Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	The Times
type	Daily newspaper
format	Compact
price	UK£0.90 (Monday–Friday)£2 (Saturday) £1.30(Sat., Scotland)
foundation	1 January 1785
owners	News Corporation
sister newspapers	''The Sunday Times''
political	Moderate Conservative
headquarters	Wapping, London, UK
editor	James Harding
issn	0140-0460
website	www.thetimes.co.uk
circulation	502,436 March 2010 }}

''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper published in London since 1785, when it was known as ''The Daily Universal Register''.

''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' are published by Times Newspapers Limited, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International. News International is entirely owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch. Though traditionally a moderately centre-right newspaper and a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections. In 2004, according to MORI, the voting intentions of its readership were 40% for the Conservative Party, 29% for the Liberal Democrats, 26% for Labour.

''The Times'' is the original "Times" newspaper, lending its name to many other papers around the world, such as ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''The Seattle Times'', ''The Daily Times (Malawi)'', Jimma Times (Ethiopia), ''The Times of India'', ''The Straits Times'', ''Polska The Times'' ''The Times of Malta'' and ''The Irish Times''. For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the 'London Times' or 'The Times of London'. The paper is also the originator of the ubiquitous Times Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of ''The Times'' in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing.

The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 partly in an attempt to appeal to younger readers and partly to appeal to commuters using public transport. An American edition has been published since 6 June 2006.

Today

The newspaper's cover price in the United Kingdom is £1 on weekdays (30p for students at some university campus shops) and £1.50 on Saturday. ''The Times's'' sister paper, ''The Sunday Times'', is a broadsheet and priced at £2.20. Although ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' are both owned by News International, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, they do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have shared the same owner only since 1967. In November 2006 ''The Times'' began printing headlines in its new font, Times Modern.

History

''The Times'' was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as ''The Daily Universal Register'', with Walter in the role of editor. Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to ''The Times''. In 1803, John Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name. John Walter Sr. had already spent sixteen months in Newgate prison for libel printed in ''The Times'', but his pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers.

''The Times'' used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of ''The Times'' were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers.

In 1809, John Stoddart was appointed general editor, replaced in 1817 with Thomas Barnes. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of ''The Times'' rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for ''The Times'' the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform.").The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence.

''The Times'' was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England. In other events of the nineteenth century, ''The Times'' opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise, and only reluctantly supported aid to victims of the Irish Potato Famine. It enthusiastically supported the Great Reform Bill of 1832 which reduced corruption and increased the electorate from 400 000 people to 800 000 people (still a small minority of the population). During the American Civil War, ''The Times'' represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery.

The third John Walter (the founder's grandson) succeeded his father in 1847. The paper continued as more or less independent. From the 1850s, however, ''The Times'' was beginning to suffer from the rise in competition from the penny press, notably ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Morning Post''.

During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach ''The Times'' and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources.

''The Times'' faced financial extinction in 1890 under Arthur Fraser Walter, but it was rescued by an energetic editor, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell. During his tenure (1890–1911), ''The Times'' became associated with selling the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' using aggressive American marketing methods introduced by Horace Everett Hooper and his advertising executive, Henry Haxton. However, due to legal fights between the ''Britannica's'' two owners, Hooper and Walter Montgomery Jackson, ''The Times'' severed its connection in 1908 and was bought by pioneering newspaper magnate, Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe.

In editorials published on 29 and 31 July 1914 Wickham Steed, the ''Times'''s Chief Editor argued that the British Empire should enter World War I. On 8 May 1920, under the editorship of Wickham Steed, the ''Times'' in an editorial endorsed the anti-Semitic forgery ''The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'' as a genuine document, and called Jews the world's greatest danger. In the leader entitled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Steed wrote about ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'':

What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?".

The following year, when Philip Graves, the Constantinople (modern Istanbul) correspondent of the ''Times'', exposed ''The Protocols'' as a forgery, the ''Times'' retracted the editorial of the previous year.

In 1922, John Jacob Astor, a son of the 1st Viscount Astor, bought ''The Times'' from the Northcliffe estate. The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement; then-editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with those in the government who practised appeasement, most notably Neville Chamberlain.

Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent, served as a correspondent for the newspaper in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. Philby was admired for his courage in obtaining high-quality reporting from the front lines of the bloody conflict. He later joined MI6 during World War II, was promoted into senior positions after the war ended, then eventually defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.

Between 1941 and 1946, the left-wing British historian E.H. Carr was Assistant Editor. Carr was well known for the strongly pro-Soviet tone of his editorials. In December 1944, when fighting broke out in Athens between the Greek Communist ELAS and the British Army, Carr in a ''Times'' editorial sided with the Communists, leading Winston Churchill to condemn him and that leader in a speech to the House of Commons. As a result of Carr's editorial, the ''Times'' became popularly known during World War II as the threepenny ''Daily Worker'' (the price of the ''Daily Worker'' was one penny)

In 1967, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson, and on 3 May 1966 it started printing news on the front page for the first time. (Previously, the paper's front page featured small advertisements, usually of interest to the moneyed classes in British society.) The Thomson Corporation merged it with ''The Sunday Times'' to form Times Newspapers Limited.

An industrial dispute prompted the management to shut the paper for nearly a year (1 December 1978 – 12 November 1979).

The Thomson Corporation management were struggling to run the business due to the 1979 Energy Crisis and union demands. Management were left with no choice but to save both titles by finding a buyer who was in a position to guarantee the survival of both titles, and also one who had the resources and was committed to funding the introduction of modern printing methods.

Several suitors appeared, including Robert Maxwell, Tiny Rowland and Lord Rothermere; however, only one buyer was in a position to meet the full Thomson remit. That buyer was the Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch

In 1981, ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were bought from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International. The acquisition followed three weeks of intensive bargaining with the unions by company negotiators, John Collier and Bill O'Neill.

Murdoch soon began making his mark on the paper, replacing its editor, William Rees-Mogg, with Harold Evans in 1981. One of his most important changes was the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. In March–May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print ''The Times'' since the 19th century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photo-composition. This allowed print room staff at ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' to be reduced by half. However, direct input of text by journalists ("single stroke" input) was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, when ''The Times'' moved from New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street) to new offices in Wapping.

In June 1990, ''The Times'' ceased its policy of using courtesy titles ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes for living persons) before full names on first reference, but it continues to use them before surnames on subsequent references. The more formal style is now confined to the "Court and Social" page, though "Ms" is now acceptable in that section, as well as before surnames in news sections.

In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. On 13 September 2004, the weekday broadsheet was withdrawn from sale in Northern Ireland. Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format.

The Conservative Party announced plans to launch litigation against ''The Times'' over an incident in which the newspaper claimed that Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby had admitted that his party would not win the 2005 General Election. ''The Times'' later published a clarification, and the litigation was dropped.

On 6 June 2005, ''The Times'' redesigned its Letters page, dropping the practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. Published letters were long regarded as one of the paper's key constituents. Author/solicitor David Green of Castle Morris Pembrokeshire has had more letters published on the main letters page than any known contributor – 158 by 31 January 2008. According to its leading article, "From Our Own Correspondents", removal of full postal addresses was in order to fit more letters onto the page.

In a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, Murdoch stated that the law and the independent board prevented him from exercising editorial control.

In May 2008 printing of ''The Times'' switched from Wapping to new plants at Broxbourne on the outskirts of London, and Merseyside and Glasgow, enabling the paper to be produced with full colour on every page for the first time.

Controversy and image

Long considered the UK's newspaper of record, ''The Times'' is generally seen as a serious publication with high standards of journalism. It is not without trenchant critics: Robert Fisk, seven times British International Journalist of the Year, resigned as foreign correspondent in 1988 over what he saw as "political censorship" of his article on the shooting-down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988. He wrote in detail about his reasons for resigning from the paper due to meddling with his stories, and the papers' pro-Israel stance.

Some allege that ''The Times''' partisan opinion pieces also damage its status as 'paper of record,' particularly when attacking interests that go against those of its parent company – News International. In 2010 it published an opinion piece attacking the BBC for being 'one of a group of' signatories to a letter criticising BSkyB share options in October 2010.

Readership profile and image

The British Business Survey 2005 named ''The Times'' as the UK's leading daily newspaper for business people. This independent survey was sponsored by ''The Financial Times'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Economist'', and ''The Times''.

The latest figures from the national readership survey show ''The Times'' to have the highest number of ABC1 25–44 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the "quality" papers. The certified average circulation figures for November 2005 show that The Times sold 692,581 copies per day. This was the highest achieved under the last editor, Robert Thomson, and ensured that the newspaper remained ahead of ''The Daily Telegraph'' in terms of full-rate sales, although the ''Telegraph'' remains the market leader for broadsheets, with a circulation of 905,955 copies. Tabloid newspapers, such as ''The Sun'' and middle-market newspapers such as the ''Daily Mail'', at present outsell both papers with a circulation of around 3,005,308 and 2,082,352 respectively. By March 2010 the paper's circulation had fallen to 502,436 copies daily and the ''Telegraph's'' to 686,679, according to ABC figures.

Format and supplements

''The Times'' features news for the first half of the paper with the leading articles on the second page, the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section, the world news normally follows this. The business pages begin on the centre spread, and are followed by The Register, containing obituaries, Court & Social section, and related material. The sport section is at the end of the main paper.

''Literary Supplement''

''The Times Literary Supplement'' (TLS) is a separately-paid-for weekly literature and society magazine.

''Science Reviews''

Between 1951 and 1966 ''The Times'' published a separately-paid-for quarterly science review, ''The Times Science Review''. Remarkably, in 1953 both the newspaper and its science supplement failed to report on the discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge, which was reported on by both the ''News Chronicle'' and ''The New York Times''.

''The Times'' started another new (but free) monthly science magazine, ''Eureka'', in October 2009.

