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Padma Parvati Lakshmi was born on September 1, 1970 in Chennai, India, is an Indian American cookbook author, actress, and model. Lakshmi is the only child of a Pfizer executive and his first wife, Vijaya a nurse who currently specializes in suicide prevention.

She has been the host of the US reality television program Top Chef since season two. In 2010 she was nominated for an Emmy Award and won for hosting Top Chef along with Tom Colicchio.

Padma Lakshmi’s parents divorced when she was 2 years old. Her mother moved to the United States to escape the stigma of divorce in India. Lakshmi lived with her maternal grandparents in Chennai for two years before joining her mother in America. Both of her parents later remarried, and she has a younger half-brother and half-sister on her father’s side. Lakshmi, who shares her last name with the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, grew up first in New York and then in Los Angeles with her mother and stepfather.

When she was 14 years old, a car crash changed her life. Lakshmi had recently recovered from an illness, and “my mother, who is very religious, took me to temple so we could thank God for making me better,” she later recalled. The family was returning from the temple when the car skidded off the road and smashed into a tree, causing an injury to her right arm that required surgery, which left a 7-inch scar between her elbow and shoulder. The incident happened on a Sunday afternoon as Lakshmi was being driven home from a Hindu temple in Malibu. She remembers a flash of orange, looking over to see the large car upon her. She described the event in the April 2001 edition of Vogue, saying, “Being in a car crash was like an exhilarating hallucination, an unbelievable moment that oddly remains one of the most beautiful images in my memory.” The car left Lakshmi with injuries that included a fractured right hip and a shattered upper right arm.

Lakshmi went to Workman High School in the City of Industry, California. Lakshmi is a 1992 graduate of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, where she received a B.A. with honors in Theatre Arts. While studying abroad in Spain, Lakshmi was spotted by a modeling scout in a Madrid bar. She soon began traveling the world as a model for designers like Armani, Versace and Ralph Lauren.”I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York,” she said. Her studies and background prepared her well for an international career—in addition to English, Lakshmi speaks Spanish, Italian, Hindi and Tamil.

Lakshmi had a comical supporting role as the lip synching disco singer Sylk in the 2001 American movie Glitter with Mariah Carey. She starred with Amitabh Bachchan and Jackie Shroff in the 2003 Hindi action box office failure Boom as Shiela Bardez, one of a trio of super models accused of stealing diamonds. Lakshmi was last seen on screen as Geeta with Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott in Paul Mayeda Berges’ 2005 film The Mistress of Spices. She will be starring in Deepa Mehta’s upcoming film, Komagata Maru which was earlier titled Exclusion.

On April 17, 2004, in New York City, Lakshmi married the novelist Salman Rushdie, to whom she was introduced at a party in 1999 hosted by the journalist and editor Tina Brown. On July 2, 2007, the couple filed for divorce. On February 20, 2010, Lakshmi gave birth to a baby girl named Krishna Thea Lakshmi. According to The Times of India her daughter’s father is Adam Dell.

  

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Thomas Jacob “Jack” Black was born on August 28, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA, is an American actor, comedian, and musician. Black, the son of two satellite engineers, Judith, who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and Thomas William Black. Black’s mother is Jewish and his father converted to Judaism.

He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has two albums and a full-length film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally self-conscious outsiders in comedy films. He was a member of the Frat Pack, a group of comedians who have appeared together in several Hollywood films, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. He has also won an MTV Movie Award, and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award

On The Tonight Show, he said his surname may have come from the Scottish occupational name Blacksmith. Black’s parents divorced when he was 10; Black moved to Culver City with his father and frequently visited his mother’s home.

Black’s acting career began with prime time TV. He played roles on several shows such as: The Golden Palace (Taxi Driver), Life Goes On (skinhead), Northern Exposure (Kevin Wilkins, prom king), HBO’s Mr. Show, and Picket Fences (Curtis Williams). In a season 3 episode of The X-Files, titled “D.P.O.”, Black played Bart ‘Zero’ Liquori, friend to Darren, a teen who could cause lightning strikes, played by Giovanni Ribisi. Black appeared in an un-aired pilot episode for a show directed by Ben Stiller called Heat Vision and Jack where he played an ex-astronaut pursued by actor Ron Silver. He was accompanied by his friend who had merged with a motorcycle, voiced by Owen Wilson.

In January 2006, Black became engaged to Tanya Haden. She is the daughter of the jazz double bassist Charlie Haden, and sister of violinist and singer Petra Haden. Haden herself is an accomplished cellist. Both attended Crossroads school and met again 15 years after graduating, at a friend’s birthday party. Black proposed marriage around Christmas 2005. They married on March 14, 2006, in Big Sur, California. Their son, Samuel “Sammy” Jason Black, was born on June 10, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. On May 23, 2008, Black and his wife had their second son, Thomas David Black.

  

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Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908 in Stonewall, Texas, United States & died on January 22, 1973 in Stonewall, Texas, United States, often referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963. He is one of four Presidents – along with John Tyler, Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon – who served in all four elected Federal offices of the United States: Congressman, Senator, Vice President and President.

Born in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two boys: Johnson and his brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and sisters Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia. The nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas was named after Johnson’s father’s cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Georgia. The Johnsons were originally of Scots-Irish and English royal ancestry. In school, Johnson was an awkward, talkative youth and was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924 having participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball.

Johnson, a Democrat, served as a United States Representative from Texas, from 1937–1949 and as United States Senator from 1949–1961, including six years as United States Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader and two as Senate Majority Whip. After campaigning unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1960, Johnson was asked by John F. Kennedy to be his running mate for the 1960 presidential election.

Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor of Karnack, Texas on November 17, 1934 after having attended Georgetown University Law Center for several months. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird, born in 1944, and Luci Baines, born in 1947. Johnson enjoyed giving people and animals his own initials; his daughters’ given names are examples, as was his dog, Little Beagle Johnson.

Lyndon Baines Johnson died at his ranch at 3:39 p.m CST (4:39 p.m. EST) on January 22, 1973 at age 64, from a third heart attack. His death came the day before a ceasefire was signed in Vietnam and almost a month after another former president Harry S. Truman died. His health had been affected by years of heavy smoking, poor dietary habits and stress; the former president had severe heart disease. He had his first, nearly fatal, heart attack in July 1955 and suffered a second one in April 1972, but had been unable to quit smoking after he left the oval office in 1969. He was found dead by Secret Service agents, in his bed, with a telephone in his hand.

  

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Branford Marsalis was born on August 26, 1960 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. His brothers Jason Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis, and father Ellis Marsalis, Jr. are also jazz musicians.

While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.

In the summer of 1980, while still a Berklee College of Music student, Marsalis toured Europe playing alto and baritone saxophone in a large ensemble led by drummer Art Blakey. In 1985 he joined Sting, singer and bassist of pop band The Police, on his first solo project, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, alongside notable jazz and session musicians Omar Hakim on drums, Darryl Jones on the bass and Kenny Kirkland on keyboards. He became a regular in Sting’s line-up both in the studio and live up until the release of Brand New Day in 1999.

Marsalis was nominated for and won a 2010 Drama Desk Award in the category “Outstanding Music in a Play” and was also nominated for a 2010 Tony Award in the category of “Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre” for his participation in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “Fences.”

Marsalis, with his father and brothers, are group recipients of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.

  

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Anil Agarwal was born in 1954, Patna, Bihar, India, is an Indian metals, mining magnate and the founder and chairman of the UK-based Vedanta Resources Corporation. Mr Agarwal, who founded the Group in 1976, is also Chairman of Sterlite and is a Director of BALCO, HZL, and Vedanta Alumina Ltd. Since 1976 the Group has grown under his leadership, vision and strategy. Mr Agarwal has over 30 years experience as an industrialist.

His father was a small-businessman. His father was into making aluminium conductors. Mr. Agarwal, was a matriculate from Miller High School, Patna. Lalu Prasad Yadav was his classmate and he also claims to be his great fan.Anil began his business as a metal scrap dealer in mumbai.

Vedanta Resources is a diversified metals and mining company with revenues in excess of USD 8 billion. It is the first Indian manufacturing company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Agarwal’s personal wealth is US$6.4 billion as of 2010.

Having ranked eighth in 2003, as of November 2006, he was the eleventh-richest Indian, with a personal fortune of US$4.5 billion. As of 6 October 2007, Agarwal’s net worth was estimated at $12.7 billion, making him the 6th richest Indian. As of 11th March 2010, his net worth is estimated at $ 6.4 billion. As of 20th August 2010, his reported net worth was $69.5 Billion due to acquisition of Indian operations of Cairn Energy.

  

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Kobe Bean Bryant was born on August 23, 1978 in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was born as the youngest of three children and the only son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe “Jellybean” Bryant and Pamela Cox Bryant.

Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school basketball player in the country. He decided to declare his eligibility for the NBA Draft upon graduation, and was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest.

Bryant and then-teammate Shaquille O’Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. After O’Neal’s departure following the 2003–04 season, Bryant became the cornerstone of the Lakers franchise. He led the NBA in scoring during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons, setting numerous scoring records in the process. In 2006, Bryant scored a career high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point performance. In the 2007–08 season, he was awarded the regular season’s Most Valuable Player Award (MVP).

In 2003, Bryant was accused of sexual assault at a hotel in Edwards, Colorado, by a hotel employee. Bryant admitted an adulterous sexual encounter with the accuser, but denied the sexual assault allegation. In September 2004, prosecutors dropped the case after his accuser informed them that she was unwilling to testify.

In November 1999, 21-year-old Bryant met 17-year-old Vanessa Laine while she was working as a background dancer on the Tha Eastsidaz music video “G’d Up”. Bryant was in the building working on his debut musical album, which was never released. The two began dating and became engaged just six months later in May 2000.

