Bonus celebrity crush: Jamie-Lynn Sigler

This celebrity crush is best known for playing a mob princess. And really, let's be honest: What's more American than organized crime?

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: Jamie-Lynn Sigler (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Born in Queens and raised in the Long Island community of Jericho, N.Y., according to her Wikipedia profile. Her ancestry is Sephardic Jewish on her dad's side (son of Greek and Romanian immigrants), Cuban on her mother's. So of course her star-making role was as an Italian-American.
Best Known For: The largest spot on Jamie-Lynn's résumé is The Sopranos, in which she played Tony Soprano's daughter Meadow through the entirety of the series. She's appeared more recently on five episodes of Ugly Betty and recurred on HBO's Entourage as a fictionalized version of herself, providing a love interest for Turtle, of all people -- sparking a year-long real-life romance with actor Jerry Ferrera, who plays Turtle.

She also had the starring role in a made-for-TV movie about "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, though a body double did the nude (basic-cable nude) scenes. And she's a stage veteran, with more than two dozen credits including a five-month stint on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast as a very belle Belle indeed and acting opposite Eartha Kitt in the Rodgers & Hammerstein version of Cinderella.
Humble Beginnings: Jamie-Lynn has a single screen credit before The Sopranos -- a film called A Brooklyn State of Mind when she was about 17. Other works outside her main credits include appearances on The Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, and Saturday Night Live and a few feature film roles.

I, for one, forgive her for the pop album.

Not the Courteney Cox Factor: Jamie-Lynn put out a poorly received pop album in 2001, later saying she regretted doing so.
Struggles and Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Her past struggles with an eating disorder are well documented, though curiously absent from her Wikipedia entry, unless I missed it. But overcoming it something for which she should be commended. What I DIDN'T know, but it listed at Wikipedia, is that she suffered temporary partial paralysis in 2000 as a complication of Lyme disease. Yikes.

Her former agent and husband was (after their divorce) implicated in a Ponzi scheme. (Again, not her fault.)

Plus, she looks like this.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Her personal struggles illustrate she's a tough woman, a survivor. She's also gorgeous and a great actress.
TV and Web series credits: Ugly Betty, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Entourage, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Entourage, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Saturday Night Live, season 34: "John Malkovich/T.I." (Amazon | iTunes) * How I Met Your Mother, season 4: "Woooo!" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Gathering (2007 miniseries) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes, part 1 | iTunes, part 2) * Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, season 3: "The Orange Bowl" (Amazon | iTunes) * Punk'd, season 4, episode 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Will & Grace, season 7: "Queens for a Day, Part 1" (Amazon | iTunes) * Will & Grace, season 7: "Queens for a Day, Part 2" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes)

Looking a bit like fellow crush Alison Brie here.

Film and TV-movie credits: Son of Morning (Amazon | iTunes) * Backwash (Amazon | iTunes) * Catblock (The Ultimate Co%kblock) (Funny or Die) * Beneath the Dark (2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * Trophy Wife (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Real Housewives of New Jersey with Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Funny or Die) * New York City Serenade (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dark Ride (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Blinders (2006 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Homie Spumoni (2005 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Lovewrecked (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Extreme Dating (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss (2004 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Death of a Dynasty (2003) (Amazon | iTunes) * Campfire Stories (2003) (Amazon | iTunes)

Music videos: "Cry Baby" by Jamie-Lynn Sigler (iTunes) * "Jizz in My Pants" by The Lonely Island (iTunes) * "Through the Rain" by Mariah Carey (iTunes)
Written and musical work: Here to Heaven (2001 album) (Amazon | iTunes) * Wise Girl: What I've Learned About Life, Love, and Loss (2002 book) (Amazon | iTunes)