Paige Davis
Encyclopedia
Mindy Paige Davis billed as Paige Davis, is an American
actress best known as a host of the reality television
series Trading Spaces
.
, from first grade through part of fifth. She lived for a time in Louisville, Kentucky
, and graduated from the Louisville Youth Performing Arts School
. She graduated from the Meadows School of the Arts
at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, Texas
.
Much of her training has been in musical theater as well as dancing, and she spent two-and-a-half years in the national touring company of the Broadway
musical
Beauty and the Beast playing the role of Babette the Feather Duster
for her second year. During this period, she was sometimes credited as Mindy Paige Benson, following her 1994 marriage to actor Greg Benson
.
In Los Angeles, California
, Davis also did numerous TV commercials and videos.
, replacing Alex McLeod
. Also that year, Davis married actor Patrick Page
, with whom she appeared in Beauty and the Beast. Davis and Page's wedding was featured on the TLC series A Wedding Story
.
TLC dropped Davis in January 2005 to revamp the show with a host-less format. There was some media speculation that TLC's decision was in part motivated by Davis' appearance in TV Guide
"wearing nothing but wallpaper" and her performance of a faux
striptease
in a "Broadway Bares/Equity Fights AIDS" charity event. The New York Post
had reported in its "Page Six" column that Davis exposed her thong
and permitted onlookers to touch her body. Davis responded to the story on the TLC message boards, writing that she had been dressed "...in a very modest, almost demure, yellow dress, cut to my sternum." She acknowledged that she had "flip[ped] [her] skirt for a second" and said that she "kept all of [her] clothes on at all times." She went on to characterize the article as "rumor and exaggeration" in its description of the event. The Post responded after Star magazine published three pictures of the event in their July 2, 2004, issue, noting that the photos showed Davis in poses that appeared to confirm the Posts version of the story. However, both Davis and the network insisted there was no connection between the controversies and the format change, which the network described as a decision to take the show "in a new creative direction." Davis subsequently signed a multi-year agreement with television syndication
company King World Productions
/CBS to develop new scripted and reality programming, including a deal to co-star in a daytime television
program with interior designer Nate Berkus
, but nothing came to air.
TLC announced in November 2007 that Davis would return as host of Trading Spaces in January 2008, along with others formerly associated with the program. Reports on the announcement published in the New York Post and in Davis' hometown paper the Philadelphia Inquirer remarked on the earlier "bad press" in 2005, with the Post commenting, "Apparently, that 'new creative direction' has done an about-face," and the Inquirer quoting a network vice president who "doesn't know the specifics behind the perky Davis' firing, but called it 'shortsightedness.'"
Davis hosts new segments and interviews in The Best Of Trading Spaces, which debuted in January 2011, on TLC's sister channel OWN.
's Iron Chef America
in "Battle Egg." She also was a contestant on the summer 2006 CBS
television series Gameshow Marathon, in which celebrities participated in recreations of classic game shows with their winnings going to charity.
Appearing on Ellen DeGeneres' show on January 24, 2008, Davis shared with the audience her excitement about returning to Trading Spaces. She praised the new TLC executive team and its intention to keep "TS" fresh, while at the same time maintaining the original mission of the popular show, which has been the inspiration for so many others.
Davis joined the home improvement series Home Made Simple
as host in October 2011.
on Broadway, and wrote the book Paige by Paige (ISBN 0-696-21836-4), chronicling her television experiences. It spent numerous weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list
. By 2007, Davis had created a cabaret
act, Taking A Chance, described as "chronicl[ing] how the choices Davis has made have informed her life's loves"; In mid-2007 she took over the title role in the national touring production of the Broadway revival Sweet Charity
, replacing Molly Ringwald
through the end of the show's scheduled run on August 12, 2007.
In 2008 and 2009 Davis played "Gloria" in the Broadway revival of Boeing-Boeing.
, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway, with locations in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and California.
In September 2008, Eastman Kodak Company formed a U.S. partnership with Trading Spaces and with Davis to encourage people to explore their creativity with their photos. Davis will act as Kodak’s celebrity spokesperson with the media through March 2009, sharing Kodak-inspired projects and ideas in the weekly design show, 30-second TV spots, on-line tips, videos, and a custom-published magazine.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress best known as a host of the reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces
Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons....
.
Early life and career
Davis attended Charles H. Bird Elementary School in Sun Prairie, WisconsinSun Prairie, Wisconsin
Sun Prairie is a city in Dane County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. A suburb of Madison it is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. The 2010 US Census estimates the city's population to be 29,364. It is the sixth-fastest growing city in Wisconsin, and the fastest-growing among cities...
, from first grade through part of fifth. She lived for a time in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, and graduated from the Louisville Youth Performing Arts School
Youth Performing Arts School
The Youth Performing Arts School is a performing arts school in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, that concentrates on various music, theatre and dance disciplines for high school students. Students who attend have a two-hour block of arts studies, with the balance of their classes at duPont Manual High...
. She graduated from the Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
at Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
.
Much of her training has been in musical theater as well as dancing, and she spent two-and-a-half years in the national touring company of the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Beauty and the Beast playing the role of Babette the Feather Duster
Feather duster
A feather duster is an implement used for cleaning. It consists typically of a wooden-dowel handle and feathers from either the male or female ostrich bird that are wound onto the handle by a wrapped wire. Dusters vary in size by are most often between 14" and 32" in total length. Some dusters...
for her second year. During this period, she was sometimes credited as Mindy Paige Benson, following her 1994 marriage to actor Greg Benson
Greg Benson
Greg Benson is an American comedian, actor, and director of short films. His production company, Mediocre Films, promotes its creations via YouTube and MySpace.-History:...
