1.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
2.
Richard Linklater
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Richard Stuart Linklater is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. Linklater is mostly known for his realistic and natural humanist films which mainly revolve around suburban culture, in 2002 he began filming Boyhood, a passion project which took over twelve years to finish. The film was premiered in 2014 to critical acclaim, Linklater won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Movie Awards and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture. He also received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, along with nominations for Original Screenplay, in 2015, Time magazine named Linklater one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. Many of his films are noted for their loosely structured narrative, films and Boyhood – feature the same actors filmed over an extended period of years. He is also known for loyalty to his actors, having worked with Ethan Hawke, Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Diane Margaret, who taught at Sam Houston State University, and Charles W. Linklater, III. He attended Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Texas, during grades 9-11, as a teen, Linklater also won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award. Linklater studied at Sam Houston State University, until dropping out to work on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He frequently read novels on the rig and, upon returning to land, at this point, Linklater realized he wanted to be a filmmaker. He used his savings to buy a Super-8 camera, a projector, and editing equipment and he was influenced by Martin Scorsese Robert Bresson, Yasujirō Ozu, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Josef Von Sternberg, and Carl Theodor Dreyer. He enrolled in Austin Community College in the fall of 1984 to study film, since his early 20s, Linklater has been a vegetarian. In 2015, he explained the dietary lifestyle in a Boyhood-style documentary for PETA, Linklater founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel. One of the mentors for the Film Society was former New York City critic for the Soho Weekly News George Morris who had relocated to Austin, Morris had previously written articles on Leo McCarey, Vincente Minnelli, George Sidney, and Douglas Sirk. For several years, Linklater made many films that were exercises. He finally completed his first feature, the rarely seen Its Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, the film is significant in the sense that it establishes most of Linklaters preoccupations. The film has his trademark style of camera movements and lack of narrative. These idiosyncrasies would be explored in detail in future projects. To this end Linklater created Detour Filmproduction, and subsequently made Slacker for only $23,000 and it went on to gross more than $1.25 million
3.
Dazed and Confused (film)
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Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The plot follows various groups of Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976, the film grossed less than $8 million at the U. S. box office. In 2002, Quentin Tarantino listed it as the 10th best film of all time in a Sight and it ranked third on Entertainment Weekly magazines list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine also ranked it 10th on their Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years list, the title of the film is derived from the Led Zeppelin version of the song of the same name. Linklater approached the members of Led Zeppelin for permission to use their song Rock and Roll in the film. It is May 28,1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in the suburbs of Austin, the next years group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen. Randall Pink Floyd, the star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would. When classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and paddled. The incoming freshman girls are also hazed, they are rounded up in the parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs. Freshman Mitch Kramer escapes the initial hazing with his best friend Carl Burnett, fred OBannion, a senior participating in the hazing tradition for a second year after failing to graduate, delights in punishing Mitch. Pink gives the injured Mitch a ride home and offers to take him cruising with friends that night, plans for the evening are ruined when Kevin Pickfords parents discover he planned to host a keg party. Elsewhere, the trio of Cynthia Dunn, Tony Olson. Pink and his friend David Wooderson, a man in his early 20s who still socializes with high school students, pick up Mitch and head for the Emporium, a pool hall frequented by teenagers. As the evening progresses, students loiter around the Emporium, listen to music, cruise the neighborhood. Mitch is introduced to sophomore Julie Simms, with whom he shares a mutual attraction, while cruising again with Pink, Pickford, and Don Dawson, Mitch drinks beer and smokes marijuana for the first time. After a game of baseball, a neighborhood resident brandishing a gun threatens to call the police. They barely escape after the resident fires at their car, after returning to the Emporium, Mitch runs into his middle school friends. They hatch a plan to get revenge on OBannion, the plan culminates with them dumping paint on OBannion, who leaves in a fit of rage
4.
The House of Yes
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The House of Yes is a 1997 American film starring Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Geneviève Bujold, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Tori Spelling. The movie is based on the play of the same name and it was produced by Robert Berger and was released by Miramax Films on October 10,1997, in the USA. It received a Sundance Award and favorable reviews, Tori Spelling became one of the nominees for a 1997 Razzie Award for Worst New Star. On Thanksgiving Day,1983, student Marty Pascal brings his fiancée, Lesly, home to his familys McLean, Virginia estate to meet them for the first time. Marty is obviously nervous and hesitant about the introduction of his future wife to his family, he has informed them that he is bringing a guest. Martys family prepares both for his arrival and for an impending hurricane, Martys twin sister Jacqueline, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, is ecstatic about his arrival, until she is informed that a friend is accompanying Marty. Referred to as Jackie-O by her family, Jackie has had an obsession with the former first lady. As an adult, Jackie-O still emulates the former first lady in her style of dress, Jackie-O lives with her mother and her younger brother Anthony. He and the matriarch of the family, Mrs. Pascal are very protective of Jackie, Mrs. Pascal is immediately suspicious and guarded against her future daughter-in-law Lesly. Meanwhile, Lesly is initially oblivious to the nature of the family. It is clear that Marty is in love with Leslys normalcy, as the hurricane outside intensifies, Marty and Lesly become stranded in the house until the storm lets up. After meeting Lesly, Jackie-O comes close to a melt-down at her bathroom sink, yet suddenly gains her composure, Jackie playfully interrogates Lesly about her love life with Marty, going so far as to ask for graphic details about their sexual escapades. Jackie-O informs Lesly of a former girlfriend of Martys, with whom he shared an intense affair in his youth. Jackie-O and Marty play the game, and after she has shot him and she begins to kiss him, and the two have sex. In the morning, Lesly confronts the family about the events of the night before, Mrs. Pascal coerces Anthony to tell Marty that he slept with Lesly. Meanwhile, Jackie-O searches the house for a gun that Marty had been ordered to hide by their mother and she flushes Martys car keys down the toilet and returns to the living room where Lesly confronts Jackie-O about her mental illness and incestuous relationship. As Lesly runs to get their suitcases so she and Marty can leave, Jackie pulls the gun and asks Marty to play their game one last time, Anthony races to find her medication while Marty cautiously plays along. In tears, Jackie shoots and kills her brother, in a voice over, Jackie explains that Marty was buried in the backyard next to Daddy
5.
Improvisational theatre
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Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are used outside of the context of performing arts. It is sometimes used in psychotherapy as a tool to gain insight into a persons thoughts, feelings, the earliest well documented use of improvisational theatre in Eastern history is found in the Atellan Farce of Africa 391 BC. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, commedia dellarte performers improvised based on an outline in the streets of Italy. Some people credit American Dudley Riggs as the first vaudevillian to use audience suggestions to create improvised sketches on stage, Spolin influenced the first generation of modern American improvisers at The Compass Players in Chicago, which led to The Second City. Her son, Paul Sills, along with David Shepherd, started The Compass Players, following the demise of the Compass Players, Paul Sills began The Second City. They were the first organized troupes in Chicago, and the modern Chicago improvisational comedy movement grew from their success. Many of the current rules of comedic improv were first formalized in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s, initially among The Compass Players troupe, which was directed by Paul Sills. From most accounts, David Shepherd provided the vision of the Compass Players. Mike Nichols, Ted Flicker, and Del Close were her most frequent collaborators in this regard, during this time, Forsberg trained many of the performers who went on to star on The Second City stage. Simultaneously, Keith Johnstones group The Theatre Machine, which originated in London, was touring Europe and this work gave birth to Theatresports, at first secretly in Johnstones workshops, and eventually in public when he moved to Canada. Toronto has been home to a rich improv tradition, in 1984, Dick Chudnow founded ComedySportz in Milwaukee, WI. Expansion began with the addition of ComedySportz-Madison, in 1985, the first Comedy League of America National Tournament was held in 1988, with 10 teams participating. The league is now known as World Comedy League and boasts a roster of 24 international cities, in San Francisco, The Committee theater was active in North Beach during the 1960s. It was founded by alumni of Chicagos Second City, Alan Myerson, when The Committee disbanded in 1972, three major companies were formed, The Pitchell Players, The Wing, and Improvisation Inc. The only company that continued to perform Closes Harold was the latter one and its two former members, Michael Bossier and John Elk, formed Spaghetti Jam in San Franciscos Old Spaghetti Factory in 1976, where shortform improv and Harolds were performed through 1983
6.
Christopher Guest
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Guest is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in his series of comedy films shot in mock-documentary style. Scenes and character backgrounds in Guests films are written, but actors have no rehearsal time, the series of films began with This Is Spinal Tap, and continued with Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots. He holds a hereditary British peerage as the 5th Baron Haden-Guest, though he was initially active in the Lords, his career there was cut short by the House of Lords Act 1999, which removed the right of most hereditary peers to a seat in the parliament. When using his title, he is styled as Lord Haden-Guest. Guest is married to the actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis, Guests paternal grandfather, Leslie, Baron Haden-Guest, was a Labour Party politician, who was a convert to Judaism. Guests maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia, both of Guests parents had become atheists, and Guest had no religious upbringing. Nearly a decade before he was born, his uncle, David Guest, Guest spent parts of his childhood in his fathers native United Kingdom. He attended The High School of Music & Art, studying music at the Stockbridge School in Interlaken. He later took up the mandolin, became interested in music, and played guitar with Arlo Guthrie. Guest later began performing with bluegrass bands until he took up rock, Guest studied acting at New York Universitys Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1971. C. in November 1971. Guest continued with the production when it moved to Broadway in 1972, the following year he began making contributions to The National Lampoon Radio Hour for a variety of National Lampoon audio recordings. He both performed comic characters and wrote, arranged and performed numerous musical parodies and he was featured alongside Chevy Chase and John Belushi in the Off-Broadway revue National Lampoons Lemmings. Two of his earliest film roles were small parts as uniformed officers in the 1972 film The Hot Rock. Guests biggest role of the first two decades of his career is likely that of Nigel Tufnel in the 1984 Rob Reiner film This Is Spinal Tap, Guest made his first appearance as Tufnel on the 1978 sketch comedy program The TV Show. Along with Martin Short, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer, Guest was hired as a one-year only cast member for the 1984–85 season on NBCs Saturday Night Live. He also experimented behind the camera with pre-filmed sketches, notably directing a short starring Shearer. In another short film from SNL, Guest and Crystal appear as retired Negro league baseball players, The Rooster and he appeared as Count Rugen in The Princess Bride. He had a role as the first customer, a pedestrian, in the 1986 musical remake of The Little Shop of Horrors
7.
