Iceland Volcano Vs. Icelandic Celebrities

Before the recent news about the massive volcanic ash plume currently disrupting air travel throughout Europe, here's what I knew about Iceland:

1) Iceland was discovered the same viking dude who discovered Greenland. Because he wanted to trick people, he decided that the lush green place should be called Iceland and the other icy, cold place, Greenland. Nice one, Eric the Red Beard, or whatever his name was.

2) Iceland is very far away.

3) The names of all of Iceland's city are impossible to pronounce, and ever harder to spell.

4) Author Neil Gaiman likes the capital city of Iceland. I know this because I read his great novel, American Gods, and he mentioned R--- in the introduction.

5) Bjork. She is very strange, sings about icicles in her throat and dream-made soup, and I just figured that everyone from Iceland had similar fashion sense.

Now I know that Iceland has volcanoes, too! How ironic is that, Iceland being home to super hot magma. I also know that in the 1700's a volcanic eruption in Iceland managed to kill tens of thousands Europeans because of ash clouds, um, very similar, in fact, to the current situation. Sure, the World Health Organization says that the ashes pose no threat to Europeans, but they are also advising people to stay indoors with their windows shut. Um, contradict much?

But what about all those poor Iceland celebrities???

Wait... does Iceland even have celebrities? Of course they do. There's Bjork, weird girl with the pretty voice, best known for her climb to fame with the Supercubes, who have since broken up. She has released 7 independent albums and even won an award for her role in the film Dancer In The Dark, for which she also composed the music. She was #41 on VH1's list of 50 Greatest Women of the Video Era. She hates paparazzi, to the point of once attacking a journalist, and she had a stalker who killed himself after mailing her an acid-spraying letter bomb (which was intercepted).

Still, Bjork can't be the only Icelandic celebrity with world-wide fame, right?

Um...

If you're a fan of the Miss World competition, you might remember 2005 winner, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, though I bet you $10 you couldn't spell her name. Her minor claim to fame, in addition to the win, was that her mother was also a Miss Iceland and a finalist for Miss World in 1983. Beauty runs in the family. Unnur is currently a law student.

Okay, so there's this model chick, named Alexandra Ívarsdóttir. She won Miss Iceland 2008. You might recognize her if you saw her picture, but I bet you wouldn't know her name.

Ditto to Anita Briem, Iceland-born actress. She's relatively new to acting (her credits start in 2004), but she's been in Journey to the Center of the Earth, Doctor Who, and the tv show, The Evidence, since cancelled. Yeah, I haven't seen any of those either.

You might be slightly more familiar with Berglind Icey (is that a great name for an actress from Iceland or what?), especially if you like Rob Schneider. She appeared in both The Animal and The Hot Chick. Other places you might have seen her include Style Court on E! or Cram on the Game Show Network.

Do you know any other Icelandic celebrities? I sure don't!