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Ken Curtis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ken Curtis (July 2, 1916 - April 28, 1991), was an American singer and actor best known for his role as "Festus Haggen" on CBS' long-running western drama, Gunsmoke, which he portrayed from 1964 to 1975.

Curtis also costarred with Larry Pennell in the 1962 syndicated television series Ripcord, a half-hour drama about a skydiving service company. Curtis played the role of "Jim Buckley" and Pennell (born 1928) was "Ted McKeever." This series inspired the first widespread interest in parachuting as a sport.

Curtis was born Curtis Wain Gates and reared in Las Animas near Lamar in southeastern Colorado. His father, Dan Gates, was the sheriff. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, cooked for the prisoners.

He was a singer before moving into acting, performing with the popular Sons of the Pioneers in Gene Autry and Roy Rogers films as well as singing with the iconic Tommy Dorsey band. Movie audiences will hear his voice in the introduction of the western standard "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".

The son-in-law of director John Ford, Curtis teamed with Ford and John Wayne in Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles, The Searchers, The Horse Soldiers, The Alamo and How The West Was Won. Curtis also teamed with Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts. In the 1950s, Curtis tried his hand at producing two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster. Curtis also guest starred on an episode of Perry Mason?-as a circus clown.

Curtis remains best known for his role as Festus, the scruffy, cantankerous, functionally illiterate deputy in Gunsmoke. While Marshal Matt Dillon had a total of five deputies over two decades, Festus held the badge the longest (eleven years) and was the most colorful. Festus was patterned after "Cedar Jack", a man from Curtis' Las Animas childhood. Cedar Jack, who lived about forty miles out of town made a living cutting cedar fence posts, gave Curtis opportunity to observe him when Jack would come to Las Animas, where he would usually end up drunk and in jail. Carroll O'Connor appeared twice in episodes of Gunsmoke and years later Curtis played a retired police detective in an episode of O'Connor's NBC-TV series In the Heat of the Night.

Besides engaging in the usual personal appearances most television stars undertake to promote their program, Curtis also traveled around the county performing a western-themed stage show at fairs, rodeos and other venues when Gunsmoke wasn't in production, and even for some years after the show was canceled.

In 1981, Curtis was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

His last role was as cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" in the television production Conagher (1991), by famed western author Louis L'Amour, with Sam Elliott in the lead role.

Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in Fresno, California.

Paul Williams (The Temptations)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Born July 2, 1939
Origin Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Died August 17, 1973 (aged 34)
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Genre(s) R&B, pop, soul
Occupation(s) Singer, dancer, choreographer
Instrument(s) Singing
Years active 1955 - 1973
Label(s) Motown
Associated
acts The Temptations, The Supremes

Paul Williams (July 2, 1939 - August 17, 1973) was an American second tenor/baritone singer.

Williams is noted for being one of the founding members and original lead singer of the popular Motown group The Temptations. Along with David Ruffin, Otis Williams (no relation), and fellow Alabamians Eddie Kendricks and Melvin Franklin, Williams was a member of The Temptations during their most successful years in the 1960s, later dubbed the "Classic 5" period. Paul Williams himself was a member of the group from its founding in 1960 until 1971, when personal problems and failing health forced him to retire. Those same problems would later cause Williams to commit suicide two years later, at the age of thirty-four. The Paul Williams family does not believe, due to undisclosed reasons, that Mr. Williams killed himself.





Biography

Early years

Paul Williams was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Williams met his lifelong best friend Eddie Kendricks during their grade school years; supposedly, the two first encountered each other in a fistfight after Williams dumped a bucket of mop water on Kendricks. The two eventually became good friends; both boys had in common a love of singing, and sang in their church choir together. As teenagers, Williams, Kendricks, and their friends Kel Osboure and Willie Waller performed in a secular singing group known as The Cavaliers, with dreams of making it big in the music industry. In 1957, Williams, Kendricks, and Osbourne left Birmingham for greener pastures, leaving Waller behind. Now known as The Primes, the trio moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and eventually found a manager in Milton Jenkins, who moved the group to Detroit, Michigan. Although The Primes never recorded, they were successful performers, and even launched a spin-off female group called The Primettes, who later became The Supremes.

In 1960, Kel Osbourne moved to California, and the Primes disbanded. Williams and Kendricks returned to Alabama, but soon found themselves back in Detroit again after learning that Otis Williams, head of a rival Detroit act known as The Distants, had two openings in his group's lineup. Paul Williams and Kendricks joined Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Elbridge Bryant to form The Elgins, who signed to the local Motown label in 1961, after first changing their name to The Temptations.



With the Temptations

Although the group now had a record deal, Paul Williams and his bandmates endured a long series of failed singles before finally hitting the Billboard Top 20 in 1964 with "The Way You Do the Things You Do." More hits quickly followed, including "My Girl", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," and "(I Know) I'm Losing You."

Williams sang lead on several of the group's songs, and served as lead singer during the group's early years. Considered the Temptations' best dancer, Williams served as the group's original choreographer, devising routines for his group and The Supremes as well (most notably their trademark "Stop! In the Name of Love" routine), before Cholly Atkins took over that role for all of Motown's acts. Williams' later leads on Temptations songs included "No More Water in the Well", "Just Another Lonely Night", and his signature song, "Don't Look Back". One of his best-known lead performances is his stand out live performance of "For Once in My Life," from the television special TCB, originally broadcast on December 9, 1968 on NBC,where most critics and fans felt he "stole the show". The song "No More Water in the Well" is also frequently cited as one of his stand out performances.


Personal problems and decline

Williams suffered from sickle-cell disease, which would keep him in poor health at times. In 1965, Williams began an affair with Winnie Brown, hair stylist for The Supremes and a relative of Supremes member Florence Ballard. In love with Brown but still devoted to his wife and children, Williams was also depressed because he was now being denied lead spots on the Temptations' singles in favor of David Ruffin, and Cholly Atkins' presence now made Williams' former role as choreographer essentially obsolete. As a result, Williams, who previously never drank, began to drink alcoholic beverages heavily, and soon slid into alcohol dependency. Because of Williams' sickle-cell condition, which already made touring hard on him, alcohol took a stronger than usual toll on his health.

In 1969, Williams and Brown opened a celebrity fashion boutique in downtown Detroit. The business was not as successful as planned, and Williams soon found himself owing more than $80,000 in taxes. By now his health had deteriorated to the point that he would sometimes be unable to perform. Each of the other four Temptations did what they could to help Williams, alternating between raiding and draining his alcohol stashes, personal interventions, and keeping oxygen tanks backstage, but Williams' health continued to decline and he refused to see a doctor.

Otis Williams and the other Temptations decided to resort to enlisting an on-hand fill-in for Paul Williams. Richard Street, then lead singer of fellow Motown act The Monitors and formerly lead singer of The Distants, was hired to travel with The Temptations and sing all of Paul Williams' parts, save for Williams' special numbers such as "Don't Look Back" and "For Once in My Life", from behind a curtain. When Williams was too ill to go on, Street took his place onstage. In April of 1971, Williams was finally persuaded to go see a doctor. The doctor found a spot on Williams' liver, and demanded that the singer retire from The Temptations. Williams left the group and Street became his permanent replacement. In support of helping Williams get back on his feet, The Temptations kept Williams on their payroll as an advisor and choreographer, and Williams continued to help the group with routines and dance moves for the next two years.


Later years

Now spending most of his time at home, Williams continued to be troubled by the problems of his affair, the boutique, and his dependence on alcohol. By early 1973, Williams had returned to Motown's Hitsville USA recording studios, and was now working on solo material. Eddie Kendricks, who had quit the Temptations just before Williams himself left, produced and co-wrote Williams' first single, "Feel Like Givin' Up", which was to have been issued on Motown's Gordy imprint with "Once You Had a Heart" as its b-side. However, Motown decided to shelve the sides, and the single was not released.

Williams never overcame his depression or his personal and health problems. On August 17, 1973, Williams, age thirty-four, was found on the ground near his car, dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot to the head, in a deserted parking lot near 14th Street and West Grand Blvd., not far from Hitsville.

The mysterious circumstances surrounding Paul Williams' death caused many people, including the Williams family, to suspect (and continue to suspect) that some form of foul play or murder was the actual cause of Williams' death. According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head. In addition, a bottle of alcohol was found near Williams' left side, as if he'd dropped it while being shot. Finally, the gun used in the shooting was found to have fired two shots, only one of which had killed Williams. Despite the unusual evidence, Williams had in fact previously expressed suicidal thoughts, and his death was officially ruled as being self-inflicted.

