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Copy editing (also written as copy-editing or copyediting, and sometimes abbreviated to ce) is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication. Copy editing is done before both typesetting and proofreading, the latter of which is the last step in the editorial cycle.

In the U.S. and Canada, an editor who does this work is called a copy editor, and an organization's highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, may be known as the copy chief, copy desk chief, or news editor. In book publishing in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world that follow British nomenclature, the term copy editor is used, but in newspaper and magazine publishing, the term is sub-editor (or the unhyphenated subeditor), commonly shortened to sub. The senior sub-editor on a title is frequently called the chief sub-editor. As the "sub" prefix suggests, British copy editors typically have less authority than regular editors.

The term copy editor may also be spelled as one word or in hyphenated form (copyeditor and copy-editor). The hyphenated form is especially common in the UK; in the U.S. newspaper field, using the two word form is more common.

Overview[link]

The "five Cs" summarize the copy editor's job: Make the copy clear, correct, concise, complete, and consistent. Copy editors should make it say what it means, and mean what it says.

Typically, copy editing involves correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar, terminology, jargon, and semantics, and ensuring that the text adheres to the publisher's style or an external style guide, such as the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook. Copy editors may shorten the text, to improve it or to fit length limits. This is particularly so in periodical publishing, where copy must be cut to fit a particular layout, and the text changed to ensure there are no "short lines".

Often, copy editors are also responsible for adding any "display copy", such as headlines, standardized headers and footers, and photo captions. And, although proofreading is a distinct task from copy editing, frequently it is one of the tasks performed by copy editors.

Copy editors are expected to ensure that the text flows, that it is sensible, fair, and accurate, and that any legal problems have been addressed. If a passage is unclear or an assertion seems questionable, the copy editor may ask the writer to clarify it. Sometimes, the copy editor is the only person, other than the writer, to read an entire text before publication and, for this reason, newspaper copy editors are considered the publication's last line of defense.^[1]

The role of the copy editor varies considerably from one publication to another. Some newspaper copy editors select stories from wire service copy; others use desktop publishing software to do design and layout work that once was the province of design and production specialists.

Changes in the field[link]

Traditionally, the copy editor would read a printed or written manuscript, manually marking it with editor's correction marks. Today, the manuscript is more often read on a computer display and text corrections are entered directly.

The nearly universal adoption of computerised systems for editing and layout in newspapers and magazines has also led copy editors to become more involved in design and the technicalities of production. Technical knowledge is therefore sometimes considered as important as writing ability, though this is more true in journalism than it is in book publishing. Hank Glamann, co-founder of the American Copy Editors Society, made the following observation about ads for copy editor positions at American newspapers:

We want them to be skilled grammarians and wordsmiths and write bright and engaging headlines and must know Quark. But, often, when push comes to shove, we will let every single one of those requirements slide except the last one, because you have to know that in order to push the button at the appointed time.^[2]

Traits, skills, and training[link]

Besides an excellent command of language, copy editors need broad general knowledge for spotting factual errors; good critical thinking skills in order to recognize inconsistencies or vagueness; interpersonal skills for dealing with writers, other editors and designers; attention to detail; and a sense of style. Also, they must establish priorities and balance a desire for perfection with the necessity to follow deadlines.

Many copy editors have a college degree, often in journalism, the language the text is written in, or communications. In the United States, copy editing is often taught as a college journalism course, though its name varies. The courses often include news design and pagination.

In the United States, The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund sponsors internships that include two weeks of training. Also, the American Press Institute, the Poynter Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UC San Diego Extension and conferences of the American Copy Editors Society offer mid-career training for newspaper copy editors and news editors (news copy desk supervisors).

Most U.S. newspapers and publishers give copy-editing job candidates an editing test or a tryout. These vary widely and can include general items such as acronyms, current events, math, punctuation, and skills such as the use of Associated Press style, headline writing, infographics editing, and journalism ethics.

In both the U.S. and the U.K., there are no official bodies offering a single recognized qualification.

In the U.K., several companies provide a range of courses unofficially recognised within the industry. Training may be on the job or through publishing courses, privately run seminars, or correspondence courses of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. The National Council for the Training of Journalists also has a qualification for subeditors.

