1.
2012 Toronto International Film Festival
–
The 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 6 and September 16,2012. TIFF announced the films that were accepted on August 21,2012, looper directed by Rian Johnson was selected as the opening film. On 17 September 2012, it was announced that David O. Russells comedy film, the film, in which Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence appear as neurotic lovers obsessed with their exes, is based on a novel by Matthew Quick. The festival director, Piers Handling, stated that the film is an emotional story. Ben Afflecks Argo was the runner-up for the prize
2.
Logansport, Indiana
–
Logansport is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Indiana, United States. The population was 18,396 at the 2010 census, Logansport is located in northern Indiana at the junction of the Wabash and Eel rivers, northeast of Lafayette. Logansport is home to a refurbished Dentzel Carousel, of many carousels built by the Dentzel Carousel Company, the refurbished Dentzel Carousel is one of the three earliest Dentzel menagerie carousels that are virtually intact. The carousel resides in Riverside Park on the banks of the Eel River, riders may attempt to grab a brass ring while riding, this carousel game serves as the current basis for the local economic-development slogan “Logansport – Cass County, Grab the brass ring”. The Carousel is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a national landmark, place House, Point Historic District, Pollard-Nelson House, and Henry Tousley House. Logansport Community High School is the home of the oldest known high school mascot in Indiana, three competing legends claim to tell its origin story, however all accounts agree that at some point between 1925 and 1926, Felix the Cat was brought into the high schools tradition. Logansport also has a diverse transportation history, the Wabash and Erie Canal reached Logansport in 1837, contributing the “port” to Logansports name, as in “Logans port”. The Historic Michigan Road runs through Logansport, Michigan Road was one of the first roads in Indiana. It runs from Madison, Indiana, to Michigan City, Indiana. There are many different names for the road, including Michigan Road, State Road 29, also several different passenger and freight train routes also served Logansport. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and Ladies Auxiliary held its 1935 convention in Logansport, Logansport still has two active railroads and a switch yard, as well as a small refurbished depot downtown, although the much larger Pan Handle Depot was demolished in 1962. Edwin Rutenber started the Western Motor Company after inventing the first four-cylinder automobile engine, in 2009, Logansport was designated a Preserve America Community. This designation was bestowed upon Logansport by former First Lady Laura Bush, Preserve America Executive Order Signed by President George W. Bush on March 3,2003, Executive Order 13287, Preserve America, complements the Preserve America initiative. The Logansport – Cass County Chamber of Commerce is a forum for business leadership. Logansport is home to the McHale Performing Arts Center, adjacent to Logansport High School and these musicals are held every year during the last weekend prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. The facility also holds the rest of the annual events, including the LHS Tony Awards, SNL. Out-of-town live soloists and troupes also put on several shows per year at McHale. The loaning of the equipment is in high demand by many amateur as well as professional venues throughout the state. Logansport also has the oldest art organization in Indiana, the Logansport Art Association was founded in February 1911
3.
Indiana
–
Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial
4.
University of Arizona
–
The University of Arizona is a public research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885, the UA was the first university in the Arizona Territory, the university operates two medical schools and is affiliated with the regions only academic medical centers. The university is home to the James E. Rogers College of Law and numerous other nationally ranked graduate. During the 2015-2016 academic year, there was an enrollment of 43,088 students. The University of Arizona is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents, the University of Arizona is one of the elected members of the Association of American Universities and is the only representative from the state of Arizona to this group. Known as the Arizona Wildcats, the teams are members of the Pac-12 Conference of the NCAA. UA athletes have won titles in several sports, most notably mens basketball, baseball. The official colors of the university and its teams are UA Red. After the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, the push for a university in Arizona grew, the University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Territorys Thieving Thirteenth Legislature in 1885, which also selected the city of Tucson to receive the appropriation to build the university. Tucson had hoped to receive the appropriation for the mental hospital. Tucson was largely disappointed with receiving what was viewed as an inferior prize. Construction of Old Main, the first building on campus, began on October 27,1887, and classes met for the first time in 1891 with 32 students in Old Main, which is still in use today. Because there were no schools in Arizona Territory, the university maintained separate preparatory classes for the first 23 years of operation. The University of Arizona offers 334 fields of study leading to bachelors, masters, doctoral, academic departments and programs are organized into colleges and schools. Currently, grades are given on a strict 4-point scale with A worth 4, B worth 3, C worth 2, D worth 1 and E worth zero points. In 2004, there were discussions with students and faculty that may lead the UA towards eventual usage of the grading system in future years. As of December 2015, the university uses the 4-points scale. The Center for World University Rankings in 2015 ranked Arizona 68th in the world, the 2015–16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings rated University of Arizona 163rd in the world and the 2016/17 QS World University Rankings ranked it 233rd
5.
Academy Awards
–
The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
6.
As Good as It Gets
–
As Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by James L. Brooks. It stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic and obsessive-compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt as a mother with a chronically ill son. The screenplay was written by Mark Andrus and Brooks, the paintings were created for the film by New York artist Billy Sullivan. It is ranked 140th on Empire magazines The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time list, Melvin Udall is a misanthrope who works at home as a best-selling novelist in New York City. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder which, paired with his misanthropy and he takes an interest in his waitress, Carol Connelly, the only server at the restaurant who can tolerate his behavior. One day, Melvins apartment neighbor, a gay artist named Simon Bishop, is assaulted, Melvin is intimidated by Simons agent, Frank Sachs, into caring for Simons dog, Verdell, while Simon is hospitalized. Although he initially does not enjoy caring for the dog, Melvin becomes emotionally attached to it and he simultaneously receives more attention from Carol. When Simon is released from the hospital, Melvin is unable to cope emotionally with returning the dog, Melvins life is further altered when Carol decides to work closer to her home in Brooklyn so she can care for her acutely asthmatic son Spencer. Unable to adjust to another waitress, Melvin arranges through his publisher, whose husband is a doctor and she is overwhelmed at his generosity, and they agree there will be no physical relationship. Meanwhile, Simons assault and rehabilitation, coupled with Verdells preference for Melvin, Simon is approaching bankruptcy due to his medical bills. Frank convinces him to go to Baltimore to ask his parents for money. Because Frank is too busy to take the injured Simon to Baltimore himself, Melvin invites Carol to accompany them on the trip to lessen the awkwardness. She reluctantly accepts the invitation, and relationships among the three develop, once in Baltimore, Carol persuades Melvin to take her out to have dinner. Melvins comments during the dinner greatly flatter—and subsequently upset—Carol, and she abruptly leaves, upon seeing the frustrated Carol, Simon begins to sketch her semi-nude in his hotel room and rekindles his creativity, once more feeling a desire to paint. He briefly reconnects with his parents, but is able to tell them that hell be fine, after returning to New York, Carol tells Melvin that she does not want him in her life anymore. She later regrets her statement and calls him to apologize, the relationship between Melvin and Carol remains complicated until Simon convinces Melvin to declare his love for her. Melvin goes to see Carol, who is hesitant, but agrees to try, the film ends with Melvin and Carol walking together. As he opens the door at an early morning pastry shop for Carol, he realizes that he has stepped on a crack in the pavement, the soundtrack features instrumental pieces composed by Hans Zimmer and songs by various artists
7.
Heaven Is for Real
–
Heaven is for Real, A Little Boys Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back is a 2010 New York Times best-selling Christian book written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent. It was published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, the book documents the report of a near-death experience by Burpos three-year-old son Colton. The book recounts the experiences that Colton relates from visits which he said he made to heaven during a near-death experience, by April 2012 over one million ebooks had been sold, and by 2014 over 10 million copies had been sold. A movie based on the book was released on April 16,2014, examples include knowledge of an unborn sister miscarried by his mother in 1998 and details of a great-grandfather who had died 24 years before Colton was born on May 19th,1999. Colton also explained how he personally met Jesus riding a rainbow-colored horse and he also saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus. A variety of Christians have expressed criticism or concern about the books content, in an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Vincent expressed concern that Christians would find the book to be a hoax if she included people in heaven having wings. Following Malarkeys statement, Colton Burpo expressed that People have their doubts about my story, in May 2011, Sony Pictures acquired the film rights of the book. The film was released on April 16,2014 starring Connor Corum, Margo Martindale, Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Thomas Haden Church, as of July 2014, Rotten Tomatoes rated it at 46%. Critics praised the script and cast, but they were critical of heavy-handed exposition
8.
Sabrina (1995 film)
–
Sabrina is a 1995 German-American romantic comedy-drama film adapted by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel. It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and stars Harrison Ford as Linus Larrabee, Julia Ormond as Sabrina and it also features Angie Dickinson, Richard Crenna, Nancy Marchand, Lauren Holly, John Wood, Dana Ivey, and French actress Fanny Ardant. Sabrina Fairchild is the daughter of the Larrabee familys chauffeur, Thomas. David is a playboy, constantly falling in love, yet he has never noticed Sabrina, Sabrina travels to Paris for a fashion internship at Vogue and returns as an attractive, sophisticated woman. David, after initially not recognizing her, is drawn to her despite being newly engaged to Elizabeth Tyson. Davids workaholic older brother Linus fears that Davids imminent wedding to the very suitable Elizabeth might be endangered, if the wedding were to be canceled, so would a lucrative merger with the brides family business, Tyson Electronics, run by her father Patrick. This could cost the Larrabee Corporation, run by Linus and his mother Maude, Linus tries to redirect Sabrinas affections to himself and it works. In the process, Linus also falls in love with her, unwilling to admit his feelings, Linus confesses his scheme to Sabrina at the last minute and sends her back to Paris. Before she gets on the plane to Paris, her father informs her that during the years of driving the father of David and Linus, when Mr. Larrabee sold, he sold and when Mr. Larrabee bought, he bought. Sabrina jokingly says So you are telling me that you have a million dollars and her father says no, he has two and a quarter million dollars and that her mother would want her to have it. Linus arrives in Paris and reunites with Sabrina, revealing his love to her, the location used to portray the Larrabee familys mansion was the Salutation estate, which is located on Long Island in Glen Cove, New York. This home was built around 1929 for Junius Spencer Morgan III and his father was J. P. Morgan, Jr. who was a banker and the son of J. P. Morgan, the renowned financier. The property is no longer owned by the Morgan family, but it is still in private hands, the movie made extensive use of this mansions interiors during the filming. However, critics gave the film mostly mixed-to-positive reviews, with a fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 65% based on 46 reviews
9.