Paul Williams' funeral was held on August 24, with his family, friends, and former bandmates in attendance. It is rumored that Eddie Kendricks asked that Paul's coffin be opened and kissed his cheek at the gravesite part of the service. He was survived by his wife, Mary Williams, and their six children: Sarita, Paula, Kenneth, Mary Agnes, Paul Jr., and Paul Lucas. As a member of the Temptations, Paul Williams was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Both of his solo recordings were later released by Motown on Temptations-related compilations in the 1980s and 1990s. .

Lindsay Lohan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Lindsay Dee Lohan
Born July 2, 1986 (1986-07-02) (age 21)
New York City, New York, United States
Other name(s) Lindsay Morgan Lohan
Notable roles Hallie Parker & Annie James in The Parent Trap
Anna Coleman in Freaky Friday
Lola Cep in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Cady Heron in Mean Girls
Lola Johnson in A Prairie Home Companion
Diane in Bobby
Rachel in Georgia Rule

Lindsay Dee Lohan[1] (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and pop music singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine ads and television commercials. At age ten, she began her acting career in a soap opera; at eleven, she made her motion picture debut by playing both twins in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Lohan's breakout role as a leading actress came six years later with 2004's Mean Girls, which shone the media spotlight on her professional and personal lives?-including her nightlife and her parents' marital and legal struggles.

As an adult, Lohan began to take on more varied roles and projects, including Robert Altman's final film, A Prairie Home Companion. While filming Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2004, Lohan launched her career in music, recording and releasing her first studio album, Speak; her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in 2005.





Biography

Childhood

Lindsay Lohan was born in The Bronx and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in New York. She is the eldest child of Michael Lohan, a onetime actor, and the former Donata "Dina" Sullivan, who has claimed that she worked as a Rockette, though Radio City Music Hall records have failed to verify this claim.[2][3] She has three younger siblings: brother Michael had a role as "Lost Boy at Camp" in The Parent Trap (1998), sister Aliana is an aspiring model and actress, and brother Dakota (Cody) has modeled fashions. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic.[4] She originally pronounced her name ˈloʊhæn but later settled on ˈloʊən; in 2005, Lohan explained to a TEENick audience that she had decided to use Morgan as her middle name because it sounded more professional.

Lindsay's family was financially comfortable; her father Michael Lohan had inherited his family's pasta business, which he later sold to trade in futures (briefly becoming President of New York Futures Traders).[5] More recently, he worked as an investment banker, securing funding for independent films. Lohan's mother Dina, was a Wall Street analyst before becoming her daughter's manager.[1] Despite the family's wealth, Lohan?-when she wasn't tutored on film sets?-attended public schools on Long Island until just before her high school graduation, finishing her studies at home.[6]

It was revealed in 2004 that Michael Lohan had spent much of his daughter's preteen years in prison for securities fraud.[7] In 2005, he was sent back to prison for "aggravated unlicensed driving" and attempted assault.[8] Later that year, Lohan's parents settled their divorce case; her mother's attorney said, "Dina and the children are delighted that this chapter in their lives is finally over," while her father (through his lawyer) said, " look forward to the opportunity to rebuild my relationship with my children."[9]


Early work

Lohan began her career with Ford Models at age three and, at a time when blue-eyed blondes were in highest demand, the freckle-faced, auburn-haired child found little work as a fashion model.[10] She persisted and eventually appeared in more than 100 print ads for Toys "R" Us.[11] She also modeled for Calvin Klein Kids (usually with siblings Michael and Ali) and Abercrombie Kids. Through young adulthood, Lohan was featured in such diverse magazines as Vogue, Elle, Bliss (UK), Хай Клуб (High Club, Bulgaria), and Blenda (Japan).

Lohan's first auditions for television work did not go well; by the time she tried out for a Duncan Hines commercial, she told her mother that she would give up if she did not get the job.[10] She was hired, and Lohan went on to appear in over 60 commercials, including a Jell-O pudding spot with Bill Cosby. Her ad work led to roles in soap operas, and she was already considered a show-business veteran[11] in 1996 when she landed the role of Alexandra "Alli" Fowler on Another World, "where she delivered more dialogue than any other ten-year-old in daytime serials" of the time.[12]


Lohan and Lohan "get together" in The Parent Trap (1998), her first feature film.Lohan gave up Another World for the big screen when director Nancy Meyers cast her as estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) in The Parent Trap (1998). Hired in 1997 at age 10, Lohan was 11 when filming began in England and California (in Los Angeles and the Napa Valley). "I left school for eight months," she said. "When I came back, my friends [asked], 'Where'd you go?' I said, 'My family and I went on a long vacation.' Then the movie came out, and they were, like, 'Um, Lindsay? That's you in Parent Trap,' and I said, 'Oh, yeah. I also did this movie while we were gone.'"[7] Trap was well-received for a family comedy, bringing in US$92 million worldwide.[13] Film critic Janet Maslin found Lohan's dual performances so forceful "that she seems to have been taking shy violet lessons from Sharon Stone."[14] Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original, and … she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities".[15]

Signed by Disney to a three-film contract, Lohan was offered the role of Penny in Inspector Gadget but, after seven months' work on The Parent Trap, she turned it down.[1] Later, she starred in two original television movies, Life-Size (2000) (with Tyra Banks) and Get a Clue (2002). She also played Bette Midler's daughter in the first episode of the short-lived series, Bette (2000), but Lohan?-then 14?-quit when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles. In 2001, she hosted the ABC-TV commercial series commemorating Walt Disney's 100th birthday during a rebroadcast of The Parent Trap.

Following a brief hiatus, Lohan attended her first-ever film audition and won the lead teen role in another Disney remake; Freaky Friday (2003) starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Lohan as a mother and daughter trapped in the other's body. Critic Roger Ebert praised Lohan's "Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona,"[16] while Carrie Rickey?-who panned the film?-called her performance "unpredictable and inspired."[17] Through 2005, Friday was Lohan's biggest commercial film success, earning US$160 million worldwide.[18]


Movie career

Lohan in a promotional photo for Mean Girls, her first hit film as a lead actress.Lohan was given the lead in two films, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (her first feature that was not a remake) and Paramount's Mean Girls, both released in 2004. Drama Queen was a modest success at the box office, grossing about US$30 million, but was a failure with critics. "Though still a promising star," Robert K. Elder wrote, "Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions."[19] That "penance" came with Mean Girls, her first PG-13 (and first non-Disney) film; her breakout lead performance[20] pushed the critical and commercial hit to gross US$128 million worldwide, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen," wrote Brandon Gray.[21] "Lohan dazzles us once more," said Steve Rhodes. "The smartly written script is a perfect match for her intelligent brand of comedy."[22]

Mean Girls was scripted by Tina Fey and featured several alumni of Saturday Night Live; Lohan was asked to host the show three times, in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Lohan returned to Disney for Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), the fifth film in the long-dormant Herbie series. Her rising popularity allowed her to choose from a wider variety of projects and, at age 19, Lohan felt Herbie would help her make the transition into more grown-up roles.[6] "In most of my other films, I was in high school," she said. "Here, [my character is] just out of college. It's nice to be able to do something that I think will be acceptable to the fan base I've accumulated from my Disney movies, but subconsciously they'll see me getting older and maturing."[23] Fully Loaded earned $144,146,816 worldwide.[24]

Her next film in wide release, Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 to poor reviews and earned only $38 million worldwide.[25] The following month, A Prairie Home Companion, in limited release ended its run with $25,648,948 globally.[26] "Lohan rises to the occasion," wrote Peter Travers, "delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny'."[27] Lohan completed filming the independent Emilio Estevez film, Bobby, opposite Elijah Wood, in December 2005; the film débuted at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2006, and was released in theaters on November 23, 2006, though it earned a weak $19,560,892 worldwide with mixed reviews. Chapter 27 with Jared Leto began filming in New York on January 9, 2006, and had wrapped by March. No release date has been announced.

Lohan starred in Georgia Rule opposite Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda which was released May 11, 2007 to harsh reviews and a opening weekend total of just $6.7 million. Lohan will next be seen in I Know Who Killed Me when the movie opens July 27, 2007[28], in which she, as told to David Letterman, will play a stripper and that it's a "really dark, scary film."[29]


Music

Hoping to become a "triple threat" (actor/model/singer) like her idol, Ann-Margret, Lohan began by showcasing her singing talents through her films.[30] For the Freaky Friday soundtrack, she sang the closing theme, "Ultimate"; she also recorded four songs for the Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen soundtrack.


Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released two years after she signed a production deal with Emilio Estefan, Jr.Producer Emilio Estefan, Jr. signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in 2002. "The minute I heard her sing, I knew she was gifted," he said, "and [she] has an incredible ability to connect with her audience. I am very excited to be working with her." Lohan?-who said she was "extremely excited"?-added, "I am surrounded by a group of very talented people."[31] Two years later, Lohan signed a recording contract with Casablanca Records, headed by "diva-maker" Tommy Mottola. Her debut album, Speak, was released in December 2004, and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. By early 2005, it was certified Platinum. Though primarily a pop-rock album, Speak was introduced with the single "Rumors", described by Rolling Stone as "a bass-heavy, angry club anthem".[32] Its sexually suggestive video reached number one on MTV's TRL and was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. "Rumors" eventually earned a Gold certification in America.

"[W]ith just two hit films under her belt", wrote Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide, "Lohan decided it was time to turn [herself] into a multimedia, cross-platform star ... and so Speak was recorded quickly and rushed into the stores". He called her music "a blend of old-fashioned, Britney-styled dance-pop and the anthemic, arena rock sound pioneered by fellow tween stars Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simpson. [However,] Lohan stands apart from the pack with her party-ready attitude and her husky voice".[33]

In December 2005, her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, but fell under the top 100 within six weeks. Reviews were unfavorable; critics wondered why an album in which Lohan poured out her heart came across instead as a "slick pop production."[34] Slant magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones."[35] Still, A Little More Personal (Raw) was certified Gold on January 18, 2006. The music video for the album's first single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)"?-directed by Lohan and featuring the acting debut of her sister, Ali?-was a dramatization of the pain Lohan says her family has suffered at the hands of her father.[36] She said "It's kind of offensive" but "I hope he sees the positive side of the video rather than the negative."

Universal Music Group moved Lohan from Casablanca to Motown Records in February 2006.[37] In March, she told OK! magazine that she was writing lyrics for her third album, which she called "different [from] the first two".[38] The November 2006 edition of In Style reported a Christmas 2006 release, but it was pushed back.

In a May 2007 interview in Nylon Lohan stated that she plans to record her third studio album in August 2007, saying "I want to do a tour like Madonna. [...] I want to do what Britney was doing. I want to work with Pharrell, Timbaland, and Justin Timberlake.".[39]

Lohan recently told MTV News that she will begin work on her third album in "June or July and take four months". The album is reported to be a new musical direction for Lohan, who is working with Maverick Records CEO Guy Oseary on an "urban pop" sound.[40]


Media spotlight

Lohan was portrayed as a "party girl" who frequented clubs with Nicole Richie and Paris and Nicky Hilton, among others ("people [say], 'Oh, she goes out and she parties,'" Lohan said. "No, we are just going out and having fun."),[30] while accidental exposures to paparazzi brought repeated rumors of breast enhancement ("they're real though," she asserted).[41] Lohan later lampooned the various rumors on Saturday Night Live.

Lohan was the first living person to have a "My Scene Goes Hollywood" doll released by Mattel (in 2005). She also voiced herself in the direct-to-DVD feature film based on the dolls.[42]

Lohan's three car accidents in 2005 and one in 2007 made headlines. The first was a minor rear-ender, though the victims later threatened to sue her.[43] She suffered minor injuries when a paparazzo who was following her for a photograph hit her car (police called the crash intentional, but prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges).[44] Lohan also struck a van in West Hollywood; police ruled that the van's driver made an illegal U-turn.[45] When VH1 named Lohan "Big 'It' Girl" for its 'Big' in '05 Awards in December, it was, Lohan quipped, "because being Big in '05 means getting in three car crashes in one year, people!".[46] Lohan was involved in an accident again on May 26, 2007, during which the Beverly Hills Police Department arrested her and issued a summons for driving under the influence. The police discovered a "usable" quantity of a substance tentatively identified to be cocaine at the scene.[47] Two days later, Lohan entered a medical rehabilitation facility.[48] She had previously entered rehab in January.

Lohan was interviewed for the March 2006 issue of Allure magazine; she said she hoped to be taken seriously as an actress, adding, "I hate it when people call me a teen queen." She addressed the numerous romantic rumors ("I know now that I don't need a boyfriend.") and her weight loss ("I will say that I went through a phase. I lost weight when I was in the hospital, and then I wanted to keep it off."). Lohan says 2005 "felt like five lifetimes because I've grown up a lot".[49]

Lohan was voted #10 on the list of "100 Sexiest Women" by readers of FHM.[50] Maxim placed her at #3 on its 2006 Hot 100 list.[51]

In 2007, Lohan placed at #1 on the Maxim "Hot 100".[52]

John the farmer was in the Fertilized Egg business. He had several hundred
young layers (hens), called "pullets" and eight or ten roosters,whose job it
was to fertilize the eggs.
The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the
soup pot and was replaced.That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a
set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.
Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which
rooster was performing.. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an
efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.
The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was
too.But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't
rung at all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing
pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would
run for cover.But to Farmer John's amazement, Butch had his bell in his beak
so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to
the next one.
John was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and
Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.The result...The judges
not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the
Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out
how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at
sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Love that one Bob. Am still laughing.

Here are Ken Curtis, Paul Williams and Lindsay Lohan (She was cute in the movie "Prairie Home Companion". )

Welcome back, hawkman. We missed you yesterday. Loved the pun anecdote, but I'm afraid the comparison part was too true to be funny.

Thanks once again for informing us of the background of the notables. Weird about Paul Williams of The Temptations, Boston Bob.

Until that pup of ours arrives with her various visages, let's hear one from The Temptations.

Artist: The Temptations Lyrics
Song: My Girl

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

I've got so much honey the bees envy me.
I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
Ooooh.

I don't need no money, fortune, or fame.
I've got all the riches baby one man can claim.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
with my girl.
I've even got the month of May
with my girl (fade)

Oops. Raggedy was quite quiet as she padded into our wee studio.

A great trio, PA, but I don't know Lindsay. Does she sing? <smile>

My word, listeners, I find this quite ironic. Here's one written by Paul for John. More than an epistle, I believe.

When The River Meets The Sea
~ sung by John Denver / Written by Paul Williams

When the mountain touches the valley
All the clouds are taught to fly
As our souls will leave this land most peacefully
Though our minds be filled with questions
In our hearts we'll understand
When the river meets the sea

Like a flower that has blossomed
In this dry and barren sand
We are born and born again most gracefully
Plus the winds of time will take us
With a sure and steady hand
When the river meets the sea

Patience my brothers
And patience my son
In that sweet and final hour
Truth and justice will be done

Like a baby when it is sleeping
In its mother's loving arms
What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery (a mystery)

But this life will find a purpose
And in time we'll understand
When the river meets the sea
When the river meets the almighty sea

Why, baby, why
Don't you treat me
Like you used to do
Why, baby, why
Don't you need me
Like I'm needing you

If you need
Love and affection
Come to my loving arms

I'll be your
Shield and protection
I won't do you no harm

There will be
No trouble and strife
I'll be your slave
The rest of my life

I offer you
My heart and soul
Wrapped up in
A band of gold

Why, baby, why
Do you tease me
Won't you please be fair
Why, baby, why
Won't you please me
When you know you care

There will be
No trouble and strife
I'll be your slave
The rest of my life

I offer you
My heart and soul
Wrapped up in
A band of gold

Why, baby, why
Do you tease me
Won't you please be fair
Why, baby, why
Won't you please me
When you know you care

When you know you care
When you know you care

NEW YORK - Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died Monday of cancer, her manager said. She was 78.

It had been revealed just last month that Sills was gravely ill with inoperable lung cancer. She died about 9 p.m. Monday, said her manager, Edgar Vincent.

Beyond the music world, Sills gained fans worldwide with a style that matched her childhood nickname, Bubbles. The relaxed, red-haired diva appeared frequently on "The Tonight Show," "The Muppet Show" and in televised performances with her friend Carol Burnett.

Good morning, WA2K folks.

edgar, thank you for both the song and the information regarding Beverly Sills. She was indeed made(maid) in America.

First, listeners, an answer to edgar's song, then a reflection from Beverly.

ELVIS COSTELLO


Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?
(From the album "ALMOST BLUE")


Why don't you love me like you used to do?
How come you treat me like a worn out shoe?
My hair is still curly and my eyes are still blue
Why don't you love me like you used to do?

Ain't had no lovin' like a-huggin' and a-kissin' in a long, long while
We don't get nearer, further, closer than a country mile

Why don't you be the sort you used to be?
How come you find so many faults with me?
I'm the same old trouble that you've always been through
Why don't you love me like you used to do?

Ain't had no lovin' like a-huggin' and a-kissin' in a long, long while
We don't get nearer, further, closer than a country mile

Why don't you spark me like you used to do?
Say sweet nothings like you used to coo
Somebody's changed, so let me give you a clue
Why don't you love me like you used to do?

