Biography of Jennifer Ann McCarthy (a.k.a.: Jenny McCarthy)
 Jenny McCarthy was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her middle-class Catholic family
lived in the West Elsdon neighborhood of Chicago. She is the second of four daughters;
her sisters are named Lynette, Joanne and Amy. Her cousin is Melissa McCarthy
of Gilmore Girls fame. McCarthy's mother, Linda, was a housewife and courtroom
custodian, and her father, Dan McCarthy, was a steel mill foreman. She attended
St. Turibius Grade School on Chicago's South Side. As a teenager, McCarthy attended
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School (whose school sweater she donned in the
pages of Playboy) and was a cheerleader at both Brother Rice High School and St.
Laurence High Schools, although she has referred to herself as an "outcast"
at her school. After McCarthy graduated from high school, she attended Southern
Illinois University Carbondale to study nursing. She needed money to pay for college,
so she decided to submit her picture to Playboy magazine to make money. She was
accepted and became a model.
Modeling and acting career
After getting accepted by Playboy in 1993, the magazine wanted her to pose for
the October issue. McCarthy was paid $20,000 for the photo shoot. McCarthy became
the Playmate of the Month and later the Playmate of the Year. In 1994, thanks
to this newfound attention and popularity, McCarthy moved to Los Angeles and,
for a time, hosted Hot Rocks, a Playboy TV show featuring uncensored music videos.
In 1995, MTV chose McCarthy to be the host of a new dating show called Singled
Out, for which she left Hot Rocks. Her job as a host was a success, and Playboy
wanted her to do more modeling. That same year, she also appeared at WrestleMania
XI as a guest valet for Shawn Michaels. She left after the match with the victor,
WWF Heavyweight Champion Diesel. She returned to the WWE on the August 2, 2008
edition of Saturday Night's Main Event to thank the fans for supporting Generation
Rescue. In 1996, McCarthy landed a small part in the comedy The Stupids. In
1997, McCarthy launched two shows. The first one was an MTV sketch comedy show
The Jenny McCarthy Show, which was sufficiently popular for NBC to sign her
for an eponymous sitcom later that year, Jenny. The latter show is generally
considered a disappointment and was quickly canceled. Also in 1997, she appeared
on one of two covers for the September issue of Playboy (the other cover featured
Pamela Anderson). McCarthy also released an autobiography: Jen-Y.
In 1998, McCarthy starred in BASEketball. In 1999, she starred in Diamonds,
a movie which was directed by her husband John Mallory Asher. The next year,
she appeared in the horror movie Scream 3. Since 2001, McCarthy has guest starred
in such shows as Stacked, Charmed, The Drew Carey Show, Wings, Fastlane, and
Just Shoot Me!.
In 2003, McCarthy appeared in Scary Movie 3 along with model and actress Pamela
Anderson. In 2005, McCarthy produced, wrote, and starred in Dirty Love along
with Carmen Electra. The same year, McCarthy hosted a new show on E! called
Party at the Palms. The reality show, which is filmed at The Palms Hotel in
Las Vegas, features hotel guests, party goers, and celebrities. In March 2006,
she was given Razzie Awards for "Worst Actress", "Worst Screenplay",
and "Worst Picture" for her work on Dirty Love, which also netted
her then-husband, John Asher, a Razzie for "Worst Director."
McCarthy has continued her work with Playboy
over the years, both as a model and in other capacities. She appeared on the
cover of the magazine's
January 2005 issue wearing a leopard skin bunny suit and was featured in
a pictorial shot at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in the same issue. She
was the second woman (Carmen Electra was the first) and first Playmate to become
a celebrity photographer for the Playboy Cyber Club, getting behind the camera
to photograph model Jennifer Madden, who is not a Playmate.
Jenny's younger sister, Amy, has also posed for Playboy. She was a Cyber Girl
of the Week and the Cyber Girl of the Month for January 2005.
She is the current voice of Six in the third season of Canadian CGI Sci-Fi
cartoon Tripping the Rift.
McCarthy currently stars in an online five episode series, called In The Motherhood,
along with Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini. The show is on MSN and is based
on being a mother where users could submit their stories to have it made into
real webisodes.
She also plays the role of Agent Tanya in the video game Command and Conquer:
Red Alert 3.