Mockumentary
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A mockumentary or docucomedy is a type of movie or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictional setting. While not always comedic, comedic mockumentaries are common, a dramatic mockumentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Mockumentaries are often presented as documentaries, with B roll and talking heads discussing past events. Examples emerged during the 1950s when archival film footage became relatively easy to locate, a very early example was a short piece on the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest that appeared as an April fools joke on the British television program Panorama in 1957. The term mockumentary, which originated in the 1960s, was popularized in the mid-1980s when This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film. Mockumentaries are often partly or wholly improvised, as a style of acting helps to maintain the pretense of reality. Comedic mockumentaries rarely have laugh tracks, also to sustain the atmosphere, albert Brooks was also an early popularizer of the mockumentary style with his film Real Life,1979, a spoof of a PBS documentary. Woody Allens Take the Money and Run is presented in documentary-style with Allen playing a criminal, Virgil Starkwell. Jackson Beck, who used to narrate documentaries in the 1940s, fictional interviews are interspliced throughout, especially those of Starkwells parents who wear Groucho Marx noses and mustaches. The style of film was widely appropriated by others and revisited by Allen himself in films such as Zelig and Sweet. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the format has enjoyed considerable attention. In 1984, Christopher Guest co-wrote and starred in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner, films such as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, all written with costar Eugene Levy, were critical successes. Man Bites Dog is a 1992 Belgian black comedy crime mockumentary written, produced, and directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, in 1995, directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, Forgotten Silver claimed New Zealand director Colin McKenzie to be a pioneer in filmmaking. When the film was revealed to be a mockumentary, Jackson received criticism for tricking viewers. In 1999, Drop Dead Gorgeous by Michael Patrick Jann used the style to narrate a fictional small-town beauty pageant as a way to satirize Middle America. Dark Side of the Moon is a 2002 French mockumentary by director William Karel, the premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick. FUBAR is a 2002 Canadian mockumentary film, directed by Michael Dowse, the Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary presenting an alternative history in which the Confederacy won the American Civil War
8.
Waiting for Guffman
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Waiting for Guffman is a 1997 American mockumentary comedy film co-written and directed by Christopher Guest. The films cast includes Catherine OHara, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, the title of the film is a reference to Samuel Becketts play Waiting for Godot. As in the other created by Guest, the majority of the dialogue is improvised. Because the film is about the production of a stage musical, in the fictional small town of Blaine, Missouri, a handful of utterly delusional residents prepare to put on a community theater production led by eccentric director Corky St. Clair. The show, a musical chronicling the towns history titled Red, White, alan Pearl, a tragically square dentist determined to discover his inner entertainer. High school teacher Lloyd Miller is the shows increasingly frustrated musical director, Corky has used connections from his Off-Off-Off-Off-Broadway past to invite Mort Guffman, a Broadway producer, to critique Red, White and Blaine. Corky leads the cast to believe that a review from Guffman could mean their show might go all the way to Broadway. The program itself is designed to retell the history of Blaine. We also learn why the town refers to itself as the stool capital of the United States. The music is a series of performed songs such as Nothing Ever Happens on Mars a reference to the towns supposed visit by a UFO. Central to the film are Corkys stereotypically gay mannerisms and he supposedly has a wife called Bonnie, whom no one in Blaine has ever met or seen. He uses her to explain his habit of shopping for womens clothing, Corky never sheds his dainty demeanor, bowl haircut, lisp, or earring in spite of his historical roles, and his face is pasted with an overkill of stage rouge and eyeliner. But the distraught cast and persuasive city fathers convince Corky to return, at the shows performance, Guffmans seat is seen to be empty, much to the dismay of the cast. Corky reassures them that Broadway producers always arrive a bit late for the show, the show is well received by the audience, whereupon Corky invites the assumed Guffman backstage to talk to the actors. The man is actually Roy Loomis, who came to Blaine to witness the birth of his nieces baby, but he did enjoy the show. Corky then reads a telegram stating that Guffmans plane was grounded by snowstorms in New York City, meaning that, like the Godot being spoofed, an epilogue shows the fates of the cast, Libby Mae has returned to Dairy Queen. Christopher Guest as Corky St. Clair Eugene Levy as Dr. 8/10, the sites critical consensus reads, This riotously deadpan mockumentary about aspiring community theater performers never stoops to ridicule oft-ridiculous characters. The film also received a score of 71 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 19 critics, during opening weekend in 1997, the film made $37,990
9.
Best in Show (film)
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Best in Show is a 2000 American mockumentary comedy film co-written and directed by Christopher Guest. There are also depictions of the characters six months after the show is over. Among the comedic aspects of the film are similarities between the personalities and characteristics of the owners and those of their dogs, much of the dialogue was improvised. Many of the actors were also involved in Guests other films, including This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration. Best in Show is presented as a documentary of five dogs and their owners destined to show in the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show, throughout the film, they encounter men Cookie has slept with during her youth. At the show, the Swans believe that Beatrice will become unnerved without her favorite toy, the Busy Bee, Harlan Pepper and his Bloodhound Hubert - Harlan is the owner of a fishing goods store, and prides himself on being able to name nuts. Peppers family has raised a variety of hounds for generations, Sherri Ann and Leslie Ward Cabot with their Standard Poodle Rhapsody in White - A two-time past winner of the show. Sherri Ann is a wife to the elderly Leslie, her sugar daddy. They are assisted by trainer Christy Cummings who makes sure the dog is ready for the show, while Sherri Ann fixates on giving Christy a makeover. Over the course of the film, Sherri Ann and Leslies sham marriage and Sherri Ann, Scott Donlan and Stefan Vanderhoof and their Shih Tzu Miss Agnes - A campy gay couple, they take great pride in their dog, and are confident that she will win the competition. They have a love of old movies, and enjoy making fun of Christy Cummings, in fact, when Winky wins Best in Show, Scott is the first to walk up and congratulate Gerry. The owners and their dogs all arrive in time for the show, which is hosted by dog expert Trevor Beckwith, during the first round, Beatrice is disqualified when Hamilton cannot control her, but the other four dogs advance to the final round. Just before the finals, Cookie dislocates her knee and insists that Gerry take over for her, though the audience is initially awed by seeing Gerrys two left feet, ultimately Winky takes Best in Show. Afterwards, the film explores what each character is doing after the competition, Gerry and Cookie return home to Florida and are overcome with attention after the victory. They go on to record, in bad style, songs about terriers. Sherri Ann and Christy have entered into a partnership and publish a magazine for owners of purebred dogs. Harlan fulfills his dreams and becomes a ventriloquist, entertaining crowds with a honky tonk song. The closing shot is of the Pug attempting to have sex with the therapists leg, the starring dogs listed here are denoted by their registered names
10.
A Mighty Wind
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A Mighty Wind is a 2003 American mockumentary comedy film about a folk music reunion concert in which three folk bands reunite for a television performance for the first time in decades. The film was directed, co-written and composed by Christopher Guest, the film is widely acknowledged to reference the 2003 tribute concert to folk music producer Harold Leventhal that reunited several of the folk groups that Leventhal had managed. More broadly, the film is a parody of the American folk music revival of the early 1960s, Guest co-stars and reunites many of his company of actors from This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show for this film. They include Eugene Levy, Catherine OHara, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr. Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch and Parker Posey. Several characters in the film originated in a written by Guest for Saturday Night Live in 1984. Shearer, Guest, and McKean appeared as The Folksmen on Saturday Night Live, in the movie This is Spinal Tap, and occasionally on concert stages. J. A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, which was composed for the film by McKean, the film is structured as mockumentary about a memorial concert for folk music producer Irving Steinbloom. Upon his death, his children organize a concert, which hope to feature his three most famous acts, The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey. The Folksmen trio — Mark Shubb, Alan Barrows, and Jerry Palter — were once the most popular of the acts but have not appeared together in decades and they had several minor hits, and their most famous song was Old Joes Place. Despite not playing or seeing each other for years, their reunion is a very positive affair as the Folksmen give each other big hugs and are happy to see one another. The New Main Street Singers are the generation of the original Main Street Singers, formed by George Menschell. Menschell sings and holds a guitar he cannot play, performers include Terry Bohner and his wife Laurie Bohner. Laurie, an adult film star, and her husband are founders of Witches in Natures Colors. Another member is Sissy Knox, a juvenile delinquent and daughter of one of the original Main Street Singers. They are managed by Mike LaFontaine, whose fifteen minutes of fame came by way of a failed 1970s sitcom, the show lasted for less than one season and has largely been forgotten, but LaFontaine is constantly quoting the titular tagline to the puzzlement of others. The group, which is entirely white, includes one Filipino American member, Mike Maryama. Mitch Cohen and Mickey Crabbe comprised Mitch & Mickey, a couple that released seven albums until their dramatic break-up years before the setting of the film. Mickey seemingly moved on and has married a medical supply salesman and their most famous song was A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, at the end of which the pair would actually kiss on stage
11.
