William "Bill" Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes at the end of 1995 with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his views on licensing and comic syndication, as well as for his reclusive nature.

Early years and education[link]

Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., where his father, James G. Watterson (born 1932), worked as a patent examiner while going to George Washington University Law School before becoming a patent attorney in 1960.

In 1964, when Watterson was six years old, the family moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where his mother, Kathryn Watterson, became a city council member. James was elected as a council member in 1997, holding that position for 12 years before retiring on August 31, 2009 to pursue some artistic "projects and goals".^[1]

Watterson, who drew his first cartoon at the age of eight, spent a lot of time in childhood alone, occupying his time with drawing and cartooning. This continued throughout his primary and secondary schooling years when he drew cartoons for the school newspaper and yearbook.^[2] During this time he discovered comic strips like Pogo, Krazy Kat, and Charles Schulz' Peanuts which subsequently inspired and influenced his desire to become a professional cartoonist.^[3] His parents recall him as a very quiet and unassuming child, who would spend hours drawing in his room:

"He was a conservative child, not that he was unimaginative, because of course he was. But not in a fantasy way. He and his brother (Tom) would make time-lapse movies and that certainly showed a certain amount of imagination. And he would draw his characters. But he was nothing like Calvin. He didn't have an imaginary friend like Hobbes, and he wasn't a Dennis the Menace."
— James G. Watterson

While attending Chagrin Falls High School, he drew a representation of the school mascot, Mortimer the Tiger, for the school newspaper. This tiger was said^{[by whom?]} to be the early inspiration behind Hobbes and the rendering can still be found on school merchandise.

College[link]

From 1976 to 1980, Watterson attended Kenyon College and completed a degree in political science, all the while developing his artistic skills and contributing cartoons for the college newspaper. Many of the cartoons and pieces of artwork Watterson created at Kenyon can now be found online. These comics were the original "Spaceman Spiff" cartoons.

Jim Borgman had graduated from Kenyon just before Watterson arrived, but his work as a political cartoonist so impressed Bill that he decided to pursue a career as one himself. Borgman worked at The Cincinnati Post and gave Watterson encouragement and advice throughout his time as a student.^[4]

In his 1990 speech to Kenyon College graduates, Watterson revealed that during his final year he had painted a copy of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel on the ceiling of his dorm room:

“By standing on a chair, I could reach the ceiling, and I taped off a section, made a grid, and started to copy the picture from my art history book. Working with your arm over your head is hard work, so a few of my more ingenious friends rigged up a scaffold for me by stacking two chairs on my bed, and laying the table from the hall lounge across the chairs and over to the top of my closet. By climbing up onto my bed and up the chairs, I could hoist myself onto the table, and lie in relative comfort two feet under my painting. My roommate would then hand up my paints, and I could work for several hours at a stretch.

The picture took me months to do, and in fact, I didn't finish the work until very near the end of the school year. I wasn't much of a painter then, but what the work lacked in color sense and technical flourish, it gained in the incongruity of having a High Renaissance masterpiece in a college dorm that had the unmistakable odor of old beer cans and older laundry.”

Later, when Watterson was coming up with names for the characters of his comic strip, he decided upon Calvin (after the Protestant reformer John Calvin) and Hobbes (after the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes) as a "tip of the hat" to the political science department at Kenyon, though since he has never directly cited this inspiration publicly, the reference is usually considered to be apocryphal. In "The Complete Calvin And Hobbes," Watterson does not explicitly name the inspiration for Calvin's character, but he does state that Calvin is named for "a 16th-century theologian who believed in predestination." For those who are familiar with John Calvin and the principles of Calvinism, there seems to be little doubt as to who this theologian might be.

Early career[link]

In 1980, Watterson graduated from Kenyon with a B.A. in political science. Immediately, The Cincinnati Post offered him a job drawing political cartoons for a six-month trial period:

The agreement was that they could fire me, or I could quit with no questions asked if things didn't work out during the first few months. Sure enough, things didn't work out, and they fired me, no questions asked.

My guess is that the editor wanted his own Jeff MacNelly (a Pulitzer winner at 24), and I didn't live up to his expectations. My Cincinnati days were pretty Kafkaesque. I had lived there all of two weeks, and the editor insisted that most of my work be about local, as opposed to national, issues. Cincinnati has a weird, three-party, city manager government, and by the time I figured it out, I was standing in the unemployment lines. I didn't hit the ground running. Cincinnati at that time was also beginning to realize it had major cartooning talent in Jim Borgman at the city's other paper, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and I didn't benefit from the comparison.

— Watterson explaining his short career with the Cincinnati Post^[5]

During the early years of his career he produced several drawings and additional contributions for Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly. He designed grocery advertisements for four years prior to creating Calvin and Hobbes.^[6]

Rise to success[link]

Inspiration[link]

Watterson has said he works for personal fulfillment. As he told the graduating class of 1990 at Kenyon College, "It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves." Calvin and Hobbes was first published on November 18, 1985. In Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, he wrote^[7] that his influences included Charles Schulz for Peanuts; Walt Kelly for Pogo and George Herriman for Krazy Kat. Watterson wrote the introduction to the first volume of The Komplete Kolor Krazy Kat. Watterson's style also reflects the influence of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.^[8][9]

Like many artists, Watterson incorporated elements of his life, interests, beliefs and values into his work—for example, his hobby as a cyclist,^[10] memories of his own father’s speeches about ‘building character’, and his views on merchandising and corporations. Watterson's cat, Sprite, very much inspired the personality and physical features of Hobbes.^[11]

Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics. He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined, and that the space they occupied in newspapers continually decreased, subject to arbitrary whims of shortsighted publishers. Furthermore, he opined that art should not be judged by the medium for which it is created (i.e., there is no "high" art or "low" art—just art).^[12]

Fight against merchandising the cartoon characters[link]

Watterson battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something he felt would cheapen his comic.^[13] He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that displaying Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially sold mugs, stickers and T-shirts would devalue the characters and their personalities.^[14] Despite this, many knockoffs have been found, including college T-shirts which show Calvin and Hobbes binge drinking or Calvin urinating on a logo.

