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Young and Restless
Hanna
Brzoza Twenty-something-year-old
model Hanna Brzoza – she
doesn’t want her exact age revealed – is used to doing things early. She
graduated from Aviation High School at age 15, having skipped the fifth and
10th grades. She
owns her own business, called Zoza Baskets, from which she makes a living
planning events and making party baskets from her home. The
business is enough to make a living, she said, and it’s still on the rise
and she recently launched www.zozabaskets.com, and hopes to get some office
space within a year. But
it’s her family life that really shows her get-there-quick attitude. She
got married when she was only 17! Now,
she’s enjoying married life as well as the mommy life: she has a
five-year-old daughter named Joshua (no, that’s not a typo). Hanna,
whose maiden name is Hosein, has a lot of interesting ethnic connections,
too. Not
only is the Trinidad-born beauty mixed – her dad is German and Indian, her
mom is Chinese and Spanish – but so is her daughter. Hanna’s hubby is
Polish. Being
of mixed race, Hanna said, is a mixed blessing. It
gives her a very unique look, but it also throws off clients who aren’t
used to anything but a typical look. “I
think it’s hurting me to an extent because what they’re looking for is
either midwestern girls with blonde hair and blue eyes…or the total
opposite, the Nubian Princess.” When
it comes to modeling, however, Hanna apparently doesn’t have to worry
about what agencies want. Discovered two years ago while vacationing in
Florida, the Ridgewood resident has done a lot of event modeling and fashion
shows, as well as a women’s empowerment magazine from Virginia called “WSIN.” In
August, she’ll be gracing the floor of the Nubian Fitness event in
Manhattan. And
while she said a full-time modeling career would be great, the St. John’s
University computer graduate understands it takes a lot of hard work and is
looking forward to growing her business. “It’s
about who you know and who can help you more than your talent or how you
look,” Hanna said. Can
You See Me Now?
Some of the most delicate of all geological features – salt marsh wetlands – grace the southeast corner of this borough near JFK Airport.
But
even the tall grass and snowy egrets of Idlewild Park, a 160-acre sponge
next to Jamaica Bay, aren’t enough to keep the most ardent
environmentalists from using their cell phones there. During
a recent canoe tour of the wetlands taken by about a dozen community
activists, several of them couldn’t stay away from their little beeping,
buzzing, vibrating talk boxes. The
Parks Department’s Assistant Commissioner for Citywide Services Jack Linn
made sure to point them out, asking one activist, “You call yourself a
naturalist?” When
a QConfer sharing Linn’s canoe got a call himself, he said,
“It’s kind of hard to talk right now; I’m paddling a canoe in the
middle of a swamp,” leading Linn, more amused than offended, to let out a
guffaw. But
the joke was on two commissioners when Richard Murphy, Queens Parks Commish,
got separated from the other seven boats on the tour. He
could not be seen anywhere and without binoculars or a walkie-talkie, there
was only one way for Linn to find his man. “Rich,
where are you?” Linn barked into his trusty cell phone. It
turned out Murphy was already on the ground. Unlike
while driving, there’s no ban on using mobile phones while paddling a
canoe. For
the sake of Parks commissioners everywhere, we hope there isn’t one
coming!
The
Turn Of A Phrase
Motorists
cruising down the westbound side of Horace Harding Expressway may or may not
have noted that the Cinema City Theater in Fresh Meadows seems to be
screening a film not available at any other venue.
To
take the typographically questionable marquee at its word, it appears that
Cinema City features a new comedy about funeral home hi-jinks and mix-ups
cleverly titled “Wrong Urn.” QConf
will leave the plot possibilities of such a morbid-yet-zany movie to the
twisted mind of the reader. The
truth, as always, is in the proof reading. “Wrong Turn” — an
equally morbid but probably less comedic film — is actually playing at
Cinema City. The actual movie is a bloody gore-fest of a thriller by
Director Rob Schmidt and tells the tale of young stranded motorists who
encounter a trio of cannibalistic backwoods boys on an ill-fated road trip. Anyone
with extra T’s lying around the house is encouraged to contact the
management of Cinema City about donations. Renaissance
Man
Queens’
own Oscar winner Adrien Brody has been all over the papers of late
thanks to the release of the new film “Love the Hard Way,” which was
actually filmed before his career-making star turn in “The Pianist.” As
part of the interview tour the actor conducted to promote his new indie
film, Brody told a wire service reporter that he planned to touch base with
Rego Park resident Tommy Zarobinski during his time in New York City
for the film’s premiere. According
to Brody, his impromptu Oscar night shout-out to Zarobinski – who was
serving on the frontlines in Iraq at the time – actually helped
temporarily shield his childhood friend from danger.
“For
the time being it kind of protected him a little bit because they pulled him
back from the front to Kuwait to do ‘Access Hollywood,’” said Brody,
in a remarkable demonstration of celebrity’s long reach.
Rumors
have linked Brody with a new love interest, perennial rock girlfriend Michelle
Dupont, who has dated pop idols like Fred Durst, Perry Farrel and
Dave Navarro in the past. Perhaps
she is interested because of Brody’s musical side. Other reports suggest
that the star of “The Pianist” might be trying out some other
instruments on a CD he plans to eventually release. Brody fancies himself a
composer and producer of “beats,” the background track to hip hop songs
– though he promised he would leave the rapping to someone else.
“It’s
easier for a musician to be taken seriously as an actor than an actor to be
taken seriously as a musician,” Brody complained. Who
knows? He comes from the borough of rappers!
E-MAIL your items to: conf@queenstribune.com
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