Steve Jobs

Monday, February 28, 2011

Halle Berry fashion model

Halle Berry born August 14, 1966 is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2011, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman. She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films.
Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant (1986), and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986. Her breakthrough feature film role was in the 1991 Jungle Fever. This led to roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person.
Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry dated French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry from November 2005, through April, 2010. Their daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry, was born on March 16, 2008.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Acting career: 1989–2002
* 3 International success
* 4 Personal life
o 4.1 Marriages
o 4.2 Domestic partnership and custody dispute
* 5 In the media
* 6 Filmography
* 7 Awards
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 Further reading
* 11 External links
Early life
Berry was born Maria Halle Berry, though her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry in 1971. Berry's parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother, Judith Ann (née Hawkins), who is Caucasian, was a psychiatric nurse. Her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was an African American hospital attendant in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked; he later became a bus driver. Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio. Berry's parents divorced when she was four years old; she and her older sister Heidiwere raised exclusively by her mother. Berry has said in published reports that she has been estranged from her father since her childhood, noting in 1992, "I haven't heard from him since [he left]. Maybe he's not alive."
Berry graduated from Bedford High School, afterward working in the children's department at Higbee's Department store. She then studied at Cuyahoga Community College. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986. She was the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up to Christy Fichtner of Texas. In the Miss USA 1986 pageant interview competition, she said she hoped to become an entertainer or to have something to do with the media. Her interview was awarded the highest score by the judges. She was the first African-American Miss World entrant in 1986, where she finished sixth and Trinidad and Tobago's Giselle Laronde was crowned Miss World.
Acting career: 1989–2002
In the late 1980s, Berry went to Illinois to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called Chicago Force. In 1989, Berry landed the role of Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls (a spin-off of Who's the Boss?), during the taping of which she lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with diabetes. She went on to have a recurring role on the long-running primetime serial Knots Landing. In 1992, Berry was cast as the love interest in the video for R. Kelly's seminal single, "Honey Love".
Head and shoulders shot of a smiling Berry with dark hair pulled back, wearing a lace shirt and turquoise necklace.
Berry visiting with sailors and Marines during the opening day of Fleet Week New York 2006
Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the 1991 film Strictly Business. In 1992, Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. That same year, she caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry was in the live-action Flintstones movie as "Sharon Stone", the sultry secretary who seduced Fred Flintstone.
Playing a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995), Berry tackled a more serious role, starring opposite Jessica Lange. She portrayed Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, and co-starred alongside Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. Beginning in 1996, she was a Revlon spokeswoman for seven years and renewed her contract in 2004.
1997, Halle starred alongside Natalie Deselle Reid in the comedy film, B*A*P*S. Although panned by critics, it showed Halle's acting versatility.In 1998, Berry received praise for her role in Bulworth as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives a politician (Warren Beatty) a new lease on life. The same year, she played the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love. In the 1999 HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, she portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Berry's performance was recognized with several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
Berry portrayed the mutant superhero Storm in the film adaptation of the comic book series X-Men (2000) and its sequels, X2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In 2001, Berry appeared in the film Swordfish, which featured her first nude scene. At first, she refused to be filmed topless in a sunbathing scene, but she changed her mind when Warner Brothers raised her fee substantially. The brief flash of her breasts added $500,000 to her fee. Berry considered these stories to be rumors and was quick to deny them. After turning down numerous roles that required nudity, she said she decided to make Swordfish because her husband, Benét, supported her and encouraged her to take risks