For Your Consideration (film)
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For Your Consideration is a 2006 comedy film directed by Christopher Guest. It was co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy, and both also star in the film, the title is a phrase used in trade advertisements to promote films for honors such as the Academy Awards. Michael Hitchcock, John Michael Higgins and Jim Piddock, ricky Gervais, the co-creator of the British television series The Office, also appears, while John Krasinski, Richard Kind, Scott Adsit, and Sandra Oh make brief cameos. Though the dialogue is improvised by the actors as in Guests earlier films. The film received its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10,2006 and it was produced by Warner Independent Pictures in association with Castle Rock Entertainment and Shangri-La Entertainment. Character actress Marilyn Hack, despite having been in the entertainment industry for 30 years, is best known for playing a prostitute in a film from the late 1980s. Victor Allen Miller is also a veteran who is known to the public as the hot-dog wearing mascot for a kosher line of frankfurters. Together they are cast in a new film called Home for Purim as the patriarch. A newcomer ingenue, Callie Webb, plays their lesbian daughter, rounding out the cast is Brian Chubb, playing Webbs brother who has returned home from the Navy. The family reunites in time to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, Home for Purims cast and crew are in the process of making what appears to be a cheap melodrama. The director is constantly adding bizarre camera shots and acting notes, the producer, heiress to a diaper service, dresses flamboyantly but doesnt seem to know much about managing a film beyond paying for expenses. The two writers are at odds with the director, seeing their script mash together Southern genteel with out-of-place Jewish references, the film-within-a-films plot centers around the daughters confession of her lesbianism as her mother gets nearer to death and the family celebrates an awkward Purim. Because of a remark that turns into a full-blown rumor. Each begins obsessing about the potential in his or her own way. Hack pretends not to care while secretly pining for the award, Miller begins to demand a higher salary and push his agent for more dignified work. Webb breaks up with Chubb, claiming he is not being supportive and he is virtually left in the dark. The obnoxious entertainment news program Hollywood Now and its hosts fuel the awards-season buzz, at this point, studio executives butt in and force the writers to make script changes, feeling the film is too Jewish. It is retitled Home for Thanksgiving, despite the changes, the Oscar buzz intensifies to the point where Hack, Miller, and Webb are convinced they will be nominated for Academy Awards
12.
You've Got Mail
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Youve Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Nora Ephron, co-written by Nora and Delia Ephron, and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The film is about two people in a romance who are unaware that they are also business rivals. It marks the third coupling of stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Youve Got Mail received mildly positive reviews from critics. Kathleen Kelly is involved with Frank Navasky, a leftist newspaper writer for The New York Observer who is always in search of an opportunity to root for the underdog, while Frank is devoted to his typewriter, Kathleen prefers her laptop and logging into her AOL email account. Using the screen name Shopgirl, she reads an email from NY152, as her voice narrates her reading of the email, she reveals the boundaries of the online relationship, no specifics, including no names, career or class information, or family connections. Joe belongs to the Fox family which runs Fox Books — a chain of mega bookstores, Kathleen runs the independent bookstore The Shop Around The Corner that her mother ran before her. The two are shown passing each other on their ways to work, revealing that they frequent the same neighborhoods in upper west Manhattan. Joe arrives at work, overseeing the opening of a new Fox Books in New York City with the help of his best friend, Kathleen and her three store assistants, George, Aunt Birdie and Christina open up her small shop that morning. Following a day with his eleven-year-old aunt Annabel and four-year-old half-brother Matthew, Joe and Kathleen have a conversation that reveals Kathleens fears about the Fox Books store opening around the corner. He omits his last name and makes an exit with the children. At a publishing party for New York book business people later that week, Joe and Kathleen meet again and she accuses him of deception and spying, while he responds by belittling her store. The Shop Around the Corner slowly goes under, Kathleen enters Fox Books to discover the true nature of the store is one of friendliness and relaxation, yet without the same dedication to childrens books as her shop. Her employees move on to jobs, as Christina goes job hunting, George gets a job at the childrens department at a Fox Books store. They are exchanging emails without knowing each others true identities -, in some chance meetings Fox at first conceals his identity and then they clash, without realizing who each is. When they decide to meet, Joe discovers who he has been corresponding with, at first he decides not to meet with her, but then to meet with her without revealing his on-line identity, but they again clash. Joe soon resumes the correspondence, apologizes, and promises to tell her why he stood her up. After both break up with their significant others, Joe realizes his feelings towards Kathleen, and begins building a face-to-face relationship and he arranges a meeting between Kathleen and his on-line persona, but just before she is to meet this on-line friend, he reveals his feelings for her. Upon arriving at the meeting place, she hears Fox calling to Brinkley, who has run ahead, and sees that her on-line friend is really Fox
13.
Scream 3
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Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film and the third installment in the Scream franchise. It was released on February 4,2000, the film was the concluding chapter of the Scream series until the franchise was revived in 2011 with a sequel, Scream 4. Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson provided an outline for two sequels to Scream when auctioning his original script, hoping to entice bidders with the potential of buying a franchise. Williamsons commitments to other projects meant he was unable to develop a script for Scream 3, so writing duties were undertaken by Ehren Kruger. Craven and Marco Beltrami returned to direct and score the film, respectively, production was troubled with script rewrites, occasions when pages were only ready on the day of filming, and scheduling difficulties with the main cast. Despite criticism, the film received praise from reviewers, who called it the perfect end to the Scream trilogy. As of 2012, the film was the third highest-grossing slasher-film in North America, following Scream at number 1, the films soundtrack was well-received, it spent 14 weeks on the Billboard 200 and reached a high of No.32. Cotton refuses to cooperate, and when Ghostface comes to his home, using a voice changer as a ruse, Ghostface kills Stab 3 actress Sarah Darling. Meanwhile, Sidney is now living in a rural house as a crisis counselor for an abused womens hotline. Having discovered Sidneys number, the killer begins taunting her by phone, Dewey, Gale, Jennifer, and the remaining Stab 3 actors, Angelina Tyler and Tyson Fox, attend a birthday party for Stab 3s director Roman Bridger, where Ghostface strikes. Gale discovers Romans seemingly dead body, with a knife in his chest, Angelina, refusing to stick with Gale and Jennifer, wanders off alone before she is murdered. Tyson attempts to fight Ghostface but the killer manages to wound him, then after a brief chase, Ghostface throws Tyson over the balcony, killing him. Jennifer tries to escape through a passage, but Ghostface finds her. The killer then orders Sidney to the mansion to save Gale and Deweys lives, when she arrives, Ghostface forces Sidney to remove her firearm, which she does, and Ghostface lures her inside, as Gale and Dewey are bound and gagged. As Sidney is untying Gale and Dewey, Ghostface appears, though Sidney gains the hand using a second hidden gun to fight off Ghostface. Detective Kincaid shows up but is knocked out by Ghostface, Sidney flees and hides in a secret screening room where she encounters Ghostface. Years ago, he had unsuccessfully tried reuniting with her, bitter over the rejection, Roman would film all the men she philandered with. He showed Billy Loomis the footage of his father with Maureen, however, when he discovered how much fame Sidney got because of those events, Roman snapped and lured Sidney out of hiding
14.
Superman Returns
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Superman Returns is a 2006 American superhero film directed and produced by Bryan Singer. The film stars Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, with James Marsden, Frank Langella, the film tells the story of the title character returning to Earth after a five-year absence. He finds that his love interest Lois Lane has moved on with her life, and that his archenemy Lex Luthor is plotting a scheme that will destroy Superman and the world. After a series of projects to resurrect Superman on screen following the critical failure and box office disappointment of Superman IV. Warner Bros. hired Bryan Singer to direct and develop Superman Returns in July 2004, upon release, Superman Returns received generally positive critical reviews, with critics praising its visual effects, story, musical score, and style. However, it received mixed reviews in years, with criticism focused on its length, story. While a box office success, Warner Bros. was disappointed with the box office return. A sequel was planned for a summer 2009 release, but the project was later canceled, the Superman film series was completely rebooted in 2013 with the film Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill as Superman. For five years, Superman has abandoned his home of Earth while on a journey to visit the remains of Krypton. His seemingly selfish decision has ruined his image in the eyes of many, including journalist Lois Lane, upon returning to Metropolis, Superman, in his human identity of Clark Kent, is shocked to discover the consequences of his disappearance. While covering the launch of a shuttle, he narrowly saves a plane carrying Lois and other observers from crashing after a mysterious power failure. Unbeknownst to anyone, the accident was triggered by Luthor using Kryptonian technology stolen from the Fortress of Solitude, Luthor has his aide Kitty distract Superman, allowing Lex to steal a sample of kryptonite from a museum. Suspecting his involvement, Lois requests an off-the-record interview aboard his private yacht, Jason has an asthmatic attack when Luthor reveals the kryptonite, but has no subsequent reaction when Luthor holds the stone near him. When one of Luthors henchmen threatens Lois, Jason crushes him with a piano, realizing that he is Supermans son, Luthor and his thugs escape by helicopter as the new landmass emerges from the ocean. While working to contain the damage to Metropolis, Superman learns from Richard that Lois is in danger and saves her, Superman tries to apprehend Luthor, but the kryptonite-poisoned atmosphere quickly strips him of his powers. Luthors men torture Superman into submission, before Luthor stabs Superman with a Kryptonite shard, with Richards help, Lois gets him to safety and removes the shard. Fueled by the radiation, Superman defeats Luthors gang and covers the landmass with soil. While helping Luthor escape, a disillusioned Kitty allows the helicopter to crash on a remote island, complications from Kryptonite exposure cause Superman to fall into a coma, and while doctors are able to remove most of the fragments, they cannot revive him
15.
