Gerald McRaney
Gerald McRaney, March 28, 2000
Born	Gerald Lee McRaney (1947-08-19) August 19, 1947 (age 64) Collins, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1969–present
Spouse	Delta Burke (1989-present) Pat Moran (1981-1989; divorced) 1 child Beverly Root (1967-1971; divorced) 2 children

Gerald Lee "Mac" McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and movie actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows Simon & Simon, Major Dad, and Promised Land. He was a series regular for the first season of Jericho, and the final season of Deadwood.

Early life[link]

McRaney was born in Collins, Mississippi, the son of Edna and Clyde McRaney, a builder.^[1] He is of Scottish and Choctaw Indian ancestry.^{[citation needed]} He attended college at the University of Mississippi.^[2] Before hitting it big as an actor, McRaney worked in the Louisiana oil fields.

Career[link]

McRaney holds the distinction of being the last guest star to meet Marshal Matt Dillon in a gunfight on Gunsmoke, in the episode "Hard Labor," which was first broadcast on February 24, 1975. He starred in 1969's Night of Bloody Horror, a low-budget slasher film in which he played the lead character Wesley Stuart. Gerald participated in the Dukes of Hazzard series in the episode "Hazzard Connection" (November 9, 1979). He played a receptionist in two different episodes of The Rockford Files and a heroin-addicted Vietnam War veteran in one episode of Hawaii Five-O. In addition, he starred in numerous episodes of The Incredible Hulk playing roles as a jealous boyfriend, an evil race car driver, and an angry police officer. He played an unnamed town local in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generations. However, McRaney is perhaps best known as one of the stars of the 1980s television show Simon & Simon. A veteran actor of television, he is known for starring roles on Major Dad and Promised Land, and a recurring role on Designing Women. McRaney portrayed General Alan Adamle in two episodes of the NBC drama The West Wing. He played a prominent role in the third season of the HBO television series Deadwood, as famed gold prospector George Hearst. McRaney had a starring role in the CBS post-apocalyptic series Jericho as Johnston Green. In addition, he has acted in many television films such as Not Our Son (1995), Going for Broke (2003), as General George S. Patton in Ike: Countdown to D-Day (2004), and appeared as Dan's father in One Tree Hill. He starred in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Diagnosis: Murder (Episode 1.13 "Lily") as Det. Andy Ruggio, appeared in the 2005 music video for Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Goin Down".

In 1999 he starred in the film A Holiday Romance as Cal Peterson. In the late 2000s, McRaney co-hosted the cable outdoor hunting and shooting series (a McRaney hobby) "The World of Beretta", which featured rifle and shotgun products of the sponsor in a number of exciting hunting locations around the world; and often featured a celebrity shooter to hunt with McRaney. He starred as the villanous General Morrison in the 2010 film The A-Team.

In 2011, he began playing a recurring role as a judge on the USA drama Fairly Legal. In 2012 he played General Luntz in Red Tails.

Personal life[link]

He married actress Delta Burke, whom he met during her guest appearance on a Simon & Simon episode two years earlier, on May 28, 1989. She is his third wife. Although he played a Marine Corps veteran on Simon and Simon and a Marine Corps officer on Major Dad, McRaney is not one himself but has always been very supportive of veterans. He made many visits to support the soldiers in Operation Desert Storm. During one USO-sponsored trip, McRaney visited sailors and Marines onboard ships ported in Toulon, France on Thanksgiving of 1993. He signed autographs for the men on board the ships. While on board the USS Ashland, he autographed one sailor's cowboy hat. He visited troops during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993.

Politically he is a conservative Republican.^[3] and a member of the National Rifle Association.

In September 2004, McRaney was treated surgically, and apparently wholly successfully, for lung cancer in Houston, Texas.

