Holly's Girls

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Yamit Sol from Israel

Yamit Sol, a beautiful actress from Israel will be seen in the latest Adam Sandler comedy.

Yamit Sol and Adam Sandler at the filming of You Don't Mess With The Zohan in Israel. The movie is about an Israeli spy Zohan (Adam Sandler) who wants to leave his life of action and danger to become....a hair-dresser in America! But in New York Zohan is recognized by some Arab cab drivers (one played by Rob Schneider), leading to some great comedy-action scenes. Another star in the movie is Emmanuelle Chriqui.

In the movie Yamit Sol portrays a Mossad agent named Dorit. Her scenes were shot in the US last September, after which Yamit flew down to Mexico, where the Israeli parts of the movie were filmed! It was here that Yamit Sol gave an interview to the Mexican edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Yamit was excited about being part of a Hollywood production and spoke about her girlish excitement at seeing her photo on the movie poster; although she had a bit part in the 2006 movie, Mount of Olive. But the frills that come with a big-budget movie had the Israeli actress bowled over.....from the first class flight, a chauffeur-driven car, cell phone, and the endless courses of food on set. Yamit joked about how she would adjust back in Israel where all that the actors on her show get is a cup of coffee!

Yamit Sol was born Yamit Suisa in Haifa, Israel on January 1 1982. Unlike fellow Israeli beauty Bar Refaeli, Yamit Sol is dark-haired and dusky, and claimed by many as a true Israeli beauty. Recently she was in the local Israeli news as a potential star for the upcoming James Bond movie, where the film producers were looking for a dark-haired Latino look for the new Bond girl. Yamit says that in Hollywood people commented on her resemblance with Penelope Cruz, while back in Israel everyone thinks she has an Angelina Jolie likeness.

Yamit Sol's mother was a kindergarten teacher while her father was in the construction business...they moved to Jerusalem when Yamit was two. Yamit grew up with a brother and two sisters, but her parents soon got divorced. Apart from this Yamit Sol had a normal upbringing, and the path to her future career became clear in school when she took up theater. At age 16 while wandering in a mall Yamit was approached by a photographer and asked if she would like to take up modeling....the pretty young teen agreed.

Despite becoming a model Yamit Sol was very self-conscious about doing interviews and saying the wrong things. Yamit began her career on Israeli TV as a presenter on a Top Ten music show. She had an earlier brief appearance as a model on the TV show, Cafe Paris (1996). Then at age 19 she suddenly quit her modeling and acting careers to study....clinical psychology!

Yamit says that she needed to prove something to herself. While completing her BA in Clinical Psychology, Yamit did waitressing to support herself financially. She was excused from the two-year compulsory military service in her country, and returned at age 23 to pick-up her modeling and acting careers....by this time she had fallen in love with and married Eyal Feldman who is 10 years older than Yamit!

Marriage made little difference to Yamit's modeling career...she returned to her contract with Rafi Agiv of Image Models (this same person had a dispute with supermodel Bar Refaeli over some unpaid fees). Standing 5'7" and with a naturally slim body, Yamit Sol was chosen to head the campaign for Bianco Jeans in Israel (2007-08).

Yamit Sol has had a varied career on Israeli TV; in a long-running comedy/musical called Ha Pijamot, appearing in bit roles on other shows, and lately as a computer hologram in Ha Nefilim:

Yamit Sol has also appeared in movies like A House Divided (2006) and Shoshelet Schwartz (2005). After her role in a Hollywood film maybe we'll see much more of this Israeli beauty. The name Yamit in Hebrew means, "the sea", which is ironical since Yamit Sol had a great fear of sharks and gets chills watching them even on television! Her husband made Yamit do a little bit of snorkeling to get over this fear. Yamit Sol and Eyal Feldman live together in the plush town of Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv.

Yamit Sol is addicted to her cell phone and using the internet; she is particularly fond of browsing through Wikipedia. Despite her slim frame, Yamit says she loves eating and especially, sampling food at restaurants.

