George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Bush was born in New Haven and grew up in Texas. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and unsuccessfully ran for the U. S. House of Representatives shortly thereafter, he co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. Bush was elected President of the United States in 2000 when he defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore after a close and controversial win that involved a stopped recount in Florida, he became the fourth person to be elected president while receiving fewer popular votes than his opponent. Bush is a member of a prominent political family and is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States.
He is only the second president to assume the nation's highest office after his father, following the footsteps of John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. His brother Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, his paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S. Senator from Connecticut; the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine: launching a "War on Terror", an international military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War in 2003, he signed into law broad tax cuts, the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors, funding for the AIDS relief program known as PEPFAR. His tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, torture. In the 2004 presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election.
After his re-election, Bush received heated criticism from across the political spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, other challenges. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections. In December 2007, the United States entered its longest post-World War II recession referred to as the "Great Recession", prompting the Bush administration to obtain congressional passage of multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Nationally, Bush was both one of the most popular and unpopular U. S. presidents in history, having received the highest recorded presidential approval ratings in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, as well as one of the lowest approval ratings during the 2008 financial crisis. Bush finished his term in office in 2009 and returned to Texas, where he had purchased a home in Dallas. In 2010, he published Decision Points, his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians' polls that were published in the late 2000s and 2010s.
However, his favorability ratings with the public have improved after leaving office. George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946, at Yale–New Haven Hospital in New Haven, while his father was a student at Yale, he was his wife, Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, with four siblings, Neil and Dorothy. Another younger sister, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953, his grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S. Senator from Connecticut, his father was Ronald Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. president from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Irish and Scottish roots. Bush attended public schools in Midland, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade, he spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Piney Point Village in the Houston area. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Andover, where he played baseball and was the head cheerleader during his senior year.
He attended Yale University from 1964 to 1968. During this time, he was a cheerleader and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon, serving as the president of the fraternity during his senior year. Bush became a member of the Skull and Bones society as a senior. Bush was a rugby union player and was on Yale's 1st XV, he characterized himself as an average student. His GPA during his first three years at Yale was 77, he had a similar average under a nonnumeric rating system in his final year. In the fall of 1973, Bush entered Harvard Business School, he graduated in 1975 with an MBA degree. He is the only U. S. president to have earned an MBA. Bush was engaged to Cathryn Lee Wolfman in 1967, but the engagement fizzled out. Bush and Wolfman remained on good terms after the end of the relationship. While Bush was at a backyard barbecue in 1977, friends introduced him to Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. After a three-month courtship, she accepted his marriage proposal and they wed on November 5 of that year.
The couple settled in Texas. Bush left his family's Episcopal Church to join his wife's United Methodist Church. On November 25, 1981, Laura Bush gave birth to fraternal twin daughters and Jenna. Prior to getting married, Bush struggled with multiple episodes of alcohol abuse. In one instance on September 4, 1976, he was pulled over near his fami
Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt, Sean Covel and Jory Weitz, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the title character, for which he was paid $1,000. After the film's runaway success, Heder re-negotiated his compensation and received a cut of the profits; the film was Jared Hess' first full-length feature and is adapted from his earlier short film, Peluca. Napoleon Dynamite was acquired at the Sundance Film Festival by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Paramount Pictures, in association with MTV Films, it was filmed in and near Franklin County, Idaho in the summer of 2003. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004; the film's total worldwide gross revenue was $46,118,097. The film has since developed a cult following. Napoleon Dynamite is a awkward 16-year-old boy from Preston, who lives with his grandmother, Carlinda Dynamite, his older brother, Kipling Ronald "Kip" Dynamite.