In 2010 he was the host of a cable series on Spike TV encouraging viewers "Don't be a Victim" titled: "Practical Tactical", "What If", "Because Lives Depend on it", and "Concealed Carry School". One episode highlighted an instance where his lifelong friend and former costar Jameson Parker was shot twice.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gerald McRaney at the Internet Movie Database

Jana Rae Kramer (born December 2, 1983) is an American actress and country music singer. She is perhaps best known for her role as Alex Dupre on the television series, One Tree Hill.

Career[link]

Kramer played Noelle Davenport on Friday Night Lights and Portia Ranson on 90210. She played a sorority girl interested in Turtle in Entourage. In 2009, Kramer signed on to become a series regular in The CW's One Tree Hill as Alex, an actress who becomes the new face of Brooke's fashion line, "Clothes Over Bros". In February 2011, Kramer signed with Warner Bros. Nashville Records.^[2] A digital single, "I Won't Give Up", was released to iTunes and Amazon.com in February 2011 and was featured on an episode of One Tree Hill.^[2] The song reached number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her first official single, "Why Ya Wanna", was released to country radio in late 2011.^[3] Kramer's self-titled debut album will be released on June 5, 2012.

Personal life[link]

On December 22, 2009, Kramer got engaged to Johnathon Schaech.^[4] The couple met on the set of the movie Prom Night and appeared as a couple in Laid to Rest. They wed on July 4, 2010, in Michigan.^[5] On August 9, 2010, it was announced that Kramer and Schaech were divorcing after a little over a month of marriage.^[6]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

• ^ACurrent single.

Promotional singles[link]

Music videos[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jana Kramer at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Peter Arnett
Born	Peter Gregg Arnett (1934-11-13) November 13, 1934 (age 77) Riverton, New Zealand
Occupation	Journalist, Anchorman
Notable credit(s)	Awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for his work in Vietnam
Spouse	Nina Nguyen (separated 1983)
Children	Elsa, Andrew

Peter Gregg Arnett, ONZM (born November 13, 1934, Riverton, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-American journalist.

Arnett worked for National Geographic magazine, and later for various television networks, most notably CNN. He is well known for his coverage of war, including the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. He was awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for his work in Vietnam, where he was present from 1962 to 1975, most of the time reporting for the Associated Press news agency. In 1994, Arnett wrote Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. In March 1997, Arnett was able to interview Osama bin Laden.^[1] The Journalism School at the Southern Institute of Technology is named after him.

Vietnam[link]

Some of Arnett's early days in journalism were in Southeast Asia, particularly Bangkok. He started out running a small English-language newspaper in Laos in 1960.^[2] Eventually, he made his way to Vietnam where he was a reporter for the Associated Press. He worked with other AP staff in their Saigon office writing a number of important articles, such as "Death of Supply Column 21", which attracted the ire of the American government.^[2] In July 1963, he was punched in the nose by South Vietnamese undercover police while covering Buddhist protests.

He went on dozens of missions with troops, including during the traumatic battle of Hill 875, in which a detachment went to try to rescue another unit of soldiers that was stranded in hostile territory. They themselves were nearly killed during the rescue. In September 1972 he accompanied a group of U.S. peace activists, including William Sloane Coffin and David Dellinger, to Hanoi, North Vietnam to bring three prisoners of war back to the United States.

Arnett got into trouble for writing in an unvarnished manner when trying to report the stories of ordinary soldiers and civilians. Arnett's writing often was perceived as negative. General William Westmoreland and president Lyndon B. Johnson and other people in power had battles with the AP over trying to get Arnett removed from his assignment.

Arnett's most famous act of reporting from the Vietnam War was a story published on February 7, 1968, about the provincial capital Bến Tre: "'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,' a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong."^[3] The quotation was distorted in subsequent publications, eventually becoming the more familiar, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."^[4] The accuracy of the original quotation and its source has often been called into question. Arnett never revealed his source, except to say that it was one of four officers he interviewed that day.^[4] US Army major Phil Cannella, the senior officer present at Bến Tre, suggested that the quotation might have been a distortion of something he said to Arnett.^[4] The New Republic at the time attributed the quotation to US Air Force major Chester L. Brown.^[5] In Walter Cronkite's 1971 book, Eye on the World, Arnett reasserted that the quotation was something "one American major said to me in a moment of revelation."^[6]

Arnett was one of the last reporters in Saigon after its capture by the North Vietnamese Army, and met with NVA soldiers who showed him how they had come into the city.

