1.
Toledo, Ohio
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Toledo is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, at the end of Lake Erie bordering the state of Michigan. The city was founded by United States citizens in 1833 on the west bank of the Maumee River and it was re-founded in 1837, after conclusion of the Toledo War, when it was incorporated in Ohio. After construction of the Miami and Erie Canal, Toledo grew quickly and it has since become a city with an art community, auto assembly businesses, education, healthcare, and local sports teams. The citys glass industry has earned it the nickname, The Glass City, the population of Toledo as of the 2010 Census was 287,208, making it the 71st-largest city in the United States. It is the fourth most populous city in the U. S. state of Ohio after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. The Toledo metropolitan area had a 2010 population of 651,429, and was the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the state of Ohio, behind Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Akron. Varying cultures of indigenous peoples lived along the rivers and lakefront of what is now northwestern Ohio for thousands of years, when the city of Toledo was preparing to pave its streets, it surveyed two prehistoric semicircular earthworks, presumably for stockades. One was at the intersection of Clayton and Oliver streets on the bank of Swan Creek. Such earthworks were typical of mound-building peoples and this region was part of a larger area controlled by the historic tribes of the Wyandot and the people of the Council of Three Fires. The first European to visit the area was Étienne Brûlé, a French-Canadian guide and explorer, the French established trading posts in the area by 1680 to take advantage of the lucrative fur trade. The Odawa moved from Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula at the invitation of the French and they settled an area extending into northwest Ohio. By the early 18th century, the Odawa occupied areas along most of the Maumee River to its mouth and they served as middlemen between the French and tribes further to the west and north. The Wyandot occupied central Ohio, and the Shawnee and Lenape occupied the southern areas, the area was not settled by European-Americans until 1795 and after. They were finally defeated in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and this loose affiliation of tribes included the Wyandot and Council of Three Fires. By a treaty in 1795, they ceded large areas of territory in Ohio to the United States, according to Charles E. Slocum, the American military built Fort Industry at the mouth of the Maumee about 1805, but as a temporary stockade. No official reports support the 19th-century tradition of its history there. The United States continued to work to extinguish land claims of Native Americans, in the Treaty of Detroit, the above four tribes ceded a large land area to the United States of what became southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio, to the mouth of the Maumee River
2.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
Tom Cruise
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Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards and he started his career at age 19 in the film Endless Love. After portraying supporting roles in Taps and The Outsiders, his first leading role was in the romantic comedy Risky Business, Cruise became a full-fledged movie star after starring as Pete Maverick Mitchell in the action drama Top Gun. One of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, Cruise starred in more successful films in the 1980s, including the dramas The Color of Money, Cocktail, Rain Man. In 2012, Cruise was Hollywoods highest-paid actor,16 of his films grossed over $100 million domestically,22 have grossed in excess of $200 million worldwide. In 2002, Cruise won the Saturn Award for Best Actor for Vanilla Sky, in 2003, he won an AFI Movie of the Year Award for The Last Samurai and an Empire Award for Best Actor for Minority Report. Cruise is an advocate for the Church of Scientology and its associated social programs. Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Mary Lee, a special teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III. He has three sisters, Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass and they are of English, German, and Irish ancestry. One of Cruises paternal great-great-great-grandfathers, Patrick Russell Cruise, was born in north County Dublin in 1799, he married Teresa Johnson in County Meath and they left Ireland for the United States that same year and settled in New York. They had a daughter, Mary Paulina Russell Cruise, whose son Thomas Cruise Mapother was Cruises great-grandfather, a cousin, William Mapother, is also an actor, he and Cruise have appeared in five films together. Cruise grew up in poverty, and had a Catholic upbringing. The family was dominated by his father, whom Cruise has described as a merchant of chaos. Cruise has said that he was beaten by his father, whom he has called a bully and he stated, He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a lesson in my life—how hed lull you in, make you feel safe and then. For me, it was like, Theres something wrong with this guy, Cruise spent part of his childhood in Canada. His family moved to Beacon Hill, Ottawa, in late 1971 so that Cruises father could take a position as a consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. There, Cruise attended the newly opened Robert Hopkins Public School for much of grade four, in grade four, Cruise first became involved in drama, under the tutelage of George Steinburg
4.
Joey Potter
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Josephine Lynn Joey Potter is a fictional character and de facto lead role from the WB television drama Dawsons Creek, portrayed by Katie Holmes, and appeared in all episodes. Joey has been friends with Dawson Leery since they were very young and she lives with her older sister, Bessie, Bessies son Alexander and boyfriend, Bodie. Her father, Mike, is in and out of prison for drug trafficking and her mother, Lillian, died of breast cancer when Joey was thirteen. Joey is also the character to appear in every episode of the series. In season one, Joey is the next door. She is confused by her growth into a teenager and her feelings for her longtime best friend Dawson. She immediately becomes jealous when Jen Lindley arrives and steals Dawson away from her and she is intimidated by Jen, who grew up in New York and does not know how to compete. She lives with her pregnant sister Bessie, and she works for her at the Ice House and she is frustrated with having to deal with work and taking care of her sister along with significant helpings of teenage angst. Nonetheless, Joey manages to be helpful with the birth of Bessies son, Alexander, as does their critical neighbor, one day she is convinced to compete in the beauty pageant, which she does so that she can win the cash prize. But instead of winning the contest, she wins Dawsons heart, as he sees past his best friend image. At the end of the season, she finds herself with the opportunity of going to Paris for a year, but rejects it in favor of staying in Capeside with Dawson after she and Dawson kiss. At the start of the season, she and Dawson are a couple and things start out well, during a full moon, the new guy in town, Jack McPhee, kisses her. Dawson finds out during a school dance, after a huge argument, Joey decides to break up with him, even though for the first time they both say that they love each other. She says that she wants to find herself, and so she breaks up with him, Joey and Jack begin dating afterward but the relationship ends just as quickly when Jack realizes that hes gay. Joeys father is released from prison and comes back into her life, at first this change is uneasy, but they heal the rift between them and she gets back together with Dawson. However, Dawson finds out that Joeys father is dealing cocaine, after a fire at the restaurant which was started by rivals of Joeys father, Dawson tells his parents who advise him he needs to go to the police. He convinces her to wear a wire, and get a confession from her father so that nothing like the fire will happen again and she gets the confession from her father and shows him the wire. Knowing that she had betrayed her father, she is understandably heartbroken and she breaks up with him and tells him she doesnt even want to know him and that she will never forgive him
5.
The WB
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The WB Television Network was an American television network that was first launched on broadcast television on January 11,1995 as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner and the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Company, on January 24,2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to shut down the network and launch The CW later that same year, the WB Television Network shut down on September 17,2006, with select programs from both it and competitor UPN moving to The CW when it launched the following day, September 18. Time Warner re-used The WB brand for a network that launched on April 28,2008. The website could only be accessed within the United States, on November 2,1993, the Warner Bros. Only five of these stations – along with a sixth that Tribune acquired the following year – would join The WB at launch, when the network was announced, The WB planned to run a predominately network programmed schedule over time. The WB Television Network premiered on January 11,1995, with the episode of The Wayans Bros. as its first program. The classic Warner Bros. cartoon character Michigan J. Frog appeared on-air as the official mascot. Much of the branding was based around Warner Bros. locations and characters. Pictures shield logo, network promotions and imaging campaigns for The WB, the networks first programs were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically black audience. Even though four of the five shows that debuted in the netlets first nine months were renewed beyond the first year – The Wayans Bros, unhappily Ever After, The Parent Hood and Sister, Sister – none of them made a significant impact. On August 17,1995, the Tribune Company acquired a 12. 5% on March 31,1997, the WB expanded its programming to Sunday nights for the 1995–96 season, but none of the new shows managed to garner much viewing interest. The WB continued to expand in the 1996–97 season, adding programming on Monday nights and this season gave The WB modest hits in the Aaron Spelling-produced family drama 7th Heaven and comedies The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show. The WB first began to experience success with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it debuted with the highest Monday night ratings in the networks history, attracting not only new teenage viewers, but new advertisers as well. The networks breakout hit and, arguably, its series was Dawsons Creek. At the start of the 1998–99 season, the network expanded its programming to Thursday nights, for the 1999–2000 season, the network concluded its primetime expansion with the addition of programming on Friday nights. During this season, The WB was the network to have gains in its total audience viewership. As the teen boom of the late 1990s began to wane, although teen-oriented fare like Popular and Roswell had premiered to strong ratings, both series saw serious ratings erosion in their sophomore seasons, leading the network to cancel them both
6.