Kip, 32, is unemployed and boasts of spending hours on Internet chat rooms with his girlfriends and aspiring to be a cage fighter. Napoleon daydreams his way through school, doodling ligers and fantasy creatures and reluctantly deals with the various bullies who torment him the obnoxious sports jock, Don. Napoleon likes to make up stories about himself and his outlandish "skills" while having a sullen and aloof personality. Napoleon's grandmother breaks her coccyx in a quad-bike accident and asks their Uncle Rico to look after the boys while she recovers. Rico, a middle-aged and flirtatious steak-loving former athlete who lives in a campervan, treats Napoleon like a child, he uses the visiting opportunity to team up with Kip in a get-rich-quick scheme to sell items door-to-door. Kip wants money to visit his Internet girlfriend LaFawnduh, while Rico believes riches will help him get over his failed dreams of NFL stardom and his recent breakup with his girlfriend. Napoleon becomes friends with two students at his school: Deb, a shy girl who runs various small businesses to raise money for college, Pedro, a bold yet calm transfer student from Juarez, Mexico.
Preparations begin for the high school dance. Pedro is rebuffed, he asks Deb, who gladly accepts. Pedro encourages an upset Napoleon to find a date for himself, he picks an attractive and popular classmate, from the school yearbook; as a gift, he draws an unintentionally bad picture of her and delivers it to Trisha's mother, one of Rico's customers. Rico tells embarrassing stories about Napoleon to evoke sympathy from Trisha's mother, who buys his wares and forces Trisha to reluctantly accept Napoleon's invitation. Trisha appears at the dance with Napoleon but soon abandons him, causing Deb to dance with Napoleon out of pity. Inspired by an election poster at the dance, Pedro decides to run for class president, pitting him against Summer; the two candidates' factions hand out trinkets to students to attract voters. To increase their respect by demonstrating "skills", Napoleon and Pedro enter a Future Farmers of America competition, grading milk and cow udders, they do well and win medals. Incidentally, Napoleon visits a thrift store and buys an instructional dance VHS called D-Qwon's Dance Grooves, becoming a skillful dancer.
Kip's girlfriend LaFawnduh arrives from Detroit and gives him an urban makeover, outfitting him in hip-hop regalia. Seeing that he dances, LaFawnduh gives Napoleon a mixtape. Rico's ongoing sales scheme causes friction with Napoleon as he continues to spread embarrassing rumors about him to prospective customers. Rico tries to sell Deb a breast-enhancement product, claiming it was Napoleon's suggestion, which causes her to break off their friendship, his scheme ends after his sales pitch to the wife of the town's martial arts instructor, goes awry: Rex assaults Rico after unexpectedly arriving during his demonstration of the breast-enhancement product. Summer gives a speech before the student body on election day, presents a dance skit to "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys with a school club. A despondent Pedro gives an unimpressive speech after discovering he is required to perform a skit. To save Pedro's campaign, Napoleon gives the sound engineer LaFawnduh's mixtape and spontaneously performs an elaborate dance routine to "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai.
Napoleon's routine receives a standing ovation from stunning Summer and her boyfriend Don. The film concludes with Pedro becoming the class president, Kip and LaFawnduh leaving on a bus for Michigan, Rico reuniting with his estranged girlfriend, Grandma returning from the hospital, Napoleon and Deb reconciling and playing tetherball. In a post-credits scene, Kip and LaFawnduh are married in an outdoor ceremony in Preston. Napoleon, absent for the vows, arrives riding a horse, claiming that it is a "wild honeymoon stallion" that he has tamed himself. Kip flicks LaFawnduh's garter as a keepsake towards Napoleon and Rico before he and LaFawnduh ride off across the fields. Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite Efren Ramirez as Pedro Sánchez Tina Majorino as Deborah "Deb" Bradshaw Aaron Ruell as Kipling "Kip" Dynamite Jon Gries as Rico Dynamite Haylie Duff as Summer Wheatley Emily Kennard as Trisha Jenner Shondrella Avery as LaFawnduh Lucas Sandy Martin as Grandma Carlinda Dynamite Diedrich Bader as Rex Trevor Snarr as Don Ellen Dubin as Aunt Ilene Jon Heder and Jared Hess were both students at the film program at Brigham Young University in 2002 and decided to collaborate on a class project.
