The Wall Street Journal caught up with Grace Park of “Battlestar Galactica” fame and a couple of her friends in Vancouver.  Grace is originally from Vancouver and she shared a little bit of what do do while you’re in her hometown for the Winter Olympics.

South Korean actress and former model Jang Jin Young died of stomach cancer today.  She was diagnosed nearly a year ago during her regular health check up, but what she thought had been an ulcer was diagnosed as stomach cancer.  She had been in the United States (Los Angeles) for cancer treatments, but recently returned home to South Korea for her final days when it was concluded that her health was deteriorating even with the treatments she was being administered.  In her final days, she spent time with loved ones.  She was only 35.

“Actress Jang Jin-young passed away today at the Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital at Catholic University of Korea. Even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she was always positive and tried to pay back the love and support her fans sent her. We will remember her passion toward films and we hope she stays in our hearts forever,” Jang’s agency, Yedang Entertainment, said through a press release.

After winning the Miss South Chungcheong Province beauty pageant in 1992, Jang started her career as a model. She made her first appearance as an actress in 1997 in the television miniseries “The Angel in Me” (KBS). She continued to appear regularly on television before making her big screen debut in the 1999 horror film “Jaguimo” starring Kim Hee-seon. Her first big hit was the movie “The Foul King” in 2000, and from then the actress was seen in numerous films such as “The Siren” (2000), “Sorum” (2001), “Over the Rainbow” (2002), “The Scent of Love” (2003) and “Singles” (2003).

In the horror film “Sorum,” Jang played a mysterious wife with a secret and won the Best Actress Award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. The hit movie “Singles,” where she played the quirky character Na-nan, also got her the same recognition at the 2003 awards. Her character in “Singles” was a big hit among young women, with many changing their hairstyles to the short and curly hairdo the actress wore in the film.

“The Scent of Love” was also one of her best known works, where Jang played a patient diagnosed with stomach cancer.

In 2006, Jang joined fellow actor Kim Seung-woo for the movie “Between Love and Hate” and won the Best Actress Award at the Korean Film Awards.

The actress returned to the television screen in 2007 in the drama “Lobbyist” with fellow actor Song Il-guk. She was diagnosed right after the drama finished.

Along with numerous films, the actress also appeared in various commercials ranging from cosmetics to electronic goods.

A ceremonial funeral hall will be set up at the ASAN Medical Center in southern Seoul.

Source: The Korea Times

The Examiner website, which loves a lot of things Asian, is taking a poll to identify the young (under 30) hot Asian-American actress.   Only one of the candidates is of Korean descent: Jamie Chung.

Born in San Francisco, California, the 26-year-old Chung is of Korean heritage.

She was working at “Tremors”, a sports bar in Riverside, California, as a waitress when she was discovered at an MTV audition.

She has since appeared on the soap opera “Days of our Lives,” the college comedy series “Greek,” and starred as “Samurai Girl.”  Her recent movie “Dragonball Evolution” came out on her 26th birthday, April 10th.

However, the Examiner does highlight both Moon Bloodgood and Smith Cho as two other Asian-American actresses to consider.

Moon Bloodgood was #3 of the top 40 most beautiful hollywood women, according to Premiere.com.  According to Premiere magazine’s top ladies list, Moon who is of Korean descent, beat out every single actress in Hollywood except Mila Kunis and Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire.  A few months back, Moon was picked as one of the most beautiful people according to People magazine.  With her breakout movie role in Terminator Salvation, it looks like she’s becoming increasingly coveted in Hollywood.

Grace Park did another steamy photo shoot with Complex magazine last year. She was actually on the cover of Complex, which means she and Jarah Mariano are the two Koreans to have graced the cover of Marc Ecko’s publication. So what did we find out about Grace during her interview with Complex magazine?

Her Hollywood debut was “Asian Dancer” in Romeo Must Die. The director tried to change her role to “Bisexual Asian Stripper” and have her disrobe for the camera; Grace negged the nudity but did kiss another girl.

For more on her interview, go to Complex. For her photo shoot pictures, see below.

Grace Park made a big splash when she stripped down to her lingerie for a Maxim photo shoot a couple years ago.  She further validated that Korean women are truly beautiful.  If you don’t know, she’s actually Korean-Canadian.  She made a big splash on TV as Sharon Valerii on Battlestar Galactica, which is the same time she did the photo shoot for Maxim: they dubbed her the “finest alien” on TV. Today she’s on her new show, The Cleaner with Benjamin Bratt on the A&E channel.  See below for the still pictures of Grace Park from the Maxim photo shoot.

Queen of the jungle:
“I had to do this one sex scene for Battlestar that wasn’t a bedroom scene. It was outside in a forest under a lightning-and-thunder shower. I was like, ´So you want some crazy forest sex? OK, I gotcha.´ In the end, they had to totally edit it down and take out all my moaning.”

Viva ass Vegas:
“It was in Vegas on New Year’s on the strip. It’s packed with 2,000 people on the street. Someone grabbed my ass, and I whipped around and there were 10 people. I picked one guy and I fuckin’ reamed him! I scared the shit out of this guy. It was the wrong guy, but I didn’t care…”

Amazing Grace:
“The craziest thing I did on a date was probably cutting through the lobby of the Wickaninnish Inn buck naked except for a yellow rain jacket and rubber boots, stripping down, and jumping into the ocean right in front of the hotel. Mind you, it was October and we were in Canada. Not only was it freezing; it was night and we couldn’t see our clothes.”

Previous speakers at the TED conference have been Bill Gates, Al Gore and many other luminaries.  This year Esther Chae is one of the select TED fellows who will be speaking along with Bill Clinton, Bono and a lot of familiar faces.  Get to know Esther Chae.  You’ve probably seen this Yale educated gal in numerous films but her incredible performance in “So the Arrow Flies,” about a North Korean spy was so compelling that she’ll be speaking this week at the TED conference.

Her solo performance So the Arrow Flies, about a North Korean spy and the Korean-American FBI Agent who pursues her, was featured this year at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (“a powerful and compelling script… fascinatingly gripping-ThreeWeeks Magazine), Ars Nova Theater Festival (NY) and the World Women’s Forum (Seoul). The feature film script of So the Arrow Flies adapted from her solo performance, was a finalist for the KOFIC (Korean Film Council)’s prestigious Director’s Lab.   Read>

Interesting interview in the Giant website of Black Planet.  If you don’t know who Grace Park is then go google the words “Grace Park Maxim” and you’ll quickly get to know her.

For five years, Grace Park has juggled not one, but several roles on the beloved sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.  And even though the show is heading into its final 10 episodes starting tomorrow night, her workload isn’t getting lighter.  On deck, the 34-year-old actress has a Galactica flick that will arrive on Sci Fi and DVD later this year, a recurring role on the Canadian immigration series The Border and just landed a role in the big-screen comedy Punctured opposite Eugene Levy.  Read>