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Blaise Pascal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Blaise Pascal
Born
June 19, 1623
Clermont-Ferrand, France
Died
August 19, 1662
Paris, France

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 - August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. Pascal was a child prodigy, who was educated by his father. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences, where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators and the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by expanding the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote powerfully in defense of the scientific method.

He was a mathematician of the first order. Pascal helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen and corresponded with Pierre de Fermat from 1654 on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science.

Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he left mathematics and physics and devoted himself to reflection and writing about philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées. However, he had suffered from ill-health throughout his life and his new interests were ended by his early death two months after his 39th birthday.


Early life and education

Born in Clermont-Ferrand, in the Auvergne region of France, Blaise Pascal lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three. His father, Étienne Pascal (1588-1651), was a local judge and member of the petite noblesse, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. Blaise Pascal was brother to Jacqueline Pascal and two other sisters, only one of whom, Gilberte, survived past childhood.

In 1631, Étienne moved with his children to Paris. Étienne decided that he would educate his son, who showed extraordinary mental and intellectual abilities. Young Pascal showed immediate aptitude for mathematics and science, perhaps inspired by his father's regular conversations with Paris' leading geometricians, including Roberval, Mersenne, Desargues, Mydorge, Gassendi, and Descartes. At the age of eleven, he composed a short treatise on the sounds of vibrating bodies and Étienne responded by forbidding his son to further pursue mathematics until the age of fifteen, so as not to harm his study of Latin and Greek. However, one day Étienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing on the wall with a piece of coal an independent proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. From then on, the boy was allowed to study Euclid.

Particularly of interest to the young Pascal was the work of Desargues. Following Desargues's thinking, at age sixteen Pascal produced a treatise on conic sections, Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics"). Most of it has been lost, but an important original result has lasted, now known as Pascal's theorem. Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes, when shown the manuscript, refused to believe that the composition was not by his father.

In 1638, Étienne's opposition to fiscal relations of Cardinal Richelieu caused the family to flee Paris. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play performed in front of Richelieu that Étienne was pardoned. By 1639, the family had moved to Rouen where Étienne became a tax collector.

At age eighteen Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline, capable of addition and subtraction, to help his father with this work. The Zwinger museum, in Dresden, Germany, exhibits one of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines stand near the head of the development of computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built a total of fifty machines.

Contributions to mathematics

Portrait of Blaise PascalIn addition to the childhood marvels recorded above, Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. In 1653 Pascal wrote his Traité du triangle arithmétique in which he described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, the "arithmetical triangle", now called Pascal's triangle. (Yang Hui, a Chinese mathematician of the Qin dynasty, had independently worked out a concept similar to Pascal's triangle four centuries earlier.)

In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of probabilities. The friend was the Chevalier de Méré, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. (This was the introduction of the notion of expected value.) Pascal later (in the Pensées) used a probabilistic argument, Pascal's Wager, to justify belief in God and a virtuous life. The work done by Fermat and Pascal into the calculus of probabilities laid important groundwork for Leibniz's formulation of the infinitesimal calculus. [1]

After a religious experience in 1654, Pascal mostly gave up work in mathematics. However, after a sleepless night in 1658 he offered, anonymously, a prize for the quadrature of a cycloid. Solutions were offered by Wallis, Huygens, Wren, and others; then Pascal, under a pseudonym, published his own solution. A controversy followed in which the competitors, including Pascal, behaved less than philosophically.


Philosophy of mathematics

Pascal's major contribution to the philosophy of mathematics came with his De l'Esprit géométrique ("On the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "Little Schools of Port-Royal" (Les Petites-Ecoles de Port-Royal). The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal such method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them up?-first principles cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true.

In De l'Art de persuader, Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths.

Pascal also used De l'Esprit géométrique to develop a theory of definition. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of essentialism. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of formalism as formulated by Descartes.


Contributions to the physical sciences

Pascal's work in the fields of the study of fluids (hydrodynamics and hydrostatics) centered on the principles of hydraulic fluids. His inventions include the hydraulic press (using hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the syringe. By 1646 Pascal had learned of Evangelista Torricelli's experimentation with barometers. Having replicated an experiment which involved placing a tube filled with mercury upside down in a bowl of mercury, Pascal questioned what force kept some mercury in the tube and what filled the space above the mercury in the tube. At the time, most scientists contended that some invisible matter was present there?-not a vacuum.

Following more experimentation in this vein, in 1647 Pascal produced Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide, which detailed basic rules describing to what degree various liquids could be supported by air pressure. It also provided reasons why it was indeed a vacuum above the column of liquid in a barometer tube.

In 1648 Pascal continued his experiments by having his brother-in-law carry a barometer to higher elevation, confirming that the level of mercury would change, a result which Pascal replicated by carrying a barometer up and down a church tower in Paris. The experiment was hailed throughout Europe as finally establishing the principle and value of the barometer.

In the face of criticism that some invisible matter existed in Pascal's empty space, Pascal delivered in his reply to Estienne Noel one of the seventeenth century's major statements on the scientific method: "In order to show that a hypothesis is evident, it does not suffice that all the phenomena follow from it; instead, if it leads to something contrary to a single one of the phenomena, that suffices to establish its falsity." His insistence on the existence of the vacuum also led to conflict with a number of other prominent scientists, including Descartes.

Mature life, religion, philosophy, and literature

Religious conversion

Biographically, we can say that two basic influences led him to his conversion: sickness and Jansenism. As early as his eighteenth year he suffered from a nervous ailment that left him hardly a day without pain. In 1647 a paralytic attack so disabled him that he could not move without crutches. His head ached, his bowels burned, his legs and feet were continually cold, and required wearisome aids to circulation of the blood; he wore stockings steeped in brandy to warm his feet. Partly to get better medical treatment, he moved to Paris with his sister Jacqueline. His health improved, but his nervous system had been permanently damaged. Henceforth he was subject to deepening hypochondria, which affected his character and his philosophy. He became irritable, subject to fits of proud and imperious anger, and he seldom smiled. [1]

In 1645, Pascal's father was wounded in the thigh and was consequently looked after by a Jansenist physician. Blaise spoke with the doctor frequently, and upon his successful treatment of Étienne, borrowed works by Jansenist authors through him. In this period, Pascal experienced a sort of "first conversion" and began in the course of the following year to write on theological subjects.

Pascal fell away from this initial religious engagement and experienced a few years of what he called a "worldly period" (1648-54). His father died in 1651, and Pascal gained control over both his inheritance and that of his sister Jacqueline. In the same year Jacqueline moved to become a nun at Port-Royal, despite her brother's opposition. When the time came for her to make her ultimate vows, he refused to return to her enough of her inheritance to pay her dowry as a bride of Christ; without money she would attain a less desirable position in the convent hierarchy. Eventually, however, he relented on this point. [2]

When this was settled, Pascal found himself both rich and free. He took a sumptuously furnished home, staffed it with many servants, and drove about Paris in a coach behind four or six horses. His leisure was spent in the company of wits, women, and gamblers (as evidenced by his work on probability). For an exciting while he pursued in Auvergne a lady of beauty and learning, whom he referred to as the "Sappho of the countryside." [3] About this time he wrote a Discours sur les passions de l'amour, and apparently he contemplated marriage?-which he was later to describe as "the lowest of the conditions of life permitted to a Christian." [4]

Jacqueline reproached him for his frivolity and prayed for his reform. During visits to his sister at Port-Royal in 1654, he displayed contempt for affairs of the world but was not drawn to God. [5] Until...

