Sharon Stone


The backlash against Sharon Stone’s suggestion that China's earthquake was karmic payback for its handling of Tibet continues. The American actress was told she’s not invited to this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, spokeswoman Tang Bing said Wednesday (June 4, 2008).
Shanghai festival organizers said Stone's comments were inexcusable and that they were considering permanently banning her.
"We are indignant," Tang said. "She should have respected Chinese people's feelings and showed some sympathy to those who suffered from the earthquake."
Stone was not scheduled to attend the nine-day festival, one of the largest events of its kind in East Asia, which begins June 14. She did, however, attend in 2007 to promote anti-aging creams for French fashion house Christian Dior. At the time, she impressed festival organizers with her charity work and her appearance, Tang said.
"She showed her affinity for the Chinese people and her affinity for Shanghai,” said Tang. “She didn't say any bad things."
But the star provoked outrage in China when she suggested the recent earthquake in central Sichuan province may have been the result of bad "karma" because of Beijing's rule in Tibet.
"I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else," Stone said May 22, 2008, in a red-carpet interview at the Cannes Film Festival with Cable Entertainment News of Hong Kong. "And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"
More than 69,000 died in the May 12 earthquake. More than 18,000 remain missing and millions were left homeless.
Stone’s remarks triggered anger across the Chinese-language media. Ng See-Yuen, the founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, said his company wouldn’t show her films in his theaters, according to the Hollywood Reporter. UME has branches in China’s biggest urban movie markets, including Beijing and Shanghai.
Stone's image was also removed from a number of Dior outlets at department stores in Beijing, according to state media reports.
"My erroneous words and deeds angered and saddened the Chinese people, and I sincerely apologize for this," she said in a statement issued May 28, by the China branch of French luxury goods maker Christian Dior, where she is a top model. "I'm willing to participate in any earthquake relief activity and to do my utmost to help Chinese people affected by the disaster.”.
Stone admitted in an interview with The New York Times that she had sounded like "an idiot," but she denied making an apology that Dior China issued in her name.
"I'm not going to apologize," Stone told the newspaper, recounting her conversation with the company. "I'm certainly not going to apologize for something that isn't real or true. Not for face creams."
Born Sharon Vonne Stone on March 10, 1958 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of a factory worker, Stone won a scholarship to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania at age 15 where she studied creative writing and fine arts. Upon graduation, the Miss Pennsylvania beauty pageant winner decided to pursue a modeling career in New York where she signed with the Ford agency. By the late 1970s, Stone was a highly sought-after model, appearing in both print and television ads nationwide.
Stone decided to branch out into acting in the 1980s, only to appear in a number of little-seen films throughout the decade with the exception of 1984's Irreconcilable Differences. Her first notable part came in 1990's Total Recall as the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two years and one nude photo shoot for Playboy later, the actress's star vehicle arrived when she landed the role of the unforgettable bisexual murder suspect in the blockbuster film Basic Instinct with Michael Douglas. However, subsequent films such as 1993's Sliver and 1994's The Specialist suggest that the acclaim may have been more due to her simmering sexuality than her acting.
In 1995, Stone proved the critics wrong with her Golden Globe-winning performance in Martin Scorsese's Casino. Following the win, she took on a number of dramatic roles, including The Quick and the Dead in 1995 and Last Dance in 1996. She finished the decade with a number of uneven films, including Sphere in 1998 and Gloria in 1999, but received praise for her first comedic performance in The Muse that same year. In 2003, the actress costarred in Catwoman with Benjamin Bratt and Halle Berry.
During the late 1990s, Stone earned more attention for her fashionable lifestyle than her filmmaking. She was married to producer Michael Greenburg from 1984 to 1987 and to San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein from 1998 to 2004. The couple adopted a son, Roan Joseph, in 2001; Stone adopted two sons: Laird Vonne (2005) and Quinn Kelly (2006).

Read more »

Shakira


Singer, songwriter. Born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll on February 2, 1977, in Barranquilla, Colombia. With a Lebanese father and Colombian mother, Shakira honors her Latino and Arabic heritage in her music. She wrote her first song at the age of 8 and signed her first record deal at 13. After her first two albums flopped, Shakira took the reins of her third album, becoming involved in every aspect of its production. Released in 1996, Pies Descalzos, meaning "bare feet," sold more than three million copies. The album featured her trademark sound, a blending of Latin, rock, and Arabic musical styles. It sold more than three million copies and the follow-up record, Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (1998)—which translates as "Where are the thieves?"—reached the top of Billboard's Latin charts. Based on the success of her albums, Shakira became a music superstar in the Spanish-language markets, known for her strong vocals and incredible hip-shaking belly dance moves.
While hugely popular in much of the rest of the world, Shakira had not yet achieved a major record on the U.S. pop charts. She moved to Miami with her family to further her goal and taught herself to write songs in English. She enlisted Emilio Estefan—of Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine fame—to act as her manager and producer. Her first English-language album, Laundry Service (2001), provided Shakira with the success in the United States that she longed for—the album was number three on the charts, selling more than 200,000 copies in the first week. The songs "Whenever, Wherever" and "Underneath Your Clothes" were both big hits.
Shakira returned to the top 10 of the albums chart in 2005 twice. She first released the Spanish-language Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 in June, which was followed in November by English-language Oral Fixation, Vol. 2. She received the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album for Fijación Oral, Vol. 1, her second time winning such an honor. Previously, she had won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album for 2000's Shakira: MTV Unplugged.
Besides her busy career, Shakira created the Pies Descalzos Foundation to help children in her native Colombia in 1997.

Read more »

Jennifer Lopez



Actress and pop singer Jennifer Lopez gave birth to twins early Friday (Feb. 22, 2008), a boy and a girl.
The twins are the first children for Lopez and the fourth and fifth for her husband, salsa star Marc Anthony.
"Jennifer and Marc are delighted, thrilled and over the moon," Lopez's manager told People magazine.
The twins were born at about 12:45 a.m. on Long Island, New York, a five pound seven ounce baby girl followed about 10 minutes later by a six pound baby boy.
Lopez had finally confirmed Nov. 7 that she was expecting.

After months a speculation and coy hints, the entertainer made the announcement during a concert in Miami.

"Marc and I are expecting," said J.Lo during the last stop on a joint North American concert tour with Anthony.

After the announcement, Anthony shrugged his shoulders, caressed his wife's stomach, then leaned over and kissed her belly.

"I didn't know she was going to talk," he told the crowd. The two were married in 2004.
Born July 24, 1969, in Castle Hill "Bronx," New York , Lopez began her career as a dancer, appearing in stage musicals and various music videos. In 1990, she won a national competition and earned a spot dancing on the popular Fox comedy television series, "In Living Color," as one of the "Fly Girls." A series of small acting jobs followed, including parts in two more series and a TV movie, Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7, in 1993. Lopez's first feature film was the critically acclaimed Mi Familia, or My Family, in 1995. She also appeared in Money Train (1995), opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, and in Jack (1996), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Robin Williams.


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 Quintillana Perez, who was killed by a crazed fan in 1995. She earned widespread praise for her performance, including a Golden Globe nomination, and became the highest-paid Latina actress in history with her paycheck of $1 million. That same year, Lopez starred in the forgettable Anaconda and in Blood and Wine, opposite Jack Nicholson. Her role as federal marshal Karen Sisco in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight, a film based on the Elmore Leonard novel and co-starring George Clooney, further enhanced her image as a bankable movie star.
Lopez's musical career also began to take off, as she released her debut Latin pop album, On the 6 in June 1999. The album, fueled by the success of her hit single, "If You Had My Love," went platinum within two weeks, making Lopez—along with Ricky Martin—one of the most influential examples of the growing Latin cultural influence in pop music.
Early in 2000, Lopez was nominated for Best Dance Performance for her second hit single "Waiting for Tonight," but lost the award to veteran diva Cher . In the summer of 2000, she starred in the science fiction-thriller The Cell, in which she plays a child psychologist helping to track a terrifying serial killer. The same year, she starred in Enough, a portrayal of spousal abuse.
The popularity of the multi-talented Lopez reached new heights in early 2001, when her album, J. Lo debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts, while her film, the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner, shot to the top spot at the box office in its first week of release. In December 2002, she performed another one-two punch with the release of the record This Is Me ... Then and a starring role in the comedy Maid in Manhattan, which was a box office hit, if not a critical one. In 2003, she co-starred with Ben Affleck in the box office bomb, Gigli. Other projects included Jersey Girl (also with Affleck) and An Unfinished Life, in which she played a single mom taken in by her father-in-law played by Robert Redford. She also starred opposite Richard Gere in Shall We Dance?, a remake of the top-grossing Japanese flick.
Lopez was briefly married, in 1997, to Ojani Noa, a model and actor. She then had a lengthy and widely publicized relationship with rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs. In December 1999, Combs and Lopez were allegedly involved in a shooting incident outside a New York City nightclub, in which three people were injured. Combs was later charged with gun possession and bribery, as prosecutors claimed he offered his driver, Wardel Fenderson, $50,000 to say that the loaded gun police found at the scene of the crime was Fenderson's. He was acquitted of all charges, but Combs confirmed in mid-February that he and Lopez had separated.


