THE PEOPLE WHO MATTER

Charlize Theron.

2012-01-30T03:40:00.000-08:00

Charlize Theron born 7 August 1975 is a South African actress. She started her acting career in the United States and rose to fame in the late 1990s following roles in The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). Theron won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), becoming the first African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country (2005). Theron became an American citizen in 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship.

Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda (who has also called herself Gerta) Martiz and Charles Theron (born 27 November 1947).Her mother is of German descent and her father was of Occitan (French) and Dutch ancestry; Theron is descended from early Huguenot settlers, and Boer War figure Danie Theron was her great-great uncle."Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as "Tronn", although she has said that the way it is pronounced in South Africa is "Thrown".She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the U.S.

Although fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans.She grew up on her parents' farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg.Her father died on 21 June 1991, after he was shot by Theron's mother. Theron's father, an alcoholic,physically attacked her mother and threatened both women while drunk. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defence and her mother faced no charges.

Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein). Those years were a period she characterises as not "fitting in":

    I wore really nerdy glasses because I was blind as could be and the boys didn't like [me]. ... I didn't have any boyfriends, but lots of crushes. ... I wasn't in the popular crowd. There was a really popular girl at school and I was obsessed with her. ... I was in tears one day because I couldn't sit next to her. ... I actually got a lot of the mean-girl stuff from the ages of 7 to 12. I was pretty much a mess in primary school. But I got that out of my system by the time I got to high school and was more immune to all of that stuff.

At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg.

Though seeing herself as a dancer,Theron at 16 won a one-year modeling contract at a local competition, and with her mother moved to Milan, Italy.After Theron spent a year modeling throughout Europe, she and her mother moved to New York City and Miami, Florida.In New York, she attended the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer until a knee injury closed this career path at 19.As Theron recalled in 2008,

    I went to New York for three days to model, and then I spent a winter in New York in a friend's windowless basement apartment. I was broke, I was taking class at the Joffrey Ballet, and my knees gave out. I realized I couldn’t dance anymore, and I went into a major depression. My mom came over from South Africa and said, "Either you figure out what to do next or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa."

Intending now to work in movies, Theron flew to Los Angeles, California, on a one-way ticket her mother bought her.During her early months there, she went to a Hollywood Boulevard bank to cash a cheque her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron engaged in a shouting match with her.Upon seeing this, talent agent John Crosby, in line behind her, handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to casting agents and also an acting school. She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species.After several months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995).Her first speaking role was a supporting but significant part in 2 Days in the Valley.Larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career expanded in the late 1990s with box-office successes like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999).She was on the cover of the January 1999 issue of Vanity Fair as the "White Hot Venus".

After appearing in other films, Theron starred as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003). Film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema". For this role, Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004, as well as the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award. She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress. The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporter's 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning US$10 million for both her subsequent films, North Country and Æon Flux, she ranked seventh, behind Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.

In 2005 Theron portrayed Rita, Michael Bluth's (Jason Bateman) love interest, on the third season of Fox's critically acclaimed television series Arrested Development.She also received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role of Britt Ekland in the 2004 HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. On 30 September, Theron received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.In the same year, she starred in the financially unsuccessful science fiction thriller Æon Flux. She also received the 2005 Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female for her voiceover work in the Æon Flux video game.

Theron received Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her lead performance in the drama North Country. Ms. magazine also honoured her for this performance with a feature article in its Fall 2005 issue. She was supposed to star in the screen adaption of the short story The Ice at the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard, and it was to be directed by Kimberly Peirce and produced by Theron's company Denver and Delilah Films (Theron's two dog's names). Theron has owned the rights for many years.She was also supposed to star in a movie adaption of the graphic novel Jinx, but both projects have not been produced as of yet.

In 2008, Theron was named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year. That year she also starred with Will Smith in the superhero film Hancock, and in late 2008 she was asked to be a UN Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

In October 2009, Theron was cast to star in a sequel to the Mad Max films, titled Mad Max: Fury Road.

On 4 December 2009, Theron co-presented the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by several other celebrities of South African origin. During rehearsals she drew an Ireland ball instead of France as a joke at the expense of FIFA, referring to Thierry Henry's handball controversy in the play off match between France and Ireland. The stunt alarmed FIFA enough for it to fear she might do it again in front of a live global audience.

Following a three-year hiatus from the big screen, Theron returned to the spotlight in 2011 with Young Adult. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film earned critical acclaim especially for Theron's performance. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and several other high profile awards.

Theron plays the Wicked Queen in the film Snow White & the Huntsman, in production in 2011.

In 2011, she described her process for becoming the characters in her film:

    When I'm figuring out a character, for me it's easy, since once I say yes to something, I become super-obsessed about it – and I have an obsessive nature in general. How I want to play it starts at that moment. It's a very lonely, internal experience. I think about [the character] all the time – I observe things, I see things and file things [in my head], everything geared to what I'm going to do. I'm obsessed with the human condition. You read the script and become obsessed with [a character's] nature, her habits. When the camera rolls, it's time to do my job, to do the honest truth. You can't do that part of the [character-creation] work when you're [in the middle of] making the film. At least I can't.

Theron lives in the Los Angeles, California, area.[citation needed] From 1997 to 2001, she dated Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins.Theron then began a relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in Trapped (2002) and Head in the Clouds (2004).Theron and Townsend separated in January 2010 after nearly nine years together.

Theron became a naturalised citizen of the United States in May 2007,while retaining her South African citizenship.

She signed with William Morris Endeavour in 2009 and is represented by CEO Ari Emanuel.

Stephen William Hawking ( Legendary British Scientist)

2010-09-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific career spans over forty years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, taking up the post in 1979 and retiring on 1 October 2009. He is also a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation). Hawking has a neuro-muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 to Dr. Frank Hawking, a research biologist, and Isobel Hawking. He had two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward. Though Hawking's parents were living in North London, they moved to Oxford while his mother was pregnant with Stephen, desiring a safer location for the birth of their first child. (London was under attack at the time by the Luftwaffe.) According to Hawking, a German V-2 missile struck only a few streets away. After Hawking was born, the family moved back to London, where his father headed the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research.In 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he attended St Albans High School for Girls from 1950 to 1953. (At that time, boys could attend the Girls' school until the age of ten.) From the age of eleven, he attended St Albans School, where he was a good, but not exceptional, student.When asked later to name a teacher who had inspired him, Hawking named his mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta.He maintains his connection with the school, giving his name to one of the four houses and to an extracurricular science lecture series. He has visited it to deliver one of the lectures and has also granted a lengthy interview to pupils working on the school magazine, The Albanian. Hawking was always interested in science.Inspired by his mathematics teacher, he originally wanted to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, where his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, it would not accept applications from students who wished to read that discipline. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences, in which he gained a scholarship. Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics.His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in The New York Times Magazine:

It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it. He didn't have very many books, and he didn't take notes. Of course, his mind was completely different from all of his contemporaries.

Hawking was passing, but his unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary. Berman said of the oral examination:

And of course the examiners then were intelligent enough to realize they were talking to someone far more clever than most of themselves.

After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford in 1962, he stayed to study astronomy. He decided to leave when he found that studying sunspots, which was all the observatory was equipped for, did not appeal to him and that he was more interested in theory than in observation. He left Oxford for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology.

CAREER IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS
Almost as soon as he arrived at Cambridge, he started developing symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, known colloquially in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease), a type of motor neurone disease which would cost him almost all neuromuscular control. During his first two years at Cambridge, he did not distinguish himself, but, after the disease had stabilised and with the help of his doctoral tutor, Dennis William Sciama, he returned to working on his Ph.D.
Hawking was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. Hawking is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Hawking's achievements were made despite the increasing paralysis caused by the ALS. By 1974, he was unable to feed himself or get out of bed. His speech became slurred so that he could be understood only by people who knew him well. In 1985, he caught pneumonia and had to have a tracheotomy, which made him unable to speak at all. A Cambridge scientist built a device that enables Hawking to write onto a computer with small movements of his body, and then have a voice synthesizer speak what he has typed. Hawking's principal fields of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. In the late 1960s, he and his Cambridge friend and colleague, Roger Penrose, applied a new, complex mathematical model they had created from Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.This led, in 1970, to Hawking proving the first of many singularity theorems; such theorems provide a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a gravitational singularity in space-time. This work showed that, far from being mathematical curiosities which appear only in special cases, singularities are a fairly generic feature of general relativity. He supplied a mathematical proof, along with Brandon Carter, Werner Israel and D. Robinson, of John Wheeler's no-hair theorem – namely, that any black hole is fully described by the three properties of mass, angular momentum, and electric charge. Hawking also suggested upon analysis of gamma ray emissions that after the Big Bang, primordial mini black holes were formed. With Bardeen and Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics. In 1974, he calculated that black holes should thermally create and emit subatomic particles, known today as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation, until they exhaust their energy and evaporate. In collaboration with Jim Hartle, Hawking developed a model in which the universe had no boundary in space-time, replacing the initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models with a region akin to the North Pole: one cannot travel north of the North Pole, as there is no boundary. While originally the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the no-boundary proposal is also consistent with a universe which is not closed. Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN, in 2006 Hawking proposed a theory of "top-down cosmology," which says that the universe had no unique initial state, and therefore it is inappropriate for physicists to attempt to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state. Top-down cosmology posits that in some sense, the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question: It is inevitable that we find our universe's present physical constants, as the current universe "selects" only those past histories that led to the present conditions. In this way, top-down cosmology provides an anthropic explanation for why we find ourselves in a universe that allows matter and life, without invoking an ensemble of multiple universes. Hawking's many other scientific investigations have included the study of quantum cosmology, cosmic inflation, helium production in anisotropic Big Bang universes, large N cosmology, the density matrix of the universe, topology and structure of the universe, baby universes, Yang-Mills instantons and the S matrix, anti de Sitter space, quantum entanglement and entropy, the nature of space and time, including the arrow of time, spacetime foam, string theory, supergravity, Euclidean quantum gravity, the gravitational Hamiltonian, Brans-Dicke and Hoyle-Narlikar theories of gravitation, gravitational radiation, and wormholes. At a George Washington University lecture in honour of NASA's fiftieth anniversary, Hawking theorised on the existence of extraterrestrial life, believing that "primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare." Hawking was in the news in July 2004 for presenting a new theory about black holes which goes against his own long-held belief about their behaviour, thus losing a bet he made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech. Classically, it can be shown that information crossing the event horizon of a black hole is lost to our universe, and that thus all black holes are identical beyond their mass, electrical charge and angular velocity (the "no hair theorem"). The problem with this theorem is that it implies the black hole will emit the same radiation regardless of what goes into it, and as a consequence that if a pure quantum state is thrown into a black hole, an "ordinary" mixed state will be returned. This runs counter to the rules of quantum mechanics and is known as the black hole information paradox.

HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT
At the fiftieth anniversary of NASA in 2008, Hawking gave a keynote speech on the final frontier exhorting and inspiring the space technology community on why we (the human race) explore space. At the celebration of his sixty-fifth birthday on 8 January 2007, Hawking announced his plan to take a zero-gravity flight in 2007 to prepare for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009 on Virgin Galactic's space service. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for the latter, costing an estimated £100,000. Stephen Hawking's zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times, took place on 26 April 2007. He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero-gravity. This was the first time in forty years that he moved freely, without his wheelchair. The fee is normally US$3,750 for 10–15 plunges, but Hawking was not required to pay the fee. A bit of a futurist, Hawking was quoted before the flight saying:

Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he suggested that space was the Earth's long term hope.He continued this theme at a 2008 Charlie Rose interview.

EXISTENCE AND EXTRA TERRESTRIAL LIFE
Hawking has indicated that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe and uses a mathematical basis for his assumptions. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." He believes alien life not only certainly exists on planets but perhaps even in other places, like within stars or even floating in outer space. He also warns that a few of these species might be intelligent and threaten Earth. Contact with such species might be devastating for humanity. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. He advocated that, rather than try to establish contact, man should try to avoid contact with alien life forms.

ILLNESS
Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by a motor neuron disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Hawking's illness is markedly different from typical ALS in that his form of ALS would make for the most protracted case ever documented. A survival for more than ten years after diagnosis is uncommon for ALS; the longest documented durations are thirty-two and thirty-nine years and these cases were termed benign because of the lack of the typical progressive course. When he was young, he enjoyed riding horses and playing with other children. At Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at University of Cambridge; he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact.The diagnosis of motor neurone disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and as of 2009 has been almost completely paralysed. During a visit to the research centre CERN in Geneva in 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening as it further restricted his already limited respiratory capacity. He had an emergency tracheotomy, and as a result lost what remained of his ability to speak. He has since used an electronic voice synthesizer to communicate. The DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesizer he uses, which has an American English accent, is no longer being produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years, Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that he identifies with it. Hawking is said to be looking for a replacement since, aside from being obsolete, the synthesizer is both large and fragile by current standards. As of mid 2009, he was said to be using NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesizer. In Hawking's many media appearances, he appears to speak fluently through his synthesizer, but in reality, it is a tedious drawn-out process. Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in advance, but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to the complexity and work involved. During a Technology, Entertainment, & Design Conference talk, it took him seven minutes to answer a question. He describes himself as lucky despite his disease. Its slow progression has allowed him time to make influential discoveries and has not hindered him from having, in his own words, "a very attractive family."When his wife, Jane, was asked why she decided to marry a man with a three-year life expectancy, she responded, "Those were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had a rather short life expectancy." On 20 April 2009, Cambridge University released a statement saying that Hawking was "very ill" with a chest infection, and was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital. The following day, it was reported that his new condition is "comfortable" and he should make a full recovery from the infection.

AS POPULAR SCIENCE ADVOCATE
Hawking has played himself on numerous television shows and has been portrayed in many more. He has played himself on a Red Dwarf anniversary special, played a hologram of himself on the episode "Descent" of Star Trek: The Next Generation, appeared in a skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and appeared on the Discovery Channel special Alien Planet. He has also played himself in several episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama. When he was portrayed on episodes of Family Guy, the voice was actually done by a speech synthesizer on a Macintosh computer, according to DVD commentary. In The Fairly OddParents, it is mentioned that he was Denzel Croker's college roommate. He has also appeared in an episode of the Dilbert cartoon. His actual synthesizer voice was used on parts of the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking" from the 1994 album The Division Bell, as well as on Turbonegro's "Intro: The Party Zone" on their 2005 album Party Animals, Wolfsheim's "Kein Zurück (Oliver Pinelli Mix)". As well as being fictionalised as nerdcore hip hop artist MC Hawking, he was impersonated in duet with Richard Cheese on a cover of "The Girl Is Mine". In 2008, Hawking was the subject of and featured in the documentary series Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe for Channel 4. He was also portrayed in the movie Superhero Movie by Robert Joy. In the TV series Dark Angel Logan's technology savvy colleague Sebastian is characterised with many similarities to the actual physicist. In September 2008, Hawking presided over the unveiling of the 'Chronophage' (time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge.

DISTINCTION
Hawking's belief that the lay person should have access to his work led him to write a series of popular science books in addition to his academic work. The first of these, A Brief History of Time, was published on 1 April 1988 by Hawking, his family and friends, and some leading physicists. It surprisingly became a best-seller and was followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001). Both books have remained highly popular all over the world. A collection of essays titled Black Holes and Baby Universes (1993) was also popular. His most recent book, A Briefer History of Time (2005), co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, aims to update his earlier works and make them accessible to an even wider audience. He and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, have recently published a children's book focusing on science that has been described to be "like Harry Potter, but without the magic." This book is called George's Secret Key to the Universe and includes information on Hawking radiation. Hawking is also known for his wit; he is famous for his oft-made statement, "When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my pistol." This was a deliberately ironic paraphrase of "Whenever I hear the word culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning", from the play Schlageter (Act 1, Scene 1) by German playwright and Nazi Poet Laureate Hanns Johst. His wit has both entertained the non-specialist public and helped them to understand complex questions. Asked in October 2005 on the British daytime chat show Richard & Judy, to explain his assertion that the question "What came before the Big Bang?" was meaningless, he compared it to asking "What lies north of the North Pole?" Hawking has generally avoided talking about politics at length, but he has appeared on a political broadcast for the United Kingdom's Labour Party. He supports the children's charity SOS Children's Villages UK.

PERSONAL LIFE
Hawking revealed that he did not see much point in obtaining a doctorate if he were to die soon. Hawking later said that the real turning point was his 1965 marriage to Jane Wilde, a language student. After gaining his Ph.D. at Trinity Hall, Stephen became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. Jane Hawking (née Wilde), Hawking's first wife, cared for him until 1991 when the couple separated, reportedly because of the pressures of fame and his increasing disability. They had three children: Robert (b. 1967), Lucy (b. 1969), and Timothy (b. 1979). Hawking then married his nurse, Elaine Mason (who was previously married to David Mason, the designer of the first version of Hawking's talking computer), in 1995. In October 2006, Hawking filed for divorce from his second wife. In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, detailing her own long-term relationship with a family friend whom she later married. Hawking's daughter, Lucy, is a novelist. Their oldest son, Robert, emigrated to the United States, married, and has one child, George Edward Hawking. Reportedly, Hawking and his first family were reconciled in 2007.
Hawking was asked about his IQ in a 2004 newspaper interview, and replied, "I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."

RELIGOUS VIEWS
Hawking has repeatedly used the word "God" (in metaphorical meanings) to illustrate points made in his books and public speeches. His ex-wife, Jane said during their divorce proceedings that he was an atheist. Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."Hawking compared religion and science in 2010, saying: "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." On September 2010, The Telegraph reported, "Stephen Hawking has declared that his latest work shows there was no creator of the universe" and that the new m-theory "accounts for the birth of the universe...and replaces the need for religious accounts in Hawking's mind." Hawking wrote in his new book The Grand Design that "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Emmanuelle Chriqui (sexiest woman of 2010)

2010-08-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui born December 10, 1977 is a Canadian actress who has appeared on both television and in cinema. She is perhaps best known for her role on HBO's Entourage as Sloan McQuewick, as well as the love interest of Adam Sandler in the movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan. In May 2010, she topped the AskMen.com Most Desirable Women of 2010 list.

Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of Jewish Moroccan immigrants.Her mother was born in Casablanca and her father in Rabat, and Chriqui has relatives in Israel.Her family practiced Orthodox Judaism in the Sephardic tradition.

Chriqui has an older brother, Serge, and an older sister, Laurence. When she was almost two, her family moved to Toronto, Ontario. She grew up in Markham-Unionville, a suburb northeast of the city.Her mother, who once told her she would become an actress, passed away when she was at an early age.

As a child, she took acting classes, for which her older brother paid. Chriqui attended the drama program at Unionville High School. After high school, Emmanuelle decided to pursue a career in acting.

Chriqui began acting as a 10-year-old in a McDonald's commercial. She moved to Vancouver in the mid-1990s, guest-starring in series such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Forever Knight, Once a Thief, and Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal. Her first Hollywood role was as a supporting character in Detroit Rock City (1999). Chriqui later appeared in several movies such as 100 Girls, Wrong Turn, On the Line, and In the Mix.

She starred opposite Cameron Douglas in the movie National Lampoon's Adam & Eve and played the character of Eve. One of her more recent parts was in the film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, where she played a Palestinian immigrant living in New York, who is the star's (Adam Sandler) love interest.

Chriqui was nominated for a Best Actress DVD Exclusive Award for her performance in 100 Girls and was nominated, with Lance Bass, for a Choice Liplock Teen Choice Award in On the Line.Recently, she won the Standout Performance Trophy at the Young Hollywood Awards. Chriqui also starred in Hinder's "Lips of an Angel" music video as well as in the Zac Brown Band's "Whatever It Is" music video.

She threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game on June 8, 2008. Chriqui was on the cover of the Autumn 2008 issue of Naked Eye.

She acted in the movie Cadillac Records (2008) as Revett Chess, where she performed with Beyoncé Knowles. Chriqui was seen in 2009 as one of several women whose lives interconnect in the comedy Women in Trouble and will appear in its sequel, Elektra Luxx, its release in 2010.

Height5' 3" (1.60 m)
Mini Biography
Emmanuelle Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, to Moroccan immigrants. Her family moved to Toronto when she was 2 years old.

At the age of 10, Chriqui appeared in a McDonald's commercial.

She moved to Vancouver guest-starring in series such as "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1991), Forever Knight, "Once a Thief" (1997), and "PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal" (1996). Her first Hollywood role was in Detroit Rock City (1999).

Her breakout performance came in 2000's Snow Day (2000), in which she played the foxy Claire Bonner.

She appeared in rock band Hinder's "Lips of an Angel" music video in 2006. Emmanuelle later starred in several films and was nominated for a DVD Exclusive Award as Best Actress for her performance in 100 Girls (2000).

She also starred in the movie Adam and Eve (2005), opposite Cameron Douglas.

Chriqui increased her visibility by having playing Sloan on the HBO hit show, "Entourage" (2004) and by starring opposite Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008).

TriviaHer family is from Morocco. Has one sister named Laurence and a brother - both older. They were raised for several years in Unionville, Ontario.

Her last name is pronounced "Shreeky".
Filmed an appearance for the television series, "Manchester Prep" (1999). The series was not picked up despite having several episodes filmed, and was later edited into the movie Cruel Intentions 2 (2000) (V). Emmanuelle's scenes were not used, although she appears in the trailer.

Ranked #1 on AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2010 Edition.

She is bilingual, English and French.

Is an alumna of the Arts York Drama Program at Unionville High School, a school that specializes in the creative arts.

Voted 8th most sexiest girl 2008 by FHM.

Many of her relatives spell their last name, "Chreky".
Friend of Lance Bass.

Personal Quotes(On Judaism)

You know I grew up with the same holidays and such, in an Orthodox manner, in a Kosher home, and all of that. And those are strict rules to live by that I think really shape your personality and discipline. I think they definitely, whether I knew it at the time or not, subconsciously it definitely seeped in to just create a good balance.

Kelly Brook (Sexiest English Actress)

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Kelly Brook (born Kelly Ann Parsons in Rochester, Kent, England, on 23 November 1979(1979-11-23)) is an English model, actress, occasional swimwear designer, and television presenter.

She is the daughter of Sandra, a cook, and Ken, a scaffolder. Ken Parsons died from cancer on 26 November 2007, during Brook's time on Strictly Come Dancing.

Kelly attended The Thomas Aveling School in Warren Wood, Rochester, Kent. She then studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London for three years before becoming a professional model.

Brook's modelling career began at 16 after winning a beauty competition for which her mother entered her.Following this success she worked on a range of advertising campaigns, including for Foster's Lager, Renault Megane, Walkers crisps, Piz Buin and Bravissimo, a company that specialises in bras and lingerie for large-breasted women. Her figure eventually caught the eye of the editorial team of the Daily Star tabloid, which began featuring her as a Page Three girl.

Brook's picture soon began appearing in other lad mags such as GQ, Loaded and FHM. In April of the same year, a poll over 5,000 women for Grazia magazine considered her to have the best British female body. She also topped the 'FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World' list in 2005, which was said to have polled 15 million people. She later ranked 5th in FHM's '100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006', 17th in 2007 and 34th in 2008. She is currently the cover star of FHM's World Cup 2010 special issue, her first shoot with the magazine in five years.

Brook has also done a large amount of commercial swimwear, sportswear and hosiery modeling. Her work for Triumph bras caused quite a stir because of specially commissioned 50-foot (15 m) high billboard of Brook's bust, said to be the largest billboard in the world.

In 2005, Brook posed for a ten-page, nude black-and-white photo spread for the photographer David Bailey, which appeared in the British design magazine Arena, in the November 2005 issue.

In 2006 she signed a contract, reported to be worth around £1m, to present Unilever's Lynx body spray, known as Axe in the US and in continental Europe. She has appeared on billboards, in newspapers, and on-line as part of an advertising campaign.

She has also appeared in commercials for Sky + & T Mobile and modelled for Reebok. In 2010, fourteen years after she started off her career as a lingerie model, she was chosen as the "new face and body" of lingerie maker Ultimo's advertising campaign.

Brook will appear on the cover of Playboy magazine in 2010.

In 2006, she introduced her own range of swimwear and lingerie at New Look stores in the United Kingdom.

She also competed in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2008, dancing the Jive with Brian Fortuna, Brendan Cole having to compete with his later partner Lisa Snowdon. Brook and Fortuna received a ten from Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli, but a nine from Arlene Phillips, for a total of 39 points. Three other couples were also awarded 39 points so the head judge, Len Goodman, had to sort them into the top four places. Brook and Fortuna were put into fourth place, but with the studio audience's vote they came second to Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett.

Reality TV judge
In 2008, Brook took Jennifer Ellison's place as one of the three judges on the second series of the reality TV programme Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life,broadcast between September and November 2008.

In January 2009, she was to join the third series of Britain's Got Talent as a fourth judge, but was subsequently axed from the programme after less than a week on the panel, the producers having decided that the four-judge format was "too complicated".Brook was billed as a guest judge in the episode in which she appeared, taped in Manchester and aired on May 16.

Acting career

In 1997, she appeared in a Pulp video Help the Aged with Huck Whitney of the cult band The Flaming Stars, in a slow dance sequence.

Brook made her full screen debut with a minor role in the film Sorted, where she can be seen involved in a lesbian scene. Shortly thereafter she also appeared in the film Ripper. She played the girlfriend of Clark Kent/Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor in four episodes of Warner Bros.' Smallville during the show's first season (2001 - 2002). She has also completed assignments as a movie actress in Canada and made a short appearance as Lyle's girlfriend in the 2003 movie The Italian Job.

Her first starring role was in School for Seduction, a 2004 film - she received positive reviews for her role, "Seduction offers a few twists on the rapidly degenerating format, not the least of which is the comely Brook in the lead role." In 2004 she also played character Nikki Morris in the video game Need for Speed Underground 2, alongside Brooke Burke. In 2005 she appeared in the Philippe Vidal film House of 9, a thriller about nine seemingly unconnected strangers captured and locked in a house together. The people are forced to compete against one another, in order to survive.

She caused a minor controversy in 2006 opposite Juan Pablo Di Pace whilst in the film Survival Island (also known as Three), also co-starring Billy Zane, who would later become her fiancé. Brook requested her nude scenes with Di Pace be excised from the final cut, which the producers refused to do.

In 2006, she also starred in a Marple drama on ITV and appeared as herself throughout the second series of Moving Wallpaper for ITV1, in 2009. She stars also in the Science-Fiction thriller Shadow Play who is directed by Nick Simon.

Theatrical work
In December 2000, she played the exotic dancer Anya in the play "Eye Contact" at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, a role that gathered some tabloid publicity, since the finale of the show featured her topless.In October 2008, she returned to the west end as Jeannie, in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig at London's Comedy Theatre. Although her performances have had mixed reviews, the Daily Mail said "Kelly Brook has a pencil waist and rabbit-thigh legs, but she is not a great interpreter of a role".
In November 2009 she began playing Celia in Calendar Girls at the Noel Coward Theatre, a role previously played by Jerry Hall.

Personal life
Dated English actor Jason Statham for seven years before splitting in 2004. The couple lived together in Los Angeles and Herne Hill, south London.Brook met American actor Billy Zane while filming thriller Survival Island in Greece in 2004. Brook and Zane were engaged to be married in the summer of 2008 and acquired a house in Kent, but Brook postponed the wedding upon the death of her father in November 2007. The couple split in April 2008 and briefly got back together before ending their relationship for good in August 2008.Brook was dating Wasps rugby player Danny Cipriani from September 2008 until they announced their break up in June 2010.

Iker Casillas Fernández (Spanish Football Team Captain)

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Iker Casillas Fernández ; born 20 May 1981 in Móstoles, Madrid) is a Spanish football goalkeeper who plays for the Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and serves as captain for the Spanish national team. He is currently first-choice goalkeeper for both club and country and serves as a vice captain for his club. As captain of the national side, he led a young Spanish team to their first European Championship in 44 years, his first senior international honour.

Since bursting onto the scene as a teenager, Casillas has been recognised as one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, illustrated by the many awards he has received. He was ranked 4th in the 2008 European Footballer of the Year voting, and also the highest ranked goalkeeper in 2009. At the end of 2009 he was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year for the third consecutive time. In 2010 his national team made history for themselves by making it into their first ever FIFA World Cup Final.

Real Madrid
He is a product of Real Madrid's youth system, and started in the junior squad during the 1990–91 season. He was first called up to the first team on the 27 November 1997 at age 16 to face Rosenborg in UEFA Champions League 1997–98, but it wasn't until the 1998–99 season that he debuted in the senior side, substituting Bodo Illgner. By the next season, he relegated Illgner to the bench and became first choice. In 2000, he became the youngest-ever goalkeeper to ever play in a Champions League final when Real Madrid defeated Valencia 3-0 just four days after his nineteenth birthday.

Casillas lost his place in the side to backup César Sánchez after a patch of bad form during the 2001–02 campaign, but redeemed himself when Sánchez suffered an injury in the last minutes of 2002 Champions League final match. Casillas came on and pulled off several brilliant saves to deny a rampant Bayer Leverkusen the Champions League crown. The Whites won 2-1 and the twenty-year-old has maintained the number 1 shirt ever since.

The 2007–08 season was a fruitful season for Casillas. He helped Real Madrid reclaim their 31st La Liga title and conceded only 32 goals in 36 games to claim the Zamora Trophy. On 14 February 2008, he and club captain Raúl were awarded new contract extensions. Casillas signed a contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2017, with an automatic extension if he plays 30 competitive matches during the final season of the contract and a buy-out clause of £113 million. His performances earned him a spot in the UEFA Team of the Year for the second time.

In February 2009, Casillas equalled Paco Buyo's record of 454 matches played (for a goalkeeper) and has since surpassed it to become Real Madrid's most-capped goalkeeper of all time at only twenty-seven years old. During the 2009 summer transfer window, some Spanish media reported that Manchester City had launched a record £129 million bid for the goalkeeper. However the club denied the allegations saying that no such offer had been made. He had been linked with other Premier League clubs before but Casillas himself stated that he "had no intention of leaving" his boyhood club.

