Dhawanzworld

Over the holidays, we wanted to take a break from all our running around and decided to have some fun playing with our avatars. What we came up with? Celebrity look-a-likes! Today, Tyra Banks!

What do you think of our Tyra Banks avatar? We are loving how Tyra’s attitude has been captured! Now, we can dress her up in different outfits and it’s like having our very own Tyra doll to model clothes for.

We are also sitting here thinking up other celebs we can emulate. Any ideas? We would love to hear them!

Murphy died about 10 a.m. Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to the hospital.

She was transported to the medical center after the Fire Department responded to a call at 8 a.m. at the home she shared with her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack, in the Hollywood Hills.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Murphy apparently collapsed in the bathroom, and authorities were looking into her medical history.

An official cause of death may not be determined for some time, since toxicology tests will be required, but “it appears to be natural,” Winter said. He said an autopsy was planned for Monday or Tuesday.

Los Angeles police have opened an investigation into Murphy’s death, Officer Norma Eisenman said. Detectives and coroner’s officials were at Murphy and Monjack’s home Sunday afternoon but did not talk to reporters. Paparazzi were camped outside the multistory home, located above the Sunset Strip.

Neighbor Clare Staples said she saw firefighters working to resuscitate the actress Sunday morning. She said Murphy was on a stretcher.

Murphy’s husband, wearing pajama bottoms and no shoes, appeared “dazed” as firefighters tried to save her, Staples said. “It’s just tragic,” she added.

Murphy’s publicist, Nicole Perna, said in a statement: “In this time of sadness, the family thanks you for your love and support. It is their wish that you respect their privacy.”

Messages left for Murphy’s manager and agent by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

Murphy’s father, Angelo Bertolotti, said he learned of her death from his son, the actress’s brother, and was stunned.

“She was just an absolute doll since she was born,” Bertolotti said from his Branford, Fla., home. “Her personality was always outward. Everybody loved her — people that made movies with her, people on a cruise — they all loved her. She was just a regular gal.”

He said he hadn’t heard much about the circumstances of Murphy’s death. Bertolotti divorced her mother when Murphy was young and hadn’t seen Murphy in the past few years.

“She was just talented,” Bertolotti said. “And I loved her very much.”

Born Nov. 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Murphy grew up in New Jersey and later moved with her mother to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in Girl, Interrupted, Clueless and 8 Mile.

Her on-screen work had lessened of late, but Murphy’s voice gave life to numerous animated characters, including Luanne Platter on more than 200 episodes of Fox’s King of the Hill and Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature Happy Feet.

She is due to appear in Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming film, The Expendables, set for release next year.

Her role in 8 Mile led to more recognition, Murphy told AP in 2003. “That changed a lot,” she said. “That was the difference between people knowing my first and last name as opposed to not.”

Murphy credited her mother, Sharon, with being a key to her success.

“When I asked my mom to move to California, she sold everything and moved out here for me,” Murphy said. “I was really grateful to have grown up in an environment that was conducive to creating and didn’t stifle any of that. She always believed in me.”

She dated Ashton Kutcher, who costarred with Murphy in 2003’s romantic comedy “Just Married.”

Kutcher sent a message on Twitter Sunday morning about Murphy’s death: “2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine,” Kutcher wrote. “My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany’s family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon.”

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Danica, meet Dale. Welcome to a world where a driver races on national television every week, fans are renowned for fervent brand loyalty and Fortune 500 sponsors remain plentiful despite the economic downturn.

The NASCAR marriage of Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver, and Danica Patrick, IndyCar’s transcendent queen, is as much about perfect timing as gargantuan personalities. NASCAR, plagued by lagging TV ratings and crowds, gets a popularity jolt, and Patrick gains millions of eyeballs to dazzle with her emerging brand as “a beautiful revolution.”

It could be an ideal union — where one completes the other.

“She could be awesome for our sport,” says Earnhardt, whose team would have virtually no sponsorship absent Patrick.

“I’ve always been lucky enough to thrive under pressure,” Patrick told USA TODAY after last week’s announcement. “… I hope to kick butt right away.”

Patrick, who last year became the first woman to win an oval race in a national series and has the highest finish and only laps led by a woman in the Indianapolis 500, is attempting a crossover to bulky, full-fendered stock cars from nimble, open-wheel vehicles. It’s a shift that’s been daunting for more accomplished drivers, the last being two-time IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti.

But in making a part-time move to the second-tier Nationwide Series for likely a dozen races (while continuing full time in IndyCar with Andretti Autosport), Patrick joins a circuit whose ratings, though smaller than the premier Sprint Cup Series, dwarf IndyCar. Nationwide races are on ESPN, while IndyCar moved most of its races to Versus last year. She also will be driving for JR Motorsports (co-owned by Earnhardt and his sister Kelley), which receives engines and technology from Hendrick Motorsports, which has won four consecutive Sprint Cup titles with Jimmie Johnson.

The challenge starts this weekend for Patrick, who will test a Chevy at Daytona International Speedway for a debut in minor-league ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) on Feb. 6.

