"What Ever happned To?"

Hello readers in Internet land. This will be the first part of a series called "What The Hell Ever Happned to...?" and I'll be asking whatever happned to those rising stars and starlets from the 90's. Probably the 80's and 2000's as well but I'll mostly concern this series about those rockin' 90's. The Decade we all loved. This will ask whatever become of some really bright faces who appeared on the verge of stardom. Some reached mild levels of stardom. Some were merely familiar faces. Some never moved beyond lame sitcom status. But they made an impact, however small and this is why I dedicate a topic about them: Here we go:

"Whatever happned to...?"

Samantha Mathis

What a stong list of credits this striking, amazing redhead made for herself in the first half of the 90's. I first saw her in 1990's great Pump Up The Volume and immediately wanted a girlfriend just like her character Nora Diniro. After that dynamic debut she followed in a number of classy projects like This Is My Life, The Music Of Chance and Peter Bogdonavch's The Thing Called Love - which Mathis would star alongside and later date River Phoenix. She won hearts again in 1994's Little Women in which she played a grown up version of young Kirsten Dunst's character. Classiest of all was her her role in Rob Reiner's 1995 The American President acting alongside Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, John Mahoney and Richard Dreyfuss. That same month Mathis tried her hand at big budget action starring alongside her Pump Co-star Christian Slater and John Travolta in Broken Arrow. She was set for big time stardom. Along the way she appeared in Super Mario Bros. and gave a tender performance in How To Make An American Quilt.So what Happned since 1996? Well she worked in some small and independent films, and personal issues in her life probably kept her out of the industry as well. She appeared in 2000's American Psycho as the one character in the film with any sort of soul at all. Since then she's given many TV appearences in shows like Law And Order and House and just recently Lost, but I do wonder why real super-stardom eluded her. Probably because by the time she was just about to break through along came another spunky, lovable, dark-haired charmer named Sandra Bullock (who played Mathis' best friend in Thing Called Love) and this decade it's all been about two more of Mathis's old co-stars (Reese Witherspoon from American Psycho and Kirsten Dunst from Little Women). Fate is funny. So is the acting and stardom biz. But Mathis was a very bright shining star in 90' to 96' - She had that Natalie Wood quality. hope to see more of her in the last half of the 00's.

Amy Pietz

I have a confession. One I'm not proud of. Sometimes, very late at night or very early morning (I mean like 5 in the morning early) I'll stumble upon a re-run of the kinda stupid but watchable Caroline In The City. I remember the show when it first premiered in 1995 and thought it was cute enough. I liked the full size framed Kubrick's Lolita poster hanging on the stairway wall (which they stupidly changed to Jailhouse Rock in the second season. WTH?)and for the delictable Amy Pietz who played Caroline's oversexed (read: slutty), tight-outfit wearing, CATS performer Annie Viola Spadaro. Probably modeled after Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny, Amy as Annie smoldered. She was clearly given the broadest role on the show and was the most arresting to watch. So what if she was given lame jokes and a one or two note character. Pietz played Annie like a cat ready to pounce any second. It's unfortunate Caroline's creators never let her character hardly evolve over the course of the show's run. I mean Cybill had Christine Baranski play the same kind of role to great ratings and acclaim. Perhaps Caroline's creators wanted the same. Unfortunately for veiwers that's all they got - the same. The Slutty, Boozy, sassy neighbour/best friend is too easy a stock role for lazy sitcom writers. Why even bother with something new?Still as Slutty, sassy neighbour/best friend roles go, Amy always played her's with charm and sexiness, bounce and without bitterness.So since Caroline Amy appeared in Cursed/The Weber Show/What The Hell is it? in 2000, some Ally Mcbeal's, Law And Order (Does everybody wind up on Law And Order?) and the brief comedy Rodney last year. (Remember that show? yeah, me neither.) It's a shame. I remember her from an E.R. Episode about two years ago but she was wearing the gory make-up and hardly recognized her. And I see she was in The Whole Ten Yards as uh ..waitress!? You know where I'd like to see Amy? Possibly in a recurringrole in something like Rescue Me where I think her style would fit perfectly.

Tamara Mello


I really can't say enough about Tamara Mello. Cute, Sexy, Adorable, feisty, relaxed. Someone who I can't believe isn't a huge star. Imagine a cross between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba and you have Tamara Mello. But more down to earth. Tamara is breathtakingly beautiful and she's a really great talent as well. Best known for playing spirited, activist, champion of the helpless Lilly Esposito on the WB's Popular Mello quickly became the fan favorite and it's no wonder. Those eyes, that face, that mouth all supported by a tiny 5'1 frame and body. It was impossible to fall under her spell when she would scrunch up her nose, grit her teeth and sneer at foes like Nicole Julian, Bobbi Glass or Mary Cherry. Popular became a minor hit in 99' but after a horrible, almost unwatchable second season the show was abrubtly killed. Since then Mello Appeared in the feature Tortilla Soup and a few episodes of shows like JAG and What I Like About You. After 2 1/2 years Mello was nowhere for her fans to be seen. She just appeared in the Drama Psych looking more stunning then ever, but she was only on for one lousy minute. Fans are going through withdrawls and really want to see Tamara show up in more. My Suggestion? Team up again with Popular creator Ryan Murphy and appear on Nip/Tuck this upcoming season. Perhaps Lilly could portray a feminist deploring the practices of McNamara/Troy. Hmmm..a Popular/Nip/Tuck crossover? Of course Mello would have to eventually sleep with Christian and that would almost make up for the Tamara Mello drought fans have been dealing with. Almost.

Natasha Gregson Wagner

While Samantha Mathis may have the same quality as Natalie Wood, Natasha Gregson Wagner literally has Natalie Wood embedded in Her. Wagner is the daughter of Natalie Wood. In short Wagner descends from Hollywood Royalty. Wood Died in 1981 and the emotional darkness Wagner posseses from that tragedy comes out in her roles. The first thing I remember her from was David Lynch's dreamy, dark, hallucinatory Lost Highway which she played Balthazar Getty's girlfriend who gets it on with him in the back of his car, it was her first nude scene and her character (and perhaps Wagner's own inner dark) fit into the black, mysterious, uncertain dark that textured the film. Then she appeared in Two Girls And A Guy, firing vocal barbs and deathly stares at her two costars Robert Downey Jr. and Heather Graham. Fierce, complex, intimate, outrageous and shocking is how Gregson played Louise Johnson in that film. Wagner fired on all cylinders. Then she was briefly In Urban Legends but dissapeared way too soon. She shone again in High Fidelity and Wonderland and over the past couple of years she's done a lot of TV like THE 4400, Medium and E.R. It'd be good to see more of Wagner in more gritty movies. Or even once in a mainstream title. But somehow I don't think "Summer Feel-good movie" and Natasha Gregson Wagner would make a good fit. But who knows. If horrid "Actresses" like Lindsay Lohan (Please Go away, ...Forever. In fact no please...just Go!) and Hilary "Soooo annoying" Duff get paid to be in horrible, horrible movies why can't someone exciting, daring, real and alive shine a little? Your answer is as good as mine.