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• The Art of Editing, by Floyd K. Baskette, Jack Z. Sissors, and Brian S. Brooks.
• Butcher, Judith; Drake, Caroline; Leach, Maureen (2006). Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders (4 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84713-1 

External links[link]

Look up copy editing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

General

• Sub-editing style and directories1 (UK)
• Proofreading practice at Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

Organizations

• American Copy Editors Society
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (UK)
• Technical Editing special interest group (SIG) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC)

Newspaper copy editing

• The Slot, includes What exactly is a copy editor? and How a copy desk works, by Bill Walsh of The Washington Post

Neil Strauss
Strauss in January 2009
Born	(1973-10-13) October 13, 1973 (age 38)[1] Illinois[1]
Nationality	American
Other names	Style, Chris Powles
Citizenship	American, Kittitian
Occupation	Writer
Notable work(s)	The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Neil Darrow Strauss (born October 13, 1973), also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American author, journalist and ghostwriter, with both American and Kittitian citizenship.^[2]. He is best known for his best-selling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, where he describes his experiences in the seduction community in an effort to become a "pick-up artist." He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and also writes regularly for The New York Times.^[3]

Education and initial career[link]

After graduating from high school at the Latin School of Chicago, Strauss attended Vassar College.^[4] While in school he began his career writing for Ear, an avant-garde magazine, and editing his first book, Radiotext(e), an anthology of radio-related writings for the postmodern publisher Semiotext(e). He moved on to the Village Voice, where he did everything from copy-editing to fact-checking before becoming a regular reporter and critic.^[5] He was invited by Jon Pareles^[6] to become a music critic at The New York Times where he wrote the Pop Life column and front-page stories on Wal-Mart’s CD-editing policies, music censorship, radio payola, and the lost wax figures of country-music stars.^[7]

He was then invited by Jann Wenner to become a contributing editor at Rolling Stone where he wrote cover stories on Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, the Wu-Tang Clan, Gwen Stefani, Stephen Colbert, and Marilyn Manson.

He won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for his coverage of Kurt Cobain's suicide for Rolling Stone and his profile of Eric Clapton in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Strauss also contributed to Esquire, Maxim, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Details, and The Source in addition to writing liner notes for albums by Nirvana and others.^[8] He has also appeared in Beck's music video Sexx Laws which also featured Jack Black, and he made a brief appearance as a cancer patient in episode 4, season six of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[edit] The Game and the seduction community

After leaving The New York Times to ghostwrite Jenna Jameson's memoirs, Strauss joined a sub-culture of pick-up artists known as the seduction community, publishing an article in the New York Times about his experiences in 2004.^[9] In 2005, he published The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (Regan Books, 2005), a book about his transformation into "Style", a pickup artist under the tutelage of Mystery. In addition to documenting his experiences with pickup artists like Mystery, Steve P, Rasputin (Hypnotica) and Ross Jeffries, it also describes his seductive interactions with celebrities including Britney Spears,^[10] Tom Cruise, and Courtney Love. Strauss writes of his distrust of pickup artists "Tyler Durden" and "Papa", the co-founders of Real Social Dynamics.

The book made a month-long appearance in the New York Times bestsellers list in September–October 2005, and reached the #1 position on Amazon.com immediately after its release in the United States. Strauss appeared on various TV shows, including The View and ABC Primetime, and he participated in many book signings.^[11][12] It was optioned to be made into a film by Spyglass Entertainment, with Chris Weitz adapting and producing.^[13] Alexandra Jacobs noted there was an awkward switch between misogynistic comments and feeble self-awareness and also wrote "But he does come to perceive one curious thing about the P.U.A.'s: They seem far more interested in spending time with fellow P.U.A.'s, amassing, refining and discussing the game, than actually getting to know women. Call them S.L.B.'s (scared little boys)".^[14]

After publishing the book, Strauss temporarily retired as a pickup artist and settled with a longtime girlfriend Lisa Leveridge, who played guitar in Courtney Love's all-female band The Chelsea.^[15]

An article in the Sunday Mirror, suggested that Leveridge broke up with Strauss in February 2006 to date Robbie Williams.^{[16][dead link]} Strauss denied the Williams rumor, but confirmed his breakup with Leveridge on his mailing list a few months later.^{[citation needed]}

His follow-up book, a controversial graphic novel How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, came out in 2006 on September 26. By 2006 Neil Strauss also came out with "Shoot", a short film about becoming a rockstar that he co-wrote, directed and performed in. That same year, in collaboration with Dave Navarro and Entourage writer Cliff Dorfman, he created a one-hour TV drama The Product for FX.^[17] In 2007, he released a follow-up to The Game, Rules of the Game, a two-book boxed set.