They married on April 18, 2001, in Dana Point, California. Neither Bryant’s parents, his two sisters, longtime advisor and agent Arn Tellem, nor Bryant’s Laker teammates attended. Bryant’s parents were opposed to the marriage for a number of reasons. Reportedly Bryant’s parents had problems with him marrying so young, especially to a woman who was not African-American. This disagreement resulted in an estrangement period of over two years, which ended when Bryant had his first daughter.

The Bryants’ first child, a daughter named Natalia Diamante Bryant, was born on January 19, 2003. The birth of Natalia influenced Bryant to reconcile his differences with his parents. Vanessa Bryant suffered a miscarriage due to an ectopic pregnancy in the spring of 2005. Their second daughter, Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant, was born on May 1, 2006. Gianna was born six minutes ahead of former teammate Shaquille O’Neal’s daughter Me’arah Sanaa, who was born in Florida. In an early 2007 interview, it was revealed that Bryant still speaks Italian fluently.

Bryant assigned himself the nickname of “Black Mamba”, citing a desire for his basketball skills to mimic the snake of that name’s ability to “strike with 99% accuracy at maximum speed, in rapid succession.”

  

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John Lee Hooker was born on August 22, 1917 in Coahoma County, Mississippi, U.S. & died on June 21, 2001 in Los Altos, California, U.S., was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. The youngest of the eleven children of William Hooker, a sharecropper and Baptist preacher, and Minnie Ramsey.

Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a ‘talking blues’ style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include “Boogie Chillen” (1948) and “Boom Boom” (1962).

Hooker’s life experiences were chronicled by several scholars and often read like a classic case study in the racism of the music industry, although he eventually rose to prominence with memorable songs and influence on a generation of musicians.

  

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Kim Victoria Cattrall was born on 21 August 1956 in Liverpool, England, is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress. Her mother, Shane, was a secretary, and her father, Dennis, a construction engineer. She was raised Catholic.

She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, and Mannequin.

When she was three months old, her family emigrated to the Canadian city of Courtenay, British Columbia. At 11, she returned to England when her grandmother became ill, and she took a number of acting examinations with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), before returning to Canada at age 16 to finish her final year of secondary school.

Cattrall has been married three times. Her 1977 to 1979 marriage to Larry Davis was annulled. Her second marriage was from 1982 to 1989 to Andre J. Lyson; with him, she lived in Frankfurt and learned to speak German fluently, but admits she has forgotten a lot over the years.

From 1998 to 2004, she was married to audio designer Mark Levinson. The two co-wrote the 2002 book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm. Cattrall has also been linked with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, actor Daniel Benzali, musician Gerald Casale of the New Wave group Devo, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and her Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig. She currently resides in New York City and in an East Hampton, New York waterfront home.

Already a British and Canadian citizen, Kim Cattrall became a U.S. citizen in 2008. In 2010, Cattrall was named an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in recognition of her contributions to to the dramatic arts.

  

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Frederic Ogden Nash was born on August 19, 1902 in Rye, New York & died on May 19, 1971 in Baltimore, Maryland, was an American poet well known for his light verse. His father owned and operated an import-export company, and because of business obligations, the family relocated often.

Graduated from St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, Nash entered Harvard University in 1920, only to drop out a year later. He returned to St. George’s to teach for a year and left to work his way through a series of other jobs, eventually landing a position as an editor at Doubleday publishing house, where he first began to write poetry.

Nash moved to Baltimore, Maryland, three years after marrying Frances Leonard, a Baltimore native. He lived in Baltimore from 1934 and most of his life until his death in 1971. Nash thought of Baltimore as home. After his return from a brief move to New York, he wrote “I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more.”

When Nash wasn’t writing poems, he made guest appearances on comedy and radio shows and toured the United States and England, giving lectures at colleges and universities.

Nash was regarded respectfully by the literary establishment, and his poems were frequently anthologized even in serious collections such as Selden Rodman’s 1946 A New Anthology of Modern Poetry.

Nash was the lyricist for the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus, collaborating with librettist S. J. Perelman and composer Kurt Weill. The show included the notable song “Speak Low”. He also wrote the lyrics for the 1952 revue Two’s Company.

Nash died of Crohn’s disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on May 19, 1971. He is interred in North Hampton, New Hampshire’s East Side Cemetery. His daughter Isabel was married to noted photographer Fred Eberstadt, and his granddaughter, Fernanda Eberstadt, is an acclaimed author.

  

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Linda Edwards McMahon was born on October 4, 1948 in New Bern, a city in Eastern North Carolina, is an American businesswoman and politician. She is currently the Republican nominee in the 2010 race for U.S. Senator from Connecticut.

In September 2009, McMahon stepped down from her position as CEO to launch a self-financed Senate campaign, on which she has stated a willingness to spend $50 million. She is campaigning on promises of fiscal conservatism, lower taxes, and job creation.

With her husband Vince McMahon, she operated World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from its establishment in 1980 until 2009. She was involved in management of the company.

She was an only child and grew up as a “jock”, with interests in basketball and baseball. Her parents were both employees at the nearby Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, a military base. She was raised in a traditional, conservative family and attended Catholic mass regularly. During one mass, Edwards, at the age of 13, happened to meet Vince McMahon, then 16. Coincidentally, her mother worked in the same building as McMahon’s mother, although neither had met before.

Edwards and Vince dated throughout their high school years. She attended Havelock High School and Vince attended nearby Fishburne Military School, Vince two years her senior.

Linda and Vince founded Titan Sports, Inc. in 1980. Many workers in the company referred to her as the “co-chief executive”. As the President and CEO of the company, Linda personally signed and executed wrestler contracts. She was particularly involved in protecting intellectual property rights the company held over wrestlers’ gimmicks.

  

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Patricia Neal was born on January 20, 1926 in Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky and died on August 8, 2010 in Edgartown, Massachusetts, was an American actress of stage and screen.

She born to William Burdette and Eura Petrey Neal. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended Knoxville High School, and studied drama at Northwestern University.

After moving to New York, she accepted her first job as understudy in the Broadway production of The Voice of the Turtle. Next she appeared in Another Part of the Forest (1946), winning a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play, in the first presentation of the Tony awards.

In 1963, Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud, co-starring with Paul Newman. When the film was initially released it was predicted she would be a nominee in the supporting actress category but she began collecting awards and they were always for Best Leading Actress from the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review and a BAFTA award from the British Academy.

In April 2009, Neal received a lifetime achievement award from WorldFest Houston on the occasion of the debut of her film, Flying By. Neal was a long-term actress with Philip Langner’s Theatre at Sea/Sail With the Stars productions with the Theatre Guild.

During the filming of The Fountainhead (1949), Neal had an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46. The affair ended, but not before Cooper’s daughter, Maria, spat at Neal in public. Years after Cooper’s death, Maria and her mother Veronica reconciled with Neal.

Neal met British writer Roald Dahl at a dinner party hosted by Lillian Hellman in 1951. They married on July 2, 1953, at Trinity Church in New York. In 1961 and 1962, the couple suffered through grievous injury to one child and the death of another. Their son Theo’s carriage was hit by a taxi when he was just four months old, and their daughter, Olivia, died from measles encephalitis. The marriage produced five children: Olivia Twenty, Chantal Tessa Sophia, Theo Matthew, Ophelia Magdalena and Lucy Neal.

While pregnant in 1965, Neal suffered three-burst cerebral aneurysms, and was in a coma for three weeks. Dahl directed her rehabilitation and she subsequently relearned to walk and talk (“I think I’m just stubborn, that’s all”). On August 4, 1965, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy.

Neal and Dahl’s 30-year marriage ended in divorce in 1983 after Dahl’s affair with Neal’s friend, Felicity Crosland.

Neal’s autobiography, As I Am, was published in 1988. In 1981, Glenda Jackson played her in a television movie, The Patricia Neal Story which co-starred Dirk Bogarde as Neal’s husband Roald Dahl.

Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, August 8, 2010, of lung cancer.

  

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Roseann “Rosie” O’Donnell was born on March 21, 1962 in Bayside, Queens, New Yor, is an American stand-up comedian, actress, singer, author and media personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations.

She is the daughter of Roseann Teresa, a homemaker, and Edward Joseph O’Donnell, an electrical engineer. Four days before her 11th birthday, on March 17, 1973, O’Donnell’s mother died of breast cancer.

O’Donnell started her comedy career while still a teenager and her big break was on the talent show Star Search when she was twenty years old. A TV sitcom and a series of movies introduced her to a larger national audience and in 1996 she started hosting The Rosie O’Donnell Show which won multiple Emmy awards.

During her years on The Rosie O’Donnell Show she wrote her first book, a memoir called Find Me and developed the nickname “Queen Of Nice” as well as a reputation for philanthropic efforts. She used the book’s $3 million advance to establish her own For All Kids foundation and promoted other charity projects encouraging other celebrities on her show to also take part.

On February 26, 2004, O’Donnell married Kelli Carpenter, a former Nickelodeon marketing executive, in San Francisco two weeks after SF’s Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her decision to go to San Francisco to marry Carpenter was seen as a show of defiance against then-President George W. Bush over his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment.

O’Donnell and Carpenter are parents to adopted children Parker Jaren, Chelsea Belle, and Blake Christopher. Their fourth child, Vivienne Rose (who was conceived through artificial insemination), was born in 2002 to Carpenter.

Rosie and her family currently reside in Nyack, New York, a suburb of New York City that is located in Rockland County and in Miami’s Star Island. O’Donnell’s brother Daniel, who is also gay, represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan as a member of the New York State Assembly. O’Donnell and fellow actress Bridget Moynahan are 3rd cousins.

  

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Chelsea Victoria Clinton was born on February 27, 1980, in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, is the daughter and only child of the 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton and current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her name was inspired by her parents’ fondness for Judy Collins’s 1969 recording of the Joni Mitchell song “Chelsea Morning”.

