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Revision as of 10:53, 15 July 2011

Jenny McCarthy
McCarthy in 2006
Born
Jennifer Ann McCarthy

(1972-11-01) November 1, 1972 (age 52)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.[1]
Occupation(s)Actress, comedian, model, author, activist
Years active1993–present
Spouse(s)John Mallory Asher
(1999-2005; 1 child)
Partner(s)Jim Carrey
(2005-2010)

Jennifer Ann "Jenny" McCarthy (born November 1, 1972)[1][2] is an American model, comedian, actress, author and activist. She began her career as a Playboy magazine model in 1993, before launching a television and film acting career. Most recently, she has written books about parenting, and has become an activist promoting claims—not supported by medical evidence—that vaccines cause autism[3] and that chelation therapy helps cure it.[4]

Early life

McCarthy was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois to a middle-class Catholic family of Polish and Irish descent. She lived in the West Elsdon neighborhood of Chicago.[5][6] She is the second of four daughters; her sisters are named Lynette, Joanne and Amy. Her cousin is actress Melissa McCarthy of Gilmore Girls fame.[7] McCarthy's mother, Linda, was a housewife and courtroom custodian, and her father, Dan McCarthy, was a steel mill foreman.[8][9] She attended St. Turibius Grade School on Chicago's South Side.[citation needed] As a teenager, McCarthy attended Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School (whose school sweater she donned in the pages of Playboy) and was a cheerleader at both Brother Rice High School and St. Laurence High Schools,[10] although she has referred to herself as an "outcast" at her school.[11] After McCarthy graduated from high school, she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale to study nursing. She needed money to pay for college, so she decided to submit her picture to Playboy magazine to make money.[citation needed] She was accepted and became a model.

Career

Modeling and acting

Jenny McCarthy
Playboy centerfold appearance
October 1993
Preceded byCarrie Westcott
Succeeded byJulianna Young
Playboy Playmate of the Year
1994
Preceded byAnna Nicole Smith
Succeeded byJulie Lynn Cialini
Personal details
Born1 November 1972
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1]

After getting accepted by Playboy in 1993, the magazine wanted her to pose for the October issue. McCarthy was paid $20,000 for the photo shoot.[citation needed] McCarthy became the Playmate of the Month and later the Playmate of the Year. In 1994, thanks to this newfound attention and popularity, McCarthy moved to Los Angeles and, for a time, hosted Hot Rocks, a Playboy TV show featuring uncensored music videos.

In 1995, MTV chose McCarthy to be the host of a new dating show called Singled Out, for which she left Hot Rocks. Her job as a host was a success, and Playboy wanted her to do more modeling. That same year, she also appeared at WrestleMania XI as a guest valet for Shawn Michaels. She left after the match with the victor, WWF Heavyweight Champion Diesel. She returned to the WWE on the August 2, 2008 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event to thank the fans for supporting Generation Rescue, an autism advocacy organization. In 1996, McCarthy landed a small part in the comedy The Stupids. In 1997, McCarthy launched two shows. The first one was an MTV sketch comedy show The Jenny McCarthy Show, which was sufficiently popular for NBC to sign her for an eponymous sitcom later that year, Jenny. The latter show is generally considered a disappointment and was quickly canceled.[citation needed] Also in 1997, she appeared on one of two covers for the September issue of Playboy (the other cover featured Pamela Anderson). McCarthy also released an autobiography: Jen-X: Jenny McCarthy's Open Book.[12]

In 1998, McCarthy starred in BASEketball. In 1999, she starred in Diamonds, a movie which was directed by her husband John Mallory Asher. The next year, she appeared in the horror movie Scream 3. Since 2001, McCarthy has guest starred in such shows as Stacked, Charmed, The Drew Carey Show, Wings, Fastlane, Two and a Half Men and Just Shoot Me!.[citation needed]