Dawson's Creek
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Dawsons Creek is an American teen drama television series about the fictional lives of a close-knit group of friends beginning in high school and continuing in college. The series stars James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery, Katie Holmes as his best friend and love interest Joey Potter, kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe play siblings Jack and Andie McPhee. The show was created by Kevin Williamson and debuted on The WB on January 20,1998 and was produced by Columbia TriStar Television, the series, set in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. Part of a new craze for teen-themed movies and television shows in America in the late 1990s, it catapulted its leads to stardom, the series ended on May 14,2003. The show placed at No.90 on Entertainment Weeklys New TV Classics list in 2007, following on the success of his screenplay for Scream, Kevin Williamson was approached to write a pilot for a television series by television executive, Paul Stupin. Williamsons script was turned down by Fox, but the WB picked it up for its new Tuesday night lineup. Williamson said, I pitched it as Some Kind of Wonderful, meets Pump Up the Volume, meets James at 15, meets My So-Called Life, meets Little House on the Prairie. The shows lead character, Dawson Leery, was based on Williamson himself, obsessed with movies, the entire first season, thirteen episodes, was filmed before the first episode even aired. After the end of the season, Williamson left to focus on Wasteland, a new show for ABC. Procter & Gamble Productions was an original co-producer of the series, the company, however, sold its interest in the show three months before the premiere when printed stories surfaced about the racy dialogue and risqué plot lines. Dawsons Creek was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, at EUE/Screen Gems studios and on location around Wilmington, Southport and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. College scenes in the fifth and sixth seasons were shot at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 1999, some scenes were shot on the University of Richmond campus. The fourth season episode Eastern Standard Time also did location shooting in New York City, the Wilmington area benefited greatly from the show. While a number of films, commercials and music videos had been shot at the studios, one Tree Hill later occupied some of those same soundstages for several years and used some of the same locations in Wilmington. In addition to business brought into the community by the project, it attracted attention to the city as a filming location, the visitors bureau distributed a special guide to filming locations used in the show. When the program was cancelled in 2003, the news was reported on the front-page of Wilmingtons daily newspaper, the private residences used as homes for Dawson, Jen, and Joey are all located along the shores of Hewletts Creek. Some of the scenes shown during the credits and miscellaneous scenery shots throughout the episodes were filmed in Marthas Vineyard. One of which is a pan of Oak Bluffs Harbor and another includes a shot of Circuit Avenue also in Oak Bluffs, Capeside Capeside is a fictional town in Massachusetts where Dawsons Creek takes place
7.
Disturbing Behavior
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Disturbing Behavior is a 1998 American science fiction horror film starring James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl. The film was directed by David Nutter, who was a director and producer of The X-Files as well as a director, Steve Clark is a high school senior whose family moves to Cradle Bay, a picturesque coastal town in Washington states Puget Sound with his parents. It has been one year since Steves older brother, Allen, committed suicide. Steves parents tell him that they have relocated from Chicago to Cradle Bay as a start to move on with their lives. During Steves first day at his new school, he meets. Gavin tries to tell Steve that he believes there is something evil about the Blue Ribbons—a clique of students taking part in a program led by the school psychologist. Steve witnesses a fight in class between a student, Dickey, and one of the Blue Ribbons, later, Dickey is trying to buy car parts for his muscle car at an out-of the way marina, and is accosted by the Blue Ribbons. Soon after, Dickey reappears at school, now one of the Blue Ribbons, Steve goes to a local yogurt shoppe where the Blue Ribbons congregate. Steve comments about seeing Dickey and his recent adversary sitting together, Gavin arrives to meet Steve, and takes him outside after a tense exchange with the group of Blue Ribbons. Gavin shows a photograph of himself and several Blue Ribbons, who were until recently rocker/parties types, the two eavesdrop on a parents meeting, where Gavin learns his parents have signed him up for Caldicotts program. Steve remains skeptical of Gavins fears of the Blue Ribbons and the program, and wrestles a gun Gavin produces, the following day at lunch, Gavin walks in looking like a Blue Ribbon. When Steve tries to confront Gavin, he punched in the stomach for his impertinence. Later, after being chased home, Steve finds Blue Ribbon member Lorna Longley in his living room, Lindsay, while Steves parents are At a meeting. She asks to use the bathroom first, then emerges, partially undressed and her heightened arousal causes her eye to glow red, startling Steve. Lorna starts saying wrong, bad then smashes her head into a mirror, attacks Steve with a mirror shard and she is later seen undergoing treatment at a medical facility under Dr. Caldicotts direction. During this time, Steve also befriends Dorian, the school janitor, Dorian demonstrates a device called an E-Rat-icator which emits a soft, high pitched whine that is supposed to be innocuous but annoying to rats, which is an abysmal failure. Steve discovers that Dorian is actually highly intelligent, and carries classical literature pieces with him, Caldicott to re-program their own children to become the perfect people that they want them to be and not free-thinkers. A Blue Ribbon known as Chug assaults Rachel in the basement, when Dorians E-Rat-icator goes off, Chug smashes the E-Rat-cator and walks out, apparently oblivious to what has just occurred
8.
Ang Lee
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Ang Lee OBS is a Taiwanese-born film director, screenwriter and producer. Lees earlier films, such as The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, Lee also deals with repressed, hidden emotions in many of his films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Hulk, and Brokeback Mountain. Lees work is known for its charge, which critics believe is responsible for his success in offsetting cultural barriers. Ang Lee was born in a Waishengren family, in a Military dependents village of the Republic of China Armed Forces located at Chaochou, Pingtung, both of Lees parents moved from Mainland China to Taiwan following the Chinese civil war in 1949. He grew up in a household that put emphasis on education. Lee studied in the Provincial Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal and he was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a college, the National Arts School. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had interested in drama. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art, seeing Ingmar Bergmans film The Virgin Spring was a formative experience for him. Originally, Lee was interested in acting, but his challenges with speaking English made it difficult, at UIUC, Lee met his future wife Jane Lin, also a Taiwanese student, who pursued her Ph. D. degree. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and he was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads. During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, Shades of the Lake and his own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, Fine Line, won NYUs Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service. Lees NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent, at first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin and this arrangement put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lins support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in film but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time, in 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, to a competition sponsored by Taiwans Government Information Office, and they came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu, Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct Pushing Hands, a full-length feature that debuted in 1991. The Father Knows Best trilogy Pushing Hands was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office and it received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwans premier film festival. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and these first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US
9.
The Ice Storm (film)
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The Ice Storm is a 1997 American drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Rick Moody. The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Glenn Fitzgerald, Jamey Sheridan, the film opened in the United States on September 26,1997. Its release was limited and it ultimately grossed US$8 million on a budget of US$18 million, a special two-disc DVD set was released as part of the Criterion Collection on March 18,2008. Set over Thanksgiving weekend,1973, the film centers around two families, the Hoods and their neighbors, the Carvers, Ben, dissatisfied in his marriage and with the futility of his career, is having an affair with Janey. Elena is bored with her life and is looking to expand her thinking but is unsure of how to do so, Wendy enjoys sexual games with her school peers, as well as both Carver boys. Paul has fallen for a classmate, Libbets, at the school he attends. As the party progresses, Ben becomes drunk, when Janey chooses the keys of a handsome young man, Ben attempts to protest but trips and knocks his head on the coffee table, leading Jim to realize that his wife and Ben are having an affair. Ben, in his embarrassment, retreats to the bathroom where he remains for the rest of the evening, the remaining key party participants are paired off and leave together with only Jim and Elena remaining. She retrieves Jims keys from the bowl and returns them to him, after debating the issue, Jim and Elena leave together, engaging in a quick, clumsy sexual encounter in the front seat of Jims car. Jim, regretting the line he and Elena have just crossed, Wendy decides to make her way to the Carvers to see Mikey, but he has decided to go out into the ice storm, so she and Sandy climb into bed together and remove their clothes. They drink from a bottle of vodka and Wendy tries to him, however. Paul is invited to Libbets apartment in Manhattan, though upon arriving, is disappointed to learn that Francis was also invited. The three drink beer and listen to music, Francis and Libbets also take prescription pills found in Libbets mothers medicine cabinet, Paul decides to leave, just narrowly making the train about to leave for New Canaan. Meanwhile, Mikey, out walking in the storm, is enchanted by the beauty of the trees and he slides down an icy hill then sits on a guardrail to rest. A moment later a line, broken by a fallen tree, connects with the guardrail. Jim and Elena become stuck, due to a downed tree, Elena walks in on her daughter in bed with Sandy and orders her to get dressed. Janey had also returned home earlier and curled up on her bed in the position without bothering to take off her party clothes. Although it is not revealed what transpired between Janey and her key partner, she is exhausted and sad
10.
Wonder Boys (film)
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Wonder Boys is a 2000 comedy-drama film directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Steve Kloves. The film was based on the novel of the title by Michael Chabon. Michael Douglas stars as professor Grady Tripp, a novelist who teaches writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. He has been unable to finish his novel, his young wife has left him, and he is having an affair with the Chancellor of the university. Gradys editor is in town to see his new book and becomes interested in a book one of Gradys students has just completed. Other Pennsylvania locations included Beaver, Rochester and Rostraver Township, after the film failed at the box office, there was a second attempt to find an audience with a new marketing campaign and a November 8,2000, re-release, which was also a financial disappointment. Professor Grady Tripp is a novelist who teaches writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell, whose husband, Gradys third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending. The book runs to two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his time smoking marijuana. Gradys students include James Leer and Hannah Green, Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Gradys large house, is attracted to Grady, James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction more than he first lets on. During a party at the Gaskells house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child, Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily, as a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal, gradually, he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Gradys sympathy
11.
