1000-celebrity

The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards) are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the record industry. The current President of the Academy is Neil Portnow. It is one of several major music awards shows held annually in the U.S.; among the others are the American Music Awards, and the Billboard Music Awards. However, the Grammys are considered the highest music honor, the U.S. record industry's equivalent to the Academy Awards (Oscars) for motion pictures. The award show is normally held in February. The 49th Grammy Awards ceremony took place on February 11, 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. In 2008 the 50th Grammy Awards will take place on February 10 again at the Staples Center. This will be a milestone for the Grammys and the Recording Academy. Nominations will be announced on December 6, 2007.

The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the more prominent Grammy Awards are presented in a widely-viewed televised ceremony. Of the "big three" music awards shows, the Grammys are the highest rated.

As of 2006, the eligibility period for the Grammy Awards begins October 1.

The record for the most Grammy Awards in a lifetime is held by Sir Georg Solti, a Hungarian-British conductor who conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for twenty-two years. He personally won 31 Grammys and is listed for 38 Grammys (6 went to the engineer and 1 to a soloist); he was nominated an additional 74 times before his death in 1997.

To date, U2 has won more Grammy Awards than any other band for a total of 22 awards. They have won Rock Duo or Group seven times, Album of the Year twice, Record of the Year twice, Song of the Year twice and best Rock Album twice.

Johnny Cash has won 16 Grammys in a many variety of categories.

Pat Metheny and the Pat Metheny Group have won 17 Grammy Awards in total, including seven consecutive awards for seven consecutive albums. Metheny held the record for Grammy wins in the most different categories as of the 2005 Grammy Awards.

Bruce Springsteen has won 15 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held).

Session drummer Hal Blaine played on six consecutive records which won Record of the Year.

Stevie Wonder, as a solo artist, has won 25 Grammys.

The most Grammy Awards awarded to an artist in one night is a record currently held by Michael Jackson (8 for Thriller).

Norah Jones won Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist in 2003; that same year her guitarist, Jesse Harris, won the Song of the Year for writing 'Don't Know Why'. Although Norah sang the song, she did not receive the Song of the Year Grammy because it is a songwriter's award.

The most Grammys won by a Female Artist in one night is five, which has been accomplished by five different artists: Lauryn Hill in 1999, Alicia Keys in 2002, Norah Jones in 2003, Beyonce in 2004 and the members of the Dixie Chicks in 2007.

The Grammy Awards have been criticized for being only devoted to mainstream music and for not highlighting alternative groups and artists. This has also lead to the speculation that the Grammy Awards are controlled and manipulated by major record labels. There is little evidence to support this, and the Grammy Awards do have categories to honor even non mainstream artists and their works. Others state that rock, R&B, hip-hop, and pop acts are highlighted more because that is the mainstream, just as disco was highlighted in the 1970s, and rap and hip-hop received more attention in the 1990s when it became mainstream. The Grammy Awards do have more focus on mainstream acts than the American Music Awards, the Billboard Awards, or the MTV Video Music Awards.

Some musical artists have had problems with the nature of the Grammys. The singer of rock band Tool did not attend the Grammy ceremony to receive their award. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan explained his thoughts of the Grammys:

"I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself. That's basically what it's all about."

Source: www.wikipedia.org

Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor who has had significant success in mainstream, indie and art house films. He is ranked #36 in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

McGregor has been featured as the male romantic lead in Hollywood films such as Moulin Rouge! and Down With Love, and in the British film Little Voice. He received excellent reviews for his performance as an amoral drifter mixed up in murder in the British film Young Adam (2003), which co-starred the acclaimed British actress Tilda Swinton.

He took on the role of a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, a role originally made famous by Sir Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars films. McGregor took very special care (especially in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) in his portrayal of Kenobi to ensure that Obi-Wan's mannerisms, speech timings, and accents closely resemble Obi-Wan's "Alec Guinness Self".In appearing in Star Wars films, he was continuing a family tradition of sorts: his uncle, Denis Lawson, had played Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy. McGregor, though, has stated that the Star Wars films were the worst work that he has done and that he regrets being in the films.He later clarified that his apparent dislike of working on the Star Wars films was because most of the scenes were shot using green rooms and background for CGI, instead of with actors and live sets. McGregor was also offered the role as James Bond in Casino Royale but turned it down.

McGregor is one of the few major male actors to repeatedly do full-frontal nudity in many of his films, including Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine, The Pillow Book, and Young Adam. He also played gay or bisexual characters in two of these (Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book ( 1996) and Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine (1998).

In 2005, McGregor lent his voice to two successful animated features. McGregor provided the voice of the lovable robot "Rodney Copperbottom" in Robots, which also featured the voices of Halle Berry and Robin Williams. He then voiced the lead character in Gary Chapman's Valiant alongside Jim Broadbent and John Cleese. Additionally in 2005, McGregor played two roles (one a clone of the other) opposite Scarlett Johansson in Michael Bay's The Island and then appeared in Marc Forster's Stay, a psychological thriller co-starring Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Both films were considered box office flops in America and received negative reviews from critics.