Reuben[link]

Watterson was awarded the National Cartoonists Society's Humor Comic Strip Award in 1988 and the society's Reuben Award in 1986;^[15] he was the youngest person ever to receive the latter award. In 1988, Watterson received the Reuben Award a second time. He was nominated a third time in 1992.

Watterson wrote a brief, tongue-in-cheek autobiography in the late 1980s.^[16]

From September 10, 2001, to January 16, 2002, Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum exhibited 36 of his Sunday strips.

[edit] End of Calvin and Hobbes

Watterson announced the end of Calvin and Hobbes on November 9, 1995, with the following letter to newspaper editors:

Dear Reader:

I will be stopping Calvin and Hobbes at the end of the year. This was not a recent or an easy decision, and I leave with some sadness. My interests have shifted, however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises. I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue.

That so many newspapers would carry Calvin and Hobbes is an honor I'll long be proud of, and I've greatly appreciated your support and indulgence over the last decade. Drawing this comic strip has been a privilege and a pleasure, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Sincerely,
Bill Watterson

The last strip of Calvin and Hobbes was published on December 31, 1995.

[edit] Since the end of Calvin and Hobbes

Since the conclusion of Calvin and Hobbes, Watterson has taken up painting, at one point drawing landscapes of the woods with his father. Watterson has kept away from the public eye and has given no indication of resuming the strip, creating new works based on the characters, or embarking on other projects, though he has published several anthologies of Calvin and Hobbes strips.

He will not sign autographs or license his characters, staying true to his stated principles. In previous years, he was known to sneak autographed copies of his books onto the shelves of the Fireside Bookshop, a family-owned bookstore in his home of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. However, after discovering that some people were selling the autographed books online for high prices, he ended this practice as well.^[17] Valuing privacy, he is very reluctant to give interviews or make public appearances. His lengthiest interview was featured as the cover story in The Comics Journal #127 in the late 1980s. He drew a new Calvin and Hobbes cover for that issue of the magazine as well.

In the years that followed the end of Calvin and Hobbes, there were many attempts to locate Watterson in his home town of Chagrin Falls. Both The Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Scene sent reporters in 1998 and 2003 respectively but were unable to locate him. In 2005, Gene Weingarten from The Washington Post was sent a gift of a first edition Barnaby book as an incentive for Watterson's cooperation. He passed this, along with a message, to Watterson's parents and declared he would wait in the hotel for as long as it took Watterson to contact him. The next day, Watterson's editor Lee Salem called to tell him that the cartoonist would not be coming.

In 2005, Watterson and his wife Melissa moved from Chagrin Falls to Cleveland.^[18][19]

On December 21, 1999 a short piece, written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip Peanuts, was published in the Los Angeles Times.^[20] In October 2005, Watterson answered 15 questions submitted by readers.^[21] In October 2007, Watterson wrote a review of Schulz and Peanuts, a biography of Charles Schulz, in The Wall Street Journal.^[22] In 2008, he provided a foreword for the first book collection of Richard Thompson's Cul De Sac comic strip.

In early 2010, Watterson was interviewed by The Plain Dealer on the 15th anniversary of the end of Calvin and Hobbes. Explaining his decision to discontinue the strip, he said,

This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of ten years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say. It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, ten, or twenty years, the people now "grieving" for Calvin and Hobbes would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them. I think some of the reason Calvin and Hobbes still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it. I've never regretted stopping when I did.^[23]

In April 2011, a representative for Andrews McMeel received a package from a "William Watterson in Cleveland Heights, Ohio", which contained a 6" x 8" oil-on-board painting of Cul De Sac character Petey Otterloop, done by Watterson for the Team Cul de Sac fundraising project for Parkinson's Disease. His syndicate, which has since become Universal Uclick, has said that the painting was the first new artwork from Watterson that the syndicate has seen since Calvin and Hobbes ended in 1995.^[24]

Legacy[link]

Changing the format of the Sunday strip[link]

Watterson opposed the structure publishers imposed on Sunday newspaper cartoons: the standard cartoon starts with a large, wide rectangle featuring the cartoon's logo or a throwaway panel tangential to the main area so that newspapers pressed for space can remove the top third of the cartoon if they wish; the rest of the strip is presented in a series of rectangles of different widths. In Watterson's opinion, this format limited the cartoonist's options of allowable presentation. After his sabbatical year in 1991 he managed to gain an exception to these constraints for Calvin and Hobbes, allowing him to draw his Sunday strip the way he wanted. In many, panels overlap or contain their own panels; in some, the action progresses diagonally across the strip.^[25]

Awards[link]

• 1986: Reuben Award, Cartoonist of the Year^[15]
• 1988: Reuben Award, Cartoonist of the Year
• 1988: National Cartoonists Society, Newspaper Comic Strips Humor Award
• 1988: Sproing Award, for Tommy og Tigern (Calvin and Hobbes)
• 1989: Harvey Award, Special Award for Humor, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1990: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1990: Max & Moritz Prize, Best Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1991: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1991: Adamson Award, for Kalle och Hobbe (Calvin and Hobbes)
• 1992: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1992: Eisner Award, Best Comic Strip Collection, for The Revenge of the Baby-Sat
• 1992: Angoulême International Comics Festival, Prize for Best Foreign Comic Book, for En avant tête de thon!
• 1992: Eisner Award, Best Comic Strip Collection, for Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
• 1993: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1994: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1995: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes
• 1996: Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Comic Strip, for Calvin and Hobbes

