Catherine Oxenberg

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Catherine Oxenberg (born September 22, 1961) is a British actress, best known for her performance as Amanda Carrington on Dynasty and as a socialite of royal ancestry.

She was born in New York City, the eldest daughter of Howard Oxenberg (a dress manufacturer and close friend of the Kennedy family) and of his first wife H.R.H. Princess Jelisaveta of Yugoslavia. Her maternal grandmother was Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, a legendary beauty and the sister of Princess Marina, who married the Duke of Kent (uncle of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom), and also a first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh (husband of Queen Elizabeth II). It has been claimed, on basis of portraiture evidence, that Catherine resembles very closely her grandfather's great-grandmother, the Finnish beauty and philanthropist lady Aurora Stjernvall.

Known as Kitty to her family, she was educated at St. Paul's School and Columbia University.

Oxenberg made her debut as an actress in the 1982 made-for-television film The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana, in which she played her real-life distant relative Princess Diana. From 1984 to 1986 she appeared on Dynasty and was popular enough to be a guest host of Saturday Night Live in 1986.

After leaving Dynasty, Oxenberg found work in a variety of television and film projects. In 1992 she reprised the role of Princess Diana in the TV-film Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After and in 1993-1994 she starred in the short-lived series Acapulco H.E.A.T..

Oxenberg dated John Kerry in 1989 after his first marriage ended and before he married Teresa Heinz Kerry. Her first marriage was to the producer Robert Evans, in Beverly Hills, California on July 12, 1998, but the marriage was annulled nine days later. She then married in Las Vegas on May 8, 1999, the actor Casper Van Dien who had divorced the granddaughter of the late actor Robert Mitchum. She now has a primetime tv show, "I Married a Princess" on the Lifetime Television channel in the United States, and as a daytime show on LIVINGtv in the United Kingdom.

Oxenberg was portrayed by Rachael Taylor in the 2005 telemovie Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, about the behind the scenes goings on during the production of Dynasty

She is the mother of India Riven Oxenberg, (born 7 June 1991), whose father has never been publicly identified, and of two children with Van Dien: Maya (born September 20, 2001) and Celeste Alma (b. October 3, 2003).

She currently (as of the 2006-2007 TV season) is starring in the American drama series Watch Over Me on MyNetworkTV.

[edit] Trivia

• Because of her family background, she is the first (and so far only) host of Saturday Night Live to come from a royal family (she hosted in 1986 during the eleventh season with co-host Paul Simon and musical guest Ladysmith Black Mambazo).
• Played Princess Diana in two TV movies; like Diana, she also suffered from the eating disorder bulimia.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• Catherine Oxenberg's personal website
• Catherine Oxenberg at the Internet Movie Database
• I Married a Princess Homepage
• Catherine Oxenberg fansite
• Catherine Oxenberg's Watch Over Me profile at MyNetworkTV.com