Crossroads (2002 film)
Crossroads is a 2002 American comedy-drama road film set in Georgia. Directed by Tamra Davis and written by Shonda Rhimes, the film stars pop singer Britney Spears, actors Anson Mount, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning, Kim Cattrall, comedian/actor Dan Aykroyd; the film was produced by MTV Films and released on February 15, 2002, in North America by Paramount Pictures. The plot centers on three teenage girls as they take a cross-country road trip, finding themselves and their friendship in the process. Development on the film began in 2001, when Spears created a concept, expanded by Rhimes. Principal filming began on March 2001, encompassed over a period of six months. Critics gave negative reviews to Crossroads. Despite the movie's response from critics, it was a box office success, grossing over $61.1 million worldwide in three months. Lucy and Mimi are three friends who live in a small Georgia town; as young children, they bury a "wish box", vow to dig it up on the night of their high school graduation and pledge to stay best friends forever.
However, as they grow up, their friendship fades due to their different approaches of high school: Lucy becomes the introverted valedictorian, Kit becomes the most popular girl in school, Mimi becomes an outcast from a trailer park, facing teenage pregnancy. On the night of their high school graduation, they keep their promise and get together to open the "wish box"; as they start talking again, they remember their old wishes while burying the box: Mimi wanted to travel to California, Lucy wanted to find her mother, Kit wanted to get married. Mimi brings up going to Los Angeles to audition for a record company. Kit and Lucy try to convince Mimi to not go all the way to Los Angeles due to the fact that she is 5 months pregnant and anything dangerous can happen. However, the next morning they decide to go together but each doing something separate: Mimi going to the audition, Kit visiting her fiancé, Lucy finding her mother in Tucson, Arizona, they set out on the road with little money in a yellow 1973 Buick Skylark convertible with a man named Ben.
Lucy, leaves without the permission of her overbearing father Pete, who wakes up the next day to find his daughter is gone. Shortly into their journey, the car breaks down, they realize that together they don't have enough money for either the repair costs. Mimi suggests that they sing karaoke at a local bar, where good singers are tipped well by the customers. While at the bar, the girls go to the stage to perform. However, when the song starts, Mimi develops stage fright, is unable to sing. Seeing that they needed the money, Lucy takes her place, becomes a hit with the crowd, they make enough money to continue on their way. Shortly after the group checks into a motel, Kit tells the girls about a rumor that she had heard about Ben, commenting that he had been released from jail, after killing someone; the girls spend most of the journey feeling uneasy around him until they confront him. Ben reveals that he was in jail for driving his stepsister across state borders without parental consent because his stepfather was abusing her.
Having established that Ben was not the assassin that they imagined him to be, Lucy and Ben grow closer after she reads him a poem she wrote about growing up in life. The girls talk properly to each other for the first time. Lucy reveals that her mother left her and her father when she was a child, but she is convinced that her mother wants to find her, but is too scared. Kit, overweight as a child, has an overbearing mother who sent her to "fat camp" but now cannot stand that her daughter is more beautiful than her. Mimi reveals that her baby's father is not her ex-boyfriend, but a guy who raped her after she got drunk at a party, that she is planning to put the baby up for adoption. After they arrive in Tucson, Lucy finds her mother Caroline, she reveals that she has remarried, that she now has two sons ages seven and ten. She reveals to Lucy that she was an unintended pregnancy and that she wants nothing to do with her, Lucy leaves the house heartbroken as she was proven to be the selfish woman her father warned her about.
As she promptly arrives at the motel, Ben comforts her and impresses her by writing some music to her poem. The following day, Lucy goes on to Los Angeles; when they arrive, Kit brings Mimi along to surprise Dylan. While alone in the hotel, Lucy gives her virginity to Ben and they fall in love with each other; when Kit and Mimi arrive at Dylan's place, it is revealed that he is cheating on Kit after they see another girl in his apartment. Upset, Kit realizes that it was Dylan who raped Mimi and got her pregnant, she punches him. Scared, Mimi falls down the stairs, she loses her baby. The girls comfort her; because of this, Lucy decides to call her father to the girls back home. However, her father is still putting pressure on Lucy to do. Kit and Mimi tell her, she declines, but when she gets into her father's car, after the entire journey, she realizes that everything that she has done has been to please her father instead of herself. Lucy tells her father to let her go and she runs after Ben, they embrace and kiss each other.
