40 interesting facts about Olivia Wilde: Was babysat by Christopher Hitchens, won a pancake eating competition

Olivia Wilde is a beautiful and talented actress who has starred in T.V. shows such as House and The O.C. She has also starred in the box office hit Tron among others. Here are 40 interesting facts about this gorgeous actress.

1. Olivia Wilde's real name is Olivia Jane Cockburn.

2. She was born on March 10, 1984 in New York City, but she was raised in Washington D.C.

3. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn is an American-born 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn,] a journalist, was born in London.

4. Wilde's ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Manx, and German.

5. As a young girl, Wilde was frequently babysat by British writer and family friend Christopher Hitchens.

6. Wilde's father's upper-class English ancestors lived in several places at the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Calcutta, Bombay, Cairo, and Tasmania (one of her paternal great-great-grandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was Governor of Hong Kong).

7. When she was a child, Mick Jagger came over to Olivia Wilde's house to have dinner with her parents and caught her spying on them. "How many girls were told to go to bed by Mick Jagger?" Wilde boasted to GQ.

8. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002.

9. She studied drama at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

10. As a teen, Olivia Wilde joined George Clooney for lunch on the set of 1997's The Peacemaker, for which her parents wrote the screenplay. "Having George Clooney be the first Hollywood actor I met set a pretty high standard," she said. "He's genuinely sincere, smart, gracious, and I like his politics, too, which always helps."

11. Olivia Wilde has dual citizenship between Ireland and the United States.

12. After appearing in the short-lived Fox television series Skin (2003), she made her Hollywood debut in The Girl Next Door (2004).

13. Olivia Wilde lost the lead role of Marissa Cooper in The O.C. to Mischa Barton, whom she later infamously kissed during a recurring role on the series in 2004.

14. Olivia Wilde's estranged husband Tao Ruspoli is an Italian prince. The two eloped when she was 18 years old and were secretly married in a school bus with only a pair of witnesses. Their official wedding was held in a castle that he and his family owned in Vignanello, Italy.

15. Olivia Wilde was featured in Abercrombie and Fitch's 'Rising Stars' campaign in 2004. Other celebrities who were also part of the ad campaign include actresses Nikki Reed from 'Twilight' and Michelle Trachtenberg from 'Gossip Girl,' 'Prison Break' actor Wentworth Miller and singer Taylor Swift.

16. After starring in NBC's short-lived crime drama The Black Donnellys, Wilde dons doctor's scrubs for FOX's House, where she plays reckless physician Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadle. "Right from the first day," her costar Hugh Laurie enthuses to GQ, "Olivia was pretty hard to ignore."

17. Olivia Wilde's mutt Paco was an Old Navy spokesdog in 2006. "He still acts like a doggie model sometimes," she told Women's Health. "If I put a T-shirt on him, he won't move. He thinks he's back at the job; he'll strike a pose and just sit there."

18. On October 7, 2008, Wilde appeared in a video on Funny or Die showing how much she enjoys registering early for the 2008 Presidential election, "Olivia Wilde Does It Early".

19. Despite having brown hair, she is actually a natural blonde.

20. Wilde is a huge fan of classic cars, she owns a 1958 Chevy Biscayne and a 1959 Thunderbird convertible. Once owned a 1966 Lincoln Continental.

21. Olivia adopted her professional name "Wilde" after she developed a profound respect and admiration for Irish poet and writer Oscar Wilde and his body of literature.

22. Olivia Wilde has appeared in Dashboard Confessional's 2006 music video 'Stolen' and in The French Kicks' 2006 music video 'So Far We Are.'

23. Wilde received a personal phone call from candidate Barack Obama thanking her for participating in his presidential campaign. "I was very professional the whole time we spoke," she said to "Cosmopolitan" magazine. "Then I hung up the phone -- or so I thought -- and started squealing for about 15 seconds." She later found out that the President heard Wilde's shrieking and laughed.

24. Wilde is a board member of Artists for Peace and Justice, which provides education and health services in Haiti, and the ACLU of Southern California. Previously, Wilde was a supporter of the youth voter organization, 18 in '08.

25. She played Quorra in Disney's Tron: Legacy, which opened on December 17, 2010. She was surprised when she first saw her costume. "I saw the boobs on the suit and I said, 'Oh hell no. I'm doing kicks and backflips in this thing?'" She also reprised her role as Quorra in Tron: Uprising in the episode "Isolated". She was seen in flashbacks of Paige's past, where she befriended Quorra, not knowing that she was an ISO (isomorphic algorithm) at the time.

26. In 2011, Olivia and her husband of eight years, Ruspoli, divorce.

27. She is later spotted with a few Hollywood hunks, from Ryan Gosling to Ryan Reynolds. "[Being famous] makes dating harder," she tells Marie Claire of the romance rumors. "You go on one date and everyone thinks you're dating."

28. Wilde considers herself a 'relationship person.' 'I wish I could play the field,' she told Glamour magazine in June 2011. 'But it's so not me. I go 100 percent into everything. And I'm a really good girlfriend,' she told Glamour.

29. Olivia has been in a relationship with Jason Sudeikis since November 2011 and they have been engaged since January 2013. They have a son together.

30. Gave birth to her 1st child at age 30, a son Otis Alexander Sudeikis on April 20, 2014. He was born exactly 2 weeks premature and named after late singer-songwriter Otis Redding of whom his mother is a fan since childhood.

31. In an interview with Women's Health magazine, Olivia said that her celebrity crush is Angelina Jolie. 'Just seeing an actress who has been through it all and who doesn't care what other people say about her - someone who has forged her own path,' Wilde said.

32. Wilde loves cooking and she said that when she was younger, she skipped school simply so she could watch cooking shows.

33. She is 5' 7 1/2" (1.71 m) tall.

    
    

34. Olivia was one of the finalists to play Vesper Lynd in "Casino Royale," but she lost out to Eva Green. Fast forward a couple of years, when Bond's own Daniel Craig recommended Eva Green to play Ella in "Cowboys and Aliens," but when Green had to drop out, Olivia was cast.

35. She has cited Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener and Robin Wright Penn as acting inspirations.

36. She is a vegan, and was voted PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2010.

    
    

37. In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women's issues in terms of education, health, and justice.

38. Olivia Wilde's net worth is $12 million.

39. In a photoshoot for Glamour magazine, she was captured breastfeeding her son while dressed in couture at a diner. She later tweeted the photo and captioned it: "Otis ordered milkshakes. Luckily I had some on me. Then he peed on my dress. Good kid. #boobfood #whennaturecalls."

    Otis ordered milkshakes. Luckily I had some on me. Then he peed on my dress. Good kid. #boobfood #whennaturecalls pic.twitter.com/YC9OcJuRod

    — olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) August 5, 2014

40. She currently lives in the West Village in New York with Jason Sudeikis and their son.