Strauss has continued to be involved with pickup artistry through his dating coaching company Stylelife Academy. Stylelife was founded in 2007 and whilst most of the coaching is done by employed coaches, rather than himself, Strauss does make appearances at yearly conferences and in some video products sold by the company.^[18]

In 2012, Strauss released a board game/party game as a follow up to "The Game" and "Rules of the Game" called "Who's Got Game? The Game with Benefits."^[19]

[edit] Emergency and subsequent writing

On March 4, 2009, The New York Times wrote that Strauss (along with rock biographer Anthony Bozza) had started his own publishing company, Igniter, as a subimprint of HarperCollins. Igniter's first title, the Times reported, will be "The World According to Bozo the Clown." ^[20]

Strauss's book, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (Harper, 2009), for which he spent three years amongst survivalists, tax-dodgers, billionaire businessmen, and the government itself, was hailed by Rolling Stone as an "escape plan" for the current world crisis.^[21] It entered the New York Times bestseller list at #3.^[22] The rights to the movie were picked up by Columbia, with Robert Downey Jr. attached as a producer and likely star.^[23] In 2010, Strauss received the James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin.^[24]

Neil Strauss's latest book entitled Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness was also a New York Times bestseller.^[25] Released March 15, 2011, the book is a compilation of 228 celebrity vignettes conducted throughout Strauss's career as a pop culture journalist.

Bibliography[link]

• Radiotext(e) editor, with Dave Mandl (1993)
• The Long Hard Road Out of Hell with Marilyn Manson (1998) ISBN 0-06-098746-4
• The Dirt with Mötley Crüe (2001) ISBN 0-06-098915-7
• Don't Try This At Home with Dave Navarro (2004) ISBN 0-06-039368-8 ISBN 0-06-098853-3
• How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale with Jenna Jameson (2004) ISBN 0-06-053909-7
• The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (2005) ISBN 0-06-055473-8
• How to Make Money Like a Porn Star, illustrated by Bernard Chang (2006) ISBN 0-06-088405-3
• Rules of the Game (2007) ISBN 0-06-154045-5
• Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (2009) ISBN 0-06-089877-1
• Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness (2011) ISBN 0-06-154367-5

References[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Neil Strauss

External links[link]

• Neil Strauss - Official Website

Bill Bryson
Born	(1951-12-08) December 8, 1951 (age 60) Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A.
Occupation	Author, University Chancellor
Genres	Travel, English language, Science
www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/index.html

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, (born December 8, 1951) is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of Britain for most of his adult life before returning to the US in 1995. In 2003 Bryson moved back to Britain, living in the old rectory of Wramplingham, Norfolk, and was appointed Chancellor of Durham University.

Early life[link]

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of William and Mary Bryson. (In 2006 Bryson published The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a humorous account of his childhood years in Des Moines.) His mother was of Irish stock.^[1] He has an older brother, Michael and a sister, Mary Jane Elizabeth.

Bryson attended Drake University for two years before dropping out in 1972, deciding to instead backpack around Europe for four months. He returned to Europe the following year with a high school friend, the pseudonymous Stephen Katz. Some of his experiences from this trip are relived as flashbacks in Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, which documents a similar journey Bryson made twenty years later.

Move to the United Kingdom[link]

Bryson first visited Britain in 1973 during a tour of Europe and decided to stay after landing a job working in a psychiatric hospital – the now defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey. He met a nurse there named Cynthia, whom he married and they moved to the USA in 1975 so that Bryson could complete his college degree. In 1977, they settled in Britain, where they remained until 1995. Eventually living in North Yorkshire and mainly working as a journalist, Bryson became chief copy editor of the business section of The Times and then deputy national news editor of the business section of The Independent. He left journalism in 1987, three years after the birth of his third child. Living in Kirkby Malham, North Yorkshire, Bryson started writing independently and in 1990 their fourth child, Samuel, was born.

Although able to apply for British citizenship, Bryson has declined a citizenship test, declaring himself "too cowardly" to take it.^[2]

Writings[link]

In 1995, Bryson returned to the United States to live in Hanover, New Hampshire, for some years, the stories of which feature in his book I'm A Stranger Here Myself, alternatively titled Notes from a Big Country in Britain, Canada and Australia. During his time in the United States, Bryson decided to walk the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz (a pseudonym), about which he wrote the book A Walk in the Woods. In 2003 the Brysons and their four children returned to Britain and now live in Norfolk.

