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• 
  Alabama
  Alabama (ⁱ/ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways.
  From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and technology. In addition, the establishment or expansion of multiple military installations, primarily those of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, added to state jobs.
  
  wn.com/Alabama
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  Arkansas
  Arkansas (ⁱ/ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw) is a state located in the Southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states (N: Missouri; E: Tennessee, Mississippi; S: Louisiana; SW: Texas; W: Oklahoma), and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. Arkansas is the 29th most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
  The name “Arkansas” derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word “Arkansas” itself is a French pronunciation (“Arcansas”) of a Quapaw (a related “Kaw” tribe) word, akakaze, meaning “land of downriver people” or the Sioux word akakaze meaning “people of the south wind”. The pronunciation of Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881, after a dispute between two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the name /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw.
  
  wn.com/Arkansas
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  California
  California (pronounced ⁱ/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
  California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.
  
  wn.com/California
• 
  Cannes Film Festival
  The Cannes International Film Festival (French: Le Festival International du Film de Cannes or just Festival de Cannes), is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is the world's most prestigious and publicized film festival. The invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.
  The 2012 Cannes Film Festival took place from May 16 to May 27, 2012. The President of the Jury was the Italian film director Nanni Moretti.
  The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in the late 1930s when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger and with the support of the British and Americans,^{[clarification needed]} set up an international cinematographic festival. In 1947, the festival was held as the "Festival du film de Cannes", where films from sixteen countries were presented. Moreover, the principle of equality was introduced, so that the jury was to be made up only of one representative per country. Also, this year the festival was held at the made-for-the-occasion Palais des Festivals, although the roof was unfinished and blew off during a storm. The festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. In 1951, owing to better relations between France and Italy, the Cannes Festival was moved to Spring, while the Mostra remained in Autumn.
  
  wn.com/Cannes_Film_Festival
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  Harvard University
  Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
  Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.
  
  wn.com/Harvard_University
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  John Witherspoon
  John Witherspoon (February 15, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scots Presbyterian minister and a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey (1768–94; now Princeton University), he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. John Witherspoon is an ancestor of actress Reese Witherspoon.
  John Witherspoon was born at Gifford, a parish of Yester, at East Lothian, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the University to study divinity.
  Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745-1746. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
  
  wn.com/John_Witherspoon
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  New Orleans
  New Orleans ( /nuː ˈɔrliənz/ or /ˈnuː ɔrˈliːnz/, locally /nuː ˈɔrlənz/ or /ˈnɔrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ( listen)) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city proper was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,214,932.
  The city is named after Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France, and is well known for its distinct French Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is often referred to as the "most unique" in America.
  
  wn.com/New_Orleans
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  Philadelphia
  Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
  
  wn.com/Philadelphia
• 
  Scotland
  Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba ([ˈalˠ̪apə]  listen (help·info))) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
  Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.
  
  wn.com/Scotland
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  Stanford University
  Coordinates: 37°26′N 122°10′W / 37.43°N 122.17°W / 37.43; -122.17
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is an American private research university located in Stanford, California on an 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus near Palo Alto, California, United States. It is situated in the northwestern Silicon Valley, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of San Jose and 37 miles (60 km) southeast of San Francisco.
  Leland Stanford, a Californian railroad tycoon and politician, and his wife Jane Lathrop Stanford founded the university in 1891 in honor of their son, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of typhoid two months before his 16th birthday. The university was established as a coeducational and nondenominational institution, but struggled financially after the senior Stanford's 1893 death and after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would become known as Silicon Valley. By 1970, Stanford was home to a linear accelerator, was one of the original four ARPANET nodes, and had transformed itself into a major research university in computer science, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences.
  
  wn.com/Stanford_University
• 
  Tennessee
  Tennessee (ⁱ/tɛnɨˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.
  The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.
  
  wn.com/Tennessee
• 
  The Miami Herald
  The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States. Founded in 1903, it is the largest newspaper in South Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County and Monroe County, and circulates throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
  The newspaper employs over 800 people in Miami and across several bureaus, including Bogotá, Managua, Tallahassee, Vero Beach, Key West, and shared space in McClatchy's Washington bureau. Its newsroom staff of about 450 includes 144 reporters, 69 editors, 69 copy editors, 29 photographers, five graphic artists (not including page designers), 11 columnists, six critics, 48 editorial specialists, and 18 news assistants. In June 2009, The Miami Herald announced widespread layoffs in June 2008, with plans to cut 250 full-time jobs—17 percent of the newspaper's workforce.
  The newspaper has been awarded 20 Pulitzer Prizes since beginning publication in 1903. Well-known columnists are Pulitzer-winning political commentator Leonard Pitts, Jr., humorist Dave Barry and novelist Carl Hiaasen. Other columnists include Fred Grimm and Edwin Pope. David Landsberg is the publisher, and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez is the executive editor.
  
  wn.com/The_Miami_Herald
• 
  Vancouver
  Vancouver (/vænˈkuːvər/) is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded more than 603,000 people in the city, making it the eighth largest among Canadian cities. The metropolitan area, with more than 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country and the most populous in Western Canada. With 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per sq mile), the City of Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality among those with 5,000 residents or more. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, with 52% for whom English is not their first language.
  The original settlement, named Gastown, grew around the Hastings Mill logging sawmill and a nearby tavern, both established in 1867. Enlarging to become the townsite of Granville, with the announcement that the railhead would reach the site it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated as a city in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and London. As of 2009, Port Metro Vancouver is the busiest and largest port in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry. Major film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Metro Vancouver into the third-largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, earning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North.
  
  wn.com/Vancouver
• 
  White House
  The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage.
  In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.
  
  wn.com/White_House

• 
  Adam Sandler
  Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician and film producer. After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office. He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998), Big Daddy (1999), and Mr. Deeds (2002), though he has ventured into more dramatic territory. In 1999, Sandler founded Happy Madison, a film and television production company that has produced numerous films and developed the 2007 television series Rules of Engagement.
  Adam Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents, Stanley, an electrical engineer, and Judy Sandler, a nursery school teacher. When he was five, his family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he attended Manchester Central High School. He found he was a natural comic, and nurtured his talent while at New York University by performing regularly in clubs and on campuses. Sandler graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.
  
  wn.com/Adam_Sandler
• Alan Arkin
  Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2006. He is the father of actors Adam Arkin, Anthony Arkin, and Matthew Arkin.
  Arkin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Beatrice (née Wortis), a teacher, and David I. Arkin, a painter and writer who mostly worked as a teacher. Arkin was raised in a Jewish family with "no emphasis on religion"; his maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Odessa, Ukraine. The family moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles when Arkin was 11 years old, but an eight-month Hollywood strike cost Arkin's father a set designer job he had wanted to take. During the 1950s Red Scare, Arkin's parents were accused of being Communists, which led to David losing his job when he refused to answer questions about his political affiliation. David challenged the dismissal and was ultimately vindicated, but only after his death.
  
  wn.com/Alan_Arkin
• Alessandro Nivola
  Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Coco Before Chanel, Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.
  Nivola was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Virginia (née Davis), is an artist, and his father, Pietro Salvatore Nivola, is a professor of political science who wrote the book Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America. Nivola's paternal grandfather was the Italian sculptor Costantino Nivola, and his paternal grandmother, Ruth Guggenheim, was a Jewish refugee from Germany. Nivola has described his mother as "a WASP, from the South", a descendant of Jefferson Davis. He has a brother, Adrian, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy.
  Nivola married British actress Emily Mortimer in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire in January 2003; the couple have a son, Samuel John, born in Westminster, London, on September 23, 2003. They also have a daughter, May, born on January 15, 2010. They used to live in Los Angeles California in Echo Park. They are currently living in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, New York. He had fellow actor Heath Ledger as a neighbor.
  
  wn.com/Alessandro_Nivola
• 
  Alexander Payne
  Alexander Payne (born Constantine Alexander Payne; February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for films like Sideways (2004) and Election (1999). His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.
  Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Peggy (née Constantine) and George Payne, restaurant owners. He is of Greek descent (his grandfather Anglicized the last name from Papadopoulos). He was the youngest of three sons and grew up in the same neighborhood as billionaire Warren Buffett. Payne attended Creighton Preparatory School high school and later Stanford University, where he double majored in Spanish and History. As a part of his Spanish degree, he studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Payne got his MFA in 1990 from the UCLA Film School.
  
  wn.com/Alexander_Payne
• 
  Alyssa Milano
  Alyssa Jayne Milano (born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and former singer, known for her childhood role as Samantha Micelli in the sitcom Who's the Boss? and an eight-year stint as Phoebe Halliwell on the series Charmed. She was also a series regular on the original Melrose Place portraying the role of Jennifer Mancini. Milano has a female sports apparel line, Touch.
  Alyssa Milano is the daughter of Lin, a fashion designer and talent manager, and Thomas M. Milano, a film music editor. Milano was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Staten Island. She has a younger brother, Cory (born in 1982), who is also an actor. In a 2003 interview, Milano recalled having had a good childhood, having grown up in a "loving, true family."
  Milano is a cousin to actors Eric Lloyd and Emily Ann Lloyd.
  Milano began her career at age eight after winning a role in an open audition for a national tour of Annie. She was one of the four picked out of an audition with over 1,500 girls. She appeared in television commercials and off-Broadway productions.
  
  wn.com/Alyssa_Milano
• 
  Andy Tennant
  Andy Tennant (born 1955) is an American screenwriter, film and television director, and dancer.
  Born in Chicago, Illinois, Tennant was raised in Flossmoor, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His father was Don Tennant, a legendary creative advertising talent with Leo Burnett Agency in Chicago. As a boy, he spent his summers on Old Mission Peninsula in northern Michigan and at Camp Minocqua in northern Wisconsin. He graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in 1973. He studied theater under John Houseman at University of Southern California.
  Tennant's first acting role in a motion picture was in 1980 as a college student, Melio, on an all-night scavenger hunt in a surreal film, Midnight Madness which cameo'd cowboy-hatted Pee Wee Herman as a pin ball arcade manager; Andy's first big break in films came when he was cast as a dancer and chorus member in the movies Grease and Grease 2.
  Tennant is married to Sharon Johnson-Tennant. They have four children, three of which are triplets.
  
  wn.com/Andy_Tennant
• 
  Annette Bening
  Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films. Bening is married to actor Warren Beatty, with whom she has four children.
  Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Shirley (née Ashley), was a church singer and soloist, and her father, Arnett Grant Bening, was a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative Republicans. Her sister and two brothers are Jane, Bradley and Byron. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California, and they moved there. She began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975, from Patrick Henry High School where she studied drama.
  
  wn.com/Annette_Bening
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  Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan, OC (Armenian: Աթոմ Եղոյեան; born July 19, 1960) is a critically acclaimed Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994). His most critically acclaimed film is The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and his biggest commercial success is Chloe (2009).
  Egoyan has been nominated for two Academy Awards - The Sweet Hereafter for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. He also won several awards at Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Genie Awards.
  His work often explores themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy or other power structures. Egoyan's films often follow non-linear plot-structures, in which events are placed out of sequence in order to elicit specific emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information.
  In 2008 Egoyan received the Dan David Prize for "Creative Rendering of the Past".
  Egoyan was born Atom Yeghoyan in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Shushan (née Devletian) and Joseph Yeghoyan, artists who operated a furniture store. His parents were Armenian-Egyptians, and he was named Atom to mark the completion of Egypt's first nuclear reactor. In 1962, however, his parents left Egypt for Canada, where they settled in Victoria, British Columbia, and changed their last name to Egoyan. Atom and his sister, Eve, now a concert pianist based in Toronto, were raised by their parents in British Columbia.
  
