Jennifer Eve Antoinette Garth (born April 3, 1972) is an American actress, best known for her roles of Kelly Taylor in Beverly Hills, 90210, its spinoff series 90210, and of Valerie Kelly Tyler in What I Like About You.

Early life

Jennifer Eve Garth was born in Illinois to John and Carolyn Garth, who each already had three children from different marriages. She grew up on a 25-acre horse ranch in Arcola, Illinois with her six older half-siblings: Johnny, Chuck, Lisa, Cammie, Wendy and Lynn. Jennie also lived in Tuscola, Illinois during her younger years. When Garth was 11, she and her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. She took dancing lessons and did a little modeling while living there, at the time wanting to go to college and later start her own dance studio. At age 15, she was discovered and encouraged to pursue an acting career by a talent scout, who had seen her win a talent competition.

She dropped out of Greenway High School during her junior year, and she and her mother moved to Los Angeles so she could become an actress. She later obtained her diploma in California. There, she started taking acting classes and went to auditions almost every day. After living in L.A. about four months, she landed the role of ‘Erica McCray’ on the NBC series A Brand New Life (1989).

Career

Garth is best known for her role as the beleaguered Kelly Taylor on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210. At various points in the series, Garth’s character was involved in a love triangle between Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) and Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestly), became a diet pill abuser, was trapped in a fire, became involved in a cult, used cocaine, was raped, shot, got amnesia and had a miscarriage. She and former costar Tiffani Thiessen are best friends, a stark contrast to the show, where Garth’s Kelly and Thiessen’s Valerie Malone were sworn enemies whose feuds were a large part of the plots in seasons five through eight.

Garth starred in the sitcom What I Like About You as Amanda Bynes’ sister Valerie Tyler. Along with Leslie Grossman and Amanda Bynes, she starred on the show for all four seasons. Garth’s story, “I Am Home,” was featured in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. She played the lead female role in the 1993 television production of Danielle Steel’s Star.

In May 2008, TV Guide confirmed that Garth will reprise the role of Kelly Taylor in the new CW spin off of Beverly Hills, 90210. Kelly will be on recurring status as a guidance counselor at West Beverly High.[1] The writers hope she will be able to have some scenes with Shannen Doherty who is reprising her 90210 role of Brenda Walsh.[2] It has been reported that Garth and Doherty’s characters will both have a romantic interest in the character Ryan Matthews (Ryan Eggold),[3] reminiscent of their old rivalry for former bad boy character Dylan McKay.

Dancing with the Stars

Jennie appeared on Season 5 of Dancing with the Stars and was paired with Derek Hough. Garth had consistently high scores throughout the entire competition and was one of the few contestants to maintain 8s and above after week 2. She was shockingly eliminated on the ninth week of competition finishing at a respectable fourth out of 12, after scoring her first perfect score of the competition with her Cha-Cha-Cha [4] while Marie Osmond (who came in last place for three weeks up to that point) remained in the competition. The audience gave her a standing ovation (something very uncommon in the show). Judge Len Goodman stated that it “was not her time to go”. In her exiting montage video, Derek Hough stated how proud he was of her for going on an emotional journey and improving from three 7’s to three 10’s.

Lindsay Dee Lohan(born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, model and pop music singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement and television commercials. At age 10, she began her acting career in a soap opera; at 11, she made her motion picture debut by playing identical twins in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.

Lohan rose to stardom with her leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded. Her subsequent roles include appearances in A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby. In 2004, Lohan launched a second career in pop music yielding the albums Speak (2004), A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005) and the forthcoming Spirit in the Dark (2008).Early life

Lohan was born in New York City and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in New York. She is the eldest child of Donata “Dina” (née Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom were child models: Michael Jr., who appeared with her in The Parent Trap, sister Aliana, who is also an actress, and Dakota, the youngest Lohan child. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic.

Her maternal family were “well known Irish Catholic stalwarts” in Merrick, with her great-grandfather, John L Sullivan, being a co-founder of the Pro-life Party in Long Island.Lohan attended public school on Long Island. She finished her studies at home
through Laurel Springs Schoolof Ojai, California. Her father was sentenced to four years in prison in the late 1980s. In 2005, he was sent back to prison for nearly two years, released in March 2007, for “aggravated unlicensed driving” and attempted assault. Michael currently works with Teen Challenge.In December 2005, Michael and Dina Lohan signed a separation agreement.In 2007, Lohan’s parents announced that their divorce proceedings had been finalized.

Acting career

Early career success

Lohan’s debut as an actress on Another World.

Lohan began her career with Ford Models at age three, but found little work as a fashion model.She persisted and eventually appeared in more than 100 print-ads for companies like Toys “R” Us.She also modeled for Calvin Klein Kids (usually with siblings Michael and Ali) and Abercrombie Kids.

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.She was hired, and went on to appear in over 60 commercials, including a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. Her ad work led to roles in soap operas, and she was already considered a show-business veteran[13] in 1996 when she landed the role of Alexandra “Alli” Fowler on Another World, “where she delivered more dialogue than any other 10-year-old in daytime serials” of the time.

Lohan in dual roles in The Parent Trap (1998), her first feature film.

Lohan gave up Another World for the big screen when director Nancy Meyers cast her to play the dual roles of the estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Trap was well-received for a family comedy, bringing in US$92 million worldwide.Film critic Janet Maslin found Lohan’s dual performances so forceful “that she seems to have been taking shy violet lessons from Sharon Stone.” 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”.

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.

Rise to fame and career development

Following a brief hiatus, Lohan won a lead role in another Disney remake: Freaky Friday (2003), starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Through 2005, Friday was Lohan’s biggest commercial film success, earning US$160 million worldwide.

In 2004, 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, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she’s forgiven for Confessions,” Robert K. Elder wrote.

Far more successful was Mean Girls, her first PG-13 (and first non-Disney) film. Her breakout lead performance 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.

In 2005, Lohan became the first living person to have a “My Scene Goes Hollywood” doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the direct-to-DVD feature film based on the dolls.

Lohan returned to Disney for Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), the fifth film in the Herbie series. Her popularity allowed her to choose from a wider variety of projects; Lohan felt Herbie would help her make the transition into more grown-up roles.”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.”Fully Loaded earned $144,146,816 worldwide.

Her next film in wide release, Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 to poor reviews and earned only $38 million worldwide.The following month, A Prairie Home Companion, in limited release ended its run with $25,648,948 globally.”Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of ‘Frankie and Johnny’,” wrote Peter Travers.[27] Lohan completed filming the independent Emilio Estevez film, Bobby, 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. She then appeared in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) on the day he murders the singer. It was filmed in New York between January and March of 2006. The film had trouble finding a distributor for the United States and received a very limited release. Chapter 27 was widely panned by critics, receiving a dismal 20% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Lohan was voted #10 on the list of “100 Sexiest Women” by readers of FHM.[29] Maxim placed her at #3 on its 2006 Hot 100 list.In 2007, Lohan placed at #1 on the Maxim “Hot 100″.
In February 2007, shortly after admitting herself to a medical rehabilitation facility, Lohan relinquished the role of Hester Worsley in a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance. The role then passed to Jessica Biel. On May 11, 2007, Georgia Rule was released in which Lohan starred alongside Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda. The film — whose production received adverse publicity when a letter from a studio executive to Lohan criticizing her professionalism was made public — received mostly negative reviews. It grossed US$6.7 million at the box office in its opening weekend and to date has grossed over US$22 million worldwide.

On July 24, 2007, Lohan - in the wake of her arrest withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote her starring role as a stripper in the film I Know Who Killed Me. The film premiered “to an abysmal $3.5 million”and earned Lohan two nominations for worst actress at the Golden Raspberry Awards. She came in first and second, tying with herself.

Entertainment Weekly quoted the head of a major film studio as saying, “Her career was over long before she had these troubles… Right now, she’d have to pay a studio to get herself into a movie.”The article continues, “There’s the L.A. bar scene that serves underage stars and Hollywood’s compulsion to turn child actors into products, plus a frenzied 21st-century media culture that has made Lohan and other celebs into exotic prey in flashbulb cages.” ABC News quoted publicist Michael Levine as calling Lohan unemployable “for the next 18 months.” The head of a talent agency agreed, noting that her personal issues likely made the insurance and other costs required for any film production to proceed prohibitively expensive.James Robinson, the producer of Georgia Rule, stated he would still like to work with her. “She’s a good person who’s making some bad choices. She needs time to get the proper medical care, but when she’s in the right emotional state, I’d put her in a movie right away…. She’s probably one of the most talented young women in the movie business today.”

In the February 25, 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York, Lohan re-created Marilyn Monroe’s final photo shoot, known as the Last Sitting, including nudity.Her mother said doing the photo shoot was an “honor.”

Lohan makes a cameo in a music video for the single “Everyone Nose” by Pharrell-fronted band N*E*R*D. A song about the restroom drug usage of young party-goers, the video also has appearances by friends Cory Kennedy, Samantha Ronson, and rapper Kanye West. Shot in early April, a sneak preview of the video leaked onto Internet blogs in May, with the entire clip premiering a week later.

Lohan is the face of the 2008 Visa Swap UK fashion campaign. Lindsay was photographed for the campaign in early 2008 in Los Angeles, CA.[39]

Return to acting

Lohan was going to star in the movie Poor Things, but had to withdraw form the role due to scheduling conflicts.
Upon leaving rehab in 2007, Lohan began work on the tango biopic Dare to Love Me, the film’s release date is scheduled to be sometime in 2008. In late February 2008, it was announced that Lohan would be joining the cast of Ye Olde Times alongside Jack Black, however, it was later announced that Lohan is no longer a part of the movie. E! News has also recently reported Lohan’s involvement in the movie Manson Girls playing Manson Family cult member Nancy Pitman , however, she has recently withdrawn from this role to pursue other offers.

Lohan has been cast to star in the forthcoming film comedy Labor Pains, Lohan will play a young woman who pretends to be pregnant to avoid being fired.The film is slated to start filming in early June 2008.Lohan made a guest appearance on the season 2 finale of ABC’s Ugly Betty which aired on May 22, 2008; she played an old schoolmate of America Ferrera’s character Betty Suarez. Lohan is also expected to appear in five episodes of Ugly Betty next season.
Music career

Lohan in 2003

Hoping to become a triple threat - actor, singer and dancer - like her idol, Ann-Margret, Lohan began showcasing her singing talent through her films.[46] 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.

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.”[47] Two years later, Lohan signed a recording contract with Casablanca Records, headed by Tommy Mottola. Lohan is currently signed with Motown Records.

Speak (2004)

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 album, Speak was introduced with the single “Rumors”, described by Rolling Stone as “a bass-heavy, angry club anthem”.[48] Its sexually suggestive video reached number one on MTV’s Total Request Live and was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. “Rumors” eventually earned a Gold certification in America.

The album spawned the second single “Over” and the third single “First”, which was featured in Lohan’s 2005 film Herbie: Fully Loaded. The music video also featured Herbie the Love Bug. Both music videos were directed by Jake Nava, who also directed the music video for “Rumors.”

“[W]ith just two hit films under her belt, Lohan decided it was time to turn [herself] into a multimedia, cross-platform star,” wrote Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic. “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”.[49]

A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)

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 called the album a “slick pop production.”[50] Slant magazine called it “contrived … for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there’s not much meat on these bones.”[51] 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.[52] She said “It’s kind of offensive… I hope he sees the positive side of the video rather than the negative.”

The album’s second single was supposed to be “I Live for the Day.” Radio promos singles were pressed and released and sent to radio stations. However due to Lohan’s schedule, she was unable to promote or support the single as she did with her previous efforts. Eventually, since the single received absolutely no radio airplay or support, and the disappointing chart position and sales of the album, Casablanca Records cancelled “I Live for the Day” and moved forward with “If It’s Alright” as the second single. However plans for releasing “If It’s Alright” were later cancelled, as well as all other singles and promotion with the album. Therefore, A Little More Personal (Raw) was not as successful as her previous album, Speak. A Little More Personal (Raw), with little promotion, was still certified gold by the RIAA on January 18, 2006 after debuting on the Billboard 200 at #20, while “Speak” went platinum after debuting at #4.

Spirit in the Dark (2008)

Lohan’s third album, Spirit in the Dark, is set for release on 4 November 2008.[53][54] Lohan has promised a third studio album on multiple occasions and stated that she wants the album to be dance, hip-hop, and R&B - “kind of Kylie Minogue-meets-Rihanna”. She is working with J. R. Rotem, Stargate, Ne-Yo, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Bloodshy & Avant, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, The-Dream, The Neptunes, 50 Cent, Kanye West, and Timbaland. A song entitled “Bossy” was leaked and later officially released as a “buzz single” for the album and received a favourable reaction from consumers. Lohan will soon debut the entire album on KIIS-FM [radio show] with host Ryan Seacrest, who has heard most of the album and gave it a favorable review.[62]

Personal life

Lohan’s mugshot from the LA County Sheriff’s department.

Lohan and Hilary Duff became bitter enemies in 2002 when they simultaneously dated Aaron Carter; the feud continued for five years. However, in 2007, Lohan and Duff put the dispute behind them and became friends.[63] Lohan has also dated Wilmer Valderrama, Harry Morton and Calum Best. While seeking treatment at the Cirque Lodge in Utah, Lohan met and began dating Riley Giles; however, in late November 2007, it was announced that they had split up. Lohan’s mother, Dina Lohan said, “[Riley] took desperate measures to hurt Lindsay because she broke up with him”.

Lohan has had a series of car accidents that have been widely reported, with minor crashes in August 2004,[65] October 2005,[66] and November 2006, when Lohan suffered minor injuries because 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.

Lohan is also well known on the celebrity party scene. In a letter to Lohan and others associated with the filming of Georgia Rule that was later made public,James G. Robinson, CEO of the film’s production company, Morgan Creek Productions, wrote:

You and your representatives have told us that your various late arrivals and absences from the set have been the result of illness; today we were told it was ‘heat exhaustion’. We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called ‘exhaustion’.

On January 18, 2007, Lohan checked herself in to the Wonderland Center rehabilitation facility in West Hollywood. Through her representative, she issued a statement saying, “I have made a proactive decision to take care of my personal health.”On May 26, 2007, Lohan lost control of her car and ran the vehicle up a curb. Police also found a “usable” amount of cocaine in her car and the police lab detected cocaine in her blood. After receiving treatment for minor injuries, Lohan was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.Two days later, Lohan entered the Promises Treatment Centers rehabilitation facility in Malibu, staying for 45 days.

On July 24, 2007 the police found Lohan by the parking lot of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, having a “heated debate” with her former assistant who was fired several hours earlier. After failing field sobriety tests Lohan was taken to a police station where her blood alcohol level was found to be above the legal limit. While conducting a search, the police found a small amount of cocaine in her pocket. Lohan was booked on a felony charge of possession of cocaine and misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

On August 23, 2007 Lohan pleaded guilty to cocaine use and driving under the influence and was sentenced to one day in jail and 10 days community service. She was also ordered to pay fines and complete an alcohol education program, and was placed on three years probation. “It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs,” Lohan said in a statement.

In 2008, several media outlets began commenting on Lohan and Samantha Ronson, who were regularly seen being affectionate in public. In July 2008, several newspapers, including The Times and Los Angeles Times, published opinion pieces describing their relationship as romantic. Lohan has yet to comment on the exact nature of their relationship, stating through her publicist that she “wants to keep her private life private.”[80] When pressed by a paparazzo to deny the rumors, Ronson responded, “Are you retarded?

Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975) is an American film actor and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She has been cited as one of the world’s most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported.[1] Jolie has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin’ to Get Out, Jolie’s acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.[2] She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention.[4] Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR.
Early life and family

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Jolie is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father’s side, she is of Slovak and German descent,[5][6] and on her mother’s side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois,[7][8] although Voight once claimed Bertrand is “not seriously Iroquois,” and they merely said it to enhance his ex-wife’s exotic background.

After her parents’ separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades, New York.[10] As a child Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father.[11] When she was 11, the family moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions. She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (later Moreno High School), and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of the area’s more affluent families. Jolie’s mother survived on a more modest income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely thin, and for wearing glasses and braces.[11] Her self-esteem was further diminished when her initial attempts at modeling proved unsuccessful. She started to cut herself; later commenting, “I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me.”[12] At 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming a funeral director.[13] During this period, she wore black, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend.[11] Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother’s home.[10] She returned to theatre studies and graduated from high school, though in recent times she has referred to this period with the observation, “I am still at heart — and always will be — just a punk kid with tattoos”.

Jolie has been long estranged from her father, though a reconciliation was attempted, and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. In July 2002, Jolie filed a request to legally change her name to “Angelina Jolie”, dropping Voight as her surname; the name change was made official on September 12, 2002.[15] In August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had “serious emotional problems” on Access Hollywood. Jolie later indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father, and said, “My father and I don’t speak. I don’t hold any anger toward him. I don’t believe that somebody’s family becomes their blood. Because my son’s adopted, and families are earned.” She stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight.

Early work, 1993–1997

Jolie began working as a fashion model at 14. She was signed with Finesse Model Management and modeled in both the United States and Europe, working mainly in Los Angeles, New York and London. At that time she also appeared in numerous music videos, including those of Meat Loaf (”Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through”), Antonello Venditti (”Alta Marea”), Lenny Kravitz (”Stand by My Woman”), and The Lemonheads (”It’s About Time”). At the age of 16, Jolie returned to theatre, and played her first role as a German dominatrix. She began to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with Jolie realizing that they were both “drama queens”.

Jolie appeared in five of her brother’s student films, made while he attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts, but her professional movie career began in 1993, when she played her first leading role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2, as Casella “Cash” Reese, a near-human robot, designed to seduce her way into a rival manufacturer’s headquarters and then self-detonate. Following several undistinguished projects she starred as Kate “Acid Burn” Libby in her first Hollywood picture, Hackers (1995), where she met her first husband Jonny Lee Miller. The New York Times wrote, “Kate (Angelina Jolie) stands out. That’s because she scowls even more sourly than [her co-stars] and is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through top. Despite her sullen posturing, which is all this role requires, Ms. Jolie has the sweetly cherubic looks of her father, Jon Voight.”[17] The movie failed to make a profit at the box-office, but developed a cult following after its video release. In 1995 she also appeared in Without Evidence.

She appeared as Gina Malacici in the 1996 comedy Love Is All There Is, a modern-day loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set among two rival Italian family restaurant owners in the Bronx, New York. In the road movie Mojave Moon she was a youngster, named Eleanor Rigby, who falls for Danny Aiello, while he takes a shine to her mother, Anne Archer. In 1996, she also played Margret “Legs” Sadovsky, one of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond in the film Foxfire after they beat up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. The Los Angeles Times wrote about Jolie’s performance, “It took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight’s knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst.”

In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller Playing God, a film portraying a surgeon who is stripped of his medical license and is lured deep into the criminal world where he meets Jolie’s character, Claire. The movie was not received well by critics and Roger Ebert noted that “Angelina Jolie finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a criminal’s] girlfriend, and maybe she is.”[20] She then appeared in the TV movie True Women, a historical romantic drama set in the American West, and based on the book by Janice Woods Windle. That year she also played a stripper who leaves mid-performance to wander New York City in the Rolling Stones music video for the song “Anybody Seen My Baby?”.

Breakthrough, 1997–2000

Jolie’s career prospects began to improve after her performance as Cornelia Wallace in the 1997 biopic George Wallace for which she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy. The film was highly praised by critics and, among other awards, received the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries/Motion Picture made for TV. She played the second wife of the segregationist Governor of Alabama who was shot and paralyzed while running for President. The film starred Gary Sinise and was directed by John Frankenheimer.

In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO’s Gia as supermodel Gia Carangi. The film depicted a world of sex, drugs and emotional drama, and chronicled the destruction of Carangi’s life and career as a result of her drug addiction, and her decline and death from AIDS. Vanessa Vance from Reel.com noted, “Angelina Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it’s easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal — filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperation — and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed.” For the second consecutive year, Jolie won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award. In accordance with Lee Strasberg’s method acting Jolie reportedly preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting Gia, she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller that she wouldn’t be able to phone him. “I’d tell him: ‘I’m alone; I’m dying; I’m gay; I’m not going to see you for weeks.’”

Following Gia, Jolie moved to New York and stopped acting for a short period of time, because she felt that she had “nothing else to give”. She enrolled at New York University to study filmmaking and attended writing classes. She described it as “just good for me to collect myself” on Inside the Actors Studio.

Jolie returned to film as Gloria McNeary in the 1998 gangster movie Hell’s Kitchen, and later that year appeared in Playing by Heart, part of an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe and Jon Stewart. The film received predominantly positive reviews and Jolie was praised in particular. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she’s willing to gamble.” Jolie won the Breakthrough Performance Award by the National Board of Review.

In 1999, she starred in Mike Newell’s comedy-drama Pushing Tin, co-starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Jolie played Thornton’s seductive wife. The film received a lukewarm reception from critics and Jolie’s character was particularly criticized. The Washington Post wrote, “Mary (Angelina Jolie), a completely ludicrous writer’s creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home.”[25] She then worked with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector, an adapted crime novel written by Jeffery Deaver. Jolie played Amelia Donaghy, a police officer haunted by her cop father’s suicide, who reluctantly helps Washington track down a serial killer. The movie grossed $151 million worldwide,but was a critical failure; the Detroit Free Press concluded, “Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast.”

Jolie next took the supporting role of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999), a film that tells the story of mental patient Susanna Kaysen, and which was adapted from Kaysen’s original memoir Girl, Interrupted. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead became the “welcome-to-Hollywood coronation” for Jolie.[27] Jolie won her third Golden Globe, her second Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Variety noted, “Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna’s rehabilitation”[28] and Roger Ebert wrote about her performance:
“     Jolie is emerging as one of the great wild spirits of current movies, a loose cannon who somehow has deadly aim.   ”

In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, Gone In 60 Seconds, in which she played Sarah “Sway” Wayland, ex-girlfriend of car-thief Nicolas Cage. The role was small, and the Washington Post criticized that “all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth.”[30] She later explained that the film was a welcome relief after the heavy role of Lisa Rowe, and it became her highest grossing movie up until then, earning $237 million internationally.

International success, 2001–present

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie’s films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame, Jolie was required to master a British accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. Slant Magazine commented, “Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger.”[31] The movie was a huge international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide,[3] and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred alongside Antonio Banderas as the mail-order bride Julia Russell in Original Sin, a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The New York Times noting, “The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie’s neckline.”[32] In 2002, she played Lanie Kerrigan in Life or Something Like It, a film about an ambitious TV reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie’s performance received positive reviews. CNN’s Paul Clinton wrote, “Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life.”

Jolie at the premiere of Alexander in Cologne

Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003. The sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156 million at the international box-office.[3] Later that year Jolie starred in Beyond Borders, a film about aid workers in Africa. Although reflecting Jolie’s real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, the film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her.”

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives, as Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and The Hollywood Reporter concluded, “Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour.”[35] She also provided the voice of Lola, an angelfish in the animated DreamWorks movie Shark Tale; the cast included Will Smith, Martin Scorsese, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black and Robert De Niro. Also in 2004, Jolie had a brief appearance in Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a science fiction adventure film shot with actors entirely in front of a bluescreen. Jolie then played Olympias in Alexander (2004), Oliver Stone’s biopic about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, with Stone attributing its poor reception to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander’s bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.

Jolie’s only movie of 2005, the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is also her biggest commercial success to date. The film, directed by Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith alongside Brad Pitt. The film was well received and was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, “While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars’ thermonuclear screen chemistry.”[37] The movie earned over $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.

Jolie as Christine Collins on the set of Changeling

Jolie next appeared in Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon. Jolie co-starred as Margaret Russell, Wilson’s neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy.”

In 2007, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time, which captures the life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week and features fellow actors such as Jude Law, Hilary Swank, Colin Farrell and Jonny Lee Miller. The film is intended to be distributed through the National Education Association, mainly in high schools.[39] Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom’s documentary-style drama A Mighty Heart (2007), about the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. The picture is based on Mariane Pearl’s memoirs A Mighty Heart and had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter described Jolie’s performance as “well-measured and moving”, played “with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent.”[40] The film earned her a fourth Golden Globe and her third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Jolie also played Grendel’s mother in Robert Zemeckis’ animated epic Beowulf (2007) which was created through the motion capture technique.

Jolie appeared in the action film Wanted, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Mark Millar, as well as the DreamWorks animated movie Kung Fu Panda, both released in mid 2008.[41] She was also cast as the lead in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming drama, Changeling, which wrapped principal photography in December 2007.

Humanitarian work

Jolie first became personally aware of worldwide humanitarian crises while filming Tomb Raider in poverty-stricken and widely mined Cambodia. She eventually turned to UNHCR for more information on international trouble spots. In the following months she agreed to visit different refugee camps around the world to learn more about the situation and the conditions in these areas. In February 2001, Jolie went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed.[43] In the coming months she returned to Cambodia for two weeks and later met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan where she donated $1 million for Afghan refugees in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal.[44] She insisted on covering all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits.

Impressed by her interest and devotion in the subject, UNHCR named her a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador on August 27, 2001 at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.[45] In a press conference Jolie explained her motives for joining the refugee agency:
“     We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I don’t believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us.[43]     ”

During her first three years as Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie concentrated her efforts on field missions, visiting refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) all around the world. Asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, “Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon.”[46] In 2002, Jolie visited Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand and Colombian refugees in Ecuador to take a closer look at the “Western Hemisphere’s most severe humanitarian crisis”.[47] Jolie later went to various UNHCR facilities in Kosovo and paid a visit to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with refugees mainly from Sudan. She also met with Angolan refugees while filming Beyond Borders in Namibia.

Jolie with Colin Powell in Washington, D.C., June 2004

In 2003, Jolie embarked on a six-day mission to Tanzania where she traveled to western border camps, hosting Congolese refugees and she paid a week-long visit to Sri Lanka. She later concluded a four-day mission to Russia as she traveled to North Caucasus. Concurrently with the release of her movie Beyond Borders in October 2003 she published Notes from My Travels, a collection of journal entries that chronicle her early field missions (2001-2002). During a private stay in Jordan in December 2003 she asked to visit Iraqi refugees in Jordan’s remote eastern desert and later that month she went to Egypt to meet Sudanese refugees.

On her first U.N. trip within the United States, Jolie went to Arizona in 2004, visiting detained asylum seekers at three facilities and the Southwest Key Program, a facility for unaccompanied children in Phoenix. With the humanitarian situation in Sudan worsening, she flew to Chad in June 2004, paying a visit to border sites and camps for refugees who had fled fighting in western Sudan’s Darfur region. Four months later she returned to the region, this time going directly into West Darfur. Also in 2004, Jolie met with Afghan refugees in Thailand and on a private stay to Lebanon during the Christmas holidays, she visited UNHCR’s regional office in Beirut, as well as some young refugees and cancer patients in the Lebanese capital.

In 2005, Jolie visited Pakistani camps containing Afghani refugees, and she also met with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; she returned to Pakistan with Brad Pitt during the Thanksgiving weekend in November to see the impact of the October 8 Kashmir earthquake. In 2006, Jolie and Pitt flew to Haiti and visited a school supported by Yéle Haïti, a charity founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean, and while filming A Mighty Heart in India, Jolie met with Afghan and Burmese refugees in New Delhi. She spent Christmas Day 2006 with Colombian refugees in San José, Costa Rica where she handed out presents. In 2007, Jolie returned to Chad for a two-day mission to assess the deteriorating security situation for refugees from Darfur; Jolie and Pitt subsequently donated $1 million to three relief organizations in Chad and Darfur.[48] Jolie also made her first visit to Syria and Iraq, where she met with Iraqi refugees as well as multi-national forces and U.S. troops.

Jolie and Condoleezza Rice at World Refugee Day 2005

With increasing experience, Jolie became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She regularly attends World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. Jolie also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met with members of Congress at least 20 times from 2003.[45] She explained in Forbes:
“     As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that’s the way to move the ball.

In 2005, Jolie took part at a National Press Club luncheon, where she announced the founding of the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal-aid to asylum-seeking children with no legal representation which Jolie personally funded with a donation of $500,000 for its first two years.[49] Jolie also pushed for several bills to aid refugees and vulnerable children in the Third World.[45] In addition to her political involvement, Jolie began using her public profile to promote humanitarian causes through the mass media. She filmed an MTV special, The Diary Of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, portraying her and noted economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on a trip to a remote group of villages in Western Kenya. There, Sachs’s United Nations Millennium Project team is working with locals to end poverty, hunger and disease. In 2006, Jolie announced the founding of the Jolie/Pitt Foundation which made initial donations to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders of $1 million each.[50] Jolie also co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, founded at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006, which helps fund education programs for children affected by conflict.

Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2003, she was the first recipient of the newly created Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association, and in 2005, she was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA.[51] Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country on August 12, 2005; she has pledged $5 million to set up a wildlife sanctuary in the north-western province of Battambang and owns property there.[52] In 2007, Jolie became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,and she received the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee.

Relationships

On March 28, 1996, Jolie married British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her co-star in the film Hackers. She attended her wedding in black leather pants and a white shirt, upon which she had written the groom’s name in her blood.[41] Jolie and Miller separated the following year and subsequently divorced on February 3, 1999. They remained on good terms and Jolie later explained, “It comes down to timing. I think he’s the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I’ll always love him, we were simply too young.”

She then married American actor Billy Bob Thornton, whom she had met on the set of Pushing Tin, on May 5, 2000. As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of love (most famously wearing one another’s blood in vials around their necks), their relationship became a favorite topic of the entertainment media.[41] Jolie and Thornton divorced on May 27, 2003. Asked in Vogue about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, “It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it’s scary but… I think it can happen when you get involved and you don’t know yourself yet.”

Jolie and Brad Pitt at the Deauville American Film Festival in 2007

Jolie has said in interviews that she is bisexual and has long acknowledged that she had a sexual relationship with her Foxfire co-star Jenny Shimizu, “I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn’t married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her.”[56] In 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, “Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it’s okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!”
In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused of being the “other woman” in the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The allegation was that she and Pitt had started a sexual affair during filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith; however, she has denied this in several interviews. In an interview in 2005, she explained, “To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn’t be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife.”

While Jolie and Pitt never publicly commented on the nature of their relationship, speculations continued throughout 2005. The first intimate paparazzi photos emerged in April, one month after Aniston had filed for divorce; they showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya. During the summer Jolie and Pitt were seen together with increasing frequency and most of the entertainment media considered them a couple, dubbing them “Brangelina”. On January 11, 2006 Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt’s child and thereby confirmed their relationship for the first time in public.
Children

On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt (originally Maddox Chivan Thornton Jolie).[15] He was born on August 5, 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia, and he initially lived in a local orphanage in Battambang. Jolie decided to apply for adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming Tomb Raider and on a UNHCR field trip in 2001. After her divorce from her second husband, Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie received sole custody of Maddox. Like Jolie’s other children, Maddox has gained considerable celebrity and appears regularly in the tabloid media.

Jolie adopted a six-month-old girl from Ethiopia, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt (originally Zahara Marley Jolie), on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born on January 8, 2005; her original name has been reported as either Tena Adam[59] or Yemsrach.[60] Jolie adopted her from Wide Horizons For Children orphanage in Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. In 2007, media outlets reported Zahara’s biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and wanted her daughter back, but she later denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was “very fortunate” to be adopted by Jolie.[60]

Brad Pitt was reportedly present when Jolie signed the adoption papers and collected her daughter;[41] later Jolie indicated that she and Pitt made the decision to adopt Zahara together.[61] In December 2005 it was confirmed that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie’s two children, and on January 19, 2006, a judge in California approved this request. The children’s legal surnames were formally changed to “Jolie-Pitt”.

Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund, Namibia, by a scheduled caesarean section, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newly-born daughter will have a Namibian passport,[63] and Jolie decided to offer the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images herself, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these extremely valuable snapshots. People paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million.[64] All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds.

In March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt (originally Pax Thien Jolie),[66] who was born on November 29, 2003 and abandoned at birth at a local hospital, where he was initially named Pham Quang Sang.[67] Jolie adopted the boy from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City.[68] She revealed that his first name, Pax, was suggested by her mother before her death.[69]

Following months of tabloid speculation, Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. She gave birth to a boy, Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, by caesarean section at the Lenval hospital in Nice, France, on July 12, 2008.[70] The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million - the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The money went to the Jolie/Pitt Foundation.

Jolie in the media

Jolie appeared in the media from an early age due to her famous father Jon Voight. At seven she had a small part in Lookin’ to Get Out, a movie co-written by and starring her father, and in 1986 and 1988 she attended the Academy Awards as a teenager with him. However, when she started her acting career, Jolie decided not to use “Voight” as a stage name, because she wished to establish her own identity as an actress.[41] Jolie was never shy about controversy and integrated her teenage “wild girl” image into her public persona in the first years of her career. During her acceptance speech at the 2000 Academy Awards, Jolie declared, “I’m so in love with my brother right now”, which, combined with her affectionate behavior towards him that night, sparked speculation in the tabloid media of an incestuous relationship with her brother James Haven. She has denied those rumors vehemently, and Jolie and Haven later explained in interviews that after their parents’ divorce they relied on one another and because of that they hold on to each other as a means of emotional support.

Jolie is noted as “the one A-list celebrity without a publicist”,[57] and she quickly became a tabloid’s favorite, since she presented herself as very outspoken in interviews, discussing her love life and her interest in BDSM openly,[8] and once claiming to be “most likely to sleep with a female fan”.[57] As one of her most distinctive physical features, Jolie’s lips have attracted notable media attention and she has been described as “the current gold standard of beauty in the West” among women seeking cosmetic surgery.[72] She also created headlines with her much publicized marriage to Billy Bob Thornton and her subsequent change into an advocate for global humanitarian problems. As she took on the role of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador she started to use her celebrity to highlight humanitarian causes worldwide. Jolie has been taking flying lessons since 2004 and she has a private pilot license (with an instrument rating) and owns a Cirrus SR22 airplane.[73] The media speculated that Jolie is a Buddhist, but she said that she teaches Buddhism to her son Maddox because she considers it part of his culture. Jolie has not stated definitively whether or not she believes in God. When asked in 2000 if there was a God, she said, “For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn’t need to be a God for me.”[74]

Starting in 2005, her relationship with Brad Pitt became one of the most reported celebrity stories worldwide. After Jolie confirmed her pregnancy in early 2006, the unprecedented media hype surrounding them “reached the point of insanity” as Reuters described it in their story “The Brangelina fever”.[4] Trying to avoid the media attention, the couple went to Namibia for the birth of Shiloh, “the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ”, as it had been described.[75] Two years later, Jolie’s second pregnancy again fueled a media frenzy. For the two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, dozens of reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade to report on the birth.

Today, Jolie is one of the best known celebrities around the world. According to the Q Score, in 2000, subsequent to her Oscar win, 31 % of respondents in the United States said Jolie was familiar to them, by 2006 she was familiar to 81 % of Americans.[45] In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international markets Jolie, together with Brad Pitt, was found to be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide.[77] Jolie was among the Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, in 2006[78] and 2008.[79] She was described as the world’s most beautiful woman in the 2006 “100 Most Beautiful” issue of People.[80] On Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 list, Jolie was ranked at No. 35 in 2006,[81] No. 14 in 2007,[82] and she became the highest listed actor at No. 3 in 2008.[83] In February 2007, she was voted the greatest sex symbol of all time in the British Channel 4 television show The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols.
Tattoos

Jolie’s inventory of tattoos has become the subject of much media attention and has often been addressed by interviewers. Jolie stated that, while she is not opposed to film nudity, the large number of tattoos on her body has forced filmmakers to become more creative when planning nude or love scenes.[84] Make-up has been used to cover up the tattoos in many of her productions. Jolie currently has 13 known tattoos, among them the Tennessee Williams quote “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages”, which she got together with her mother, the Arabic language phrase “العزيمة” (strength of will), the Latin proverb “quod me nutrit me destruit” (what nourishes me destroys me),[85] and a Yantra prayer written in the ancient Khmer and Pali scripts for her son Maddox.[86] She also has four sets of geographical coordinates on her upper left arm indicating the birthplaces of her children.[87] Over time she covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including “Billy Bob”, the name of her former husband Billy Bob Thornton, a Chinese character for death (死), and a window on her lower back; she explained that she removed the window, because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.

Glen Travis Campbell (born April 22, 1936, in Delight, Arkansas) is a Grammy Award, Dove Award winning, and two time nominated Golden Globe Award American country pop singer and guitarist and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a television variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.

Campbell’s hits include “Gentle On My Mind”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “Southern Nights” and “Rhinestone Cowboy”. Campbell made history by winning a Grammy in both country and pop categories in 1967: “Gentle On My Mind” snatched the country honors, and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” won in pop. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM, and took the CMA’s top honor as Entertainer of the Year.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and racked up 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of his 75 trips up the charts, 27 landed in the Top 10. Campbell was hand-picked by actor John Wayne to play alongside him in the 1969 film True Grit, which gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer, and gave Wayne his only Academy Award. Campbell sang and had a hit with the title song (by the same name) which was nominated for an Academy Award. He performed it live at that year’s Academy Awards Show.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Biography

1950s-early 1960s: session musician and the Beach Boys

Campbell, one of twelve children born right outside the tiny community of Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, in a town called Billstown, then a community of fewer than one hundred residents, started playing guitar as a youth without learning to read music. Though widely reported that Glen is a seventh son of a seventh son, that information is not true.

By the time he was eighteen, he was touring the South as part of the Western Wranglers. In 1958, he moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. He was part of the 1959 line-up of the group The Champs, famous for their surf instrumental “Tequila”.

Campbell was in great demand as a session musician in the 1960s. He was part of the famous studio musicians clique known as “The Wrecking Crew,” many of whom went from session to session together as the same group. In addition to Campbell, Hal Blaine on drums and Carol Kaye on bass guitar were part of this elite group of session musicians that defined many pop and rock recordings of the era. They were also heard on Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” recordings in the early 1960s.

He is heard on some of the biggest-selling records of the era by such artists as Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, The Kingston Trio, Merle Haggard, The Monkees, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Frankie Laine, The Association, Jan & Dean, and The Mamas & the Papas.

He was a touring member of The Beach Boys, filling in for an ailing Brian Wilson in 1964 and 1965. He played guitar on the group’s Pet Sounds album, among other recordings. On tour, he played bass and sang high harmony.

Other classics featuring his guitar playing include: “Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by The Righteous Brothers and “I’m a Believer” by The Monkees.

He can be seen briefly in the 1965 film Baby the Rain Must Fall, playing guitar in support of Steve McQueen.

Late 1960s: By The Time He Gets To Phoenix, Glen was a Wichita Lineman dreaming of Galveston

As a solo artist, he had moderate success regionally with his first single “Turn Around, Look at Me.” “Too Late to Worry; Too Blue to Cry” and “Kentucky Means Paradise” (cut with a bluegrass group called the Green River Boys) were similarly popular within only a small section of the country audience.

In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records and released two instrumental albums and a number of vocal albums during his first five years with the label. However, despite releasing singles written by Brian Wilson (”Guess I’m Dumb” in 1965) and Buffy Sainte-Marie the same year (”The Universal Soldier”), Campbell was not achieving major success as a solo artist. It was rumored that Capitol was considering dropping him from the label in 1966 when he was teamed with producer Al DeLory and together they collaborated on 1967’s Dylanesque “Gentle On My Mind”, written by John Hartford.

The overnight success of “Gentle On My Mind” proved Campbell was ready to break through to the mainstream. It was followed by the even bigger triumph of “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” later in 1967, and “I Wanna Live” and “Wichita Lineman” in 1968.

Campbell would win two Grammy Awards for his performances on “Gentle On My Mind” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”.

His biggest hits in 1968–1969 were with evocative songs written by Jimmy Webb: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman,” “Where’s The Playground Susie?”, and “Galveston”. An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb was released in 1974 but it produced no hit single records.

“Wichita Lineman” was selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.

 1970s: The Goodtime Hour, Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television’s The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January 1969 through June 1972. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

With Campbell’s session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show including: The Beatles (on film), David Gates and Bread, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller and helped launch the careers of Anne Murray, Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

In 1973, Banjo player Carl Jackson joined Campbell’s band for 12 years and went on to win two Grammy awards.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.

In 1971, Campbell took his show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on the road for two nights to The Muny in Forest Park, (the largest and oldest outdoor theater in America) in St. Louis, Missouri.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming with Robert Culp and up and coming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including the 1976 Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976–1978 and headlined the 1979 NBC special, “Glen Campbell: Back To Basics” with stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows including: Donny & Marie, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Cher, The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, Merv Griffin, The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and The Mike Douglas Show. From 1982–1983 he hosted a 30 minute syndicated music show on NBC.

In the mid-1970s, he had more big hits with “Rhinestone Cowboy”, “Southern Nights” (both U.S. #1 hits), “Sunflower” (U.S. #39) (written by Neil Diamond), and “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.) (U.S. #11).

“Rhinestone Cowboy” was Campbell’s largest-selling single, initially with over 2 million copies sold in a matter of months. Campbell had heard the songwriter Larry Weiss’ version while on tour of Australia in 1974 and felt it was the perfect song for him to record. It was included in the Jaws movie parody song “Mr. Jaws” which also reached the top 10 in 1975. “Rhinestone Cowboy” continues to be used in movie soundtracks and TV shows, including “Desperate Housewives” in 2006. Movies to feature the song include Daddy Day Care and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone.

Campbell made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

“Southern Nights,” by Allen Toussaint, his other #1 pop-rock-country crossover hit was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb who turned Campbell onto the song and Jerry Reed who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.

 1980s-2000s: Later Career and Country Music Hall of Fame Induction

After his #1 crossover chart successes in the mid- to late 1970s, Campbell’s career cooled off. He left Capitol Records in 1981 after a reported dispute over the song “Highwayman” written by Jimmy Webb that the label would not release as a single. The song would become a #1 country hit in 1985 when it was performed by The Highwaymen, a quartet of country legends: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

Campbell made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song.

Although he would never reach the top 40 pop charts after 1978, Glen Campbell continued to reach the country top 10 throughout the 1980s with songs such as “Faithless Love”, “A Lady Like You”, “Still Within The Sound of My Voice” and “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” (a duet with Steve Wariner).

When Campbell began having trouble reaching the charts, and began to abuse himself with drugs, he was a frequently featured in the tabloids during his affair with Tanya Tucker. By 1989, however, he had quit drugs and was regularly reaching the country Top 10; songs like “She’s Gone, Gone, Gone” were extremely popular.

In the 1990s, Campbell had slowed from recording, though he has not quit entirely. In all, over 40 of his albums reached the charts. In 1992, he voiced the character of Chanticleer in the animated film, Rock-A-Doodle. In 1994, his autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy, was published.

In 1999 Campbell was featured on VH-1’s Behind the Music, A&E Network’s Biography in 2001, and on a number of CMT programs. Campbell ranked 29th on CMT’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.

He is also credited with giving Alan Jackson his first big break. Campbell met Jackson’s wife (a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines) at the Atlanta Airport and gave her his publishing manager’s business card. Jackson went to work for Campbell’s music publishing business in the early 1990s and later had many of his hit songs published in part by Campbell’s company, Seventh Son Music. Campbell also served as an inspiration to Keith Urban. Urban cites Campbell as a strong influence on his performing career.

Although for almost a decade Campbell had professed his sobriety to fans at concerts and in his autobiography, in November 2003 he was arrested for drunk driving that included a charge of battery to a police officer (later dropped).[2] He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and community service, due to the high level of intoxication.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He performed with Andy Williams at the Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri in May and June 2007.

In February 2008, Glen will perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at The Sydney Opera House in his ‘Farewell to Australia’ tour. In the lead up to the tour, Campbell spoke with Country HQ in Dec 2007 in an interview where he not only reflected on his stellar career, but also his plans for the upcoming tour and more details on proposed CD with songwriter Jimmy Webb.

It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell. The album was released on August 19. He branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell’s first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish will contribute to the album as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, was released to radio in July 2008.

Personal life

Campbell has been married 4 times and is the father of eight children, now ranging in age from 20 to 52 (5 sons and 3 daughters). He has been married to the former Kimberly Woolen since 1982. Woolen was a Radio City Music Hall Rockette when she and Glen met on a blind date in 1981. Glen’s eldest daughter, Debby, has been touring across the globe with her father since 1994 and performs many of the duets made famous by Campbell with Bobbie Gentry and Anne Murray.

Glen is an avid golfer and hosted his namesake GLEN CAMPBELL LOS ANGELES OPEN Golf Tournament at the Riveria Country Club from 1971-83. It was a major event on the PGA circuit. Glen was ranked in the top #15 celebrity golfers list by Golf Digest magazine in 2005.

Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), known as Gary Glitter, is an English rock and pop singer and songwriter who had a string of chart successes in the 1970s with glam rock hits including “Rock and Roll parts 1 & 2″, “I Love You Love Me Love”, “I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am)” and “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again”.

Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s. He had one of the longest chart runs of any solo singer in the UK during the 1970s. Between 1972 and 1995 Glitter charted twenty-six hit singles which spent a total of one hundred and eighty weeks in the UK Top 100.His success as a live performer lasted well beyond the decade. He continued to record in the 1980s and 1990s, with his 1984 song “Another Rock N’ Roll Christmas” being one of the Top 30 Christmas hits of all time.He released seven studio albums, and at least 15 greatest hits collections or live albums. In 1998, his recording of “Rock and Roll” was voted as one of the Top 1001 songs in music history.

In 1999, Glitter was convicted of downloading four thousand images of child pornography in the UK, and was afterwards listed as a sex offender. His reputation was greatly tarnished, and, though he continued releasing new music, Glitter’s popularity declined sharply. He was permanently evicted from Cambodia in 2002 for suspected child sexual abuse offences.[5] He afterwards relocated to Vung Tau in Vietnam, and in March 2005 applied for permanent resident status.Later that year, he was arrested by Vietnamese authorities while trying to leave the country, and was tried and convicted of child sexual abuse charges in 2005-06. On appeal in 2007 his three-year sentence was reduced by three months. He was released from prison on August 19, 2008 and returned to London three days later, having been refused entry to other Asian countries.

Biography

Early life

Paul Francis Gadd was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire. His mother, a cleaner, was unmarried, and initially brought him up with the help of her mother; he never knew his father. He was hard to control and at the age of 10, along with his brother, he was taken into local authority care.

Although a Protestant, he was educated at a Roman Catholic school. He would frequently run away to London, to the clubs that would be the launching ground of his career.

Early work

At the age of 12 he was already performing live at London clubs. His career on the London club scene grew, as he appeared at such venues as the Two I’s, in Soho, and the Laconda and Safari Clubs. His repertoire consisted of early rock standards and gentle ballads, and he got his first break when a film producer, Robert Hartford Davis, who was looking to make an impact on the music industry, discovered Gadd and financed a recording session for the British Decca label. At 14, he recorded his first album.[8] Under the stage name “Paul Raven” he released his first single, “Alone in the Night”, in January 1960.

A year later, he had a new manager (Vic Billings), a new recording contract (with Parlophone), and a new producer – George Martin, who would begin making his name a year later when he signed and began producing The Beatles. The M