You've Got Mail
–
Youve Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Nora Ephron, co-written by Nora and Delia Ephron, and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The film is about two people in a romance who are unaware that they are also business rivals. It marks the third coupling of stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Youve Got Mail received mildly positive reviews from critics. Kathleen Kelly is involved with Frank Navasky, a leftist newspaper writer for The New York Observer who is always in search of an opportunity to root for the underdog, while Frank is devoted to his typewriter, Kathleen prefers her laptop and logging into her AOL email account. Using the screen name Shopgirl, she reads an email from NY152, as her voice narrates her reading of the email, she reveals the boundaries of the online relationship, no specifics, including no names, career or class information, or family connections. Joe belongs to the Fox family which runs Fox Books — a chain of mega bookstores, Kathleen runs the independent bookstore The Shop Around The Corner that her mother ran before her. The two are shown passing each other on their ways to work, revealing that they frequent the same neighborhoods in upper west Manhattan. Joe arrives at work, overseeing the opening of a new Fox Books in New York City with the help of his best friend, Kathleen and her three store assistants, George, Aunt Birdie and Christina open up her small shop that morning. Following a day with his eleven-year-old aunt Annabel and four-year-old half-brother Matthew, Joe and Kathleen have a conversation that reveals Kathleens fears about the Fox Books store opening around the corner. He omits his last name and makes an exit with the children. At a publishing party for New York book business people later that week, Joe and Kathleen meet again and she accuses him of deception and spying, while he responds by belittling her store. The Shop Around the Corner slowly goes under, Kathleen enters Fox Books to discover the true nature of the store is one of friendliness and relaxation, yet without the same dedication to childrens books as her shop. Her employees move on to jobs, as Christina goes job hunting, George gets a job at the childrens department at a Fox Books store. They are exchanging emails without knowing each others true identities -, in some chance meetings Fox at first conceals his identity and then they clash, without realizing who each is. When they decide to meet, Joe discovers who he has been corresponding with, at first he decides not to meet with her, but then to meet with her without revealing his on-line identity, but they again clash. Joe soon resumes the correspondence, apologizes, and promises to tell her why he stood her up. After both break up with their significant others, Joe realizes his feelings towards Kathleen, and begins building a face-to-face relationship and he arranges a meeting between Kathleen and his on-line persona, but just before she is to meet this on-line friend, he reveals his feelings for her. Upon arriving at the meeting place, she hears Fox calling to Brinkley, who has run ahead, and sees that her on-line friend is really Fox
10.
Nurse Betty
–
Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock play the hitmen who killed her husband and subsequently pursue her to Los Angeles. For her performance, Zellweger won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, in a small Kansas town, Betty, a diner waitress, is a fan of the soap opera A Reason to Love. She has no idea that her husband, Del, a car salesman, is having an affair and she also doesnt know that her husband supplements his income by selling drugs. When Betty calls to ask about borrowing a Buick LeSabre for her birthday, the LeSabre has drugs hidden in the trunk. Two hitmen, Charlie and Wesley, show up at the house and they torture Del into revealing that he has hidden the drugs in the trunk of the LeSabre, but Wesley scalps him anyway. Betty witnesses the murder and enters a state, assuming the identity of a nurse in the daytime drama. That evening, Sheriff Eldon Ballard, local reporter Roy Ostery and she seems oblivious to the murder, even with the investigation going on right in her house. At the police station, a psychiatrist examines her, Betty spends the night at her friends house, sleeping in a childs bedroom. In the middle of the night, she gets into the LeSabre, Betty stops at a bar in Arizona, where the bartender talks about her vacation in Rome, and Betty tells her that she was once engaged to a famous surgeon. Meanwhile, the two hitmen are in pursuit, having realized that Betty has the car with the drugs, as they search, Charlies heart begins to soften towards Betty, to Wesleys consternation. In Los Angeles, Betty tries to get a job as a nurse looking for her long-lost ex-fiancé. She is turned down due to having no résumé and references but manages to get a job in the pharmacy, despite an injunction against touching any patients, Betty becomes popular with them and their families. She ends up living with Rosa, a Hispanic legal secretary who offers to help Betty find her surgeon boyfriend, Rosa learns from a colleague that David is a soap opera character, and goes to the pharmacy window to confront Betty. Thinking her friend is jealous, Betty is impervious to the revelation, the lawyer supplies tickets to a charity function where George McCord, the actor portraying David, will be appearing. Betty meets George at the function, George is inclined to dismiss her as an overimaginative fan, but something about her compels him to talk to her. He begins to think that Betty is an actress determined to get a part in the soap opera, after three hours of her staying in character, he takes her home. George begins falling in love with her, and he and his producer decide to bring her onto the show as a new character, when Betty arrives on set, she falls out of her fantasy world back into real life. After two failed takes, she realizes that she is on a set and that the people she thought were real are just characters, George confronts her and Betty walks out
11.
Stuck on You (film)
–
Conjoined twins Bob and Walt Tenor try to live as normally as possible. Outgoing and sociable Walt aspires to be a Hollywood actor, however, whereas shy, Walt gets a role in a local play. Bob stays as much as possible in the background, as he has a tendency to get stage fright, following the plays success, Walt decides to follow his dream to Hollywood and persuades his hesitant brother to go along for the ride. They rent an apartment in California and become friends with fellow aspiring actress April Mercedes and it is also the reason why Walt appears somewhat older than Bob. Walts efforts to find acting work in Hollywood are fraught with difficulty, Cher is upset that she has ended up starring in a prime-time TV show called Honey and the Beaze. She wants out of the deal, so she decides to hire Walt as her co-star, the producers, realizing Chers scheme, foil it by going forward with the production, compensating for Bobs presence by keeping him out of the camera frame and employing bluescreen effects. The show is a hit and Walt becomes famous. Walt arranges for May Fong to come to California, eventually however, when May discovers the twins in bed, she concludes that they are a homosexual couple rather than brothers. Although Bob shows May that they are indeed conjoined twins, May is nonetheless in even greater shock at the deception, Morty informs the twins that word has leaked about Walt and Bob being conjoined. Rather than hide this, the twins decide to embrace it, while Walt enjoys this success, he knows that Bob is unhappy because he misses May. Resolving that Bob needs to be independent from him in order to be happy, when Bob refuses, Walt, determined to convince him, begins acting wild and crazy until Bob can no longer take it. Walt starts to make a fool of himself by getting drunk and they eventually end up spending the night in jail for drunk driving, even though Walt was drinking, Bob is the one who suffers the hangover since their shared liver is mostly his. When they are released the morning, they get into a fight. On the night before the surgery, May shows up and apologizes to Bob for running out the way she did, Bob informs her that theyre getting separated, although she does not want them to, he knows that its best for them. At the hospital, May and April keep a vigil until learning from Ben Carson, a real-life neurosurgeon playing a cameo role, that the surgery was successful. Walt, for his part, loses his job when Honey and the Beaze is canceled due to low ratings and he is also emotionally devastated by Bobs absence. After having a talk with Cher about whats best for him. One year later, Walt and Bob are back in Oak Bluffs running the restaurant together, Bob and May have married, the twins simulate their former conjoinment with Velcro clothing that attaches them to one another
12.
Little Miss Sunshine
–
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama road film and the directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt, the film stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin, and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6,2005 and took place over 30 days in Arizona, the film had a limited release in the United States on July 26,2006, and later expanded to a wider release starting on August 18. Little Miss Sunshine had a box office gross of $100.5 million. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and it also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and received numerous other accolades. Sheryl Hoover is a mother of two living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her brother, Frank, who is gay and a scholar of Proust, is living at home with the family after having attempted suicide. Sheryls husband Richard is a Type A personality striving to build a career as a motivational speaker, Dwayne, Sheryls son from a previous marriage, is a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a test pilot. Richards foulmouthed father, Edwin, recently evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin, Olive, the daughter of Richard and Sheryl and the youngest of the Hoover family, is an aspiring beauty queen who is coached by Edwin. Olive learns she has qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant that is being held in Redondo Beach and her parents and Edwin, who has been coaching her, want to support her, and Frank and Dwayne cannot be left alone, so the whole family goes. Because they have money, they go on an 800-mile road trip in their yellow Volkswagen Type 2. Family tensions play out on the highway and at stops along the way, later on, the vans horn starts honking unceasingly by itself. Throughout the road trip, the family suffers numerous personal setbacks, Richard loses an important contract that would have jump-started his motivational business. Frank encounters the ex-boyfriend who, in leaving him for a rival, had prompted his suicide attempt. Edwin dies from an overdose, resulting in the family smuggling the body out of a hospital. The climax takes place at the beauty pageant, after a frantic race against the clock the family arrives at the hotel, and are curtly told by a pageant organizer that they are a couple minutes past the deadline. A sympathetic hired hand instead offers to register Olive on his own time, as Olive prepares for the pageant, the family sees Olives competition, slim, hypersexualized pre-teen girls with teased hair and capped teeth. They wear lip gloss, adult-like swimsuits, and glamorous evening wear while performing highly elaborate dance numbers with great panache and it quickly becomes apparent that Olive is a mere amateur by comparison
13.
