Beals vs. Biel

Two of my favorite actresses have similar names, so perhaps this brief writeup will help me keep them straight.

They are Jeniffer Beals and Jessica Beil:

Jennifer Beals	Jessica Biel

The first films I saw of Jennifer Beals were "My Bodyguard" (1980), parts of which were filmed near my home, Kennelly Square, in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, and "Flashdance" (1983), which made her a superstar. A Chicago native, Beals graduated from Frances W. Parker, a private school about a mile north of Kennelly Square, and then received a B.A. in American Literature at Yale University in 1987.

In recent years, Beals has starred on Showtime's "The L-Word." She has now made about 50 movies. Wow!

Jessica Biel, younger than Beals, also has appeared in a number of films, and recently in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (2007) and "Next" (2007). She was born in Ely, Minnesota and has lived in Texas, Connecticut, and Woodstock, Illinois before finally settling in Boulder, Colorado, which she calls home.

Biel was educated by a private tutor on set of "7th Heaven," but attended mainstream school for her last year of high school. She graduated from the exclusive Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles. In fall 2000, she enrolled at Tufts University in Massachusetts, took classes there for three semesters, but left to return to work on "7th Heaven" full-time. She has said that she would like to return to college someday and complete her degree.