Man Crush Monday: Ansel Elgort

          He is Ansel Elgort. He is an American actor, music producer, and DJ under the name “Ansølo“. As a film actor, he is known for playing Tommy Ross in Carrie (2013), Caleb Prior in Divergent (2014), and Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars (2014).

           Elgort was born in New York City. His parents are Arthur Elgort, a photographer who has worked for Vogue, and Grethe Barrett Holby, an opera director. His father is of Russian Jewish descent, and his mother is of English, German, and Norwegian ancestry. His maternal grandmother, Aase-Grethe, was in the Norwegian resistance during World War II, and saved Norwegian Jewish children by moving them into neutral Sweden; because of these activities, she was imprisoned in a concentration camp.

           Elgort has two older siblings, Warren, a film editor, and Sophie, a photographer. At the age of nine, his mother took him to try out for School of American Ballet. He attended The Professional Performing Arts School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Stagedoor Manor summer camp. Elgort started taking acting classes at the age of twelve and starred in his high school’s productions of Guys and Dolls and Hairspray.

           Elgort‘s acting career began through professional stage acting, in Regrets, by Matt Charman. His on-screen debut was a secondary role in the 2013 remake of Carrie. His first highly publicized role was in Divergent as Caleb, the brother of the protagonist, Tris, played by Shailene Woodley. The film, based on a popular young adult novel by Veronica Roth, was released on March 21, 2014.

          In May 2013, immediately after the filming of Divergent was completed, it was announced that Elgort would play Augustus Waters in the film adaptation of John Green‘s novel The Fault in Our Stars, opposite Woodley who would play Hazel Grace Lancaster. The film followed the story of Hazel, a teenage cancer patient, who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee. The film, directed by Josh Boone, was released on June 6, 2014.

            Elgort co-stars in the comedy film Men, Women & Children, directed by Jason Reitman and due to be released in October, 2014. On June 23, 2014, Deadline announced that Elgort had been cast in the titular role in Van Cliburn. Based on the biography by Howard Reich, the film will depict Van Cliburn‘s rise to fame in 1958 when, in the midst of the Cold War, Cliburn won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in piano – an extraordinary event, since Cliburn was from the USA. The adaptation will be produced by Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, who also produced The Fault in our Stars.

         Elgort will reprise his role as Caleb Prior in Insurgent, the second film of the book series Divergent. Filming began on May 27, 2014, with a scheduled release date of March 20, 2015.

           Elgort is repped by CAA and Brookside Artist Management’s Emily Gerson Saines.

          Under the name “Ansølo“, Elgort created a SoundCloud account to publish electronic dance music, and he has remixed songs such as “Born to Die” by Lana del Rey. In a livestream in February 2014 he stated he had signed a record deal with Tom Staar‘s new label Staar Traxx.

           His first record “Unite” was released on April 21, 2014, and May 5, 2014 on iTunes. His second record, “Totem“, was released July 21 on Beatport and iTunes.

To know more about Ansel Elgort, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Elgort

Flashback Friday: Jim Morrison

          He is James Douglas “Jim” Morrison, also known as Jim Morrison. He was an American singer-songwriter and poet, best remembered as the lead singer of The Doors. From a young age, Morrison became infatuated with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Kerouac, and William Blake, often incorporating their work into his lyrics. In his later life, Morrison developed an alcohol dependency which led to his death at the age of 27 in Paris. He is alleged to have died of a heroin overdose, but as no autopsy was performed, the exact cause of his death is still disputed. His tomb in Paris is still today a shrine to his personality, visited daily by numerous mourners.

            Due to his songwriting, voice, wild personality and performances, he is regarded by critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock music history, and, due to the dramatic tinges surrounding his life and death, in the latter part of 20th century he was one of popular culture’s most rebellious and oft-displayed icons, on a par with the likes of Che Guevara, representing generational gap and youth counterculture. He was also well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Morrison was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time“, and number 22 on Classic Rock Magazine‘s “50 Greatest Singers In Rock“. Ray Manzarek said that Morrison “embodied hippie counter culture rebellion…” Morrison was also known as the self-proclaimed “Lizard King” and “King of Orgasmic Rock“.

