1.
Dredd
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Dredd is a 2012 science fiction action film directed by Pete Travis and written and produced by Alex Garland. It is based on the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd and its eponymous character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Karl Urban stars as Judge Dredd, a law enforcer given the power of judge, jury and executioner in a vast, dystopic metropolis called Mega-City One that lies in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Dredd and his partner, Judge Anderson, are forced to bring order to a 200-storey high-rise block of flats and deal with its resident drug lord. Garland began writing the script in 2006, although the development of a new Judge Dredd film adaptation, produced by British studio DNA Films, Dredd began principal photography, using 3D cameras throughout, in November 2010. Filming took place on sets and locations in Cape Town. Dredd was released on 7 September 2012 in the United Kingdom, despite the positive critical response, the film earned just over $41 million at the box office on an estimated budget of $30–45 million. Dredd saw greater success following its release, and has since been recognised as a cult film. The theatrical gross made an unlikely, but home media sales. The future United States is a dystopic irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth, on the east coast lies Mega-City One, a violent metropolis with 800 million residents and 17,000 crimes reported daily. The only force for order are the Judges, who act as judge, jury, Judge Dredd is tasked by the Chief Judge with evaluating new recruit Cassandra Anderson, a powerful psychic who failed the aptitude tests to become a Judge. Dredd and Anderson are sent in to investigate and learn of a drug den and they arrest a thug named Kay, whom Andersons mind probe reveals to be the one who carried out the drug dealers executions. Dredd decides to take him in for questioning, Ma-Ma orders Dredd and Anderson killed, forcing the Judges to fight their way through dozens of armed thugs. Arriving at the 76th floor, the Judges are assaulted by Ma-Ma and her men with Vulcan cannons that rip through the walls, the Judges breach an outer wall and call for backup. Meanwhile, Ma-Ma sends her henchman Caleb to search for the Judges, when they meet, Dredd throws Caleb off the tower in full view of Ma-Ma. Dredd suspects Ma-Ma is desperate to keep Kay quiet and beats him for information, Anderson reads Kays mind and learns that Peach Trees is the centre of Slo-Mo production and distribution. Anderson suggests they hide while awaiting assistance but Dredd insists they move up the tower, Judges Volt and Guthrie respond to Dredds call, but Ma-Mas computer expert denies them entry by persuading them the security system is malfunctioning. A pair of armed teens confront Dredd and Anderson, allowing Kay to disarm, Kay then escapes with her as hostage, and takes her to Ma-Mas base on the top floor
2.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
3.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
4.
Juno (film)
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Juno is a 2007 American comedy-drama independent film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy. Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, filming spanned from early February to March 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia. It premiered on September 8 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Juno won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned three other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Page. Juno earned back its budget of $6.5 million in twenty days. It went on to earn $231 million, Juno received acclaim from critics, many of whom placed the film on their top ten lists for the year. It has received criticism and praise from members of both the pro-life and pro-choice communities regarding its treatment of abortion, sixteen-year-old Minnesota high-schooler Juno MacGuff discovers she is pregnant by her friend and longtime admirer, Paulie Bleeker. Going to a clinic run by a womens group, she encounters a schoolmate outside who is holding a one-person protest for pro-life vigil. Once inside, however, a variety of factors lead Juno to leave and she decides against abortion, and she decides to give the baby up for adoption. With the help of her friend Leah, Juno searches the ads in the Pennysaver and she tells her father, Mac, and stepmother, Bren, who offer their support. With Mac, Juno meets the couple, Mark and Vanessa Loring, in their expensive home, Juno visits Mark a few times, with whom she shares tastes in punk rock and horror films. Mark, who has set aside his rock band youth, works at home composing commercial jingles. Juno and Leah happen to see Vanessa in a mall being completely at ease with a child, and Juno encourages Vanessa to talk to her baby in the womb. As the pregnancy progresses, Juno struggles with the emotions she feels for the father, Paulie. Juno maintains an outwardly indifferent attitude toward Paulie, but when she learns he has asked another girl to the upcoming prom, Paulie reminds Juno that it is at her request they remain distant and tells her that she broke his heart. Not long before her baby is due, Juno is again visiting Mark when their interaction becomes emotional, Mark then tells her he will be leaving Vanessa. Juno is horrified by this revelation, with Mark asking Juno How do you think of me, Vanessa arrives home, and Mark tells her he does not feel ready to be a father and there are still things he wants to do first. Juno watches the Loring marriage fall apart, then drives away, returning to the Lorings home, she leaves a note and disappears as they answer the door
5.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
6.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
7.