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  Ben Stiller
  Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
  After beginning his acting career with a play, Stiller wrote several mockumentaries, and was offered two of his own shows, both entitled The Ben Stiller Show. He began acting in films, and made his directorial debut with Reality Bites. Throughout his career he has since written, starred in, directed, and/or produced over 50 films including Heavyweights, There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder, Greenberg and Night at the Museum. In addition, he has had multiple cameos in music videos, television shows, and films.
  Stiller is a member of the comedic acting brotherhood colloquially known as the Frat Pack. His films have grossed more than $2.1 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of $73 million per film. Throughout his career, he has received several awards and honors including an Emmy Award, several MTV Movie Awards, and a Teen Choice Award.
  
  wn.com/Ben_Stiller
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  Billy Crystal
  William Edward "Billy" Crystal (born March 14, 1948) is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes When Harry Met Sally... and City Slickers. He has hosted the Academy Awards nine times, including the 84th Academy Awards in 2012.
  Crystal was born in the Doctor's Hospital in Manhattan and raised on Long Island in Long Beach, the son of Helen (née Gabler), a housewife, and Jack Crystal, a record company executive and jazz producer who also owned and operated the Commodore Record store. His babysitter was occasionally Billie Holiday. His uncle was musician and songwriter Milt Gabler, and his brother, Richard "Rip" Crystal, is a television producer. Crystal grew up in a Jewish family that he has described as "large" and "loving".
  After graduation from Long Beach High School, Crystal attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia on a baseball scholarship, having learned the game from his father, who pitched for St. John's University. Crystal never played a game at Marshall because the program was suspended during his freshman year, and because he was too busy being the Editor in Chief of The BG News from 1969–70. He did not return to Marshall as a sophomore, staying back in New York with his future wife. He instead attended Nassau Community College and later New York University, where he graduated in 1970 with a BFA from its Tisch School of the Arts.
  
  wn.com/Billy_Crystal
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  Brooke Shields
  Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle.
  Brooke Shields was born in New York City to Frank and Teri Shields (née Schmon), who divorced several months after she was born.
  Through her father's side, she has Italian, French, Irish, and English roots, along with high social position and relations to nobility. Her paternal grandmother was the Italian princess Donna Marina Torlonia. Shields was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. She has two stepbrothers and three half-sisters.
  When Shields was five days old, her mother openly stated she wanted her to be active in show business, "She's the most beautiful child and I'm going to help her with her career."
  For her confirmation at the age of 10, Shields adopted her middle name, "Camille". While attending high school, Shields resided in Haworth, New Jersey.
  When she was 12 years old, Shields played a child prostitute her age in the 1978 film Pretty Baby. Eileen Ford, founder of the Ford Modeling Agency, said of Brooke Shields: "...She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one."
  
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  Carey Mulligan
  Carey Hannah Mulligan (born 28 May 1985) is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005). She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim.
  In 2009, she gained widespread recognition for playing the lead role of Jenny in An Education, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and also being nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for her performance. She went on to star in dramatic films such as The Greatest, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Never Let Me Go, Drive and Shame.
  Mulligan was born in Westminster, London, England. Her father, Stephen, was originally from Liverpool, and her mother, Nano (née Booth), a college lecturer, came from Llandeilo in West Wales. Her paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland. Mulligan has one sibling, an elder brother. At the age of 3, she moved with her family from England to Germany after her father accepted the job of managing the European arm of Intercontinental Hotels. Due to her father's job, her family lived in expensive hotels for 8 years. She was "quite shy" during her childhood and a tomboy until the age of 15. She was also "quite straight-laced" and very academic until age 14, having then become more interested in acting. She was educated at Woldingham School, a girls' boarding school.
  
  wn.com/Carey_Mulligan
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  Cate Blanchett
  Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (/ˈblɑːntʃ.ət/; born 14 May 1969) is an Academy Award–winning Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett appeared as the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003. In 2004, Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator brought her numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett's other films include Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
  Blanchett's work has earned her several accolades, including a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, and an Academy Award. Due to her success and character variety, critics have often called her "the new Meryl Streep" or "the Meryl Streep of the next generation".
  
  wn.com/Cate_Blanchett
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  Charlize Theron
  Charlize Theron (American English pronunciation:  /ʃɑrˈliːs ˈθɛrən/; Afrikaans pronunciation: [ʃɐrˈlis tron]; born 7 August 1975) is a South African actress and fashion model. She started her acting career in the United States and rose to fame in the late 1990s following roles in The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), becoming the first African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country (2005). Theron became a US citizen in 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship.
  Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda (née Maritz; who has also called herself Gerta) and Charles Theron (born 27 November 1947).Second Boer War figure Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle. Her ancestry includes French, German, and Dutch; her French forebears were early Huguenot settlers in South Africa. "Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as [tron], although she has said that the way she pronounces it in South Africa is [θron]. She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the U.S. to give it a more "American" sound.
  
  wn.com/Charlize_Theron
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  Chris Pine
  Christopher Whitelaw "Chris" Pine (born August 26, 1980) is an American actor. Best known for his role as James T. Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek, he has also appeared in films such as The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), Just My Luck (2006), Smokin' Aces (2007), Unstoppable (2010), and This Means War (2012).
  Pine was born in Los Angeles, California. His father, Robert Pine, is an actor who appeared in CHiPs as Sergeant Joseph Getraer, and his mother, Gwynne Gilford, is a former actress who is now a practicing psychotherapist. He has an older sister, Katie. His maternal grandmother, Anne Gwynne (née Marguerite Gwynne Trice), was a Hollywood actress, and his maternal grandfather, Max M. Gilford (born Max Goldfarb), was an attorney who was elected president of the Hollywood Bar Association. Pine's ancestry includes Jewish (from his maternal grandfather), Welsh, and English. He has stated, "I definitely have a spiritual outlook... I am not a religious guy, I am probably agnostic".
  
  wn.com/Chris_Pine
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  Christina Ricci
  Christina Ricci (born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper (1995). Ricci made a transition into more adult-oriented roles with The Ice Storm (1997), followed by an acclaimed performance in Buffalo 66 (1998) and then The Opposite of Sex (1998), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She continued her success with well-received performances in Sleepy Hollow (1999), Monster (2003), Penelope (2006) and Black Snake Moan (2007). In 2006 Ricci was nominated for an Emmy award for her role as a paramedic in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy. She currently stars as Maggie Ryan in the television show Pan Am.
  Ricci was born in Santa Monica, California, the fourth and youngest child of Sarah (née Murdoch), a former Ford Model and real estate agent, and Ralph Ricci, a lawyer and psychiatrist. Regarding her ancestry, Ricci has stated that "the Italian blood has been bred out of me. There's an Italian four or five generations back who married an Irish woman and they all [sic] had sons. So they married more Irish women, there were more sons, and more Irish women. Now I'm basically Scots-Irish."
  
  wn.com/Christina_Ricci
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  Christoph Waltz
  Christoph Waltz (German pronunciation: [kristɔf valts]; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian actor, who also holds German citizenship.
  He received international acclaim for his portrayal of SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009.
  Christoph Waltz was born in Vienna, Austria. He is the son of German-born Johannes Waltz and Austrian-born Elisabeth Urbancic, set and stage designers. His maternal grandmother was Burgtheater actress Maria Mayen, and his step-grandfather was actor Emmerich Reimers. His great-grandparents also worked in the theatre.
  Waltz studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. He also attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. He started as a stage actor, performing at venues such as Zurich's Schauspielhaus Zürich, Vienna's Burgtheater, and the Salzburg Festival. He became a prolific television actor. In 2000, he made his directorial debut, with the German-language television production Wenn man sich traut.
  
  wn.com/Christoph_Waltz
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  Diane Keaton
  Diane Keaton (born Diane Hall; January 5, 1946) is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
  Keaton subsequently expanded her range to avoid becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an accomplished dramatic performer, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981) and Marvin's Room (1996). Some of her popular later films include Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), Something's Gotta Give (2003) and The Family Stone (2005). Keaton's films have earned a cumulative gross of over US$1.1 billion in North America. In addition to acting, she is also a photographer, real estate developer, author, and occasional singer.
  
  wn.com/Diane_Keaton
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  Dustin Hoffman
  Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.
  He first drew critical praise for the play Eh?, for which he won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. This was soon followed by his breakthrough movie role as the good-looking but troubled Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967). Since then Hoffman's career has largely been focused on cinema, with only sporadic returns to television and the stage. Some of his most notable films are Papillon, Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Lenny, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Wag the Dog, and Meet the Fockers.
  Hoffman has won two Academy Awards (for his performances in Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man), five Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, a Genie Award, and an Emmy Award. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999.
  