Throughout her childhood, Clinton enjoyed volleyball, cards, ping pong and movies. She became a vegetarian. Clinton was twelve years old when she moved into the White House on January 20, 1993, the day of her father’s first inauguration. Her Secret Service codename was Energy.

She attended local schools in Little Rock, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. following her father’s election to the Presidency of the United States, Stanford University, University College, Oxford, and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history, and master’s degrees in international relations and in public health. She works for Avenue Capital Group, and serves on the board of the School of American Ballet.

In December 2007, she began campaigning in Iowa for her mother’s Democratic presidential nomination bid, and continued campaigning, mostly on college campuses. She introduced her mother at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

On July 31, 2010, Clinton wed Marc Mezvinsky in an interfaith ceremony led by Rabbi James Ponet and the Rev. William Shillady at Astor Courts in Rhinebeck, New York. Mezvinsky, who is Jewish, was born December 15, 1977 to former Iowa Democratic congressman Edward Mezvinsky and former Pennsylvania Democratic congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. He attended Stanford University, and is an investment banker at 3G Capital Management. Clinton and Mezvinsky met in 1993, debuted as a couple in 2005, and became engaged Thanksgiving weekend 2009.

  

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Sarah, Duchess of York was born as Sarah Margaret Ferguson on 15 October 1959 in Marylebone, London, England, is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She was married to Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, from 1986 to 1996.

The Duchess is the second daughter of Major Ronald Ferguson and Susan Barrantes, both now deceased. Her children, Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York, are respectively fifth and sixth in line of succession to the British Throne.

She is often popularly referred to as “Fergie”, a common nickname for people named Ferguson.

Sarah attended a senior boarding school that specialised in ballet. After finishing a course at Queen’s Secretarial College at the age of eighteen, Sarah went to work in a public relations firm in London. Later she worked for an art gallery, and then a publishing company. She says she lived simply, in a £30-a-week room in Clapham (Lavender Hill), and wondered how to pay her bills, but she did have a jet-setting social life, and took frequent ski trips to Switzerland. Her boyfriends included a racing car driver, Paddy McNally.

In August 2008, the Duchess was invited by Queen Elizabeth to spend a weekend with her at the Royal Family’s summer retreat, Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The invitation was a breakthrough in the long-chilly relationship between the Duchess and the Royal Family. The holiday weekend was intended to celebrate Princess Beatrice’s birthday.

  

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Bret Michaels was born on March 15, 1963 in Butler, Pennsylvania, is an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison. Besides his career as lead singer, he has several solo albums to his credit, as well as one chart single. He has also starred in the VH1 reality show Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and its sequels, and as a judge on the talent show Nashville Star. He was the winning contestant on NBC’s reality show Celebrity Apprentice 3.

He has two sisters, Michelle and Nicole. At the age of six he fell ill, and during a three-week stay in the hospital, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Michaels began playing the guitar as a teenager. With drummer Rikki Rockett, bass player Bobby Dall and guitarist Matt Smith, he formed the band Paris, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1983. After playing the Pennsylvania bar circuit, in early 1984 they moved to Los Angeles to seek fame on the Sunset Boulevard scene, eventually changing their name to Poison. That same year he met 16-year-old Tracy Lewis, who would become both his girlfriend, and the muse for one of his most memorable songs. Eventually Matt Smith tired of the band’s struggle to find fame, and returned home. He was replaced with C.C. DeVille, who would become both Michaels’ friend and a source of conflict.

n March 2010, Michaels released a new single called “Nothing to Lose” from his upcoming new studio album titled Custom Built, which is scheduled to be released on July 6, 2010. The song featured the guest vocals of Miley Cyrus. In April 2010, he released the second single “Lie to Me” and in May 2010 released the third single, “Wasted Time”.

Michaels was involved with Pamela Anderson. An abridged version of an explicit sex tape the couple made appeared on the Internet in 1998 and was released on DVD on September 7, 2005, by Metro Studios.

Michaels has two daughters with Kristi Lynn Gibson. Raine Elizabeth Sychak was born in May 2000, and Jorja Bleu Sychak was born in May 2005. They live in Scottsdale, Arizona. Michaels’ fear that Raine was “borderline diabetic” was a recurring element during Michaels’ tenure on The Celebrity Apprentice 3, on which he appeared to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. Raine herself appeared on the season finale of that program on May 23, 2010, when her father won that season.

  

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Anna Wintour was born on November 3, 1949 in London, England, is a British fashion editor and the editor-in-chief of American Vogue. She holding this position since 1988. Her father, Charles Wintour, the son of Major-General Fitzgerald Wintour was an editor of the Evening Standard; her mother was his first wife, Eleanor Trego Baker, daughter of a Harvard law professor, whom he married in 1940 and divorced in 1979.

Like one of her predecessors, Diana Vreeland, she has become a fashion icon. Her pageboy bob haircut and frequently-worn sunglasses have become a common sight in the front row of many fashion shows. Away from the cameras, she has become as much an institution in the fashion world as her magazine.

She became interested in fashion as a teenager. Her father often consulted with her on how to make the newspaper’s coverage relevant to the youth of mid-1960s London. After dropping out of school at 16, she began a career in fashion journalism. Her career took her across the Atlantic, with stints at New York and House & Garden. She returned home for a year to turn around British Vogue, and later assumed control of the franchise’s magazine in New York. She revived a stagnant publication, earning her wide acclaim in the industry.

Wintour has three living siblings: James Charles, the managing director of Gravesham Borough Council; Nora Hilary Wintour, the deputy general secretary of Public Services International in Geneva, Switzerland; and Patrick Wintour, who started as labour correspondent at The Guardian in 1983 and rose to become the political editor first for the The Observer, and then, in 2006, The Guardian. Her eldest brother, Gerald Jackson Wintour, died as a child in 1951 when he was struck by a car while cycling to school.

She has two children by Shaffer: Charles and Katherine; the latter wrote occasional columns for The Daily Telegraph in 2006. The couple divorced in 1999; newspapers and gossip columnists speculated that it was an affair with millionaire investor Shelby Bryan that ended the marriage, an allegation she has refused to comment on. She maintains an ongoing relationship with Bryan that friends say has mellowed her. “She smiles now and has been seen to laugh,” the Observer quoted one as saying.

  

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Kirsten Louise “Kirstie” Alley was born on Kirsten Louise Deal on January 12, 1951 Wichita, Kansas, is an American actress known for her role in the TV show Cheers, in which she played Rebecca Howe from 1987–1993, winning an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1991. She is also known for her role in the Look Who’s Talking film series as Mollie Ubriacco.

The daughter of Lillian Mickie, a homemaker, and Robert Deal, who owned a lumber company. She has two siblings, Colette and Craig. In 1981, a car accident caused by a drunk driver killed her mother and left her father seriously injured. Alley attended Wichita Southeast High School and became a cheerleader, graduating in 1969.

She married Bob Alley in 1970. They divorced in 1977. Alley was married to her second husband, Parker Stevenson from December 22, 1983, until 1997. During their marriage, the couple adopted two children — William True and Lillie Price.

Alley was raised Methodist but is now a member of the Church of Scientology. At the time she became a Scientologist, Alley admitted to having had a cocaine addiction, from which she credits the program, Narconon, in helping her recover. She has since served as the national spokesperson for Narconon. She has continued her Scientology training and, as of 2007, had attained the level of OT VII.

In May 2000, she purchased, for $1.5 million, the former home of fellow Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley, a 5,200 sq ft (480 m2). waterfront mansion in Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology. In 2007 Alley gave $5,000,000 to the Church of Scientology.

  

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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE was born on 18 June 1942 in Liverpool England, is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, poet, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. His mother, Mary, had worked as a nurse in the maternity ward . He has one brother, Michael. McCartney was baptised Roman Catholic but was raised non-denominationally: his mother was Roman Catholic and his father James, or “Jim” McCartney, was a Protestant turned agnostic.

In 1947 he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary school. He then attended the Joseph Williams Junior School and passed the 11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of the 90 examinees, thus gaining admission to the Liverpool Institute. In 1954 while taking the bus from his home in the suburb of Speke to the Institute, he met George Harrison, who lived nearby. Passing the exam meant that McCartney and Harrison could go to a Grammar school rather than a secondary modern school, which the majority of pupils attended until they were eligible to work, but as Grammar school pupils they had to find new friends.

Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, according to Guinness World Records McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music. McCartney gained worldwide fame as a member of The Beatles, alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. McCartney and Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and wrote some of the most popular songs in the history of rock music. After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine. McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the “most successful musician and composer in popular music history”, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles in the UK.

BBC News named his song “Yesterday” the most covered song in history—by over 2,200 artists—and, according to the BBC has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. Wings’ 1977 single “Mull of Kintyre” became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK’s top selling non-charity single. Based on the 93 weeks his compositions have spent at the top spot of the UK chart, and 24 number one singles to his credit, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in UK singles chart history. As a performer or songwriter, McCartney was responsible for 32 number one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and has sold 15.5 million RIAA certified albums in the US alone.

McCartney has worked on film scores and classical and electronic music, released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist, and taken part in projects to help international charities. He is an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt. He is a keen football fan, supporting both Everton and Liverpool football clubs. His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease. McCartney is one of Britain’s wealthiest men, with an estimated fortune of £750 million ($1.2 billion) in 2009.

  

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Onika Maraj was born on December 8, 1984 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States, better known by her stage name Nicki Minaj, is an American rapper and singer. She is of mixed Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian descent. Maraj grew up in a troubled home, with a father on drugs and a struggling single mother. She graduated from LaGuardia High School in Manhattan where she studied singing and acting.

In August 2009, Minaj signed to Young Money Entertainment with distribution from Universal Motown, who will release her debut studio album in 2010. Nicki Minaj began her career in 2004 singing background vocals and hooks for local rappers. She was discovered on MySpace by Dirty Money CEO Fendi, who signed her to that label.

