Martine McCutcheon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martine McCutcheon (born Martine Kimberley Sherri Ponting on May 14, 1976) is an English singer and Olivier award-winning actress.

Contents 1 Background and Early Career 2 Mainstream success 3 Pop Career 4 Recent Work 5 Trivia 6 Albums 7 Singles 8 References 9 External link

[edit] Background and Early Career

McCutcheon was born at the Salvation Army Mothers Hospital in Hackney, London, England, when her mother Jenny was just 19. She endured a turbulent early childhood thanks to the abusive and irrational behaviour of her drug-addict father, Thomas Hemmings.^[1] Her earliest memory of her father is him dangling her over a balcony by her ankles, 30ft up in the air, threatening to drop her unless her mother did what he wanted.^[2] Despite her father leaving when McCutcheon was 2 years old, he would return periodically to threaten her mother, so her early years were spent running and hiding in order to escape him. When McCutcheon was nine, her mother finally won sole custody and an injunction was made against her father seeing her until she was 18.

When McCutcheon was 10, her mother met and married window cleaner John McCutcheon (the father of Martine's younger brother), which led to Martine taking her step-father's surname. She knew she wanted to be a performer from a young age, but as her family couldn't afford the fees for a drama school, she had to find an alternative method to learn her trade. McCutcheon met a woman at a local dance-class who had been to the Italia Conti stage school and suggested it would be a good environment for her. After a persuasive letter from McCutcheon, a Church of England trust agreed to sponsor her. She trained after school and every Saturday (learning tap, ballet, jazz, and drama) in order to catch up with the more privileged children who were competing with her for a place at the prestigious school.

At the age of 12 McCutcheon obtained her first acting role and was paid £350 to appear in an American television commercial for the drink, Kool-Aid, which was followed by modelling assignments and bit parts in TV shows such as in the ITV police drama The Bill. By the time she was 15, she had formed an all-girl band, 'Milan', with two fellow students and landed a record contract and a gig touring as the 'warm up' group for the British Boyband, East 17. Milan were successful (making the dance charts three times), but not successful enough for McCutcheon (who didn't like playing in seedy clubs), so she quit the group.

[edit] Mainstream success

Her unwavering determination finally paid off in 1995 when, while working as a shopgirl at 'Knickerbox', McCutcheon was offered the small part of Tiffany Raymond on the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. As McCutcheon received more exposure from the soap, press interest also increased, and what should have been a triumphant experience was marred in 1996 by a series of salacious stories sold to the press, first by her father and then by her boyfriend, Gareth Cooke. Despite this, the role of Tiffany grew, as did McCutcheon's popularity, and millions of viewers tuned in to see her final scenes in Albert Square in 1998, when her character was killed in a special episode screened on New Years Eve. In reality McCutcheon had decided to quit the soap in order to embark on a pop career, and the death of her on-screen character was not viewed favourably by the actress. Since leaving the show she has publicly slammed Mal Young, the executive producer who made the decision to kill her character, for treating her unfairly and bringing her role to an end so irrevocably merely to punish her for quitting. In turn, Young has hit back at McCutcheon, saying that her anger only arose because she wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a 'safety net' in case her pop career failed and he was not prepared to do this. McCutcheon has subsequently written an autobiography entitled Who Does She Think She Is?: My Autobiography , which depicts a less than favourable account of the producer.

[edit] Pop Career

In 1999 McCutcheon unleashed herself as a new solo pop-artist with Virgin Records, surprising critics and doubters alike by scoring a number 1 in the UK Singles Chart with the ballad Perfect Moment (originally recorded by Edyta Górniak in 1997, a Polish leading female artist). The song was a global success reaching number 1 not only in the UK, but in Israel, Italy, Switzerland & Ireland too. That same year she scored two more top 10 hits, reaching number 6 with the singles I've Got You and later Talking in Your Sleep, which was recorded for the Children in Need appeal with all proceeds being donated to that cause. All three singles were taken from her debut album You, Me and Us, which peaked at number 2 in the British Album charts and was certified as double platinum.