That debut comes the day before she appears in two Super Bowl ads, the hallowed ground that once belonged to Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon in NASCAR.

It’s coming at the right time for Patrick, 27, who is mapping out a career after racing. This year she turned her business and racing affairs over to IMG, a global sports-marketing behemoth that works with athletes such as Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning to build a portfolio of lucrative endorsements and ancillary product lines. IMG already has hooked Patrick a deal with Mattel.

Though sponsor GoDaddy.com likely will market Patrick with edgy commercials counter to the more staid corporate image projected by Cup drivers, NASCAR could mark “a great platform for Danica,” IMG President George Pyne says.

The upside is high both ways.

“They can position her as girl next door, a woman in a man’s world, a competitor with a temper,” says William Sutton, a professor of sports management at the University of Central Florida. “She’ll be a huge personality.”

A hero for female fans

As Kelley Earnhardt hammered out Patrick’s contract, her daughter, Kayson, caught wind and got excited. Not because Patrick was a driver, but because Patrick was in a “Got Milk!” ad from a Miley Cyrus magazine owned by Kayson, 9.

“For my daughter’s age, it’s inherent nature women aren’t supposed to be as competitive,” Earnhardt says. “I see a role model in Danica. Young females could gravitate to that.”

According to NASCAR fan demographics, 40% are women, and Patrick offers plenty beyond the wheel. “Danica For Her” perfume will be launched next spring, and Patrick’s likeness has been used with a Barbie doll.

“I embrace that role,” says Patrick, whose long-term goals include a clothing line. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing kids excited to meet you because they’re just so pure.”

Patrick concedes her on-track persona can be less than ladylike. She has stomped away after running out of gas and hasn’t backed down from tiffs, slapping one driver (Jaques Lazier) and smacking another’s helmet (Rafael Matos). “I have a lot of passion that could be perceived as temper,” she says.

Such emotion is welcomed in NASCAR, which has been encouraging drivers to express themselves after complaints the sport has been whitewashed by sponsor-driven political correctness. Sutton says Patrick could “fill that void … because she gets upset she doesn’t win, and sports fans relate to that.”

Lesa France Kennedy, a member of NASCAR’s board of directors, says Patrick has a competitive fire “that’ll broaden our fan base. She’s dynamic, interesting and very, very bright. She’d be a head turner.”

Earnhardt, who drives for Hendrick, suggests Patrick’s entry into NASCAR’s conservative environs might mean sponsors “change up their marketing. Some of that stuff is a little crazy.” In commercials for Boost Mobile and GoDaddy, Patrick has been surrounded by scantily clad men and women (some ads were relegated to the Internet). She says the new Super Bowl ads play off her “as the strait-laced one put out by these crazy girls. … I’m not very funny, but I like to pretend I am. It’s part of my brand.”

Patrick has several personal endorsements (including watchmaker Tissot, Peak antifreeze and Kaenon sunglasses), and experts say NASCAR could build her marketing portfolio. “GoDaddy has an edge, and she’s very feminine,” Sutton says. “That balance is interesting.”

Pyne, NASCAR’s former chief operating officer, says IMG views Patrick’s move as “an endorsement of NASCAR … because it offers enormous opportunities” through its larger audience. In the Davie Brown Index, which measures a celebrity’s ability to influence consumer behavior, Patrick is ranked third among drivers. She trails Gordon and Earnhardt because of a lower awareness score. “Her awareness will go up considerably in the initial year,” says Mike Mooney, vice president of Millsport Motorsports, an agency that helps produce the DBI. “After that, performance is the litmus test in NASCAR.”

What’s on the track matters

And therein lie the risks: if Patrick fails, her and Earnhardt’s brands could be damaged. Says David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute: “If they hang her out in the window, she has to do her part, or it’s detrimental to both.”

While considering NASCAR last summer, Patrick had dinner at the Charlotte-area home of IMG’s Mark Dyer with ESPN analysts Ray Evernham (three championships as Gordon’s crew chief) and Rusty Wallace (1989 champion), whom Patrick peppered with questions. Dyer toured several NASCAR shops with Patrick.

Her decision to hop between two different cars (stock cars are twice as heavy but have skinnier tires and less braking) has drawn skepticism, perhaps most notably from Juan Pablo Montoya, a former Indy 500 winner who needed three seasons to become a NASCAR contender.

“There’s no doubt about her abilities,” SpeedTV.com analyst Robin Miller says. “This is something you can’t do part time.”

Says Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip: “Stock cars are like wrestling bears. They’re not precise and quick-responding like IndyCar.”

Patrick joins a team whose Chevys had four Nationwide wins in ‘09 and finished third in the standings. She could be tutored by Hendrick drivers Gordon, Johnson and Mark Martin, whose Go Daddy-sponsored car is a likely destination if she moves to Cup when her IndyCar deal is up after 2011. (Patrick says, “It’d be nice to have as an option.”)

For now, her part-time gig will provide a significant test for two of racing’s biggest names. “(Kelley’s) got a very competitive team, so that’s why I wanted to do it,” Patrick says. “It’s really about giving me the opportunity to perform. The very famous last name is the icing.”