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Saint Rachel
Rachel and Jacob by William Dyce
Holy Matriarch
Born	Paddan-aram
Died	Canaan
Honored in	Judaism Islam Christianity
Major shrine	Rachel's Tomb
Feast	Roman Catholicism: 1 November[1] Orthodox Church: Sunday before Christmas

Rachel (Hebrew: רחל, Modern Raḥel Tiberian Rāḫēl, Rāḥēl ISO 259-3 Raḥel ; meaning "ewe"^[2]) as described in the Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Jacob was her first cousin, and she was the youngest niece of Rebecca.

Marriage to Jacob[link]

Rachel is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is watering her lamb. He had traveled a great distance to find his mother's brother, Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious twin brother, Esau.

During Jacob's stay, he fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice that Leah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful," "Leah had tender eyes"^[3]. Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first. He assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her.

After Leah had given birth to four sons, Rachel remained unable to conceive. She became jealous of Leah and gave Jacob her maidservant, Bilhah, to be a surrogate mother for her. Bilhah gave birth to two sons that Rachel named and raised (Dan and Naphtali). Leah responds by offering her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, and names and raises the two sons (Gad and Asher) that Zilpah bears. According to some commentaries, Bilhah and Zilpah, are actually half-sisters of Leah and Rachel.^[4]

After Leah conceived again, Rachel was finally blessed with a son, Joseph, who would become Jacob's favorite child.

Death and burial[link]

Fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo of Rachel sitting on the idols.

After Joseph's birth, Jacob decided to return to the land of Canaan with his family. Fearing that Laban would deter him, he fled with his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and twelve children without informing his father-in-law. Laban chased him and accused him of stealing his idols. Indeed, Rachel had taken her father's idols, hidden them inside her camel's seat cushion, and sat upon them. Not knowing that the idols were in his wife's possession, Jacob pronounced a curse on whoever had them: "With whoever you will find your gods, he will not live" (Genesis 31:32). Laban proceeded to search the tents of Jacob and his wives, but when he came to Rachel's tent, she told her father, "Let not my lord be angered that I cannot rise up before you, for the way of women is upon me" (Genesis 31:35). Laban left her alone, but the curse Jacob had pronounced came true shortly thereafter.

Near Ephrath, Rachel went into a difficult labor with her second son, Benjamin. The midwife tells her in the middle of the birth that her child is a boy.^[5] Before she died, Rachel named her son Ben Oni ("son of my mourning"), but Jacob called him Ben Yamin (Benjamin). Rashi explains that Ben Yamin either means "son of the right" (i.e., "south"), since Benjamin was the only one of Jacob's sons born in Canaan, which is to the south of Paddan Aram; or it could mean "son of my days," as Benjamin was born in Jacob's old age.

Rachel's Tomb, near Bethlehem, 1891

Rachel was buried by Jacob on the road to Efrat, just outside Bethlehem.^[6] Today a site claimed to be Rachel's Tomb, located between Bethlehem and the Israeli settlement of Gilo, is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year.^[7]

Rachel and Jacob by James Tissot.

Rachel's children[link]

Rachel's son, Joseph, is destined to be the leader of Israel's tribes between exile and nationhood. This role is exemplified in the Biblical story of Joseph, who prepared the way in Egypt for his family's exile there,^[8] and in the future figure of Mashiach ben Yosef (Messiah, son of Joseph), who will fight the apocalyptic Wars of Gog and Magog, preparing the way for the kingship of Mashiach ben David (Messiah, son of David) and the messianic age.^[9][10] She also had a second son named Benjamin; she died during labor with him.

Additional references in the Bible[link]

• In Jeremiah 31:15, the prophet speaks of 'Rachel weeping for her children' (KJV). This is interpreted in Judaism as Rachel crying for an end to her descendants' sufferings and exiles following the destruction by the Babylonians of the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem. According to the Midrash, Rachel spoke before God: "If I, a mere mortal, was prepared not to humiliate my sister and was willing to take a rival into my home, how could You, the eternal, compassionate God, be jealous of idols, which have no true existence, that were brought into Your home (the Temple in Jerusalem)? Will You cause my children to be exiled on this account?" God accepted her plea and promised that, eventually, the exile would end and the Jews would return to their land.^[11]

• In the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (part of the New Testament), this reference from Jeremiah is interpreted as a prediction of the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the young Jesus. The Jeremaic prophecy is the inspiration behind the medieval dramatic cycle Ordo Rachelis, concerned with the infancy of Jesus.