            Morrison‘s early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison‘s brother, Andy, explaining that his parents had determined never to use physical corporal punishment such as spanking on their children. They instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as dressing down. This consisted of yelling at and berating the children until they were reduced to tears and acknowledged their failings. Once Morrison graduated from UCLA, he broke off most contact with his family. By the time Morrison‘s music ascended to the top of the charts (in 1967) he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that his parents and siblings were dead (or claiming, as it has been widely misreported, that he was an only child).

             This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with The Doors‘ self-titled debut album. George Morrison was not supportive of his son’s career choice in music. One day, an acquaintance brought over a record thought to have Jim on the cover. The record was The Doors‘ self-titled debut. The young man played the record for Morrison‘s father and family. Upon hearing the record, Morrison‘s father wrote him a letter telling him “to give up any idea of singing or any connection with a music group because of what I consider to be a complete lack of talent in this direction.” In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office dated October 2, 1970, Morrison‘s father acknowledged the breakdown in family communications as the result of an argument over his assessment of his son’s musical talents. He said he could not blame his son for being reluctant to initiate contact and that he was proud of him nonetheless.

            Morrison joined Courson in Paris in March 1971. They took up residence in the city in a rented apartment on the rue Beautreillis (in the 4th arrondissement of Paris on the Right Bank), and went for long walks throughout the city, admiring the city’s architecture. During this time, Morrison shaved his beard and lost some of the weight he had gained in the previous months. Morrison died on July 3, 1971 at age 27. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub (at 17–19 rue Beautreillis, 4th arrondissement) by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner stated that there was no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison‘s cause of death. In Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the United States. According to Sugerman‘s account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having inhaled what he believed to be cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given him numerous contradictory versions of Morrison‘s death, saying at times that she had killed Morrison, or that his death was her fault. Courson‘s story of Morrison‘s unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by his accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson‘s heroin, and that Courson nodded off instead of phoning for medical help, leaving Morrison bleeding to death.

To know more about Jim Morrison, just go here: https://www.thedoors.com/

Throwback Thursday: Rupert Grint

          He is Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint, also known as Rupert Grint. He is an English actor who rose to prominence playing Ron Weasley, one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film series. Grint was cast as Ron Weasley at the age of 11, having previously acted only in school plays and at his local theatre group. From 2001 to 2011, he starred in all eight Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.

            Beginning in 2002, Grint began to work outside of the Harry Potter franchise, playing a co-leading role in Thunderpants. He has had starring roles in Driving Lessons, a dramedy released in 2006, and Cherrybomb, a small budgeted drama film of limited release in 2010. Grint co-starred with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt in Wild Target, a comedy. His first project following the end of the Harry Potter series was the 2012 anti-war film, Into the White, in which he has a supporting role. In 2013, Grint‘s new film CBGB was released and he has been cast in CBS‘s new pilot Super Clyde. Grint made his stage debut in Jez Butterworth‘s Mojo in October 2013 at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.

             Grint was born in Harlow, Essex, England. His mother, Joanne Grint (née Parsons), is a housewife, and his father, Nigel Grint, is a memorabilia dealer. Grint is the eldest of five siblings. He attended St Joseph’s Primary School, a Roman Catholic primary school in Hertford. While there, Grint took an avid interest in theatre. He started performing in school productions and joined the Top Hat Stage and Screen School, a local theatre group that cast him as a fish in Noah’s Ark and a donkey in another nativity play. He continued performing in school plays as he moved to Richard Hale School. However, Grint had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. At the age of 16, he left school to focus on his acting career. “I didn’t really like school that much,” the actor later commented.

             Like his character, he has arachnophobia, a fear of spiders. Grint bought an ice cream van as a way to fulfill a childhood desire from the money he made through acting. He is also involved with charity, having donated items such as clothes to charity auctions, as well as participating in the Wacky Rally in 2010 with James and Oliver Phelps, which raised money for Britain’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He was one of more than 40 participants to produce designs for Chrysalis Collection for Keech Hospice Care in London. His piece, a painted butterfly, was auctioned off on eBay.com in March 2010.