In 2003, McCarthy appeared in Scary Movie 3 along with fellow Playmate and actress Pamela Anderson. In 2005, McCarthy produced, wrote, and starred in Dirty Love along with Carmen Electra. The same year, McCarthy hosted a new show on E! called Party at the Palms. The reality show, which is filmed at The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, features hotel guests, party goers, and celebrities.[citation needed] In March 2006, she was given Razzie Awards for "Worst Actress", "Worst Screenplay", and "Worst Picture" for her work on Dirty Love, which also netted her then-husband, John Asher, a Razzie for "Worst Director."[citation needed]

McCarthy has continued her work with Playboy over the years, both as a model and in other capacities. She appeared on the cover of the magazine's January 2005 issue wearing a leopard skin bunny suit and was featured in a pictorial shot at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in the same issue. She was the second woman (Carmen Electra was the first) and first Playmate to become a celebrity photographer for the Playboy Cyber Club, getting behind the camera to photograph model Jennifer Madden, who is not a Playmate.[citation needed]

Jenny's younger sister, Amy, has also posed for Playboy. She was a Cyber Girl of the Week and the Cyber Girl of the Month for January 2005.[13]

She is the voice of Six in the third season of Canadian CGI Sci-Fi cartoon Tripping the Rift.

McCarthy currently stars in an online five episode series, called In the Motherhood, along with Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini.[14] The show is on MSN and is based on being a mother where users could submit their stories to have it made into real webisodes.

She also plays the role of Agent Tanya in the video game Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, replacing Kari Wührer. McCarthy's body was used for a character in a video game called Your Shape Featuring Jenny McCarthy.[15]

Public persona

April 4, 2005

McCarthy once modeled for Candie's, a shoe company. In one magazine ad, McCarthy posed on a toilet seat, with her underwear near her ankles. Cultural scholar Collin Gifford Brooke wrote that the ad's "taboo nature" brought it attention, while noting that the ad itself helped to weaken that taboo.[16] Another Candie's ad depicted McCarthy passing gas in a crowded elevator.[citation needed]

A sketch on her MTV show centered on her character, a well-coiffed business woman, answering the question of "What did you have for lunch?" by seeming to force herself to vomit all over a table which she then ate on-screen. This was faked using special effects. The direct contrast of McCarthy's reputation as a sex symbol and this often grotesque humor is closely associated with her image. This image was taken to a new extreme in her film Dirty Love, which featured McCarthy's character sitting in a massive pool of her own menstrual blood.[17]

Personal life

McCarthy began dating actor/director John Mallory Asher late in 1998.[18] The couple became engaged in January 1999, and married on September 11 of that year. They have a son, Evan Joseph, born on May 18, 2002. Evan was diagnosed with autism. In August 2005, McCarthy and Asher filed for divorce.

In December 2005, McCarthy began dating actor Jim Carrey. They did not make their relationship public until June 2006. She announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 2, 2008 that she and Carrey were then living together, but had no plans to marry, as they did not need a "piece of paper."[19] Carrey almost made a mock proposal to McCarthy as a promotion to the film Yes Man for Ellen's Twelve Days of Holidays. McCarthy and Carrey announced that they had split up in April 2010.[20]

Her brother-in-law is former NHL hockey player Dan Hinote. Dan is married to her younger sister Amy McCarthy, a former Playboy Cyber Girl.[21] She is also an avid Chicago White Sox fan.[22]

McCarthy is a vegan.[23]

Activism and autism controversy

Jenny McCarthy speaking at the 2008 Ante Up For Autism benefit

In May 2007, McCarthy announced that her son Evan was diagnosed with autism in 2005. Before claiming that her son's autism was caused by vaccination, McCarthy wrote that he was gifted, a "crystal child", and she an "indigo mom".[24] Evan's disorder began with seizures and his improvement occurred after the seizures were treated; symptoms experts have noted are more consistent with Landau–Kleffner syndrome, often misdiagnosed as autism.[25][26] McCarthy served as a spokesperson for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) from June 2007 until October 2008.[27] She participated in fundraisers, online chats, and other activities for the non-profit organization to help families affected by autism spectrum disorders. Her first fundraiser for TACA, Ante Up for Autism,[28] was held on October 20, 2007, in Irvine, California. She is a prominent spokesperson and activist for the Generation Rescue foundation,[29] and serves on its Board of Directors as of January 2011.[30]