Upon brink of death

In late 1654 he was involved in an accident at the Neuilly bridge where the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung half over the edge. Pascal and his friends emerged, but the sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away, and remained unconscious for some time. Upon recovering fifteen days later, on November 23, 1654, between ten thirty and twelve thirty at night, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself, which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems carefully to have sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death.[6] During his lifetime, Pascal was often mistakenly thought to be a libertine, and was later dismissed as an individual who had only a deathbed conversion.

His belief and religious commitment revitalized, Pascal visited the older of two convents at Port-Royal for a two-week retreat in January 1655. For the next four years, he regularly traveled between Port-Royal and Paris. It was at this point immediately after his conversion when he began writing his first major literary work on religion, the Provincial Letters.


Literature Portal

Beginning in 1656, Pascal published his memorable attack on casuistry, a popular ethical method used by Catholic thinkers in the early modern period (especially the Jesuits). Pascal denounced casuistry as the mere use of complex reasoning to justify moral laxity. His method of framing his arguments was clever: the Provincial Letters pretended to be the report of a Parisian to a friend in the provinces on the moral and theological issues then exciting the intellectual and religious circles in the capital. Pascal, combining the fervor of a convert with the wit and polish of a man of the world, reached a new level of style in French prose. The 18-letter series was published between 1656 and 1657 under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte and incensed Louis XIV, who ordered in 1660 that the book be shredded and burnt. In 1661, the Jansenist school at Port-Royal was condemned and closed down; those involved in it had to sign a 1656 papal bull condemning the teachings of Jansen as heretical. The final letter defied the Pope himself, provoking Alexander VII to condemn the letters (September 6, 1657). But that didn't stop all of educated France from reading them. Even Pope Alexander, while publicly opposing them, nonetheless was persuaded by Pascal's arguments. He condemned "laxism" in the church and ordered a revision of casuistical texts just a few years later (1665-66).

Aside from their religious influence, the Lettres provinciales were popular as a literary work. Pascal's use of humor, mockery, and vicious satire in his arguments made the letters ripe for public consumption, and influenced the prose of later French writers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The first few letters promote major principles of Jansenist teaching, for instance the dogmas of "proximate power" (Letter I) and "sufficient grace" (Letter II), and explain why they are not heretical. The later letters find Pascal more on the defensive?-pressure on the Port Royal Jansenists to renounce their teachings was constantly growing through this time?-and contain the assault on casuistry. Letter XIV contains the unique apology, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

Wide praise has been given to the Provincial Letters. Voltaire called the Letters "the best-written book that has yet appeared in France."[7] And when Bossuet was asked what book he would rather have written had he not written his own, he answered, the Provincial Letters of Pascal.[8]

Miracle

When Pascal was back in Paris just after overseeing the publication of the last Letter, his religion was reinforced by the close association to an apparent miracle in the chapel of the Port-Royal nunnery. His 10-year-old niece, Marguerite Périer, was suffering from a painful fistula lacrymalis that exuded noisome pus through her eyes and nose?-an affliction the doctors pronounced hopeless. Then on March 24, 1657, a believer had presented to Port-Royal what he and others claimed to be a thorn from the crown that had tortured Christ. The nuns, in solemn ceremony and singing psalms, placed the thorn on their altar. Each in turn kissed the relic, and one of them, seeing Marguerite among the worshipers, took the thorn and with it touched the girl's sore. That evening, we are told, Marguerite expressed surprise that her eye no longer pained her; her mother was astonished to find no sign of the fistula; a physician, summoned, reported that the discharge and swelling had disappeared. He, not the nuns, spread word of what he termed a miraculous cure. Seven other physicians who had had previous knowledge of Marguerite's fistula subscribed a statement that in their judgment a miracle had taken place. The diocesan officials investigated, came to the same conclusion, and authorized a Te Deum Mass in Port-Royal. Crowds of believers came to see and kiss the thorn; all Catholic Paris acclaimed a miracle. Later both Jansenists and Catholics used this well-documented miracle to their defense. In 1728, Pope Benedict XIII referred to the case as proving that the age of miracles had not passed.

Pascal made himself an armorial emblem of an eye surrounded by a crown of thorns, with the inscription Scio cui credidi?-"I know whom I have believed." [9] His beliefs renewed, he set his mind to write his final, and alas, unfinished testament, the Pensées.

The Pensées

Main article: Pensées
Unfortunately, Pascal couldn't finish his most influential theological work, the Pensées, before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination of and defense of the Christian faith, with the original title Apologie de la religion Chrétienne ("Defense of the Christian Religion"). What was found upon sifting through his personal items after his death were numerous scraps of paper with isolated thoughts, grouped in a tentative, but telling, order. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as a book in 1670 titled Pensées de M. Pascal sur la réligion, et sur quelques autres sujets ("Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on other subjects") and soon thereafter became a classic. Because his friends and the scholars at Port-Royal were concerned that these fragmentary "thoughts" might lead to skepticism rather than to piety, they concealed the skeptical pieces and modified some of the rest, lest King or Church should take offense[10] for at that time the persecution of Port-Royal had ceased, and the editors were not interested in a renewal of controversy. Not until the nineteenth century were the Pensées published in their full and authentic text.

Pascal's Pensées is widely considered to be a masterpiece, and a landmark in French prose. When commenting on one particular section, Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language.[11] Will Durant, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of Civilization series, hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose."[12] In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity?-seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal's Wager.

Last works and death

Pascal's epitaph in Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, where he was buried.T.S. Eliot described him during this phase of his life as "a man of the world among ascetics, and an ascetic among men of the world." Pascal's ascetic lifestyle derived from a belief that it was natural and necessary for man to suffer. In 1659 Pascal, whose health had never been good, fell seriously ill. During his last years of bad health, he frequently tried to reject the ministrations of his doctors, saying, "Sickness is the natural state of Christians." [13]

Louis XIV suppressed the Jansenist movement at Port-Royal in 1661. In response, Pascal wrote one of his final works, Écrit sur la signature du formulaire, exhorting the Jansenists not to give in. Later that year, his sister Jacqueline died, which convinced Pascal to cease his polemics on Jansenism. Pascal's last major achievement, returning to his mechanical genius, was inaugurating perhaps the first bus line, moving passengers within Paris in a carriage with many seats.