Sources[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Watterson

• Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets 2010 interview by John Campanelli, The Plain Dealer
• Rare Bill Watterson Art at Calvin and Hobbes: Magic On Paper
• "After an Early Bedtime, Calvin and Hobbes Are Up and Running in a New Collection" - Washington Post book review including broad look at Watterson's career
• Interview with Bill Watterson's mother(interview begins around 7:10)
• Comprehensive article on Watterson's career and reclusiveness from Cleveland Scene
• Bill Watterson's commencement speech, Kenyon College, Calvin and Hobbes at Martijn's - Bill Watterson, Bill Watterson’s Kenyon commencement speech Bill Watterson's Commencement Address to Kenyon College, May 20, 1990

Neil Cicierega
Neil with Soul Portrait, 2010.
Born	Neil Stephen Cicierega (1986-08-23) August 23, 1986 (age 25) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other names	Lemon Demon Trapezoid Trapezzoid Deporitaz
Occupation	Internet personality, actor, comedian, puppeteer, vocalist, musician, animator, filmmaker
Known for	Animutation, Flash animation
Internet information
Website
EvilTrailMix.com NeilCic.com

Neil Stephen Cicierega (born August 23, 1986) is an American comedian, filmmaker, and musician. He is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". He has also released several albums as a musician under the stage name Lemon Demon.

Animutation[link]

Cicierega created a genre of dadaist or surrealist Flash animation he termed "Animutation".^[1][2] Animutations feature arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and pop culture imagery and are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often from the Japanese version of Pokémon. One of his earliest works entitled "Hyakugojyuuichi" was published on the web, and was described as a "hit" in 2001 by Salon magazine.^[1][3]

[edit] Potter Puppet Pals

Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals is a comedy series which parodies Harry Potter. It originated as a pair of Flash animations on Newgrounds in 2003, and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live action puppet shows released onto YouTube and PotterPuppetPals.com,^[4] starting in 2006 and continuing to the present.^[5] The central characters of the Harry Potter series are portrayed simply by puppets. The most successful Potter Puppet Pals video, the Mysterious Ticking Noise, currently has over 125,190,181 views (as of May 5, 2012). Cicierega has done puppetry live at Harry Potter-themed events.^[6]

Lemon Demon[link]

Cicierega currently releases music and performs it live under the name of Lemon Demon.^[7] He has released six Lemon Demon albums since 2003, selections from the first four of which have been made available for free download on the Lemon Demon website.^[8] His most recent album View-Monster, originally released in 2008, was released to iTunes in November 2009. ^[9]

[edit] The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

In 2005, Neil Cicierega and animator Shawn Vulliez released the Flash video Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny on Newgrounds. This became very popular, reaching over 12 million views on Newgrounds,^[10] as well as topping the "Funny Five" on The Dr. Demento Show for several weeks and becoming the #1 Request for 2006.^{[citation needed]} The song was later included in the 2006 album, "Dinosaurchestra." An updated recording of the song was released to the Rock Band Network in 2010.^[11]

Discography[link]

• Outsmart (2000) - Deporitaz
• Microwave This CD (2001) - Deporitaz
• Dimes (2002) - Deporitaz
• Clown Circus (2003) - Lemon Demon
• Live From The Haunted Candle Shop (2003) - Lemon Demon
• Hip To The Javabean (2004) - Lemon Demon
• Damn Skippy (2005) - Lemon Demon
• Dinosaurchestra (2006) - Lemon Demon
• Circa 2000 (2007) - Deporitaz
• View-Monster (2008) - Lemon Demon^[12]
• Live (Only Not) (2011) - Lemon Demon^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• NeilCic.com
• Lemon Demon homepage
• Potter Puppet Pals homepage
• Animutation homepage
• Neil Cicierega, YouTube profile

Vyacheslav Molotov Вячеслав Молотов
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
In office 16 August 1942 – 29 June 1957
Premier	Joseph Stalin Georgy Malenkov Nikolai Bulganin
Preceded by	Nikolai Voznesensky
Succeeded by	Nikolai Bulganin
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 5 March 1953 – 1 June 1956
Premier	Georgy Malenkov Nikolai Bulganin
Preceded by	Andrey Vyshinsky
Succeeded by	Dmitri Shepilov
In office 3 May 1939 – 4 March 1949
Premier	Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	Maxim Litvinov
Succeeded by	Andrey Vyshinsky
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union
In office 19 December 1930 – 6 May 1941
First Deputies	Valerian Kuibyshev Nikolai Voznesensky
Preceded by	Alexei Rykov
Succeeded by	Joseph Stalin
Responsible Secretary of the Russian Communist Party
In office March 1921 – April 1922
Preceded by	Nikolay Krestinsky
Succeeded by	Joseph Stalin (as General Secretary)
Full member of the Presidium
In office 1 January 1926 – 29 June 1957
Candidate member of the Politburo
In office 16 March 1921 – 1 January 1926
Member of the Secretariat
In office 16 March 1921 – 21 December 1930
Member of the Orgburo
In office 16 March 1921 – 21 December 1930
Personal details
Born	Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (1890-03-09)9 March 1890 Kukarka, Russian Empire
Died	8 November 1986(1986-11-08) (aged 96) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Soviet
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Spouse(s)	Polina Zhemchuzhina
Religion	None (Atheist)

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Russian: Вячесла́в Миха́йлович Мо́лотов; 9 March [O.S. 25 February] 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. He served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Premier) from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956. Molotov served for several years as First Deputy Premier in Joseph Stalin's cabinet. He retired in 1961 after several years of obscurity.

