....October 9, 3:55 PM
 
 
 
Queens Girl
Television pilot season is calling in Los Angeles, but model and aspiring actress Paola Rico isn’t sure she is ready to leave Queens just yet.

“I love Long Island City,” Paola said. “It’s two stops from Manhattan, we have beautiful views of the City and a lot of art – artwork is pretty much everywhere.”

The Flushing-born beauty started modeling at age 12, when her parents encouraged her to attend a modeling school in Jackson Heights. Her first job was at age 13 at a fashion concert in Madison Square Garden and she has been working since – posing in promotional ads for major companies such as Captain Morgan.

She recently made the switch to acting, taking private classes in Manhattan and auditioning for small roles.

“I’m really nervous. I auditioned for a NBC sitcom and I’m not sure if I got it yet,” she said.

When she’s not busy rehearsing lines or racking up air miles, Paola likes to play baseball in Flushing Meadow Park and hang out with her friends. One of her favorite nightspots is Cavo Café Lounge, an Astoria restaurant and nightclub that she says is very relaxing and has great food.

“I know I’ll probably have to move to Los Angeles to become an actress,” she said. “But New York City is my home. I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave it.”


Paola Rico
Home: Long Island City
Age: 26
Height: 5’3
Weight: 103
Stats: 34-24-33

 
 
Dirty, Sexy

Jackson Heights' Lucy Liu
ABC is going back to the drawing board this season, recycling several shows in its Wednesday lineup that were put on hold after the writers’ strike last winter.

When “Dirty Sexy Money,” a satirical drama about an idealistic lawyer’s involvement with a wealthy New York family, made its grand reappearance last week, it did so with one noticeable change. Lucy Liu, the Jackson Heights-born actress known for her roles in Ally McBeal and the film adaptation of Charlie’s Angels, has joined the cast as Nola Lyons, a seductress who shakes things up for the Darling family.

“We’re making this a glitzy, glossy, messy, dirty, sexy soap opera this year,” creator Craig Wright told the San Jose Mercury News. “We’re sort of taking the gloves off and going for it.”
Mac, PC, Yada Yada Yada.

Bill Gates gets a shopping tip from Jerry Seinfeld
For techno-geeks worldwide, the question has become defining. Mac or PC?

Jerry Seinfeld just gave us his answer.

The Queens College alum and Microsoft founder Bill Gates appear in a new set of ads aimed at polishing Windows’ image.

One commercial features Seinfeld helping Gates shop for new shoes. Seinfeld even asks, “Ever wear clothes in the shower, Bill?”

In another ad, the two move in with a typical American family, to get in touch with “real people.”

In fact, the topics cover everything but Microsoft Windows. The ads, much like the comedian’s show, are about nothing. Whether or not Microsoft has fixed Windows Vista’s myriad of bugs is another question.

Catch Her On Tour
Madonna is back in the good ol’ USA after her European “Sticky and Sweet Tour.” It is a mere warm up because the Material Girl will continue her tour in the land of her birth first at New Jersey’s Izod Arena, then, the onetime Corona resident will take her act across the river to Madison Square Garden.

The 50-year-old Queen of Pop is just getting started. Her tour will Vogue in Boston, Chicago, Oakland, Denver and a host of other North American countries.
Queens Fighter's MMA Debut

Carlos Zevallos
Queens native Carlos Zevallos made his mixed martial arts debut recently during Strike Force: Payback, a mixed martial arts event in Colorado.

The two-time New York State Metropolitan Boxing and 2004 World Kickboxing Association National Heavyweight Muay Thai champ faced off against Andre “The Silencer” Walker, a Sabaki Karate fighter in the light-heavyweight match.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Zevallos told Sherdog.com. “I’m gonna make it very far because I pay a lot of attention to detail. . . It’s a constant never-ending search for perfection that drives me to MMA.”

MMA is a full-contact, free-form sport pitting contenders from various fighting backgrounds against one another.
Surmounting Squash

Apollonia Castitlione
It’s fall now and one Queens gardener is looking to break a world record with her harvest this year.

Apollonia Castitlione has been growing a zucchini already 6 foot tall and is on track to break the 7-foot, 10-inch zucchini from India.

The green-thumbed hope told the Daily News she only used fertilizer and water to grow the enormous squash.

“I’ve had my vegetable garden for 26 years, but I never saw anything so spectacular,” she said.

If she fails this year, she said she is keeping the seeds to make a second attempt.


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