Abandon (film)
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Abandon is a 2002 American psychological thriller drama film released by Paramount Pictures. It was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, starring Katie Holmes as a student whose boyfriend disappeared two years previously. Despite being set at an American university, much of the movie was filmed in Canada at McGill Universitys McConnell Hall and it is based on the book Adams Fall by Sean Desmond. The book was re-titled Abandon for the movie tie-in paperback printing, the film co-stars Zooey Deschanel and Gabrielle Union, with Benjamin Bratt playing the detective investigating the boyfriends disappearance. It received generally negative reviews, with Variety magazine dismissing it as a tricked-up Fatal Attraction wannabe, senior college student Katie Burke is struggling to deal with the stress of completing her thesis and succeeding in an upcoming rigorous interview process. To make matters more complicated, Detective Wade Handler, a recovering alcoholic, reopens the two-year-old police investigation into the disappearance of her boyfriend. With the official reopening of the Larkin case, however, Katie begins to see Embry lurking around campus, reporting this back to Detective Handler, who dismisses her as he believes Embry to be dead, Katie isnt convinced but nevertheless returns to school. Falling asleep in the library while studying, upon waking she finds a number carved into the wood of the desk. Upon investigation, she discovers it references a library book, The Inferno, there she finds Embry staring back at her from the other side of the book stack. Shortly thereafter, Harrison seemingly disappears from campus, convinced that Embry is responsible, Katie confronts him at a local restaurant, only to be asked to meet him at his familys country house. Once at the Larkin familys country house, however, a violent confrontation ensues between Katie and Embry, fleeing from the house and finding comfort in Handler, Katie begins an affair with the detective which spurs her to complete her thesis. Meanwhile, however, Handler learns from an expert that a note which had supposedly only recently been written by Embry to Katie was, in fact. Waiting for Handler on campus, Katie is once again attacked by Embry, informing Handler of her encounter with Embry, Katie asks him if the two of them can just leave, but Handler insists on putting a stop to Embrys threats. Following Katies direction to where Embry ran off, Handler and Katie venture into Embrys former dormitory, as they walk into one of the buildings old tunnels, a former spot for Katie and Embrys trysts, Katie begins to interact with Embry, but Handler sees no one. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Katie and Embry had been in the location two years prior, with Embry cruelly breaking up with her and calling off their planned trip to Greece. It is subsequently revealed that as a repercussion of her fathers abandonment of her at a young age, distraught over Embrys disposal of her, Katie picks up a rock and strikes him from behind repeatedly, killing him. Attempting to reason with Katie before telling her she cant come with him to New Hampshire, realizing that it is the skeleton of Embry Larkin, Handler is suddenly struck from behind and falls into the water, echoing Embrys murder two years prior. David Schaffer The film opened at #7 at the U. S. box office, rotten Tomatoes judged the film to have a 17% rotten critical approval rating, summarizing critical opinion in saying that the plotline is disjointed and muddled
12.
Pieces of April
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Pieces of April is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, the name is taken from a 1972 hit song by Three Dog Night, which reached No.19 on the Billboard Hot 100. April Burns, the eldest daughter in a dysfunctional family. Although estranged from her family, she opts to invite them for Thanksgiving dinner, probably the last for her mother Joy, who has breast cancer. With the help of neighbors, she manages to assemble dinner, while learning to appreciate the importance of family. Derek Luke as Bobby, Aprils sweet boyfriend, who is much in love with her. Oliver Platt as Jim Burns, Aprils father, who has real hope that April and the rest of the family can have a nice Thanksgiving dinner together. Patricia Clarkson as Joy Burns, Aprils mom, who is sick with breast cancer. Alison Pill as Beth Burns, Aprils younger sister, who feels the family should not even try to have dinner with April, john Gallagher, Jr. as Timmy Burns, Aprils younger brother, who loves to take pictures of everything going on in his family. Alice Drummond as Grandma Dottie, Aprils grandmother and Joys mom, sean Hayes as Wayne, Aprils very strange upstairs neighbor who agrees to let her use his oven after her own oven stops working. Isiah Whitlock, Jr. However, the oven in the apartment did not work so they had to go door to door in the building, trying to find an oven in which to cook their turkey, shot in just 16 days on a budget of $100,000. Costs were kept low by the film company InDigEnt cutting a deal with the unions. This meant that Peter Hedges was paid $10 to direct the film, all the actors worked for $248 a day. The film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 84% based on reviews from 146 critics, elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, called the film an intelligent and touching farce and added, Mr. Hedges dances from one vignette to another with a mouthwatering finesse. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine, described it as a playful comedy laced with heartbreak, adding, nails every laugh without missing the dramatic nuances. She makes April and her movie well worth knowing, carla Meyer of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film both heartfelt and tough-minded. Avoids sentimentality at every turn and truly earns both its laughs and its tears, owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, rated the film C, calling it a glib comedy and adding, Hedges shoves his characters into sitcom slots and seals them there. The film earned a total of approximately $3.2 million worldwide
13.
Christopher Nolan
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Christopher Edward Nolan is an English-American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor. He is one of the directors in history, and among the most successful. The acclaim garnered by his independent films gave Nolan the opportunity to make the thriller film Insomnia. His nine films have grossed over US$4.2 billion worldwide and garnered a total of 26 Oscar nominations, Nolan has co-written several of his films with his younger brother, Jonathan, and runs the production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife, Emma Thomas. Nolans films are rooted in philosophical, sociological and ethical concepts, exploring human morality, the construction of time, and his English father, Brendan James Nolan, was an advertising executive, and his American mother, Christina, worked as a flight attendant and an English teacher. His childhood was split between London and Evanston, Illinois, and he has both British and American citizenship and he has an older brother, Matthew Francis Nolan, a convicted criminal, and a younger brother, Jonathan. He began making films at age seven, borrowing his fathers Super 8 camera, growing up, Nolan was particularly influenced by Star Wars, and around the age of eight he made a stop motion animation homage called Space Wars. His uncle who worked at NASA, building systems for the Apollo rockets. I re-filmed them off the screen and cut them in, thinking no-one would notice, from the age of 11, he aspired to be a professional filmmaker. When Nolans family relocated to Chicago during his years, he started making films with Adrien. He has continued his collaboration with the brothers, receiving a credit for his assistance on their Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues. Nolan also worked alongside Roko on documenting a safari across four African countries, Nolan was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an independent school in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, and later read English literature at University College London. He chose UCL specifically for its facilities, which comprised a Steenbeck editing suite and 16 mm film cameras. Nolan was president of the Unions Film Society, and with Emma Thomas he screened 35 mm feature films during the school year, during his college years, Nolan made two short films. The first was the surreal 8 mm Tarantella, which was shown on Image Union, the second was Larceny, filmed over a weekend in black and white with a limited cast, crew, and equipment. Funded by Nolan and shot with the equipment, it appeared at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is considered one of UCLs best shorts. After graduation, Nolan worked as a reader, camera operator. He also made a short, Doodlebug, about a man chasing an insect around a flat with a shoe
14.
Batman Begins
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Comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman, Year One, and Batman, The Long Halloween served as inspiration. The goal was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne, the film, which was primarily shot in Iceland and Chicago, relied on traditional stunts and miniatures, while computer-generated imagery was used minimally. Batman Begins opened on June 15,2005, in the United States and it grossed over $48 million in its opening weekend in North America, eventually grossing over $374 million worldwide. The film received reviews and is considered by many to be one of the best superhero films of the 2000s. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and it is followed by The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in a continual story-arc, which has later been referred to as The Dark Knight Trilogy. The film is presented in a narrative, jumping between the present and past. This is a summary of the plot. As a child, Bruce Wayne falls down into a dry well and is attacked by a swarm of bats, while watching an opera with his parents, Thomas and Martha, Bruce becomes frightened by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, mugger Joe Chill murders Bruces parents in front of him, orphaned, Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Fourteen years later, Chill is freed in exchange for testifying against Gotham City mafia boss Carmine Falcone, Bruce intends to murder Chill, but one of Falcones assassins does so first. Bruces childhood friend, assistant district attorney Rachel Dawes, berates him for attempting to undermine the justice system, Bruce confronts Falcone, who tells him that real power comes from being feared. Bruce decides to travel the world and learn how to confront injustice, while serving a prison sentence for theft in Bhutan, he meets Henri Ducard, who trains him as a member of the League of Shadows, led by Ras al Ghul. After completing his training and purging his fears, Bruce learns that the League intends to destroy Gotham, believing it to be corrupt, Bruce rejects the Leagues cause and burns down their temple during his escape. Ras is killed by falling debris, while Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard, Bruce returns to Gotham intent on fighting crime. Inspired by his fear, he takes up the vigilante identity of the Batman. He takes an interest in his familys company, Wayne Enterprises, company archivist Lucius Fox allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies including a protective bodysuit and a heavily armored car called the Tumbler. Bruce poses as a shallow playboy to allay suspicion, Batman intercepts a drug shipment, provides Rachel with evidence against Falcone, and enlists Sergeant James Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in Gotham, to arrest him. Crane puts on a mask and sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen that drives him insane
15.