• Mordechai, the hero of the Book of Esther, and Queen Esther herself, were descendants of Rachel through her son Benjamin. The Book of Esther details Mordechai's lineage as "Mordechai the son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish, a man of the right (ish yemini)" (Esther 2:5). The designation of ish yemini refers to his membership in the Tribe of Benjamin (ben yamin, son of the right). The rabbis comment that Esther's ability to remain silent in the palace of Ahasuerus, resisting the king's pressure to reveal her ancestry, was inherited from her ancestor Rachel, who remained silent even when Laban brought out Leah to marry Jacob.

Islamic view of Rachel[link]

Rachel is revered in Islam, and while not specifically referred to in the Quran, she is known by references to her in the collection of stories known as Qisas Al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets or Lives of the Prophets).^[12] The story of how Jacob fell in love with Rachel is told in the Qisas Al-Anbiya, and her beauty is described. Her role as mother to Joseph and Benjamin is the central theme of these narratives on her life.^[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jacob and Rachel

Look up Rachel or רחל in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References[link]

Steven Wright
Wright at Tufts University, 1994
Birth name	Steven Alexander Wright
Born	(1955-12-06) December 6, 1955 (age 56) Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Medium	stand-up, film, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1979–present
Genres	surreal humor, one-liners, deadpan, wit/word play, observational comedy, Musical comedy
Influences	Woody Allen, George Carlin,[1] Bob Newhart[2]
Influenced	Mitch Hedberg, Demetri Martin, Milton Jones, Jimmy Carr, Anthony Jeselnik, Zach Galifianakis, Matt Kopache, Billy Connolly
Notable works and roles	I Have a Pony K-Billy DJ in Reservoir Dogs Speed in The Swan Princess Guy on the Couch in Half Baked I Still Have a Pony
Website	StevenWright.com
Academy Awards
Best Short Film, Live Action 1988 The Appointments of Dennis Jennings

Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes, paraprosdokians, and one-liners with contrived situations.

Early life and career[link]

Wright was born in Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts,^[3][4] one of four children of Lucille “Dolly” (née Lomano) and Alexander K. Wright.^[3][5][6] He was raised Catholic.^[7] His mother was Italian American and his father was of Scottish descent.^[8] Wright's father, an electronics technician who "tested a lot of stuff for the Apollo space program," became a truck driver after that program ended.^[3]

Wright spent two years obtaining an associate's degree from Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts, before enrolling at Emerson College.^[9] He graduated from the latter in 1978^[9] and began performing stand-up comedy in 1979^[3][10] at the Boston comedy club the Comedy Connection.^[3][9] He cites George Carlin and Woody Allen among his influences.^[11]

In 1982 Peter Lassally, executive producer of The Tonight Show, noticed Wright performing on a bill with other local comics at the comedy club Ding Ho,^[12] in Cambridge's Inman Square,^[13] a venue Wright described as "half Chinese restaurant and half comedy club. It was a pretty weird place".^[3] Lassally booked Wright on The Tonight Show, where the comic so impressed host Johnny Carson and the studio audience that Wright was brought back less than a week later.^[11] In May 2000, Wright and other Ding Ho alumni, including Lenny Clarke, Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Bill Sohonage, and Jimmy Tingle, appeared at a reunion benefit for comic Bob Lazarus, suffering from leukemia.^[13]

Stand-up success[link]

Wright's 1985 comedy album was entitled I Have a Pony. It was released on Warner Bros. Records, received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. The success of this album landed him a much coveted HBO special which he recorded as a live college concert performance, A Steven Wright Special. By now Wright had firmly developed a new brand of obscure, laid-back performing and was rapidly building a cult-like mystique and eclectic following of "hip", savvy fans. His opening act for the HBO concert was fellow "Ding Ho" comedy alumni Bill Sohonage who recounts that Steven's ultra-casual, nearly catatonic demeanor was no act. "He walked into my dressing room, minutes before I was to take the stage, and asked if he could borrow a shirt, as his had a giant pizza stain. You would think it might be normal to be a little nervous going on a college stage in front of 23,000, let alone having HBO out there filming but as I passed by his room while walking on-stage I saw him sound asleep and loudly snoring". The performance would become one of HBO's longest running and most requested comedy specials and propel him to huge success on the college arena concert circuits.