Also in 2003, in conjunction with World Book Day, British voters chose Bryson's book Notes from a Small Island as that which best sums up British identity and the state of the nation.^[3] In the same year, he was appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.

In 2004, Bryson won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science book with A Short History of Nearly Everything.^[4] This 500-page popular literature piece explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also reveals their humble and often humorous beginnings. Although one "top scientist" is alleged to have jokingly described the book as "annoyingly free of mistakes",^[5] Bryson himself makes no such claim and a list of some reported errors in the book is available online. In 2005, the book won the EU Descartes Prize for science communication.^[4]

Bryson in the regalia of Chancellor of Durham University, with Durham Cathedral in the background

Bryson has also written two popular works on the history of the English language — Mother Tongue and Made in America — and, more recently, an update of his guide to usage, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (published in its first edition as The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words in 1983). These books were popularly acclaimed and well-reviewed, though they received some criticism claiming that they contained factual errors, urban myths and folk etymologies.^[6][7]

Honours[link]

In 2005, Bryson was appointed Chancellor of Durham University,^[5] succeeding the late Sir Peter Ustinov and has been particularly active with student activities, even appearing in a Durham student film (the sequel to The Assassinator) and promoting litter picks in the city.^[8] He had praised Durham as "a perfect little city" in Notes from a Small Island. He has also been awarded honorary degrees by numerous universities, including Bournemouth University and in April 2002 the Open University.^[9]

In 2005, Bryson received the President's Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for advancing the cause of the chemical sciences. In the same year, Bryson and the RSC jointly created the Bill Bryson prize, an annual award to encourage science writing in schools. ^[10]

In 2006, Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, awarded Bryson the key to the city and announced that 21 October 2006 would be known as "Bill Bryson, The Thunderbolt Kid, Day."^[11]

In November 2006, Bryson interviewed the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the state of science and education.^[12]

On 13 December 2006, Bryson was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature.^[13] The following year, he was awarded the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin.

In the year of 2007, Bryson won the Golden Eagle Award.^[14]

In January 2007, Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow of the Pomfret School in Connecticut.^[15]

In May 2007, he became the President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.^[16][17] His first area of focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England. He discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007.

In October 2010, it was announced that Bryson would be stepping down from the role of Chancellor at Durham University at the end of 2011.^[18]

Books by Bill Bryson[link]

Travel[link]

• The Palace under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries (1985)
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1989)
• Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe (1991)
• Notes from a Small Island (1995). (Adapted for television by Carlton Television in 1998)
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1998) (Featuring Stephen Katz)
• Notes from a Big Country (UK) / I'm a Stranger Here Myself (U.S.) (1999)
• Down Under (UK) / In a Sunburned Country (U.S.) (2000)
• Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002) (travels in Africa for CARE International)
• Walk About (2002) (Combined in one volume are Down Under and A Walk in the Woods)

Language[link]

• The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words (1984)
• Made in America (UK) / Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States (U.S.) (1994)
• The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (U.S.) / Mother Tongue: The English Language (UK) (1990) (Adapted for Journeys in English (2004) BBC Radio 4)
• Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)
• Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2008)

Science[link]

• A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
• A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (2008) (Children's version of 2003 book)
• On the Shoulders of Giants (editor, 2009)
• Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery and the Genius of the Royal Society (editor, 2010)

Biography[link]

• Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007)

History[link]

• At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010) Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-60827-5. OCLC 761512787.

Memoir[link]

• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Bryson

• Bill Bryson at Random House
• Profile at Durham University
• Works at Open Library
• Article archive at Journalisted
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Bill Bryson on Charlie Rose
• Bill Bryson at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Bill Bryson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Bill Bryson collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Bill Bryson collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything presentation at the Royal Society
• A brief excerpt from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid(archived from the original on 2007-10-05)
• The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Reviews at Metacritic (archived from the original on 2008-04-30)
• BBC Wear - Bill Bryson loves Durham
• Interview with Bill Bryson about organ donation
• BBC Radio Five Live interview with Bill Bryson about the British countryside
• CPRE interview on the proposed South Downs National Park (archived from the original on
• Interview with Bill Bryson about his career in travel writing.
• At Home: A History of Private Life by Bill Bryson: A review, James Walton, The Telegraph, 19 June 2010
• Bill Bryson interviewed by Sophie Elmhirst on New Statesman, 14 October 2010.