Rachel Dawes
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Rachel Dawes is a fictional character who first appeared in Christopher Nolans 2005 feature film Batman Begins. She was portrayed in film by Katie Holmes, with Emma Lockhart as a younger version of the character in early scenes. Holmes also voiced the character in the game adaptation. Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Holmes in the 2008 sequel The Dark Knight after Holmes chose not to reprise the role, Gyllenhaal also appeared as Dawes on the viral marketing website I Believe in Harvey Dent, giving Harvey Dent her endorsement in the District Attorney election. In the Dark Knight Trilogy, Rachel is Bruce Waynes childhood sweetheart, Rachel is Bruce Waynes closest childhood friend. Rachels mother worked as a servant at Wayne Manor. After Bruces parents are murdered by Joe Chill, Rachels mother seeks other employment, Rachel enrolls in law school and gets an internship at the Gotham City District Attorneys office during her first year. After Chill is murdered for testifying against Mafia boss Carmine Falcone, Bruce reveals to Rachel that he intended to murder Chill himself, Rachel is horrified, and tells Bruce that his late parents would be ashamed of him. Soon afterward, Bruce leaves the United States and Rachel continues her studies in law school, years later, she becomes an Assistant District Attorney. Rachel dedicates her career to eliminating crime in Gotham, in the process making enemies of Falcone and later Dr. Jonathan Crane, Arkham Asylums corrupt chief psychiatrist. When Bruce returns to Gotham, Rachel is surprised that he did not contact her and she tells Bruce, Bruce, deep down you may still be that great kid you used to be, but its not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you. Around the same time, a costumed vigilante calling himself Batman appears in Gotham, Rachel is intrigued by the masked crime-fighter, unaware that he is her old friend Bruce. After her boss is murdered by thugs working for Crane, Rachel takes over his job until a replacement can be found. Shortly afterward, Falcone has a break in police custody. When she goes to Arkham to evaluate the situation, Crane drugs her with fear toxin as well, Batman rescues her again, administers an antidote and tells her that Crane is working with the League of Shadows, a terrorist organization led by Ras al Ghul. He gives her instructions for a plan to save the city from the Leagues attack and he then sedates her and has his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, take her home. She wakes up in her bed and delivers samples of an anti-toxin to Gotham City Police Department sergeant James Gordon, the League starts a riot in the Narrows, one of Gotham Citys slums, and Rachel is trapped. Crane, who has now assumed the criminal alter ego of The Scarecrow and she defends herself and a boy caught in the riot by firing a taser at Cranes face, driving him away
16.
Thank You for Smoking
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Thank You for Smoking is a 2006 comedy-drama film written and directed by Jason Reitman and starring Aaron Eckhart, based on the 1994 satirical novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley. It follows the efforts of Big Tobaccos chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, maria Bello, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy, J. K. Simmons, and Robert Duvall appear in supporting roles. The film was released in a run on March 17,2006. As of 2007, the film has grossed a total of more than $39 million worldwide, the film was released on DVD in the US on October 3,2006, and in the UK on January 8,2007. They claim that their research—funded primarily by tobacco companies—has found no evidence of any linkage. Naylor and his friends, firearm lobbyist Bobby Jay Bliss and alcohol lobbyist Polly Bailey, meet every week, as anti-tobacco campaigns mount and numbers of young smokers decline, Naylor suggests that product placement of cigarettes could once again boost cigarette sales. Naylors boss, BR, sends Naylor to Los Angeles to bargain for cigarette placement in upcoming movies, Naylor takes along his young son Joey in hopes of bonding with him. The next day, Naylor is sent to meet with Lorne Lutch, as his son watches, Naylor successfully offers Lutch a suitcase of money for his silence. During the drive back, Nick and Joey discuss the beauty of argument, Senator Finistirre, one of Naylors most vehement critics, is the promoter of a bill to add a skull and crossbones POISON warning to cigarette packaging. During a televised debate with Finistirre, Naylor receives a threat from a caller. Despite the threat, Naylor still plans to appear before a U. S. Senate committee to fight Finistirres bill, Naylor is then kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches. Meanwhile, Naylor has been seduced by a reporter named Heather Holloway. During their steamy fling, the besotted Naylor tells Holloway all about his life and her article relentlessly bashes Naylor and his work, exposing Lutchs bribe, the product-placement scheme, and the MOD squad. It accuses Naylor of training his son Joey to follow his amoral example, all public sympathy due to Naylors kidnapping evaporates, and Naylor is fired by BR. Naylor falls into depression until Joey helps him recall the integrity in his job of defending corporations that almost no one feels deserve a defense, rejuvenated, Naylor tells the press about his affair with Holloway and promises to clear the names of everyone mentioned in her article. He also declares that he will appear before the Senate committee. At the hearing, Naylor admits to the dangers of smoking, BR congratulates Naylor on the speech and offers him his old job but Naylor has a change of heart. Seeing Big Tobacco settling claims of liability, Naylor remarks that he has left just in time and he also mentions Heather was humiliated upon being terminated by the paper for her article and is working as a weather reporter on a local news station
17.
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010 film)
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It is a remake of the 1973 ABC made-for-television horror film of the same name. At Blackwood Manor in Providence County, Rhode Island, renowned wildlife painter Lord Blackwood summons his housekeeper into the basement where he kills her with a hammer. He removes her teeth, as well as his own, and offers them to mysterious creatures down an ash pit within an old fireplace, all of a sudden, the creatures demand the teeth of children. Blackwood begs for them to back his kidnapped son, only to be dragged down the ash pit by the creatures. Sally is depressed due to her mother forcefully putting her in Alexs care, on the first night of her stay, the melodious tune from a carousel-styled nightlight awakens the creatures in the ash pit. The next day, Sally wanders the grounds and finds the hidden basements skylight, one of the workmen restoring the house, Mr. Harris, warns her, Alex and Kim not to venture into the basement, although they do regardless. Sally takes interest in the fireplace where she hears the creatures calling her name. BE AFRAID is written in runes above it, Sally opens the fireplace to meet the creatures and finds one of the old housekeepers teeth. The creatures quickly prove to be hostile, stealing Alexs razor, Alex immediately blames Sally and finds a 19th-century silver coin in her possession, which she found under her pillow after the tooth disappeared. Alex and Kim head into town on a trip and Sally sneaks to the basement to talk with the creatures. The creatures emerge and brutally wound him with his own tools, Sallys increasingly frightening encounters with the creatures prompt Alex to call a therapist to talk to Sally, who draws a sketch of one of the creatures that attacked her under her bedsheets. Kim visits Harris in the hospital, who tells her to find the artwork of Lord Blackwood in the local library. The librarian reveals the artwork, one of which is of a creature whom he describes as being like tooth fairies, which every now and again turns a human into one of their own. Kim races home as Sally is attacked again by the creatures while having a bath, Kim finds an undiscovered mural painted by Lord Blackwood in the basement, depicting his son being taken below ground by the creatures. Kim confronts Alex who is interested in hosting a dinner for Mr. Jacoby. However, he realizes what is happening when Sally is trapped in the library by the creatures. When Sally wakes up, her feet have been tied up with rope, and the creatures are starting to drag her to the basement for her transformation. Kim awakens and goes to the basement to confront the creatures, cutting the rope around Sallys feet but only to get herself in the ropes and her leg broken by it as she struggles to get free
18.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
19.
Arthur Miller
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Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright, essayist, and figure in twentieth-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and he also wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits. The drama Death of a Salesman has been numbered on the short list of finest American plays in the 20th century alongside Long Days Journey into Night, Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, in 1980, Miller received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Prince of Asturias Award and the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2002, Miller was born on October 17,1915, in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, the second of three children of Augusta and Isidore Miller. His father was born in Radomyśl Wielki, Galicia, and his mother was a native of New York whose parents arrived from that town. Isidore owned a clothing manufacturing business employing 400 people. He became a wealthy and respected man in the community, the family, including his younger sister Joan Copeland, lived on West 110th Street in Manhattan, owned a summer house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and employed a chauffeur. In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, as a teenager, Miller delivered bread every morning before school to help the family. After graduating in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, he worked at menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. At the University of Michigan, Miller first majored in journalism and worked for the student paper and it was during this time that he wrote his first play, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and subsequently won the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain, the award brought him his first recognition and led him to begin to consider that he could have a career as a playwright. Rowe provided realistic feedback along with much-needed encouragement, and became a lifelong friend, in 1937, Miller wrote Honors at Dawn, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award. After his graduation in 1938, he joined the Federal Theater Project and he chose the theater project despite the more lucrative offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox. However, Congress, worried about possible Communist infiltration, closed the project in 1939, Miller began working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS. In 1940, Miller married Mary Grace Slattery, the couple had two children, Jane and Robert. Miller was exempted from service during World War II because of a high-school football injury to his left kneecap. 1940 was also the year his first play was produced, The Man Who Had All the Luck won the Theatre Guilds National Award, the play closed after four performances with disastrous reviews
20.
