1.
The Beverly Hilton
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The Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an 8. 9-acre property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards in Beverly Hills, California. Conrad Hilton opened the Beverly Hilton in 1955, architect Welton Becket designed the hotel as a showpiece with 582 rooms. Since 1961, the hotels International Ballroom has hosted the Golden Globe Award ceremony, in 1975, 50% of the property was sold to Prudential Insurance Company forming a partnership with the Hilton Hotels Corporation. The partnership sold the hotel to entertainer and businessman Merv Griffin for $100.2 million in December 1987, the Beverly Hilton had completed a $35 million renovation prior to Griffins purchase. Griffin owned the hotel from 1987 to 2003, during which time its reputation faded as maintenance was deferred, in 2003, Griffin sold the Beverly Hilton for $130 million to Beny Alagem, co-founder of Packard Bell Electronics, through his company Oasis West Realty. Commemorating its 50th anniversary, an ambitious $80 million renovation by architecture firm Gensler began in conjunction with Hilton Hotels, the renovation reduced the number of rooms to 570, which feature 42-inch plasma high-definition televisions and Bose Wave radios. The meeting spaces and the International Ballroom—where the Golden Globes ceremony is also renovated. On February 11,2012, singer Whitney Houston died in her bathtub in Suite 434, Hotel management has since renovated the room. In April 2006, owners unveiled plans for an expansion to the Beverly Hilton property. One intent of the plan was to position the upgraded hotel as a less-expensive 4½-star alternative to nearby five-star rivals such as the Peninsula. Two new three-story buildings on Wilshire Boulevard would house 96 guest rooms, the Beverly Hilton will be renovated into a smaller, 402-room hotel, renamed the Beverly Hilton Oasis. A 120-room Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills hotel, designed by Gensler with interiors by Pierre-Yves Rochon, the Waldorf-Astoria Beverly Hills will be the first new hotel for the brand on the West Coast. The Beverly Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria would be separate premises, with both operated and managed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, the Beverly Hills City Council approved the $500 million project by a 3-2 vote. Measure H authorized the Beverly Hills City Council to amend the citys plan to allow a luxury hotel, condominiums. On December 2,2008, Proposal H passed by 129 votes with over 15,000 cast, the 12-story, 170-room Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills was designed by architecture firm Gensler with interior designer by Pierre-Yves Rochon. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is slated to open in 2017, measure HH was a November 2016 ballot initiative to allow Oasis West Realty to build a 37-story condominium tower on the Beverly Hilton site. The initiative was rejected by Beverly Hills voters, with nearly 56% voting no, presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards was videotaped visiting Rielle Hunter, during his extramarital affair scandal. American singer and actress Whitney Houston died at the hotel on February 11,2012 after accidentally drowning while in the bathtub of her room, Hilton Worldwide The Beverly Hilton website
2.
Beverly Hills, California
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Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. By 2013, its population had grown to 34,658, sometimes referred to as 90210, one of its primary ZIP codes, it was home to many actors and celebrities throughout the 20th century. The city includes the Rodeo Drive shopping district and the Beverly Hills Oil Field, gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3,1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828 and they called their 4,500 acres of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. in 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson and Henry Hancock. By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres and was being bought up by anglos from Los Angeles. Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it, at this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel were planning to build a town called Morocco on their holdings and they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property Beverly Hills, subdivided it, the development was named Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow, Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed as servants by white residents and it was also forbidden to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills. Burton Green began construction on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911, the hotel was finished in 1912. The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills and that same year, the Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Utility Commission was split off from the company and incorporated in September 1914, buying all of the utilities-related assets from the Rodeo Land. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921, the glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal. By the early 1920s the population of Beverly Hills had grown enough to make the water supply a political issue, in 1923 the usual solution, annexation to the city of Los Angeles, was proposed. There was considerable opposition to annexation among such famous residents as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, the Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507. In 1925, Beverly Hills approved an issue to buy 385 acres for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to pay for the new campus
3.
