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Hailed as the teen queen of
the mid-'90s, Alicia Silverstone rapidly ascended the summit of idolism
with the help of an infamous Aerosmith video and starring roles in the
cult trash favorite The Crush, and Amy Heckerling's sleeper hit
Clueless.
Despite such a promising beginning to her career, however, the
vivacious, green-eyed blonde
subsequently weathered a series of
professional set-backs, due to poor film choices, weight issues, and an
industry increasingly congested with such similarly ebullient young
starlets as Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
By the end of the decade, Silverstone's future looked uncertain,
although many observers noted that her youth and talent made her
chances for a comeback entirely plausible.
Born to English parents in San Francisco on October 4, 1976,
Silverstone is the daughter of a real-estate agent and an airline
stewardess. She began working as a child model at the age of six after
her father sent several pictures of her in a bathing suit to a few
agencies. Modeling work led to TV commercials, which in turn led to
work on a number of TV series including an episode of The Wonder Years
which cast her as Fred Savage's literal dream girl. At the age of 15,
Silverstone landed her first starring role in The Crush (1993), a Fatal
Attraction for the Noxema set in which she portrayed a young woman
obsessed with an older man (Cary Elwes).
Although the film was trashed by critics, it was a hit among its
teenage target audience, and Silverstone -- who had become legally
emancipated from her parents while making the film in order to work
longer hours -- was feted at the 1994 MTV Movie
Awards with trophies for Best Villain and Breakthrough Performance.
Around the same time, she starred in the popular music
videofor Aerosmith's
"Crazy." Her onscreen antics with Liv Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith
frontman Steven, coupled with her vampish turn in The Crush virtually
ensured Silverstone's status as Hollywood's
latest embodiment of nubile, underage female sexuality.
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