Woody Allen
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Heywood Woody Allen is an American actor, writer, director, comedian, playwright, and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He worked as a writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, as a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians and he is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Allen often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup, some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In 2007 he said Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, critic Roger Ebert described Allen as a treasure of the cinema. Allen won four Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director and he also won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays, in 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen, A Documentary on the American Masters TV series. Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York and he and his sister, Letty, were raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie, a bookkeeper at her familys delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg and his family was Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His childhood was not particularly happy, his parents did not get along, Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School, at that time, he lived in an apartment at 968 East 14th Street. Unlike his comic persona, he was interested in baseball than school. He impressed students with his talent at card and magic tricks. To raise money, he wrote jokes for agent David O. Alber, at the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen. According to Allen, his first published joke read, Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O. P. S and he was then earning more than both parents combined
16.
Irrational Man (film)
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Irrational Man is a 2015 American mystery drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey and Jamie Blackley. The film was released on July 17,2015, by Sony Pictures Classics in a limited release, the film was the last produced by Jack Rollins, who had produced Allens films since the 1980s, before his death in June 2015. At the small-town fictional New England college campus of Braylin, philosophy professor Abe Lucas is experiencing an existential crisis and he is depressed, sees no meaning in his life, and drinks excessively. Despite this, he catches the eye of two women, chemistry professor Rita Richards, and Jill Pollard, one of his students. Jill has a boyfriend and lives with her parents. Rita lives with her husband, but is dissatisfied with her marriage, Abe chooses to sleep with Rita but is careful to have only a platonic relationship with Jill. Abes depression becomes even more apparent when he fails to have an erection during his first sexual experience with Rita. At lunch, Abe and Jill overhear a conversation, a woman says she will lose her children in a battle because of a seemingly unethical judge in family court. Abe is troubled by the injustice and, without telling Jill, Abe reasons hes unlikely to be caught because he isnt involved in the case and, therefore, wont be suspected. Abe steals a key to the chemistry lab from Rita where he procures cyanide. He then discovers one of the routines, an early morning jog followed by sipping a cup of orange juice on a bench in the local park. Abe puts the poison in a cup and exchanges the cups surreptitiously on the bench while the judge is reading a newspaper. He subsequently dies from cyanide poisoning, Abe feels reborn upon learning of the judges death. He tells himself that he has finally done something worthwhile with his life by ridding the world of one evil man, Abe and Jills friendship then blossoms into a romance but Jill says nothing to her boyfriend, Roy. However, Roy strongly suspects Jill is in love with Abe, Rita decides that even if he is guilty, she wants to leave her husband and live with Abe in Europe. Consumed with curiosity, Jill enters Abes house through a window while hes out. Jill confronts Abe and accuses him of the murder, Abe then admits his guilt and explains his motive. Jill decides to break off their relationship but promises not to him in
17.
Will & Grace
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Will & Grace is an American sitcom created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan about the relationship between best friends Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler, a straight interior designer. It was broadcast on NBC from September 21,1998 to May 18,2006, during its original run, Will & Grace was one of the most successful television series with gay principal characters. Despite initial criticism for its portrayal of homosexual characters, it went on to become a staple of NBCs Must See TV Thursday night lineup and was met with continued critical acclaim. It was ensconced in the Nielsen top 20 for half of its network run, the show was the highest-rated sitcom among adults 18–49, from 2001 and 2005. Throughout its eight-year run, Will & Grace earned 16 Emmy Awards and 83 nominations, all four stars each received an Emmy Award throughout the series, making it one of only three sitcoms in the awards history to achieve this feat. In 2014 the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 94 in their list of the 101 Best Written TV series of all time. Since the final episode aired, the sitcom has been credited with helping and improving public opinion of the LGBT community, vice President Joe Biden commenting that the show probably did more to educate the American public on LGBT issues than almost anything anybody has ever done so far. In 2014 the Smithsonian Institution added an LGBT history collection to their museum which included items from Will, the curator Dwight Blocker Bowers stated that the sitcom used comedy to familiarize a mainstream audience with gay culture that was daring and broke ground in American media. When the set was removed in April 2014, rumours came up about a cast reunion and it was merely moved to Emersons new center in Los Angeles. A long-running legal battle between both the executive producers and creators and NBC took place between 2003 and 2007. All seasons of the series have released on DVD and the show has been broadcast in more than 60 countries. On September 26,2016, the cast reunited for a 10-minute special, after the success of the 10-minute reunion special, NBC announced that the network is exploring the idea of putting Will & Grace back into production. In January 2017, NBC confirmed the return, for a ten-episode ninth season. The episode order was increased to 12 on April 5,2017, will & Grace is set in New York City and focuses on the relationship between Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and his best friend Grace Adler, a Jewish woman who owns an interior design firm. Also featured are their friends Karen Walker, a socialite, and Jack McFarland. The interplay of relationships features the trials and tribulations of dating, marriage, divorce and casual sex, as well as comical key stereotypes of gay and he is very precise and obsessive when it comes to certain tasks, especially cleaning, dressing, and decorating. However, Will does have a patient and compassionate nature towards those close to him. Even though Will is gay, he not to be too overt
18.
Boston Legal
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Boston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley and produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. The series aired from October 3,2004, to December 8,2008, prior to the shows premiere, it had a working title of Fleet Street, an allusion to the real street in Boston where the fictitious Crane, Poole & Schmidt had its offices. The working title was modified to The Practice, Fleet Street. The real building shown as the law office is located at 500 Boylston Street,1.4 miles away from Fleet Street, the American producers of the series also hired British writer Sir John Mortimer, QC, as a consultant for Boston Legal. The shows pilot was produced with former The Practice stars James Spader and Rhona Mitra, guest stars William Shatner and Lake Bell. It featured a storyline with Larry Miller as Edwin Poole. Monica Potter was later cast as junior partner Lori Colson and René Auberjonois as senior partner Paul Lewiston, the pilot premiered on ABC on October 3,2004. On November 30,2004, it was announced that Candice Bergen would join the cast as senior partner Shirley Schmidt, Lake Bell left the series mid-season, and René Auberjonois was promoted to main cast member. Anthony Heald and Betty White also made regular guest appearances, having appeared as the same characters on The Practice. The success of Greys Anatomy placed Boston Legal on hold until autumn 2005, both Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter left the series during the hiatus, while Julie Bowen was cast as Denise Bauer. Ryan Michelle Bathe and Justin Mentell were later cast as junior associates Sara Holt, the second episode of Season 3 introduced Craig Bierko as Jeffrey Coho and Constance Zimmer as Claire Simms. In Episode 11, guest star Gary Anthony Williams joined the cast, on June 4,2007, TV Guide announced that René Auberjonois, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, and Constance Zimmer would not return for Season 4. Christian Clemenson, who had guest-starred occasionally as Jerry Espenson – was promoted to main cast, production also stated that René Auberjonois, Mark Valley, Julie Bowen, and Constance Zimmer may return in guest roles. Burrows later became a full-time cast member, on May 13,2008, ABC announced that Boston Legal would return for a fifth season in the fall. Saffron Burrows did not return as a regular, having joined the cast of My Own Worst Enemy. The final season consisted of 13 episodes to reach the 100 episode mark, there was speculation that Boston Legal might receive an additional episode-order if the show had another strong showing in the Emmy Awards and produced solid ratings in its new fall time slot. The season began airing on September 22,2008, on June 18 and June 20,2008, it was reported that Gary Anthony Williams and Taraji P. Henson would not return for Season 5 as Clarence Bell and Whitney Rome, respectively. On July 17,2008, Boston Legal was nominated for a series-high seven Emmy nominations, Spader, Bergen, and Shatner were each nominated for their respective roles
19.
Futurama
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Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons, he later brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox. In the United States, the series aired on Fox from March 28,1999, to August 10,2003, Futurama also aired in reruns on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim from 2002 to 2007, until the networks contract expired. It was revived in 2007 as four direct-to-video films, the last of which was released in early 2009, Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films as 16 new, half-hour episodes, constituting a fifth season. In June 2009, producing studio 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes, the show was renewed for a seventh season, with the first half airing in June 2012 and the second set for mid-2013. It was later revealed that the season would be the final season. The series finale aired on September 4,2013, while Groening has said he will try to get it picked up by another network, David X. Cohen stated that the episode Meanwhile would be the last episode of season 7 and also the series finale. Throughout its run, Futurama has received critical acclaim, the show has been nominated for 17 Annie Awards and 12 Emmy Awards, winning seven of the former and six of the latter. Futurama-related merchandise has also released, including a tie-in comic book series and video game, calendars. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Futurama as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time, Fox expressed a strong desire in the mid-1990s for Matt Groening to create a new series, and he began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1996, he enlisted David X. Cohen, then a writer and producer for The Simpsons, the two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines, Groening described trying to get the show on the air as by far the worst experience of my grown-up life. With The Simpsons the network has no input, Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths, Doctor Zoidberg, and Benders anti-social behavior. Groening explains, When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said, and they said, Well, we dont do business that way anymore. And I said, Oh, well, thats the only way I do business, the episode I, Roommate was produced to address Foxs concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama, the name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined the world would look in 1959, many other titles were considered for the series, including Aloha, Mars. and Doomsville, which Groening notes were resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it. It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama, the long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously
20.