Yamit Sol with fellow Israeli beauty Hila Eran

Recently Yamit Sol became the face of Israeli fashion company Bonita, replacing Sharon Gnish, for an annual fee of $100,000. She also intends to continue pursuing her alternative career choice of clinical psychology.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Bar Refaeli's mother

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli holds her brother On's hand while behind them her father Rafi walks alongside Bar Refaeli's mother Tzipi.

In her Sports illustrated interview, Bar Refaeli referred to her mother as being her personal hero and ideal. This is only natural since mother and daughter are so close and Tzipi has been managing her daughter's career from childhood. And Tzipi has done this so well because she was a model, a famous Israeli model by the name of Tzipi Levine, in the 1970s....her name is also spelled Tsipi and Zipi. But now it turns out she was also an actress for some time, and had a role in the 1971 Israeli movie Katz V'Carasso.

Tsipi Levine then married a night-club owner, with whom she had a son Neil (now 32), but divorced him to marry Rafi. "Everybody thought I was crazy to get married to this farmer I'd known only three weeks, when I'd just left 'Warren Beatty'", said Tzipi in a magazine interview. Warren Beatty is the dashing Hollywood actor who was (and still is for some) a sex symbol in the 60s and 70s....maybe Tzipi's first husband was like him?

Or maybe Tsipi Levine had a teen crush on Warren Beatty...because she definitely met him when he came to Israel (B&W photo for sale on e-bay):

So the question is, did Tzipi Levine date then Hollywood heartthrob Warren Beatty? Just like her daughter is now dating Leonardo DiCaprio?