  wn.com/Dustin_Hoffman
• Elle Woods
  Elle Woods is a fictional character who is the protagonist in Legally Blonde. The character originated in the 2001 novel, Legally Blonde, by Amanda Brown. Woods was portrayed in two films by actress Reese Witherspoon. In a Broadway theatre adaptation of the first film, Legally Blonde - The Musical Woods has been portrayed by seven different actresses in different stagings of the show. They were Laura Bell Bundy, Bailey Hanks, Becky Gulsvig, Jessica Jung, Nikki Bohne, Luna Park and in the West End by Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps star Sheridan Smith (who was later to be replaced by her Legally Blonde co-star Susan McFadden). From 11th July 2011 Carley Stenson will take over the role of Elle Woods with Susan McFadden leaving the show.
  Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "She's blond, bubbly, and carries a tiny Chihuahua. But despite the inevitable Paris Hilton comparisons, Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde dynamo managed to be taken seriously. Case closed!"
  
  wn.com/Elle_Woods
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  Emma Stone
  Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress.
  Stone was a cast member of the TV series Drive, and made her feature film debut in the comedy Superbad (2007). She appeared in The House Bunny (2008) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). She then starred in the horror-comedy Zombieland and the indie comedy Paper Man in 2009. In 2010, Stone voiced the character Mazie in Marmaduke, and starred in the high school comedy Easy A, which earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. In 2011, she starred in the films Crazy, Stupid, Love. and The Help, both of which were well received by critics and commercial successes. Stone will play Gwen Stacy in the Amazing Spider-Man film, a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise.
  Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, the daughter of Krista (née Yeager), a homemaker, and Jeff Stone, a contractor. She has a brother, who is two years her junior. Stone's paternal grandfather was of Swedish descent, and his family's surname was anglicized to "Stone" when immigrating to the U.S. through Ellis Island; some of her ancestors also lived in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
  
  wn.com/Emma_Stone
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  Frances McDormand
  Frances Louise McDormand (born June 23, 1957) is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 2011 for her performance in Good People as Margie Walsh, having been nominated for the same category in 1988 for the revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.
  McDormand is a three-time nominee of the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Mississippi Burning, Almost Famous, and North Country, and has also been nominated for four Golden Globes, three BAFTA Awards, and an Emmy Award. She also starred in the Coen Brothers debut, Blood Simple.
  McDormand was born in Chicago and was adopted by the McDormands, a Canadian couple – Noreen, a registered nurse and receptionist, and Vernon, a Disciples of Christ pastor. She has said that her biological mother may have been one of the parishioners at Vernon's church. She has a sister, Dorothy A. McDormand, who is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and chaplain, as well as another sibling, both of whom were adopted by the McDormands, who had no biological children. As her father specialized in restoring congregations, he frequently moved their family, and they lived in several small towns in Illinois, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, before settling in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area town of Monessen, where she graduated from high school in 1976. She attended Bethany College, West Virginia, and earned a B.A. in Theater in 1979.
  
  wn.com/Frances_McDormand
• Gary Ross
  Gary Ross (born November 3, 1956) is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role. He is also the director and co-screenwriter of the film, The Hunger Games, which was released on March 23, 2012.
  Ross was born in Castro Valley, California, the son of screenwriter Arthur A. Ross. Ross is Jewish.
  Ross's first produced screenplay was 1988's Big, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also received a Best Original Screenplay nomination for 1993's Dave. He wrote early drafts of 1992's Mr. Baseball and 1994's Lassie. He wrote the screenplay for 1998's Pleasantville, which also marked his directorial debut. In 2003, he wrote, directed and produced Seabiscuit based on Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He wrote the screenplay for 2008's The Tale of Despereaux based on the Newbery Medal-winning children's book by Kate DiCamillo. He has also written the screenplay for the forthcoming remake of 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon on which his father was a screenwriter. He has written scripts titled Dog Years and The Free State of Jones which have not yet been produced as feature films. He also co-wrote the film, The Hunger Games, with Suzanne Collins, who wrote the novel which the film is based on.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Ross
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  Halle Berry
  Halle Berry ( /ˈhæli ˈbɛri/; born August 14, 1966) is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2012, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokesmodel. She has been involved in the production side of several of the films in which she performed.
  Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant (1986), and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986. She made her film debut with a small role in 1991's Jungle Fever. This led to starring roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person—one of the few performers to do so.
  
  wn.com/Halle_Berry
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  Helen Mirren
  Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.
  Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Chiswick, West London. Her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980), was of Russian origin, and her mother, Kitty (née Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers; 1909–1996), was English. Mirren's paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Tsarist Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain, when he and his family were stranded during the Russian Revolution. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family.
  His son, Helen Mirren's father, changed the family name to the Scottish-sounding Mirren in the 1950s and became known as Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a cab and was a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. Mirren's mother was from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist".
  
  wn.com/Helen_Mirren
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  Helena Bonham Carter
  Helena Bonham Carter, CBE (born 26 May 1966) is an English actress. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane. She is known for her roles in films such as A Room with a View, Fight Club, and playing the villainess Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series, as well as for frequently collaborating with director and domestic partner Tim Burton in films such as Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows.
  A two-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in The Wings of the Dove and The King's Speech, Bonham Carter's acting has been further recognised with six Golden Globe nominations, an International Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to drama, and received the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 22 February 2012.
  
  wn.com/Helena_Bonham_Carter
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  Hilary Swank
  Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American film actress. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999) and as struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby (2004). She also put in a notable performance in Insomnia, working alongside Al Pacino. Since 2003, Swank has also worked as an executive producer.
  Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her mother, Judy Kay (née Clough), was a secretary and dancer, and her father, Stephen Michael Swank, was an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman. She has a brother, Daniel, who is eight years her senior. Her surname, originally Schwenk, is of German origin. Many of Swank's family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa, and her maternal grandmother was of Spanish and Shoshone (Native American) ancestry. After having lived in Spokane, Washington, Swank's family moved to a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, when Swank was six.
  
  wn.com/Hilary_Swank
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  Imelda Staunton
  Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series (in which she plays Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge) and Vera Drake. She drew critical acclaim as Vera Drake, earning her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a number of wins including the BAFTA and Venice Film Festival Awards for best actress in a leading role.
  Staunton was born in Archway, North London, the only child of Bridie (née McNicholas), a hairdresser, and Joseph Staunton, a road-worker and labourer. The family lived over Staunton's mother's hair dressing salon while Staunton’s father worked on the roads. Both of her parents were first-generation Catholic immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland, with her father coming from Ballyvary and her mother from Bohola. Staunton's mother was a musician who could not read music, but could master almost any tune by ear on the accordion or fiddle and had played in Irish showbands.
  
  wn.com/Imelda_Staunton
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  Jack Black
  Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American comedian, actor and musician. He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has three albums as well as a television series and a film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally self-conscious outsiders in comedy films. He was a member of the Frat Pack, a group of comedians who have appeared together in several Hollywood films, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. He has also won an MTV Movie Award, and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award as well as hosting the 2006, 2008, and 2011 Kids Choice Awards.
  Black was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of two satellite engineers, Judith (née Cohen), who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and Thomas William Black. His mother is Jewish and his father converted to Judaism (Black attended Hebrew school). On The Tonight Show, he said his surname may have come from the occupational name Blacksmith. Black's parents divorced when he was 10; Black moved to Culver City with his father and frequently visited his mother’s home. As a child, Black appeared in a commercial for the Activision game Pitfall! in 1982, which was later shown during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and again on The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien. When Black entered high school, his parents enrolled him at the Poseidon School, a private secondary school engineered specifically for students struggling in the traditional school system. Black also attended the Crossroads School, where he excelled in drama. He later attended UCLA but dropped out during his sophomore year to pursue a career in entertainment, at which point his father discontinued his financial support.^{[citation needed]} Fellow UCLA alumnus Tim Robbins later cast Black in Bob Roberts. He also had recurring roles on the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show.
  
  wn.com/Jack_Black
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  Jake Gyllenhaal
  Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal ( /ˈdʒɪlənhɔːl/ JIL-ən-hawl; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at the age of ten. Following his first lead role in 1999's October Sky, he starred in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko (2001), in which he played a psychologically troubled teenager alongside his older sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2004 he appeared in the science-fiction film The Day After Tomorrow, portraying a student caught in a cataclysmic global cooling event. He then played against type as a frustrated Marine in Jarhead (2005). The same year his role as Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He has since played the lead roles in many notable films, including Zodiac (2007), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Source Code (2011).
  Gyllenhaal has promoted various political and social causes. He has appeared in Rock the Vote advertising, campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, promoted environmental causes, and campaigned on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union.
  
  wn.com/Jake_Gyllenhaal
• Jefery Levy
  Jefery Levy is an American film and TV director.
  His work as a director includes the feature films Inside Monkey Zetterland, S.F.W. and Man of God, as well as numerous episodes of shows such as Numb3rs, Ghost Whisperer and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Jefery_Levy
• Jeff Nichols
  Jeff Nichols (born December 7, 1978) is an American director and writer who is from Little Rock, Arkansas. Nichols has filmed Shotgun Stories (2007) and Take Shelter (2011), both of which have won awards at their festival screenings.
  He is the brother of Lucero frontman Ben Nichols, who is featured in both of Jeff's films.
  His 2012 film Mud competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
  
  wn.com/Jeff_Nichols
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  Jim Carrey
  James Eugene "Jim" Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer. Carrey has received four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning two. Known for his highly energetic, slapstick performances, he has been described as one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood.
  Carrey first gained recognition in 1990 after landing a recurring role in the sketch comedy In Living Color. His first leading roles in major productions came with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), The Mask (1994), and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995). In 1997, he gave a critically acclaimed performance in Liar Liar, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. He then starred in the critically acclaimed hits The Truman Show (1998) and Man on the Moon (1999), both garnering him two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor.
  In 2000, he gained further recognition for his portrayal of the The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Three years later, Carrey starred in the major blockbuster film Bruce Almighty (2003). The following year he starred in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he received another Golden Globe nomination in addition to a BAFTA Award nomination. He then starred in popular productions Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), Yes Man (2008), A Christmas Carol (2009), and Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011).
  
