Another great movie I recently saw was Little Miss Sunshine. In the latter part of the movie there was a girl that immediately grabbed my attention: Lauren Shiohama who portrayed Miss California. This was her first (small) movie role, before this she did some television and appeared on a gameshow (Deal or No Deal) in the US.I could not find any more information on her, but I am guessing she has Japanese blood, because of her surname. If anybody has some more info, feel free to comment.

UPDATE: Thanks to one of our readers we now know more.

Lauren graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a minor in Business Administration. Prior to pursuing modeling and acting full time, she had aspirations of a career in business. However, on the advice of a family friend, she decided to take a leap of faith and move to Los Angeles in hopes of pursuing her dream career in the entertainment industry.

Lauren recently made her feature film debut when she played “Miss California” in Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris’ “Little Miss Sunshine,” which received rave reviews at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Additionally, she has done numerous print campaigns for companies such as Nike, Target, 24 Hour Fitness, Kohl’s Department Stores, Disney, New York New York Hotel and Casino, Best Buy, Shape Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour Magazine.

Lauren Shiohama @ imdb.com
LaurenShiohama.com (online soon?)
Lauren Shiohama @ Deal or No Deal

One of the best films I saw this year was Babel. One of the storylines takes place in Japan. A deaf-mute girl is struggling with her place in modern Japanese society. The girl, Chieko, is played by Rinko Kikuchi. A little research led me to a bunch of photos of this young Japanese actress, and I was surprised to see how different she looked on all of them. More info and some clips in

Some facts

Name: Rinko (Yuriko) Kikuchi
Date of birth: January 6,1981
Place of Birth: Kanagawa, Japan
Ethnicity: Japanese
Height: 5’5” (168cm)
Weight: 105.8lbs (48kg)
Eyes: brown
Hair: black

Some Links

Rinko Kikuchi @ imdb.com
Rinko Kikuchi @ anore.co.jp (official site)
Rinko Kikuchi @ wikipedia.org

Babel short clip

Babel long clip

Babel film trailer

Ohw, and for those who are wondering, yes, she does appear completely naked in the movie. But since it’s a very dramatic movie, I don’t think it is a real turn on…