Monday, March 17, 2008

Bar Refaeli love hate

Beautiful Bar Refaeli has a love-hate relationship with her country Israel. Bar Refaeli did her country proud by becoming the first Israeli model to feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.....first in 2007 and then again in 2008. She hit the modeling stage much earlier though and appeared in the South African edition of Sports Illustrated (2002): Everyone in Israel loved her for these achievements, and when she came back home in March 2007, there was a mad rush by the local media to get her photos, to interview her, and even to chase her around like paparazzi wherever she went! This snapped something inside the beautiful model. In an interview Bar Refaeli said she would never visit Israel again: "The paparazzi there are rude and they touch me," Refaeli said in an interview with the British magazine Tatler. "In Israel, everyone thinks they can do all sorts of stuff. They feel that they can talk to me, touch me, and say, Hold on a minute, and I'll stop." "I'm not comfortable in Israel," the 22-year-old told interviewer Camilla Long. "I just feel very uncomfortable." Interestingly Bar Refaeli's love-hate relationship with Israel has an older history. Israeli citizens (men and women) are required to serve in the Israeli army for a short period when they turn 18; unless they are physically disabled, ultra-religious, or married. In 2004, Bar Refaeli, already a famous model, arranged a fake marriage with 41-year old Ari Weinstein, a close family friend. People in Israel were enraged, saying that other young people and girls were dying for their country while Bar Refaeli was living peacefully and advancing her modeling career, and now when it was her time to serve the nation, she chickened out. But what caused even more hate towards the young beauty was when she gave a defiant interview and said, "I don't regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time." Bar Refaeli, who settled down in New York, went on to ask, "Why is it good to die for one's country? Isn't it better to live in New York?" Luckily for her, Bar Refaeli soon hit the news first with her modeling work (O’Neill, Moët & Chandon, Recarlo) then by appearing in several magazine spreads and covers (French Elle, Italian GQ, British Maxim, and Arena). Bar Refaeli is primarily a photo model and appeared on the catwalk mostly in swimsuits and lingerie, because of her super body. Bar Refaeli has body measurements of 35-24-35 and a height of 5'9". She has been riding horses since her childhood and that has improved her posture and poise. Bar Refaeli's relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio threw her more into the headlines. The two met in November 2005, a few weeks after DiCaprio ended his relationship with supermodel Giselle Bundchen. Fellow Israeli Danny Avikazer organized a party in Las Vegas for U2 band members who were in town. DiCaprio, like hundreds of other celebrities, was invited to grace the event. Also, Refaeli, who knew Avikazer from the glamorous parties he holds in New York, was invited to the private party and arrived escorted by her friend, model Adi Neumann. After their first meeting Leo wooed the beautiful Israeli girl by sending a huge flower bouquet every morning to her hotel room. This went on for 10 days. After Bar and Leo became a couple, he continued to pamper her with special chocolates and text messages. That Leonardo DiCaprio had a new love interest became known in the US when this photo appeared of him and Bar Refaeli taking a ride at the Six Flags Magic Mountain "Scream Ride" in Valencia, California. Bar Refaeli had her own relationships before hooking up with Leo– first with Uri El-Natan, and then with ex-Baywatch star David Charvet. When Leo was shooting in Mozambique for The Blood Diamond, he found time in his busy schedule to meet his lover in Barcelona, where Refaeli was doing a fashion show. DiCaprio introduced the pretty Israeli girl to his mother and grandmother. With her growing international profile, the 21-year old Bar Refaeli was asked by her government to represent Israel at the World Travel Market tourism fair in London (2006). She then became tourism ambassador for Israel. But the love-hate relationship with her country continued when Bar Refaeli was chosen the fashion model of the year and also as the fashion star of the year. But the arrogant model said, "Sometimes my mom tells me I was voted number one whatever in Israel. She asks if I'm excited, and I say, No. I really don't care. Let's move on." In fact many in Israel, including the government, hated the fact that an unpatriotic draft-dodger had been made tourism ambassador. On March 10, 2008, Bar Refaeli was invited to attend a State Dinner held in France for the visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres. This despite some in Israel demanding that people who had not done their military service should not have been invited.....but as many others pointed out President Shimon Peres himself had not done his compulsory military service back when he was 18! It was ironic that the Israeli model was at that State Dinner, since the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy was in the news for his affair with a French model, Carla Bruni! Later of course he married Carla...wonder if the two models talked shop? So is there anything that Bar Refaeli loves about her country? She says she loves eating in the restaurants and riding horses, which she learned in childhood, while growing up on her parents' ranch in Hod HaSharon. Born June 4 1985, to Tzipi and Rafi, Bar Refaeli first appeared in a commercial when only eight months old. It was her mother who saw the potential in her pretty daughter. Interestingly Bar Refaeli's mother was also a model, going by her maiden name Tzipi Levin. So she knew what it would take for her daughter to make it big in the modeling business; a similar story with the mother of Brazilian model Yasmin Brunet Fernandez. Bar Refaeli really started her modeling career at age 15, after getting her braces removed. In 2000 she won the model-of-the-year title in Israel, a feat which she repeated the next year. And after that Bar Refali's stunning body appeared on the international stage with Sports Illustrated South Africa. In a clear case of ignorance combined with arrogance, Bar Rafeli once claimed that her name was unique. "When I was born, nobody was named ‘Bar’. But my mother was famous, and when I was born, a big article was published featuring my name in large print. Now loads of kids are called ‘Bar’, boys and girls." Actually Bar is an Israeli name, the most famous "Bar" in Jewish history being Bar Kochba. Bar with Leo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. There was speculation that their relationship had ended, though Leo visited her in Israel in March 2007, when Bar and surfer Kelly Slater were together for a time in Israel. But then Leo and Bar were again seen together shopping early this year. Bar told Vanity Fair Italy that she has no intentions of settling down just yet. “The truth is, I don’t believe in marriage. A couple doesn’t need a contract.” Arena Magazine named her the Best Body of 2008 and published these photos to make the point: Curiously, Bar Refaeli had broken her contract with Renuar, the company that brought her to public attention, because they wanted her to pose for provocative and nude photos. The case went to court where Bar Refaeli was awarded $35,000 in damages due to her young age at the time of the contract. Ironically Bar Refaeli then appeared in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition semi-nude! And despite the love-hate relationship that Bar Refaeli has with her native Israel, these photos were taken at the Dan Caesarea Resort in Israel. Bar Refaeli is online on Twitter and Facebbok to connect with her fans. update: Bar Refaeli is the cover girl for the 2009 Sports Illustrated!