A study found 24% of parents placed "some trust" in information on vaccine safety from celebrities like Jenny McCarthy.[4]

McCarthy's book on the subject, Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, was published September 17, 2007. She stated both in her book and during her appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that her husband was unable to deal with their son's autism, which led to their divorce. In 2008, she appeared on a Larry King Live special dedicated to the subject, and argued that vaccines can trigger autism. No scientists were invited to speak in response.[31][32] In an April 27, 2010 PBS Frontline documentary, she was interviewed about the controversy between vaccine opponents and public health experts.[33][34]

McCarthy has also stated on talk shows and at rallies that chelation therapy helped her son recover from autism.[4] The underlying rationale for chelation, the speculation that mercury in vaccines causes autism, has been roundly rejected by scientific studies, with the National Institute of Mental Health concluding that autistic children are unlikely to receive any benefit to balance the risks of heart attack, stroke and cardiac arrest posed by the chelating agents used in the treatment.[35] Her son also received conventional, more effective treatment such as intensive behavioral therapy.[citation needed]

McCarthy's public presence, and vocal activism on the vaccination-autism controversy, led to her being awarded The James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award (granted for contributions to pseudoscience) for the 'Performer Who Has Fooled The Greatest Number of People with The Least Amount of Effort'. Randi stated in a video on the JREF's website that he did sympathize with the plight of McCarthy and her child, but admonished her for using her public presence in a way that may discourage parents from having their own children vaccinated.[36]

McCarthy's claims that vaccines cause autism are not supported by any medical evidence, and the original paper by Andrew Wakefield that formed the basis for the claims (and for whose book McCarthy wrote a foreword)[37] has been shown to be based on manipulated data and fraudulent research.[38][39][40][41] The BMJ published a 2011 article by journalist Brian Deer, based on information uncovered by Freedom of Information legislation after the British General Medical Council (GMC) inquiry into allegations of misconduct against Wakefield that led to him being struck from the medical record and his articles retracted, stating that Wakefield had planned a venture to profit from the MMR vaccine scare.[42][43][44][45]

Parental concerns over vaccines have led to decreased immunization rates and increased incidence of whooping cough and measles, a highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease.[46] Neil Cameron, a historian who specializes in the history of science, writing for The Montreal Gazette labeled the controversy a "failure of journalism" that resulted in unnecessary deaths, saying that The Lancet should not have published a study based on "statistically meaningless results" from only 12 cases and that a grapevine of worried parents and "nincompoop" celebrities fueled the widespread fears.[47]

Generation Rescue issued a statement that the "media circus" following the revelation of fraud and manipulation of data was "much ado about nothing",[48] which led USA Today to report that McCarthy had "taken a beating on Twitter".[49] Salon.com responded to Generation Rescue's statement with:[50]

"It's high time the woman who once said that 'I do believe sadly it's going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe' took a step back and reconsidered the merits of that increasingly crackpot stance. And it's time she acknowledged that clinging to research that's been deemed patently fraudulent does not make one a 'mother warrior.' It makes her a menace."

