Rita Wilson (Margarita Ibrahimova)

[Napoleon]

Rita Wilson (Margarita Ibrahimova)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Wilson

For those of you all that don't know. Rita Wilson (real name Margarita Ibrahimova) is the wife of Hollywood film star Tom Hanks. As a self-proclaimed Greek, Wilson was the driving force behind modern Greek themed movies such as 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', 'Momma Mia' and the recently released 'My Life In Ruins'.

Rita was born in Los Angeles to an ethnic Muslim Bulgarian Pomak father and a mother who originates from Albania.

In the following link, Rita shares with us the joys of modern Greek easter...Enjoy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rita-wilson/the-joys-of-greek-easter_b_93739.html

[Daskalot]

I have looked her up before..... I just found her story so sad, remember this "Greek" gave her husband lessons into speaking Macedonian(according to herself Bulgarian), go out and buy or rent the movie "The Terminal" where he plays the character "Viktor Navorski", and listen to him speak.

Here is a short plot outline:
"An eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there."

[Daskalot]

Actors

* Jennifer Aniston - Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning film/television actress, best known for her role on the sitcom Friends[1]
* John Aniston[2]
* Dennis Boutsikaris
* Angela Bowie[3]
* Paula Cale[4]
* Gabrielle Carteris
* Paul Cavonis - TV and movie actor
* George Chakiris[5]
* Michael Chiklis[6]
* Tim Considine- actor, writer and photographer
* Michael Constantine
* Nick Dennis
* Olympia Dukakis[7]
* Tina Fey[8]
* Michael Flessas, Actor, Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) winning film Dancer in the Dark at the Cannes Film Festival. Paternal grandparents both born in Greece.
* Zach Galifianakis
* Christopher George
* Angie Harmon[9]
* Lindsay Hartley[10]
* Marilu Henner[4]
* Ant (Anthony Steven Kalloniatis) - Last Comic Standing comedian
* Alex Kalognomos[11]
* Melina Kanakaredes[12]
* Andreas Katsulas[13]
* Elias Koteas - Canadian/US movie actor
* George Maharis[14]
* Constantine Maroulis[15]
* Demetri Martin[16]
* Maria Menounos[17]
* Andy Milonakis[18]
* Alexa Nikolas
* Elizabeth Perkins[4]
* Ryan Pinkston - TV and movie actor; model
* Chris Sarandon[19]
* George Savalas[20]
* Telly Savalas[21]
* Alexander Scourby - actor and narrator, played 'Old Polo' in "Giant," James Dean's last film
* Amy Sedaris[22]
* Jamie-Lynn Sigler[23]
* Marina Sirtis[24] - played Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
* John Stamos[25]
* Mena Suvari (1979 - ) - American Pie, American Beauty[26]
* Tiffani Thiessen[27] - Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210
* Betty White[28] - actress
* Rita Wilson[29]
* Shanelle Workman - voice actress for various video games and animated TV shows
* Billy Zane (1966 - ) - actor and director (Titanic)[30]
* Lisa Zane[31]
* Nick Kiriazis - actor [32]
* Lindsay Hartley - actress [33]

^ [38]. "My mother is Greek and my father is Bulgarian. I am a first-generation American and native Los Angeleno. I was born and raised in Hollywood. I would go to school and be American and then come home and be Greek." [39] "Father: worked at a racetrack; changed family name from Ibrahimoff to Wilson, selecting the name from the street on which they lived in Southern California; a Greek-Pomak who was born in Greece but raised in Bulgaria; lived in Turkey before emigrating to the USA.[40] Her mother Dorothy Wilson was born and raised in a Greek village on the Albanian border. [41] "Tom Hanks' wife Rita Wilson is of Greek origin and took her family to see this one-woman act. She loved it so much that she went again, this time with her husband. Tom Hanks was so impressed that he offered to produce the movie. His production company Playtone Productions has produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_Americans

[NikodimMKD]

Interesting find...

[Daskalot]

Taken from Napoleon's wikipedia link:

Rita Wilson (born October 26, 1956)[1] is an American actress and producer. She is the wife of actor Tom Hanks.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Filmography
* 5 References
* 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimova in Los Angeles, California. Her father, a Pomak (Muslim Bulgarian)[2] who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece; he later converted to Orthodoxy. Before emigrating to the U.S., he had lived in Bulgaria and Turkey;[3] her mother, Dorothy, was born and raised in an ethnic Greek village (Sotira) on the Albanian side of the border.[2][4] Wilson's family changed their surname from "Ibrahimoff" to "Wilson," which was a name of a local street in Southern California.

[edit] Career
This section requires expansion.

Wilson's career began with a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch, and was followed by appearances on several shows during the 1970s and 1980s.

She has appeared in several movies, including Volunteers, Teen Witch, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Barbarians at the Gate, Mixed Nuts, Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then, That Thing You Do!, Jingle All the Way, Runaway Bride, Invisible Child, The Story of Us and Raise Your Voice. She played Susan Borman, wife of astronaut Frank Borman, in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

Wilson has performed on Broadway, where she performed the role of Roxie Hart from June-August 2006 in the revival of Chicago.

She is often credited with being the driving force behind Nia Vardalos' movie deal for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which became the highest-grossing independent film of all time,[citation needed] and for which she served as a producer.