Halle Berry

Halle Berry

Halle Berry

Sunday, February 27, 2011

teresa palmer australian actress

Teresa Palmer born 26 February 1986 is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in the suicide drama 2:37. Palmer was seen in The Grudge 2 in 2006, in December Boys, alongside Daniel Radcliffe, and in the 2008 children's fantasy Bedtime Stories, with Adam Sandler. She appears in the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice with Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel. Her upcoming films include Take Me Home Tonight, playing Topher Grace's love interest, and a turn as an alien in the sci-fi film I Am Number Four.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Acting
o 2.1 Beginnings in Australia
o 2.2 Move to Hollywood
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Filmography
* 5 Awards and nominations
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Early life
Palmer was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. She is the only child of Kevin Palmer, an investor, and Paula Sanders, a former nurse. She has a stepmother, Kaaren Palmer, as well as two half-sisters and two stepbrothers, who lived with her father. Her parents divorced when she was three. Palmer stated to Interview that she "came from rather humble beginnings"she lived in public housing with her mother, and grew up on her father's farm in Adelaide Hills. Palmer has stated that she had a "tough upbringing" due to her mother's manic depression.
Palmer was a student at Mercedes College, a Catholic day school, and won a local casting audition, "Search for a Movie Star", in 2003. Her first acting job was dressing up as Strawberry Shortcake and Santa's Little Helper on weekends for promotions in shopping centres near Adelaide. Palmer went to acting classes for a couple of years and did a few television commercials. She was a fast food attendant at Hungry Jack's in Rundle Mall in 2005, and was working at a clothing retailer, Cotton On, selling T-shirts.
After graduating from high school, Palmer got a call from her local agent about appearing in a student film, 2:37. The director had seen her head shot on the acting agency's website and wanted her to be in the movie. Palmer thought that she would work in an animal rescue service, and eventually open her own animal welfare agency. She was accepted into university to study teaching and was taking a course on journalism, but had always dreamt of acting.Palmer quit university to work on the film.
Acting
in Australia
Palmer was cast to star in the independent Australian film 2:37 by filmmaker Murali K. Thalluri, at the age of 18, with no previous film acting experience. She had been an extra on Deck Dogz (2005), and other films shot in Adelaide. portrayed Melody, a popular high school student who becomes suicidal after being impregnated by her brother. She was nominated for the 2006 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Lead Actress for her performance. She signed with a talent agent in Sydney after working on the film. A role in Wolf Creek (2005) followed, in a pool party scene.
Palmer starred in the psychological thriller Restraint, with English actor Stephen Moyer and Calvin Klein model Travis Fimmel. Shot on location around New South Wales in mid-2005, the film was written by Dave Warner and directed by David Denneen. Palmer was named an Australian "star of tomorrow" by Screen International that year. She then starred in December Boys, a coming-of-age film set in the 1960s, based on a novel by Michael Noonan. She played Lucy, who has a romance with Daniel Radcliffe's character on a remote beach resort. Palmer studied Dominique Swain's performance in Lolita (1997) to capture her character's overt sexuality. The film began shooting in November 2005 on the south coast of Australia.
2:37 premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard selection. The film received a standing ovation, a turning point for Palmer, giving her confidence in acting as a career. The trip to Cannes lead her to meet her manager, David Seltzer, and American talent agents. She signed with the William Morris Agency.
Move to Hollywood
Palmer was cast to star with Tom Sturridge in her first American feature, Jumper, a science fiction film directed by Doug Liman. Her part was later recast when the lead characters were rewritten for older actors; her role went to Rachel Bilson. Palmer was devastated from losing the role and went back home to Adelaide for a few months. She made her Hollywood feature film debut in The Grudge 2 in 2006, a horror sequel starring Amber Tamblyn and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Palmer described her character, Vanessa, as "the bitchy schoolgirl".
In early 2007, Palmer was cast as Tori Frederking in the comedy Take Me Home Tonight, starring Anna Faris, Dan Fogler and Topher Grace. in the 1980s, the film was directed by Michael Dowse, and will be released in March 2011.Palmer starred in the film clip for the 2007 single "Breaking Up", by the band Eskimo Joe, shot in Newcastle. Palmer jumps into the sea in the clip with the band's singer, Kavyen Temperley.
Palmer relocated from Semaphore Beach in Adelaide to Los Angeles in May 2007 to further her career, and began auditioning for films. She stated that Los Angeles was "a big adjustment" and "very different" from her home in Australia. She went through a period of loneliness and depression, and considered going back home until she made friends there.
In November 2007, Palmer was cast as the villain, Talia al Ghul, in the DC Comics superhero film, Justice League of America, alongside D.J. Cotrona, Adam Brody, Anton Yelchin, Common and Megan Gale. The George Miller-directed film was cancelled by Warner Bros. however, due to script rewrite issues and the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.Palmer was the face of Sydney jeweller Jan Logan's "modern darling" collection in 2008.
Palmer was picked by Adam Sandler from her audition tape to play the love interest in the 2008 Walt Disney Pictures' children's film, Bedtime Stories. She played an heiress, Violet Nottingham, starring alongside Guy Pearce and Courteney Cox. Sandler put Palmer's mother and best friend in scenes in the film.
Palmer then won the romantic lead in Disney's The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Jon Turteltaub. The film is based on the animated film Fantasia (1940), which was inspired by a Goethe poem. Palmer filmed in New York City for six months and stayed in Manhattan's West Village.She played Becky Barnes, a college coed who is pursued by Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a physics student and apprentice to the wizard Balthazar (Nicolas Cage).
2009, Palmer formed the film production company Avakea Productions, with Australian actresses Tahyna Tozzi and Nathalie Kelley. She was a guest judge for the Optus one80project in Sydney, a filmmaking talent contest on MTV Australia.She filmed an ad campaign for the Australian jean store, Just Jeans, that year, and became the face and spokesperson for the Jurlique cosmetics company.
Palmer starred in the sci-fi adventure film, I Am Number Four, alongside Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron. Palmer played Number Six, one of nine aliens hiding out on Earth because their home planet was destroyed. Her character was skilled in martial arts, rode a Ducati motorcycle, and could become invisible and walk through fire. She went through stunt training for the role, learning to perform flips, swordfight, and do wirework. The film was adapted from a novel that is the first in a six-part series. Palmer signed on to do three movies, if the film becomes a franchise.
Palmer was going to star in Fury Road, a sequel to the Mad Max series by Australian filmmaker George Miller, but didn't join the cast due to scheduling conflicts. film was later postponed.She auditioned to play the love interest in a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise. female lead ended up going to Emma Stone.
Palmer is directing a documentary film about a Kenyan-based charity, the Happy Africa Foundation. She will appear opposite Joel Edgerton in the independent Australian drama-thriller Say Nothing, directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith; the film began shooting in Sydney in November 2010.Palmer will star in Rue De Tournon, written and directed by friend Gracie Otto, set to film in Sydney and France in 2011.As of December 2010, Palmer was writing a script in collaboration with actress Tahyna Tozzi, titled Track Town, which she plans to direct.