Robots (2005 film)
–
Robots is a 2005 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film, produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox and was released on March 11,2005. The story was created by Chris Wedge and William Joyce, originally developing a film version of Joyces book Santa Calls, Wedge and Joyce then decided to develop an original story about a world of robots. Joyce served as producer and production designer for the film and Wedge served as director of film and it features the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, and Robin Williams. The film grossed $260.7 million on a $75 million budget, in Rivet Town, Rodney Copperbottom is a young inventor who dreams of making the world a better place. He idolizes Bigweld, an inventor and owner of Bigweld Industries. During Rodneys adolescence, he invents a gadget called the Wonderbot, when Herbs supervisor confronts them, Wonderbot breaks the dishes, causing Herb to be put in debt and Rodney to be dismissed. Rodney takes his invention to Robot City to see Bigweld and get a job as an inventor at Bigweld Industries, Herb encourages him and confides that he has always regretted not pursuing his dream of becoming a musician. Rodney arrives in Robot City and meets outmoded robot Fender Pinwheeler, after a spectacular, but harrowing, ride on the Crosstown Express, Rodney arrives at the gate of Bigweld Industries. However, he learns that Phineas T. Ratchet has taken over Bigweld Industries and is about to discontinue the manufacture of spare parts. Rodney is forced out and shares quarters with Fender at a low-rent boarding house owned by Aunt Fanny, occupied by a group of other outmoded robots threatened with the Chop Shop, called the Rusties. When news gets out that spare parts have been discontinued by Bigweld Industries, upon discovering this, Gasket orders Ratchet to stop Rodney and kill Bigweld. Rodney later receives news that Herb needs replacement parts, Rodney decides to contact Bigweld directly to beg him to restart the manufacture of spare parts. Wonderbot reminds him that Bigweld will show up at the annual Bigweld Ball, Rodney and Fender go to the ball in disguise, only to hear Ratchet announce that Bigweld was unable to attend. Rodney confronts Ratchet, but security robots stop him, Cappy, a beautiful robot-executive of the company who dislikes Ratchets plan, saves him, and together with Fender and his new girlfriend Loretta Geargrinder, they escape from the ball. After Fender walks Loretta home, he is taken to the Chop Shop by Gasket, meanwhile, Rodney and Cappy fly to Bigwelds home and meet him. Rodney asks Bigweld to return to his company and make spare parts available again, Rodney calls his parents, intending to give up his dream and return to Rivet Town, but Herb encourages Rodney to continue pursuing it. Rodney rallies the Rusties into fighting back against Ratchet and Gasket, Fender reveals that, under Gaskets orders, Ratchet has built a fleet of super-sweepers with the intention of rounding up and destroying all of the older robots. Bigweld eventually comes with the group, having realized what Rodney meant to him, at Bigweld Industries, Bigweld dismisses Ratchet, but Ratchet hits him over the head with a phone
14.
Invincible (2006 film)
–
Invincible is a 2006 American sports drama film directed by Ericson Core. It is based on the story of Vince Papale, who played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1976 to 1978 with the help of his coach. The film was released in the United States on August 25,2006, in 1976, Vince Papale goes to a sandlot one night and joins his friends playing a pick-up practice football game against another group of young men. After the game ends, Papale goes home and finds out that his wife Sharon is disgusted with his failure to provide proper support. The next morning, Papale goes to the school where he works as a substitute teacher. In a short, unexpected meeting with the principal, he is told of his layoff, later in the day, there is a report that the Eagles have hired a new head coach named Dick Vermeil as shown in a formal televised conference. That night, Papale goes to the bar where he works as a part-time bartender, the bar contains die-hard Eagles fans, who are watching TV about the hiring of Vermeil. The news story concludes with the announcement by Vermeil that he is staging open public tryouts for the Eagles, the men in the bar encourage Papale to go to the tryout. When Papale returns home, he finds out that his wife has left him, distraught, Papale thrashes the few remaining belongings that Sharon left behind. When Papale goes to the bar next night, he meets a new co-bartender, Janet Cantrell, desperate for income in the aftermath of his wifes departure, Papale receives support from his friends and attends the tryout hosted at Veterans Stadium. Out of several hundred Philadelphia residents attending the training facility, Papale performs well during the workouts, after the camp is over, Papale fails to start his car and Dick Vermeil comes by. He is impressed by Papale’s actions at camp and invites him to training camp to compete for a spot with the Philadelphia Eagles. Everyone at the bar becomes excited about the TV announcement that Papale will be joining the team, after work, Papale has an interview with a newscaster. His father, meanwhile, offers to let Vince stay with him, the following day, he goes to his first training camp with the Eagles. As the days of training camp progress, Papale endures a life full of hard work, Papale goes out on a date with Janet one night, but didnt think hed still be on the team. He says hes not sure he can start a new relationship at that time because hes focused on trying his best to make the team and she goes to help out at the bar and he leaves. As training camp ends, the roster spot is down to Papale. Against his assistants advice, Vermeil decides to give the spot to Papale, as Papale’s career with the Eagles begins, the team loses all six preseason games and their regular season opener against the Dallas Cowboys
15.
Green Zone (film)
–
Green Zone is a 2010 war thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass. The storyline was conceived from a written by Brian Helgeland. The book documented life within the Green Zone in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Miller finds that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate. Moreover, Millers efforts to find the story about the weapons are blocked by U. S. Department of Defense official Clark Poundstone. The cast also features Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdalla, the film was produced by Working Title Films, with financial backing from Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Relativity Media, Antena 3 Films and Dentsu. Principal photography for the project began during January 2008 in Spain, later moving to Morocco. On March 19,2003, Iraqi General Mohammed Al-Rawi flees his residence amid the bombardment of Baghdad, before leaving the compound, he passes a notebook to his aide Seyyed, instructing him to warn his officers to get to their safehouses and wait for his signal. Four weeks later, U. S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, to Millers surprise, the warehouse has not been secured, with looters making their way in and out, as soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are too few to do much. After a firefight with a sniper, Miller finds that the warehouse is empty, later, at a debriefing, Miller brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous. High-ranking officials quickly dismiss his concerns, afterward, CIA agent Martin Brown tells him that the next place he is to search was inspected by a UN team two months before and that it too has been confirmed empty. Meanwhile, U. S. Department of Defense official Clark Poundstone welcomes returning Iraqi exile politician Ahmed Zubaidi at the airport, There Poundstone is questioned by Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dayne. She says she needs to speak directly to Magellan, but Poundstone brushes her off, meanwhile, while checking another unpromising site, Miller is approached by an Iraqi who calls himself Freddy. Freddy tells him that he saw some Baath Party VIPs meeting in a nearby home and they include Al-Rawi and his officers and aides in Baghdad, who are discussing the current situation. Al-Rawi decides to wait for the Americans to offer him a deal, as the meeting ends, Miller and his men burst into the house. Al-Rawi narrowly escapes, but Seyyed is captured, before Miller can extract much information, Seyyed is taken away by Special Operations personnel - however, Miller keeps Al-Rawis notebook. Dayne complains to Poundstone again, but he states that the stakes are larger than her role in selling newspapers. Miller goes to Browns hotel room in the Green Zone, where he tells him what happened, Brown arranges for Miller to get into the prison where Seyyed is being interrogated. Miller is then approached by Dayne, who questions him about the reports of WMDs. Miller bluffs his way in to see Seyyed
16.
The Last Song (film)
–
The Last Song is a 2010 American coming of age teen romantic drama film developed alongside Nicholas Sparks 2009 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Julie Anne Robinson in her film directorial debut and co-written by Sparks. Sparks was approached to write both the screenplay and the novel. Sparks completed the screenplay in January 2009, prior to the completion of the novel, the setting, originally in North Carolina like the novel, relocated to Georgia after the states had campaigned for months to host production. Upon beginning production in Tybee Island, Georgia and nearby Savannah, filming lasted from June 15 to August 18,2009 with much of it occurring on the islands beach and pier. The Last Song was released by Touchstone Pictures on March 31,2010, upon release, the film received a negative response from critics, particularly its screenplay and casting. At seventeen, Veronica Ronnie Miller remains as rebellious as she was the day her parents divorced, once a classical piano child prodigy under the tutelage of her father, Steve Miller, Ronnie now ignores the instrument and has not spoken with her father since he left. While Juilliard School has been interested in her since she was young, Steve now has the chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter when her mother, Kim Miller sends the rebellious teen and her younger brother, Jonah, to spend the summer with him. According to the locals, it was Steve who had set fire to the one night. She shrugs him off and meets Blaze, an outcast who lives with her boyfriend Marcus, while at a beach campfire, Marcus hits on Ronnie and Blaze mistakes this for Ronnie flirting with him. Angered by this, Blaze later frames Ronnie for shoplifting, causing her arrest, later on, Ronnie discovers a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest at the beach by her house and while protecting it, she meets Will again on his volunteer work for the aquarium. After a night of staying up to defend the eggs from predators with Will, she discovers he is deeper than she expected. The next day, Will takes Ronnie to where he works to show her the aquarium, will finds her at the turtles nest and they have an argument about his past relationships. Marcus breaks up with Blaze because he wants Ronnie, which leads him, Ronnie soon hears the rumor that her father burned down the church from some locals. Distraught, she goes to Will and laments about the situation, will, knowing that it was actually his friend Scott who while playing around set fire to the church, is overcome by guilt and goes to Steve to apologize. When Ronnie comes in hearing this, she walks out and Will follows where they have an argument, fall arrives and Jonah returns to New York for the school year. Ronnie stays behind to care of their father, who revealed to Ronnie & Jonah during the summer that he is terminally ill. Leading a slow life, she tries to make up for the time with her father that shes lost and she continues work on a composition he had been writing, after losing the steadiness of his hands due to his illness
17.
Friends
–
Friends is an American television sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22,1994, to May 6,2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman, Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC, after several script rewrites and changes, including a title change to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros, All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings, ultimately reaching the No.1 spot with its eighth season. Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular shows of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no.21 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, in 1997, the episode The One with the Prom Video was ranked no.100 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2013, Friends ranked no.24 on the Writers Guild of Americas 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time, Rachel Green flees her wedding day and seeks out childhood friend Monica Geller, a New York City chef. Episodes typically depict the friends comedic and romantic adventures and career issues, the six characters each have many dates and serious relationships, such as Monica with Richard Burke and Ross with Emily Waltham. The series featured six main characters throughout its run, Jennifer Aniston portrays Rachel Green, Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber, whom she realizes she does not love. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in a relationship throughout the series. Rachel’s first job is as a waitress at the coffeehouse Central Perk, Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel finally confess their love for each other, Courteney Cox portrays Monica Geller, the mother hen of the group and a chef, known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature. Monica is often teased by the others for having been extremely overweight as a child. Monica works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show, Monica’s first serious relationship is with long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is twenty-one years her senior. The couple maintains a relationship for some time, until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Lisa Kudrow portrays Phoebe Buffay, a masseuse and self-taught musician
18.
