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From ballerina princess to Scream queen, Ms. Campbel is back on her toes
Although her dream to become a ballerina was not realized, it's easy to see the imprint it left on Neve Campbell. She gracefully enters the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills dressed in a simple but elegant black pantsuit. Campbell's creamy complexion is a striking contrast to her straight, jet-black, '20s-style bobbed hair. Born in Guelph, Ont., on Oct. 3, 1973, Neve (her mother's maiden name) attended Canada's National Ballet School and made her acting debut in 1988 on the theatrical stage in The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto. But Campbell's breakthrough came in 1993 with the Canadian TV series Catwalk. Then, in 1994, she landed the role of Julia Salinger, the eldest sister on the fanatically followed Fox drama Party of Five, which she played until 2000. Campbell's career hopscotched to the big screen with the 1996 release of two films: The Craft and Scream. The latter proved to be her star turn. As Sidney Prescott, Campbell made two sequels to the horror film that set the bar for the genre in the late '90s. Not one to be pigeonholed, Campbell has gone on to play such diverse characters as a temptress in Wild Things, a soap star who hangs out at Studio 54 in 54 and a mistress in the romantic comedy Three to Tango, which was filmed in Toronto with fellow Canadian Matthew Perry and The Practice's Dylan McDermott. In 1998, Campbell coproduced and appeared with her brother Christian Campbell in Hair Shirt, which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. As Campbell rings out her 20s, she can chalk up a divorce from actor Jeff Colt, a romance with her Scream costar Matthew Lillard and that four-year-long "date" with John Cusack. More recently, however, Hollywood has been wondering why the once-high-profile actor has chosen a low-key lifestyle. Resurfacing this past summer opposite Jeremy Irons in Showtime's Last Call (which was filmed in Toronto), Campbell has been keeping busier than one might think: she's completed Investigating Sex with Nick Nolte and Lost Junction, shot in Montreal, with Billy Burke and Jake Busey (both films are still seeking distribution). She wrapped The Company (Sony Pictures...