teresa palmer

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Dwight Hardy Leads St. John's to Road Win Over Villanova

Carmelo Anthony may have gotten New York City fans all gooey-eyed last week, but it is the St. John's men's basketball team, led by Dwight Hardy, which is the real feel-good story in Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm have an ongoing streak of five straight wins against ranked opponents at their home-away-from-home and took the show down the Jersey Turnpike to Philadelphia and did it again.

Today, St. John's (19-9, 11-5) took an early 14 point lead against #14 Villanova and held on to beat the Wildcats on their home court, 81-68.

Hardy, the senior guard, scored a career high 34 points and D.J. Kennedy had 12 points to go with his 14 rebounds.

The Johnnies have proved they are a force to be reckoned with at the Garden but now they have beaten a ranked team on the road. It's a sure thing other teams in the Big East have noticed the Red Storm's surging play and, with the upcoming conference tournament being played at the Garden, those teams have to be nervous.

Who would have thought first-year head coach Steve Lavin could have molded the St. John's squad into the beast it is today. The senior-filled squad plays tough defense, grabs loose balls and hangs in at crunch-time. It is the toughest team in the brutal Big East.

Struggling Villanova (21-8, 9-7) got close, 65-64 after a Justin Burrell faux-foul, but couldn't handle the Red Storm's frantic full-court press as St. John's scored 16 of the last 24 points to win.

Now that St. John's has overcome two common pitfalls of streaking teams---losing on the road and let-downs against weaker opponents (they routed bottom-dweller DePaul on Wed.)---they should have their sights set for the Big East Tournament in two weeks.

Lavin, who has Big East Coach of the Year written all over him, has pinned the label of go-to guy on Hardy over the past few weeks. Ever since Lavin removed his tie and started sporting white sneakers the team is 8-1 but it is Hardy that has Lavin and college basketball talking.

Lavin has publicly started lobbying for his senior guard as a candidate for Big East Player of the Year and he won't find many detractors.

The head coach has compared Hardy to "Astaire and Baryshnikov" for his play on the court and thinks he is the front-runner for the award.

"I think he's the runaway favorite," said Lavin. "I know I'm biased. I'm subjective. But no player has done more for a basketball team. He's had some remarkable games against the best teams in the country---Connecticut, Duke, at UCLA and Pitt. He's electrified and elevated our program. He's jumper-cabled our program."

Now, you can throw 'Nova into the pile of ranked victims his program has run down.

If Lavin continues to wear his white tennies and St. John's stays in fourth place and gets a first-round bye in The Big East tournament, 'Melo just might become a side-act in Madison Square Garden this spring.

And if the team goes deep in the NCAA tournament, Lavin might be looking at National Coach of the Year.

Friday, February 25, 2011

angelina jolie screen Actors

Angelina Jolie joh-LEE; born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. Jolie promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as one of the world's most attractive people, as well as the world's "most beautiful" woman, titles for which she has received substantial media attention.
Although 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 wider fame after 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.She has had her biggest commercial successes with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008).
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. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.
Contents
* 1 Early life and family
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Early work: 1993–1997
o 2.2 Breakthrough: 1997–2000
o 2.3 International success: 2001–present
* 3 Humanitarian work
* 4 Personal life
o 4.1 Relationships
o 4.2 Children
* 5 In the media
* 6 Filmography
* 7 Awards
* 8 References
o 8.1 Notes
o 8.2 Further reading
* 9 External links
Early life and family
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the sister of actor James Haven, niece of singer-songwriter Chip Taylor, and the goddaughter of actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of Slovak and German descent, and on her mother's side she is French Canadian and is said to be of Iroquois ancestry. However, Voight has claimed Bertrand was "not seriously Iroquois", and they merely said it to enhance her 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. 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. When she was eleven years old, 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.
At the age of 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming a funeral director.During this period, she wore black clothing, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend. Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home. 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".
She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (and 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. 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.
Jolie was estranged from her father for many years. The two tried to reconcile and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). 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. In August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had "serious mental 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. In February 2010, Jolie publicly reunited with her father when he visited her on the set of The Tourist in Venice.