All My Sons
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All My Sons is a 1947 play by Arthur Miller. It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29,1947, closed on November 8,1949 and it was directed by Elia Kazan, produced by Elia Kazan and Harold Clurman, and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It starred Ed Begley, Beth Miller, Arthur Kennedy, and Karl Malden, the play was adapted for films in 1949 and 1987. Miller wrote All My Sons after his first play The Man Who Had All the Luck failed on Broadway, lasting only four performances. Miller wrote All My Sons as an attempt at writing a commercially successful play. All My Sons is based upon a story, which Arthur Millers then mother-in-law pointed out in an Ohio newspaper. The news story described how in 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use. In 1944, three Army Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Frank C, greulich, Major Walter A. Ryan, and Major William Bruckmann were relieved of duty and later convicted of neglect of duty. This is mirrored in All My Sons and he also borrowed the idea of a character’s idealism being the source of a problem. Miller sent a copy of the play to Elia Kazan who directed the stage version of All My Sons. Kazan was a member of the Communist Party who shared Millers left-wing views. However, their relationship was destroyed when Kazan gave names of suspected Communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare, for three and a half years he has placed the blame on his partner and former neighbor, Steve Deever. When the truth out, Joe justifies his actions by claiming that he did it for his family. At the end of the play he commits suicide in a sad attempt to rid his family of the problems he has caused them and perhaps also to stop Kate from hating him. Kate Keller — Kate knows that Joe is guilty but lives in denial while mourning for her older son Larry, who has been MIA for three years. Chris Keller — Chris,32, returned home from World War II two years before the play begins, disturbed by the realization that the world was continuing as if nothing had happened. He has summoned Ann Deever to the Keller house in order to ask her hand in marriage, chriss idolization of his father results in his devastation when he finds out the truth about what Joe did. Ann Deever — Ann,26, arrives at the Keller home having shunned her guilty father since his imprisonment, throughout the play, Ann is often referred to as pretty, beautiful, and intelligent-looking and as Annie
21.
How I Met Your Mother
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How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 19,2005 to March 31,2014. The series follows the character, Ted Mosby, and his group of friends in Manhattan. As a framing device, Ted, in the year 2030, recounts to his son, the series was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who also served as the shows executive producers and were frequent writers. The series was inspired by their friendship when they both lived in New York City. Among the 208 episodes, there were four directors, Pamela Fryman, Rob Greenberg, Michael Shea. Known for its structure and eccentric humor, How I Met Your Mother has gained a cult following over the years. The show initially received positive reviews, while the later seasons received more mixed reviews, the show was nominated for 28 Emmy Awards, winning nine. In 2010, Alyson Hannigan won the Peoples Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actress, in 2012, seven years after its premiere, the series won the Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Network TV Comedy, and Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor. The series concerns the adventures of Ted Mosby narrating the story of how he met the mother of his children, the lives of all characters are entwined in each others. The shows frame story depicts Ted verbally retelling the story to his son Luke, the show instead focuses on Teds prior relationships and his dissatisfaction with those women, thus setting the stage for his eventual happiness with Tracy. The two drew from their friendship in creating the characters, Ted is based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily are based loosely on Thomas and his wife. Thomas wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her, Hannigan was looking to do more comedy work, and was available. The role of Barney was initially envisioned as a John Belushi-type character before Neil Patrick Harris won the role after being invited to an audition by the casting director Megan Branman. Pamela Fryman invited Bob Saget to be the narrator, Future Ted, explaining to him that the show would be like The Wonder Years. Saget either went to the studio and recorded the narration while watching the episode, or did so separately. He normally did not attend table readings, but did so for the last episode, in various interviews Bays and Thomas have stated that a pretty famous actress turned down the role of Robin, whom they revealed in February 2014 to have been Jennifer Love Hewitt. They then cast Cobie Smulders for the role who, at the time, was fairly unknown, Bays and Thomas later said, Thank God we did for a million reasons. When Teds seeing her for the first time, Americas seeing her for the first time — the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward, according to an Entertainment Weekly article, the writers adopted facets of each main actors personality and incorporated them into their characters
22.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
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Jacqueline Lee Jackie Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and First Lady of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Bouvier was the daughter of Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III. In 1951, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature from George Washington University, in 1952, Bouvier met Congressman John F. Kennedy at a dinner party. In November of that year, he was elected as a United States Senator from Massachusetts, and they had four children, two of whom died in infancy. As First Lady, she was known for her highly publicized restoration of the White House and her emphasis on arts, on November 22,1963, she was riding with the President in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, when he was assassinated. She and her children withdrew from view after his funeral. Following her second death in 1975, she had a career as a book editor for the final two decades of her life. She is remembered for her contributions to the arts and preservation of historic architecture, as well as for her style, elegance. She was an icon, and her famous ensemble of pink Chanel suit. She ranks as one of the most popular First Ladies and in 1999 was named on Gallups list of Most Admired Men and Women in 20th-century America. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28,1929, at Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York, to Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Black Jack Bouvier III, Bouviers mother was of Irish descent, and her father had French, Scottish, and English ancestry. Named after her father, Bouvier was baptized at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan and her younger sister Lee was born in 1933. Bouvier spent her childhood years in Manhattan and at Lasata. She idolized her father, who favored her over her sister. From an early age, Bouvier was an equestrienne and successfully competed in the sport. She also took lessons, was an avid reader, and excelled at learning languages. Bouvier enrolled in the Chapin School in Manhattan in 1935, which she attended for grades 1–6. She was a student but often misbehaved, one of her teachers described her as a darling child, the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic
23.
The Kennedys (miniseries)
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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
24.
Touched with Fire (film)
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Touched with Fire is a 2015 American drama film directed and written by Paul Dalio. The film stars Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby, Christine Lahti, Griffin Dunne, the film is about two bipolar poets who meet in a psychiatric hospital and fall in love. The film was released on February 12,2016, by Roadside Attractions, the film premiered at South by Southwest on March 15,2015. Roadside Attractions acquired the US distribution rights to the film on May 19,2015, the film was released on February 12,2016, by Roadside Attractions. Official website Touched with Fire at the Internet Movie Database
25.
Steven Soderbergh
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Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. Film critic Roger Ebert dubbed Soderbergh the poster boy of the Sundance generation, Soderbergh also directed, photographed and edited all episodes of the television drama The Knick. In addition, he has produced film and television programs. Soderbergh was born on January 14,1963, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary Ann and Peter Andrew Soderbergh and his fathers ancestry was Swedish and Irish, his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from Stockholm. His mother was of Italian, and a little Irish, descent, in Baton Rouge, he discovered filmmaking as a teenager, directing short Super 8 mm films with equipment borrowed from LSU students. His primary high school education was at Louisiana State University Laboratory School, while still taking classes there around the age of 15, Soderbergh enrolled in the universitys film animation class and began making short 16 mm films with secondhand equipment. His big break came when he directed the Grammy-nominated concert video 9012Live for the rock band Yes in 1985 and it was not until Soderbergh came back to Baton Rouge that he conceived the idea for Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which he wrote in eight days. The independent film won the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival, became a commercial success. At age 26, Soderbergh became the second youngest director to win the top award. Movie critic Roger Ebert dubbed Soderbergh the poster boy of the Sundance generation and he also directed the Spalding Gray monologue film Grays Anatomy in 1996. The film was praised, though only a moderate box-office success. It reaffirmed Soderberghs potential, sparking the beginnings of an artistic partnership between Clooney and Soderbergh. Soderbergh followed up on the success of Out of Sight by making another crime caper, The Limey, from a screenplay by Lem Dobbs and starring veteran actors Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. The film was well-received, but not as much as Erin Brockovich, written by Susannah Grant, later that year, Soderbergh released Traffic, a social drama written by Stephen Gaghan and featuring an ensemble cast. Traffic became his most acclaimed movie since Sex, Lies, and Videotape and he was also nominated that same year for Erin Brockovich. He is the director to have been nominated in the same year for Best Director for two different films by the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Directors Guild of America. The double nomination was the first in 60 years, the films star, George Clooney, subsequently appeared in Solaris, marking the third time the two have headlined a film. A film within a film, the title is a film reference to an actor or actress appearing fully nude
26.