In 1989 he and fellow producer Dean Parisot won an Academy Award for their 30-minute short film "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings", directed by Parisot, written by Mike Armstrong and Wright, and starring Wright and Rowan Atkinson. Upon accepting the Oscar, Wright said, "Now I'm sorry I cut out that last hour-and-a-half." In 1992 Wright had a recurring role on the television sitcom Mad About You. He supplied the voice of the radio DJ in writer-director Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs that year. "Dean Parisot's wife Sally Menke is Quentin Tarantino's [film] editor, so when she was editing the movie and it was getting down toward the end where they didn't have the radio DJ yet, she thought of me and told Quentin and he liked the idea", Wright explained in 2009.^[3]

Numerous lists of jokes attributed to Wright circulate on the Internet, sometimes of dubious origin. Wright has stated, "Someone showed me a site, and half of it that said I wrote it, I didn't write. Recently, I saw one, and I didn't write any of it. What's disturbing is that with a few of these jokes, I wish I had thought of them. A giant amount of them, I'm embarrassed that people think I thought of them, because some are really bad".^[14]

After his 1990 comedy special Wicker Chairs and Gravity, Wright continued to do stand-up performances, but he was largely absent from television, only doing occasional guest spots on late-night talk shows. In 1999 he wrote and directed the 30-minute short "One Soldier", "about a soldier who was in the Civil War, right after the war, with all these existentialist thoughts and wondering if there is a God and all that stuff".^[3]

In 2006 Wright produced his first stand-up special in 16 years, Steven Wright: When The Leaves Blow Away, originally airing on Comedy Central on October 21, 2006. Its DVD was released April 23, 2007.^{[citation needed]} On September 25, 2007 Wright released his second album, I Still Have a Pony, a CD release of the material from When The Leaves Blow Away. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album but it lost to The Distant Future by Flight of the Conchords.

Awards and honors[link]

Steven Wright was awarded an Oscar in 1989 for Best Short Live-Action Film for The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, which he co-wrote (with Michael Armstrong) and starred in.^[15]

On December 15, 2008, Wright became the first inductee to the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame.^[12][16]

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. He was named #23 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.^[17]

Other interests[link]

While not well known for works outside of the comedy realm, Steven Wright has also recorded several non-comedy songs with his friend and occasional actor Mark Wuethner.^[18][19] Wright also has an apparent interest in painting.^[20]

Beginning in 2009, Steven Wright sporadically appears as himself on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as a visiting celebrity, ostensibly dropping by the show to help out with the fan mail segment. He joins a small cadre of Hollywood celebrities who lend their support to the show in this way.^[21][22]

Filmography[link]

• Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) as Larry Stillman D.D.S.
• The Appointments of Dennis Jennings (1988) (short film) (Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film)
• Stars and Bars (1988) as Pruitt
• Reservoir Dogs (1992) (voice only) as K-Billy DJ
• So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) as Pilot
• Speechless (1994) as Eddie
• Mad About You as Paul Buckman's film assistant.
• Natural Born Killers (1994) as Dr. Emil Reingold
• The Swan Princess (1994) as Speed (voice)
• Mixed Nuts (1994) as Suicidal man at pay phone
• The Larry Sanders Show (1994) as himself
• Canadian Bacon (1995) as Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer
• Half Baked (1998) as The Guy on the Couch (uncredited)
• Babe: Pig in the City (1998) as Bob (voice)
• One Soldier (1999) (short film)
• The Muse (1999)
• Loser (2000) as Sleazy Man in Bar
• Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) as Steven
• The Aristocrats (2005) as himself
• When Stand Up Stood Out (2005) as himself
• Son of the Mask (2005) as The Boss

Discography[link]

• I Have a Pony, Warner Bros. Records CD (1985)
• A Steven Wright Special, HBO DVD (1985)
• The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, DVD (1989)
• One Soldier, DVD (1999)
• When the Leaves Blow Away, DVD (2006)
• I Still Have a Pony, Comedy Central Records CD (2007)

Videography[link]

• Wicker Chairs and Gravity, HBO Stand-up Special (1991)^[23]

References[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Steven Wright

External links[link]

• Official website
• Steven Wright at the Internet Movie Database
• Wright-House.com: Jokes attributed to Steven Wright, with actual authors identified
• Dead-Frog.com: Video of Steven Wright from When the Leaves Blow Away
• Interview: Steven Wright Riverfront Times. October 2008.

Rachel McAdams
McAdams at the Berlin premiere of Sherlock Holmes in 2010
Born	Rachel Anne McAdams (1978-11-17) November 17, 1978 (age 33) London, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2001–present
Partner	Michael Sheen (2010–present)

Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a four-year theatre program at York University in 2001, McAdams initially worked in Canadian television and film productions such as My Name is Tanino, Perfect Pie (for which she received a Genie Award nomination) and Slings and Arrows (for which she won a Gemini Award). Her first Hollywood movie was the 2002 comedy The Hot Chick. McAdams found fame in 2004 with starring roles in the teen comedy Mean Girls and the romantic drama The Notebook. In 2005, she appeared in the romantic comedy Wedding Crashers, the psychological thriller Red Eye and the family drama The Family Stone. She was hailed by the media as "the new Hollywood it girl"^[1][2] and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Rising Star.