East Village, Manhattan
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East Village is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its boundary to the north is Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Town, to the south by the Lower East Side and it has also been the site of protests and riots. The area that is known as the East Village was originally a farm owned by Dutch Governor-General Wouter van Twiller. Wealthy townhouses dotted the dirt roads for a few decades until the great Irish, from roughly the 1850s to first decade of the 20th century, the neighborhood has the third largest urban population of Germans outside of Vienna and Berlin, known as Klein Deutschland. It was Americas first foreign language neighborhood, hundreds of political, social, sports and recreational clubs were set up during this period, and some of these buildings still exist. However, the vitality of the community was sapped by the General Slocum disaster on June 15,1904, later waves of immigration also brought many Poles and, especially, Ukrainians to the area, creating a Ukrainian enclave in the city. Since the 1890s there has been a large concentration roughly from 10th Street to 5th Street, the post-World War II diaspora, consisting primarily of Western Ukrainian intelligentsia, also settled down in the area. Several churches, including St. Roosevelt Drive, until the mid-1960s, the area was simply the northern part of the Lower East Side, with a similar culture of immigrant, working class life. In the 1950s, the migration of Beatniks into the neighborhood later attracted hippies, musicians, the area was dubbed the East Village, to dissociate it from the image of slums evoked by the Lower East Side. Newcomers and real estate brokers popularized the new name, and the term was adopted by the media by the mid-1960s. In 1966 a weekly newspaper, The East Village Other, appeared, in 1966, Andy Warhol promoted a series of multimedia shows, entitled The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and featuring the music of the Velvet Underground, in a Polish ballroom on St. On June 27,1967, the Electric Circus opened in the space with a benefit for the Childrens Recreation Foundation whose chairman was Bobby Kennedy. The Grateful Dead, The Chambers Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, on March 8,1968, Bill Graham opened the Fillmore East in what had been a Yiddish Theatre on Second Avenue at East 6th Street in the Yiddish Theater District. The venue quickly became known as The Church of Rock and Roll, the Fillmore East closed in 1971. CBGB, the nightclub considered by some to be the birthplace of music, was located in the neighborhood. No Wave and New York hardcore also emerged in the areas clubs, few icons of the punk scene remain in the neighborhood as it changed. Richard Hell lives in the apartment he has lived in since the 1970s. Over the last 100 years, the East Village and the Lower East Side have contributed significantly to American arts and culture in New York
8.
Friends Seminary
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Friends Seminary is a private day school in Manhattan. The school, the oldest continuously coeducational school in New York City, the schools mission is to prepare students not only for the world that is, but to help them bring about the world that ought to be. It is guided by a mission statement and a diversity mission statement. Friends is a member of New Yorks Independent School Diversity Network, currently, Robert Bo Lauder is principal, the schools 35th. Lauder came to Friends in the fall of 2002 after serving as Upper School Head at Sidwell Friends School in Washington and it was located on Pearl Street in Manhattan and strived to provide Quaker children with a guarded education. In 1826, the school was moved to a campus on Elizabeth Street. Tuition in that year was $10 or less per annum, except for the oldest students, the school again moved in 1860 to its current location and changed its name to Friends Seminary. In 1878, Friends Seminary was one of the earliest of schools to establish a Kindergarten, in 1925, it was the first private co-educational school to hire a full-time psychologist. M. Scott Peck, who transferred to Friends from Phillips Exeter in late 1952, praised the schools diversity, while at Friends, he wrote, I awoke each morning eager for the day ahead. T Exeter, I could barely crawl out of bed, in recent years, the school has made an effort to increase its endowment and has engaged in an ambitious and controversial renovation of its buildings. The Quakers will continue naming half the members of the governing board. The school is divided into three sections, Lower School - Kindergarten to Grade 4 Middle School - Grades 5-8 Upper School - Grades 9-12 The campus comprises eight buildings. The largest building, built in 1962, holds classes for the entire Middle School, most of the Lower School, attached to the school is the historic Meetinghouse and The Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends. The Meetinghouse plays a part in student life at Friends Seminary. Outside the front doors of the Meetinghouse is the used for recess. In 1997, the school purchased and renovated a former German Masonic Temple located on 15th Street, the new building, called The Annex, incorporates green technology to create a building with less of an ecological footprint than many other buildings in the city. The Annex includes more science labs, as well as three multi-use classrooms, and the offices for the Upper School, the Meetinghouse also serves as a home for the schools music program. Tuition for the 2016-2017, school year for all grades is US$41,750
9.
