you might not know ola rae's name but
there's a pretty good chance you know
her face
her role as michael jackson's girlfriend
in the iconic video for thriller has
made her one of the most recognizable
stars in music video history today
however she's living a completely
different life and she's not the only
one either
michael jackson's thriller may just be
the most famous music video ever made
when it premiered in 1983 the nearly 14
minute epic
transformed everyone's perceptions about
what a music video could be
it was part film a part music video and
all michael jackson
according to rolling stone it was also
the most expensive music video ever made
at the time and even aired alongside a
making of documentary
though jackson was stunning as ever
throughout it's hard to forget jackson's
adorable on-screen girlfriend played by
ola ray according to yahoo the actress
landed the role after it was turned down
by flash dance star jennifer beale's
first and she still almost lost out on
the part because of a playboy centerfold
she posed for in 1980.
it was while on set for thriller that
rey fell in love with the king of pop
in an interview with abc however she
revealed that she never told him about
her true feelings
i didn't tell him and that's one thing
you know i hate the fact that i i didn't
get a chance to
really tell him how i felt about him
these days ray is now a mother living in
sacramento california
after a decades-long hiatus from the
entertainment industry she jumped back
into the acting world in 2019 with a
smattering of projects slated for
release
but rey isn't the only music video star
whose life has changed
drastically since stepping into the
spotlight here are a few more of the
famous faces who are pretty much
unrecognizable today in 1992 blind melon
released arguably their most successful
single ever
no reign the song shot to number three
on billboard's us charts and the music
video that accompanied it was equally as
memorable
despite the fact that the song premiered
in an era before online viral videos
deloach's image has become almost as
synonymous with 90s era mtv
as nirvana and the real world deloach
even later reprised her role for a weird
al yankovic video
these days the former video star is in
her mid-30s she married a financial
advisor in 2017 and has since told mtv
that people still come up to her all the
time with stories about how she changed
their childhoods and helped them deal
with not fitting in
on occasion deloach has even been known
to step back into the bee costume
reality tv fans knew maddie zigler
before she ever appeared in the video
for sia's song chandelier since the
dance star got her start in the public
eye on dance moms
in an interview with news.com.edu
ziegler revealed that cia was a fan of
her work with the series prompting her
to reach out to ziegler on twitter and
ask her if she wanted to be in a music
video
the video for chandelier which saw
ziggler donna wig and leotard and thrash
around like a pint-sized version of the
mega star garnered almost 2 billion
video views
and the pair have formed quite a special
bond in its wake yeah she
um is the best person in my life she
really is
she's i think my god mom now is that
right yeah i think so
according to billboard sia even bought
her young pal a car for her 16th
birthday which sort of borders more on
fairy godmother than regular godmother
but who's counting
1998 was a weird year for the world
seinfeld aired its last episode ginger
spice quit the spice girls and the
offspring were still a thing people
cared about
the latter group released their fifth
studio album americana that year which
got rather mediocre reviews despite
containing arguably their biggest hit
pretty fly for a white guy if anything
great came out of 1998 however it's that
americana would introduce the world to
zoe de chanel
if only for 3 minutes and 44 seconds
today we mostly know the mega star for
her fox sitcom
new girl and for her work with the band
she and him but in 1998 she was a
teenage actress who was anything but
famous the year after the offspring
released americana de chanel ended up
landing the starring role in the video
for their fourth single
she's got issues in that video deschanel
was anything but recognizable being
totally devoid of her patented bangs and
rocking red hair
that same year she got her breakout role
in almost famous which was only her
fourth credited acting gig
back when mtv was known for videos
rather than reality shows
luis foley cohen was practically an icon
if you switched on the tv during that
golden era of music videos you'll have
likely seen her in tom petty's video for
don't come around here no more
alongside a giant mushroom the video was
a psychedelic play on alice in
wonderland with fully cohen playing the
coveted role of alice she later told
noblemania
i got the one-time payment of i think 2
500
since i was a starving actress i managed
to make it last about 2 months i didn't
even get to keep the costume because it
was ruined by the tea and frosting
since then fully cohen has become
something of a legend among classic rock
fans the actress took a second starring
role in petty's video for
make it better forget about me and also
dated the heartbreaker's former drummer
stan lynch for five years though she
didn't think her first video was going
to blow up in the way it did the houston
chronicle reports that she still gets
introduced to new people as that girl
from the tom petty video
even 30 years after the fact the video
for mclemore and ryan lewis's
wings had a powerful anti-consumerism
message which railed against the culture
around
expensive sneakers the song itself
followed the story of a young boy played
by lucas king who begs his mom to buy