The duo produced a 9-minute short film shot on black-and-white 16mm film entitled Peluca, about a nerdy high school stu
Yellowcard
Yellowcard was an American rock band that formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1997 and were based in Los Angeles beginning in 2000. The band is well known for its singles "Ocean Avenue", "Only One", "Lights and Sounds"; the group's music is distinctive within its genre. The band released ten studio albums, with its most recent and final one, released on September 30, 2016; the band played its final show on March 2017, at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. Yellowcard was formed in 1997 in Jacksonville, after meeting at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts; the band got its name from a phrase its members used in high school: whenever somebody did something stupid at a party, such as spilling a beer on the carpet, they cited soccer laws and gave the offender a "yellow card" for committing a "party foul". Yellowcard's original lineup featured Ben Dobson on vocals, Todd Clary on guitar and vocals, Ben Harper on guitar, Warren Cooke on bass, Longineu Parsons III on drums. Modern Amusement frontman Ryan Key appeared as a guest, on background vocals, as did violinist Sean Wellman aka Sean Mackin.
Key had been in California band Craig's Brother. Yellowcard recorded its first album, Midget Tossing, at the Music Factory in Jacksonville Beach with Michael Ray FitzGerald at the board. Where We Stand, Yellowcard's second album, featured the same lineup as Midget Tossing, Mackin was brought in for more songs. Soon, the band fired Dobson and replaced him with former guest vocalist Key; this changed the band's style from hardcore punk to pop punk. In early 2000, Yellowcard recorded the Still Standing EP. Soon after it was released, Todd Clary left the band. Key filled both Clary's and Dobson's duties and vocals respectively. After sending the new EP to friend Steve Lubarsky at Lobster Records, the band signed its first recording contract in June 2000 and in November, headed west to Camarillo, California, to begin working on another full-length album; the group released its third album, One for the Kids, in 2001 and followed up with The Underdog EP in 2002. Both of these were well received by fans.
However, soon after The Underdog EP was released, Warren Cooke left for personal reasons on July 16, 2002. The band asked Pete Mosely from Inspection 12 to play bass, he joined the band four days later. Shortly after releasing The Underdog EP, Yellowcard signed with Capitol Records, looking to sign pop punk groups at the time; the group began recording its major-label debut in February 2003, the production of the record, titled Ocean Avenue, was finished in the spring of 2003. During the recording of the album, Mosely left Yellowcard, devoting his time to his first band, Inspection 12, finishing the band's album, Get Rad; the members of Yellowcard began the search for a new bass player and chose Alex Lewis, whose sister, Alieke Wijnveldt, contributed vocals to the Ocean Avenue track "View from Heaven". After Lewis joined, the band filmed an unreleased music video for the song "Powder"; the video was put on the enhanced version of Ocean Avenue. Yellowcard released its first single from Ocean Avenue, "Way Away".
The song did well on rock radio, peaking at No. 25 on the modern-rock charts. The song created enough buzz to cause the band's mainstream explosion. In the middle of the band's first headlining tour, Peter Mosely decided to leave Inspection 12 and asked if he could rejoin Yellowcard; because Mosely had been an integral part of the writing for Ocean Avenue and had been friends with most of the band's members since high school, Lewis was asked to leave on March 1, 2004, Mosely was reinstated as the bass player. In late 2003, Yellowcard broke through with a hit single, "Ocean Avenue"; the song premiered on MTV's TRL program, shot up the charts to No. 1. Radio picked up on the single, the song made it to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Empty Apartment" was featured on an episode of the TV show One Tree Hill. Yellowcard was everywhere from the covers of Alternative Press, to headliners of the 2004 Warped Tour, to on stage at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards performing "Ocean Avenue"; the band took home the MTV2 award as well.
Yellowcard featured on an episode of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge, performing "Way Away" while cast members trashed a mock hotel room in true rock star fashion. The album's first track, "Way Away", appeared on the soundtracks of SSX 3 and Madden NFL 2004; the album's second track, "Breathing" appeared in EA's Burnout 3: Takedown and FlatOut 2. Following "Ocean Avenue"'s success, the band released the single "Only One", a rock ballad which did well on TRL and radio; the Ocean Avenue album sold over one million copies in the U. S. alone. As Ocean Avenue's popularity began to decrease, Yellowcard spent some time contributing songs to various other soundtracks; the first, "Gifts and Curses", appeared in the hit film Spider-Man 2. Another, a cover of Lagwagon's "Violins", was featured on Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2 compilation album. At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, Yellowcard performed a cover of the song "Don't You" during a special tribute to the movie The Breakfast Club. On August 13, 2013, an acoustic version of Ocean Avenue was released in honor of the platinum album's 10th anniversary.
