, have declined. In 2006 Hurley was announced as the face of Estée Lauder's ReNutriv Skin Care Line, with a contract extension for another three years. In addition, Hurley has a lipstick named after her, Elizabeth Pink, the profits of which go to the Estee Lauder Breast Cancer Foundation.

She has also graced the covers of numerous publications. To date, she has appeared on the covers of Vogue seven times, Elle four times, Harper's Bazaar six times, Marie Claire three times and has appeared in scores of other international publications.

In April 2005 her beachwear line Elizabeth Hurley Beach debuted in select Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the United States, Harrod's in the UK, in various other locations worldwide and through her website. In 2006 the line expanded its distribution greatly among Europe and the Middle East as well as Asia.

Hurley also fronted the Spring 2006 campaign for shoe designer Patrick Cox. As well, she was unvieled as the face of French accessory house Lancel in the spring of 2006.

The Daily Mail 2004 Rich List put her fortune at an estimated £17 million.

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Personal life

Hurley's mother is an English-Protestant while her late father was a lapsed Irish-Catholic. She has an older sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Michael. Hurley took ballet classes as a child and got a scholarship at a boarding school at the age of 12 but was expelled for poor grades. Her height is 173cm.

She first came to public attention following her wearing of a form-fitting black Versace gown barely held together with safety pins (referred to as "that dress" in the British press), at the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), a film that starred her then-companion Hugh Grant.

Since her breakup with Grant, Hurley has been linked with multi-millionaire American film producer Stephen Bing and American multimillionaire Ted Forstmann. She is engaged to Arun Nayar, the playboy son of a Bombay textile millionaire, whom she has been seeing since 2003 and who obtained a divorce from his Italian wife, Valentina Pedroni, in early 2005.

On 4 April, 2002, Hurley gave birth to a son, Damian Charles Hurley, fathered by Bing, who initially denied paternity. DNA tests confirmed that he was the father, although it is not clear if Damian's surname will be changed. Damian was baptized a Roman Catholic, although Hurley herself has not yet been received into the Roman Catholic church despite publicly contemplating it for a number of years now.

Hurley has homes in London; in Ampney Crucis, a village in Gloucestershire, England; and in Beverly Hills, California.

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Breast cancer research

Hurley revealed that her grandmother died from breast cancer because her grandmother refused to reveal the lump that she discovered for a number of years. By the time that it was revealed, it was too late to save her life.

Hurley was the Mistress of Ceremonies at The Hot Pink Party, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, to mark the tenth anniversary of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (see[[2]]).

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