''Times2''

''The Times'''s main supplement was the ''times2'', featuring various lifestyle columns. It was discontinued on 1 March 2010, most of its regular features being absorbed into the main paper, the puzzles into a new supplement called ''Mind Games''. Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called ''T2'' and previously ''Times 2''. Regular features included columns by a different columnist each weekday. There was a column by Marcus du Sautoy each Wednesday, for example. The back pages were devoted to puzzles and contain sudoku, "Killer Sudoku", "KenKen", word polygon puzzles, and a crossword simpler and more concise than the main "Times Crossword". The penultimate page was "Young Times", with puzzles and news for children. All these features are now found in ''Mind Games''.

The supplement also contained arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings and reviews which have now become their own weekly supplements.

''The Game''

''The Game'' is included in the newspaper on a Monday, and details all the weekend's football activity (Premier League and Football League Championship, League One and League Two.) The Scottish edition of ''The Game'' also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games.

Saturday supplements

The Saturday edition of ''The Times'' contains a variety of supplements. These supplements were relaunched in January 2009 as: ''Sport'', ''Weekend'' (including travel and lifestyle features), ''Saturday Review'' (arts, books, and ideas), ''The Times Magazine'' (columns on various topics), and ''Playlist'' (an entertainment listings guide).

''Saturday Review'' is the first regular supplement published in broadsheet format again since the paper switched to a compact size in 2004.

At the beginning of Summer 2011 ''Saturday Review'' switched to the tabloid format

''The Times Magazine'' features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren, Food And Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.

Online presence

The ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' have had an online presence since March 1999, originally at ''the-times.co.uk'' and ''sunday-times.co.uk'', and later at ''timesonline.co.uk''. In April 2009, the ''timesonline'' site had a readership of 750,000 readers per day.

Paywall

Rupert Murdoch argued that readers should pay for online content, and since July 2010, News International requires readers that do not already subscribe to the print edition to pay £1 per day or £2 per week to access ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' content.

There are now two websites, instead of one: ''thetimes.co.uk'' is aimed at daily readers, and the ''thesundaytimes.co.uk'' site at providing weekly magazine-like content.

According to figures released in November 2010 by ''The Times'', 100,000 people had paid to use the service in its first four months of operation, and another 100,000 received free access because they subscribe to the printed paper. Visits to the websites have decreased by 87% since the paywall was introduced, from 21 million unique users per month to 2.7 million.

Typeface

''The Times'' commissioned the serif typeface ''Times New Roman'', created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype, in 1931. It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing ''The Times'' for being badly printed and typographically antiquated. The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of ''The Times''. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. ''Times New Roman'' made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of ''The Times'' newspaper. After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. ''The Times'' stayed with ''Times New Roman'' for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font:

''Times Europa'' was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces.

''Times Roman'' replaced Times Europa on 30 August 1982. ''Times Millennium'' was made in 1991, drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International. ''Times Classic'' first appeared in 2001. Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while obviating the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004. ''Times Modern'' was unveiled on 20 November 2006, as the successor of ''Times Classic''. Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as ''EF Times Modern''; it was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston (deputy editor of The Times) and designer Neville Brody.

Sponsored events

''The Times'', along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the London Film Festival (or more specifically, The Times ''bfi'' London Film Festival). As of 2005, it is Europe's largest public event for motion pictures.

''The Times'' also sponsors the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature at Asia House, London.

Political allegiance

''The Times'' was a traditional Conservative Party supporter, even after its 18-year rule in government was ended by the Labour landslide of 1997, but for the 2001 general election the paper declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when it achieved a third successive election win, though with a reduced majority. For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.

The Times had declared its support for Clement Attlee's Labour at the 1945 general election; the party went on to win the election by a landslide over Winston Churchill's Conservative government. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It would not switch sides again for more than 50 years.

Ownership

John Walter (1785–1803)

John Walter, 2nd (1803–1847)

John Walter, 3rd (1847–1894)

Arthur Fraser Walter (1894–1908)

Lord Northcliffe (1908–1922)

Astor family (1922–1966)

Roy Thomson (1966–1981)

News International (subsidiary of News Corporation), run by Rupert Murdoch (1981– )

Editorship

!Editor's name	!Years
	1785–1803
	1803–1812
John Stoddart	1812–1816
	1817–1841
John Delane	1841–1877
Thomas Chenery	1877–1884
George Earle Buckle	1884–1912
George Geoffrey Dawson	1912–1919
	1919–1922
George Geoffrey Dawson	1923–1941
Robert McGowan Barrington-Ward	1941–1948
William Francis Casey	1948–1952
William Haley	1952–1966
William Rees-Mogg	1967–1981
Harold Evans	1981–1982
	1982–1985
	1985–1990
Simon Jenkins	1990–1992
Peter Stothard	1992–2002
	2002–2007
	2007–

Columnists and journalists

Murad Ahmed

Michael Atherton

Guillem Balague

Simon Barnes

Alice Bowe

Peter Brookes, leader-page cartoonist

David Brown

Kaya Burgess

Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Sam Coates

Giles Coren

Robert Crampton

Ginny Dougary

Stephen Farrell

Daniel Finkelstein

Richard Ford

Adam Fresco

Joanna Geary

Frances Gibb

Brian Glanville

Ruth Gledhill

Michael Gove

Nico Hines

Anthony Howard

Philip Howard

Ben Hoyle

Mick Hume

Anatole Kaletsky

Patrick Kidd

Magnus Linklater

Richard Lloyd Parry

Anthony Loyd, war correspondent on retainer

Ben Macintyre

Sam Marlowe, theatre reviewer

Stefanie Marsh

Hugh McIlvanney

Alice Miles

Caitlin Moran

Michael Moran

Morten Morland, political cartoonist

Richard Morrison

Kate Muir

Matthew Parris

Grayson Perry

Catherine Philp

Libby Purves

Lord Rees-Mogg

Peter Riddell

Hugo Rifkind

Aki Riihilahti

Nick Robinson

Alyson Rudd

Dan Sabbagh

Sathnam Sanghera

Marcus du Sautoy

David Sinclair

Graham Stewart

Andrew Sullivan

Richard Susskind

Ann Treneman

Janice Turner

Philip Webster

Tom Whipple

Tom Whitwell

Tony Halpin

Alexander Williams, cartoonist

Jeremy Clarkson

Other publications

(Times Books Group Ltd)

The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 2007 ISBN 978-0-00-780150-3

Biography

Harold Evans, ''Good Times, Bad Times''. Includes sections of black-and-white photographic plates, plus a few charts and diagrams in text pages.

In fiction

In the dystopian future world of George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', ''The Times'' has been transformed into the organ of the totalitarian ruling party, its editorials—of which several are quoted in the book—reflecting Big Brother's pronouncements.

Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe is described as fond of solving the London ''Times'' crossword puzzle at his New York home, in preference to those of American papers.

In the James Bond series, written by Ian Fleming, the title character, James Bond, reads ''The Times''. As described by Fleming in ''From Russia, with Love'': "The Times was the only paper that Bond ever read."

See also

List of newspapers by date

References

External links

The Sunday Times site

Times World Atlases official website including a History and Heritage section detailing landmark Times atlases

Archive from 1785 to 1985 – full text and original layout, searchable (not free of charge, registration required)

The Times editor Robert Thomson lecture online: From the editorial desk of ''The Times'', RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series

Anthony Trollope's satire on the mid-nineteenth century Times

Journalism Now: The Times Winchester University Journalism History project on the Times in the nineteenth century

Category:Newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:News Corporation subsidiaries * Category:Publications established in 1785 Category:1785 establishments in Great Britain

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Lady Gaga
Alt	Portrait of Lady Gaga
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Birth date	March 28, 1986
Birth place	New York, New York, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, piano, keyboards
Genre	Pop, dance
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman, activist
Years active	2005–present
Label	Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, Interscope
Website	}}

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (; born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and by the end of 2007 was signed with Streamline Records. During her employment as a songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.

Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album ''The Fame'' (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with ''The Fame Monster'' (2009), which spawned the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro" and allowed her to embark on the eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her 2011 album ''Born This Way'' topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international chart-topping singles, which include "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory". Beside her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.

Influenced by such acts as David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen, Lady Gaga is recognized for her flamboyant, diverse and outré contributions to the music industry through fashion, performance and music videos. She has sold an estimated 23 million albums and 64 million singles worldwide, making herself one of the best-selling music artists of all time and her singles some of the best-selling worldwide. Her achievements include four ''Guinness World Records'', five Grammy Awards and 13 MTV Video Music Awards. Lady Gaga has consecutively appeared on ''Billboard'' magazine's Artists of the Year (scoring the definitive title in 2010), is regularly placed on lists composed by ''Forbes'' magazine, and was named one of the most influential people in the world by ''Time'' magazine.

Biography

1986–2004: Early life

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York, NY to parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur. Descending from Italian and more distant French-Canadian roots, Gaga is the elder of two children. Her sister, Natali, a fashion student, was born in 1992. Despite her seemingly affluent upbringing in the family home in Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gaga has stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."

From the age of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic – attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure": "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak." Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate.

Lady Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14. Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in ''Guys and Dolls'' and Philia in ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum''. She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series ''The Sopranos'' in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell" in addition to unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in New York shows. When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After gaining early admission at 17, she eventually lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street.

CAP21 prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity" where, in addition to sharpening her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst. With CAP21, she also tried out for and won auditions, including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer where MTV's ''Boiling Points'', a prank reality television show, was being filmed. Not withstanding these achievements, she felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she remembers.

2005–07: Career beginnings

Settled in a small apartment on Rivington Street towards the summer of 2005, Gaga recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel, for an audio book accompanying the children's book ''The Portal in the Park'', by Cricket Casey. She also began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU – guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman, drummer Alex Beckham and booking manager Frank Fredericks – in September of that year. The band played a mixture of songs: some self-penned alongside classic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er". Playing in bars like the Greenwich Village's The Bitter End and the Lower East Side's the Mercury Lounge, the band developed a small fan base and caught the eye of music producer Joe Vulpis. Soon after arranging time in Vulpis' studio in the months that followed, SGBand were selling their extended plays ''Words'' and ''Red and Blue'' at gigs around New York while becoming a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene.