Molotov was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), after Britain and France repeatedly failed to join the Soviets in an anti-Nazi alliance, was involved in post-war negotiations where he became noted for his diplomatic skills, and knew of the Katyn massacre committed by the Soviet authorities. Following the aftermath of World War II (Great Patriotic War) Molotov kept his place, until 1949, as a leading Soviet diplomat and politician. In March 1949, after losing Stalin's favour, he lost the foreign affairs ministry to Andrei Vyshinsky. Molotov's relationship with Stalin deteriorated further, with Stalin complaining about Molotov's mistakes in a speech to the 19th Party Congress. However, after Stalin's death in 1953 Molotov was staunchly opposed to Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation policy. He defended his policies and the legacy of Stalin until his death in 1986, and harshly criticized Stalin's successors, especially Nikita Khrushchev.

Early life and career (1890–1930)[link]

Molotov was born Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (Russian: Вячеслав Михайлович Скря́бин) in the village of Kukarka (now Sovetsk in Kirov Oblast), the son of a shop clerk. Contrary to a commonly repeated error, he was not related to the composer Alexander Scriabin.^[1] He was educated at a secondary school in Kazan, and joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1906. He took the pseudonym Molotov (from the Russian molot, "hammer") for his political work.^[2] His other party nickname was 'stone arse', owing to his long hours at desks. (He once announced he was taking a 13 minute nap and woke up exactly 13 minutes later).^[3] He was arrested in 1909 and spent two years in exile in Vologda. In 1911 he enrolled at the St Petersburg Polytechnic, and also joined the editorial staff of Pravda, the underground Bolshevik newspaper of which Joseph Stalin was editor. In 1915 Molotov was again arrested and deported to Irkutsk, but in 1916 he escaped and returned to the capital.^[4]

Molotov became a member of the Bolshevik Party's committee in Petrograd in 1916. When the February Revolution occurred in 1917, he was one of the few Bolsheviks of any standing in the capital. Under his direction Pravda took to the "left" to oppose the Provisional Government formed after the revolution. When Joseph Stalin returned to the capital, he reversed Molotov's line;^[5] but when the party leader, Vladimir Lenin, arrived, he overruled Stalin. Despite this, Molotov became a protégé of and close adherent to Stalin, an alliance to which he owed his later prominence.^[6] Molotov became a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee which planned the October Revolution, which effectively brought the Bolsheviks to power.^[7]

In 1918, Molotov was sent to Ukraine to take part in the civil war then breaking out. Since he was not a military man, he took no part in the fighting. In 1920, he became secretary to the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Bolshevik Party. Lenin recalled him to Moscow in 1921, elevating him to full membership of the Central Committee and Orgburo, and putting him in charge of the party secretariat. He was voted in as a non-voting member of the Politburo in 1921, and held the office of Responsible Secretary. His Responsible Secretaryship was criticised both by Lenin and Leon Trotsky, with Lenin noting his "shameful bureaucratism" and stupid behaviour.^[1] On the advice of Molotov and Nikolai Bukharin the Central Committee decided to reduce Lenin's work hours.^[8] In 1922, Stalin became General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party with Molotov as the de facto Second Secretary. As a young follower Molotov admired Stalin, but was open in criticism of him.^[9] Under Stalin's patronage, Molotov became a member of the Politburo in 1926.^[6]

During the power struggles which followed Lenin's death in 1924, Molotov remained a loyal supporter of Stalin against his various rivals: first Leon Trotsky, later Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev and finally Nikolai Bukharin. Molotov became a leading figure in the "Stalinist centre" of the party, which also included Kliment Voroshilov and Sergo Ordzhonikidze.^[10] Trotsky and his supporters underestimated Molotov, as did many others. Trotsky called him "mediocrity personified", whilst Molotov himself pedantically corrected comrades referring to him as 'Stone Arse' by saying that Lenin had actually dubbed him 'Iron Arse'.^[1] However, this outward dullness concealed a sharp mind and great administrative talent. He operated mainly behind the scenes and cultivated an image of a colourless bureaucrat – for example, he was the only Bolshevik leader who always wore a suit and tie.^[11] In 1928 Molotov replaced Nikolai Uglanov as First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party and held that position until 15 August 1929.^[12] In a lengthy address to the Central Committee in 1929, Molotov told the members that the Soviet government would initiate a compulsory collectivisation campaign to solve the agrarian backwardness of Soviet agriculture.^[13]

Premiership (1930–1941)[link]

A list from the Great Purge signed by Molotov, Stalin, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Zhdanov

During the Central Committee plenum of 19 December 1930, Alexey Rykov, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (the equivalent of a Western head of government) was succeeded by Molotov.^[14] In this post, Molotov oversaw the Stalin regime's collectivisation of agriculture. He followed Stalin's line by using a combination of force and propaganda to crush peasant resistance to collectivisation, including the deportation of millions of kulaks (peasants with property) to labour camps. An enormous number of the deportees died from exposure and overwork.^[15] He signed the Law of Spikelets^[16] and personally led the Extraordinary Commission for Grain Delivery in Ukraine,^[17] which seized a reported 4.2 million tonnes of grain from the peasants during a widespread manmade famine (known in Ukraine as Holodomor).^[16] Contemporary historians estimate that between seven and eleven million people died, either of starvation or in labour camps,^[16] in the move to collectivise farms. Molotov also oversaw the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan for rapid industrialisation.^[18]