Lisa Lampanelli
Lampanelli in 2011 at the book launch party for Michael Musto's Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back
Pseudonym	Queen of Mean[1]
Birth name	Lisa Lampugnale
Born	(1961-07-19) July 19, 1961 (age 50) Trumbull, Connecticut, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1990–present[2]
Genres	Insult comedy, improvisational comedy, black comedy, observational comedy
Subject(s)	Race relations, human sexuality, everyday life
Influences	Dean Martin Roasts,[3][4] Don Rickles[5]
Spouse	Jimmy Cannizzaro (2010 – currently married)
Website	InsultComic.com

Lisa Lampanelli (born Lisa Lampugnale; July 19, 1961)^[1] is an American stand-up comedian and insult comic. She is noted for her racy and controversial style of comedy, which frequently includes subjects such as race and homosexuality.

Early life and journalism career[link]

Lampanelli, one of three siblings, was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, to a middle class family.^[6] Three of her grandparents were of Italian descent, and the fourth of Polish ancestry.^[7][8] Her mother, Gloria, worked for the local police department where "she typed in all the arrests made", and her father, Leonard, worked for Sikorsky Aircraft and later became a painter.^[3][9][10] Lampanelli attended Roman Catholic schools,^[9] studied journalism at Boston College and Syracuse University,^[6] and went through a graduate program at Harvard.^[11] She worked as a copy editor at Popular Mechanics and an assistant at Rolling Stone.^[12] She was also a fact checker and the first chief of research for Spy magazine; a book about Spy describes her then as "your average decked-out-heavy-metal-head-next-door."^[13] Speaking later to Maxim Magazine Online, Lampanelli remarked, "I was a real journalist for Rolling Stone, Spy, Hit Parader. I interviewed those fuckin' hair bands: Cinderella, Slaughter."^[14]

Career[link]

Comedy[link]

Lampanelli began her stand-up career in New York in the early 1990s.^[15] In explaining her reasons for switching from journalism to comedy, Lampanelli stated not only for the pay raise, but because “I get to say the n-word word on stage and get paid money.”^[16] She made her break at the 2002 New York Friars' Club roast of Chevy Chase,^[1] and went on to participate in the roasts of Denis Leary, Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav, William Shatner, and Donald Trump and to serve as Roastmaster for Larry the Cable Guy.^[17] Lampanelli is frequently on the dais for The Howard Stern Show roasts, including appearances at the roasts for Gary Dell'Abate, Artie Lange, Andy Dick, and A&E's "Gene Simmons Roast" in April 2008.

Lampanelli released a comedy special on DVD entitled Take it Like A Man in 2005, appeared in the 2006 motion picture Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, and had a cameo appearance in the VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous. She also landed a deal with Fox for a sitcom pilot with the tentative title Big Loud Lisa, which was considered a candidate for the network's 2006–07 television season. Lampanelli taped her stand-up special Dirty Girl in the fall of 2006, which aired on Comedy Central on January 28, 2007. Her Dirty Girl CD and Dirty Girl .. No Protection DVD were released by Warner Bros./Jack Records on January 30, 2007. Lampanelli was also featured in the movie Delta Farce starring Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and D.J. Qualls, which was released early in 2007, and in Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson.

Her style of humor was influenced most by the Dean Martin roasts that televised when she was growing up; she didn't start watching other stand-up comedians until she became one herself.^[3][4]

Ethnic and racial minority insults and stereotypes are a predominate part of Lampanelli's comedy routine.^[16] Among some of her blatantly racist insults while doing stand-up, include: "How many ‘hispangics’ [sic] does it take to clean a bathroom? None! That’s a nigger’s job!"^[18]; “What do you call a black woman who’s had seven abortions? A crime fighter”^[16]; In addition, Gossip site TMZ reported that censors for the Comedy Central Roast of Flavor Flav cut a Lampanelli joke where she called the Flavor of Love girls in the audience "nappy headed bitches." ^[19] In addressing her racist stand-up comedy, Lampanelli stated, "I can get away with it because I'm a nice person, I have a warm personality, my intention is good behind it. The thing is, people sense when you have the least bit of anger or hate towards a group –– that's why you never make fun of people you don't like." ^[20] Though only having married Caucasian men, she makes frequent references to her "real-life relationships with black men",^[21] riffing in an interview that "my problem is, I can't get a good-looking white guy anymore, I just don't have the looks to get that. I can get hot blacks, but also blacks are now starting to get uppity and go for the skinny white ones and the Asians, which is very offensive to me that they don't stick with their roots — the chubby white girl!"^[22]