  wn.com/Jim_Carrey
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  Joaquin Phoenix
  Joaquin Rafael Phoenix ( /hwɑːˈkiːn ˈfiːnɪks/; born October 28, 1974), formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later. Phoenix is from a family of performers, including his older brother, the late River Phoenix.
  Phoenix has ventured behind the camera, directing music videos as well as producing movies and television shows, and has recorded an album, the soundtrack to Walk the Line. He is also known for his work as a social activist, particularly as an advocate for animal rights.
  Phoenix was born Joaquín Rafael Bottom in Río Piedras, located in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to American parents. He is the third of five children, including River (1970–1993), Rain (1972), Liberty (1976), and Summer (1978). He also has a half-sister named Jodean (1964) from a previous relationship of his father's.
  His father, John Lee Bottom, was a lapsed Catholic from Fontana, California. His mother, Arlyn (née Dunetz), was born in The Bronx, New York to Jewish parents whose families emigrated from Russia and Hungary. In 1968, Arlyn left her family and moved to California, later meeting Phoenix's father while hitch-hiking. They married in 1969, then later joined the religious cult the Children of God. They began travelling throughout South America.
  
  wn.com/Joaquin_Phoenix
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  John Knox
  John Knox (c. 1514 – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536. Influenced by early church reformers such as George Wishart, he joined the movement to reform the Scottish church. He was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events that involved the murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546 and the intervention of the regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise. He was taken prisoner by French forces the following year and exiled to England on his release in 1549.
  While in exile, The Rev. John Knox was licensed to work in the Church of England, where he quickly rose in the ranks to serve King Edward VI of England as a royal chaplain. In this position, he exerted a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer. In England he met and married his first wife, Marjorie. When Mary Tudor ascended the throne and re-established Roman Catholicism, Knox was forced to resign his position and leave the country.
  
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  John Witherspoon
  John Witherspoon (February 15, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scots Presbyterian minister and a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey (1768–94; now Princeton University), he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. John Witherspoon is an ancestor of actress Reese Witherspoon.
  John Witherspoon was born at Gifford, a parish of Yester, at East Lothian, Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker, a descendant of John Welsh of Ayr and John Knox. This latter claim of Knox descent though ancient in origin is long disputed and without primary documentation. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the University to study divinity.
  Witherspoon was a staunch Protestant, nationalist, and supporter of republicanism. Consequently, he was opposed to the Roman Catholic Legitimist Jacobite rising of 1745-1746. Following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle, which had a long-term effect on his health.
  
  wn.com/John_Witherspoon
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  Johnny Cash
  John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
  Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Cash
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  Johnny Depp
  John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol. Dissatisfied with that status, Depp turned to film for more challenging roles; he played the title character of Edward Scissorhands (1990) and later found box office success in films such as Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Rango (2011) and the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2003–present). He has collaborated with director and friend Tim Burton in eight films, most recently with Dark Shadows (2012).
  Depp has gained acclaim for his portrayals of people such as Ed Wood, in Ed Wood, Joseph D. Pistone in Donnie Brasco, Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, George Jung in Blow, and the bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. Films featuring Depp have grossed over $3.1 billion at the United States box office and over $7.6 billion worldwide. He has been nominated for top awards many times, winning the Best Actor Awards from the Golden Globes for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and from the Screen Actors Guild for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also has garnered a sex symbol status in American cinema, being twice named as the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine in 2003 and 2009. He has been listed in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid actor, with $75 million.
  
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  Josh Lucas
  Josh Lucas (born Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer; June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He has appeared in many films, including Glory Road, A Beautiful Mind, and Poseidon.
  Lucas was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1971, the son of Michele (née LeFevre), a nurse midwife, and Don Maurer, an ER doctor. His paternal grandparents were Polish.
  Lucas grew up traveling the South with his hippie activist parents (who were anti-nuclear activists) and younger siblings, two sisters and a brother, Devin. By the age of 13, he had lived in thirty different locations, including the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. His parents organized campaigns against nuclear power plants. His mother attended Emerson College with Jay Leno. The family eventually settled in the town of Gig Harbor, Washington. He attended Kopachuck Middle School and graduated from Gig Harbor High School in 1989, where he acted in high school plays. He did not attend college so he could pursue his acting career.
  Lucas began his career when he was 19, having moved to Hollywood after his high school graduation. He appeared as a guest star on several TV sitcoms in his early twenties including Fox's True Colors and Parker Lewis Can't Lose, the family drama Life Goes On, and CBS's private-eye show Jake and the Fatman.
  
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  Judi Dench
  Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
  Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
  During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
  Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
  
  wn.com/Judi_Dench
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  Julia Roberts
  Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Mystic Pizza (1988), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Valentine's Day (2010), The Pelican Brief (1993), Ocean's Eleven (2001), and Ocean's Twelve (2004) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actresses in terms of box office receipts.
  Roberts had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2005 to 2006. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). As of 2010, Roberts's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.
  
  wn.com/Julia_Roberts
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  Julianne Moore
  Julianne Moore (born Julie Anne Smith on December 3, 1960) is a British-American actress and a children's book author. She has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards.
  Moore began her acting career in 1983 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the soap opera As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. She began to appear in supporting roles in films during the early 1990s, in films such as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The Fugitive. Her performance in Short Cuts (1993) won her and the rest of the cast a Golden Globe for their ensemble performance, and her performance in Boogie Nights (1997) brought her widespread attention and nominations for several major acting awards.
  Her success continued with films such as The Big Lebowski (1998), The End of the Affair (1999) and Magnolia (1999). She received particular acclaim for her portrayal of a betrayed wife in Far from Heaven (2002), winning several critic awards as best actress of the year, in addition to several other nominations, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award. The same year, she was also nominated for several awards as best supporting actress for her work in The Hours. In 2010, Moore starred in the comedy drama The Kids Are All Right, for which she received a Golden Globe and BAFTA nomination.
  
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  Julie Christie
  Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1941) is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school.
  In 1961, she began her acting career in a BBC television series, and the following year, she had her first major film role in a romantic comedy. In 1965, she became known internationally as "Diana Scott" in the film Darling, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar. That same year she also played the part of "Lara" in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago.
  Christie was born on 14 April 1941 in Singlijan Tea Estate, Chabua, Assam, India, then part of the British Empire. She is the elder child of Rosemary (née Ramsden) and Frank St. John Christie. Her father ran the tea plantation where she was raised. Her mother, from Hove, was a painter. Christie has a younger brother, Clive, and an older half-sister, June, from her father's relationship with an Indian woman, who worked as a tea picker on his plantation. Christie's parents separated during her childhood.
  
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  June Carter Cash
  Valerie June Carter Cash (June 23, 1929 – May 15, 2003) was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked #31 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.
  June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia to Maybelle Addington Carter and Ezra Carter. She was born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939. In March 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters" with her daughters, Helen, Anita, and June. The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia, on June 1. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell)—Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively— known as "The Virginia Boys," joined them in late 1945. June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for "Red Star Flour", "Martha White," and "Thalhimers Department Store", just to name a few. For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, through Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent—comedy. A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine. Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one." She attended John Marshall High School during this period.
  
  wn.com/June_Carter_Cash
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  Kate Winslet
  Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader (2008). She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association among others, and has been nominated twice for an Emmy Award for television acting, winning once for her role as Mildred Pierce in the 2011 mini-series of the same name.
  Brought up in Berkshire, Winslet studied drama from childhood, and began her career in British television in 1991. She made her film debut in Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which she received her first notable critical praise. She achieved recognition for her subsequent work in a supporting role in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and for her leading role in Titanic (1997), the highest grossing film at the time, and the highest grossing film of Winslet's career.
  Since 2000, Winslet's performances have continued to draw positive comments from film critics, and she has been nominated for various awards for her work in such films as Quills (2000), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), The Reader (2008) and Revolutionary Road (2008). Her performance in the last of these prompted New York magazine critic David Edelstein to describe her as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation". The romantic comedy The Holiday and the animated film Flushed Away (both 2006) are among the biggest commercial successes of her career.
  
  wn.com/Kate_Winslet
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  Kiefer Sutherland
  Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor, producer and director. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox series 24 for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Satellite Awards. He currently stars as Martin Bohm in the Fox drama Touch.
  Sutherland was born in London, the son of Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, both of whom are successful Canadian actors. He has Scottish ancestry from both parents, and is the grandson of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, widely credited for bringing universal health care to Canada.
  He received his first given name from Warren Kiefer, the Italian director who gave his father his first movie role.
  His family moved to Corona, California and in 1970, his parents divorced. In 1975, Sutherland moved with his mother to Toronto. He attended elementary school at Crescent Town Elementary School, St. Clair Junior High East York, and John G. Althouse Middle School in Toronto. He attended five different high schools including St. Andrew's College, Martingrove Collegiate Institute, Harbord Collegiate Institute, Silverthorn Collegiate Institute, Malvern Collegiate Institute and Annex Village Campus. He also spent a semester at Regina Mundi Catholic College in London (Ontario) and attended weekend acting lessons at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School.
  
  wn.com/Kiefer_Sutherland
• Larry Karaszewski
  Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963, Los Angeles, California) and Larry Karaszewski (born November 20, 1961, South Bend, Indiana) are a Hollywood screenwriting team. They met at the University of Southern California where they were roommates; they graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts in 1985.
  Their first success was the popular but critically derided comedy Problem Child (1990). Alexander and Karaszewski claim that their original screenplay was a sophisticated black comedy, but that the studio watered it down into an unrecognizable state.
  In 1994, Alexander and Karaszewski persuaded Tim Burton to direct a biopic about Edward D. Wood, Jr.. They wrote the screenplay in six weeks.
  Ed Wood led to a succession of offbeat biopics, including The People vs. Larry Flynt; Man on the Moon, about the short life of comedian Andy Kaufman; and Autofocus, chronicling the downfall and subsequent murder of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, which they produced. A script they penned about the life of Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It or Not! was at one time attached to Jim Carrey, but like their scripts about The Marx Brothers, The Village People, Sid and Marty Krofft, Margaret Keane and Rollen Stewart a.k.a. "Rainbow Man", it has yet to be produced.
  