In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent. Aware that he had little chance to survive, he sought a move to the hospital for incurable diseases, but his doctors declared that he was too unstable to be carried. In Paris on August 18, 1662, Pascal went into convulsions and received extreme unction. He died the next morning, his last words being "May God never abandon me," and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.[14]

An autopsy performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen, along with damage to his brain. Despite the autopsy, the cause of his continual poor health was never precisely determined, though speculation focuses on tuberculosis, stomach cancer, or a combination of the two.[15] The headaches which afflicted Pascal are generally attributed to his brain lesion.

Legacy

In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.

In Canada, there is an annual math contest named in his honour. The Pascal Contest is open to any student in Canada that is 14 years or under and is in grade 9 or lower.

Pascal's development of probability theory was his most influential contribution to mathematics. Originally applied to gambling, today it is extremely important in economics, especially in actuarial science. John Ross writes, "Probability theory and the discoveries following it changed the way we regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an individual's and society's ability to influence the course of future events." [2] However, it should be noted that Pascal and Fermat, though doing important early work in probability theory, did not develop the field very far. Christiaan Huygens, learning of the subject from the correspondence of Pascal and Fermat, wrote the first book on the subject. Later figures who continued the development of the theory include Abraham de Moivre and Pierre-Simon Laplace.

In literature, Pascal is regarded as one of the most important authors of the French Classical Period and is read today as one of the greatest masters of French prose. His use of satire and wit influenced later polemicists. The content of his literary work is best remembered for its strong opposition to the rationalism of René Descartes and simultaneous assertion that the main countervailing philosophy, empiricism, was also insufficient for determining major truths.

A discussion of Pascal figures prominently in the movie My Night At Maud's by the French director Éric Rohmer.

and how could I have missed that lovely Australian butterfly. <smile>


Here is a picture of our newest celeb:




We can see why Ellinas did more looking than listening.

Charles Coburn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 - August 30, 1961) was an American film and theater actor.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, Coburn was a theater manager by the age of 17. He later moved on to acting and made his debut on Broadway in 1901. Coburn formed an acting company with his wife in 1906, and in addition to managing the company, the couple performed frequently on Broadway. After his wife's death in 1937, Coburn relocated to Los Angeles, California and began acting in films.

He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The More the Merrier in 1943. He was also nominated for his roles in The Devil and Miss Jones in 1941 and The Green Years in 1946.

In the 1940s, Coburn served as vice-president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideas, a right-wing group opposed to the presence of Communists in Hollywood. His virulent leadership of the blacklist of anyone with any connection to Fascism, supported by such Academy-Award nominees as Adolph Menjou and Ginger Rogers, led to a myriad of talented actors, writers and directors driven from Hollywood and deprived of their livelihood during the witchhunt.

His other film credits include Of Human Hearts (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), Kings Row (1942), The Constant Nymph (1943), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Wilson (1944), Impact (1949), The Paradine Case (1947) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

He died from a heart attack in New York, New York.

Charles Coburn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard.

He is also the grandfather of James Coburn (Agent Flint in Our man Flint and In like Flint, in the 60s)

Moe Howard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born
June 19, 1897
Bensonhurst, New York
Died
May 4, 1975
Los Angeles, California

Moe Howard (June 19, 1897 - May 4, 1975), born Harry Moses Horwitz in Bensonhurst, New York, a small Jewish community on the outskirts of Brooklyn, the fourth of five children, was the "leader" of the Three Stooges. His distinctive coiffure came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a scissors, producing a ragged shape approximating a helmet.

Although his parents were not involved in show business, Moe, his older brother Samuel Howard, (who earned the nickname "Shemp" because of his mother's thick-accented mispronunciation of "Sam") and younger brother Jerome (Curly) all became world famous as part of the Three Stooges.

In school, Moe originally did quite well, aided by a prolific memory, able to quickly memorize anything. In later years, this helped him in his acting career, making memorizing his lines quick and easy. Moe loved reading, as his older brother Jack commented "I had many Horatio Alger books and it was Moe's greatest pleasure to read them. They started his imaginative mind working and gave him ideas by the dozen. I think they were instrumental in putting thoughts into his head to become a person of good character and to become successful."

Moe's largest problem, in his early years, was undoubtedly his hair. Although his "bowl-cut" hair cut is now world famous, as a child his mother refused to cut his beautiful hair, letting it grow to shoulder length. One day, he could not take his classmates' teasing any longer. Moe snuck off to a shed in their backyard, and with the help of a friend and a mixing bowl, cut his hair. The hair style stayed with him for the rest of his life.

However, the allure of the stage started calling him, and the more he followed it, the worse he began doing in school. He began playing hooky from school in order to attend theater shows. Moe said, "I used to stand outside the theater knowing the truant officer was looking for me. I would stand there 'til someone came along and then ask them to buy my ticket. It was necessary for an adult to accompany a juvenile into the theatre. When I succeeded I'd give him my ten cents-that's all it cost-and I'd go up to the top of the balcony where I'd put my chin on the rail and watch, spellbound, from the first act to the last. I would usually select the actor I liked the most and follow his performance throughout the play"

Despite his decreasing attendance, Moe graduated from P.S. 163 in Brooklyn, but dropped out of Erasmus High School after only two months, the end of his formal education. To please his parents, he took a class in electric shop, but dropped out after a few months to pursue a career in show business.

He began by running errands for no fee at the Vitagraph Studios in Midwood, Brooklyn (currently the home of the CBS Soap, "As the World Turns"), where he was rewarded with bit parts in movies being made there. Unfortunately, a fire at the studios in 1910 destroyed copies of most of Moe's work done there. In 1909, he met a young man named Ted Healy, who would later become a major milestone in his life. For the time, though, Moe and Ted became good friends. In 1912, they both held a summer job working in Annette Kellerman's aquatic act as diving "girls."

Moe continued his attempts at gaining show business experience, by singing in a bar with his older brother Shemp (until their father put a stop to it), and in 1914 joining a performing troupe on a showboat for the next two summers. In 1922, he joined Ted Healy in a vaudeville routine, Ted Healy and his Racketeers - the group later changed its name to Ted Healy and his Stooges.

On June 7, 1925, Moe Howard married Helen Schonberger, a cousin of magician Harry Houdini, and truly lived happily ever after until his dying day. The next year, Helen pressured Moe to leave the stage, as she was pregnant and wanted Moe nearer to home. Moe attempted to earn a living in a succession of "normal" jobs, none of which were successful. He returned to working with Ted Healy afterwards.

By 1930, Ted Healy and his Stooges were on the verge of "the big time," and made their first movie, Soup to Nuts - featuring Ted Healy, and his four stooges - Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, and Fred Sanborn for MGM. Shemp had not seen eye-to-eye with Healy, and left the group shortly after filming, in order to pursue an individual film career. Moe brought in his baby brother, Jerome ("Jerry" to his friends, "Babe" to Moe) as a replacement - after Healy had him shave off his mustache and hair, he took the stage name of "Curly." After a number of appearances in MGM films with Healy, in 1934, Ted Healy and his Stooges separated, with Healy pursuing his own career, and The Three Stooges (Fred Sanborn having previously left) began making short films at the Columbia film studio, where they stayed until 1957, making 190 films.

