genextras - news from the world of female muscle

22 year-old British prodigy Michelle Jones will be back onstage again this fall - this time as a heavyweight.

Michelle, who we profiled last year, competed at the British equivalent of nationals as a lightweight in 2006 in only her second ever show and scooped the overall at the tender age of 21. But after the show she discovered that the British bodybuilding federation had changed the rules and no longer automatically gives a pro card to the women’s champion.

After taking last year off to put on size, Michelle is doing the British again this October as a heavyweight (they have two weight classes, with the cutoff at 57 kg, or around 125 pounds). At 5-foot-3, she is at around 170 pounds in these recent pics, but even off-season her shape looks incredible, especially from the back.

Martin Schoeller's project Female Bodybuilders won a prestigious award
in the 2008 PDN Photo Annual.

Many of you have probably seen his work and the two photos featured in
the magazine were of Carmella and Sarah. Check it out in the current
issue of PDN on your newsstands now on page 140!

An exciting prospect out of Louisiana to look out for this year is 22 year-old Megan Abshire, a protegée of pro and now contest prep guru Robin Parker. Megan, who will be competing for the first time this summer, looks to have great structure, with big shoulders and arms and a tiny waist, as well as impressive muscularity for her age. Megan was a powerlifter as a teenager which seems to have given her a great foundation and she is doing a great job of sculpting that into a competitive physique. “She has fantastic potential,” says Robin.

Megan is now getting ready for the Red Stick Classic on June 28 and also plans to do the Louisiana State two weeks later. At 5-foot-8 she weighs around 170 now and plans to come in around 150 to 155. With the help of Robin - who prepped Amanda Dunbar for her USA win in 2005 and brought Julia Stamper in in incredible shape at Nationals last year - she should do great. More on Megan on her sponsor Pinnacle Performance’s site.

More movie news: Lisa Aukland tells me she is auditioning for a role in a Hollywood movie too! She is up for a speaking part in a major new comedy and recently went to an audition. “The part was for a muscular woman who would be able to intimidate the main actor - Tyler Perry,” she says. “There were about 14 audition lines but the way it ended, it seemed like this character would have a pretty big role.” IFBB pro Lisa placed third at the Arnold in March (photo).

There’s some interesting news about Chemical Pink, the planned movie based on Katie Arnoldi’s novel about the world of women’s bodybuilding. The project has gone through some ups and downs: Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk had originally been slated to write the screenplay, and David Fincher, who was supposed to direct it, both dropped out. Arnoldi eventually wrote the screenplay herself and music video director Jonas Akerlund will now direct. The latest is that he and producer Ted Field are now looking for someone to play Aurora Johnson, the main character - an aspiring female bodybuilder who moves to southern California to pursue her dream.

They were initially hoping to get a big Hollywood name to play Aurora - at various points in the process they were talking to Patricia Arquette (who apparently even started training at Gold’s in Venice and eating six meals a day!), Rosario Dawson and Jessical Biel - but in the end they couldn’t persuade any of them to take on the job. “It takes years to put on muscle and I just couldn’t see how they were going to make a skinny actress look like a bodybuilder in six months,” Arnoldi tells us.

Arnoldi tells us they now plan to cast a "real girl" instead. They are even talking about an American Idol-style reality show in which Arnoldi, Akerlund and Field would go around the country auditioning female bodybuilders for the part - what Arnoldi calls “In Search of Aurora”. That could mean an amazing opportunity for a female bodybuilder to play the lead in a Hollywood movie. We'll let you know as soon as we know more...

It's about some female fitness athletes and includes an interview with
Cathy Savage:
http://www.cpbn.org/miss-america-muscles