Young Catherine
Young Catherine is a 1991 British TV miniseries based on the early life of Catherine II of Russia. It stars Julia Ormond as Vanessa Redgrave as Empress Elizabeth; the year is 1744, the beautiful young Catherine is torn from her homeland to marry Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. However his aunt, Empress of Russia, rules the empire with an iron hand, Peter proves neither fit for the throne nor the marriage bed. Treated as an outsider and at great risk from enemies who influence her husband, Catherine takes a lover and bears his child. Now, with help of her friend Sir Charles Williams, she must take the throne by force if she, her young son Paul, the Russian Empire are to survive. Vanessa Redgrave... Empress Elizabeth Christopher Plummer... Sir Charles Williams Julia Ormond... Grand Duchess Catherine Franco Nero... Count Mikhail Vorontsov Marthe Keller... Princess Johanna Maximilian Schell... Frederick the Great Mark Frankel... Count Grigory Orlov Reece Dinsdale... Grand Duke Peter Anna Kanakis...
Countess Vorontsova John Shrapnel... Archimandrite Todorsky Hartmut Becker... Prince Christian August Alexander Kerst... Prussian Ambassador Laurie Holden... Princess Catherine Dashkova Katharine Schlesinger... Elizabeth Vorontsova Katya Galitzine... Maria Choglokov Rory Edwards... Alexis Orlov Primetime Emmy Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie - Vanessa Redgrave Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special - Larisa Konnikova Gemini Award Best Dramatic Mini-Series Best Costume Design - Larisa Konnikova Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series - Julia Ormond Best Photography in a Dramatic Program or Series - Ernest Day Best Production Design or Art Direction - Harold Thrasher, Natalya Vasilyeva Both a 150-minute version and a 180-minute Turner Network Television version were released on VHS on May 29, 1991, both are out of print. A 187-minute Russian language version was at one time available on DVD.
The film became available on DVD from the Warner Bros Archive Collection on November 19, 2013. Young Catherine on IMDb Clips from Young Catherine: Clip 1 on YouTube - Clip 2 on YouTube
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Miss Universe 1981
Miss Universe 1981, the 30th Miss Universe pageant, was held on 20 July 1981 at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City, USA. Irene Sáez of Venezuela crowned by Shawn Weatherly of the USA. There were 77 contestants competing for the crown; the pageant was scheduled to be held in Guatemala City, Guatemala. However, for financial and political reasons, Miss Universe was moved to New York City. Gibraltar Namibia Western Samoa Hong Kong - Doris Loh was replaced by Irene Lo Kam-Sheung. St. Vincent - Marsha Ann Morris West, Donald. "Miss Universe 1981". Pageantopolis.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Miss Universe official website Miss Universe 1981 Delegates Miss Universe 1981 Summary
2019, After the Fall of New York
2019, After the Fall of New York is a 1983 Italian science fiction film directed by Sergio Martino in both English and Italian. It is of the post-apocalyptic Italian genre similar to the films 1990 The Bronx Warriors and Endgame, it is set in 2019, after a nuclear apocalypse, stars a mercenary out to rescue the last fertile woman on Earth. The film starred Michael Sopkiw and Anna Kanakis, B-movie regular George Eastman; the film was influenced by John Carpenter's Escape from New York. In 2019 the world has been devastated by nuclear war; the resulting radiation prevents humans from procreating. A group of survivors are sent in to New York, now under control by a band of savages conducting cruel human experiments on survivors, to rescue a woman who has mysteriously remained fertile. 2019, After the Fall of New York on IMDb 2019, After the Fall of New York at AllMovie "A detailed synopsis of the movie". Archived from the original on 2014-12-18. Retrieved 2007-03-24. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown
Beauty pageant
A beauty pageant or beauty contest is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, although most contests have evolved to incorporate personality traits, intelligence and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria. The term refers to contests for women such as the Big Four international beauty pageants; the organizers of each pageant may determine the rules of the competition, including the age range of contestants. The rules may require the contestants to be unmarried, be "virtuous", "amateur", available for promotions, besides other criteria, it may set the clothing standards in which contestants will be judged, including the type of swimsuit. Beauty pageants are multi-tiered, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. For example, the international pageants have thousands of local competitions. Child beauty pageants focus on beauty, sportswear modelling and personal interviews. Adult and teen pageants focus on makeup and gowns, swimsuit modelling, personal interviews.
A winner of a beauty contest is called a beauty queen. The rankings of the contestants are referred to as placements. Possible awards of beauty contests include titles, tiaras or crowns, scepters, savings bonds and cash prizes; however and teen pageants have been moving more towards judging speaking. Some pageants award college scholarships, to multiple runners-up. European festivals dating to the medieval era provide the most direct lineage for beauty pageants. For example, English May Day celebrations always involved the selection of a May Queen. In the United States, the May Day tradition of selecting a woman to serve as a symbol of bounty and community ideals continued, as young beautiful women participated in public celebrations. A beauty pageant was held during the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, organized by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, as part of a re-enactment of a medieval joust, held in Scotland; the pageant was won by Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, the wife of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset, sister of Caroline Norton, she was proclaimed as the "Queen of Beauty".
Entrepreneur Phineas Taylor Barnum staged the first modern American pageant in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down after public protest. Beauty contests became more popular in the 1880s. In 1888, the title of'beauty queen' was awarded to an 18-year-old Creole contestant at a pageant in Spa, Belgium. All participants had to supply a photograph and a short description of themselves to be eligible to enter and a final selection of 21 was judged by a formal panel; such events were not regarded as respectable. Beauty contests came to be considered more respectable with the first modern "Miss America" contest held in 1921; the oldest pageant still in operation today is the Miss America pageant, organized in 1921 by a local businessman as a means to entice tourists to Atlantic City, New Jersey. The pageant hosted the winners of local newspaper beauty contests in the "Inter-City Beauty" Contest, attended by over one hundred thousand people. Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D. C. was crowned Miss America 1921, having won both the popularity and beauty contests, was awarded $100.