She and the girls head off to the audition with Ben and receive a standing ovation after their performa
City by the Sea
City by the Sea is a 2002 film starring Robert De Niro, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, Frances McDormand and William Forsythe. It deals with the family problems of a wayward youth and is set against a man trying to break free of his past, it was directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on the story of Vincent LaMarca. Vincent LaMarca is a veteran New York City Police Department detective, whose criminal father had been executed for murder, after a child whom he had kidnapped was killed. Vincent has had to live with this stigma hanging over his own reputation, history begins to repeat itself when his own son, Joey LaMarca, a junkie, becomes involved in a drug-related killing. Joey comes to the attention of Vincent's current girlfriend, unaware that he had a son, she can not understand why Vincent is unwilling to help him. Joey's girlfriend Gina, struggling to stay sober for their infant son Angelo, comes into Vincent's life, asking him to save Joey, she abandons the child, leaving him with Vincent.
Joey gets deeper into trouble when the local drug enforcer, kills Vincent's cop partner Reg. Reg had been helping Vincent to clear Joey's name; as his fellow police officers search for Joey as a suspected "cop killer," Vincent decides to set aside his self-imposed isolation, to help save his son's life. Robert De Niro as Vincent LaMarca Frances McDormand as Michelle James Franco as Joey LaMarca Eliza Dushku as Gina William Forsythe as Spyder George Dzundza as Reg Duffy Patti LuPone as Maggie Anson Mount as Dave Simon John Doman as Henderson Brian Tarantina as Snake Drena De Niro as Vanessa Hansen Nestor Serrano as Rossi Michael P. Moran as Herb Michael Della Femina as Angelo LaMarca Dominick Angelo and Pasquale Enrico Cangro as Baby Angelo Although the story is set in the New York City oceanfront suburb of Long Beach, New York, south of Long Island, whose municipal slogan is Civitas Ad Mare - Latin for "The City by the Sea"—actual location filming was done in Asbury Park, New Jersey. There is a disclaimer in the credits at the end of the film, which includes scenes set on a shabby, dilapidated-looking boardwalk and in a ruined and abandoned casino/arcade building—explicitly stating that it was not filmed in Long Beach.
Filming took place in early 2001. City by the Sea received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 48% rating based on reviews from 140 critics. ^ "Mark of a murderer" by Mike McAlary, Esquire magazine, 1997 City by the Sea on IMDb City by the Sea at Box Office Mojo City by the Sea at Rotten Tomatoes City by the Sea at AllMovie City by the Sea at the American Film Institute Catalog
Smallville
Smallville is an American television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series broadcast by The WB, premiered on October 16, 2001. After Smallville's fifth season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, the series' United States broadcaster. Smallville, which ended its tenth and final season on May 13, 2011, follows Clark Kent in the fictional town of Smallville, before he becomes known as Superman; the first four seasons focus on his friends in high school. After season five Smallville ventures into adult settings focusing on his career at the Daily Planet and introducing other DC comic-book superheroes and villains. Before the series' production, Bruce Wayne, chronicling the young protagonist's journey toward Batman, was proposed first. Although that series failed to generate interest, it inspired Smallville. Series developers Gough and Millar pitched their "no tights, no flights" rule to the president of Warner Bros.
Television, reducing Superman to the bare essentials and examining what led Clark Kent to become the Man of Steel. After seven seasons with the show and Millar departed with little explanation. Smallville was filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, with local businesses and buildings substituting for Smallville locations. Most of the music for the first six seasons was composed by Mark Snow, who incorporated elements of John Williams' musical score from the Superman film series. In season seven, Louis Febre became the series' primary composer. Smallville was positively received when it began. Former Superman star Christopher Reeve expressed approval for the series, making two guest appearances before his death; the pilot episode set a ratings record with 8.4 million viewers. Over ten seasons the series averaged about 4.34 million viewers per episode, with season two the highest-rated at 6.3 million. By the end of its run, Smallville passed Stargate SG-1 as the longest-running North American science-fiction series by episode count.
Since its first season, the series received accolades ranging from Emmys to Teen Choice Awards. Smallville spawned a series of young-adult novels, a DC Comics bimonthly comic book, soundtrack recordings and series-related merchandise. All ten seasons are available on DVD in regions 1, 2 and 4. In April 2012, it continued in comic-book form with a storyline resuming shortly after the series finale, which ended in 2015; the regular cast is introduced in season one, with storylines involving a villain deriving power from kryptonite exposure. The one-episode villains were a plot device developed by Millar. Smallville's first season dealt with Clark Kent's coming to terms with his alien origin and the revelation that his arrival on Earth was connected to the death of Lana Lang's parents. After the first season the series had fewer villain-of-the-week episodes, focusing instead on individual-character story arcs and exploring Clark's origins. Major storylines include Clark's discovery of his Kryptonian heritage and Lex Luthor's escalating conflict with his father, Lionel.