SGBand reached their career peak at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June where Wendy Starland, a musician, appeared as a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari. Starland informed Fusari – who was searching for a female singer to front a new band – of Gaga's ability and contacted her. With SGBand disbanded, Gaga traveled daily to New Jersey to work on songs she had written and compose new material with the music producer. While in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. It was Fusari who helped create the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga." He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song" and that the text message was the result of a predictive text glitch that changed "radio" to "lady". She texted back, "That's it," and declared, "Don't ever call me Stefani again." ''The New York Post'', however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.

Although the musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the pair soon set up a company titled Team Lovechild in which they recorded and produced electropop tracks and sent them to music industry bosses. Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R; at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and vied for the record company to take a chance on her "unusual and provocative" performance. After having his boss Antonio "L.A." Reid in agreement, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months. However, she was dropped by the label after only three months – an unfortunate period of her life that would later inspire her treatment for the music video for her 2011 single "Marry the Night". Devastated, Gaga returned to the solace of the family home for Christmas and the nightlife culture of the Lower East Side.

She became increasingly experimental: fascinating herself with emerging neo-burlesque shows, go-go dancing at bars dressed in little more than a bikini in addition to experimenting with drugs. Her father, however, did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months. "I was onstage in a thong, with a fringe hanging over my ass thinking that had covered it, lighting hairsprays on fire, go-go dancing to Black Sabbath and singing songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab a beer. It represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on the New York underground that I found myself." It was then when she became romantically involved with a heavy metal drummer in a relationship and break-up she likened to the musical film ''Grease'': "I was his Sandy, and he was my Danny, and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of her later songs.

During this time, she met performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her on-stage persona. Starlight explained that, upon their first meeting, Gaga wanted to perform with her to songs she had recorded with Fusari. Like SGBand, the pair soon began performing at many of the downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art piece was known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue" and, billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. Soon after, the two were invited to play at the 2007 Lollapalooza music festival in August that year. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews. Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga had found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.

While Gaga and Starlight were busy performing, producer Rob Fusari continued to work on the songs he had created with Gaga. Fusari sent these songs to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007. Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going." Having already served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.

While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M; Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution, making her his "franchise player." As 2007 came to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.". Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album; making the chart-topping singles "Just Dance", "Poker Face" and "LoveGame" together. Gaga also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the singles "Christmas Tree" and "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)". Despite her secure record deal, she admitted that there was fear about her being too "racy", "dance-orientated" and "underground" for the mainstream market. Her response: "My name is Lady Gaga, I've been on the music scene for years, and I'm telling you, this is what's next."

2008–10: ''The Fame'' and ''The Fame Monster''

By 2008, Gaga relocated to Los Angeles to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album while setting up her own creative team modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory: Haus of Gaga. Intensive work continued on the album, described as an exploration of her obsession with fame and the intricacies of a rich and famous lifestyle, combining genres "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks" while drawing inspiration from 1980s synthpop and incorporating dance music with clear hooks. ''The Fame'' was first released on August 19, 2008 but, radio play being slow, Gaga supported it by performing around Europe and in small gay clubs around the US in addition to being billed as a supporting artist on the North American leg of New Kids on the Block's reunion concert tour. A sleeper hit, lead single "Just Dance" had preceded the album's release by four months but only hit the summit of the international charts in January 2009.

"Just Dance" provoked the instant success of ''The Fame'' after earning her first Grammy Award nomination (for Best Dance Recording) while becoming one of the best-selling singles worldwide. Receiving positive reviews from contemporary critics who commended Gaga's ability to discover a melodious hook, the album went to number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK and appeared in the top five in Australia, the US and 15 other countries. It also stayed atop the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 106 non-consecutive weeks and, since its release, has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. Gaga achieved a greater unexpected success when "Poker Face", another sleeper hit, reached number one in most major music markets worldwide in early 2009. The follow-up single won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, while ''The Fame'' was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Dance/Electronica Album. Gaga was the recipient of other honors in 2009 including the accumulation of 3 of 9 MTV Video Music Awards nominations – winning Best New Artist while the video for her single "Paparazzi" gained Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects – and ''Billboard'' magazine's Rising Star award. In addition to being an opening act on the Pussycat Dolls' Doll Domination Tour during the first half of 2009 in Europe and Oceania, she also embarked on her own six-month critically appreciated worldwide concert tour The Fame Ball Tour which ran from March to September 2009.

While she traveled the globe, she wrote ''The Fame Monster'', an EP of eight songs released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Making Gaga the first artist in digital history to have three singles (alongside "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales, its lead single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries and reached the top two in the US, Australia and New Zealand while accruing the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video. The second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number one single; its accompanying music video, although controversial, receiving positive reception from contemporary critics who praised her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna." Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial – critics complimented its ideas and dark nature but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her alleged use of blasphemy. Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they made Gaga the first artist to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga won 8 of her 13 nominations, including Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" (with "Telephone" also nominated), which made her the first female artist to be nominated twice for the award. In addition, ''The Fame Monster'' garnered a total of six nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards – equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received – winning Best Pop Vocal Album and earning her a second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year.

The success of the album allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of ''The Fame Monster'' and months after having finished The Fame Ball Tour. Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished tour ran for over one and a half years and grossed $227.4 million, making it one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist. Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for a HBO television special titled ''Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden''. The special accrued one of its five Emmy Award nominations and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Gaga also performed songs from the album at international events such as the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John; and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony. Other performances may have included her participation in Michael Jackson's This Is It concert series at London's O2 Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated. "We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it happen. I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing duets with Michael on stage."

Nevertheless, she realized a collaboration with consumer electronic company Beats by Dr. Dre to create a pair of in-ear jewel-encrusted headphones titled Heartbeats. "They are designed to be the first ever fashion accessories that double as the absolute best sonically sounding headphones in the world," she commented. Gaga also partnered with Polaroid in January 2010. Excited about "blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era," Gaga was named Creative Director and by the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, unveiled the first trio of new products called Grey Label: a pair of picture-taking sunglasses, a paperback-sized mobile printing unit and an updated version of the traditional Polaroid camera. But her collaboration with past producer Rob Fusari led to her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, being sued in March 2010 when he claimed that he was entitled to a 20% share of the company's earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment, but five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga. In addition to such strife, Gaga was tested borderline positive for lupus, but claimed not to be affected by the symptoms. The revelations caused considerable dismay among fans, leading to Gaga addressing the matter in an interview with Larry King, saying she hopes to avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

2011–present: ''Born This Way''

Gaga released her second studio album and third major release, ''Born This Way'', on May 23, 2011. Described as a marriage of electronic music with metal, rock 'n' roll, pop and anthemic style melodies with sledge-hammering dance beats and referred to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid," Gaga characterized it as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and, upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she is taking music to the "next level." Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its range of different styles and her vocals. ''Born This Way'' sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the US, debuted atop the ''Billboard'' 200, and topped the charts in more than 20 other countries. In addition to exceeding 8 million copies in worldwide sales, ''Born This Way'' has received 3 Grammy Award nominations, including her third consecutive for Album of the Year.

In the months prior to its unveiling, Gaga released the singles "Born This Way", "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" alongside a promotional single "Hair". The eponymous lead single, which was first sung live at the 53rd Grammy Awards in a performance that saw Gaga emerge from an egg-like vessel, deals with self-acceptance regardless of race or sexual orientation and debuted atop the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts. It sold more than 3 million digital copies in the US by October 2011, becoming her eighth consecutive single to exceed sales of 2 million and one of her five best-selling singles worldwide. Critics noted artistic and cultural references and praised the concept of the song's accompanying music video, in which Gaga gives birth to a new race amidst surrealistic images. The music video for "Judas", in which Gaga portrays Mary Magdalene, and Biblical figures such as Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot are also featured, was criticized for its religious references; the video, nonetheless, received acclaim for its overall delivery and praise from others who claimed that there was nothing offensive about it. "Judas" also peaked within the top ten in several major musical markets while "The Edge of Glory", first a commercial success in digital outlets, was later released as a single to critical appreciation, accompanied by a music video which notably stripped down compared to her usually "extravagant" efforts.

She released "You and I" and "Marry the Night" as the fourth and fifth singles from ''Born This Way''. Although their "crazy and ambitious" music videos were praised for their audacity, both songs failed to match the similar international success that its predececors achieved. Nonetheless, she continued her musical endeavors by pairing with veteran artists like Tony Bennett to record a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp". She also recorded a duet with Cher on a "massive" and "beautiful" track, which Gaga "wrote a long time ago, and I've never put it on one of my own albums for, really, no particular reason." Gaga also lent her vocals to an original duet with Elton John for the animated feature film ''Gnomeo & Juliet''. The song, "Hello, Hello", was released without Gaga's vocals but the duet version features in the film. As she enters 2012, songs for a new album are "beginning to flourish" as she works with producer Fernando Garibay while the accompanying tour for ''Born This Way'' materializes.

Gaga continued her live appearances throughout 2011 including a one-of-a-kind concert at the Sydney Town Hall on July 13 in promotion of ''Born This Way''. She also performed at the celebration of former US president Bill Clinton's 65th Birthday alongside Bono, Stevie Wonder and Usher, among others, wearing a blond wig as a nod to the famous performance of Marilyn Monroe for John F. Kennedy and changing the lyrics to "You and I" specifically for the performance. Televised appearances comprised her own Thanksgiving Day television special entitled ''A Very Gaga Thanksgiving'' which was critically lauded, attained 5.749 million American viewers, and spawned the release of her fourth extended play ''A Very Gaga Holiday''. Her second performance on ''Saturday Night Live'' saw her singing a selection of ''Born This Way'' songs alongside appearing in number of sketches with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.

Artistry

Influences

Gaga's parents, who exposed her to artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John, had significant influence on her childhood and, presently, still do. "I am a real family girl. When it comes to love and loyalty, I am very old-fashioned. And I am quite down-to-earth for such an eccentric person," she insists. "I'm quite traditional in the family sense. I've always been that way." According to Gaga, Joanne Germanotta – her aunt who died of lupus aged 19 – lives on through her and inspires all of her music and art. Joanne's date of death is tattooed on Gaga's body and, despite dying 12 years before her birth, Gaga commented, "I really believe I have two hearts. I think I actually carry two souls in my body, and that I'm living out the rest of her life and her goodness – she died a virgin, she died never having experienced all these things that we all get to love and experience in our lives." Another spiritual influence on Gaga has been the Indian physician, public speaker and writer Deepak Chopra. Labeling him a "true inspiration", she stated that "he's always reminded me to work in a life of service to my fans and to fulfill my vision and my destiny" in addition to thinking about Chopra when it comes to her work as a musician: "I want so much for it to go beyond the music for my fans."