Supercouple
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A supercouple or super couple is a popular or wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or obsessive fashion. The term supercouple typically refers to fictional couples from television dramas and film, such as Gone with the Winds Rhett Butler, with regard to real-life pairings, tabloids and the mainstream media have focused on wealthy or popular celebrity couples, and have titled them supercouples or power couples. Examples are the former pairing of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, the term supercouple first appeared in 1981, with the wedding of General Hospitals Luke and Laura. The model Luke and Laura originally followed consisted of stories, romance. This paradigm subsequently became ideal of fictional soap opera supercouples in America, Luke and Lauras popularity resulted in fictional supercouples generally being regarded as soulmates. The pairings have typically overcome numerous obstacles or significant strife in order to be together, though a successful model, the concept has been criticized for hindering the growth of characters relationships with other love interests, this has resulted in alternate definitions for the term. In addition, the two have no personal flaws or idiosyncrasies that could interfere with their perfect love, only an evil, outside force could disturb their relationship. Every time they walk into a room, every character, no matter how important, becomes window dressing. Corday added, Either people are involved in a story or theyre not. Theyre an interesting couple or theyre not, celebrity couples may also be regarded as supercouples. Interest in the ranges from media and public obsession to calculation of the couples combined finances. Fans often use portmanteaux to refer to their favorite couples on online message boards, though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet, and is seldom used outside of that context. People involved in shipping assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, portmanteaux first came about with Lewis Carroll as a way to blend words, stated Jonathan Gabay, author of the Copywriters Compendium—a reference guide to the English language. Gabay added that people blend words in this fashion because sometimes there are words an individual wants, theres a feeling you are trying to get out, he said. For fictional pairings, examples showcase themselves as Logan and Veronica becomes LoVe, Josh and Reva becomes Jeva, Jack and Kate becomes Jate, Michael and Sara becomes MiSa, Gabay said portmanteaux. giv people an essence of who they are within the same name. In double-barrelled names, the hyphen is almost pushing one name away from the other, meshing says I am you and you are me, which is rather romantic. Occasionally, even anti-fans come up with names for couples, such as General Hospitals Sonny Corinthos, the unpopular pairing of the mob boss and his enforcers sweet younger sister became known as Soily. Similarly, name-blending exists with celebrities first names, in other Internet trends, fans often take part in making fan videos and writing fanfiction for their favorite pairings
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Baptism
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Baptism is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally. The canonical Gospels report that Jesus was baptized—a historical event to which a degree of certainty can be assigned. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. In some denominations, baptism is also called christening, but for others the word christening is reserved for the baptism of infants, Baptism has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the candidate to be immersed, in v.16, Matthew will speak of Jesus coming up out of the water. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus head may therefore be based on later Christian practice, other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as baptism by blood, later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. Today, some Christians, particularly Christian Scientists, Quakers, The Salvation Army, and Unitarians, do not see baptism as necessary, among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, much more than half of all Christians baptize infants, many others hold that only believers baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient. The term baptism has also used to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified. The Greek verb baptō, dip, from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, the Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings. John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, and baptism in the name of Jesus, and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, the earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have also been used, at the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be baptized first, all of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, after this, the men will be baptized
28.
St. John's Jesuit High School and Academy
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St. Johns Jesuit High School & Academy comprises two schools on the same campus, St. Johns Jesuit High School and St. Johns Jesuit Academy. It is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, both are private, all-male Jesuit schools in Toledo, Ohio. St. Johns Jesuit Academy was started as a program with its first class of 30 seventh and 30 eighth graders during the 2004-2005 school year. A sixth grade was added in the 2011-2012 school year and the Academy currently enrolls 160 students. St. Johns was founded as St. Johns College by the Jesuits in 1898 in downtown Toledo, at 807 Superior St. Built in 1899 and 1909, it was demolished in 1976 and 1978. It was an arts college with a business administration program. Before the shuttering of the college, the Jesuits had purchased property near what is now Gesu church and school, until recently a Jesuit work, for the relocation of its campus. The land was used as the campus for St. Francis de Sales High School. When the new St. Johns opened its doors in 1965 on Airport Highway in Toledo as a high school. The schools now have the high school rivalry in the greater Toledo area. Over the years the school has grown to include a new tech wing, the most marked addition to the campus is the new junior high academy. The St. Johns Jesuit Academy was added in the 2004-2005 school year, offering 7th and 8th grade college-prep curriculum as well as school, college-prep. In 2011, the Academy expanded to a 6-8 middle school, one of the goals of a Jesuit education, found in the St. Johns Mission Statement, is educating men-for-others. As a result, St. Johns focuses its education on the whole person, All high school students are required to complete a service project of varying hours in order to pass three of the four compulsory theology courses, Academy students have a similar requirement. The high school also has a Christian Service department, run by Phil Skeldon and this program also organizes on-campus events for inner-city school children such as the annual Easter and Christmas on campus. SJJ Campus Ministry organizes Mass every morning in the McDonough chapel and feast-Masses for the community in the Chapel of St. John Berchmans. The department also reads a prayer each morning at 8,10 a. m. and an Examen prayer, a form of the examination of conscience adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, each afternoon. A $3.8 million renovation to the schools Commons and surrounding area, completed in November 2007, added a student-union type atmosphere to the Commons, the new Carty Fox Commons now includes a student lounge, food court, and a new book and spirit store
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Francis de Sales
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Francis de Sales, CO OM OFM Cap. was a Bishop of Geneva and is honored as a saint in the Anglican and Catholic church. He became noted for his faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God. Francis de Sales was born on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy, in what is today Thorens-Glières, Haute-Savoie and his father was François de Sales, Lord of Boisy, Sales, and Novel. His mother was Françoise de Sionnaz, the child of prominent magistrate, Melchior de Sionnaz. He was baptized Francis Bonaventura, after two great Franciscan saints and his father wanted him, the first of his six sons, to attend the best schools in preparation for a career as a magistrate. He therefore enjoyed an education in the nearby town of La Roche-sur-Foron and at the age of eight. In 1583, De Sales went to the Collège de Clermont in Paris, then a Jesuit institution, to study rhetoric, as a nobleman, he was accompanied by his own servant and by a priest tutor, Abbe Deage. To please his father, he took lessons in the pursuits of riding, dancing. In 1584 Francis de Sales attended a discussion about predestination. A personal crisis of despair resulted and this conviction lasted through December 1586. His great despair made him ill and even bedridden for a time. He consecrated himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and decided to dedicate his life to God with a vow of chastity and he then became a tertiary of the Minim Order. Sales ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him, because God is love and this faithful devotion to the God of love not only expelled his doubts but also influenced the rest of his life and his teachings. His way of teaching Catholic spirituality is often referred to as the Way of Divine Love, or the Devout Life, taken from a book he wrote of a similar name, Introduction to the Devout Life. In 1588 Sales completed his studies at Collège de Clermont and enrolled at University of Padua in Italy and he took Antonio Possevino, a priest in Society of Jesus, as his spiritual director. There he made up his mind about becoming a priest, in one incident, he rode a horse, and his sword fell to the ground and crossed another sword, making the sign of the Christian cross. In 1592, de Sales received his doctorate in law and theology and he made a pilgrimage to Loreto, Italy, famous for its Basilica della Santa Casa and then returned home to Savoy
30.
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
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Hello, Dolly. was first produced on Broadway by David Merrick in 1964, winning a record 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, a record held for 37 years. An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, the album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6,1964 and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrongs album Hello, Dolly. The show has one of the most enduring musical theatre hits, with four Broadway revivals. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly. that was nominated for seven Academy Awards, originated in an 1835 English play, A Day Well Spent by John Oxenford, which Johann Nestroy adapted into the farce Einen Jux will er sich machen. The Matchmaker became a hit and was revived and made into a 1958 film of the same name starring Shirley Booth. The story of a widow who strives to bring romance to several couples. The role of Dolly Levi in the musical was written for Ethel Merman. Eventually, he hired Carol Channing, who created in Dolly her signature role. Director Gower Champion was not the producers first choice, as Hal Prince, Hello, Dolly. had rocky out-of-town tryouts in Detroit and Washington, D. C. After receiving the reviews, the creators made major changes to the script and score, the show was originally entitled Dolly, A Damned Exasperating Woman and Call on Dolly but Merrick changed the title immediately upon hearing Louis Armstrongs version of Hello, Dolly. The show became one of the most iconic Broadway shows of its era, the half of the 1960s, running for 2,844 performances. During that decade, ten blockbuster musicals played over 1,000 performances, sources, Tams-Witmark Guide to Musical Theatre Masterworks Broadway As the 19th becomes the 20th century, all of New York City is excited because widowed but brassy Dolly Gallagher Levi is in town. Dolly makes a living through what she calls meddling – matchmaking and numerous sidelines, including dance instruction and she is currently seeking a wife for grumpy Horace Vandergelder, the well-known half-a-millionaire, but it becomes clear that Dolly intends to marry Horace herself. Ambrose Kemper, a young artist, wants to marry Horaces weepy niece Ermengarde, Ambrose enlists Dollys help, and they travel to Yonkers, New York to visit Horace, who is a prominent citizen there and owns Vandergelders Hay and Feed. Horace explains to his two clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, that he is going to get married because It Takes a Woman to cheerfully do all the household chores. He plans to travel with Dolly to New York City to march in the Fourteenth Street Association Parade and propose to the widow Irene Molloy, Horace leaves for New York and leaves Cornelius and Barnaby to run the store. Cornelius decides that he and Barnaby need to get out of Yonkers, theyll go to New York, have a good meal, spend all their money, see the stuffed whale in Barnums museum, almost get arrested, and each kiss a girl. They blow up some tomato cans to create a terrible stench, Dolly mentions that she knows two ladies in New York they should call on, Irene Molloy and her shop assistant, Minnie Fay
31.
