Alyssa Milano - actress, singer, activist Quiz

Answer: 19 December 1972

Alyssa's parents were Lin and Thomas Milano, a fashion designer and film music editor respectively, so you could say she had artistic ability in her blood. Even if you're a bit unsure of her age, knowing that the first moon landing was in 1969 should have been enough to allow you to make an educated guess.

Answer: Jayne

Jayne was actually Jayne Mansfield's middle name too; she was born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933 and kept her first husband's surname as her professional name after their divorce. She was one of the "blonde bombshell" school of actresses such as Jean Harlow and Maralyn Monroe, and like them died tragically young, in a car accident in 1967 aged only 34.

Answer: New York City, New York

Alyssa was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Her family lived in the Bensonhurst neighbourhood, which has a large Italian-American population. Her family is of Italian descent, although both parents were born in the United States.

Answer: Annie

The story goes that in 1980 Alyssa's babysitter took her to an open audition for the show without telling her parents. When she was successful, from a field of over 1500 hopefuls, her mother (instead of grounding her and sacking the babysitter) accompanied the young Alyssa on an 18-month tour.

Alyssa played one of the chorus of cute orphan girls, who torment the head of the orphanage, Miss Hannigan. Miss Hannigan's amusing song "Little Girls" describes how thoroughly she dislikes her charges.

Answer: Who's The Boss?

"Who's the Boss?" was Alyssa's first TV role, in which she played the teenage daughter of the male lead, portrayed by Tony Danza. The show's theme was one of male/female role reversal, based on the plot device of Tony Micelli (Danza), a retired baseball player, being forced through injury to take up a job as housekeeper to a female advertising executive, Angela Bower (Judith Light). The show's successful nine-year run helped to establish Alyssa as a young actress to watch.

Answer: Old Enough

The low-budget independent film "Old Enough" (1984) was Alyssa's first movie role. She played Diane Sloan, the sister of the lead female character Lonnie Sloan (played by the splendidly named Rainbow Harvest). "Old Enough" was praised for its sensitive treatment of adolescent relationships and won the first prize at that year's Sundance Film Festival.

Following this, Alyssa had roles in the successful Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Commando" (1985) and "Speed Zone" (1989), a largely forgotten road-race action comedy. She also played opposite the great British actor Sir John Gielgud in the TV movie "The Canterville Ghost" (1986).

Answer: Dangerously In Love

"Dangerously In Love" is the first studio album by Beyoncé, released in 2003, and a Top 10 album in many countries around the world.

Alyssa's four albums, on the other hand, were all released in Japan on the "Pony Canyon" label, and all appeared in the Top 100 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart. The album not listed here, "Alyssa" (1989), was her most successful, reaching number 15 on the Oricon chart.

Answer: They were all released direct to video in the USA

Since her movie debut in 1984, Alyssa appeared in almost 30 pictures up until 2020. While none of them were particularly distinguished or successful, and she tended to play supporting rather than leading roles, they nevertheless helped to keep her name in the public eye.

Answer: Charmed

"Charmed" was a big hit and helped to consolidate Alyssa's TV career. Her character, Phoebe, was the third of the three Halliwell sisters, her elder siblings being Prue (played by Shannon Doherty) and Piper (Holly Marie Combs). At the end of the third series, Prue was killed off in a dramatic series finale, and was replaced for the rest of the show's run by a half-sister, Paige Matthews, played by Rose McGowan.

Answer: #MeToo

Alyssa Milano is credited with popularising the #MeToo hashtag when she used it in a social media post in October 2017. Although it had first been used by the activist Tarana Burke in 2006, Alyssa's resurrection of it in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal turned it into a global phenomenon. Woman who had been the subject of sexual harassment of any sort were encouraged to post the hashtag, to publicise how widespread such harassment was, without necessarily having to be specific about their own experiences.