Musically, Gaga takes influence from numerous musicians from dance-pop singers like Madonna and Michael Jackson to glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen whilst employing the theatrics of artists like Andy Warhol and of her musical theatre roots in performance. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique—one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music," she commented. Gaga receives regular comparisons to recording artist Madonna who admits that she sees herself reflected in Gaga. In response to the comparisons, Gaga stated, "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionize pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago" in addition to commenting that "there is really no one that is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and professionally." Like Madonna, Gaga has continued to reinvent herself and, over the years of her career, has drawn musical inspiration from a diverse mix of artists including Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie singer Debbie Harry, Scissor Sisters, Prince, Marilyn Manson and Yoko Ono.

Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence and has been stylistically compared to English eccentrics Leigh Bowery and Isabella Blow and to American recording artist Cher. She commented that "as a child, she somehow absorbed Cher's out-there fashion sense and made it her own." She has considered Donatella Versace her muse and the late British fashion designer and close friend Alexander McQueen as an inspiration, admitting that "I miss Lee every time I get dressed" while channeling him in some of her work. Modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory, Gaga has her own creative production team, which she handles personally, called the Haus of Gaga, who create many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos. Her adoration of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" a close third. ''Entertainment Weekly'' put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream." Gaga made her runway debut at Thierry Mugler's Paris fashion show in March 2011 where she wore items from Nicola Formichetti's debut women's wear collection. In June of the same year, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for Fashion Icon. She has since devoted her time as a fashion columnist for ''V'' magazine, where she has written about her creative process, her studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the evolution of pop-culture meme.

Musical style

Continually experimenting with new musical ideas and images, Gaga's musical and performance style is the subject of much analysis and scrutiny from critics. She professes that she is "liberating" herself by constantly reinventing her sound and image, insisting that she has been drawn to such a practice since her childhood. Vocally, Gaga possesses the range of a contralto and exhibits "overwhelming expression, instinctive vocal phrasing, '80s rock reminiscent chest belts and animalistic vocal ticks" while being able to move through 2.4 octaves. Refusing to lip sync, Gaga – whose range is frequently compared to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani – has manipulated her vocal style over the course of her career yet considers ''Born This Way'' (2011) "much more vocally up to par with what I've always been capable of." In summation of her voice, ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote, "There's an immense emotional intelligence behind the way she uses her voice. Almost never does she overwhelm a song with her vocal ability, recognizing instead that artistry is to be found in nuance rather than lung power."

Although her early lyrics have been criticized for lacking intellectual stimulation, "[Gaga] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." She admits that her songwriting has been misinterpreted; her friend and blogger Perez Hilton articulated her message in a clearer way: "you write really deep intelligent lyrics with shallow concepts." Gaga opined, "Perez is very intelligent and clearly listened to my record from beginning to end, and he is correct." "I love songwriting. It's so funny – I will just jam around in my underwear or I could be washing my dishes. I wrote several songs just at the piano," she confesses. Gaga believes that "all good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a hit." She has covered a wide variety of topics in her songs: while ''The Fame'' (2008) meditates on the lust for stardom, ''The Fame Monster'' (2009) expresses fame's dark side through monster metaphors. ''Born This Way'' (2011) is sung in English, French, German and Spanish and includes common themes in Gaga's controversial songwriting like love, sex, religion, money, drugs, identity, liberation, sexuality, freedom and individualism.

The structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. Her debut album ''The Fame'' (2008) provoked ''The Sunday Times'' to assert "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, [Gaga] evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now" and a critic from ''The Boston Globe'' to comment that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B;-ish beats." The follow-up ''The Fame Monster'' (2009), saw Gaga's taste for pastiche, drawing on "Seventies arena glam, perky ABBA disco and sugary throwbacks like Stacey Q" while ''Born This Way'' (2011) also draws on the records of her childhood and still has the "electro-sleaze beats and Eurodisco chorus chants" of its predecessor but includes genres as diverse as opera, heavy metal, disco, and rock and roll. "There isn't a subtle moment on the album, but even at its nuttiest, the music is full of wide-awake emotional details," wrote ''Rolling Stone'', who concluded: "The more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds."

Performances and music videos

Her performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative"; the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV. She continued the "blood soaked" theme in The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore a revealing leather corset and is "attacked" by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene on tour in England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people. "What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence. Her unconventionality continued at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards when she performed in drag as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, and delivered a lovesick monologue before a performance of her song "You and I". Chris Rock has defended her flamboyant and provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," he said. "She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?" As Gaga's choreographer and creative director, Laurieann Gibson provided much material for her shows and videos for four years but the pair parted in November 2011. Gaga replaced her with Gibson's assistant Richard Jackson. Gaga admits to being a perfectionist when it comes to her elaborate shows. "I'm very bossy. I can scream my head off if I see one light fixture out. I'm very detailed – every minute of the show has got to be perfect."

With constant costume changes, backup dancers, and plenty of provoctative visuals, Gaga's music videos are often described as short films. "Being provocative is not just about getting people's attention. It's about saying something that really affects people in a real way, in a positive way," she professes. Exploring bondage and sadomasochism in addition to highlighting prevalent feminist themes, "the three central themes that shape Lady Gaga's music videos are sex, violence, and power." "Vaudevillian and carnal, Lady Gaga has got the knack of sending rape-like fantasies—in songs and videos that double as catch club hits—to the top of the charts," wrote one critic. "Whether it is physical violence or sexual exploitation, these videos offer vivid depictions of male power over women's bodies," wrote another. While she labels herself "a little bit of a feminist" (she rejects man-hating feminism) and asserts that she is "sexually empowering women," Gaga strives to empower young women to stand up for what they believe in. She also attempts to liberate her fans so they can feel "less alone." "She not only reiterates her assertion of total originality," professed pop critic Ann Powers, "but also finesses it until it's both a philosophical stance about how constructing a persona from pop-cultural sources can be an expression of a person's truth—a la those drag queens Gaga sincerely admires—and a bit of a feminist act." In summation of her videos, ''Rolling Stone'' used the rhetoric: "Does anyone look to a Lady Gaga video for restraint?"

Public image

While ''Rolling Stone'' named Gaga the "Queen of Pop" in 2011, public reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, self-esteem booster for her fans, trailblazer and fashion icon who breathes new life into the industry is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews and critics have pointed out her unique place in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga brings to modern social issues, and the inherently subjective nature of her art. In view of her influence on modern culture and her rise to global fame, sociologist Mathieu Deflem of the University of South Carolina has organized a course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" since the spring of 2011 with the objective of unravelling "some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga."

Contrary to her outré style, the ''New York Post'' described her early look as like "a refugee from ''Jersey Shore''" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." Lady Gaga is a natural brunette; she bleached her hair blonde because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse. She has nine tattoos on the left side of her body (her father has banned etchings on her right): a unicorn head with a ribbon wrapped around its horn that says "Born This Way"; a small heart with "dad" written inside it; several white roses; a treble clef; three daises; "Tokyo Love" with a little heart; "Little Monsters" written in cursive; a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon, whom she stated was her hero; and a curling German script on her left arm quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her favorite writer, commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke to her. Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Lady Gaga and recording artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Aguilera stated that she was "completely unaware of [Gaga]" and "didn't know if it [was] a man or a woman." Lady Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way." When Gaga briefly met with US president Barack Obama at a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser, he described the interaction as "intimidating" as she was dressed in 16-inch heels making her undoubtedly the tallest woman in the room.

When interviewed by Barbara Walters for her annual ABC News special ''10 Most Fascinating People'' in 2009, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny." In addition to Aguilera's statement, comparisons continued into 2010, when Aguilera released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Lady Gaga's video for "Bad Romance". There have also been similar comparisons made between Lady Gaga's style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier.

Nonetheless, Gaga was named one of Vogue.com UK's Best Dressed people of 2010, which partly was awarded in recognition of the meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The dress – supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat – were all fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal. Named ''Time'' magazine's Fashion Statement of 2010, it received divided opinions – evoking the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights organization PETA. She denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community. In a question posed about the necessary procedure to attach the prosthetics to give the unconventional appearance of recent horn-like ridges on her cheekbones, temples, and shoulders, Gaga responded, "They're not prosthetics, they're my bones." She also clarified that they were not the result of plastic surgery, believing such surgery to only be the modern byproduct of fame-induced insecurity to which she does not subscribe. The interviewer's further probing brought Gaga to the conclusion that they are an artistic representation of her inner inspirational light and part of the "performance piece" that is her musical persona: an inevitability of her becoming who she now is.

Gaga often refers to her fans as "Little Monsters" and in dedication, has had that inscription tattooed on "the arm that holds my mic." Her treatment of her "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image. To some, this dichotomy contravenes the concept of outsider culture. Camille Paglia in her 2010 cover story "Lady Gaga and the death of sex" in ''The Sunday Times'' asserts thatGaga "is more an identity thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she is none of those." Writing for ''The Guardian'', Kitty Empire opined that the dichotomy "...allows the viewer to have a 'transgressive' experience without being required to think. At [her performance's] core, though, is the idea that Gaga is at one with the freaks and outcasts. The Monster Ball is where we can all be free. This is arrant nonsense, as the scads of people buying Gaga's cunningly commercial music are not limited to the niche worlds of drag queens and hip night creatures from which she draws her inspiration. But Gaga seems sincere."