In May 1920, promoter C. E. Barfield of Galveston, Texas organized a new event known as "Splash Day" on the island; the event featured a "Bathing Girl Revue" competition as the centerpiece of its attractions. The event was the kick-off of the summer tourist season in the city and was carried forward annually; the event became known outside of Texas and, beginning in 1926, the world's first international contest was added, known as the International Pageant of Pulchritude. This contest is said to have served as a model for modern pageants, it featured contestants from England, Russia and many other nations and the title awarded at the time was known as "Miss Universe". The event was discontinued in the United States in 1932 because of the Depression; the popularity of the Miss America pageant prompted other organizations to establish similar contests in the 1950s and beyond. Some were significant; the Miss World contest started in 1951, Miss Universe started in 1952 as did Miss USA. Miss International started in 1960.
Miss Asia Pacific International started in 1968. The Miss Black America contest started in 1968 in response to the exclusion of African American women from the Miss America pageant; the Miss Universe Organization started the Miss Teen USA in 1983 for the 14-19 age group. Miss Earth started in 2001, which channels the beauty pageant entertainment industry as an effective tool to promote the preservation of the environment; these contests continue to this day. The requirement for contestants to wear a swimsuit was a controversial aspect of the various competitions; the controversy was heightened with the increasing popularity of the bikini after its introduction in 1946. The bikini was banned for the Miss America contest in 1947 because of Roman Catholic protesters; when the Miss World contest started in 1951, there was an outcry when the winner was crowned in a bikini. Pope Pius XII condemned the crowning as sinful, countries with religious traditions threatened to withdraw delegates; the bikini was banned for other contests.
It was not until the late 1990s that they became permitted again, but still generated controversy when finals were held in countries where bikinis were disapproved. For example, in 2003, Vida Samadzai from Afghanistan caused
Integrated Authority File
The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used for documentation in libraries and also by archives and museums; the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero licence; the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format; the Integrated Authority File became operational in April 2012 and integrates the content of the following authority files, which have since been discontinued: Name Authority File Corporate Bodies Authority File Subject Headings Authority File Uniform Title File of the Deutsches Musikarchiv At the time of its introduction on 5 April 2012, the GND held 9,493,860 files, including 2,650,000 personalised names.
There are seven main types of GND entities: LIBRIS Virtual International Authority File Information pages about the GND from the German National Library Search via OGND Bereitstellung des ersten GND-Grundbestandes DNB, 19 April 2012 From Authority Control to Linked Authority Data Presentation given by Reinhold Heuvelmann to the ALA MARC Formats Interest Group, June 2012
Actor
An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film and television; the analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of their role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art. In ancient Greece and Rome, the medieval world, the time of William Shakespeare, only men could become actors, women's roles were played by men or boys. After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. In modern times in pantomime and some operas, women play the roles of boys or young men. After 1660 in England, when women first started to appear on stage, the terms actor or actress were used interchangeably for female performers, but influenced by the French actrice, actress became the used term for women in theater and film.
The etymology is a simple derivation from actor with -ess added. When referring to groups of performers of both sexes, actors is preferred. Actor is used before the full name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the neutral term dates to the post-war period of the 1950 and'60s, when the contributions of women to cultural life in general were being reviewed; when The Observer and The Guardian published their new joint style guide in 2010, it stated "Use for both male and female actors. The guide's authors stated that "actress comes into the same category as authoress, manageress,'lady doctor','male nurse' and similar obsolete terms that date from a time when professions were the preserve of one sex.". "As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper:'An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor – I can play anything.'" The UK performers' union Equity has no policy on the use of "actor" or "actress". An Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the "...subject divides the profession".
In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that "Actress" remains the common term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. With regard to the cinema of the United States, the gender-neutral term "player" was common in film in the silent film era and the early days of the Motion Picture Production Code, but in the 2000s in a film context, it is deemed archaic. However, "player" remains in use in the theatre incorporated into the name of a theatre group or company, such as the American Players, the East West Players, etc. Actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as "players". In 2015, Forbes reported that "...just 21 of the 100 top-grossing films of 2014 featured a female lead or co-lead, while only 28.1% of characters in 100 top-grossing films were female...". "In the U. S. there is an "industry-wide in salaries of all scales. On average, white women get paid 78 cents to every dollar a white man makes, while Hispanic women earn 56 cents to a white male's dollar, Black women 64 cents and Native American women just 59 cents to that."
Forbes' analysis of US acting salaries in 2013 determined that the "...men on Forbes' list of top-paid actors for that year made 21/2 times as much money as the top-paid actresses. That means that Hollywood's best-compensated actresses made just 40 cents for every dollar that the best-compensated men made." The first recorded case of a performing actor occurred in 534 BC when the Greek performer Thespis stepped onto the stage at the Theatre Dionysus to become the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are called Thespians; the male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama: tragedy and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded under the Romans; the theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, acrobatics, to the staging of situation comedies, to high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies.
As the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies and other entertainments were popular. From the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder. Small nomadic bands of actors traveled around Europe throughout the period, performing wherever they could find an audience. Traditionally, actors were not of high status. Early Middle Ages actors were denounced by the Church during the Dark Ages, as they were viewed as dangerous and pagan. In many parts of Europe, traditional beliefs of the region and time period meant actors could not receive a Christian burial. In the Early Middle Ages, churches in Europe began staging dramatized versions of biblical events. By the middle of the 11th century, liturgical drama had spread from Russia to Scandinavia
