Celebrities studying martial arts?

[Cat Nap]

Just curious is anyone studies. I know Sofia Milos (CSI) mentioned kickboxing. Lucy Liu supposedly studied Arnis once, Kelly Hu - maybe Kenpo.....

[jethro]

Sorry, drawing a blank, and that's all i can think of.

[GeneChing]

... I was going to post this on my thong fu thread, but it got eaten by the forum move. Maybe I'll have to repost that.

Lady Jane Percy tells of martial arts passion
Mar 29 2009 Sunday Sun

“I’D really love to swing a punch and knock someone clean out.”

They are words you probably never thought The Duchess of Northumberland would utter.

But just like her high-class, high-kicking computer games counterpart Lady Lara Croft, the North’s own Lady Jane Percy has revealed her love of the martial arts.

The duchess, whose family has a £300m fortune, is not only a kickboxer, but is also learning the Filipino double- stick art of Kali, which uses two rattan canes to subdue an aggressor.

And, not only might Lady Percy attain a coveted black belt herself, she is urging school pupils across the North to do likewise.

She said: “I really enjoy kickboxing because it’s a great way to relieve stress and keep fit.

“What I hate about ordinary exercise is that I’m always watching the clock. But if I’m doing kickboxing or using the sticks you have to really concentrate or you get hit.

“But I also just enjoy it for its own sake. I’d really love to swing a punch and knock someone clean out!”

The duchess, 50, said that kickboxing helps her switch off from the pressure of running The Alnwick Garden, her family estates and her own family as well.

As a martial artist, the duchess believes, like in Japan, more schools should take it up because it teaches positive life lessons, promotes fitness and teaches discipline.

She added: “If I say I’m going to do something then I’ll try my hardest to succeed because I’m quite a determined person.

“When I was younger — aged between eight and 13-years — I was an ice-skater. I trained every day I could for up to five hours.

“We now have a whole generation of youngsters that need to exercise more and martial arts not only provides exercise, it also gives youngsters discipline and is really good fun.

“Although there will be some who disagree, I think children need to understand that they can win, but won’t always win.

“Martial arts are a good way to teach this lesson.”

She is so keen on promoting martial arts in the region, the duchess is holding a cage- fighting contest at Alnwick Gardens.

She said: “I want the garden to be used by the unusual as well as the expected and when the fight night came up in conversation during training I suggested it as a venue to my instructor Darren Currah.

“We have a new oriental garden opening soon that is full of Japanese Great White Cherry Trees.

“Cherry blossom is a revered martial arts symbol so it all fitted together.

“We were looking for things to do with the Orient and the martial arts theme was just perfect for the orchard’s opening.”

The Martial News- sponsored cage fight, called Battle amongst the Blossom, is being held at The Alnwick Gardens on April 24 and features shoot grappling, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, otherwise known as MMA.

It is being organised by Alnwick-based DFM Martial Arts, the duchess’s martial arts club. The club’s team are known on the circuit as the DFM Reivers.

MMA contests pit martial artists from many different systems against each other.

Along with her martial arts classes, the duchess also finds time to write eight pages every six weeks for the glossy Japanese lifestyle magazine Bises.

She said: “I write about my life as the duchess in a real castle and, of course, my garden as well as selling the North as being a great place to visit.

“We get lots of bus loads of Japanese coming to Alnwick now so what I write in English must translate OK into Japanese.

“The magazine loves the idea of the castle and they have just invited me to go out to Tokyo and Kyoto to talk about our region.

“It has been 30 years since I last went to Japan so I am really looking forward to going.”

Tickets for the Battle amongst the Blossom MMA and Kickboxing Fight Night are available from 07967- 724064, or from Sports World and Atmosphere shops in Alnwick.

The Duchess is a member of the DFM Martial Arts schools.

To find out more about DFM classes go to www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or www.geocities.com/directional fighting

[SimonM]

Vladimir Putin - Judo BB.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Robert Downey Jr - Wing Chun.

[doug maverick]

Originally Posted by SimonM

Vladimir Putin - Judo BB.

putin is a former head of state dont think he counts as a celeb.

[BoulderDawg]

I was asking a friend of mine who runs a school in LA if he would give private lessons to a celebrity. He said he didn't give private lessons....Hell if I was qualified I would give private lessons as long as you have the brass!

Anyway I'm sure every other celebrity in Hollywood has taken MA at one time or the other. However, just like it is in real life, very few take it serious.

[Jimbo]

Ed O'Neill - BJJ.

The guy who played The Highlander in the TV show did CLF and Hung Gar.

Wesley Snipes; I don't know what style(s). Kinda looks like kenpo, but he probably did a number if different things.

Louis Mandalor from Martial Law and other roles trains M.A.

I read that Sarah Michelle Gellar does TKD.

Jennifer Garner trains, or trained, TKD under Byong Yu.

[GeneChing]

Putin is totally a celeb. Politicians are celebs.

Milla Jojovich says she trains. See our Ultraviolet thread - I posted both on her and on Adrian Paul (the Highlander dude) on page 2.

I suppose all our sword hotties train, at least for a little bit, but that counts. We'll give the sword hotties a break.

And there's a ton of Bollywood Babes who train...

[Shaolinlueb]

my teacher was at shi yan mings in the mid to late 90's and wesley snipes and rosie perez were "celebs" who would train there when he was there.

wesley was all business my sifu said.