Philanthropy

Besides her career in music, Gaga has also contributed to various charities and humanitarian works. In 2011, she launched her own non-profit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on youth empowerment and issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring, and career development. "My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born This Way Foundation," Gaga said in a statement about the foundation, which takes its name from the 2011 single and album. "Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment." The foundation will work with a number of partners, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California Endowment and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

For natural disasters, Gaga has also helped various relief efforts. Although declining an invitation to appear on the single "We Are the World 25" to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she donated the proceeds of her January 24, 2010 concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to the country's reconstruction relief fund. All profits from her official online store on that day were also donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of $500,000 was collected for the fund. Hours after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011, Gaga tweeted a message and a link to Japan Prayer Bracelets. All revenue from a bracelet she designed in conjunction with the company was donated to relief efforts. As of March 29, 2011, the bracelets raised $1.5 million. However, attorney Alyson Oliver filed a lawsuit against Gaga in Detroit in June 2011, noting that the bracelet was subject to a sales tax and an extra $3.99 shipping charge was added to the price. She also believed that not all proceeds from the bracelets would go to the relief efforts, demanding a public accounting of the campaign and refunds for people who had bought the bracelet. Lady Gaga's spokesperson called the lawsuit "meritless" and "misleading". On June 25, 2011, Gaga performed at MTV Japan's charity show in Makuhari Messe, which benefited the Japanese Red Cross.

Gaga also contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS, focusing on educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line were donated to the cosmetic company's campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS worldwide. In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your lipstick." The sales of Gaga-endorsed Viva Glam lipstick and lipgloss have raised more than $202 million to fight HIV and AIDS.

With the performance of the bilingual song "Americano" from her second studio album ''Born This Way'' (2011), Gaga jumped into the debate surrounding SB 1070, Arizona's recently-enacted anti-immigration law. She premiered the tune on the Guadalajara, Mexico stop of her "Monster Ball" tour, telling the local press that she could not "stand by many of the unjust immigration laws" in the United States.

LGBT advocacy

Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of ''The Fame'', saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.

After ''The Fame'' was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with ''Rolling Stone'', she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'." When she appeared as a guest on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay community". She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009 National Equality March rally on the National Mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays," similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier. At the Human Rights Campaign Dinner, held the same weekend as the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality.

Gaga attended the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four service members of the United States Armed Forces (Mike Almy, David Hall, Katie Miller and Stacy Vasquez), all of whom, under the United States military's "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy, had been prohibited from serving openly because of their sexuality. In addition, Gaga wore a dress fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal to the awards ceremony. Gaga wished that the dress, more widely known as the "meat dress", was interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community adding that "If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones." She later released three videos on YouTube videos urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to overturn the policy. In late September 2010 she spoke at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's "4the14K" Rally in Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. The name of the rally signified the number – an estimated 14,000 – of service members discharged under the DADT policy at the time. During her remarks, she urged members of the U.S. Senate (and in particular, moderate Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to vote in favor of legislation that would repeal the DADT policy. Following this event, editors of ''The Advocate'' commented that she had become "the real fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians, one that Barack Obama had promised to be.

Gaga appeared at Europride, a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, held in Rome in June 2011. In a nearly twenty-minute speech, she criticized the intolerant state of gay rights in many European countries and described homosexuals as "revolutionaries of love" before performing acoustic renderings of "Born This Way" and "The Edge of Glory" in front of thousands at the Circus Maximus. She stated that "Today and every day we fight for freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion, understanding and above all we want full equality now". Gaga revealed that she is often questioned why she dedicates herself to "gayspeak" and "how gay" she is, to which, she told the audience: "Why is this question, why is this issue so important? My answer is: I am a child of diversity, I am one with my generation, I feel a moral obligation as a woman, or a man, to exercise my revolutionary potential and make the world a better place." She then joked: "On a gay scale from 1 to 10, I'm a Judy Garland fucking 42."

Discography

''The Fame'' (2008)

''The Fame Monster'' (2009)

''Born This Way'' (2011)

Filmography

''Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden'' (2011)

''A Very Gaga Thanksgiving'' (2011)

Concert tours

The Fame Ball Tour (2009)

Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga (2009–10) (canceled)

The Monster Ball Tour (2009–11)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Lady Gaga

Honorific nicknames in popular music

List of best-selling music artists

References

Further reading

Monster Anthems (2011) by Robert Christgau

External links

Slide show ''Vanity Fair''

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Michael Bloomberg
Order	108th Mayor of New York City
Term start	January 1, 2002
Predecessor	Rudy Giuliani
Successor	Incumbent
Birth name	Michael Rubens Bloomberg
Birth date	February 14, 1942
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Party	Democratic Party (until 2001)Republican Party (2001–2007)Independent (2007–present)
Partner	Diana Taylor
Residence	Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Johns Hopkins University (B.S.)Harvard University (M.B.A.)
Religion	Reform Judaism
Blank1	Net worth
Data1	US$18.1 billion (2011)
Signature	Michael Bloomberg Signature.svg
Website	}}

Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician and philanthropist. Since 2002, he has been the Mayor of New York City and, with a net worth of $18.1 billion in 2011, he is also the 13th-richest person in the United States. He is the founder and eighty-eight percent owner of Bloomberg L.P., a financial news and information services media company.

A lifelong Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his registration in 2001 and ran for mayor as a Republican, winning the election that year and a second term in 2005. Bloomberg left the Republican Party over policy and philosophical disagreements with national party leadership in 2007 and ran for his third term in 2009 as an independent candidate on the Republican ballot line. He was frequently mentioned as a possible independent candidate for the 2008 presidential election, which fueled further speculation when he left the Republican Party. There was also speculation that he would run as a vice-presidential candidate. Bloomberg did not, however, seek the presidency nor was he selected as a running mate by any of the presidential candidates.

In the fall of 2008, Bloomberg successfully campaigned for an amendment to New York City's term-limits law, in order to allow him to run for a third term in 2009. Bloomberg won the election on November 3, 2009.

Early life

He was born at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston on February 14, 1942. His father, William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), was a real estate agent, and the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, a Jewish immigrant. His mother, Charlotte Rubens Bloomberg, was born on January 2, 1909, in New Jersey, the daughter of a Jewish Russian immigrant and a New Jersey–born mother. She died, aged 102, on June 19, 2011.

The family lived in Allston, Massachusetts, until Michael Bloomberg was two years old; they then moved Brookline, Massachusetts, for the next two years, finally settling in Medford, a Boston suburb, where he lived until after he graduated from college. His younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.

Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi, worked as a parking lot attendant to pay his tuition, and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering.Later he received his MBA degree from Harvard Business School. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of public service from Tufts University, and in 2009 received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Fordham University. In 2011, Bloomberg also received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from George Washington University.

Bloomberg married Yorkshire-born Susan Brown in 1975. Their marriage produced two daughters: Emma (b. ca. 1979) and Georgina (b. 1983), who were featured on ''Born Rich'', a documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown and is currently living with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.

Business career

In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers where he headed equity trading, and later, systems development. In 1981, he was fired from Salomon Brothers and was given a $10 million severance package. Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 22 of the company's Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. The company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. in 1986. By 1987, it had installed 5,000 terminals. Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched. As of 2009, the company had more than 250,000 terminals worldwide. His company also has a radio network which currently has its flagship station as 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City. He left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York. Bloomberg was replaced as CEO by Lex Fenwick. The company is now led by president Daniel Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.

As the mayor of New York, Bloomberg declines to receive a city salary, accepting remuneration of $1.00 annually for his services. He maintains a public listing in the New York City phone directory, residing not in Gracie Mansion – the official mayor's mansion – but instead at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at 17 East 79th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues. He owns additional homes in London, Bermuda and Vail.

Bloomberg, by his own accounts at least, frequently rides the New York City Subway, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in ''The New York Times'' contradicted this notion, suggesting instead that he often was chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the Lexington Avenue line.

Bloomberg wrote an autobiography, with help from a ghost writer, called ''Bloomberg by Bloomberg'' (1997, ISBN 0-471-15545-4).

Wealth

In March 2009, Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, enjoying the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009. At that time, there were only four fortunes in the U.S. that were larger (although the Wal-Mart family fortune is split among four people). He moved from 142nd to 17th in the ''Forbes'' list of the world's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 – March 2009). In March 2011, his total wealth had increased to $18.1 billion, ranking 10th in the Forbes 400 and 30th in the world.

Philanthropy

Bloomberg's personal net worth, in addition to aiding his political career, has allowed him to engage in substantial philanthropic endeavors, including the donation of over $300 million to Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the chairman of the board from 1996 to 2002.

According to the ''Chronicle of Philanthropy'', Bloomberg, through his Bloomberg Family Foundation, donated and/or pledged $138 million in 2004, $144 million in 2005, $165 million in 2006, and $205 million in 2007, making him the seventh-largest individual contributor to philanthropy in the U.S. for 2007. 2006 recipients include the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. In 2008, Bloomberg's website announced a combined donation of $500 million with Bill Gates to help governments in developing countries with tobacco control.

According to ''The New York Times'', Bloomberg has been an “anonymous donor” to the Carnegie Corporation each year for the last several years, with gifts ranging from $5 to $20 million. The Carnegie Corporation has distributed this contribution to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer.

In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community." Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.

Bloomberg reports giving $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."

On July 21, 2011, Bloomberg announced that he would donate $50 million to Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign, the grassroots organization’s efforts to close older coal plants and prevent new ones from being built. The gift, spread out over four years, will come from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Awards and honors

At the 2007 commencement exercises for Tufts University, Bloomberg delivered the commencement address. He was awarded an honorary degree in Public Service from the university. Likewise, Bloomberg delivered the 2007 commencement address at Bard College, where he was also awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In February 2003, he received the "Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets" from the Yale School of Management. Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 Time 100. In September 2007, ''Vanity Fair'' ranked him #9 in its "Vanity Fair 100: The 2007 New Establishment."

In May 2008, Bloomberg was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Pennsylvania, where he delivered the commencement speech to the class of 2008. Bloomberg also delivered the commencement address to the class of 2008 at Barnard College, located in New York City, after receiving the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the College's highest honor.

It was announced on January 14, 2011, that Bloomberg had been selected as the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.

Bloomberg was also awarded a tribute award at the 2007 Gotham Awards, a New York-based celebrator of independent film. On November 19, 2008, Bloomberg received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Additionally, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Fordham University's 2009 commencement ceremonies.