Shortly after her breakup from Combs was made public, Lopez began dating Cris Judd, a dancer who appeared in the video for her hit single "Love Don't Cost a Thing." After much media speculation, the couple announced their engagement in August 2001. They were married in late September. Nine months later, the couple separated. In the fall of 2002, the star began dating actor Ben Affleck; they announced their engagement in November. Following rumors of the relationship's demise, the couple broke up in early 2004. Lopez subsequently married singer Marc Anthony in June 2004 at a private ceremony at her Los Angeles mansion.
Returning to the big stage, Lopez has found time to join forces with her husband in 2006. She acted along side him in the film El Cantante. In the film, Anthony played Hector Lavoe, the internationally acclaimed salsa singer. True to life, Lopez played Puchi, Lavoe's wife.
In 2007, Lopez released her first Spanish language album, Como Ama una Mujer, which did well on the Latin and pop charts. She found musical success again later that same year with Brave. While the title track has received some attention, Lopez’s personal life has generated more media interest. Once known for her revealing fashions, she started wearing loose-fitting tops, creating speculation about whether she was pregnant. Many photos of her seemed to show a “baby bump,” but the official announcement didn’t come until Nov. 7, 2007 .


Read more »

Albert Einstein


Visit our special ALBERT EINSTEIN Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.

Physicist. Born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. Albert Einstein changed our understanding of the physical world. Considered the one of the greatest thinkers in science ever, he was not such a good student when he was young. Einstein did not like the strict rules he had to follow in school and only really applied himself to the subjects that interested him, such as math and Latin. Outside of his academic studies, he learned to play the violin at the behest of his mother who adored music.
At the age of 10, Einstein enrolled at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich. He did not enjoy his new school any more than his previous one, but he did love studying geometry and tackling mathematical problems. Einstein’s father—who had an electrical business—ran into financial trouble in 1894. Except for Albert, the family moved to Pavia, Italy, to be closer to his mother’s family. Einstein stayed behind to finish the school year, but he did not last long on his own. After one term, he joined his family in Italy.
In 1895, Einstein moved to Aarau, Switzerland, to complete the equivalent of a high school education. There he developed an interest in physics. The following year, Einstein went on to study at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich. He planned on becoming a science teacher. Again, Einstein was not a model student in many ways. He missed some of his classes and only did well in the subjects that he cared about. In spare time, Einstein continued his education on his own, reading physics and philosophy books. He also liked to discuss scientific and political matters with his friends, including Marcel Grossmann, Michele Besso, and Mileva Maric. Maric and Einstein eventually developed a romantic relationship.
After graduating in 1900, Einstein struggled to find work. He became a Swiss citizen the following year. Reuniting with Maric in 1901, Einstein later learned that she was pregnant with his child. Their daughter—named Lieserl—was born in early 1902. According to various accounts, Lieserl was later given up for adoption or sent to live with relatives. A letter from 1903 indicated that she had scarlet fever around this time. But no further mention of the child has been found.
Einstein landed a job at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern in 1902. The next year Maric joined him there and the couple got married. They welcomed their first son, Hans Albert, the following year. Einstein loved his son, but he remained committed to science. Balancing the two, he sometimes rocked his son’s cradle with his foot while reading or prop his books on his son’s stroller while taking a walk.


While Einstein did not secure a teaching position as he had wanted, his job at the patent office gave him the time to do some of his most significant work, writing theoretic papers on physics, most notably his theories of relativity. He was only 26 years old when he published a series of groundbreaking papers. To Einstein scholars, 1905 is remembered as a miracle year for this reason. One of the papers included that now famous equation, E=mc2, which he used to describe the relationship between mass and energy. In the equation, E stands for energy, m for mass, and c2 for the speed of light squared. Scientists were later successful in converting the energy of the mass of uranium into kinetic energy, making an enormously powerful weapon known as the atom bomb.
In 1909, Einstein joined the faculty of University of Zürich as an associate professor. He and his wife had their second son, Eduard, the next year. The Einstein family then moved to Prague where he became a professor at the German University in 1911. A rising star in the field of physics, Einstein was invited to the first ever Solvay Conference in Brussels that same year. The event drew such notable scientists as Marie Curie, Paul Langevin, and Max Planck.
By 1912, Einstein was back in Zürich, teaching theoretical physics at his alma mater. His marriage was beginning to fall apart. Known for his dalliances with other women, he fell for his old friend and cousin Elsa Löwenthal during a visit to Berlin. He sometimes wrote her letters declaring his love for her.
Einstein began working at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1914 and soon finished his work on his general theory of relativity. His family joined him for only a few months before returning to Zürich. Einstein and Maric soon started divorce proceedings.
Einstein and Löwenthal were married in 1919. Two years later, in 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Einstein became a type of scientific star with people crowding lecture hall and auditoriums just to hear him talk about his theories. In the later part of the decade, he worked with Niels Bohr on quantum mechanics at the fifth Solvay Conference.
Over the years, Einstein kept in touch with his sons. Eduard suffered a mental breakdown in 1930. After visiting with Eduard in Switzerland, Einstein tried to find help for his troubled son. Eduard was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent most of adult life in mental health facilities.
Around this time, Einstein made several visits to the United States. He also toured Europe, giving numerous lectures. Everywhere he went, Einstein often spoke out about the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and the country’s anti-Jewish policies. He also vocally supported the creation of a Jewish homeland.
After Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Einstein was seen as an enemy of the state. His homes were raided and his property was seized. This also happened to many other Jewish intellectuals and professionals at the time. After a stay in Belgium, Einstein and Löwenthal traveled to the United States to live. He went to work at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton University in New Jersey. Three years later, Löwenthal died after an illness.
During World War II, Einstein tried to help as many Jewish refugees as he could. A longtime pacifist, Einstein put aside his usual principles to encourage the United States to take action against Nazi Germany. In 1939, he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him that German scientists had been working on an incredibly powerful weapon based on his own formula, E = mc2. The next year, Einstein became a U.S. citizen.
After retiring from the institute in 1945, Albert Einstein spent much of his time giving lectures and speeches. He was asked to become the president of Israel in 1952 but turned it down. His health began to decline soon after. On April 18, 1955, the world lost one of its greatest thinkers when Einstein died of heart failure. Albert Einstein, one of science’s first full-blown celebrities, was named Person of the Century by Time magazine in 2000.

Read more »

Judy Garland



Visit our Judy Garland Tribute Site to find out more about the singer and actress. View Photo Gallery, Timeline, Quiz, and more!


