Leonardo DiCaprio

>> Saturday, January 24, 2009


Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American film actor. He gained fame for his role as Jack Dawson in Titanic and has starred in many other successful films including Romeo + Juliet, Catch Me If You Can, and Blood Diamond. He has appeared in Martin Scorsese's recent films Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed, causing people to compare this relationship to that from which actor Robert De Niro benefited early in his career. DiCaprio has also been nominated two times for BAFTA, three times for SAG and is a Silver Bear Award winner.

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The Basketball Diaries


Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity.

A bleak, potent depiction of a young man trying to grasp the pain of life. Teen angst isn't romanticized or melodramatic in this film. It's brutal and agonizing and tragic. DiCaprio's mere presence makes the film compelling - his intense, passionate performance is among his best. He's nuanced, fierce and startlingly believable all at once. This isn't standard storytelling. This is a crushingly real, violent and honest movie with a lot to say. Young DiCaprio prostitutes himself at public male restrooms for money to buy drugs. It's a coming-of-age story like no other... one of my all time favorites.





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Augustana


Augustana are a heartland equivalent of Coldplay and Keane, with a touch of mid-'90s adult alternative throwback (think Counting Crows or the Wallflowers) also peppering their mellow, piano-based music. Although based in California, the band formed in southern Illinois in 2002, while singer/keyboardist Dan Layus and guitarist Josiah Rosen were studying contemporary Christian music at Greenville College. The band's original lineup also included bassist Simeon Lohrmann, second keyboardist David Lamoureaux, and drummer Kyle Baker. This lineup released a pair of self-distributed CDs -- the full-length Midwest Skies and Sleepless Mondays and the EP Mayfield -- in 2003, but the conservative climate of Greenville College proved to be too confining for the band's founders. Choosing music over academia, Layus and Rosen left Greenville for Los Angeles in 2004, jettisoning the rest of the band and reforming with a new lineup that included keyboardist John Vincent, bassist Jared Palomar, and drummer Justin South. The reformulated Augustana signed with Epic Records in 2005 and released their major-label debut, All the Stars and Boulevards, in September of that year. A slow starter, the album gradually rose to national attention on the strength of "Boston", a heartfelt ballad that was featured on an episode of Scrubs in early 2006. To encourage the accompanying increase in Augustana's popularity, a limited-edition reissue of the album (with extra songs and video content) was released in September 2006. By the following year, All the Stars and Boulevards had finally made its way into the Billboard Top 40 -- a whopping 19 months after its initial release. Augustana then returned in 2008 with a new lineup (Josiah Rosen had left the band for a solo career in early 2006, only to be replaced by guitarist/mandolin player Chris Sachtleben) and a new album, Can't Love, Can't Hurt.



Such a beautiful song, I'm never tired of listening to it! Augustana truly rocks!

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Marc Bartolomeo


Marc “Sparky” Bartolomeo is an electrician by trade and has been in the field for a little over 15 years.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has three siblings, one brother and two sisters. He grew up working on cars in his father's garage in Coney Island, New York. He had a strong fascination for tools and how mechanical things worked. He was always surrounded by tools in his dad's garage. He is a "hands-on" type of person and truly loves being a blue-collar worker.

He went to a vocational/technical high school and when he graduated he began working. When his family moved to Las Vegas he moved with them. Two years after they moved Marc returned to New York to attend St. John's University as a business/psychology major. A former girlfriend in 1994 went behind his back and entered him into a guy's underwear contest. He did not win but he met his future agents who got him started on his side career as a model.

Marc modeled for about six years before he "retired" and started to do electrician work full time again. About four years later he was pulled back into the show biz world by NorthSouth Productions to do TLC's "In a Fix" (2004).

Some of his favorite hobbies are DJing, cooking/baking, racquetball, traveling, spending oodles of time at garage and yard sales, and collecting antiques.



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Prom Queen

It's prom time, and out-and-proud gay teenager Marc Hall (Aaron Ashmore) plans to bring his boyfriend, Jason (Mac Fyfe), to the big dance, but when the school board rules to prevent the couple from attending, the media home in on the issue, and Marc finds himself at the center of a national debate. Backed by a supportive student body and his own convictions, Marc fights for his rights in this thoughtful, humorous tale based on true events.

Based on a true story in Canada. The movie is quite a bit of fun but if you ever get to watch the documentary on this important court case I would. I LOVE that Marc's parents are so supportive of him. I wish all parents could be that way. I think the story was really great. It's an inspirational movie.

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Ben Whishaw


Benjamin "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor who trained at RADA. Whishaw is perhaps best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and his role as the lead character in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

Whishaw grew up in Bedfordshire, with his twin brother, James, and was a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. He attended Samuel Whitbread Community College in Clifton, Bedfordshire. During his time with the group, he first rose to prominence during collaborations with their offshoot theatre company, Big Spirit. He was involved in many productions - perhaps most notably, If This Is A Man (also performed as The Drowned & The Saved). This was a piece devised by the company based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of a Nazi World War II prisoner of war camp. This harrowing and moving book was adapted into a physical theatre piece by the group and taken to the 1995 Edinburgh Festival where it garnered five-star reviews and great critical acclaim. Whishaw played the character of Levi in this and subsequent productions of the show.

As the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 young-cast production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, he received highly favourable reviews. The role was shared with Al Weaver in an unusual arrangement that saw Whishaw playing all nights except for Mondays and matinées. Nunn is reported to have made this arrangement due to the youth of the two actors playing the lead, to relieve some of the pressure on each. It was Whishaw, however, who featured most prominently in the marketing materials and in the majority of reviews.

