Alessandra Stanley

Alessandra Stanley is an American journalist. In 2003 she became the chief television critic for The New York Times.

Work

Before taking her current job at The New York Times, Stanley was a foreign correspondent for the newspaper, first as co-chief of the Moscow bureau, and then Rome bureau chief. Before the New York Times, Stanley was a correspondent for Time where she worked overseas as well as in Los Angeles and in Washington D.C., where she covered the White House. She has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, GQ and Vogue. Born in Boston, MA, Stanley grew up in Washington, D.C., and Europe, and studied literature at Harvard University. She is the daughter of defense expert Timothy W. Stanley. Stanley lives in New York City with her daughter.

In 1993, Alessandra Stanley received the Matrix Award from Women in Communications., and in 1998, she received the Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.

Among Stanley's columns are her critical take on the series finale of the Sopranos, her assessment of Jerry Sandusky's denial of charges of pedophilia to NBC and her coverage of Russian television on the eve of the 2012 presidential election.

Ted Rall

Frederick Theodore "Ted" Rall III (born August 26, 1963) is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions. The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States. He was President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists from 2008 to 2009.

Rall draws three editorial cartoons a week for syndication, draws illustrations on a freelance basis, writes a weekly syndicated column, and edits the Attitude series of alternative cartooning anthologies and spin-off collections by up-and-coming cartoonists. He writes and draws cartoons for the website anewdomain.net and is the editor-in-chief of the satirical news website skewednews.net.

He is an award-winning graphic novelist and the author of non-fiction books about domestic and international current affairs. He also travels to and writes about Central Asia, a region he believes to be pivotal to U.S. foreign policy concerns. In November 2001 he went to Afghanistan as a war correspondent for The Village Voice and KFI Radio in Los Angeles. He returned to Afghanistan in August 2010, traveling independently and unembedded throughout the country, filing daily "cartoon blogs" by satellite.

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was an English American author, essayist, orator, religious and literary critic, and journalist. Hitchens later spent much of his career in the United States and became a US citizen in 2007.

He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, and Vanity Fair. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over 30 books, including five collections of essays, on a range of subjects, including politics, literature, and religion. A staple of talk shows and lecture circuits, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded and controversial figure. Known for his contrarian stance on a number of issues, Hitchens criticized such public and generally popular figures as Mother Teresa; Bill Clinton; Henry Kissinger; Princess Diana; and Pope Benedict XVI. He was the elder brother of the conservative journalist and author Peter Hitchens.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis (born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. She won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in the original production of King Hedley II, and the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Rose Maxon in the revival of Fences. In 2014, she began starring as Annalise Keating on the ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder, and in 2015 she became the first African American woman, as well as the first black woman of any nationality, to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The role also won her a SAG Award in 2015 and 2016. In 2012, she was listed by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

After graduating from the Juilliard School in 1993, Davis began her career on stage and won an Obie Award in 1999 for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody's Ruby. In 2008, performance as Mrs. Miller in the film Doubt earned her several nominations, including the Golden Globe, SAG Award, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. For her lead role as Aibileen Clark in the film The Help (2011), she received nominations for the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won a SAG Award. Her other films include Far from Heaven (2002), Antwone Fisher (2003), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013), Get on Up (2014) and the upcoming Suicide Squad (2016).

Halle Berry

Halle Maria Berry (born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in the romantic drama Monster's Ball (2001), which made her the only woman of color to win a Best Actress Academy Award to date, as of 2016.

Berry was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s and has been involved in the production of several of the films in which she performed. She is also a Revlon spokesmodel. Before becoming an actress, she started modeling and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992), alongside Eddie Murphy, which led to roles in films such as the comedy The Flintstones (1994), the political comedy-drama Bulworth (1998) and the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won the Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, among many other awards.