McGregor has narrated the STV show JetSet, a Scottish series following the lives of student pilots and navigators at RAF Lossiemouth as they undergo a gruelling six-month course learning to fly the Tornado GR4 — the RAF's primary attack aircraft. In theatre, he starred alongside Jane Krakowski, Douglas Hodge and Jenna Russell in the original Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls[6] in London at the Piccadilly Theatre. He played the leading role of Sky Masterson, made famous by Marlon Brando in the movie, to much critical acclaim, and he received the LastMinute.com award for Best Actor in 2005. He was also nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. McGregor is next set to appear opposite Colin Farrell in "Cassandra's Dream" and will co-star with Daniel Craig in Dan Harris' upcoming film adaptation of Glen Duncan's novel I, Lucifer.

Source : www.wikipedia.org

Celebrity Deathmatch is a claymation parody television show that pits celebrities against each other in a wrestling ring, almost always ending in the loser's gruesome death. It is known for its excessive amount of blood used in every match and exaggerated physical injuries (e.g., one person pulls off a participant's foot, living through decapitations, impalements, etc.).

The series was created by Eric Fogel. It aired on MTV from May 14, 1998 to October 20, 2002, and lasted for a 75 episode run. There was one special that didn't contribute to the final episode total, entitled Celebrity Deathmatch Hits Germany, which aired on June 21, 2001. Professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin gave voice to his animated form as the guest commentator. Early in 2003, a movie was announced by MTV to be in the making, but the project was canceled by the end of that very same year.

In 2005, MTV2 announced the revival of the show as part of their Sic 'Em Friday programming block. Originally set to return in November 2005, the premiere was pushed back to June 10, 2006 as part of a new Sic'emation block with two other animated shows, Where My Dogs At and The Adventures of Chico and Guapo. The show's fifth season was produced by Cuppa Coffee Studios and the premiere drew over 2.5 million viewers becoming MTV2's highest rated season premiere ever.

Celebrity Deathmatch started as a short that featured serial killer Charles Manson and shock rocker Marilyn Manson fighting to the death. Deathmatch was brought back in 1998 for MTV's Super Bowl XXXII halftime special, which became the most highly rated special in the history of MTV. Just three months later, Celebrity Deathmatch had entered MTV's main lineup. The show was popular enough for show creator Eric Fogel to be named one of the most creative people in the TV industry by Entertainment Weekly.

During the next four seasons, Celebrity Deathmatch became more popular in other countries and gained viewers from all over the world, but four seasons and 75 episodes later, MTV decided to cancel the show. According to Eric Fogel, MTV thought that Deathmatch was becoming too expensive and too violent for the network, and that its ratings did not justify keeping the show on the air.In 2002, the show was canceled.

In 2006, due to popular demand, the show was revived in MTV2.

Guest commentators

Nick Diamond and Johnny Gomez are always the CDM commentators of each fight, but in some occasions some guest celebrity commentators are brought to help commentate with Nick and Johnny depending the occasion, these guest commenttors are:

* Stone Cold Steve Austin. (He guest commentates several times through out the series)
* Jack Nicholson
* Dr. Ruth Westheimer
* Andrés Cantor
* Ben Affleck
* Matt Damon
* Mills Lane
* Stacey Cornbred
* The Undertaker
* Howard Cosell
* Julius Caesar
* Mick Foley
* Lucy Lawless
* David Letterman
* John Tesh
* John Edward
* Albert Einstein
* Tally Wong

Guest referees

Mills Lane is the official referee of Celebrity Deathmatch, but on some occasions, there have been guest referees to take Mills Lane's place:

* Johnny Carson, in the fight between David Letterman and Jay Leno.
* Woody Allen, in the fight between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino; winds up winning the match by riping out Quentin's ribcage.
* Jimi Hendrix, in the fight between Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, which turns out to be a dream.
* Howard Stern, in the fight between Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra; In the end he winds up crushing Carmen into a wall.
* Chuck Norris, in the fight between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan; is kicked in half by Van Damme at the beginning of the fight who thinks Chuck is the guy he's supposed to fight.
* Marlon Brando, in the fight between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
* Ronald Reagan, in the fight between Boy George and Don Johnson; ends up thinking Johnson is assaulting a woman (Boy Georgre) and thus kills him.
* Fidel Castro, in the fight between Antonio Banderas and Cheech Marin; ends up being killed accidentally by Banderas
* Carson Daly, in the fight between Eminem and Kid Rock; gets his guts torn out by Joe C
* Steven Van Zandt, in the fight between Bruce Springsteen and James Gandolfini; is ripped in half by the two combatants.
* George Lucas, in the fight between Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson where he gets caught in a garbage disposal and is crushed.


Source : www.wikipedia.org

Nicolas Cage has bought a 40-acre-plus island in the Bahamas that had been on the market for $3 million.












Pirates Of The Caribbean' star Johnny Depp has bought his own desert island.The actor splashed out $3.6 million on his very own island in the Bahamas.












Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio bought himself an island, estimated
to $2,4 million. The island, named Blackadore Caye, is located off the coast of Belize and measures 104 acres.Leo wants to transforme it into a resort and he's thinking to use renewable energy resources to fuel his island. So, practically, this will be an eco-friendly island. The actor, 33, is a well-known ecologist.









Hollywood star and director Mel Gibson has purchased a Pacific island hideaway in northern Fiji.The director of "The Passion of the Christ" and star of the "Mad Max" films purchased the 5,411-acre Mago Island from Japan's Tokyu Corp. for about US$15 million (euro11 million).