Bijou Lilly Phillips (born April 1, 1980) is an American actress, model, and singer. Phillips began her career as a model but soon transitioned herself into acting and singing. When she was 13, she started as a model and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue. Bijou also appeared in several ads for Calvin Klein. She made her musical debut with her album I'd Rather Eat Glass in 1999. She has appeared in films such as Black and White (1999), Almost Famous (2000), Bully (2001), Octane (2003), The Door in the Floor (2004), Venom (2005), Hostel: Part II (2007), and Choke (2008).
Phillips was born in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and is the daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas and his then-wife Geneviève Waïte, a South African model, artist, and actress. The youngest of John Phillips's children, she has one brother, Tamerlane, and three half-siblings: Mackenzie, Jeffrey, and Chynna. After her parents split up, both were found unfit to have custody of Bijou and she was placed in foster care with a family in Bolton Landing, New York. She lived there on and off, doing extended visits with her parents, who had both acquired houses in the area.
Her father won custody when she was in third grade and she moved with him to Lloyd Harbor, a village of the Town of Huntington, Long Island. Then, at 14, she quit school, left home and moved into her own apartment just off Fifth Avenue - with her own housekeeper. She used to party, drink and take drugs. She said "If you were 14 years old and able to live on your own in an apartment in New York City, and you got invited to all these clubs, and you got a bank account and you had a car service you could call so that you could go wherever you wanted... what would happen?"
Phillips made her film debut as Charlie in Black and White (1999). Phillips's performance was praised by film critics. The film was directed by James Toback and starring Robert Downey Jr., Jared Leto, Brooke Shields and Elijah Wood, with whom she would later begin an off-screen romance.
She appeared alongside Kate Hudson in the musical drama Almost Famous (2001). The film received four Academy Awards nominations and was a critical success but not a box office success. In 2001, she appeared in the comedy Tart and in the drama Bully. Later, Phillips starred in the thriller feature Octane, which was released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003; in the film, she appeared opposite Mischa Barton. In 2004, Phillips starred opposite Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger in The Door in the Floor, a film adaptation of John Irving's novel A Widow For One Year. She portrayed a leading role as Emily in the low-budget drama Havoc (2005), alongside Anne Hathaway. That year, she appeared in the teen horror-thriller Venom. She played one of the main characters, Whitney, in the sequel to the horror film Hostel, Hostel: Part II, which opened in 2007. She also starred in What We Do Is Secret, in which she appeared again with Lauren German (her Hostel co-star). She received critical acclaim for her portrayal; Phil Gallo for Variety called Phillips' performance "striking" and stated that her character "lights up in a unique way whenever she's in Crash's company or simply talking about him."
She starred in the 2008 black comedy Choke, with Anjelica Huston and Sam Rockwell, and directed by Clark Gregg. The film is based on the Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name. Choke premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2008, where it won a Special Jury Prize for a dramatic work by an ensemble cast. She played as Marcy in the comedy Made for Each Other, with Danny Masterson and Chris Masterson. She was also cast as Nancy Spungeon in a biopic about the Hotel Chelsea directed by Abel Ferrara. She got the starring role in Dark Streets.
She landed the lead role in a horror remake of It's Alive. She also has an uncredited cameo in the as-yet-unreleased Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead. Phillips starred alongside Danny Masterson, in the 2009 drama The Bridge to Nowhere. She appeared as Lucy in three episodes of the Fox Network's comedy series Raising Hope. The show premiered on September 1, 2010.
During an interview about Dark Streets, she was asked about the idea of making an album in the future, and she said that "No. I love singing and writing, but right now, the record industry is a disaster. I have friends who’ve worked for years, and they’re so talented, but even if they have a best-selling album, there’s no money right now. They’re not exactly handing out lucrative recording contracts left and right; I think it would be very difficult to get one at all. I mean, I’ve never tried, but I’ve heard it would be very hard".
Phillips has appeared on the covers of magazines such as Playboy, Stuff, and Nylon. She was on the cover of Interview magazine when she was 13, and shortly thereafter became the youngest model to ever appear on the cover of Vogue's Italian edition. Phillips also became an image model for Calvin Klein and appeared on several advertising campaigns in which adolescents showed white underwear. The campaigns were widely condemned as eerily paedophilic. In 2000, she was listed #88 on Maxim magazine's "Hot 100" list. Stuff magazine ranked her as #52 in their "100 Sexiest Women in the World" in 2007.
She said in one interview on modelling: "It was like, I wanted to go swimming in the ocean, but I was jumping up and down in a puddle." It is said that the title of her album 'I'd Rather Eat Glass' is a reference to what she'd rather do than go back to modeling.
In 1997, she dated Elijah Blue Allman. She started a relationship in 2000 with Sean Lennon, until they broke in 2003, because Phillips had an affair with her childhood friend Max LeRoy. Some songs on Sean Lennon's CD Friendly Fire are about their break-up.
In 2004, Phillips began dating That '70s Show actor Danny Masterson; the couple met at a poker tournament in Las Vegas. They are both Scientologists. The couple announced their engagement in March 2009. They were married on October 18, 2011 in a private castle in Ireland. Phillips wore a custom Zac Posen gown.
Philips' parents named her after the song 'My Petite Bijou' by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. 'Bijou' means 'jewel' in French.
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