In 2009, Bloomberg received a Healthy Communities Leadership Award from Leadership for Healthy Communities – a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program – for his policies and programs that increase access to healthful foods and physical activity options in the city. For instance, to increase access to grocery stores in underserved areas, the Bloomberg administration developed a program called FRESH that offers zoning and financial incentives to developers, grocery store operators and land owners. His administration also created a Healthy Bodega initiative, which provides healthful food samples and promotional support to grocers in lower-income areas to encourage them to carry one-percent milk and fruits and vegetables. Under Bloomberg's leadership, the city also: passed a Green Carts bill, which supports mobile produce vendors in lower-income areas; expanded farmers' markets using the city's Health Bucks program which provides coupons to eligible individuals to buy produce at farmers' markets in lower-income areas; and committed $111 million in capital funding for playground improvements. New York also was one of the first cities in the nation to help patrons make more informed decisions about their food choices by requiring fast-food and chain restaurants to label their menus with calorie information.

Harassment controversies

Bloomberg has previously been accused of sexually harassing women under his employment, which he has denied. In 1997, a former Bloomberg L.P. employee who became pregnant while employed filed a lawsuit accusing Bloomberg of saying "Kill it!" and "great, No. 16", which may have been a reference to the number of pregnant women in the company. In December 2008, ''Conde Nast Portfolio'' published a story – "Mayor Bloomberg's Delicate Condition" – which reported that in September 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class-action lawsuit against Bloomberg's company on behalf of three women who worked on the business side, plus a group of women who worked at Bloomberg's company between 2002 and the present. The article said the plaintiffs "now total 72, out of about 500 women who took maternity leave during that time, a high percentage, according to the agency".

Elections

2001 election

In 2001, the incumbent mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election, as the city limited the mayoralty to two consecutive terms. Several well-known New York City politicians aspired to succeed him. Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party ticket.

Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Congressman, to become the Republican nominee. Meanwhile, the Democratic primary did not produce a first-round winner. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.

In the general election, Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement. He also had a huge spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions which a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public campaign funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green by five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.

In addition to serving as the Republican nominee, Bloomberg had the ballot line of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exert strong influence. Some say that endorsement was important, as Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received on all lines. Green, the Democrat, also had the ballot line of the Working Families Party. He also created an independent line called Students First whose votes were combined with those on the Independence line). Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been far friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg handily beat Green in that borough, taking 75 percent of the vote there. Overall, Bloomberg won 50 percent to 48 percent.

Bloomberg's election marked the first time in New York City history that two different Republicans had been elected mayor consecutively. New York City has not been won by a Republican in a presidential election since Calvin Coolidge won in 1924. Bloomberg is considered a social liberal, who is pro-choice, in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and an advocate for stricter gun control laws.

Despite the fact that 68 percent of New York City's registered voters are Democrats, Bloomberg decided the city should host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The Convention drew thousands of protesters, many of them local residents angry over the Iraq war and other issues. The Police Department arrested approximately 1,800 protesters, but according to ''The New York Times'', more than 90 percent of the cases were later dismissed or dropped for lack of evidence.

2005 election

Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York.

Bloomberg spent over $1 million on his campaign by late October 2005 and was projected to exceed the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.

Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. Bloomberg's campaign successfully challenged enough of the signatures Ognibene had submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran only on the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.

Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Though a Republican at the time, Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade.

In addition to receiving Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

2009 election

On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced that he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing that a leader of his field is needed during the Wall Street financial crisis. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg told at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term". On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms, thus allowing Bloomberg to run for office again. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.

Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that President of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 50.6 percent to 46.0 percent.

After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.

This prompted to an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.

Mayoralty

thumb|Bloomberg attending the opening night of the 2011 Tribeca Film FestivalBloomberg assumed office as the 108th Mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005. As mayor, Bloomberg initially struggled to gain high approval levels from the public; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings.

Bloomberg's re-election means the Republicans have won the previous four mayoral elections (although Bloomberg's decision to leave the Republican Party and be declared an independent on June 19, 2007, resulted in the Republican Party's losing the mayor's seat prior to the expiration of his second term). Bloomberg joins Rudy Giuliani and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in this mostly Democratic city. (John Lindsay was also elected mayor of New York twice while a registered Republican; however, Lindsay did not receive the Republican Party nomination during his 1969 campaign for re-election but ran successfully on the Liberal ticket and joined the Democratic Party during his second term.)

Bloomberg has said that he wants public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second. Some have alleged that he made certain decisions regarding the closure of seventeen day-care centers across the city for political reasons. According to the National Assessment of Educational Performance, fourth-grade reading scores from 2002 through 2009 rose nationally by 11 points. However, on May 10, 2010, ''The New York Times'' reported:

"According to the test [NAEP], New York City eighth graders have shown no significant improvement [in math or reading] since they began taking it in 2003, mirroring the largely flat performance of American eighth graders as a whole during that period. In the city, the lack of improvement held true across ethnic groups and also among lower-income students."

The annual New York City Department of Education Budget noted that spending for education was $12.5 billion in 2002 and $21 billion in 2009.

Bloomberg has chosen to apply a statistical, results-based approach to city management, appointing city commissioners based on their expertise and granting them wide autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what ''New York Times'' political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.

Political stands

Some of the policies Bloomberg advocates parallel those of either the Democratic or the Republican party platform. He is socially liberal, supporting abortion rights, gay marriage, gun control, and amnesty for illegal immigrants, for example. On economics, foreign, and domestic issues, Bloomberg tends to be conservative. He opposes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, and criticizes those who favor one. Economically, he supports government involvement in issues such as public welfare and climate change, while being strongly in favor of free trade, pro-business, and describing himself as a fiscal conservative because he balanced the city's budget.

Social issues

Bloomberg supports abortion rights, stating: "Reproductive choice is a fundamental human right and we can never take it for granted. On this issue, you're either with us or against us." He has criticized pro-choice politicians who support pro-life candidates.

Bloomberg supports governmental funding for embryonic stem cell research, calling the Republican position on the issue "insanity". He also supports same-sex marriage with the rationale that "I think anybody should be allowed to marry anybody."

Bloomberg supports the strict drug laws of New York City. He has stated that he smoked marijuana in the past, and was quoted in a 2001 interview as saying "You bet I did. I enjoyed it." This led to a reported $500,000 advertising campaign by NORML, featuring his image and the quote. Bloomberg stated in a 2002 interview that he regrets the remark and does not believe that marijuana should be decriminalized.

Domestic issues

On crime, Bloomberg opposes the death penalty, stating, "I'd rather lock somebody up and throw away the key and put them in hard labor, the ultimate penalty that the law will allow, but I'm opposed to the death penalty." As mayor he increased the mandatory minimum sentence for illegal possession of a loaded handgun. In regard to the change, Bloomberg commented, "Illegal guns don't belong on our streets and we're sending that message loud and clear. We're determined to see that gun dealers who break the law are held accountable, and that criminals who carry illegal loaded guns serve serious time behind bars."

Bloomberg replaced the school board set up by the state with direct mayoral control over public education. He raised the salaries of teachers by fifteen percent while the test scores of students in the city and the graduation rate rose as well. He is opposed to social promotion, i.e. the promotion of students to the next grade level for strictly social reasons, stating that students should be promoted only when they are adequately prepared for the next grade level. He favors after-school programs to help students who are behind. As mayor, Bloomberg strengthened the cell-phone ban in schools.

In dealing with global warming and New York's role in it, he has enacted a plan called ''PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York'' to fight global warming, protect the environment and prepare New York for the projected 1 million more people expected to be living in the city by the year 2030. Bloomberg has been involved in motivating other cities to make changes, delivering the keynote address at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit and stating, "[W]e now know beyond a doubt that global warming is a reality. And the question we must all answer is, what are we going to do about it?" Bloomberg also talked about how he would go about fighting climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, using cleaner and more efficient fuels, and encouraging public transportation. His ideas have occasionally suffered setbacks, such as the New York State Assembly's rejection of his idea for applying congestion pricing below 60th Street in Manhattan.

On issues of domestic and homeland security, Bloomberg has attacked social conservatives on immigration, calling their stance unrealistic, "We're not going to deport 12 million people, so let's stop this fiction. Let's give them permanent status." He supports a federal ID database that uses DNA and fingerprint technology to keep track of all citizens and to verify their legal status. Bloomberg has held that illegal immigrants should be offered legalization and supported the congressional efforts of John McCain and the late Ted Kennedy in their attempt at immigration reform in 2007. Regarding border security, he compared it to the tide, stating, "It's as if we expect border control agents to do what a century of communism could not: defeat the natural market forces of supply and demand... and defeat the natural human desire for freedom and opportunity. You might as well as sit in your beach chair and tell the tide not to come in. As long as America remains a nation dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness', people from near and far will continue to seek entry into our country." In 2006, Bloomberg stated on his weekly WABC radio show that illegal immigration does not strain the financial resources of New York City, since many immigrants are hard working and "do not avail themselves of services until their situation is dire".

Bloomberg believes that the September 11, 2001 attacks were not intended to be solitary events. When he assumed office, he set up a Counterterrorism Bureau which works along with the NYPD intelligence division to gather information about terrorism affecting New York worldwide. He believes that funding for Homeland Security by the federal government should be distributed by risk, where cities that are considered to have the highest threat for a terrorist attack would get the most money. Bloomberg is also a supporter of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Economic issues

Michael Bloomberg characterizes himself as a fiscal conservative for turning the city's $6 billion deficit into a $3 billion surplus; however, conservative PAC Club for Growth has criticized him because he increased property taxes and spending while doing so.

Bloomberg has expressed a distaste of taxes, stating, "Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them, so they're a necessary evil." As mayor, he did raise property taxes to fund budget projects; however, in January 2007 he proposed cuts in property taxes by five percent and cuts in sales taxes, including the elimination of taxes on clothing and footwear. Bloomberg pointed to the Wall Street profits and the real estate market as evidence that the city's economy is booming and could handle a tax break.

Bloomberg's self-described fiscal conservatism also led him to eliminate the existing $6-billion deficit when he assumed office. Bloomberg balanced the budget of New York City by raising property taxes and making cuts to city agencies, excluding the police and fire departments.