After two years of touring, Yellowcard took a few months off at the beginning of 2005. Ryan Key and Peter Mosely moved to New York City to write the songs for the group's next album; the rest of the band remained in Los Angeles. The band regrouped in LA in the spring and began pre-production for the follow-up to Ocean Avenue in March. Recording and production was finished in September, and
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Johnson is an American singer and fashion designer. Simpson signed a recording contract with Columbia Records when she was sixteen, released her debut studio album Sweet Kisses in 1999, it sold over four million copies worldwide, spawned the top three song "I Wanna Love You Forever". Hoping to achieve further success with her second album, Simpson adopted a more mature image for the release of Irresistible; the album's title track, which served as the lead single, became her second top twenty entry on the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself earned a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Simpson married singer Nick Lachey on October 2002 after four years of dating; the couple starred in the reality television series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica on MTV, chronicling their marriage and careers. The show made Simpson and her husband household names; the marriage did not last, by November 2005 Simpson and Lachey confirmed they were separating. Her third studio album, In This Skin, became her most successful album to date and sold three million units in the United States.
The album was aided in part due to the success of the single "With You", which topped the Mainstream Top 40 chart. She released a Christmas themed album, ReJoyce: The Christmas Album, which earned a gold certification from the RIAA, she made her film debut as Daisy Duke in the film adaption of The Dukes of Hazzard. She recorded the song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for the film, which went on to become her fourth top twenty song on the Billboard Hot 100. Aside from her musical pursuits, she launched The Jessica Simpson Collection in 2005, a fashion line of clothing and other items; the brand has gone on to earn over $1 billion in revenue, is regarded as one of the most successful celebrity founded brands ever. Her fifth studio album, A Public Affair, saw a decline in sales for Simpson, she starred in the romantic comedy Employee of the Month. With the release of her sixth studio album Do You Know, Simpson moved into the country music genre. While the project was met harshly by critics, it debuted at Number One on the Top Country Albums chart.
Simpson went on to star in the reality television series The Price of Beauty, was a judge on two seasons of Fashion Star. She is married to Eric Johnson and the couple have three children. Simpson has since announced work on her eighth studio album, slated for release in late 2018. Jessica Ann Simpson was born in Texas, she is the first child of Tina Ann Simpson, a homemaker, Joseph "Joe" Simpson, a psychologist and Baptist youth minister. Simpson's parents married in 1978. Simpson has stated that she grew up in Dallas. Simpson is the first child of the couple. In her preteens she attended Amelia Middle School when living in the midwest while her father did outreach in Cincinnati, Ohio. After moving back to Texas 20 months she attended J. J. Pearce High School in her teenage years, though she had to drop out in 1997 as her career began to take off. Being a daughter of a minister, Simpson was raised with a strong Christian faith, she was given a purity ring by her father. Jessica and her family moved due to her father's job, though they remained in Texas for the most part, they did live in the midwest for a few years.
Her father would take in unwed mothers for periods of time to provide them shelter. She began singing in the church choir as a child; when she was eleven, she realized she hoped to achieve success as a singer while at a church retreat. Simpson auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of twelve, auditioning with a performance of "Amazing Grace" and dancing to "Ice Ice Baby", she advanced through multiple rounds being a semi-finalist for the show alongside artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake. Simpson claimed that she became nervous about her final audition after seeing Aguilera perform, she was not selected for the show. Simpson resumed performing in her church choir being discovered by the head of a Christian music label, he asked her for an audition, signed her after she performed "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton. She began working on her debut album with Proclaim Records, began touring to promote the project. Jessica's father claimed that she had to quit touring as the size of her breasts led to her being deemed too "sexual" for the genre.