Aria from the Ballad of Baby Doe

Ever through the changing
Of sun and shadow, time and space,
I will walk beside my love
In a green and quiet place.
Proof against the forms of fear
No distress shall alter me
I will walk beside my dear
Clad in love's bright heraldry.

Sound the battle's loud alarms
Any foe I shall withstand
In the circle of his arms
I am safe in Beulah Land.
Passion fades when joy is spent;
Lust is lure for gold and crime.
Beauty's kiss is transient -
Love alone is fixed in time.
Death cannot divide my love;
All we sealed with living vows.
Warm I'll sleep beside my love
In a cold and narrow house.

Never shall the mourning dove
Weep for us with accents wild;
I will walk beside my love
Who is husband, father, child.
As our earthly eyes grow dim
Let the ancient song be sung:
I will change along with him
So that both are ever young,
ever young.

This is the last aria from the opera (Ballad of Baby Doe). It's nowhere to be found online in its entirety, so I thought I'd post it here. It's not the same without the actual music, but I like the words too.

George M. Cohan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born July 3, 1878
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died November 5, 1942
New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation Entertainer, Playwright, Composer, Lyricist, Actor, Singer, Dancer, Director, and Producer
Spouse Agnes Mary Nolan (29 June 1907-5 November 1942) (his death) 3 children
Ethel Levey (1899-1907) (divorced) 1 child
Parents Irish Catholics
Children
Georgette Cohan
Mary Cohan
Helen Cohan
George M Cohan, Jr.

George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878 - November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer of Irish descent. Known as "the man who owned Broadway" in the decade before World War I, he is considered the father of American musical comedy.





Early career

Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Irish Catholic parents. A baptismal certificate (which gave the wrong first name for his mother) indicated that he was born on July 3, but the Cohan family always insisted that George had been "born on the Fourth of July!" George's parents were traveling Vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, at first as a prop, later learning to dance and sing soon after he could walk and talk.

He completed a family act called The Four Cohans, which included his father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan (1848-1917), mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan (1854-1928), and sister Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo (1874-1916). Josie, who died of heart disease at a young age, was married to Fred Niblo Sr. (1874-1948), an important director of silent films, including Ben Hur (1925), and a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their son, Fred Niblo Jr. (1903-1973) was an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter.

By his teens, Cohan became well-known as one of vaudeville's best male dancers, and he also started writing original skits and songs for the family act. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893. Cohan had his first big Broadway hit in 1904 with the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy".

Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing upwards of 1500 original songs, noted for their catchy melodies and clever lyrics. His other major hit songs included "You're a Grand Old Flag", "The Warmest Baby In The Bunch", "Life's A Funny Proposition After All", "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune", "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got A Band", "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "The Small Town Gal", "I'm Mighty Glad I'm Living, That's All", "That Haunting Melody", and the popular war song, "Over There".

From 1906 to 1926, Cohan and Sam Harris also produced over three dozen shows on Broadway,[1] including the successful Going Up in 1917, which became a smash hit in London the following year.

In 1925, Cohan published his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There.


Later career

In 1932, Cohan starred in a dual role (as a cold, corrupt politician and his charming, idealistic campaign double) in the Hollywood musical The Phantom President, co-starring Jimmy Durante and Claudette Colbert, with songs by Rodgers and Hart.

He earned acclaim as a serious actor in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1933), and in the role of a song-and dance President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Rodgers and Hart's musical, I'd Rather Be Right (1937).

His final play, The Return of the Vagabond (1940) featured Celeste Holm in the cast; she was either 21 or 23 years old at the time.

In 1940, Judy Garland played the title role in a film version of his 1922 musical, Little Nellie Kelly. Cohan's mystery play, Seven Keys to Baldpate, was first filmed in 1916 and has been remade seven times, most recently as House of the Long Shadows (1983), starring Vincent Price.

In 1942, a musical biopic of Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandy, was released, and James Cagney's performance in the title role earned the Best Actor Academy Award. The film was privately screened for Cohan as he battled the last stages of abdominal cancer.

His 1920 play The Meanest Man in the World was filmed with Jack Benny in 1943.

He died of cancer at the age of 64 on November 5, 1942, at his New York City home, 993 Fifth Avenue, directly across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After a large funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York on Fifth Avenue, Cohan was interred at the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, in a private family mausoleum he had erected a quarter-century earlier for his sister and parents.


Cohan was the pioneer of the musical theater libretto. He is mostly remembered for his songs, later interpolated into musicals such as Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, The Producers, and Hello Dolly! However, he invented the "book musical," becoming the first showman to bridge the gaps between drama and music, operetta and extravaganza.[citation needed]

More than three decades before Agnes De Mille choreographed Oklahoma!, Cohan used dance not merely as razzle-dazzle but to advance the plot. The engaging books of his musicals supported the scores that yielded so many popular songs. As a storyteller, Cohan's main characters were "average Joes and Janes".

Characters like Johnny Jones and Nellie Kelly appealed to a whole new audience. He wrote for every American, instead of highbrow Americans. (see book by Thomas S. Hischak, Boy Loses Girl (ISBN 0-8108-4440-0).

In 1914, he became one of the founding members of ASCAP. In 1919, he unsuccessfully opposed a historic strike by Actors' Equity Association, for which many in the theatrical professions never forgave him. Cohan opposed the strike because in addition to being an actor in his productions, he was also the producer of the musical that set the terms and conditions of the actors's employment. During the strike, he donated $100,000 to finance the Actors' Retirement Fund in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. After Actors' Equity was recognized, Cohan refused to join the union as an actor which hampered his ability to be in his own productions. After 1919, Cohan had to seek a waiver from Equity to act in any theatrical productions.

Cohan wrote numerous other Broadway musicals and straight plays, in addition to contributing material to shows written by others ?- more than 50 in all. Cohan shows included Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1905), George Washington, Jr. (1906), The Talk of New York and The Honeymooners (1907), Fifty Miles from Boston and The Yankee Prince (1908), Broadway Jones (1912), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), The Cohan Revue of 1918 (co-written with Irving Berlin), The Tavern (1920), The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923, featuring a 13-year-old Ruby Keeler among the chorus girls), The Song and Dance Man (1923), American Born (1925), The Baby Cyclone (1927, one of Spencer Tracy's early breaks), Elmer the Great (1928, co-written with Ring Lardner), and Pigeons and People (1933).

Cohan is arguably the most honored American entertainer. On June 29, 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented him with a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his contributions to World War I morale, in particular the songs "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There". This award is sometimes wrongly characterized as a Medal of Honor, but only combat veterans are given that medal.


In 1959, at the behest of composer Oscar Hammerstein II, a $100,000 bronze statue of Cohan was dedicated in Times Square, at Broadway and 46th Street in Manhattan. The 8-foot bronze remains the only statue of an actor in New York City. He was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970, and into the American Folklore Hall of Fame in 2003.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard.

The United States Postal Service issued a 15-cent commemorative stamp honoring Cohan on the anniversary of his centenary, July 3, 1978. The stamp, one of the long-running Performing Arts Series of the USPS, depicts both the older Cohan and his younger self as a dancer, along with the tag line "Yankee Doodle Dandy". It was designed by Jim Sharpe.

Cohan was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

Many of these honors were accepted posthumously by Cohan's large family.

In 1999, Reigmental Band of the United States Merchant Marine Academy was instrumental in helping the local community and Park District of Great Neck, NY save his former residence, which was slated for demolition. Helen Ronkin Lafaso and Ms. Mary Ronkin Ross, the grandchildren of Mr. Cohan, formally thanked the band for their support and gave the band the honor to be called, "George M. Cohan's Own" for "now and in the future." Thus, the Regimental Band became the first Federal Academy Band with an officially bestowed title. [1] The USMMA Regimental Band now owns the rights to all of George M Cohan's music.


Family life

In 1899, he had married Ethel Levey (1881-1955), a musical comedy actress who bore him a daughter, Georgette Cohan Souther Rowse (1900-1988). George and Ethel divorced in 1907 and she spent much of her subsequent career in England.

He married again in 1907 to Agnes Mary Nolan (1883-1972), who had been a dancer in his early shows; they remained married until his death. They had two daughters (Mary and Helen) and a son (George, Jr.).

Mary Cohan Ronkin (1909-1983) had a brief career as a cabaret singer in the 1930s, and later composed a score for her father's non-musical play The Tavern, and in 1968 supervised musical and lyric revisions for the Broadway play George M!.