However, McAdams withdrew from public life in 2006 and 2007. During this time, she turned down leading roles in high-profile films such as The Devil Wears Prada. She made a low-key return to work in 2008, starring in two limited release films: the film noir Married Life and the road trip movie The Lucky Ones. She returned to prominence in 2009 with appearances in the political thriller State of Play, the science-fiction romance Time Traveler's Wife, TheThe Time Traveler's Wife and the action-adventure film Sherlock Holmes. McAdams's first star vehicle was the 2010 comedy Morning Glory. In 2011, she starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris and made a cameo appearance in the action-adventure sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. McAdams starred in 2012's romantic drama The Vow, and will next appear in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder and Brian De Palma's Passion.

McAdams lives in the Harbord Village neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She has dated both Ryan Gosling and Josh Lucas and is in a relationship with Michael Sheen. She is an environmentalist.

Early life[link]

Rachel Anne McAdams was born in London, Ontario^[3][4][1][5] and grew up in nearby St. Thomas.^[6] Her mother, Sandra (née Gale), is a nurse, and her father, Lance, is a retired truck driver and furniture mover.^[7] McAdams has two younger siblings: Kayleen, a celebrity make-up artist, and Daniel.^[8] McAdams began figure skating at the age of four^[8][9] but turned down an opportunity to move to Toronto at the age of nine for pairs training.^[8] Skating then became merely "a hobby".^[10] She competed in the sport until the age of 18, winning regional awards.^[6][11][12] She has since said that skating prepared her for physical acting, because it trained her to be "in tune" with her body.^[13]

McAdams was educated at Myrtle Street Public School and, later, Central Elgin Collegiate Institute.^[6][14] She did not enjoy school and, to avoid attending, she often pretended to be sick.^[15] Nonetheless, she played an active role in student life. In addition to playing sports, McAdams served on the student council, participated in the Crimestoppers program and was a member of the Peer Helping Team.^[6] She worked at a McDonalds restaurant during the summer holidays for three years.^[9][16]

McAdams first developed an interest in performing when she was seven and, while her parents didn't discourage her, they didn't "go out and find [her] an agent".^[17] She attended both Disney and Shakespeare summer camps as a child.^[17] From the age of twelve, McAdams appeared in Original Kids Theatre Company, London productions.^[7][18] In her late teens, she directed children's theatre productions.^[9] She was also involved in school stage productions, most notably winning a performance award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival.^[6][19] She was inspired by a married couple who taught English and Drama respectively in Grades 11 and 12. They gave her a love for the works of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell and encouraged her to lose her inhibitions when performing.^[19] McAdams intended to take Cultural Studies at university before being persuaded by her Drama teacher that a professional acting career was a viable option.^[6][19][20] She enrolled in York University's four-year theatre program and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours degree in 2001.^[18][21] While at university, McAdams worked with the Toronto-based Necessary Angel Theatre Company.^[22]

Career[link]

Rise to fame (2001–2005)[link]

McAdams made her first onscreen appearance in Shotgun Love Dolls, a 2001 MTV pilot filmed during a spring break from York University.^[17] McAdams also made her first feature film appearance that year in My Name is Tanino. The Italian-Canadian co-production was filmed in Sicily and it marked the 22-year-old actress's first time on an airplane.^[23][24] McAdams later earned a Genie Award nomination in her native Canada for her role as a teenage Wendy Crewson in Perfect Pie.^[11] Her first Hollywood movie was 2002's The Hot Chick which McAdams has described as a "huge milestone" in her career.^[15] She played a catty high school student who swaps bodies with a small-time criminal.^[11] The Los Angeles Times felt she "emerges as a young actress of much promise"^[25] while the Daily Mail described McAdams and Anna Faris as "talents to watch, but they are let down by everything around them".^[26] The film grossed $54 million worldwide.^[27] McAdams then returned to Canada to star in Slings and Arrows, a mini-series about backstage theatre life.^[28] She was written out of the second season of the program following her success in the United States.^[21] She received two Gemini Award nominations for her work on the program, with one win.^[29][30]

Tina Fey, McAdams' co-star in the teen comedy Mean Girls (2004). Fey has credited McAdams with teaching her to act for a camera rather than an audience.