Gramercy Park
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The neighborhood, which is divided between New York Citys Manhattan Community Board 5 and Manhattan Community Board 6, is generally perceived to be a quiet and safe area. The neighborhood, associated historic district, and park have generally received positive reviews, calling it a Victorian gentleman who has refused to die, Charlotte Devree in The New York Times said that There is nothing else quite like Gramercy Park in the country. When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Gramercy Park Historic District in 1966, pines 1921 book, The Story of Gramercy Park, The laying out of Gramercy Park represents one of the earliest attempts in this country at City Planning. The neighborhoods boundaries are 14th Street to the south, Third Avenue to the east, 23rd Street to the north, and Park Avenue South to the west. The boundaries of the Historic District, set in 1966 and extended in 1988, are irregular, lying within the neighborhood, and can be seen in the map in the infobox on the right. The brook, which become known as Crommessie Vly, flowed in a 40-foot gully along what is now 21st Street into the East River at 18th Street. Krom Moerasje/Krom Mesje became corrupted to Crommessie or Crommashie, mayor James Duane – for whom the citys Duane Street is named – acquired the site in 1761 from Gerardus Stuyvesant and named it Gramercy Seat. Gramercy is an archaic English word meaning many thanks, the area which is now Gramercy Park was once in the middle of a swamp. Ruggles, a developer and advocate of space, proposed the idea for the park due to the northward growth of Manhattan. Ruggles then deeded the land on December 17,1832 to five trustees, to develop the property, Ruggles spent $180,000 to landscape it, draining the swamp and causing about a million horsecart loads of earth to be moved. It was the second private square created in the city, after Hudson Square, also known as St. Johns Park, the new streets reduced the number of lots around the park from 66 to 60. Gramercy Park was enclosed by a fence in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s, in one regard this was fortunate, since the opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842 allowed new townhouses to be constructed with indoor plumbing. The first formal meeting of the trustees took place in 1844 at 17 Union Square, the mansion of James W. Gerard. By that time, landscaping had already begun with the hiring of James Virtue in 1838, major planting also took place in 1844 – the same year the parks gates were first locked – followed by additional landscaping by Brinley & Holbrook in 1916. These plantings had the effect of softening the parks prim formal design, Gramercy Park itself had been protected with howitzers by troops from the Eighth Regiment Artillery, while the 152nd New York Volunteers encamped in nearby Stuyvesant Square. At #34 and #36 Gramercy Park are two of New Yorks first apartment buildings, designed in 1883 and 1905, in addition, #34 is the oldest existing co-operative apartment building in the city. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, nineteenth century brownstones and carriage houses abound, though the 1920s brought the onset of tenant apartments, in 1890 an attempt was made to run a cable car through the park to connect Irving Place to Lexington Avenue. The bill passed the New York State Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor David B. Hill, the Hotel Irving, at 26 Gramercy Park South, was constructed c.1903
10.
Natalie Portman
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Natalie Portman is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was in the 1994 action thriller Léon, The Professional and she was later cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Born in Jerusalem to an Israeli father and American mother, Portman grew up in the eastern United States from the age of three. She studied dancing and acting in New York, and starred in Star Wars, in 1999, Portman enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology, alongside her work as an actress, she completed a bachelors degree in 2003. During her studies she starred in a second Star Wars film and she played leading roles in the historical dramas Goyas Ghosts and The Other Boleyn Girl, and also appeared in Thor and its 2013 sequel. In 2010, Portman starred in the thriller film Black Swan. Her performance received critical acclaim and she earned her first Academy Award for Best Actress, her second Golden Globe Award, the SAG Award, the BAFTA Award. In 2016, she portrayed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the biographical drama Jackie and she was nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and won the BFCA for Best Actress. In May 2008, Portman served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury, the same year she directed a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You. Her first feature film as a director, A Tale of Love, Portman was born on June 9,1981 in Jerusalem. Her original given name was Neta-Lee, a Hebrew name and she is the only child of Shelley, an American homemaker who works as Portmans agent, and Avner Hershlag, an Israeli fertility specialist and gynecologist. Her maternal grandparents, Bernice and Arthur Stevens, were from Jewish families who moved to the United States from Austria and Russia, Natalies paternal grandparents, Mania and Zvi Yehuda Hershlag, were Jewish immigrants to Israel. Zvi, born in Poland in 1914, moved to what was then Mandatory Palestine in 1938 and eventually became an economics professor, One of Natalies paternal great-grandmothers was born in Romania and was a spy for British Intelligence during World War II. Portmans parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University and they corresponded after her father returned to Israel and were married when her mother visited a few years later. In 1984, when Portman was three years old, the moved to the United States, where her father received his medical training. Portman, a citizen of the United States and Israel, has said that although she really love the States. Thats where I feel at home, Portman and her family first lived in Washington, D. C. but relocated to Connecticut in 1988 and then moved to Jericho, New York, on Long Island, in 1990. While living in the Washington, D. C. area, Portman attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland
11.