him trendy basketball shoes so he can
fit in with his peers
ultimately it ends with his friend's
brother dying over a pair of air jordans
that said it's probably not surprising
that the rapper got absolutely railed on
when he censored the anti-sneaker lyrics
for an nba promotion
though macklemore may have been labeled
as a sellout king is still stoked on his
starring role in the video in a recent
instagram post he claimed that a still
from the video was one of his favorite
pictures ever
today the student appears to have traded
up his brief acting career for one in
soccer let's hope he's taken the message
of wings to heart
in 1991 michael jackson tried to top
thriller with another epic
11 minute video black or white premiered
to an audience of 500 million people in
28 countries but the cinematic video
which cost
4 million dollars to make was wrought
with controversy after a certain crotch
grabbing moment and some deeply
unfortunate racist graffiti which had to
be cut from later versions one thing
that definitely wasn't cut however was
one of hollywood's youngest rising stars
and jackson's dear friend macaulay
culkin according to yahoo culkin and
jackson were known for their onset
pranks
one day the pair even ended up ditching
work and instead decided to reportedly
spend
60 thousand dollars at toys r us today
culkin is more known for his status as a
former child star than anything else but
he also enjoys getting up to some
internet based hijinks for example he
reprised his role of kevin from home
alone for a google ad trolled his
brother on twitter during the golden
globes and launched an online poll to
determine his new legal middle name with
the options including
shark week kieran the mcrib is back and
publicity stunt
macaulay culkin ultimately won out
meaning the actor's full name is now
macaulay macaulay culkin culkin
in 2011 young actress adriana bertola
took on the role of a mini jessie j
look-alike in the singer's video for
who's laughing now
in which she played an unpopular student
who is doing her best to deal with
rampant bullying in class
eventually she ends up spraying her
bully down with a fire extinguisher
funnily enough it seems that
unpopularity is the least of bertolla's
problems
at the time of the shoot the actress was
well-versed in the world of theater and
wildly successful for her age she had
starring roles in the stage versions of
the sound of music and matilda and has
been enjoying a pretty decent tv career
after landing a recurring role on
casualty in 2009.
she also starred as violet beauregard in
the original london production of
charlie in the chocolate factory and has
since launched a music career of her own
bertola released a single called fire
and ice in 2014.
in 2013 taylor swift and ed sheeran
sparked romance rumors with their
adorable song
everything has changed today we know the
pair are great collaborators and even
greater friends but at the time
sheeran had to come out and shut down
the speculation that was running rampant
in the tabloids
but it didn't exactly help that the pair
had released what might just have been
the cutest music video ever made the
video for
everything has changed featured two
children playing younger versions of the
stars in the childhood love story
they go from playing in the playground
and building bedroom forts to slow
dancing in an empty gymnasium
the girl in the video seemingly meant to
represent a young taylor swift was
actress ava ames
since her appearance in the video she's
grown up quite a bit from the looks of
her instagram it seems that ames is a
normal student nowadays she's on the
varsity dance team in cheer squad and is
even still acting though mostly only in
shorts and tv cameos
fountains of wayne rocked 2003 with
their iconic song stacy's mom the
accompanying tongue-in-cheek music video
featured two major stars actress rachel
hunter as stacy's mom and giana distenka
as stacy since the video hit the
airwaves dustenka has gone on to enjoy
success in a wide range of fields but
acting isn't one of them
tastenka hasn't spent much time in the
world of acting since her debut with
fountains of wayne in 2003. dostenka
actually left the united states in 2013
and has since been living in lebanon
where she works at a volunteer center
with refugee kids
beyond that she's also a painter and a
sculptor who regularly posts her work on
instagram under the name giana dispenza
though her acting never garnered her
much acclaim it seems that through art
dispenza has made quite the name for
herself alison stoner was the original
pop video dancing star
in fact she had long been a mainstay in
missy elliott's music videos while cia's
maddie ziegler was pretty much still a
zygote the young actress
dancer grooved her way through 2002's
workit and gossip folks as well as
2004's i'm really hot
since then stoner has changed a whole
lot and sadly learned the real price of
childhood stardom
no longer just that girl who dances
alongside missy elliot
stoner has parlayed her sick moves into
a lasting film career she's appeared in
hits such as cheaper by the dozen and
the original step up
in which she starred alongside channing
tatum but fame isn't all it's cracked up
to be while promoting her single
stripped bear oh yeah she's a singer too
the star shed light on the darker side
of childhood fame
she told people magazine several years
ago i discovered i was being taken
advantage of since childhood and left in
a very compromised position
my health was affected along with my
career path my relationships
and identity nonetheless stoner hasn't
allowed herself to forget her roots in
2015 she filmed her very own tribute to
missy elliott
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