Talk Soup
–
Talk Soup is a television show produced for cable network E. that debuted on January 7,1991, and aired until August 2002. Although Talk Soup poked fun at the shows, it also advertised the topics. Despite this, several shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show. During its run, Talk Soup was nominated for five Daytime Emmy Awards and it remains the only E. show to ever win an Emmy. A show based on it, The Soup, aired from 2004 to 2015, the show frequently poked fun at actors Randolph Mantooth and Mario Van Peebles. Also featured was a womanizing Argentine sock puppet named Señor Sock that had bought several Thighmasters because he was madly in love with Suzanne Somers, greg Kinnear John Henson Hal Sparks Aisha Tyler Joel McHale hosted an updated spinoff version of the series titled The Soup. Drew Pinsky, Jimmy Kimmel, Tom Arnold, Catherine OHara, David Spade, Donna DErrico, Richard Lewis, George Hamilton, Wayne Brady, Rolonda Watts, French Stewart, Sally Jesse Raphael, the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Program in 1995. It has also nominated for four other Daytime Emmys and three CableAce awards. In 1993, the show was part of an episode of the CBS show 48 Hours with Dan Rather, the program was about the proliferation of talk shows on the TV landscape and featured a behind-the-scenes segment with the Talk Soup staff and host Kinnear. Later that same year, the show taped a series of shows at the Disney/MGM Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando and it was the first time the show was done in front of a live studio audience. During its run at Disney, the show premiered Talk Soup, Talk show guests were not the only ones the show skewered. Footage of Sylvester Stallones mother, Jackie Stallone, eating shrimp at an event covered by E. News was comic fodder for the show. In 1995, after Kinnear left to devote his attention to his Later show and his budding film career. Dustin Hoffman made an appearance on the show to do a sketch with Henson, Hoffman rarely does comedic bits on television so it was considered a major coup for the show. Jon Lovitz also appeared in the sketch, weird Al Yankovic recorded a song entitled Talk Soup for his album Alapalooza. The lyrics describe a man who is desperate to appear on some of the talk shows whose clips appeared in Talk Soup, the song ends with a sample of the E. sound clip played at the end of the television shows end credits. Yankovic on the origin of the song, Well, to put it bluntly, the producers of the show approached me, asking me to do a new theme song for the show. I wrote the lyrics and then recorded the song, and then they never used it
19.
The Kennedys (miniseries)
–
The Kennedys is a Canadian-American television miniseries chronicling the lives of the Kennedy family, including key triumphs and tragedies it has experienced. It stars Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Katie Holmes, and Tom Wilkinson among others, the series premiered in the United States in April 2011 on ReelzChannel and on History Television in Canada. Greg Kinnear as John F. Jack Kennedy Barry Pepper as Robert F, on February 16,2010 the website stopkennedysmears. com was registered by filmmaker Robert Greenwald as part of the critical response to The Kennedys. Ted Sorensen, former writer for John F. Kennedy. At the time of all of this criticism, the miniseries had not even been cast. In an interview published in The Los Angeles Times on June 17,2010, Joel Surnow addressed the complaints, saying and it was way too early for them to comment on it. However, as the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph put it, With Greg Kinnear as Mr Kennedy, Katie Holmes as his First Lady, now, it is widely considered a disaster on the eve of its airing on the ReelzChannel beginning on Sunday. The History Channel decided to drop the series from its schedule in January, there then followed a humiliating and very public quest to find another channel that would air it. Casting the main roles was announced on April 29,2010 by director Cassar via his Twitter account, the miniseries was filmed in Toronto, Canada between June and September 2010, and was produced by Canadian independent studio Muse Entertainment Enterprises and Joel Surnows production company. The Kennedys is the first original scripted series made for History Television, the budget for The Kennedys was $25 million though reports later described it as a $30 million production. The miniseries was written by Stephen Kronish, who previously worked with Surnow. Historians associated with the production were Steven M. Gillon, author of the book The Kennedy Assassination –24 Hours After, and Robert Dallek. On December 16,2010, Shaw Media announced that there would be a screening of the miniseries to be held on March 3,2011 in Toronto. The miniseries had been scheduled on History in two-hour segments at 9,00 pm beginning on March 6,2011 and continuing for three subsequent Sundays. John Doyle, television critic for The Globe and Mail reported on January 26,2011 that The Kennedys will be shown on History Television starting on March 9,2011. On February 1,2011 Shaw Media announced its schedule for the miniseries. On January 7,2011, the cable channel History announced that it would not show The Kennedys in the United States, furthermore, our Errors and Omissions Insurers attorneys reviewed all the scripts and edited episodes – and they have cleared all of the episodes for broadcast. Joel Surnow, the executive producer, attributed the cancellation to pressure exerted by the Kennedys on the board of Historys owners, A&E Television Networks
20.
Modern Family
–
Pritchetts family includes his second wife, his son and his stepson, as well as his two adult children and their spouses and children. Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan conceived the series while sharing stories of their own modern families, Modern Family employs an ensemble cast. The series is presented in mockumentary style, with the characters frequently talking directly into the camera. The series premiered on September 23,2009, and the season premiered on September 21,2016. Modern Family was acclaimed by critics throughout its first season, although reception has become more mixed as the series has progressed and it has so far won a total of 22 Emmy awards from 75 nominations. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2011, the broadcast syndication rights to the series were sold to USA Network and 10 Fox affiliates and CW affiliate WLVI for a fall 2013 premiere. The success of the led to it being the tenth-highest revenue-generating show for 2012. Modern Family revolves around three different types of living in the Los Angeles area who are interrelated through Jay Pritchett and his children, Claire Dunphy. Jays daughter Claire was a homemaker, but has returned to the world, she is married to Phil Dunphy. They have three children, Haley Dunphy, a stereotypical teenage girl, Alex Dunphy, a nerdy, smart middle child, and Luke Dunphy. Jays lawyer son Mitchell and his husband Cameron Tucker have an adopted Vietnamese daughter, as the name suggests, this family represents a modern-day family and episodes are comically based on situations which many families encounter in real life. Dotted lines indicate a relationship through adoption or marriage. Note, The series has also had recurring characters. Reid Ewing appeared in episodes as Haleys boyfriend Dylan. Shelley Long appeared in the first two seasons and occasionally thereafter as DeDe Pritchett, Jays ex-wife and Claire and Mitchells mother, nathan Lane appeared during the second and fifth season as Cameron and Mitchells flamboyant friend Pepper Saltzman. Adam DeVine appeared as Andy Bailey, Jay and Glorias Manny, Phils assistant, stella, Jay and Glorias dog, has appeared in most episodes, played first by Brigitte and then by Beatrice. Larry, Mitchell and Camerons cat, is played by Frosty, as creators Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan retold stories about their families, they realized that the stories could be the basis for a show. They started working on the idea of a family being observed in a mockumentary-style show and they later decided that it could be a show about three families and their experiences
21.
Rake (U.S. TV series)
–
Rake is an American comedy-drama television series that is an adaptation of the Australian series of the same name, both of which are created by Peter Duncan. Duncan served as producer with, among others, star Greg Kinnear, Peter Tolan, and Richard Roxburgh, on this version for Fedora Entertainment, Essential Media. On May 8,2013, the series was added to the Fox networks 2013–14 schedule as a late fall/mid-season entry. The series premiered on January 23,2014, originally airing Thursdays on the network, before moving to Fridays late in the first season, on May 7,2014, Fox canceled the series after one season, but ultimately aired the produced episodes. Keegan holds no grudges and the two men are otherwise friendly, anne Gee Byrd as Frances Leon, Bens mother, who despises Deane Cedric Yarbrough as Jules, Mikkis flamboyant former pimp Elizabeth Ho as Debbie Lee, daughter of a creditor to whom Deane owed money. She has inherited the business and forces Keegan to rent an apartment her aunt owns in Echo Park and has threatened to have her cousins break his legs if he doesnt pay up. But maybe a little sadness, according to producer Peter Tolan and he added, worked against the episode. And so we refigured it, sort of toning that down, the episode originally portrays Keegan Deane in an unhealthy mental and physical state. Episode 13, Mammophile, should be viewed after episode 5, Bigamist, Rake scored 62 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Hank Stuever gave it a B+ grade, positing that House comparisons will surely abound, but its just unorthodox enough to make me eager to see more. Jeff Jensen from Entertainment Weekly awarded the series a B grade, stating Rake is yet another show that tries to entertain us with a boorish, morally sketchy protagonist. Comparisons have been made to House or cable drama cads like Don Draper, not all reviews were favorable, James Poniewozik of Time stated You get the sense that the show. Maybe it wants to be the kind of raw indictment/worship of reckless masculinity weve seen on cable, or maybe it wants to be a more picaresque version of House, with a little less genius and a little more self-degradation. The Huffington Posts Maureen Ryan said Part of the problem is Rakes diffidence about how bad a guy Keane is supposed to be, hes clearly a raging narcissist, yet the show deflects that aspect of his personality and tries to make him seem a little bit adorable. If were supposed to fear that the worst aspects of his personality will land him in serious trouble, Rake isnt a bad show, it just doesnt appear to have the courage of its convictions. Official website Rake at the Internet Movie Database Rake at TV. com
22.
Given name
–
A given name is a part of a persons personal name. It identifies a person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan. The term given name refers to the fact that the name usually is bestowed upon a person and this contrasts with a surname, which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the childs immediate family. Given names are used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms on a basis and being on first-name terms allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name. The order given name – family name, commonly known as the Western order, is used throughout most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by Western Europe. The order family name – given name, commonly known as the Eastern order, is used in East Asia, as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India. The order given name - fathers family name - mothers family name is used in Spanish-speaking countries to acknowledge the families of both parents. Today the order can also be changed legally in Spain using given name - mothers family name - fathers family name, under the common Western naming convention, people may have one or more forenames. If more than one, there is usually a main forename for everyday use, sometimes however two or more forenames may carry equal weight. There is no particular ordering rule for forenames – often the main forename is at the beginning, a childs given name or names are usually chosen by the parents soon after birth. If a name is not assigned at birth, one may be given at a ceremony, with family. In most jurisdictions, a name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on a birth certificate. In western cultures, people normally retain the same name throughout their lives. However, in some cases names may be changed by petitioning a court of law. People may also change their names when immigrating from one country to another with different naming conventions, in France, the agency can refer the case to a local judge. Some jurisdictions, like in Sweden, restrict the spelling of names, parents may choose a name because of its meaning
23.