Actress and singer. Born on Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Judy Garland, the star of many classic musical films, was known for her tremendous talent and troubled life. She started out in show business at an early age. The daughter of vaudeville professionals, she started her stage career as a child.
Garland was called “Baby Gumm” and sang “Jingle Bells” at her first public performance at age of two and a half. With her two older sisters, Susie and Jimmie, Garland soon began performing as part of the Gumm Sisters.
In 1926, the Gumm family moved to California where Garland and her sisters studied acting and dancing. They played numerous gigs that their mother Ethel had arranged for them as their manager and agent. In the late 1920s, the Gumm sisters also appeared in several short films.
The Gumm sisters transformed the Garland sisters at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1934. Traveling with their mother, the sisters played at a theater with comedian George Jessel who reportedly suggested they become the Garland sisters. Garland shed her nickname “Baby” in favor of a more mature and vibrant Judy. The following year, she would become a solo act, signing a movie contract with MGM at the age of 13. It was on a radio broadcast that November, however, that Garland debuted one of the songs most closely associated with her, “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart.” Shortly after the program aired, Garland suffered a great personal loss when her father Frank died of spinal meningitis.
Despite her personal anguish, Garland continued on her path to film stardom. One of her first feature film roles was in Pigskin Parade (1936). Playing a girl-next-door type of role, Garland went on to co-star in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) with friend Mickey Rooney. The two proved to be a popular pairing, and they co-starred in several more Andy Hardy films.
Not only was she working a lot, Garland was under pressure from the studio about her looks and her weight. She was given amphetamines to boost her energy and control her weight. Unfortunately, Garland would soon become reliant on this medication as well as needing to take something else to help her sleep. Drug problems would plague her throughout her career.
In 1939, Garland scored one of her greatest on-screen successes with The Wizard of Oz (1939), which showcased her singing talents as well as her acting abilities. Garland received a special Academy Award for her portrayal of Dorothy, the girl from Kansas transported to Oz. She soon made several more musicals, including Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes of Broadway (1942) with Mickey Rooney, and For Me and My Gal (1943) with Gene Kelly.


Garland married for the first time at the age of 19. Her union with bandleader David Rose was decidedly short-lived, however. On the set of Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), another of Garland’s signature films, she met director Vincent Minnelli. She officially divorced Rose in 1945 and soon wed Minnelli. The couple also welcomed a daughter, Liza, in 1946. Unfortunately, Garland’s second marriage only lasted a little longer than her first. The Garland-Minnelli union was practically over by 1949 (they officially divorced in 1952).
Around this time, Garland began to break down emotionally. She was probably exhausted from all of the years of constantly working as well as from all the medications she was to keep herself going. She developed a reputation for being unreliable and unstable. In 1950, MGM dropped her from her contract because of her emotional and physical difficulties. Garland’s career appeared to be spiraling downward.
In 1951, Garland started to rebuild her with help of producer Sid Luft. She starred in her own show on Broadway at the Palace Theater, which drew large crowds and ran for more than 20 weeks. More than simply showcasing her powerful and expressive voice, the revue also proved that Garland was a dedicated performer, helping to dispel the earlier negative stories about her. She earned a special Tony Award for her work on the show and her contributions to vaudeville in 1952.
Garland married Luft in 1952, which was a stormy relationship by some reports. They had two children together—daughter Lorna in 1952 and son Joey in 1955. What ever personal difficulty Garland and Luft had, he had a positive impact on her career and was instrumental in putting together one of her greatest films. Starring opposite James Mason, Garland gave an outstanding performance as a woman who obtains stardom at the price of love in A Star Is Born (1954). Her rendition of “The Man That Got Away” is considered one of her best performances on film. She was nominated for an Academy Award for this film.
In the 1960s, Judy Garland spent more time as a singer than an actress, but she still managed to earn another Academy Award nomination. She played a woman who had been persecuted by the Nazis in 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg. That same year, Garland won two Grammy Awards for Best Solo Vocal Performance and Album of the Year for Judy at Carnegie Hall. Despite all of her success as a singer, these were only Grammy wins of her career.
Garland also tried her hand at series television. In 1963 to 1964, she starred in The Judy Garland Show. The program went through many changes in its short run, but its strongest moments featured Garland at her best—singing. Her two daughters, Lorna Luft and Liza Minnelli, made appearances on the show as did Mickey Rooney. Jazz and pop vocalist Mel Tormé served as the program’s musical advisor. For her work on the show, Garland earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program in 1964.


Although her television series ended, Garland was still in demand as an entertainer, playing gigs around the world. But her personal life was as troubled as ever. After many separations, Garland divorced Luft in 1965 after a bitter battle over child custody. She quickly remarried—this time to actor Mark Herron. But that union lasted only a few months before dissolving. (The pair later officially divorced in 1967.) In 1967, Garland made a critically acclaimed return to Broadway for At Home at the Palace.
The next year, Garland went to London. She was in personal and financial trouble by this time. Making some performances at London’s Talk of the Town nightclub, Garland was clearly not in good shape on stage. She wed former bandleader and club manager Mickey Deans a few months before her death in 1969. Judy Garland died on June 22, 1969, in London, England, reportedly of an accidental overdose.
The legacy of Garland has been carried on by her daughters Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, both of whom are singers and have had varying degrees of success. Lorna wrote about her life with Garland in her 1998 autobiography, Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir. It became the basis for the 2001 television miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Both of the actresses playing Judy—Tammy Blanchard as young Judy and Judy Davis as more mature Judy—took home Emmy Awards for their portrayals of the famed entertainer.
Nearly 40 years after her death, Garland continues to maintain a devoted following. There are countless fan sites online as well as published biographies that explore almost every aspect of her life—from her brilliant talent, her professional successes and failures, and her myriad of personal struggles. In celebration of the late star, the Judy Garland Museum at her birthplace holds an annual festival.


Read more »

Audrey Hepburn


Visit our special AUDREY HEPBURN Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.

Actress, philanthropist. Born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium. A talented performer, Audrey Hepburn was known for her beauty, elegance, and grace. Often imitated, she remains one of Hollywood’s greatest style icons. A native of Brussels, Hepburn spent part of her youth in England at a boarding school there. During much of World War II, she studied at the Arnhem Conservatory in The Netherlands. After the Nazis invaded the country, Hepburn and her mother struggled to survive. She reportedly helped the resistance movement by delivering messages, according to an article in The New York Times.
After the war, Hepburn continued to pursue an interest in dance. She studied ballet in Amsterdam and later in London. In 1948, Hepburn made her stage debut as a chorus girl in the musical High Button Shoes in London. More small parts on the British stage followed. She was a chorus girl in Sauce Tartare (1949), but was moved to a featured player in Sauce Piquante (1950).
That same year, Hepburn made her feature film debut in 1951’s One Wild Oat in an uncredited role. She went on to parts in such films as Young Wives’ Tales (1951) and The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) starring Alec Guiness. Her next project on the New York stage introduced her to American audiences.
At the age of 22, Audrey Hepburn went to New York to star in the Broadway production of Gigi, based on the book by the French writer Colette. Set in Paris around 1900, the comedy focuses on the title character, a young teenage girl on the brink of adulthood. Her relatives try to teach her ways of being a courtesan, to enjoy the benefits of being with a wealthy man without having to marry. They try to get a friend of the family, Gaston, to become her patron, but the young couple has other ideas.
Only a few weeks after the play premiered, news reports indicated that Hepburn was being wooed by Hollywood. Only two years later, she took the world by storm in the film Roman Holiday (1953) with Gregory Peck. Audiences and critics alike were wowed by her portrayal of Princess Ann, the royal who escapes the constrictions of her title for a short time. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this performance.
The next year Hepburn returned to the Broadway stage to star in Ondine with Mel Ferrer. A fantasy, the play told the story of a water nymph who falls in love with a human played by Ferrer. With her lithe and lean frame, Hepburn made a convincing sprite in this sad story about love found and lost. She won the 1954 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. While the leading characters in the play grew apart, the actors found themselves becoming closer. The two also made a dynamic pair off stage and Hepburn and Ferrer got married on September 25, 1954, in Switzerland.