Lampanelli performing in 2008

On November 21, 2008, in Santa Rosa, California, Lampanelli taped her first one-hour HBO Special at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The special, Lisa Lampanelli: Long Live the Queen, which aired January 31, 2009, was directed by Dave Higby, who also directed her "Dirty Girl" special.^[23] In December 2010 she reunited with Higby when he directed her Tough Love special for Comedy Central that aired in the spring of 2011. She is scheduled to debut a one-woman show, Bring Back the Fat Chick, on Broadway in 2012.^[24]

The Celebrity Apprentice 5[link]

Lampanelli was a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice 5 (also known as The Apprentice 12). She was criticized by viewers and had numerous outbursts and clashes with other contestants, including Arsenio Hall, Lou Ferrigno, and Dayana Mendoza.^[25][26] Lampanelli refused to apologize for her treatment of the contestants and racist remarks against Hispanics. Lampanelli was fired on May 6, 2012.^[27]

Books[link]

It Books (HarperCollins) is the publisher of Lampanelli's memoir, Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks (2009). Publishers Weekly reviewed:

After more than 30 pages on her search for the “perfect black man,” Lampanelli moves on to outline her standup career, from handling hecklers to doing the The Tonight Show... Seeking the roots of her humor, she recalls her childhood as an “attention whore”: “Eating to get attention is a behavior that I continued into my high school days.” She follows her memories of “fat rehab” with a variety of topics, from the Virgin Mary to vegans. Much is quite funny, and Lampanelli never pulls her punches. Despite her raw language and raucous writing, honest reflections and stark self-insights emerge as she probes her past.^[28]

Personal life[link]

Lampanelli married in 1991 and divorced soon after, though she and her former spouse remained friends.^[1] She married Jimmy Cannizzaro, a former rock & roll club owner from Valley Stream, New York, on October 2, 2010 at the New York Friars' Club.^[1][29] Lampanelli is an avid supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.^[30] When members of the Westboro Baptist Church planned to protest a show she held on 20 May 2011 in Topeka, Kansas she promised to donate $1000 to Gay Men's Health Crisis (The same charity she contributed to during the celebrity apprentice) for every protester that attended. After an initial count of 44 protesters she rounded the donation to an even $50,000, crediting the donation as being "made possible by the WBC."^[30]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lisa Lampanelli's official website, InsultComic.com
• Lisa Lampanelli at Comedy Central
• Lisa Lampanelli on Myspace
• Lisa Lampanelli at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews[link]

• Interview on The Onion AV Club, December 21, 2006
• Interview on AskMen.com
• Interview on Bullz-Eye.com, 2005-10-05
• Interview with Blender Magazine, 2007-02-12
• Interview with SuicideGirls.com online, 2009-02-28
• Interview with Edge, 2009-08-07
• Interview with Ann Arbor.com online, 2009-12-01

Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa in Brooklyn, New York in August 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Cameron Jibril Thomaz
Born	(1987-09-08) September 8, 1987 (age 24) Minot, North Dakota, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, singer, songwriter, actor
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Rostrum, Taylor Gang, Warner Bros., Atlantic
Associated acts	Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Curren$y, Big Sean, Chevy Woods, Mac Miller, Juicy J, Tinie Tempah, Yelawolf, Maroon 5, Big K.R.I.T.
Website	wizkhalifa.com

Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by the stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper. He released his debut album, Show and Prove, in 2006, and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2007. His Eurodance-influenced single, "Say Yeah", received urban radio airplay, charting on the Rhythmic Top 40 and Hot Rap Tracks charts in 2008.^[1] Khalifa parted with Warner Bros. and released his second album, Deal or No Deal, in November 2009. He released the mixtape Kush and Orange Juice as a free download in April 2010; he then signed with Atlantic Records.^[2] He is also well known for his debut single for Atlantic, "Black and Yellow", which peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album for the label, Rolling Papers, was released on March 29, 2011.^[3]

Early life[link]