United States Department of State
–
The Department was created in 1789 and was the first executive department established. The Department is headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building located at 2201 C Street, NW, the Department operates the diplomatic missions of the United States abroad and is responsible for implementing the foreign policy of the United States and U. S. diplomacy efforts. The Department is also the depositary for more than 200 multilateral treaties, the Department is led by the Secretary of State, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is a member of the Cabinet. The current Secretary of State is Rex Tillerson, beginning 1 February 2017, the Secretary of State is the second Cabinet official in the order of precedence and in the presidential line of succession, after the Vice President of the United States. This legislation remains the law of the Department of State. In September 1789, additional legislation changed the name of the agency to the Department of State and these responsibilities grew to include management of the United States Mint, keeper of the Great Seal of the United States, and the taking of the census. President George Washington signed the new legislation on September 15, most of these domestic duties of the Department of State were eventually turned over to various new Federal departments and agencies that were established during the 19th century. On September 29,1789, President Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, then Minister to France, from 1790 to 1800, the State Department had its headquarters in Philadelphia, the capital of the United States at the time. It occupied a building at Church and Fifth Streets, in 1800, it moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D. C. where it first occupied the Treasury Building and then the Seven Buildings at 19th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. It moved into the Six Buildings in September 1800, where it remained until May 1801 and it moved into the War Office Building due west of the White House in May 1801. It occupied the Treasury Building from September 1819 to November 1866 and it then occupied the Washington City Orphan Home from November 1866 to July 1875. It moved to the State, War, and Navy Building in 1875, since May 1947, it has occupied the Harry S. Truman Building in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, the State Department is therefore sometimes metonymically referred to as Foggy Bottom. Madeleine Albright became the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State, condoleezza Rice became the second female secretary of state in 2005. Hillary Rodham Clinton became the female secretary of state when she was appointed in 2009. In 2014, the State Department began expanding into the Navy Hill Complex across 23rd Street NW from the Truman Building, the Executive Branch and the U. S. Congress have constitutional responsibilities for U. S. foreign policy. Within the Executive Branch, the Department of State is the lead U. S, the Department advances U. S. objectives and interests in the world through its primary role in developing and implementing the Presidents foreign policy. It also provides an array of important services to U. S. citizens, the total Department of State budget, together with Other International Programs, costs about 45 cents a day for each resident of the United States. Keeping the public informed about U. S. foreign policy and relations with other countries, providing automobile registration for non-diplomatic staff vehicles and the vehicles of diplomats of foreign countries having diplomatic immunity in the United States
24.
Scotch-Irish Americans
–
While an estimated 36 million Americans reported Irish ancestry in 2006, and 6 million reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 5.4 million identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry. The term Scotch-Irish is used primarily in the United States, with people in Great Britain or Ireland who are of a similar ancestry identifying as Ulster Scots people and these included 200,000 Scottish Presbyterians who settled in Ireland between 1608-1697. Many English-born settlers of this period were also Presbyterians, although the denomination is today most strongly identified with Scotland, when King Charles I attempted to force these Presbyterians into the Church of England in the 1630s, many chose to re-emigrate to North America where religious liberty was greater. Later attempts to force the Church of Englands control over dissident Protestants in Ireland were to lead to further waves of emigration to the trans-Atlantic colonies, the term Scotch-Irish is first known to have been used to refer to a people living in Northeastern Ireland. In a letter of April 14,1573, in reference to Ulster, Elizabeth I of England wrote, We are given to understand that a nobleman named Sorley Boy and others, who be of the Scotch-Irish race. This term continued in usage for over a century before the earliest known American reference appeared in a Maryland affidavit in 1689/90, today, Scotch-Irish is an Americanism, rarely used in England, Ireland or Scotland. Smaller numbers of migrants came from Wales and the southeast of England, and others were Protestant religious refugees from Flanders, the German Palatinate. What united these different national groups was a base of Calvinist religious beliefs and that said, the large ethnic Scottish element in the Plantation of Ulster gave the settlements a Scottish character. Upon arrival in North America, these migrants at first usually identified simply as Irish, at first, the two groups had little interaction in America, as the Scots-Irish had become settled decades earlier, primarily in the backcountry of the Appalachian region. Many of the new Irish migrants also went to the interior in the 19th century, attracted to jobs on large-scale infrastructure projects such as canals, the usage Scots-Irish developed in the late 19th century as a relatively recent version of the term. The word Scotch was the favored adjective for things of Scotland, including people, until the early 19th century and it was never properly used as a noun. People in Scotland refer to themselves as Scots, as a noun, although referenced by Merriam-Webster dictionaries as having first appeared in 1744, the American term Scotch-Irish is undoubtedly older. An affidavit of William Patent, dated March 15,1689, in a case against a Mr. Matthew Scarbrough in Somerset County, Maryland and it was no more sin to kill me then to kill a dogg, or any Scotch Irish dogg. Leyburn cites the following as early American uses of the term before 1744, another Church of England clergyman from Lewes, Delaware, commented in 1723 that great numbers of Irish have transplanted themselves and their families from the north of Ireland. The Oxford English Dictionary says the first use of the term Scotch-Irish came in Pennsylvania in 1744,1744 W. MARSHE Jrnl,21 June in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 177, The inhabitants are chiefly High-Dutch, Scotch-Irish, some few English families and its citations include examples after that into the late 19th century. In Albions Seed, Four British Folkways in America, historian David Hackett Fischer asserts and it is true that many sailed from the province of Ulster. Part of much larger flow which drew from the lowlands of Scotland, the north of England, Many scholars call these people Scotch-Irish
25.
Beirut
–
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been done but in 2007 estimates ranged from more than 1 million to slightly less than 2 million as part of Greater Beirut. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanons Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the countrys largest and it is one of the oldest cities in the world, inhabited more than 5,000 years ago. The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters dating from the 15th century BC, the Beirut River runs south to north on the eastern edge of the city. Beirut is Lebanons seat of government and plays a role in the Lebanese economy, with most banks and corporations based in its Central District, Badaro, Rue Verdun, Hamra. Following the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beiruts cultural landscape underwent major reconstruction, identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law, Beirut is ranked as a Beta World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. In May 2015, Beirut was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, and La Paz. Beirut I, or Minet el Hosn, was listed as Beyrouth ville by Louis Burkhalter and said to be on the beach near the Orent, the site was discovered by Lortet in 1894 and discussed by Godefroy Zumoffen in 1900. The flint industry from the site was described as Mousterian and is held by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, Beirut II, or Umm el Khatib, was suggested by Burkhalter to have been south of Tarik el Jedideh, where P. E. Gigues discovered a Copper Age flint industry at around 100 metres above sea level, the site had been built on and destroyed by 1948. Beirut III, Furn esh Shebbak or Plateau Tabet, was suggested to have located on the left bank of the Beirut River. Burkhalter suggested that it was west of the Damascus road, although this determination has been criticized by Lorraine Copeland, P. E. Gigues discovered a series of Neolithic flint tools on the surface along with the remains of a structure suggested to be a hut circle. Auguste Bergy discussed polished axes that were found at this site. The area was covered in red sand that represented Quaternary river terraces, the site was found by Jesuit Father Dillenseger and published by fellow Jesuits Godefroy Zumoffen, Raoul Describes and Auguste Bergy. Collections from the site were made by Bergy, Describes and another Jesuit, a large number of Middle Paleolithic flint tools were found on the surface and in side gullies that drain into the river. They included around 50 varied bifaces accredited to the Acheulean period, some with a lustrous sheen, Henri Fleisch also found an Emireh point amongst material from the site, which has now disappeared beneath buildings. Levallois flints and bones and similar material were found amongst brecciated deposits. The area has now built on
26.
Athens
–
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
27.
Broadcast journalism
–
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast, that is, published by electrical methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. Broadcast methods include radio, television and the World Wide Web, such media disperse pictures, visual text and sounds. Scripts for broadcast tend to be written differently from text to be read by the public, for instance, the former is generally less complex and more conversational. Radio and television are designed to be seen and heard sooner, Broadcast articles can be written as packages, readers, voice-overs and sound on tape. A sack is a set of video clips for a news story and is common on television. It is typically narrated by a reporter and it is a story with audio, video, graphics and video effects. The news anchor, or presenter, usually reads a lead-in before the package is aired and may conclude the story with additional information, a reader is an article read without accompanying video or sound. Sometimes an over the shoulder digital on-screen graphic is added, a voice-over, or VO, is a video article narrated by the anchor. Sound on tape, or SOT, is sound or video usually recorded in the field and it is usually an interview or soundbite. Radio was the first medium for broadcast journalism, many of the first radio stations were co-operative community radio ventures not making a profit. Later, radio advertising to pay for programs was pioneered in radio, later still, television displaced radio and newspapers as the main news sources for most of the public in industrialized countries. Some of the programming on radio is locally produced and some is broadcast by a network, for example. The talent talk to the audience, including reading the news, people tune in to hear engaging radio personalities, music, and information. In radio news, stories include speech soundbites, the sounds of events themselves. Some radio news might run for just four minutes, but contain 12–15 stories and these new bulletins must balance the desire for a broad overview of current events with the audiences limited capacity to focus on a large number of different stories. The radio industry has undergone a radical consolidation of ownership, with companies owning the thousands of stations. Large media conglomerates such as Clear Channel Communications own most of the stations in the United States. That has resulted in more niche formats and the sharing of resources within clusters of stations, de-emphasizing local news, there has been concern over whether this concentration serves the public
28.
