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A star vehicle has historically been a movie, play, TV series, or other production whose primary purpose, besides turning a profit, is to enhance someone's career. Vehicles are most commonly produced when a young or inexperienced actor has signed a long-term contract with a major studio. By showcasing the actor's talents, the vehicle is an attempt at creating a bankable star.

In some cases, an actor may produce a vehicle for him- or herself, in which case it may be regarded as a form of self-promotion.

One of the earliest and best-documented examples is The Wizard of Oz (1939), which MGM centered on then-teenaged Judy Garland. The DVD notes give extensive film and radio examples of the publicity campaign undertaken to promote the movie and hype Garland's singing and acting talents.

With the demise of the studio system, star vehicles are less common in the movie business, although they continue to appear occasionally (e.g. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, The Rock's The Scorpion King, or more recently Miley Cyrus' The Last Song). They remain common in television, where sitcoms routinely function as vehicles for stand-up comedians. Seinfeld, The George Lopez Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Everybody Hates Chris and The Bernie Mac Show are recent examples.

More recently, the term has been misused to describe a film written and/or produced for a specific star, regardless of whether the motive is to further their career, or to simply profit from their current popularity.

External links[link]

• 'Vanity Fair' is a splendid star vehicle for Reese Witherspoon - Paula Nechak, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• A star vehicle is born - St. Petersburg Times - July 26, 2003

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Gianni Rossi (born 14 October 1936 in Venice) is a retired Italian professional football player.

External links[link]

• Career summary by playerhistory.com

This biographical article related to an Italian association football midfielder born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Ryan Nicholson is a Canadian makeup artist and director of independent horror films.

Biography[link]

Ryan Nicholson was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He is a self-taught artist who ran special-effects shop Flesh & Fantasy for a number of years before he began directing and producing his own independent films through his production company Plotdigger Films.^[1]

Nicholson is also the head of the make-up and effects faculty at private academy New Image College of Fine Arts, where he teaches make-up effects and prosthetics.^[2].

Television[link]

Nicholson has worked in the makeup department on many television shows including The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Stargate and Andromeda for which he was nominated for the Gemini Award three times for Best Achievement in Make-Up, with a win in 2002.

Film[link]

Ryan Nicholson has an extensive film resume, including the original Scary Movie and Final Destination films, Elf, Blade: Trinity and The Chronicles of Riddick.^[3]

Nicholson has also produced and directed several films under the banner of his production company Plotdigger Films, including Torched Gutterballs, Live Feed and others.^[4]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ryan Nicholson at the Internet Movie Database
• Plotdigger Films Inc. - The independent horror and grindhouse films of Ryan Nicholson
• Official web site for "Star Vehicle"

Five or 5 Star(s) or star(s) may refer to:

• Five-star rank, a senior military rank
• A grading of a hotel, restaurant, movie, TV show, theatre or musical work or performance - see star (classification)
• Five Star (film), South Indian Tamil film
• Five Star Production, a Thai film production company
• Five Star Final, 1931 film
• The Five Star Stories or Five Star Monogatari, manga series and 1989 film
• Five Star Theater, American 1930s radio series
• Five Star Jubilee, a 1961 NBC-TV program
• Five Star Jet Center, and Five Star Flight Academy, at Barnes Municipal Airport, Westfield, MA, USA
• Five Star Publishing, fiction imprint of Gale (Cengage)
• Five Star Bus Company, Inc, in the Philippines
• 5 Star (supermarkets), an Australian group, competitors of IGA (Australian supermarket group)
• UEFA elite stadiums (known as 5 star stadiums until 2006), football stadiums graded on suitability to host major matches
• Five-starred red flag or Five-star red flag, the Flag of the People's Republic of China
• Five Star, a triangular shaped and powerful firecracker manufactured in the Philippines
• Five star energy rating system, a No load power#Policies to reduce no load power for mobile phone chargers
• Five Star Supermarket (Ireland), a former supermarket chain in Ireland
• 5*, a UK TV channel, sister channel of Channel 5

Albums, EPs, music DVDs & songs[link]

• Five-star (album), 2007 greatest hits album by Japanese singer Yuki Isoya
• Five Star (album), 1990 eponymous album by the British group Five Star
• 5 Star (song), by rapper Yo Gotti

Bands[link]

• Five Star, a British pop group from Romford, Essex
• Five Stars (Bulgarian group), includes Svetlozar Hristov, singer about Torbalan
• The Five Stars, a Samoan musical group

See also[link]

• Five-pointed star
• All pages beginning with "Five Star"
• All pages beginning with "Five star"
• All pages beginning with "5 Star"
• All pages beginning with "5 star"
• For other numbers of stars, see Category:Star ranking systems.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009)

The Trade Federation is a fictional organization in the Star Wars universe at the time of the Galactic Republic. It appears in the franchise's three prequel movies and the Star Wars Expanded Universe and is documented to be formed by a species called Neimoidias representing the Neimoidian Inner Circle from Neimoidia who are cousins of the Duros from Duro 350 years before the original star wars film takes place. In the Star Wars franchise, The Trade Federation was able to maintain a sizable monopoly on interstellar trade and held considerable sway in the government of the Star Wars universe known as the Republic. They are the main antagonist in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace due to being manipulated by the Order of the Sith Lords and become a part of a larger consortium in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems or the CIS which is also manipulated by the Order of the Sith Lords. It is ultimately destroyed among the other corporations of the CIS as an act of assassination of its representatives that ended the Clone Wars by Darth Vader at the formation of the Empire by Palpatine. Its succeeding representative resisted for a brief moment during his affiliation with the remnant of the CIS called the Separatist holdouts but was later forced to sign a surrender treaty by Clone Troopers who had recently become Stormtroopers which made the federation a puppet government of the empire. However pockets still resisted in what was known as the Trade Federation resistance. Shortly after the Rebel Alliance was formed a portion of the resistance joined the rebel cause. The main body continued to be a puppet to the empire for 19 years until it was dissolved with the Imperial Senate shortly before the Battle of Yavin occurred and a few months later the empire managed to defeat and disband what was left of the resistance as well.