During the 2009–10 season on 4 October in a game against Sevilla F.C., Casillas made an extraordinary save; he ran from one side of his goal to the other and denied Diego Perotti in a one-on-one close range encounter. After the match, he received praise from fellow Spanish goalkeepers and England goalkeeping legend Gordon Banks, who stated "Casillas' reflexes are incredible. If he continues to play this well he will become one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the game."

International Career
Casillas debuted for the national team in the U–17 level. At age 16, he was the youngest player in the Spanish squad that placed third at the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Egypt. He was later made captain of the U-17's. Two years later, he went on to win the FIFA World Youth Championship and the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup that same year. Initially second-choice, he soon worked his way up to first-choice and eventually earned his first senior cap following some brilliant performances at club level.Casillas is currently the second-most capped goalkeeper in the history of the Spanish national team, behind Andoni Zubizarreta, who appeared in 126 matches. Following his full international debut at the senior level against Sweden (at 19 years and 14 days), Casillas was an unused substitute at Euro 2000. He was part of the roster for the 2002 World Cup, initially as the understudy to Santiago Cañizares. Coincidentally, Casillas became the first-choice goalkeeper when Cañizares had to withdraw from the tournament due to injury from a freak accident. At 21, he was one of the youngest first-choice goalkeepers in the tournament. He gained hero status when he saved two penalties in the penalty shoot-out during the round of 16 match against the Republic of Ireland.Casillas played in all eight Group six fixtures during Euro 2004 qualifying, conceding just four goals. He kept a clean sheet in the second leg victory of the playoff against Norway which ended 3-0 in Oslo, and started all of Spain's Euro 2004 matches. He was first choice for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, captaining the team twice, but could not prevent the La Roja from losing 3-1 to a Zidane-inspired France in the Round of 16.

With the exclusion of Real Madrid teammate Raúl from the squad for Euro 2008, Casillas was given the captain's armband. He started the first two Euro 2008 Group D games against Russia and Sweden before being rested in place of second-choice goalkeeper Pepe Reina for Spain's group stage elimination of Greece. Casillas saved two penalties from Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi as Spain eliminated Italy in the quarterfinals with a 4–2 shootout win following a goalless draw on 22 June.Spain later went on to win the competition with a 1–0 win over Germany in the final on 29 June; Casillas kept clean sheets for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final matches, with Sweden's first round goal by Zlatan Ibrahimović being the last one scored against him. In his 82 appearances for Spain, he has kept 42 clean sheets. On 29 June 2008 Casillas became the first goalkeeper-captain to lift the UEFA European Championship trophy when Spain beat Germany 1–0 in the final.

In October 2008, Casillas and deputy in goal Pepe Reina broke the national record for the longest time spent without conceding a goal. The pair went unbeaten for 710 minutes, longer than the legendary Andoni Zubizarreta and Paco Buyo.Wesley Sonck of Belgium ended their goalless streak when he scored against them a 2010 World Cup qualifying match.

One of his saves during the quarterfinals versus South Korea during the 2002 FIFA World Cup was rated by FIFA as one of the top 10 saves of all time. Casillas was the highest ranked goalkeeper (4th place) in the 2008 Ballon d'Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and national teammate Fernando Torres.

He was named the world's best goalkeeper in 2008 by the IFFHS. He also came in third place in the best goalkeepers of all time ranking; beating Oliver Kahn.

On 5 September 2009, after a 5-0 win over Belgium in a qualifying match for the World Cup, Casillas equalled Andoni Zubizarreta's national record of 56 clean sheets, and during the Spanish team's next match against Estonia on 9 September 2009, he surpassed Zubizarreta as the record holder for the most Spanish international clean sheets (this being achieved in Casillas' 98th appearance for the national team, while Zubizarreta made 126 before his retirement).

On 14 November 2009, he made his 100th appearance for the Spanish squad in the friendly win over Argentina, making him only the third player in history of Spanish football to ever reach this far internationally. Only Andoni Zubizarreta, on 126, now stands ahead of him.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands Football Captain)

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Giovanni Christian van Bronckhorst (Dutch pronunciation: born 5 February 1975 in Rotterdam), known as Gio for short, is a Dutch footballer of Indonesian descent who plays for Dutch Eredivisie club Feyenoord and serves as the captain of the Dutch national team.

Van Bronckhorst signed a three-year contract with Feyenoord in June 2007, leaving FC Barcelona as a free agent. Prior to joining Barcelona, Bronckhorst played for RKC Waalwijk (1993–94), Feyenoord (1994–98), Rangers (1998–2001), and Arsenal (2001–03).

He has earned over 100 caps for the Dutch national team, and played for his country in three World Cups (1998, 2006 and 2010), as well as three European Championships (2000, 2004, and 2008).

Childhood and early career
Van Bronckhorst was born in Rotterdam to an Indo father and a Moluccan mother.He began playing for a local amateur youth team in Rotterdam from the age of 6, joining the youth academy at Feyenoord the following year.In 1990, aged 15, the club offered him a professional contract, which he accepted.He won the Dutch Youth League with Feyenoord in 1991, but struggled to break into the first team.He was loaned out to RKC Waalwijk, making his Eredivise debut in 1993. He returned to Feyenoord for the 1994/5 season, but was used as a fringe player, making only ten appearances for the club.1995–96 was his breakthrough season, as he started almost every game for Feyenoord, playing alongside the likes of Regi Blinker and Henrik Larsson.

He also made his debut for the national Olympic team in 1996, although they failed to qualify for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.He was given his first full international cap in August 1996, being given a starting place by Guus Hiddink in the Oranje's lineup to face Brazil in a friendly at the Amsterdam Arena. He was part of the Holland squad for the 1998 World Cup, but did not play during the tournament.

Domestically, with Feyenoord failing to break the PSV-Ajax strangehold on the Eredivise for the fourth year in a row, and major players such as Larsson leaving the team, van Bronkhorst began to search for a new club.He chose to join up with Dick Advocaat (his former manager at international U-16 and U-18 level) at Glasgow Rangers, joining the club in 1998 for a fee of £5.5m.He cites Larsson, who had joined Rangers' Glasgow rivals Celtic, as a major factor in persuading him to move to Scotland.Fellow Feyenoord teammates Regi Blinker and Bobby Petta had also joined Celtic.

Rangers
Van Bronckhorst was already a regular international when he signed for Rangers in 1998, joining up with compatriot Dick Advocaat, the Scottish club's new manager. In his first competitive game for Rangers, a remarkable UEFA Cup tie away to League of Ireland side Shelbourne (although played at Tranmere Rovers' Prenton Park), van Bronckhorst marked his debut with a finely-struck goal as Rangers came back from 3–0 down to win the match 5–3. Van Bronckhorst went on to score 22 goals for Rangers (13 in the league, three in the Scottish Cup, one in the Scottish League Cup, three in the Champions League and two in the UEFA Cup), mostly as a play-making midfielder of notable skill and subtlety, before an £8.5 m transfer to Arsenal in the summer of 2001.

Arsenal
Arsène Wenger signed van Bronckhorst to replace the midfield void left by the departure of Emmanuel Petit from Arsenal and he was expected to partner Patrick Vieira in the centre. However, his period at Arsenal was marked by a cruciate knee ligament injury which saw him sidelined after only a few months at the club. When he returned, his role was increasingly minimal and he found himself behind Vieira, Edu and shortly before his departure to Barcelona, Gilberto Silva in the pecking order. He did not leave Arsenal without any silverware, however, as he collected two FA Cup winners' medals (despite not playing in either final) and a Premier League winners medal in 2002. He scored two league goals in his time at Arsenal, one against Leicester City in January 2002 and one against Chelsea in January 2003.
Barcelona
As the 2003–04 season approached, van Bronckhorst had the opportunity to move to FC Barcelona and work with new boss Frank Rijkaard on a one-year loan, with a view to a permanent transfer. After adapting to his new role as a left back, he helped Barça to a revival in the second half of the season. In May 2004, van Bronckhorst completed his move from Arsenal to Barcelona for a fee of €2 million, signing a three-year deal. He won the La Liga title with Barça in the 2004–05 season after some of his finest displays together with 4 goals to his credit. In 2005–06, he helped his club repeat as Liga champions while winning the 2006 Champions League as well (he was the only player who participated in all Champions League matches that season). In Spain, he used 'Gio' as the name on his shirt, as opposed to 'Bronckhorst' from his time at Arsenal. He said on Dutch soccer program Studio Voetbal, that he could return to Feyenoord due to a contract clause that allows him to sign immediately with the club he supported as a boy.
Feyenoord
On 21 August 2007, van Bronckhorst's contract with Barça ended and he subsequently joined up with Feyenoord for the second time in his career. Since joining, van Bronckhorst has become a pivotal member of the Eredivisie team's squad, most recently proving to be something of a rock in an injury-hit side. At the beginning of his first season in Rotterdam, coach Bert van Marwijk made van Bronckhorst captain.On 12 May 2010, he announced that he will end his playing career after the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
International Career
Van Bronckhorst made his national team debut in August 1996 and has since gone on to earn over 100 caps, including three World Cup and three Euro campaigns. He did not appear in the 1998 World Cup and only saw limited action in Euro 2000 as cover for leftback Arthur Numan.

However later national team coaches appreciated van Bronkhorst's leftback capabilities, most notably Dick Advocaat who played him for the Netherlands in the Euro 2004 competition in Portugal. The Dutch team reached the semi-finals of the tournament when the host team, Portugal, eliminated them.

He was a regular in the national team for the 2006 World Cup qualification campaign. However, in the Round of 16 match against Portugal (see Battle of Nuremberg), he received a red card in a match that saw four red cards given, a World Cup record. There was an unusual scene in which van Bronckhorst was sitting in the stands next to his FC Barcelona teammate at the time, Deco of Portugal who had also been sent off.

Van Bronckhorst scored the winning goal in a Euro 2008 qualifying match against Slovenia on 28 March 2007. The Netherlands won the match 1–0.

On 9 June 2008, while playing in a 3–0 victory over Italy in UEFA Euro 2008, he assisted in the second goal scored by the Netherlands and also scored the third goal, after running all the way from the back. For the second goal, he first cleared the ball off his own line and ran deep into the Italian half, then received the ball and crossed it to Dirk Kuyt who headed it down to Wesley Sneijder to slot between the post and the advancing Gianluigi Buffon. He later even scored another one himself to condemn the world champions to an embarrassing defeat.

2010 World Cup
Van Bronckhorst has announced that he will retire from football after the 2010 World Cup. He was included in the preliminary squad for the tournament, and on 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that he would be part of the final squad of 23, and would serve as the team captain. Van Bronckhorst earned his 100th cap in the opening group match versus Denmark. In the semi-final against Uruguay he scored the opening goal of the match, which the Netherlands won 3–2.

Kate Winslet (English Actress)

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Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She is the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader (2008). Winslet has been acclaimed for both dramatic and comedic work in projects ranging from period to contemporary films, and from major Hollywood productions to less publicised indie films. She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association among others, and has been nominated for an Emmy Award for television acting.

Raised in Berkshire, Winslet studied drama from childhood, and began her career in British television in 1991. She made her film debut in Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which she received her first notable critical praise. She achieved recognition for her subsequent work in a supporting role in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and for her leading role in Titanic (1997), the highest grossing film for more than 12 years until 2010.

Since 2000, Winslet's performances have continued to draw positive comments from film critics, and she has been nominated for various awards for her work in such films as Quills (2000), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), The Reader (2008) and Revolutionary Road (2008). Her performance in the latter prompted New York magazine to describe her as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation".The romantic comedy The Holiday and the animated film Flushed Away (both 2006) were among the biggest commercial successes of her career.

Winslet was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children in 2000. She has been included as a vocalist on some soundtracks of works she has performed in, and the single "What If" from the soundtrack for Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001), was a hit single in several European countries. Winslet has a daughter with her former husband, Jim Threapleton, and a son with her current husband, Sam Mendes, from whom she is separated. She lives in New York City.

Born in Reading, Berkshire, Winslet is the daughter of Sally Anne (née Bridges), a barmaid, and Roger John Winslet, a swimming-pool contractor. Her parents were "jobbing actors", which led Winslet to comment that she "didn't have a privileged upbringing" and that their daily life was "very hand to mouth".Her maternal grandparents, Linda (née Plumb) and Archibald Oliver Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory Theatre, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver!. Her sisters, Beth and Anna Winslet, are also actresses.

Raised in an Anglican household, Winslet began studying drama at the age of 11 at the Redroofs Theatre School, a co-educational independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where she was head girl.At the age of 12, Winslet appeared in a television advertisement directed by filmmaker Tim Pope for Sugar Puffs cereal. Pope said her naturalism was "there from the start".

While on the set of Dark Season, Winslet met actor-writer Stephen Tredre, with whom she had a nearly five-year relationship. He died of bone cancer soon after Winslet completed filming Titanic, causing her to miss the film's premiere in order to attend his funeral in London. She and Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio have remained good friends since the filming.

Winslet was later in a relationship with Rufus Sewell, but on 22 November 1998 she married director Jim Threapleton, whom she met while on the set of Hideous Kinky.They have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on 12 October 2000 in London. Winslet and Threapleton divorced in 2001,Winslet began a relationship with Sam Mendes, whom she married on 24 May 2003 on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, was born on 22 December 2003 in New York City.Mendes and Winslet announced a separation in March 2010, stating, "The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement."

Mendes and his production company, Neal Street Productions, purchased the film rights to the long-delayed biography of circus tiger tamer Mabel Stark.The couple's spokesperson said, "It's a great story, they have had their eyes on it for a while. If they can get the script right, it would make a great film."

The media have documented her weight fluctuations over the years.Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to allow Hollywood to dictate her weight.In February 2003, British GQ magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally altered to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was.Winslet issued a statement that the alterations were made without her consent, saying "I just didn't want people to think I was a hypocrite and that I'd suddenly lost 30 lbs. or whatever".GQ subsequently issued an apology.She won a libel suit in 2009 against British tabloid The Daily Mail after it printed that she lied about her exercise regimen.Winslet said she had always expressed the opinion that women should be encouraged to accept their appearance with pride, and therefore "was particularly upset to be accused of lying about my exercise regimen, and felt that I had a responsibility to request an apology in order to demonstrate my commitment to the views that I have always expressed about body issues, including diet and exercise."

Winslet and Mendes live in Greenwich Village in New York City.They also own a Grade II-listed five-bedroom house, set in 22 acres in the village of Church Westcote in Gloucestershire, England.After purchasing the house for £3 million, they have reportedly spent a further £1 million in renovations, as the house had fallen into disrepair after the death of its former owner, the equestrian artist Raoul Millais in 1999.

Mendes was scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked on 11 September 2001 and subsequently crashed into the Pentagon.In October 2001, Winslet was seven hours into a London-Dallas flight with her daughter Mia when a passenger who claimed to be a terrorist, later charged with creating mischief, stood up and shouted "We are all going to die."As a result of these incidents, Winslet and Mendes never fly together on the same aircraft, as they fear leaving their children parentless.

Academy Award nomination milestones

Winslet was 26 when she received her third Academy Award nomination, for Iris, just missing the mark of Natalie Wood, who received her third nomination at age 25.She set the mark as the youngest actor to receive five nominations, at age 31, for Little Children (2006). She surpassed Bette Davis, who was 33 when she received her fifth nomination for her performance in The Little Foxes (1941).With her Best Actress nomination for The Reader, Winslet became the youngest actor to receive six Oscar nominations. At age 33, Winslet passed the mark Davis, one year older, set with Now, Voyager (1942).

Winslet received Academy Award nominations as the younger versions of the characters played by fellow nominees Gloria Stuart, as Rose, in Titanic (1997) and Judi Dench, as Iris Murdoch, in Iris. These are the only instances of the younger and older versions of a character in the same film both yielding Academy Award nominations.

When she was not nominated for her work in Revolutionary Road, Winslet became only the second actress to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress (Drama) without getting an Oscar nomination for the same performance (Shirley MacLaine was the first for Madame Sousatzka [1988], and she won the Golden Globe in a three-way tie). Academy rules allow an actor to receive no more than one nomination in a given category; as the Academy nominating process determined that Winslet's work in The Reader would be considered a lead performance—unlike the Golden Globes, which considered it a supporting performance—she could not also receive a Best Actress nomination for Revolutionary Road.

Awards and nominations

Winslet won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Reader (2008). She won two Golden Globe Awards in the same year: Best Actress (Drama) for Revolutionary Road and Best Supporting Actress for The Reader. She has won two BAFTA Awards: Best Actress for The Reader, and Best Supporting Actress for Sense and Sensibility (1995). She has earned a total of six Academy Award nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, and seven BAFTA nominations.

She has received numerous awards from other organisations, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for Iris (2001) and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Sense and Sensibility and The Reader. Premiere magazine named her portrayal of Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) as the 81st greatest film performance of all time.

Mr.Bean (Rowan Atkinson:British Actor)

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Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born January 6, 1955) is an English comedian, actor and writer. He is most famous for his work in the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Thin Blue Line. He has been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians.

Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, England.His parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and his wife Ella May (née Bainbridge), who married on 29th June 1945. He has two elder brothers, Rodney Atkinson, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the United Kingdom Independence Party leadership election in 2000, and Rupert Atkinson.

Atkinson was brought up Anglican. He was educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St. Bees School, and studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He continued with an M.Sc. at The Queen's College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976.[8] At Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), the Oxford Revue and the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC), meeting writer Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.

Atkinson starred in a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 in 1978 called "Atkinson People". It consisted of a series of satirical interviews with fictional great men, who were played by Atkinson himself. The series was written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and produced by Griff Rhys Jones.

After university, Atkinson toured with Angus Deayton as his funny man in an act that was eventually filmed for a television show. After the success of the show, he did a one-off pilot for ITV in 1979 called Canned Laughter. Atkinson then went on to do Not the Nine O'Clock News, produced by his friend John Lloyd. He starred on the show along with Pamela Stephenson, Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, and was one of the main sketch writers.

The success of Not the Nine O'Clock News led to his starring in the medieval sitcom The Black Adder, which he also co-wrote with Richard Curtis, in 1983. After a three-year gap, in part due to budgetary concerns, a second series was written, this time by Curtis and Ben Elton, and first screened in 1986. Blackadder II followed the fortunes of one of the descendants of Atkinson's original character, this time in the Elizabethan era. The same pattern was repeated in the two sequels Blackadder the Third (1987) (set in the Regency era), and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) (set in World War I). The Blackadder series went on to become one of the most successful BBC situation comedies of all time, spawning television specials including Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) and Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988).

Atkinson's other famous creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared on New Years Day in 1990 in a half-hour special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened somewhat to a modern-day Buster Keaton. During this time, Atkinson appeared at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 1987 and 1989. Several sequels to Mr. Bean appeared on television in the 1990s, and it eventually made into a major motion picture in 1997. Entitled Bean, it was directed by Mel Smith, his former co-star from Not the Nine O'Clock News. A second movie was released in 2007 entitled Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Hitachi electrical goods, Fujifilm, and Give Blood. Most famously, he appeared as a hapless and error-prone espionage agent in a long-running series for Barclaycard, on which character his title role in Johnny English was based.

Atkinson's film career began in 1983 with a supporting part in the 'unofficial' James Bond movie Never Say Never Again and a leading role in Dead on Time with Nigel Hawthorne. He appeared in former Not the Nine O'Clock News co-star Mel Smith's directorial debut The Tall Guy in 1989. He also appeared alongside Anjelica Huston and Mai Zetterling in Roald Dahl's The Witches in 1990. In 1993 he played the part of Dexter Hayman in Hot Shots! Part Deux, a parody of Rambo III, starring Charlie Sheen.

Atkinson gained further recognition with his turn as a verbally bumbling vicar in the 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. That same year he featured in Walt Disney's The Lion King as Zazu the Red-billed Hornbill. Atkinson continued to appear in supporting roles in successful comedies, including Rat Race (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002), and Love Actually (2003).

In addition to his supporting roles, Atkinson has also had success as a leading man. His television character Mr. Bean debuted on the big screen in 1997 with Bean to international success. A sequel, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in March 2007 and may be the last time he plays the character. He has also starred in the James Bond parody Johnny English in 2003. Its sequel, Johnny English 2 will be released in 2011. Keeping Mum (2005) was a departure for Atkinson, starring in a straight role.

Best known for his use of physical comedy in his trademark character of Mr. Bean, others of Atkinson's characters rely more heavily on language. Atkinson often plays authority figures (especially priests or vicars) speaking absurd lines with a completely deadpan delivery.

One of his better-known trademark comic devices is over-articulation of the "B" sound, such as his pronunciation of "Bob" in a Blackadder episode. Atkinson suffers from stuttering, and the over-articulation is a technique to overcome problematic consonants.[citation needed]

Atkinson's style is often visually-based. This visual style, which has been compared to Buster Keaton, sets Atkinson apart as most modern television and film comedies rely heavily on dialogue, and stand-up comedy is mostly based on monologues. This talent for visual comedy has led to Atkinson being called "the man with the rubber face": comedic reference was made to this in an episode of Blackadder the Third, in which Baldrick (Tony Robinson) refers to his master, Mr. E. Blackadder, as a "lazy, big nosed, rubber-faced bastard".

Marriage and children

Atkinson married Sunetra Sastry at the Russian Tea Room in New York City, U.S. with Stephen Fry as his best man. The couple have two children, Benjamin Atkinson and Lily Grace Atkinson, and live in Northamptonshire as well as Oxfordshire and London, while their children go to school in Oundle.
[edit] Politics

In June 2005, Atkinson led a coalition of the UK's most prominent actors and writers, including Nicholas Hytner, Stephen Fry and Ian McEwan, to the British Parliament in an attempt to force a review of the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill — on the grounds that the bill would give religious groups a "weapon of disproportionate power" whose threat would engender a culture of self-censorship among artists.

In 2009, he criticized homophobic speech legislation, saying that the House of Lords must vote against a government attempt to remove a free speech clause in an anti-gay hate law.
[edit] Cars

With an estimated wealth of £100 million, Atkinson is able to indulge his passion for cars that began with driving his mother's Morris Minor around the family farm. He has written for the British magazines Car, Octane, Evo, and "SuperClassics", a short-lived UK magazine, in which he reviewed the McLaren F1 in 1995.

Atkinson holds a category C+E (formerly 'Class 1') lorry driving licence, gained in 1981, because lorries held a fascination for him, and to ensure employment as a young actor. He has also used this skill when filming comedy material.

A lover of and participant in car racing, he appeared as racing driver Henry Birkin in the television play Full Throttle in 1995. In 1991, he starred in the self-penned The Driven Man, a series of sketches featuring Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his car-fetish, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists.

Atkinson has raced in other cars, including a Renault 5 GT Turbo for two seasons for its one make series. He owns one McLaren F1, which was involved in an accident in Forton with an Austin Metro. He also owns a Honda NSX. Other cars he owns include an Audi A8,[18] and a Honda Civic Hybrid.

The Conservative Party politician Alan Clark, himself a devotee of classic motor cars, recorded in his published Diaries this chance meeting with a man he later realised was Atkinson while driving through Oxfordshire in May 1984: "Just after leaving the motorway at Thame I noticed a dark red DBS V8 Aston Martin on the slip road with the bonnet up, a man unhappily bending over it. I told Jane to pull in and walked back. A DV8 in trouble is always good for a gloat." Clark writes that he gave Atkinson a lift in his Rolls Royce to the nearest telephone box, but was disappointed in his bland reaction to being recognised, noting that: "he didn't sparkle, was rather disappointing and chétif."

One car Atkinson will not own is a Porsche: "I have a problem with Porsches. They're wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people — and I wish them no ill — are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don't go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn't handle owning one.

Maria Sharapova (Russian Tennis Player)

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Maria Yuryevna Sharapova Mariya Yur’evna Shara'pova born April 19, 1987) is a former World No. 1 Russian professional tennis player. She has won 3 Grand Slam titles (2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open, and 2008 Australian Open). She was also runner-up at the 2007 Australian Open. She is currently ranked World No. 17.

Sharapova made her professional breakthrough in 2004 when, at age 17, she upset two-time defending champion and top seed Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam singles title. She entered the top ten of the WTA Rankings with this win. Despite not winning a major in 2005, Sharapova briefly held the number one ranking, and reached three Grand Slam semifinals, losing to the eventual champion each time. She ultimately won her second major at the 2006 US Open defeating then-World No. 1 Amélie Mauresmo in the semifinals and World No. 2 Justine Henin in the final. Sharapova's 2007 season was plagued with a chronic shoulder injury, and saw her ranking fall out of the top 5 for the first time in two years. She ultimately won her third Grand Slam at the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Henin in the quarterfinals and Ana Ivanović in the final. After reclaiming the number one ranking in May 2008, Sharapova's shoulder problems re-surfaced, ultimately requiring surgery in October and forcing her out of the game for nearly ten months. Sharapova returned in May 2009 and was ranked No. 126 in the world due to her extensive lay-off. Since her comeback, Sharapova has won 3 singles titles (bringing her career total to 22) and recovered her ranking to World No. 12.

Sharapova's public profile extends beyond tennis, as she has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Also she has been featured in many advertisements including: Nike, Prince, Canon and many more, also being the face of many fashion houses, primarily Cole Haan. Sharapova was the most searched-for athlete on Yahoo! in both 2005 and 2008. Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Project Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme.

Sharapova was born in 1987 to Yuri and Yelena, ethnic Russians, in the town of Nyagan' in Siberia, Russia. Her parents moved from Gomel, Belarus after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 affected the region. When Sharapova was two, the family moved to Sochi where her father befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and became Russia's first ever World No. 1 tennis player. Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racket at the age of four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father in a local park. She took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he first saw her, noting her "exceptional hand-eye co-ordination."

At the age of seven, Sharapova attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina Navrátilová, who recommended professional training at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, which had previously trained players such as Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova. With money tight, Yuri was forced to borrow the sum that would allow he and his daughter, neither of whom could speak English, to travel to America, which they finally did in 1994. Visa restrictions prevented Sharapova's mother from joining them for two years. Arriving in Florida with just $700 to his name,Sharapova's father took various low-paying jobs, including dish-washing, to fund her lessons until she was old enough to be admitted to the academy. In 1995, she was signed by IMG, who agreed to pay the annual tuition fee of $35,000 for Sharapova to stay at the academy, allowing her to finally enroll at the age of 9.

2001–03: Professional debut

Sharapova first gained attention on the tennis scene in November 2000 when she won the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in the girls' 16 division at the age of just 13. She was then given a special award, the Rising Star Award, which is awarded only to players of exceptional promise.She made her professional debut in 2001, and played her first WTA tournament at the Pacific Life Open in 2002, winning a match before losing to Monica Seles.

From 2003, Sharapova played a full season, and made a rapid climb into the top 50 by the end of the year. She made her debuts at both the Australian Open and the French Open, but failed to win a match in either. It wasn't until the grass season that she began to fulfill her promise, beating a top 20 player for the first time and reaching her first ever semifinal at the WTA level. Then, as a wildcard at Wimbledon, she defeated 11th seed Jelena Dokić to reach the fourth round, where she lost in three sets to Svetlana Kuznetsova.

By the end of September, Sharapova had already captured her first WTA title, at a smaller event, the Japan Open Tennis Championships, before winning her second in her final tournament of the season, the Bell Challenge. To cap her first full season as a professional off, she was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year honor.

2004: Breakthrough Season
Sharapova was defeated in the third round of the Australian Open by seventh seed Anastasia Myskina. The highlight of the remainder of her spring hardcourt season was a run to the semifinals at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup, where she ultimately lost to Vera Zvonareva.

During the spring clay court season, Sharapova entered the top 20 on the WTA world rankings as a result of reaching the third round of the Qatar Telecom German Open and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, both of which were Tier I events. At the latter event, she defeated a player ranked inside the top 10 for the first time with a straight-sets win over World No. 10 Elena Dementieva. Later that clay court season, she went on to make the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the French Open, losing there to Paola Suárez.

Sharapova won the third title of her career at the Wimbledon warm-up DFS Classic, defeating Tatiana Golovin in the final.Seeded 13th and aged 17 at Wimbledon, she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal by defeating Ai Sugiyama. There, she came back from a 6–2, 3–1 deficit to defeat fifth seed and former champion Lindsay Davenport. In the final, Sharapova upset top seed and defending champion Serena Williams to win her first Grand Slam singles title, and become the third youngest woman to win the Wimbledon title, behind only Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis. The victory was hailed as "the most stunning upset in memory",with other writers commenting on her arrival as a serious challenger to the Williams' dominance at Wimbledon. She entered the top ten in the rankings for the first time as a result of the win.

Following her Wimbledon win, attention and interest in Sharapova in the media greatly increased, a rise in popularity dubbed as "Maria Mania." However, on court, she was struggling to achieve results, winning just three of six matches in her preparations for the US Open. At the US Open itself, she reached the third round before being eliminated by Mary Pierce. In order to regain confidence, Sharapova played and won consecutive titles in Asia in the fall, the Hansol Korea Open Tennis Championships and the Japan Open Tennis Championships.

In October, Sharapova defeated Venus Williams en route to making the final of a Tier I event for the first time at the Zurich Open, losing in the final to Alicia Molik. She then made her debut at the year-ending WTA Tour Championships. There, she won two of her three round-robin matches (including a win over US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova) in order to advance to the semifinals, where she defeated Myskina. In the final, she defeated Serena Williams 4–6, 6–2, 6–4, after trailing 4–0 in the final set

Sharapova started the year at the Australian Open, where she defeated fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the second Grand Slam semifinal of her career. Sharapova held match points in the third set of her semifinal match before losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. In February, Sharapova won back-to-back tournaments, the Toray Pan Pacific Open and the Qatar Total Open, allowing her to reach the top three on the world rankings for the first time.

In the semifinals of the Tier I Pacific Life Open, Sharapova was defeated by Davenport 6–0, 6–0, the first time she had failed to win a game in a match.The following fortnight, she defeated former World No. 1 players Justine Henin and Venus Williams to reach the final at the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open, where she lost to Kim Clijsters.