Alpha Tau Omega
–
Alpha Tau Omega is an American social fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865. The fraternity has around 250 active and inactive chapters and colonies in the United States and has initiated more than 250,000 members, Alpha Tau Omega represents one-third of the Lexington Triad, along with Kappa Alpha Order and Sigma Nu. The Fraternity does not have chapters or affiliations outside the United States, the fraternitys non-profit organization is The ATO Foundation, which provides scholarships to its members. Alpha Tau Omega was founded at the Virginia Military Institute on September 11,1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook, Erskine Mayo Ross, and Alfred Marshall. Glazebrooks plan was to use Christian brotherly love as a way to facilitate reconciliation between the North and South in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Anderson who was president during a membership crisis, the fraternity holds several retreats and training conferences. Altitude is a leadership retreat in the Rocky Mountains. Participants must be in good standing with their chapter in order to participate, leaderShape was started in 1986 by the fraternity, and was exclusive to members until 1988. LeaderShape was spun off into its own organization which holds week-long leadership, the presidents retreat is held every January as training for incoming chapter presidents and vice presidents. The Emerging Leaders Conferences, formerly known as the Regional Leadership Conferences, is a training conference. In 1935, Erskine Mayo Ross started the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation with a donation of $5000, the foundation is a 501 not-for-profit organization that provides educational opportunities and scholarships for the members of Alpha Tau Omega. In 2013, the chapter at Cornell University was shut down for repeated alcohol, in 2012, the fraternity at the University of Central Florida was suspended for hazing pledges, including forcing one pledge to stand in a bucket of ice water while fraternity members beat him. In 2008, the chapter at University of Nevada, Reno was put on following controversy over hazing practices. As many as eleven pledges were forced to seek medical attention following their consumption of raw chicken. List of social fraternities and sororities Official website
29.
Game show
–
Alternatively, a gameshow can be a demonstrative program about a game. In the former, contestants may be invited from a pool of public applicants, on some shows, contestants compete against other players or another team, while other shows involve contestants playing alone for a reward or a high score. Game shows often reward players with prizes such as cash, trips and goods and services provided by the shows sponsor prize suppliers, One of the reasons that television broadcasters make game shows is because they are substantially less costly than producing scripted drama shows. Some TV game shows fall under the category of reality television, Television game shows descended from similar programs on radio. The very first television show, Spelling Bee, was broadcast in 1938. Truth or Consequences was the first game show to air on commercially licensed television and its first episode aired in 1941 as an experimental broadcast. Over the course of the 1950s, as began to pervade the popular culture. Daytime game shows would be played for lower stakes to target stay-at-home housewives, higher-stakes programs would air in primetime. During the late 1950s, high-stakes games such as Twenty One, however, the rise of quiz shows proved to be short-lived. In 1959, many of the higher stakes game shows were discovered to be rigged, an early variant of the game show, the panel game, survived the quiz show scandals. On shows like Whats My Line, ive Got A Secret and To Tell The Truth, panels of celebrities would interview a guest in an effort to determine some fact about them, in others, celebrities would answer questions. Panel games had success in primetime until the late 1960s, when they were dropped from television because of their perceived “low budget” nature. Panel games made a comeback in American daytime television in the 1970s through comedy-driven shows such as Match Game, mock the Week, QI and 8 Out of 10 Cats, all of which put a heavy emphasis on comedy, leaving the points as mere formalities. The focus on quick-witted comedians has resulted in ratings, which. Game shows remained a fixture of US daytime television through the 1960s after the quiz show scandals, lower-stakes games made a slight comeback in daytime in the early 1960s, examples include Jeopardy. Which began in 1964 and the version of The Match Game first aired in 1962. Lets Make a Deal began in 1963 and the 1960s also marked the debut of Hollywood Squares, Password, The Dating Game, though CBS gave up on daytime game shows in 1968, the other networks did not follow suit. Color television was introduced to the game genre in the late 1960s on all three networks
30.
Fun House (U.S. game show)
–
Fun House is an American childrens television game show that aired from September 5,1988 to April 13,1991. The first two aired in daily syndication, with the Fox network picking it up and renaming it Foxs Fun House for its third. Fun House was hosted for its run by J. D. Roth. He was assisted by twin cheerleaders and sisters Jacqueline Jackie and Samantha Sammi Forrest, who cheered on one of the teams. John Tiny Hurley announced for both syndicated seasons and actor/breakdancer Michael Boogaloo Shrimp Chambers, referred to on air as MC Mike, british Knights was a major sponsor of the show, and every contestant and cast/crew member wore a pair of the companys shoes. Fun House was created by show producer Bob Synes, who served as executive producer of the series with his partner Scott Stone for the first two seasons. When Synes died in 1990, Stone paired with David Stanley, Fun House remained a Stone Stanley production until its final episode in 1991. Stones initial co-producer and distributor was Lorimar-Telepictures, which produced the series for much of the first season, beginning in 1989, Lorimar Television assumed co-production duties and Warner Bros. A year after Fun House premiered, a series called College Mad House was created. As noted above, Fun House was played two teams, each comprising a boy and a girl. One of the teams wore red uniforms and the other gold, in the third and final season, a kid was paired with a child or young teen celebrity from a popular TV series. One of the young teen celebrity contestants was actor Leonardo DiCaprio, three stunts/games were played on each episode. One involved the boys, one involved the girls, and the third involved all four players, several games, such as Pinhead and Dump-O, were races to answer a certain number of questions first, with the losing player being covered with disgusting materials by an unusual contraption. The team who won each stunt earned 25 points, if the stunt ended in a tie, both teams received the points. After each stunt, play moved to a podium at center stage where a question relating to the stunt was asked for 25 points. The Grand Prix race was played as the fourth and final round, two different formats were used for the race. In one format, the teams used vehicles to run the course, with one teammate pushing/pulling and the other riding, the other format was a relay race on foot, with each teammate running one lap. Roth signaled the start and finish of the race with the green, teams had several opportunities to collect tokens for extra points along the course
31.
University of Texas at Austin
–
Founded in 1881 as The University of Texas, its campus is in Austin, Texas—approximately 1 mile from the Texas State Capitol. The institution has the nations seventh-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty, UT Austin was inducted into the American Association of Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. It is a center for academic research, with research expenditures exceeding $550 million for the 2014–2015 school year. J. Pickle Research Campus and the McDonald Observatory, among university faculty are recipients of the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Emmy Award, the Turing Award, and the National Medal of Science, as well as many other awards. UT Austin student athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns and are members of the Big 12 Conference and its Longhorn Network is the only sports network featuring the college sports of a single university. The first mention of a university in Texas can be traced to the 1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Although Title 6, Article 217 of the Constitution promised to establish education in the arts and sciences. On April 18,1838, An Act to Establish the University of Texas was referred to a committee of the Texas Congress. On January 26,1839, the Texas Congress agreed to set aside fifty leagues of land towards the establishment of a publicly funded university, in addition,40 acres in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated College Hill. In 1845, Texas was annexed into the United States, interestingly, the states Constitution of 1845 failed to mention higher education. On February 11,1858, the Seventh Texas Legislature approved O. B,102, an act to establish the University of Texas, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the states first publicly funded university. The legislature also designated land reserved for the encouragement of railroad construction toward the universitys endowment, Texas secession from the Union and the American Civil War delayed repayment of the borrowed monies. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, The University of Texas endowment was just over $16,000 in warrants, the more valuable lands reverted to the fund to support general education in the state. The legislature additionally appropriated $256,272.57 to repay the funds taken from the university in 1860 to pay for frontier defense, the 1883 grant of land increased the land in the Permanent University Fund to almost 2.2 million acres. Under the Act of 1858, the university was entitled to just over 1,000 acres of land for every mile of railroad built in the state. On March 30,1881, the legislature set forth the structure and organization. By popular election on September 6,1881, Austin was chosen as the site, galveston, having come in second in the election was designated the location of the medical department. On November 17,1882, on the original College Hill, smite the earth, smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth
32.
Burnie Burns
–
Michael Justin Burnie Burns is an American writer, actor, producer, comedian, host, and director living in Austin, Texas. He is a co-founder, former executive officer, and current chief creative officer of Rooster Teeth. He is noted for his contributions in machinima, a form of film-making that uses video game technology in its production, Burns is also known for his work in the hosting and podcasting field. In April 2003, Burns, along several friends and co-workers, created the machinima series Red vs. Blue. Filmed using the video game Halo, Red vs, Blue was acclaimed for its humor and originality, making Burns an Internet celebrity. His success allowed him to co-found the production company Rooster Teeth, after the immediate popularity of Red vs. Blue, Burns attracted the attention of video game company Electronic Arts, who asked him to create a promotional series using their upcoming game, The Sims 2. A mini-series that utilizes the F. E. A. R, in 2016, Burns starred in the science fiction comedy film Lazer Team, which he co-wrote. As one of the innovators in the field of machinima, he has made guest appearances at the Penny Arcade Expo, San Diego Comic-Con International, Sundance and he was named one of the Top 25 Digital Stars by The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. Burns was born in the Rochester, New York area and grew up in Houston and his father was a Physics professor who worked on the Desertron Super Collider. He is of one quarter French-Canadian descent, the nickname Burnie was given to him by an Alief Elsik High School senior to separate him from the many Michaels in his class. Burns determination to pursue a medical career led him to become a member of HOSA, half of his senior year consisted of clinical rotations at Southwest Memorial Hospital. After high school, he attended The University of Texas at Austin, while there, Burns got his start in video production by volunteering at K29HW-D, Texas Student Television. During his time with TSTV, he founded Sneak Peek, the student television program in the world, in which he reviewed films. Burns went on to become the president of the support company teleNetwork Partners. In his final year of university, Burns was intent on making a movie, Joel Heyman and Matt Hullum, who were roommates at the time, agreed to help, with the former agreeing to star and the latter helping write, produce and direct. They shot The Schedule over a period on 16mm film for $9,000. It took 10 months to edit on a non-linear editor Burns himself built and that same system was used in his early videos, including their first viral hit. Burns became frustrated with the distribution process and the film only screened in a few festivals
33.
NBC
–
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
34.