With Healy's departure, Moe's character assumed Healy's previous role of the aggressive, take-charge leader of the Three Stooges, short tempered and prone to slapstick violence against the other two stooges. In many ways, this was the antithesis of Moe Howard's true self; he was quiet, loving, and generous to his friends and family. In fact, he was one of those men who had problems showing affection ?- instead, he would shower his loved ones with gifts, increasing in quantity and expensiveness over time as his fortunes improved. He was also foresighted, and invested the money made from his film career very wisely, allowing him to retire in luxury. He also, trying to ensure a similar future for his high-spending fellow Stooges (Curly would go nightclubbing and Larry was an avid gambler), got them to agree to allow him to take a portion of their salaries to invest for their old age.

In 1934, they released their first Three Stooges, short subject for Columbia, Woman Haters, where their characters where not quite finalized. This was changed by their next film, Punch Drunks, the only short film that was written entirely by the Three Stooges. Their next short, Men in Black, was their first and only film to be nominated for an Academy Award (with the classic catchphrase, "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard"). They continued making short films at a record pace, such as Three Little Pigskins (with a very young Lucille Ball), Pop Goes the Easel, Hoi Polloi (where two professors try to solve a bet by turning the Three Stooges into gentlemen), and many others.

In the 1940s, the Three Stooges become slightly political, making several anti-Nazi movies, including You Nazty Spy (1940), (Moe's favorite Three Stooges film), I'll Never Heil Again (1941), and They Stooge to Conga (1943). Moe's dead-on impression of Adolf Hitler augmented these shorts. Though unusual in their political commentary, these shorts were often hilarious as well.

By the end of World War II, Moe's brother Jerome (Curly) had been diagnosed as having extreme hypertension, a retinal hemorrhage and obesity. The next year, Curly suffered a massive stroke during the filming of Half-Wits Holiday. Although Moe made certain that his baby brother received the best medical care, he had him replaced in the Three Stooges by Shemp, who returned to the group until Curly was well enough to rejoin the Stooges. Although he had recovered enough to appear in Hold That Lion (1947) in a cameo appearance (the only Three Stooges film to contain all four Stooges: Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp), he suffered a series of strokes, leading to his early death in 1952.

The Three Stooges continued to make short films for Columbia into the 1950s?-the era of television. In 1955, Moe's brother Shemp Howard died of a heart attack, necessitating the need for another stooge. Existing footage enabled the Stooges to complete the films that they had been working on until Moe hired Joe Besser, who worked with Moe and Larry making shorts until 1959. The making of shorts had come to an end, but with Columbia's sale of the library of short films to television, the Three Stooges quickly gained a new audience of young fans, prompting Columbia to star them in several feature-length movies - Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959), Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962), The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962), The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963), and The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). By this time, Joe DeRita (dubbed "Curly-Joe", because of his resemblance to former stooge Curly Howard) had stepped into the "third stooge" role, as Joe Besser had bowed out.

Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe continued to make live appearances, many notable "guest appearances", notably in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) ?- as firemen! ?- and 4 for Texas (1963). The boys tried their hand at a children's cartoon show entitled The New 3 Stooges, with the cartoons sandwiched between live action segments of the boys. However, by 1965, it was clear that the trio were not immune to age. They were simply getting too old to do slapstick comedy.

Moe's professional life slowed down dramatically, although he still did minor roles and walk-on bits [Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title (1966), Dr. Death: Seeker of Souls (1973)], television appearances ("Here's Hollywood", "Toast of the Town", "Masquerade Party", and several appearances on "The Mike Douglas Show"). There was also the Stooges final film, Kook's Tour (1970), which was essentially an early "reality TV" show of Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe, out of character, touring the country and interacting with fans.


Moe Howard died of lung cancer on May 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA. His remains are interred at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California.

Moe and Helen had two children: Joan (b. 1927) and Paul (b. 1935).

Trivia

The Three Stooges have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to Motion Pictures at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.

In a 2000 TV movie, Moe Howard was played by Paul Ben-Victor.

While filming 1941's I'll Never Heil Again, a satire on Nazi Germany, Moe, a devoted family man, rushed from the set to his daughter's birthday party, still dressed as the dictator Moe Hailstone. This caused a few calls to the Los Angeles Police Department, as people reported what they perceived to be as Adolf Hitler (Moe's costume was meant to be a sendup of Hitler's, down to the moustache) running red lights in Hollywood.

Guy Lombardo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (June 19, 1902 - November 5, 1977) was a Canadian bandleader and violinist. With his three brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor and other musicians from his hometown of London, Ontario, he formed the big band The Royal Canadians in 1924, famous for playing what is considered "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven."

The band played at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 1929 to 1959, and their New Year's Eve broadcasts (which continued until 1976 at the Waldorf Astoria) were a major part of New Year's celebrations across North America. In 1938, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. They were noted for playing the traditional song Auld Lang Syne as part of the celebrations. Their recording of the song still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.

The Lombardos are to believed to have sold more than 300 million phonograph albums during their lifetimes, a considerable feat given that many homes had no record players in the 1920s and 1930s.

Hydroplane racer

Guy Lombardo was also an important figure in hydroplane racing, winning the Gold Cup in 1946 and the Ford Memorial competition in 1948. A museum in London is dedicated to his musical and hydroplane racing achievements. The Guy Lombardo Museum is located near Wonderland Gardens, a venue closely associated with Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. Nearby there is also a bridge named after him, as well as Lombardo Avenue in north London near the University of Western Ontario.

In his later years, Lombardo lived in Freeport, Long Island, NY where he kept his boat "Tempo IV." He also invested in a nearby seafood restaurant (or clam shack) originally called Liota's East Point House. It was soon Guy Lombardo's East Point House.

The home Guy Lombardo was born in still stands at 202 Simcoe Street in London, Ontario.

Mildred Natwick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 - October 25, 1994) was an American stage and film actress.

Career

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, after graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in theater arts, Mildred Natwick toured with a number of stage productions before her first Broadway production, Carrie Nation.

Throughout the 1930s she starred in a number of plays, frequently collaborating with friend and actor-director-playwright Joshua Logan. Natwick made her film debut in John Ford's The Long Voyage Home as a cockney prostitute, but didn't pursue a Hollywood career in earnest until the mid-1940s. Even after establishing her film career, Natwick could still frequently be seen in stage productions. She was twice nominated for Tony Awards: in 1957 for The Waltz of the Toreadors, and, in 1972 for the musical, 70 Girls 70.

Natwick made her name in small, but memorable roles in several of John Ford classics including Three Godfathers (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1948), and The Quiet Man (1952), as the sheltered widow Mrs. Tillane. The character actress was often given one-scene parts or shallow roles which she transcended with her personality and talent, such as her role as a birth control advocate in the comedy Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), the "well-preserved woman" in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry, and a sorceress in The Court Jester.