Sergei Kirov, head of the Party organisation in Leningrad, was killed in 1934;^[19] some believed his death was ordered by Stalin. Kirov's death triggered a second crisis, the Great Purge.^[20] In 1938, out of the twenty-eight People's Commissars in Molotov's Government, twenty were executed on the orders of Molotov and Stalin.^[21] The purges were carried out by Stalin's successive police chiefs,^[22] Nikolai Yezhov was the chief organiser and Kliment Voroshilov, Lazar Kaganovich and Molotov were intimately involved in the processes.^[23] Stalin frequently required Molotov and other Politburo members to sign the death warrants of prominent purge victims, and Molotov always did so without question.^[24] There is no record of Molotov attempting to moderate the course of the purges or even to save individuals, as some other Soviet officials did. During the Great Purge, he personally approved 372 documented execution lists, more than any other Soviet official including Stalin. It is known that Molotov was one of few with whom Stalin openly discussed the purges.^[25] Although Molotov and Stalin signed a public decree in 1938 which disassociated them from the then ongoing Great Purge.^[26], in private, and even after Stalin's death, Molotov supported the Great Purge and the executions committed by his government.^[27]

Molotov at the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1939 with Stalin and Georgy Malenkov

Despite the great human cost,^[28] the Soviet Union under Molotov's nominal premiership made great strides in the adoption and widespread implementation of agrarian and industrial technology. In a document written by Molotov he noted how cannibalism and starvation were still serious problems even in 1937 in the Soviet Union. Andrey Vyshinsky, the Procurator General, even told Molotov personally of incidents involving mothers eating their newly born children.^[29] The rise of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany precipitated the development of a modern armaments industry on the orders of the Soviet government.^[30] Ultimately, it was this arms industry, along with American Lend-Lease aid, which helped the Soviet Union to prevail in the World War II (Great Patriotic War).^[31] Set against this, the purges of the Red Army leadership, in which Molotov participated, weakened the Soviet Union's defence capacity and contributed to the military disasters of 1941 and 1942, which were mostly caused by unreadiness for war.^[32] The purges also led to the dismantling of privatised agriculture and its replacement by collectivised agriculture. This left a legacy of chronic agricultural inefficiencies and under-production which the Soviet regime never fully rectified.^[33]

Molotov was reported to be a vegetarian and teetotaler by American journalist John Gunther in 1938.^[34] However, Milovan Djilas claimed that he "drank more than Stalin" ^[35] and did not note his vegetarianism despite having several banquets with him.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (1939–1949)[link]

Molotov meets with Joachim von Ribbentrop before signing the German-Soviet non-aggression pact

In 1939, following the Munich Agreement and Hitler's subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Stalin believed that Britain and France would not be reliable allies against German expansion so instead sought to conciliate Nazi Germany.^[36] In May 1939 Maxim Litvinov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, was dismissed and Molotov was appointed to succeed him.^[37] Molotov was succeeded in his post as Premier by Stalin.^[38]

At first, Hitler rebuffed Soviet diplomatic hints that Stalin desired a treaty, but in early August 1939, Hitler authorised Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to begin serious negotiations. A trade agreement was concluded on 18 August, and on 22 August, Ribbentrop flew to Moscow to conclude a formal non-aggression treaty. Although the treaty is known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, it was Stalin and Hitler, and not Molotov and Ribbentrop, who decided the content of the treaty. The most important part of the agreement was the secret protocol, which provided for the partition of Poland, Finland and the Baltic States between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and for the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia (then part of Romania, now Moldova).^[37] This protocol gave Hitler the green light for his invasion of Poland, which began on 1 September.^[39] On 5 March 1940 Lavrentiy Beria gave Molotov, along with Anastas Mikoyan, Kliment Voroshilov and Stalin, a note ordering the execution of 25,700 Polish officers and anti-Soviets, in what has become known as the Katyn massacre.^[38]

Under the terms of the Pact, Hitler was, in effect, given authorisation to occupy two-thirds of Western Poland, as well as Lithuania. Molotov was given a free hand in relation to Finland. In the Soviet-Finnish War that ensued, a combination of fierce Finnish resistance and Soviet mismanagement resulted in Finland losing parts of its territory, but not its independence.^[40] The Pact was later amended to allocate Lithuania to the Soviet sphere in exchange for a more favourable border in Poland. These annexations led to massive suffering and loss of life in the countries occupied and partitioned by the two dictatorships.^[41]

Newspaper article from Pravda, 18 November 1940 depicting Molotov meeting German leader Adolf Hitler

In November 1940 Stalin sent Molotov to Berlin to meet von Ribbentrop and Adolf Hitler (see German–Soviet Axis talks#Molotov travels to Berlin). In January 1941, the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden visited Turkey in an attempt to get the Turks to enter the war on the Allies' side. Though the purpose of Eden's visit was anti-German rather than anti-Soviet, Molotov assumed otherwise and in a series of conversations with the Italian Ambassador Augusto Rosso, Molotov claimed that the Soviet Union would soon be faced with an Anglo-Turkish invasion of the Crimea. The British historian D.C. Watt argued that on the basis of Molotov's statements to Rosso, it would appear that in early 1941, Stalin and Molotov viewed Britain rather than Germany as the principal threat.^[42]

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact governed Soviet-German relations until June 1941 when Hitler, having occupied France and neutralised Britain, turned east and attacked the Soviet Union.^[43] Molotov was responsible for telling the Soviet people of the attack, when he instead of Stalin announced the war. His speech, broadcast by radio on 22 June, characterised the Soviet Union in a role similar to that articulated for Britain by Winston Churchill in his early wartime speeches.^[44] The State Defence Committee was established soon after Molotov's speech; Stalin was elected Chairman and Molotov was elected Deputy Chairman.^[45] Following the German invasion, Molotov conducted urgent negotiations with Britain and, later, the United States for wartime alliances. He took a secret flight to Glasgow, Scotland where he was greeted by Eden. From there he took a train to London to discuss with the British government the possibility of opening a second front against Germany. After signing the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of 1942 on 26 May Molotov left for Washington, D.C., United States. Molotov met with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President of the United States, and ratified a Lend-Lease Treaty between the USSR and the US. Both the British and the United States government, albeit vaguely, promised to open up a second front against Germany. On his flight back to the USSR his plane was attacked by German fighters, and then later by Soviet fighters.^[46]

Potsdam Conference: Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William Daniel Leahy, James F. Byrnes, Harry S. Truman and others.