McAdams' breakout role came in the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls. The 25-year-old was cast as Regina George, a malicious teenage queen bee, and she looked to Alec Baldwin's performance in Glengarry Glen Ross for character inspiration.^[31] USA Today praised her "comic flair"^[32] while The Daily Telegraph found her "delightfully hateful".^[33] The San Francisco Chronicle felt that "McAdams brings glamour and magnetism to Regina, but also the right hint of comic distance.^[34] The film grossed $129 million worldwide^[35] and earned McAdams two MTV Movie Awards.^[36] Mean Girls later reached number 12 in an Entertainment Weekly list of the Greatest Ever High School Movies.^[37] Tina Fey, who wrote the script and co-starred in the film, has credited McAdams with teaching her to act for a camera rather than an audience: "She's a film actor. She's not pushing. And so I kind of learned that lesson from watching her."^[38]

McAdams's second role of 2004 was in the romantic drama The Notebook, a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's novel. She played a wealthy Southern belle who has a forbidden affair with Ryan Gosling's poor laborer.^[11][39] McAdams spent time in Charleston, South Carolina prior to filming to familiarize herself with the accent,^[40] and took ballet and etiquette classes.^[21] Filming took place in late 2002 and early 2003.^[41] Although Gosling and McAdams became romantically involved in 2005, they had a combative relationship on set.^[42] "We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling has said. "It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way."^[43] At one point, Gosling asked director Nick Cassavetes to "bring somebody else in for my off-camera shot" because he felt McAdams was being uncooperative.^[42] The New York Times praised the "spontaneous and combustible" performances of the two leads^[44] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was won over by the "beauty and clarity" of McAdams's performance.^[45] The Chicago Tribune declared her "a real discovery" who "infuses young Allie with that radiant, breathlessly winning ingenue grace and charm that breaks hearts".^[46] The film grossed over $115 million worldwide.^[47] McAdams won an MTV Movie Award and four Teen Choice Awards.^[36][48] Entertainment Weekly has said that the movie contains the All-Time Best Movie Kiss^[49] while the Los Angeles Times has included a scene from the film in a list of the 50 Classic Movie Kisses.^[50] The Notebook has appeared on many Most Romantic Movies lists.^{[51][52][53][54]} "I'm so grateful to have a film that people respond to in that way," McAdams told Elle in 2011. "It was a big deal".^[55]

McAdams appeared opposite Owen Wilson in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers. They later reunited to star in Midnight in Paris (2011).

2005 saw McAdams star in three films. In the comedy Wedding Crashers, McAdams played Claire Cleary, the daughter of an influential politician and a love interest for both Owen Wilson and Bradley Cooper's characters.^[56][57] McAdams listened repeatedly to Landslide by Fleetwood Mac to prepare for emotional scenes and Wilson has said the song made her cry immediately: "It was like turning on a faucet".^[13] She trained for a sailing certification for a boating sequence because her character was said to be an accomplished sailor.^[58] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times felt McAdams "makes the most of her underdeveloped character" and "grows more appealing with every new role".^[59] Variety found her "a beguiling presence" who "actually creates a real character – a rarity for females in one of these lad-mag escapades".^[60] From a production budget of $40 million, the film grossed over $285 million worldwide.^[56]

McAdams next appeared opposite Cillian Murphy in Red Eye, a Wes Craven thriller about a young hotel manager held captive aboard a red-eye flight. Craven has said McAdams was the only actress he considered for the part.^[61] She was drawn to the relatable qualities of her character: "She was not some sweaty, tank-top-wearing, Uzi-carrying super woman".^[62] Variety found her "increasingly impressive"^[63] while Roger Ebert asserted that "she brings more presence and credibility to her role than is really expected; she acts without betraying the slightest awareness that she’s inside a genre. Her performance qualifies her for heavy-duty roles."^[64] Upon release, the film, which was made on a budget of $26 million, earned over $95 million at the worldwide box office.^[65]

A supporting role in the seasonal family drama The Family Stone was McAdams's final film appearance of 2005. The film, an ensemble with Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson and Claire Danes, gave McAdams an opportunity to play a disheveled, sardonic sister, rather than the usual "obvious" girlfriend or wife roles.^[66][67] She was eager to work with Keaton and remarked, "It’s never about line counts for me. It’s about the people I get to work with."^[68] Variety noted that "a deglammed but still radiant McAdams proves once again that she's the real deal, delivering a deliciously feisty performance".^[69] The New York Times felt that her "engaging screen presence holds your attention and sympathy despite the handicap presented by her character's personality."^[70] The film was a commercial success: it cost $18 million to make and grossed over $92 million worldwide.^[71]

