Lisa Edelstein

Speaker: Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent)

Do you know the actress Lisa Edelstein? She plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy in the American medical series House. Dr. Cuddy is the hospital administrator who must control the eccentric, but brilliant, Dr. House (played by Hugh Laurie). Their relationship is an important theme in the series: Cuddy suffers Dr. House’s constant and very personal attacks, but she always defends him when he is in trouble. Her motives are not clear: are they purely professional, or is she in love with House?

PARTY GIRL

Lisa Edelstein first became famous as a “party girl” on the New York club scene in the 1980s. She was a socialite similar to today’s Paris Hilton, but without Hilton’s money. Edelstein admits, “I was famous for doing nothing.” She used this celebrity to produce her own musical, Positive Me, about AIDS.
Sometimes it pays to be fashionable: MTV hired her to present an afternoon show. She remembers, “It was a disaster: I’m an actress, not a presenter. Luckily the show was cancelled after seven months.” Edelstein decided to concentrate on her acting career. She appeared in small roles in films during the 1990s, including Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), and made guest star appearances, usually as an eccentric girlfriend, in American sitcoms like Seinfeld, Frasier and L.A. Law.

CONTROVERSIAL

Edelstein is not afraid of controversy: she played a lesbian in the American TV series Relativity. This was courageous of Edelstein because it was the first portrayal of a non-sensationalised homosexual on American television. She has also played a prostitute in The West Wing and a transsexual in Ally McBeal. International fame arrived in 2004 with her role as Dr. Cuddy in House.

IN REALITY

What is Lisa Edelstein really like? She’s a very disciplined and serious person. For example, she’s a vegan and doesn’t eat meat or wear animal products. She says: “The most difficult thing for vegans is buying shoes that aren’t made of leather!” She’s also a volunteer for America’s Best Friends Animal Society. In fact, she lives in Los Angeles with her cat and three dogs, which she adopted from a shelter for abandoned dogs. She continues to write, paint and compose music: Lisa Edelstein is a talented woman!