Tina Fey
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Elizabeth Stamatina Tina Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She is also known for writing and co-starring in the film Mean Girls, as well as appearing in such films as Baby Mama, Date Night, Muppets Most Wanted. Fey broke into comedy as a player in the Chicago-based improvisational comedy group The Second City. She then joined SNL as a writer, later becoming head writer, in 2004, she co-starred in and wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls, which was adapted from the 2002 self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes. After leaving SNL in 2006, she created the television series 30 Rock for Broadway Video, in the series, Fey portrays the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series. In 2008, she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama, Fey next appeared in the 2010 comedy film Date Night and the animated film Megamind. In 2015, she created and produced the television series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, originally for NBC and her other films include Sisters and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Fey has received nine Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards and her autobiography Bossypants topped The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks. In 2008, the Associated Press gave Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year award for her portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL. In 2010, Fey was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, on January 13,2013, Fey hosted the 70th Golden Globe Awards with her long-time friend and fellow comedian, Amy Poehler, to critical acclaim. The duo hosted again the two years, generating the highest ratings for the annual ceremony in a decade and receiving similar acclaim. Fey was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, an inner ring suburb of Philadelphia and her mother, Zenobia Jeanne, is a brokerage employee. Her father, Donald Henry Fey, was a university grant proposal-writer and she has a brother, Peter, who is eight years older. Feys mother, who was born in Piraeus, is the daughter of Greek immigrants, Vasiliki Kourelakou, Feys maternal grandmother, left Petrina on her own, arriving in the United States in February 1921. According to a genealogical DNA test arranged by the television series Finding Your Roots, Feys ancestry is 94% European, 3% Middle Eastern, Fey was exposed to comedy early, I remember my parents sneaking me in to see Young Frankenstein. We would also watch Saturday Night Live, or Monty Python and my dad would let us stay up late to watch The Honeymooners. We were not allowed to watch The Flintstones though, my dad hated it because it ripped off The Honeymooners, I actually have a very low level of Flintstones knowledge for someone my age. At age 11, Fey read Joe Franklins Seventy Years of Great Film Comedians for a project about comedy
4.
Amy Poehler
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Amy Meredith Poehler is an American actress, comedian, director, producer, voice artist, and writer. After studying improv at Chicagos Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, the groups act became a half-hour sketch comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the group, Poehler was a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Poehler was a cast member on the NBC television series Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008 and became co-anchor of SNLs Weekend Update in 2004 alongside friend, Poehler served as an executive producer on the Swedish-American sitcom Welcome to Sweden, along with her brother Greg Poehler. She is also a producer on Broad City which airs on Comedy Central. In December 2015, Poehler received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions in television, an 18-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, she won the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live. Poehler was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to school teachers Eileen and her brother, Greg Poehler, is a producer and actor. She grew up in nearby Burlington and her father is of English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry, while her mother is of Irish descent. She was raised as a Catholic, and graduated from Burlington High School in 1989, while attending Boston College, Poehler was a member of the improv comedy troupe My Mothers Fleabag. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in media and communications in 1993 and moved to Chicago. She also studied with Del Close at ImprovOlympic, during her time at Second City and Improv Olympic in Chicago, Poehler studied alongside Matt Besser under Del Close and Charna Halpern. Poehler and Besser joined with Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh to found the Upright Citizens Brigade, the group performed sketch and improv around Chicago before moving to New York City in 1996. Immediately after moving to New York, the group scored a TV gig. Other early members of UCB included Horatio Sanz, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, in 1998, Comedy Central debuted the groups eponymous half-hour sketch comedy series. During the shows season, the group opened an improv theatre/training center in New York City at 161 W. 22nd Street. The UCB theatre held shows seven nights a week in addition to offering classes in sketch comedy writing, in the summer of 2000, Comedy Central canceled the Upright Citizens Brigade program after its third season, though the UCB Theatre continues to operate. The foursome continue to work together in projects, and frequently perform together in live improv shows at their comedy theatres in both New York and Los Angeles. Poehler was promoted from featured player to full cast member in her first season on the show, beginning with the 2004–2005 season, she co-anchored Weekend Update with Tina Fey, replacing the newly departed Jimmy Fallon
5.
