Mairee Rodriguez
Home: Woodhaven
Age: 12
Height: 5’1”
Weight: 90 lbs.
Eyes/Hair: Brown/Black  

Working towards a dual career as both model and actress is a lot to do – especially when you’re only in sixth grade.  But Woodhaven native Mairee Rodriguez is well on her way towards both.

Mairee felt drawn to these roles and she did what any 12-year-old might: find someone more knowledgeable to teach her.  She told Models of Queens, “I started off with a list of modeling schools and agencies, and I saw Susie’s class and decided to go there.”

Susie Moses trains Mairee in the skills needed to achieve her aspirations.  “She teaches us how to express ourselves and how to do monologues,” Mairee said.

And the learning has already paid off.  After only two months, Mairee landed her first acting job as an extra in the film Miracle Kids, which was recently shot in Manhattan.

Mairee also attends St. Elizabeth in Ozone Park, where she applies herself towards being a model student so she can have the looks and the brains needed to succeed.

Mairee described her personal style as “fancy and very delicate.”

Model Citizen

What do all of these people have in common:

Elle MacPherson, Christy Brinkley, Tara Banks, Cindy Crawford, and City Councilman Dennis Gallagher?

Believe it or not, they’ve all been models at one time or another.

Yes, it’s true, the only Republican Councilman from Queens used to strike a pose as a child model in his younger days, although he said he stopped in high school because, he tells us, “The older I got, the uglier I got. So I figured there was no hope.”

His portfolio includes work for the Daily News and True Romance, in which he posed as the “17-year-old that terrorized the neighborhood.” He also posed on the cover of the Starsky and Hutch Radio Control Command Center toy box.

He told QConf that he didn’t really enjoy modeling because “it was so time consuming,” but looking back on it, he said, “It was fun.” He added that his brothers Kevin and Mike also modeled, and he said, “The whole family got involved in it.”

Would he consider leaving the world of public service to model again? “Absolutely not,” he quickly said with a laugh.

Stupid Security in Queens

Queensites don’t really need the federal terrorism alert index with its color-coded threat indicators — all we have to do is take a morning ride westbound on the BQE.  Sure, traffic normally crawls, but extra security measures on the East River bridge crossings have slowed BQE morning traffic to a one-legged crawl.

The police dragnet on the Manhattan-bound bridge entrances may or may not confound would-be bad guys. A maniac could still stow dangerous devices in car trunks, though it might take hours to drive it anywhere.

Queens can take pride, however, that one of our own airports has been awarded for the Stupid Security prize given by Privacy International, a worldwide libertarian organization. 

The group considered over 5,000 nominees and chose the security screeners at JFK Airport as the winner in the Most Flagrantly Intrusive category over an incident involving an Oceanside woman last year.

Elizabeth McGanny was ordered by airport security to drink her own breast milk in order to prove that the baby bottles in her carry-on contained no explosives.  The wacky screeners didn’t just ask her to taste the breast milk, they demanded that she chug all three bottles in her baby bag.

Sure, she was holding a 4-month-old baby, but that didn’t put her beyond the suspicions of the now Stupid Security guards. 

We can all rest assured that nursing mothers will not threaten our national safety ever again.

Weiner Problem

Queens Congressman Anthony Weiner may be a hot shot in the House of Representatives, but apparently not in the world of romance.

At a recent “Support the Troops” rally in Kew Gardens Hills, a well-dressed and well-trimmed Weiner took the stage to give one of his captivating speeches.

He talked about how all residents should honor the military heroes fighting overseas, and appreciate the “vitally important” rights that they are risking their lives to protect. To emphasize his point, he discussed future generations, and how important the war is to their freedom. He dramatically said, “Someday, when I’m bouncing my grandchildren on my knee . . .”

He then stopped, thought for a moment, and said with a smile, “Well, I need a wife first, but that’s another story.”

The crowd erupted in laughter, especially when City Council-member Jim Gennaro pointed at Weiner’s body from head to toe to offer him to the crowd’s eligible ladies.

Reality TV?

America’s favorite fictional mobsters were at Long Island City’s Silvercup Studios shooting scenes for their show’s fifth season. HBO’s mafia drama “The Sopranos” is acclaimed for its accuracy in depicting the world of organized crime.

Maybe a little too accurate.

Richard “Richie Blue Eyes” Maldone, an actor who plays crime “Capo” Albert Barese on the show was arrested recently for his connection to a Howard Beach drug ring.

Maldone also played a driver in “Analyze That,” a mafia comedy starring Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal.

Type casting has reached new heights in Queens.

Kids Love LL Cool J

    It looks like it’s not just the Ladies who Love LL Cool J.

    Keith Perrin, a Hollis native and co-founder of FUBU — one of the most lucrative urban clothing brands in history — visited his elementary alma mater recently as part of a program in which celebrities and professionals act as “Principal for a Day.”

    But the kids at Queens Village’s P.S. 33 were more interested in hearing about one of Perrin’s closest friends and business associates — Hollis native LL Cool J — than Perrin himself.

    It started when Perrin was explaining how his multi-national company began as a hat-making operation in his house and grew into one of the most recognizable brands in hip-hop today.  His first spokesman, he said, was rapper and neighbor LL Cool J.

    “You guys know LL Cool J?” Perrin asked.

    Hundreds of hands shot up in the air. The entire auditorium erupted in whoops.

    And that opened up the proverbial can of worms: “What’s LL Cool J like?”  “Do you know LL Cool J’s phone number?”  “Are you taller than LL Cool J?”  “I want you to take me to LL Cool J.”

    Perrin smiled and answered the questions (except the phone number one) as his publicist blushed and shared laughs with the school’s Principal for The Rest Of The Year, Lawrence Cohen.

            “Next year we’re bringing LL!” Cohen told Perrin with a wink.