Darlene Love (née Wright; born July 26, 1941) is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song “He’s a Rebel,” a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the Phil Spector artists who produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963.
Solomon Northup[Note 1] (July 1808 â 1863?) was a free-born African American from New York, the son of a freed slave. A farmer and violinist, he owned real estate in Hebron. In 1841 he was kidnapped by slave-traders, having been enticed with a job offer as a violinist. When he accompanied his supposed employers to Washington, DC, they drugged him and sold him as a slave. He was shipped to New Orleans where he was sold to a plantation owner in Louisiana. He was held in the Red River region of Louisiana by several different owners for 12 years during which time his friends and family had no knowledge of him. He made repeated attempts to escape and to get messages out of the plantation. Eventually he got news to his family who contacted friends and enlisted the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, to his cause. He regained his freedom in January 1853 and returned to his family in New York.
Michelle Denise Beadle (born October 23, 1975) is a sports reporter and host on NBC Universal. She was the co-host of SportsNation on ESPN2 with Colin Cowherd, and Winners Bracket on ABC with Marcellus Wiley.
E! (formally “E!: Entertainment Television”) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry. As of August 2013, E! has an audience reach of approximately 96,472,000 American households (84.48% of households). The channel is also available in Canada, which broadcasts original programming at the same as the United States and localized versions across Europe, Asia and Australia.
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the actors, technical achievements, and films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony was scheduled one week later than usual to avoid conflict with the broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented awards in 24 categories. Televised in the United States by ABC, the ceremony was produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show for the second time, after hosting the 79th ceremony in 2007.
John Ridley (born 1965) is an American writer and director.
Twelve people have won all four major annual American entertainment awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Doing so may be abbreviated EGOT, or sometimes GATE (“A” for “Academy”).[dead link] These awards honor outstanding achievements in, respectively, television, music (or other audio recording), film, and theater. Winning all four awards has been referred to as winning the Grand Slam of Show Business. The acronym EGOT was invented by actor Philip Michael Thomas.
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta’s acting career declined through the 1980s. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in more recent films such as Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.
Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He grew up in California and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London. He recently starred in the Netflix series House of Cards.
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the actors, technical achievements, and films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony was scheduled one week later than usual to avoid conflict with the broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented awards in 24 categories. Televised in the United States by ABC, the ceremony was produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, and directed by Hamish Hamilton. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show for the second time, after hosting the 79th ceremony in 2007.