Helen Cohan Carola (1910-1996) made several movies, including Lightnin (1930) starring Will Rogers, and was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934.

George M. Cohan, Jr. (1914-2000) graduated from Georgetown University and served (along with Sammy Davis Jr.) in the entertainment corps during World War II.

In the 1950s, George Jr. reinterpreted his father's songs on recordings, in a nightclub act, and in television appearances on the Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle shows. George Jr.'s only child, Michaela Marie Cohan (1943-1999), was the last descendant named Cohan. She graduated with a theater degree from Marywood College, Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1965.

From 1966 to 1968, she served in a civilian Special Services unit in Vietnam and Korea. In 1996, she stood in for her ailing father at the ceremony marking her grandfather's induction into the Musical Theatre Hall of Fame, at New York University.


Pop culture

James Cagney revived his role as Cohan in the 1955 film The Seven Little Foys, starring Bob Hope as the vaudevillian Eddie Foy. Cagney performed this role free of charge as an expression of his gratitude to Eddie Foy Sr., who had done Cagney a favor during Cagney's early vaudeville days.
Mickey Rooney played Cohan in Mr. Broadway, a television special broadcast on NBC on May 11, 1957. The same month, Rooney released a 78 RPM record: the A-side featured Rooney singing Cohan's best-known songs; the B-side featured Rooney singing several of his own compositions, such as the maudlin "You Couldn't Count the Raindrops for the Tears".
Actor Mark Baker portrayed Cohan in the British film After the Ball (1957).
Joel Grey starred on Broadway in a biographical revue of Cohan's music, George M! (1968), which was adapted into a NBC television special in 1970.
Donny Osmond took the Cohan role in a 1982 Broadway adaptation of Little Johnny Jones, which was so poorly received and reviewed that it ran only one night.
Allan Sherman sang a parody-medley of 3 Cohan tunes on an early album: "Barry (That'll Be the Baby's Name)"; "H-o-r-o-w-i-t-z"; and "Get on the Garden Freeway" to the tune of "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "Harrigan" and "Give My Regards to Broadway", respectively.
Barry Bostwick usually works "Yankee Doodle Boy" into his opening medley of patriotic songs during the annual TV show, A Capitol Fourth.
Cohan's 1932 film, The Phantom President, was remade in 1993 as Dave, starring Kevin Kline in the dual role, and Sigourney Weaver as the First Lady.
Michael Flatley's dance extravaganza Celtic Tiger (2005) features Cohan's song The Yankee Doodle Boy as its grand finale.
The title of the book and the movie Born on the Fourth of July, about disabled Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), was inspired by a line from The Yankee Doodle Boy. At the end of the film, Kovic as played by Cruise comes onto the stage at the Democratic Party Convention to the tune of "You're a Grand Old Flag".
The Sunshine Boys, a Herbert Ross film from 1975 begins with George M. Cohan statue with pigeon on his head at 46th and Broadway. Film from a play by Neil Simon starring Walter Matthau with George Burns winning supporting Oscar.
Irish folk-rockers, The Pogues, honor Cohan in a verse of "Thousands are Sailing" from their hit album If I Should Fall from Grace with God. The verse reads: "Then we said goodnight to Broadway; Giving it our best regards; Tipped our hat to Mr. Cohan; Dear old Times Square's favorite bard..."

George Sanders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born July 3, 1906
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died April 25, 1972, age 65
Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Spouse(s) Susan Larson (1940-1949)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (1949-1954)
Benita Hume (1959-1967)
Magda Gabor (1970-1971)
Notable roles Addison DeWitt in All About Eve
Shere Khan in The Jungle Book
Academy Awards

Best Supporting Actor
1950 All About Eve

George Sanders (July 3, 1906 - April 25, 1972) was an English actor best known for his silky, upper-crust English accent in British and American films.



Birth in Russia

Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, of British parents. In 1917, when he was eleven, the family returned to Britain on the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and, like his brother, he attended Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton. After graduation he worked at an advertising agency. It was there that the company secretary, an aspiring actress named Greer Garson, suggested a career in acting. His elder brother, Tom Conway was also a film actor, to whom Sanders later handed over the role of 'The Falcon'.


Film

He made his British film debut in 1934 and after a series of British films made his American debut in 1936 with a role in Lloyd's of London. His British accent and sensibilities, combined with his suave, snobbish and somewhat menacing air were utilised in American films during the next decade. He played memorable supporting roles in prestige productions such as Rebecca, in which he goaded the sinister Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, in her persecution of Joan Fontaine and he played leading roles in lesser pictures such as Rage in Heaven. During this time he was also the lead in both The Falcon and The Saint film series. He played Lord Henry Wotton in a film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. In 1947 he co-starred with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in the classic The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

In 1950 he gave his most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the acid-tongued, manipulative, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.


Television

He moved into the field of television and was responsible for the successful series George Sanders Mystery Theatre and provided the voice for the malevolent Shere Khan in the Walt Disney production of The Jungle Book. Sanders is noted as the first of the 'Urbane Villains' in many of the Disney animations that followed. Scar of The Lion King (Jeremy Irons) and Judge Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Tony Jay) are two recent examples.


Singing

Sanders not only had dramatic flair, he was a talented singer. He released an album entitled The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady and went to great lengths to get himself signed to sing in South Pacific, but severe anxiety over the role caused him to quickly drop it. Sanders' singing voice can be heard in Call Me Madam and The Jungle Book.


Marriages

His marriage from 1940 to 1949 to Susan Larson ended in divorce. From 1949 until 1954, he was married to the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Sanders was married to actress Benita Hume from 1959 until her death in 1967. His last wife was Magda Gabor, his second wife's sister; the marriage lasted a year.

It was during this period that he completed his autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad; though now out of print, it is still celebrated for its wit.


Death

For many years Sanders lived in Spain and it was in Castelldefels (a coastal town near Barcelona, Catalonia) that he committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates, leaving behind a suicide note that attributed his action to boredom. His friend David Niven recorded in his autobiography that Sanders had predicted his own suicide many years earlier. The note read: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck." One of Sanders's final screen roles was in the 1972 feature film version of the popular television series Doomwatch.


Trivia

Sanders published an autobiography in 1960 titled Memoirs of a Professional Cad.
Sanders' smooth voice, urbane manner and upper-class British accent were the inspiration for the Peter Sellers' character "Hercules Grytpype-Thynne" in the famous BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show. Sellers and Sanders acted together in the Pink Panther sequel, A Shot in the Dark.
He has been honoured with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - for Motion Pictures at 1636 Vine St, and for Television at 7007 Hollywood Blvd.
He is mentioned in The Kinks' song Celluloid Heroes: "And if you covered him with garbage/George Sanders would still have style," referring in fact to his star on Hollywood Blvd and referring allegorically to Sander's screen persona.
Sanders' ghost makes an appearance in Clive Barker's 2001 novel Coldheart Canyon.
Sanders played Mr. Freeze in two episodes of the Batman Series of the 1960's.

Pete Fountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information
Birth name Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr.
Born July 3, 1930
New Orleans, Louisiana
Genre(s) Dixieland Jazz
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Clarinet

Pierre Dewey LaFontaine, Jr. (born July 3, 1930) is a New Orleans clarinetist. According to a Belgian radio program ("La troisieme oreille", produced by Marc Danval) his name was originally Pierre de la Fontaine.


About Fountain

Pete Fountain was born in New Orleans and started playing clarinet heavily influenced by Irving Fazola. Early on he played with the bands of Monk Hazel and Al Hirt. With his long time friend, trumpeter George Girard, Fountain founded The Basin Street Six in 1950. After this band broke up 4 years later Fountain was hired to join the Lawrence Welk band, and became well known for the many solos he took on Welk's national television show, The Lawrence Welk Show. Fountain returned to New Orleans, played with The Dukes of Dixieland, then began leading bands under his own name, owning his own club in the French Quarter in the 1960s and 1970s. He later acquired "Pete Fountain's Jazz Club" at the Riverside Hilton in downtown New Orleans.

In 2003 Fountain closed his club at the Hilton with a performance before a packed house filled with musical friends and fans.

He then began performing two nights a week at Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi where he had a home (later destroyed by Hurricane Katrina).

After heart surgery in 2006 he performed at JazzFest, and helped reopen the Bay St. Louis Casino which has the new name of the Hollywood Casino. As of March, 2007 he has returned to performing Tuesday and Wednesday nights there.

Fountain was a founder and is the most prominent member of The Half Fast Walking Club, one of the best known marching Krewes that parades in New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day. The original name was "The Half-Assed Walking Club" and was an excuse to take a "lubricated" musical stroll down the parade route. Pete changed the name under pressure exerted by the parade organizers. On Mardi Gras Day 2007 Pete once again joined his Half Fast Walking Club, having missed the event in 2006 due to illness.