Her debut album, remained unreleased after Proclaim Records went bankrupt. Shortly after this, Simpson landed several auditions as Jessica was sent to numerous labels and producers, she caught the attention of Tommy Mottola, then-husband of Mariah Carey and the head of Columbia Records. He went on to sign her to the label, claiming "She had a great little look and a great attitude, a fresh new face, something a bit different than Britney and all of them. Simpson began working on her debut album in Florida. Mottola hoped to market Simpson as a contrast to Spears and Aguilera, both of whom had launched successful careers focused on dancing and sexuali
Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners, it was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1975. Opened in 1926, the current Shrine Auditorium replaced an earlier 1906 Al Malaikah Temple, destroyed by a fire on January 11, 1920; the fire gutted the structure in just 30 minutes, nearly killed six firefighters in the process. The new auditorium was designed in the Moorish Revival style by San Francisco-based theater architect G. Albert Lansburgh, with local architects John C. Austin and A. M. Edelman associated; when built, the auditorium could hold 1,200 people on stage and seat an audience of 6,442. An engineer who consulted on the project said that the steel truss supporting the balcony was the largest constructed. In 2002, the auditorium underwent a $15 million renovation that upgraded the stage with state-of-the-art lighting and rigging systems, included new roofing and air conditioning for both the Auditorium and Expo Center, modernized concession stands, additional restrooms, repainting of the Expo Center, a new performance plaza and parking garage.
The entire complex follows a Moroccan architectural motif. The Shrine Auditorium seats 6,300 people and has a stage 194 feet wide and 69 feet deep; the Auditorium features two boxes above the orchestra level holding 40 people each and seven loges on the balcony holding between 36 and 47 seats each. Of the remaining seats, 2,964 are on 2,982 on the balcony level; the Shrine Auditorium has hosted a number of events for entertainment. The Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Shrine from 1947 to 1948 and eight times between 1988 and 2001 until it permanently moved to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood; the Shrine hosted fifteen Grammy ceremonies until 2000 when the Grammys moved to the nearby Staples Center. The Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the venue for a decade beginning in 1998. However, the Primetime ceremony moved to the nearby Microsoft Theater. Other entertainment events the Shrine has hosted include the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, the BET Awards, the NAACP Image Awards, the People's Choice Awards, the Soul Train Music Awards, My VH1 Music Awards in 2000 and 2001, the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
For 33 years, the Shrine Auditorium was home to the University of Southern California Trojans basketball team. The Trojans' home court was on the Shrine's stage; the Los Angeles Lakers briefly played some playoff games in the theatre, when the nearby Los Angeles Sports Arena was unavailable. The Shrine Circus, stage shows and other events are held here; the Shrine Auditorium was the venue for the 55th Miss Universe beauty pageant. The 1933 movie King Kong filmed the audience in the Shrine Auditorium for the scenes where Kong was displayed manacled on stage. In 1953, segments of Judy Garland's movie classic A Star Is Born were filmed at the Shrine. December 4, 1953: Annual Los Angeles Examiner Christmas Show, benefitting children. Marilyn Monroe, Jack Benny & Danny Thomas were among the stars. In 1955, The Great Shrine Auditorium Concert took place, considered a major event in the histories of both American gospel and secular music; the event featured several gospel acts including Dorothy Love Coates & The Original Gospel Harmonettes, Brother Joe May, The Caravans, James Cleveland who would go on to become a gospel superstar.
The event featured a young Sam Cooke, at the time performing with the famous gospel group The Soul Stirrers. Cooke would become a legendary pop music star in his own right and would have a career that included over 30 Top 40 hits and an induction, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of their inaugural class. On June 8, 1956, Elvis Presley held his first Los Angeles concert at the Shrine. Ray Charles recorded his landmark Live in Concert album at the Shrine in 1964. In the late 1960s, the Shrine was referred to as "The Pinnacle" by the audiences of rock concerts. On August 24, 1968, The Grateful Dead performed there and recorded their show, released as a live album entitled Two from the Vault. On January 24, 1975, Genesis led by singer Peter Gabriel, gave a live performance of the conceptual progressive rock show, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" at the Shrine; this concert was considered one of the major rock music events in Los Angeles that year, an audio recording of it was released in 1998 as part of a box set by the band's label.