Whishaw's film and TV credits include Layer Cake and Chris Morris's 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley, in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named 'Most Promising Newcomer' at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards (for My Brother Tom) and, in 2005, nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Brian Jones biopic Stoned. In the spring of 2005, Whishaw received lots of press for his turn as a drug dealer, acting alongside Robert Boulter and Fraser Ayres in Philip Ridley's post-apocalyptic fringe play Mercury Fur.

In Perfume, Whishaw plays Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly. The film was released in Germany in September 2006 and in the U.S. in December 2006. In the same year Whishaw worked on Pawel Pawlikowski's abandoned The Restraint of Beasts.

Whishaw appears in 2007's I'm Not There as one of the Bob Dylan reincarnations and in 2008 in Criminal Justice, a Tiger Aspect series for the BBC, a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and ...some trace of her, an adaptation of The Idiot at the National Theatre.

He appears in the forthcoming films The International, and Bright Star.

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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer


"Perfume" is a terrifying story of murder and obsession set in 18th-century France. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has a unique talent for discerning the scents and smells that swirl around him, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. Strangely lacking any scent of his own, he becomes obsessed with capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. As Grenouille's obsession turns deadly, 12 young girls are found murdered. Panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters, while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.

The tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was considered unfilmable, untill now. Tom Tykwer brings the serial killer to life in such a gorgeous and stylish fashion. Wonderfully dark and at 140 minutes, surprisingly captivating. The support cast of Hoffman and Rickman are at their usual greatness, but it's Whishaw's performance that gives you the willies.







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Jesse Metcalfe


Jesse Eden Metcalfe (born December 9, 1978) is an American actor, most known for his role on Desperate Housewives as John Rowland. He is also notable for his portrayal of Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald on the soap opera Passions.


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Steve Sabo


Steve Sabo is 18, lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and has dedicated 7 years of his life to weight lifting. His dream is to appear on the cover of a muscle fitness magazine.


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Push


A group of young American expatriates with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities hide from a U.S. government agency in Hong Kong.

The Division, a shadowy government agency, is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors—and brutally disposing of those unwilling to participate. Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a second-generation telekinetic or “mover,” has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father more than a decade earlier. He has found sanctuary in densely populated Hong Kong—the last safe place on earth for fugitive psychics like him—but only if he can keep his gift a secret. Nick is forced out of hiding when Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a 13-year-old clairvoyant or “watcher,” seeks his help in finding Kira, (Camilla Belle), an escaped “pusher” who may hold the key to ending the Division’s program. Pushers possess the most dangerous of all psychic powers: the ability to influence others’ actions by implanting thoughts in their minds. But Cassie’s presence soon attracts the attention of the Division’s human bloodhounds, forcing Nick and Cassie to flee for their lives. With the help of a team of rogue psychics, the unlikely duo traverses the seedy underbelly of the city, trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities as they search for Kira. But they find themselves square in the crosshairs of Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a pusher who will stop at nothing to keep them from achieving their goal.

Expect great things from Chris Evans! You are Matrix and Jumper movie fans, then wait to see "Push" on Feb 6!



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Jesse Metcalfe





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Enrique Iglesias


Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (born on May 8, 1975), better known as Enrique Iglesias, is a pop music singer-songwriter, model, and actor.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Enrique Iglesias was the best-selling Latin recording artist in the world. The son of multi-million-selling singer Julio Iglesias, Enrique was born in Madrid, Spain, where he lived with his mother, his brother Julio, and his sister Chabeli. In 1982, his mother sent them to live in Miami with their father. While there, Enrique was exposed to three different cultures and musical influences: Hispanic, European, and American.

Iglesias' own career started when he was still attending Gulliver Private School, a very prestigious school in Miami. He made his singing debut in a production of Hello, Dolly, after which he began practicing his singing without his parents knowing. After a year studying business at the University of Miami, he decided to follow his passion for music. In 1995, he sang in person for his soon-to-be manager, who at Iglesias' insistence of not wanting to use his family name, first shopped his demos as an unknown Central American singer named Enrique Martinez. It wasn't until he earned a record deal with Fonovisa that Enrique told his father and mother of his aspirations. Then he flew to Toronto, where no one knew him and he could concentrate just on music, to record for five months.

That first album, Enrique Iglesias (1995), sold more than a million copies in three months (it earned him his first gold record in Portugal in a mere seven days) and to date has sold more than six million worldwide. The second album, Vivir (1997), enjoyed global sales of more than five million discs and launched his first world tour, backed by sidemen for Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. In a mere three years, Iglesias had sold more than 17 million Spanish-language albums, more than anyone else during that period. (The U.S. was his biggest market.) He also won the 1996 Grammy for Best Latin Performer, 1996's Billboard Artist of the Year, Billboard's Album of the Year for Vivir, two American Music Awards, a World Music Award, eight Premio Lo Nuestro awards, two ACE Performer of the Year awards, and ASCAP prizes for Best Composer of 1996 and 1997, in addition to countless accolades around the world.

With 1998's Cosas del Amor, Iglesias moved to more mature content; his earlier material had been written when he was 17 years old. Then came Enrique, his first Interscope album and first in English. It achieved gold or platinum status in 32 countries and brought his global album sales to a total of more than 23 million. In 2001 he released the follow-up, Escape. Iglesias alternated Spanish- and English-language albums during the next two years, first offering the ballad collection Quizás in 2002, then the mainstream English record 7 in 2003. Four years later the single "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)" announced the coming of his 2007 album Insomniac.

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David Beckham



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Touch of Pink


Alim, a gay Canadian living in Toronto, is channeling the debonair ghost of Cary Grant, sort of. He's managed to juggle things so that, while living a carefree lifestyle with a fabulous new boyfriend, he's also been able to keep from "coming out" to his conservative mother, who lives across the "Big Pond" in London. But things are going to change, because mom's planning an impromptu visit. Uh-oh!

A beautiful and romantic cross cultural gay comedy!

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