Brooke Christa Camille Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress, author and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That 70's Show and Lipstick Jungle.Early life:
Shields was born in New York City into a well-known American society family with links to Italian and French nobility. Her grandmother was the Italian princess Donna Marina Torlonia. Her father, Frank Shields, was a businessman, and her mother, Teri Shields, managed her career. During her early years, Shields lived at 73 W. 59th St. in Manhattan.
When Brooke was only five-days-old, her mother decided she was going to have a show business career. According to her mother, "....She was the most beautiful child," and she was going to help her with her career. At eight-years-old, Brooke Shields posed nude; and, at age 10, she was paid $45 to appear in, Playboy.
Shields adopted her middle name, "Camille," for her Confirmation at age 10. Shields' parents divorced when she was a child. She has three half-sisters and two step-siblings. She attended the all-girl Lenox School and graduated from the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1983. Into the mid-1980s, Shields was a resident of Haworth, New Jersey.
At age 12, Shields played a 12-year-old child prostitute. At age 16, she had already worked for 16 years and had made more money than the President of the United States. Eileen Ford, founder of the Ford Modeling Agency, said of Brooke Shields: "....She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one."
Personal life:In the June 2009 issue of Health magazine, Shields announced she lost her virginity at age 22. She said she would have had sex earlier if she had had a better image of her body.
In the mid 1980s while at Princeton, Shields dated classmate Dean Cain. Shields has also been linked to John F. Kennedy Jr, actor Liam Neeson and singer George Michael. She was also a favorite date of Prince Naruhito of Japan. After a romantic interlude with John Travolta, the 16 year-old Brooke Shields dated 18 year-old Mohammed, son of the arm-dealer billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, in Cannes where they first met. At 18, Brooke Shields met Dodi Fayed and they became friends. Brooke was 24 years old when she spent the evening with Dodi Fayed in Paris to celebrate his 33rd birthday.
By the 1990s, Brooke Shields would be exhibiting her physique as an extension of her womanhood, promoting physical fitness as an extension of femininity, demonstrating that femininity and athletics are consistent rather than incongruous. Although she was not the only one, Shields had what was required to promote woman athletics into the American mainstream: she was very feminine as a celebrity and as a model she really liked to dress up.
Shields has been married twice. From April 19, 1997 to April 9, 1999, Shields was married to professional tennis player Andre Agassi; the couple had been together since 1993. On April 4, 2001, she married television writer Chris Henchy. The couple have two daughters: Rowan Frances (b. May 15, 2003) and Grier Hammond (b. April 18, 2006).
Postpartum depression:In the spring of 2005, Shields spoke to magazines (such as Guideposts) and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to publicize her battle with postpartum depression, an experience that included depression, thoughts of suicide, an inability to respond to her baby's needs and delayed maternal bonding. The illness may have been triggered by a traumatic childbirth, the death of her father three weeks earlier, stress from in vitro fertilization, a miscarriage and a family history of depression, as well as the hormones and life changes which were brought on by childbirth. Her book, Down Came the Rain, discusses her experience, contributing to a greater public awareness of postpartum depression.
In May 2005, Tom Cruise, a Scientologist whose beliefs frown upon psychiatry, condemned Shields, both personally and professionally, particularly for both using and speaking in favor of the antidepressant drug Paxil. As Cruise said, "Here is a woman and I care about Brooke Shields, because I think she is an incredibly talented woman, you look at [and think], where has her career gone?" Shields responded that Cruise's statements about anti-depressants were "irresponsible" and "dangerous." She said that he should "stick to fighting aliens" (a reference to Cruise's starring role in War of the Worlds as well as some of the more exotic aspects of Scientology doctrine and teachings), "and let mothers decide the best way to treat postpartum depression." The actress responded to a further attack by Cruise in an essay "War of Words" published in The New York Times on July 1, 2005, in which she made an individual case for the medication and said, "In a strange way, it was comforting to me when my obstetrician told me that my feelings of extreme despair and my suicidal thoughts were directly tied to a biochemical shift in my body. Once we admit that postpartum is a serious medical condition, then the treatment becomes more available and socially acceptable. With a doctor's care, I have since tapered off the medication but, without it, I wouldn't have become the loving parent I am today." On August 31, 2006, according to USAToday.com, Cruise privately apologized to Shields for the incident and Shields accepted and said that it was "heartfelt." Three months later, she and her husband attended the wedding of Cruise and Katie Holmes, in November, 2006.
Shields is a spokeswoman for Tupperware's Chain of Confidence SMART Girls campaign, a program that teaches girls to nurture their mental and physical well-being.
Relationship with Michael Jackson:Shields spoke at the memorial service for Michael Jackson on July 7, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, before a television audience of more than one billion people. Shields stated in that speech that she first met Michael when she was 13 years old, and the two instantly became friends. Shields said:
Thinking back to when we met and the many times that we spent together and whenever we were out together, there would be a caption of some kind, and the caption usually said something like 'an odd couple' or 'an unlikely pair,' but to us it was the most natural and easiest of friendships... Michael always knew he could count on me to support him or be his date and that we would have fun no matter where we were. We had a bond... Both of us needed to be adults very early, but when we were together, we were two little kids having fun.
In her eulogy speech, she also shared a number of anecdotes, including an occasion in which she was his date for one of Elizabeth Taylor's weddings, and the pair sneaked into Taylor's room to get the first look at her dress, only to discover Taylor asleep in the bed. Shields gave a tearful speech, referencing the many times she and Michael Jackson shared and briefly joked about his famous sequin glove. She also mentioned Jackson’s favorite song "Smile" by Charlie Chaplin which was later sung in the memorial service by Jermaine Jackson.
New York Times columnist Gail Collins noted that "it was a little peculiar hearing Brooke Shields’s weepy testimony about her deep friendship with Jackson given the fact that she told reporters that the last time she saw him was at Elizabeth Taylor’s eighth wedding in 1991." This however does not agree with Michael's statements during his 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey that he was dating Shields at the time, as well as with the fact that Shields was Michael Jackson's date to the 1993 Grammys. Shields has stated that Jackson asked her to marry him numerous times and to adopt a child together.
Jackson said of Shields in a conversation with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in 2001:That was one of the loves of my life. I think she loved me as much as I loved her, you know? We dated a lot. We, we went out a lot. Her pictures were all over my wall, my mirror, everything. And I went to the Academy Awards with Diana Ross and this girl walks up to me and says "Hi, I'm Brooke Shields." Then she goes "Are you going to the after-party?" I go, "Yeah." "Good, I'll see you at the party." I'm going "Oh my God, does she know she's all over my room?" So we go the after-party. She comes up to me she goes, "Will you dance with me?" I went, "Yes. I will dance with you." Man, we exchanged numbers and I was up all night, singing, spinning around my room, just so happy. It was great.