Back on the big screen, Hepburn made another award worthy performance in Sabrina (1954) as the title character, the daughter of a wealthy family’s driver. Sabrina returned home after spending time in Paris as a beautiful and sophisticated woman. The family’s two sons, Linus and David, played by Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, never paid her much mind until her transformation. Pursuing her onetime crush David, Sabrina unexpectedly found happiness with his older brother Linus. Hepburn earned her an Academy Award nomination for her work on this bittersweet romantic comedy.
Showcasing her dancing abilities, Hepburn starred opposite Fred Astaire in the musical Funny Face (1957). This film featured Hepburn undergoing another transformation. This time, she played a beatnik bookstore clerk who gets discovered by a fashion photographer played by Astaire. Lured by a free trip to Paris, the clerk becomes a beautiful model. Hepburn’s clothes for the film were designed by Hubert de Givenchy, one of her close friends.
Stepping away from lighthearted fare, Hepburn co-starred in the film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace with her husband, Mel Ferrer, and Henry Fonda in 1956. Three years later, she played Sister Luke in The Nun’s Story (1959), which earned her an Academy Award nomination. The film focused on her character’s struggle to succeed as a nun. A review in Variety said “Audrey Hepburn has her most demanding film role, and she gives her finest performance.” Following that stellar performance, she went on to star in the John Huston-directed western The Unforgiven (1960) with Burt Lancaster. That same year, her first child, a son named Sean, was born.
Returning to her glamorous roots, Hepburn set new fashion standards as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), which was based on a novella by Truman Capote. She played a seemingly lighthearted, but ultimately troubled New York City party girl who gets involved with a struggling writer played by George Peppard. Hepburn received her fourth Academy Award nomination for her work on the film.
For the rest of the 1960s, Hepburn took on a variety of roles. She starred with Cary Grant in the romantic thriller Charade (1963). Playing the lead in the film version of the popular musical My Fair Lady (1964), she went through one of the most famous metamorphoses of all time. As Eliza Doolittle, she played an English flower girl who becomes a high society lady. Taking on more dramatic fare, she starred a blind woman in the suspenseful tale Wait Until Dark (1967) opposite Alan Arkin. Her character used her wits to overcome the criminals that were harassing her. This film brought her a fifth Academy Award nomination. That same year, Hepburn and her husband separated and later divorced. She married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969, and the couple had a son, Luca, in 1970.


In the 1970s and 1980s, Hepburn worked sporadically. She starred opposite Sean Connery in Robin and Marian (1976), a look at the central figures of the Robin Hood saga in their later years. In 1979, Hepburn co-starred with Ben Gazzara in the crime thriller Bloodline. Hepburn and Gazzara teamed up again for the 1981 comedy They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Her last screen role was in Always (1989) directed by Steven Spielberg.
In her later years, acting took a back seat to her work on behalf of children. She became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF in the late 1980s. Traveling the world, Hepburn tried to raise awareness about children in need. She understood too well what it was like to go hungry from her days in The Netherlands during the German Occupation. Making more than 50 trips, Hepburn visited UNICEF projects in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. She won a special Academy Award for her humanitarian work in 1993, but she did not live long enough to receive it. Hepburn died on January 20, 1993, at her home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland after a battle with colon cancer.
Her work to help children around the world continues. Her sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, along with her companion Robert Wolders, established the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund to continue Hepburn’s humanitarian work in 1994. It is now known as the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.



Read more »

John Lennon


Pop star, composer, songwriter, and recording artist. John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK, during a German air raid in World War II. When he was four years old, Lennon's parents separated and he ended up living with his Aunt Mimi. John's father was a merchant seaman. He was not present at his son's birth and did not see a lot of his son when he was small. Lennon's mother, Julia, remarried, but visited John and Mimi regularly. She taught John how to play the banjo and the piano and purchased his first guitar. John was devastated when Julia was fatally struck by a car driven by an off-duty police officer in July 1958. Her death was one of the most traumatic events in his life. As a child, John was a prankster and he enjoyed getting in trouble. As a boy and young adult, John enjoyed drawing grotesque figures and cripples. John's school master thought that he could go to an art school for college, since he did not get good grades in school, but had artistic talent. At sixteen, Elvis Presley's explosion onto the rock music scene inspired John to create the skiffle band called the "Quarry Men," named after his school. Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church fete on July 6, 1957. John soon invited Paul to join the group and they eventually formed the most successful songwriting partnership in musical history.

McCartney introduced George Harrison to Lennon the following year and he and art college buddy Stuart Sutcliffe also joined Lennon's band. Always in need of a drummer, the group finally settled on Pete Best in 1960. The first recording they made was Buddy Holly's That'll be the Day in mid-1958. In fact, it was Holly's group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. John would later joke that he had a vision when he was 12 years old - a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them "from this day on you are Beatles with an 'A.'" The Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at the Cavern Club, where they were performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with EMI. With a new drummer, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), and George Martin as producer, the group released their first single, Love Me Do in October 1962. It peaked on the British charts at number 17. Lennon wrote the group's follow-up single, Please Please Me, inspired primarily by Roy Orbison but also fed by John's infatuation with the pun in Bing Crosby's famous "Please, lend your little ears to my please." The song topped the charts in Britain. The Beatles went on to become the most popular band in Britain with the release mega-hits like She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. In 1964, The Beatles became the first band to break out big in the United States, beginning with their appearance on TV's The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Beatlemania launched a "British Invasion"' of rock bands into the U.S., which included The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. After 'Sullivan,' The Beatles returned to Britain to film their first movie, A Hard Day's Night and prepare for their first world tour.
The Beatles:
The Beatles followed up with their second movie Help! in 1965. In June, the Queen of England had announced that the Beatles would be awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). In August, they performed to 55,600 fans at New York's Shea Stadium, setting a record for largest concert audience. When they returned to England, they recorded the breakthrough album Rubber Soul, which extended beyond love songs and pop formulas. The magic of Beatlemania had started to lose its appeal by 1966. The group's lives were put in danger when they were accused of snubbing the presidential family in the Philippines. Then, Lennon's remark that "we're more popular than Jesus now" incited denunciations and Beatles record bonfires in the U.S. bible belt. The Beatles gave up touring after an August 29, 1966, concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. After an extended break, the band returned to the studio to expand their experimental with drug-influenced exotic instrumentation/lyrics and tape abstractions. The first sample was the single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever, followed up by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, still considered by many to be the greatest rock album ever. The Beatles then suffered a huge blow when Epstein died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills on August 27, 1967. Shaken by Epstein's death, the Beatles retrenched under McCartney's leadership in the fall and filmed Magical Mystery Tour. While the film was panned by critics, the soundtrack album contained Lennon's I Am The Walrus, their most cryptic work yet.
Music in Crisis:
After the Magical Mystery Tour film failed, the Beatles retreated into Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which took them to India for two months in early 1968. Their next effort, Apple Corps Ltd. was plagued by mismanagement. In July, the group faced its last hysterical crowds at the premiere of their film Yellow Submarine. In November, their double-album The Beatles (frequently called the White Album) showed their divergent directions. Lennon had married Cynthia Powell in August 1962 and they had a son together who they called Julian, named after John's mother. Cynthia had to keep a very low profile during Beatlemania. They divorced in 1968 and he re-married Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met at the Indica Gallery in November 1966. John and Yoko's artist partnership began to cause further tensions within the group. Together they invented a form of peace protest by staying in bed while being filmed and interviewed, and the single recorded under the name of The Plastic Ono Band, Give Peace a Chance (1969), became the national anthem for pacifists. Lennon left The Beatles in September 1969, just after the group completed recording Abbey Road. The news of the breakup was kept secret until McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, a month before the band released Let It Be, recorded just before Abbey Road.
Post-Beatles
After the Beatles broke up, Lennon released Plastic Ono Band, with a raw, minimalist sound that followed "primal-scream" therapy. In 1971, he followed up with Imagine, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of all John Lennon's post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later listed as the third all-time best song by Rolling Stone magazine. Peace and love, however, was not always on Lennon's agenda. Imagine also included the track How Do You Sleep?, a nasty response to veiled messages at Lennon in some of McCartney's solo recordings. Later, the former songwriting duo buried the hatchet, but never formally worked together again. Lennon and Ono moved to the U.S. in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon administration. Lennon was told he was being kicked out of the country because of his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain. But Lennon believed the true reason was his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. Two years after Nixon resigned, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency in 1976. In 1972, Lennon performed at Madison Square Garden to benefit mentally handicapped children and continued to promote peace while battling to stay in the U.S. That immigration battle took a toll on the Lennon's marriage and in the fall of 1973, they separated. John went to Los Angeles, where he partied and took a mistress, May Pang. He still managed to release hit albums, such as Mind Games, Walls and Bridges and Rock and Roll and collaborate with David Bowie and Elton John.
Assassination:
In the end, Lennon realized he really loved Yoko and he could not live without her. They reconciled and she gave birth to their only child, Sean, on Lennon's 35th birthday. John decided to leave the music business to raise his son and become a house husband. In 1980, Lennon returned to the music world with the album Double Fantasy, featuring the hit single (Just Like) Starting Over. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after its release, Lennon was shot by a deranged fan in front of his apartment complex in New York. Lennon died of the age of 40 at the Roosevelt Hospital on December 8, 1980, after receiving multiple gun shots in the back. His death affected millions of people, record sales soared, and he continues to be admired by new generations of fans.