Sharapova made the semifinals of a clay-court tournament for the first time at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where she lost to Patty Schnyder.Sharapova would have become the World No. 1 for the first time had she won the tournament. Sharapova then reached the quarterfinals of the French Open for the second consecutive year, before losing to eventual champion Henin.On grass, Sharapova won her third title of the year when she successfully defended her title at the DFS Classic, defeating Jelena Janković in the final. As the defending champion at Wimbledon, Sharapova reached the semifinals without dropping a set and losing a service game just once, extending her winning streak on grass to 24 matches. However, she was then beaten by eventual champion Venus Williams.

A back injury sustained by World No. 1 Davenport at Wimbledon prevented her from playing tournaments during the summer hardcourt season, which meant she could not earn new ranking points to replace those that were expiring from the previous year. Sharapova, although also injured for much of this time, had far fewer points to defend, and so she became the first Russian woman to hold the World No. 1 ranking on August 22, 2005. Her reign lasted only one week, however, as Davenport reclaimed the top ranking after winning the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

As the top seed at the US Open, Sharapova lost in the semifinals to Kim Clijsters, meaning she had lost to the eventual champion in every Grand Slam of the season. However, she once again leapfrogged Davenport to take the World No. 1 ranking on September 12, 2005. She retained it for six weeks, but after playing few tournaments while injured, she again relinquished the ranking to Davenport.To conclude the year, Sharapova failed to defend her title at the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, defeating Davenport in one of her round-robin matches but ultimately losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo.

Sharapova started 2006 by losing in the semifinals of the Australian Open in three sets to Henin, also losing a rematch several weeks later at the Dubai Tennis Championships, having defeated former World No. 1 Martina Hingis and World No. 3 Lindsay Davenport in earlier rounds of the tournament. Sharapova claimed her first title in nine months at the Tier I tournament in Indian Wells, defeating Hingis in the semifinals and Elena Dementieva in the final. The following fortnight, she reached the final in Miami before losing to Kuznetsova.

Sharapova is an aggressive baseliner, with power, depth, and angles on her forehand and backhand. Instead of using a traditional volley or overhead smash, she often prefers to hit a powerful "swinging" volley when approaching the net or attacking lobs. Sharapova is thought to have good speed around the court, especially considering her height. At the beginning of 2008, some observers noted that Sharapova had developed her game, showing improved movement and footwork and the addition of a drop shot and sliced backhand to her repertoire of shots. Despite her powerful game, Sharapova's greatest asset is considered to be her mental toughness and competitive spirit, with Nick Bollettieri stating that she is "tough as nails". At the 2010 French Open, Hall-of-famer Martina Navratilova said of Sharapova, "with her, it's not over until she's shaking hands." Sharapova is known for on-court "grunting", which reached a recorded 101 decibels during a match at Wimbledon in 2005. Monica Seles suggested that grunting is involuntary and a part of tennis. When questioned by the media about her grunting, Sharapova urged the media to "just watch the match."

Towards the beginning of her career, Sharapova's first and second serves were regarded as powerful, and she was believed to possess one of the best deliveries on the Tour. Since the beginning of 2007, however, problems with her shoulder have reduced the effectiveness of her serve. She has regularly gone through spells where she has routinely produced high numbers of double faults in many of her matches. Two-time US Open singles champion Tracy Austin believes that Sharapova often loses confidence in the rest of her game when she experiences problems with her serve and consequently produces more unforced errors and generally plays more tentatively, while tennis writer Joel Drucker remarked that her serve was the "catalyst for her entire game", and that her struggles with it left her "unmasked." In her return from layoff she used an abbreviated motion, which was somewhat less powerful, and though producing aces but also very high number of double faults. After her early loss at the 2009 US Open, Sharapova returned to a more elongated motion, similar to her pre-surgery serve. She has since been able to produce speeds greater than before, including a 121 mph serve hit at the Birmingham tournament in 2010—the fastest serve of her career.

Surfaces

Because she predicates her game on power, Sharapova's preferred surfaces are the fast-playing hard and grass courts, and she is not as well-suited to the slower clay courts. Sharapova has admitted that she is not as comfortable with her movement on clay compared with other court surfaces and once described herself as like a "cow on ice" after a match on clay.Her limitations on this surface are reflected in her career results. The French Open is the only Grand Slam singles title she has not yet won, though she reached the semifinals there in 2007. She won her first Women's Tennis Association tour title on clay during her eighth year as a touring professional, after previously winning 18 titles on other surfaces.
[edit] Ground strokes and Net-Play

She is also known for her phenomenally accurate and powerful groundstrokes. She has a powerful forehand which tends to set up points and create successful winners. Her favorite and most powerful shot is the crosscourt forehand, but it becomes a liability when overused. The backhand, although not as dominant in setting points up, is her more reliable shot—many[who?] consider this to be her best asset, and one of tennis' great shots. Her net play is good when on the attack, often she will choose to drive the volley instead of slice volleys, but this is not seen as a strength—this seems to be continually worked on.

Outside tennis

Sharapova has lived in the United States since moving there at the age of six. She has a home in Manhattan Beach, California.Sharapova lists fashion, movies, music and reading the Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking series as among her off-court interests, while she has also talked in the past about how she takes hip-hop dance classes.Sharapova has a Pomeranian named Dolce, which means "sweet" in Italian.

At the 2004 US Open, Sharapova, along with several other Russian female tennis players, wore a black ribbon in observance of the tragedy after the Beslan school hostage crisis, which took place only days before.In 2005, she donated around US$50,000 to those affected by the crisis. On February 14, 2007, Sharapova was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donated US$210,000 to UNDP Chernobyl-recovery projects. She stated at the time that she was planning to travel back to the area after Wimbledon in 2008,though it is unknown whether this happened. With Haynes, Kirilenko, Vaidišová, Stubbs, Governor Bush and Capriati, Sharapova participated in an exhibition in Tampa in December 2004, raising money for the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.

In July 2008, Sharapova sent a message on DVD to the memorial service of Emily Bailes, who had performed the coin toss ahead of the 2004 Wimbledon final that Sharapova had gone on to win.

Sharapova helped promote the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Sharapova has often implied that she desires an early retirement. Following the retirement of 25-year-old Justine Henin, Sharapova said, "If I was 25 and I'd won so many Grand Slams, I'd quit too." In an interview after the 2008 Australian Open, she balked at the idea of playing for another ten years, saying that she hoped to have a "nice husband and a few kids" by then.

Reportedly since 2009, Sharapova has been dating Slovenian born, professional basketball player Sasha Vujačić, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

In July 2008, as a result of her success both on and off court, she was the world's highest-paid female athlete, earning US $26 million.

In January, 2010, she signed an eight-year Nike contract, worth $70 million.

Megan Denise Fox (Hollywood actress)

2010-06-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a recurring role on Hope and Faith. In 2004, she launched her film career with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. In 2007, she was cast as Mikaela Banes, the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character in the blockbuster film Transformers which became her breakout role and earned her various Teen Choice Awards nominations. Fox reprised her role in the 2009 sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Later in 2009, she starred as the titular lead character in the film Jennifer's Body.

Fox is considered a sex symbol and frequently appears in men's magazine "Hot" lists. She was listed #18, #16, and #2 on Maxim magazine's yearly Hot 100 list in 2007, 2008, and 2009 respectively, while FHM readers voted her the "Sexiest Woman in the World" in 2008.She ranked number one on Moviefone's "The 25 Hottest Actors Under 25" in 2008.

In 2004, Fox began dating Brian Austin Green, of Beverly Hills, 90210 fame, after reportedly having met on the set of Hope & Faith.The two have since been in an on-and-off relationship.

Fox is of Irish, French and Native American ancestry and was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Darlene Tonachio and Franklin Fox. She was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school for 12 years. Fox's parents divorced when she was young and she and her sister were raised by her mother and her stepfather, Tony Tonachio. She said that the two were "very strict" and that she was not allowed to have a boyfriend or invite friends to her house. She lived with her mother until she made enough money to support herself.

Fox began her training in drama and dance at age five, in Kingston, Tennessee.She attended a dance class at the community center there and was involved in Kingston Elementary School's chorus and the Kingston Clippers swim team. At 10 years of age, after moving to St. Petersburg, Florida, Fox continued her training. When she was 13 years old, Fox began modeling after winning several awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina.Fox attended St. Lucie West Centennial High School, but at age 17, she tested out of school, via correspondence, in order to move to Los Angeles.

Fox has spoken extensively of her time in education; that in middle school she was bullied and picked on and she ate lunch in the bathroom to avoid being "pelted with ketchup packets". She said that the problem was not her looks, but that she had "always gotten along better with boys" and that "rubbed some people the wrong way".Fox also said of high school that she was never popular and that "everyone hated me, and I was a total outcast, my friends were always guys, I have a very aggressive personality, and girls didn’t like me for that. I’ve had only one great girlfriend my whole life". In the same interview, she mentions that she hated school and has never been "a big believer in formal education" and that "the education I was getting seemed irrelevant. So, I was sort of checked out on that part of it".

At 16, Fox made her acting debut in the 2001 film Holiday in the Sun, as spoiled heiress Brianna Wallace and rival of Alex Stewart (Ashley Olsen). The film was released Direct-to-DVD on November 20, 2001. The following year, Fox landed the lead main role as Ione Starr on the television series Ocean Ave. The series lasted two seasons, from 2002–2003 and Fox appeared in 122 one-hour-long episodes. Also in 2002, she guest-starred on What I Like About You, appearing in the episode "Like a Virgin (Kinda)". She was an uncredited extra in Bad Boys II in 2003. In 2004, Fox guest-starred on Two and a Half Men in the episode "Camel Filters and Pheromones". In the same year, Fox made her film debut in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen co-starring opposite Lindsay Lohan, playing the supporting role of Carla Santi, a rival of Lola (Lindsay Lohan). Again in 2004, Fox was cast in regular role on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith, in which she portrayed Sydney Shanowski, replacing Nicole Paggi in the role. Fox appeared in 36 episodes from seasons 2 to 3, until the show was cancelled in 2006.

In 2007, Fox won the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, based on the toy and cartoon saga of the same name. Fox played the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character Sam Witwicky. Fox was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category of "Breakthrough Performance", and was also nominated for three Teen Choice Awards, in the category of "Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure", "Choice Movie: Breakout Female", and "Choice Movie: Liplock". Fox has signed on for two more Transformers sequels. In June 2007, Fox was cast in a minor role in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring alongside Jeff Bridges, Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst. She portrayed Sophie Maes, a love interest of Sydney Young (Simon Pegg). The film premiered on October 3, 2008, but was considered a box-office failure. In 2008, Fox appeared alongside Rumer Willis as the character Lost in Whore. The film centers around a group of young hopeful teenagers who have come to Hollywood in the hopes of an acting career find that the business is harder than they had ever imagined. The film was released October 20, 2008.

Fox reprised her role as Mikaela Banes in the Transformer sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There was some controversy surrounding Fox's appearance while filming the sequel of Transformers when Michael Bay, the movie's director, ordered the actress to gain 10 pounds. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen premiered on June 8, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. The movie was released worldwide on June 24, 2009. Fox had her first lead role playing the title character in Jennifer's Body, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody. She played Jennifer Check, a mean-girl cheerleader possessed by a demon who begins to feed off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. The film was released on September 18, 2009, and co-stars Amanda Seyfried and Adam Brody.

In April 2009, Fox began filming Jonah Hex, in which she will portray Leila, a gun-wielding beauty and Jonah Hex's (Josh Brolin) love interest. The film, currently in production, is set to be released on June 18, 2010. The movie stars Josh Brolin and Will Arnett, and Fox described her role in the film as being a cameo. In early April, 2009 Fox signed on to star as the lead female role in the up-coming 2011 film The Crossing about a young couple who get caught up in a drug trafficking scheme during their vacation to Mexico. In March 2009, Variety reported that Fox was set to star as the lead role of Aspen Matthews in the film adaption of the comic books Fathom which she will also co-produce with Brian Austin Green.Fathom is currently in pre-production. Fox will not reprise her role as Mikaela Banes in Transformers 3.

Fox has said during an interview with The Times, on the topic of being a role model that: "It depends on what your idea of a role model is," and continued with, "If your idea of a role model is somebody who’s gonna preach to your kids that sex before marriage is wrong and cursing is wrong and women should be this and be that, then I’m not a role model. But if you want your girls to feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken and fight for what they think is right, then I want to be that type of role model, yeah." Fox said in the same interview, on the topic of being typecast that: "Getting typecast as what? Attractive? How bad is that?" She feels that it isn't a bad thing to be typecast in this way and considers it to be flattering. She also believes that it gives her an advantage because people will not expect her to be more than simply attractive and when she does give a good performance, people will be surprised. Fox has shown interest in portraying a character less sexualized than that of Mikaela Banes, whom she portrays in the Transformers film series.

Fox said of being a popular media topic that, though she is not on the same level as Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, or Lindsay Lohan, she does find it difficult and that there have been times when people have avoided being around her because they do not want to end up in the media's spotlight. "I need to behave in a way and handle myself in a way that will cause people to take me seriously," she said, "[and] you can be sexy and be intelligent and be taken seriously, or you can be sexy and you can be out at clubs every night and not be [taken seriously]" but that she has not gone "completely insane". Fox also said of going from being "relatively unknown" to her current celebrity status that: "I definitely feel ill-prepared; I mean, I don't know if anyone ever sits back and goes, 'Now is the moment that I think I should be a famous celebrity,' – but I definitely feel it's premature. I mean, I was in one movie that people have seen."

Fox has appeared on the covers of many magazines. In 2007, she appeared in Maxim; in 2008, the list had grown to include Cosmo Girl, Paw Print, Jack (ITALY), FHM (UK), and GQ. In 2009, the list includes, USA Weekend, Esquire, Empire, Maxim, GQ (UK), Entertainment Weekly and ELLE. Fox was ranked #17 on interview magazines Hollywood faces to watch "Future Stars of Tomorrow", ranked #16 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list, named #68 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement, ranked #18 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list, she was ranked #1 on Moviefone's 'The 25 Hottest Actors Under 25' in 2008, and was ranked #2 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2009 list in 2009. FHM readers voted her the "Sexiest Woman in the World" in 2008.

In late July 2009, Fox's overexposure in parts of the media caused several men's websites to boycott her. AOL's man-blog Asylum dubbed August 4, 2009 "A Day Without Megan Fox" with the promise that the site would not mention or feature her on this day; they asked other men's sites to copy this stance, and several (such as AskMen.com, Just a Guy Thing, and Banned in Hollywood) complied. "Listen, we love Megan," Eric Rogell of TheBachelorGuy.com told New York Daily News. "She's responsible for driving more eyeballs to our sites — just by getting photographed walking down the street in a white T-shirt — than any other celeb alive. [But] it's time to give another young actress a shot at the attention." In response to this, Fox told magazine Nylon, in a September 2009 interview, that "the media blitz" for Transformers resulted in an over-extension of her welcome in the media. "I was part of a movie that [the studio] wanted to make sure would make $700 million, so they oversaturated the media with their stars," she said. "I don’t want to have people get completely sick of me before I’ve ever even done something legitimate."

On September 11, 2009, an unsigned letter from crew members of Transformers defended Michael Bay against accusations reportedly made by Fox about his on-set behavior, including a comparison with Adolf Hitler. The letter alleges that Fox is unpleasant to work with on set and makes several accusations of ungracious behavior that are at variance with her public persona. Bay defended Fox and has said that he does not "condone" the letter. Anthony Steinhart, a production assistant who worked on Transformers, has also came out in her defense, stating that he had never "...witnessed Ms. Fox being rude or inconsiderate of people’s feelings or the work to be done".

Fox has often been compared to actress Angelina Jolie, with the media dubbing her as the "next Angelina Jolie". Fox has been compared to Jolie because they each have a "tattoo collection", and status as a "built in sex-symbol". Fox commented that the comparisons indicate a lack of creativity on the part of the media, and are simply due to the dark hair and tattoos that she and Jolie have, and that both have been in action movies. There were several unconfirmed rumors that Fox was to replace Jolie in the next Lara Croft film. Fox also said of the comparisons that: "I am a brunette with tattoos, I curse and I have made mention of sex before. I joked about it which people find outrageous so they want to constantly compare that to her." Fox remarked, "I'm sure she has no idea who I am. But if I were her, I'd be like, 'Who the fuck is this little bullshit brat who was in Transformers that's going to be the next me?' I don't want to meet her. I'd be embarrassed."

Fox has been involved with actor Brian Austin Green since 2004, having first met on the set of Hope & Faith. In 2006, the two got engaged, but said they had not had any marriage plans. It was reported that the couple had ended their relationship in July 2008 and in February 2009; however, Fox and Green both confirmed on both occasions that the two are still in a relationship. On June 15, 2009, at the UK premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Fox stated that she was single; however, she was later seen with Green and the media is reporting that the two are in a relationship again. Green also appeared in the SNL Digital Short "Megan's Roommate" in the Season 35 premiere episode of Saturday Night Live, which Fox hosted.

Fox is good friends with Jennifer Blanc, Kellan Rhude, Jennifer's Body co-star Amanda Seyfried, Michael Biehn and Transformers co-star Shia LaBeouf. She is a fan of comic books, anime, and video games. Fox's favorite artist is Michael Turner whose Fathom comic she describes as a longtime obsession. Fox has two dogs, including a Pomeranian named after Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Fox has also openly stated that she supports the legalization of marijuana, saying that she does not consider it a drug and that she would be first in line to buy a pack of joints.

In September 2008, Fox alluded to being bisexual; in an interview with GQ magazine, she said that when she was 18 years old she fell in love with and sought to establish a relationship with a female stripper. She used this experience to illustrate her belief that "all humans are born with the ability to be attracted to both sexes" and additionally showed interest in Olivia Wilde. In May 2009, she confirmed her bisexuality. In the June 2009 issue of ELLE, however, she stated that she somewhat distorted the events of her relationship with the stripper, saying she has given certain male writers "an amped-up version" of her past. "They’re boys; they’re easily toyed with," she said. "I tell stories and have them eating out of my hand. Not all of it is true. In fact, most of it is bullshit." Fox said, "I never said she was my girlfriend! I just said that I loved her, and I did love her. The real story is more sobering. It’s not a sexy, fun-time, fantasy story. But that’s not the story you tell GQ."

Fox has additionally been open about her insecurities, and self-harming. She also acknowledges that she has low self-esteem:
“ Yeah. But I don't want to elaborate. I would never call myself a cutter. Girls go through different phases when they're growing up, when they're miserable and do different things, whether it's an eating disorder or they dabble in cutting. I'm really insecure about everything. I see what I look like, but there are things that I like and things that I dislike. My hair is good. The color of my eyes is good, obviously. I'm too short. But overall, I'm not super excited about the whole thing. I never think I'm worthy of anything... I have a sick feeling of being mocked all the time. I have a lot of self-loathing. Self-loathing doesn't keep me from being happy. But that doesn't mean I don't struggle. I am very vulnerable. But I can be aggressive, hurtful, domineering and selfish, too. I'm emotionally unpredictable and all over the place. I'm a control freak. ”

Further, Fox has a fear of flying; she said she developed this about the time she turned 20. She has had to come up with ways to deal with it in order to avoid having panic attacks when getting onto a plane, most notably by listening to Britney Spears songs.

Angelina Jolie (U.S Actress)

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Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress. She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.She has had her biggest commercial successes with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of Czechoslovakian and German descent, and on her mother's side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois.However, Voight has claimed Bertrand was "not seriously Iroquois", and they merely said it to enhance his ex-wife's exotic background.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades, New York.As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father.When she was eleven years old, the family moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.

At the age of 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming a funeral director.During this period, she wore black clothing, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend.Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home.She returned to theatre studies and graduated from high school, though in recent times she has referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos".

She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (later Moreno High School), and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of the area's more affluent families. Jolie's mother survived on a more modest income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely thin, and for wearing glasses and braces.Her self-esteem was further diminished when her initial attempts at modeling proved unsuccessful. She started to cut herself; later commenting, "I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me."

Jolie has been long estranged from her father. The two tried to reconcile and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).In July 2002, Jolie filed a request to legally change her name to "Angelina Jolie", dropping Voight as her surname; the name change was made official on September 12, 2002.In August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had "serious mental problems" on Access Hollywood. Jolie later indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father, and said, "My father and I don't speak. I don't hold any anger toward him. I don't believe that somebody's family becomes their blood. Because my son's adopted, and families are earned." She stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight.

Jolie began working as a fashion model when she was 14 years old, modeling mainly in Los Angeles, New York and London. At that time she also appeared in numerous music videos, including those of Meat Loaf ("Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through"), Antonello Venditti ("Alta Marea"), Lenny Kravitz ("Stand by My Woman"), and The Lemonheads ("It's About Time"). At the age of 16, Jolie returned to theatre and played her first role as a German dominatrix. She began to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with Jolie realizing that they were both "drama queens".

Jolie appeared in five of her brother's student films, made while he attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts, but her professional movie career began in 1993, when she played her first leading role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2, as Casella "Cash" Reese, a near-human robot, designed to seduce her way into a rival manufacturer's headquarters and then self-detonate. Following a supporting role in the independent film Without Evidence, Jolie starred as Kate "Acid Burn" Libby in her first Hollywood picture, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller. The New York Times wrote, "Kate (Angelina Jolie) stands out. That's because she scowls even more sourly than [her co-stars] and is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through top. Despite her sullen posturing, which is all this role requires, Ms. Jolie has the sweetly cherubic looks of her father, Jon Voight."The movie failed to make a profit at the box-office, but developed a cult following after its video release.

She appeared as Gina Malacici in the 1996 comedy Love Is All There Is, a modern-day loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set among two rival Italian family restaurant owners in the Bronx, New York. In the road movie Mojave Moon (1996) she was a youngster, named Eleanor Rigby, who falls for Danny Aiello's character, while he takes a shine to her mother, played by Anne Archer. In 1996, Jolie also portrayed Margret "Legs" Sadovsky, one of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond in the film Foxfire after they beat up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. The Los Angeles Times wrote about her performance, "It took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight's knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst."

In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller Playing God, set in the Los Angeles underworld. The movie was not received well by critics and Roger Ebert noted that "Angelina Jolie finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a criminal's] girlfriend, and maybe she is." She then appeared in the television movie True Women, a historical romantic drama set in the American West, and based on the book by Janice Woods Windle. That year she also appeared in the music video for "Anybody Seen My Baby?" by the Rolling Stones.

Jolie's career prospects began to improve after her performance as Cornelia Wallace in the 1997 biographical film George Wallace for which she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Gary Sinise starred as Alabama Governor George Wallace. The film, directed by John Frankenheimer, was praised by critics and, among other awards, received the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries/Motion Picture made for TV. She played the second wife of the former segregationist governor who was shot and paralyzed while running in 1972 for U.S. President.

In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO's Gia, portraying supermodel Gia Carangi. The film depicted a world of sex, drugs and emotional drama, and chronicled the destruction of Carangi's life and career as a result of her drug addiction, and her decline and death from AIDS. Vanessa Vance from Reel.com noted, "Angelina Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal—filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperation—and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed." For the second consecutive year, Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award. In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting, Jolie reportedly preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting Gia, she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller that she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'"

Following Gia, Jolie moved to New York and stopped acting for a short period of time, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give". She enrolled at New York University to study filmmaking and attended writing classes. She described it as "just good for me to collect myself" on Inside the Actors Studio.

Jolie returned to film as Gloria McNeary in the 1998 gangster movie Hell's Kitchen, and later that year appeared in Playing by Heart, part of an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe and Jon Stewart. The film received predominantly positive reviews and Jolie was praised in particular. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble."Jolie won the Breakthrough Performance Award by the National Board of Review.

In 1999, she starred in Mike Newell's comedy-drama Pushing Tin, co-starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Jolie played Thornton's seductive wife. The film received a mixed reception from critics and Jolie's character was particularly criticized. The Washington Post wrote, "Mary (Angelina Jolie), a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home."She then worked with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector (1999), an adapted crime novel written by Jeffery Deaver. Jolie played Amelia Donaghy, a police officer haunted by her cop father's suicide, who reluctantly helps Washington track down a serial killer. The movie grossed $151 million worldwide, but was a critical failure. The Detroit Free Press concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."

Jolie next took the supporting role of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999), a film that tells the story of mental patient Susanna Kaysen, and which was adapted from Kaysen's original memoir Girl, Interrupted. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood. She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Variety noted, "Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation".

In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, Gone In 60 Seconds, in which she played Sarah "Sway" Wayland, ex-girlfriend of car-thief Nicolas Cage. The role was small, and the Washington Post criticized that "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth."She later explained that the film was a welcome relief after the heavy role of Lisa Rowe, and it became her highest grossing movie up until then, earning $237 million internationally.

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame, Jolie was required to learn a British accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. Slant Magazine commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger." The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as the mail-order bride Julia Russell in Original Sin (2001), a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline." In 2002, she played Lanie Kerrigan in Life or Something Like It, a film about an ambitious TV reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."

Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003. The sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156 million at the international box-office. Later that year Jolie starred in Beyond Borders, a film about aid workers in Africa. Although reflecting Jolie's real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, the film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives. She portrayed Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and The Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." She also provided the voice of Lola, an angelfish in the animated DreamWorks movie Shark Tale (2004) and she had a brief appearance in Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), a science fiction adventure film shot with actors entirely in front of a bluescreen. Also in 2004, Jolie played Olympias in Alexander, Oliver Stone's biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, with Stone attributing its poor reception to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.

Jolie's only movie in 2005 was the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film, directed by Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith opposite Brad Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." The movie earned $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.

She next appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon. Jolie played the supporting role of Margaret Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy."

In 2007, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time, which captures the life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and is intended to be distributed through the National Education Association, mainly in high schools. Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's documentary-style drama A Mighty Heart (2007), about the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. The picture is based on Mariane Pearl's memoirs A Mighty Heart and had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter described Jolie's performance as "well-measured and moving", played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent." The film earned her a fourth Golden Globe Award and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Jolie also played Grendel's mother in Robert Zemeckis' animated epic Beowulf (2007) which was created through the motion capture technique.

Jolie co-starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the 2008 action movie Wanted, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Mark Millar. The film received predominately favorable reviews and proved to be an international success, earning $342 million worldwide. She also provided the voice of Master Tigress in the DreamWorks animated movie Kung Fu Panda (2008). With revenue of $632 million internationally, it became her highest grossing film to date.The same year, Jolie played Christine Collins, the lead in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling (2008), which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It is based on the true story of a woman in 1928 Los Angeles who is reunited with her kidnapped son—only to realize he is an impostor. Jolie received her second Academy Award nomination, and also was nominated for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. The Chicago Tribune noted, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril."

olie first became personally aware of worldwide humanitarian crises while filming Tomb Raider in Cambodia. She eventually turned to UNHCR for more information on international trouble spots. In the following months she visited refugee camps around the world to learn more about the situation and the conditions in these areas. In February 2001, Jolie went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed. In the coming months she returned to Cambodia for two weeks and later met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan where she donated $1 million for Afghan refugees in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal.She insisted on covering all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador on August 27, 2001 at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

Jolie has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees and internally displaced persons in more than 20 countries. Asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." In 2002, Jolie visited the Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand and Colombian refugees in Ecuador. Jolie later went to various UNHCR facilities in Kosovo and paid a visit to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with refugees mainly from Sudan. She also met with Angolan refugees while filming Beyond Borders in Namibia.

In 2003, Jolie embarked on a six-day mission to Tanzania where she traveled to western border camps hosting Congolese refugees, and she paid a week-long visit to Sri Lanka. She later concluded a four-day mission to Russia as she traveled to North Caucasus. Concurrently with the release of her movie Beyond Borders she published Notes from My Travels, a collection of journal entries that chronicle her early field missions (2001–2002). During a private stay in Jordan in December 2003 she asked to visit Iraqi refugees in Jordan's eastern desert and later that month she went to Egypt to meet Sudanese refugees.

On her first U.N. trip within the United States, Jolie went to Arizona in 2004, visiting detained asylum seekers at three facilities and the Southwest Key Program, a facility for unaccompanied children in Phoenix. She flew to Chad in June 2004, paying a visit to border sites and camps for refugees who had fled fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region. Four months later she returned to the region, this time going directly into West Darfur. Also in 2004, Jolie met with Afghan refugees in Thailand and on a private stay to Lebanon during the Christmas holidays, she visited UNHCR's regional office in Beirut, as well as some young refugees and cancer patients in the Lebanese capital.

In 2005, Jolie visited Pakistani camps containing Afghani refugees, and she also met with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; she returned to Pakistan with Brad Pitt during the Thanksgiving weekend in November to see the impact of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. In 2006, Jolie and Pitt flew to Haiti and visited a school supported by Yéle Haïti, a charity founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean. While filming A Mighty Heart in India, Jolie met with Afghan and Burmese refugees in New Delhi. She spent Christmas Day 2006 with Colombian refugees in San José, Costa Rica where she handed out presents. In 2007, Jolie returned to Chad for a two-day mission to assess the deteriorating security situation for refugees from Darfur; Jolie and Pitt subsequently donated $1 million to three relief organizations in Chad and Darfur.Jolie also made her first visit to Syria and twice went to Iraq, where she met with Iraqi refugees as well as multi-national forces and U.S. troops.

Over time, Jolie became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She has regularly attended World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. Jolie also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met with members of Congress at least 20 times from 2003. She explained in Forbes: "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball."

In 2005, Jolie took part at a National Press Club luncheon, where she announced the founding of the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal-aid to asylum-seeking children with no legal representation which Jolie personally funded with a donation of $500,000 for its first two years.Jolie also pushed for several bills to aid refugees and vulnerable children in the Third World. In addition to her political involvement, Jolie began using her public profile to promote humanitarian causes through the mass media. She filmed an MTV special, The Diary Of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, portraying her and noted economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on a trip to a remote group of villages in Western Kenya. In 2006, Jolie announced the founding of the Jolie/Pitt Foundation which made initial donations to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders of $1 million each. Jolie also co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, founded at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006, which helps fund education programs for children affected by conflict.

Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2003, she was the first recipient of the newly created Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association, and in 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA.Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country on August 12, 2005; she has pledged $5 million to set up a wildlife sanctuary in the north-western province of Battambang and owns property there.In 2007, Jolie became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she received the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee.

On March 28, 1996, Jolie married British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her co-star in the film Hackers (1995). She attended her wedding in black rubber pants and a white shirt, upon which she had written the groom's name in her blood. Jolie and Miller separated the following year and subsequently divorced on February 3, 1999. They remained on good terms and Jolie later explained, "It comes down to timing. I think he's the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I'll always love him, we were simply too young."

While shooting Pushing Tin (1999) she met American actor Billy Bob Thornton, and subsequently married him on on May 5, 2000. As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of love—most famously wearing one another's blood in vials around their necks—their relationship became a favorite topic of the entertainment media. Jolie and Thornton divorced on May 27, 2003. Asked about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."

Jolie has said in interviews that she is bisexual and has long acknowledged that she had a sexual relationship with her Foxfire (1996) co-star Jenny Shimizu, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." In 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"

In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused of being the reason for the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The allegation was that she and Pitt had started an affair during filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). She denied this on several occasions, but admitted that they "fell in love" on the set.In an interview in 2005, she explained, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife."

While Jolie and Pitt never publicly commented on the nature of their relationship, speculations continued throughout 2005. The first intimate paparazzi photos emerged in April, one month after Aniston had filed for divorce; they showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya. During the summer Jolie and Pitt were seen together with increasing frequency and most of the entertainment media considered them a couple, dubbing them "Brangelina". On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's child and thereby confirmed their relationship for the first time in public.

On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan. He was born on August 5, 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia, and he initially lived in a local orphanage in Battambang. Jolie decided to apply for adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming Tomb Raider and on a UNHCR field trip in 2001. After her divorce from her second husband, Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie received sole custody of Maddox. Like Jolie's other children, Maddox has gained considerable celebrity and appears regularly in the tabloid media.

Jolie adopted a six-month-old girl from Ethiopia, Zahara Marley, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born on January 8, 2005. She was originally named Yemsrach by her mother, and was later given the legal name Tena Adam at an orphanage.Jolie adopted her from Wide Horizons For Children orphanage in Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. In 2007, media outlets reported Zahara's biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and wanted her daughter back, but she later denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to be adopted by Jolie.

Brad Pitt was reportedly present when Jolie signed the adoption papers and collected her daughter;later Jolie indicated that she and Pitt made the decision to adopt Zahara together. On January 19, 2006, a judge in California approved Pitt's request to legally adopt Jolie's two children. Their surnames were formally changed to "Jolie-Pitt".

Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund, Namibia, by a scheduled caesarean section, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newly-born daughter would have a Namibian passport, and Jolie decided to sell the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images herself, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. People paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million.All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien,who was born on November 29, 2003 and abandoned at birth at a local hospital, where he was initially named Pham Quang Sang. Jolie adopted the boy from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. She revealed that his first name, Pax, was suggested by her mother before her death.

Following months of tabloid speculation, Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. She gave birth to a boy, Knox Léon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by caesarean section at the Lenval hospital in Nice, France, on July 12, 2008. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The money went to the Jolie/Pitt Foundation.

Jolie's numerous tattoos have been the subject of much media attention and have often been addressed by interviewers. Jolie stated that, while she is not opposed to film nudity, the large number of tattoos on her body has forced filmmakers to become more creative when planning nude or love scenes. Make-up has been used to cover up the tattoos in many of her productions. Jolie currently has thirteen known tattoos, among them the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages", which she got together with her mother, the Arabic language phrase "العزيمة" (strength of will), the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), and a Yantra prayer written in the ancient Khmer script for her son Maddox. She also has six sets of geographical coordinates on her upper left arm indicating the birthplaces of her children. Over time she covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including "Billy Bob", the name of her former husband Billy Bob Thornton, a Chinese character for death , and a window on her lower back; she explained that she removed the window, because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.

Halle Berry (U.S Actress)

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Halle Berry (pronounced; born August 14, 1966) is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2009, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman.She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films.

Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing runner-up in the Miss USA (1986), and winning the Miss USA World 1986 title. Her breakthrough feature film role was in the 1991 Jungle Fever. This led to roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won a worst actress Razzie Award in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person.

Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry has been dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry since November 2005. Their first child, a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry, was born on March 16, 2008.

Berry was born Maria Halle Berry, though her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry in 1971. Berry's parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio.Her mother, Judith Ann (née Hawkins), who is Caucasian, was a psychiatric nurse. Her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was an African American hospital attendant in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked; he later became a bus driver.Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio.Berry's parents divorced when she was four years old; she was raised exclusively by her mother. Berry has said in published reports that she has been estranged from her father since her childhood.

Berry graduated from Bedford High School, afterwards working in the children's department at Higbee's Department store. She then studied at Cuyahoga Community College. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986.She was the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up to Christy Fichtner of Texas. In the Miss USA 1986 pageant interview competition, she said she hoped to become an entertainer or to have something to do with the media. Her interview was awarded the highest score by the judges. She was the first African-American Miss World entrant in 1986, where she finished sixth and Trinidad and Tobago's Giselle Laronde was crowned Miss World.

In 1989, during the taping of the short-lived television series Living Dolls, Berry lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 1.

In the late 1980s, Berry went to Illinois to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called Chicago Force. In 1989, Berry landed the role of Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls (a spin-off of Who's the Boss?). She went on to have a recurring role on the long running serial Knots Landing. In 1992, Berry was cast as the love interest in the video for R. Kelly's seminal single, "Honey Love".

Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the 1991 film Strictly Business. In 1992, Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. That same year, she caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry was in the live-action Flintstones movie as "Sharon Stone", the sultry secretary who seduced Fred Flintstone.

Playing a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995), Berry tackled a more serious role, starring opposite co-star Jessica Lange. She portrayed Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, and co-starred alongside Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. From 1996 onwards, she was a Revlon spokeswoman for seven years and renewed her contract in 2004.

In 1998, Berry received praise for her role in Bulworth as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives a politician (Warren Beatty) a new lease on life. The same year, she played the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love. In the 1999 HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, she portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Berry's performance was recognized with several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

In 2001, Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of an executed murderer, in the film Monster's Ball. Her performance was awarded the National Board of Review and the Screen Actors Guild prizes, and in an interesting coincidence she became the first African-American woman to receive a Best Leading Actress Academy Award (earlier in her career she portrayed Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American woman to be nominated for Best Actress).The NAACP issued the statement: "Congratulations to Halle Berry and Denzel Washington for giving us hope and making us proud. If this is a sign that Hollywood is finally ready to give opportunity and judge performance based on skill and not on skin color then it is a good thing."Her role also generated controversy. Berry's graphic, nude love scene with a racist character played by co-star Billy Bob Thornton was the subject of much media chatter and discussion among African-Americans. Many in the African-American community were critical of Berry for taking the part.Berry responded: "I don't really see a reason to ever go that far again. That was a unique movie. That scene was special and pivotal and needed to be there, and it would be a really special script that would require something like that again."

Berry asked for a higher fee for Revlon advertisements after winning the Academy Award, and Ron Perelman, the cosmetics firm's chief, congratulated her, saying how happy he was that she modeled for his company. She replied, "Of course, you'll have to pay me more." Perelman stalked off in a rage.Her win at the Academy Awards led to two famous "Oscar moments." In accepting her award, she gave an acceptance speech honoring previous black actresses who had never had the opportunity. She said, "This moment is so much bigger than me. This is for every nameless, faceless woman of colour who now has a chance tonight because this door has been opened."One year later, as she presented the Best Actor award, winner Adrien Brody ran on stage and, instead of giving her the standard peck on the cheek, planted a long kiss on Berry.

Berry portrayed the mutant superhero Storm in the film adaptation of the comic book series X-Men (2000) and its sequels, X2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In 2001, Berry appeared in the film Swordfish, which featured her first on-screen nude scene.At first, she refused to be filmed topless in a sunbathing scene, but she changed her mind when Warner Brothers raised her fee substantially.The brief flash of her breasts added $500,000 to her fee. Berry considered these stories to be rumors and was quick to deny them. After turning down numerous roles that required nudity, she said she decided to make Swordfish because her husband, Benét, supported her and encouraged her to take risks.

As Bond girl Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson in the 2002 blockbuster Die Another Day, Berry recreated a scene from Dr. No, bursting from the surf to be greeted by James Bond as Ursula Andress had 40 years earlier.Lindy Hemming insisted that she wear a bikini and knife as an homage.Berry has said of the scene: "It's splashy", "exciting", "sexy", "provocative" and "it will keep me still out there after winning an Oscar."The bikini scene was shot in Cadiz, the location was reportedly cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels in between takes to avoid catching a chill.According to a ITV news poll, Jinx was voted the fourth toughest girl on screen of all time. Berry was hurt during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. It was removed in a 30-minute operation.

Because of winning the Academy Award, rewrites were commissioned to give Berry more screentime for X2.Berry stated during interviews for X2 that she would not return as Storm unless the character had a significant presence comparable to the comic-book version.

In November 2003, she starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Robert Downey Jr., during which she broke her arm. Downey was supposed to grab her arm and twist but twisted too hard. Production was halted for eight weeks. It was a moderate hit at the United States box office, taking in $60 million; it earned another $80 million abroad. Berry appeared in the Limp Bizkit music video for "Behind Blue Eyes" for the motion picture soundtrack for the film. The same year, she was named #1 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll. In 2004 Berry was voted fourth of Empire magazine's 100 sexiest film stars of all time poll.

Berry received $12.5 million for the title role in the film Catwoman, a $100 million movie; it grossed $17 million on its first weekend.She was awarded a "worst actress" Razzie award in 2005 for this role. She appeared at the ceremony to accept the award in person (making her the third person, and second actor, to ever do so) with a sense of humor, considering it an experience of the "rock bottom" in order to be "at the top".Holding the Academy Award in one hand and the Razzie in the other she said, "I never in my life thought that I would be here, winning a Razzie. It's not like I ever aspired to be here, but thank you. When I was a kid, my mother told me that if you could not be a good loser, then there's no way you could be a good winner." The Fund for Animals praised Berry's compassion towards cats and for squelching rumors that she was keeping a Bengal tiger from the sets of Catwoman as a "pet."

Berry next appeared in the Oprah Winfrey-produced ABC TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel, in which Berry portrayed Janie Crawford, a free-spirited woman whose unconventional sexual mores upset her 1920s contemporaries in her small community. Meanwhile, she voiced the character of Cappy, one of the many mechanical beings in the animated feature Robots (2005).

Berry has been married twice. Her first marriage was to former baseball player David Justice, shortly after midnight on January 1, 1993.The couple separated in 1996 and their divorce was finalized in 1997. Justice played with the Atlanta Braves and experienced a measure of fame as the team rose to prominence in the early 1990s. The couple found it difficult to maintain their relationship while he was playing baseball and she was filming elsewhere. Berry has stated publicly that she was so depressed after her breakup with Justice that she considered taking her own life, but she could not bear the thought of her mother finding her body.

Berry's second marriage was to musician Eric Benét. They met in 1997 and married in early 2001 on a beach in Santa Barbara. Berry credited Benét with support after she was involved in a February 2000 traffic collision, in which she suffered a concussion and left the scene of the accident before the police arrived. Some in the media complained that her misdemeanor hit and run charge was preferential treatment; she had also been the driver in an alleged hit and run incident three years earlier in which no charges were filed. The incident became fodder for comedians.Berry pled no contest, did community service, paid a fine and was placed on three years' probation. A civil lawsuit was settled out of court.

The couple separated in 2003.After the separation, Berry stated, "I want love, and I will find it, hopefully".While married to Benét, Berry adopted his daughter, India.The divorce was finalized in January 2005.

Berry has been the victim of domestic violence, and now works to help other victims. In 2005, she said "Domestic violence is something I've known about since I was a child. My mother was a victim of it. Early on in my life I made choices, and I chose men that were abusive because that was what I knew growing up...First time it happened, I knew enough to keep moving."

In November 2005, Berry began dating French-Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry, nine years her junior. The couple met at a Versace photoshoot.After six months with Aubry, she stated in an interview, "I'm really happy in my personal life, which is a novelty to me. You know, I'm not the girl that has the best relationships".

At one point, Berry had indicated that she planned to adopt children,but her experience playing a mother in Things We Lost In The Fire opened her mind to the possibility of motherhood.After initially denying rumors, she confirmed in September 2007 that she was three months pregnant.Berry gave birth to a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry on March 16, 2008 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.Nahla means "honeybee" in Arabic; Ariela is Hebrew for "lion for God." Berry hired security guards after receiving racist threats to her unborn baby from a stalker saying her child will be "cut into hundreds of pieces."

At one time, Berry indicated that she did not intend to marry again,insisting the couple's life was already complete without the need for a marriage. She has stated that she hopes to have a second child right away.Aubry recently told In Touch magazine, "I'd like Nahla to have a sibling in 2009."

Jennifer Lopez (U.S Actress)

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Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), often nicknamed J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, fashion designer and television producer. She is the richest person of Latin American descent in Hollywood according to Forbes, and the most influential Hispanic entertainer in the U.S. according to People en Español's list of "100 Most Influential Hispanics".

Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Lopez subsequently ventured into acting with Selena (1997), Out of Sight (1998) and Angel Eyes (2001), for all of which she won ALMA Awards for outstanding actress. She also appeared in The Cell (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004) and Monster-in-Law (2005). She parlayed her media fame into a fashion line and various perfumes with her celebrity endorsement.

In 1999, Lopez released her debut studio album, On the 6. She followed it up with two number one albums on the Billboard 200, J.Lo (2001) and J to tha L-O!: The Remixes (2002). Her third studio album, This Is Me... Then (2002) peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 as well as her fourth studio album, Rebirth (2005). In 2007, Lopez released two albums including her first full Spanish-language album, Como Ama una Mujer and her fifth English studio album Brave. She won the 2003 American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and the 2007 American Music Award for Favorite Latin Artist. She has sold over 48 million albums worldwide.

Jennifer Lopez was born and grew up in Castle Hill, a neighborhood in the Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez, a kindergarten teacher, and David Lopez, a computer specialist. She has two siblings, Lynda and Leslie. Lopez spent her entire academic career in Catholic schools, finishing at the all-girls Preston High School, in the Bronx. She financed singing and dancing lessons for herself from the age of 19. After attending Baruch College for one semester, Lopez divided her time between working in a legal office, dance classes, and dance performances in Manhattan night clubs. She had a little part in the 1987 film My Little Girl. After months of auditioning for dance roles, Lopez was selected as a dancer for various rap music videos, a 1990 episode of Yo! MTV Raps and as a backup dancer for the New Kids on the Block and their performance of their song "Games" for the American Music Awards in 1991. She gained her first regular high-profile job as a "Fly Girl" dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1990. Soon after, Lopez became a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and made an appearance in her 1993 video "That's the Way Love Goes".

Lopez's first television job as an actress was on the Fox series South Central. Lopez also made a guest appearance Second Chances and Hotel Malibu. She then appeared in the made-for-television film Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7. Lopez's first serious screen role was in Gregory Nava's 1995 drama My Family, playing the character of Young Maria in the 1920s. After starring alongside Jimmy Smits and Edward James Olmos in My Family, Lopez starred in the action film Money Train opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.In 1996, she beat out Ashley Judd and Lauren Holly for the supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack starring Robin Williams.She then starred opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's well-received noir thriller Blood and Wine.

Lopez's first big break came in 1997, when she was chosen to play the title role in Selena, a biopic of the Tejano pop singer Selena. Despite having previously worked with Nava on Mi Familia, Lopez was subjected to an intense auditioning process before landing the lead role of Selena. She earned widespread praise for her performance, including a Golden Globe Award nomination for "Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy". Later that year Lopez appeared in two major films. She starred in the horror film Anaconda alongside Ice Cube and Jon Voight, playing the role of Terri Flores, a director who is shooting a documentary while traveling through the Amazon River.Despite being a modest box office hit, the film was critically panned.Lopez then starred as the leading actress in the neo-noir film U Turn, which is based on the book Stray Dogs, starring alongside Sean Penn and Billy Bob Thornton.

In 1998, she had one of her most acclaimed roles, starring opposite George Clooney in Out of Sight, Steven Soderbergh's adaptation the Elmore Leonard novel.Cast as a deputy federal marshal who falls for a charming criminal, Lopez won raves for her tough performance and in the process she became the highest paid Latina actress in Hollywood history.That same year, she provided the voice for Azteca on the computer-animated film Antz. Lopez then starred opposite Vincent D'Onofrio, in the psychological thriller film The Cell. She portrayed Catherine Deane, a child psychologist who uses a virtual reality to enter into the minds of her patients to coax them from their comas. The film was released on August 18, 2000 and became a box office success opening at number one.The following year, Lopez took a hiatus from acting in films to work on her music career.

In 2001, Lopez starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner. The film debuted at number one, making her the first actress and singer in history to have a film and an album, J.Lo, at number one in the same week.Her next roles were in the supernatural romance Angel Eyes (2001), and in the psychological revenge thriller Enough (2002). Both failed to find an audience, and were met with a negative response from critics. She appeared alongside Ralph Fiennes in the romantic comedy film Maid in Manhattan (2002). Her character, Marisa Ventura, is a struggling single mother who lives in the Bronx and makes her living cleaning rooms in a super-luxurious Manhattan hotel, who gets mistaken for a socialite by a princely politician.Maid in Manhattan was a box office hit opening at number one. The New York Times compared the films storyline to her 2002 song, "Jenny from the Block", commenting, "In her new single, Jenny From the Block, Jennifer Lopez declares that despite her enormous wealth and global fame, she has not lost touch with her roots."

Some of her other critically-acclaimed films include An Unfinished Life and Shall We Dance?. Two independent films produced by Lopez were well-received at film festivals: El Cantante at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Bordertown at the Brussels film festival. Her modestly successful film includes Monster-in-Law (2005). Gigli, however, would be a critical and commercial disappointment. In August 2007, Lopez collaborated on the feature film, El Cantante, with her husband singer-actor Marc Anthony. The film is in English, with a creative use of subtitles for songs with Spanish lyrics. In addition, she will appear in the romantic comedy The Back-Up Plan.

Lopez is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and the highest-paid Latin actress in Hollywood history, though she's never had a film grossing over $100 million in the U.S. She was on the The Hollywood Reporter's list of the top ten actress salaries in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Lopez received $15 million for her role in Monster-in-Law.Her top-grossing film domestically is Maid in Manhattan which grossed $94,011,225, and her most successful international film, Shall We Dance?, grossed $112,238,000, at the international box office. Domestically, Shall We Dance? grossed $57,890,460 and a total of $170,128,460 worldwide.In 2007, Lopez made the Forbes magazine's list of "The 20 Richest Women In Entertainment," ranking ninth. Her wealth is estimated to be $110 million in 2007.

On January 27, 2010, it was announced that Jennifer will guest-star on a March episode of How I Met Your Mother as Anita Appleby, a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach women how to mold men into "relationship machines" through the power of denial. After Robin informs Anita of Barney's womanizing ways, Anita sets out to "break" him.

Lopez launched a clothing line in 2003. Named JLO by Jennifer Lopez, the line included different types of clothing for young women, including jeans, T-shirts, coats, belts, purses, and lingerie, a jewelry line,and an accessory line that includes hats, gloves, and scarves.[39] Lopez participated in the Louis Vuitton Winter 2003 campaign. In 2005, she launched a new clothing line called Sweetface. In late 2007, Lopez retired JLO by Jennifer Lopez and launched a new juniors' line called JustSweet. Her fashion lines have featured at many New York Fashion Week events.

Lopez's frequent use of animal fur in her clothing lines and personal wardrobe has brought the scorn of people concerned with animal rights.At the Los Angeles premiere of Monster-in-Law, more than one hundred protesters from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) held a demonstration to highlight their concerns.

On April 12, 2002, Lopez opened a Cuban restaurant in the South Lake district of Pasadena, California named Madre's.

Lopez ventured in the perfume industry with her debut "Glow by J.Lo". In October 2003, Lopez introduced a perfume called "Still", having revisit "Glow" the previous year by creating a limited edition spin-off, "Miami Glow by J.Lo", in homage to her adopted hometown of Miami. Lopez also marketed a "Glow" line of body lotions and bronzing products. For the Christmas season of 2005, she launched another fragrance, "Live by Jennifer Lopez". For 2006 Valentine's Day, "Miami Glow" was replaced by yet another "Glow" spin-off, "Love at First Glow by J.Lo". Her following fragrance, "Live Luxe", was released in August 2006, with "Glow After Dark" following in January 2007. The next fragrances by Jennifer Lopez were "Deseo", "Deseo Forever" for Asian market and first fragrance for men called "Deseo for men". In February 2009 Lopez released "Sunkissed Glow". The last perfume is "My Glow", available from October 2009. Lopez is a spokesperson for Lux shampoo in Japan, appearing in the product's television commercials.

Lopez owns the film and television production company Nuyorican Productions. It was co-founded with her manager Benny Medina, who was supposed to receive half the producing revenue from the company.Lopez split with Medina shortly after the company was founded, but they later restored their business relationship.

Lopez has been recognized by People en Español magazine as both the cover subject for the "50 Most Beautiful" issue in 2006 and the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" issue in February 2007.

It was reported that Lopez and Anthony were taking professional business meetings at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, California, in late 2006. It was also rumored that Lopez and Anthony became Scientologists during that period with the help of Angelo Pagan, the husband of King of Queens actress and scientologist Leah Remini.Just prior to those reports, Lopez said to NBC, "I'm not a Scientologist, I was raised Catholic. But it's funny the way people come at it. To me it's so strange. These are some of the best people I've ever met in my life." She added, "My dad has been a Scientologist for 20 years. He's the best man that I know in my life and so, it's weird to me that people want to paint it in a negative way."

On November 7, 2007, the last night of her "En Concierto" tour, Lopez confirmed she was expecting her first child with husband Marc Anthony. The announcement ended months of speculation over the pregnancy. Her father later confirmed on February 5, 2008, she was expecting twins.Lopez gave birth on February 22, 2008 to fraternal twins, a girl and a boy, Emme Maribel Muñiz, and Maximilian "Max" David Muñiz. The twins were introduced in the March 11, 2008 issue of People magazine for which the magazine paid $6 million.

Media attention has focused on her personal life. She has had high-profile relationships with Ojani Noa, Sean Combs, Cris Judd, Ben Affleck, and Marc Anthony. Starting 1984, when Lopez was 15 and in high school, she started dating David Cruz. They split in 1994, and she still enjoys a close relationship with him ten years after they split, Lopez said in 2004: "He's a friend and he probably knows me better than anyone else".

Lopez's first marriage was to Cuban-born Ojani Noa on February 22, 1997. Lopez met Noa while he worked as a waiter at a Miami restaurant. They divorced in January 1998. Lopez later employed Noa as the manager of her Pasadena restaurant Madre's in April 2002, but he was fired in October 2002. After Noa sued Lopez over the termination, they drew up a confidentiality agreement. In April 2006, Lopez sued to prevent her ex-husband, Noa, from publishing a book containing personal details about their short marriage, contending it violated their confidentiality agreement. In August 2007, a court-appointed arbitrator issued a permanent injunction forbidding Ojani Noa from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging" Jennifer Lopez. She was awarded $545,000 in compensatory damages, which included nearly $300,000 in legal fees and almost $48,000 in arbitration costs. Noa was also ordered to hand over all copies of materials related to the book to Lopez or her attorney.In November 2009, Lopez sued Noa for breach of contract and invasion of privacy, citing a previous confidentiality agreement between the two, to prevent Noa from releasing his planned film, "How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The JLo and Ojani Noa Story", and alleged "previously unseen home video footage". Noa and his agent intend to file a $100 million countersuit against Lopez. On December 1, 2009, judge James Chalfant granted a temporary injunction against Noa and his agent, Ed Meyer, barring them from distributing the footage in any forum.Because the injunction is only temporary, Lopez's lawyer, Jay Lavely, said that he will return to court to make it permanent. Lavely stressed that "there wasn't anything even close" to a sex tape in Noa's possession: "It's private and personal, but it wasn't a sex tape. They are innocent and they have been misrepresented... to increase value and media attention". After the hearing, Noa told E! that he plans to fight the injunction: "It's not about the money, it's about my life".

Lopez next had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with hip-hop mogul Sean Combs. On December 27, 1999, Lopez and Combs were at Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub, when gunfire erupted between Combs' entourage and another group. Lopez and Combs were being driven away from the scene when they were chased and stopped by the police. A gun was found in the front seat of their vehicle. Combs was charged with felony gun possession. Stress over Combs' trial and pursuit by the press multiplied their problems, and Lopez terminated her involvement with Combs one year later. During a related civil suit in 2008, the plaintiff's lawyer said Lopez had “nothing to contribute to the case”.

Her second marriage was to her former backup dancer, Cris Judd. She met Judd while filming the music video for her single "Love Don't Cost a Thing." The two were married on September 29, 2001, at a home in the L.A. suburbs. Their marriage effectively ended in June 2002, when Lopez began publicly dating Ben Affleck.They were officially divorced in January 2003.

Following her divorce, Lopez began dating actor Ben Affleck. Her relationship with actor Affleck was highly publicized, with the media dubbing the couple "Bennifer." Lopez announced her engagement to Affleck in November 2002, after Affleck gave her a six-carat pink diamond ring worth a reported $1.2 million. Lopez promised interviewers that Affleck was indeed "the one", and that they would soon have a family. The marriage, planned for September 14, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California, was called off just hours before the event. They announced the end of their engagement in January 2004. Their relationship was parodied on the South Park episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", which aired on April 16, 2003. In 2003, Lopez and Affleck acted together in the film "Gigli" and in the 2004 film "Jersey Girl".

Less than two months after her break-up with Affleck, Lopez was seen with singer Marc Anthony, a longtime friend with whom she had worked in music videos. They had briefly dated in the late 1990s, before his first marriage and her second. Lopez and Anthony were recording a duet together in early 2004, for Lopez's then-upcoming film Shall We Dance?. In October 2003, Anthony became separated, for the second time, from his first wife, former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres, with whom he has two children. Torres filed for divorce three months later. Lopez and Anthony married in a quiet home wedding on June 5, 2004, four days after his divorce from Torres was final. Their ceremony was private and unpublicized.

Lopez's guests had been invited to an "afternoon party" at Lopez's house and had not been made aware that they were actually going to her wedding. The couple had planned not to publicize their marriage early on, allowing more privacy and time together in an otherwise intrusive environment. Days after the wedding, Anthony refused to comment on their marriage during interviews which were scheduled earlier to promote a new album "Amar Sin Mentiras" (To Love Without Lies). In February 2005, Lopez confirmed the marriage, and added that "everyone knows. It's not a secret". A few months later, Anthony's daughter, Ariana, appeared at the end of Lopez's music video "Get Right" as her little sister. Regarding his marriage and family life, Anthony maintains a private and sometimes defensive stance with the media, which has influenced Lopez to set some boundaries with interviewers. On December 29, 2008, Daily News reported that Lopez and Anthony planned to announce their divorce on Valentine's Day.This allegation was put to rest by her publicist stating that "There is no merit to the article".

Jennifer Lopez has admitted to be against in vitro fertilisation because of her traditional upbringing saying:

When it comes to family and relationships, I’m quite traditional. Just because of the way I was raised and I also believe in God and I have a lot of faith in that, so I just felt like you don’t mess with things like that. And I guess deep down I really felt like either this is not going to happen for me or it is. You know what I mean? And if it is, it will. And if it’s not, it’s not going to.

Steve Jobs (CEO Apple)

2010-02-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is an American businessman, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs previously served as CEO of Pixar Animation Studios and is now a member of the Walt Disney Company's Board of Directors.

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others, designed, developed, and marketed some of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series and later, the Macintosh. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of the mouse-driven graphical user interface. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher education and business markets. NeXT's subsequent 1997 buyout by Apple Computer Inc. brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he has served as its CEO since then.

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acquisition by the Walt Disney Company in 2006. Jobs is currently a member of Walt Disney Company's Board of Directors.

Jobs' history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.

In mid-January 2009, Jobs took a five-month leave of absence from Apple to undergo a liver transplant.

Jobs was born in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California who named him Steven Paul. Paul and Clara later adopted a daughter, who they named Patty. Jobs' biological parents, Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali—a graduate student from Syria who became a political science professor—later married and gave birth to Job's sister, the novelist Mona Simpson.

Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High School and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, and frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. He was soon hired there and worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee. In 1972, Jobs graduated from high school and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester, he continued auditing classes at Reed, such as one in calligraphy. Jobs later stated, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts", he said.

In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India.

Jobs then traveled to India with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of spiritual enlightenment. He came back a Buddhist with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life." He has stated that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking.

He returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout. According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered US$100 for each chip that was reduced in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them $600 (instead of the actual $5000) and that Wozniak's share was thus $300.

In 1976, Steve Jobs, Stephen Wozniak, Ronald Wayne , and later with funding from then a semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer A.C. "Mike" Markkula Jr., founded Apple. Prior to co-founding Apple, Wozniak was an electronics hacker. Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for several years, having met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Steve Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer and selling it. As Apple continued to expand, the company began looking for an experienced executive to help manage its expansion. In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water to children, or do you want a chance to change the world?" The following year, Apple set out to do just that, starting with a Super Bowl television commercial titled, "1984." At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium."The Macintosh became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin, and eventually taken over by Jobs.

While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and temperamental manager. An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs's working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 – following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs – Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division.

Around the same time, Jobs founded another computer company, NeXT Computer. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced; however, it was largely dismissed by industry as cost-prohibitive. Among those who could afford it, however, the NeXT workstation garnered a strong following because of its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the scientific and academic fields because of the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated (such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port).