Minaj has cited various artists who have influenced her musical style. Among others, she has cited Lauryn Hill as a major musical influence. In an interview with VladTV.com, Minaj also mentioned Natasha Bedingfield as a musical favorite, and Jada Pinkett Smith as a major influence on her desire to be an actor.

In an interview with Vibe, Minaj was asked what kind of influence Lil’ Wayne has had on her career, to which she answered, “Wayne has always been my biggest influence… I always say that that’s what I learned from Wayne the most; he never stops grinding. It showed me, Yo, this dude is the truth, and I’m going to follow in his footsteps.”

  

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Erin Andrews was born on May 4, 1978 in Lewiston, Maine, is an American sportscaster. She currently works for ESPN as a sideline reporter at sporting events. Andrews has become an Internet sensation, as she is popular among male sports fans for her beauty. In 2007 and 2008, she was voted “America’s Sexiest Sportscaster” by Playboy magazine.

She born to Stephen Andrews and Paula Andrews. She moved to Tampa, Florida as a young girl when her father, a six-time Emmy Award-winner, began working as an investigative journalist for WFLA-TV. After attending Bloomingdale High School near Tampa, Andrews graduated in 2000 from the University of Florida with a degree in telecommunications. While there, she was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. Andrews was also a member of the Dazzlers, the Gator basketball dance team, from 1997–2000.

On July 16, 2009, a video posted on the site “NSFW POA” hinted that a naked blonde woman videotaped through a hotel peephole was a popular sports personality. Supposedly, the woman was curling her hair unclothed while doing squat-like moves in front of the mirror. The next day, Andrews authorized her attorney to issue a statement via PRNewswire verifying that she was the woman in the video, and that the video was made without her knowledge or consent. Legal counsel for Andrews and ESPN acted quickly to both remove the video from sites that had posted it and work with authorities in an attempt to locate and prosecute the perpetrators of the privacy invasion.. This incident was also heavily reported in the international media.

On September 11, 2009, Andrews appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show in what Andrews called her “first and last interview” about the situation. Andrews described the situation as a “nightmare”, and stated that at the time she discovered the video, she believed that her career would end.

In April 2010 it was revealed that Andrews had been receiving email death threats since September 2009. The FBI was notified and security around her was tightened.

  

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Fatima Bhutto was born on 29 May 1982 in Kabul, Afghanistan, is a Pakistani poet and writer. Fatima is the daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, granddaughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and niece of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Fatima belongs to a Sindhi family. Her father Murtaza Bhutto was in exile during the military regime of General Zia ul Haq. Murtaza Bhutto, was son of former Pakistan’s President and Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and her mother is Fauzia Fasihudin Bhutto, daughter of Afghanistan’s former Foreign Affair official. Her father was killed by the police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto. Her parents divorced when she was young and Ghinwa Bhutto became her stepmother in 1989. Years later, her mother unsuccessfully attempted to gain parental custody of Fatima.

Bhutto completed her BA degree in Middle Eastern studies from Barnard College of Columbia University, after receiving her secondary education at the Karachi American School. She received a Master’s degree in South Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London She lives with her stepmother Ghinwa Bhutto, and her half-brother Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr. They live at the famous residence 70 Clifton Road in Old Clifton, Karachi, “Karachi’s oldest and plushest suburb.”

She currently writes columns for The Daily Beast, New Statesman and other publications.

She came to fame after the appearance of her first book, a collection of poems, titled Whispers of the Desert. She received notable coverage for her second book, 8:50 a.m. 8 October 2005. She is active in Pakistan’s socio-political arena, but has no desire to run for political office.

  

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), was the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus.

He born to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Shelomova (1911–1998). His mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s.

He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move, and then Putin won the 2000 presidential election. In 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008.

Due to constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive Presidential term. After the victory of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in the 2008 presidential elections, he was then nominated by the latter to be Russia’s Prime Minister; Putin took the post on 8 May 2008.

Throughout his presidential terms and into his second term as Prime Minister, Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings from the Russian public. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing the rule of law. During his eight years in office, due to strong macroeconomic management, important fiscal policy reforms, and a confluence of high oil prices, surging capital inflows, and access to low-cost external financing, Russia’s economy bounced back from crisis.

On 28 July 1983 Putin married Kaliningrad-born Lyudmila Shkrebneva, at that time an undergraduate student of the Spanish branch of the Philology Department of the Leningrad State University and a former Aeroflot flight attendant. They have two daughters, Maria Putina and Yekaterina Putina. The daughters grew up in East Germany and attended the German School in Moscow until his appointment as Prime Minister. After that they studied international economics at the Finance Academy in Moscow, although it was not officially reported due to security reasons. Putin also owns a black Labrador Retriever named Koni, who has been known to accompany him into staff meetings and greeting world leaders.

  

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Simon Phillip Cowell was born on 7 October 1959 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, is an English music executive, television producer and entrepreneur. He is known in the United Kingdom and in the United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, and American Idol. He is also the owner of the television production and music publishing house Syco.

His father, Eric Philip Cowell, was an estate agent developer and music industry executive, and his mother, Julie Brett, is a former ballet dancer and socialite. Cowell’s paternal grandparents, Joseph Cowell and Esther Malinsky, were English Jews, and his maternal grandfather was Scottish. He has 1 brother and 2 half-brothers; younger brother Nicholas Cowell, half-brother Tony Cowell, and half-brother Michael Cowell. Michael is the oldest, followed by Tony, Simon and Nicholas respectively.

Cowell attended the independent school Dover College as did his brother, but left early before attending the sixth form[citation needed]. He took a few menial jobs—including, according to Tony, working as a runner on Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining but did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, until his father who was executive at the recording giant EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room.

Cowell is notorious as a judge for his blunt and often controversial criticisms, insults and wisecracks about contestants and their abilities. Cowell is known for combining activities in the television and music industries, having promoted singles and records for various artists, including television personalities. He was most recently featured on the sixth series of The X Factor, the third series of Britain’s Got Talent, and can currently be seen on the ninth season of American Idol.

In late 2002, Cowell started dating longtime friend Terri Seymour. In November 2008, TV Guide reported that Cowell and Seymour had broken up. In late 2002, Cowell started dating longtime friend Terri Seymour. In November 2008, TV Guide reported that Cowell and Seymour had broken up.

In May 2009 Cowell bought his $22 million, 11,550 sq ft Beverly Hills home. Cowell is currently in a relationship with make up artist Mezhgan Hussainy and says he believes she’s “the one”. He admits in an interview that he is ready to settle down and have “little Simons” around. They became engaged after he proposed on Valentine’s Day 2010. Terri Seymour said she gives the relationship her blessing.

  

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Stephenie Meyer was born on December 24, 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut, is an American author best known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition, won multiple literary awards and sold over 100 million copies worldwide, with translations into nearly 37 different languages. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.

She born to Stephen and Candy Morgan. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, with five siblings: Seth, Emily, Jacob, Paul, and Heidi. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. She then attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she received a B.A. in English in 1997. Meyer met her husband Christian, nicknamed “Pancho”, when she was growing up in Arizona, and married him in 1994 when they both were 21. Together they have three sons: Gabe, Seth, and Eli. Christian Meyer, formerly an auditor, has now retired to take care of the children.

Meyer was named USA Today’s “Author of the Year” in 2008. She was also the biggest selling author of the year, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 alone, with Twilight being the best-selling book of the year. Meyer was ranked #49 on Time magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in 2008″, and was also included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world’s most powerful celebrities in 2009, entering at #26 with annual earnings exceeding $50 million.

Meyer currently lives in Cave Creek, Arizona, and also owns a home on Marrowstone Island, Washington.

Meyer is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has stated that she is “straitlaced” about her beliefs, and does not drink alcohol or smoke. Meyer had never written even a short story before Twilight, and had considered going to law school because she felt she had no chance of becoming a writer; she later noted that the birth of her oldest son Gabe changed her mind, saying, “Once I had Gabe, I just wanted to be his mom.” Before becoming an author, Meyer’s only professional work was as a receptionist in a property company.

  

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Yunjin Kim was born on November 7, 1973 in Seoul, South Korea, is a Korean American film and theater actress. Although she is best known in the English-speaking world for her role as Sun-Hwa Kwon on the American television series, Lost, Kim has also appeared in numerous film and TV projects in South Korea.

At the age of ten, Kim immigrated to the United States with her family. They lived in Staten Island, New York. She joined the middle school drama club in the 7th grade and performed in the musical My Fair Lady.

Kim attended high school at the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a public high school located in Manhattan. From there, she went on to study drama at the London Academy of Performing Arts and later earned her drama degree at Boston University. She is a trained dancer and martial arts fighter.

After graduation, Kim devoted herself full time to acting. She garnered several minor parts on MTV, in soap opera-style dramas on ABC, and on the off-Broadway stage. In 1996, a South Korean TV show filming in Manhattan called and persuaded her to return to her country of origin, to appear in the South Korean TV drama A Gorgeous Vacation.

Over the next several years, she starred in five additional films. In July 2003, Kim signed a three-year contract with William Morris, an American agency representing Hollywood stars such as Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Kevin Spacey, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, and Reese Witherspoon.

In May 2006, Maxim named Kim #98 on its annual List. In October 2006 she was featured on the cover of Stuff, as well as a spread inside the magazine.

Kim appeared in Maxim again in March 2007, where she was described as “the Korean Julia Roberts” in her native Korea.

Kim won the 2008 Daejong Award’s Lead Actress Award for “Seven Days (2007)” on June 27, 2008, in South Korea.

She also appeared in S.G. Wannabe’s music video, “Timeless” opposite Kim Nam Jin.