The Good Wife
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The Good Wife is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22,2009, to May 8,2016. The executive producers are Ridley Scott, Charles McDougall, and David W. Zucker, the Good Wife is a heavily serialized show featuring several story arcs that carry over several episodes, as well as stand-alone procedural storylines that are concluded by the end of each episode. The serial plots have been showcased in its highly praised fifth season. This is a rarity among The Good Wifes broadcaster CBS, as most of its shows are procedural, the Good Wife won numerous prestigious awards, including five Emmys and the 2014 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama. The performances of the shows cast have been recognized, with Julianna Marguliess role as Alicia Florrick receiving significant praise. The show has received wide acclaim for its insight on social media. CBS announced in a promo aired during Super Bowl 50, on February 7,2016, the final episode aired on May 8,2016. The series focuses on Alicia Florrick, whose husband Peter, the former Cook County, Illinois States Attorney, has been jailed following a political corruption. After having spent the previous thirteen years as a stay-at-home mother, the image of a wife standing silently beside her husband as he publicly admitted to his sexual or political misconduct has, according to Robert King, become a sort of cliché. This image led the Kings to question why these women stood by their husbands and they were further intrigued by the fact that many of the wives were lawyers, who had halted their personal careers for the sake of their husbands professional ambitions. The actual idea for the series was first postulated in the following the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal of 2008. As Michelle King, explains, The series was created by Michelle and Robert King, the pair had produced the short-lived legal drama In Justice that aired as a mid-season replacement in early 2006. The creators had worked extensively in feature films. Scott Free productions helped to finance The Good Wife and Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, executive producer Dee Johnson added television writing experience to the team. Charles McDougall directed the episode and was the pilots other executive producer. McDougall had previously enjoyed success as the director of the pilot for Desperate Housewives, All seven executive producers returned when a full series was ordered and they were joined by executive producer Brooke Kennedy. McDougall left the crew after directing and executive producing the second episode, several new producers were added to the crew once CBS ordered a full season. Todd Ellis Kessler, who had completed production on The Unit
21.
Louie (TV series)
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Louie is an American comedy-drama television series on the FX network that began airing in 2010. It is written, directed, edited, and produced by the shows creator and he also stars in the show as a fictionalized version of himself, a comedian and newly divorced father raising his two daughters in New York City. The show has a loose format atypical for television series, consisting of largely unconnected storylines and segments that revolve around Louies life. The show has met with critical acclaim and was included in various critics 2010s top-ten lists of TV shows. C. K. has received several Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his acting, writing, and directing, in August 2015, FX announced the series would go on an extended hiatus and return when Louis C. K. is ready to continue working on the series. In an interview with Howard Stern, C. K. claimed that though he didnt want to close the door on the series, he didnt want to have any obligation to FX to do another season. Louie is loosely based on comedian Louis C. K. s life, showing segments of him doing his stand-up routine onstage, each episode features either two stories or a longer full-episode story. The stories of all episodes revolve around Louie, the pieces are interspersed with short clips of Louies stand-up, usually performed in New York comedy clubs, mainly the Comedy Cellar and Carolines in Manhattan. The stand-up in the consists of original material recorded for the series. Sometimes these comedy segments are integrated into the stories themselves, whereas other times they simply serve to them with a loosely connected topic. In the first season, blunt, socially awkward conversations between Louie and his therapist are also shown occasionally, beginning in the third season, some episodes do not feature any stand-up performances or the opening credit sequence. Episodes in the series have standalone plots, although some recurring roles occasionally provide story arc continuity between episodes, continuity is not enforced, for example, Louies mother has been portrayed in two very different ways. As C. K. explained, Every episode has its own goal, some stories also take place outside of the shows main time frame. For two examples, the episode God depicts Louies childhood, and the episode Oh Louie shows the comedian 9 years earlier in his career, beginning in the third season, Louie has moved toward story continuity within the season, and it includes multi-episode story arcs. C. K. serves as the lead and plays the only character who appears in every episode. Louie lacks a fixed cast, and instead features many guest appearances by stand-up comedians. As a stand-up comedian in New York, Louies social circle on the show consists mainly of other comedians, most episodes tend to focus on Louies interactions with new characters. Ben, Louies obnoxious and immature doctor, Louies therapist, and his ex-wife, Murray Abraham, who plays a swinger in New Jersey/Airport, Louies uncle Excelsior in Dad and Louies father in In the Woods
22.
Parks and Recreation
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Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series aired on NBC from April 9,2009 to February 24,2015, for 125 episodes, over seven seasons. It was written by the writers and uses the same filming style as The Office. The writers researched local California politics for the show, and consulted with urban planners, Poehlers character, Leslie Knope, underwent major changes after the first season, in response to audience feedback that she seemed unintelligent and ditzy. The writing staff incorporated current events into the episodes, such as a government shutdown in Pawnee inspired by the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Several guest stars, such as Jason Mantzoukas, Kathryn Hahn, Sam Elliott, Bill Murray, Paul Rudd, and Jon Hamm, have been featured in the show, and their characters often appear in multiple episodes. Parks and Recreation was part of NBCs Comedy Night Done Right programming during its Thursday night prime-time block, the series received mixed reviews during its first season, but, after a re-approach to its tone and format, the second and subsequent seasons were widely acclaimed. In TIMEs 2012 year-end lists issue, Parks and Recreation was named the number one television series of that year, in 2013, after receiving four consecutive nominations in the category, Parks and Recreation won the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. Parks and Recreation focuses on Leslie Knope, the deputy director of the Parks, local nurse Ann Perkins demands that a construction pit in the abandoned lot beside her house be filled in after her boyfriend, Andy Dwyer, fell in and broke his legs. Leslie promises to turn the pit into a park, despite resistance from the parks director Ron Swanson, later, Ann becomes furious to learn Andy had his cast removal postponed for two weeks so Ann would pamper him longer. Meanwhile, a drunken and lonely Mark takes Leslie to the pit and kisses her, an embarrassed Mark accidentally falls into the pit and injures himself. Ann breaks up with Andy and begins dating Mark, with Leslies approval and it is revealed that Toms marriage to pediatric surgeon Wendy is actually a green card marriage, which, to his disappointment, eventually ends in divorce. The pit is filled in, after which Ron is visited by his horrible ex-wife Tammy Two. April becomes attracted to Andy, but he remains fixated on Ann, just as Mark plans to propose to Ann, she reveals she no longer has feelings for him. They break up, and Mark leaves his city hall career for a private sector job, meanwhile, a crippling budget deficit leads state auditors Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt to shut down the Pawnee government temporarily, much to Leslies horror and Rons delight. Meanwhile, Andy develops feelings for April, but she fears he is hung up on Ann. Ann later kisses Andy due to conflicting emotions from her break-up with Mark, the season ends with Toms shocked discovery that Ron is now dating his ex-wife, Wendy. Leslie decides to bring back the defunct Pawnee harvest festival, the success or failure of which determine the financial future of the department. While working on the festival, Leslie and Ben begin to develop feelings for each other, after weeks of planning, the festival becomes a tremendous success through Leslies efforts
23.
Netflix
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Netflix is an American entertainment company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29,1997, in Scotts Valley, California. It specializes in and provides streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail, in 2013, Netflix expanded into film and television production, as well as online distribution. As of 2017 the company has its headquarters in Los Gatos, Netflixs initial business model included DVD sales and rental, although Hastings jettisoned DVD sales about a year after Netflixs founding to focus on the DVD rental by mail business. In 2007, Netflix expanded its business with the introduction of streaming media, while retaining the DVD, Netflix entered the content-production industry in 2013, debuting its first series, House of Cards. It has greatly expanded the production of film and television series since then, offering Netflix Original content through its online library of films. Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, in January 2017, Netflix reported having over 93 million subscribers worldwide, including more than 49 million in the United States. Netflix was founded on August 29,1997, in Scotts Valley, California, by Marc Randolph, Randolph worked as marketing director for Hastings company, Pure Atria Corporation. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a mail order company. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, sold Pure Atria to Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $700 million in what was then the richest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. Hastings, Randolphs mother and Integrity QA founder Steve Kahn invested $2.5 million in cash for Netflix. Randolph admired the fledgling e-commerce company Amazon and wanted to find a category of portable items to sell over the internet using a similar model. He and Hastings considered and rejected VHS tapes as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, which were available in only a few markets in 1997, when the disc arrived intact, they decided to take on the $16 billion home video sales and rental industry. Netflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September 1999, and then dropped the model in early 2000. Since that time, the company has built its reputation on the model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees. In 2000, Netflix offered to be acquired by Blockbuster for $50 million, Netflix initiated an initial public offering on May 29,2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. On June 14,2002, the company sold an additional 825,000 shares of stock at the same price. After incurring substantial losses during its first few years, Netflix posted its first profit during fiscal year 2003, in 2005,35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day
24.
Suzy Parker
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Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s, when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines and in advertisements and movie and television roles. She was the first model to earn $100,000 per year, Suzy Parker was born Cecilia Ann Renee Parker in Long Island City, New York, to George and Elizabeth Parker, who married in 1916. She had three sisters, Dorian, Florian, and Georgiabell. Elizabeth believed she was undergoing menopause, but then discovered she was several months pregnant with Cecilia/Suzy, suzys original names came from three of her mothers best friends. A then teenaged Dorian advised her mother to arrange the names in the order, Cecilia Renee Ann Parker, Dorian claimed her mother had no idea what it meant. Parkers father George disliked the name Cecilia and called her Susie, a French Vogue photographer later changed the spelling to Suzy. Parkers family later moved to Highland Park, New Jersey, when Parker was 15, sister Dorian, herself one of the top models of the era, introduced her to Eileen Ford. Parker and two of her sisters were tall, all measuring between 510 and 61, sister Dorian was the sole exception, standing 55. In 1944, Dorian worked as a copy writer when a coworker encouraged her to go to the Conover Modeling Agency. Dorian was one of the top models in the world, arguably referred to as the worlds first supermodel. When Parker was about age 15, Dorian telephoned Ford Modeling Agency and told Eileen and Jerry Ford that she would sign on them if they also took her younger sister. Eager to represent Dorian, they agreed, expecting to meet a similarly petite, extremely thin, flawless, pale-faced, electric blue-eyed, raven-haired younger version of Dorian, they were shocked to meet Suzy for the first time. Parker was already 510, big-boned, and had red hair, pale-green eyes. She would become more famous than Dorian, Suzy Parkers photo appeared in Life magazine when she was 15. That same year, one of her first magazine advertisements was for DeRosa Jewelry, although she still lived with her parents in Florida, she stayed in New York City with Dorian when she had modeling assignments there. Dorian introduced Parker to her friends, Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst, John Rawlings. Parker became Avedons muse, she said later that The only joy I ever got out of modeling was working with Dick Avedon
25.