The NeXTcube was described by Jobs as an "interpersonal" computer, which he believed was the next step after "personal" computing. That is, if computers could allow people to communicate and collaborate together in an easy way, it would solve a lot of the problems that "personal" computing had come up against. During a time when e-mail for most people was plain text, Jobs loved to demo the NeXT's e-mail system, NeXTMail, as an example of his "interpersonal" philosophy. NeXTMail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail.

Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by such things as the NeXTcube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel.

In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, $5 million of which was given to the company as capital.

The new company, which was originally based in San Rafael, California, but has since relocated to Emeryville, California, was initially intended to be a high-end graphics hardware developer. After years of unprofitability selling the Pixar Image Computer, it contracted with Disney to produce a number of computer-animated feature films, which Disney would co-finance and distribute.

The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. Over the next ten plus years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company would produce the box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008) and Up (2009). Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001.

In the years 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership, and in early 2004 Jobs announced that Pixar would seek a new partner to distribute its films once its contract with Disney expired.

In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney, and Iger quickly worked to patch up relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. Once the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with approximately 7% of the company's stock. Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceed those of Eisner, who holds 1.7%, and Disney family member Roy E. Disney, who held about 1% of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner included the soured Pixar relationship and accelerated his ousting. Jobs joined the company's board of directors upon completion of the merger.

Jobs also helps oversee Disney and Pixar's combined animation businesses with a seat on a special six-man steering committee.

In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for $429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he co-founded. He soon became Apple's interim CEO after the directors lost confidence in and ousted then-CEO Gil Amelio in a boardroom coup. In March 1998, in order to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs immediately terminated a number of projects such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs' summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company."

With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, most notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO. Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title 'iCEO.'

In recent years, the company has branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. In 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, iPod, and internet device. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminds his employees that "real artists ship,"by which he means that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design.

Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple's own World Wide Developers Conferences.

In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker.The banner read "Steve — Don't be a mini-player recycle all e-waste". In 2006, he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any U.S. customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems.

In 2001, Steve Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7.5 million shares of Apple with an exercise price of $18.30, which allegedly should have been $21.10, thereby incurring taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report as income. This indicated backdating. Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. If found liable, Jobs might have faced a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. Apple claimed that the options were originally granted at a special board meeting that may never have taken place. Furthermore, the investigation is focusing on false dating of the options resulting in a retroactive $20 million increase in the exercise price. The case is the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations, though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006 found that Jobs was unaware of these issues and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003. On July 1, 2008 a $7 billion class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple Board of Directors for revenue lost due to the alleged securities fraud.

Much has been made of Jobs' aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune wrote that he "is considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs." Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Mike Moritz's The Little Kingdom, one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs; Jeffrey S. Young's unauthorized Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs, by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon.

Jef Raskin, a former colleague, once said that Jobs "would have made an excellent king of France," alluding to Jobs' compelling and larger-than-life persona.

Jobs has always aspired to position Apple and its products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting trends, at least in terms of innovation and style. He summed up that self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007 by quoting ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky:

“ There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will." ”

—Steve Jobs

Floyd Norman said that at Pixar, Jobs was a "mature, mellow individual" and never interfered with the creative process of the filmmakers.

Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991. Presiding over the wedding was the Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogowa. The couple have a son, Reed Paul Jobs and two other children. Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan. She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity, claiming that he was sterile; he later acknowledged paternity.

In the unauthorized biography The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez. Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan." In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobs might have married Baez, but her age at the time (41) meant it was unlikely the couple could have children. Baez included a mention of Jobs in the acknowledgments of her 1987 memoir And A Voice To Sing With.

Steve Jobs is also a devoted Beatles fan. He has referenced them on more than one occasion at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, he replied:

“ My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people. ”

In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo, an apartment building in New York City with a politically progressive reputation, where Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth, also had apartments. With the help of I.M. Pei, Jobs spent years renovating his apartment in the top two floors of the building's north tower, only to sell it almost two decades later to U2 frontman Bono. Jobs had never moved in.

In 1984, Jobs purchased a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2), 14 bedroom Spanish Colonial mansion, designed by George Washington Smith in Woodside, California, also known as Jackling House. Although it reportedly remained in an almost unfurnished state, Jobs lived in the mansion for ten years. According to reports, he kept an old BMW motorcycle in the living room, and let Bill Clinton use it in 1998. He allowed the mansion to fall into a state of disrepair, planning to demolish the house and build a smaller home on the property; but he met with complaints from local preservationists over his plans. In June 2004, the Woodside Town Council gave Jobs approval to demolish the mansion, on the condition that he advertise the property for a year to see if someone would move it to another location and restore it. A number of people expressed interest, including several with experience in restoring old property, but no agreements to that effect were reached. Later that same year, a local preservationist group began seeking legal action to prevent demolition. In January 2007 Jobs was denied the right to demolish the property, by a court decision.

He usually wears a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.He is a vegetarian.

Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes."On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." In 2006, Steve Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's. The email read:

“ Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve. ”

In 2005, Steve Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley & Sons from Apple Stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs.

Jobs was prominently featured in three films about the history of the personal computing industry:

* Triumph of the Nerds — a 1996 three-part documentary for PBS, about the rise of the home computer/personal computer.

* Nerds 2.0.1 — a 1998 three-part documentary for PBS, (and sequel to Triumph of the Nerds) which chronicles the development of the Internet.

* Pirates of Silicon Valley — a 1999 docudrama which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft. He was portrayed by Noah Wyle.

Jobs has also been frequently parodied:

* Mad Magazine — a feature called Calvin and Jobs, a parody of Calvin and Hobbes, starring Steve in the role of Hobbes and his attempts to explain to Calvin his job.

* Jobs was also parodied in "Mypods and Boomsticks", a 2008 The Simpsons episode which features an adventure into the 'world' of Mapple, MyPods, and "Steve Mobbs".

* 30 Rock parodied Jobs's keynote presentation style, turtleneck and all in the episode "Cutbacks".

* The Onion featured a parody article titled "Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product," which contained a picture showing Jobs introducing what appears to be another Steve Jobs.

* ceoSteveJobs is a parody Twitter account which features 140-character tweets from the eyes of the CEO.

* Daniel Lyons writes a popular blog called The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, and a book, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs.

He was awarded the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan in 1985 with Steve Wozniak (the first people to ever receive the honor), and a Jefferson Award for Public Service in the category "Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under" (aka the Samuel S. Beard Award) in 1987.

On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine.

On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

In August 2009, Jobs was selected the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers on a survey by Junior Achievement.

On November 5, 2009, Jobs was named the CEO of the decade by Fortune Magazine.

He is ranked #57 on Forbes:The World's Most Powerful People.

Eric Emerson Schmidt (CEO Google.)

2010-02-02T00:07:00.000-08:00

Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955(1955-04-27)) is an engineer, Chairman/CEO of Google Inc. and a former member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc.He also sits on the boards of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University.

Schmidt was born in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Yorktown High School (Virginia), Schmidt attended Princeton University where he earned a BSEE in 1976. At the University of California, Berkeley, he earned an MS in 1979, for designing and implementing a network linking the campus computer center, the CS and the EECS departments and a PhD in 1982 in EECS with a dissertation about the problems of managing distributed software development and tools for solving these problems He was joint author of lex (a lexical analyzer and an important tool for compiler construction). He taught at Stanford Business School as a part time professor.

He lives in Atherton, California with his wife Wendy.

He is also on the list of ARTnews 200 top art collectors.

The Schmidt Family Foundation addresses issues of sustainability and the responsible use of natural resources. Wendy Schmidt, working with Hart Howerton, a San Francisco architectural firm that specializes in large-scale land use, has inaugurated several projects on the island of Nantucket that seek to sustain the unique character of the island, and to minimize the impact of seasonal visitation on the island's core community.

Early in his career, Schmidt held a series of technical positions with IT companies, including Bell Labs, Zilog and Xerox’s famed Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He joined Sun Microsystems in 1983, led its Java development efforts and rose to become Chief Technology Officer. In 1997, he was appointed CEO of Novell.

Schmidt left Novell after the acquisition of Cambridge Technology Partners. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin interviewed Schmidt. Impressed by him, they recruited Eric Schmidt to run their company in 2001 under the influence of venture capitalists John Doerr and Michael Moritz.

Schmidt joined Google's board of directors as chairman in March 2001 and became the company's CEO in August 2001. At Google, Schmidt shares responsibility for Google's daily operations with founders Page and Brin. As indicated by page 29 of Google's 2004 S-1 Filing Schmidt, Page, and Brin run Google as a triumvirate. Schmidt possesses the legal responsibilities typically assigned to the CEO of a public company and focuses on management of the vice presidents and the sales organization.

According to Google's website, Schmidt also focuses on "building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google's rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remains high while product development cycle times are kept to a minimum."

Schmidt was elected to Apple's board of directors on August 28, 2006. On August 3, 2009 it was announced that Schmidt would resign his board member position at Apple due to conflict of interests and the growing competition between Google and Apple.

In 2007, Schmidt was cited by PC World as #1 on the list of the 50 Most Important People on the Web, along with Google co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Schmidt was an informal advisor to the Barack Obama presidential campaign and began campaigning the week of October 19, 2008, on behalf of the candidate. He had been mentioned as a possible candidate for the new Chief Technology Officer position which Obama created in his administration.In announcing his endorsement for Obama, Schmidt jokingly said that with his $1.00 salary, he would be getting a tax cut.After Obama won, Schmidt was a member of President Obama's transition advisory board. He proposed that the easiest way to solve all of the United States' problems at once, at least in domestic policy, is by a stimulus program that rewards renewable energy and, over time, attempts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

While CEO of Google in 2008, Schmidt earned a base salary of just $1, and other compensation of $508,763. He did not receive any cash, stock, or options. Schmidt is one of the few people who have become billionaires (USD) based on stock options received as an employee in a corporation of which he was neither a relative nor the founder. In its 2006 'World's Richest People' list, Forbes ranked Schmidt as the 129th richest person in the world (the ranking was shared by Onsi Sawiris, Alexei Kuzmichov, and Robert Rowling) with an estimated wealth of $6.2 billion. Schmidt earned a salary of $1 in 2006.

Schmidt was asked in an interview on CNBC whether Google's users should treat the search engine as a "trusted friend." Schmidt's reply was, in part, "Judgment matters.[...] If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time… it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."

Nicolas Sarkozy (President of France)

2009-11-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

Sarkozy is a Frenchman of mixed national and ethnic ancestry. He is the son of Pál István Ernő Sárközy de Nagy-Bocsa, (Hungarian: nagybócsai Sárközy Pál; some sources spell it Nagy-Bócsay Sárközy Pál István Ernő; Pal_sarkozy.ogg Hungarian pronunciation (help·info) nɒɟ͡ʝboːt͡ʃɒi ʃaːrkøzi paːl) a Hungarian aristocrat, and Andrée Jeanne "Dadu" Mallah (b. Paris, 12 October 1925), who is of French Catholic and Ottoman-Sephardic Jewish descent.They were married at Saint-François-de-Sales, Paris XVII, on 8 February 1950 and divorced in 1959.

Pál Sárközy was born on 5 May 1928 in Budapest into a family belonging to the lesser Hungarian nobility. They possessed lands and a small castle in the village of Alattyán, near Szolnok, 92 km (57 miles) east of Budapest. Pál Sárközy's father and grandfather held elective offices in the town of Szolnok. Although the Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa (nagybócsai Sárközy) family was Protestant, Pál Sárközy's mother, Katalin Tóth de Csáford (Hungarian: csáfordi Tóth Katalin), grandmother of Nicolas Sarkozy, belonged to a Catholic noble family.

As the Red Army entered Hungary in 1944, the Sárközy family fled to Germany.They returned in 1945 but all their possessions had been seized. Pál Sárközy's father died soon afterwards and his mother, fearing that he would be drafted into the Hungarian People's Army or sent to Siberia, urged him to leave the country and promised she would eventually follow him to Paris. Pál Sárközy fled to Austria and then Germany while his mother reported to authorities that he had drowned in Lake Balaton. Eventually, he arrived in Baden Baden, near the French border, where the headquarters of the French Army in Germany were located, and there he met a recruiter for the French Foreign Legion. He signed up for five years, and was sent for training to Sidi Bel Abbes, where the French Foreign Legion's headquarters were located. He was due to be sent to Indochina at the end of training, but the doctor who checked him before departure, who was also Hungarian, sympathised with him and gave him a medical discharge to save him from possible death at the hands of the Vietminh. He returned to civilian life in Marseille in 1948 and, although he asked for French citizenship only in the 1970s (his legal status was that of a stateless person until then), he nonetheless gallicised his Hungarian name into "Paul Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa". He met Andrée Mallah (known as Dadu) in 1949.

Andrée Mallah, then a law student, was the daughter of Benedict Mallah, a well-off urologist and STD specialist with a well-established reputation in the mainly bourgeois 17th arrondissement of Paris. Benedict Mallah, originally named Aaron Mallah (and nicknamed Benico), was born in 1890 in the Sephardic Jewish community of (modern day Thessaloniki, Greece). The family had originally been from Spain, then resettled in Provence, southern France, and later moved to Salonica into the Jewish community established there by other Spanish expellees victims of the Spanish Inquisition. Benico Mallah, the son of jeweller Mordechai Mallah and Reyna Magriso, left Salonica, then still part of the Ottoman Empire, with his mother in 1904 at the age of 14 to attend the prestigious Lycée Lakanal boarding school of Sceaux, in the southern suburbs of Paris. He studied medicine after his baccalaureate and decided to stay in France and become a French citizen. A doctor in the French Army during World War I, he met a recent war widow, Adèle Bouvier (1891–1956), from a bourgeois family of Lyon, whom he married in 1917. Adèle Bouvier, Nicolas Sarkozy's grandmother, was a Catholic like the majority of French people. Mallah, for whom religion had reportedly never been a central issue, converted to Catholicism upon marrying Adèle Bouvier, which had been requested by Adèle's parents, and changed his name to Benedict. Although Benedict Mallah converted to Catholicism, he and his family nonetheless had to flee Paris and take refuge in a small farm in Corrèze during World War II to avoid being arrested and delivered to the Germans. During the Holocaust, many of the Mallahs who stayed in Salonica or moved to France were deported to concentration and extermination camps. In total, 57 family members were murdered by the Nazis.

Paul Sarkozy and Andrée Mallah settled in the 17th arrondissement of Paris and had three sons: Guillaume, born in 1951, who is an entrepreneur in the textile industry and current vice president of the MEDEF (French union of employers); Nicolas, born in 1955; and François, born in 1957 (an MBA and manager of a health care consultancy company. In 1959, Paul Sarkozy left his wife and his three children. He later remarried three times and had two more children. His third wife, Christine de Ganay, married U.S. ambassador Frank G. Wisner.

Sarkozy's half-brother, Olivier, was chosen by the Carlyle Group in March 2008 as co-head and managing director of its recently launched global financial services division.

During Sarkozy's childhood, his father refused to give his wife's family any financial help, even though he had founded his own advertising agency and had become wealthy. The family lived in a small mansion owned by Sarkozy's grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of the 17th Arrondissement just outside of Paris. According to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. Sarkozy was, accordingly, raised Catholic.

Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today. He also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier classmates."What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood", he said later.

Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a state-funded public middle and high school in Paris's 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. His family then sent him to the Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, a private Catholic school in the 17th arrondissement, where he was reportedly a mediocre student, but where he nonetheless obtained his baccalauréat in 1973. He enrolled at the Université Paris X Nanterre, where he graduated with a Master in Private law, and later with a DEA degree in Business law. Paris X Nanterre had been the starting place for the May '68 student movement and was still a stronghold of leftist students. Described as a quiet student, Sarkozy soon joined the right-wing student organization, in which he was very active. He completed his military service as a part time Air Force cleaner. After graduating, he entered the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (1979-1981) but failed to graduate due to an insufficient command of the English language.After passing the bar, he became a lawyer specializing in business and family law, and was one of Silvio Berlusconi's top French advocates.

Marie-Dominique Culioli
Sarkozy married his first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli, on 23 September 1982; her father was a pharmacist from Vico (a village north of Ajaccio, Corsica). They had two sons, Pierre (born in 1985), now a hip-hop producer,and Jean (born in 1986) now a regional councillor in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Sarkozy's best man was the prominent right-wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent.Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, although they had already been separated for several years.

Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz
As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former fashion model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz (great-granddaughter of composer Isaac Albéniz and daughter of a Moldovan father), when he officiated at her wedding to television host Jacques Martin. In 1988, she left her husband for Sarkozy, and divorced Martin one year later. Sarkozy married her in October 1996, with witnesses Martin Bouygues and Bernard Arnault They have one son, Louis, born 23 April 1997.

Between 2002 and 2005, the couple often appeared together on public occasions, with Cécilia Sarkozy acting as the chief aide for her husband. On 25 May 2005, however, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin revealed that she had left Sarkozy for French-Moroccan national Richard Attias, head of Publicis in New York.There were other accusations of a private nature in Le Matin, which led to Sarkozy suing the paper.In the meantime, he was said to have had an affair with a journalist of Le Figaro, Anne Fulda.

Sarkozy and Cécilia ultimately divorced on 15 October 2007, soon after his election as President. She was his second wife.

Carla Bruni
Less than a month after separating from Cecilia, Sarkozy met Italian-born singer Carla Bruni at a dinner party, and soon entered a relationship with her. They married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

Personal wealth
Sarkozy declared to the Constitutional Council a net worth of €2 million, most of the assets being in the form of life insurance policies. As the French President, one of his first actions was to give himself a raise: his yearly salary went from €101,000 to €240,000 (to match his European/French peers). He is also entitled to a mayoral pension as a former mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine. He also receives a yearly council pension as a former member of the council of the Hauts-de-Seine department.

In government
Sarkozy's political career began when he was 22, when he became a city councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine. A member of the Neo-Gaullist party RPR, he went on to be elected mayor of that town, after the death of the incumbent mayor Achille Peretti. Sarkozy had been close to Peretti, as his mother was Peretti's secretary. The senior RPR politician at the time, Charles Pasqua, wanted to become mayor, and asked Sarkozy to organize his campaign. Instead Sarkozy profited from Pasqua's short illness to propel himself into the office of mayor. He was the youngest mayor of any town in France with a population of over 50,000. He served from 1983 to 2002. In 1988, he became a deputy in the National Assembly.

In 1993, Sarkozy was in the national news for personally negotiating with the "Human Bomb", a man who had taken small children hostage in a kindergarten in Neuilly.The "Human Bomb" was killed after two days of talks by policemen of the RAID, who entered the school stealthily while the attacker was resting.

From 1993 to 1995, he was Minister for the Budget and spokesman for the executive in the cabinet of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. Throughout most of his early career, Sarkozy had been seen as a protégé of Jacques Chirac. During his tenure, he increased France's public debt more than any other French Budget Minister except his predecessor, by the equivalent of €200 billion (USD260 billion) (FY 1994-1996). The first two budgets he submitted to the parliament (budgets for FY1994 and FY1995) assumed a yearly budget deficit equivalent to six percent of GDP. According to the Maastricht Treaty, the French yearly budget deficit may not exceed three percent of France's GDP.

In 1995, he spurned Chirac and backed Édouard Balladur for President of France. After Chirac won the election, Sarkozy lost his position as Minister for the Budget and found himself outside the circles of power.

However, he returned after the right-wing defeat at the 1997 parliamentary election, as the number two candidate of the RPR. When the party leader Philippe Séguin resigned, in 1999, he took the leadership of the Neo-Gaullist party. But it obtained its worst result at the 1999 European Parliament election, winning 12.7% of the votes, less than the dissident Rally for France of Charles Pasqua. Sarkozy lost the RPR leadership.

In 2002, however, after his re-election as President of the French Republic (see French presidential election, 2002), Chirac appointed Sarkozy as French Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, despite Sarkozy's support of Edouard Balladur for French President in 1995. Following Chirac's 14 July keynote speech on road safety, Sarkozy as interior minister pushed through new legislation leading to the mass purchase of speed cameras and a campaign to increase the awareness of dangers on the roads.

In the cabinet reshuffle of 31 March 2004, Sarkozy became Finance Minister. Tensions continued to build between Sarkozy and Chirac and within the UMP party, as Sarkozy's intentions of becoming head of the party after the resignation of Alain Juppé became clear.

In party elections of November 2004, Sarkozy became leader of the UMP with 85% of the vote. In accordance with an agreement with Chirac, he resigned as Finance Minister. Sarkozy's ascent was marked by the division of UMP between sarkozystes, such as Sarkozy's "first lieutenant", Brice Hortefeux, and Chirac loyalists, such as Jean-Louis Debré.

Sarkozy was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by President Chirac in February 2005. He was re-elected on 13 March 2005 to the National Assembly (as required by the constitution,he had to resign as a deputy when he became minister in 2002).

On 31 May 2005 the main French news radio station France Info reported a rumour that Sarkozy was to be reappointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin without resigning from the UMP leadership. This was confirmed on 2 June 2005, when the members of the government were officially announced.

Electoral mandates
* Member of the National Assembly of France for Hauts-de-Seine : 1988-1993 (became minister in 1993) / 1995-2002 (became minister in 2002) / reelected between March-June 2005 (became minister in June 2005)
* Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine : 1983-2002
* Municipal councillor of Neuilly-sur-Seine : 1977-1983
* Regional councillor of Ile-de-France : 1983-1988
* General councillor of Hauts-de-Seine : 1985-1986
* Vice-president of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine : 1986-1988
* President of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine : 2004-2007 (became President of the French Republic in 2007)

Governmental functions
* Minister of Budget and government's spokesman : 1993-1995
* Minister of Communication and government's spokesman : 1994-1995
* Minister of State, minister of Interior, of the Internal Security and Local Freedoms : 2002-2004
* Minister of State, minister of Economy, Finance and Industry : March-November 2004
* Minister of State, minister of Interior and Planning : 2005-2007

Public image
Sarkozy was named the 68th best-dressed person in the world by Vanity Fair, alongside David Beckham and Brad Pitt. Beside publicizing, at times, and at others, refusing to publicise his ex-wife Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz's image, Sarkozy takes care of his own personal image, sometimes to the point of censorship — such as in the Paris Match affair, when he allegedly forced its director to resign following an article on his ex-wife and her affair with Publicis executive Richard Attias, or pressures exercised on the Journal du dimanche, which was preparing to publish an article concerning Ciganer-Albéniz's decision not to vote in the second round of the 2007 presidential election.In its 9 August 2007 edition, Paris Match retouched a photo of Sarkozy in order to erase a love handle. His official portrait destined for all French town halls was done by SIPA photographer Philippe Warrin, better known for his paparazzi work.

Former Daily Telegraph journalist Colin Randall has highlighted Sarkozy's tighter control of his image and frequent interventions in the media: "he censors a book, or fires the chief editor of a weekly." Sarkozy is reported by Reuters to be sensitive about his height (believed to be 5 ft 5in or 5 ft 6in). He has been noted[by whom?] as wearing substantially heeled shoes and standing on hidden platforms, while the French media have pointed out that Bruni frequently wears flats when in public with him. In 2009, this was the subject of a political row, when a worker at a factory where Sarkozy gave a speech said she was asked to stand next to him because she was of a similar height (this story was corroborated by some union officials). The president's office called the accusation "completely absurd and grotesque", while the Socialist Party mocked his fastidious preparation.

Sarkozy, alongside Tony Blair, is part of the inspiration for Mathieu Amalric's portrayal of Dominic Greene, the villain of the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Sarkozy lost a suit against a manufacturer of Sarkozy voodoo dolls, in which he claimed that he had a right to his own image.

French honours
* Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur (2007 - Automatic when taking office)
o Was previously Knight of the Légion d'honneur (since 2004)
* Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite (2007 - Automatic when taking office)

Other countries
* Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (2008 - United Kingdom)[120]
* Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (2004 - Spain)
* Commander of the Ordre de Léopold (Belgium)
* Stara Planina (Bulgaria)
* Proto-canon of the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran (2007 - Holy See). The post is held ex officio by the French Head of State.

"What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood." Of all the statements by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, this is the most compelling. It's why he doesn't accept victimization as an excuse for failure, criminality or self-pity. But at the same time, it explains why he has shown compassion to those who he truly believes have been humiliated and has raised them to platforms they have rarely held in Europe. As France's Minister of the Interior, Sarkozy empowered immigrant women. As President, he has given three appointments in his Cabinet to women from African-immigrant families. In an homage to Simone Veil, the former President of the European Parliament, Sarkozy said, "Every time a woman is martyred in the world, that woman should be recognized as a French citizen, and France will stand at her side." In his compassion for the weak and outrage against injustice, he may sometimes overpromise — but so do all politicians.

Sarkozy, 54, has withstood mounting public disapproval since taking office. He disregards his critics and sometimes seems to thrive on such criticism. Perhaps based on the wisdoms of his childhood, he lives by a philosophy that can be summed up as: Do not whine; move on. When his wife abandoned him after his presidential victory, he accepted it, found the most beautiful woman in France and married her.

This man finds himself in power at a time of dramatic change, when the world might be pushed at any moment into a nuclear disaster by a rogue regime like Iran's or by the fatal anarchy of Pakistan. Sarkozy has always been open about his pro-U.S. sentiment; given his power and political skills, he could be America's best ally in Europe. Can Sarkozy be Europe's Churchill, or is he just another Frenchman with a dramatic childhood?

The Great Khali (Indo-US-Westler)

2009-10-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

Dalip Singh Rana (Punjabi: ਦਲੀਪ ਸਿੰਘ ਰਾਨਾ) (born August 27, 1972) better known by his ring name The Great Khali, is an Indian professional wrestler, actor, and former powerlifter who won Mr. India in 1995 and 1996. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its SmackDown brand. Before embarking on his professional wrestling career, he was a police officer in the Punjab state police.

In WWE, Singh is a one-time World Heavyweight Champion, and has appeared in the films The Longest Yard[1] (2005) and Get Smart (2008).

Under the ring name Giant Singh, Dalip Singh first became a professional wrestler for All Pro Wrestling (APW) in the United States, making his first appearance in October 2000, when teaming with Tony Jones against the West Side Playaz.

In August 2001, Singh was brought into New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) by Team 2000 leader, Masahiro Chono, as Giant Singh, along with another big man, Giant Silva. They were the tallest tag team in professional wrestling history at an average height of 7 foot 2½ inches, and a combined weight of 805 pounds. The two teamed up for the first time at the Tokyo Dome in October, labeled "Club 7" by Chono, and defeated Yutaka Yoshie, Kenzo Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Wataru Inoue in a Handicap Match when Silva pinned Tanahashi and Inoue at the same time.Singh suffered his first loss in a tag match in January 2002 after Hiroyoshi Tenzan pinned him with a cradle. He suffered another big tag defeat during March, being pinned by Manabu Nakanishi after a German suplex pin. His most critical loss came in August at Tokyo Nippon Budokan when, after a falling out, he was pinned by Silva in a singles match.

On January 2, 2006, Singh became the first Indian professional wrestler to be signed to a contract by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE); he was assigned to their developmental federation, Deep South Wrestling, where he wrestled under his real name.

With Daivari as his manager, the unnamed Singh debuted on WWE television on the April 7, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, attacking The Undertaker and leaving defenseless during his match with Mark Henry, and thus causing a no-contest. The next week he was introduced as The Great Khali. Daivari explained that he now finally had a client that would destroy The Undertaker (after Muhammed Hassan and Mark Henry had previously failed).Khali made his in-ring debut on the April 21 edition of SmackDown!, defeating Funaki.

On the May 12 edition of SmackDown!, Khali was John "Bradshaw" Layfield hand-picked opponent against World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio. Khali had a height advantage of two feet and a weight advantage of 250 pounds, and defeated Mysterio in a squash match.[16] In his match against The Undertaker at Judgment Day, Khali defeated The Undertaker with a kick to the head after receiving some illegal help from Daivari. Khali continued on a rampage for several weeks, winning handicap matches,beating superstars up in a display of power, and mocking The Undertaker's signature pin and victory pose.

Khali then challenged The Undertaker to a Punjabi Prison match at The Great American Bash.However, Khali was not medically cleared to compete in the match, and was instead replaced by Big Show, who would end up losing to The Undertaker despite interference from Khali. After he was medically cleared, Khali would be challenged by The Undertaker to a Last Man Standing match at SummerSlam.The match was moved to the SmackDown! just prior to SummerSlam and was won by The Undertaker, giving Khali his first definite loss in WWE.

Daivari and The Great Khali were moved to the ECW brand officially when they made their ECW debuts on the October 31, 2006 edition of ECW on Sci Fi. Daivari beat "The Reject" Shannon Moore in a very quick match.Daivari's original theme music was used as well as his Persian rants on the microphone. Afterwards, Moore was manhandled by The Great Khali.Daivari continued his ECW winning streak over the next several weeks with The Great Khali usually following up the contest with a chokebomb on Daivari's opponent. At December to Dismember, Daivari got a victory over Tommy Dreamer following a roll-up.Dreamer then chased Daivari backstage; The Great Khali appeared and caught Dreamer, planting him on the steel ramp with a chokebomb.

* Finishing moves
o Brain chop – 2006; Used as a regular move from 2007–present
o Khali Vise Grip (Two handed skull vise) – Late 2007, 2008–present
o Punjabi Plung / Khali Bomb (Two handed chokeslam)

* Signature moves
o Big boot
o Clothesline
o Delayed scoop slam
o Headbutt
o Chokeslam
o Leg drop
o Nerve hold
o Repeated back elbow strikes to a cornered opponent
o Short–arm clothesline
o Spin kick to an oncoming opponent

* Managers
o Masahiro Chono
o Daivari
o Ranjin Singh

* Nicknames
o "The Punjabi Nightmare"
o "The Punjabi Playboy" (Bestowed upon by Ranjin Singh)
+ The Prince of the Land of Five Rivers (2009-)

* Entrance themes
o "Da.ngr" by Jim Johnston (2006–2008)
o "Land Of Five Rivers" performed by Panjabi MC (2008–present)

* New Japan Pro Wrestling
o Teisen Hall Six-Man Tournament (2002) – with Masahiro Chono and Giant Silva

* Pro Wrestling Illustrated
o PWI ranked him #83 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2008

* World Wrestling Entertainment
o World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
o Slammy Award for "Damn!" Moment of the Year (2008)

* Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
o Most Overrated (2007)
o Worst Gimmick (2008)

Filmography

* The Longest Yard (2005) as Turley
* Get Smart (2008) as Dalip

On May 28, 2001, Brian Ong died after receiving a flapjack from Singh.Ong had suffered a previous concussion during the session, but the trainers gave him a lower evaluation for not avoiding injuries and told him to continue training. In addition, it was proven that Ong did not receive protective gear or supervision by All Pro Wrestling (APW) staff. This second concussion ultimately proved fatal for him. As Singh inadvertently caused his death, Ong's family brought a lawsuit against APW.[1] They were found liable for recklessness after less than a day of deliberations, awarding the Ong family for damages of over $1.3 million.