Career break and low-key return (2006–2008)[link]

At this point in her career, McAdams was hailed as "the next Julia Roberts"^[1] and the new "Hollywood it girl".^[2] Vanity Fair invited McAdams, along with Scarlett Johannson and Keira Knightley, to appear on their March 2006 cover, the annual Hollywood issue. Upon arrival on the photo set, McAdams discovered it was a nude session and left. She later parted ways with her publicist who had failed to inform her in advance.^[72] Knightley later recounted, "Quite early on Rachel just said, 'No, I'm not into that.' She's a lovely girl, and I really respect her for doing that."^[73] When asked about the incident in 2008, McAdams had "no regrets”.^[74]

McAdams at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

McAdams withdrew from public life in 2006 and 2007, taking time off to focus on herself and her family.^[2] "It was the right thing for me to do at the time," she later said.^[75] "If you want to tell stories as truthfully as possible, you have to have a normal, boring existence."^[76] During this period, the actress turned down roles in The Devil Wears Prada, Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible III and Get Smart.^[1] In February 2006, she made an once-off stage appearance in The Vagina Monologues at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto to raise funds for V-Day.^[77] Also that year, McAdams received a Rising Star Award nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts^[78] and hosted the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement.^[79]

McAdams returned to work in 2008, appearing in two limited release films. In the film noir Married Life, she played Kay, a young 1940s widow who wins the affections of two older men, played by Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper. In preparation for the role, McAdams studied old films, particularly those of Kim Novak.^[80] She has said the film shoot reenergized and re-inspired her and made her eager to work more often.^[75] Entertainment Weekly found McAdams "a particularly delightful vision after her two-year intermission".^[81] Variety also bemoaned her break from the big screen but felt that, despite a performance of "tender feeling", "her natural vivaciousness and spontaneity are straightjacketed" by the film noir format.^[82] The film was a box-office failure. It grossed just over $2 million worldwide, failing to recoup its production budget of $12 million.^[83]

The Lucky Ones, a story about three Iraq War soldiers on a brief road trip back in the U.S., was McAdams's second film of 2008, and she co-starred alongside Tim Robbins and Michael Pena. She trained at a real boot camp, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, prior to filming.^[84] McAdams, speaking in 2011, said that the character of Colee was "probably one of my favorite characters I've ever played."^[85] The New York Times found her "luminous as always"^[86] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times hailed the performance as "her coming of age as an actress".^[87] "Previously she has been seen mostly as a hot chick or an idealized sweetheart", he wrote. "Here she is feisty, vulnerable, plucky, warm, funny ... Watch the poignance of the scene when she meets her boyfriend's family."^[87] Entertainment Weekly found her "feisty, gorgeous, and as mercurial as a mood ring".^[88] The Lucky Ones is the least commercially successful film of McAdams's career as of 2012, having grossed just $266,967 worldwide.^[89]

Return to prominence (2009–2011)[link]

Robert Downey, Jr. starred opposite McAdams in Sherlock Holmes (2009). The film grossed over $524 million at the worldwide box office.

McAdams starred in three films in 2009. State of Play, a political thriller based on a BBC television series, co-starred Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck. McAdams played Della, an online reporter who investigates a possible conspiracy with a veteran print journalist, played by Crowe.^[90] As part of her research, McAdams visited The Washington Post's offices and met with politicians on Capitol Hill.^[91] Entertainment Weekly felt she was "perfectly cast as an ambitious wonkette"^[92] while The Daily Telegraph noted that "McAdams, with her lively eyes and large, expressive forehead, holds her own against Crowe. Mercifully, she avoids any temptation to play girly and demure to his grizzled alpha male."^[93] The film grossed over $87 million worldwide.^[94]

McAdams's second 2009 project was the science-fiction romance The Time Traveler's Wife, an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's bestselling novel.^[95][96] McAdams fell "madly in love" with the book^[97] but was initially slightly hesitant to accept the film role because Clare, the long-suffering wife, is a "character that people have already cast in their heads."^[98] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "I'd watch the vibrant Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in anything, but The Time Traveler's Wife is pushing it."^[99] The Los Angeles Times found her "luminous [yet], sadly, her facility as an actress is mostly wasted."^[100] Writing in The Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips, in an otherwise tepid review, said of her performance: “Every scene she’s in, even the silly ones, becomes better — truer, often against long odds — because she’s in it. Her work feels emotionally spontaneous yet technically precise. She has an unusually easy touch with both comedy and drama, and she never holds a melodramatic moment hostage.”^[101] The film was a commercial success, earning over $101 million worldwide.^[102]

