Hayden Panettiere
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Hi! I’m Hayden Panettiere, and I’m hot enough that I know I have your attention for at least 30 seconds.
—The start of her John McCain FunnyOrDie "ad".
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Hayden Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 to a fireman father and an actress mother, and was steered into the latter profession at an early age (think months). Panettiere was known for her roles on the soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light and for her Disney work (most famously A Bugs Life and Remember the Titans) before her Star-Making Role as Claire Bennet on Heroes turned her into a heartthrob for teenage boys (and their fathers). Fun-loving, flirty and fond of animals, she's continued to do voiceover work (for projects ranging from Robot Chicken to American Dad to the sequel to Hoodwinked) and to do roles that remind people as little of cheerleaders as possible (Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial in Italy, Scream 4); she also has, by her own admission, a fondness for older men (hence her relationships with Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia and boxer Wladimir Klitschko - see Life Imitates Art below) and tattoos, though to a lesser extent than some. Oh, and she's likely very grateful to Eliza Dushku for calling out The Daily Mail after they dissed her (again).
After a crapload of fakes, the real Hayden is now on Twitter.
Hayden Panettiere has appeared in:
- One Life to Live
- Guiding Light
- A Bugs Life
- The Object of My Affection (this was her live-action film debut)
- Message In A Bottle
- Touched By an Angel
- If You Believe
- Remember the Titans
- Dinosaur
- Ally McBeal
- Joe Somebody
- Law and Order Special Victims Unit (as two different characters)
- The Affair of the Necklace
- Kingdom Hearts
- Normal
- Malcolm in the Middle
- Raising Helen
- Tiger Cruise
- Racing Stripes
- Lies My Mother Told Me
- Ice Princess
- Bring It On: All Or Nothing
- The Architect
- Heroes
- Robot Chicken
- Fireflies in the Garden (filmed in 2007, but not released in North America until 2011)
- Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King
- I Love You, Beth Cooper
- Alpha and Omega
- Scream 4
- Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial in Italy - made after but premiered before the above
- Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (made in 2009, released in 2011)
- Carmel (made in 2009, released in 2012 as The Forger)
- Nashville
- Over The Wall
Hayden Panettiere provides examples of the following tropes:
- And Starring: If You Believe and The Forger (although the DVD cover for the latter has her second to Josh Hutcherson).
- Cast Incest: Dated Milo Ventimiglia - her onscreen uncle - during the run of Heroes.
- The Cast Showoff: Has lent her pipes to the music for (and been on the soundtrack albums for) several of her films (Tiger Cruise, The Dust Factory, Shanghai Kiss, Ice Princess, Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil) and also two she doesn't appear in (Bridge to Terabithia - another one where she's also on the album - and Cinderella III: A Twist In Time). In her Bring It On movie (see below), one of her songs is playing in the background of the scene where she's hiding from her jerk boyfriend and mouthing "Asshole," although the latter is sometimes cut from TV airings.
- She also sings in Nashville, because she plays a country singer (see also Non-Singing Voice).
- Celebrity Voice Actor: As child (Dinosaur, Fillmore!, A Bugs Life), adult (Alpha and Omega, Robot Chicken, American Dad), and both (Kingdom Hearts).
- Cool Big Sis: In Fireflies in the Garden, even though she's actually the main character's aunt.
- Cousin Oliver: In the final season of Ally McBeal, she joined the cast as Ally's never-before-mentioned daughter Maddie.
- Cover Version: Recorded a version of "Cruella de Vil" for the album Disneymania 5 (although she was never a Disney Channel star like Hilary Duff et al - her only album for the Mouse hasn't been released, and while other Disney stars did Original Movies involving lighthearted japes, hers involved 9/11!).
- The Cheerleader: Heroes, obviously, but also Mr. Gibb/The Good Student, Bring It On: All Or Nothing and I Love You, Beth Cooper.
- Dawson Casting: Averted through most of her time on Heroes; not averted at all for Scream 4.
- Drop-In Character: Jessica, a recurring presence on Malcolm in the Middle (on being caught shaving her armpits by the title character: "That's okay, Malcolm. One day you too will be able to shave").
- Dye Hard: She went through a brief redheaded phase before going back to blonde.