Monroe, Louisiana
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Monroe is the eighth-largest city in the U. S. state of Louisiana. It is the seat of Ouachita Parish. In the official 2010 census, Monroe had a population of 48,815, the municipal population declined by 8.1 percent over the past decade, it was 53,107 in the 2000 census. After a recheck in 2012, the Census Bureau changed the 2010 population from 48,815 to 49,147, mayor Jamie Mayo, however, maintains that the Monroe population is more than 50,000 and indicated that he will pursue a continued challenge to the count. Monroe is the city of the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area. The two-parish area had a population of 170,053 in 2000. The larger Monroe-Bastrop Combined Statistical Area is composed of both the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Bastrop Micropolitan Statistical Area, the CSA had a population of 201,074 in 2000. Monroe and the city of West Monroe, located just across the Ouachita River, are often referred to as the Twin Cities of northeast Louisiana. The settlement formerly known as Fort Miro adopted the name Monroe, during the first half of the 19th century, in recognition of the steam-powered paddle-wheeler James Monroe. The arrival of the ship had an effect on the settlers, it was the single event, in the minds of local residents. The ship is depicted in a mural at the branch of the Monroe Library on North 18th Street. Therefore, credit is given to James Monroe of Virginia. During the American Civil War, Monroe and Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish in south Louisiana, had Confederate training camps and they were established after the fall of New Orleans to the Union in 1862. Conscripts were soon sent to both camps, in 1862, Monroe and Delhi in Richland Parish became overcrowded with unwelcome refugees from rural areas to the east. They had fled the forces of Union General U. S. Grant and he was preparing for the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, not completed until July 4,1863. Winters reported strong Union sympathy in both Delhi and Monroe, as the refugees moved farther west toward Minden in Webster Parish, many of the residents, themselves very poor, refused to sell them food or shelter and treated them with contempt. Union boats came up the Ouachita River to Monroe to trade coffee, liquor, dry goods, Confederate officers were accused by a citizen of encouraging the trade and of fraternizing with the enemy, eating their oysters, and drinking their liquor. As the war continued, deserters and stragglers about Monroe became so plentiful that the Union Army sent a detachment from Alexandria to apprehend them
26.
Laurel, Mississippi
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Laurel is a city in and the second county seat of Jones County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 18,548. It is located northeast of Ellisville, the first county seat, Laurel is the principal city of a Micropolitan Statistical Area named for it. Its major employers include Howard Industries, Sanderson Farms, Masonite International, Family Health Center, Howse Implement, Thermo-Kool, Laurel is home to the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Mississippis oldest art museum, which was established by the family of Laurel Eastman Rogers. It is the headquarters of the Jones County Sheriffs Department, which administers in the county, Laurel was founded in 1882 as a lumber town, as the industry harvested yellow pine forests in the region. The city was named for laurel thickets near the town site. By the turn of the century, the city became a site of mills, to process. The city population grew markedly during the early 20th century, as people were attracted to manufacturing jobs. Mechanization of agriculture reduced the number of farming jobs, the city reached its peak of population in 1960, and has declined about one third since then. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 15.8 square miles, of which 15.4 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Laurel has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. As of the census of 2000, there were 18,393 people,6,925 households, the population density was 1,192.3 people per square mile. There were 7,804 housing units at a density of 505.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 40. 64% White,55. 08% African American,0. 11% Native American,0. 33% Asian,0. 01% Pacific Islander,3. 17% from other races, and 0. 67% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3. 87% of the population,30. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the family size was 3.21. In the city, the population was out with 27. 9% under the age of 18,10. 1% from 18 to 24,25. 4% from 25 to 44,19. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 85.8 males
27.
Greenwood, Mississippi
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It was a center of cotton planter culture in the 19th century. The population was 16,087 at the 2010 census and it is the principal city of the Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers meet at Greenwood to form the Yazoo River, throughout the 1960s, Greenwood was the site of major protests and conflicts as African Americans worked to achieve racial integration and voting access during the civil rights movement. The flood plain of the Mississippi River has long been an area rich in vegetation and wildlife, fed by the Mississippi, Long before Europeans migrated to America, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations settled in the Deltas bottomlands and throughout what is now central Mississippi. They were descended from indigenous peoples who had lived in the area for thousands of years, including the Mississippian culture, in the nineteenth century, the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast suffered increasing encroachment on their territory by European-American settlers from the United States. The government opened the land for sale and settlement by European Americans, the first Euro-American settlement on the banks of the Yazoo River was a trading post founded in 1834 by Colonel John Dilliard and known as Dilliards Landing. The settlement had competition from Greenwood Leflores rival landing called Point Leflore just three miles up the Yazoo River, in 1844 it was incorporated as Greenwood, named after Chief Greenwood LeFlore. The city served as a point for cotton to major markets in New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee. Greenwood continued to prosper, based on slave labor on the plantations and in shipping. The end of the Civil War in 1865 and the years of Reconstruction changed the labor market to one of free labor. The state was mostly undeveloped frontier, and many withdrew from working for others. In the nineteenth century, many managed to clear and buy their own farms in the bottomlands. With the disruption of war and changes to labor, cotton production initially declined, Greenwood again emerged as a prime shipping point for cotton. Downtowns Front Street bordering the Yazoo filled with cotton factors and related businesses, the city continued to prosper in this way well into the 1940s, although cotton production suffered during the infestation of the boll weevil in the early 20th century. For many years, the bridge over the Yazoo displayed the sign, the industry was largely mechanized in the 20th century before World War II, displacing thousands of sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Greenwoods Grand Boulevard was once named one of Americas 10 most beautiful streets by the U. S, chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America. Sally Humphreys Gwin, a member of the Greenwood Garden Club. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution in recognition of her work in the conservation of trees, chapters were established across the state
28.
Catholic
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The use of terms catholicism and catholicity is closely related to the use of term Catholic Church. The earliest evidence of the use of term is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 108 to Christians in Smyrna. In 380, Emperor Theodosius I limited use of the term Catholic Christian exclusively to those who followed the faith as Pope Damasus I of Rome. Numerous other early writers including Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine of Hippo further developed the use of the term catholic in relation to Christianity. In Christian theology, and specially in ecclesiology, terms Catholicism, when used with small c, terms catholicism and catholicity generally designate theological doctrine of the catholicity of the Church without denominational connotations. A common belief in Catholicism is institutional continuity with the early Christian church founded by Jesus Christ, many churches or communions of churches identify singularly or collectively as the authentic church. The Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene ecumenical councils, when the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, Romes influence was sometimes challenged. The first great rupture in the Church followed this Council and they are often called Ancient Oriental Churches. The next major break was after the Council of Chalcedon and this Council repudiated Eutychian Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation and thus is both fully God and fully human, the next great rift within Christianity was in the 11th century. This division between the Western Church and the Eastern Church is called the East–West Schism, several eastern churches reunited, constituting some of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Liturgical and canonical practices vary between all these particular Churches constituting the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches, in all these cases the beliefs and practices of Catholicism would be identical with the beliefs and practices of the Church in question. However, in Roman Catholicism, the term catholic is understood as to cover those who recognize and are in standing with the Magisterium. The sense given to the word by those who use it to distinguish their position from a Calvinistic or Puritan form of Protestantism. It is then meaningful to attempt to draw up a list of common characteristic beliefs, the Roman Catholic Church includes the 23 rites who recognize the Magisterium. Belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the belief that Christ is made manifest in the elements of Holy Communion, possession of the threefold ordained ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the fullness of the teachings of Jesus and this teaching is preserved in both written scripture and in unwritten tradition, neither being independent of the other. A belief in the necessity and efficacy of sacraments, liturgical and personal use of the Sign of the Cross The use of sacred images, candles, vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship
29.
State University of New York at Purchase
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State University of New York at Purchase also known as Purchase College, State University of New York is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York system, Purchase College was ranked 9 in U. S. News & World Reports 2016 listing of top public liberal arts colleges. The college was listed as one of Kiplingers 100 Best Public College Values in 2016 and it was also listed in that publications 2014 list of Best Values in Small Colleges. The Princeton Review included Purchase College in its 2015 list of The Best 379 Colleges. Purchase College confers the degrees, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Music, Master of Arts, Master of Fine Arts. Similarly, the BFA and MusB studies culminate in an exhibition, film. Masters degree programs culminate in a thesis and the MFA and MM culminate in an exhibition, recital, the land that would become Purchase College was first settled by the Thomas family in 1734. John Thomas served as an assemblyman in colonial New York from 1743-1776 and he served as a judge for the Court of Common Pleas in Westchester and a Muster-Master. Judge Thomas was a supporter of American independence. On March 22,1777, Thomas was imprisoned by the British, John Thomas sons, John Thomas, Jr. and Thomas Thomas, also fought for American independence. Thomas Thomas was later appointed a General and he is buried at the Thomas family graveyard, which is located behind the Neuberger Museum of Art on the campus of Purchase College. A tall, white stone obelisk commemorates General Thomas and his family, as of 2016, Purchase College had 4,188 undergraduate students with freshman enrollment of 694. 56% of Purchases student body is female, 15% of the colleges students come from outside of New York state and 2. 5% of its students are international. Purchase has a rate of 41% and a student-teacher ratio of 15,1. 62% of Purchase students receive need-based financial aid and the college has an endowment of $63.9 million, Purchase College was ranked the ninth-best public liberal-arts college in U. S. News & World Reports 2016 college rankings. Kiplinger ranked the school as the 76th Best Value in Public Colleges in 2016 and it was also listed as one of the 100 Best Value Public Colleges for the years 2013 and 2014 by the Princeton Review. The Princeton Review rated the schools theatre as the twelfth best, Purchase was also listed as one of the Princeton Reviews top 380 colleges for 2016. Newsweek ranked the student body as the thirteenth most liberal in 2012
30.