1976 The Tubes played 2 shows a night. On January 27, 1984, Michael Jackson was filming a Pepsi commercial in the auditorium, when the pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire, he suffered second-degree burns on his scalp as a result of the incident. On November 8–9, 1995, Fugazi performed two sold-out concerts at the venue; the auditorium has hosted KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball three times, on December 16, 2000, December 19, 2001 and December 6, 2005. The Shrine is featured in the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, part of its "South Central Map Expansion"; the 55th Miss Universe pageant was held there on July 23, 2006. In 1998, the Shrine held the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concert, which found a home at the Gibson Amphitheatre. With the announcement in 2013 that the Gibson Amphitheater was being torn down in order to construct a new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios, the concert returned to the Shrine. On August 10, 2014, it hosted the 2014 Teen Choice Awards. During even-numbered years, the Shrine hosts the annual MTV Movie Awards, wi
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman is an Australian-American actress and producer. She began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush BMX Bandits, her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller Dead Calm and the television miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she made her Hollywood debut opposite Tom Cruise, she went on to achieve wider recognition with leading roles in Far and Away, Batman Forever, To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut. She received two consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a courtesan in the musical Moulin Rouge! and the writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours. Kidman has since starred in such films as The Others, Cold Mountain, Birth, The Paperboy, Paddington, The Beguiled, Boy Erased, Destroyer, she has received two additional nominations for an Academy Award for. In 2012, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn and returned to television in 2017, co-producing and starring in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress as well as Outstanding Limited Series.
In 2018, she played Queen Atlanna in the superhero film Aquaman, which emerged as her highest grossing release. Kidman is the recipient of multiple awards, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, the Silver Bear for Best Actress, she has been a Goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, Kidman was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia and was the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry for that year; as a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. Kidman owns the production company Blossom Films. Following her divorce from actor Tom Cruise, Kidman has been married to singer Keith Urban since 2006. Kidman was born 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas, her mother, Janelle Ann, is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby.
Her father was Antony Kidman, a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, who died of a heart attack in Singapore aged 75. Kidman's ancestry includes Irish and English heritage. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani"; the inspiration for the name came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo, but the name is a used Hawaiian name for girls, Hokulani meaning "Heavenly Star". At the time of Kidman's birth, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, he became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the war in Vietnam, Kidman's parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D. C; the family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her mother now lives on Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has Antonia Kidman, a journalist and TV presenter. Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School, she was enrolled in ballet at three and showed her natural talent for acting in her primary and high school years.
She says that she was first inspired to become an actress upon seeing Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Kidman has revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am shy – shy – I had a stutter as a kid, which I got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself. At Philip Street, Kidman studied alongside Naomi Watts, she attended the Australian Theatre for Young People. Here she took up drama and performing in her teens, finding acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and red hair, the Australian sun forced the young Kidman to rehearse in halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she received both encouragement and praise to pursue acting full-time. In 1983, aged 16, Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday season favourite Bush Christmas. By the end of 1983, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage so she could help her mother with physical therapy.
She began gaining popularity in the mid-1980s after appearing in several film roles, including BMX Bandits, Watch the Shadows Dance, the romantic comedy Windrider, which earned Kidman attention due to her racy scenes. During the decade, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the soap opera A Country Practice and the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, she made guest appearances on Australian television programs and TV movies. In 1988, Kidman appeared based on the play of the same name; the Australian film earned her an Australian Film Institute award for Best Supporting Actress. Kidman next starred with Sam Neill in Dead Calm as Rae Ingram; the thriller brought Kidman to international recognition.