- Fan Service: Not averse to the odd bit of this on screen (and in real life), most notably so far (non-cheerleader related[1]) in The Architect and Fireflies In The Garden.
- Friend to All Living Things: Especially of the finned variety.
- Hair of Gold
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Played the younger version of Hilary Swank in The Affair of the Necklace. This is Hilary at 22. And this is Hayden at 22. The prosecution rests.
- Also Claire Bennet was from Odessa, Texas the same town that Friday Night Lights was set in. In a way this makes the shows rivals like hers and Connie Britton's characters in Nashville.
- Life Imitates Art: In Shanghai Kiss she plays a schoolgirl who grows close to and falls in love with an older man. See also Cast Incest and her subsequent relationship with Wladimir Klitschko. (PS: Although the man hooks up with the ostensibly more age-appropriate Kelly Hu in the course of the movie, it's Hayden's character - now of legal age - who he winds up with in the end.)
- This may also be considered Hilarious in Hindsight.
- Lifetime Movie of the Week: Has starred in at least three (Lies My Mother Told Me, If You Believe and most notoriously Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial in Italy).
- Littlest Cancer Patient: In the "Godspeed" episode of Touched By an Angel.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her character in Nashville seems to be a parody of Taylor Swift (despite being nearly a foot shorter).
- Non-Singing Voice: Averted, not least as a country chanteuse in Nashville. See also The Cast Showoff.
- Oral Fixation Fixation: Seems to have this weird obsession with licking things.
- The Other Darrin: She was the third actress to play Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live and the second to play Lizzie on Guiding Light. Moving away from daytime soaps, she replaced Anne Hathaway as the voice of Red in Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil and Alyson Stoner as that of Xion in Kingdom Hearts (Stoner herself was previously The Other Darrin to Panettiere as the voice of Kairi for Heroes-related reasons).
- Playing Against Type: As Amanda Knox.
- And as the voice of a Japanese girl in the "Code Name: Electric Haircut" episode of Fillmore!
- And in Nashville as a bitchy, maneating country singer.
- And as the voice of a Japanese girl in the "Code Name: Electric Haircut" episode of Fillmore!
- Screwed by the Lawyers: She had two long-delayed movies released to American cinemas in 2011, Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil and Fireflies In The Garden (the latter was a victim of the same pre-release limbo that affected All the Boys Love Mandy Lane).
- Seven Dirty Words: She accurately described boxing as two guys "beating the shit out of each other" in an interview with Edith Bowman on Radio 1. Live on a Sunday morning. While promoting the family animated movie Alpha and Omega. (Unsurprisingly Edith apologised to the listeners for "Hayden's potty mouth" at the first opportunity.)
- Spell My Name with an "S": Her last name racks up the misspellings, with Panetierre being the most common example (The New York Times, the BBC (see 1:46 of the video) and the end credits of Bring It On: All Or Nothing are all guilty of this [2]) although multiple N's, T's and R's aren't uncommon - some have even spelt it with an "e" instead of the "a". And this is before we get into the references to "Hayden Pannacotta," "Hayden Panties" and so on - although her Twitter handle is @haydenpanettier, this is intentional as her actual name was already taken... if there's any remaining doubt that she owns this trope, see this page which includes a list of misspellings [dead link] or read the two reviews below:
- This review of Scream 4 manages to not only misspell her last name twice, but does so differently both times.
- This review [dead link] of Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial in Italy manages to spell her last name correctly throughout - except in the last paragraph!
- Star-Making Role: Claire Bennet of "save the cheerleader" fame on Heroes. Remember the Titans also brought her to greater attention when she was younger.
- Teens Are Short: And so is Hayden, oh so much. Her official height is 5'2" but many people believe she's more like 5'1"... if that. (She's one of the few non-children to appear opposite Kristen Bell (5'1") and seem to be the shorter of the two.)
- Those Two Actors: She and Joan Cusack have been in three movies together to date: Raising Helen, Ice Princess and Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil.
- Typecasting: See The Cheerleader.
- Underdogs Never Lose: See Bring It On: All Or Nothing and Racing Stripes, the latter of which also qualifies for Animal Athlete Loophole (what with Hayden playing a budding jockey whose mount is a zebra).