Khalifa was born on September 8, 1987 to a mother and a father serving in the military.^[1][4] His parents divorced when Khalifa was about three years old. His parents' military service caused him to move regularly: Khalifa lived in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan before settling in Pittsburgh where he attended Taylor Allderdice High School.^[1][4]

His stage name is derived from khalifa, an Arabic word meaning "successor", and wisdom, which was shortened to Wiz when Khalifa was a young boy .^[5] Khalifa stated to spinner.com that the name also came from being called "young Wiz 'cause I was good at everything I did, and my granddad is Muslim, so he gave me that name; he felt like that's what I was doing with my music." He got his stage name tattooed on his 17th birthday.^[6][7] He includes Jimi Hendrix, Camp Lo, The Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony among his influences.^[8]

Career[link]

[edit] 2005–08: Early mixtapes and Show and Prove

Rostrum Records president Benjy Grinberg first heard about Wiz Khalifa in 2004 when the rapper's contribution to a mixtape of various new Pittsburgh artists attracted his interest.^[9] When Grinberg finally met the 16-year-old artist, he immediately decided he wanted to work with him, later telling HitQuarters: "Even though he wasn’t all the way developed you could just tell that he was a diamond in the rough, and that with some polishing, guidance and backing he could become something special."^[9] Khalifa signed to the label shortly after and began a seven year period of artist development.^[9]

Khalifa released his first mixtape, Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania, in 2005. The mixtape paved the way for his first full length album entitled Show and Prove in 2006. Khalifa was declared an "artist to watch" that year in Rolling Stone magazine.^[10][11]

In 2007, Khalifa signed to Warner Bros. Records and released two mixtapes through Rostrum Records: Grow Season, hosted by DJ Green Lantern and released on July 4, 2007, and Prince of the City 2, released on November 20, 2007. His debut Warner Bros. single "Say Yeah" reached number 25 on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 music chart and number 20 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks. The song samples "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay. Khalifa's vocals from "Say Yeah" appear near the end of Pittsburgh mash up producer Girl Talk's 2008 album, Feed the Animals, over music from Underworld's "Born Slippy", Usher's "Love in This Club", and the Cure's "In Between Days".^[12] Khalifa appeared with The Game, David Banner and Play-n-Skillz at U92's Summer Jam at the USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City, Utah on August 2, 2008.^[13] Khalifa released the mixtapes Star Power in September 2008, and Flight School in April 2009 on Rostrum Records.

Khalifa parted ways with Warner Bros. Records in July 2009 after numerous delays in releasing his planned debut album for the label, First Flight. Khalifa stated to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that, "I learned a lot during my time there and matured as an artist during the process. I'm happy to be moving on with all of my material and having the chance to be in control of my next moves".^[14] Khalifa appeared with Girl Talk, Modey Lemon, Donora, Grand Buffet, and Don Caballero at the Amphitheatre at Station Square in Pittsburgh on July 31, 2009, where he announced that his relationship with Warner Bros. was over.^[15]

Wiz Khalifa performing at Columbia University in New York City in April 2010.

[edit] 2009–10: Deal or No Deal

Continuing his association with Rostrum Records, Khalifa released the single "Teach U to Fly", and the mixtape How Fly, a collaboration with New Orleans rapper Curren$y, on August 9, 2009.^[14] Khalifa introduced a more melodic style on the mixtape, alternating between singing and rapping. He opened for Wu-Tang Clan member U-God at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon in New York City.^[16] Khalifa released the mixtape Burn After Rolling on November 2, 2009, where he raps over familiar beats from other artists, including the songs "If I Were A Boy" and "Diva" by Beyoncé, "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun, "Luchini AKA This Is It" by Camp Lo, and "Best I Ever Had" by Drake.^[17] Khalifa released his second album, Deal or No Deal, on November 24, 2009.^[18]

Khalifa performed at Emo's in Austin, Texas in March 2010 as part of the 2010 South by Southwest Music Festival.^[19] He appeared on the cover of XXL magazine that same month, for the magazine's annual list of Top 10 Freshman, which included Donnis, J. Cole, Pill, Freddie Gibbs, and Fashawn. Wiz Khalifa was named 2010 "Rookie Of The Year" by "The Source", with alongside Rick Ross, "The Man Of The Year".^[20] He toured with rapper Yelawolf on a 20-date tour, the Deal Or No Deal Tour.^[21] Khalifa released the free mixtape Kush and Orange Juice for download on April 14, 2010. Due to Khalifa's devoted grassroots fan base, the mixtape became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter with the hash tag #kushandorangejuice, and "Kush and Orange Juice download” ranked No. 1 on Google’s hot search trends.^[22]