           In May 2011, along with other celebrities, Grint took part in the ad campaign for “Make Mine Milk” to promote daily milk drinking. His ads can be seen on thousands of bus sides and posters across the United Kingdom. Grint supports Little Star Award since 2011 in support of Cancer Research UK, joining Leona Lewis among others. “I think that it’s wonderful that Cancer Research UK is helping to bring a little bit of magic to the children’s lives in this way,” said Grint.

To know more about Rupert Grint, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Grint

Woman Crush Wednesday: Iggy Azalea

           She is Amethyst Amelia Kelly, better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea. She is an Australian rapper from Mullumbimby, New South Wales. She left for the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a career in hip hop music, first residing in Miami, Florida, and then other parts of the southern United States, including Houston, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. She first gained recognition after the respective music videos for her controversial songs “Pu$$y” and “Two Times” went viral on YouTube. In September 2011, she released her debut mixtape Ignorant Art and subsequently aligned herself with Atlanta-based rapper T.I. In March 2012, T.I. announced Azalea‘s signing to his record label imprint Grand Hustle. In July 2012, she released an EP executive-produced by T.I., titled Glory. Later, she went into professional modeling, became represented by Wilhelmina Models and was announced as the “New Face of Levi Jeans“. Also in 2012, Azalea became both the first female and the first non-American rapper to be featured on XXL‘s annual Top 10 Freshmen cover issue.

           After label conflicts, her debut studio album The New Classic was finally released on 21 April 2014, under Virgin EMI and Def Jam Recordings. The album debuted among the top five of several charts worldwide and received generally mixed reviews. The album was preceded by four singles, “Work“, “Bounce“, “Change Your Life” (featuring T.I.) and “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX). “Fancy” went on to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, with Azalea becoming only the fourth solo female rapper ever to top the Hot 100. Additionally, with Azalea featured on Ariana Grande‘s single “Problem“, which rose to number two on the Hot 100, the same week “Fancy” topped the chart, Azalea joined The Beatles as the only acts to rank at numbers one and two simultaneously with their first two Hot 100 hits. Additionally, Azalea went on to pass Lil’ Kim as the female rapper with the longest-leading number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 and moved into a tie for fifth place, among lead women who have scored the longest commands on the Hot 100 this decade.

           Although Azalea is Australian, she raps with a Southern American accent. When she first moved to America, she was involved in the Southern hip hop scene of Miami and later Atlanta, which made it easy for her to cultivate the Southern influence in her music: “I lived in the South for five years; you pick up things from your surroundings and teachers. The people who taught me to rap are all from the South and so was the music I had listened to as a teen.” While Azalea‘s debut extended play Glory was intended to focus on hardcore-rap, the EP also touched up on other genres including electronic dance music.

           Although Azalea began rapping at the age of 14, she was infatuated with hip hop from age 11 when she heard Tupac Shakur‘s “Baby Don’t Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)“: “It was the song that made me fall in love with music and also what sparked my Tupac fascination. That would later make me pick up my own pen and write songs”. In her early interviews, Azalea regularly mentioned Shakur‘s influence: “I was sickly obsessed. I had every picture of Tupac ever printed on my wall”. She has also mentioned Missy Elliott as the female rapper who she is influenced by and admires the most. Outside of music, her fashion sense is influenced by various people such as Grace Kelly, Lil’ Kim, Gwen Stefani, Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, and Fran Drescher.

           In late 2011, Iggy Azalea began dating American rapper ASAP Rocky, whom she met through American record producer Chase N. Cashe. She confirmed that they were dating in a January 2012 interview with Vibe. It was around this time that she got the title of Rocky‘s breakout mix tape Live. Love. A$AP, tattooed on her fingers. She had claimed she was not the only one with tattoos dedicated to the relationship, just Rocky‘s were not visible. In July 2012, Rocky stated they were no longer dating. In March 2013, Azalea revealed she had crossed out the “A$AP” part of the tattoo months previously. She has been in a relationship with Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Nick Young, an American, since November 2013. Azalea and Young were featured in the March 2014 issue of GQ magazine.

