Vanessa Minnillo

Vanessa Joy Lachey, née Minnillo, born November 9, 1980 is an American television personality, television host, model, and actress. A former Miss Teen USA, she has been a New York-based correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and a host of Total Request Live on MTV. She was the host of the Miss Universe 2007, which was held at Mexico City, Mexico, in the National Auditorium, with Mario Lopez.

Early life

Minnillo was born November 9, 1980. Her father is an American of Italian and Irish descent, and her mother, the former Helen Bercero, is of Philippine decent. Minnillo has an adopted brother, Vincent, who is two years older.

Minnillo's family moved frequently because of her father's service in the Air Force. She lived in Washington, California, Nevada, Florida, Germany and Japan and attended eight different schools in nine years. Minnillo's parents separated in 1983 and divorced in 1986.

After her mother's remarriage, Minnillo and her brother moved to Turkey with their mother and new stepfather. By 1990, in the wake of Operation Desert Shield, Minnillo and her brother returned to their father's home, eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina, where Vanessa Minnillo attended the Roman Catholic Bishop England High School and was a cheerleader. From then on, she lived with her father and his second wife, Donna.

She also attended Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic School, located in San Bernardino, California, for one year.

Personal life

After meeting Nick Lachey and starring in his music video "What's Left Of Me", the pair dated for nearly three years. Minnillo's publicist confirmed the couple's split in June 2009. In the fall of 2009 it was announced they had reconciled. In November 2010, they announced their engagement.They were married July 15, 2011, on Sir Richard Branson's private Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, with a intimate party of 35 close friends and family.

Career,Beauty pageants

Minnillo was crowned Miss South Carolina Teen USA and went on to win the title Miss Teen USA in 1998, the first Miss Teen USA from South Carolina and also the first from South Carolina to be named the pageant's Miss Congeniality.

Hosting

The pageants served as a springboard to wider fame. She was a host on MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) from 2003 to 2007 and became a New York City correspondent for Entertainment Tonight in 2005.

She hosted Miss Teen USA (2004) and co-hosted Miss Universe (2007). Minnillo was a finalist in E!'s competition to replace Brooke Burke as host of Wild On.

She hosts True Beauty, a competition in which 10 contestants vie for $100,000 and inclusion in People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People issue. The series premiered on ABC on January 5, 2009, with a first season that ran through February 23, 2009. ABC renewed the series for a second season which ran from May 31, 2010 through July 19, 2010.

Minnillo will become co-host of ABC's Wipeout beginning in winter 2011.

Advertising

After leaving MTV and Entertainment Tonight, Minnillo was featured in print and web-based advertising for BONGO Jeans' Spring/Summer 2007 collection.

She has been spokeswoman for Flirt! Cosmetics, a line she helped create which debuted in August 2007, in Kohl's department stores.

In May 2006, Maxim magazine ranked Minnillo #15 in its annual Hot 100 issue.

She has been featured on the covers of Maxim (October 2005, October 2006), Shape (March 2007), and Lucky (July 2007).

Acting

Minnillo has appeared in television series including That's Life, City Girls, The Bold and The Beautiful, Psych, Hawaii 5-0 and Maybe It's Me. In 2008, she played Ashlee in an episode of How I Met Your Mother.

She starred in the 2008 comedy Disaster Movie, a spoof of big-budget Hollywood disaster movies. Released on August 29, 2008, the film had moderate box office success, earning $34,624,652 worldwide. The film received extremely negative reviews, earning six Razzie Award nominations. As of January 2011, it stands at number sixteen on the IMDb Bottom 100.

Minnillo signed on to appear in Redefining Love, a 2009 romantic comedy, but she is not listed in the final cast.

In November 2009, TVGuide.com announced that Minnillo would guest star alongside Disaster Movie co-star Kim Kardashian on CBS's CSI: NY. "The ladies (Vanessa and Kim) portray two women who've managed to concoct a very interesting scheme that ends in murder," confirmed executive producer Pam Veasey. Minnillo's former MTV colleague and close friend, La La Vasquez, as well as the band Train, will also appear in the episode.

In 2011, she guest starred on 30 Rock as Carmen Chao, Avery's coworker at NBC who is competing for the same promotion.

Filmography

2008 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Julie Angel Cameo

Disaster Movie Amy Lead Role

Vanessa Minnillo's Mother: I Wasn’t Invited To My Daughter’s Wedding

Vanessa Minnillo's mother has spoken out about not being invited to her daughter's wedding to Nick Lachey.

Helen Bondoc is estranged from her daughter and has not seen her since she was a nine-year-old.

When contacted at her home in South Carolina, Bondoc did not even know that Minnillo, 30, was getting married.

Showed some photos of the wedding by America's Star magazine, she said: 'Oh my goodness, she's beautiful! 'She's changed so much, though I can still see that little scar on her forehead from where she picked at her chicken pox when she was a child.

'I didn't have a clue that Vanessa was getting married. We last spoke about 12 years ago, on the phone. I just wanted to talk to her and tell her everything straight about my life.

'But I still think about her all the time, and I still love her dearly.'

In fact, Helen Bondoc had no idea that her gorgeous 30-year-old daughter was even getting married. And when Star spoke with her exclusively at her South Carolina mobile home 12 days after Vanessa and Nick’s July 15 wedding in the British Virgin Islands, Helen struggled with her emotions.

Oh my goodness, she’s beautiful!” Helen, 57, told Star as she grew misty-eyed while looking at photos of Vanessa and Nick on their St. Barts honeymoon.

She’s changed so much, though I can still see that little scar on her forehead from where she picked at her chicken pox when she was a child.

I didn’t have a clue that Vanessa was getting married. We last spoke about 12 years ago, on the phone. I just wanted to talk to her and tell her everything straight about my life. But I still think about her all the time, and I still love her dearly.”

PHOTOS: Nick Lachey And Vanessa Minnillo Enjoy Their Honeymoon

Helen met and married Vanessa’s father, now retired U.S. Air Force crew member Vincent Minnillo, in the mid-1970s at Clark Air Base in her native Philippines.

They also adopted a son, Vince Jr., who’s two years older than Vanessa.

“Our relationship wasn’t that sexual,” Helen says of her ex. “I think we both just wanted to be with somebody.”

A year after Vanessa was born, they moved to the Los Angeles area, but Helen and her hubby — who once likened their relationship to “World War III” — were soon on the outs.

“Helen had a terrible temper,” a family friend tells Star, “and eventually she and Vincent were at each others’ throats.”

They divorced in 1986; Helen got custody of little Vanessa and Vince Jr. and soon remarried another serviceman.

As the family moved around during that relationship, Helen tells Star: “I worked as a waitress at a strip club in Florida, and as a hostess at the Palomino strip club in Las Vegas. I made a lot of money.”

Helen and the kids followed her husband to Turkey when he was assigned there, but they were sent back to the U.S. in 1991 after the Gulf War broke out.

Helen’s second marriage ended soon after — and so did her relationship with Vanessa after she dropped her and her brother off at their father’s house in Charleston, S.C.

Helen said, ‘Keep them for now,’ ” Vincent recalls. “But she never came back.”

Vanessa has admitted that she became "sad, confused and emotional" about being abandoned by her mom but otherwise has remained tightlipped about why they’ve never ended their estrangement.

As for Helen, she tells Star: “It would be nice to have a relationship with her now, but I don’t know how she’d feel if I called her.