Read more »

Anna Nicole


Visit our special ANNA NICOLE SMITH Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.
California authorities served eight search warrants Friday (Oct. 12, 2007) in connection with the investigation into the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the prescription drugs she took.

Officials identified the two doctors as Sandeep Kapoor, who prescribed methadone to Smith shortly before she died in February, and Kristine Eroshevich, who, according to documents obtained by Associated Press, authorized all eleven prescriptions found in Smith's hotel room the day she died.

Anna Nicole Smith died on February 8, 2007, at the age of 39, after being found unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Authorities announced seven weeks afterward that the cause of death was an accidental drug overdose. Smith had been taking nine different kinds of medication in the days before her death.

Born Vickie Lynn Hogan on November 28, 1967, in Mexia, Texas, Anna Nicole Smith rose to fame as a model for Guess jeans and for Playboy magazine. She was even named Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993. The curvy blonde has also appeared in a few films, such as Naked Gun 33 1/3 and The Hudsucker Proxy, both in 1994.

A high school dropout, Smith’s dramatic life began quietly in a small Texas town. She had a difficult childhood, growing up without her father who left the family. Smith married Billy Smith when she was only 17 years old. The couple had a son named Daniel in 1984, but the marriage later broke up. Not content with small-town life, Smith dreamed of becoming the next Marilyn Monroe.
Before her big break, she worked numerous jobs, including as a waitress and later a dancer in a strip club. While working at a club in Houston , Smith met Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. They married in 1994. At the time, she was 26 and he was 89. The marriage ended with Marshall 's death the following year. Smith spent years fighting his son, E. Pierce Marshall, in court over her husband’s estate. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. The court's decision opened the door to Anna Nicole Smith collecting some money from her late husband's estate.
Despite her legal woes, Smith stayed in the spotlight. With her Marilyn Monroe-styled hair and Texas accent, she was a fixture in celebrity magazines and tabloids. In 2002, television viewers got inside look at the life of this wacky, quirky celebrity with a new series. The Anna Nicole Show, a reality program, followed her through her daily activities. At times, the show was difficult to watch as Smith seemed disoriented or confused, but the audience continued to tune in to see what Smith might do or say next. She was often shown in the company of Howard K. Stern, her attorney. While the show went off the air in 2004, Smith remained popular with the American public.

Having struggled with her weight on and off for years, Smith became a spokesperson for a line of diet products. She lost a significant amount of weight and looked better than she had in years. Smith returned to acting with a starring role in 2006’s science fiction-comedy Illegal Aliens. Her son Daniel also worked on the project with her.
While her professional life appeared to be on the rise, Smith experienced both joy and tragedy in her personal life. She announced that she was pregnant during the summer of 2006 and gave birth to a daughter on September 7 at a hospital in Nassau, Bahamas . She named her child Dannielynn, and was thrilled to be a mother again. But her happiness was short-lived. Her 20-year-old son Daniel died only three days later from an apparent drug overdose. Later reports indicated that the interaction of methadone and two different types of antidepressants may have caused his death. The investigation into his death remains ongoing, and Smith never truly recovered from this devastating loss.

Smith found herself in the middle of media frenzy with reports on her son’s death appearing on entertainment news programs on an almost daily basis. She also became embroiled in a paternity lawsuit regarding her daughter. Her ex-boyfriend, photographer Larry Birkhead, claimed to be Dannielynn’s father. Smith stated that her attorney, Howard K. Stern, was the child’s father, and he is listed on the child’s birth certificate. In the midst of all this heartbreak and legal battles, Smith and Stern held a small commitment ceremony, after which they ate fried chicken and drank champagne. While the event symbolized their devotion to each other, it was not legally binding.

After Smith’s death in February 2007, there was much speculation regarding the paternity of her daughter, including one claim made by Prince Frederick von Anhalt, Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband. He told the Associated Press that he had an affair with Anna Nicole Smith and believed that he was Dannielynn's father. In April 2007, it was determined by DNA test results that Larry Birkhead is the biological father of Dannielynn. Howard K. Stern has said that he would not fight this ruling and that custody transition is expected, though at this time there is not a formal ruling on the matter.

In death as in life, Smith made headlines around the world. As a tribute, Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner told the press at the time: “She was a very dear friend who meant a great deal to Playboy and to me personally.”
While ridiculed by some for her spacey persona, Smith was also admired for her rise to success despite so many personal obstacles. Perhaps the quintessential underdog, Smith had lots of fans rooting for her to overcome the recent tragedies. Unfortunately, that was not to be. After her death, she has been compared to many of Hollywood ’s beautiful women who died too young, including Jean Harlow and Smith’s personal favorite, Marilyn Monroe.

Read more »

Marilyn Monroe


Visit our special MARILYN MONROE Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.
Actress. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (later baptized as Norma Jeane Baker) on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become of the world’s biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She never knew her father, and her mother Gladys developed psychiatric problems and was eventually placed in a mental institution. Growing up, Monroe spent much of her time in foster care and in an orphanage. In 1937, a family friend and her husband, Grace and Doc Goddard, took care of her for a few years. But when Doc’s job was transferred in 1942 to the East Coast, the couple could not afford to bring Monroe with them.
Once again, Monroe faced life in foster care. But she had one way out—get married. She wed her boyfriend Jimmy Dougherty on June 19, 1942. A merchant marine, Dougherty was later sent to the South Pacific. Monroe went to work in a munitions factory in Burbank where she was discovered by a photographer. By the time Dougherty returned in 1946, Monroe had a successful career as a model. She dreamt of becoming an actress like Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.
Her marriage fizzled out as Monroe focused more on her career. The couple divorced in 1946—the same year she signed her first movie contract. With the movie contract came a new name and image, she began calling herself “Marilyn Monroe” and dyed her hair blonde. But her acting career didn’t really take off until the 1950s. Her small part in John Huston’s crime drama The Asphalt Jungle (1950) garnered her a lot of attention. That same year she impressed audiences and critics alike as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve, starring Bette Davis.
In 1953, Monroe made a star-making turn in Niagara, starring as a young married woman out to kill her husband with help from her lover. The emerging sex symbol was paired with another bombshell, Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). The film was a hit and Monroe continued to find success in a string of light comedic fare, such as How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, There’s No Business like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor, and The Seven Year Itch (1955). With her breathy voice and hourglass figure, Monroe became a much-admired international star.
Tired of bubbly, dumb blonde roles, Monroe moved to New York City to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio. She returned to the screen in the dramatic comedy Bus Stop (1956), playing a saloon singer kidnapped by a rancher who has fallen in love with her. She received mostly praise for her performance.

In 1959, Monroe returned to familiar territory with the wildly popular comedy Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. She played Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, a singer who hopes to marry a millionaire in this humorous film in which Lemmon and Curtis pretend to be women. They are on the run from the mob after witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and hide out with an all-girl orchestra featuring Monroe. Her work on the film earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy.

Reunited with John Huston, Monroe starred opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift in The Misfits (1961). Set in Nevada, this adventure drama features Monroe who falls for Gable’s cowboy, but battles him over the fate of some wild mustangs. This was her last completed film.
In 1962, Monroe was dismissed from Something’s Got to Give—also starring Dean Martin—for missing so many days of filming. According to an article in The New York Times, the actress claimed that the absences were due to illness. Martin declined to make the film without her so the studio shelved the picture.
Her professional and personal life seemed to be in turmoil. Her last two films, Let’s Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961) were box office disappointments, and she got herself fired from her last project. In her personal life, she had a string of unsuccessful marriages and relationships. Her 1954 marriage to baseball great Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months, and she was wed to playwright Arthur Miller from 1956 to 1961. There have also been rumors that she was involved with President John F. Kennedy and/or his brother Robert around the time of her death.
At only 36 years old, Marilyn Monroe died on August 5, 1962, at her Los Angeles home. An empty bottle of sleeping pills were found by her bed. There has been some speculation over the years that she may have been murdered, but it was officially ruled as a drug overdose.
During her career, Monroe’s films grossed more than $200 million. She still remains popular today as an icon of sex appeal and beauty.