Arnett was the writer of the 1980 mini-series documentary - Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War.

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan[link]

Following the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Arnett was working for Parade and entered Afghanistan with Mujahideen guides illegally from Pakistan, while dressed as natives. They continued on to a Jalalabad hideaway of approximately fifty rebels. The trip came to an end when Healy^[who?] fell into the Kunar river, ruining the pair's cameras. Later, Arnett would recount the story to Artyom Borovik who was covering the Soviet side of the war.^[7]

The Gulf War[link]

Arnett worked for CNN for 18 years ending in 1999. During the Gulf War he became a household name worldwide when he became the only reporter with live coverage directly from Baghdad. His dramatic reports were often given with air raid sirens blaring and the sound of Baghdad bomb explosions in the background. Together with two other CNN journalists, Bernard Shaw and John Holliman, Arnett brought continuous coverage from Baghdad for the 16 initial intense hours of the war (January 17, 1991). Although 40 foreign journalists were present at the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad at the time, only CNN possessed the means to communicate to the outside world. Soon the other journalists left Iraq, including the two CNN colleagues, which left Arnett as the sole reporter remaining there.

His reports on civilian damage caused by the bombing were not received well by the coalition war administration, who by their constant use of terms like "smart bombs" and "surgical precision" had tried to project an image that civilian casualties would be at a minimum. White House sources would later state that Arnett was being used as a tool for Iraqi disinformation and CNN received a letter from 34 Members of the United States Congress accusing Arnett of "unpatriotic journalism".

Two weeks into the war, Arnett was able to obtain an uncensored interview with Saddam Hussein.^[8] The Gulf War became the first war to be seen truly live on TV, and Arnett was in many ways the sole player reporting from the "other side" for a period of five weeks.

About halfway through the war the CIA approached Mr. Arnett. They believed that the Iraqi military was operating a high-level communication network from the basement of the Al Rashid Hotel, which is where Mr. Arnett and a few others from CNN were staying. The CIA wanted him out so the Air Force could bomb the hotel, but Mr. Arnett refused. He said he had been given a tour of the hotel and denied there was such a facility.^[9]

Baby milk factory controversy[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

One of Arnett's most controversial reports during the Gulf War was a report on how the coalition had bombed a baby milk factory. Shortly after the report, an Air Force spokesman stated "Numerous sources have indicated that [the factory] is associated with biological warfare production". Later the same day, Colin Powell stated "It was a biological weapons facility, of that we are sure". White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater stated "That factory is, in fact, a production facility for biological weapons" and "The Iraqis have hidden this facility behind a façade of baby-milk production as a form of disinformation."

The image of a crudely-made hand-painted sign reading "Baby Milk" in English and Arabic in front of the factory, and a lab coat dressed in a suit containing stitched lettering reading "BABY MILK PLANT IRAQ" only served to further the perception that purportedly civilian targets were simply being made to look like that by Saddam Hussein, and that Arnett was duped by the Iraqi government. The sign appeared to have been added by the Iraqis before the camera crews arrived as a cheap publicity ploy. Newsweek called the incident a "ham-handed attempt to depict a bombed-out biological-weapons plant near Baghdad as a baby-formula factory."

Arnett remained firm. He had toured the plant in the previous August, and was insistent that "Whatever else it did, it did produce infant formula". Described as being a veritable fortress by the Pentagon^{[citation needed]}, the plant, Arnett reported, had only one guard at the gate and a lot of powdered baby milk. "That's as much as I could tell you about it ... [I]t looked innocent enough from what we could see." A CNN camera crew had been invited to tour this plant in August 1990. They videotaped workers wearing new uniforms with lettering in English reading, "Iraq Baby Milk Plant".