Bloomberg is in favor of providing tax breaks to big corporations for the good of the whole community. As mayor, Bloomberg lobbied the CEO of Goldman Sachs to establish its headquarters across from Ground Zero by promising $1.65 billion in tax breaks. Regarding this deal, Bloomberg stated, "This [New York City] is where the best want to live and work. So I told him [CEO of Goldman Sachs], 'We can help with minimizing taxes. Minimizing your rent. Improving security. But in the end, this is about people.'"

Bloomberg has had a less cordial relationship with unions as mayor. In 2002, when New York City's transit workers threatened to strike, Bloomberg responded by riding a mountain bike through the city to show how the city could deal with the transit strike by finding alternate means of transportation and not pandering to the unions. Three years later, a clash between Bloomberg and the New York City Transit Authority over wages and union benefits led to a full blown strike that lasted three days. Negotiations led to the end of the strike in December 2005, but controversy exists over Bloomberg's handling of the situation.

Bloomberg is a staunch advocate of free trade and is strongly opposed to protectionism, stating, "The things that we have to worry about is this protectionist movement that has reared its head again in this country...." He worries about the growth of China and fears the lessening gap between the United States and other countries: "The rest of the world is catching up, and, there are people that say, surpassing us. I hope they are wrong. I hope those who think we are still in good shape are right. But nevertheless, the time to address these issues is right now."

Bloomberg has placed a strong emphasis on public health and welfare, adopting many liberal policies. As the mayor he made HIV, diabetes, and hypertension all top priorities. He extended the city's smoking ban to all commercial establishments and implemented a trans fat ban in restaurants. Mayor Bloomberg has been a strong supporter of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation – the largest urban healthcare agency in the United States – serving over 1.3 million New Yorkers, and has touted its use of information technology and Electronic Health Records to increase efficiency and enhance patient care. He launched a program called Opportunity NYC which is the nation's first-ever conditional cash transfer pilot program designed to help New Yorkers break the cycle of poverty in the city. He instituted a $7.5 billion municipal affordable housing plan, the largest in the nation, that is supposed to provide 500,000 New Yorkers with housing.

Bloomberg has expressed concern about poverty and growing class divisions stating, "This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing."

Foreign policy

As mayor, Bloomberg made trips to Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Israel in the first four months of 2007. In late 2007 he conducted an Asia trip that brought him to China, where he called for greater freedom of information to promote innovation. He attended the United Nations Climate Conference in Bali.

Initially, Bloomberg strongly supported the war in Iraq and the rationale for going in. He stated, "Don't forget that the war started not very many blocks from here" alluding to Ground Zero. In regard to the global War on Terrorism including Iraq he said, "It's not only to protect Americans. It's America's responsibility to protect people around the world who want to be free." During the 2004 presidential election campaign, New York City hosted the Republican National Convention at which Bloomberg endorsed President George W. Bush for President of the United States.

His enthusiasm seemed to have lessened somewhat over the course of the war. In August 2005 he said, "I think everybody has very mixed emotions about the war that was started to find weapons of mass destruction and then they were not found." Bloomberg expressed criticism of Democrats in Congress who wanted to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq calling them, "irresponsible".

Preservation and development issues

Mayor Bloomberg is a proponent of large-scale development. He has repeatedly come down in favor of projects such as the Atlantic Yards mega-development, the Hudson Yards redevelopment, and the Harlem rezoning proposal. This support has led to a negative response from the preservationist community. On smaller-scale issues, Bloomberg usually takes the side of development as well. He favors the demolition of Admiral's Row in order to build a supermarket parking lot. However, Bloomberg has occasionally come down on the side of preservation, most notably in vetoing landmark revocation for the Austin Nichols warehouse. This move was widely applauded by architectural historians. The City Council overruled the veto shortly thereafter, however.

2008 presidential campaign speculation

On February 27, 2008, Bloomberg announced that he would not run for president in 2008, and that he would endorse a candidate who takes an independent and non-partisan approach. He had also stated unequivocally, live on the ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' TV show, December 31, 2007, that he was not going to run for president in 2008. Despite prior public statements by Bloomberg denying plans for a presidential run, many pundits believed Bloomberg would announce a campaign at a later date. On January 7, 2008, he met at the University of Oklahoma with a bipartisan group, including (now former) Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, both of whom had been frequently mentioned as possible running mates – to pressure the major party candidates to promote national unity and reduce partisan gridlock. Speculation that Bloomberg would choose this forum to announce his candidacy proved to be unfounded. Other purported signs that he planned to run included:

In summer 2006, he met with Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group, to talk about the logistics of a possible run. After a conversation with Bloomberg, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska suggested that he and Bloomberg could run on a shared independent ticket for the presidency.

On ''This Week'' on June 10, 2007, anchor George Stephanopoulos included panelist Jay Carney, who mentioned a conversation between Bloomberg and top staffers where he heard Bloomberg ask approximately how much a presidential campaign would cost. Carney said that one staffer replied, "Around $500 million." According to a ''Washington Post'' article, a $500 million budget would allow Bloomberg to circumvent many of the common obstacles faced by third party candidates seeking the White House. On June 19, 2007, Bloomberg left the Republican Party, filing as an independent after a speech criticizing the current political climate in Washington. On August 9, 2007, in an interview with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather that aired on August 21, Bloomberg categorically stated that he was not running for President, that he would not be running, and that there were no circumstances in which he would, saying, "If somebody asks me where I stand, I tell them. And that's not a way to get elected, generally. Nobody's going to elect me president of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen."

Despite continued denials, a possible Bloomberg candidacy continues to be the subject of media attention, including a November ''Newsweek'' cover story. During a private reception in December 2007, Bloomberg conducted a version of bingo in which guests were to guess the meaning of the numbers on a printed card. When Bloomberg asked the significance of 271, one guest answered correctly: the number of electoral votes received by George W. Bush in 2000. In January 2008, CNN reported that a source close to Bloomberg said that the mayor had launched a research effort to assess his chances of winning a potential presidential bid. According to the report, the unidentified source also stated that Bloomberg had set early March as a timetable for making a decision as to whether or not to run. On January 16, 2008, it was reported that Bloomberg's business interests were placed in "a sort of blind trust" because of his possible run for the presidency. His interests were put under the management of Quadrangle Group, co-founded by reported Bloomberg friend Steven Rattner, though Bloomberg would ''"continue to have control of and access to certain investment decisions"''.

On January 18, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Bloomberg had a meeting in Austin, Texas, with Clay Mulford, a ballot-access expert and campaign manager for Ross Perot's third party presidential campaigns. Bloomberg denied that the meeting concerned a possible presidential campaign by him, stating "I'm not a candidate — it couldn't be clearer. Which of the words do you not understand?" On February 28, 2008, Bloomberg stated "I am not – and will not be – a candidate for president." He added that he is "hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate.

At the same time that the presidential run was being considered, there was also some speculation that Bloomberg could be a candidate for the vice presidency in 2008. In a blog posting of June 21, 2007, The Politico's Ben Smith asked the question of whether a vice-presidential candidate can self-finance an entire presidential ticket. Many believed that Bloomberg would in fact be legally permitted to self-finance a campaign as the vice-presidential candidate.

Adding more fuel to the speculation that Bloomberg might consider a VP slot were a series of meetings he had in mid-August 2007 with former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn and later with Barack Obama on November 30, 2007. A May 17, 2008, breakfast meeting with John McCain led to speculation that Bloomberg might be on McCain's short list of possible VP candidates.

Rumored gubernatorial campaign

On November 6, 2007, the ''New York Post'' detailed efforts by New York Republicans to recruit Bloomberg to oppose then-incumbent Governor Eliot Spitzer in the 2010 election. Early polls indicated Bloomberg would defeat Spitzer in a landslide. (The potential 2010 match-up became moot when Spitzer resigned on March 17, 2008.) A March 20, 2008, poll of New York State voters had the Mayor topping newly ascended Governor David Paterson and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the 2010 gubernatorial election. Bloomberg denied plans to run for the governorship in 2010, and did not seek the nomination.

2012 presidential campaign speculation

In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It is speculated that the move will allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind".

In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg – which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 – announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency.

While on the December 12, 2010, episode of ''Meet the Press'', Bloomberg ruled out a run for the Presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running, (...) no way, no how."

On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog posting about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Michael Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third party Presidential Candidate in 2012.

See also

List of people from Boston

List of Harvard University people

List of Johns Hopkins University people

List of mayors of New York City

List of philanthropists

References

Further reading

Brash, Julian. ''Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City'' (University of Georgia Press; 2010) 344 pages. Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.

External links

mikebloomberg.com, Bloomberg's official website

nyc.gov/mayor, official mayoral website

Profile at ''Bloomberg Businessweek''

#23 Michael Bloomberg at ''Forbes'' list of 2010 world's billionaires

Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues

Michael Bloomberg collected news and commentary] at the ''New York Daily News''

Michael Bloomberg collected news and commentary] at ''Newsday''

Biography at the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Category:1942 births Category:20th-century American people Category:21st-century American people Category:American aviators Category:American billionaires Category:American financial businesspeople Category:American mass media owners Category:American memoirists Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American Reform Jews Category:Eagle Scouts Category:Gun control advocates Category:Harvard Business School alumni Category:Independent politicians in the United States Category:Jewish American mayors Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Mayors of New York City Category:New York Democrats Category:New York Republicans Category:News agency founders Category:Writers from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Writers from New York City

ar:مايكل بلومبيرغ zh-min-nan:Michael Bloomberg bg:Майкъл Блумбърг cs:Michael Bloomberg da:Michael Bloomberg de:Michael Bloomberg et:Michael Bloomberg es:Michael Bloomberg eu:Michael Bloomberg fa:مایکل بلومبرگ fr:Michael Bloomberg ga:Michael Bloomberg ko:마이클 블룸버그 hr:Michael Bloomberg id:Michael Bloomberg it:Michael Bloomberg he:מייקל בלומברג ka:მაიკლ ბლუმბერგი la:Michael Bloomberg lij:Michael Bloomberg hu:Michael Bloomberg mr:मायकेल ब्लूमबर्ग nl:Michael Bloomberg ja:マイケル・ブルームバーグ no:Michael Bloomberg pl:Michael Bloomberg pt:Michael Bloomberg ru:Блумберг, Майкл Рубенс simple:Michael Bloomberg sk:Michael Bloomberg sh:Michael Bloomberg fi:Michael Bloomberg sv:Michael Bloomberg tl:Michael Bloomberg tr:Michael Bloomberg yi:מייקל בלומבערג zh:迈克尔·布隆伯格

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Andrew Klavan
birth place	New York City, New York, United States
occupation	Writer
website	http://www.andrewklavan.com}}

Andrew Klavan, (born 1954) is an American author and screenwriter of "tough-guy" mysteries and psychological thrillers. Two of Klavan's books have been adapted into motion pictures: ''True Crime'' (1999) and ''Don't Say A Word'' (2001). He has been nominated for the Edgar Award four times and has won twice. Playwright and novelist Laurence Klavan is his brother.