  

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Mayim Hoya Bialik was born on December 12, 1975 in San Diego, California, is an American actress. The daughter of Barbara, a nursery school director, and John Bialik, a high school drama teacher. Her grandparents emigrated in the late 1930s from Poland and Czechoslovakia/Hungary. Bialik was raised in Reform Judaism. She is best known for her lead role as Blossom Russo in the early-1990s NBC sitcom Blossom.

Bialik started her career as a child actress in the late 1980s. Her early roles included the horror film Pumpkinhead, her first acting job; and guest appearances on The Facts of Life and Beauty and the Beast. In 1988, she appeared in Beaches (1988), playing Bette Midler’s character as a young girl. She was also featured in the video clip of Liberian Girl by Michael Jackson.

Her greatest success to date came in 1991 when Blossom joined NBC’s Monday night lineup following The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Both shows enjoyed popularity, especially among younger viewers, for the first couple of years of their respective runs. Blossom aired until 1995.

Between 1995 and 2005, Bialik mostly did voice work for cartoons, such as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Recess.

She married Michael Stone on August 31, 2003, in a Victorian themed ceremony with traditional Jewish customs. They have two sons together; Miles Roosevelt Bialik Stone was born on October 10, 2005, and Frederick Heschel Bialik Stone was born August 15, 2008. She is a celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network.

She was featured in TLC’s What Not to Wear in an episode which aired May 29, 2009.

  

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Theodore Ernest “Ernie” Els was born on 17 October 1969 Johannesburg, South Africa, is a professional golfer who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as “The Big Easy” due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing. Among his numerous victories are three major championships: the U.S. Open in 1994 at the Oakmont Country Club and 1997 at the Congressional Country Club, and the The Open Championship in 2002 at Muirfield.

Other highlights in Els’ career include topping the 2003 and 2004 European Tour Order of Merit (money list), and winning the World Match Play Championship a record seven times. He has held the number one spot in the Official World Golf Rankings and holds the record for weeks ranked in the top ten with over 750.

Growing up just east of Johannesburg in Kempton Park, South Africa, he played rugby union, cricket, tennis, and, starting at age 8, golf. He was a skilled junior tennis player and won the Eastern Transvaal Junior Championships at age 13. Els learned the game of golf at the Kempton Park Country Club where he started carrying for his father, Neels. He was soon playing better than his father (and his older brother, Dirk), and by the age of 14 he was a scratch handicap. It was around this time that he decided to focus exclusively on golf.

Els first achieved prominence in 1984, when he won the Junior World Golf Championship in the Boys 13-14 category. Phil Mickelson was second to Els that year. Els won the South African Amateur Championship a few months after his 17th birthday, becoming the youngest-ever winner of that event, breaking the record which had been held by Gary Player.

Els married his wife Liezl in 1998 in Cape Town and they have two children, Samantha and Ben. In 2008 after Els started to display an “Autism Speaks” logo on his golf bag it was announced that their five year old son was autistic. Their main residence is at the Wentworth Estate near Wentworth Golf Club in the south of England. The family also has a home in Jupiter, Florida in order to get better treatment or Ben’s autism.

  

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Michelle Sung Wie was born on October 11, 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii, is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. In 2006, she was named in a Time magazine article: “one of 100 people who shape our world.”

At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for USGA amateur championship. Wie would also become the youngest winner of the US Women’s Amateur public links and the youngest to qualify for a LPGA tour event. Wie turned professional with an enormous amount of hype and endorsements.

Her parents are both natives of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) who came to the United States in the 1980s. Her father, Byung-wook Wie, is a former professor of transportation management at the University of Hawaii. Her mother was South Korea’s women’s amateur golf champion in 1985 Her paternal grandfather, a native of Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, was an emeritus professor at Seoul National University. When she was born, both her parents had still Korean citizenship, so Wie had been a dual citizen of both the Republic of Korea and the United States automatically. But the Republic of Korea doesn’t allow dual citizenship after the age of 21, Wie abandoned her Korean nationality.

Wie graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii in June 2007. On December 19, 2006, she announced that she would be attending Stanford University where there are family ties, as her paternal grandfather was a visiting professor and an aunt and uncle are both graduates. She enrolled in September 2007 as a freshman but as a professional golfer, Wie is not eligible under NCAA rules to play for Stanford’s golf team. During her first two years at Stanford she attended only during the fall and winter quarters, taking a leave of absence to play professional golf during the spring and summer quarters.

  

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Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March 1970 in Westminster, London, England, is an English actress and model. She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn “Evy” Carnahan-O’Connell in the films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.

She grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her mother, Edith Ruth, is a teacher turned psychotherapist who was born in Vienna, Austria. Her father, George Weisz, is a Hungarian-born inventor and engineer. Weisz’s parents fled to England during World War II. Her father is Jewish and her mother has been referred to as either Catholic or Jewish. Weisz was raised in a “cerebral Jewish household” and refers to herself as Jewish. Weisz has a sister, Minnie Weisz, who is an artist.

In 2001, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the hit About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in Hollywood productions. Her performance in The Constant Gardener (2005) won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with other major motion picture awards.

Weisz was educated privately at prestigious independent schools for girls: North London Collegiate School, Benenden School, and St Paul’s Girls’ School. She then entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated. During her university years she appeared in various student productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues, which went on to win a Guardian Student Drama Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for an improvised piece called Slight Possession.

Having already worked for television productions, with parts in such major UK television series as Inspector Morse (1993), Weisz started her cinema career in 1995 with Chain Reaction and then appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty.

Weisz is engaged to American filmmaker and producer Darren Aronofsky. They have been dating since 2002. They have a son, Henry Chance, born on 31 May 2006 in New York City. The couple reside in the East Village in Manhattan. Weisz also serves as a muse to fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez.

In January 2010 at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards in London she was named Best Actress 2009 for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the Donmar revival of A Streetcar Named Desire; she won the coveted 2010 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the same role.

  

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Demetria Devonne “Demi” Lovato was born on August 20, 1992 in Dallas, Texas, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is best known for her roles as Mitchie Torres in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Camp Rock and its upcoming sequel, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, and as Sonny Munroe in Sonny With a Chance.

She born to Patrick Lovato and Dianna Bonheur Hart De La Garza. She has an older sister, Dallas, and a younger half sister, Madison De La Garza. Her mother was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and country recording artist; her father moved to New Mexico after their marriage ended in 1994. Lovato is of Mexican, Italian, and Irish ancestry.

Lovato began her acting career at the age of seven on the children’s television series Barney & Friends as Angela, appearing in seasons seven and eight alongside long time friend Selena Gomez. As a solo musical artist, Lovato released her debut album Don’t Forget on September 23, 2008.

In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Lovato admitted to going through painful experiences with bullying in the seventh grade. According to Lovato, the bullying was so bad that one day, in a fit of frustration and distress, she requested her mom give her a home-schooled education. She wrote the song “For the Love of a Daughter” about her estranged father.

Lovato is a Christian and prays with her band before they perform. Her best friend is Selena Gomez, whom she has known since Lovato “asked her to sit on my jacket and draw with crayons with me” at the Barney & Friends auditions. She briefly dated Metro Station singer Trace Cyrus; the two ended their relationship in July 2009 due to conflicting schedules, according to Cyrus. On March 12, 2010, Lovato confirmed that she had begun dating Joe Jonas, whom she first met while filming Camp Rock in 2007.

  

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Jonathan Daniel “Jon” Hamm was born on March 10, 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri, is an American actor whose work has been primarily in television roles. For much of the mid-1990s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor. He appeared in multiple television series roles, including Providence, The Division, What About Brian, and Related. In 2000 he made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood’s space adventure Space Cowboys. The following year, Hamm appeared in the independent comedy Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) in a supporting role.

Hamm gained worldwide recognition for playing advertising executive Don Draper in AMC’s drama series Mad Men, which premiered in July 2007. His performance earned him a Golden Globe Award in the category for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2008. Aside from appearing in Mad Men, he was featured in the 2008 science fiction remake The Day the Earth Stood Still and had his first leading role in the independent thriller Stolen (2010).

He was born to Deborah and Daniel “Dan” Hamm. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he lived with his mother in Creve Coeur, Missouri, until she was diagnosed with advanced cancer when he was 10. Although doctors removed two-thirds of her colon, she died soon after and Hamm moved in with his father, but after a few years his father fell ill and died when Hamm was 20. He said that teachers and friends’ parents filled in as parental figures.

Hamm moved to Los Angeles in 1996 and struggled as an unemployed actor. He was represented by the Hollywood talent agency William Morris. Hamm settled into a house with four other struggling actors, received work as a waiter and started going to auditions. In 1998 William Morris dropped him as a client and Hamm continued working as a waiter.

Since 1997, Hamm has been in a long-term relationship with actress and screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt. They own homes in Los Angeles and the Upper West Side in New York.

Internationally viewed as a sex symbol, Hamm was named one of Salon.com’s Sexiest Man Living in 2007, and was named one of People magazines Sexiest Men Alive in 2008. In November 2008, Entertainment Weekly named him one of their Entertainers of the Year. Hamm is an avid golfer and tennis player. He is an avid fan of the National Hockey League (NHL) team, the St. Louis Blues, even appearing in two television spots advertising for the team. He is also a fan of the Major League Baseball (MLB) team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

In March 2010, it was reported by The New York Times that Hamm was hired by Mercedes-Benz as their new voice over for their campaign with the S400 Hybrid vehicle. Hamm replaces actor Richard Thomas.

  

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Emeril John Lagasse was born on October 15, 1959 in the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as “Kick it up a notch!” and “BAM!”.

He is a 1978 graduate of Johnson & Wales University’s College of Culinary Arts. The “Emeril Empire” of media, products and restaurants generates an estimated US$150 million annually in revenue.