In January 2011, McCarthy defended Wakefield, saying that he had listened to parents and that the controversy was "merely the allegations of a single British journalist named Brian Deer".[51]

Publications

  • Jen-X: Jenny McCarthy's Open Book, an autobiography (Harpercollins, ISBN 978-0-06-039233-8).
  • Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth about Pregnancy and Childbirth (ISBN 978-0-7382-0949-4)
  • Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth about the First Year of Mommyhood (ISBN 978-0-525-94883-4)
  • Life Laughs: The Naked Truth about Motherhood, Marriage, and Moving On (ISBN 978-0-525-94947-3)
  • Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism (ISBN 978-0-525-95011-0)
  • Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds (ISBN 978-0-525-95069-1)
  • Healing and Preventing Autism Co-written with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel. Dutton Adult, March 31, 2009. (ISBN 978-0-525-95103-2)
  • Love, Lust & Faking It: The Naked Truth About Sex, Lies, and True Romance (Harper, 2010)(ISBN 978-0062012982)

McCarthy is also an occasional columnist for FHM magazine and has also recently appeared in a commercial for Weight Watchers after successfully losing and maintaining her post-pregnancy weight by following the program.[citation needed]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1995 Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead Blonde Nurse
1996 The Stupids Glamorous Actress
1998 BASEketball Yvette Denslow
1999 Diamonds Sugar
2000 Scream 3 Sarah Darling Candy Brooks
Python Francesca Garibaldi made for TV
2001 Thank Heaven Julia
2002 Crazy Little Thing Whitney Ann Barnsley
2003 Scary Movie 3 Katie Embry
2005 Dirty Love Rebecca Sommers
2006 Lingerie Bowl - made for TV
John Tucker Must Die Lori
Santa Baby Mary Class made for TV
2008 Wieners Ms. Isaac
Witless Protection Connie
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Agent Tanya video game
2009 Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe Mary Class made for TV