  wn.com/Larry_Karaszewski
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  Luke Wilson
  Luke Cunningham Wilson (born September 21, 1971) is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.
  Wilson was born in Dallas, Texas, a son of Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive and previous executive at KERA, a public television station, and Laura Cunningham Wilson, a photographer. His family, originally from Massachusetts, is Irish Catholic. He is the younger brother of Andrew Wilson and Owen Wilson. All three brothers attended St. Mark's School of Texas. According to his brother Owen, Luke was voted class president the first year he attended St. Mark's. He was a football player, and a track athlete at St. Mark's in the 400 meter, 800 meter and 800 meter relay and holds records in the 3200 relay and 1600 relay (breaking the record two years in a row).
  Wilson's acting career began with the lead role in the short film Bottle Rocket in 1994, which was co-written by his older brother Owen Wilson and director Wes Anderson. It was remade as a feature-length film in 1996. After moving to Hollywood with his two brothers, he was cast opposite Calista Flockhart in Telling Lies in America and made a cameo appearance in the film-within-the-film of Scream 2, both in 1997. Wilson filmed back-to-back romantic films in 1998, opposite Drew Barrymore, Best Men, about a group of friends who pull off a heist on their way to a wedding, and Home Fries, about two brothers interested in the same woman for different reasons. He played the doctor beau of a schoolteacher in Rushmore (also 1998), also directed by Anderson and co-written by brother Owen.
  
  wn.com/Luke_Wilson
• Margaret Keane
  Margaret Keane (born 1927) is an American artist. She is an illustrator and painter, and mainly draws women and children in oil or mixed media. Her works are instantly recognizable (although often imitated) from the doe-eyed children that are depicted in the drawings.
  Margaret D. H. Keane was born 1927 in Tennessee, and attributes her deep respect for the Bible and inspirations of her artwork to the relationship with her grandmother. She later became one of Jehovah's Witnesses, which she said changed her life for the better.
  In the 1960s, Margaret Keane's artwork was sold under the name of her husband, Walter Keane. Why she chose to do so has not been fully explained, but conflict over that issue was cited as one of the reasons they divorced. Neither wanting to relinquish rights to the artwork, Walter and Margaret's divorce proceedings went all the way to federal court. At the hearing, Margaret created a painting in front of the judge to prove that she was the artist. Walter declined to paint before the court, citing a sore shoulder. In 1986, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.
  
  wn.com/Margaret_Keane
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  Marion Cotillard
  Marion Cotillard (French pronunciation: [maʁjɔ̃ kɔtijaʁ]; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants. She has also appeared in such films as Big Fish, A Good Year, Public Enemies, Nine, Inception, Midnight in Paris, and Contagion.
  In 2007, Cotillard starred as the French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, for which she won the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the César Award and the Golden Globe Award for best actress. She made film history by becoming the first person to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. In 2010, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the musical Nine.
  Cotillard was born in Paris and grew up around Orléans, Loiret in an artistically inclined, "bustling, creative household". Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, and 2006 Molière Award-winning director. Cotillard's mother, Monique (now known as Niseema) Theillaud, is also an actress and drama teacher. She has two younger twin brothers, Quentin and Guillaume. Guillaume is a screenwriter and director. She began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays.
  
  wn.com/Marion_Cotillard
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  Mark Ruffalo
  Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, Collateral, You Can Count on Me, The Avengers, and The Kids Are All Right, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
  Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose (née Hebert), is a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter. His father and maternal grandmother were of Italian descent, and his maternal grandfather was of French Canadian ancestry. He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott, who died in December 2008. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid" and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big" family with "lots of love". Of his father, Ruffalo has said, "He was an amazing, charismatic guy who was city high school wrestling champion three times. He was away a lot when I was growing up. I was very lonely for him.” Ruffalo was raised Roman Catholic; he attended both a Catholic and a progressive school. Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He graduated from First Colonial High School, and then moved with his family to San Diego, and later to Los Angeles, California. There, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company. With the OTC, he wrote, directed, and starred in a number of plays, and spent the next nine years earning his money as a bartender.
  
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  Mark Wahlberg
  Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971) is an American actor, film and television producer, and former rapper. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier years, and became famous for his 1989 debut as frontman with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He was named No. 1 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90's. Wahlberg is well known for his roles in films such as Boogie Nights (1997), Three Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), Rock Star (2001), The Italian Job (2003), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Four Brothers (2005), The Departed (2006), Invincible (2006), Shooter (2007), and The Fighter (2010), Date Night (2010). He has also served as the executive producer of the TV series Entourage, Boardwalk Empire and How to Make It in America.
  Wahlberg was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died in 2003 at age 44), and Donnie. His father was of half Swedish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Irish, English, and French Canadian descent. Maternally, Wahlberg is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wahlberg's mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aide, and Wahlberg's father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver. His parents divorced in 1982. Wahlberg had a Roman Catholic upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Boston.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Wahlberg
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  Matthew Broderick
  Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, voiced the adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King, and portrayed Leo Bloom in the Hollywood and Broadway productions of The Producers. He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his featured role in the play Brighton Beach Memoirs and one in 1995 for his leading role in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He was also nominated for the Tony Award, Best Actor in a Musical, for The Producers but lost to his co-star Nathan Lane. To date, Broderick is the youngest winner of the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
  Broderick was born in New York City, the son of Patricia (née Biow), a playwright, actress, and painter, and James Joseph Broderick, an actor. His mother was Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Germany and Poland; his father was a Catholic of Irish and English descent. Broderick attended grade school at the City & Country School (a progressive K–8 school in Manhattan) and high school at Walden School (a defunct private school in Manhattan with a strong drama program). After the death of his mother, her paintings were exhibited at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.
  
  wn.com/Matthew_Broderick
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  Matthew McConaughey
  Matthew David McConaughey ( /məˈkɒnəheɪ/; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor.
  After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s, McConaughey gained notice for his breakout role in Dazed and Confused (1993). He then appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Tiptoes, Sahara, and We Are Marshall. McConaughey is best known more recently for his performances as a leading man in the romantic comedies The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Fool's Gold.
  McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen "Kay" (née McCabe), was a kindergarten teacher, and his father, James Donald McConaughey, was a gas-station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business and once played football for the Green Bay Packers. McConaughey has Irish ancestry and had a Methodist upbringing. McConaughey's mother and late father had a very stormy relationship, so much so that they divorced and re-married each other several times.
  
  wn.com/Matthew_McConaughey
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  McG
  Joseph McGinty Nichol (born August 9, 1968), better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer.
  He began his career in the music industry, directing music videos and producing various albums. He later rose to prominence with his first film, Charlie's Angels, which had the highest-grossing opening weekend for a directorial debut at the time. Since then, he has directed three other films, including Terminator Salvation, and has executive produced numerous television programs, such as The O.C., Chuck, and Supernatural.
  McG also owns a production company, Wonderland Sound and Vision, founded in 2001, which has overseen the production of the films and television shows he has worked on since Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
  Joseph McGinty Nichol was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up in Newport Beach, California. Because his uncle and grandfather were also named Joe, his mother nicknamed him McG to avoid confusion, which has stuck with him since the day he was born. He had a brother, and his father owned a company that tested drugs for pharmaceutical firms.
  
  wn.com/McG
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  Meg Ryan
  Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra (born November 19, 1961), professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. After minor roles in film and television, Ryan became a movie star in 1989 when she appeared in When Harry Met Sally.... Over the next 15 years she played leading roles in several romantic comedy films, including Sleepless in Seattle (1993), French Kiss (1995), Addicted to Love (1997), City of Angels (1998), You've Got Mail (1998), and Kate & Leopold (2001), grossing a total of over $870 million worldwide. At that time, TIME critic Richard Corliss called her "the current soul of romantic comedy".
  Ryan (née Hyra) was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Susan Jordan (née Duggan) – a former actress and English teacher – and Harry Hyra, a math teacher. Both Susan and Harry were raised in Fairfield, Connecticut. Harry was an all state basketball player. Ryan's mother had appeared in one television commercial and later worked briefly as an assistant casting director in New York City. She supported and encouraged her young daughter's study of acting. Ryan has two sisters, Dana and Annie, and a brother, musician Andrew Hyra, of the band Billy Pilgrim. Her parents divorced in 1976, when she was 15 years old.
  
  wn.com/Meg_Ryan
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  Meryl Streep
  Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of all time.
  Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Academy Award nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
  Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actress in each award's history.
  
  wn.com/Meryl_Streep
• Michael Arndt
  Michael Arndt is an American screenwriter.
  After graduating from New York University, Arndt was a script reader for some time before choosing to write screenplays instead. He is best known for his first produced screenplay Little Miss Sunshine, for which he received multiple awards including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
  Arndt is also well known for his second screenplay from the film Toy Story 3, for which he also received multiple awards and nominations including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This made Arndt the first screenwriter ever to be nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay for his first two screenplays.
  Arndt's father was a member of the Foreign Service, and as a result he lived in various countries, including Sri Lanka and India; he also lived in Virginia for a time. Ardnt graduated from Langley High School in McLean, Virginia, and also attended The Potomac School. He attended New York University and graduated from its film school. Arndt was a script reader for some time, and was a personal assistant to actor Matthew Broderick until late 1999, when he chose to begin writing screenplays full-time.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Arndt
• Mick LaSalle
  Mick LaSalle (born May 7, 1959) is an American film critic and the author of two books on pre-Hays Code Hollywood. Up to March 2008, he had written inmore than 1550 reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle and he has been podcasting them since September 2005.
  LaSalle is the author of Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, a history/critical study of the actresses who worked in the film industry between 1929-1934. It was published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2000. In his review in The New York Times, Andy Webster called it "an overdue examination of a historic conflict between Hollywood and would-be monitors of morality" and added LaSalle "has an avuncular but informative style, and makes his points with a relaxed economy."
  The book served as the basis for the documentary film Complicated Women, directed by Hugh Munro Neely and narrated by Jane Fonda, which originally was broadcast by Turner Classic Movies in May 2003. LaSalle provided commentary for and was associate producer of the project.
  