As the World Turns
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As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2,1956, to September 17,2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a show to her other soap opera Guiding Light. Running for 54 years, As the World Turns holds the second-longest continuous run of any daytime soap opera on American television. As the World Turns was produced for the first 43 years in Manhattan, set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on April 2,1956, at 1,30 pm EST. Prior to that date, all serials had been 15 minutes in length, as the World Turns and The Edge of Night, which premiered on the same day at 4,30 pm EST, were the first two to be 30 minutes in length from their premiere. At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, in 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that was not interrupted for over 12 years. The show switched to color on August 21,1967, and expanded from a half-hour in length to one starting on December 1,1975. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the daytime drama from 1958 until 1978. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, three of these actors – Wagner, Hastings, and Fulton – are also the three longest serving actors in the history of American soap operas. The show passed its 10, 000th episode on May 12,1995, on September 18,2009, As the World Turns became the last remaining Procter and Gamble-produced soap opera for CBS after Guiding Light aired its final episode on the network. On December 8,2009, CBS announced that it cancelled As the World Turns after almost 54 years due to low ratings. The show taped its final Procter and Gamble scenes for CBS on June 23,2010, on October 18,2010, CBS replaced As the World Turns with a newly debuted talk show The Talk. As the World Turns was the creation of Irna Phillips, who beginning in the 1930s, had one of the foremost creators and writers of radio soap operas. Phillips wrote, As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer, and so it was with As the World Turns, with its slow-moving psychological character studies of families headed by legal and medical professionals. The personal and professional lives of doctors and lawyers remained central to As the World Turns throughout its run, Phillips style favored gradual evolution over radical change. Slow, conversational, and emotionally intense, the show moved at the pace of life itself –, each new addition to the cast was done in a gradual manner, and was usually a key contact to one of the members of the Hughes family. As such, the show earned a reputation as being quite conservative, during the shows early decades, the content-related policies of its sponsor Procter & Gamble Productions may have contributed to the perception of conservatism. As the World Turns premiered on April 2,1956 and it was the first television daytime drama with a 30-minute running time, all daytime dramas until then had 15-minute running times
31.
Ben Affleck
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Benjamin Geza Ben Affleck-Boldt is an American actor and filmmaker. He began his career as a actor, starring in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi. He later appeared in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused and various Kevin Smith films including Chasing Amy, Affleck gained recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. He then starred in films including Armageddon, Shakespeare in Love, Pearl Harbor, Changing Lanes. After a career downturn, during which he appeared in Daredevil and Gigli, Afflecks directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, which he also co-wrote, was well received. He then directed, co-wrote, and starred in the crime drama The Town. For the political thriller Argo, which he directed and starred in, Affleck won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Golden Globe, BAFTA, in 2014, he starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl. In 2016, Affleck began playing Batman in the DC Extended Universe, Affleck is the co-founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a grantmaking and advocacy-based nonprofit organization. He is also a member of the Democratic Party. His younger brother is actor Casey Affleck, with whom he has worked on films including Good Will Hunting. Following high-profile relationships with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez, Affleck married Jennifer Garner in 2005, Affleck and Garner have three children together, and announced their separation in 2015. Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15,1972 in Berkeley and his family moved to Massachusetts when he was two, living in Falmouth, where his brother Casey was born, before settling in Cambridge. His mother, Christopher Anne Chris, was a Radcliffe College- and his father, Timothy Byers Affleck, worked sporadically as an auto mechanic, a carpenter, a bookie, an electrician, a bartender, and a janitor at Harvard University. In the mid-1960s, he had been an actor and stage manager with the Theater Company of Boston, during Afflecks childhood, his father had a self-described severe, chronic problem with alcoholism and Affleck has recalled him drinking all day, every day. His parents divorced when he was 12, and he and his brother lived with their mother. In the following years, his fathers alcoholism worsened and he spent two years homeless, when Affleck was 16, his father moved to Indio, California to enter a rehabilitation facility and, after gaining sobriety, worked as an addiction counselor at the facility for many years. Affleck was raised in an active, liberal household. He and his brother were surrounded by people who worked in the arts, were taken to the theater by their mother
32.
Matthew McConaughey
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Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor. He first gained notice for his role in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused. Matthew McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was born on November 4,1969 in Uvalde, Texas and his mother, Mary Kathleen Kay or KMac, is a former kindergarten teacher and a published author. She was originally from Trenton, New Jersey and his father, James Donald McConaughey, was from Louisiana and ran an oil pipe supply business. He played for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Houston Cougars college football teams, in 1953, Jim McConaughey was drafted in the 27th round by the NFL football team the Green Bay Packers. He was released before the season began and never played a league game in the NFL. Matthews mother and late father married each other three times and his ancestry includes Scottish, English, Irish, Swedish and German. He is a relative of Confederate brigadier general Dandridge McRae, McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas in 1980, where he attended Longview High School. He lived for a year in Warnervale, New South Wales, Australia and he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He began in the fall of 1989 and graduated in the spring of 1993 with a degree in Radio-Television-Film. His original plan had changed as he wanted to attend Southern Methodist University until a brother told him that private school tuition would have been a burden on the family finances. He also had planned to attend law school graduation from college. McConaughey began working in commercials, including one for the Austin, Texas daily newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. The line, How else am I gonna keep up with my Horns, – a reference to his beloved Texas Longhorns sports teams – gave the local community a look at the young actor, before he was cast in Richard Linklaters film Dazed and Confused. In 1992, he was cast as Joe in Trisha Yearwoods video for her hit song Walkaway Joe, in the late 1990s, McConaughey was cast in leading roles in more movies, including Contact, Amistad, The Newton Boys, EDtv and U-571. By the early 2000s, he was frequently cast in comedies, including The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. McConaughey starred in the 2005 feature film Sahara, along with Steve Zahn, prior to the release of the film, he promoted it by sailing down the Amazon River and trekking to Mali. That same year, McConaughey was named People magazines Sexiest Man Alive for 2005, in 2006, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch and as Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyal in We Are Marshall
33.
Jason London
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Jason Paul London is an American actor, best known for his role as Randall Pink Floyd in director Richard Linklaters film Dazed and Confused. London was born in San Diego, the son of Debbie, a waitress, and Frank London and he was raised near Tuttle, Oklahoma, and in DeSoto, Texas. His identical twin brother Jeremy is also an actor, in 2003, the two acted together in an episode of 7th Heaven titled Smoking. Jeremy was Jasons stunt double in The Man in the Moon, on February 18,1997, London and actress Charlie Spradling married in Las Vegas, Nevada. They divorced in March 2006, and are the parents of a daughter, Cooper, Jason and Cooper can be seen at the 2009 Hero Awards. In November 2010, London became engaged to actress Sofia Karstens and they married on July 16,2011 at the home of his wifes parents, William and Judith Karstens, in North Hero, Vermont. They have been separated since February 2014, about January 26,2013, he was arrested on suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct after an altercation at a Scottsdale bar. London has enjoyed success starring mostly as a rebellious, edgy young addict in feature films such as Broken Vessels. He starred as Jason in the NBC miniseries Jason and the Argonauts and he also starred in Poor White Trash playing sleazy ladies man Brian Ross. London portrayed Mark, the newspaper editor, in the Hallmark Channel television movie, The Wishing Well. Jason London at the Internet Movie Database Jason London at the TCM Movie Database Jason London at AllMovie
34.
Entertainment Weekly
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Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by Time Inc. that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Different from celebrity-focused publications like Us Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EW primarily concentrates on entertainment media news, however, unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience. The first issue was published on February 16,1990, the cover price was $1.95 The title word entertainment was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EWs graphics, Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television and these beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. First Look, subtitled An early peek at some of Hollywoods coolest projects, is a spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies. The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week. The Hollywood Insider is a section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the columns, on the most-current news in television, movie. The Style Report is a section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is rich in nature. Recently, the converted to a new format, five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week. A spin-off section, Style Hunter, which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. The Monitor is a two-page spread devoted to events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled Legacy and this feature is nearly identical to sister publication Peoples Passages feature. Harris column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns, harris has written about the writers strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics
35.