Fountain's clarinet work is noted for his sweet fluid tone. He has recorded over 100 LPs and CDs under his own name, some in the Dixieland style, many others with only peripheral relevance to any type of jazz.

Loyola University New Orleans awarded Fountain an honorary degree in 2006.

Tom Cruise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Thomas Cruise Mapother IV
Born July 3, 1962 (1962-07-03) (age 45)
Syracuse, New York
Years active 1981 - present
Spouse(s) Mimi Rogers (1987-1990)
Nicole Kidman (1990-2001)
Katie Holmes (2006-)
Notable roles Joel Goodsen
in Risky Business,
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
in Top Gun,
Lestat de Lioncourt
in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles,
Ethan Hunt
in Mission: Impossible,
Bill Harford
in Eyes Wide Shut
Golden Globe Awards

Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1989 Born on the Fourth of July
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1996 Jerry Maguire
Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1999 Magnolia

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), more commonly known as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and film producer. He is tied with Tom Hanks as the only actors to have seven consecutive US$100 million plus blockbusters on their resume, and Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006.[1] He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won the Golden Globe Award.

His first leading role in a blockbuster movie was 1983's Risky Business.[2] After that, he starred in many top films and became an Hollywood celebrity. Cruise is also known for his criticism of psychiatry, and for his support of Scientology,[3] which has attracted controversy and media interest.





Family and early life

Born in Syracuse, New York,[4] Cruise has German and Colonial English ancestry from his paternal great-grandparents, William Reibert and Charlotte Louise Voelker; and purportedly Welsh ancestry from his paternal great-great-grandfather, Dylan Henry Mapother, who emigrated from Flint, Wales to Louisville, Kentucky in 1850.[5][6] His great-great-grandmother Mary Cruise married twice. Her first husband was Dillon Henry Mapother, by whom she had six children. She remarried after Dillon's death, to Thomas O'Mara. Their son Thomas O'Mara, enumerated as such in the 1880 Census, was later known as "Thomas Cruise Mapother". The reason(s) for him changing his name are not entirely clear. Thus, from his and his wife Anna Stewart Bateman, he has Irish and Colonial English ancestry, respectively. His maternal ancestry is half Irish and half German (including Alsatian).[7] Anna Stewart Bateman's great-grandfather was a third cousin of President George Washington and descended seven times from King Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, once from King Louis VIII of France, once from King Henry III of England, twice from King Edward I of England and three times from King Edward III of England.[8][9]

When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her.[10] Cruise's father reportedly would not pay child support after this estrangement.[citation needed] Cities in which Tom lived included Ottawa, Ontario (where he attended Colonel By Secondary School), Louisville, Kentucky, Winnetka, Illinois and Wayne, New Jersey. In all, Cruise atended eight elementary schools and three high schools. He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati and aspired to become a Catholic priest. He eventually graduated from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey in 1980.

Cruise has said that he suffered from abuse as a child. He stated that when something went wrong, his father came down hard on him. He told Parade Magazine that his father was "a bully" and "a merchant of chaos." Cruise said he learned early on that his father was - and, by extension, some people were - not to be trusted: "I knew from being around my father that not everyone means me well."[11] Having gone through fifteen schools in twelve years, Cruise, who dropped his father's name at age twelve, was also subject to bullying at school.

Cruise started acting after being sidelined from his high school's wrestling team due to a knee injury. While injured, he successfully auditioned for a lead role in his high school's production of Guys and Dolls and decided to become an actor after his success in the role. His cousin William Mapother is also an actor most known for playing Ethan Rom on Lost.


Hollywood


Acting career

1980s

Cruise's first acting role came in 1981, when he had a small role in Endless Love, a drama/romance film starring Brooke Shields. Later that same year he had a more substantial role in the film Taps, appearing alongside George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn. The film about military cadets was moderately successful. In 1983, he was one of many teenaged stars to appear in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders. The cast for this film included Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, and Ralph Macchio, some of which were part of the Brat Pack. That same year Cruise appeared in the teen comedy Losin' It with Shelley Long. Also in 1983, Risky Business was released, widely thought to be the film that propelled Cruise to stardom. One sequence in the film, featuring Cruise lip-syncing Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" in his underwear, has become an iconic moment in film history. The film has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom Cruise".[12] A fourth film that was released in 1983 was the high-school football drama, All the Right Moves.

Cruise's next film was the 1985 fantasy film Legend directed by Ridley Scott. Cruise was then picked as the first choice by big producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson for an upcoming American fighter pilot film. Cruise at first apparently turned down the project, but helped to alter the script he was given and developed the film. After being taken for a flight with the Blue Angels, Cruise changed his mind and signed on with the project. The project was titled Top Gun and opened in May 1986 becoming the highest grossing film of the year, taking in US$353,816,701 in worldwide figures. The Marines even used it as an ad for recruitment.[citation needed] He also starred in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money along with Paul Newman that same year, which earned Paul a Best Actor academy award. In 1988 he starred in the light hearted drama Cocktail. The film received mixed reviews and Cruise was subsequently nominated for a Razzie award in 1989 . Later that year, Rain Man was released, which also starred Dustin Hoffman and was directed by Barry Levinson. The film was praised by critics and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Actor.


1990s

Cruise was welcomed with similar success the following year when he received Academy Award nominations for Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, which was based on the best selling autobiography of Anti-Vietnam War hero Ron Kovic; for the first time the audience knew Tom could play complicated roles other than handsome boys. In 1990, Cruise starred as hot-shot race car driver "Cole Trickle" in Tony Scott's Days of Thunder. While filming Days of Thunder Cruise first met Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who was his co-star. Cruise's next film was Ron Howard's Far and Away where he again was starring with Nicole Kidman. Cruise next starred in the military thriller A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore. This film was very well received and earned Cruise Golden Globe and MTV nominations. The following year he starred in Sydney Pollack's The Firm along with Gene Hackman and Ed Harris, which was based on the best selling novel by John Grisham, won Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture at the People's Choice Awards.

In 1994, Cruise starred along with Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, a gothic drama/horror film that was based on Anne Rice's best selling novel which was also very well received, although Rice was outspoken in her criticism of Cruise having been cast in the film. In 1996, Cruise starred in (as well as produced) Brian de Palma's Mission: Impossible. The film, a remake of the 1960s TV series, grossed US$456,494,803 worldwide, making it the third highest grossing film that year. That same year he played the title role in the comedy-drama Jerry Maguire. The film earned him an Academy Award Best Actor nomination as well as winning co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. an Academy Award; the film was nominated for five Academy Awards in total. The film also included the line "Show me the Money!" which became part of popular culture. Jerry Maguire saw Tom Cruise become the first actor in history to star in five consecutive films that grossed at least $100 million in domestic release. In 1999 he starred in the erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut which took two years to complete and was director Stanley Kubrick's last film. It was also the last film in which he starred alongside then spouse Nicole Kidman. But the film which had a straightforward description of sex and a recondite story-telling style raised great controversies. Cruise also played a misogynistic male guru in Magnolia (1999), which netted him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.


2000s

In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and branded with his Gun fu Style, but it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in almost US$546 M in worldwide figures, like its predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year. The following year Cruise starred in the remake of the 1997 erotic thriller Abre Los Ojos, Vanilla Sky. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian science fiction thriller, Minority Report which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction novel by Philip Dick; as well as The Last Samurai.

In the 2004 Michael Mann's crime-thriller film Collateral, Cruise took a surprising turn against his generic "good guy" role by playing the role of a sociopathic hitman. In 2005, Cruise starred in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The film earned US$234 M and ultimately earned US$591.4 M worldwide . The film also earned three Razzie nominations for the "year's worst film" at the end of the year.

In 2006, he reprised his role as Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible film series Mission Impossible III which was also a box office success and was more positively received by critics than its predecessor. He is set to appear in the upcoming films Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie.


Producing career

Cruise partnered with producer Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions which has co-produced several of Cruise's films,[13] the first being Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer. He won a Nova Award (shared with Paula Wagner) for Most Promising Producer in Theatrical Motion Pictures at the PGA Golden Laurel Awards in 1997 for his work as a producer for the film Mission: Impossible.

His next project as a producer was the 1998 film Without Limits about famous American runner Steve Prefontaine. Cruise returned to work as a producer in 2000, continuing work on the Mission Impossible sequel. He then served as an executive producer for The Others which starred Nicole Kidman, also that year, he again worked as actor/producer in Vanilla Sky. He subsequently worked on (but did not star in) Narc, Hitting It Hard and Shattered Glass, with Shattered Glass being particularly successful[citation needed]. His next project, which he also starred in, was The Last Samurai, he was jointly nominated for the Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award at the 2004 PGA Golden Laurel Awards. He then worked on Suspect Zero, Elizabethtown and Ask the Dust.