Blankman
–
It was written by Wayans and J. F. Lawton, whose biggest success was writing Pretty Woman and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. Darryl Walker is a clumsy nerdy repairman, who is a genius, Darryl has a pure heart and an optimistic Pollyannish personality. He is childishly naive to the realities of living in a city neighborhood. The area suffers from political corruption and the police are on strike, Darryl was so pure and shielded from reality presumably because of his interest in inventing, that he does not even realize that there is a crackhouse in front of flat. He tries to storm into it unarmed and rebuke the gang members, awakened to the citys issues, Darryl is inspired to become a vigilante super hero. He uses his expertise to create weapons and gadgets. His brother Kevin, a news cameraman, goes along with this fantasy. Darryl demands an audience with the commissioner, but the police are not impressed with his actions, ridicule him. Darryl is released on orders to see a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist calls Darryl normal, but a geek, infuriating Kevin, who the psychiatrist then attempts to psychoanalyze. After Darryl is nearly killed trying to protect a citizen on the street, Kevin tries to get him to tone his activities down, after he delivers a womans baby in an elevator, he is asked for his name. Darryl just stares, and Kevin replies, Hes gone blank, both the lady and the reporters interpret this as a name, Blankman. Over time he protects various other people in the community, building up a reputation, Kevin, hoping to win the affections of Kimberly Jonz, a reporter at his TV station, begs Darryl to allow her to interview him. He relents, on the condition that she wear a carnation and he brings her to his secret hideout, an abandoned subway station, and they talk about how he took up his duties to memorialize his grandmother and prevent crime. Impressed by his heroics and modesty, Kimberly immediately falls in love with Darryl, Mayor Harris, who refused Minellis attempts at bribery, attempts to bring in outside money to pay the IOUs the city has been giving its workers. He also requests that Blankman be there to protect the people, as the money is released, Minellis henchmen storm the bank and take the mayor hostage, threatening to detonate explosives. At the police chiefs request and the chants, Blankman attempts to save the mayor but is unable to defuse all the bombs. He reveals his identity to the mayor and tells him of his grandmothers support for the mayor, Mayor Harris wishes him well, warning him to run and says he will tell Mrs. Walker about Darryl. Blankman runs out screaming as the bank explodes, killing Harris, the crowd, seeing his failure, turn on him, chasing him down the street
35.
Sydney Pollack
–
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, some of his other best known works include Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor and Absence of Malice. His subsequent films included Havana, The Firm, The Interpreter, Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, the son of Rebecca and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist. The family relocated to South Bend and his parents divorced when he was young and his mother, an alcoholic with emotional problems, died at the age of 37 while Pollack was a student. Despite earlier plans to attend college and then school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at age 17. Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse from 1952–54, after two years army service, ending in 1958, he returned to the Playhouse at Meisner’s invitation to become his assistant. In 1960, John Frankenheimer, a friend of Pollack, asked him to come to Los Angeles in order to work as a coach for the child actors on Frankenheimers first big picture. It was during this time that Pollack met Burt Lancaster who encouraged the actor to try directing. Pollack played a director in The Twilight Zone episode The Trouble with Templeton in 1961, but he found his real success in television in the 1960s by directing episodes of series, such as The Fugitive and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. After doing TV he made the jump into film with a string of movies that drew public attention and his film-directing debut was The Slender Thread. Over time, Pollacks films received a total of 48 Academy Award nominations and his first Oscar nomination was for his 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Dont They. and his second in 1982 for Tootsie. For his 1985 film Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, only Young and Lange won Oscars for their performances in one of Pollacks films. His disputes with Hoffman during the filming of Tootsie became well known, eventually Hoffman began pushing the idea that Pollack play the role of his agent, and Pollack reluctantly agreed despite not having had any film roles in 20 years. Their off-screen relationship added authenticity to their scenes in the movie, Pollack subsequently took on more acting roles in addition to producing and directing. He appeared as himself in the documentary One Six Right, describing his joy in owning and piloting his Cessna Citation X jet aircraft. As a character actor, Pollack appeared in such as A Civil Action. He also appeared in Woody Allens Husbands and Wives as a New York lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis and his last role was as Patrick Dempseys father in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor, which was playing in theaters at the time of his death. He was a recurring guest star on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, playing Will Trumans unfaithful but loving father, George Truman
36.
Billy Wilder
–
Billy Wilder was a Austrian-born Jewish American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, whose career spanned more than fifty years and sixty films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywoods golden age, with The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film. Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin, after the rise of the Nazi Party, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy Ninotchka, Wilder established his directorial reputation with an adaption of James M. Cains Double Indemnity, a film noir. Wilder co-wrote the screenplay with crime novelist Raymond Chandler, Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend, about alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, from the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies. Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot and he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder was recognized with the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1986, in 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, born Samuel Wilder to a Polish-Jewish family in Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary, to Max and Eugenia Wilder, he was nicknamed Billie by his mother. He had a brother, William Lee Wilder, who also became a screenwriter, film producer. His parents had a successful and well-known cake shop in Sucha Beskidzkas train station, soon the family moved to Vienna, where Wilder attended school. Instead of attending the University of Vienna, Wilder became a journalist, to advance his career Wilder decided to move to Berlin, where, before achieving success as a writer, he allegedly worked as a taxi dancer. After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, developing an interest in film, he began working as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other tyros on the 1929 feature People on Sunday and he wrote the screenplay for the 1931 film adaptation of a novel by Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives. After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, Jewish, left for Paris and he relocated to Hollywood prior to its release. Wilders mother, grandmother and stepfather all perished in the Holocaust, after arriving in Hollywood in 1933, Wilder continued his career as a screenwriter. He became a citizen of the United States in 1934. Wilders first significant success was Ninotchka in 1939, a collaboration with fellow German immigrant Ernst Lubitsch and this romantic comedy starred Greta Garbo, and was popularly and critically acclaimed
37.
Dear God (film)
–
Dear God is a 1996 American comedy film distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Greg Kinnear and Laurie Metcalf. The song of the title by Midge Ure was used in the films theatrical trailer. Tom Turner, a con artist, is arrested for working cons and he is sentenced by the judge to find a full-time job by the end of the year and keep it, or be sent to jail. Tom finds work at the post office sorting mail in the dead letter office, surrounded by quirky coworkers, Tom finds out what happens to letters addressed to the Easter bunny, Elvis, and God, and out of curiosity reads one of the letters sent to God. While reading the letter, sent by a single mother, Tom accidentally drops his paycheck. When Tom comes to retrieve his paycheck, he sees the good it has done and leaves, believing Tom sent the money on purpose, the co-worker rallies the rest of the dead letter office workers to continue what Tom has started. Tom, becoming the leader of the group, starts answering more and more letters sent to the post office asking God for help. Hilarity ensues as the group answers more prayers, enriching lives, while Tom tries to find love with a coffee bar waitress. Siskel & Ebert gave the two thumbs down upon its release. As of August 2010, film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes had given the film a 12% positive rating, Dear God at the Internet Movie Database Dear God at AllMovie Dear God at Box Office Mojo
38.
James L. Brooks
–
James Lawrence Jim Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life, after dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolpers documentaries, after being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car. Brooks wrote for several shows before being hired as an editor on My Friend Tony. Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns at MTM Productions to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970, the show, one of the first to feature an independent working woman as its lead character, was critically acclaimed and won Brooks several Primetime Emmy Awards. Brooks and Burns then created two successful spin-offs from Mary Tyler Moore in the shape of Rhoda and Lou Grant, Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 to co-create the sitcom Taxi which, despite winning multiple Emmys, suffered from low ratings and was canceled twice. Brooks moved into film work when he wrote and co-produced the 1979 film Starting Over. His next project was the acclaimed film Terms of Endearment. Basing his next film, Broadcast News, on his journalistic experiences, although his 1994 work Ill Do Anything was hampered by negative press attention due to the cutting of all of its recorded musical numbers, As Good as It Gets earned further praise. It was seven years until his film, 2004s Spanglish. His sixth film, How Do You Know, was released in 2010, Brooks also produced and mentored Cameron Crowe on Say Anything. And Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson on Bottle Rocket, in 1984, Brooks founded the television and film company, Gracie Films. Although he did not intend to do so, Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show and he hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show, which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989. The Simpsons won numerous awards and is still running, Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie. In total, Brooks has received 47 Emmy nominations, winning 20 of them, Brooks was born James Lawrence Brooks on May 9,1940 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey. His parents, Dorothy Helen and Edward M. Brooks, were both salespeople, the Brooks family was Jewish, Edward Brooks changed his surname from Bernstein and claimed to be Irish. Brooks father abandoned his mother when he found out she was pregnant with him, during the pregnancy, Brooks father sent his wife a postcard stating that If its a boy, name him Jim. His mother died when he was 22 and he has an older sister, Diane, who helped look after him as a child and to whom he dedicated As Good As It Gets
39.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
–
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
40.
A Smile Like Yours
–
A Smile Like Yours is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Keith Samples and starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Holly. The film centers on a couple as they try to conceive a child, the film was produced by Rysher Entertainment and released by Paramount Pictures. The title song was performed by Natalie Cole, felber The movie was panned by many movie critics. Currently, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 6% rating based on 35 reviews, Lauren Holly earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress for her work in this film and Turbulence, but lost the award to Demi Moore for G. I. A Smile Like Yours at the Internet Movie Database A Smile Like Yours at Rotten Tomatoes
41.
Lauren Holly
–
Lauren Michael Holly is a Canadian-American actress. Holly was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania and her father, Grant Holly, is a screenwriter and professor of literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She has two brothers, Nick and Alexander Innes Holly. Holly was raised in Geneva, New York, and is a 1981 graduate of Geneva High School, in 1985, she earned an undergraduate degree in English from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Hollys acting career began at the age of 20 when she appeared as Carla Walicki in two episodes of Hill Street Blues, at age 23, she joined the cast of the ABC television soap opera All My Children as Julie Rand Chandler. She portrayed the comic book character Betty Cooper in the TV movie Archie, To Riverdale and she appeared as Mary Swanson, Lloyd Christmass love interest, in the 1994 Jim Carrey comedy Dumb & Dumber. She starred in the movie Any Given Sunday, Holly appeared in the music video for Dixie Chicks single Goodbye Earl. She was a member of the cast of NCIS as Director Jenny Shepard from 2005 to 2008, reuniting with her former Chicago Hope co-stars Mark Harmon, Holly portrayed the worldly and stunning lead medical examiner Dr. Betty Rogers, a regular character on the CTV series Motive. In 2014, she was reunited with her Picket Fences co-star, Tom Skerritt, in the movie, in 2015, Holly starred in Oz Perkins horror film The Blackcoats Daughter. In February 2017, it was announced that Holly had joined Nicholas Gyeneys Seattle-based reality-drama, Ultra Low, Holly lives in Canada with her three children, Henry, George, and Azer Holly-Greco. Holly became a Canadian citizen in 2008, official website Lauren Holly at the Internet Movie Database Lauren Holly at TVGuide. com
42.