Chris Evans (actor)
Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor. Evans is known for his superhero roles as the Marvel Comics characters Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Human Torch in Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel. Evans began his career on the 2000 television series Opposite Sex, in addition to his work in superhero films, he has featured in such films as Not Another Teen Movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Gifted. In 2014, he made his directorial debut with the drama film Before We Go, in which he starred. Evans made his Broadway debut in a 2018 production of Lobby Hero. Evans was born in Boston and raised in the town of Sudbury, his mother, Lisa, is an artistic director at the Concord Youth Theater, his father, G. Robert Evans III, is a dentist, he has two sisters and Shanna, a younger brother, Scott. Carly is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and a high school drama and English teacher at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, while Scott is an actor, featured on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live.
Their uncle, Mike Capuano, represented the same Massachusetts Congressional district represented by Tip O'Neill. His mother is of half Italian and half Irish descent, while his father is of half British and half German descent, he and his siblings were raised Catholic. Evans graduated from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, he took classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Evans's first credited appearance was in a short educational video titled Biodiversity: Wild About Life! in 1997. In 1999, Evans was the model for "Tyler" in Hasbro's board game Mystery Date; the special edition of the game included an electronic phone, which Evans is shown speaking into on the game box. After filming wrapped on Not Another Teen Movie, Evans landed lead roles in The Perfect Score and Cellular, starred in two independent films in Chicago: Dirk Wittenborn's Fierce People, playing the sinister Bryce, London, playing a drug user with relationship problems, he played the superhero the Human Torch in the 2005 comic book adaptation Fantastic Four.
Evans reprised the role in the 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. That year, he starred as engineer-turned-astronaut Mace in Danny Boyle's science-fiction film Sunshine. In 2008, Evans appeared in Street Kings, co-starring Keanu Reeves, the Tennessee Williams screenplay adaptation The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, co-starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Ellen Burstyn; the following year he appeared in the science-fiction thriller Push, with Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle. Evans performed his own fight scenes, which took weeks to film, was bruised during filming. In 2010, he completed filming on co-directors Mark Kassen and Adam Kassen's Puncture in Houston, Texas; the film was selected to debut at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival as one of the Spotlight projects for the 10th anniversary of the festival. That year, Evans appeared in Sylvain White's The Losers, an adaptation of the comic-book series from the DC Comics imprint Vertigo. Evans appeared in another comic-book adaptation, Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where he portrayed Lucas Lee, one of Ramona Flowers' seven evil exes.
In 2011, Evans played the Marvel Comics character Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger, starred in the film What's Your Number?, a romantic comedy co-starring Anna Faris. There were scheduling conflicts, as both films were set to film in mid-2010. Evans had signed on to appear in multiple films as Captain America, first reprised the role in the 2012 film The Avengers, he next starred opposite Michael Shannon in The Iceman. Evans grew out a beard for the role, he starred in South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's English-language film Snowpiercer. In 2014, Evans starred in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he starred opposite Michelle Monaghan in the romantic comedy Playing It Cool. His directorial debut, Before We Go, debuted at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2015, he played Captain America again in Avengers: Age of Ultron, reprised the role in the 2016 sequel Captain America: Civil War, as well as in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, its upcoming 2019 sequel, Avengers: Endgame.
Evans said in March 2014 that once his contract with Marvel is up, he might consider doing less acting so he could work more on directing. In September 2015, he said that he would be willing to sign on for more films as Captain America after Infinity War if Marvel wanted to extend his contract. However, he has since stated. Evans starred in the family drama Gifted in 2017, he made his Broadway debut in Lobby Hero, directed by Trip Cullman, which opened in March 2018 at the Helen Hayes Theatre as a part of Second Stage Theatre's first Broadway season. He has a number of upcoming projects, he will star as an Israeli Mossad agent in the thriller film The Red Sea Diving Resort and appear in murder mystery film Knives Out, scheduled for release in November 2019. In addition, he is attached to sci-fi film Infinite, will produce and star in the Defending Jacob series. Evans is a fan of the New England Patriots and narrated America's Game: The Story of the 2014 New England Patriots and America's Game: 2016 Patriots.
Although raised Catholic, he has expressed pantheistic views and a great interest in the philosophies of Buddhism. Evans is a supporter of gay marriage. In 2012, he said “Are you kidding me? It's insane that civil rights are being denied people in this age. It’s embarrassing, it’s heartbreaking, it goes without saying that I’m comp