Damn Yankees
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Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington. It is based on Wallops novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, the show ran for 1,019 performances in its original 1955 Broadway production. Adler and Rosss success with it and The Pajama Game seemed to point to a future for them. The producers Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S, prince had decided that the lead actress for the part of Lola had to be a dancer. They offered the role to both the movie actress Mitzi Gaynor and ballet dancer Zizi Jeanmaire, each of whom turned down the role, although Gwen Verdon had sung just one song in her previous show, the producers were willing to take a chance on her. She initially refused, preferring to assist another choreographer, but finally agreed, choreographer Bob Fosse insisted on meeting her before working with her, and after meeting and working for a brief time, they each agreed to the arrangement. The show opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on May 5,1955, transferred to the Adelphi Theatre on May 17,1957, a West End production played at the London Coliseum beginning on March 28,1957, where it played for 258 performances. It starred Olympic skater Belita as Lola, but the Fosse choreography was alien to her style and it also starred Bill Kerr as Applegate, and Ivor Emmanuel as Joe Hardy. In the mid-1970s, Vincent Price starred as Applegate in summer stock productions of the show, in the late 1970s and early 1980s film actor Van Johnson did so in productions throughout the U. S. A. In July,1981, a production was performed at the Jones Beach Marine Theater in Wantagh and it was notable due to former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath being cast in the role of Joe Boyd. A Broadway revival opened at the Marquis Theatre on March 3,1994, featured were Bebe Neuwirth as Lola and Victor Garber as Applegate. Garber was succeeded by Jerry Lewis, making his Broadway debut, on March 12,1995, jack OBrien directed, with choreography by Rob Marshall, assisted by his sister, Kathleen. OBrien is also credited with revisions to the book, the 1994 revival production opened in the West End at the Adelphi Theatre on June 4,1997 and closed on August 9,1997. Jerry Lewis reprised his role as Applegate, a revival was produced by the City Center Encores. Summer Stars series from July 5 to July 27,2008 and it starred Jane Krakowski as Lola, Sean Hayes as Applegate, Randy Graff as Meg, Megan Lawrence as Gloria Thorpe, PJ Benjamin as Joe Boyd, and Cheyenne Jackson as Joe Hardy. John Rando directed and the original Fosse choreography was reproduced by Mary MacLeod, given the substantial changes in the 1994 revival, this is considered by some the first authentic revival of the original production. Note, This is the plot of the 1994 Broadway revival of the show, for the film version, see Damn Yankees
32.
SAT
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The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned and published by the College Board, a private and it is developed and administered on behalf of the College Board by the Educational Testing Service. The test is intended to assess students readiness for college, on March 5,2014, the College Board announced that a redesigned version of the SAT would be administered for the first time in 2016. Scores on the SAT range from 400 to 1600, combining test results from two 800-point sections, mathematics, and critical reading and writing. Taking the SAT, or its competitor, the ACT, is required for entry to many. The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors, the College Board states that the SAT measures literacy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyze, however, the test is administered under a tight time limit to help produce a range of scores. Various studies conducted over the lifetime of the SAT show a significant increase in correlation of high school grades. A large independent validity study on the SATs ability to predict college freshman GPA was performed by the University of California, the results of this study found how well various predictor variables could explain the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT I were combined, they explained 20. 8% of the variance in college freshman GPA, when high school GPA and the SAT II were combined, they explained 22. 2% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When SAT I was added to the combination of high school GPA and SAT II, SAT scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective. However, independent research has shown that high school GPA is better than the SAT at predicting college grades regardless of school type or quality. SAT consists of three sections, Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. Each section receives a score on the scale of 200–800, all scores are multiples of 10. Total scores are calculated by adding up scores of the three sections, each major section is divided into three parts. There are 10 sub-sections, including an additional 25-minute experimental or equating section that may be in any of the three major sections, the experimental section is used to normalize questions for future administrations of the SAT and does not count toward the final score. The test contains 3 hours and 45 minutes of actual timed sections, most administrations run for about four, the questions range from easy, medium, and hard depending on the scoring from the experimental sections. Easier questions typically appear closer to the beginning of the section while harder questions are toward the end in certain sections and this is not true for every section but it is the rule of thumb mainly for math, grammar, and the 19 sentence-completions in the reading sections
33.
Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university
34.
To Kill a Mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are based on Lees observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama in 1936. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the issues of rape. The narrators father, Atticus Finch, has served as a hero for many readers. As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, the book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of sold and its widespread use in education. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird by several authors and public figures, in 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one every adult should read before they die. It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lees hometown. To Kill a Mockingbird was Lees only published book until Go Set a Watchman, Lee continued to respond to her works impact until her death in February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964. Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama and she attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, and then studied law at the University of Alabama. While attending college, she wrote for literary magazines, Huntress at Huntingdon. At both colleges, she wrote stories and other works about racial injustice, a rarely mentioned topic on such campuses at the time. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote, Lippincott, who bought the manuscript, advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing. Donations from friends allowed her to write uninterrupted for a year, “he spark of the true writer flashed in every line, ” she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott. But as Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication
35.
Kevin Kline
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Kevin Delaney Kline is an American film and stage actor and singer. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards and is a 2003 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee, Kline began his career on stage in 1972 with The Acting Company. He made his debut the following year, opposite Meryl Streep in Sophies Choice. For his role in the 1988 comedy hit A Fish Called Wanda, in 2003, he starred as Falstaff in the Broadway production of Henry IV, for which he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. His other films include The Big Chill, Silverado, Cry Freedom, Dave, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ice Storm, In & Out, The Road to El Dorado, De-Lovely, My Old Lady, and Beauty and the Beast. Since 2011, Kline has had a role on the animated comedy series Bobs Burgers. Kline was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Margaret Agnes Kirk, Kline has described his mother as the dramatic theatrical character in our family. Klines father was Jewish, from a family that had emigrated from Germany, klines mother was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent, the daughter of an immigrant from County Louth. Kline was raised in his mothers Catholic faith and he has three siblings, Alex, Christopher, and Kate. He graduated from the Saint Louis Priory School in 1965, in 1997, the school named its new auditorium the Kevin Kline Theater, and Kline did a benefit performance of selections from Shakespeare at the dedication. He attended Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was a classmate of actor Jonathan Banks and he began studying composing and conducting music, but switched to a theater and speech major for his last two years, graduating in 1970. Kline remembers, When I switched to the Theater Department, all I did was theater. I could barely make it to class because this was my passion, while an undergraduate, he was a co-founder of the Vest Pocket Players, an off-campus theatrical troupe. In 1970, Kline was awarded a scholarship to the newly formed Drama Division at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, he joined with fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, at Juilliard, he studied singing with Beverley Peck Johnson. In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, in 1978, he played the role of Bruce Granit, a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Princes On the Twentieth Century, for which he won his first Tony Award. In 1983, he played the role in a version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury. He also appeared in a Lincoln Center production that combined the two parts of Henry IV on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in 2003 as Falstaff, Kline was nominated for the 2004 Tony Award, Actor in a Play
36.
Sigourney Weaver
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Susan Alexandra Sigourney Weaver is an American actress and film producer. Following her film debut as a character in Annie Hall. She reprised the role in three sequels, Aliens, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Alien 3 and she is also known for her starring roles in the box-office hits Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Avatar. Weaver was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for the 1980 Off-Broadway play Das Lusitania Songspiel and she also received Academy Award nominations for both films. For her role in the 1997 film The Ice Storm, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, additionally, she has received three Emmy Award nominations and won two Saturn Awards. Weaver acquired the nickname of the Sci-Fi Queen for her numerous contributions to film history. Other popular works she has appeared in include Galaxy Quest, Futurama, WALL-E, Paul, The Cabin in the Woods, Finding Dory and she returned to Broadway in 2013 to star in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Weaver was born in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis, an actress, and her uncle, Doodles Weaver, was a comedian and actor. Her mother was English, from Colchester, Essex, and her father, who was American, had English, Scottish, Weaver began using the name Sigourney Weaver in 1963 after a minor character in Chapter 3 of F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby. Weaver attended the Ethel Walker School, a preparatory school in Simsbury. She also attended The Chapin School and The Brearley School, Sigourney was reportedly 5 10½ tall by the age of 14, although she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5 11½. In 1967, at the age of 18, Weaver visited Israel, Weaver later acted in original plays by her friend and classmate Christopher Durang. She later appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Durangs comedy Beyond Therapy in 1981, weavers first role is often said to be in Woody Allens 1977 comedy Annie Hall playing a minor role opposite Allen. She reprised the role in the three sequels of the Alien movie franchise, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien, Resurrection. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe states, One of the pleasures of Alien is to watch the emergence of both Ellen Ripley as a character and Sigourney Weaver as a star. She followed the success of Alien appearing opposite Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously released to critical acclaim, by the end of the decade, Weaver appeared in two of her most memorable and critically acclaimed performances. In 1988, she starred as Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist, the same year she appeared opposite Harrison Ford in a supporting role as Katharine Parker in the film Working Girl. Weaver won Golden Globe awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her two roles that year and she gave birth to her daughter Charlotte Simpson taking a few years break from the movie business and focusing on her family
37.