To know more about Iggy Azalea, just go here: http://iggyazalea.com/

Tuesday Shoe Day: Crocs

            Crocs, Inc. is a shoe manufacturer founded by Scott Seamans, Lyndon “Duke” Hanson, and George Boedecker, Jr.—to produce and distribute a foam clog design acquired from a Quebec company called Foam Creations. The shoe had originally been developed as a spa shoe. The first model produced by Crocs, the Beach, was unveiled in 2002 at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida, and sold out the 200 pairs produced at that time.

            Crocs was the title sponsor of the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour from 2006 through the 2009 season.

           In June 2004, Crocs purchased Foam Creations and their manufacturing operations to secure exclusive rights to the proprietary foam resin called Croslite. Croslite is a closed cell resin. The foam forms itself to a wearer’s feet and offers purported medical benefits, according to a number of podiatrists. Crocs holds one patent covering various utility aspects of its footwear, U.S. Patent No.6993858 B2 issued February 7, 2006, and three design patents covering various ornamental aspects, U.S. Patent Nos. D517788, D517789, and D517790 issued on March 28, 2006.

            As of 2007, the company had applied to register “Crocs” and the Crocs logo as trademarks in over 40 jurisdictions around the world, including the U.S.; many such applications were pending approval. Crocs also extended the scope of their trademark registrations and applications for both the Crocs mark and logo to cover non-footwear products such as sunglasses, goggles, knee pads, watches, luggage, and some of their internet sales activities.

             Crocs are made in a variety of styles. They are manufactured in Crocs facilities in Mexico, and contract manufacturers in Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vietnam, China and Argentina (Saladillo).

            The shoes are produced in an array of colors depending on the model. The Classic styles are available in more than 20 colors; most other styles are produced in a palette of four to six colors or two-color combinations.

           Crocs also sells other fashion accessories. Jibbitz are decorations that can be clipped to the ventilation holes in the shoes. These include designs, mainly aimed at children, which feature Disney characters. The company has also released a line of purses in a variety of colors.

            A “Fuzz Collection” with removable woolly liners extend the range into winter wear.

         In 2008, the company entered the golf shoe marketplace, acquiring golf shoe manufacturer Bite Footwear. A Croc-styled pair of golf shoes, the Ace, was introduced.

          On 21 July 2014, Crocs, Inc announced a restructuring plan which would both streamline its operations and workforce by eliminating 180 jobs, close 75 to 100 stores (out of 624 worldwide) and the scrap underperforming brands in its product line. Crocs has previously eliminated 183 positions, including 70 positions and planned positions in its corporate headquarters in Niwot. Crocs also announced that it open a “Global Commercial Center” with 50 to 75 employees in Boston later in 2014 for merchandising, marketing and retail functions.

Celebrities Wearing Crocs

George W. Bush

Maria Menunous

Shia LaBeouf

To know more about Crocs, just go here: http://www.crocs.com/

Man Crush Monday: Zac Efron

          He is Zachary David Alexander Efron, also known as Zac Efron. He is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s, and became known as a teen idol after his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray. Efron has since starred in the films 17 Again, Me and Orson Welles, Charlie St. Cloud, New Year’s Eve, The Lucky One, That Awkward Moment, Neighbors, and The Lorax (voice only).

            Efron was born in San Luis Obispo, California, and later moved to Arroyo Grande, California. His father, David Efron, is an electrical engineer at a power station, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is a secretary who worked at the same power plant. Efron has a brother, Dylan, and had, as he has described it, a “normal childhood” in a middle-class family. He is an agnostic, having never been religious. His surname, “Efron” (אפרון), is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname, taken from a Biblical place name (his paternal grandfather was Jewish, and Zac has described himself as Jewish).

           Efron has said that he would “flip out” if he got a “B” and not an “A” in school, and has also described himself as having been a class clown. His father encouraged him to begin acting when Zac was eleven years old. Efron subsequently appeared in theater productions at his high school, worked in the theater The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville, and began taking singing lessons. He performed in shows such as Gypsy; Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up; Little Shop of Horrors; and The Music Man. He was recommended to an agent in Los Angeles by his drama teacher, Robyn Metchik (the mother of actors Aaron Michael Metchik and Asher Metchik). Efron was later signed to the Creative Artists Agency.

          Efron graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2006 and was then accepted into the University of Southern California, but has deferred his enrollment to work on film projects. He also attended Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, a community college located in Santa Maria, California, which provided him with the opportunity to perform as a “young player” during the years of 2000 and 2001.