Argo (2012 film)
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Argo is a 2012 American historical drama film directed by Ben Affleck. The screenplay by Chris Terrio is adapted from U. S, the film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman in supporting roles, and was released in the United States on October 12,2012. The film was produced by Grant Heslov, Affleck and George Clooney, upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim, with praise directed towards the acting, Afflecks direction, Terrios screenplay, the editing and Desplats score. The film received seven nominations at the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Alan Arkin. It won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards and it also won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards and 37th Hochi Film Award for Best International Picture. On November 4,1979, Iranian activists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U. S. during the Iranian Revolution. 60 of the staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture. With the escapees situation kept secret, the U. S. State Department begins to explore options for exfiltrating them from Iran, central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation. He criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss when asked for an alternative, Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who had previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts Mendez in touch with film producer Lester Siegel, meanwhile, the escapees grow frantic inside the ambassadors residence. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped, posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the fake name Kevin Harkins and links up with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to get through security at the airport, although afraid to trust Mendezs scheme, they reluctantly go along with it, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, Mendez is told that the operation has been cancelled to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing his boss Jack ODonnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission to get tickets on a Swissair flight, the group boards the plane, which takes off just as the Revolutionary Guards at the airport uncover the ruse and try to stop them. To protect the remaining in Tehran from retaliation, all U. S. involvement in the rescue is suppressed and full credit is given to the Canadian government. The ambassadors Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans and lied to the revolutionaries to protect them, escaped to Iraq. Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the classified nature
6.
Homeland (TV series)
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Homeland is an American crime thriller television series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the Israeli series Prisoners of War, which was created by Gideon Raff. The series stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency officer with bipolar disorder, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a U. S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper. Mathison had come to believe that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was turned by the enemy, the series is broadcast in the U. S. on the cable channel Showtime, and is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. It premiered on October 2,2011, the first episode was made available online, more than two weeks before the television broadcast, with viewers having to complete game tasks to gain access. On October 22,2013, Showtime renewed Homeland for a fourth season, on November 10,2014, Showtime renewed the series for a 12-episode fifth season that premiered on October 4,2015. On December 9,2015, the series was renewed for a sixth season, the sixth season debuted on January 15,2017. The series has also renewed for a seventh and eighth season. In Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda, Carries job grows complicated when her boss, Director of the Counterterrorism Center David Estes, calls Carrie and her colleagues in for an emergency briefing. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war whom her asset in Iraq was talking about, however, the federal government and her superiors at the CIA consider Brody a war hero. Later, another Marine, Tom Walker is also rescued casting doubt on which of the Marines is the suspected spy. Realizing it would be impossible to convince her boss to place Brody under surveillance, Carrie approaches the only other person she can trust, her mentor. The two must now work together to investigate Brody and prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, the second season follows Carrie and the CIA working with Brody to capture Abu Nazir. Discovering a video of Brodys confession during a CIA operation in Lebanon, Carrie and Saul, along with analyst Peter Quinn, Brody gives in to the CIA interrogation and is now an asset for the CIA, sending information to both sides. The downside of being an agent as well as a rising Congressman with the Vice Presidents support brings Brody closer to Carrie while worsening his relationship with his family. Brodys friend Mike tries to find the truth behind Tom Walkers death, seemingly free of being Nazirs man, Brody celebrates with Carrie at the CIA headquarters and both survive an explosion that kills Director Estes and many others. Brody then flees the U. S. with Carries help, Saul, who was attending the burying of Nazirs body at sea, is left to pick up the pieces. The beginning of season 3 presents the aftermath of a terrorist attack committed by Abu Nazirs people, Carrie is blamed for the CIAs failings as Senator Lockhart grills Saul, now Acting Director of the CIA, in front of the Senate Committee. However, it turned out to be part of a bigger plot and he later relayed the information to Carrie that the main perpetrator of the bombing was still in the U. S. and the CIA acted to bring the real bomber and the officers lawyers in for questioning
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