Mariah Carey
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Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 1990, Carey rose to fame with the release of Vision of Love from her eponymous debut album, the album produced four chart-topping singles in the US and began what would become a string of commercially successful albums which solidified the singer as Columbias highest selling act. Carey and Boyz II Men spent a record sixteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995–1996 with One Sweet Day, following a contentious divorce from Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, Carey adopted a new image and traversed towards hip hop with the release of Butterfly. In 1998, she was honored as the worlds best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards, Carey parted with Columbia in 2000, and signed a record-breaking $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records America. In the weeks prior to the release of her film Glitter and its soundtrack in 2001. The project was received and led to a general decline in the singers career. Careys recording contract was out for $50 million by Virgin. After a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of music charts with The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey once again ventured into film with a well-received supporting role in Precious, and was awarded the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Throughout her career, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, according to the RIAA, she is the third-best-selling female artist in the United States, with 63.5 million certified albums. With the release of Touch My Body, Carey gained her 18th number-one single in the United States, in 2012, the singer was ranked second on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York, to Patricia and her mother is of Irish descent, while her father had African-American and Afro-Venezuelan ancestry. The surname Carey was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, Patricia was an occasional opera singer and vocal coach before she met Alfred in 1960. As he began earning a living as an engineer, the couple married later that year. After their elopement, Patricias family disowned her for marrying a black man, Carey later explained that she felt neglected by her maternal family while growing up, which affected her greatly. In the years between the births of Careys older sister Alison and herself, the Carey family struggled within the community due to their ethnicity, Careys name was derived from the song They Call the Wind Maria, originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. When Carey was three, her parents divorced, after their separation, Alison moved in with her father, while the other two children, Mariah and brother Morgan, remained with their mother. Carey grew apart from her father and would stop seeing him altogether. By age four, she recalled that she had begun to sneak the radio under her covers at night, during elementary school, she excelled in subjects that she enjoyed, such as music, art, and literature, but did not find interest in others
12.
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
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The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school in London, England. It is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, RADA is an affiliate school of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. Its higher education awards are validated by Kings College London and its students graduate alongside members of the departments which form the Kings Faculty of Arts & Humanities and it is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London. Undergraduate students are eligible for government student loan through the Conservatoire for Dance, RADA also has a significant scholarships and bursaries scheme, offering financial assistance to many students at the Academy. The current director of the academy is Edward Kemp, the president is Sir Kenneth Branagh, the chairman is Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen and its vice-chairman was Alan Rickman until his death in 2016. RADA was founded in 1904 by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, an actor manager, in 1905, RADA moved to 52 Gower Street, and a managing council was set up to oversee the school. Its members included George Bernard Shaw, who donated his royalties from his play Pygmalion to RADA. In 1920, RADA was granted a Royal Charter, and in 1921, the Prince of Wales opened the theatre. The Gower Street buildings were torn down in 1927, and replaced with a new building, financed by George Bernard Shaw, in 1923, John Gielgud studied at RADA for a year. He later became President of the academy, and its first honorary fellow, a number of famous actors took on leading roles at RADA, such as Richard Attenborough, Oliver Neville, Nicholas Barter, and Alan Rickman. Other 1924 saw RADAs first government subsidy, a grant of £500, in 2001, RADA joined forces with the London Contemporary dance School to create the UKs first Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. The Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance joined this Conservatoire in 2005, in 2000 the Academy founded RADA Enterprises Ltd, which includes RADA in Business, providing training in communications and teambuilding that uses drama training techniques in a business context. The profits are fed back into the Academy to fund students training, RADA is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London. The main RADA building is on Gower Street, with a second premises nearby in Chenies Street, the Goodge Street and Euston Square underground stations are both within walking distance. RADA has five theatres and a cinema, there is also a 150-seat cinema. In January 2012, RADA acquired the lease to the adjacent Drill Hall venue in Chenies Street, the Drill Hall is a Grade II listed building with a long performing arts history, and was where Nijinsky rehearsed with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in 1911. This venue has a 200-seat space, the Studio Theatre, and a 50-seat space, the RADA library contains around 30,000 items. The collection was started in 1904 with donations from actors and writers of the such as Sir Squire Bancroft, William Archer, Arthur Wing Pinero