Interviewed later, Michel Wery, the plant's French contractor who helped build it, gave an interview in which he stated that the plant was producing solely baby milk when it started up in 1979, and was not equipped to breed pathogens. The plant closed in 1980, he said, when the last French technicians working for his company left Baghdad.^{[citation needed]} Wery said he had heard that production had restarted after the United Nations embargo put in place in the fall of 1991, but he doubted whether that was possible after a 10-year lull. Two dairy technicians had been in the plant at least four times since to make repairs; one stated that, during a visit in May 1990, it was all normal dairy equipment and that the plant was actually canning milk powder. The suspicious uniform stitching was actually part of the original uniforms supplied by the French, and in fact the footage showing the uniforms was shot in August 1990.^{[citation needed]} Part of the problem in reconciling the various U.S. and foreign accounts is that administration officials said they were constrained by security considerations from revealing exactly how they knew about the plant. At the same time, the New Zealand technicians and the French builder were not at the plant after May and cannot be certain of what happened after their departure.^{[citation needed]}

White House reports diverged at this time. One official claimed that the plant was converted in 1990. Another claimed that it was a "backup" bioweapons facility, which had not yet been converted. A third said that it was not a bioweapons facility, but that it was used to make items crucial to bioweapons research; all three claimed insider information. In a confidential memo from December 1992, a State Department employee discussed the issue of the plant and reported that there were no hidden chambers or inappropriate machinery, and that it appeared to be a perfectly normal factory for producing powdered milk.^{[citation needed]}

The Iraqi baby milk factory, camouflaged on the right^{[citation needed]}

The plant had undergone security modifications since May 1990^{[citation needed]}. Amongst these were camouflage paint on all the buildings in the complex, a security fence, and the positioning of two SA-2 Surface-to-air missile batteries^{[citation needed]}. In addition, the Iraqis had claimed that they were getting powdered milk for the plant from Nestlé, but Nestlé said that was false. They said they had supplied no products to this plant^{[citation needed]}.

Colin Powell gave the president a briefing a week before the plant was bombed. Powell told President Bush that intelligence based from agents inside Iraq stated that the Iraqis had altered the plant into a biological weapons plant.

The Iraq Survey Group visited the facility in May 2004 and found that it was inoperable and had been out of operation for some time prior to the invasion. The plant was searched extensively and no evidence was found of WMD production, although the production facilities and factory floor were littered with remnants of baby milk production, including large piles of powdered baby milk that had congealed into solid masses.

Operation Tailwind[link]

In 1998 Arnett narrated a joint venture between CNN and Time magazine, NewsStand, which described what he called "Operation Tailwind".

The report, titled The Valley of Death, claimed that the United States Army had used Sarin against a group of deserting U.S. soldiers in Laos in 1970. The men allegedly involved were an elite Green Beret A-Team. The report was expressly approved by both CNN Chairman Tom Johnson and CNN President Rick Kaplan. In response, The Pentagon commissioned another report contradicting CNN's. CNN subsequently conducted its own investigation which concluded that the "journalism [in the Valley of Death] was flawed" and retracted the story. In the event, all 12 men of the Green Beret A-Team were wounded in action during Operation Tailwind, which had absolutely nothing to do with sarin.

Three or more of the individuals responsible for the "flawed" report were fired or forced to resign. Arnett was reprimanded.^[10]

The co-producers of the report, April Oliver and Jack Smith, were dismissed. They sued Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, claiming they had been wrongfully fired and Time Warner ultimately paid millions of dollars to settle their law suits, along with other suits brought by military personnel who claimed to have been libeled in the Oliver/Smith report. Senior producer Pam Hill and others resigned. Oliver was later quoted by the World Socialist Web Site (International Committee of the Fourth International) as saying that:

Interview in Iraq[link]

On assignment for NBC and National Geographic, Arnett went to Iraq in 2003 to cover the U.S. invasion. After a press meeting there he granted an interview to state-run Iraq TV on March 31, 2003, in which he stated:

When Arnett's remarks sparked a "firestorm of protest", NBC initially defended him, saying he had given the interview as a professional courtesy and that his remarks were "analytical in nature". A day later, though, NBC, MSNBC and National Geographic all severed their relationships with Arnett.^[12]

In response to Arnett's statement on Iraqi TV, the corporation stated:

Arnett responded:

Later that day, Arnett was hired by the British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, which had opposed the war. A couple of days later he was also assigned to Greek television channel NET television, and Belgian VTM.