2010: Signing with Atlantic Records[link]

Citing music industry insiders, New York magazine wrote that Khalifa signed with Atlantic Records in April 2010, although the rapper did not confirm it.^[23] He stated to AllHipHop in June 2010 that he was working on a new album, but was weighing his options and had not yet decided on a label to distribute it.^[24] Khalifa confirmed to MTV on July 30 that he was signing an Atlantic Records deal.^[25]

Wiz Khalifa on stage in Boston in August 2010.

Khalifa was featured in a remix and video for the 2010 Rick Ross single "Super High", alongside Curren$y.^[26] He guested on the mixtape Grey Goose, Head Phones, and Thirsty Women by St. Louis rapper M.C,^[27] and was featured on the track "The Breeze (Cool)" on rapper Wale's August 2010 mixtape More About Nothing.^[28] Khalifa was named MTV's Hottest Breakthrough MC of 2010, winning with nearly 70,000 votes, and beating out finalists Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Travis Porter, and Diggy Simmons.^[29]

Khalifa appeared at the Soundset 2010 festival in May 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, alongside Method Man & Redman, Del the Funky Homosapien and Hieroglyphics, Atmosphere, Murs, Cage, and others.^[30] He also performed at the 2010 Rock the Bells festival, along with hip hop veterans Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, Rakim, KRS-One, Jedi Mind Tricks and Slick Rick.^[31] Khalifa declined an invitation to tour with rapper Drake and launched his own "Waken Baken" tour, a 50-city national tour with rapper Yelawolf. The tour, scheduled to last from September to November 2010, has, as of October, sold out every venue.^[8] On November 2010, during his "Waken Baken" tour at East Carolina University, Wiz Khalifa was arrested for possession and trafficking of marijuana. He was then released the next morning after a $300K bail, and resumed his tour. Khalifa performed in a cypher during the 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards. He recited his verse from the song, "The Check Point", from his mixtape with Curren$y, How Fly.^[32]

[edit] 2010–11: Mainstream success and Rolling Papers

Wiz Khalifa at SXSW in 2010

Khalifa released "Black and Yellow", his first single for Rostrum/Atlantic, produced by Stargate, which has received radio airplay.^[8][33] The single was peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; the title of the song refers to the colours of the City of Pittsburgh.^[34] Khalifa released his debut album with Atlantic Records in 2011.^[35] He appeared with Curren$y on the track "Scaling the Building" on producer Ski Beatz' 2010 album, 24 Hour Karate School.^[36] Khalifa's record label is Taylor Gang Records, named after his love of Chuck Taylor All-Stars^[8], and Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, PA, where he graduated from.

On March 29, 2011, Khalifa released his first studio album, Rolling Papers. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 197,000 copies in the United States.^[37] Shortly afterward on March 31, 2011 Wiz Khalifa performed at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the school's annual Dooley's Weekend.^[38] On June 26, 2011, Khalifa was nominated and won Best New Artist at the BET Awards of 2011.^[39] Khalifa collaborated with British rapper Tinie Tempah whom Tinie announced in an interview with Rolling Stone that his next single is to be called "Till I'm Gone" and would feature Wiz Khalifa and is to be produced by Stargate.^[40][41] The single and the video song were released at the end of June 2011.^[42]

Personal life[link]

Thomaz proposed to model Amber Rose on March 1, 2012 showing off the ring on Twitter.^[43] He is personal friends with Snoop Dogg, Juicy J, Yelawolf, and fellow Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller.^[44]

In March 2012, Thomaz purchased a 2.8 private wooded acres with a 3,891-square-foot residence in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, a small community southwest of Pittsburgh. The residence includes 5-bedroom, 4-bath eco-friendly, Brazilian Koa floors, stainless steel appliances, a separate guest house, and a lavish master suite with high ceilings.^[45] He currently resides there with his fiancée Amber Rose.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2006: Show and Prove
• 2009: Deal or No Deal
• 2011: Rolling Papers
• 2012: O.N.I.F.C. ^[11][46][47]

Collaborative albums

• 2011: Mac & Devin Go to High School (with Snoop Dogg)
• 2012: TBA (with Taylor Gang)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]