  wn.com/Mick_LaSalle
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  Mike Myers
  Michael John "Mike" Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and the Shrek film series.
  Myers was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, the son of British-born parents Eric Myers (1922–1991), an insurance man and World War II veteran of the Royal Engineers, and his wife Alice E. (née Hind; born 1926), an office supervisor and veteran of the Royal Air Force. Both of his parents are from Liverpool, England. He has two older brothers, Peter Myers and Paul Myers, an indie rock singer-songwriter, broadcaster and author. Myers is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and was raised Protestant. He holds three citizenships, American, British, and Canadian.
  Myers began school at Bishopbriggs Academy then changed to the Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario. He began performing in commercials at age eight, and at ten he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro Electric, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Second City Theatre. He left to tour Britain with comedian Neil Mullarkey.
  
  wn.com/Mike_Myers
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  Mira Nair
  Mira Nair (born October 15, 1957) is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.
  She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She used the proceeds of the film, to establish an organization for street children, called the Salaam Baalak Trust in India. She often works with longtime creative collaborator, screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, whom she met at Harvard.
  She has won a number of awards, including a National Film Award and various international film festival awards, and was a nominee at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards and Filmfare Awards. She was also awarded the India Abroad Person of the Year-2007, which was presented by Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and CEO, PepsiCo, Inc, and India Abroad Person of the Year-2006. In 2012 she was awarded India's third highest civilian award the Padma Bhushan by President of India, Pratibha Patil.
  
  wn.com/Mira_Nair
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  Natalie Portman
  Natalie Hershlag (Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג‎; born June 9, 1981), better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but mainstream success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (released in 1999, 2002 and 2005). In 1999, she enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology while still working as an actress. She completed her bachelor's degree in 2003.
  In 2001, Portman opened in New York City's Public Theater production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In 2005, Portman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for the drama Closer. She won a Constellation Award for Best Female Performance, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress for her starring role in V for Vendetta (2006). She played leading roles in the historical dramas Goya's Ghosts (2006) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In May 2008, she served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury. Portman's directorial debut, Eve, opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival's shorts competition in 2008. Portman directed a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You.
  
  wn.com/Natalie_Portman
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  Nicole Kidman
  Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer, film producer, and humanitarian. Kidman began her career in 1983, starring in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Kidman followed this with other successful films in the late 1990s. It was her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) which earned Kidman her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf the following year in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.
  Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005), and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades including a subsequent Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. Kidman's work has earned her a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor, and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.
  
  wn.com/Nicole_Kidman
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  Nora Ephron
  Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941) is an American female filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.
  She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for three films: Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes writes with her sister Delia Ephron. Her most recent film is Julie & Julia. She has also co-authored the Drama Desk Award-winning theatrical production, Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
  Ephron was born in New York City, eldest of four daughters in a Jewish family, and at age four moved to and grew up in Beverly Hills; her parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were both East Coast-born and raised screenwriters. Her sisters Delia and Amy are also screenwriters. Her sister Hallie Ephron is a journalist, book reviewer, and novelist who writes crime fiction. Ephron's parents based Sandra Dee's character in the play and the Jimmy Stewart film Take Her, She's Mine on their 22-year-old daughter Nora and her letters to them from college. Both became alcoholics during their declining years. Ephron graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California, in 1958. It was during her junior year there, that she became interested in Journalism. She then majored in political science and wrote for the weekly newspaper at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1962.
  
  wn.com/Nora_Ephron
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  Oscar Wilde
  Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.
  Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day.
  
  wn.com/Oscar_Wilde
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  Owen Wilson
  Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums,Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, Marmaduke, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon, Behind Enemy Lines, and Drillbit Taylor.
  Wilson was born in Dallas, to photographer Laura Cunningham Wilson and Robert Andrew Wilson, an advertising executive and operator of a public television station. He has an older brother, Andrew, and a younger brother, Luke. Both brothers were also involved in filmmaking. His family, originally from Massachusetts, is Irish American and Catholic. Wilson attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
  Wilson debuted as an actor in the role of "Dignan" in the Wes Anderson film Bottle Rocket, which he co-wrote with Anderson. He also worked with Anderson as a creative collaborator on his next two directorial efforts, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, for which they were nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
  
  wn.com/Owen_Wilson
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  Patricia Arquette
  Patricia T. Arquette (born April 8, 1968) is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
  Arquette was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Lewis Arquette, an actor, and Brenda "Mardi" Olivia (née Nowak), an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher and therapist. Arquette's mother was Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Poland, and Arquette's father was a convert to Islam and related to explorer Meriwether Lewis. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette, and her siblings are actors Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond and David Arquette.
  Arquette was raised in Virginia and California.
  In 1987, Arquette's first starring roles were as pregnant teenager Stacy in television film Daddy, boarding school student Zero in Pretty Smart, and the attention-getting Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. In 1991, she won a CableACE Award for her portrayal of a deaf epileptic in Wildflower. In 1993, she starred in Tony Scott's True Romance. She has since appeared in such critically acclaimed movies as Ed Wood as the "worst ever" film director's eventual wife, Beyond Rangoon, Ethan Frome, Lost Highway, Little Nicky, Stigmata, Bringing Out the Dead, Human Nature, Disney's Holes, and Flirting with Disaster.
  
  wn.com/Patricia_Arquette
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  Patrick Dempsey
  Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd ("McDreamy") on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award. He has also appeared in several films, including Sweet Home Alabama, Made of Honor, Valentine's Day, Flypaper, Freedom Writers, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
  Dempsey was born in Lewiston, Maine, and grew up in Buckfield, Maine. His mother, Amanda M. (née Caisson), was a school secretary, and his father, William A. Dempsey, was an insurance salesman. He attended Buckfield High School and St. Dominic Regional High School. He was an adept juggler, tying for second in a national juggling competition. He was also an accomplished skier and while in high school won the Maine state slalom championship.
  As a child, Dempsey attended Camp Wekeela located in Hartford, Maine.
  Dempsey was diagnosed with dyslexia at age twelve. He told Barbara Walters on her 2008 Oscar special that he thinks dyslexia "made him what he is today." “It’s given me a perspective of — you have to keep working,” Dempsey told Walters. “I have never given up.”
  
  wn.com/Patrick_Dempsey
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  Paul Rudd
  Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He has primarily appeared in comedies, and is known for his roles in the films Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Dinner for Schmucks, The Object of My Affection, Role Models, I Love You, Man, and Our Idiot Brother. In television, he appeared on the NBC sitcom Friends, playing Mike Hannigan, Phoebe Buffay's boyfriend and later husband, and is commonly featured on the Tim and Eric show.
  Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey. His parents, both natives of London (England), were Jewish, and were descended from immigrants from Russia and Poland; the family's original surname, "Rudnitzky", was changed by his grandfather to "Rudd". Rudd had a bar mitzvah. His father, Michael, was a historical tour guide who was formerly the vice president of World Airways, while his mother, Gloria, was a sales manager at the television station KSMO-TV. When he was ten, Rudd's family moved to Overland Park, Kansas, where he was raised; his family also spent three years living in Anaheim, California, because of his father's occupation. He attended high school at Shawnee Mission West and college at the University of Kansas, where he was a member of the Nu Chapter of Sigma Nu. He spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy based in Oxford, U.K.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Rudd
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  Peggy Lee
  Peggy Lee (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002) was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and performer. She wrote music for films, acted, and created conceptual record albums—encompassing poetry, jazz, chamber pop, and art songs.
  Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh of eight children of Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, and his wife Selma Amelia (Anderson) Egstrom. Her mother died when Lee was just four years old. Her father was Swedish American and her mother was Norwegian American.
  Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a "salary" in food. Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for paltry sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee.^{[citation needed]} Thereafter, Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.
  
  wn.com/Peggy_Lee
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  People magazine
  People (originally called People Weekly) is a weekly American magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, published by Time Inc. As of 2006, it has a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion. It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation and advertising.People ranked #6 on Advertising Age's annual "A-list" and #3 on Adweek's "Brand Blazers" list in October 2006.
  The magazine runs a roughly 50/50 mix of celebrity and human-interest articles. People's editors claim to refrain from printing pure celebrity gossip, enough so to lead celebrity publicists to propose exclusives to the magazine, evidence of what one staffer calls a "publicist-friendly strategy".
  People's website, People.com, focuses exclusively on celebrity news. In February 2007, the website drew 39.6 million page views "within a day" of the Golden Globes. However "the mother ship of Oscar coverage" broke a site record with 51.7 million page views on the day after the Oscars, beating the previous record set just a month before from the Golden Globes.^{[not in citation given]}
  
  wn.com/People_magazine
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  Peter Sarsgaard
  John Peter Sarsgaard (pronounced /ˈsɑrzɡɑrd/; born March 7, 1971) is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), playing Raoul, the ill-fated son of Athos. Sarsgaard later achieved critical recognition when he was cast in Boys Don't Cry (1999) as John Lotter. He landed his first leading role in the 2001 film The Center of the World. The following year, he played supporting roles in Empire, The Salton Sea, and K-19: The Widowmaker.
  For his portrayal of Charles Lane in Shattered Glass, Sarsgaard won the Online Film Critics Society Award in the category for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sarsgaard has appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy Garden State, the biographical film Kinsey (2004), the drama The Dying Gaul (2005) and big-budget films such as Flightplan (2005), Jarhead (2005), Orphan (2009), Knight and Day (2010), and the superhero film Green Lantern (2011).
  
  wn.com/Peter_Sarsgaard
• Rachel Green
  Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston. Aniston received an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe for her performances.
  She grew up on Long Island with her parents, Leonard and Sandra, and her two sisters, Jill and Amy. Her father is a doctor and her family is shown to be incredibly wealthy; Rachel states that they owned a boat and that she had her own pony. She and her sisters are portrayed to be vain and spoiled. She is described as being the most popular girl in her high school and was a head cheerleader, as well as class president and prom queen. Despite her popularity, her best friend was the formerly fat and unpopular Monica Geller (Courteney Cox). Rachel was close to Monica's family when she was in high school, so she already knew Monica's older brother Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), who harbours a long unrequited love for her, and Ross's best friend from college, Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry).
  