After leaving film in favor of stage and television in the mid-1950s, she returned with Barefoot in the Park as Jane Fonda's mother. The role earned Natwick her first and only Academy Award nomination. For much of the following decade, Natwick appeared exclusively in television, winning an Emmy Award for her role in the limited series The Snoop Sisters, a mystery which pared her with fellow film veteran Helen Hayes. Her final role came with 1988's Dangerous Liaisons. Natwick died of cancer on October 25, 1994 in New York City, aged 89.

Mildred was the first cousin of Myron 'Grim' Natwick, the creator of Betty Boop for the Fliescher Studios, and the primary animator of Snow White for Walt Disney.

Louis Jourdan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis Jourdan (born June 19, 1919) is a French actor, known chiefly for his suave manner and good looks.


Born Louis Gendre in Marseille, France, he was educated in France, Turkey and England and trained as an actor at the École Dramatique. He made his film debut in 1939. Following the German occupation of France during World War II, he continued to make films but after refusing to participate in Nazi propaganda films, he joined the French Resistance. After the 1944 liberation of France by the Allies, Louis Jourdan married Berthe Frederique with whom he had a son.

In 1947, Jourdan accepted an offer from a Hollywood studio to appear in The Paradine Case, an Alfred Hitchcock drama starring Gregory Peck. There, he became friends with several stars who shared his love of the game of croquet. After a number of American films, his most notable work was in the 1954 light-hearted comedy-romance, Three Coins in the Fountain following which he made his Broadway debut in the lead role in the Billy Rose drama, The Immoralist. He returned to Broadway for a short run in 1955 and that year made his U.S. television debut as Inspector Beaumont in the series "Paris Precinct".





During the 1950s, Louis Jourdan made several international films including playing the male lead in La Mariée est trop belle opposite Brigitte Bardot. However, he is best remembered as the romantic lead opposite Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier in the 1958 film version of the Colette novel, Gigi. The film earned nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In later years, Jourdan appeared in a number of films, playing the part of the villain, including 1977's Count Dracula and 1978's Murder Under Glass Columbo episode. In the 1983 James Bond film, Octopussy, he was cast as "Kamal Khan," a Bond villain. In 1984 played the role of Pierre de Coubertin in a TV Series about the 1896 Summer Olympics : "The First Olympics Athens 1896".

Tragedy struck when his son died of a drug overdose in 1981. Louis Henry Jourdan was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Louis Jourdan has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6153 and 6445 Hollywood Blvd. He is retired and living in the south of France.

Gena Rowlands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gena Rowlands (born June 19, 1930) is an American actress.

She was born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Cambria, Wisconsin, she attended the University of Wisconsin. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a state Assemblyman and her mother, Mary Allen Neal, was a housewife.

Rowlands appeared in Broadway in the late 1950s, and made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. She starred in several anthology television series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, among many others. In 1961 she starred in the well-received television series 87th Precinct, and in 1964 in Peyton Place.

Teaming with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, Rowlands starred in many productions, including Staccato, A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Gloria (nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress), Love Streams, Minnie and Moskowitz, She's So Lovely, and A Woman Under the Influence (Academy Award nomination). She starred in The Neon Bible. In 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie An Early Frost. In recent years, she has appeared in Paulie and in Mira Nair's HBO movie, Hysterical Blindness for which she won her third Emmy.

She was recently seen in The Notebook, which was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes, and co-starred James Garner, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. In 2004 she won her first Daytime Emmy for her role as Mrs. Evelyn Ritchie in The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie. To name a few, Ms. Rowlands has been nominated for: two Academy Awards; six Emmy nominations, and one Daytime Emmy; eight Golden Globes; three Satellite Awards; and one SAG Award. Some of her notable wins include: a Silver Berlin Bear; three Emmy Awards and one Daytime Emmy; two Golden Globes; two National Board of Review Awards; two Satellite Awards; and one Prize San Sebastián.

In 2005, she appeared opposite Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, and John Hurt in the gothic thriller The Skeleton Key.

Pier Angeli
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pier Angeli (born Anna Maria Pierangeli) (June 19, 1932 - September 10, 1971) was an Italian-born actress who made her debut in "Domani é troppo tardi" (1950).

Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, during the 1950s she was under contract to MGM and was praised for her acting in the movie Somebody Up There Likes Me.

During the 1960s and until 1970 the actress returned to live and work in Europe.

Well known for her romance with James Dean, the actress married twice. Her first marriage was to Vic Damone and the second to Italian composer Armando Trovajoli. During her marriage to singer/actor Damone (1954-1959 divorce), the actress asked to be released from her contract. She had one son by each union.

Her twin sister is actress Marisa Pavan.

On September 10, 1971 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates in Beverly Hills, California.

She is interred in the Cimetière des Bulvis, in Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Marisa Pavan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marisa Pavan (born Marisa Pierangeli on June 19, 1932) is an Italian-born actress who first became famous as the twin sister to movie star Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli) before making movie stardom on her own. Her breakthrough came in the film The Rose Tattoo as Anna Magnani's daughter; her role was first signed to her twin, who at the time was unable to play the part. When Magnani won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the movie version of The Rose Tattoo, Pavan accepted on her behalf as Magnani was not present at the awards ceremony.

Afterwards, Marisa Pavan co-starred in films such as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and The Midnight Story.

She married, divorced, and later remarried the French Jewish actor Jean-Pierre Aumont between 1956 until his death in 2001; they had two sons.

Kathleen Turner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Turner as private eye V.I. WarshawskiKathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress.

Early life

Born Mary Kathleen Turner in Springfield, Missouri, Turner's parents were career diplomats, and she lived in four foreign countries--Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, and England while growing up. Turner has two brothers and a sister. She was a gymnast as a teenager. While attending high school in London, she also took classes at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Her father, Allen Richard Turner, grew up in China and was a foreign services diplomat who was imprisoned by the Japanese for four years during World War II. When her father died of a coronary thrombosis in 1972, the family moved back to the United States.

Career

She attended Missouri State University at Springfield for two years, then gained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1977. In 1978, the 5'10" husky voiced Turner was hired as the second Nola Turner on NBC daytime soap The Doctors, but was fired the next year because the producers felt she was "not hot enough".

Turner had the last laugh as she became a movie star a few years later in Body Heat, which many consider one of the sexiest films (with Turner giving one of the sexiest performances) in the history of cinema. Turner remained a film star up to the early 1990s, but has since rarely appeared in major productions.

During her heyday, she rose to fame as the leading-lady star of Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas, Prizzi's Honor with Jack Nicholson, Peggy Sue Got Married with Nicolas Cage, and The War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. Her career began to slide with her appearances in increasingly low-budget and low-profile films.

Turner is noteworthy for doing her own stunts in her films, and she broke her nose in V.I. Warshawski. (She revisited the role of V.I. Warshawski on BBC Radio 4 in the early 1990s in serialised dramatisations of several of Sara Paretsky's books).

She also had some very scary moments as the eponymous Serial Mom.

