Celebrity crush: Kaley Cuoco (revised)

This week's revised entry features one of TV's funniest and sexiest stars. As with so many of the revisions of early entries, this one's wordier than the norm and features more photos to balance out the text. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Kaley Cuoco (images | Facebook | Twitter)
Hometown: Camarillo, Calif., according to her Wikipedia entry; her dad sells real estate, her mother was a homemaker, and she graduated high school at age 16 after being educated on set while working as an actress.
Best Known For: Kaley's currently starring as Penny on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory -- which has improbably become a top-rated comedy on TV here in America despite its name and so many of its characters reflecting a scientific world view rejected by so many folks here. Up until the current season, she was the only female regular on the series, though she's been joined this season by previously recurring player Melissa Rauch and former Blossom star Mayim Bialik.

Previous regular roles include playing one of the late John Ritter's daughters on the sitcom 8 Simple Rules and playing a junior witch on the final season of Charmed -- though she's been all over TV, even guest-starring on Mercy, The Ghost Whisperer, Gossip Girl, Warehouse 13, and How I Met Your Mother while starring on a hit series.
Humble Beginnings: Kaley started acting at age 6. In 2000, she played Maureen McCormick in the made-for-TV film Growing Up Brady. I'll mostly just be including links to her work as an adult -- with the exclusion of the first season of 8 Simple Rules because if and when I profile her onscreen sister from that series, it will get listed then, and besides, you deserve to get to see Ritter's final ongoing role -- but her résumé goes back a lot farther. I make an exception this one time for the second season of 8 Simple Rules, since she turned 18 about halfway through. (This is an art, not a science.)

A Very Animated Performer: She has done voice work for a number of cartoon projects, including the Bratz series, a Disney Channel cartoon called Brandy and Mr. Whiskers and the series Monster Allergy.
Not the Courteney Cox Factor: She's done a bit of singing, including releasing a charity cover of "What a Wonderful World" in recent weeks.
Obligatory Edgy Stuff: ... I did mention the Bratz cartoon, right? 'Cause that's about all there is. Sure, she's done some modeling, but she's refreshingly scandal-free.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: In addition to being very easy on the eyes, Kaley is a gifted comic actress. On 8 Simple Rules, she played the elder daughter (despite being six years younger than the also hot Amy Davidson), fully aware of her feminine wiles and not averse to using them to make boys do stuff for her. But you liked her despite it.

I didn't watch The Big Bang Theory when it first came on, because the premise -- cute blond waitress from Midwest living in California next to two nerds -- sounded offensively stereotypical on a number of levels. But when I gave it a chance, I was pleasantly surprised.

Sure, there's some of that -- especially with Sheldon and Leonard's friends -- but Kaley as Penny is a breath of fresh air, a sort of well-rounded and open-hearted character you don't find very often. She may have just attended community college, and not even finished that, but Penny can put the Ph.D.-wielding boys in their place with one quip or a facial expression. She's simply one of the funniest people on television; the fact she looks so very good in a bikini is simply added value.

As said before about some others, Kaley isn't the girl next door -- but she's the girl you WISH had lived next door. And her portrayal as Penny has created one of the most three-dimensional, real-feeling characters on television out of what easily could have been one of several different ciphers.

Film and TV-movie credits: Key Party (Amazon | iTunes) * The Bedroom Window (Amazon | iTunes) * The Surrogate (Amazon | iTunes) * Hop (Amazon | iTunes) * The Last Ride (Amazon | iTunes) * The Penthouse (Amazon | iTunes) * Killer Movie (Amazon | iTunes) * Cougar Club (Amazon | iTunes) * To Be Fat Like Me (Amazon | iTunes) * Wasted (Amazon | iTunes) * Separated at Worth (Amazon | iTunes) * Lucky 13 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Hollow (Amazon | iTunes) * Crimes of Fashion (Amazon | iTunes) * 10.5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Debating Robert Lee (Amazon | iTunes)
Musical work: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" -- Annie Automatic feat. Kaley Cuoco (Amazon | iTunes)

Voice work: 6Teen, vol. 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * 6Teen, vol. 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Monster Allergy, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * 6Teen, vol. 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bratz: Genie Magic (Amazon | iTunes) * Monster Allergy, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bratz: Rock Angelz (Amazon | iTunes) * 6Teen, vol. 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bratz: Passion 4 Fashion - Diamondz (Amazon | iTunes) * Bratz, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Loonatics Unleashed, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * 6Teen, vol. 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Monster Allergy, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * 6Teen, vol. 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes)

TV and Web series credits: The Big Bang Theory, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Mercy: "You Lost Me With the Cinder Block" (Amazon | iTunes) * Warehouse 13, season 1: "Breakdown" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Big Bang Theory, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Gossip Girl, season 2: "Seder Anything" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Big Bang Theory, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Big Bang Theory, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Prison Break, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Charmed, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * 8 Simple Rules, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * 8 Simple Rules, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * 8 Simple Rules, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Complete Savages: "For Whom the Cell Tolls" (Amazon | iTunes)