Personal life

Singh was born to Jwala Ram (father) and Tandi Devi (mother); he is one of seven siblings – Inder Singh and Mangat Singh Rana.Singh married Harminder Kaur on February 27, 2002. He says he abhors tobacco and alcohol.

Singh suggested the ringname "The Great Khali" after the Hindu goddess Kali, who is associated with eternal energy.Although his parents are of normal stature, his grandfather was well over 6 ft 6 inches.

Singh’s training schedule consists of two hours of weight training, morning and evening, every day. Maintaining his size requires a strict and intimidating daily dietary regimen: one gallon of milk, five chickens and two dozen eggs, along with chapatis, juice and fruit.

Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (Founder of Sukhoi Aircraft Series)

2009-10-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi (Павел Восіпавіч Сухі) (July 22, 1895 – September 15, 1975) was a Belarusian Soviet aircraft constructor and designer.

Sukhoi was born in Glubokoye near Vitebsk, a small village in Belarus. He went to school from 1905 to 1914 at the Gomel Gymnasium. In 1915 he went to the Imperial Moscow Technical School (today known as BMSTU). After World War I broke out, he was drafted by the army; in 1920 he was demobilized because of health related problems and he went back to the BMSTU, graduating in 1925.

In 1925 he wrote his thesis named Chasseur Single-engined aircraft of 300 cv under the direction of Andrei Tupolev. In March 1925 he started working as an engineer/designer with TsAGI (The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute). During the following years, Sukhoi designed and constructed aircraft of world renown. Examples include the heavy bombers TB-1 and TB-3. In 1932 he was assigned head of engineering and design department in TsAGI and in 1938 he was promoted to head of the department of design.

In September 1939 Sukhoi founded an independent engineering and design department named Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB Sukhoi). Located in Kharkov, Sukhoi was not satisfied with the geographical location of the OKB. The OKB was isolated from the scientific pole of Moscow and insisted that the OKB would relocate to the aerodome of Podmoskovye. The relocation was completed in the first half of 1940. In the winter of 1942 Sukhoi encountered another problem — since he had no production line of its own he had nothing to do. He had developed a new ground-attack plane, the Su-6, but Stalin decided that this plane should not be taken in production, in a favour of Ilyushin Il-2. The reasons for this were that, first: the production of the other planes would slow down and in time of war this was not good, and second, Stalin didn't seem to particularly like Sukhoi.

The aircraft-bombers developed under Sukhoi are the Su-17 and the Su-24. The last fighter Sukhoi designed was the T-10 (Su-27) but he did not live to see it fly. On December 25, 1975 the President of the Academy of Science of the Soviet Union posthumously decorated Sukhoi with the golden medal, in recognition of his deep scientific scholarship.

Sukhoi (Сухой) is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer famous for its fighters. Founded by Pavel Sukhoi in 1939 as the Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB-51, design office prefix Su), it is currently known as Sukhoi Corporation. It comprises the JSC Sukhoi Design Bureau located in Moscow, the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association (NAPO), the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) and Irkutsk Aviation. Sukhoi is headquartered in Moscow. Finmeccanica owns 25% + 1 share of Sukhoi's civil division.The Russian government merged Sukhoi with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Tupolev, and Yakovlev as a new company named United Aircraft Building Corporation. Specifically, Mikoyan and Sukhoi were placed within the same operating unit.

Currently Sukhoi's Su-24, Su-25, Su-27, Su-30, Su-34, and shipborne Su-33 aircraft are in service with the Russian Air Force and Navy. Sukhoi attack and fighter aircraft have been supplied to Armenia, India, China, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Georgia, East Germany, Syria, Algeria, North Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Angola, Ethiopia, Peru, Eritrea, and Indonesia. Venezuela signed contracts for the purchase of 30 Su-30 fighter jets in July 2006. A total of more than 2000 Sukhoi aircraft were supplied to foreign countries on export contracts. With its Su-26, Su-29 and Su-31 models Sukhoi is also one of the leading manufacturers of aerobatic aircraft.

On August 4, 2006, the US State Department imposed sanctions on Sukhoi for allegedly supplying Iran in violation of the United States Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000. Sukhoi was prohibited from doing business with the United States Federal Government.The sanctions were felt by those within Sukhoi to be in response to Sukhoi's dealings with Venezuela for fighter aircraft. In November of 2006, the US State Department reversed its sanctions against Sukhoi.

Russia launched on September 26, 2007, its first modern commercial regional airliner—the Superjet 100, a 78 to 98 seater, built by Sukhoi. It was unveiled at Komsomolsk-on-Amur.The maiden flight was made on May 19, 2008.

Production Aircraft

* Su-2 - light bomber aircraft
* Su-7 "Fitter" and "Moujik" - ground-attack aircraft
* Su-9 "Fishpot" and "Maiden" - interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-11 "Fishpot-C" - interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-15 "Flagon" - 1967, interceptor fighter aircraft
* Su-17/Su-20/Su-22 "Fitter" - ground-attack aircraft
* Su-24 "Fencer' - 1974, jet bomber, attack aircraft
* Su-25 'Frogfoot" - ground attack aircraft
* Su-26 - single seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-27 "Flanker" - 1984 - air superiority fighter
* Su-28/Su-25UB - Trainer and Demonstrator
* Su-29 - double seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-30 - 1996, multi-role strike fighter aircraft
o Su-30MKI "Flanker-H" - multi-role fighter aircraft
o Su-30MK-2 "Flanker-G" - multi-role fighter aircraft
o Su-30MKK "Flanker-G" - strike-fighter aircraft
* Su-31 - single seat aerobatic aircraft (civil)
* Su-33 "Flanker-D" - 1994, carrier-based multi-role fighter aircraft
* Su-34/Su-32 "Fullback" - 2006, "Platypus", Strike-fighter aircraft
* Su-27M/Su-35 "Flanker-E" - 1995, air superiority fighter aircraft
o Su-35BM - 4++ generation multirole fighter aircraft
* Su-25TM/Su-39 - ground attack aircraft, optimised for anti-tank use
* Su-80 - a twin-turboprop STOL transport aircraft
* Superjet 100 - regional jet
* MS-21 - narrow-body jet airliner

Experimental Aircraft

* Su-1 - high-altitude fighter
* Su-5 - jet-propeller fighter
* Su-6 - ground attack aircraft
* Su-8 - ground attack aircraft
* Su-9 - jet fighter
* Su-10 - jet bomber
* Su-12 - observation plane (1947)
* Su-15 - interceptor fighter
* Su-17 - fighter
* Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21 - a supersonic business jet design.
* Sukhoi KR-860 - Doubledeck Superjumbo jet design[7].
* Su-37 ("Terminator"), an improved Su-35
* Su-38 light agricultural aircraft
* S-32/37 - multirole fighter (was marketed for a time under the designation Su-47)
* Su-47 - experimental aircraft
* P-1 - interceptor fighter
* T-3 - fighter
* T-4 - supersonic bomber, quite similar in concept to XB-70 Valkyrie, which was developed by Sukhoi during the 60's and 70's.
* T-60S - intermediate range bomber.
* Sukhoi PAK FA/T-50 - 5th generation fighter. Future basic aircraft of Russian Frontline Aviation. Maiden flight is planned for 2009.[8]
* Sukhoi/HAL FGFA - FGFA is a derivative project from the PAK FA being developed by the Sukhoi OKB and HAL for the Indian Air Force (FGFA is the official designation for the Indian version).

Mark John Thompson (Director-General of BBC)

2009-10-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Mark John Thompson (born 31 July 1957) is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4.

Thompson was born in London and brought up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,. by his mother, Sydney Corduff, his sister, Katherine, and father, Duncan John Thompson. He was educated by Jesuits at the independent school Stonyhurst College, and from there went up to Merton College, Oxford, where he took a first in English.He edited the university magazine Isis.

Thompson was appointed Director-General on 21 May 2004. He succeeded Greg Dyke, who resigned on 29 January 2004 in the aftermath of the Hutton Inquiry. Although he had originally stated he was not interested in the role of Director-General and would turn down any approach from the BBC, he changed his mind, saying the job was a "one-of-a-kind opportunity". The decision to appoint Thompson Director-General was made unanimously by the BBC Board of Governors, headed by the then new Chairman Michael Grade (another former chief executive of Channel 4). His appointment was widely praised: Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, Shadow Culture Secretary Julie Kirkbride and Greg Dyke were amongst those who supported his selection. He took up the role of Director-General on 22 June 2004 (Mark Byford had been Acting Director-General since Dyke's resignation). On his first day he announced several management changes, including the replacement of the BBC's sixteen-person executive committee with a slimmed-down executive board of nine top managers.

In 2007 it emerged that the BBC had been involved in a number of editorial guideline breaches. Mark Thompson, as BBC editor-in-chief investigated these breaches, and presented his interim report to the BBC Trust on 18 July 2007[5]. The Trust felt that the BBC’s values of accuracy and honesty had been compromised, and Thompson outlined to the Trust the actions he would take to restore confidence.

Later that day he told BBC staff, via an internal televised message, that deception of the public was never acceptable. He said that he, himself, had never deceived the public - it would never have occurred to him to do so, and that he was sure that the same applied to the "overwhelming majority" of BBC staff. He also spoke on BBC News 24 and was interviewed by Gavin Esler for Newsnight. He stated that "from now on, if it [deceiving the public] happens we will show people the door." Staff were emailed on 19 July 2007 and later in the year all staff, including the Director-General undertook a Safeguarding Trust course.

In October 2008, Thompson had to cut short a family holiday to return to Britain to deal with the Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row. Thompson took the executive decision to suspend the BBC’s highest paid presenter, Jonathan Ross, from all his BBC work for three months without pay. He also said it was the controversial star’s last warning. Nevertheless, Thompson reiterated the BBC’s commitment to Ross’ style of edgy comedy, claiming that “BBC audiences accept that, in comedy, performers attempt to push the line of taste”.Thompson had previously defended the star’s conduct and salary in 2006, when he described Ross as “outstanding” and claimed that "the very best people" deserved appropriately high salaries.

In late 2007, Thompson's directorship at the BBC was criticised. Sir Richard Eyre, former artistic director of the National Theatre, accused the BBC under Thompson's leadership failing to produce programmes 'that inspired viewers to visit galleries, museums or theatres'. He was also criticised by Tony Palmer, a multi-award winning film-maker. Of the BBC, Palmer stated that ' has a worldwide reputation which it has abrogated and that's shameful. In the end, the buck stops with Mark Thompson. He is a catastrophe.'

He was severely criticised in relation to the broadcast of Jerry Springer: The Opera, with a private prosecution brought against the BBC for blasphemy. David Pannick QC appeared and won the case for BBC director-general Mark Thompson. The High Court ruled that the cult musical was not blasphemous, and Pannick stated that: "Judge Tubbs had acted within her powers and made the only decision she could lawfully have made; while religious beliefs were integral to British society, so is freedom of expression, especially to matters of social and moral importance."

In January 2009, Thompson supported the controversial decision by the BBC not to broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal.Complaints to the BBC about the decision were directed to a statement by Thompson.

He first joined the BBC as a production trainee in 1979. His subsequent career within the organisation has been varied, including:

* 1981 - assisted launching long-running consumer programme Watchdog
* 1983 - assisted launching Breakfast Time
* 1985 - Output Editor, Newsnight
* 1988 - Editor, Nine O'Clock News (at the age of 30)
* 1990 - Editor, Panorama
* 1992 - Head of Features
* 1994 - Head of Factual Programmes
* 1996 - Controller, BBC Two
* 1999 - Director, National and Regional Broadcasting
* 2000 - he became BBC director of television, but left the corporation in March 2002 to become chief executive of Channel 4.

Thompson is a devout Roman Catholic attending the Oratory Church of St Aloysius Gonzaga in Oxford where he lives with his American wife Jane Blumberg (daughter of Baruch Samuel Blumberg) whom he married in 1987. They have two sons and one daughter.Thompson is a member of the Reform Club and a patron of the Art Room charity in Oxford.

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (American Actress)

2009-10-05T02:16:00.000-07:00

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 1999 television series Get Real, but her first prominent role was in Disney's family comedy The Princess Diaries (starring opposite Julie Andrews), which established her career.

She continued to appear in family films over the next three years, with lead roles in Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement in 2004. Hathaway would later venture away from the "G-rated" image her early acting career bestowed upon her, starring in the films Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. She later starred in The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep; Becoming Jane, in which she portrays Jane Austen, and Get Smart, opposite Steve Carell. In 2008 she earned widespread critical acclaim for her star turn in the film Rachel Getting Married, for which she won numerous awards, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her acting style has been compared to that of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn and she cites Hepburn as her favorite actress and Meryl Streep as her idol. People magazine named her one of 2001's breakthrough stars, and in 2006, she was listed as one of the world’s 50 Most Beautiful People.

Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York,to Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer, and Kate McCauley, an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. The family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Hathaway has mainly Irish and French ancestry, with more distant German and Native American roots.

Hathaway was raised a Catholic with what she considered "really strong values," and has stated she wanted to be a nun during her childhood. However, at the age of fifteen she decided not to become a nun after learning that her brother, Michael, was gay. Despite her Catholic upbringing, she felt that she could not be part of a religion that disapproved of her brother's sexual orientation. She has stated that she is a non-denominational Christian because she has not "found the religion" for her.

As a child, Hathaway was involved in a Montessori program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School as a preschooler and was then able to enter first grade at the Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn, NJ while she was technically still a kindergartner. Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. During this time, Hathaway was also involved in plays such as Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (which is located in Millburn, across the street from Hathaway's middle school) She spent several semesters studying as an English major and Women's Studies minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She referred to her college enrollment as one of her best decisions, because she enjoyed being with others who were trying to "grow up." Hathaway was a member of the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program and was the first teenager ever admitted into the program. She is a trained stage actress and has stated that she prefers performing on stage to film roles.

A soprano, Hathaway performed in 1998 and 1999 with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, NJ. Three days after her 1999 performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real, at the age of sixteen.

Hathaway's first role in a motion picture was as Jean Sabin in The Other Side of Heaven, opposite Christopher Gorham. Before production of Heaven began in New Zealand, she auditioned for the lead role of Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall. Hathaway auditioned for the role during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and won the role after only one audition. Marshall claimed that he loved her immediately because she fell off her chair during the audition and believed her clumsiness would make her perfect for the role. (However, in a 2008 conversation with Steve Carell, Hathaway denied that she fell during this audition, although she openly admits to being a "klutz".)The Princess Diaries was released before The Other Side of Heaven in the hopes that its success would increase interest in Heaven. Across the world, The Princess Diaries was a commercial success, and a sequel was planned shortly after. Many critics praised Hathaway's performance in Diaries; a BBC critic noted that "Hathaway shines in the title role and generates great chemistry." The Other Side of Heaven was received weakly by critics, but it performed well for a religion-themed film.

In February 2002, Hathaway starred opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell in the City Center Encores! concert production of Carnival! in New York City, receiving positive reviews for her portrayal of Lili. Also in 2002, Hathaway began voicing the audio book releases of The Princess Diaries and has since voiced the first three books of the series. She also provided the voice of the character Haru in the English version of Hiroyuki Morita's The Cat Returns.

Hathaway continued to appear in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. In 2002, she appeared in Nicholas Nickleby, opposite Charlie Hunnam and Jamie Bell, which opened to positive reviews. The Northwest Herald referred to it as "an unbelievably fun film," and the Deseret News said that the cast was "Oscar-worthy." Despite critical acclaim, the film never entered wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than US$4-million in ticket sales.

Hathaway's next film role was as the titular character in Ella Enchanted (2004), the film adaptation of the novel, which opened to mostly indifferent reviews. Hathaway sang two songs in the film as well as three on the soundtrack.

In 2004, Hathaway was set to star opposite Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera, but was forced to turn down the role because the production schedule of the film overlapped with that of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which she was contractually obligated to make. Disney began production on The Princess Diaries 2 in early 2004, and it was released in August of that year. The film opened to negative reviews, but still managed to peak higher at the box office than its predecessor, commissioning $95.1-million against a $40-million budget.

Hathaway is involved with various charities, including The Creative Coalition, The Step Up Women's Network, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Human Rights Campaign, and The Lollipop Theatre Network, an organization that screens films to critically ill children. In 2008, she was honored at Elle magazine's "Women in Hollywood" tribute, and has also been honored for her work with The Step Up Women's Network and The Human Rights Campaign.

In early 2007, Hathaway spoke of her experiences with depression during her teenage years, saying that she eventually overcame the disorder without medication.

In a fall 2008 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Hathaway noted that she had once again stopped smoking. The actress, who had begun smoking "heavily" while filming Rachel Getting Married, had "quit for a while", but had started again in the wake of her stressful summer and the end of her relationship with Raffaello Follieri.She credited quitting smoking for the subsequent decline in her stress level, and also declared her return to being a vegetarian.

As of November 2008, Hathaway is reportedly in a relationship with actor Adam Shulman.

In regard to personal strife and subsequent media attention, Hathaway uses a mantra which quotes Oscar Wilde: "The less said about life's sores the better."

Relationship with Raffaello Follieri

In 2004, Hathaway began a relationship with Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri. During their relationship, Hathaway took part in the development of the charitable Follieri Foundation, serving as a financial donor as well as a member of the foundation's board of directors until 2007. A Manhattan-based charity founded in 2003 focusing on programs such as providing vaccinations for children in Third World nations, the organization had come under investigation in early June 2008 by the IRS, reportedly for failing to file tax papers required from non-profit organizations. Citing the fear that this and other ongoing legal issues involving Follieri would become detrimental to her acting career (as well as for her own ethical reasons), Hathaway ended her relationship with Follieri in mid-June 2008.

Follieri was arrested in June 2008 on fraud charges for allegedly fleecing investors out of millions of dollars in a scheme involving purchasing Catholic Church properties in the U.S. for redevelopment. Court papers state that Hathaway was an unwitting beneficiary of the stolen money, which had in large part paid for Follieri's opulent lifestyle of jet-setting, shopping sprees, and fine dining.It was reported that the FBI had confiscated Hathaway's private journals from Follieri's New York City apartment as part of their ongoing investigation into Follieri's activities; however, Hathaway was never implicated in any wrongdoing from the events.

In the October 2008 issue of W Magazine, Hathaway spoke for the first time of the break-up and Follieri's subsequent arrest. She related that she "spent a week in shock" after Follieri's arrest, and credited the kindness of friends for her ability to keep working during such difficult times.

Scarlett Johansson (Sexiest women actress)

2009-08-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

Scarlett Johansson, born on the 22nd of November, 1984, in New York City, has an older brother and sister and a twin brother. She divides her time between New York with her father, a building contractor and Los Angeles with her mother, who looks out for her interests there. She's the only actor in the family, something she's wanted to be since she was three. Her acting career began when she was eight in the off-Broadway production of Sophistry with Ethan Hawke at New York's Playwrights Horizons.

Scarlett has been in seven movies, the first was North. For her role as Manny in Manny & Lo she was nominated as Best Actress by the Independent Spirit Awards (1997).

She attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace MacLean, the teen traumatized in a riding accident in Robert Redford's hit feature The Horse Whisperer, a role for which she won a YoungStar award and was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award. She has most recently been spotlighted for her performances in the acclaimed films Ghost World, An American Rhapsody and the Coen Brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There. Johansson's additional credits include Rob Reiner's comedy North, the role of Sean Connery's daughter in Just Cause, as well as notable appearances in If Lucy Fell and Home Alone 3. She is currently lensing Brian Robbins' The Perfect Score for Paramount Pictures.

Scarlett I. Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Johansson made her film debut in the 1994 film North and was subsequently nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for her performance in 1996's Manny & Lo. Johansson rose to fame with her role in 1998's The Horse Whisperer and subsequently gained critical acclaim for her breakout performance in Ghost World in 2001, for which she won the Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She made the transition to adult roles with her critically acclaimed performance in Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation opposite Bill Murray, for which she won a BAFTA Award, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, the latter two earning her Golden Globe Award nominations in 2003. A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long earned her a third nomination for Golden Globe for Best Actress. Following an appearance in The Island, Johansson again garnered critical acclaim and a fourth Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Woody Allen's Match Point. She followed that with another Allen film, Scoop, with Hugh Jackman. A role in Brian de Palma's film noir The Black Dahlia was followed by a second role opposite Hugh Jackman in The Prestige, also starring Christian Bale.

Following a 2007 appearance in the critical flop The Nanny Diaries, Johansson's career experienced a resurgence of critical reception with the 2008 films The Other Boleyn Girl opposite Natalie Portman and Eric Bana and the Woody Allen directed film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. She received positive reviews for her appearance in He's Just Not That into You (2009) and will appear as anti-heroine Black Widow in Iron Man 2 with Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson.

On May 20, 2008, Johansson debuted as a vocalist on her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which included cover versions of Tom Waits songs. An upcoming album, Break Up, with Pete Yorn is scheduled for release in September, 2009.

Early life
Johansson was born in New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx. Johansson's parents met in Denmark, where her mother lived with Johansson's maternal grandmother, Dorothy, a former bookkeeper and schoolteacher. Johansson has an older sister, Vanessa, who is an actress; an older brother, Adrian; a twin brother, Hunter (whose only film, Manny & Lo, starred Scarlett); and a half-brother, Christian, from her father's re-marriage.

Johansson grew up in a household with "little money", with a mother who was a "film buff".She and brother Hunter attended P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village in elementary school. Johansson began her theater training by attending and graduating from Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002.

Early roles
Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother began taking her to auditions.She made her film debut at age nine as John Ritter's daughter in the 1994 fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the 1995 film Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell in 1996, she landed the role of Amanda in the Lisa Krueger-helmed film Manny & Lo. Her performance garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting that the film "grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson", while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle praised her "peaceful aura", predicting that "if she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress."

After appearing in minor roles in Fall in 1997 and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widespread attention for her performance in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford.She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the film.In 1999, she appeared in both My Brother the Pig and the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There, as well as a very brief appearance in the Mandy Moore video for her single "Candy".Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her breakout role in the critically acclaimed 2001 film, Ghost World. Credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age", Johansson went on to win the Chlotrudis and Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Personal life Johansson rarely discusses her personal life with the press, saying "it's nice to have everybody not know your business." Johansson's ex-boyfriend and member of the band Steel Train, Jack Antonoff, wrote lyrics that refer to Johansson in the song "Better Love." She has been linked to many famous men, including Benicio del Toro,Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake, and her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett, though Johansson denies she had a relationship with del Toro. Johansson and Hartnett dated for about two years until the end of 2006, with Hartnett citing their busy lives as the reason for the split. She started dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007, and on May 5, 2008, it was reported that the two were engaged. On September 27, 2008, Johansson and Reynolds were married at a quiet ceremony on Vancouver Island in Tofino, British Columbia. Earlier, Johansson expressed a concern about the potential conflict between the nature of human beings and the concept of monogamy. However, she has stated "contrary to popular belief... [I am] not promiscuous" and that she works "really hard" when she's in a relationship "to make it work in a monogamous way." She gets tested for HIV twice a year, and has said "it's part of being a decent human" and it is "just disgusting behavior when people don't. It's so irresponsible." She has criticized the media and Hollywood for promoting an image that causes unhealthy diets and eating disorders among women, saying "that being ultra-thin is not sexy at all. Women shouldn't be forced to conform to unrealistic and unhealthy body images that the media promote." Johansson is considered to be a modern sex symbol, and she regularly appears at the top of lists of the sexiest women in the world. Johansson appeared on the cover of the March 2006 issue of Vanity Fair in the nude alongside actress Keira Knightley and fashion designer Tom Ford. Maxim named Johansson in their Hot 100 Issue in 2006; in 2007 and in 2008. In November 2006, Johansson was named "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire. In February 2007, she was named the "Sexiest Celebrity" of the year by Playboy. During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen described Johansson as "sexually overwhelming", saying that he found it "very hard to be extra witty around a sexually overwhelming, beautiful young woman who is wittier than you are." About her religious affiliation, Johansson described herself as Jewish when she was talking about Woody Allen. "I just adore Woody," she says. "We have a lot in common. We're New Yorkers, Jewish. We have a very easygoing relationship." She celebrates a "little of both" referring to Christmas and Hanukkah. She has stated that she dislikes it when celebrities thank God or Jesus in their award acceptance speeches. Johansson is a Global Ambassador for the aid and development agency, Oxfam. In March 2008, a UK-based bidder paid £20,000 on an eBay auction to benefit Oxfam, winning a hair and makeup treatment, a pair of tickets and a chauffered trip to accompany Johansson on 20-minute date to the world premiere of He's Just Not That Into You.

Political advocacy
Johansson is a Democrat and campaigned for John Kerry in the 2004 United States presidential election. About George W. Bush's reelection she said, "[I am] disappointed. I think it was a disappointment for a large percentage of the population. Johansson campaigned for Barack Obama, including appearances in Iowa on January 2, 2008, where her efforts were targeted at small groups of younger voters, and an appearance at Cornell College. and students at Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota on Super Tuesday. Johansson appeared in the 2008 music video for Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am's song, "Yes We Can", directed by Jesse Dylan, a song inspired by Obama's speech following the 2008 New Hampshire primary. In addition to her political advocacy, Johansson has taken part in social advocacy as part of the anti-poverty campaign ONE which was organized by U2 lead singer Bono.

Elisha Ann Cuthbert (Hollywood actress)

2009-08-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

Elisha Ann Cuthbert (born November 30, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. She had her first lead role in the 2003 feature film Old School and starred the following year in The Girl Next Door. She has also had starring roles in the 2005 House of Wax film and the 2007 horror film Captivity. Her most prominent role is as Kim Bauer in the American action-thriller television series 24.

Cuthbert was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the daughter of Patricia, a homemaker, and Kevin, an automotive design engineer.She has two younger siblings, Jonathan and Lee-Ann, and she grew up in Greenfield Park, near Montreal, Quebec. In 2000, she graduated from Centennial Regional High School and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career.

Early career When she was nine, Cuthbert started modeling for various lines of children's clothing and also became a foot model.She made her first televised appearance as an extra in the horror-themed series for children Are You Afraid of the Dark?; she later became a series regular. Cuthbert also co-hosted Popular Mechanics for Kids, which was filmed in Montreal. Her reporting captured the attention of then–First Lady Hillary Clinton, who invited her to visit the White House.

Cuthbert landed her first role in a feature film in the family drama Dancing on the Moon (1997). She appeared in several other Canadian family-themed movies and an airplane thriller, Airspeed. Cuthbert starred in the Canadian television movie Lucky Girl in 2001 and was awarded a Gemini Award for her performance.

Soon after her move to Los Angeles, Cuthbert was cast in the role of Kim Bauer, daughter of federal agent Jack Bauer in the television series 24. She appeared in the show's first three seasons, but not in its fourth; she guest-starred in only two episodes in the fifth season. She also reprised her role as Kim Bauer in 24: The Game and again guest-starred in five episodes of the seventh season.

2003-2005: Commercial success
Cuthbert auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film, but the role went to Kirsten Dunst.

She began her Hollywood film career with small roles in Old School and Love Actually in 2003.

Cuthbert's next film, The Girl Next Door, cast her in her first lead role as an ex–porn star, Danielle, opposite Emile Hirsch. Cuthbert had initial reservations about taking the part, but was persuaded by director Luke Greenfield into accepting. She researched the role, speaking to actual adult actresses from Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment.Upon its release, the film received comparisons to Risky Business, – although Cuthbert claims her character was not directly based on Rebecca De Mornay's character. Critics were divided; some praised the film for its boldness, while others, notably Roger Ebert, decried it as gimmicky and exploitative.Ebert wrote that he saw Cuthbert's character Danielle as "quite the most unpleasant character I have seen in some time."

In her next big-screen outing, Cuthbert starred with Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray in the 2005 remake of the classic horror film House of Wax. Cuthbert, along with the rest of the cast, was made up to look haggard. In one scene, her character was to attempt to open her mouth while her lips were sealed with glue. For the sake of realism, Cuthbert opted for real superglue over prosthetics. Despite her efforts, House of Wax was largely panned, with critics citing a range of flaws. It was called "notable for having some of the most moronic protagonists ever to populate a horror film," though out of those characters, critics tended to think Cuthbert "fares the best." Though receiving negative reviews the film was a box office success.Others noted Cuthbert as an "exception," playing her role "earnestly" and "fine."

2006-2007: Career transition At the 24 season finale in 2009.
Cuthbert's next film project was the indie film The Quiet, which she not only co-starred in but also co-produced and helped finance. She played Nina, a temperamental 17-year-old cheerleader who suffers from sexual abuse. Cuthbert looked to her younger cousin for inspiration as to how to play a teenager. The Quiet, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in Los Angeles and New York City on August 25, 2006, before expanding regionally on September 1.

Cuthbert appeared in the music video for Weezer's "Perfect Situation" in early 2006, where she played the group's fictional original singer who threw a tantrum that led to Rivers Cuomo, the unlikely roadie, becoming the frontman of the band. Cuthbert also had a small role in Paris Hilton's music video for the song "Nothing In This World".

In 2007, Cuthbert appeared in the film, Captivity, a thriller centered around a fashion model taunted by a psychopath who has imprisoned her in a cellar, a role for which she was nominated for a Razzie award as "worst actress."