Sherlock Holmes was McAdams's final movie of the year. She played Irene Adler, a love interest for Robert Downey, Jr.'s Sherlock, and welcomed the opportunity to play a character who is "her own boss and a real free spirit".^[103] The elaborate corseted costumes helped her get into character.^[91][103] Variety felt her character was "not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about".^[104] The New York Times stated, "Ms. McAdams is a perfectly charming actress and performs gamely as the third wheel of this action-bromance tricycle. But Irene feels in this movie more like a somewhat cynical commercial contrivance. She offers a little something for the ladies and also something for the lads, who, much as they may dig fights and explosions and guns and chases, also like girls."^[105] The film was a major commercial success, earning over $524 million at the worldwide box office.^[106]

McAdams has worked with Diane Keaton on The Family Stone (2005) and Morning Glory (2010). Keaton recommended McAdams to Woody Allen, who then wrote a part for her in Midnight in Paris (2011).

2010's Morning Glory, a comedy in which McAdams played a television producer attempting to improve the poor ratings of a morning television program, was billed as a starring vehicle for the actress.^[107] She initially felt she was unsuited to the role because "I'm not funny. So I said, 'if you need me to be funny, you might want to look somewhere else'".^[108] Roger Michell, the film's director, had a number of dinners with McAdams and persuaded her to join the cast.^[109][110] It was her second time to work with Diane Keaton, whom she has described as a mentor figure.^[111] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said McAdams "gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for"^[112] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt she played "as lovable a lead as anyone since Amy Adams in Junebug" in an otherwise "routine" movie.^[113] The New York Post was impressed by "her gift for physical comedy",^[114] as was Variety.^[115] While The New York Times felt she "plays her role exceptionally well" and is "effortlessly likable", it called on Hollywood to give her parts "worthy" of her talent. "Ms. McAdams has to rely on her dimples to get by. She does, but she could do better."^[116] The film was a modest commercial success, grossing $58 million worldwide from a production budget of $40 million.^[117] McAdams was disappointed that the film failed to find a larger audience, remarking that "I only hear these businesspeople: 'Well, no one was sure who it was for.'"^[55]

McAdams' first film of 2011, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and saw her reunite with Wedding Crashers's Owen Wilson.^[118] Allen wrote the part of the shrewish Inez for McAdams, after hearing "glowing reports" from her former co-star Diane Keaton.^[107] He has said that he is "crazy about Rachel"^[119] and wanted to give her the opportunity to play something other than "beautiful girls".^[120] The film was shot on location in Paris and McAdams has said that the experience "will always have a great place in my heart."^[121] The Guardian bemoaned that she "has morphed from the sweet thing in Wedding Crashers to the dream-crushing bitch that, according to American comedies, women become once they ensnare their man".^[122] Richard Corliss of Time "felt sorry for McAdams, whose usually winning presence is ground into hostile cliché."^[123] However, the Los Angeles Times felt she "deftly handles a part that is less amiable than usual for her"^[124] and The New York Times found her "superbly speeded-up".^[125] It has become Allen's highest grossing picture ever in North America^[126] and was the most commercially successful independent film of 2011.^[127] With a production budget of $17 million, the film has grossed over $148 million worldwide.^[128] McAdams, along with six other members of the cast, received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination.^[129] Allen won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself was nominated for three other Academy Awards, including Best Picture.^[130]

McAdams's second screen appearance of 2011 was a cameo role in the action-adventure sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.^[131] The lead female role was played by Noomi Rapace. Joel Silver, the film's producer, has said that "we always intended to have a different kind of girl for each movie" in the vein of Bond girls.^[132] He found it "complicated" to persuade McAdams to return in a supporting role: "She loved being with us, but she hoped to have a bigger role."^[132] The Wall Street Journal felt "she vanishes all too soon in this overproduced, self-enchanted sequel, and so does the spirit of bright invention that made the previous film such a pleasant surprise".^[133] The Huffington Post remarked that she "exhibits far more personality and roguish charm in her few moments here than she did in all of the previous film. Freed from the constraints of being the de-facto love interest, McAdams relishes the chance to go full-villain."^[134] The film has grossed over $534 million worldwide.^[135]

[edit] The Vow and upcoming projects (2012)

