Word: rodriguez
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...plan as a "temporary, precautionary, internal transfer of oil." Clinton and Gore hope that diplomacy has now succeeded in preventing an OPEC backlash, while also sending the signal that America is prepared to take concrete action to lower the price of oil. On Saturday the Venezuelan oil minister, Ali Rodriguez, the current OPEC president, spoke in support of the release...
...years ago, it looked as though the movie world was about to knock Michelle Rodriguez out of the ring. The would-be actress was living with her mom in Jersey City, N.J., and laboring as an extra in movies like Summer of Sam; the thankless, anonymous work was wearing her out. Then she saw an ad in Back Stage for a Latina actress to portray a boxer in a new film. Rodriguez didn't box and had never auditioned for a speaking role in a movie before, but the ad intrigued her. "I thought, If I'm going to quit...
Looks as if we have a winner. Beating out more than 300 other women, Rodriguez, 22, won the lead in Girlfight, an independent film about a female boxer's athletic and romantic struggles. Girlfight's budget was small ($1 million), but the film is having a big-time impact: it won a prize for directing and shared an award for best drama at this year's Sundance Film Festival. And Rodriguez's no-punches-pulled performance has critics sputtering superlatives like Don King hyping a pay-per-view fight. To prepare for the role, Rodriguez trained for 4 1/2 months...
...person Rodriguez looks more like a Maxim cover girl than a pugilist (she has dropped 10 lbs. since Girlfight wrapped). But when she speaks, she talks tough, skipping the float-like-a-butterfly thing and going right for the bee sting. How is she finding Hollywood so far? "I've met a lot of hypocrites." How did she approach her part? "I pretended it was a rap song, and I would recite my lines and recite them until I got the rhythm of it." Whom does she admire? "I freakin' love [martial-arts star] Michelle Yeoh! She kicks ass, like...
...Rodriguez's father (now deceased) hailed from Puerto Rico, and her mother is from the Dominican Republic. She was raised in both places and in Texas and New Jersey to boot. She dropped out of high school in ninth grade but later got a G.E.D. Her decision to go into acting came after one of her two older brothers told her to get a job. "I don't like working at anything I don't like to do," she says. "I figured, Why not become an actress so I can see what it's all about and meet people...