The disembodied voice of Clark's biological father, Jor-El, is introduced. In a fourth-season arc Clark, instructed by Jor-El, searches for three Kryptonian stones which contain the knowledge of the universe and form his Fortress of Solitude. Clark battles Brainiac in his attempts to release the Kryptonian criminal General Zod, must capture other escaped Phantom Zone criminals, his cousin Kara arrives, Lex Luthor discovers Clark's secret. The eighth season introduces Davis Bloome, Tess Mercer replaces the departing Lex Luthor. Justin Hartley becomes a series regular as Oliver Queen after being a recurring guest in season six. In the ninth season Major Zod and other members of Zod's military group are revived by Tess Mercer, their efforts to regain their powers are the season's central conflict; the final season revolves around Clark's attempts to lose his doubts and fears and become the hero he is meant to be, while confronting his biggest challenges: the coming of Darkseid and the return of Lex Luthor.
Tom Welling as Clark Kent, a young man with superhuman abilities who tries to find his place in life after discovering that he is an alien and uses his powers to help those in danger. Clark's season-one problems include his inability to share his secret and his desire for a normal life. After months of scouting, Welling was cast as Clark. David Nutter had to convince Welling's manager that the role would not hurt the actor's film career in order to get Welling to read the pilot script. After reading the script, Welling agreed to audition for the role of Clark Kent. Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang, the girl next door. Grieving the loss of her parents, she feels connected to Clark. Kreuk was the first to be cast. Although she left the series after the seventh season, she returned for five episodes in season eight as a guest star. Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor, a billionaire's son sent to Smallville to run the local fertilizer plant. After Clark saves his life, they become fast friends; as the series progresses, Lex's friendship with Clark crumbles until they consider themselves enemies.
The role was difficult to cast.
Western (genre)
Western is a genre of various arts which tell stories set in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West centering on the life of a nomadic cowboy or gunfighter armed with a revolver and a rifle who rides a horse. Cowboys and gunslingers wear Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Recurring characters include the aforementioned cowboys, Native Americans, lawmen, bounty hunters, gamblers and settlers; the ambience is punctuated with a Western music score, including American and Mexican folk music such as country, Native American music, New Mexico music, rancheras. Westerns stress the harshness of the wilderness and set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains; the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a "...mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Common plots include: The construction of a telegraph line on the wild frontier.
Ranchers protecting their family ranch from rustlers or large landowners or who build a ranch empire. Revenge stories, which hinge on the chase and pursuit by someone, wronged. Stories about cavalry fighting Native Americans. Outlaw gang plots. Stories about a lawman or bounty hunter tracking down his quarry. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, dispensed through a shootout or quick-draw duel; the Western was the most popular Hollywood genre from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939 and it made John Wayne a mainstream screen star; the popularity of Westerns continued with the release of classics such as Red River. Westerns were popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time, including High Noon, The Searchers, Cat Ballou, The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Classic Westerns such as these have been the inspiration for various films about Western-type characters in contemporary settings, such as Junior Bonner, set in the 1970s, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, set in the 21st century. The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier; the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them; this Western depiction of personal justice contrasts with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order is maintained predominately through impersonal institutions such as courtrooms.
The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the literary descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds and bound to no fixed social structures but only to their own innate code of honor, and like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns rescue damsels in distress. The wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture; the Western takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples are more morally ambiguous.
Westerns stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films have specific settings such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, it is the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West: it is the place to go for music, gambling, drinking and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank and a school; the American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in the American West that the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier." The term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western
San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a multi-genre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego, United States. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego, it was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970 by a group of San Diegans that included Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, Mike Towry. It is a four-day event held during the summer at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. On the Wednesday evening prior to the official opening, professionals and pre-registered guests for all four days can attend a pre-event "Preview Night" to give attendees the opportunity to walk the exhibit hall and see what will be available during the convention. Comic-Con International produces two other conventions, WonderCon, held in Anaheim, the Alternative Press Expo, held in San Francisco. Since 1974, Comic-Con has bestowed its annual Inkpot Award on guests and persons of interest in the popular arts industries, as well as on members of Comic-Con's board of directors and the Convention committee.
