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Jun 03
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Olga Fonda Finally Arrives
September 2011 Interview in Melroze Magazine.
Casting Bits: Hope Davis, James Rebhorn and Olga Fonda Join Real Steel
slashfilm.com – June 1, 2010 – Hope Davis (About Schmidt), James Rebhorn (Independence Day, The Game) and Olga Fonda (Love Hurts) has been cast in Shawn Levy’s futuristic robot boxing movie Real Steel. No word on what roles they will play.
General Information (Olga Fonda)
tvrage.com – Olga Fonda was born Olga Tchakova on October 1, 1982. She is 28 years old. She was married under the name Olga Fundamynsky until 2008. Born and raised in Moscow, Olga came to the United States at 14 years of age. She has been seen in several small uncredited upcoming roles in films including Little Fockers, Crazy Stupid Love, and Reel Steal.
Former Winthrop exchange student takes on Hollywood
Olga Tchakova has made it to Hollywood and adopted one of its famous last names: Fonda.
Olga Tchakova has made it to Hollywood and adopted one of its famous last names: Fonda.
Some people might remember her as a 14-year-old exchange student at Winthrop High School in 1996-1997 who came from Uhtka, just above the Arctic Circle in Russia. She later returned to attend the University of Maine at Augusta. Now she’s in a much warmer place and making her way as an actress and model as Olga Fonda. “Living in Los Angeles has given me an opportunity to pursue my dreams and has been able to open the doors to unlimited possibilities,” she said recently via e-mail.
Fonda’s introduction to America began with the Auclair family in East Winthrop. “Well, first of all, I was able to learn English,” she said. “I was also introduced to the beauty of the American culture through my lovely host family, my teachers and all of my friends in Maine. They believed in me and encouraged me to always follow my dreams.”
Fonda now speaks English with a hint of a Russian accent. “Her English is really great,” said Debora Hillier (formerly Auclair), who was her host mother. “From the third month she was a chatterbox; she has such a wonderful command of languages.” Several members of her former host family joined her recently in Boston for the East Coast premier of the movie “Love Hurts,” where she appears as Valeriya. “Olga plays a Russian ballerina love-interest of the young star,” said Hillier said. “She very convincingly breaks his heart as she did to a few of the Winthrop boys.”
“Love Hurts” premiered at the Strasbourg International Film Festival, the Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival in California, the 15th Annual Boston Film Festival, La Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles, and the Savannah Film Festival. Fonda said it will be screened at the Orlando Film Festival and the Big Apple Film Festival and has a theatrical opening in Los Angeles on Nov. 13. More info about “Love Hurts” is at www.lovehurts-movie.com .
Hillier, her husband Jim Hillier, and her son, Paul Auclair, attended the Boston Film Festival where the movie won Barra Grant the best director award and took the best comedy award at the Boston Film Festival. “Lovely Olga wanted to be a model,” Hillier said. “It was her aspiration and she never lost sight of that goal.”
At the UMA admissions department, Kristen Duplessis recalled Fonda as a bubbly, outgoing work/study student. “She was very successful doing student tours,” Duplessis said. “She’s such a sweetheart.” At UMA, Fonda majored in financial management. “I want to thank everyone at Winthrop and at UMA for letting me become a part of the exchange program and welcoming me into their schools, community, lives and hearts,” Fonda said. “It was an unforgettable experience and I will cherish the memories and friendships I have made in my heart forever.” When she’s back East, Fonda tries to visit her friends in Winthrop and Augusta. Hillier is hoping she can make it to Maine for a visit this year, and Fonda, too, said she hopes to be back soon.
