Friday, August 1, 2008

Harry Potter's Birthday Gift to Charity


Harry Potter's birthday and J.K. Rowling has announced something special for you fans to celebrate the special day.

After months of anticipation and secrecy, The Tale of Beedle the Bard, a collection of wizardly fairy tales penned by Rowling and referenced in the final installment of the Harry Potter series, will be made available for sale to the public and can be pre-ordered today on Amazon.

The book is being published by The Children's High Level Group , a charity that works to improve the lives of vulnerable children across Europe, and all net proceeds will be donated to the charity.

J.K. Rowling has enough money. It's great to see such generosity!

Moms and dads, the book will arrive just in time for the holidays.

It's scheduled to hit the stores or your doorstep on December 4th.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Julia Robert


Julia Fiona Roberts, born in Smyrna, Georgia, never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. As a child, due to her love of animals, Julia originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but later studied journalism. When her brother, Eric Roberts, achieved some success in Hollywood, Julia decided to try acting. Her first break came in 1988 when she appeared in two youth-oriented movies Mystic Pizza (1988) and Satisfaction (1988). The movies introduced her to a new audience who instantly fell in love with this pretty woman. Julia's biggest success was in the signature movie Pretty Woman (1990), for which Julia got an Oscar nomination, and also won the People's Choice award for Favorite Actress. Even though Julia would spend the next few years either starring in serious movies, or playing fantasy roles like Tinkerbell, the movie audiences would always love Julia best in romantic comedies. With My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) Julia gave the genre fresh life that had been lacking in Hollywood for some time. Offscreen, after a brief marriage, Julia has been romantically linked with several other actors. Julia has also become involved with UNICEF charities and has made visits to many different countries, including Haiti and India, in order to promote goodwill. Julia is one of the most popular and sought-after talents in Hollywood.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Brad Pitt


Brad Pitt was born in Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri. His mother's name is Jane Etta Hillhouse. His father, William (Bill) Pitt, worked in management at a trucking firm in Springfield. He has a younger brother, Douglas (Doug) Pitt and a younger sister Julie Neal Pitt. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. Pitt attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college two credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for "el Pollo Loco."

Monday, July 28, 2008

Jodie Foster


Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years, she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series "Mayberry R.F.D." (1968), on which her brother, Buddy Foster, was a regular. In 1975, Jodie was offered the role of the prostitute Iris in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received an Academy Award nomination in the "Best Supporting Actress" category, marked a breakthrough in her career. In 1980, she graduated as the best of her class from the College Lycée Français and began to study English Literature at Yale University, from where she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. One tragic moment in her life was March 30th, 1981 when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was obsessed with Jodie and the movie Taxi Driver (1976), in which Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, tried to shoot presidential candidate, Palantine. Despite the fact that Jodie never took acting lessons, she received two Oscars before she was thirty years of age. She received her first award for her part as Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988) and the second one for her performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Friday, July 25, 2008

Sharon Stone


Sharon Stone was born and raised in Meadville, a small town in Pennsylvania. Her strict father was a factory worker and her mother was a homemaker. She was the second of four children. At the age of 15, she studied in Saegertown High School, Pennsylvania and, at that same age, entered Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with a degree in creative writing and fine arts. She was a very smart girl, became a bookworm, and once was told that a suitable job for her (and her brains) was to become a lawyer. However, her first love was still the black-and-white movies, especially those featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. So, the 17-year-old Sharon got herself into the Miss Pennsylvania beauty contest and won it. From working part-time as a McDonald's counter girl, she worked her way up to become a successful Ford model, both in TV commercials and print ads. Finally, in 1980, she made her debut in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980) as "pretty girl on train". Her first speaking part, though, was in Wes Craven's horror movie, Deadly Blessing (1981). She struggled through many parts in B-movies, notably in King Solomon's Mines (1985), and Action Jackson (1988). She was also married in 1984 to Michael Greenburg, the producer of "MacGyver" (1985), but they divorced two years later. She finally received her big break with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall (1990) and also posed nude for Playboy, a daring move for a 32-year-old actress. But it worked; she accepted a breakthrough role as a sociopath novelist, "Catherine Tramell", in Basic Instinct (1992) with Michael Douglas. Her interrogation scene has become a classic in film history and her performance captivated everyone, from MTV viewers, who honored her with Most Desirable Female and Best Female Performance Awards, to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. After she got famous, she didn't want to be typecast, so she played a victim in Sliver (1993) and, in Intersection (1994), she was the aloof, estranged wife of Richard Gere. These movies didn't "work", so she got herself again into more aggressive roles, such as The Specialist (1994) with Sylvester Stallone and The Quick and the Dead (1995) with Gene Hackman. But, it wasn't until she played a beautiful but drug-crazy wife of Robert De Niro in Casino (1995) that she got far more than just fame and fortune--she also received the acknowledgment of the movie industry for her acting ability. She received her first Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. She did a couple of films after wards, teaming up with Isabelle Adjani in Diabolique (1996), and as a woman waiting for her death penalty in Last Dance (1996). In 1998, she married a newspaper editor, Phil Bronstein. She also received her third Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress that year for The Mighty (1998), a film that her company, "Chaos", also co-executive produced. The next year, she entered her first comedic role in The Muse (1999), which starred and was directed by Albert Brooks and gave her another Golden Globe nomination. Sharon Stone, a diva who thoroughly enjoys her hard-won stardom, is now a mother of an adorable baby boy, Roan Joseph.