Read more »

Princess of Wales Diana


Visit our special PRINCESS DIANA Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.

In The Headlines: Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed by the reckless actions of their chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers pursuing her car, a London jury ruled Monday (April 7, 2008).
The jury returned joint verdicts of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving — or gross negligence manslaughter — after four days of deliberations. It was the most serious verdict available to them.
Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed died in 1997 when their speeding car slammed into a concrete pillar in Paris while it was being chased by photographers in cars and on motorbikes. The jury also ruled that the couple’s failure to wear seatbelts was a contributing factor.
The six women and five men on the jury began deliberating April 2 after hearing six months of testimony from more than 240 witnesses. They also went to Paris to see the scene of the Aug. 31, 1997 crash.
The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, prevented the jury from considering the possibility that the couple were victims of a murder plot, saying there was no evidence. Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, had claimed that Prince Philip (the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and father of Diana’s ex-husband Prince Charles) directed British secret agents to carry out the plot, in part because Diana was carrying Dodi Fayed's child.

The day after jurors were sworn in on Oct. 2, 2007, Baker informed the jury that no pregnancy tests were conducted on Diana's body and that there were no visible clues she was pregnant. But he added that at an early stage, there might be no outward signs.

It was also determined that Princess Diana was taking a contraceptive pill during the time before her death.

Letters from Diana to Fayed were read Dec. 14 at the inquest. In one, Diana thanked Fayed for a holiday on his yacht in the summer of 1997, expressing "a million heartfelt thanks for bringing such joy into this chick's life." A second letter was sent with a gift of cufflinks.

"Darling Dodi," she wrote, "these cufflinks were the very last gift from the man I loved most in the world, my father."

"They are given to you as I know how much joy it would give him to know they were in such safe and special hands. Fondest love, Diana."

But Princess Diana's butler and confidant for a decade described Diana's romance with Fayed as a "30-day relationship." Paul Burrell testified Jan. 14, 2008, that she gave no sign that she planned to marry Fayed before the couple’s death. He said he believed Diana would have made more arrangements if a wedding announcement had been planned.

"I think she would have cleared the decks and made space, certainly in the week preceding the announcement," he told the inquest.

Burrell said the princess was on the rebound from a secret two-year relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.

"I want another marriage like I want a bad rash," Burrell has quoted Diana as saying in a telephone conversation when she was with Fayed in France.

Burrell also testified that Diana's relationships with Khan and Fayed, two Muslim men, provoked an outburst from her mother, who called her daughter "a whore."

Burrell told the inquest that Diana asked him to listen in on a conversation in June 1997 with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd (died 2004), who was critical of her relationships with Muslim men.

"She called the princess a 'whore' and she said that she was messing around with 'effing Muslim men' and she was 'disgraceful' and said some very nasty things," Burrell said. He agreed that, as a result of such calls Diana decided not to talk to her mother again.

The inquest also heard extensive testimony about the crash itself. One of the first witnesses to reach the scene told the inquest on Oct. 25 that Diana repeated the words "oh my god, oh my god" as she lay in the smoking wreckage. Damian Dalby‘s testimony contradicted earlier suggestions that she was never conscious enough to speak after the crash.

Dalby, who was a volunteer French firefighter at the time, said the car was surrounded by photographers, but they did not interfere with rescue efforts. Dalby said police soon arrived and moved the photographers away. At one point, it was revealed that Diana was so agitated in the moments following her fatal 1997 car crash that she tore out an intravenous drip the medics had inserted into her arm, according to a French doctor.

Andre Lienhart, who studied the princess' treatment for a French investigating magistrate, testified Nov. 20 that medics had to restrain and sedate Diana, who was thrashing and shouting incoherently, before they could get her out of the mangled vehicle. He said a medical assistant reportedly had to hold Diana's arm by force to insert an IV drip, but the princess quickly pulled it out.

The court also heard that the force of the impact caused a key blood vessel attached to Diana's heart to tear. It also damaged the pericardium, the organ's casing. As a result the princess, who was not wearing a seatbelt, suffered massive internal bleeding when the car crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris while being pursued by paparazzi. Diana survived for three and a half hours after the crash but was finally declared dead at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital following cardiac arrest and nearly two hours of open heart massage.
The inquest had been delayed for 10 years because of two exhaustive investigations by French and British police. Both concluded that the couple's driver, Henri Paul, was drunk, driving too fast and that the deaths were an accident.
Biography: Born Diana Spencer on July 1, 1961 , near Sandringham, England, Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of the most adored members of the British royal family. She was the daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, Viscountess Althorp (later known as the Honorable Frances Shand Kydd). Her parents divorced when Diana was young, and her father won custody of her and her siblings. She was educated first at Riddlesworth Hall and then went to boarding school at West Heath School.

She became Lady Diana Spencer after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. Although she was known for her shyness growing up, she did show an interest in music and dancing. Diana also had a great fondness for children. After attending finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School.

Diana was no stranger to the British royal family, having reportedly played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as a child while her family rented Park House, an estate owned by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1977, she became reacquainted with their older brother, Prince Charles, who was 13 years her senior. As the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles was usually the subject of media attention and his courtship of Diana was no exception. The press and the public were fascinated by this seemingly odd couple—the reserved, horse and garden-loving prince and the shy, young woman with an interest in fashion and popular culture. When the couple married on July 29, 1981 , the ceremony was broadcast on television around the world, with millions of people tuning in to see what many considered to be the wedding of the century.

On June 21, 1982 , Diana and Charles had their first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis. He was joined by a brother, Prince Henry Charles Albert David—known widely as "Prince Harry"—more than two years later on September 15, 1984 . Initially overwhelmed by her royal duties and the intense media coverage of nearly every aspect of her life, she began to develop and pursue her own interests. Diana served a strong supporter of many charities and worked to help the homeless, people living with HIV and AIDS, and children in need.

Unfortunately, the fairy tale wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles did not lead to a happily-ever-after type of marriage. The two became estranged over the years, and there were reports of infidelities by both parties. During their union, Diana struggled with depression and bulimia. The couple’s separation was announced in December 1992 by British Prime Minister John Major, who read a statement from the royal family to the House of Commons. The divorce was finalized in 1996.

Even after the divorce, Diana maintained a high level of popularity. She devoted herself to her sons and to such charitable efforts as the battle against the use of land mines. Diana used her international celebrity to help raise awareness about this issue. She also continued to experience the negative aspects of fame—her 1997 romance with Egyptian film producer and playboy Dodi Al-Fayed caused quite a stir and created a media frenzy. While visiting Paris, the couple was involved in a car crash after trying to escape from the paparazzi on the night of August 30, 1997 .

Diana initially survived the crash, but later succumbed to her injuries at a Paris hospital a few hours later. Al-Fayed and the driver were also killed, and a bodyguard was seriously injured. French authorities investigated the crash and the driver was found to have a high level of alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. The role of the pursuing photographers in the tragedy was also scrutinized.

News of her sudden, senseless death shocked the world. Thousands turned out to pay tribute to the "people’s princess" during her funeral procession. The funeral was held at Westminister Abbey, which was broadcast on television. Her body was later buried at her family’s estate, Althorp.

In 2007, marking the tenth anniversary of her death, her sons, Princes William and Harry, honored their beloved mother with a special concert to be held on what would have been her forty-sixth birthday. The proceeds of the event will go to charities supported by Diana and her sons.

Continuing her charitable efforts is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. Established after her death, the fund provides grants to numerous organizations and supports initiatives to provide care to the sick in Africa , to help refugees, and to stop the use of land mines among other efforts.