In 2012, McAdams starred in the romantic drama The Vow.^[136] McAdams and Channing Tatum played a newlywed couple who try to rebuild their relationship after a car crash leaves the wife with no recollections of their marriage. McAdams was drawn to the "roller coaster" faced by her character^[137] and found it interesting that the story was told "through the guy's eyes".^[138] The New York Times stated that "the dimply and adorable Rachel McAdams" brings "enough physical charm and emotional warmth to distract from the threadbare setting and the paper-thin plot".^[139] Newsday felt that McAdams, "exuding her usual uncanny warmth on-screen", "is the real draw".^[140] However, the Los Angeles Times felt she was "wasted" in the role: "She is such an appealing actress that it's hard not to wish someone could make better use" of her.^[141] Time found the film an example of McAdams "coasting" in "unabashedly romantic" movies and asserted that "she’s a much more versatile and clever actress" than such projects would suggest.^[142] The film, financed for $30 million, was a major commercial success and became her biggest personal box-office hit - not including the Sherlock Holmes movies and the comedy Wedding Crashers.^[143] It topped the US box office and has grossed over $186 million worldwide.^[144][145]

In late 2010, McAdams worked on To the Wonder, a romantic drama written and directed by Terrence Malick.^[146][147] Her character, believed to be based on Malick's current wife,^[148] is a horse ranch worker in Oklahoma who has an affair with Ben Affleck's character.^[149] McAdams and Affleck previously worked together in State of Play. McAdams found Malick to be an "incredibly helpful" director; they discussed her character in detail and he took her on a tour of the local town, pointing out which house she would have grown up in and where she would have attended school.^[55] She has described it as "a very satisfying, unique way of shooting".^[55] The film is due to be released in 2012.^[146][150]

In March 2012, McAdams filmed Brian De Palma's Passion, an erotic thriller about a power struggle between two business executives, on location in Berlin.^[151] It is an English-language remake of 2010's Crime D'Amour.^[152] The film will co-star Karoline Herfurth and Noomi Rapace. Both McAdams and Rapace appeared in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows but did not share scenes together.^[151] There are tentative plans to premiere the completed film at the Berlinale in February 2013.^[153]

McAdams will next star in About Time, a romantic comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis.^[154] The story follows a young man, played by Domhnall Gleeson, who travels back in time and meets "the girl of his dreams", played by McAdams. Filming will take place in London, England from June to August 2012.^[154] In September 2012, McAdams is tentatively scheduled to film an adaptation of John Le Carré's espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn and co-starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.^[155][156]

Personal life[link]

McAdams lives in the Harbord Village neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[157] She shares a house with her younger brother, although they have separate living quarters.^[158] McAdams also holds a US green card^[159] and has remarked, "I never thought I’d say this, but I actually miss L.A. when I’m not there."^[160] She practices kundalini yoga daily.^[161] She likes to garden and cook in her spare time and has said that she would open a restaurant if she were not an actress.^[158][162]

McAdams had a two-year relationship with Canadian actor Ryan Gosling from mid-2005 to mid-2007.^[163][164] They also briefly reunited in the summer of 2008.^{[165][166][167]} Following their split, Gosling described her as "one of the great loves of my life".^[168] She dated American actor Josh Lucas for a number of months in 2009.^[169] McAdams is currently in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen, whom she met on the set of Midnight in Paris in July 2010.^[170]

McAdams is an environmentalist. She ran an eco-friendly lifestyle website GreenIsSexy.org with two friends for five years, from 2007 to 2011.^[171][172] Her house is powered by Bullfrog renewable energy.^[173] She travels around Toronto by bicycle but drives when in Los Angeles because it is "a harder town to cycle in."^[173] McAdams sat on a TreeHugger/Live Earth judging panel in 2007.^[174] She was involved in Matter of Trust's 'hair boom' efforts following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.^[175][176] In 2011, McAdams supported Foodstock, a protest against a proposed limestone mega quarry in Melancthon, Ontario.^[177][178] She is also a supporter of the Blue Planet's clean drinking water initiative.^[179]

McAdams is also involved with other charitable and social causes. She volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi in 2005, as part of the clean-up effort following Hurricane Katrina.^[180] In 2006, she took part in the "Day Without Immigrants" demonstration in Los Angeles, protesting against the federal government’s attempts to further criminalize undocumented aliens living in the United States.^[181] She appealed for donations during the Canada for Haiti telethon in 2010.^[182] In 2011, McAdams attended the Occupy Toronto demonstration.^[177] She has worked with charities including the Sunshine Foundation of Canada,^[183][184] the Alzheimer's Association,^[185] the READ Campaign,^[186] and United Way of Canada.^[187]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]