           Efron was on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2008 as number 92, with estimated earnings of $5.8 million from June 2007 to June 2008. As of April 5, 2009, his personal wealth equaled about $10 million. People magazine said in 2007 that Efron and Vanessa Hudgens began dating in 2005 during the filming of High School Musical, although Us magazine said, after the two broke up in December 2010, that they “met in 2005 while making the first High School Musical flick, and became a romantic item about two years later.”

          Efron sought treatment in early 2013 after struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse. He has been sober since June 2013.

To know more about Zac Efron, just go here: http://www.zacefron.com/

November Playlist: One Direction

What Makes You Beautiful

Gotta Be You

One Thing

More Than This

Live While We’re Young

Kiss You

Little Things

One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)

Best Song Ever

Story Of My Life

Midnight Memories

You and I

Steal My Girl

Flashback Friday: James Dean

           He is James Byron Dean, also known as James Dean. He was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). Dean‘s enduring fame and popularity rest on his performances in only these three films, in two of which he is in the leading role.

           Dean‘s premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status. He became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star on their AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars list.

           Screenwriter William Bast was one of Dean‘s closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean‘s family. According to Dean‘s first biographer (1956), Bast was his roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and knew Dean throughout the last five years of his life. Fifty years after Dean‘s death, he stated that their friendship had included some sexual intimacy.

             While at UCLA, Dean dated Beverly Wills, an actress with CBS, and Jeanette Lewis, a classmate. Bast and Dean often double-dated with them. Wills began dating Dean alone, later telling Bast, “Bill, there’s something we have to tell you. It’s Jimmy and me. I mean, we’re in love.” Dean also kept in contact with his girlfriend in New York, Barbara Glenn, whom he dated for two years. Their love letters sold at auction in 2011 for $36,000.

            Early in Dean‘s career, after Dean signed his contract with Warner Brothers, the studio’s public relations department began generating stories about Dean‘s liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from the clientele of Dean‘s Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped “Dean together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, identifying each of the men as an ‘eligible bachelor’ who has not yet found the time to commit to a single woman: ‘They say their film rehearsals are in conflict with their marriage rehearsals.”

          Dean‘s best-remembered relationship was with young Italian actress Pier Angeli, whom he met while Angeli was shooting The Silver Chalice on an adjoining Warner lot, and with whom he exchanged items of jewelry as love tokens. Angeli, during an interview fourteen years after their relationship ended, described their times together:

           “We used to go together to the California coast and stay there secretly in a cottage on a beach far away from prying eyes. We’d spend much of our time on the beach, sitting there or fooling around, just like college kids. We would talk about ourselves and our problems, about the movies and acting, about life and life after death. We had a complete understanding of each other. We were like Romeo and Juliet, together and inseparable. Sometimes on the beach we loved each other so much we just wanted to walk together into the sea holding hands because we knew then that we would always be together.“

            In his autobiography East of Eden, director Elia Kazan dismissed the notion that Dean could possibly have had any success with women, although he remembered hearing Dean and Angeli loudly making love in Dean‘s dressing room. In 1997, the television movie Race with Destiny was produced, a true-story account of the love affair between Dean and Pier Angeli. It was shot on location “where he lived and loved” until his death.

          Despite their strong love for each other, a number of forces led them apart. Angeli‘s mother disapproved of Dean‘s casual dress and what were, for her at least, radical behavior traits: his T-shirt attire, late dates, fast cars, and the fact that he was not a Catholic. Her mother said that such behavior was not acceptable in Italy. In addition, MGM, where he worked, tried to talk him out of marrying and he himself told Angeli that he didn’t want to get married.

            After finishing his role for East of Eden, he took a brief trip to New York in October 1954. While he was away, Angeli unexpectedly announced her engagement to Italian-American singer Vic Damone. The press was shocked and Dean expressed his irritation. Angeli married Damone the following month. Gossip columnists reported that Dean watched the wedding from across the road on his motorcycle, even gunning the engine during the ceremony, although Dean later denied doing anything so “dumb.”