[BoulderDawg]

Originally Posted by Shaolinlueb

my teacher was at shi yan mings in the mid to late 90's and wesley snipes and rosie perez were "celebs" who would train there when he was there.

wesley was all business my sifu said.

Maybe so but I have a feeling that if your sifu wants to train with Welsey again he might have to go to Africa to do it.

Snipes is leaving this week to start a film in Namibia and I have a feeling, with Welsey looking at three years of prison in the United States, that he won't be returning anytime soon!

[Zenshiite]

RZA, obviously. Don't most of the Wu Tang Clan dudes train or have trained?

[doug maverick]

Originally Posted by Zenshiite

RZA, obviously. Don't most of the Wu Tang Clan dudes train or have trained?

no, actually only the rza and ghost face killer have said anything about training in the martial arts.

[GeneChing]

Does Gilles Marini count? Probably not.

'Dancing With the Stars': Waltz on
06:34 AM PT, Apr 7 2009
Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke. And rightfully so. Their perfect-30 tango from the week before set the bar exceedingly high, but they surpassed it with their caliente pasodoble. Honestly, I thought this dance, set to Bizet’s “Carmen,” had more emotion and was better paced than last week’s. Gilles’ martial arts background helped him attack the routine. And he got extra cute points for bringing his son to the Wushu martial-arts center during rehearsal (“You’re going down, papa!”). I loved Gilles' scruff and eyeliner. And his long body suited the leaned-back bullfighter stance perfectly. His shirtless stint at the beginning of the routine didn’t hurt, either. Carrie Ann called the dance “breathtakingly … passionate,” and a decidedly less-spray-tanned Bruno declared it “more than a dance — it was a battle for supremacy!” Len, however, stricken with what Tom called “pec envy,” peckishly thought it was a little too hectic and docked them a point for a total of 29.

BTW, y'all caught my last RZA interview, right?

[GeneChing]

...only if we're trying to get into his bar...

The Gig is Up! Rose Bar's Kung Fu Master Nur Khan Whips Out His Rock Star Rolodex
By Chris Shott and Max Abelson
April 7, 2009 | 5:31 p.m

Nightlife impresario Nur Khan was bummed that rock singer Chris Cornell had pulled the plug on him.

“Am I upset that we’re not doing the gig tonight? Yeah, it would’ve been really cool,” Mr. Khan told the Daily Transom. “But we’re going to shoot for something in May.”

The charismatic 42-year-old operator of the artsy Rose Bar at Ian Schrager’s posh Gramercy Park Hotel had been planning one of his “stealth gigs” on Monday, April 6, an impromptu concert featuring the former Soundgarden frontman Mr. Cornell and the British musician–turned–Calvin Klein model Jamie Burke.

But Mr. Cornell was already booked for back-to-back nights at Webster Hall and his handlers were worried about further straining his voice.

Plan B? “The Dandy Warhols are coming in tonight,” said Mr. Khan, “so maybe we’ll do a spontaneous gig with them.”

Since opening his seminal Soho bar Wax in 1995, Mr. Khan has long catered to the city’s “musically literate crowd” and has the rolodex to prove it.

“The type of music that I’ve played in my bars has attracted a lot of musicians,” said Mr. Khan, who described himself as a rock ’n’ roll fanatic.

He dresses like a rock star, sporting multiple shiny rings, a Lazaro Diaz–designed bracelet encrusted with black diamonds and his trademark black snakeskin jacket, which he proudly created himself in collaboration with the designer Michael H. (“It’s nine pythons,” he noted.)

And he rolls like one, too. Former Wax partner John Jacobson once described the guy as “an imposing figure with a reputation for getting into fights.”

“I’ve calmed down in my old days,” said Mr. Khan, also a noted martial arts enthusiast who once took kung fu lessons from Shaolin monks in China. He chalked up his past dust-ups to an overall grittier downtown vibe in the mid-to-late 1990s.

From time to time, he likes to call on his rocker buddies for favors. “I’ve developed a lot of relationships where I can make a call and have someone come in here and do a special gig without having to have a big corporate name behind me,” Mr. Khan explained. “They can come jam and then sit around the table for the rest of the night and have a good time. They know I’m going to put a good crowd around them. If someone’s got a record coming out, I can create a little buzz. The record industry’s in shambles right now. Anything we can do to help the artists and keep this place poppin’—all parties benefit.”

The gigs can be tricky. Rose Bar lacks the proper sound system for a show, so he rents one, pushes a few tables aside and sticks a small stage in front of the fireplace. “We try not to burn the drummer,” he joked.

Since opening Rose Bar in 2006, Mr. Khan has hosted such illustrious acts as Velvet Revolver, the Kooks and Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction fame.

On March 15, former Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando joined Gibby Haynes of the ******** Surfers onstage for a brief but sweet four-song set.

“You ****y-ass mother****ers can suck my ****ing ****,” Mr. Haynes told the crowd of pretty men in velvet jackets and handsome ladies in slinky black dresses, who seemed largely disinterested in the music that night. “Pay attention to Evan Dando!”

The Daily Transom spotted the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and actor Clive Owen in the audience. “Jim is actually friends with Evan and Gibby,” Mr. Khan later noted. “Clive just happened to come in—he’s a regular.”

Eventually, Mr. Khan would like to take his Rose Bar sessions on the road, possibly doing private shows at Coachella and other music festivals in the future.

For now, he’s got a list of local shows he’s dying to do. “Wait till you see what other ones I have up my sleeve,” he said.