Fonda still models for television and print commercials. She stands about 5-foot-8, and spent time modeling in Japan, Italy and the United States. She has appeared in “Nip/Tuck,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Melrose Place,” “Entourage,” and in many television commercials and advertising campaigns, including print ads in “Vogue,” “Bazaar,” and “Cosmopolitan.” “I am looking forward to continue working with creative and dedicated directors and actors,” Fonda said. “There is so much that I want to do, people to meet, places to visit. I want to do it all! As an actress, I would love to take the audience through the journey of a story in the most believable way.”
links: Olga Fonda on IMDB, Facebook, Wikipedia
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May 03
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Queen of the workout video Jane Fonda gets back in the old routine
By Daily Mail Reporter – Last updated at 1:47 AM on 3rd May 2010
Trim: Jane Fonda launches World Fitness Day at the weekend looking as fit as ever
It takes more than hip and knee replacement surgeries to stop the queen of the workout video. Jane Fonda defied her 72 years at the weekend, sliding into her 1980s leotard to host the first annual World Fitness Day in Atlanta, Georgia. The Oscar-winning actress looked as trim as ever as she demonstrated her trademark exercise moves in the tightly-fitted yellow and black number.
‘I’m part of a demographic that’s kind of ignored,’ She said. ‘We have to go into it with guns blazing and be as healthy as possible.’ The appearance comes just a year after she was photographed being pushed round New York’s JFK Airport in a wheelchair. Fonda had knee replacement surgery last year after wearing of the cartilage in her left knee left bone rubbing on bone. The surgery followed a hip replacement five years ago and years of painful back problems. In the past she has succumbed to plastic surgery, going under the knife for breast implants and cosmetic surgery to remove the bags under her eyes. But more recently she has insisted she is determined to grow old gracefully and naturally and has spoken out about cosmetic surgery.
Fonda became a Hollywood star after her appearance in Barbarella in 1968. But she is arguably more renowned for her vast exercise empire, making millions in the Eighties and Nineties from her gyms, keep fit books and videos. She famously encouraged her viewers to ‘go for the burn’ – which they did, by the millions. Her first exercise video, ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout’ released in 1982, remains one of the highest selling fitness videos of all time.
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Jun 09
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First Look: Ristorante Al Teatro
This new Pilsen spot is a feast for the eyes, even if the kitchen needs more rehearsal time
Metromix.com May 13, 2009 By M. Kathleen PrattRistorante Al Teatro
Address: 1227 W. 18th St., Chicago, IL, 60608
Phone: 312-784-9100
Hours: 4-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 4-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Week-old Pilsen spot Ristorante Al Teatro offers a full bill. There’s food, sure. But chef Maurizio Fonda‘s Italian fare is just part of the show. The other part, the lavish space in which it’s served, is a feast for the eyes.
In the Kitchen at Ristorante Al Teatro
The grand, 200-seat restaurant occupies the ground floor of Thalia Hall, the corner building that lords over the intersection of 18th and Allport Streets. The hall, named for the Greek muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, houses apartments on the upper levels, as well as retail spaces that are still undergoing renovations and an interior theater, the restaurant’s namesake, that’s next in line for restoration. Originally completed about the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the building earned city landmark designation nearly a century later, in 1989. But it was abandoned and in disrepair until late 2004, when restoration efforts began.
Though the building is late 19th Century, the ornate interior has been transformed into something almost Baroque. The restaurant has a larger-than-life feel, with four airy rooms spread out over two floors. There’s hardly an inch that’s not gilded, covered in some sort of polished stone or painted with trompe l’oeil curtains and arches. With its beautifully restored tin ceiling, fleur-de-lis patterned upholstery and other generally over-the-top embellishments (did we mention the downstairs waterfall?), there’s nowhere quite like it in the city.
Tucked away in the back of the ground-level dining room are two wood-fired pizza ovens where pizzaiolos toil under the watchful eye of a larger-than-life mural of Thalia herself. In any other restaurant, the brick ovens would be a focal point. Here, they’re just another piece of eye candy vying for your attention. But to overlook them would be a mistake.