Meg Ryan
–
Meg Ryan is an American actress, director, and producer. Ryan began her career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982. Brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination and her other films include The Doors, When a Man Loves a Woman, Courage Under Fire, Addicted to Love, City of Angels, Proof of Life, and The Women. In 2015, she made her debut with Ithaca, a film in which she also acted. Ryan was born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Susan Jordan, an actress and English teacher, and Harry Hyra. She is of German, Irish, and Polish descent and she was raised Roman Catholic and attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Fairfield. She has two sisters, Dana and Annie, and a brother, musician Andrew Hyra, a member of the band Billy Pilgrim and her parents divorced in 1976 when she was 15 years old. Ryan graduated from Bethel High School in 1979 and she went on to study journalism as an undergraduate, first at the University of Connecticut and then at New York University. During college, she acted in commercials and the soap opera As the World Turns to earn extra money. Due to her success as an actress, she dropped out of college a semester before she would have graduated, when she joined the Screen Actors Guild, she used the surname Ryan, her grandmothers maiden name. Around that same time, she appeared in a Burger King commercial, in 1986, she played Carole Bradshaw, the wife of Naval Flight Officer Nick Goose Bradshaw in Top Gun. Ryan appeared in the film Innerspace with her future husband Dennis Quaid and her first leading role was the romantic comedy film When Harry Met Sally. Which paired her with leading man Billy Crystal and earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Ryan next starred in The Doors, which was successful, and Prelude to a Kiss. The year 1993 saw the release of the successful romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. They had previously been paired as romantic leads in the film Joe Versus the Volcano—a commercial disappointment which later developed a cult following, Hanks and Ryan would be paired for a third time in the film Youve Got Mail. In 1994, Ryan took a role that differed from the romantic-comedy ingenue character for which she had become famous, in Luis Mandokis When a Man Loves a Woman, a romantic social drama film also starring Andy Garcia, she played an alcoholic high-school guidance counselor. The film and her performance were well received by critics
43.
Mystery Men
–
The film details the story of a trio of lesser superheroes with unimpressive powers who are required to save the day. Despite its list of stars, Mystery Men made a little over $33 million worldwide against a $68 million budget, in the metropolis of Champion City, the would-be superhero team of Mr. To create a need for himself, Amazing uses his alter ego, billionaire lawyer Lance Hunt, Mr. Furious, while spying on Casanova Frankensteins mansion, discovers Amazings capture and informs the others. After an unsuccessful attempt, the three realize they need more allies, and through word-of-mouth and try-outs, they recruit Invisible Boy, the Spleen. The newly formed team assaults Casanova, which succeeds in annoying him. While drunk from celebrating their victory, the team is killed in retaliation by Tony P and the Disco Boys. The Sphinx trains them, but his methods annoy Mr. Furious – he has them complete rote team-building exercises and they also seek out mad scientist Doc Heller, who specializes in non-lethal weaponry, to equip them for their battle. Without Amazing, the team despairs of saving the city, with new-found purpose, they assault the mansion and, by making effective use of their negligible superpowers and Hellers weapons, manage to subdue most of Casanova Frankensteins henchmen. While the team tries to stop the device, Mr. Furious takes on Casanova Frankenstein, after initially taking a beating, Mr. Furious unleashes his inner rage and manages to fight effectively for the first time. He defeats Casanova Frankenstein, who is thrown into the core of the Psycho-frakulator, the rest of the team helps The Bowler use her bowling ball to destroy the device and escape the mansion as it implodes. The team is interviewed by reporters, begging to know their team name, the musical score for Mystery Men was composed by Stephen Warbeck. Written within a time span, the score was recorded on the Sony Scoring Stage. And then Mike Fisher and the other percussionists have brought along a range of stuff which are so interesting and varied that we keep picking bits of those. After Warbecks contributions were completed, the producers decided to alter various scenes. Because of this, composer Shirley Walker was brought in to additional music. A soundtrack album was released on July 6,1999 by Interscope Records. By the end of its run, on October 14, the film had grossed $29,762,011 domestically and $3,699,000 overseas, given its $68 million budget, the film is a box office bomb. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, on Metacritic, the film has a 65/100 rating based on 24 critics, signifying generally favorable reviews
44.
Loser (film)
–
Loser is a 2000 American teen romantic comedy film starring Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear. Paul Tannek, a small-town, intelligent kid from Upstate New York is accepted into NYU on an academic scholarship, trying to follow the advice of his father he tries to gain friends by trying to be polite and interested in others. To salvage their reputation, the trio concoct a story to the housing administration about Pauls attitude and have him thrown out of the dorm. Paul takes residence in a veterinary hospital, Paul meets classmate Dora Diamond and develops an attraction to her, unaware that she is having an affair with their decorated but highly pretentious English professor Edward Alcott. Dora is equally as intelligent as Paul but doesnt have a scholarship, Paul and Dora bump into each other one night and Paul invites her to an Everclear concert after discovering when they met that she is a fan. Dora agrees to the date, but first goes to a job interview for a shift in a convenience store. Adam is at the store buying beer and pretends to be sympathetic as a ploy to invite her to a party which she accepts. At the party, one of the boys slips a roofie into Doras drink, Paul returns dejected from the concert to a huge mess and an unresponsive Dora and immediately rushes her to the hospital. At the hospital, Paul pretends to be her boyfriend since neither he or Dora can afford to keep her there overnight and he also learns that Dora listed Alcott as her case of emergency contact which he tells Chris the next morning without thinking. While Paul continues with his studies, Dora searches for a new job and she pulls Paul out of class and invites him out to celebrate receiving a spot in a medical experiment. They steal a loaf of bread from a bakery, coffee from a dispenser in the park, after discovering roofies were involved at the party, he steals Noahs supply and replaces them with placebos. Dora then realizes that Paul is the one who loves her and terminates her affair with Alcott. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 24% based on reviews from 96 critics, the sites consensus states, In the grand tradition of teen flicks, Loser comes across as another predictable and underwritten movie with nothing new to offer. Roger Ebert gives the two stars out of four. He enjoyed the performance of Kinnear and enjoyed the chemistry between the leads, but found it totally unremarkable, film critic James Berardinelli gave the film 3. 0/4.0 stars, stating that the film was one of the pleasant surprises of the 2000 film season. The film opened at #8 at the North American box office, the film generated a total of US$15.6 million in the US. It failed further when released worldwide, grossing a total of just US$2.7 million, the film did not break even on its production costs. Loser at the Internet Movie Database Loser at Box Office Mojo
45.
The Gift (2000 film)
–
The Gift is a 2000 American supernatural thriller film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson and based on the alleged psychic experiences of Thorntons mother. The film centers on Annie becoming involved in a case as a result of acquiring keen knowledge about the crime through her extrasensory perception. Other major characters are played by Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Hilary Swank, Katie Holmes, in the town of Brixton, Georgia, widow Annie Wilson is the resident fortune-teller who possesses extrasensory perception. Jessica King, the fiancée of local school teacher Wayne Collins disappears, Annie eventually receives a vision revealing that Jessica has been killed and her corpse thrown into a pond. He had previously threatened Annie and her kids for Annie advising his wife to leave him, valerie permits the search while Donnie is absent from their residence, but the latter returns while the search is proceeding. The police find Jessicas corpse in the pond and Donnie is arrested for her murder, during his trial for Jessicas murder, it is revealed that Jessica and Barksdale had an affair. The case against Barksdale is strengthened when evidence supporting that Barksdale is the murderer is discovered, Annie also takes the stand and Donnie is eventually convicted, Buddy Cole, an acquaintance of Annies, harbors a hatred for his father. The former tries to explain to Annie why he hates his father but Annie is preoccupied and refuses to listen to the explanation of the vulgar and that evening, Buddys mother calls Annie to come to their house as Buddy has snapped and has his father bound to a chair. Buddy sets his father on fire and it is revealed that Buddys father sexually abused him as a child. Buddy is eventually taken to a mental hospital, later, Annie receives another vision divulging that Donnie is innocent. She asks prosecutor David Duncan to reopen the case, after Duncan declines, Annie counters that if he does not do so she will reveal Duncan and Jessicas sexual activity which she witnessed. Duncan attempts to bribe Annie in exchange for her silence, but Annie refuses, Annie tells Collins that Barksdale is not responsible for Jessicas death and that Duncan will not reopen the investigation. At Collins suggestion he and Annie drive out to the pond that night where Annie learns from a vision that Collins is actually Jessicas murderer, Collins confesses to Annie that he was angry after he discovered that she was cheating on him. Collins attempts to kill Annie - striking her in the head with a flashlight - knowing that she will inform the police about killing his fiancée, Annie and Buddy lock the unconscious Collins in the trunk of Annies car. To stop her head wound from bleeding, Buddy returns to Annie a handkerchief that she had lent him earlier, the two drive to the police station with Collins stowed in the trunk. Annie tells Buddy that he will have to return to the mental hospital, when she returns to the car with the police to retrieve Collins from the trunk, Buddy has disappeared. When Annie explains to Johnson what happened at the pond, he informs her that Buddy could not have aided her at as he had committed suicide at the hospital earlier that day. However, Annie still has the handkerchief that Buddy returned to her. K.8 of 10, the consensus was the A-list cast cant prevent the movie from becoming a by-the-numbers whodunit with an ending thats all but unsatisfactory
