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Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Hull High, TV, 1990. Garth passed on the teen soap musical to accept an offer from iconic TV producer Aaron Spelling. She chose well. High was so low it was canned after six airings, while Jenni was Kelly Taylor for all 292 episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 during 1990-2000, plus three chapters of Melrose Place, 1992, and 20 more in 90210, 2008-2010. She also played herself six times in the third version: BH90210, in 2019. Jennifer Blanc is Mrs Michael Biehn.
- Tiffani Thiessen, Saved By The Bell, TV, 1993-1994. The rivals for Kelly Kapowski became friends – and later co-starreed in Beverly Hills 90210, 1994-200. Furthermodre, it was Jennie who planned the blind date that introduced Tiffani to her husband, actor Brady Smith.
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Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma, 1995. Garth, Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane and Joely Richardson – “we had many actresses, big and small, who wanted this part,” said US autuer Douglas McGrath. He chose Gwyneth for his ultra British (Jane Austen) heroine. Because, ironically, of her brilliant Texan accent in Flesh and Bone. “I grew up in Texas, and I’ve never heard an actor not from Texas sound remotely like a real Texan. I knew she had theatre training… The minute she started the read-through, the very first line, I thought: She’s going to be brilliant.”
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Kate Hudson, Almost Famous, 2000. Looking for his Penny Lane groupie in his semi-autobiographical look back to his Rolling Stone reporter daze,auteur Cameron Crowe saw 48 of LA’s bright young things… Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Lara Flynn Boyle, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Claire Danes, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jenna Elfman, Jennie Garth, Maggie Gyllenhal, Alyson Hannigan, Angie Harmon, Anne Heche, Katherine Heigl, Jordan Ladd, Kimberly McCullough (busier as a TV director these days, High School Musical: The Musical – The Series, etc), Rose McGowan, Bridget Moynahan, Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laura Prepon, Lindsay Price, Christina Ricci, Rebecca Romijn, Winona Ryder, Chloë Sevigny, Marley Shelton Tori Spelling, Mena Suvari, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, Lark Voorhies. Plus the English Saffron Burrows, Anna Friel, Thandiwe Newton and Rachel Weisz, Madrid’s Penélope Cruz, the French Charlotte Gainsbourg, Canada’s Natasha Henstridge, Ukrainian Milla Jovovich, Scottish Kelly Macdonald, Israeli Natalie Portman, German Franka Potente, Australian Peta Wilson and Welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones. And the winner, Canada’s Sarah Polley, simply split. (Silly girl). Crowe then chose Kate (previously booked for Anita) because “she seemed more like a free spirit.” But, but, but… Chloë was the freest spirit in all Hollywood. As she proved two years later in The Brown Bunny… in a way the others would never have dared.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4