In He Was a Quiet Man, Cuthbert played Vanessa, a quadriplegic, starring opposite Christian Slater. The film was in limited release in 2007, and it was released on DVD in early 2008.

2008-present: Current and future projects
In 2008, Cuthbert appeared in My Sassy Girl, a remake of a Korean film, starring alongside Jesse Bradford. Her next film is the family comedy The Six Wives of Henry Lefay with actor Tim Allen, in which she plays his daughter. She is one of the stars in the Canadian mini-series Guns, due to premiere sometime in 2009 and has appeared as a guest judge in season two, episode two of Project Runway Canada, where designers were challenged to create a "party dress" for Cuthbert.

Cuthbert reprised her character Kim Bauer in the seventh season of 24. She also was scheduled to star in the CBS drama pilot Ny-Lon, playing a New York literacy teacher/record-store clerk who embarks on a transatlantic romance with a London stockbroker. The project, which was based on a British series starring Rashida Jones and Stephen Moyer, has since been canceled.

Cuthbert is slated to voice Cleo, "the feline daughter of a wealthy kitty litter baron," in Cat Tale, an animated film set in a civilized world of cats and dogs.

Personal life
Cuthbert, who enjoys painting, is an ice hockey fan and Los Angeles Kings season-ticket holder. In 2005, she maintained a blog on the NHL website, though she did not post for most of the season.She was once involved romantically with then-Los Angeles Kings player Sean Avery, and she is now dating Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames.Her relationship with the latter two hockey players turned into a minor scandal when her ex-boyfriend, Avery, told a Canadian reporter in December 2008, "I'm really happy to be back in Calgary. I love Canada and I just wanted to comment on how it's become a common thing for guys in the NHL to fall in love with my sloppy seconds, I don't know what that's about." Avery was suspended six games for the remarks, and was not invited to rejoin his team, the Dallas Stars, following his suspension.

Cuthbert regularly secures a place in FHM and Maxim's annual "hottest women" lists. Her highest ranking was #4 in the 2008 UK Edition of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World list. She was ranked #14 in 2003, #10 in 2004, #5 in 2005, #22 in 2006, and #10 in 2007. The U.S. Edition ranked her #53 in 2003, #63 in 2004, and #54 in 2006. She was not listed in the U.S. 2005 list. Cuthbert was ranked #10 by AskMen.com readers in the list "Top 99 Women of 2007." Maxim named her #92 in its 2006 Hot 100 list, #6 in 2008, and #43 in 2009, and the magazine features her in its Girls of Maxim Gallery. As of 2006, Cuthbert has stated that she would refuse to be photographed nude in film roles or magazines and uses body doubles whenever necessary, specifying that she would "like to keep some things to [herself]."

Orkut Büyükkökten ( Creator of Orkut)

2009-08-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

Orkut Büyükkökten (February 6, 1975 in Konya, Turkey) is a Turkish software engineer who developed the social networking service Orkut.

Originally from Turkey Konya, Büyükkökten obtained a B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Information Science from Bilkent University in Ankara, and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. His research at Stanford focused on Web search and efficient PDA. Orkut started working at Google in 2002 and is one of its top employees.

He developed Orkut.com, the 3rd largest social network in the world, as a 20% independent project while working at Google. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut.com on code for InCircle, an application intended for university alumni groups. The allegation is based on the alleged presence of nine identical bugs in Orkut.com and in InCircle.

Orkut.com is the new private club with hundreds of thousands of members, from Bombay to Rio to New York to Karachi. An online community that bonds over common interests and a desire to make friends, there has been at least one instance where it also has resulted in love and marriage. Turkish born Orkut Buyukkokten is the shy and unexpectedly incredibly charismatic architect of orkut.com. After graduating with a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, the twenty-nine year old software engineer joined Google Inc. where he developed orkut.com.

How did you came up with idea for Orkut?
I always had a great passion for people. I really enjoy meeting new people, making friends, getting to know them. There are so many amazing wonderful people out there you haven't met. When you combine my passion for friends with my passion for computers, you get a social online networking site.

There are many networking sites on the Web but Orkut has managed to distinguish itself from the rest, and build a loyal fan base.
orkut.com enables users to meet people in both professional and social environments. It also offers tools to continue connecting people with one another through services like communities. Many of the existing social networking services are focused on connecting people through one channel, whether it's dating or business networking.

How would you describe Orkut`s target audience?
When we launched the site, we did not have a target audience in mind. Our demographics is very mixed. We have members from every age group, ethnicity, social role, etc. Orkut can be described as a private club where new members are added only by existing members.

Were you the first member to add a friend to this private club?
Yes, I was the first member to sign up.

It's incredible that orkut has gained so much popularity, despite no advertising on the part of the company.
Well, the site really started with a small number of people who invited their friends to join and then it just grew by word of mouth and invitations. I am happy to see that orkut.com has grown to have a great international presence.

But let`s say I want to be a part of Orkut community but nobody has invited me there. Why can`t I just register and then become a member?
We want to keep the community trusted and connected. Therefore, we are keeping the site as an invite-only service. Once you sign-up, you already have a friend, you are connected and you have someone who can vouch for you.

Will Orkut ever be complete, so that it doesn't need any more work or new features?
We are constantly working on performance, new features and implementing changes, enhancements suggested by users.

Seeing orkut.com become such a major player in the online community market must give you a lot of satisfaction.
I have heard many wonderful stories about people connecting, making new friends, getting jobs or finding romance through orkut.com. I am very glad to see that we are making a difference in people's lives.

What are the greatest challenges of Orkut?
One of our challenges is keeping up with our increasing growth and traffic.

I suppose you still hold the place for the most friends in Orkut community.
Not anymore. There are members that have more friends on orkut.com. However, I should say that I personally met every person on my friends list.

What`s the next big thing you`re going to invent?
I will keep that as a surprise.

Epilogue: Author's Humorous Dedication to Orkut on Orkut.com

Recently, a beautiful young Brazilian woman and an avid user of Orkut tried to convince me that Orkut’s real existence is debatable, very much like that of Jesus or even God

Well, it turns out he does exist. It must have been back in 2001 when visited my younger brother Oliver at an office in the Gates Building of computer science at Stanford where the two young geniuses worked together, fueled by cappuccino and passion, pumping out hard, yet beautiful and symphonic code like Mozart and Beethoven in hectic harmony.

Looking into the office, I saw Orkut programming absolutely perfectly. Once in a while, he turned around – hands still moving on the keyboard at a sonic speed reminding me of Neo in Matrix – and smiled faintly looking me straight in my eyes, quietly enjoying his own absolute perfection. Both awestruck and bewildered, I suddenly realized that there are even greater men in the world doing even greater things than me, and then quietly tiptoed backwards out of the office.

His Earnings:-

1) Orkut Buyukkokten(the creator of Orkut) gets $12 when every person registers to this website.

2) He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.

3) He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as a friend in the resulting chain.

4) He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.

5) He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.

6) He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.

7) He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.

8) He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.

9) He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.

10) He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.

11) He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 every time you view your friend's friend-list.

12) Many Global Financial Consultants think this person might become the richest-person in the world soon in a few yrs.

Email: orkut@stanford.edu

Home: 2250 Latham Street Apt. #57 Mountain View, CA 94040

Number: (650) 988 0339

Office: Room 430, Gates Building Office

Number: (650) 723-6805

Cell: (650) 888-5822

David Michael Bautista (WWE wrestler)

2009-08-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

David Michael Bautista, Jr.(born January 18, 1969), better known by his ring name, Batista, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment on its Raw brand, but is currently inactive due to an injury.
In professional wrestling, Batista is a five-time world heavyweight champion, having won the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship one time. In addition to these championships, Batista has also won the World Tag Team Championship three times (twice with Ric Flair and once with John Cena) and the WWE Tag Team Championship once (with Rey Mysterio). Batista was also the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match. After trying out at the WCW Power Plant, Batista signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2000 and was sent to its developmental federation, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

Early life
Bautista was born the son of David Michael Bautista, who is Filipino and Donna Raye Bautista, who is Greek.His parents separated (and eventually divorced) after his mother came out as a lesbian.His paternal grandparents were also from the Philippines as his grandfather served in the military, worked as a taxi driver, barber, and other odd jobs to feed the family. Bautista says he is not ashamed to admit he lived in poverty.
He has publicly admitted to having a hard life where, as before he was age nine, three murders occurred on his front lawn.As young as age 13, he was stealing automobiles.By age 17, he was considered estranged from his parents and on his own, despite admitting later that "I am proud of my parents. They are good, honest, hard-working folks. They taught me the values of working hard." Bautista became a regular bouncer for clubs until he was arrested after a fight that left two badly injured patrons, one of which could be found lying in the street. After a trial, he was sentenced to one year of probation. He was also a lifeguard before he purused a career in bodybuilding. He credits bodybuilding as possibly saving his life.

Wrestling career
Bautista tried out at the WCW Power Plant but was told he would never make it in the wrestling business by Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker.He then went to the World Wrestling Federation, who sent him to train with Afa Anoa'i's school in the Wild Samoan Training Centre.

Debut
He made his Ohio Valley Wrestling debut in 2000 under the ring name Leviathan, where he immediately joined forces with Synn. As a member of the Disciples of Synn stable, he went undefeated until being beaten at Christmas Chaos by Kane with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin. He later won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from "The Machine" Doug Basham before losing the belt to The Prototype. A few months later, Bautista left OVW after he was promoted to World Wrestling Entertainment.

He began his WWE career on the May 9, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Bautista, a villainous enforcer for Reverend D-Von. He made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag team match teaming with D-Von against Faarooq and Randy Orton, pinning Orton. Over several weeks, Orton tried to beat D-Von and Bautista with different partners, but ultimately lost each time.Bautista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D-Von accidentally punched him, allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Bautista. Bautista and D-Von argued over the forthcoming weeks, with Bautista eventually turning on D-Von. After splitting with D-Von, he signed with Raw and was renamed to Dave Batista (or simply Batista). He aligned himself with Ric Flair and feuded with Kane, whom he defeated at Armageddon.

Batista won the World Heavyweight Championship on April 3 at WrestleMania 21. Batista won a rematch with Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash. After Batista retained his title against Edge, he was betrayed by Ric Flair, who helped Triple H viciously attack the champion as Triple H challenged Batista to a Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. Batista won the match at Vengeance, retaining his title yet again. With this win, Batista became the first wrestler to pin Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match.

On June 30, Batista was revealed as the last pick in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery; he made a surprise appearance while JBL was celebrating his victory in a six-man elimination match to win the new SmackDown! Championship. JBL defeated Batista at The Great American Bash by disqualification after the referee saw Batista use a steel chair. They had a rematch at SummerSlam in a No Holds Barred match in which Batista pinned JBL. The feud culminated in a Bull Rope match with Batista retaining his championshp. Soon after retaining the title in a feud with Eddie Guerrero, WWE.com reported that Batista suffered a muscle tear in his back at the taping for the November 11 edition of SmackDown! due to a double chokeslam from Big Show and Kane. Plans had been made for Batista to defend the title in a Triple Threat match with Eddie Guerrero and Randy Orton on the November 18 episode, but the match did not take place due to the unexpected death of Guerrero on November 13, the date of the taping. Batista paid homage to Guerrero during the SmackDown! and Raw tribute shows dedicated to Guerrero's memory.

Batista led Team SmackDown! against Team Raw in an inter-brand feud before Survivor Series. The feud saw Big Show and Kane chokeslamming Batista several more times in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series in an on-camera explanation for Batista's injury. Batista ultimately helped his team win the match. After Batista saved Rey Mysterio from Big Show and Kane, it was announced that Mysterio would team with Batista to face the Big Show and Kane at Armageddon.

On the December 16 edition of SmackDown!, Batista and Mysterio defeated WWE Tag Team Champions MNM to become champions in a match they dedicated to Eddie Guerrero, and the clash with Big Show and Kane at Armageddon turned into a Champions vs. Champions encounter. Batista and Mysterio lost to Kane and Big Show at Armageddon. Two weeks later on SmackDown!, MNM defeated Batista and Mysterio after help from the returning Mark Henry to regain the WWE Tag Team Championships. During the interference, Henry attacked Batista, and performed his World's Strongest Slam. The teams met again in a steel cage match that Henry also became involved in, and Batista and Rey were defeated again. On January 9, WWE.com announced that Batista tore his right triceps during a match with Mark Henry at a live event on January 6. Due to his injury, Batista was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship at the SmackDown! tapings on January 13, two days after surpassing Triple H's previous mark of 280 days for longest reigning champion. In his book, Batista Unleashed, Batista said that he believed that Henry was "careless" during their match as he never gave Batista any warning that the move was coming. Batista went on to have successful surgery on his arm on January 12.

Media
In addition to wrestling, Bautista has been in several commercials and on several magazine covers. He was shown breakdancing in a commercial promoting WWE SummerSlam in 2004 where he did his take on a "floor routine", a routine that arguably mocked the floor routines shown at the Olympic Games.He was also on the cover of the April 2005 Flex magazine and Muscle & Fitness for September 2008.
Moreover, Bautista has acted and has guest starred in several television shows as both himself and in-character as Batista. He guest starred in the eighth episode of Season 6 of the American drama, action/adventure television series Smallville; he played an extraterrestrial alien named Aldar that escaped from the Phantom Zone, who sucks the bones out of people for nourishment. Along with John Cena and Ashley Massaro, Bautista appeared representing WWE on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in January 2007, giving the kids of the family whose house was renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23.

During the week of November 5, 2007, he appeared on Family Feud with several other WWE superstars. On September 7, 2008, he appeared on an episode of Iron Chef America as one of the judges, with snails as the theme ingredient Batista, along with Candice Michelle, Shelton Benjamin, and Josh Matthews, represented the WWE at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in an effort to persuade fans to register to vote in the 2008 Presidential election. Bautista has also appeared on MTV Cribs showing his house and his cars.

In May 2, 2009, he was shown on camera where he accompanied Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao in his fight against British boxer Ricky Hatton in which Pacquiao won in the second round. He told the UK Sun that he loves Hatton, but Manny is in a league of his own, adding that he is thrilled to be there to support Manny before his bout. In June 2009, Batista made a cameo appearance in an episode of the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Batista is currently working alongside Rob Van Dam and Ja Rule in an upcoming movie titled Wrong Side of Town. Batista will also star in the movie Wapakman alongside Manny Pacquiao and Nicole Scherzinger. He is confirmed to be the villain in the movie.

Personal Life
Bautista was married to a woman named Glenda in the early 1990s and had two daughters with her, Keilani (born in 1990) and Athena (born in 1992) before divorcing. Bautista married his second wife Angie on October 13, 1998, yet they divorced in 2006. Before the age of 40, Bautista had already become a grandfather of two grandsons: Jacob and Aiden by Keilani, his first daughter. During his marriage with Angie, Bautista became an avid collector of vintage metal lunchboxes. He admits his favorite is the 1967 Green Hornet lunch box, as it has Bruce Lee on it. This collection started when he bought Angie an ET lunchbox and she did not want to break it, so he bought a second one. Bautista revealed that he and Angie were separated in the August 2006 edition of WWE Magazine. He later revealed, in his autobiography, a relationship with WWE Diva Melina Perez after the divorce from his wife in 2006, which led to a brief angle on SmackDown! during a feud with MNM.

In October 2007, his autobiography Batista Unleashed, was released.In an interview about the book, Bautista claims "I didn't want to tell my story unless it was honest," and that "you have to go through three sets of lawyers: Simon & Schuster lawyers, WWE lawyers, my lawyers. Everything now being the way it is, you can be sued for the simplest thing." One source of controversy was the mentioning of Chris Benoit, who was almost completely removed due to the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide. Bautista responded saying "I loved the guy. I despise what he did, but that doesn't erase him from my life. I fought to keep him in there and glad they did." When asked about his ex-wife, Angie, he says " have really become close again, which we really haven't been in years. I really learned a lot about her, and she learned a lot about me from reading the book. She actually saw things from a different perspective from reading the book. So that was definitely therapeutic."

He has numerous tattoos, including a large Chinese dragon on his back, red Kanji lettering on his upper left biceps which says "Angel" in tribute to his former wife Angie, a signature design on his upper right biceps, and a small Sun on his stomach which encircles his belly button. He recently added a tattoo on his arm of the flags of the Philippines and Greece merged into one. He has also made a cameo appearance in Relative Strangers.

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (French footballer)

2009-07-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (born 23 June 1972 in Marseille), popularly nicknamed Zizou, is a French former professional footballer. He played for club teams in France, Italy and Spain, and was a member of the French national team. His career accomplishments include helping France win the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000, in addition to winning the 2002 UEFA Champions League as a galactico with Real Madrid.

One of only two three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winners (Ronaldo being the other), Zidane was also named the European Footballer of the Year in 1998. His abilities were further recognized in 2004 when he was included in Pelé's choice list of the world's greatest footballers and is widely considered as the best player of his generation along with Ronaldo. He retired from professional football after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Zidane joined the junior team of US Saint-Henri, a local club in the La Castellane district of Marseille. At the age of 14, he participated in the first-year junior selection for the league championship, where he caught the attention of AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud. He went to Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level. Zidane played his first Ligue 1 match at seventeen, and scored his first goal on 8 February 1991, for which he received a car as a gift from the team president. His first season with Cannes culminated in a UEFA Cup berth.

Zidane transferred to Girondins de Bordeaux for the 1992–93 season, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and finishing runner-up in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup in four years with the club. He played a set of midfield combinations with Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become the trademark of both Bordeaux and the 1998 French national team. In 1995, Blackburn Rovers coach Ray Harford had expressed interest in signing both Zidane and Dugarry, to which team owner Jack Walker reportedly replied, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?"

In 1996, Zidane moved to Champions League winners Juventus for a fee of £3 million, and won the 1996–97 Scudetto and the Intercontinental Cup, but lost the 1997 UEFA Champions League final 3–1 to Borussia Dortmund. He netted seven goals in 32 matches to help Juventus retain the Scudetto the next season and make their second consecutive UEFA Champions League final appearance, losing 1-0 to Real Madrid which would be his next destination. Juventus were runners-up in 2000–01, but were eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League, during which Zidane was sent off for headbutting Hamburger SV player Jochen Kientz.

In 2001, Zidane joined Real Madrid for €78 million, the most expensive transfer fee in football history at the time, and signed a four-year contract. He scored the match-winning goal in Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final completing this personal quadruple. The next season, Zidane was named the FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time. In 2004, fans voted him atop UEFA's fiftieth-anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll, and he was included in the FIFA 100.

Despite scoring his first-ever hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Sevilla FC, Zidane's final season of club football ended trophyless. On 7 May 2006, Zidane, who had announced his plans to retire after the 2006 World Cup, played his last home match and scored in a 3-3 draw with Villarreal CF. The squad wore commemorative jerseys with "ZIDANE 2001–2006" below the club logo.

Both France and Berber Algeria(Kabyle) consider Zidane a citizen, but he was ineligible to play for the Algerian national team. There was also a rumor that coach Abdelhamid Kermali denied him a position for the Algerian squad because he felt the young midfielder was not fast enough.However, Zidane dismissed the rumor in a 2005 interview, saying that he would have been ineligible to play for Algeria because he had already played for France.

He earned his first cap with France as a substitute in a friendly against the Czech Republic on 17 August 1994, which ended in a 2-2 draw after Zidane scored twice to help France erase a 2-0 deficit. After Éric Cantona was handed a year-long suspension in January 1995 for assaulting a fan, Zidane took over the playmaker position. France were eliminated in the UEFA Euro 1996 semifinals in a penalty shootout by the Czech Republic after the match ended 0-0 in extra time.

Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup with France, scoring twice in the final against defending champions Brazil. He finished with two goals as France then won UEFA Euro 2000, becoming the first team to hold both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany in 1974. A thigh injury prevented Zidane from playing in France's first two matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He rushed back prematurely for the third game despite not being fully fit, but could not prevent France from being ignominiously eliminated in the group stage without scoring a single goal.

After France were eliminated in the UEFA Euro 2004 quarterfinals by eventual winners Greece on 12 June 2004, Zidane retired from international football. With the mass retirement of veteran key players such as Bixente Lizarazu, Marcel Desailly and others, France struggled to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, at the urging of coach Raymond Domenech, Zidane came out of retirement and was immediately reinstated as team captain.He made his competitive return in a 3-0 win over the Faroe Islands on 3 September 2005, as France went on to win their qualifying group.

On 27 May 2006, Zidane earned his hundredth cap for France in a 1-0 friendly win over Mexico, becoming France's fourth player ever to reach this milestone, after Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Lilian Thuram. He was substituted early in the second half.

After being suspended on yellow cards from the final match of the group stage, Zidane set up a goal for Patrick Vieira and scored one himself in the 91st minute of the second round match against Spain. As France held Brazil to just one shot on goal in the rematch of the 1998 final, Zidane's free kick led to Thierry Henry's deciding goal, sealing a 1-0 win. Zidane was named Man of the Match by FIFA.Before the final match, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the competition.

By scoring a 7th minute penalty in the final, Zidane became only the fourth player in World Cup history to score in two different finals, along with Pelé, Paul Breitner, and Vavá, in addition to being tied for first place with Vavá, Pelé and Geoff Hurst with three World Cup final goals apiece. Zidane was sent off in extra time after headbutting Marco Materazzi following verbal taunts in the form of racial and ethnic slurs from the Italian player, and so did not participate in the penalty shootout, which Italy won 5–3. He kept the Golden Ball award.

On June 1, 2009, Zidane was announced as the Advisor to the President as Florentino Perez was named President of Real Madrid for the second time. He also regularly plays for Real Madrid Veterans team. He along with Jorge Valdano, General Director, and Miguel Pardeza, Sporting Director, will be the key decision makers on the sporting side of the club.

In 2003, Zidane attended the Race Against Hunger organized by Action Against Hunger Spain (also known as Acción Contra el Hambre) held at the French Lyceum of Madrid. This event raised an estimated 25,000 Euros.

On 24 February 2007, before a crowd of 10,000 fans at a match in northern Thailand for the Keuydaroon children's AIDS charity, Zidane scored the first goal and set up the second for a Malaysian teammate as the match ended 2-2. The event raised ฿260,000 ($7,750). This money paid for the building of two schools and 16 three-bedroom houses.

On 19 November 2007, Zidane took part in the fifth annual Match Against Poverty in Málaga, Spain, which also ended in a 2-2 draw; he went scoreless but set up his team’s second goal. He and former Real Madrid teammate Ronaldo, who collaborated in conceiving the yearly event to benefit the United Nations Development Programme, regularly captain their respective teams consisting of active footballers, other professional athletes and celebrities. Zidane, a U.N. goodwill ambassador since 2001, stated before the game that “everyone can do something to make the world a better place.”

In 2004, Forbes magazine named him the 42nd-highest paid athlete in the world, with earnings of US$15.8 million a year. In November 2006, Zidane toured Bangladesh as the guest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. He also visited the Algerian birthplace of his parents, and met personally with president Abdel Aziz Bouteflika.

Filmmakers Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon filmed a documentary, Zidane, which follows Zidane during an entire match, filmed with 17 cameras. The documentary was part of the 2009 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Zidane has had endorsements with many companies, including: Adidas, Lego, France Telecom, Orange, Audi, Volvic and Christian Dior. These sponsorship deals earned him €8.6 million on top of his €6.4 million Real Madrid salary in his final season, making him the sixth-highest paid footballer.

Zidane is of Algerian Kabyle descent. His parents, Ismail and Malika, both Muslims, but later on he changed his religion to Yazid followers emigrated from the village of Aguemone in the Kabylie region of Algeria in 1953, and settled in Paris, before moving to Marseille a few years later.

Zidane met his wife, Véronique while playing for Cannes in the 1988-89 season. They have four sons: Enzo (named after former Uruguayan player Enzo Francescoli), Luca, Theo,who are both members of the Real Madrid Infantil B Team, and Elyaz.

Michael Phelps (US Swimmer)

2009-04-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian. As of 2008, Phelps holds seven world records in swimming.

Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals at a single Olympics, his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassing American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven gold performance at Munich in 1972.

Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008. In doing so he has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five golds in individual events tied the single Games record set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps career Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold.

Phelps's international titles and record breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008. He has won a total of 48 career medals thus far in major international competition, forty gold, six silver, and two bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.

PERSONAL LIFE
Phelps was born and raised in the Rodgers Forge area of Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Towson High School in 2003.His father, Fred Phelps, worked for the Maryland State Police and his mother, Deborah Sue "Debbie" Davisson Phelps, is a middle school principal.The two divorced in 1994.Michael, whose nickname is "MP", has two older sisters, Whitney and Hilary.Both of them were swimmers as well, with Whitney coming close to making the U.S. national team for the 1996 Summer Olympics before injuries derailed her career.

In his youth, Phelps was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).He started swimming at age seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. He excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps's rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15.

In November 2004, at the age of 19, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months' probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high school students about drinking and driving and had to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting.Questioned about the incident later that month by Matt Lauer on the Today Show, Phelps said it was an "isolated incident" and that he had "definitely let myself down and my family down ... I think I let a lot of people in the country down."

Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps announced his intention to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there after leaving the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Aquatic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in Baltimore next year." Bowman left the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO.Phelps purchased a house in the Fells Point section of Baltimore, where he has resided since the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Phelps' teammates at the Olympics called him "Gomer" because he reminded them of Gomer Pyle, the good-natured, naïve country boy played by Jim Nabors on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C..

He has made an estimated $5 million per year in endorsements, including an estimated $1 million dollars to be the face of Mazda in China. After receiving a $1 million bonus from swimsuit maker Speedo for winning at least seven gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games,Phelps used the money to create the Michael Phelps Foundation, a charity foundation to promote water safety and to advocate swimming for children. Speedo then donated an additional $200,000 to the Foundation.

On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported Phelps' selection as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC television program that aired on December 4, 2008.

In early 2009, Phelps admitted to "behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment" following the publication of a photo by the British tabloid, News of the World, showing him using a bong, a device used for smoking marijuana. Following an investigation, the Richland County Sheriff's Department announced on February 16 that Phelps would not be prosecuted in connection with the incident because there was not enough evidence.[18] USA Swimming suspended Phelps from swimming competitively for three months, and Kellogg's announced that it would not renew his endorsement contract.[19] According to Vanno, which tracks companies' brand reputations, Kellogg's brand reputation was significantly damaged after dropping Michael Phelps.

PHYSIQUE AND TRAINING
A few physical attributes particularly suit Phelps to swimming: his long, thin torso offers low drag; his arms span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm)—disproportionate to his height of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm)—and act as long, propulsive "paddles"; his relatively short legs lower drag, and perhaps add the speed enhancement of a hydrofoil; his size 14 feet provide the effect of flippers; and his hypermobile ankles he can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer, enabling him to whip his feet as if they were fins for maximum thrust through the water.

In October 2007, Phelps slipped on a patch of ice and fell while climbing into a friend's car in Michigan, breaking his right wrist. Coach Bowman recalled that Phelps was in despair over the injury. For a few weeks after the surgery, he was confined to kicking in the pool with a kickboard while his teammates swam. However, this allowed Phelps to strengthen his legs, which might have allowed him to edge out Milorad Cavic in the 100 butterfly final for his seventh gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. In the last five meters, an exhausted Cavic was dragging his legs while Phelps used a strong kick to get his hands to the wall first, by a hundredth of a second.

In a front page illustrated article profiling Phelps on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics, The Baltimore Sun described the hometown swimmer as "a solitary man" with a "rigid focus" at the pool prior to a race, but afterwards "a man incredibly invested in the success of the people he cares about". Bowman told a Sun interviewer, "He's unbelievably kind-hearted", recounting Phelps's interaction with young children after practices.

According to an article in The Guardian, Phelps eats around 12,000 kcal each day, or about six times the intake of a normal adult male.Yet according to Michael Phelps in an interview with 60 minutes, the estimate given by the Guardian is "not true" and he states he eats 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day when training.

Throughout the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press if perhaps his feats were "too good to be true", a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps may be taking performance enhancing drugs. In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S. Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.During the Games, Phelps was tested nine times, and passed all of them.

Phelps idolized Australian Ian Thorpe as a teenager, modelling his public image after Thorpe, and later watched videos to try to emulate the Aussie's famous six-beat underwater dolphin kick off the turns. Phelps, who finished third behind Thorpe in the 200m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, had unsuccessfully tried to lure the Australian out of retirement in 2007 saying "I like to race him".Thorpe initially said it was highly unlikely for Phelps to win eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.His remarks were supposedly used by Phelps who stuck them on his locker as motivation during these Games. Thorpe was in the stands for the Men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay, where Phelps was swimming for his eighth Olympic title. When Phelps and his teammates captured the gold, Thorpe gave a congratulatory kiss to Phelps' mother, then gave a handshake and a hug to congratulate Phelps. Thorpe afterwards said "I'm really proud of him not just because he won eight golds. Rather, it's how much he has grown up and matured into a great human being. Never in my life have I been so happy to have been proved wrong. I enjoyed every moment of it".

CAREER
Early years

As a young teenager, Phelps trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman. At the age of 15, Phelps competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, becoming the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he did not win a medal, he did make the finals and finished fifth in the 200 metre butterfly. Phelps proceeded to make a name for himself in swimming shortly thereafter. Five months after the Sydney Olympics, Phelps broke the world record in the 200 m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record. He then broke his own record at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan by posting a time of 1:54.58. At the 2002 Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Phelps also broke the world record for the 400 metre individual medley and set American marks in the 100 metre butterfly and the 200 metre individual medley.

In 2003, Phelps broke his own world record in the 400 metre individual medley (4:09.09) and in June, he broke the world record in the 200 m individual medley (1:56.04). Then on July 7, 2004, Phelps broke his own world record again in the 400 m individual medley (4:08.41) during the U.S. trials for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

In 2004, Phelps left North Baltimore Aquatic Club with Bob Bowman to train at the University of Michigan for Club Wolverine.

