Jessica Claire Biel, born
March 3, 1982, has instantly moved herself to the spotlight with a controversial
layout in Gear magazine in which even her own television dad on
7th
Heaven, Stephen Collins, has called 'child pornography'. Jessica's
18th birthday is about 3 months after her photo shoot with the Bob Guccione
Jr. backed magazine.
By
Jessica's own admission, the cheesy topless layout was done to provoke
Aaron Spelling into releasing her from her contract. She has said that
Spelling angrily told Biel "I own you!" though Spelling denies the charges.
Those who read TV Guide saw this tension coming as in a March '99
interview with them she caught the ire of 7th Heaven producers by
saying she'd like to see her character "have sex with one of the bishops
or something." She also upset the crew by cutting her own hair before the
start of the '99 season, where she exclaimed "The producers were pissed.
I told them, 'Hey, it grows back.' But they didn't see it that way." Jessica's
attitude leads many to compare her to Shannen Doherty, the controversial
former 90210 actress who also heated up the Spelling set with hissy
fits and controversy. Insiders at 7th Heaven have labeled Biel a
'bitch' right from the start as an inside source tells E! Online "She's
always been unhappy with her storylines". In the Gear interview,
Biel shows her tremendous immaturity by saying of her television sister,
Beverly Mitchell, "I'll grab her by the t--- and be like, 'Look at the
size of these things,' It really p--- her off."
Most of Jessica's concern
is her inability to land the sex oriented roles that many of her teen oriented
peers have, though she recently won the role opposite Freddie Prinze Jr.
in Summer Catch. Her family oriented role as Mary Camden she says
has caused movie producers to shy away from her and she's worried about
getting typecast. She says of her character on the show "I'd kick her f---ing
ass. I'd kick the s--- out of her and then she'd apologize for hurting
my fists." All this has done nothing to change Spellings feelings about
her staying on the show, as a spokesperson has stated she's under contract
for the next two seasons and they are looking forward to working with her
until that ends. Just recently, Jessica said she regretted the entire Gear
magazine stunt and counts the entire ordeal as a learning experience.
Certainly Jessica's younger
days were tamer, where she was born in Ely, Minnesota and raised in Boulder,
Colorado. Jessica started doing plays at the age of nine with roles in
The
Sound of Music, Annie, Beauty and the Beast, and
Anything
Goes. In 1994 while attending Diane Hardin's Young Actor's Space
in Los Angeles, Jessica was discovered by her current manager (and incidentally,
he and Jessica's father were at the Gear photo shoot when the pictures
were taken) Jeff Morrone at Innovative Artists. What followed were several
modeling covers including Sassy Magazine in '96, Teen and
Moxie
Girl in 1998, and the huge honor from
People Magazine in '99
when they named her one of the worlds 50 most beautiful people. Her on-screen
career began in 1996 where she played Mary Camden, the oldest daughter
of a minister couple in the aforementioned
7th Heaven. She also
branched out to the big screen with parts in
Ulee's Gold in '97
and I'll Be Home For Christmas in 1998, where she played opposite
Home
Improvement's Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The question remains now what
will be in the future of Jessica's acting career and what will the repercussions
of her childish ranting and posing partially nude as a minor have on her
ability to score future roles in Hollywood. |