When Beria told Stalin about the Manhattan Project and its importance Stalin handpicked Molotov to be the man in charge of the Soviet atomic bomb project. However, under Molotov's leadership the bomb, and the project iself, developed very slowly and Molotov was replaced by Beria in 1944 on the advice of Igor Kurchatov.^[47] When Harry S. Truman, the American President, told Stalin that the Americans had created a bomb never seen before, Stalin related the conversation to Molotov and told him to speed up development. On Stalin's orders the Soviet government substantially increased investment in the project.^[48]

In a collaboration with Kliment Voroshilov, Molotov contributed both musically and lyrically to the 1944 version of the Soviet national anthem. Molotov asked the writers to include a line or two about peace. Molotov's and Voroshilov's role in the making of the new Soviet anthem was, in the words of historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, acting as music judges for Stalin.^[49]

Molotov accompanied Stalin to the Teheran Conference in 1943,^[50] the Yalta Conference in 1945^[51] and, following the defeat of Germany, the Potsdam Conference.^[52] He represented the Soviet Union at the San Francisco Conference, which created the United Nations.^[53] Even during the period of wartime alliance, Molotov was known as a tough negotiator and a determined defender of Soviet interests. From 1945 to 1947 Molotov took part in all four conferences of foreign ministers of the victorious states in World War II. In general, he was distinguished by an uncooperative attitude towards the Western powers. Molotov, on the direction of the Soviet government, condemned the Marshall Plan as imperialistic and claimed it was dividing Europe into two-camps, one capitalist and the other communist. In response, the Soviet Union, along with the other Eastern Bloc nations, initiated what is known as the Molotov Plan. The plan created several bilateral relations between the states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union; and later evolved into the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).^[54]

In the postwar period, Molotov's power began to decline. A clear sign of Molotov's precarious position was his inability to prevent the arrest in December 1948 for "treason" of his Jewish wife, Polina Zhemchuzhina, whom Stalin had long distrusted.^[55] Molotov never stopped loving his wife, and it is said that he ordered his maids to make dinner for two every evening to remind him that, in his own words, "she suffered because of me".^[56] According to a close collaborator of Molotov, Vladimir Erofeev^[57] at the beginning of 1949 the Israel prime minister, Golda Meir, visited the Soviet Union; she met privately with Polina, who had been her schoolmate in St. Petersburg. Immediately afterward, Polina was arrested and accused of ties with Zionist organizations; she was kept one year in the Lubyanka, after which she was exiled for three years in an obscure Russian city. Molotov had no communication with her, save for the scant news that Berya, whom he loathed, told him. She was freed immediately after the death of Stalin.^[58] According to Erofeev, Molotov said of her: "She's not only beautiful and intelligent, the only woman minister in Soviet Union; she's also a real Bolshevik, a real soviet person." In 1949, Molotov was replaced as Foreign Minister by Andrey Vyshinsky, although retaining his position as First Deputy Premier and membership of the Politburo.^[56]

Post-war career (1949–1976)[link]

At the 19th Party Congress in 1952, Molotov was elected to the replacement for the Politburo, the Presidium, but was not listed among the members of the newly established secret body known as the Bureau of the Presidium; indicating that he had fallen out of Stalin's favour.^[59] At the 19th Congress, Molotov and Anastas Mikoyan were said by Stalin to have committed grave mistakes, including the publication of a wartime speech by Winston Churchill favourable to the Soviet Union's war time efforts.^[60] Both Molotov and Mikoyan were falling out of favour rapidly, with Stalin telling Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin that he did not want to see Molotov and Mikoyan around anymore. At his 73rd birthday, Stalin treated both with disgust.^[61] In his speech to the 20th Party Congress Khrushchev told the delegates that Stalin had plans for "finishing off" Molotov and Mikoyan in the aftermath of the 19th Congress.^[62]

Molotov (far left) with Khrushchev (second from right) and Premier Nikolai Bulganin (to the left of Khrushchev) in 1955 at a gala reception in Moscow for the visit of West German Chancellor Conrad Adenauer (centre).

Following Stalin's death, a realignment of the leadership was sought, in the course of which, Molotov's position was strengthened. Georgy Malenkov, Stalin's successor in the post of Premier, reappointed Molotov as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 5 March 1953.^[63] Although Molotov was seen as a likely successor to Stalin in the immediate aftermath of his death, he never sought to become leader of the Soviet Union.^[64] A Troika was established immediately after Stalin's death, consisting of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov,^[65] but ended when Malenkov and Molotov deceived Beria.^[66] Molotov supported the removal and later the execution of Beria on the orders of Khrushchev.^[67] The new Party Secretary, Khrushchev, soon emerged as the new leader of the Soviet Union. He presided over a gradual domestic liberalisation and a thaw in foreign policy, shown by the reconciliation with Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia, which Stalin had expelled from the communist movement. Molotov, an old-guard Stalinist, seemed increasingly out of place in this new environment,^[68] but he represented the Soviet Union at the Geneva Conference of 1955.^[69]

The events which led to Molotov's downfall began in February 1956 when Khrushchev launched an unexpected denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. Khrushchev attacked Stalin, both over the purges of the 1930s and the defeats of the early years of World War II, which he blamed on Stalin's over-trusting attitude to Hitler and the purges of the Red Army. Since Molotov was the most senior of Stalin's collaborators still alive and had played a leading role in the purges, it became obvious that Khrushchev's examination of the past would probably result in Molotov's fall from power. Consequently, he became the leader of an old guard which tried to overthrow Khrushchev.^[70]