During this period McCutcheon thought she'd found happiness with a friend and lover, Jonathan Barnham, but that relationship soured with a reported miscarriage and the revelation that Barnham had attended sex parties behind her back. There were also rumours that Martine had to stump up £75,000 in bail money for him, when he and his father were charged with importing cannabis into the UK.

In 2000 McCutcheon released her second album Wishing, which was less successful, charting at number 25 in the UK album charts. The album spawned two singles - the number 2 hit I'm Over You and her follow up song On The Radio, which was famously used as the theme tune for Hibernian striker Amadou Konte. After the lack of success with this album Virgin Records cancelled her contract. McCutcheon released her third album Musicality, a Broadway influenced cover album, in 2002. It reached number 55 in the albums charts, however her pop career stalled yet again when her second recording contract, this time with EMI Liberty, was cancelled due to poor sales.

[edit] Recent Work

McCutcheon went on to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady in London's West End. Despite being plagued by health problems during her run, she won the award for best actress in a musical at the 2002 Laurence Olivier Awards.

In 2003 McCutcheon featured in her first major film role. She appeared as tea-lady Natalie in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy Love Actually, where the British Prime Minister (played by Hugh Grant) falls in love with McCutcheon's character. The film received good reviews and was a box office smash. McCutcheon headed off to America in the wake of the film's success, but a Hollywood career failed to materialise. She did however, win Best Trans-atlantic breakthrough at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards.

In 2004 Martine, along with many other global stars, featured in a promotional film for London's successful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In September 2005 she appeared in two episodes of hit BBC drama series Spooks, playing a waitress who witnesses a terrorist bombing. In December of the same year, she took part in the Christmas Day edition of ITV's Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Louis Walsh as well as appearing on the Christmas Eve edition of Parkinson (also on ITV1).

One of her latest projects was screened on the UK television station ITV in spring 2006. In The English Harem she played the English wife of a Muslim man (Art Malik), who discovers that her husband already has two wives.

In August 2006, the supermarket chain, Tesco, announced that they would be using McCutcheon in a series of adverts to promote a new green scheme for recycling used plastic carrier bags.[1] She is also the new face of the washing powder brand, Lenor.

Martine is currently working on two acting projects entitled Withdrawal (2006) & Jump! (2006)

[edit] Trivia

• The notorious website Popbitch credited her with inventing the phrase 'Pop and Chop' , relating to recreational use of combining the drug cocaine and champagne.

• McCutcheon appeared in the video for Caribbean Blue by Enya, playing a fairy.

• Among the men she's been romantically linked with are EastEnders co-star Paul Nicholls, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan, Primary School Teacher Tom Hurd and Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall.

• Martine was a bridesmaid to Liza Minnelli at her wedding to David Gest in 2002.

• McCutcheon gave only the minimum number of performances in My Fair Lady, to qualify for the Olivier award. Her understudy gave the bulk of the performances. When her name was read out at the ceremony, Jonathan Pryce (McCutcheon's co-star) was so shocked at this announcement that he simply put his head in his hands and shook his head, rather than make the effort to applaude her. Footage of this behaviour is now used by RADA to teach aspiring actors how not to respond at an awards ceremony.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Albums

• 1999 You Me & Us #2 UK
• 2000 Wishing #25 UK
• 2002 Musicality #55 UK

[edit] Singles

• 1999 "Perfect Moment" #1 UK
• 1999 "I've Got You" #6 UK
• 1999 "Talking In Your Sleep / Love Me" #6 UK
• 2000 "I'm Over You" #2 UK
• 2001 "On The Radio" #7 UK

[edit] References

1. ^ It's got to be perfect
2. ^ HELLO! magazine profile

[edit] External link

• Martine McCutcheon at the Internet Movie Database