  wn.com/Rachel_Green
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  Reese Witherspoon
  Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976), better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower. In 1996, Witherspoon appeared in Freeway and followed that appearance with roles in three major 1998 films: Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville and Twilight. The following year, Witherspoon appeared in the critically acclaimed Election, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
  2001 marked her career's turning point with the breakout role as Elle Woods in the box office hit Legally Blonde, and in 2002 she starred in Sweet Home Alabama, which became her biggest commercial film success to date. 2003 saw her return as lead actress and executive producer of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. In 2005, Witherspoon received worldwide attention and praise for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, which earned her an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
  
  wn.com/Reese_Witherspoon
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  Renée Zellweger
  Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire (1996), and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) (which she reprised in its sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)), and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago (2002). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Cold Mountain (2003).
  She has won an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a BAFTA Award, was named Hasty Pudding's Woman of the Year in 2009, and established herself as one of the highest-paid Hollywood actresses as of 2007.
  Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from Au in the canton of St. Gallen,Switzerland, and is a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business. Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian; of part Sámi and Kven (Finnish) descent, Kjellfrid grew up in Kirkenes and Ekkerøy, and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger has described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".
  
  wn.com/Renée_Zellweger
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  Robert Pattinson
  Robert Thomas Pattinson (born 13 May 1986) is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Later, he landed the leading role of Edward Cullen in the film adaptations of the Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer, and came to worldwide fame, thus establishing himself among the highest paid and most bankable actors in Hollywood. In 2010, Pattinson was named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World, and also in the same year Forbes ranked him as one of the most powerful celebrities in the world in the Forbes Celebrity 100.
  Pattinson was born in London, England. His mother, Clare, worked for a modelling agency, and his father, Richard, imported vintage cars from the U.S. Pattinson has two elder sisters, singer Lizzy Pattinson, and Victoria Pattinson. Growing up in the Barnes suburb of London, he attended Tower House School until he was 12, and then The Harrodian School. He became involved in amateur theatre at the Barnes Theatre Company. He auditioned and was cast in a small role in Guys and Dolls. He next auditioned for Thornton Wilder's Our Town and was cast as George Gibbs. He also played in Anything Goes and Macbeth. He caught the attention of an acting agent in a production of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and began looking for professional roles.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Pattinson
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  Robin Williams
  Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951) is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He has also won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.
  Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurin (née Smith, 1922–2001), was a former model from New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 – October 18, 1987), was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company in charge of the Midwest region. His maternal great-great-grandfather was senator and Mississippi governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams is of English, Welsh, Irish, and French ancestry. He was raised in the Episcopal Church (his mother practiced Christian Science). He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the Detroit Country Day School, and later moved to Woodacre, Marin County, California, where he attended the public Redwood High School. Williams studied at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) for four years. He has two half-brothers: Todd (who died August 14, 2007) and McLaurin.
  
  wn.com/Robin_Williams
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  Roger Ebert
  Roger Joseph Ebert ( /ˈiːbərt/; born June 18, 1942) is an American journalist, film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
  Ebert is known for his film review column (appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and later online) and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies, all of which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel. After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with Richard Roeper for the television series Ebert & Roeper & the Movies, which began airing in 2000. Although his name remained in the title, Ebert did not appear on the show after mid-2006 after he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer, leaving him unable to speak. Ebert ended his association with the show in July 2008, but in February 2009 he stated that he and Roeper would continue their work on a new show. Ebert's current show, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, premiered on January 21, 2011, with Ebert contributing a review voiced by someone else in a brief segment called "Roger's Office".
  
  wn.com/Roger_Ebert
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  Ryan Phillippe
  Matthew Ryan Phillippe ( /ˈfɪlɨpiː/; born September 10, 1974), better known as Ryan Phillippe, is an American actor. After appearing on the soap opera One Life to Live, he came to fame in the late 1990s starring in a string of films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and 54. In the 2000s, he appeared in several films, including 2001's Academy Award Best Picture nominee Gosford Park, 2005's Academy Award-winning ensemble film Crash, and the 2006 war drama Flags of Our Fathers. In 2007 he starred in Breach, a movie based on the true story of FBI operative Eric O'Neill, while in 2008 he headlined Kimberly Peirce's Iraq war film Stop-Loss. In 2010, he starred as Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Greg Marinovich in The Bang-Bang Club.
  Phillippe was born in New Castle, Delaware. His mother, Susan (née Thomas), ran a day care center in the family's house, and his father, Richard Phillippe, worked for DuPont. Phillippe is of part French descent. He has three sisters. He attended New Castle Baptist Academy, where he played basketball and soccer, as well as earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do; he was also the Yearbook Editor in his senior year.
  
  wn.com/Ryan_Phillippe
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  Ryan Reynolds
  Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian film and television actor. Reynolds is known for playing the role of Michael Bergen on ABC's sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001), Wade Wilson / Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Hal Jordan / Green Lantern in Green Lantern. He has also appeared in films such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, The Change-Up, and Safe House.
  Reynolds was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, Jim, is a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tammy, is a retail salesperson. He is of Irish ancestry and was raised as a Roman Catholic. The youngest of four brothers, he graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver in 1994. He later attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University, also in Vancouver, until dropping out.
  Reynolds' career began in 1990 when he starred as "Billy" in the Canadian-produced teen soap Hillside, distributed in the United States by Nickelodeon as Fifteen. As an adult, Reynolds starred in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder and the American television series Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, playing medical student Michael "Berg" Bergen. In 1993-94 he had a recurring role in The Odyssey as Macro. He also cameoed in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as a nurse, appeared in The In-Laws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, as well as the Canadian production Foolproof.
  
  wn.com/Ryan_Reynolds
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  Sacha Baron Cohen
  Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born 13 October 1971) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and voice actor. A graduate of Cambridge University, Baron Cohen is most widely known for writing and playing four unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, Brüno, and Admiral General Aladeen. In his routines, Baron Cohen's characters interact with unsuspecting people who do not realise they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule.
  Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O'Clock Show, and since then, his work has been further recognised with two BAFTA Awards for Da Ali G Show, several Emmy nominations, a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. After the release of Borat, Baron Cohen stated that because the public had become too familiar with the characters, he would retire Borat and Ali G. Similarly, after the release of Brüno, Baron Cohen has stated he would also retire the title character.
  
  wn.com/Sacha_Baron_Cohen
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  Sally Hawkins
  Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Other significant roles include Susan in Vera Drake (2004), Sue Trinder in the BBC serial Fingersmith (2005), Anne Elliot in Persuasion (2007), and Rita O'Grady in Made in Dagenham (2010).
  The daughter of Jacqui and Colin Hawkins, authors and illustrators of children's books, Hawkins was brought up in Blackheath in southeast London, and attended James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1998.
  Hawkins' theatre appearances include Much Ado About Nothing (2000), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2000), Misconceptions (2001), Country Music (2004), and David Hare's adaptation of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba in 2005.
  Hawkins made her first notable screen performance as Samantha in the 2002 Mike Leigh film All or Nothing. She also appeared as Slasher in the 2004 film Layer Cake. She played the role of Zena Blake in the BBC adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel, Tipping the Velvet in 2002. Her first major television role came in 2005, when she played Susan Trinder in the BAFTA-nominated BBC drama Fingersmith, an adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel of the same name, in which she co-starred with Imelda Staunton, as she had in Vera Drake. Since then she has gone on to star in another BBC adaptation, Patrick Hamilton's Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky.
  
  wn.com/Sally_Hawkins
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  Sandra Bullock
  Sandra Annette Bullock ( /ˈbʊlək/; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. In the new millennium she appeared in such films as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House, and Crash, the third of which received critical acclaim. In 2007, she was ranked as the 14th richest female celebrity with an estimated fortune of US$85 million. In 2009, Bullock starred in two of the more financially successful films of her career, The Proposal and The Blind Side. Bullock was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side. She is listed in the 2012 edition of the Guinness Book Of World Records as the highest-paid actress, with $56 million.
  Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Her father, John W. Bullock (born 1925), was a United States Army employee and part-time voice coach from Birmingham, Alabama, and her mother, Helga D. Meyer (1942–2000), was a German opera singer and voice teacher. Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. John Bullock, then in charge of the Army's Military Postal Service in Europe, was stationed in Nuremberg when he met his wife. They married in Germany, soon moving to Arlington, where John Bullock worked with the Army Materiel Command, before becoming a contractor for The Pentagon.
  
  wn.com/Sandra_Bullock
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  Scarlett Johansson
  Scarlett Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress, model and singer.
  Johansson made her film debut in North (1994) and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo (1996). She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Ghost World (2001). She shifted to adult roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Both films earned her Golden Globe Award nominations.
  A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) earned Johansson a third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Johansson garnered another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress with her role in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005). She went on to star in two further Allen movies: Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Johansson has appeared in other successful films, such as Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006). Johansson played popular Marvel comic book character Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in the films Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012).
  
  wn.com/Scarlett_Johansson
• Scott Alexander
  Scott Alexander (born 1976) is a British millionaire and nouveau riche socialite featured in Britain's Biggest Spenders and often quoted as being "the most vain man in Britain". Alexander is frequently seen in media. One of his most well known projects was to buy a Bulgarian town in 2006 and change its name to Alexander.
  