Family[link]

In 1964 Arnett married a Vietnamese woman, Nina Nguyen; they had two children, Elsa and Andrew. In 1983 Nina and Peter separated. They divorced more than 20 years later.

Elsa Arnett attended Stuyvesant High School in New York and Harvard University. After graduating she went into journalism, became a reporter, worked for several months on The Washington Post as an intern and then joined The Boston Globe.^[13] Elsa Arnett is married to a former White House lawyer John Yoo.^[14]

See also[link]

• CNN controversies

References[link]

External links[link]

• Booknotes interview with Arnett on Live from the Battlefield, February 20, 1994.

Shawnee Smith
Smth at the 2011 London Comic Con
Born	(1970-07-03) July 3, 1970 (age 41) Orangeburg, South Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1978–present
Spouse	Jason Reposar (m.1998-2003; 1 child) Kai Mattoon (m.2005-2006; 1 child)
Children	1 daughter and 2 sons
Website
smithandpyle.com

Shawnee Smith (born July 3, 1970) is an American film and television actress and singer. Smith is best known for her roles as Amanda Young in the Saw films and Linda in the CBS sitcom Becker. Smith once fronted the metal band Fydolla Ho, with which she toured the United States and the United Kingdom, and is half of Smith & Pyle, a desert country-rock band, with actress Missi Pyle.

Early life[link]

Shawnee Smith was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the second child of Patricia, an oncology nurse, and Jim Smith, a financial planner and former US Air Force pilot. The family relocated from South Carolina to Van Nuys, California, when she was a year old; the parents divorced when she was two; and her mother remarried when she was eight. She attended Ranchito Avenue Elementary School in Panorama City, California. She also attended North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, California and graduated in 1987.^[1]

Career[link]

Smith began acting as a child appearing on stage in A Christmas Carol repertory from ages 8 to 11 and starred in a stage play with Richard Dreyfuss at age 15. She also performed in the original stage production of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday and won the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance. She was the youngest actor up to that time to receive such an honor. She made her television debut in a McDonald's commercial titled "Best Friends" in 1978. She joined the Screen Actors Guild at age nine and made her feature film debut in John Huston's 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, as one of Aileen Quinn's fellow orphans.^[2] In 1985, Smith co-starred in two troubled-teen melodramas, Not My Kid and Crime of Innocence. In 1987, Smith co-starred in the hit comedy film Summer School as pregnant student Rhonda Altobello. The following year, she starred with Kevin Dillon and the late Joe Seneca in a 1988 remake of the Steve McQueen classic The Blob as Meg Penny.

Smith played a rich teen who helps John Candy locate her kidnapped sister in 1989's Who's Harry Crumb?. That same year, she co-starred with Jennie Garth and Barbara Eden in the short-lived TV series Brand New Life. The following year, Smith co-starred as the daughter of Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers in the remake of Michael Cimino's thriller The Desperate Hours. Smith took a three-year break from acting in the early 1990s primarily because she had outgrown teenage roles and had a hard time finding work. During that time she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and competed in a triathlon. Near the end of the hiatus she decided to sell all her belongings and relocate to North Carolina to visit family and go back to school. When she was about to start attending classes she landed a small role in Leaving Las Vegas and has had steady work ever since.