             Some, like Bast and Paul Alexander, believe the relationship was a mere publicity stunt. Pier Angeli talked only once about the relationship in her later life in an interview, giving vivid descriptions of romantic meetings at the beach. Dean biographer John Howlett said these read like wishful fantasies, as Bast claims them to be.

           Actress Liz Sheridan asserts that she and Dean had a short affair in New York. Again Bast is skeptical as to whether this was a true love affair and says Dean and Sheridan did not spend much time together. Dean also dated Swiss actress Ursula Andress. “She was seen riding around Hollywood on the back of James’s motorcycle,” writes biographer Darwin Porter. She was also seen with Dean in his sports cars, and was with him on the day he bought the car that he died in. At the time, Andress was also dating Marlon Brando. Andress remembered her courtship with Dean: “He came by my house late. He came in room like wild animal, and smell of everything I don’t like,” she said. “We go hear jazz music and he leave table. Say he go play drums. He no come back. I don’t like to be alone. I go home. He come by my home later and say he sorry.” She added that Brando was “particularly interested in finding out from Ursula who the better lover was: James Dean or himself. It drove him crazy.”

           Rumors that Dean avoided the draft by registering as a homosexual appear to be of doubtful authenticity. Not only was he extremely near-sighted and required glasses, he was also a Quaker, either of which was sufficient cause for him to be excused from service.

Signature of James Dean

To know more about James Dean, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dean

Throwback Thursday: Emma Watson

             She is Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson, also known as Emma Watson. She is an English actress and model. She rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series; she was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. She starred in all eight Harry Potter films, alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. Watson‘s work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and more than £10 million. She made her modelling debut for Burberry‘s autumn/winter campaign in 2009. In October 2013, she was voted Sexiest Female Movie Star in a worldwide poll conducted by Empire magazine. In May 2014, BuzzFeed dubbed her the “most flawless woman of the decade“.

           In 2007, Watson announced her involvement in The Tale of Despereaux and the television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes, which was broadcast on 26 December 2007 to an audience of 5.2 million. The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo, was released in 2008 and grossed more than US$86 million in worldwide sales. In 2012, she starred in Stephen Chbosky‘s film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and in 2014, she played Ila in Darren Aronofsky‘s biblical epic Noah.

          Watson was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in 2014. She helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which calls for men to advocate for “gender equality“.

            After leaving school, Watson took a gap year to film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows beginning in February 2009, but said she “definitely want[ed] to go to university”. The Providence Journal reported that Watson had confirmed that she had chosen Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. In March 2011, after 18 months at the university, Watson announced that she was deferring her course for “a semester or two.” Watson was a “visiting student” at Worcester College, Oxford, for the 2011–12 academic year. Watson told Ellen DeGeneres in March 2014 that she was “about to graduate” from Brown in May. She noted that it took five years to graduate instead of four because, due to her acting work, she “ended up taking two full semesters off”. On 25 May 2014, Watson graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and released a cap-and-gown photo on her Twitter account.

          In 2013, Watson became certified to teach yoga and meditation. She told Elle Australia that an uncertain future meant finding “a way to always feel safe and at home within myself. Because I can never rely on a physical place.”

          In January 2014, Watson began dating Oxford rugby player Matt Janney. Photographs published in September showed Watson moving items out of her London home with Janney‘s help.

           Watson joined Judi Dench, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Leigh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Mark Ruffalo as recipients of the 2014 Britannia Awards, presented on 30 October in Los Angeles. Watson won for British Artist of the Year and dedicated her award to Millie, her pet hamster who died as Watson filmed Philosopher’s Stone.

            Watson has promoted education for girls, visiting Bangladesh and Zambia to do so. In July 2014, she was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. In September that year, she delivered an address to a standing ovation at UN Headquarters in New York City, helping launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which calls for men to advocate for gender equality. In that speech she said she knew she was a feminist at age eight when she was called “bossy” (a trait she has attributed to her being a “perfectionist”) whilst boys were not, and at 14 when she was “sexualised by certain elements of the press”. Watson‘s speech also called feminism “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities” and declared that the perception of “man-hating” is something that “has to stop”. Also in September Watson made her first country visit as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador to Uruguay, where she gave a speech that highlighted the need for women’s political participation.