Tom Cruise is noted as having negotiated some of the most lucrative movie deals in Hollywood, and was described in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as "one of the most powerful - and richest - forces in Hollywood". Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar movie franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's exceptional commercial prowess in the industry.[14]

Cruise-Wagner Productions, Tom Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, "The Devil in the White City" about a real life serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair. Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.[15]


Breakup with Paramount

On August 22, 2006, Paramount Pictures announced it was ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions. In the Wall Street Journal, chairman of Viacom (Paramount's parent company) Sumner Redstone cited the economic damage to Tom Cruise's value as an actor and producer from his controversial public behavior and views.[16][17] Cruise/Wagner Productions responded that Paramount's announcement was a face-saving move after the production company had successfully sought alternative financing from private equity firms.[18] Industry analysts such as Edward Jay Epstein commented that the real reason for the split was most likely Paramount's discontent over Cruise/Wagner's exceptionally large share of DVD sales from the Mission: Impossible franchise.[19][20] However, Radar has claimed that the "personal conduct" complained of by Redstone was an allegedly Cruise-inspired attempt to intimidate Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount. According to Radar, when Grey was walking to his car one night after tense negotiations with Cruise over Mission: Impossible 3, he was "surrounded by more than a dozen Scientologists, who pressured him to ease up on the actor ... Following a terse exchange, the visitors allowed Grey to get into his car and leave, but the message was clear." Grey reportedly stood his ground and convinced Cruise to accept a lower fee than the actor had initially demanded.[21]


Management of United Artists

According to an Associated Press report on November 2, 2006, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner announced that they will be in charge of the United Artists film studio.[22] Cruise will produce and star in films for United Artists, while Wagner will serve as UA's chief executive.

Production begins summer 2007 for Valkyrie, a thriller based on an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the height of WWII which was acquired in March 2007 by United Artists. On March 21, 2007 Cruise signed on to play a major role. This project marks the second production to be greenlighted since Cruise and Wagner took control of United Artists. Production is under way on its inaugural film, Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford and starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Cruise. Lambs is scheduled for release November 9, 2007.[23]


Popularity

In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world.[2] In 1995, Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history.[2] Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 movie stars of all time.[2] In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list.[2]

In 2006, Premiere magazine established Cruise as Hollywood's most powerful actor, as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazines 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor.[24]

On 16 June 2006, Forbes magazine published 'The Celebrity 100', a list of the most powerful celebrities, which Cruise topped. The list was generated using a combination of income (between June 2005 and June 2006), web references by Google, press clips compiled by LexisNexis, television and radio mentions (by Factiva), and the number of times a celebrity appeared on the cover of 26 major consumer magazines.

As of August 2006, "a USA Today/Gallup poll in which half of those surveyed registered an "unfavorable" opinion of the actor" was cited as a reason in addition to "unacceptable behavior"[25] for Paramount's non-renewal of their production contract with Cruise.


Relationships and personal life

Mimi Rogers

Cruise was married to Mimi Rogers (married on May 9, 1987, divorced February 4, 1990).[2] Rogers is generally believed to be the one who introduced Cruise to Scientology.[26]


Nicole Kidman

Cruise met Nicole Kidman on the set of their film Days of Thunder. The couple married on December 24, 1990 and divorced on August 8, 2001.[2] He and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella (born 1993) and Connor (born 1995).[2] They separated when Kidman was three months pregnant, just shy of their tenth wedding anniversary; she later miscarried.[27]


Penélope Cruz

Cruise was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, the lead actress in his film Vanilla Sky. In March 2004, he announced that their relationship had ended in January.[28]


Katie Holmes

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes at a Yahoo! press conference in March 2006In April 2005, Cruise began dating Katie Holmes, before announcing on 17 June 2005 that he had proposed to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.[29] She accepted his proposal, and the couple married in Bracciano, Italy on November 18, 2006.

On April 18, 2006 Katie gave birth to a baby girl named Suri. Cruise stated that the name derives from the Hebrew word for "princess" (which language experts say is not correct), or the Persian word meaning red rose.[30] (See also Sarah.) She is the first child for Holmes and third for Cruise, who (as previously mentioned) has two adopted children with Nicole Kidman.[31]

In March of 2007, it was reported that Holmes had called friend Victoria Beckham to discuss troubles in her relationship with Cruise,[32][33] and that she may have had to undergo retraining in Scientology techniques.[34] According to one source close to Katie, Tom has told her that she needs to undergo "mommy classes", taught by Scientologists.[35]


Controversy

Scientology





Cruise is arguably Hollywood's most outspoken member of the Church of Scientology.[36] He became involved with Scientology in 1990 through his first wife, Mimi Rogers.[37] Cruise has publicly said that Scientology, specifically the L. Ron Hubbard Scientology Study Tech, helped him overcome his dyslexia.[38] However, according to former Scientology Sea Org member Jesse Prince, Cruise expressed intentions of abandoning the religion after nearly suffering a mental breakdown upon being taught about "Incident II" during his Operating Thetan III training.[39] As of 2004 Cruise was near completing or had completed the level of Operating Thetan VII, which usually takes many years.[40] One former Scientologist has suggested that Cruise's increasing frankness regarding Scientology may reflect his self-confidence after finishing most of the OT levels.[41]

By 2003, Tom Cruise had become an active campaigner for Scientology and a promoter of Scientology "Tech" available to non-members. He lobbied politicians in France and Germany, where the legal system regards Scientology as a cult and business respectively. In 2005 the Paris city council revealed that Cruise had lobbied officials Nicolas Sarkozy and Jean-Claude Gaudin, described him as a spokesman and militant for Scientology, and barred any further dealings with him.[42][43] Cruise co-founded and raised donations for Downtown Medical to offer New York 9/11 rescue workers detoxification therapy based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. This has drawn criticism from the medical profession,[44] as well as firefighters.[45][46] For these activities and others, David Miscavige awarded Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor to Cruise in late 2004.

A controversy erupted in 2005 after he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil, an anti-depressant, to which Shields attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance, and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. This led to a heated argument with Matt Lauer on The Today Show on June 24, 2005.[47] Brooke Shields responded to Cruise's comments by calling them "irresponsible and dangerous",[48] In late August of 2006, Cruise apologized in person to Shields for his comments; Shields said that she was "impressed with how heartfelt [the apology] was [...] I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it."[49] Cruise's spokesman confirmed that Cruise and Shields had made up but said that Cruise's position on anti-depressants had not changed.[49] Shields was a guest at Cruise's and Holmes's wedding.

Cruise also said in an Entertainment Weekly interview that psychiatry "is a Nazi science" and that methadone was actually originally called Adolophine after Adolf Hitler, a myth well-known as an urban legend.[50] In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Cruise said that "In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon... It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period". While Narconon claims to have a success rate over 70%,[51][52] the accuracy of this figure has been widely disputed.[53] It has been reported that Cruise adopted his anti-psychiatry philosophies from Dr. Thomas Szasz, a leading critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry.[citation needed] Scientology is well-known for its anti-psychiatry stance.

His belief in Scientology has occasionally caused him professional inconvenience. In 2007, the German government banned the makers of the film Valkyrie from filming at military sites "if Count von Stauffenberg is played by Cruise, who has professed to being a member of the Scientology cult", adding that "the Bundeswehr has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20 1944 and Stauffenberg's person"[54] .


Jumping the couch

Cruise has made several expressions of his feelings for Holmes to the media, most notably the "couch incident" which took place on the popular talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show of May 23, 2005. Cruise "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend."[55] The term "Jumping the Couch," fashioned after "jumping the shark," is used to describe someone "going off the deep end" in public in a manner extreme enough to tarnish his or her reputation. It enjoyed a short-lived popularity, being chosen by the editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang as the "slang term of the year" in 2005[56] and by the nonprofit group Global Language Monitor as one of its top phrases for the year.[57]

The "couch incident" was voted #1 of 2005's "Most Surprising Television Moments" on a countdown on E!.[58] This scene has been parodied by Dane Cook on May 27, 2005 on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in the 2006 film Scary Movie 4, in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, in a mashup[59], and in the Family Guy episode "Deep Throats".