  
  Alexander is an active trader in real estate and premier cars. He is also a professional life coach. His property development business went bankrupt in 2009.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Scott_Alexander
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  Sissy Spacek
  Sissy Spacek (born Mary Elizabeth Spacek; December 25, 1949) is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie (based on the first novel by Stephen King) for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as country star Loretta Lynn in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter. She has been nominated for an Oscar a total of six times, and is also known for her role as Holly Sargis in Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands.
  Spacek is mainly a dramatic actress, but also has made comedies. The films that Spacek has starred in have earned more than $1 billion worldwide.
  Spacek was born on Christmas Day, 1949, in Quitman, Texas. She is the daughter of Virginia Frances (née Spilman) and Edwin Arnold Spacek, Sr., a county agricultural agent. Spacek's paternal grandparents, Mary Červenka and Arnold A. Špaček (who served as Mayor of Granger, Texas in Williamson County), were of Czech (Moravian) and German ancestry. Her mother, of English and Irish descent, was from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
  
  wn.com/Sissy_Spacek
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  Steve Carell
  Steven John "Steve" Carell ( /kəˈrɛl/; born August 16, 1962) is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office. He has also starred in lead roles in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, Get Smart, Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks, and Crazy, Stupid, Love.; and voiced characters in the animated films Over the Hedge, Horton Hears a Who!, and Despicable Me. Carell was nominated as "America's funniest man" in Life magazine, and received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series for playing the lead role of Michael Scott for The Office in 2006.
  Carell, the youngest of four brothers, was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, and was raised in nearby Acton by his parents, Harriet T. (née Koch), a psychiatric nurse, and Edwin A. Carell, an electrical engineer. His maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with Allen B. DuMont to create cathode ray tubes. Carell's paternal grandfather was Italian; his father was born with the surname "Caroselli", later shortening it to "Carell". Carell was raised Roman Catholic, and was educated at The Fenn School and Middlesex School. Carell also played ice hockey as a teenager for his high school.^{[citation needed]} He played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. Carell attributed his interest in history to this, in which he earned his degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1984. While at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe.
  
  wn.com/Steve_Carell
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  Tim Burton
  Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Dark Shadows and for blockbusters such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, which was the second highest-grossing film of 2010, and the tenth highest-grossing film of all time.
  Burton is known for using recurring collaborators on his works; among them are Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together; musician Danny Elfman, who has composed for all but five of the films Burton has directed or produced; and domestic partner Helena Bonham Carter. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. Burton has directed 16 films and produced 12, as of 2012. His latest films are an adaptation of the soap opera Dark Shadows, released on May 10, 2012, and a remake of his 1984 short, Frankenweenie, scheduled to be released on October 5, 2012.
  
  wn.com/Tim_Burton
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  Time 100
  Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.
  The list was started with a debate at a symposium in Washington, D.C., on February 1, 1998, with panel participants CBS news anchor Dan Rather, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, then–political science professor Condoleezza Rice, neoconservative publisher Irving Kristol and Time managing editor Walter Isaacson.
  The list was first published in 1999, when Time magazine named the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Based on the popularity of the installment, in 2004 Time magazine decided to make it an annual issue, listing the 100 people most influencing the world. Making the list is frequently mistaken as an honor; however, Time makes it very clear that people are recognized for changing the world, for better or for worse. Those recognized fall in one of five categories: Leaders & Revolutionaries, Builders & Titans, Artists & Entertainers, Scientists & Thinkers, and Heroes & Icons. Within each category, the 20 most influential people (sometimes pairs or small groups) are selected, for a grand total of 100 each year.
  
  wn.com/Time_100
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  Tobey Maguire
  Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the late 1980s. While perhaps best known for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), he has also appeared in films such as Pleasantville (1998), Ride with the Devil (1999), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), Tropic Thunder (2008), and Brothers (2009). He has been nominated for Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Awards and received two Saturn Awards, including one for Best Actor.
  Maguire was born in Santa Monica, California. He is the son of Wendy (née Brown), a secretary turned screenwriter and producer, and Vincent Maguire, a construction worker and cook. He has four half-brothers. His parents, 18 and 20 years old, were unmarried at the time of his birth; the two married and subsequently divorced when Maguire was two. Maguire spent much of his childhood moving from town to town, living with each parent and other family members. During his childhood, Maguire entertained the idea of becoming a chef and to that end wanted to enroll in a home economics class as a sixth grader. His mother offered him US$100 to take a drama class instead, and Tobey agreed.
  
  wn.com/Tobey_Maguire
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  Tom Hardy
  Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy (born 15 September 1977) is a British actor and screenwriter. He is known for his roles in Star Trek: Nemesis, RocknRolla, Bronson, Inception, Warrior, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, This Means War, and the television movie Stuart: A Life Backwards, for which he received a nomination for the BAFTA Best Actor. He also played Freddie Jackson in Martina Cole's The Take, a television movie based on her novel of the same name. He will portray the primary villain Bane in the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.
  Hardy, an only child, was born in Hammersmith, and brought up in East Sheen, London. His mother, Anne (née Barrett), is an artist and painter whose family was Irish Catholic. His father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, is an advertisement, comedy and novel writer. Hardy studied at two private schools, Reed's School and Tower House School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London. He began his debut in war dramas, winning the part of United States Army Private John Janovec in the award-winning HBO and BBC miniseries Band of Brothers. He made his feature film debut in Ridley Scott's 2001 war thriller Black Hawk Down.
  
  wn.com/Tom_Hardy
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  Tom Perrotta
  Thomas R. Perrotta (born August 13, 1961) is an Albanian-American/ Italian-American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels Election (1998) and Little Children (2004), both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films. Perrotta co-wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film version of Little Children with Todd Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
  Perrotta was born in Garwood, New Jersey, the son of a postman and a secretary, and was raised Roman Catholic. Perrotta grew up a voracious reader of authors such as O. Henry, J. R. R. Tolkien, and John Irving, and decided early in his life that he wanted to be a writer. He was involved in his high school literary magazine, Pariah, for which he wrote several short stories. Perrotta earned a B.A. in English from Yale University in 1983, and then received an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from Syracuse University. While at Syracuse, Perrotta was a pupil of Tobias Wolff, whom Perrotta later praised for his "comic writing and moral seriousness."
  
  wn.com/Tom_Perrotta
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  Vince Vaughn
  Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian and activist. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers. He has since appeared in a number of films, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Return to Paradise, Old School, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Couples Retreat, The Break Up, and Wedding Crashers. Vaughn is also a close friend to actor/director Jon Favreau.
  Vince Vaughn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Sharon Eileen (née DePalmo), a native of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is a real-estate agent and stock broker who was once ranked as one of the United States' top money managers by Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine. His father, Vernon Lindsay Vaughn, worked as a salesman for a toy company. His parents divorced in 1991. Vaughn is their only son and the youngest of their three children; he has two older sisters, Victoria and Valerie. As a child he was raised "both Protestant and Catholic" by his Catholic mother and Protestant father, and has English, Irish, German, Lebanese, and Italian ancestry.
  
  wn.com/Vince_Vaughn
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  Viola Davis
  Viola Davis (born August 11, 1965) is an American actress.
  Beginning her career on the stage, Davis won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for her role in King Hedley II (2001). She won a second Drama Desk Award for Intimate Apparel (2004). She won a second Tony and a third Drama Desk Award for her role in Fences (2010).
  Some of her notable films include Traffic (2000), Antwone Fisher (2002), Solaris (2002) and The Help (2011). Her eleven-minute-long performance in the film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt (2008) earned several honors, including an Academy Award nomination. Her role in the film The Help has garnered two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a BAFTA Award nomination, another Academy Award nomination, and a Golden Globe nomination. In addition to her success, she was listed in Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
  Davis was born on her grandmother's farm, at the former Singleton Plantation, in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She is the second youngest of six children. Her mother, Mary Alice, was a maid, factory worker, and homemaker, and her father, Dan Davis, was a horse trainer. Her family moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island a few months after she was born. Davis has described herself as having "lived in abject poverty and dysfunction" during her childhood.
  
  wn.com/Viola_Davis
• Walter Keane
  Walter Stanley Keane (born October 7, 1915, in Lincoln, Nebraska, died December 27, 2000, in Encinitas, California) was an American artist working in San Francisco. He gained fame as a painter who, together with his wife Margaret Keane, produced a large number of kitsch paintings, characterized by large-eyed waifs.
  Walter Keane was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in October 7, 1915, one of 10 children from his father's second marriage. His father Stanley Keane was born in Ireland, his mother Johnson in Denmark. Keane grew up near the center of Lincoln and made money by selling shoes. In the early 1930s he moved to Los Angeles, California where he attended Los Angeles City College. He moved to Berkeley, California in the 1940's with his bride Barbara Ingham Keane, and went into real estate, both were real estate brokers. Their first child, a son, died shortly after birth in the hospital. In 1947 they had a healthy baby girl, Susan Hale Keane. Walter and Barbara bought a huge home, over 5,000 sq ft (with a ballroom) designed by the architect Julia Morgan (who also designed Hearst Castle.) In 1948 the Keanes traveled to Europe, living in Heidelberg and later Paris. It was in Paris that Walter studied art, painting primarily nudes and Paris street scenes. His wife Barbara studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, and also studied dress design in various Couturier Houses in Paris. They were amazed at how quickly their young daughter picked up foreign languages, and when they returned to their home in Berkeley, California, began an educational toy business called "Susie Keane's Puppeteens", teaching children to speak French through the use of handmade puppets, phonograph records, and a book. The "ballroom" of their large home became an assembly line of hand painted "wide eyed" wooden puppets, with various intricately made costumes. The puppets were sold in high-end stores like Saks Fifth Avenue.
  
  wn.com/Walter_Keane
• West Memphis Three
  The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a satanic ritual. A number of documentaries have been based on the case, and celebrities and musicians have held fund raisers in the belief that they are innocent.
  In July 2007, new forensic evidence was presented in the case and a status report jointly issued by the State and the Defense team stated, "Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants." On October 29, 2007, the defense filed a Second Amended Writ of Habeas Corpus, outlining the new evidence.
  
  wn.com/West_Memphis_Three
• Wikipedia Persondata
  wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata
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  Zach Galifianakis
  Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis ( /ˌɡælɨfəˈnækɨs/ GAL-i-fə-NAK-iss; born October 1, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special. While initially more of an "underground" comedian, he garnered mainstream attention for his role as Alan Garner in the comedy film The Hangover and its sequel The Hangover Part II.
  Zach Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. His mother, Mary Frances (née Cashion), ran a community center for the arts, and his father, Harry Galifianakis, was a heating oil vendor. Galifianakis' paternal grandparents emigrated from Crete, Greece, and Galifianakis was baptized in his father's Greek Orthodox faith. His mother is of Scots-Irish descent. He has two siblings, a younger sister, Merritt, and an older brother, Greg. His uncle, Nick Galifianakis, was a congressman from North Carolina between 1967 and 1973. He attended Wilkes Central High School, and subsequently attended but did not graduate from North Carolina State University, where he was a communications major.
  
  wn.com/Zach_Galifianakis

Fear (1996)

Actors

• Jed Curtis

Director