Servers ferry the pizzas ($11.95-$14.95) from oven to table in seconds so they arrive still steaming, flame-kissed around the edges with a chewy crust and slightly wet center. As if taking a cue from the decor, the pizza menu covers a lot of ground, listing 20 options, from the house specialty pizza al galletto (roasted dark-meat chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, house-made pesto, goat cheese and mozzarella) to classics such as margherita, quattro fromaggi and pepperoni.
House-made pastas are a solid bet too, with options such as gnocchi al fromaggi ($13.95), soft, chewy pasta pillows in a rich five-cheese sauce, and rustic, mushroom-filled tortelloni alla boscaiola ($14.95).
Starting with our antipasto order-too-briny Mediterranean mussels in a savory white wine, herb and tomato broth-almost everything more nuanced than pizza or pasta went astray. Veal scaloppine ($21.95) was so overpowered by tart lemon juice that we could only manage a couple of bites before puckering up-and eventually giving up. Grigliata di calamari al limon ($14.95) suffered the opposite fate, though not to the same extreme. The grilled calamari had a divine smoky char but lacked the bright citrus notes needed for balance.
Ristorante Al Teatro owner Dominick Geraci also owns Caffe Gelato in Wicker Park, and the artisan gelati ($3.99 to go, $5.95 dine-in), available in two dozen flavors, are every bit as rich and silky as you’d expect. Other desserts, including wonderful house-made, chocolate-dipped cannoli ($7.95), are just as good. Most are available for carryout from the front gelato bar-which is perhaps your best option while Ristorante Al Teatro takes a little more time to rehearse its main act.
M. Kathleen Pratt is the Metromix dining producer. kpratt@tribune.com
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Jan 09
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Belly dancers show no skin
The Independent – January 9, 2009
Rensselaer, NY – Stop by the Rensselaer Area Senior Center any day of the week to find a bunch of senior citizens doing anything but acting their age. You’re more likely to find a flurry of activity from Tai Chi and yoga, to line dancing or belly dancing. There’s bowling and aqua aerobics, music and laughter everyday.
On Tuesdays you’ll find a group of ladies, often dressed in long skirts with headscarves and jingly belts involved in a belly dancing class. Often considered a dance of seduction, belly dancing is more like a folk dance, an ancient art form that for centuries has been a celebratory dance people would do to commemorate special occasions such as weddings, the birth of a child or community festivals in the Middle East.
Seniors Olive Felio, (l-r) instructor Lynn Buell, Irja Riano and Phyllis Kearbey practice belly dancing every Tuesday at the Rensselaer Area Senior Center, a lively dance class with a Middle Eastern twist. Photo by Catherine Sager.
It is a dance that men, women, and children do for fun, not necessarily as a performance for the entertainment of an audience. Just like at a wedding reception where guests might do waltzes, the electric slide, Macarena, or even the chicken dance. But for the participants of the Rensselaer Senior Center, it’s just one of many activities offered to active seniors.
“It’s a great way for seniors to get a workout,” said Lynn Buell, dance instructor. “It combines low-impact steps with gentle flowing movements, but is a surprisingly effective form of exercise.” Ms. Buell says the measured movements involve all major muscle groups and help with circulation, posture and balance. The music is soothing and the movements are so graceful and repetitive that it’s a stress reliever, she said. And it’s easy to learn. Anyone can do it. All that’s needed to know are a few simple steps. With slow and gentle movements, it’s the perfect exercise and a unique form of dance that doesn’t require a partner.
Gloria Fonda, the director of the center, wants it known that all Rensselaer County seniors 60 years or older are invited to visit the center. The center is an active, vibrant community where seniors can gather to take a class, catch up with friends or have a hot lunch every day at noon, for a suggested donation of $2.50. She said there is no fee for any activities on the calendar at the center at the corner of East and Herrick streets.
“It’s through the [Department of Aging] agency’s genuine concern for the health and welfare of our elders that the center serves so many so well,” said Ms. Fonda.
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Jan 01
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This is a duplicate of the listing on the fonda.org website.
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