Read more »

Tera Patrick



Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Measurements: 36D-25-36
Nationality: British / Thai

Tera Patrick Biography
Tera Patrick (born Linda Ann Hopkins on July 25, 1976 in Great Falls, Montana) is an American pornographic actress.Patrick was born in Great Falls, Montana to an English father and Thai mother; her parents had originally met in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. While Tera was young, her mother moved back to Thailand, and her father moved with her to San Francisco, California and raised her there himself.Although it is often stated on the internet that Patrick's father is English but ethnically Jewish, she has confirmed that this rumor is untrue.Patrick was discovered in San Francisco by a talent scout for the Eileen Ford Modeling Agency, and at the age of 13 she was signed to a contract to be a model. She moved to New York City shortly thereafter and her career as a runway and catalog model began. At 18, she left the world of modeling and enrolled at Boise State University where she received her associate's (two year) degree in nursing and a BS in Microbiology. She then transferred to University of California, Santa Barbara, where for financial reasons she began modeling again.In an interview with the Adult Film Database in February of 2007, Patrick stated she will only continue to work in front of the camera for two more years, but plans on releasing her starring adult titles over the next decade. The March 2007 DVD release, 'inTERActive' set the record as the fastest selling Hustler release ever.Patrick has been a frequent and favorite guest of Howard Stern on his TV and radio programs. She was featured on the cover of the July 2006 edition of the more mainstream FHM, revealing candid details in an interview inside. Patrick, who had been named one of FHM's 100 sexiest women, was the first porn star to appear on the cover. Tera also appeared, as herself, in episode 63 of the cartoon series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which first aired November 19, 2006.In December 2002, she severed ties with Digital Playground, and brought suit against them, contending she was not paid for her appearance in several Digital Playground productions. Digital Playground's countersuit contended that it owns exclusive rights to the name "Tera Patrick," and that she is signed up to produce adult entertainment only for them until January 2008. Despite her ongoing lawsuits with Digital Playground, Patrick signed a two-year exclusive contract with Vivid Video in December 2003.In April 2007, Patrick and her production company Teravision filed a lawsuit against Jenna Jameson and Playboy Enterprises (the new owners of Club Jenna) for failing to properly account for and pay royalties on monies earned by Patrick's website clubtera.com.In 2003, Patrick became the masthead publisher of Genesis magazine, a popular men's magazine which subtitles itself, "The Home of Porn's Hottest Stars." Since she has signed the contract with Genesis, Patrick has graced the cover of seven issues of the publication.On January 9, 2004, Patrick married Evan Seinfeld in a small ceremony, after a 3-year relationship, in Las Vegas where they were attending the 2004 AVN Awards show. In November of 2006, Patrick starred in a Vivid/Teravision production titled "Tera Patrick's Fashion Underground" where she performed with Jean Val Jean and Tommy Gunn. In the same film her husband, under the name Spyder Jonez, performed with Lanny Barbie. This was the first time in over 3 years that the two had deviated from their agreement to be each others' exclusive (on-screen) "boy/girl"-scene partner(s). The two have made five movies for Vivid and ten for Teravision (with Seinfeld appearing under the name "Spyder Jonez"; he has also directed some features).In 2005, Patrick and Evan launched a talent agency representing models and actors/actresses. According to a quote on the agency's website, Patrick's goal, "is to help girls (and guys) in the business to be treated with respect, and realize their true potential..." She also owns a production company called "Teravision", which along with Vivid Video released its first feature, "Desperate", starring Patrick and Evan. In April 2006 it was announced that she would host the Exxxotica Miami convention.


Read more »

Madonna



In the News : Madonna and Guy Ritchie are set to initiate divorce proceedings on Friday (November 21, 2008), according to the London High Court schedule. After the hearing, the couple will most likely be granted a final divorce decree in a little over a month.
According to reporters, the couple reached a settlement allowing the pop icon to keep the majority of her nearly $445 million in assets. They will also share custody of eight-year-old Rocco, and three-year-old David Banda. Madonna's 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, a child from her previous relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon, will live with her mother.
Sources say that, after the split, Madonna will head back to the U.S, while Ritchie continues living in Britain.
Biography : Singer, performer, actress. Born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958, to parents Silvio "Tony" Ciccone and Madonna Fortin. Tony, the son of Italian immigrants, was the first of his family to go to college, where he earned a degree in engineering. Madonna's mother, an x-ray technician and former dancer, was of French Canadian descent. After their marriage in 1955, the couple moved to Pontiac, Michigan, to be close to Tony's job as a defense engineer. Madonna was born three years later, during a visit with family in Bay City. The third of six children, Madonna learned early on how to handle her role as the middle child, admitting that she was "the sissy of the family" who often used her feminine wiles to get her way.
Her parents' strict observation of the Catholic faith played a large role in Madonna's childhood. "My mother was a religious zealot," Madonna explains. "There were always priests and nuns in my house growing up." Many elements of Catholic iconography-including her mother's statues of the Sacred Heart, the habits of the nuns at her Catholic elementary school, and the Catholic altar at which she and her family prayed daily-later became the subject of Madonna's most controversial works.

Another heavy influence on Madonna's early life was her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer during her pregnancy with Madonna's youngest sister. Treatment had to be delayed until the baby reached full term, but by then the disease had grown too strong. On December 1st, 1963, at the age of 30, her mother passed away. Madonna was five years old.

Her mother's death significantly affected Madonna's adolescence. Haunted by the memories of her mother's frailty and passive demeanor during her final days, Madonna was determined to make her own voice heard. "I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother," she says. "For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations."
She fought especially hard against the rules imposed by her stepmother, Joan Gustafson, who met Madonna's father while working as the family housekeeper. Madonna says Gustafson often made her take care of the younger children in the household, a task she greatly resented. "I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella," Madonna later said. "I think that's when I really thought about how I wanted to do something else and get away from all that." She rebelled against her traditional upbringing by turning her conservative clothing into revealing outfits, frequenting underground gay nightclubs, and rejecting her religious background.

But Madonna balanced this insubordinate side of her personality with a drive for perfectionism and high-achievement. She was a straight-A student, cheerleader, and disciplined dancer who graduated from high school a semester earlier than her peers. In 1976, her hard work earned her the attentions of the University of Michigan, which offered her a full scholarship to their dance program.

In 1977, during her undergraduate studies at Michigan, Madonna was awarded a six-week scholarship to study with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, followed by a rare opportunity to perform with choreographer Pearl Lang in 1978. At the urging of her dance instructor, the budding star dropped out of college after only two years of study in order to move to New York and further her dance career.

Once in New York, Madonna paid her rent with a handful of odd jobs, including nude art modeling, serving at the Russian Tea Room, and performing for the American Dance Center. In 1979, Madonna began dating Dan Gilroy, one of the founding members of a ska influenced pop-punk band called Breakfast Club. Gilroy introduced Madonna to the head of a vaudeville review in Paris, and she spent some time in France working as a showgirl. During this trip she fell in love with the combination of singing and performing. When she returned to the states in 1980, she joined Gilroy's band as its drummer and later became its lead singer. Madonna formed several different bands of her own over the next few years, including Madonna & The Sky, The Millionaires and Emmy.

In 1981, Madonna decided to go solo and hired manager Camille Barbone of Gotham Records, to help her get her singing career on track. Camille showed Madonna how to navigate the male-dominated world of the music business, and helped put together a studio band that accentuated the budding star's hip style. Friend Stephen Bray, a musician in her band, wrote her first hit, "Everybody", and Madonna used her brash business style to get the recordings to DJ and New York music producer Mark Kamins. Kamins then helped Madonna score a record deal with Sire Records. "Everybody" hit number one on the dance charts in 1982.
Using the success of the song as leverage, Madonna convinced Sire to produce the full-length album, Madonna, in 1983. The album was a slow but steady success, and included the hit singles "Borderline", "Lucky Star", and "Holiday." Soon, girls all over the country were imitating Madonna's distinct sense of fashion, which included fishnet stockings, lace lingerie, fingerless gloves and large crucifix necklaces. The song "Holiday" also earned the singer an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand in 1984. During her interview on the show, she told Clark that her main ambition was "to rule the world."

This intensity and determination was apparent in her 1985 follow-up album, Like a Virgin, which hit number one on the Billboard Chart and went platinum within a month. She also starred in her first mainstream feature film, Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), and performed its title track, "Crazy for You", which became an instant number-one hit. She then started her first music tour, The Virgin Tour and watched 17 consecutive songs climb into the Top Ten on the Billboard Chart.

