Pride & Prejudice rounded out 2005. Variety wrote about Keira Knightley's portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet: "Looking every bit a star, Knightley, who's shown more spirit than acting smarts so far in her career, really steps up to the plate here, holding her own against the more classically trained Matthew Macfadyen, as well as vets like Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Penelope Wilton, and Judi Dench with a luminous strength that recalls a young Audrey Hepburn. More than the older Jennifer Ehle in the TV series, she catches Elizabeth's essential skittishness and youthful braggadocio, making her final conversion all the more moving." The film grossed more than $100 million worldwide, and Knightley earned a Golden Globe nomination and an Oscar nomination (the Oscar ultimately went to Reese Witherspoon). The Academy Award nomination made Keira Knightley's the third-youngest performer ever nominated. BAFTA's decision not to nominate her drew criticism from Pride & Prejudice producer Tim Bevan.
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, Lady Gaga worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.
In 2007, Megan Fox won the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, based on the toy and cartoon saga of the same name. Fox played the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character Sam Witwicky. Fox was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category of "Breakthrough Performance", and was also nominated for three Teen Choice Awards, in the category of "Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure", "Choice Movie: Breakout Female", and "Choice Movie: Liplock". Megan Fox has signed on for two more Transformers sequels.
Britney Spears released her debut single, "...Baby One More Time", in October 1998 which peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1999 and topped the chart for two weeks. It opened at number-one in the UK Singles Chart selling over 460,000 copies, a record for a female act at the time, and became the top-selling single of 1999 and the 25th most successful song of all time in British chart history with over 1.45 million units sold. Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), documented that "eyebrows were raised over the schoolgirl-in-heat persona Britney Spears projected in her [music video for ...Baby One More Time], along with an increasingly revealing series of stage outfits".
In 2007, Kristen Stewart appeared as teenager Lucy Hardwicke in In the Land of Women, a romantic drama starring Meg Ryan and The O.C. star Adam Brody. The film, as well as Kristen Stewart's performance, received mixed reviews. That same year, Kristen Stewart appeared in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed adaptation film Into the Wild. For her portrayal of Tracy—a teenage singer who has a crush on young adventurer Christopher McCandless—Kristen Stewart received generally positive reviews.
Mariah Carey was named after the song "They Call the Wind Mariah". Mariah Carey's parents divorced when she was three years old. While living in Huntington, racist neighbors allegedly poisoned the family dog and set fire to her family's car. After her parents' divorce, Mariah Carey had little contact with her father, and her mother worked several jobs to support the family. Mariah Carey spent much of her time at home alone and turned to music to occupy herself. Mariah Carey began singing at around the age of three, when her mother began to teach her after Mariah Carey imitated her mother practicing Verdi's opera Rigoletto in Italian.
In 2007 and 2008, Keeley Hazell and IT expert Gary Schwartz co-presented Byte Me TV, an online programme that tried to explain technology in an easy-to-understand way.
Mila Kunis was cast as Jackie Burkhart in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show in 1998. During the auditions, all people auditioning for the roles in the show were required to be at least 18 years old, so Mila Kunis told the casting staff at the audition that she was going to be 18 "on her birthday" not specifying to which birthday she was referring. Mila Kunis was actually 14 at the time of the audition and after receiving the part, Mila Kunis was able to continue in the role despite having misled the directors. Mila Kunis had been considered the best fit for the character and was thought to have been creative in her way of gaining the audition despite her age. That '70s Show ran for eight seasons, becoming the second longest-running live-action sitcom on Fox.