The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)
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The Blade, also known as the Toledo Blade, is a daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, in the United States, first published on December 19,1835. The first issue of what was then the Toledo Blade was printed on December 19,1835 and it has been published daily since 1848 and is the oldest continuously run business in Toledo. David Ross Locke gained national fame for the paper during the Civil War era by writing under the pen name Petroleum V. Nasby, writing under the pen name, Locke wrote satires ranging on topics from slavery to the Civil War to temperance. President Abraham Lincoln was fond of the Nasby satires and sometimes quoted them, in 1867 Locke bought the Toledo Blade. The paper dropped Toledo from its masthead in 1960, in 2004 The Blade won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting with a series of stories entitled Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths. The story brought to light the story of the Tiger Force, in 2006, The Blade was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and winner of the National Headliner Award, for breaking the scandal in Ohio known as Coingate. As of 2015, the editor in chief is John Robinson Block and his family purchased the paper in 1926 and they also own the media conglomerate Block Communications, which owns cable systems, television stations, and an Internet service network, Buckeye Express. As of 2008 The Blade had the 83rd largest daily circulation in the United States. The Toledo Blade was named for the famed swordsmithing industry of the city of Toledo. Its motto, on the nameplate below the title, is One of Americas Great Newspapers. In 2007 Blade photojournalist Allan Detrich left the Blade when it was discovered that he had altered an photo that was published on the front page of the March 31,2007. A subsequent investigation revealed that he had altered and submitted 79 photos during the first 14 weeks of 2007,58 of which ran either in The Blade or on its website. Members of several unions worked without contracts from March to August 2006, over the course of August 2006, The Blade locked out over 25% of all of its employees. The strike and lockout ended in May 2007, in May 2014, Block Communications announced plans to close The Blades production facility, including the printing presses, located in the downtown headquarters building. In October 2011, The Blade filed a lawsuit against rival publication the Toledo Free Press, claiming that former Blade general manager, pounds violated a 2004 separation agreement containing a non-compete clause. Official website Block Communications Story on Labor Disputes
38.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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The series premiered on March 10,1997, on The WB and concluded on May 20,2003, on UPN. The series narrative follows Buffy Summers, the latest in a line of women known as Vampire Slayers. In the story, Slayers are called to battle against vampires, demons, like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches, and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of friends who become known as the Scooby Gang. The series received critical and popular acclaim, frequently being listed as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, although such ratings are lower than successful shows on the big four networks, they were a success for the relatively new and smaller WB Television Network. Buffys success has led to hundreds of products, including novels, comics. The series has received attention in fandom, parody, and academia, Buffy Summers is the Slayer, one in a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. Buffy receives guidance from her Watcher, Rupert Giles, Giles, rarely referred to by his first name, is a member of the Watchers Council, whose job is to train and guide the Slayers. Giles researches the supernatural creatures that Buffy must face, offers insights into their origins and advice on how to defeat them, Buffy is also helped by friends she meets at Sunnydale High, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris. Willow is originally a wallflower who excels at academics, providing a contrast to Buffys outgoing personality and they share the social isolation that comes with being different, and especially from being exceptional young women. As the series progresses, Willow becomes a more assertive character and a powerful witch, in contrast, Xander, with no supernatural skills but very athletic, provides comic relief and a grounded perspective. It is Xander who often provides the heart to the series, Buffy and Willow are the only characters who appear in all 144 episodes, Xander is missing in only one. The cast of characters grew over the course of the series, Buffy first arrives in Sunnydale with her mother, Joyce Summers, who functions as an anchor of normality in the Summers lives even after she learns of Buffys role in the supernatural world. Buffys younger sister Dawn Summers is introduced in season five, a vampire with a soul, Angel, is Buffys love interest throughout the first three seasons. He leaves Buffy as he believes he isnt good enough for her and he goes on to make amends for his sins and to search for redemption in his own spin-off, Angel. He makes several guest appearances in the seasons, including the last episode. At Sunnydale High, Buffy meets several other students besides Willow and Xander willing to join her fight for good, Cordelia Chase, the archetypal shallow cheerleader, reluctantly becomes involved. Daniel Oz Osbourne, a student, rock guitarist and werewolf
39.
Columbia TriStar Television
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Columbia TriStar Television was an American television studio that was active from 1994 to 2002. After the merger, Columbia Pictures Television Distribution was renamed as Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, expanding its television library in 1994, SPE acquired Stewart Television. Its global subsidiary, Columbia TriStar International Television, distributed Sonys programs across the globe and it was created in 1992 by merging Columbia Pictures International Television with TriStar Television. This was also the launch of the Columbia TriStar Television Group a year later, in 1996, CTT launched their own animation division, Columbia TriStar Childrens Television. The name was changed in 1997 to Adelaide Productions, within dismantling of Columbia Pictures Television in 2001 and TriStar Television in 1999, these studios were folded into Columbia TriStar Television. In 1998, it made a partnership with Global Maritime Group to create the company called Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co, medien KG used for copyright purposes. In 1999, they went back to the old way and ELP, on October 25,2001, CTT and CTTD merged to form Columbia TriStar Domestic Television. Some shows continued using the CTDT name, many stopped using it in November 2002, while Hollywood Squares continued using it until early 2003
40.
Kevin Williamson (screenwriter)
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Kevin Meade Williamson is an American screenwriter, filmmaker, and actor, best known as the creator of the TV series Dawsons Creek, The Vampire Diaries, The Following and Stalker. He is also known for developing and writing the screenplay for the slasher film Scream, as well as its sequels Scream 2. He also wrote the screenplay for the films I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Williamson was born in New Bern, North Carolina, the younger son of Faye and Wade Williamson, a fisherman. He spent his years in Aransas Pass, Texas, near Corpus Christi. Williamsons family returned to North Carolina for his school years. He then attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and he told Entertainment Weekly interviewer Melissa Maerz, When I was growing up, my mom and dad took me to the Poe museum in Richmond, Virginia. It was a little house downtown, and The Raven was written on the walls and you had to move from room to room to read the whole story. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, after graduation, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. While taking classes on screenwriting at UCLA he wrote his first script, Killing Mrs. Tingle which was bought by a company in 1995. Its characters had seen many classic movies and knew all the clichés. Miramax bought the script for $400,000 for their new Dimension Films label in the spring of 1995, directed by Wes Craven, the film was renamed Scream, and released in The United States on December 20,1996. It became a blockbuster and critical success—ultimately drawing $173 million in ticket sales worldwide. Kevin Williamson earned the Saturn Award for Best Writing in 1996 for his work on Scream, in 1997, Dimension Films released Scream 2, also written by Williamson. It, too, was a critical and box office hit, paul Stupin, an executive at Columbia TriStar Television, read Scream after the bidding war for the script and was convinced Williamson was just the man to create a television series for his company. The result was Dawsons Creek, a tale set in a small coastal community not unlike Oriental. Williamson was the model for the character, Dawson Leery. Joey Potter, the platonic girl-next-door, was based on a real friend of Williamsons when he was young. In December 1995, the show was pitched to the Fox Network, where Stupin had been an executive, Dawsons Creek premiered on The WB on January 20,1998, and was an immediate hit that helped launch the newly created television network
41.
Tomboy
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Tomboy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been connected with connotations of rudeness and impropriety throughout its use. The OED dates the first use of the tomboy to 1592, but an earlier use is recorded in Ralph Roister Doister, which is believed to date from 1553. Joseph Lee, an advocate, believed the tomboy phase crucial to physical development between the ages of eight and thirteen in 1915. Tomboyism remained popular through World War I and World War II in society, literature, Gender scholar Judith Halberstam states that while the defying of gender roles is often tolerated in young girls, adolescent girls who display masculine traits are often repressed or punished. An increase in the popularity of sporting events and other activities that were traditionally male-dominated has broadened tolerance. Throughout history, there has been a correlation between tomboyishness and lesbianism. For instance, Hollywood films would stereotype the adult tomboy as a predatory butch dyke, lynne Yamaguchi and Karen Barber, editors of Tomboys. Tales of Dyke Derring-Do, argue that tomboyhood is much more than a phase for many lesbians, linked their self-identification as tomboys and lesbians to both labels positioning them outside cultural and gender boundaries. Pychoanalyst Dianne Elises essay reported that more lesbians noted being a tomboy than straight women, however, while some tomboys later reveal a lesbian identity in their adolescent or adult years, behavior typical of boys but displayed by girls is not a true indicator of ones sexual orientation. There have been few studies of the causality of womens behavior and interests, Tomboys have also been noted to demonstrate a stronger interest in science and technology. Effeminacy Geek girl Gender variance Girly girl Sissy Tomboys and sissies, feisty Girls and Spirited Women A film by Julie Akeret and Christian McEwen