He was raised by his French-Canadian father, Emeril Jr., and his Portuguese mother, Hilda. While working at a local Portuguese bakery, the teenaged Lagasse developed a penchant for cooking. In 1973, he enrolled in the culinary arts program at Diman Vocational High School. Also a talented percussionist, Lagasse led the high school drum squad, playing at dances, banquets, and numerous local religious festivals.

Lagasse initially gained fame in the culinary world as executive chef of Commander’s Palace. After leaving Commander’s he opened his first restaurant, Emeril’s, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1990. It was designated “Restaurant of the Year” in Esquire magazine of that year. Lagasse is mainly known for his emphasis on Creole and Cajun cooking styles. Indeed, many of his restaurants, as well as his corporate office, Emeril’s Homebase, are located in New Orleans. Lagasse is the executive chef and proprietor of ten restaurants.

Lagasse has a wide range of Emeril-branded products. On June 8, 2000, he signed a deal with B&G Foods to create a line of dry grocery products marketed under the label Emeril’s. The product line includes pasta sauces, marinades, salsas and Lagasses’ signature “Essence” spice blend. He followed this up in 2004 by lending his name to a line of fresh produce made by Pride of San Juan. The products, branded “Emeril’s Gourmet Produce” include spring mix salad blends, fresh herbs and heirloom tomatoes.

Lagasse also has two lines of kitchen knives produced by Wüsthof and cookware made by All-Clad as well as a line of kitchen electrical appliances made by T-Fal.

Recently he has appeared in Crest toothpaste commercials yelling his trademark catchphrase, “BAM!”™.

On February 19, 2008, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced it had acquired the rights to all Emeril products including cookware, cookbooks, television shows and food products in a $50 million agreement. Lagasse retains rights to his restaurants and corporate offices.

He also hosted a YouTube contest for Crest Whitening Expressions toothpaste called What’s Your Catch Phrase?

  

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Amanda Michelle Seyfried was born on December 3, 1985 in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States, is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was eleven and when she was fifteen she began her career as an actress; starting off with an uncredited role and going on to have a recurring role on a television series, which expanded into her having a successful television career.

In 2004, Seyfried made her film debut in Mean Girls playing a large role. She then went on to other films including Nine Lives (2005) and Alpha Dog (2007). In 2008, after landing a lead role on a popular television series (Big Love in 2006) Seyfried appeared as Sophie Sheridan in the musical feature film Mamma Mia!. Other recent notable appearance include a lead role in Jennifer’s Body in 2009, and one of the two lead roles in Dear John the following year. She currently has three films in production.

Seyfried’s mother, Ann, was an occupational therapist, and her father, Jack Seyfried, was a pharmacist. Seyfried has one older sister; Jennifer Seyfried, who is a musician in the Philadelphia organ-driven rock band “Love City”. Amanda graduated in 2003 from Allentown’s William Allen High School.

In 1995, Seyfried began her acting career at the age of eleven.

In 2006, Seyfried began a relationship with actor and musician Jesse Marchant; the relationship ended after two years in 2008. In 2008, Seyfried began dating her Mamma Mia! co-star, Dominic Cooper. In 2008, Seyfried was ranked #65 on the list of “The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World” and was also placed #5 in Moviefone’s “25 Under 25: Hollywood’s Hottest Young Stars”. The following year the British Glamour.com ranked Seyfried at the #17 spot as one of the “30 Hottest and Sexiest Stars Under 30″. In 2009, People Magazine ranked Seyfried #4 in the Most Beautiful 2009 – Beautiful at Every Age.

  

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Julianne Moore was born on December 3, 1960 at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, is an American actress. The daughter of the late Anne Love, a psychiatric social worker who emigrated from Greenock, Scotland, and Peter Moore Smith, a military lawyer, judge, helicopter pilot, and army colonel. She has a younger sister, Valerie, and younger brother, novelist Peter Moore Smith III. Growing up as an “army brat” she lived in several places across the United States and Germany.

Moore attended J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia and Frankfurt American High School in Frankfurt, Germany, graduating in 1979. She received her bachelor’s degree at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University.

She began her acting career in 1983 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the soap opera, As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. She began to appear in supporting roles in films during the early 1990s, achieving recognition in several independent films before her performance in Boogie Nights (1997) brought her widespread attention and nominations for several major acting awards.

Her success continued with films such as The End of the Affair (1999) and Magnolia (1999). She was acclaimed for her portrayal of a betrayed wife in Far from Heaven (2002), winning several critic awards as best actress of the year, in addition to several other nominations, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award. The same year she was also nominated for several awards as best supporting actress for her work in The Hours. In 2009, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for A Single Man.

Moore remains active in film making, with films scheduled for release in 2010, yet she has explained that she has curtailed her work in order to spend more time with her children.

Moore moved to New York City in 1983, working as a waitress and performing in bit parts before being cast in the dual roles of Frannie Hughes and Sabrina Hughes on the soap opera As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award; she played the roles from 1985 to 1988.

Moore is married to director Bart Freundlich whom she wed on August 23, 2003. The couple, who have been together since 1996, have two children: a son, Caleb, and a daughter, Liv Helen. Even though Moore has been a prolific actress for two decades, she is now focusing on raising her two children, from walking them to school to cooking dinner. In a Cookie interview, Moore says she picks roles in movies that film in the summer so her family can accompany her. “My husband and I are very fortunate, because we have flexible jobs,” Moore says. “If you talk to parents, that’s what they’re trying to do — have as much flexibility as possible.” She lives with her family in the West Village, in New York City.

She is a pro-choice activist and during the 2004 presidential election donated $2,000 to John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Since 2002 she has been involved with the TS Alliance[18] to raise awareness of tuberous sclerosis and is an Artist Ambassador for Save the Children’s programs in the United States.

  

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Hayden Leslie Panettiere was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, Rockland County, New York, is an American actress and singer. She came to professional prominence at the age of eleven with her portrayal of Sheryl Yoast in Disney’s Remember the Titans, although for half of her life immediately before that, Panettiere had held roles in two soap operas. She portrayed Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live from 1994-1997, and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1996-2000. Panettiere reached a wider audience with her starring role as Claire Bennet on the 2006 NBC television series Heroes.

The daughter of Lesley R. Vogel, a former soap opera actress, and Alan L. “Skip” Panettiere, a fire department lieutenant. Panettiere, whose surname means “baker” in Italian, is of Italian descent. She has one younger brother, fellow actor Jansen Panettiere.

Although Panettiere attended South Orangetown Middle School in New York, she was educated at home from the 8th grade through high school. For now, Panettiere is postponing higher education in favor of an acting career.

In 2006, Panettiere began dating Stephen Colletti, the former Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, star. The couple broke up in September 2007. In December 2007, it was widely reported that she was dating her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia, though Panettiere denied these reports in an interview with GQ. These reports continued through the early part of 2008, and several sources had reported that she asked Ventimiglia to move in with her. In April 2008, during an interview on the BBC’s The Chris Moyles Show to promote the second season of Heroes, Ventimiglia confirmed that he was dating Panettiere. They ended their relationship in February 2009.

In late 2009 she started dating professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko.

Hayden has a tattoo of the Italian words Vivere senza rimipianti running down the length of her left flank. The word rimpianti is misspelled in what otherwise would have meant “To Live Without Regrets.”

  

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Warren Harrison Sapp was born on December 19, 1972 in Orlando, Florida, is a retired American football player who played defensive tackle in the National Football League. He played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders during his 13 year professional career, and college football for the University of Miami Hurricanes. He was then drafted by the Buccaneers in the 1995 NFL Draft as the 12th overall pick. He spent nine seasons with the team where he earned seven trips to the Pro Bowl and a Super Bowl ring in 2002. He moved to the Raiders in 2004.

His 96.5 career sacks are the second-highest career total sacks for a defensive tackle and the 28th highest overall for a defensive lineman. His 77 sacks with the Buccaneers is second in the team’s history. During Sapp’s career, he has been the source of some controversy because of his hard-hitting style of play and his occasional verbal outbursts, both on the field and off. Some of these resulted in NFL fines, and he was once ejected from a game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Sapp came in 2nd place on Season 7 of Dancing With The Stars. He was paired with professional dancer Kym Johnson. He was one of the roasters in the Comedy Central Roast of Larry The Cable Guy.

During the late 1980s he was honoured as an outstanding football player at Apopka High School in Apopka, Florida as a linebacker, tight end and punter. While playing football for Apopka High School, Sapp delivered a hit on baseball player Johnny Damon, a player from Dr. Phillips High school.

In 2007, Sapp was named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team which selected the Top 33 players in the 100-year history of high school football in the state of Florida.

On January 3, 2008, Sapp told Raiders owner Al Davis over the phone that he would retire. The next day, January 4, 2008, Sapp confirmed it on his website qbkilla.com in just two words: “I’M DONE!” The retirement became official on March 4, 2008.

He is currently a member of NFL Network. He debuted talking about Brett Favre being traded to the New York Jets.

On August 19, 2008, Sapp was hired as a studio analyst for Inside the NFL on Showtime.

  

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Akon was born on 14 October 1981 (stated by BBC) in St. Louis, Missouri, is a Senegalese-American R&B singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, businessman, and philanthropist. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of “Locked Up”, the first single from his debut album Trouble. His second album, Konvicted, earned him a Grammy Award nomination of the single “Smack That”. He has since found two record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution.

He is known as one of the most successful and versatile R&B singers of the 21st century, grossing over 30 million dollars a year according to Forbes. Akon often sings hooks for other artists and is currently accredited with over 300 guest appearances and 40 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He is the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice. He has had 6 Grammy Awards nominations and has produced many hits for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O’Donis and Leona Lewis.

As the son of Senegalese percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon was raised in a musical setting and taught to play several instruments including the djembe. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., so that he would not have to go through the immigration process, but he lived in Dakar, Senegal until the age of 7, split time between America and Senegal until he was 15, then he moved permanently to Jersey City, New Jersey.

