Paz Vega

In December 2004 Paz Vega made her Hollywood debut - as a Mexican housekeeper - alongside Adam Sandler in the romantic comedy Spanglish. The United States is developing a Littoral Combat Ship, which will be very similar to a corvette. Soon after, she could be seen in the musical romantic sex comedy, The Other Side of the Bed (El otro lado de la cama, 2002). It is the first operational warship to extensively utilize stealth technology, although other countries, such as Germany, Poland, Russia, and Israel, are developing similar vessels. The film also starred her 7 vidas co-star Javier Cámara and went on to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay, almost unheard of for a foreign-language film. Possibly the most advanced corvette today is the Swedish Navy's Visby-class corvette. In 2001 she appeared alongside Sergi López as a battered wife in the brutal Solo mía and in 2002 no less than Pedro Almodovar, gave her a part in his film "Talk to Her" (Hable con ella). Many can accomadate a small or medium ASW Helicopter.

With a Goya under her belt, Paz was now certainly destined for greater things. They usually are armed with medium and small caliber guns, surface-to-surface missiles, and surface-to-air missiles, and underwater warfare weapons. The film, an erotically charged piece of work, soon became an international success, winning Vega a Goya (Spain's answer to an Oscar) for Best Female Newcomer. Typical corvettes today have a displacement between 490 and 2,500 metric tons and measure 55-100 meters in length. In order to concentrate on the role, Paz had to leave 7 vidas. Around the same time, navies operated by smaller countries, such as the United Arab Emirates began to realize that their offshore patrol vessels were lacking the ability to defend themselves in a modern war, especially against air attacks. Paz was chosen to play the title role in his "provocatively sensual" project Sex and Lucia (Lucía y el sexo), the story of a naïve young girl gradually coming to terms with her own sexuality with a hedonistic writer on a remote island. But since they were smaller and cheaper than frigates and destroyers, they could more effectively combat the kind of small attack craft utizilized in the attack on the USS Cole.

The next Spanish film maker to be captivated by Paz Vega was Julio Medem. These ships could defend a country's assets and interests far away from its own shores, with sophisticated weapons and surveillance equipment. After seeing Vega on 7 vidas, film maker Mateo Gil was so taken with her that he gave her a substantial role in his film Nadie conoce a nadie, scripted and soundtracked by Alejandro Amenábar (who was later to be instrumental in the transatlantic "success" of Penélope Cruz and successful internationally in his own right as director of The Others). After the attack on the USS Cole, modern navies began to see the importance of smaller, more maneuverable vessels that could operate close to shore, as well as at sea. The series is still running on Telecinco to this day (2004), albeit without Paz Vega. Later in World War II the Royal Navy introduced the Castle class, some of which remained in service until the mid-1950s. Paz played Laura, a perky Andalucian girl who had come to stay in the flat of David, who had recently come out of a coma. These were officially described as Australian Mine Sweepers, or Bathurst class corvettes and were named after Australian towns.

The series was billed as a Spanish "Friends" and went on to become one of the country's best-loved domestic sitcoms. The Royal Australian Navy built 60 corvettes, including 20 for the Royal Navy (crewed by Australians) and 4 for the Royal Indian Navy. Yet it was with the series 7 vidas (also in 1999) that Paz's real big break came. Their chief duty was to protect convoys in the North Atlantic and on the routes from the UK Murmansk carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. The same year she also had a minor role in the David Menkes movie "I Will Survive" (Sobreviviré) alongside Emma Suarez, Juan Diego Botto and a cameo from Boy George. The first were the Flower class (because the Royal Navy ships were named after flowers) though ships in Royal Canadian Navy service took the name of smaller Canadian cities. After appearing in two other series in 1997 — Mas que amigos and teen drama Compañeros — she went on to grace the silver screen in 1999 in Zapping. Future Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, had a hand in it reviving the name "corvette".

Paz made her television debut in the Spanish TV series Menudo es mi padre, which starred pint-sized rhumba singer El Fary. The British naval designer William Reed drew up a small ship based on a whale catcher design which could be produced quickly in large numbers. After two years at the stage school and two more years studying media studies, Paz moved to the Spanish capital hoping for a lucky break into the acting world. The modern corvette appeared during World War II as an easily built patrol and convoy escort vessels. After completing compulsory education at 16 she was accepted at the prestigious Centro Andaluz de Teatro stage school. The orginal corvettes were a form of sloop-of-war. After attending a performance of Federico García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba at the age of 15 she was convinced that she wanted to become an actress. .

Her stage name comes from her grandmother. Almost all modern navies use ships smaller than frigates for coastal duty, but not all of them use the term corvette. Paz Vega, real name Paz Campos Trigo (born January 2, 1976, in Seville, Andalucía) is a Spanish actress. A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, smaller than a frigate.