South Park episode

In 2005, the television show South Park provoked controversy with "Trapped in the Closet", an episode that satirized Scientology and the long-standing rumors regarding Cruise being a closeted homosexual. In the episode, Cruise becomes depressed and locks himself in a closet, after Stan Marsh (one of the main child characters in the series) tells Cruise (who has been told that Stan is the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard) that he considers Jon Heder to be a better actor than Cruise. As Cruise hides in the closet, depressed at the thought that L. Ron Hubbard doesn't like his work as an actor, several characters make numerous "come out of the closet" jokes. The show also has Nicole Kidman (Cruise's ex-wife) attempt to get Tom to "come out of the closet", telling him that Katie Holmes won't think any less of him and that she doesn't think any worse of him either. Meanwhile John Travolta (also the subject of rumors regarding possible homosexuality) and R. Kelly (who had just recorded a series of music videos called "Trapped in the Closet", regarding a man hiding in the closet of a woman he had a one-night stand with) also join Cruise in the closet, to hide after Cruise tells the two how comfortable a hiding spot Stan's closet is.

Dubbed "Closetgate" by the Los Angeles Times, the controversy continued as Comedy Central, the channel that broadcasts South Park in the U.S., pulled the "Trapped in the Closet" episode at the last minute from a scheduled repeat on March 15, 2006. It was alleged that Cruise threatened Paramount with withdrawal from promotion of his latest film Mission: Impossible III if the episode was broadcast. Viacom owns both Paramount and Comedy Central. Paramount and Cruise's representatives denied any threats. The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, claimed in a typically satirical response to be "servants of Xenu" and declared that the "million-year war for Earth" had only just begun. The Los Angeles Times reported that, "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving.".[60]

"Trapped in the Closet" was nominated for an Emmy, and was re-aired July 19, 2006 and afterwards. A reference to the episode was also made at the Emmy Awards[61]. In the opening segment, host Conan O'Brien is trying to make his way to the awards show. However, he ends up in Stan's room (in animated form). A freaked out O'Brien runs into the closet, leading Stan to ask him to come out of the closet. O'Brien immediately runs out saying somebody else is in there. A moment later, an irritated Tom Cruise steps out and shuts the door.


Litigation related to gay rumors

The Daily Express newspaper ?- During his marriage to actress Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he sued a British tabloid that alleged that the marriage was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality.[62]
David Ehrenstein - Tom Cruise's lawyers threaten to sue Ehrenstein for his book titled "Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998", that discussed Cruise's appeal to both men and women.[63]
Chad Slater ?- In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater (aka Kyle Bradford). Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had engaged in an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages.[64]
Michael Davis ?- He also sued Michael Davis, a magazine publisher, who alleged but never confirmed that he had photographs that would prove Tom Cruise was homosexual; this suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that Tom Cruise was heterosexual.[65]

Other litigation

Buffalo Beast newspaper - After The Beast's publication of their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004 (which included Cruise in the list), Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields threatened to sue the small independent publication. The Beast, seeing the opportunity for nationwide exposure (particularly after the story broke on the entertainment program Celebrity Justice and later in mainstream newspapers) actively encouraged the lawsuit, effectively calling Fields' bluff. No lawsuit was ever filed and Cruise was included more prominently in the 2005 list.[66]
TomCruise.com - In 2006, Cruise sued infamous cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to obtain control of the TomCruise.com domain name. When owned by Burgar, the domain redirected to information about Cruise on Celebrity1000.com. The decision to turn TomCruise.com over to Cruise was handed down by WIPO on July 5, 2006.[67] The decision was criticized by The Register suggesting that the WIPO conflict resolution system is flawed and "that if you were provided with the names of the panellists in any given case, you could predict with almost complete certainly what the outcome was."[68]

Publicist

Cruise's more open attitude to Scientology has been attributed to the departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005.[69] He then demoted his sister and replaced her with veteran publicist Paul Bloch, from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan. Such restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity about his Scientology views, as well as the hard-sell of his relationship with Katie Holmes backfiring with the public.[70][71] DeVette explained that it was her decision to work on philanthropic projects rather than publicity.[72]


Miscellaneous

In April 2005, Cruise began dating Katie Holmes, sixteen years his junior. This very public love affair took a dramatic turn when Cruise and Holmes got engaged in Paris[73] while on a world publicity tour for their two most recent movies (War of the Worlds for Cruise; Batman Begins for Holmes). War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg stated that he was frustrated by media coverage of Cruise's relationship during promotion of the film, though he believed it to be genuine.[74] On October 5, 2005, People magazine reported that Holmes was pregnant.[75] Cruise came under fire from various medical professionals after he allegedly bought a sonogram machine to monitor the fetus at home.[76] The American College of Radiology claims that overuse or misuse of the medical equipment is unnecessary and could be harmful to fetal health, and that it may be illegal to own: it apparently was still legal.[77] On May 4, 2006 the California Assembly passed a bill to ban distribution of ultrasound machines to non-licensed practitioners, though the law must still go through the Senate and could not be retroactive in effect.[78] On April 18, 2006 Holmes gave birth to a baby girl, which they named Suri. Suri is the first child for Holmes and the third child for Cruise who had adopted two children with Nicole Kidman:[2] Connor Antony (born January 17, 1995) and Isabella Jane (born December 22, 1992).

Cruise's behavior in recent interviews and his very public romance with Katie Holmes led him to become the butt of numerous jokes on late night television shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[79] The jokes commonly referred to Cruise being insane or parodied the Lauer interview.

During the London premiere of War of the Worlds, Cruise was on one of his familiar walkabouts when much to his surprise he was squirted with a water pistol (disguised as a microphone) by a performer working on Balls Of Steel, a comedy series shown on the British television station Channel 4 in which various famous people were targeted for practical jokes. Cruise prevented the perpetrator from walking off and said he was "incredibly rude", then became more irritated and called him a "jerk". Police later made arrests after the incident, but no charges were later brought.[80]

On August 22, 2006, Reuters reported that Paramount has ended their 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise's production company. "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, parent company of Paramount, was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal. Redstone went on to say "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount", citing Cruise's offscreen behavior.[81]

October 10, 2006 was declared "Tom Cruise Day" in Japan, making him the first Hollywood star to have a special day named in his honor. The Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star.[82]

Two Blondes
Two blondes are shopping at the mall. When they are done they go out to their car, which happens to be an awesome leather interior convertible. When they get to the car, they realize they had locked the keys in the car. So they both kind of stand there and think for a while.
Finally one gets am idea to try to open the car with a hanger. So the first blonde starts fiddling with the lock with the hanger. The other blonde looks up at the sky and suddenly becomes very worried.
"HURRY, HURRY," she urges. "IT'S GOING TO RAIN AND WE LEFT THE TOP DOWN!

Beverly Sills, whose radiant soprano and vibrant personality made her "America's Queen of Opera," as Time magazine called her in 1971, died last night. She was 78.

Thanks again, hawkman, for the great bio's. Ah, those poor convertible blondes. How do we ever survive?

Hey, dys., if you will check out messages for the morning, you will find that edgar informed us of Beverly, and you will also hear an excerpt from her "Baby Doe"

Until our precious pup arrives with photo's, here is one from Pierre de la Fontaine. (love that name)

Louis Armstrong

Basin Street Blues


Won't you come and go with me
Down that Mississippi
We'll take a boat to the land of dreams
Come along with me on, down to New Orleans

Now the band's there to greet us
Old friends will meet us
Where all them folks goin to the St. Louis Cemetary meet
Heaven on earth.... they call it Basin Street

I'm tellin' ya, Basin Street...... is the street
Where all the white and dark folk meet
New Orleans..... land of dreams
you'll never miss them rice and beans
Way down south in New Orleans

They'll be huggin'.... and a kissin'
That's what I been missin'
And all that music....lord, if you just listen'
New Orleans....I got them Basin Street Blues

(instrumental break)

Now ain't you glad you went with me
On down that Mississippi
We took a boat to the land of dreams
Heaven on earth...they call it Basin Street.

Thanks, sachmo, for not being politically correct

(pssst ... wrong Paul Williams in the photo gallery)

Hey, Beth. I wondered about that, but our Raggedy is seldom wrong. Here is the one who took his own life, I think.




The one that our pup showed us is the writer of wonderful songs and I think our dys has met him.

Dedication time, folks. This is one fine jazz song, and it was originally written with lyrics. Goes from minor to major, incidentally.

For panz. Where is that manz?

And those weird China blues
Never go away
Sad, mad blues
For all the while they seem to say

Oh, Limehouse kid
Oh, oh, Limehouse kid
Goin' the way
That the rest of them did
Poor broken blossom
And nobody's child
Haunting and taunting
You're just kind of wild

Oh, Limehouse blues
I've the real Limehouse blues
Can't seem to shake off
Those real China blues
Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown

Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown