Richard Tiffany Gere[1] (born August 31, 1949) is a Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American actor. The prototypical dark, handsome leading man of romantic and dramatic films, he first became famous during the 1980s, and has since retained his status as a leading man. During the 1990s and 2000s, he starred in several well-received films, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe award as Best Actor.

Biography

Early life

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gere is a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, William Brewster and Francis Cooke.[1] Gere’s mother, Doris Anna (née Tiffany), was a homemaker, and his father, Homer George Gere, was an insurance agent for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and had originally intended to become a minister.[2] Gere has three sisters and a brother. In 1967, he graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at brown nosing and music, playing the trumpet.[2] He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in Philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years.[3][2]
Career

Gere first worked professionally at the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971 where he starred in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Gere’s first major acting role was in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973.[2] He began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid 1970s, co-starring in the thriller Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and playing the leading role in director Terrence Malick’s well-reviewed 1978 film, Days of Heaven.[2] In 1980, Gere appeared in the Broadway production of Bent. His acting career took off that year with the successful film American Gigolo, followed by the popular romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, which had grossed over $100 million in 1982.[2] Subsequently, he was the first man ever to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine.

Gere’s career in the 1980s alternated between box office successes and failures. After the release of both Internal Affairs and the box office hit Pretty Woman in 1990, Gere’s status as a leading man was again solidified, and he continued starring in solidly performing films throughout the 1990s, including Sommersby (1993), Primal Fear (1996), and Runaway Bride (1999), which paired Gere with his Pretty Woman co-star, Julia Roberts.[2] In Mr. Jones, Gere accurately portrayed a high-functioning, creative, and intellectual man with bipolar disorder. The movie was not a commercial success, but was well-received by the mental health community. It is frequently utilized as a training tool to acquaint students and families with the disorder.

People magazine named Gere the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1999. In 2002, he appeared in three major releases: the horror thriller The Mothman Prophecies, the drama Unfaithful, and the Academy Award-winning film version of Chicago,[2] for which he won a Golden Globe as “Best Actor - Comedy or Musical”. Gere’s 2004 ballroom dancing drama, Shall We Dance, was also a solid performer, although his next film, Bee Season, failed to find an audience amid the Oscar-contenders of November 2005.

Gere was Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ “Man of the Year” for 2006. In July 2006, he was cast opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia; the film was released in September of 2007.[4]
Personal life & activism
 
Gere Visits USAID HIV / AIDS “Operation Lighthouse” Project In Mumbai, as part of USAID.Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. In 2002, he married actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in 2000 and is named after Gere’s father.[2]

Gere was raised by Methodist parents;[5] his interest in Buddhism began when he traveled to Nepal in 1978 with the Brazilian painter, Sylvia Martins.[3] He is a practicing Buddhist and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.[2] Gere is also a persistent advocate for human rights in Tibet; he is a co-founder of the Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because he strongly supports the Tibetan Independence Movement, he is permanently banned from entering The People’s Republic of China. Gere was banned as an Academy Award presenter in 1993 after he used the opportunity to condemn the Chinese government.[6] In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent.

Gere campaigns for ecological causes and AIDS awareness. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Healing the Divide, an organization that supports global initiatives to promote peace, justice and understanding,[7] and he also actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.[3] He helped to establish the AIDS Care Home, a residential facility in India for women and children with AIDS, and also supports campaigns for AIDS awareness and education that country. In 1999 he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.[8]

On April 15, 2007, during an AIDS awareness event, Gere kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty several times on the cheek and neck. The pair had appeared at a press conference in New Delhi as part of a campaign to preach safe sex to truck drivers in India and promotion of AIDS awareness. The kiss prompted protesters, allegedly members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena, to beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks, others set fire to glamor shots of Shetty.[citation needed]

Similar protests broke out in other cities, including Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, and in the northern town of Meerut, where crowds of hundreds of thousands chanted “Down with Shilpa Shetty!” Star News Office was also attacked. The protests did not take any violent turn and the situation was quickly brought under control with some activists being detained.[citation needed]