In the next five years, Madonna's life was a whirlwind of activity. On August 16, 1985, she married actor Sean Penn and co-starred with him in the film Shanghai Surprise (1986). She then went on to star in three more movies during the 80's: Who's That Girl? (1987), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) and Dick Tracy (1990). Madonna's soundtrack album I'm Breathless: Music from and Inspired by Dick Tracy resulted in two top-ten hits: "Vogue" and "Hanky Panky." She also produced four more hit albums: True Blue (1986), Who's that Girl? (1987), You Can Dance (1987), and Like a Prayer (1989).

But, as always, Madonna mixed her drive for success with her penchant for scandalous behavior. It started with her controversial 1985 performance of her hit single "Like a Virgin" on the MTV music awards, which involved writhing around suggestively onstage in a wedding dress. Then came her marriage to Sean Penn, which was marred by reports of domestic violence and his assault of a photographer--behavior that landed him a month's jail time, and eventually led to the couple's very public divorce. This was followed by the debut of Madonna's1989 "Like a Prayer" video, which was to be aired on MTV as part of a lucrative Pepsi endorsement. The video featured interracial relationship themes, burning crosses, and a blending of sexual innuendo and religious ideologies. As a result of the video, the Pope John Paul II urged fans not to attend her concerts in Italy and Pepsi pulled their endorsement of the star.
Despite the public outcry, Madonna had become more popular than ever. By 1991, she had achieved 21 Top Ten hits in the United States and sold more than 70 million albums internationally, generating $1.2 billion in sales. Committed to controlling her career, Madonna helped found Maverick Records, a label under the Warner Music Group, in April of 1992.

She also continued to gain attention by pushing social boundaries. First came the documentary Truth or Dare (1991), a revealing documentary about her "Blonde Ambition" tour. This was followed by the publishing of Sex (1992), a soft-core pornographic coffee-table book featuring the pop star in a variety of erotic poses. Despite its controversial nature, Sex sold 150,000 copies on the day of its release in the USA alone. Three days later, all 1.5 million copies of the first edition were sold out worldwide, making it the most successful coffee table book ever released. The album, Erotica (1992), was unveiled at the same time and proved equally successful: by the end of 1993 it had reached double platinum status.

By 1996, Madonna had proven her versatility as a star in both film and music. She starred in the critically acclaimed film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita (1996). She won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, and the song, "You Must Love Me," earned her an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. She also became a mother that same year, giving birth to Lourdes Maria (Lola) Ciccone Leon, whom she had with her lover and personal trainer, Carlos Leon.

She solidified her reinvention as the more mature, family-friendly Madonna when she married British director Guy Ritchie in 2000. She gave birth to their son, Rocco John Ritchie, the same year. She then made the move from the big screen to the London West End stage in the play Up for Grabs (2002), and wrote her first children's book, The English Roses, in 2003. Madonna was inducted into the inaugural UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. With the release of her 2005 album Confessions on a Dancefloor, Madonna became the artist with the most gold certified singles in the US, beating the Beatles' long-standing record.

On the eve of her 50th birthday, Madonna faced fresh challenges in her personal life. She spent much of the last year fighting allegations that she circumvented traditional Malawi laws to bring home her newly adopted son, David Banda, whom she had been raising since 2006. Critics accused Madonna of using her vast wealth to fast-track the adoption process, a charge she has vigorously denied. A coalition of 67 local rights groups had challenged the interim custody order on the grounds that existing laws in Malawi do not allow for international adoptions. Madonna’s application to permanently adopt the boy was approved by Malawai’s high court on May 28, 2008, the pop star’s lawyer said. "It's a beautiful and positive judgment," Alan Chinula told reporters."Finally the court has granted Madonna full adoption rights of the boy ... It's all over, thank God."
She also denied reports she was seeking a divorce from husband Guy Ritchie, and that she was romantically linked to baseball star Alex Rodriquez. In October of 2008, however, Madonna announced that she and Ritchie were officially splitting after eight years of marriage.

Yet her professional life continued to boom: In January she was named the world's wealthiest female musician by Forbes magazine, with estimated earnings of more than $72 million in the last year alone. Madonna earned much of this income from her H&M clothing line, a deal with NBC to air concert footage, and her Confessions tour-the highest-grossing tour for a female artist to date. She also continues to sing, act and manage a number of business interests, splitting her time between the UK and the USA. She was the writer and executive producer of I Am Because We Are, a documentary about the lives of Malawi's AIDS orphans, and the arthouse film, Filth and Wisdom. Her album Hard Candy was released in April, and she is currently performing in her Sticky and Sweet tour.

Read more »

Bruce Lee


Visit our special BRUCE LEE Tribute Site for photo gallery, timeline, and more.


Actor, martial arts expert. Born Lee Jun Fan, on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. His father, a Hong Kong opera singer, moved with his wife and three children to the United States in 1939; his fourth child, a son, was born while he was on tour in San Francisco. Lee’s mother called him “Bruce,” which means “strong one” in Gaelic. Young Bruce appeared in his first film at the age of three months, when he served as the stand-in for an American baby in Golden Gate Girl.
In 1941, the Lees moved back to Hong Kong, then occupied by the Japanese. Apparently a natural in front of the camera, Bruce Lee appeared in roughly 20 films as a child actor, beginning in 1946. He also studied dance, once winning a cha-cha competition. As a teenager, he became a member of a Hong Kong street gang, and in 1953 began studying kung fu to sharpen his fighting skills. In 1959, after Lee got into trouble with the police for fighting, his mother sent him back to the U.S. to live with family friends outside Seattle, Washington.
Lee finished high school in Edison, Washington, and subsequently enrolled as a philosophy major at the University of Washington. He also got a job teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learned in Hong Kong to his fellow students and others. Through his teaching, Lee met Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964. By that time, Lee had opened his own martial arts school in Seattle. He and Linda soon moved to California, where Lee opened two more schools in Los Angeles and Oakland. At his schools, Lee taught mostly a style he called Jeet Kune Do.
Lee gained a measure of celebrity with his role in the television series The Green Hornet, which aired from 1966 to 1967. In the show, which was based on a 1930s radio program, the small, wiry Lee displayed his acrobatic and theatrical fighting style as the Hornet’s loyal sidekick, Kato. He went on to make guest appearances in such TV shows as Ironside and Longstreet, while his most notable role came in the 1969 film Marlowe, starring James Garner. Confronted with the dearth of meaty roles and the prevalence of stereotypes regarding actors of Asian heritage, Lee left Los Angeles for Hong Kong in 1971, with his wife and two children (Brandon, born in 1965, and Shannon, born in 1967).
Back in the city where he had grown up, Lee signed a two-film contract. Fists of Fury (its U.S. title) was released in late 1971, featuring Lee as a vengeful fighter chasing the villains who had killed his kung-fu master. Combining his smooth Jeet Kune Do athleticism with the high-energy theatrics of his performance in The Green Hornet, Lee was the charismatic center of the film, which set new box office records in Hong Kong. Those records were broken by Lee’s next film, The Chinese Connection (1972), which, like Fists of Fury, received poor reviews from critics when they were released in the U.S.


By the end of 1972, Lee was a major movie star in Asia. He had founded his own production company, Concord Pictures, and had released his first directorial feature, Way of the Dragon. Though he had not yet gained stardom in America, he was poised on the brink with his second directorial feature and first major Hollywood project, Enter the Dragon.
On July 20, 1973, just one month before the premiere of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee died in Hong Kong at the age of 32. The official cause of his sudden and utterly unexpected death was a brain edema, found in an autopsy to have been caused by a strange reaction to a prescription painkiller he was reportedly taking for a back injury. Controversy surrounded Lee’s death from the beginning, as some claimed he had been murdered. He was also widely believed to have been cursed, a conclusion driven by Lee’s obsession with his own early death. (The tragedy of the so-called curse was compounded in 1993, when Brandon Lee was killed under similarly mysterious circumstances during the filming of The Crow. The 28-year-old actor was fatally shot with a gun that supposedly contained blanks but somehow had a live round lodged deep within its barrel.)
With the posthumous release of Enter the Dragon, Lee’s status as a film icon was confirmed. The film went on to gross a total of over $200 million, and Lee’s legacy created a whole new breed of action hero—a mold filled with varying degrees of success by such actors as Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Jackie Chan.


Bruce Lee - Deathaversary web site for Bruce Lee Timeline and more about this legendary martial artist.


Read more »

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)