It is the home of the Will Eisner Awards. Showcasing comic books and science fiction/fantasy related film and similar popular arts, the convention has since included a larger range of pop culture and entertainment elements across all genres, including horror, Western animation, manga, collectible card games, video games and fantasy novels. In 2010 and each year subsequently, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees. In addition to drawing huge crowds, the event holds several Guinness World Records including the largest annual comic and pop culture festival in the world; the convention was founded in 1970 by Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, Mike Towry, Barry Alfonso, Bob Sourk, Greg Bear. Detroit, Michigan-born, comics fan Shel Dorf, had, in the mid-1960s, mounted the Detroit Triple-Fan Fairs, one of the first commercial comics-fan conventions; when he moved to San Diego, California, in 1970, he organized a one-day convention on March 21, 1970, "as a kind of'dry run' for the larger convention he hoped to stage."
Dorf went on to be associated with the convention as president or manager, for years until becoming estranged from the organization. Alf co-chaired the first convention with Krueger and became chairman in 1971. Following the initial gathering, Dorf's first three-day San Diego comics convention, the Golden State Comic-Con, drew 300 people and was held at the U. S. Grant Hotel from August 1–3, 1970. Other locations in the convention's early years included the El Cortez Hotel, the University of California, San Diego, Golden Hall, before being moved to the San Diego Convention Center in 1991. Richard Alf, chairman in 1971, has noted an early factor in the Con's growth was an effort "to expand the Comic-Con committee base by networking with other fandoms such as the Society for Creative Anachronism and the Mythopoeic Society, among others.." In a Rolling Stone article about the origins of Comic-Con, it noted the work of Krueger, who handled early business matters, worked to get the event to be organized by a non-profit organization.
By the late 1970s, the show had grown to such an extent that Bob Schreck recalled visiting with his then-boss Gary Berman of Creation Conventions and reflecting, "While kept repeating'This show's not any bigger than ours!' I was walking the floor stunned and in awe of just how much bigger it was. I was blown away."According to Forbes, the convention is the "largest convention of its kind in the world. The convention has an estimated annual regional economic impact of more than $140 million. Yet, in 2009, the estimated economic impact was criticized for negatively impacting seasonal businesses outside of Comic-Con, low individual spending estimates of attendees, that a large number of attendees live in San Diego, that the impact of the convention was more cultural than financial. In 2011, the estimated economic impact of that year's convention was $180 million. In 2014, the estimated impact of that year's convention was $177.8 million. In 2016, the estimated impact of that year's convention was down to $150 million.
By 2018, San Diego Comic-Con saw increasing competition from other comic conventions in places such as New York City, Washington, D. C. which caused it to compete for attendees and companies time and budget. The convention is organized by a panel of 13 board members, 16 to 20 full-time and part-time workers, 80 volunteers who assist via committees. Comic-Con International is a non-profit organization, proceeds of the event go to funding it, as well as the Alternative Press Expo and WonderCon; the convention logo was designed by Richard Bruning and Josh Beatman in 1995. In 2015, working with Lionsgate, a video channel was created to host Comic-Con related content. In 2015, through a limited liability company, Comic-Con International purchased three buildings in Barrio Logan. In 2018 Comic-Con International purchased a 29,000-square-foot office in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood. In 2017, the organization acquired a lease to the Federal Building in Balboa Park built for the California Pacific Internati
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is the brand name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, a publisher of American comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Worldwide's parent company. Marvel started in 1939 the common name in the Golden Age was Timely Comics, by the early 1950s, had become known as Atlas Comics; the Marvel era began in 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and many others. The Marvel brand had been used over the years, but solidified as the company's only brand with in a couple of years. Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, the Punisher and Deadpool, such teams as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Midnight Sons, the Defenders, the Guardians of the Galaxy, supervillains including Galactus, Doctor Doom, Ultron, Green Goblin, Red Skull, Doctor Octopus and Venom.
Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places. Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman founded the company known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by already popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he held the titles of editor, managing editor, business manager, with Abraham Goodman listed as publisher. Timely's first publication, Marvel Comics #1, included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero the Human Torch, the first appearances of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features; the issue was a great success. While its contents came from an outside packager, Inc. Timely had its own staff in place by the following year; the company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1.
It, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941. While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these three characters, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, the Angel. Timely published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper", as well as a line of children's funny-animal comics featuring characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal. Goodman hired his wife's cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939; when editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber—by writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee"—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely.
Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55; as well, some comics' covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than Timely had published, featuring horror, humor, funny animal, men's adventure-drama, giant monster and war comics, adding jungle books, romance titles and medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports. Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951 though another company, Kable News, continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues.
This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and movies—Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time—and other comic books the EC horror line. Atlas published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo's Homer the Happy Ghost and Homer Hooper. Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any breakout hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work cheaply, at a passable quality; the first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand w
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in McComb and raised in Kentwood, she appeared in stage productions and television series, before signing with Jive Records in 1997. Spears's first two studio albums... Baby One More Time and Oops!... I were global successes and made her the best-selling teenage artist of all-time. Referred to as the "Princess of Pop", Spears was regarded as a pop icon and credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Spears adopted more mature and provocative themes for her next two studio albums, Britney and In the Zone, made her feature film debut in a starring role in Crossroads. Following a series of publicized personal struggles and erratic public behavior, Spears's career was interrupted, before the release of her fifth studio album Blackout, critically referred to as her best work, her erratic behavior and hospitalizations led Spears to be placed on a still ongoing conservatorship. She returned to the top of record charts with her sixth and seventh studio albums and Femme Fatale, respectively.
In 2012, Forbes reported that Spears was the highest paid female musician of the year, with earnings of $58 million, having last topped the list in 2002. During the promotion of her eighth and ninth studio albums, Britney Jean and Glory, Spears embarked on a four-year concert residency, Britney: Piece of Me, at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, which became one of the highest-grossing residencies of all-time. In 2019, Spears announced an indefinite career hiatus due to her father's unstable health. Spears scored six number one albums on the Billboard 200, making her the third best performing female artist on the chart. Five of Spears's singles have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100: "... Baby One More Time", "Womanizer", "3", "Hold It Against Me" and "S&M". Other singles, "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Toxic", topped Canadian charts. With "3" in 2009 and "Hold It Against Me" in 2011, she became the second artist after Mariah Carey in the Hot 100's history to debut at number one with two or more songs.
Spears has earned numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, seven Guinness World Records, six MTV Video Music Awards, including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, seven Billboard Music Awards, including the Millennium Award, the inaugural Radio Disney Icon Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the youngest recording artist to receive the honor, at age 21. Billboard ranked her as the eighth biggest artist of the 2000s decade. One of the world's best-selling music artists, Spears has sold over 150 million records worldwide and more than 70 million records in United States, including 36.9 million digital singles and 33.6 million digital albums. In the United States, Spears remains the fourth best-selling female album artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, as well as the best-selling female albums artist of the 2000s. In 2004, she launched a perfume brand with Elizabeth Arden, Inc. from which sales exceeded US$1.5 billion, as of 2012. The singer serves as one of the few artists in history to have a number one single and studio album in the US during each of the three decades of their career—1990s, 2000s, 2010s.
Spears has topped the list of most searched celebrities seven times in 12 years, a record since the inception of the internet. Spears was born in McComb, the second child of Lynne Irene Bridges and James Parnell Spears, her maternal grandmother, Lillian Portell, was English, one of Spears's maternal great-great-grandfathers was Maltese. Her siblings are Jamie Lynn. Britney was born in the Bible Belt, where conservative evangelical Protestantism is a strong religious influence. Spears was baptized into the Southern Baptist Convention, but in life studied Kabbalist teachings, she sang in a Baptist church choir as a child. At age three, she started attending dance lessons in her hometown of Kentwood and was selected to perform as a solo artist at the annual recital. Spears made her local stage debut at age five, singing "What Child Is This?" at her kindergarten graduation. During her childhood, she attended gymnastics and voice lessons, won many state-level competitions and children's talent shows.
She said about her ambition as a child, "I was in my own world, I found out what I'm supposed to do at an early age". At age eight and her mother Lynne traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to audition for the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. Casting director Matt Casella rejected her as too young, but introduced her to Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent. Carson was impressed with Spears's singing and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School. Spears was hired for her first professional role as the understudy for the lead role of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway musical Ruthless!. She appeared as a contestant on the popular television show Star Search and was cast in a number of commercials. In December 1992, she was cast in The Mickey Mouse Club alongside Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell. After the show was canceled in 1996, she returned to Mississippi and enrolled at McComb's Parklane Academy. Although she made friends with most of her classmates, she compared the school to "the opening scene in Clueless with all the cliques.
I was so bored. I was the point guard on the basketball team. I had my boyfriend, I went to homecoming and Christmas formal, but I wanted more."In