In addition to the movies and radio work listed above, she has also appeared as a guest on Friends (as the transvestite father of Chandler Bing), King of the Hill (voice), The Simpsons (voice of Malibu Stacy creator on the episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy), Saturday Night Live, which she hosted twice, and as a defense attorney on Dick Wolf'sLaw & Order franchise.

Turner spoke the voice (uncredited) of sexy Jessica Rabbit in the toon-noir Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988.

In 2000 Turner starred as Mrs. Robinson in the London revival of The Graduate.

Because of her deep voice, she was often compared to a young Lauren Bacall. When the two met, Turner reportedly introduced herself to Bacall by saying "Hi, I'm the young you."

Turner was immortalized in the 1980s song "The Kiss of Kathleen Turner" by Austrian techno-pop singer Falco. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Savannah College of Art and Design at the Savannah Film Festival in October 2004.

Awards

She was nominated for an Oscar for best actress in 1987 for her role in Peggy Sue Got Married. She received two Golden Globe awards, both for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, for Romancing the Stone (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985) and she won the L.A. Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress for Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion (1984).

Personal life

Turner lived with agent David Guc from 1977-1982 and is currently married to New York real-estate mogul, Jay Weiss (they married in 1984).

She and Weiss have a daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss, born October 14, 1987.

Turner was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1992. On December 3, 1999, Turner checked herself into Marworth in Waverly, Pennsylvania for alcohol abuse.

The ravages of both illnesses have taken their toll on this once classical beauty, but she turned them to her at least temporary advantage with an incredible performance as Martha, the middle-aged, slatternly, blowsy anti-heroine of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway in 2005, opposite Bill Irwin, evoking memories of Elizabeth Taylor's Oscar-winning movie performance from 1966.

Political Involvement

Kathleen Turner serves on the board of People for the American Way.

Paula Abdul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Paula Julie Abdul
Born June 19, 1962
Origin San Fernando, California, United States

Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American dancer, choreographer, singer, and television personality.

In the 1980s, her career rose rapidly, from being a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to being a sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era, then to being a pop music singer with a string of top hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After that she suffered a series of reverses in her professional and personal life, until she found renewed fame and success in the 2000s as a judge on the highly rated television series American Idol.

Paula is 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) in height. [1]

Early life

Abdul was born in San Fernando, California. Her mother, Lorraine Rykiss, is a Canadian former concert pianist, and was born in Saint Boniface, a French-speaking area of Winnipeg; she once worked as an assistant to film director Billy Wilder. Her father, Harry Abdul, is a Syrian-Brazilian orphan who was born to parents of Sephardic Jewish descent; he was once a livestock trader and now owns a sand and gravel business in California. When Abdul was 7, her parents divorced. She and her sister, Wendy (seven years older), lived with their mother in the San Fernando Valley.

Although actually of Sephardic (through her father) and Ashkenazi (through her mother) Jewish descent, Abdul bears an Arabic surname and is commonly thought by the public to be of African-American or mixed-race descent. In an Ebony Magazine interview she said: "I'm Syrian-Brazilian-Canadian-American. I've had a lot of Black kids come up to me and say, 'You are Black! There's no way, no way [you are not Black]', and that's all right with me."

As a small child Abdul's interest in a career as a performer was inspired by Gene Kelly in the classic film Singin' in the Rain as well as such entertainers as Debbie Allen, Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., Fred Astaire, and Bob Fosse. In an interview in the May 1990 Ebony magazine, she says, when asked about black influence, "Absolutely....As a young kid growing up, I admired the talent of so many [Black artists]. Black kids identified with me because we all danced together, and we shared that love for art. My favorite artists were Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, the O'Jays?-that's what I grew up on. That was my consciousness."

Abdul began dance lessons around the age of eight and showed a natural talent for it. She attended Van Nuys High School where she was on the cheerleading squad, played flute in the band, and was an honors student. At 15, she received a scholarship to a dance camp near Palm Springs, where she learned that her long-legged teachers stayed lithe by binging and purging their food. Abdul, who was extremely self-conscious about her weight, had been taught this by her much taller fellow ballerinas, and which she herself began at 16 after dining with fellow cheerleaders.

Abdul enrolled at California State University at Northridge to study broadcasting. In her freshman year, she tried out for the Los Angeles Lakers' famed Laker Girls squad, and was selected from a pool of 700. Within three weeks she was made head choreographer. She quit school six months later.

Dancing and choreography

Abdul's high-energy, street-funk style delighted fans, including the famed Jackson family, who saw her at a game and hired the 20-year old to choreograph a music video for their 1984 Victory album.

Abdul went on to serve as the choreographer for the 1980s videos of singer Janet Jackson. She also choreographed music videos for Duran Duran, Prince, The Jacksons, Jermaine Jackson, Kool & the Gang, the Pointer Sisters, Steve Winwood, Luther Vandross, INXS, Debbie Gibson, ZZ Top, George Michael and Dolly Parton. She choreographed and appeared in Toto's 1986 music video for "Till The End", Michael Jackson's music video "Liberian Girl", and Janet Jackson's music videos "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and "Nasty".

Abdul also choreographed the stage shows for Suzanne Somers and Toni Basil.

In film, Abdul choreographed the dance sequences in the films Coming to America, The Running Man and American Beauty, as well as Cuba Gooding Jr.'s touchdown celebration in Jerry Maguire, the giant keyboard sequence involving Tom Hanks' character in Big, and The King's touchdown celebration, as seen in a string of popular Burger King television commercials that aired during the 2005-2006 NFL season.

Abdul won the 1989 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for her work on The Tracey Ullman Show and the same award in 1990 for The 17th Annual American Music Awards.

In a 1990 commercial for Diet Coke, Abdul danced, via editing with footage from the classic film Anchors Aweigh, with childhood inspiration Gene Kelly.

In December 2005, Abdul launched a cheerleading/fitness/dance/dance DVD series called Cardio Cheer, which is marketed to children and teenage girls involved with cheerleading and dance.

Singing

Forever Your Girl album coverIn 1987 Abdul used $35,000 in savings to make a demo of herself singing. Although her voice was relatively untrained, her exceptional dancing proved marketable to the visually oriented, MTV-driven pop music industry.

In 1988, Abdul released her debut album Forever Your Girl. The album eventually became multi-platinum in the spring and summer of 1989 and it spawned five American Top Five singles: "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl", "Cold Hearted", "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me", and "Opposites Attract". A remix album, Shut Up and Dance, was also released and reached #7 on Billboard's album chart. The video for "Opposites Attract" featured an animated cat named MC Skat Kat. As a sign of Paula's enormous popularity, the cartoon cat ended up with his own record deal later that year. Abdul's voice was sampled on one track and she appeared in the video for the first single.