[edit] Personal life

She has been married to Tom Hanks since April 1988, and has two children. She contributed to the Moffitt Cancer Center by donating "True Hearts" jewelry made of sterling silver and 14k gold. The proceeds will benefit several charities. Wilson credits good friend Rosie O'Donnell as inspiration for her charitable work, particularly with cancer and children's charities.[5] She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.[citation needed]

In the director's cut of the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do!, her brief appearance as a cocktail waitress named Marguerite has another scene, in which main character Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) drunkenly calls her Margarita, a reference to Wilson's real-life first name.

[Risto the Great]

Will a real Greek please stand up?
And if (the quite attractive) Rita is allowed to be one and respected as one, then please explain why real Macedonians are not afforded the same luxury given that they died for their identity.

[Sovius]

The Drive East

[Soldier of Macedon]

I have looked her up before..... I just found her story so sad, remember this "Greek" gave her husband lessons into speaking Macedonian(according to herself Bulgarian), go out and buy or rent the movie "The Terminal" where he plays the character "Viktor Navorski", and listen to him speak.

Here is a short plot outline:
"An eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there."

Here is what has been written at wikipedia about the movie:

Krakozhia (Кракозия or Кракожия) is a fictional country created for the film, that closely resembles a former Soviet Republic. The natives speak the Krakozhian language. From January 16, 2004 to November 2004, the country was in civil war. When the war began, the President of the country was held hostage and a new regime installed, leading to Viktor finding his passport and visa useless. Consequently, Viktor must stay in the airport terminal for nine months, as the United States refuses to recognize the new Krakozhian government, after which peace is declared in Krakozhia and he is able to return home.

The exact location of Krakozhia is kept intentionally vague in the film, keeping with the idea of Viktor being simply Eastern European or from a former Soviet Republic. However in one of the scenes, a map of Krakozhia is briefly displayed on one of the airport's television screens during a news report on the ongoing conflict. The country's borders and location are those of the Republic of Macedonia. Throughout the film, it is learned that Krakozhia is bordered with Russia, that the Krakozhian language is akin to Russian, and that the Krakozhian national anthem is musically close to that of Albania (or the tune of Vajacki marš). Little else is known about Krakozhia, except that there was a lot of fighting which made the international news. We hear of the "northern area" being taken by rebels. The cover of the passport that Viktor shows to the customs officer in one of the initial scenes of the film closely resembles the Soviet passport. His driver's license is Belarusian. One can see the words Вадзіцельскае пасведчанне (Vadzicielskaje pasviedczannie), which means driver's license in Belarusian and the name of the Belarusian city of Homel.

The language which Hanks' character speaks in the film, "Krakozhian", is supposedly close to Russian to the point of mutual understanding, but is actually slightly-accented literary Bulgarian. Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, whose father is a Bulgarian, is reported to have coached Hanks in Bulgarian in the course of the shooting of the film.[citation needed] In the same line the name of Viktor's father is Dimitar Asenov Navorski, shaped after the Bulgarian three-section pattern and contains one name popular among contemporary Bulgarians—Dimitar (Димитър). The patronymic Asenov derives from one Bulgarian medieval dynasty and was borne by several Bulgarian Tsars, Ivan Asen II for example.

Krakozhia's name was inspired by one of Spielberg's favorite cities – Kraków in Poland.

I have never watched the movie but a friend was telling me about it a few days ago so I thought I would do a quick search.

[United MKD]

I watched this movie tonight, very interesting the words he spoke. Some sentences were gibberish while some were very clear.

[Phoenix]

...it's like some 'ethnic twilight zone'...where pomaks, albanians, bulgars, whoever and whatever can become 'greek' without question and then these demented, self loathing arseholes have the nerve to deny the identity of others...unbelievable.

[Louis]

Here's a more extended list including Wilson

http://www.imdb.com/list/mW4_Cp_AR60/

[Kosturski Orel]

...it's like some 'ethnic twilight zone'...where pomaks, albanians, bulgars, whoever and whatever can become 'greek' without question and then these demented, self loathing arseholes have the nerve to deny the identity of others...unbelievable.

This has always been my point.

The Greek (individual and government) sees no contradiction in not only accepting someone of Albanian, Turkish, Gypsy, Vlach, Slav etc background identifying as "Greek"...as they see it as some natural preordained progression.

Yet if someone identifies as Macedonian, heaven help us, they go bezerk and say that it cannot be possible!

How can it be possible for a mosaic of peoples to identify as Greeks, even those with tenuous, at best, connections, yet someone born in Macedonia has no right to identify as Macedonian?

How can one be normal and the other abnormal?

I honestly believe that this has never occured to them.

[George S.]

definitely right there KO welcome aboard my sentiments exactly.,where are you from???

[makgerman]

C'mon everyone we should accept Rita as another lost child. Rita Ibrahimoff is as pure as every Greek who has claimed to be so on this forum.

She doesn't really know what she is and in accordance with the IMDB source she is:

Half Greek (mother Dorothy, born and raised in a Greek village on the Albanian border) and Pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) from Bulgaria (father, born in Greece and lived in Bulgaria and Turkey, and who worked at a racetrack).

[Soldier of Macedon]

Yet if someone identifies as Macedonian, heaven help us, they go bezerk and say that it cannot be possible!

Bulgars go no less bezerk when they deny the Macedonian identity.

How can it be possible for a mosaic of peoples to identify as Greeks, even those with tenuous, at best, connections, yet someone born in Macedonia has no right to identify as Macedonian?

In an ethno-linguistic sense, one doesn't need to be born in Macedonia to be Macedonian, nor does being born in Macedonia alone qualify one as Macedonian.