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Hollywood Bends to Yogi's Rocking Style

LA's elite get tough love, NY accent from former drug addict

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted May 21, 2009 10:05 AM CDT

(Newser) – Vinnie Marino is as likely as yoga teacher as Led Zeppelin is meditation music. Yet the recovering drug addict stretches some of Hollywood’s most elite muscles—Heather Graham and Adrien Brody among them—to his own tune. Marino, 50, has a cult of followers who live for his rocking, sweat-heavy sessions, as much about socializing as yoga, the New York Times reports.

After he got clean and moved west to Los Angeles, his boss, rocker Grace Slick, paid for his yoga teaching course. “Part of my appeal is that I’m not preachy in any way,” Marino says. “I’m a regular New York guy who is teaching yoga. If I had a good singing voice, I would lead oms all the time, but I sound like someone from Brooklyn yelling out the window.”

[Images (3)]

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Kate Hudson is also one of Marino's regular students. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

"Coming from New York City, I have really good boundaries," says Marino. (Getty Images)

Piven is among those Marino teaches. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

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I think my drug history lets people know that we’ve all been through some heavy stuff and change is possible. - Vinnie Marino

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Hollywood Bends to Yogi's Rocking Style