Hal Hartley
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Hal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and 90s. He is best known for his films Trust, Amateur and Henry Fool and his films provided a career launch for a number of actors, including Adrienne Shelly, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn. Hartley frequently scores his own using his pseudonym Ned Rifle. Hartley was born in Lindenhurst in southern Long Island, New York, Hartley had an early interest in painting and attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where he studied art and developed an interest in filmmaking. Hartley shot his first feature film, The Unbelievable Truth, in 1988, Trust won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. Hartley followed this with the short feature Surviving Desire, a comedy about a college professor who has an affair with a student. Simple Men, a drama about two brothers who reunite to search for their father and encounter two women in a town, was entered in competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. His next feature, Amateur, marked a change of pace for Hartley, exploring more somber themes, Hartley developed Flirt as an extension of his short film of the same name made in 1993. The film is a triptych of three characters involved in romantic entanglements in different cities - New York, Berlin and Tokyo - with each story using the same dialogue. The film stars Hartley regulars Bill Sage, Parker Posey, Martin Donovan, Dwight Ewell and the Japanese actress Miho Nikaido, Simons literary output, an epic poem written in blank verse, becomes a national sensation, winning acclaim and controversy for its pornographic content. Simon eventually becomes a celebrity, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. While Henrys writing career fades, he is coerced into marrying Fay, whom he has gotten pregnant, the film garnered positive reviews and was entered into competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, where Hartley won the Best Screenplay Award. Hartley was invited to contribute the American entry to a series of films financed by French television to celebrate the 2000 millennium and his entry, a black comedy entitled The Book of Life was shot entirely on digital video in New York in 1998. The story imagines Jesus returning to Earth on the eve of the 2000 millennium to open the Book of Life which will start the Apocalypse, Jesus, accompanied by Mary Magdalene becomes enamoured of humanity and argues with Satan as to whether or not to end human civilisation. The film also features Yo La Tengo, who appear as a Salvation Army band, some sources state that William Burroughs is also featured, but according to Hartley, this is actually a shot of the films production manager doing a Burroughs impression. The film screened on French television and had a commercial release in cinemas. Hartleys next feature No Such Thing tells the story of Beatrice, beatrices editor orders Beatrice to go to Iceland to interview the monster, who is a sensitive philosopher. The pair return to New York where the newspaper makes them celebrities, the film is intended as a satire of news medias obsession with celebrities and manipulating events to create news headlines
36.
Adrienne Shelly
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Adrienne Levine, better known by the stage name Adrienne Shelly, was an American actress, film director and screenwriter. She became known for roles in independent films such as 1989s The Unbelievable Truth and she wrote, co-starred in, and directed the 2007-released film Waitress, which ultimately won five awards. In late 2006 Shelly was the mother of an infant daughter and was waiting to see if Waitress would be accepted for the Sundance Film Festival. On November 1,2006, Shelly was found dead, hanging in the shower of her Greenwich Village work studio apartment, the initial examination of the scene did not reveal any suspicious circumstances, and police apparently believed it to be a suicide. Her husband insisted she would never have taken her own life, Police arrested a construction worker, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador who confessed to killing Shelly and making it look as if she had committed suicide. Shellys husband established the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which awards scholarships, production grants, finishing funds, in her honor, the Women Film Critics Circle gives an annual Adrienne Shelly Award to the film that it finds most passionately opposes violence against women. Shelly was born Adrienne Levine in Queens, New York, to Sheldon M. Levine and Elaine Langbaum and she had two brothers, Jeff and Mark, and was raised on Long Island. She began performing when she was about 10 at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center, Shelly made her professional debut in a summer stock production of the musical Annie while a student at Jericho High School in Jericho, New York. She went on to Boston University, majoring in film production, Shelly, who took her professional surname after her late fathers given name, was married to Andy Ostroy, the chairman and CEO of the marketing firm Belardi/Ostroy. They had a daughter, Sophie, who was two years old at the time of her mothers death, Shelly described herself as an optimistic agnostic. Shellys career breakthrough as an actress came when she was cast by independent filmmaker Hal Hartley as the lead in The Unbelievable Truth, Trust was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, where Hartleys script tied for the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. In 2005 she appeared in the film Factotum starring Matt Dillon, during the 1990s, Shelly had segued toward a behind-the-camera career. She wrote and directed 1999s Ill Take You There, in which she appeared along with Ally Sheedy. Comedy Arts Festival Film Discovery Jury Award in 2000 for direction of the film and her final work was writing, directing, co-set- and costume-designing, and acting in the film Waitress, starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Shellys daughter, Sophie, has a cameo at the end of the film, Shelly was found dead at approximately 5,45 p. m on November 1,2006. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, discovered the body in the Abingdon Square apartment in Manhattans West Village that she used as an office, Ostroy had dropped her off at 9,30 a. m. He had become concerned because Shelly had not been in contact that day and they found her body hanging from a shower rod in the bathtub with a bed sheet around her neck. Despite the door not having been locked and money reportedly missing from her wallet, an autopsy found she had died as a result of neck compression
37.
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
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Personal Velocity, Three Portraits is a 2002 American independent film written and directed by Rebecca Miller. Personal Velocity is a tale of three women who have reached a point in their lives. Delia is a spirited, working-class woman from a town in New York state who leaves her abusive husband. Greta is a sharp, spunky editor who is rotten with ambition, to spite the hated unfaithful ways of her father, she has settled into a complacent relationship and is struggling with issues of fidelity to her kind but unexciting husband. Finally Paula, who ran away home and got pregnant, is now in a relationship she doesnt want. Shes a troubled woman who takes off on a journey with a hitchhiker after a strange. Personal Velocity won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film and the Cinematography Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, Personal Velocity, Three Portraits Personal Velocity, Three Portraits at AllMovie Personal Velocity, Three Portraits at the Internet Movie Database
38.
Basquiat (film)
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Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, used his graffiti roots as a foundation to create collage-style paintings on canvas. Jeffrey Wright portrays Basquiat, and David Bowie plays Basquiats friend, the film was written by Schnabel and Michael Thomas Holman, who was also credited for story development, with story by Lech J. Majewski and John F. Bowe. Holman, a member of theatrical rock group The Tubes, had first met Basquiat in 1979 and together that year they founded an experimental. It begins as the roll with the back of a little boy. A grown-up dreadlocked Basquiat comes out of a box in the bushes behind a graffiti-ised park seat. As he walks the sky becomes a wave a surfer is riding. He catches up with Gina on the street and asks her to come to Mudd Club, when his park box bed collapses in the rain at night he visits Benny and they snort and get high. A prank call to a line then set to music at the Mudd Club where he sees Gina through the crowd. They leave, he cant flag a cab so with a look to her she steps to the front, while in a gallery working with an electrician painter he walks out after being bossed around by the owner, then peers into the art show opening. Hes painting inside with black and white TV on when Gina wakes up and she loses her block, hes painted her dress and paintings but he comforts her back to happiness. Snorting at a drug den where some of them check out passers-by with a telescope which is used to find him after hes left for Rene who runs down in admiration of his talent. Sure enough, the art shows, dealers and gallery owners start to be fixtures in his life, Benny is noticing a change in Basquiats attitude with his new found art world niche and storms out the taxi. The arty-fartyness of it all is coming out as dealers and gallery owners fight for him and his work, Rene loses his block at Mr Chous after an exhibition opening and is forcibly removed. His positive nature shows through being interviewed by a rather condesceding amateur reporter, bicycling around, visiting Andy who is now his friend. He and Gina catch up at a restaurant where a table of businessmen snigger. Andy relays that the gossip is Basquiat is killing himself but doesnt like the idea of him going to Hawaii and opening a tequilla shop, Basquiat sends Andy a dreadlock helmet. Basquiat walking down the street, tries to join in with some graffiti-ists who take offence and it filled everything and everyone up with beauty. Lets go to Ireland he says, stop in every pub and have a drink, the next screen gives his birthdate and that he died on August 12,1988 at 27 years
39.
Clockwatchers
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Clockwatchers is an American comedy-drama film released in 1997. Directed by Jill Sprecher, it stars Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Toni Collette, the four become misfit friends in an office environment where they are ignored and mistrusted by their co-workers. Iris is a shy young professional who doesnt want to rock the boat at the office where she temps, Margaret is the polar opposite, and serves as a catalyst to help Iris become more assertive. Paula eagerly awaits post-work happy hours and the chance to flirt with attractive men, jane is engaged to marry a jerk who is already cheating on her. Margaret hopes to become a permanent employee as an assistant to Mr. Lasky, the four temps form a camaraderie which assists them in getting through their boring and tedius days at work. A series of thefts occur in the office and suspicion falls on the temps, when Iris finds a plastic monkey inside Margarets desk that she had thought was stolen, Iris loses faith in Margaret and believes that she is the office thief. As a result, the companys head of human resources fires Margaret. Iris, Paula and Janes friendship comes to an end as result of the stress, ending the camaraderie among the temporary workers, and eventually they all go their separate ways. Paula is upset when she learns of Janes wedding from an announcement, to which she was not invited. It is later discovered that another employee was the thief and that Margaret simply had a toy in her desk. Iris confronts the thief when her diary disappears, Iris later receives a new diary, when Iris is not hired for a permanent job she really wanted, she quits the temp pool. A senior executive agrees to sign a letter of recommendation for Iris, Iris then mails the letter of recommendation to Margaret with a note. It currently holds an 83% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews, Clockwatchers at the Internet Movie Database Clockwatchers at AllMovie Clockwatchers at Rotten Tomatoes
40.
The Daytrippers
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The Daytrippers is a 1996 independent drama film written and directed by Greg Mottola. It stars Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey and Liev Schreiber, eliza discovers a love letter that may prove that her husband is having an affair, so she decides to go to New York City and confront him. Her family, including her sister, Jo, and her boyfriend, Carl, as well as her parents, Jim and Rita. The film opened to 52 theaters and grossed $35,988 in its opening weekend, overall, the film grossed $2,099,677 domestically. The movie received positive reception and the review site Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the film a 73% Fresh rating. The Daytrippers at the Internet Movie Database The Daytrippers at AllMovie The Daytrippers at Rotten Tomatoes
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