Akon has claimed in interviews that his full name is Aliaune Damala Akon Thiam although there is some ambiguity and debate about Akon’s legal name and birth date. Akon is usually credited as Aliaune Thiam. In addition to the longer form, Akon’s full name has been reported both as Aliaune Badara Thiam and Alioune Badara Thiam and About.com claims that this middle name has never been independently verified. In regards to his birth date, some media institutions have reported that Akon was born in 1981. Other sources, including the AP, have indicated that Akon was born in 1973 and was delivered by Senegalese doctor Magueye Seck.

Legal documents released by The Smoking Gun list Akon’s name as Aliaune Damala Thiam and his date of birth as 1973-04-30 or 1973-04-16, however the BBC states he was born on 14 October 1981. It has since been reported by various media sources that he was born in 1977.

He has also been rumored to have three wives, however he has since revealed that he only has one, named Tomeka. Akon claims he has six children with three different women in an interview with Blender. Akon claims to have great relationships with all his children, and that he wishes to keep his family protected from the public eye.

“The Smoking Gun” reported in April 2008 that much of Akon’s purported criminal and incarceration history has been dramatically embellished. In particular, Akon’s claims to be part of an auto-theft ring and his claim to have spent three years in prison were challenged with court records and interviews with detectives involved in Akon’s case.

  

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Sarah Ann McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter.

She is known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range. As of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians during the late 1990s.

As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game.

McLachlan’s parents insisted she finish high school and complete one year of studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Vancouver and embarking on a new life as a recording artist, and McLachlan finally signed to Nettwerk two years later before having written a single song.

In 1994 McLachlan became the target of an odd lawsuit. She was sued by Uwe Vandrei, an obsessed fan from Ottawa, Ontario, who alleged that his letters to her had been the basis of the single “Possession”.

In 1997, Sarah McLachlan married her drummer, Ashwin Sood, in Jamaica. McLachlan lost her mother to cancer in December 2001, while McLachlan herself was pregnant. McLachlan gave birth to a daughter, whom she named India Ann Sushil Sood, on April 6, 2002, in Vancouver. By this time, McLachlan had already completed three-quarters of the production on her next record, Afterglow. On June 22, 2007, she gave birth to her second daughter, Taja Summer Sood, in Vancouver. McLachlan announced her separation from Ashwin Sood in September 2008.

  

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Ricky Dene Gervais was born on 25 June 1961 in the suburb of Whitley in Reading, Berkshire, is an English comedian, actor, filmmaker and broadcaster. Gervais’s father, Jerry, a Franco-Ontarian, emigrated while on foreign duty during the Second World War from London, Ontario, Canada. Jerry met Gervais’s mother, Eva, during a blackout, and they settled in Whitley.

Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. Besides writing and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras. Gervais has starred in a number of Hollywood films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. Gervais has performed on three sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast of all time, The Ricky Gervais Show.

He has accumulated a multitude of awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, four British Comedy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards and the 2006 Rose d’Or, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

Gervais currently lives in Hampstead, with his partner of 25 years, producer and screenwriter Jane Fallon. He says they chose not to legally marry because “there’s no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God” or have children because they “didn’t fancy dedicating 16 years of our lives. And there are too many children, of course”. In August 2008, they bought a second home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

  

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Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born and raised on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, Californi, better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Perry rose to fame in 2007 with her internet hit “Ur So Gay”, and later scored in 2008 her breakthrough single “I Kissed a Girl”.

She born to Christian pastor parents and grew up listening only to gospel music. The second child of two pastors, she has an older sister and younger brother. Her Evangelical mother, Mary Hudson, grew up in Southern California and had “a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe”. Her father was a West Coast scenester in the 1960s. Perry’s uncle and aunt were director Frank Perry and screenwriter Eleanor Perry.

After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a music career. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001. In 2004, she recorded an album with production team The Matrix, but it was never released. After signing on with Capitol Music Group in 2007, she took on stage name Katy Perry and released her first mainstream album, One of the Boys.

Perry dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. After more than a year of friendship and casual dating, they became serious with their relationship right before they embarked into the 2008 Warped Tour. Perry and McCoy broke up in December 2008. The two began dating again in early 2009 and broke up again a few months later. Perry is now engaged to British comedian Russell Brand after he proposed in December 2009.

  

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Vinod Khosla was born on January 28, 1955 New Delhi, India, is an Indian-American venture capitalist. He is an influential personality in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and became first CEO & Chairman of Sun Microsystems and then became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986. In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures.

Khosla was born in a Punjabi family. His father was an army personnel and posted at New Delhi, India. He read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. Khosla went on to receive degrees from the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering ), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

After graduating from Stanford University in 1980, Khosla along with his Stanford fellows Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and a UC Berkeley masters degree holder named Bill Joy founded Sun Microsystems. He became first CEO and Chairman of Sun Microsystems from 1982 to 1984. Khosla left Sun in 1985. He then joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1986 as a general partner. Khosla is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.

Khosla became a recognized venture capitalist, associated with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. While recognized for several venture “hits,” Khosla also played a key role with several of the tech industry’s most spectacular failures, including Asera, Dynabook, and others.

He also invested in an Indian Microfinance NGO, SKS Microfinance, which lends small loans to poor women in rural India.

In 2004 Khosla formed his own venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures. The firm is based in Menlo Park, California and manages approximately $1 billion of investor capital as well as investments funded by Khosla himself.

He lives in Portola Valley, California, with his wife Neeru, and his three daughters: Nina, Anu, Vani, and two sons: Neal and Oliver.

  

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Fareed Rafiq Zakaria was born on January 20, 1964 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is an Indian-American journalist and author. He is the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Zakaria is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, trade and American foreign policy.

He was born to a Konkani Muslim family. His father, Rafiq Zakaria, was a politician associated with the Indian National Congress and an Islamic scholar. His mother, Fatima Zakaria, was for a time the editor of the Sunday Times of India.

Zakaria attended The Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. He received a B.A. degree from Yale University where he was President of the Yale Political Union and editor-in-chief of the Yale Political Monthly. He later earned a Ph.D. degree in Political Science from Harvard University in 1993, where he studied under Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann.

After directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International. and writes a weekly foreign affairs column in it. He has written widely and on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and for one year, was a wine columnist for the webzine Slate.

Zakaria is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He currently resides in New York City with his wife, Paula Throckmorton Zakaria, son Omar, and daughters Lila and Sofia.

Zakaria was conferred India Abroad Person of the Year 2008 award on March 20, 2009 in New York. Filmmaker Mira Nair, who won the award for year 2007, honored her successor. He has received honorary degrees at the University of Miami, Oberlin College, Bates College and Brown University.

On the eve of the 61st Indian Republic Day, Zakaria has been conferred “Padma Bhushan” award by the Indian Government for his contribution to the field of journalism.

  

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Sant Singh Chatwal born in 1946 Rawalpindi, Punjab (British India), is an Indian-American businessman, owner of the Bombay Palace chain of restaurants and Hampshire Hotels & Resorts.

The son of a small tea stall owner in district courts Faridkot, Punjab claiming to have been a former pilot in the Indian Navy, Chatwal migrated to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where in course of time he became the owner of two restaurants serving Indian cuisine. In 1975, he left the country with some of his savings and opened a restaurant in Montreal, Canada, where he created a new cuisine based on a blend of French and Indian elements.

Chatwal is close to former US President Bill Clinton and his family, and has made substantial financial donations to his election campaigns, as well as to other causes and campaigns of the Democratic Party, with many of whose prominent representatives he is on good terms. He has accompanied the Clintons on several journeys to India, and is a Trustee of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Chatwal has defaulted on loans obtained from Indian and US banks including Lincoln Savings, First New York Bank for Business, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and State Bank of India and filed bankruptcies on false grounds.He was arrested in Mumbai by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with defrauding Indian banks for over US $ 9 million. He was able able to get the bail and he later fled the country. but escaped after he was out on bail.

Chatwal was awarded the Padma Bhushan by President Pratibha Patil on Jan.26, 2010. Humiliated by the mistakes in awarding Chatwal, government started an investigation into matter to strip him of the award. Concerned citizens also started an line campaign to review the award process. In USA an online petition has been started against Chatwal.

Noted Indian journalist Vir Sanghvi has expressed his disappointment over the award and has decided to file a RTI Petition (Right To Information Act) along with noted film maker Pritish Nandy to make the government declare the procedure by which it selects awardees.

In February 2010, a federal lawsuit accuses two upscale bar lounges in Sant Singh Chatwal’s Dream Hotel of labor law violations. Workers claim that they are not paid and labor laws are abused. Similar claims were made by workers at other properties too.

  

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Ajit Jain was born on July 23, 1951 in Orissa, India, is a businessman who currently heads several reinsurance businesses for Berkshire Hathaway and has been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett. Jain’s potential rivals to head up Berkshire when Buffett departs are David Sokol, Chairman of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company; and Tony Nicely, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway’s GEICO Corp.

Ajit Jain was raised in India’s coastal state of Orissa. He graduated in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.He was a resident of the Azad Hall of Residence. He didn’t take his studies very seriously, according to classmate Ronojoy Dutta. Instead, they spent hours talking about economics, sociology and the Vietnam War, often debating through the night. Vijay Trehan, another classmate, described Jain and Dutta as “class clowns in our mechanical engineering class.” But considering their later careers, Trehan said, “The lesson has to be that ‘not taking life too seriously’ is definitely the way to go.”

Jain worked for IBM in India from 1973 to 1976, then moved to the United States, where he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978. He joined McKinsey & Co., but returned to India in the early 1980s. After a monthlong courtship, he married a Tinku Jain chosen by his parents. Then he went back to the United States to work for McKinsey. According to Robert P. Miles’ book The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers Jain said he would not have returned to America, but his wife wanted to move there. In 1986 he left McKinsey to work on insurance operations for Buffett. At the time, he said he knew little about the insurance business.