Controversy erupted in Paula's music career when three weeks prior to the release of her sophomore album, Spellbound, backup vocalist Yvette Marine filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Virgin Records, claiming that the company had blended her voice with Paula's lead vocals on songs "Knocked Out", "Opposites Attract", and "I Need You" from Forever Your Girl. Marine claimed that she was inaccurately credited as a backup singer when she was really performing "co-lead" vocals with Abdul. Though not named in the suit, Abdul took the accusation as a personal affront. Virgin Records provided live recordings of Paula's vocals in court, and jury returned with a verdict in favor of Virgin in less than an hour.

Abdul's follow-up album, 1991's Spellbound, contained another string of hits, and went on to sell 6 million copies. Hits included "Rush, Rush" (which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five consecutive weeks, thanks to its music video and its Rebel Without a Cause motif featuring Keanu Reeves in the James Dean role), "The Promise of a New Day", "Blowing Kisses in the Wind", "Vibeology", and "Will You Marry Me?". The first single, "Rush, Rush", was a ballad, which surprised many, as singers generally release an up-tempo song as a first single. The album Spellbound retained much of the dance-oriented formula heard on her debut album. The track "U" was written for Paula by Prince.


After the release of Spellbound, gossip began to circulate about Abdul's weight. At only 5 ft 2 in (157 cm), Abdul did not have the height commonly associated with dancers and choreographers, but public perception of a weight problem on her part was fueled by the music video for "Promise of a New Day", and Abdul's performance at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. In the video, anamorphic lens compression was used to stretch images vertically on the screen. Tabloids claimed this was to make Abdul appear taller and thinner, and the video was parodied by the sketch comedy television show In Living Color for this reason. During her live rendition of "Vibeology" at the MTV Video Music Awards, Abdul wore a black one-piece rhinestone-studded leotard. A microphone pack poorly placed in a built-in pocket on the small of her back gave Abdul a round appearance, only adding fuel to the fire; morning radio hosts were merciless the following day. Abdul later spoke about her problems with food in an interview in the July 1995 Us magazine and an ABC television interview with Diane Sawyer in 1995, in which she asserted that although she had been both a "bulimic exerciser" and a member of Overeaters Anonymous since 1989, her weight never fluctuates by more than five pounds (two kilograms).

Abdul took a break from recording and resurfaced in 1993 with an exercise video.

In 1995 Abdul released her third album of original material, Head Over Heels. Modest radio hits with the singles "My Love Is for Real", "Crazy Cool", and "Ain't Never Gonna Give You Up" showed that she was still able to create popular music while moving with the times. The first single off the album, "My Love is for Real", featured a fusion of R&B and traditional Middle Eastern instruments, and was sung together with Yemenite-Israeli singer Ofra Haza. Its accompanying Lawrence of Arabia-inspired music video was played in theaters across the world as a preface to the film Clueless. It was a hit in dance clubs (peaking at #1 on Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play chart) but the single stalled at #28 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The second single, "Crazy Cool", was accompanied by a music video wherein Abdul is seen riding a mechanical bull and spraying Champagne over her breasts. Virgin Records, possibly counting on name recognition to move copies, did not put nearly as much muscle behind promoting the album, and Head Over Heels sold considerably less than her previous albums. Her previous success was now a career on the rocks.

In 2000, Abdul's Greatest Hits CD was released. It featured an array of hit singles from Abdul's previous three albums, as well as other noteworthy tracks. The song "Bend Time Back Round" had only been heard previously on the 1993 soundtrack of the hit television series Beverly Hills 90210. The album was not a commercial success.

Abdul co-wrote Kylie Minogue's 2000 hit single "Spinning Around", which was originally slated to appear on her new album in 2000.

Abdul has claimed several times that she is working on releasing another album (rumored to have the working title Paulatix of Love), although its release has been delayed several times. She originally signed with Mercury Records in 1997 and was going to release her album in Spring 1999, but the album was postponed due to the merger between Universal Music Group and Polygram (which owns Mercury Records), causing layoffs of many music acts, including Abdul. The second scheduled release date was the summer of 2000, but that release date was later cancelled as well. As of 2005, she is working with fellow American Idol judge Randy Jackson to produce her new album and hopes to find another record company to release it.

Acting

Abdul appeared as Sherri in the 1978 low-budget musical film Junior High School. In the late 1990s, she attempted to revitalize her career as a performer by accepting acting roles, starting with the 1997 television movie Touched by Evil, which she played a woman who discovers her boyfriend was her rapist. The film was rejected by both fans and critics. She later played Amy Fuentes in the 1998 made-for-TV film, The Waiting Game, which was released only in the UK, and received moderate reaction from viewers [2].

American Idol

Paula Abdul, along with American Idol judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson.In 2002, Abdul appeared as one of three judges for the reality television music competition show American Idol. Abdul, along with fellow judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson, was to evaluate the talent of a large group of young amateur singers, eliminate most of them in various audition rounds, and then judge the finalists as American television viewers voted on which finalists who continue to each successive round, until all but the winner remained. Abdul won praise as a sympathetic and compassionate judge, while garnering criticism for being too sympathetic with "bad" singers.[citation needed] She seemed especially kind when her critiques were compared against those of fellow judge Simon Cowell, who was often blunt in his appraisals of the contestants' performances.[citation needed] When she realized that Cowell's over-the-top judging style was heartbreaking for many young contestants, Abdul was so horrified, she considered leaving the show. Although their differences often resulted in extremely heated on-air exchanges and confrontations, Cowell says he played a major role in convincing Abdul not to walk off.[citation needed]

Now a bonafide television celebrity, Abdul accepted a second gig as reporter for Entertainment Tonight. She continued to attract attention during subsequent seasons of American Idol; her desire to find something positive in almost every performance, her emotion-laden praise for contestants whose style she really liked, and her unique fingers-bent-outwards handclapping style were all lampooned by Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live sketches.

During 2004, public concern for Abdul began growing as a result of some apparently erratic behavior during episodes of American Idol. When rumors of drug or alcohol abuse began to swirl[citation needed], Abdul went to People magazine to explain that she had been diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and was undergoing successful treatment.

In May 2005, ABC's newsmagazine Primetime Live reported claims by Season 2 Idol contestant Corey Clark that he and Abdul had an affair during that season, and that she had coached him on how to succeed in the competition. The fact that Clark came forward at a time when he was marketing a CD and trying to get a book deal was seen as suspicious by some.[citation needed] For the most part, Abdul refused to comment on Clark's allegations.[citation needed] At the height of the debacle, Abdul appeared in a Saturday Night Live skit, making light of the situation. While Fox launched an investigation, Abdul received numerous calls of support from celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey; Barbara Walters even addressed the camera during an episode of ABC's The View to say she was ashamed to be part of an operation that would report Clark's flimsy tabloid claims under the guise of a news story.

In August 2005 the Fox network announced that, after hiring lawyers from two impartial law firms who conducted almost 600 hours of interviews with 43 people (including Abdul and Clark), no evidence was found to substantiate Clark's claims that he had an affair with Abdul or that she helped him during the contest.[citation needed] Abdul did admit to investigators that she had telephone conversations with Clark during the competition, but her account of those talks differed from Clark's.[citation needed] The network confirmed that she would be returning to the show, as the investigation had found "insufficient evidence that the communications between Mr. Clark and Ms. Abdul in any way aided his performance."(CNN Abdul cleared in 'Idol' probe) Season 5 of the show premiered on January 17, 2006, with Abdul reappearing as a judge.

