Serena Altschul (born October 13, 1970, in New York City) is an American broadcast journalist, well known for her work at MTV News.

She is the daughter of author and botanist Siri von Reis and Arthur Altschul, a former partner at Goldman Sachs. Her mother is of half-Finnish and half-Swedish ancestry and her father is of Jewish ancestry. When her parents divorced, 2-year-old Serena and her two siblings were raised by their mother.

Her half-brother is mathematician Stephen Altschul.

Altschul attended Scripps College for a couple of years, studying English literature, but did not graduate. While in college, she was the associate producer of 1993's The Last Party, a political documentary.

She spent two years at Channel One News, a channel seen nationwide in high schools, as an anchor/reporter. In 1995 she landed a job at MTV and in January 1996 she started working for MTV News. She also hosted shows such as MTV News: UNfiltered, Breaking it Down and hosted and produced True Life.

From 2002 to 2003 Altschul worked at CNN. She hosted and produced a CNN special on the return of PCP. She continued working at MTV News while at CNN. On December 23, 2003, she was named a CBS News contributing correspondent. She now (2011) appears on CBS Sunday Morning.

Christopher Lee Rios (November 10, 1971 – February 7, 2000), better known by his stage name Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was a Puerto-Rican American rapper who emerged from the underground rap scene in The Bronx in the late 1990s. He first appeared on albums from The Beatnuts, on the track "Off the Books" in 1997, and on Fat Joe's second album Jealous One's Envy in 1995, on the track "Watch Out", prior to signing to Loud Records as a solo artist. Pun's lyrics are notable for technical efficiency, having minimal pauses to take a breath, heavy use of alliteration as well as internal and multi-syllabic rhyming schemes. Big Pun died of a heart attack at age 28. About.com ranked him #25 on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987 - 2007), while MTV2 ranked him #11 on its list of the "22 Greatest MCs."

Big Pun grew up in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood. At the age of 5 young Rios broke his leg while playing in a New York park, which would later lead to a large settlement from the city. By all accounts from Pun's family, his early years were very difficult, including witnessing his mother's drug abuse, his father's death, and a stepfather who was very hard on Pun. According to his grandmother, Pun would become angry and self-destructive, punching holes in the walls of his family's apartment. Rios dropped out of high school and for some time was homeless staying in abandoned buildings or at friends' homes.

David Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor.

Sedaris has been described as 'the rock star of writers'. He was first publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next five subsequent essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004), and When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008), have become New York Times Best Sellers. In 2010, he released an anthropomorphic collection of stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary.

As of 2008^[update], his books have collectively sold seven million copies. Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, Greek heritage, various jobs, education, drug use, and his life in France, and most recently in London and the South Downs.

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. (born September 16, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films.

During the 1980s, Rourke starred in Diner, Rumble Fish, and the erotic drama 9½ Weeks, and received critical praise for his work in Barfly and Angel Heart. In 1991, Rourke, who had trained as a boxer in his early years, left acting and became a professional boxer for a period. He had supporting roles in several later films, including The Rainmaker, Buffalo '66, The Pledge, Get Carter, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Man on Fire.

In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime wrestler, and received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award.

Swirl 360 is a melodic pop-rock band, founded by the twins Denny and Kenny Scott.

Swirl 360 was signed to Mercury Records and entered the recording studio in 1997. By December of that year, they had recorded several tracks to which label executives responded promisingly. The resulting album, Ask Anybody, was released in mid 1998, and the track "Hey Now Now" became a top 5 hit on the radio airwaves worldwide. The song was co-written with John Shanks. Rolling Stone gave the album 3.5 stars and other entertainment magazines reviewed the band's efforts favorably.

Despite the popularity of the first single & second single, album sales failed to meet expectations. The band was dealt a further blow by the late 1990s merger of Polygram (the parent label of Mercury) with Universal Music Group, resulting in Mercury Records dissolving into Island Def Jam Records. Many staff working with the band were laid off during this deal. Universal cut off funding for the album's promotion, and the band was eventually released from the label.