  

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Joseph Patrick Mauer was born on April 19, 1983 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a Major League Baseball catcher for the Minnesota Twins.

Mauer is considered by some experts to be the best catcher in baseball and has been said by some, including Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., to have one of the best swings in baseball. In his breakout 2006 season, Mauer became the first catcher in major league history to lead the majors in batting average and the first American League catcher to win the batting title, finishing with an average of .347. In 2008, he became the first American League catcher to win the batting title twice when he led the AL with an average of .328; Mauer also won his first Gold Glove Award.

In 2009, he became the first catcher to lead the league in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage in a single year. Mauer’s .365 average, which is the all-time highest mark among catchers in MLB history, led Major League Baseball. Mauer also won his second consecutive Gold Glove in 2009. Mauer was named the American League’s 2009 MVP by a near-unanimous decision.

On March 21, 2010, Mauer agreed to an eight-year contract extension with the Twins reportedly worth $184 million, through the 2018 season. It is the richest contract in the history of major league baseball for a catcher.

Mauer played football, basketball, and baseball for Saint Paul’s Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders. In his senior year he became the only athlete ever to be selected as the USA Today High School Player of the Year in two sports (football in 2000 as a quarterback and baseball in 2001 as a catcher).

Mauer used to share a house with good friend and Twins teammate Justin Morneau in Saint Paul during the 2006 season. Mauer and Morneau no longer live together, as Morneau has married. Mauer is also recognized for the large sideburns that he has worn ever since joining the big leagues. On August 10, 2006, the Minnesota Twins held “Joe Mauer Sideburns Night” in honor of the catcher. The first 10,000 fans were given synthetic replica sideburns with double-sided tape to share in Mauer’s trademark look.

  

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Bartholomew Thomas “Bart” Stupak was born on February 29, 1952 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing Michigan’s 1st congressional district.

He graduated from Gladstone High School in Gladstone, Michigan in 1970. He is an Eagle Scout. He earned his Associate’s degree from Northwestern Michigan College, a community college in Traverse City in 1972. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Saginaw Valley State University in 1977, graduating magna cum laude, and he earned a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan in 1981. He worked as an Escanaba police officer in 1972. Stupak later served as a Michigan State Police Trooper from 1973 to 1984. He also practiced law as an attorney.

Stupak lives in Menominee, Michigan, with his wife, Laurie, who is a former mayor of Menominee, and unsuccessful candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives. Laurie Stupak was defeated by Tom Casperson. In 2008 Casperson unsuccessfully challenged Bart Stupak, the incumbent for Michigan’s 1st Congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives.

The Stupaks’ son, Ken, graduated from Pepperdine University’s School of Law in 2006 and resides in California. Their other son, Bart Jr., committed suicide in May 2000. The Stupaks have stated their belief that Accutane, an acne medication, contributed to his death.

Stupak defeated Republican Don Hooper of Iron River in the 2002, 2004 and 2006 elections. In 2008, Stupak defeated Republican Tom Casperson and dual Green/Socialist Jean Treacy for the 1st District House Seat.

  

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Nicolas Sarkozy was born on as Nicolas Paul on 28 January 1955 Paris, France, is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier.

Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac’s presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin’s last government (March 2004 to May 2005) and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin’s government (2005–2007).

Sarkozy is known for wanting to revitalize the French economy. He has pledged to revive the work ethic, promote new initiatives and fight intolerance. In foreign affairs he has promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and closer cooperation with the United States. He married Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

During Sarkozy’s childhood, his father refused to give his wife’s family any financial help, even though he had founded his own advertising agency and had become wealthy. The family lived in a small mansion owned by Sarkozy’s grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement.

  

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Isla Lang Fisher was born on 3 February 1976 in Muscat, Oman, is an actress and author. Raised in Australia, she began acting on Australian television, on the short-lived soap opera Paradise Beach before playing Shannon Reed on the soap opera Home and Away. She has since been known for her comedic roles in Wedding Crashers (2005), Hot Rod (2007), Definitely, Maybe (2008) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009).

She born to Scottish parents from Bathgate and Stranraer. They resided in Muscat because of her father’s job as a banker for the United Nations. Her name, after the Scottish island of Islay, is pronounced eye-la; she has four brothers. Fisher spent her early years in Bathgate before moving with her family to Perth, Western Australia, when she was six years old. Fisher has said that she had a “great” upbringing in Perth with a “very outdoorsy life”. She began appearing in commercials on Australian television at the age of nine, before going on to win roles in popular children’s television shows Bay City and Paradise Beach. She attended Methodist Ladies’ College and appeared in lead roles in school productions.

At the age of 18, with the help of her mother, she published two teen novels, Bewitched and Seduced by Fame. From 1994 to 1997 she played the role of Shannon Reed on the Australian soap opera Home and Away.

Fisher married English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, on March 15th 2010. They have a daughter, Olive, and live in London and Los Angeles. She met Baron Cohen at a party in Sydney, Australia. Fisher converted to Judaism after three years of study, completing her conversion in early 2007 and taking on the Hebrew name Ayala, the Hebrew word for Doe; she has described herself as “quite observant”. On October 19, 2007, Fisher gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Olive, in Los Angeles.

Fisher has said that her “sensibility is Australian” and that she has a “laid-back attitude to life” that she feels “very Australian.” Her mother and siblings live and work in Athens, Greece, while her father lives in Frankfurt, Germany. Fisher is allergic to cats, pollen and butterscotch. While filming Scooby Doo, her character was to sneeze while Scooby was around, therefore to make the sneezes believable, the crew would spray pollen up her nostrils and she would sneeze believably on screen. This also caused lots of problems as they had to take frequent breaks and she would sneeze in the wrong takes frequently.

  

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Harry Mason Reid was born on December 2, 1939 in Searchlight, Nevada, is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected to the Senate in 1986, he was re-elected in 1992, 1998, and 2004.

Reid has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader from 2005 until the Democrats won control of the Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. He earlier served as Senate Minority Whip (1999–2001, 2001, 2003–2005) and Senate Majority Whip (2001, 2001–2003).

Before his election to the Senate, Reid was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Nevada’s 1st congressional district from 1983 to 1987. A native of Searchlight and graduate of Utah State University and George Washington University Law School, he previously served as city attorney of Henderson (1964–1966), a member of the Nevada Assembly (1969–1970), Lieutenant Governor of Nevada (1970–1974), and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission (1977–1981).

The son of Inez and Harry Reid, a miner in the camp 50 miles southeast of Las Vegas. He attended Basic High School in Henderson, Nevada, where he boarded in town and played football and was an amateur boxer. While at Basic he met future Nevada governor Mike O’Callaghan, who was a teacher there. Reid attended Southern Utah University and Utah State University.

Reid graduated from George Washington University Law School with a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police. He returned to Nevada after law school and served as Henderson city attorney before being elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968. In 1970, at age 30, Reid was chosen by O’Callaghan as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada.

In 1959, Reid married his high school sweetheart, Landra Gould. They have five children, a daughter and four sons. Their eldest son, Rory Reid, is an elected Commissioner for Clark County, Nevada, and another son recently ran for municipal office in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

In 1959, Reid married his high school sweetheart, Landra Gould. They have five children, a daughter and four sons. Their eldest son, Rory Reid, is an elected Commissioner for Clark County, Nevada, and another son recently ran for municipal office in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

  

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Miley Ray Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee as Destiny Hope Cyrus, is an American pop singer, songwriter and television and film actress who rose to fame after starring as the title character in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. Following the success of Hannah Montana, a soundtrack CD was released in October 2006 featuring Cyrus on eight songs from the show.

Cyrus’s solo music career began with the release of her debut album, Meet Miley Cyrus on June 23, 2007, which included her first top ten single, “See You Again”. Cyrus’s second album, Breakout, released on July 22, 2008, was her first album independent of the Hannah Montana franchise. Both albums debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. Cyrus’s first extended play, The Time of Our Lives, was released on August 28, 2009. The lead single from the EP, “Party in the U.S.A.”, became Cyrus’s highest charting and Hollywood Records’s fastest selling single, reaching number two in the Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in various nations.

She born to parents Leticia “Tish” and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Cyrus has five siblings. Her elder siblings Trace and Brandi Cyrus are Tish’s children from a previous relationship, whom Billy Ray adopted when they were very young. Trace is a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station, while Brandi has played guitar for Cyrus’s concerts and formed a band with The Secret Life of the American Teenager star Megan Park. Cyrus also has an older half-brother, Christopher Cody, from her father’s previous relationship, as well as a younger brother, Braison, and a younger sister, Noah, who is also an actress. She is the granddaughter of Democratic politician Ron Cyrus. Cyrus chose the name “Ronnie” for her character in the 2010 film The Last Song in honor of her grandfather.

Cyrus’s parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things. She was nicknamed “Smiley”, later shortened to “Miley”, because she kept smiling as a baby. She is of part Cherokee descent. Cyrus attended Heritage Middle School, where she was a cheerleader. She currently attends school at Options For Youth Charter Schools and studies with a private tutor on the set of her TV show. Cyrus grew up on her parents’ farm outside of Nashville where she regularly attended the People’s Church.

Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing tachycardia. In her autobiography, Miles to Go, Cyrus writes, “There is never a time onstage when I’m not thinking about my heart”. In January 2008, Cyrus announced her intent to officially change her name to “Miley Ray Cyrus,” her middle name reflecting that of her father.

In the September 2008 issue of Seventeen, Cyrus stated she had been in a relationship with Nick Jonas for two years, and that they “were in love”. They broke up at the end of 2007. In June 2009, Cyrus ended a nine month long relationship with Nashville Star contestant and model Justin Gaston. In March 2010, Cyrus admitted she had been dating Liam Hemsworth, her co-star in The Last Song.