On March 28, 2006 FOX announced that Abdul had signed to stay on American Idol as a judge for at least 3 more years.

The X Factor

On June 7 2006, it was announced that Paula Abdul will appear this August as a judge on the hit UK music talent show, The X Factor, alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne. Auditions for the third series of the show began on June 7 2006.


Personal life

She has checkered relationship history, which Abdul has blamed on, in part, the difficulty men have dealing with her career and her busy schedule:

Her early relationships included actor John Stamos and talk show host Arsenio Hall.
Abdul was married to Emilio Estevez from April 29, 1992 to May 1994. In a June 19, 2005 People magazine interview, Abdul indicated the marriage failed because Estevez, who had two children from a prior relationship, did not wish to have more.
Married clothing manufacturer Brad Beckerman in 1996; they divorced in 1998.
2000 she dated Hank Kuehne, a professional golfer 13 years her junior, for about six months.
Began dating millionaire Colton Melby, part-owner and then-president of Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, in early 2003; they broke up in January 2004.
Late 2005 she was reported to have ended a relationship with model Dante Spencer.
Valentine's Day 2006, Abdul appeared on Dr. Phil as part of a primetime special on love and relationships. She was set up on two dates and Phil McGraw gave her advice.

Court & Legal

On March 24, 2005, Abdul pleaded no contest and was fined and sentenced to two years' probation for a hit-and-run incident in Encino, California. Abdul claims she did not notice the brief contact between her Mercedes and another vehicle as she was changing lanes.
April 4, 2006, Abdul filed a report at a Hollywood police station claiming she had been a victim of battery at a private party at about 1 AM April 2, according to police Lt. Paul Vernon. "According to Abdul, the man at the party argued with her, grabbed her by the arm and threw her against a wall," Vernon said. "She said she had sustained a concussion and spinal injuries." A few days later she appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno making the same claims about the assault.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life
teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend
the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward
for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why
some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact,
they usually repeat word for word
what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties
is to remind yourself that there are children
more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes,
but they are still getting in.

=========================
ADVICE FOR THE DAY:

Be nice to your kids.
They will choose your
nursing home one day.

=========================
AND FINALLY:

IF YOU ! HAVE A LOT OF TENSION
AND YOU GET A HEADACHE,
DO WHAT IT SAYS
ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN"
AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

OK, if I have time I am going to translate songs I like and post them .

Well, folks, our bio man from Boston, and our favorite hawk, has lots of celeb background info for us today. Thanks, buddy, and when our Raggedy appears with pictures, we all will make further comments. Loved the observations about kids, dear. Somewhere around here I still have a hat that my kids gave me that says: Get revenge; live long enough to be a burden on your children.

Ellinas, we are indeed looking forward to your music, Greece.

Well, listeners, I have stuff to do so I will be back later.

This is cyber space, WA2K radio.

OK, here is the translation of the first song came in my mind. More to follow soon.

This song was composed just a few years ago, but it is referring at an older period, the situation after the Greek-Turkish war of 1922 and the first massive getaway of the Greeks from Ionia in Asia Minor by many Greeks after 3000 years.

Well it is a difficult sad song, you can't completely understand parts of them just with a read. As it looks like the "storyteller" is a lover of an Ionian girl.

The English translation (by me ) follows. Greek lyrics are here: http://www.kithara.vu/ss.php?id=MTA3NjA5NDM5

Stella from Smyrna

Lyrics: Georgios Moukides
Singer: Notis Sfakianakis

You wake up again early in the morning, with tears in your eyes,
You tell me you saw the same dream yesterday.
Listen the sound of the arghile*, when drinking your pieces
Listen to the baglamas**, which is playing on the top of the roof.

You "rode" the music, and you passed the Sea,
Then in a terrace, you arrived lately,
Your old man, was calling you a rebel girl from a corner,
And your mother was begging you not to leave again.

CHORUS
They are going to call you crazy, because you want to go to Aivalyk*** and sing Rebetika****,
They are going to make a bad rumor for you, they are going to say that Stella from Smyrna went mad because of the Hasish*****.

Then you were carrying your fortune (property) with a truck,
The fortune you were gathering a whole life, just for that moment.
Where is your beauty and your sweetness my sweet girl?
Now your voice turned into a scream….

You started blaming the God, for this heartless World.
You bring in your mind your neighborhood, which was turned into a burn.
You carry the Tzouras****** in your one hand, the sadness in your eyes.
And you are wandering: To live or not to live?

CHORUS



Some notes about words:
*Arghile: Hookah, water pipe. Popular in Turkey especially that period.
**Baglamas: Small stringed musical instrument. Like the bouzouki, but quite smaller.
***Ayvalik: Turkish name of city in Ionia, Asia Minor. The older Greek name was Cydoneae. In the period the song is referring the city had big number of both Greeks and Turks.
****Rebetika: Greek music genre. Founded by the Greeks of Asia Minor, and its songs were usually reffering to honour, love and the difficulties of life.
*****Hasish: Smokable drug. The one was called Marijuana in America. In the 20s it was popular in Asia Minor, as it was produced there in big numbers.
******Tzouras: Another stringed musical instrument. Between the size of the baglamas and the bouzouki.

Good morning WA2K.

Some of today's B.D. celebs:

Well it looks a bit strange as I see in English, in Greek it has rhyme . Reffering to the song I posted.

Ellinas, What a wondrous piece, and the footnotes are so welcome. I know about a hookah from Alice in Wonderland and the caterpillar, and it seems to me that hasish was the base word for assassin. The names of the stringed instruments are so unusual. Marvelous, my friend. You are a welcome addition to WA2K radio.

Well, Raggedy. Once again we have you to thank for the wonderful photos of the celebs. Ah, listeners. Before us we puruse the handsome face of Louis Jordan. There are two of them, I see. One an actor the other a musician. So, for the musical one:

Ain't That Just Like a Woman.

There was Adam, happy as a man could be
Till Eve got him messin' with that old apple tree

Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time

Lot took his wife down to the corner for a malted
She wouldn't mind her business, boy, did she get salted

Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time
Samson thought Delilah was on the square
Till one night she clipped him all his hair

Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time

From our history books we all learned
Nero fiddled while Rome was burned

Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time

Marie Antoinette met some hungry cats at the gate
They was crying for bread, she said, ";Let them eat cake";

Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time

You can buy a woman clothes
And give her money on the side
No matter what you do
She ain't never satisfied
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
Ain't that just like a woman?
They'll do it every time

Love it!

Oh, yes. Letty needs to make a slight distinction between the two Louis men. The French one is Louis Jourdan(Louis Gendre). I never knew that. I do hope Francis is back with us soon.