Television work

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Playmate listing". Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  2. ^ "Jenny McCarthy Profile" E! Online. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  3. ^ Fallik D (2008). "After vaccine–autism case settlement, MDs urged to continue recommending vaccines". Neurol Today. 8 (11): 1, 8. doi:10.1097/01.NT.0000324682.98661.5c.
  4. ^ a b c Rochman, Bonnie (26 April 2011). "Jenny McCarthy, Vaccine Expert? A Quarter of Parents Trust Celebrities". Time. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  5. ^ The Joy Behar Show interview - aired October 7, 2010
  6. ^ "Jenny McCarthy's Genitals Compared To 'Roadkill' - Starpulse.com". www.starpulse.com. September 28, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2010. I see them talk to the make-up artist and the make-up artist comes walking over and she goes, 'They said they'd never saw anyone as hairy as you their entire life.' I said, 'Well, I'm half Polish!'
  7. ^ "Melissa McCarthy Biography". TVGuide.com. Retrieved April 29, 2008.
  8. ^ "The McCarthy Era". The New York Times.[dead link‍]
  9. ^ Jenny McCarthy Biography (1972– )
  10. ^ Austin, Michael and Jennifer Wehunt, "Before They Were Famous," Chicago, pg. 76, February 2007, Volume 56, number 2.
  11. ^ USA WEEKEND Magazine
  12. ^ "Jen-X: Jenny McCarthy's Open Book". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  13. ^ "Amy McCarthy". Playboy.com. 2005. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  14. ^ http://www.inthemotherhood.com/
  15. ^ "Playmate News". Playboy. 56. Playboy Inc.: 166–167 2009. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  16. ^ Collin Gifford Brooke (2003). "Sex(haustion) Sells: Marketing in a Saturated Mediascape". In Tom Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase (ed.). Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805841180.
  17. ^ Glory At The Razzies For Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman—Hecklerspray: Music, Movies, TV, Celebs, Games and Gossip
  18. ^ Orecklin, Michele (February 1, 1999). "Jenny Cme Back". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  19. ^ Dreben, Jeb (November 3, 2008). "Jenny McCarthy Doesn't 'Need Piece of Paper to Prove My Love'". People Magazine (people.com). Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  20. ^ Levin, Gary (April 6, 2010). "Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy announce split". USA Today. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
  21. ^ Greg Wyshynski Dan Hinote's wedding: Featuring Playboy playmates, transvestitism and Jim Carrey dressed as Fidel Castro, Yahoo! Sports, July 29, 2008
  22. ^ Beggy, Carol and Mark Shanahan (October 5, 2005). "Famous faces among White Sox fans". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
  23. ^ "Jenny McCarthy Vegan: Rachael Ray Block Party Announcement". Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  24. ^ McCarthy J (2006). "Insights of an indigo mom: a mother's awakening". Children of the New Earth. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
  25. ^ Rubin DB (2008). "Fanning the vaccine–autism link". Neurol Today. 8 (15): 3. doi:10.1097/01.NT.0000335577.64245.34.
  26. ^ Greenfeld KT (February 25, 2010). "The autism debate: who's afraid of Jenny McCarthy?". Time.
  27. ^ Ackerman L (October 5, 2008). "TACA & Jenny McCarthy". Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  28. ^ Ante Up For Autism : : Taca
  29. ^ Coombes R (2009). "Vaccine disputes" (PDF). BMJ. 338: b2435. doi:10.1136/bmj.b2435. PMID 19546136.
  30. ^ "Leadership:Board of Directors". Generation Rescue. 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  31. ^ Gross L (2009). "A broken trust: lessons from the vaccine–autism wars". PLoS Biol. 7 (5): e1000114. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000114. PMC 2682483. PMID 19478850.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  32. ^ "CNN Larry King Live: Jenny McCarthy's Autism Fight, Aired April 2, 2008". Retrieved May 11, 2009.
  33. ^ Aucoin, Don (April 27, 2010). "Measured doses of fact, friction in 'Vaccine War'". The Boston Globe.
  34. ^ "The Vaccine War", PBS FRONTLINE documentary, April 27, 2010
  35. ^ Stokstad E (2008). "Stalled trial for autism highlights dilemma of alternative treatments". Science. 321 (5887): 326. doi:10.1126/science.321.5887.326. PMID 18635766.
  36. ^ "Pigasus Awards for 2008 Announced". James Randi Educational Foundation. April 1, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2010.
  37. ^ "Study linking vaccines to autism is 'fraudulent'". Time. January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  38. ^ Godlee F, Smith J, Marcovitch H (2011). "Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent". BMJ. 342:c7452: c7452. doi:10.1136/bmj.c7452.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  39. ^ Deer B (2011). "How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed". BMJ. 342: c5347. doi:10.1136/bmj.c5347. PMID 21209059.
  40. ^ "Study linking vaccine to autism was fraud". Associated Press. NPR. January 5, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  41. ^ "Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds". Atlanta: CNN. January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  42. ^ Deer B (January 11, 2011). "How the vaccine crisis was meant to make money". BMJ. 342:c5258: c5258. doi:10.1136/bmj.c5258.
  43. ^ Stein, Rob (January 11, 2011). "Wakefield tried to capitalize on autism-vaccine link, report says". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  44. ^ "Vaccine study's author held related patent, medical journal reports". CNN. January 11, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  45. ^ Russell, Peter (January 11, 2011). "MMR Doctor 'Planned to Make Millions,' Journal Claims". WebMD Health News. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  46. ^ Lin RG II (May 2, 2008). "Rise in measles prompts concern". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  47. ^ Cameron, Neil (January 12, 2011). "Autism 'study' represents a failure of journalism". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  48. ^ "Jenny McCarthy's Generation Rescue". Generation Rescue. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  49. ^ Levin, Gary (January 6, 2011). "Jenny McCarthy under fire on Twitter". USA Today. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  50. ^ Williams, Mary Elizabeth (January 6, 2011). "Jenny McCarthy's autism fight grows more misguided". Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  51. ^ McCarthy, Jenny (January 10, 2011). "Jenny McCarthy: In the Vaccine-Autism Debate, What Can Parents Believe?". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
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Preceded by MTV Europe Music Awards host
1998 		Succeeded by
Ronan Keating

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