Early life

Klavan was born in New York City. His father was Gene Klavan, a New York City disk jockey and one-half of the radio show "Klavan and Finch." He grew up on Long Island with his three brothers. He was raised in the Jewish tradition by his parents, but he did not believe in any of the tenets of the faith and later said that he felt "dishonesty" and "shame" pretending to do so. He became an agnostic shortly after his Bar mitzvah. He later converted to Christianity.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he met his future wife, Ellen Flanagan. He dropped out of school temporarily to work in local radio news. He then worked as a reporter for a small Putnam County, New York newspaper, as a reader for Columbia Pictures, and as a news writer for both WOR Radio and the ABC Radio Network. At this time, he self-identified as a liberal while opposing some policies, such as Affirmative Action.

Career

Klavan wrote his first novel, ''Face of the Earth'', in 1977. He then moved to Putnam County, New York, where he worked as a reporter for a local newspaper. His experience covering local crime later formed the basis for his novel ''Corruption''.

After ''Face of the Earth'' was published, Klavan returned to New York, where he took a series of jobs (as a script reader for Columbia Pictures and a news writer for WOR Radio and ABC Radio Networks) while writing mysteries and freelance book reviews. During this time he wrote ''The Scarred Man'' using the pseudonym Keith Peterson. Klavan's book, ''The Rain'', won an Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback.

He also began to write supernatural thrillers, publishing such novels as ''The Animal Hour'', ''Don't Say A Word'' — which was also nominated for an Edgar — and ''Corruption,'' and wrote the screenplay for the film version of Simon Brett's novel ''A Shock to the System''.

Klavan and his family then moved to London, where he wrote True Crime, and two other novels. After seven years, he moved back to the United States, settling in Santa Barbara, California, where he completed the novel ''Man and Wife'' (currently in motion picture development), and wrote his Weiss/Bishop trilogy: ''Dynamite Road'', ''Shotgun Alley'', and ''Damnation Street''.

In 2008, he released a war-on-terror political novel, ''Empire of Lies''. In 2009, he published ''The Last Thing I Remember'', a thriller aimed at young adults.

Klavan has been a regular contributor of short video commentaries under the general title "Klavan on Culture", posted at PJTV.com. He also became a contributor to the center-right social networking and blogging Web site Ricochet.com on May 17, 2010.

Political philosophy

Identifying himself as a conservative, Klavan has expressed the view that "rightists" are the victims of discrimination in Hollywood. In his view, people in the American arts are not fulfilling their inherent role of "speaking truth to power," since they are not willing to criticize those of the Left in power. In July 2008, he likened George W. Bush to Batman in ''The Dark Knight'', starting with their public vilification. The article set off a firestorm of criticism.

Klavan has said,

Bibliography

''Face of the Earth'' (1977)

''Agnes Mallory'' (1985)

''Mrs. White'' (1987) (as Margaret Tracy, with Laurence Klavan)

''There Fell A Shadow'' (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

''The Rain'' (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

''Darling Clementine'' (1988)

''The Trap Door'' (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

''Son of Man'' (1988)

''The Scarred Man'' (1989) (as Keith Peterson)

''Rough Justice'' (1989) (as Keith Peterson)

''Don't Say a Word'' (1991)

''The Animal Hour'' (1992)

''Corruption'' (1993)

''True Crime'' (1995)

''Suicide'' (1995)

''The Uncanny'' (1998)

''Hunting Down'' Amanda (1999)

''Man and Wife'' (2001)

''Dynamite Road'' (2003)

''Shotgun Alley'' (2004)

''Damnation Street'' (2006)

''Empire of Lies'' (2008)

''The Homelanders: The Last Thing I Remember'' (2009)

''The Homelanders: The Long Way Home'' (2010)

''The Homelanders: The Truth of the Matter'' (2010)

''The Identity Man'' (2010)

''The Homelanders: The Final Hour'' (2011)

''Schizophrenia'' (2012)

Filmography

''White of the Eye (film)'' (1987)

''A Shock to the Call (2008) (Screenplay)

References

External links

Klavan, Andrew Crime Time Interview

Apuzzo, Jason. Liberty Film Festival

Curtis, Brian. "Do You Fear Me Now?" ''Slate'', February 2006

Klavan, Andrew. "Clinton Doth Protest Too Much." ''Los Angeles Times'', September 2006

Category:1954 births Category:American novelists Category:American bloggers Category:American screenwriters Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism Category:Former atheists and agnostics Category:Living people Category:People from New York City Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

it:Andrew Klavan

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
birth name	Robert H. Rozakis
birth date	April 4, 1951
spouse	Laurie Rozakis
children	Charles Rozakis and Samantha Rozakis
nationality	American
write	y
edit	y
alias	The Answer Man Boris ZabokTed P. Skimmer
notable works	'''Mazing Man''
website	http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com
sortkey	Rozakis, Bob
subcat	American
yob	1951
mob	4
dob	4 }}

Robert "Bob" Rozakis (born April 4, 1951) is a comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics, as the writer of '''Mazing Man'' and in his capacity as DC's "Answer Man".

Biography

Rozakis is well known as DC's Answer Man, answering trivia questions from readers in the ''Daily Planet'' promotional page in many late-1970s comics. He has also had an online presence in that capacity since the mid-1990s.

Rozakis got his start in the comics industry through his many letters to comic book letter columns. Among his earliest credits is that of editor (both managing and contributing) on DC Comics "Pro-zine" ("Professional fanzine") ''The Amazing World of DC Comics'' between 1974 and 1978. In addition to editing, Rozakis wrote for the bi-monthly publication and also oversaw the letters page.

DC Comics

Comics credits

His first comics credit was in ''Detective Comics'' #445 (March 1975), as writer of the back-up feature "The Touchdown Trap", with back-up stories in ''Action Comics'', ''The Flash'' and ''Batman Family'' (among others) soon following. He was assistant editor for Julius Schwartz on the landmark issue ''Superman'' #300, and also served editorially on issues of ''Action Comics'' and ''Detective Comics''. His writing credits consist largely of back-up features and, in particular, dozens of "Action Comics Featuring:..." (Air-Wave, Hero Hotline, Aquaman, etc.), between #461 and #640. Additionally, Rozakis wrote the 1985 four-issue miniseries ''Superman: The Secret Years'' (with art by Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger), and the comics adaptations of such diverse movies as ''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'' (1987), ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' (1989) and ''Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer'' (1985). Rozakis was also the writer of the syndicated comic strip ''The Superman Sunday Special'' for two years.

Arguably, his most well-known writing came in the twelve-issue 1986 series '''Mazing Man'', featuring the misadventures of self-declared homemade hero Sigfried Horatio Hunch III, which Rozakis co-created with artist Stephen DeStefano. The two returned to the character for three specials and for June 1987's ''Secret Origins'' #16, to tell "The Closest Thing To A Secret Origin of 'Mazing Man You Will Ever Get". Rozakis also co-created the series ''Hero Hotline'' with DeStefano, on which Rozakis also provided the coloring, a job he also undertook on the "Action Comics Featuring: Hero Hotline" back-up features.

Among his other creations are Mister E, the Bumblebee and Duela Dent (of the Teen Titans, created during his run on the ''Teen Titans'' title in the late 1970s), and The Calculator (a character who later played a major role in DC's ''Infinite Crisis'' event). His credits during his 25-year career with DC total "almost four hundred stories" featuring most DC characters, "plus dozens of features, puzzles, and activities pages".

Rozakis' comic book work in 1998-2000 was a variety of custom publications including the "Celebrate the Century" comic books for the United States Postal Service, as well as publications for Con Edison, the San Francisco Giants and the United Nations Land Mine Awareness program. In 2008, he began writing a series of "alternate reality" articles titled "The Secret History of All-American Comics Inc." for ''Alter Ego'' and ''Back Issue'' magazines.

Behind the scenes

Between 1981 and 1998, Rozakis ran DC Comics' production department, and as Executive Director of Production he was instrumental in the development of offset-printed comic books in a wide variety of formats. He was also the leading proponent of "computerized color separations and typesetting, electronic page preparation, and computer-to-plate printing", and as a result of his efforts on DC's behalf, the look of comic books across the entire industry changed, DC won "over one hundred awards for printing excellence", and Rozakis himself was profiled in ''Publishing & Production Executive'' on two separate occasions.

In 2003, Rozakis announced his retirement from the comic book industry.

Personal life

Rozakis is married to prolific author Dr. Laurie E. Rozakis PhD, a professor of English, grammar-expert and "author of more than 100 books", and Rozakis' co-writer on ''Detective Comics'' #464 (Oct, 1976). The two have collaborated on ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Office Politics'' (Alpha Books, 1998) (ISBN 0028623975). They have two children: son Charles "Chuck" (who wrote his Princeton University thesis on the business viability of webcomics), and daughter Samantha "Sammi". In 1974, Laurie and Bob drove the DC Comic-mobile, a van that served as a lending library for comic books.

Rozakis has also taught creative writing courses for the Farmingdale, New York Youth Council and CTY, a Johns Hopkins University summer program for gifted students.

Notes

References

Bob Rozakis at the DC Database Project

External links

Category:People from New York City Category:Living people Category:American people of Greek descent

de:Bob Rozakis