In June 1956, Molotov was removed as Foreign Minister,^[71] and in June 1957, was expelled from the Presidium (Politburo) following a failed attempt to remove Khrushchev as First Secretary. Although Molotov's faction initially won a vote in the Presidium, 7-4, to remove Khrushchev, the latter refused to resign unless a Central Committee plenum decided so.^[72] In the plenum, which lasted from 22–29 June, Molotov and his faction were defeated.^[70] Eventually, he was banished as ambassador to the Mongolian People's Republic.^[72] Molotov and his associates were denounced as "the Anti-Party Group" but, notably, were not subject to the physical repressions that marked the Stalin years. In 1960, he was appointed Soviet representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was seen as a partial rehabilitation.^[73] However, after the 22nd Party Congress in 1961, during which Khrushchev carried out his de-Stalinisation campaign, including the removal of Stalin's body from Lenin's Mausoleum, Molotov (along with Lazar Kaganovich) was removed from all positions and expelled from the Communist Party.^[59] In 1962, all of Molotov's party documents and files were erased by the authorities.^[74]

In retirement, Molotov remained totally unrepentant about his role during Stalin's rule.^[75] He suffered a heart attack in January 1962. After the Sino-Soviet split, it was reported that he agreed with the criticisms made by Mao Zedong of the supposed "revisionism" of Khrushchev's policies. According to Roy Medvedev, Stalin's daughter Svetlana recalled Molotov and his wife telling her: "Your father was a genius. There's no revolutionary spirit around nowadays, just opportunism everywhere."^[76] China's our only hope. Only they have kept alive the revolutionary spirit".^[77]

Rehabilitation, death, beliefs and legacy[link]

Molotov's grave at Novodevichy cemetery

The first signs of a rehabilitation were seen during Leonid Brezhnev's rule, when information about him was again allowed inclusion in Soviet encyclopaedias. His connection, support and work in the Anti-Party Group was mentioned in encyclopaedias published in 1973 and 1974, but eventually disappeared altogether by the mid-to-late-1970s. Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko further rehabiliated Molotov; in 1984 Molotov was even allowed to seek a membership in the Communist Party.^[78] A collection of interviews with Molotov from 1985 was published in 1994 by Felix Chuev as Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics. Molotov died, during the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, on 8 November 1986. He was 96 years old at the time of his death, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.^[75]

Molotov, like Stalin, was pathologically mistrustful of others, and because of it, much crucial information disappeared. As Molotov once said "One should listen to them, but it is necessary to check up on them. The intelligence officer can lead you to a very dangerous position... There are many provocateurs here, there, and everywhere."^[79] Like Stalin, he never recognised the Cold War as an international event. He saw the Cold War as, more or less, the everyday conflict between communism and capitalism. He divided the capitalist countries into two groups, the "smart and dangerous imperialists" and the "fools".^[80] Molotov was also a staunch Russian nationalist, claiming that Russians, unlike the Hungarians, liked "to do things large-scale".^[81] Before his retirement, Molotov proposed establishing a socialist confederation with the People's Republic of China (PRC); Molotov believed socialist states were part of a bigger, supranational entity.^[82] In retirement, Molotov criticised Nikita Khrushchev for being a "right-wing deviationist".^[81]

The Molotov cocktail is a term coined by the Finns during the Winter War, as a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons.^[83] During the Winter War, the Soviet air force made extensive use of incendiaries and cluster bombs against Finnish troops and fortifications. When Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that they were not bombing, but rather delivering food to the starving Finns, the Finns started to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets.^[84] Soon they responded by attacking advancing tanks with "Molotov cocktails" which were "a drink to go with the food". According to Montefiore^[who?] the Molotov cocktail was one part of Molotov's cult of personality which he highly disliked.^[83]

At the end of 1989, two years before the final collapse of the Soviet Union, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev's government formally denounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, acknowledging that the bloody annexation of the Baltic States and the partition of Poland had been illegal.^[85]

Winston Churchill in his wartime memoirs lists many meetings with Molotov. Acknowledging him as a "man of outstanding ability and cold-blooded ruthlessness", Churchill concluded: "In the conduct of foreign affairs, Mazarin, Talleyrand, Metternich, would welcome him to their company, if there be another world to which Bolsheviks allow themselves to go."^[86]

See also[link]

• Molotov cocktail
• Molotov Line
• Molotov Plan
• Soviet-German relations before 1941

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Brown, Archie (2009). The Rise & Fall of Communism. Bodley Head. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/978-1-84595-076-5|978-1-84595-076-5]]. 
• van Goudoever, A.P. (1986). The limits of destalinization in the Soviet Union: political rehabilitations in the Soviet Union since Stalin. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-7099-2629-4. 
• Sebag-Montefiore, Simon (2005). Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Vintage Books. ISBN 1-4000-7678-1. 
• Service, Robert (2003). History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-103797-0. 
• Martinovich Zubok, Vladislav; Pleshakov, Konstantin (1996). Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: from Stalin to Khrushchev. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-45531-2. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Vyacheslav Molotov

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vyacheslav Molotov

• Annotated bibliography for Vyacheslav Molotov from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• The Meaning of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact Molotov speech to the Supreme Soviet on 31 August 1939
• Reaction to German Invasion of 22 June 1941
• (Finnish) Song about the "Winter War" (Nyet Molotov)

Laura Dern
Laura Dern, 2009
Born	Laura Elizabeth Dern (1967-02-10) February 10, 1967 (age 45) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, director, producer
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Ben Harper (2005–2010)

Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Fat Man and Little Boy (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), Jurassic Park (1993) and October Sky (1999). She has won awards for her performance in the 1991 film Rambling Rose, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Actress in a Leading Role". She was awarded a Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actress — Series, Miniseries or Television Film" for her portrayal of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the film Recount (2008). As of February 2012, Dern was starring in HBO’s Enlightened, for which she has won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress — Television Series Musical or Comedy".

Early life and career[link]

Dern was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, and the great-granddaughter of former Utah governor and Secretary of War George Dern. Scottish-American poet, writer, and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was her great-uncle. Laura Dern's film debut was a cameo in her mother's film White Lightning (1973). She also made a brief appearance in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), one of Ladd's signature roles. Her mother objected to her 13-year-old daughter's presence on the set of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, but Dern sued for emancipation.

In the mid-1980s she gained critical acclaim for roles in Mask, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. Dern's starring role in Blue Velvet was a breakthrough though her next notable film, Wild at Heart, took almost four years to be released. Dern's affiliation with Lynch has continued with her role in Inland Empire. In 1992, Dern and her mother became the first mother and daughter to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in the same film in Rambling Rose. They did not play mother and daughter in the film. Dern starred as Dr. Ellie Sattler in Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park. That same year, Clint Eastwood enlisted the actress for his film A Perfect World. She also starred as Ruth in the 1996 satire Citizen Ruth, the directorial debut of Alexander Payne. In a reversal of roles, Dern's mother makes a cameo appearance, with Dern's character screaming a torrent of abuse at her. In 1997, Dern was featured in Widespread Panic's music video for their song, "Aunt Avis", which was directed by Dern's then boyfriend and future fiancé, Billy Bob Thornton. In 1998, Dern co-starred in Jodie Foster's film The Baby Dance. While dating Thornton in 1999, she was cast as his love interest in his film Daddy and Them, which also includes Diane Ladd. Dern also appeared in Joe Johnston's film October Sky.

Robert Altman called upon Dern's talents to play a Champagne-loving Aunt in his Texas-based comedy Dr. T & the Women in 2000. She co-starred in Within These Walls, Arthur Miller's Focus, and Novocaine. She had a minor role in Jurassic Park III, and was a supporting actor in the film I Am Sam. She starred in the 2002 film Damaged Care and the 2004 film We Don't Live Here Anymore. Dern was part of the ensemble dramedy Happy Endings in 2005, and she appeared in the 2006 film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. In 2006, David Lynch and Dern reunited for Inland Empire and, also in 2006, Dern had a supporting role in Lonely Hearts. Mike White, known for writing School of Rock and The Good Girl, hired Dern for his directorial debut in 2007, the comedy titled Year of the Dog and starring Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly and Peter Sarsgaard. In 2008 Dern starred in Recount for which she won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actress — Series, Miniseries or Television Film". Since then, Dern was seen in the independent 2009 drama Tenderness^[1] and, in 2010, she appeared in Little Fockers, playing an advanced school principal who dated Owen Wilson's character Kevin Rawley.

In an interview, Dern stated that she would reprise her role as Ellie Sattler for Jurassic Park IV.

Dern has done much work on television, most notably Afterburn, for which she received a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie". She guest-starred on The West Wing, as a voice on King of the Hill and as a lesbian who coaxes Ellen DeGeneres out of the closet in the famous 1997 "The Puppy Episode" of the television series Ellen. On the April 24, 2007 airing of DeGeneres' talk show, Dern revealed she did not work for more than a year following her appearance in that episode because of resulting backlash, but nevertheless called it an "extraordinary experience and opportunity."^[2]

Dern has been acknowledged with several awards from the independent film industry including the Sundance Institute and was the subject of an aggressive media campaign by David Lynch to win her an Academy Award nomination for her work in Inland Empire. On November 1, 2010, she received the 2,420th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her parents, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, were presented with stars too.

In October, 2011, Dern starred in a new HBO television series called Enlightened.^[3] Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, "a health and beauty executive who returns from a post-meltdown retreat to pick up the pieces of her broken life" with, among others, her mother, played by her real-life mother Ladd. Dern brought screenwriter Mike White back into television work after he had had an on-the-job meltdown of his own, and into the series' project. Jellicoe's Hawaiian retreat included introduction to meditation and the character tries to continue the discipline as she resumes her working life.^[4] Dern received her third Golden Globe for her role in the series.

Dern has also been cast in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master along with Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, set for release in 2012.^[5]

Politics and personal life[link]

Dern with husband Ben Harper in December 2009

Dern is known as an activist and supporter of many charities, such as Healthy Child Healthy World, which aims to raise awareness about toxic substances that can affect a child's health.

During the 66th Golden Globe Awards, on January 11, 2009, Dern expressed support for the incoming administration of Barack Obama during her acceptance speech for the Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actress — Series, Miniseries or Television Film" for her work on the film Recount. She is quoted as saying, "I will cherish this as a reminder of the extraordinary, incredible outpouring of people who demanded their voice be heard in this last election so we can look forward to amazing change in this country. Thank you so much!"^[6]

Dern had high-profile romances with Kyle MacLachlan, Nicolas Cage, Renny Harlin, Jeff Goldblum, and Billy Bob Thornton (who ended their relationship abruptly by marrying Angelina Jolie). She married musician Ben Harper on December 23, 2005, after dating him for five years. They have two children together, a son, Ellery Walker (born August 21, 2001), and daughter, Jaya (born November 28, 2004).

Dern's husband, Ben Harper, filed for divorce on October 8, 2010 in California, citing irreconcilable differences. Harper is asking the judge to deny Dern spousal support and requesting that he have joint custody of their two children.^[7][8]

On February 7, 2012, after they were spotted together at the Golden Globes, it was reported that Harper and Dern had reconciled. Divorce papers have not been formally withdrawn yet.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]