Shetty responded to these protests by saying, “I understand this (kissing) is his (Gere’s) culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such a manner. I understand people’s sentiments, but I do not want a foreigner to take bad memories from here.”[citation needed]

On April 26, 2007 an Indian court in Rajasthan issued a warrant for Shetty and Gere’s arrest. The legal action against both Shetty and Gere has been suspended by the Indian Supreme Court until the court decides on the case’s proper jurisdiction. Gere has since expressed regret for causing any offense and Shetty has stated, “So much has been blown out of proportion.”[citation needed]

Richard Gere is the most common subject of a popular urban myth which involves the forcing of a gerbil into the anus for pleasure and its later embaressing removal at hospital. This myth, and its association with Gere, is referred to onstage by the comedian Ricky Gervais in his Fame stage show. A reference to the rumours is also made in british sitcom The Vicar of Dibly, with a hamster substituted for the more common gerbil. However, as verified by snopes.com these rumours have no basis in fact.
Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar Tony Lo Porto 
1978 Bloodbrothers Thomas Stony De Coco 
Days of Heaven Bill 
1979 Yanks Matt Dyson 
1980 American Gigolo Julian Kaye 
1982 An Officer and a Gentleman Zack Mayo Golden Globe nomination - Best Drama Actor
1983 Beyond the Limit Dr. Eduardo Plarr 
Breathless Jesse Lujack 
1984 The Cotton Club Dixie Dwyer 
1985 King David David Razzie nomination - Worst Actor
1986 No Mercy Eddie Jillette 
Power Pete St. John 
1988 Miles from Home Frank Roberts, Jr. 
1990 Pretty Woman Edward Lewis Golden Globe nomination - Best Musical/Comedy Actor
Internal Affairs Dennis Peck 
1991 Rhapsody in August Clark 
1992 Final Analysis Dr. Isaac Barr 
1993 Mr. Jones Mr. Jones 
Sommersby John Robert ‘Jack’ Sommersby 
And The Band Played On The Choreographer 
1994 Intersection Vincent Eastman 
1995 First Knight Lancelot 
1996 Primal Fear Martin Vail 
1997 The Jackal Declan Joseph Mulqueen 
Red Corner Jack Moore 
1999 Runaway Bride Ike Graham 
2000 Dr. T & the Women Dr. T 
Autumn in New York Will Keane Razzie nomination - Worst Screen Couple
2002 Chicago Billy Flynn Golden Globe win - Best Musical/Comedy Actor
Unfaithful Edward Sumner 
The Mothman Prophecies John Klein 
2004 Shall We Dance John Clark 
2005 Bee Season Saul Naumann 
2007 The Hoax Clifford Irving 
The Hunting Party Simon 
I’m Not There Bob Dylan as Billy The Kid 
The Flock Agent Erroll Babbage 
2008 Nights in Rodanthe Dr. Paul Flanner completed
Hachiko: A Dog’s Story  filming
.

Source:en.wikipedia

Lara Flynn Boyle (born March 24, 1970 in Davenport, Iowa) is an American actress who was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin. Although she is of mostly Irish descent, Boyle also has an Italian-American great-grandfather. [1] She is named after a character in Boris Pasternak’s novel Dr.
Career

Boyle’s first film role was a bit part in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), which earned her a SAG card, though her scene was eliminated from the final cut of the film. She then appeared in the mini-series Amerika (1987) and films Poltergeist III (1988) and Dead Poets Society (1989), before landing her first major part, that of Donna Hayward in the critically acclaimed series Twin Peaks. When the series ended in 1991, creator David Lynch produced a movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but - largely due to her rise in fame and increased film offers - Boyle chose not to return. Moira Kelly took over the role of Donna for the film.