Public persona
Though McCarthy initially rose to fame because of her sexual image, a frequent
source of her celebrity derives from toilet humor. McCarthy once modeled for
Candie's, a shoe company. In one magazine ad, McCarthy posed on a toilet seat,
with her underwear near her ankles. Cultural scholar Collin Gifford Brooke wrote
that the ad's "taboo nature" brought it attention, while noting that
the ad itself helped to weaken that taboo. Another Candie's ad depicted McCarthy
passing gas in a crowded elevator.
A sketch on her MTV show centered on her character, a well-coifed business
woman, answering the question of "What did you have for lunch?" by
seeming to force herself to vomit all over a table which she then ate on-screen.
This was faked using special effects. The direct contrast of McCarthy's reputation
as a sex symbol and this often grotesque humor is closely associated with her
image. This image was taken to a new extreme in her film Dirty Love, which featured
McCarthy's character sitting in a massive pool of her own menstrual blood.
Personal life
In 1993, McCarthy underwent breast augmentation to enhance her look as a model
for Playboy. McCarthy had the implants downsized in 1998.
McCarthy dated her manager Ray Manzella for a short time in 1998. After breaking
up with Manzella, McCarthy began dating actor/director John Mallory Asher. The
couple became engaged in January 1999, and married on September 11 of that year.
They have a son, Evan Joseph, born on May 18, 2002. Evan is autistic. In August
2005, McCarthy and Asher filed for divorce.
In a February 2006 interview with Howard Stern, adult actress Jenna
Jameson said she had two sexual encounters with McCarthy. When McCarthy
visited Stern's show in April 2006, she denied having sex with Jameson, but
said she "made out" with her during the two encounters. McCarthy also
took a lie detector test and passed the questions regarding Jameson. During
the appearance, McCarthy also admitted to having performed oral sex on women
and that she cheated on her ex-husband with both men and women. However, in
a later appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she claimed they didn't cheat on each
other because it was agreed upon.
In December 2005, McCarthy began dating Jim Carrey. They did not make their
relationship public until June 2006. She announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
on April 2, 2008 that she and Carrey are now living together, but have no plans
to marry, as they do not need a "piece of paper". Carrey almost made
a mock proposal to McCarthy as a promotion to the film, Yes Man, where Carrey's
character has to agree to every single question.
Her brother-in-law is NHL hockey player Dan Hinote of the St. Louis Blues.
Dan is married to her younger sister, also a former playboy model Amy McCarthy.
She is also an avid Chicago White Sox fan.
Activism and autism controversy
In May 2007, McCarthy announced that her son was diagnosed with autism in 2005.
The disorder of McCarthy's son began with seizures and his improvement occurred
after the seizures were treated; these symptoms are more consistent with Landau-Kleffner
syndrome, which often is misdiagnosed as autism. McCarthy served as a spokesperson
for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) from June 2007 until October 2008. She participated
in fundraisers, online chats, and other activities for the non-profit organization
to help families affected by autism spectrum disorders. Her first fundraiser
for TACA, Ante Up for Autism, was held on October 20, 2007, in Irvine, California.
Before claiming that her son's autism was caused by vaccination, McCarthy wrote
that he was a "crystal child" and she an "indigo mom".
McCarthy's book on the subject, Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing
Autism was published September 17, 2007. She has stated both in her book and
during her appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that her husband was unable
to deal with their son's autism, which led to their divorce. She added that
her relationship with Jim Carrey has made it easier on her and that finding
someone who loves her and her son is great. McCarthy also told Oprah Winfrey
that her son was developing normally until he received his measles, mumps, and
rubella vaccine (at 15 months of age) and claimed that they were the cause.
McCarthy has stated at many talk shows and rallies that chelation therapy helped
her son recover from autism; the underlying rationale for chelation, which is
that mercury in vaccines causes autism, has been roundly rejected by scientific
studies, with the National Institute of Mental Health concluding that autistic
children are unlikely to receive any benefit to balance the risks of cognitive
and emotional problems posed by the chelating agents used in the treatment.
On April 2, 2008, she appeared on a Larry King Live special dedicated to autism
arguing against scientists and doctors, despite little to no in-depth knowledge
of science or medical credentials. In May 2009, she appeared on The Doctors
regarding this same topic. Full name: Jennifer Ann McCarthy
Born: November 1, 1972
Father: Dan McCarthy
Mother: Linda McCarthy
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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