VINCE WAS A SCRAWNY CLASS CLOWN. GIRLS DIDN'T FANCY HIM

I have to say that although I'm quite against making assumptions about Vince's personal/love life, this article was a fun read.

SHY PAST OF JEN'S NEW MAN
From Ryan Parry
Mirror.co.uk
Found here

HE'S the hunky Hollywood comedy actor who is at last giving Jennifer Aniston something to smile about. Vince Vaughn's rugged good looks and funny ways are helping to make her bitter split from Brad Pitt a fading memory.

But the Wedding Crashers star, now dating one of the world's most beautiful women, was once a gawky teenager who was luckless with the ladies, the Daily Mirror can reveal.

"He was just hopeless with girls at high school," classmate and pal Todd Nelson confides.

"They saw him as the class clown. He was tall and scrawny and always playing practical jokes on teachers. The girls laughed at him but never fancied him.

"He hid behind his pranks and I never once saw him with a girlfriend."

On Saturday, we told how Vince and Jennifer, 36, were spotted kissing and cuddling in a nightclub. One onlooker said: "They couldn't keep their hands or lips off each other."

And a week earlier the couple were caught canoodling in a US park during a lull in filming "The Break-Up" together.

This is clearly not the same Vince that Todd remembers. The 35 year-old, a concierge at a Chicago hotel, continues: "He was the wise guy with teachers, always causing trouble. There was this janitor who Vince would goof around with between classes. It made everyone laugh.

"The two of them would gamble during lunch break and Vince would get into trouble for it."

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 28, 1970, Vince's dad Vernon was a salesman for a meat company while mum Sharon was an estate agent and stockbroker.

They moved to Buffalo Grove, a middle-class suburb in Illinois, when Vince was little and then went to Lake Forest in the same state when he was eight.

There, Vince, who has two older sisters Victoria and Valeri, started to stretch his teachers' and parents' patience to the limit.

Aged 14, he and friends bought a clapped-out Chevy hatchback for $700 and would go haring around the neighbourhood. Vince would drive his pals to the mall to hang out or show off the car at school. But his popularity never extended to girls. Todd laughs: "He definitely wasn't the ladies' man he is today. He probably hid behind a lot of his tomfoolery when it came to girls. He played football but he was never really any good.

"He didn't have the physicality he does today, he was tall and skinny. Now he's got the beefy physique."

But while Vince's wise-cracking and jokes failed to impress the girls it made him a hit with the other kids.

"He was always popular because he made everyone laugh," says Todd. "He made jokes at the teachers and had witty comments that were a little saucy.

"His humour is very much like his movies, one-liners, fast, off-the-cuff stuff. He's always been like that."

David Strain, Lake Forest High School's Dean of Students remembers a smart-mouthed, fast-talking kid who MCd the school's talent show one year. "I knew that he would do something with humour," Strain says.

"But I figured he would end up in some kind of sales position."

Vince got bitten by the acting bug thanks to dad Vernon's obsessive interest in movies. "My dad loved westerns fanatically," he says.

"He used to watch them with me when I was young and he'd say to me, 'Now see, I don't believe this character, Vince. He don't carry himself right.'

"He would point out stuff like that, so I started watching and observing that way."

The youngster appeared in every school play he could manage and dabbled in community theatre.

Todd remembers: "You could see that he was talented. You can't be jealous about the guy because he didn't make it big straight away." Rather than follow his mates into office jobs Vince always hankered for something a bit more exciting. After high school he started performing in Chicago with an improvisational troupe. That led to landing an agent and national TV commercials.

He got on the movie map as fast-talking womaniser Trent Walker in the film comedy Swingers.

Todd recalls: "He took risks, a lot of challenges and slowly you'd hear 'Vince Vaughn's in this TV commercial', and 'Vince has got a role in a movie'. It was all from his own luck and pluck and I admire the guy for that."

S WINGERS was written by his best pal Jon Favreau and Vince, who had not worked for 14 months before appearing in the movie, admits the role was based partly on him.

Handily for him, Hollywood heavyweight Stephen Spielberg caught the indie flick and cast the fledgling actor in his Jurassic Park sequel, the Lost World.

Today, Vince is one of Hollywood's most sought-after comedy actors, with Spielberg branding him "a film icon".

The Lost World made Vince box office material and he was cast to play Norman Bates in the remake of Psycho, later starring alongside Jennifer Lopez in The Cell. But he quickly went back to comedy, scoring a string of hits in Made, Zoolander and Old School.

And he stole scenes as a crime lord in Starsky & Hutch and Dodgeball, both starring good pal Ben Stiller.

His latest offering is as a committed ladies' man in Wedding Crashers alongside Owen Wilson.

In the film the duo raise hell as they gate-crash weddings to pick up women.

The plot is not too unlike Vince's hard-partying rise to the top. He is a regular on the wild Hollywood after-hours scene and is known for always having blonde beauties hanging off his arm.

His party personality emerged early - at 16 he was cruising the bar and club scene in Chicago using a fake ID to buy booze. But there is a downside to 6ft 5ins Vince's hell-raising antics - he has a habit of getting into brawls.

In 2001, Vince and Con Air screenwriter Scott Rosenberg were arrested outside the Firebelly Lounge in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The pair, along with actor Steve Buscemi, were caught in a fight after Vince spoke to the girlfriend of a regular drinker.

Buscemi - who tried to "The Break-Up" the scrap - was stabbed in the face, arm and throat.

In another scuffle in March 2003, Vince was left clutching a bloody nose after getting into a brawl on his 33rd birthday.

The star had spent the evening celebrating with pals when he got chatting to a blonde girl around 2am. Then suddenly another clubgoer yelled: "Faggot."

Vince turned to face the man and was promptly smacked in the face. One eyewitness said: "It all happened so quickly - it stunned everyone".

But for now Vince is out of trouble and enjoying life among the Hollywood elite.

And for Jennifer he is the perfect partner to raise her spirits with a smile - though any talk of a wedding to crash would be premature.

Posted by Christine at August 28, 2005 9:54 PM