Boyle spent much of the 1990s making a name for herself in films with varying degrees of success. Some of her most notable roles during that time were:

the obsessive and accident-prone Stacy in Wayne’s World (1992)
the fragile, homeless teen Heather in Where The Day Takes You (1992)
psycho secretary-from-hell Kris Bolin in what was geared to be her breakout success, but ultimately became a box-office bust, The Temp (1993)
the sultry and manipulative Suzanne of Red Rock West (1993), which solidified her status as a premier femme fatale
Alex, the sexually assured drama queen in the Generation X comedy Threesome (1994)
flighty, manically repressed housewife Marianne Byron in Afterglow (1997)
In 1997, Boyle auditioned for the title role in David E. Kelley’s Ally McBeal. Although she lost out to Calista Flockhart, the actress impressed Kelley enough to create the role of Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in his other 1997 series, The Practice, specifically for her. She starred on that show until 2003, when - in a dramatic attempt to revamp the show and cut costs - she was unceremoniously dismissed along with most of the cast. The role of Helen earned her an Emmy nomination, as well as several Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast nominations. Boyle also made a crossover appearance in the role of Helen in an episode of Ally McBeal.

In 2002, Boyle played a lead role in the blockbuster film Men in Black II as the villainous alien Serleena. She also guest-starred on one of the last episodes of Ally McBeal, this time as Tally Cupp, a completely different role from that which she had played before.

Recently, she had a recurring role on several episodes of Huff, playing Melody Coatar, an unstable patient with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder.

In 2005, Boyle joined the cast of Las Vegas for a seven-episode stint as Monica, a new hotel owner.

She played Barbara Amiel in the TV true story “Shades of Black”, about Amiel’s controversial husband, Lord Conrad Black.

Boyle guest-starred as an ambitious reporter involved with the suspects in a possible murder in the Law & Order 2008 episode “Submission”.
Personal life

Boyle has dated actors Jack Nicholson, Richard Dean Anderson, Kyle MacLachlan, David Spade, and Eric Dane. She has a tattoo on her back from then-boyfriend Jay Penske. She is dyslexic[2].

She has been married twice. Her first husband was John Patrick Dee III, whom she married on August 11, 1996 and divorced two years later. Her current husband is Donald Ray Thomas II, a real-estate investor, whom she married on December 18, 2006 in San Antonio, Texas.

Boyle’s home in Beverly Hills was built in the 1920s as servants’ quarters for Pickfair, the home of actress Mary Pickford.[3]

Went to Catholic school in East Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Selected filmography

Amerika (1987) (miniseries)
Poltergeist III (1988)
The Preppie Murder (1989) (TV)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
How I Got Into College (1989)
Twin Peaks (1990) (TV series) (1990 - 1991)
The Rookie (1990)
Mobsters (1991)
Red Rock West (1992)
Where the Day Takes You (1992)
Wayne’s World (1992)
The Temp (1993)
Threesome (1994)
Past Tense (1994) (TV)
Baby’s Day Out (1994)
The Road to Wellville (1994)
The Big Squeeze (1996)
Afterglow (1997)
The Practice (1997) (TV series) (1997–2003)
Happiness (1998)
Susan’s Plan (1998)
Since You’ve Been Gone (1998)
Men in Black II (2002)
Las Vegas (2003) (TV series) (2005)
Huff (TV series) (2004-2006)
The House Next Door (2006)
Have Dreams, Will Travel (2007)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal jury decided Madison Square Garden and its chairman must pay $11.6 million in damages to former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders in her sexual harassment lawsuit.

The jury also found Knicks coach Isiah Thomas subjected Browne Sanders to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but that he did not have to pay punitive damages.

Deciding MSG had harassed Browne Sanders, the jury found the Garden owes $6 million for allowing a hostile work environment to exist and $2.6 million for retaliation; MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million.

“What I did here, I did for every working woman in America,” said Browne Sanders, who came out of the courtroom beaming. “And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment.”

