The Latest Numbers (And a Correction)

I have now posted 405 different women on this blog.

Things have been a little hectic for me recently, and I'm also considering another special month devoted to women in the same profession - likely dance - for December. So rather than start a new A-Z series of random subjects, I'm most likely going to take things easy in November and revisit women I've already featured on this blog. So if you have any old favorites among the 405 women I've already paid tribute to here, stay tuned - you just might be rewarded with a reprise!

Heck, I'll even take requests. Please feel free to contact me at vwgolfman2000@comcast.net if there's a woman you'd like to see here again, and I'll see what I can do. But don't pester me.

Note: In August 2009 I featured actress Kathleen Turner and referred to her movie Body Heat (1980) as being directed by Brian DePalma. It was, in fact, directed by Lawrence Kasdan. I confused that movie with Body Double (1984) which was directed by Brian DePalma: I have since corrected the error on my original post. Thanks to the anonymous party who caught that mistake.

Political commentator Joan Walsh

Joan Walsh is the editor-in-chief at Salon.com, a politically liberal Web site based in San Francisco covering culture and public affairs.

She joined Salon.com as its first full-time news editor in 1998, and she became managing editor six years later.

Joan Walsh has been a ubiquitous presence on cable television, especially on MSNBC and CNN.

Actress Lea Thompson

The classic time travel movie Back To the Future found Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) going thirty years back in time from the date of Saturday, October 26, 1985 (the movie actually came out a few months earlier than that date). Twenty-five years to the day after that date, the cast of that movie re-united on television - including Lea Thompson, who played Lorraine McFly, Marty's mother, at both the ages of 17 and 47. (Thompson was 24 at the time.)

So, who do you think I'm going to feature today? :-)

The Minnesota-born Thompson aspired to be a ballet dancer but became an actress when, studying under Mikhail Baryshnikov, was told by the great Russian dancer she didn't have the right build for ballet. She then became an actress and distinguished herself in her first big film - 1983's All The Right Moves, in which she played the girlfriend of a high school student (Tom Cruise) vying for a football scholarship. She played Marty McFly's mother and great-grandmother in sequels to Back To The Future, as well as appearing in the Howard Deutch movie Some Kind of Wonderful. She married Deutch in 1989.

Lea Thompson also played a cartoonist in the late-nineties TV series "Caroline In the City."

TV newswoman Susan Roesgen

Susan Roesgen is an intrepid television reporter and anchorwoman who has worked at several television stations, from WABC-TV in New York and WDSU-TV in New Orleans to KFMB-TV in San Diego.

In 2005 she joined CNN and reported on Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans before moving to CNN's Chicago bureau in 2007. Her career took an unexpected and unfortunate turn when she interviewed angry people at a Tea Party rally in downtown Chicago in April 2009 and posed some piercing questions, only to get roughed up by the demonstrators. CNN later announced that it would not renew her contract after Tea Party activists complained about her.

This was completely unfair. I saw that report, and Ms. Roesgen was not to blame for what happened. She became a heorine of mine after her valiant efforts to reveal the Tea Party for what they are.

Model/artist Wanakee Pugh

Wanakee Pugh (pronounced "pew," like church seating) is one of the most recognizable faces from the 1980s, as one of the biggest black fashion models of the time . . . and one of the biggest models of that time regardless of race.

Wanakee (she went only by her first name as a model), who's originally from the Midwest, took an interest in paintings and spent much of her free time going to art museums. By the time she retired from modeling in 1999, her choice for a new career was obvious.

She now spends a great deal of time in Illinois and Wisconsin, painting pictures of various styles and looking for new ways to create different kinds of art.

Click here for her Web site. :-)

And by the way, today's her birthday! :-D

Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Gugulethu "Gugu" Mbatha-Raw is a British actress who has recently made the transition to American television.

Having appeared in two U.K. series - she played Jenny in the fifth season of "Spooks" and Tish Jones in the third series of the new version of "Doctor Who" - Gugu Mbatha-Raw now plays Samantha Bloom in the drama "Undercovers," an NBC series about married spies, airing on Wednesday nights at 8 PM Eastern.

Don't expect a discussion about it at the water cooler on Thursday mornings, though; the series has been struggling in the ratings. So if you've been watching "Undercovers" and like what you see - especially if you like Ms. Mbatha-Raw - watch it while you can.

Model Laurel Lee

Laurel Lee is a model who was primarily active in the late seventies and in the eighties.


Her luxuriously long hair is undoubtedly her best feature. :-)


She was represented by the Wilhelmina agency at the height of her career.