History[link]

Stark Hyperspace War[link]

Ten years before the film Star Wars Episode I, a space pirate named Iaco Stark proclaimed that there was a shortage of the healing substance called bacta when there in fact was none, and began selling the product at an inflated price, cutting in on the Trade Federation's profits (which were almost as ridiculous). In response, the Trade Federation asked for aid from the Republic. Senator Ranulph Tarkin of Seswenna Sector (the uncle of Grand Moff Tarkin) recruited the entire military of planet Eriadu to help fight the threat. In response, the Jedi Order sent a few of its members to aid in the fight as generals. The Battle of Troiken began the conflict, followed by the five battles of planet Qotile. The first four battles were believed to be draws, but the Fifth Battle of Qotile was a victory for the Republic. The Stark Commercial Combine was dissolved after that battle and Iaco Stark escaped into the underbelly of the Outer Rim.

First Battle Of Alaris Prime[link]

Shortly before the Battle Of Naboo the Trade Federation tried to colonize Alaris Prime which was one of Kashyk's moons. They had many battles with the native Wookiees and one battle with Gundarks. In the end every one of their bases on Alaris Prime was destroyed by the native Wookiees with the help of Qui-Gon Jinn.

Battle of Naboo[link]

Shortly before the time period of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Nute Gunray ascended to the position of viceroy of the Trade Federation with Rune Haako as his chief lieutenant. In The Phantom Menace, Gunray was manipulated into blockading and subsequently invading the planet Naboo by the shadowy Darth Sidious, who assured him the Senate would take no action against him. Nute sent an invasion force down to Naboo. The invasion force's leader, a battle droid known as OOM-9, and the Battle Droid army took over many cities like Harte Secur and, eventually, the capital city of Theed. Gunray tried to force Queen Amidala of Naboo to sign a treaty which would legalize the invasion, but she escaped and, after allying herself with the native Gungans, Amidala captured Gunray himself and ended the invasion, which would become known as the Battle of Naboo. Gunray and Haako were put on trial for their crimes, but, due to the corruption of the Republic at the time, they were not punished and Gunray retained his position as viceroy.

Clone Wars[link]

Ten years later, in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, seeking revenge on Queen Amidala, Nute Gunray and Gilramos Libkath, a Trade Federation contract-scribe, agreed to ally the droid armies of the Trade Federation with Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems, under the condition that Amidala be killed and brought to Gunray. Amidala's attempted assassination by the hired killer Jango Fett did not succeed and Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, following his trail, discovered the Federation's plot on Geonosis. Nute Gunray and Gilramos Libkath, now his right-hand-man, were outraged. Meanwhile, Kenobi was able to alert the Republic and, soon, the Clone Wars began when the new Clone troopers engaged the Federation's droids on Geonosis. The Trade Federation's failed assassin, Jango Fett, was killed by Mace Windu at the Battle of Geonosis; Libkath and Gunray fled the planet. It is said Libkath was later murdered by Jango Fett's son, Boba, at which point the Trade Federation's settlement officer, Rune Haako, from the Battle of Naboo retook his post as Gunray's second-in-command.

The Trade Federation and its main leaders survived until the very end of the Clone Wars even after the Confederacy of Independent Systems and its Separatists, to which they belonged, had suffered numerous defeats throughout the wars. However, in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader murdered the Federation's rulers, Gunray and Haako, along with all the other members of the Separatist Council (like Shu Mai and Wat Tambor) in cold blood under orders from Sidious, who also ordered the remaining droid armies to stand down. After the Clone Wars, what little remained of the Trade Federation's assets were forcibly seized by Emperor Palpatine to help build the Galactic Empire. Trade organizations including the Trade Federation were disbanded and outlawed by the time of the Battle of Yavin due to the Dissolution of the Imperial Senate shortly prior.

Appearances[link]

The Trade Federation appears throughout the Star Wars films, novels, comics, and videogames.

In films[link]

The Trade Federation's key role in the films was as Sith Lord Darth Sidious's puppet, facilitating his ascension to Galactic Emperor by the end of Episode III. By inciting hostilities, Sidious used the military strength of the Trade Federation to distract the Jedi and to fabricate political leverage for his Palpatine guise. The true reason for the Battle of Naboo was to allow Palpatine, as Naboo's senator, to become supreme chancellor. Years later, the Separatist movement led by the Trade Federation was also a result of Sidious's manipulation, leading to the Clone Wars. Also Sidious's design, the Clone Wars justified the creation of a military force on the scale necessary to later exterminate the Jedi and form a Galactic Empire. This chain of events would have been impossible without the contributions of the Trade Federation. Once Sidious ascended to the position of Emperor, he no longer had any use for the Federation, and ordered his apprentice Darth Vader to wipe out the last of all its leaders, ending the Clone Wars. Vader was unaware of his master's underlying manipulation, viewing himself then as the hero who ended the war.

In videogames[link]

The Trade Federation is a playable faction in the video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.

External links[link]

• Trade Federation on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars Wiki
• Trade Federation in the Star Wars Databank