She said it also was for “women who don’t have the means and couldn’t possibly have done what I was able to do.”
 
The Garden said it would appeal, but the verdict gave Thomas a partial victory after an ugly, three-week trial.

“I’m innocent, I’m very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing,” said Thomas, who’s married with two children. “I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have.”

After the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an “eminently reasonable” verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.

Browne Sanders’ lawyer, Anne Vladeck, had urged the jury to affix damages that sent a message “to avoid this happening to somebody else.” She said the defendants had ruined her client’s career, and she called Dolan a liar.

Thomas’s lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent “a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.

“Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about,” he said.

The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.

“We believe that the jury’s decision was incorrect,” MSG said in a statement before punitive damages were awarded. “We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly.”

MSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision’s CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.

Want to advance your career? Saying “no” may be the key.

“It’s wonderful to be the go-to person to a point — until you find you’re totally overwhelmed, exhausted, resentful and in a time crunch,” said Susan Newman, author of “The Book of No: 250 Ways to Say It — And Mean It and Stop People-Pleasing Forever.” “Setting workplace boundaries means you will be doing better work and not spreading yourself all over the lot.”

Here’s how to get there:

1. Track your yeses.

You can’t set a boundary you don’t know you have, so watch yourself for a week, Newman said. Where do you say “yes”?

Do you agree to lunch with that coworker on the day of a major presentation?
Do you accept another project on top of the eight you already have?
Do you volunteer to change the printer’s ink cartridge for a harried coworker?
Do you work on the Saturday of your daughter’s recital?
2. Figure out your priorities.

“Every time you say yes, you’re giving up something,” said Newman. So get your priorities straight:

Do you need to be everyone’s best friend or be the last person to leave work each day? Or is it more important to choose projects that will advance your career and give yourself time to do them?

“You should always ask yourself, ‘Are these things moving me forward and gaining me respect, or is it just one more piece of busy work?’” she said.

3. Share them with your boss and coworkers.

Now that you know, let everyone you work with know in a clear, friendly way, said Debra Mandel, author of “Your Boss is Not Your Mother: Eight Steps to Eliminating Office Drama and Creating Positive Relationships At Work.”

“It’s valuable to inform people that you’re changing your approach to work,” she said. “You can simply say, ‘I know I’ve been overworking myself and so I’m going to start taking a little more time.’”

Scared to say it? You’re not alone. Some changes may be easier than others. Declining lunch with a coworker may be less frightening than declining a project from your boss.

So invite your boss into the decision-making: Of the 10 projects on your plate, which are highest priority? Can you work late during the week in return for having your weekends to yourself? Keep reminding your boss that you’re doing this to improve your work performance.

4. Keep doing it.

Now that you’ve set your boundary, your work is done. Right?

Wrong.

Expect your boss and coworkers to test you. Can’t you come out for drinks after work just this once? Can’t you take 10 minutes — OK, maybe 30 — to talk your coworker down from her latest crisis — even though you have work to do? Can’t you take on this one extra project? It’s a one-time thing, your boss swears.

“Keep setting boundaries,” Mandel said. “Usually people want to have healthier relationships, and they’ll adapt.”

Although he was born in St. Louis, Aliaune Thiam — aka Akon — grew up in Senegal before he and his family (including his father, jazz percussionist Mor Thiam) returned to the United States and settled in New Jersey when he was seven. There he discovered hip-hop for the first time, as well as crime. He was eventually jailed, but he used the time to work on his musical ideas. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in a home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which eventually released Trouble, Akon’s debut LP, in June 2004. The album was an interesting hybrid of Akon’s raps and silky, West African-styled vocals with East Coast- and Southern-styled beats. The success of the song “Locked Up” raised Akon’s profile, and he followed up in the fall of 2006 with Konvicted. Soon enough, two of the album’s singles, “I Wanna Love You” and “Smack That,” had made their way to the upper regions of the Billboard charts. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Written by Johnny Loftus