To know more about Emma Watson, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Watson

Woman Crush Wednesday: Amanda Bynes

            She is Amanda Laura Bynes, already known as Amanda Bynes. She is an American actress and fashion designer. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s on the Nickelodeon series All That and The Amanda Show. From 2002 to 2006, she starred in the sitcom What I Like About You on The WB. She has also starred in several films, including What a Girl Wants (2003), She’s the Man (2006), Hairspray (2007), Sydney White (2007), and Easy A (2010).

            In 2007, Bynes described herself as Jewish, and also stated: “As far as religion, I was raised both. I learned about both Judaism and Catholicism. My parents said it was up to me to decide [which faith to adhere to] when I grew up. I’m sort of a spiritual person anyway. I haven’t decided yet on a religion. I don’t know yet exactly what I believe.”

             Bynes is interested in illustration and fashion design. Bynes has previously had her own fashion line sold nationwide and moved from Los Angeles to New York in order to facilitate her fashion career.

              In 2008, Bynes briefly dated Seth MacFarlane after voicing a character in an episode of MacFarlane‘s show Family Guy.

            In March 2012, Bynes was stopped and ticketed by police for talking on a cell phone while driving. A month later, she was arrested and charged with driving under the influence (DUI) after side-swiping a police car in West Hollywood. On September 4, 2012, Bynes was charged for two alleged hit and run incidents, one occurring in April and the other in August. The hit and run charges were dismissed in December 2012 following a financial settlement between Bynes and the victims. On February 24, 2014, the DUI charge was dropped and Bynes was sentenced to three years of probation for reckless driving as part of a plea deal.

             Bynes‘ driver’s license was suspended some time before September 6, 2012, by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. On September 16, Bynes was cited for driving with a suspended license, and her car was impounded. In May 2013, Bynes pleaded no contest to the charge, and was sentenced to three years probation. Her license was restored in April 2014.

            On May 23, 2013, Bynes was arrested at her home in Manhattan for criminal possession of marijuana, attempted tampering with evidence, and reckless endangerment. According to a prosecutor at Bynes‘ arraignment, police observed Bynes throwing a bong from the window of her 36th floor apartment. Bynes claimed that the alleged bong was actually a vase. Following her arrest, Bynes underwent a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital before she was processed at the police station. On May 25, Bynes said on Twitter that she had been sexually harassed by the arresting officer: “[He] slapped my vagina. Sexual harassment. Big deal.” The police department has denied the accusation. The case against Bynes was dismissed in June 2014.

            On July 22, 2013, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies detained Bynes in front of a stranger’s house in Thousand Oaks, California, where she had allegedly started a small fire in the driveway, and had her hospitalized under a 72-hour 5150 mental health evaluation hold. Bynes‘ parents filed for conservatorship of their daughter shortly after her hospitalization began. On August 9, Bynes‘ mother was granted a temporary conservatorship over Bynes‘ affairs, including her medical care, as well as control over her finances, after the judge agreed that Bynes had a “lack of capacity to give informed consent to medical care.” On September 24, Bynes‘ lawyer asked for a “1368 Penal Code” hearing to determine Bynes‘ mental competency. Six days later, Bynes‘ parents said that upon doctors’ recommendation, Bynes was transferred from UCLA Medical Center to receive “specialized treatment in a private facility outside of Los Angeles.”

            In December 2013, Bynes was released from treatment to her parents. She also agreed to seek counseling for the New York marijuana incident. Bynes was arrested on September 28, 2014 for her second DUI.

           On October 10, 2014, Bynes was hospitalized in Pasadena, California and placed on a temporary psyche hold following Bynes‘ new accusations, via Twitter, that her father sexually abused her repeatedly as a child. Shortly after these new allegations were made, Bynes tweeted “My dad never did any of those things. The microchip in my brain made me say those things but he’s the one that ordered them to microchip me”. Bynes‘ mother issued a statement to E! News through her attorney, Tamar Arminak, denying the claims. On October 13, 2014, the 72-hour psychiatric hold was extended to 14 days, and later extended again 30 more days. On October 22, Bynes‘ mother received conservatorship of her daughter once again.

To know more about Amanda Bynes, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Bynes