.
In Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Davis also did numerous TV commercials and videos.
Trading Spaces
In 2001, Davis became the host of the TLC cable-TV network's redecorating television series Trading SpacesTrading Spaces
Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons....
, replacing Alex McLeod
Alex McLeod
Alexandra Ann McLeod is an American television host and entertainment news correspondent best known for being the original host of TLC’s hit cable show, Trading Spaces...
. Also that year, Davis married actor Patrick Page
Patrick Page
Patrick Page is an American actor and playwright living in New York City.-Career:Page’s Broadway credits include originating the role of The Grinch in Dr...
, with whom she appeared in Beauty and the Beast. Davis and Page's wedding was featured on the TLC series A Wedding Story
A Wedding Story
A Wedding Story is a television series produced by Banyan Productions and shown on the TLC network since 1996.-External links:*...
.
TLC dropped Davis in January 2005 to revamp the show with a host-less format. There was some media speculation that TLC's decision was in part motivated by Davis' appearance in TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
"wearing nothing but wallpaper" and her performance of a faux
Fake
Fake means not real.Fake may also refer to:In music:* Fake , a Swedish synthpop band active in the 1980s*Fake?, a Japanese rock band* Fake , 2010 song by Ai featuring Namie Amuro...
striptease
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
in a "Broadway Bares/Equity Fights AIDS" charity event. The New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
had reported in its "Page Six" column that Davis exposed her thong
Thong (clothing)
The thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit in many industrialized societies around the world. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions such as sumo wrestling...
and permitted onlookers to touch her body. Davis responded to the story on the TLC message boards, writing that she had been dressed "...in a very modest, almost demure, yellow dress, cut to my sternum." She acknowledged that she had "flip[ped] [her] skirt for a second" and said that she "kept all of [her] clothes on at all times." She went on to characterize the article as "rumor and exaggeration" in its description of the event. The Post responded after Star magazine published three pictures of the event in their July 2, 2004, issue, noting that the photos showed Davis in poses that appeared to confirm the Posts version of the story. However, both Davis and the network insisted there was no connection between the controversies and the format change, which the network described as a decision to take the show "in a new creative direction." Davis subsequently signed a multi-year agreement with television syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
company King World Productions
King World Productions
King World Productions, Inc. was a production company and a syndicator of television programming in the United States until its eventual 2007 incorporation into CBS Television Distribution...
/CBS to develop new scripted and reality programming, including a deal to co-star in a daytime television
Daytime television
Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours on weekdays. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
program with interior designer Nate Berkus
Nate Berkus
Nathan Jay "Nate" Berkus is an American interior designer and daytime television host. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and has been a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, offering design advice to viewers. May 25, 2010, was his last day on The Oprah Winfrey Show...
, but nothing came to air.
TLC announced in November 2007 that Davis would return as host of Trading Spaces in January 2008, along with others formerly associated with the program. Reports on the announcement published in the New York Post and in Davis' hometown paper the Philadelphia Inquirer remarked on the earlier "bad press" in 2005, with the Post commenting, "Apparently, that 'new creative direction' has done an about-face," and the Inquirer quoting a network vice president who "doesn't know the specifics behind the perky Davis' firing, but called it 'shortsightedness.'"
Davis hosts new segments and interviews in The Best Of Trading Spaces, which debuted in January 2011, on TLC's sister channel OWN.
Other television work
Davis made other television appearances during and after her hosting duties. In 2004, she was a guest judge on the Food NetworkFood Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
's Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the...
in "Battle Egg." She also was a contestant on the summer 2006 CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television series Gameshow Marathon, in which celebrities participated in recreations of classic game shows with their winnings going to charity.
Appearing on Ellen DeGeneres' show on January 24, 2008, Davis shared with the audience her excitement about returning to Trading Spaces. She praised the new TLC executive team and its intention to keep "TS" fresh, while at the same time maintaining the original mission of the popular show, which has been the inspiration for so many others.
Davis joined the home improvement series Home Made Simple
Home Made Simple
Home Made Simple is a a lifestyle brand that features tips, advice and ideas for the home primarily on its website, TV show and through email. It is supported by the Procter & Gamble brands: Cascade, Dawn, Febreze, Gain Ultra, Mr...
as host in October 2011.
Theater
During her initial run on Trading Spaces, Davis played the role of Roxie Hart in the musical ChicagoChicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
on Broadway, and wrote the book Paige by Paige (ISBN 0-696-21836-4), chronicling her television experiences. It spent numerous weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
. By 2007, Davis had created a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
act, Taking A Chance, described as "chronicl[ing] how the choices Davis has made have informed her life's loves"; In mid-2007 she took over the title role in the national touring production of the Broadway revival Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
, replacing Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles , The Breakfast Club , and Pretty in Pink , Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time...
through the end of the show's scheduled run on August 12, 2007.
In 2008 and 2009 Davis played "Gloria" in the Broadway revival of Boeing-Boeing.
Commercial endorsements
Davis is currently spokesperson for RC Willey Home FurnishingsRC Willey Home Furnishings
RC Willey Home Furnishings is a home furnishings company with stores in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California. It was founded by Rufus Calle Willey in 1932 when he started selling Hotpoint Brand appliances door-to-door in Syracuse, Utah...
, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway, with locations in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and California.
In September 2008, Eastman Kodak Company formed a U.S. partnership with Trading Spaces and with Davis to encourage people to explore their creativity with their photos. Davis will act as Kodak’s celebrity spokesperson with the media through March 2009, sharing Kodak-inspired projects and ideas in the weekly design show, 30-second TV spots, on-line tips, videos, and a custom-published magazine.
External links
- Paige Davis (official website)