Celebrity crush: Kate Mara (updated)
Hometown: Bedford, N.Y., according to her Wikipedia entry.
Best Known For: Mara's biggest screen credits have been a co-starring role in the Mark Wahlberg sniper film Shooter and a small role in the film Brokeback Mountain (playing a daughter of Heath Leader's character), but she's been working for a decade.
Her long list of television appearances includes an episode of Greg Berlanti's Everwood that was the single most nuanced, thought-provoking and intelligent discussion of abortion issues that Ye Olde Podcaster has ever seen on television and a multi-episode run on the prematurely canceled WB drama Jack & Bobby -- a later Berlanti production, one that is sadly not yet available on DVD.
Humble Beginnings: She caught the acting bug after seeing Les Mis when she was a kid and grew up idolizing Judy Garland. Her first TV or film audition was for Homicide: Life on the Street -- which she didn't get, but it indicates she had good taste even at age 14.
Family Ties: When the American films based on Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy" arrive, she may well become better known as "the older of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Her younger sister, Rooney Mara -- with whom she's pictured at right -- secured the most coveted role in Hollywood, playing anti-social hacker Lisbeth Salander in the trilogy. (The sisters have apparently told the press they don't compete, though. Let's hope that stays true.)
Not Quite a Weeds Tie-In: Mara co-starred in a movie called The Californians that Ye Olde Podcaster has never heard of, and she sang several songs that are on its soundtrack, including a cover of Malvina Reynolds' 1962 folk song "Little Boxes," which was performed by scads of different people as the theme song for the first few seasons of Weeds.
She also got naked (without showing any R-rated parts) in the pages of Esquire and Jane and didn't wear much more when introduced to the audience in the movie Shooter. (Note: Not a complaint.)
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: In addition to being smoking hot, she's no slouch in the acting department. Her work on Jack & Bobby, in particular, revealed her skill at playing a multifaceted character -- the semi-bad girl with more heart than she cared to let on. Part of that could be that she smiles like the Cheshire Cat -- well, not exactly, but she always looks like she's up to something, in on some secret you're not. (Or perhaps that's my own neurosis.)