2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games : 200 m Butterfly 5th place 01:56.50

2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games :
400 m individual medley- Gold Medal,- World Record 4:08.26
100 m butterfly- Gold Medal,- Olympic Record 51.25
200 m freestyle- Bronze Medal,- American Record 1:45.32
200 m butterfly- Gold Medal,- Olympic Record 1:54.04
200 m individual medley- Gold Medal,- Olympic Record 1:57.14
4 x 100 m freestyle relay- Bronze Medal- 3:14.62
4 x 200 m freestyle relay- Gold Medal,- American Record 7:07.33
4 x 100 m medley relay- Gold Medal,- World Record 3:30.68

Phelps's dominance brought comparisons to former swimming great Mark Spitz,[46] who won seven gold medals in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a world record. Phelps tied Mark Spitz's record of four gold medals won in individual events. Phelps had the chance to break Spitz's record of seven total gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics by competing in eight swimming events (five of which were individual events): the 200 m freestyle, the 100 m butterfly, the 200 m butterfly, the 200 m individual medley, the 400 m individual medley, the 4x100 m freestyle relay, 4x200 m freestyle relay, and the 4x100 m medley relay. However, his 4x100 m freestyle relay team only won the bronze medal, and he personally placed for bronze in the 200 m freestyle. Thus, he fell short of Spitz's record. However, he did win eight medals in one Olympics, a feat only previously achieved by Alexander Dityatin, a gymnast, in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Phelps would later equal this record (and break Spitz's) with his eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Had he won seven golds in 2004, he would have been eligible for a US$1 million bonus from his sponsor, Speedo.Phelps did, however, earn this $1 million by winning eight golds at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On August 14, 2004 he won his first Olympic gold, in the 400 m individual medley, setting another new world record (4:08.26).

On August 16, he finished third behind Australian winner Ian Thorpe and the Dutch Pieter van den Hoogenband in 200 m freestyle final, called the race of the century.Thorpe, upon hearing of the bonus from Speedo, was adamant that eight golds was impossible. Although this race ended the chance to match Spitz's record, Phelps had savored the challenge even though it was not his strongest event, saying "How can I be disappointed? I swam in a field with the two fastest freestylers of all time".

The 100 butterfly was Phelps' seventh medal and fifth gold, which was also his fourth gold in an individual event. That matched Mark Spitz's four solo golds in 1972. No other male swimmer ever claimed more than two individual golds in a single Olympics.

On August 20, 2004 in the 100 m butterfly final, Phelps defeated American teammate Ian Crocker (who holds the world record in the event) by just 0.04 seconds. Traditionally, the Olympian who places highest in an individual event will be automatically given the corresponding leg of the 4 x100 m medley relay. This gave Phelps an automatic entry into the medley relay but he deferred and Crocker swam instead. Crocker had made a mistake during his leg of the 400 freestyle relay final, which cost the Americans gold, so Phelps' gesture gave Crocker a chance to make amends as well getting his final shot at a gold medal.The American medley team went on to win the event in world record time, and, since Phelps had raced in a preliminary heat of the medley relay, he was also awarded a gold medal along with the team members that competed in the final.

YEAR 2004 - 2008
Phelps moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan following the 2004 Olympics when his longtime coach at the North Baltimore Athletic Club, Bob Bowman, became head coach of the University of Michigan swimming team. Phelps served as a volunteer assistant coach, but did not swim for the university's team in NCAA competition because of his loss of amateur status, having accepted endorsement money from his sponsors Speedo, Visa, Omega and PowerBar. Instead, he trained with and competed for Club Wolverine, a USA Swimming club affiliated with the university, between 2004 and 2008. The Baltimore Sun said in August 2008 that Phelps earns $5 million annually in endorsements. Unknown to many, Phelps has penned two books. His second book, No Limits: The Will to Succeed, was released on December 9, 2008.

He co-founded the "Swim with the Stars" program, along with Ian Crocker and Lenny Krayzelburg, a program which promotes swimming and conducts camps for swimmers of all ages.

He competed in the 2005 World Championships, winning six medals, (five gold and one silver) and breaking one Championship record.

2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
At the 2007 World Championships,[56] Phelps won seven gold medals, tying the record, and broke five world records. The 4x100 m medley relay team he would have competed with in the final received a disqualification for a false start during a changeover in the heats.[57]
Event Results Time
200 m freestyle - Gold Medal, World Record 1:43.86
100 m butterfly - Gold Medal 50.77
200 m butterfly -Gold Medal, World Record 1:52.09
200 m individual medley -Gold Medal, World Record 1:54.98
400 m individual medley- Gold Medal, World Record 4:06.22
4 x 100 m freestyle relay -Gold Medal, Championship Record 3:12.72
4 x 200 m freestyle relay -Gold Medal, World Record 7:03.24
4 x 100 m medley relay - Did Not Compete (team disqualified in earlier heat)

2008 BEIJING SUMMER OLYMIC GAMES
Phelps represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He qualified to compete in three team and five individual events, swimming seventeen races in nine days and winning the gold medal in all eight events:

August 10 400 m individual medley - Gold Medal, -World Record 4:03.84
August 11 4 x 100 m freestyle relay -Gold Medal, -World Record 3:08.24
August 12 200 m freestyle -Gold Medal, -World Record 1:42.96
August 13 200 m butterfly -Gold Medal, -World Record 1:52.03
August 13 4 x 200 m freestyle relay - Gold Medal, -World Record 6:58.56
August 15 200 m individual medley- Gold Medal, -World Record 1:54.23
August 16 100 m butterfly - Gold Medal, -Olympic Record 50.58
August 17 4 x 100 m medley relay -Gold Medal, -World Record 3:29.34

Phelps set an Olympic record in the preliminary heats of the men's 400-meter individual medley. He followed that up in the final by winning the gold medal, as well as breaking his previous world record by nearly two seconds.

Phelps swam the first leg of the men's 4x100 m freestyle relay in a time of 47.51 seconds (an American record for the 100 m freestyle), and won his second gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, as well as setting his second world record of the Olympics (3:08.24). Teammate Jason Lezak, after beginning the anchor leg more than half a body length behind Alain Bernard, managed to finish ahead of the second-place French team by eight hundredths of a second. The top five teams in the final finished ahead of the world record of 3:12.23 set the day before by the American B team in a preliminary heat.

For his third race, Phelps broke his previous World Record in the 200-meter freestyle by nearly a second and won his third gold medal. He also set his third world record at the Olympics, 1:42.96, winning by nearly two seconds over silver medalist Park Tae-hwan.In this race, Phelps became only the fifth Olympic athlete in modern history to win nine career gold medals, along with Mark Spitz, Larissa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, and Carl Lewis.

The next day, Phelps participated in two finals. In his first event, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps made it four gold medals and world records in four events by swimming the final in 1:52.03, defeating silver medalist László Cseh by almost seven-tenths of a second despite his goggles filling up with water and being unable to "see anything for the last 100 meters." This fourth gold medal was his tenth, and made him the all-time leader for most Olympic gold medals won by an individual in the modern Olympic era. Less than one hour after his gold medal victory in the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps swam the lead-off leg of the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay. He won his fifth gold and set his fifth world record as the American team finished first with a time of 6:58.56. The Americans were the first team to break the seven-minute mark in the relay, and broke the previous record, set in Melbourne, Australia, by more than four and a half seconds.

After taking a day off from finals (Phelps did swim in qualifying heats), Phelps won his sixth gold of the Beijing Games on August 15 by winning the 200-meter individual medley with a World Record time of 1:54.23, finishing ahead of Cseh by over two seconds.

On August 16, Phelps won his seventh gold medal of the Games in the men’s 100-meter butterfly, setting an Olympic record for the event with a time of 50.58 seconds and edging out his nearest competitor, Serbian-American swimmer Milorad Čavić, by 1/100 of a second. Unlike all six of his previous events in the 2008 Games, Phelps did not set a new world record, leaving Ian Crocker’s world record time of 50.40 seconds, set in 2005, intact. Phelps’s 0.01-second finish ahead of Čavić prompted the Serbian delegation to file a protest; however, subsequent analysis of the video by the FINA panel, which required analyzing frames shot 1/10000 of a second apart, confirmed Phelps’s victory. The initial refusal by official timekeeper Omega, to release underwater photos of the finish also raised questions due to Phelps's sponsorship relationship with Omega. Čavić later wrote in his blog: "People, this is the greatest moment of my life. If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been".

Phelps’s seventh gold medal of the Games tied Mark Spitz’s record for gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, set in the 1972 Olympics. It was also his fifth individual gold medal in Beijing, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Said Phelps upon setting his seventh-straight Olympic record of the Games in as many events, "Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible ... I am sort of in a dream world. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it is real."

On August 17, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the men’s 4 × 100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972. Phelps, along with teammates Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol, and Jason Lezak, set a new world record in the event with a time of 3 minutes and 29.34 seconds, 0.7 seconds ahead of second-place Australia and 1.34 seconds faster than the previous record set by the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. When Phelps dived in to swim the 100-meter butterfly leg, the third leg of the 400-meter medley, the United States had been trailing Australia and Japan. Phelps completed his split in 50.1 seconds, the fastest butterfly split ever for the event, giving teammate Jason Lezak a more than half-second lead for the final leg, which he would hold onto to clinch the event in world record time. Said Phelps, upon completing the event that awarded him his eighth gold medal and eighth Olympic record in as many events, "Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are ... Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to."

In an article published in the wake of the event, The New York Times noted that, in the hours before his eighth and final event in the 2008 Games, had Michael Phelps been a country, "the Person’s Republic of Michael would have ranked fourth in gold medals [after China, the United States, and Germany] and been ahead of all but 14 countries in the medal count". Only Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina holds more total career Olympic medals with 18 (nine gold), compared to Phelps's 16 (14 gold).

HONORS AND AWARDS
* World Swimmer of the Year Award: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008
* American Swimmer of the Year Award: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008
* Golden Goggle Male Performance of the Year: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008
* Golden Goggle Relay Performance of the Year: 2006, 2007, 2008
* Golden Goggle Male Athlete of the Year: 2004, 2007, 2008
* ESPY Best Olympic Performance: 2005
* USOC SportsMan of the Year Award: 2004, 2008
* USSA Athlete of the Year Award: 2003
* World Championships Swimmer of the Meet: 2003
* James E. Sullivan Award: 2003
* Teen Choice Awards - Male Athlete: 2005
* Laureus World Sports Sportsman of the Year Award (Nominated): 2004, 2005, 2008
* USA Olympic Team Member: 2000, 2004, 2008
* Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year: 2008
* Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals: 14
* Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals in individual events: 9
* Holds the record for most Olympic gold-medals at a single games: 8 (Beijing 2008)
* Street in his hometown of Baltimore was re-named The Michael Phelps Way: 2004

US NATIONAL TITLES
With 38 national titles as of 2007[update], Phelps is beginning to approach the record of 48 held by Tracy Caulkins.

Meters Nationals (38+5):

50 m free (1): '07 SCN
100 m free (4): '07 WIN, '05 SPG, '04 SPG, '03 SUM
200 m free (7): '07 SUM (US), '06 SUM, '05 SUM, '05 SPG, '04 SPG, '03 SUM (AR), '03 SPG
400 m free (2): '05 SPG, '03 SUM (AR)
100 m back (1): '07 SUM (US)
200 m back (4): '07 SUM (US), '04 SPG, '03 SUM, '03 SPG
100 m fly (7): '07 SUM, '06 SUM, '05 SPG, '04 SPG (US), '03 SPG, '02 SUM (AR), ’01 SUM
200 m fly (4): '06 SUM, '05 SUM, '02 SUM (US), '01 SPG (WR)
200 m IM (6): '06 SUM, '05 SPG, '04 SPG, '03 SUM (WR), '02 SUM (AR), ’01 SUM
400 m IM (2): '06 SUM, '02 SUM (WR)
4 x 100 m medley (2): '07 SUM, '06 SUM
4 x 100 m free (2): '07 SUM, '05 SUM
4 x 200 m free (1): '05 SUM (US)

Yards Nationals (2+1):

100 yd free (1): '07 SCYN
200 yd free (1): '07 SCYN
4 x 200 yd (180 m) free (1): '07 SCYN (AR)

* Relays do not count as individual national titles.
* USA Swimming is currently in the process of moving away from having two National Championships per year to only one. As a result, he has not and may not attend many more Spring Nationals.

WORLD RECORDS

1 200 m Butterfly 1:54.92 Austin, Texas, US 2001, March 30
2 200 m Butterfly 1:54.58 Fukuoka, Japan 2001, July 24
3 400 m Individual Medley 4:11.09 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, US 2002, August 15
4 4x100 m Medley Relay[a] 3:33.48 Yokohama, Japan 2002, August 29
5 400 m Individual Medley 4:10.73 Indianapolis, Indiana, US 2003, April 6
6 200 m Individual Medley 1:57.94 Santa Clara, California, US 2003, June 29
7 200 m Butterfly 1:53.93 Barcelona, Spain 2003, July 22
8 200 m Individual Medley 1:57.52 Barcelona, Spain 2003, July 24
9 100 m Butterfly 0:51.47 Barcelona, Spain 2003, July 25
10 200 m Individual Medley 1:56.04 Barcelona, Spain 2003, July 25
11 400 m Individual Medley 4:09.09 Barcelona, Spain 2003, July 27
12 200 m Individual Medley 1:55.94 College Park, Maryland, US 2003, August 9
13 400 m Individual Medley 4:08.41 Long Beach, California, US 2004, July 7
14 400 m Individual Medley 4:08.26 Athens, Greece 2004, August 14
15 200 m Butterfly 1:53.80 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 2006, August 17
16 4x100 m Freestyle Relay[b] 3:12.46 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 2006, August 19
17 200 m Individual Medley 1:55.84 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 2006, August 20
18 200 m Butterfly 1:53.71 Columbia, Missouri, US 2007, February 17
19 200 m Freestyle 1:43.86 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2007, March 27
20 200 m Butterfly 1:52.09 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2007, March 28
21 200 m Individual Medley 1:54.98 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2007, March 29
22 4x200 m Freestyle Relay[c] 7:03.24 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2007, March 30
23 400 m Individual Medley 4:06.22 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2007, April 1
24 400 m Individual Medley 4:05.25 Omaha, Nebraska, US 2008, June 29
25 200 m Individual Medley 1:54.80 Omaha, Nebraska, US 2008, July 4
26 400 m Individual Medley 4:03.84 Beijing, China 2008, August 10
27 4x100 m Freestyle Relay 3:08.24 Beijing, China 2008, August 11
28 200 m Freestyle 1:42.96 Beijing, China 2008, August 12
29 200 m Butterfly 1:52.03 Beijing, China 2008, August 13
30 4x200 m Freestyle Relay 6:58.56 Beijing, China 2008, August 13
31 200 m Individual Medley 1:54.23 Beijing, China 2008, August 15
32 4x100 m Medley Relay 3:29.34 Beijing, China 2008, August 17

MICHAEL PHLEPS : A QUICK LOOK AND COMMENTS
In the water, Michael Phelps is without peer. On land, he's made splashes for the wrong reasons. Given the stratospheric heights to which he climbed during the Beijing Olympics last summer (8 gold medals, 8 races) Phelps' stock had nowhere to go but down. And it plunged precipitously Feb. 1, when a photograph surfaced in Britain's News of the World depicting the aquatic golden boy taking a bong hit. Phelps was contrite, and chalked up the incident, which the newspaper said occurred during a visit to the University of South Carolina in November, to a lapse of judgment. It's not his first youthful indiscretion, however: Just months after racking up six gold medals during the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the 19-year-old superstar was charged with driving while intoxicated.

By Alice aprk:TIME

The biggest challenge Michael Phelps, 23, will face in Beijing will be the clock. And not the one at the pool. With all the final races in swimming moving from their traditional evening time slots to refreshing dips first thing in the morning, Phelps' thorniest adversary will be the alarm clock. "I am far, far from being a morning person," he admits. "If I have a workout at 7:30 a.m., I'm hitting the snooze button at 6:50." Still, even the rise-and-shine races, scheduled for prime-time U.S. television, aren't likely to slow Phelps down. In Beijing, he is again on the blocks to swim up to eight events, giving him another chance to surpass Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Games.

What keeps him so fast in the water? Part of it is technique: he rarely misses a practice, although he may not always be eager to get out of bed for one. Part of it is his remarkable ability to recover quickly from intensive workouts. Hardworking muscles release lactic acid, which causes soreness. But Phelps' body can flush out lactic acid in minutes vs. the hour or two it takes the bodies of most athletes. Finally, there are the 80-in. wingspan and size-14 feet to propel him through the water.

Which means that as long as he wakes up on time, the race for gold could be over early.

BUILT FOR SPEED

Even before a single Olympic medal has been hung around his neck, Michael Phelps is rewriting the manual on what it means to be a world-class swimmer. Entered in five individual events and a candidate for each of the three relay races in Athens, Phelps has the potential to win eight gold medals, and eclipse the standard held by Mark Spitz, who won seven golds in 1972. It's a long shot, but no one is better prepared to do it. Just 19, Phelps holds the world record in three of those five individual events and is a fingernail's distance from the record in a fourth.

In a sport in which most athletes would be happy to qualify for one event, that he can try for eight medals is amazing. Trained in the individual medley, an event that requires mastery of all four swimming strokes, Phelps possesses a phenomenal ability to compete with the best specialists in three of those strokes--butterfly, backstroke and freestyle. In the fourth, the breaststroke, he's merely outstanding. In fact, at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials last month, Phelps became the first swimmer to qualify for six individual events. (He will drop the 200 backstroke in Athens.) "He is really redefining our expectations of swimming excellence," says Pablo Morales, a two-time Olympian in the butterfly and Phelps' role model. "He is blazing his own trail now, and there is probably a whole global army of young swimmers who are looking up to him."

His talent in the pool propelled Phelps to turn pro at age 16, before graduating from high school. He is an anomaly in the swimming world, a multimillionaire with endorsements from Speedo, Argent Mortgage, Visa, Omega, AT&T Wireless and PowerBar. If he equals Spitz's haul of seven golds from a single Games, Phelps will earn an automatic $1 million bonus from Speedo.

Money isn't enough, though. Phelps wants to make swimming matter. He sees the attention that Americans lavish on their swimmers every four years evaporate between Games, and he desperately wants what Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe has--the prestige, the celebrity and, not least of all, the marketing clout to stand, here in the U.S., with the best athletes. "People don't think about swimmers when they look for athletes to sponsor," he says with some frustration. "You don't see a swimmer doing a Sprite commercial. We have so many other sports to take [people's attention] away from swimming. But if something good happens this summer, that may change."

Phelps' biggest impediment on the way to swimming history may well be his own teammates, many of them Olympic medalists and world-record holders. And then there are the Australians, with a younger and deeper men's team that would dearly love to grind the Americans into chum. They are eager to write the coda to their 4 x 100-m medley-relay defeat in Sydney, where U.S. swimmer Gary Hall Jr. had claimed that the Americans would "smash [the Australians] like guitars." The Aussies won the next two relays, on the back of Thorpe, and mockingly played air guitar in a pool-deck celebration. The first stanzas of their Greek chorus have begun; Thorpe has called Phelps' attempt at a Spitzian haul of golds "ridiculous." Phelps' response: "He's saying he doesn't think it's possible for him to do that. I don't think I would say it's impossible." If that were any frostier, they'd have to speed skate to settle it.

Although Phelps is clearly the standout star in a bright galaxy of American swimmers, some of his teammates bristle at the recognition he receives. The U.S. men's team boasts world-record holders in seven events--Phelps in the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 200m butterfly, Brendan Hansen in the 100m and 200m breaststrokes, Aaron Peirsol in the 200m backstroke and Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly. Peirsol and Crocker have beaten Phelps to the wall this year, and Crocker famously halted Phelps' run at a perfect six golds and six world records at the 2003 world championships. "I don't think anyone holds any ill will or anything, and Michael certainly deserves the attention he is getting," says Peirsol. "But this is one of the best teams that the U.S. has sent to the Olympics, so I hope everybody on this team gets the credit they deserve." Phelps won't be racing Peirsol in the backstroke at the Olympics, but he will face Crocker in the 100 fly. "If Michael wants to [beat Spitz's record], he's going to have to do it himself," says Crocker. "I'm definitely not giving any favors."

It's the same tension that Thorpe and his teammates have been grappling with since the Australian catapulted to stardom in the run-up to Sydney. Thorpe's status has isolated him from the camaraderie of the swimming circle, and inevitable jealousies have erupted over his special status. "We have never had a Michael Phelps before," notes Rowdy Gaines, a triple gold medalist in 1984. "He can swim a lot of events, and that can create a lot of jealousy." Phelps does not sound all that bothered. "If it comes up, it comes up," he responds with typical teenage aplomb. "I'll just deal with it."

Growing up with two sisters who swam competitively, Phelps was practically raised at the pool. "The summer he was born was the summer I started swimming," says his oldest sister Hilary, 26. "The poor kid was always getting dragged to the pool." His mother Debbie remembers bringing baby Michael along in a carrier and parking him on the pool deck during his sisters' practices. When he was 7, Phelps learned to swim, but it took weeks before he could do anything more than the backstroke. "I was afraid to put my head underwater," he admits.

Once he did, his talent surfaced almost immediately. Swimming with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at age 11, he set a national record for his age group in the 100m butterfly. That caught the attention of Bob Bowman, then an assistant coach at the club. "What I noticed about him was that he was fiercely competitive in everything he did, whether it was swimming a race or playing a game at the pool," he says. "He always wanted to win." Bowman called Phelps' parents in for a meeting, alerting them to their son's potential, and in 1996 laid out a 15year plan that would include Phelps' being a part of the 2004, 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams. "I'm thinking, This man is crazy," Debbie recalls. "This is my 11year-old baby, and you're projecting 2012?"

Bowman could see that Phelps was born to swim. Blessed with a sinewy, whiplike body, a long torso and large hands and feet, plus a 6ft. 7in. arm span that extends 3 in. beyond his height (the usual ratio is 1 to 1), Phelps has as close to an ideal swimming body as you can get. Like other top swimmers, he doesn't so much power through the water as slide along it, propelled by a vigorous dolphin kick that surges from his head to his toes in a high-amplitude wave.

Capitalizing on that, Bowman tried Phelps in other strokes and found that the gangly teen was a quick learner with an uncanny feel for the water. Still, Phelps says, "he took every single stroke and changed it. From Day One, he wanted me to swim multiple events." That meant an early focus on the individual medley--the grueling test of all four strokes, which Phelps picked up with little argument.

The teen did balk, though, when Bowman tried to fix his starts and turns, the one area in which Phelps falters. In a sport measured in hundredths of a second, getting a smooth start can mean a world record; not wasting time at the wall can separate medal winners from also-rans. Phelps hasn't perfected his turns, says Bowman, because he is simply too good a swimmer. "He'd think, I'll just swim a little harder, and then say, 'That was a best time. How can you complain about that?'"

As his swimming was taking shape, though, Phelps' family was breaking up. The same year he learned to swim, Debbie, a Baltimore County school administrator, and Frank, a Maryland state trooper, decided to divorce. The couple had built a home on a fiveacre spread in Harford County, Md., more than 60 miles from the Baltimore pool where their children were training. The round-trip drives, sometimes twice a day, were wearying. Debbie wanted to move the family to Baltimore; Frank wasn't so sure. It was one more issue in a deteriorating relationship. Phelps and his sisters remained with their mother, and when Hilary and Whitney moved away for college, his bond with his mom deepened.

She's sensitive to his growing celebrity and the jealousies that can flower in his classmates and is vigilant almost to a fault. "When he went to a dance in high school, for example, I would tell him, 'Michael, please be careful. If you put your glass down, don't pick it back up'--things like that," she says, fearing everything from recreational drugs to banned substances. "It makes me sound like a nagging mother, but I always try to keep 10 steps ahead of him." Says Phelps: "We've gotten so much closer over the past few years because it's only been us. She's loosened up a bit. I guess you could say she's sort of like a chill mom." Last Christmas Phelps surprised her with a new Mercedes, and this spring he bought her diamond earrings for her birthday. Phelps is not nearly so close to his father. "I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad relationship, but I wouldn't say it's the best relationship. And the way my life is right now, I wouldn't want anything to change."

In Bowman's grand plan, Phelps would have watched--not participated in--the 2000 Olympics, but Phelps' butterfly had progressed so quickly, the pair found themselves at the Olympic trials. By the fourth day, Phelps had earned a berth to Sydney.

The youngest member of the swimming contingent, at 15, Phelps finished fifth in the only event he raced, the 200m butterfly, and vowed that the next time he went to the Games, he would not leave without a gold. "I was disappointed walking away from Sydney with nothing," he says. "People were saying [fifth is] good, and I was saying, 'No, it's not. I want more.' It's something that's been with me ever since."

Like most 19-year-olds, Phelps has stuck on his wall, in a prominent spot right next to his bed, a picture of a fit figure in a bathing suit. But this being the ultrafocused Phelps, don't expect the latest beauty from the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED swimsuit issue. Instead, it's rival Ian Crocker celebrating his world record in the 100m butterfly at the 2003 world championships--and his win over Phelps. That's the image that gets Phelps up at 6 a.m. every day and into the pool. "After losing the 100 butterfly at world's, I was even more motivated to train every day and get faster," says Phelps. "I hate to lose. I absolutely hate to lose. I can't stand it."

In a way, Phelps makes it easy for Bowman, because getting the teen to the pool to log seven miles a day, 365 days a year ("Christmas morning, I'm at the pool," notes Phelps), is never a problem. Money, malice (in the form of taunts from competitors) and missteps--"He turns anything into a reason to work harder," says Bowman. "I call him the motivation machine."

While training for the world championships last year, Phelps received an unexpected kick from Thorpe's coach, who asserted that Phelps was not in the same league as Thorpe. Bowman slipped a copy of the comment into Phelps' mailbox at the pool. His response was devastating: he broke five world records; Thorpe broke none. "It's lunacy to give Michael any ammunition whatsoever," says Olympian Gaines. "He thrives on confidence. Giving him more fuel in the way of criticism is suicidal when it comes to swimming against him."

Phelps will rely on that competitive fever, so prevalent in Sydney, for his 200m freestyle race against the Thorpedo. He is not the favorite, and it's probably his longest shot for a gold--or even a medal--against the Aussie. The two swam against each other at the world championships in the 200 individual medley, which Phelps won by 3.62 sec. But this event would be the first head-to-head freestyle race between today's two greatest swimming talents, and Phelps welcomes the challenge. "I love to race the best, and I've never faced him in the 200 freestyle," he says of Thorpe. "It's something I've always wanted to do." When Bowman suggested scratching the event from his program in Athens, Phelps said, "Absolutely not."

It will be another first--two millionaire swimmers in a duel at the pool. Can't you just see a million-dollar, winner-take-all rematch during half time at the Super Bowl? Phelps has indeed changed swimming. So, yes, Michael--we are likely to be paying attention, well beyond the Olympics.

FACTS ABOUT MICHAEL PHLEPS

In 2001, at age 15, Michael became the youngest world record holder in swimming’s modern history.
At the World Championships in 2003, Michael became the first man ever to set two world records in two different events on the same day: 51.47 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly and 1:56:04 in the 200-meter individual medley.
In 2003, Michael won the Sullivan Award as the nation’s best amateur athlete. The last swimmer to be so honored was Janet Evans in 1989.
After the 2004 Olympics, the city of Baltimore named a street after Michael.
Michael won five gold medals at the 2005 World Championships. He won five more at the 2006 Pan Pacifics, setting a world record in the 200 individual medley along the way.
At the 2007 World Championships, Michael became the only swimmer other than Mark Spitz to win seven times in a major meet. Spitz won seven times in the 1972 Olympics, but only swam breaststroke and butterfly. Michael swam four different strokes.
Because of his endorsement deals, Michael was not allowed to compete at the NCAA level. Instead, between 2004 and 2008, he trained with and competed for Club Wolverine, a USA Swimming club affiliated with the University of Michigan.
A popular topic of conversation during the 2008 Olympics was the high-calorie diet Michael consumed. His caloric intake ranges between 10,000 and 12,000 a day.
Michael still has a reason to return to the Olympics in 2012. His 16 medals leave him second all-time to Soviet gymnast Laryssa Latynina, who won 18 in the 1960s and 1970s
Michael’s first year at the University Michigan was his first living by himself. Among the domestic disasters that befell him was a kitchen full of suds—he filled his dishwasher with hand-washing soap.
The first time Michael heard about Mark Spitz was after his 16th birthday. His mother, by contrast, has been a big fan of his since childhood. A framed poster of the swimmer hung in her family’s home.
Michael has won the Kiphuth Award as the best swimmer at the U.S. Summer Nationals three years running (2001, 2002 and 2003). The award is given in honor of former Yale swim coach Bob Kiphuth.
Michael listens to rap music before races. His favorite artist is Eminem, and he gets pumped up by DMX's "Party Up" and MAC 10's "Connected for Life."
Among Michael’s favorites are: football (sport to watch), basketball (sport to play), Baltimore Ravens (pro team), SportsCenter (tv show), Denzel Washington (actor), Cameron Diaz (actress), Michael Jordan (athlete) and To Kill a Mockingbird (book). He’s also likes video games, including NHL HITZ.
Michael is a huge fan of the late Chris Farley. He can recite every line from the movie “Tommy Boy.”
Michael’s nickname is “Iron Mike.”
One of Michael’s heroes is Pablo Morales, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 100m butterfly.
Michael drives a used Cadillac Escalade. He customized it with a stereo system, three TVs and an X-Box. He bought a Mercedes-Benz ML320 SUV for his mother.
Michael once met Cindy Crawford. He was so nervous he could barely speak.
Michael is a national spokesman for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He’s also an honorary board member of the Boys & Girl Club of Harford County, Maryland, and Pathfinders for Autism.
Michael endorses a number of products. His sponsors include Speedo, Kellogg’s, Visa, Omega, Power Bar, and Matsunichi. Prior to the Beijing Olympics, Michael made an estimated $5 million annually in endorsement money. Michael’s appearance fee starts at $15,000.