Smith's best-known television role was Linda, an air-headed nurse's aide, in the CBS hit comedy series Becker with Ted Danson. She served as a regular cast member in all 129 episodes from 1998–2004. Another well-known television role was that of Julie Lawry in the 1994 miniseries The Stand, based on the novel by Stephen King. She also appeared as a waitress in The Shining miniseries, which King adapted from his own novel. Besides her regular role on Becker and the cameos in the Stephen King miniseries, Smith made several guest appearances on television shows, such as Cagney & Lacey; Married With Children; Murder, She Wrote; The X-Files; Players; and Law & Order: Los Angeles. In 2003, she lent her voice to an episode of the Disney cartoon Kim Possible as Vivian Porter.

Smith performing with Fydolla Ho in 2002

Smith has become well known in recent years for her role as Amanda Young in the Saw films. She has also been acknowledged as a "scream queen" due to the number of horror films she has appeared in.^[3][4] In the DVD commentary of Saw, the producers revealed that her scenes were filmed while she was battling a terrible case of the flu. It is also revealed in the DVD commentary of Saw II that she was four months pregnant with her second child, Jakson, during filming. Her pregnancy was kept a secret from everyone except director Darren Lynn Bousman. He mentioned in the commentary that Smith's daughter Verve accidentally told him about the pregnancy during filming. She also wore a man's watch while filming Saw III, which she kept. She has also said that although she is briefly shown in Saw IV and Saw V, she was never on set. Any scenes featuring her were dubbed from file footage. On March 20, 2009, producer Mark Burg released a statement confirming that Smith would be in Saw VI.^[5] She arrived in Toronto on March 31, 2009 to begin filming brand new flashback sequences.^[5][6]

Smith has repeatedly admitted that she hates being scared and has a hard time watching the Saw films, or any horror movie. She originally turned the role of Amanda Young down because it was very upsetting to her. After turning the role down, she was shown the eight-minute short film by Leigh Whannell and James Wan and changed her mind after the role was offered to her a second time. Smith in the jaw trap became the image on the film poster. She also revealed at SawMania 2008 that her name was initially brought up for the role of Amanda because Saw director James Wan was a big fan of her films in the 1980s and had a longtime crush on her. Director Darren Bousman and Leigh Whannell have also talked about their crushes on Smith in the Saw DVD commentaries.

In 2006, Smith made an appearance in the ten-minute short film trailer Repo! The Genetic Opera by director Darren Lynn Bousman. Smith's character was Heather Sweet, the surgery addicted daughter of GeneCo president Rotti Largo. The trailer was filmed in Toronto, Canada and was an adaptation from the stage version. Bousman filmed the trailer after completing Saw III to try to pitch the idea to film producers. Smith did not reprise her role as Heather Sweet when Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures picked up the film in 2007 and was replaced by Paris Hilton. The character name was also changed from Heather to Amber.^{[7][dead link]}

In 2008, Smith played Detective Gina Harcourt in the FEARnet original series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust.^[8] The series premiered on July 17, 2008 on FEARnet.com in six 4–6 minute webisodes along with behind the scenes clips. This series is a continuation of the first webisode series 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails. It is still available on FEARnet.com and can also be seen in its entirety (about 30 minutes straight through) on FEARnet On Demand. She also made her producing debut with this series.

Smith was the host and one of three mentors on the VH1 reality program Scream Queens which aired from October 20, 2008 to December 8, 2008.^[9] In January 2010 it was announced that Smith would not be returning as host and mentor for Season 2 due to scheduling conflicts. She was replaced by Jaime King.^[10]

In 2009, Smith played the role of Dr. Ann Sullivan, a child psychiatrist, the third installment of The Grudge series, The Grudge 3. The film was a direct to DVD release in May 2009.

Smith appeared as a guest star in the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager on August 30, 2010. It was her first television appearance since Scream Queens aired in 2008. Shortly after she appeared in the series premiere of Law & Order: Los Angeles on September 29, 2010.^[11]

Music career[link]

Smith with Missi Pyle performing as Smith & Pyle in 2008

Along with acting, she is also a musician; she plays the guitar, piano, drums, and sings. She contributed to the soundtrack of Saw III with vocals on Hydrovibe's song "Killer Inside" and to the soundtrack for Catacombs as a solo vocalist with the song "Please Myself." Her voice was also featured in the film Carnival of Souls where her character Sandra performed a jazz song titled "I Fear."

Smith fronted the punk/metal band Fydolla Ho (pronounced like Five-Dollar Hoe) in the early 2000s. The group was originally formed by Smith, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, and Skindred vocalist Benji Webbe as a small recording project.^[12] The band released their debut full-length album Untied in December 2001. She balanced the band with being a regular cast member on the CBS sitcom Becker. The band officially ended in 2004.

Smith began working on a solo career/album in 2004 with producer Chris Goss, but the project was never completed. In an interview with Radio Free in October 2005 she stated, "between being a mom, and working, and growing another baby, I have not had time to give attention to music for a while."^[13]

She was part of a country music group with actress Missi Pyle called Smith & Pyle. The two actresses met while filming an ABC comedy pilot titled Traveling in Packs. The band started after Smith invited Pyle to join her in attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. While stuck in traffic, Pyle talked about her dream to be a rock star and Smith agreed to form a band with her. Their first album, It's OK to Be Happy, was released digitally through iTunes and Amazon.com in July 2008. The debut album was recorded in Joshua Tree, California at Rancho de la Luna and was produced by Chris Goss. Smith and Pyle have also become business partners and formed their own record label called Urban Prairie Records, which It's OK to be Happy was released under. Smith has talked about the possibility of a Smith & Pyle television or webisode series in the near future. She mentioned the idea of a series on Fangoria radio with Dee Snider and also on a radio appearance with bandmate Missi Pyle in April 2009.^[14]

Personal life[link]

Smith has three children: a daughter named Verve, born in 1999, from her marriage to photographer Jason Reposar (1998–2003), and a son named Jakson, born in 2005, from her brief marriage to musician Kai Mattoon (2005–2006), and a second son born in March 2010. Her daughter was named after Verve Records.^[15] Both Verve and Jakson were featured in the debut Smith & Pyle album, It's OK to be Happy. The kids are listed in the album credits as having vocals and spoken narrative tracks for two songs.^[16] An article published October 28, 2009 highlighting Smith & Pyle's small tour in West Virginia stated that Shawnee was pregnant with her third child.^[17] She gave birth to a boy in March 2010.^[18]

Smith and ex-husband Jason Reposar eloped in 1998 while on vacation in Scotland due to the inability to organize a wedding. The song "Sugar," performed by her former country-rock band, Smith & Pyle, was written by Smith after her divorce from Reposar. She describes it as her break-up song that is quite different from Pyle's break-up song, "I Wish You Were Dead."^[19]

Smith was featured in Maxim magazine in June 2001.^[20]

Smith married fellow actress, and former bandmate, Missi Pyle in a faux ceremony at the All Love is Equal Launch Party in West Hollywood on November 18, 2009. The two actresses pretended to get married in support of repealing Prop 8 in California. Actor Hal Sparks dressed as a priest and performed the ceremony with them using rainbow-colored hula hoops as rings.^[21]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Video games[link]

Discography[link]

Albums

• Vial, Fydolla Ho (4-track Demo CD, unknown year)
• Untied, Fydolla Ho (2001)
• It's OK to be Happy, Smith & Pyle (2008)

Featured in film[link]

• "I Fear," Carnival of Souls (1998)
• "Killer Inside" (with Hydrovibe), Saw III soundtrack (2006)
• "Zytrate Anatomy," Repo! The Genetic Opera 10-minute short film (2006)^[7]
• "Please Myself," Catacombs soundtrack (2007)

With Fydolla Ho[link]

• "Oh Yeah"
• "No Matter"
• "Pieces"
• "Behave"
• "Afraid"

[edit] With Smith & Pyle

• "One Night Stand" (2010)
• "Rafael" (2010)

Unknown album[link]

• "Deciding" (2004)
• "Head" (2004)
• "Shelter" (2004)

References[link]