PETER JACKSON

His next effort was the award-winning Heavenly Creatures in 1994 starring Kate Winslet. Proving he could tell a story without splattering guts, the surprisingly poignant film tells the true tale of two young girls who murder one of their mothers. Jackson's next project grabbed headlines in 1998: The film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved Lord of the Rings series. Both ambitious and visionary, the three installments, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, were an enormous success both at the box office and among critics. In 2004, Jackson won the Best Director Oscar for the final installment. That year, The Return of the King also received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Art Direction and Writing among others.

Next up, Jackson will undertake a remake of King Kong with the help of Lord of the Rings' screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

STAR JONES

After three years in general trials, Jones moved to the Homicide Bureau, where her work earned her a promotion to Senior Assistant District Attorney in 1991. Jones gained attention in court with a number of highly publicized victories in cases that were of immense importance to the community. In one case, she became the first New York Assistant District Attorney to obtain the maximum sentence for a 13-year-old defendant tried as an adult in the murder of another teenager. In another case she won a 66-year prison term for a serial sex abuser known as the “Bicycle Rapist,” after other lawyers had failed to get convictions in four other cases. Out of the last 40 homicide cases Jones prosecuted with the Brooklyn D.A's office, only two did not result in convictions.

Jones debuted on television in 1991, when she started moonlighting as a studio commentator for Court TV during the William Kennedy Smith rape trial. She was quickly lined up as a guest on the Today show and, a few months later, she became the NBC legal correspondent for both Today and Nightly News, covering the latest developments in the Mike Tyson rape case and the Rodney King police brutality trial, among other high-profile cases. Most notably, Jones landed an exclusive interview with Tyson after the imprisoned ex-heavyweight champion had dodged the press for a year, and an exclusive interview with King after the sentencing of the two Los Angeles policemen convicted of violating his civil rights.

Jones' success as a legal commentator and interviewer on Court TV and NBC led producers at Group W Networks to create a syndicated show, Jones & Jury, especially for her. Premiering in September 1994, the show earned notice for its ratings-grabbing combination of confessional talk show and real-life courtroom drama. Jones moderated cases taken from California's small claims division (primarily disputes of $5,000 or less), at many times acting as mediator in a contentious standoff between plaintiff and defendant, who were sometimes relatives or former friends. At the end of the show, the so-called “jury” (the studio audience) voted to determine the verdict.

In 1995, Jones was named a senior correspondent and chief legal analyst for Inside Edition, just in time for one of the most high profile murder cases of the century, the O.J. Simpson trial for the murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. She continued her coverage through the criminal trial (Simpson was acquitted) and was the only news correspondent to obtain an exclusive interview with Mr. Simpson during the civil trial (he was found responsible and ordered to pay extensive damages to the Brown and Goldman families).

In 1997, Jones landed a co-host job on The View, a daily morning talk show launched by television newswoman Barbara Walters. Alongside co-hosts Walters, Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar, and Debbie Matenopoulos (who was later replaced by Lisa Ling), Jones offered commentary on the law, self-esteem, race, family, education, religion, the media and other social issues relating to the community at large. The View, offering the unique perspective of its five female co-hosts, all from different backgrounds and different generations, was an immediate success, earning Emmy nominations each year for Outstanding Daytime Talk Show, and for Jones and her co-hosts as Outstanding Talk Show Host. In September 1998, Jones published her first book, You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything, a bestselling collection of autobiographical essays. In 1999, she became the spokesperson for Salon Z, Saks Fifth Avenue's clothing line for plus-sized women. She has since acted as spokesperson and partner in Alight.com, a Internet shopping site for full-figured fashion, and in October 2001 launched a new home shopping television show entitled: “It's all about you with Star Jones” on cable's ShopNBC.

Jones has served on the board of directors of the charitable organizations Dress for Success, the East Harlem School at Exodus House, God's Love We Deliver, and Girls, Inc., a national self-image building campaign aimed at young women. She became engaged to boyfriend Al Reynolds in February 2004.

JOHN KERRY

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TERESA HEINZ KERRY

In 1966, Teresa married her college sweetheart, Republican Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, with whom she has three sons. Shortly after celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in 1991, Senator Heinz was killed in a plane crash.

After her husband's death, Teresa turned down offers to seek election to her husband's Senate seat and instead became chairman of The Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, one of the nation's large private foundations. Under her leadership, the foundation has helped channel money to organizations focused on health care, early childhood education and the arts. In 1996, she established the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement to educate women about pensions, savings and retirement security. In 2003, Teresa received the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism for her work to protect the environment and promote health care and education around the world.

Teresa was first introduced to her second husband, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, by Senator Heinz at an Earth Day rally in 1990. In 1992, she met Kerry again at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The couple was wed in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1995. In 2004, in her typical candid, forthright fashion, Teresa supported her husband during his campaign for President of the United States.

She and Senator Kerry live in Boston, Massachusetts, and have homes in Ketchum, Idaho; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania; and Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

BEN KINGSLEY, SIR

From 1975 to 1977, Kingsley worked with the National Theatre; he subsequently returned to the RSC, where he originated the role of Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby. When the production travelled to Broadway, Kingsley was unable to reprise the role due to film commitments. His film career soared to unforeseen heights in 1981 with his first starring role, in the title role in Richard Attenborough's acclaimed Biopic Gandhi. Appearing in only his second film, Kingsley won numerous accolades for his performance, including an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Kingsley appeared in seven more European films, notably a 1983 adaptation of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, costarring Jeremy Irons, and James Ivory's Maurice (1987), and made his Broadway debut in the one-man show Edmund Kean (1984), before making his U.S. film debut in Without a Clue (1988), playing the capable Dr. Watson to Michael Caine's bumbling Sherlock Holmes. The film was an unusually comic choice for Kingsley, and it met with mixed reviews. In 1989, he again ventured into historical Biopic territory, earning critical praise for his performance in the title role of the HBO feature Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, as the famed Holocaust survivor who steadfastly sought vengeance against the Nazis.

Kingsley earned his second Academy Award nomination for his sharp-edged supporting turn as Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky in the Warren Beatty vehicle Bugsy (1991). After a villainous performance in the thriller Sneakers (1992), costarring Robert Redford, he essayed a trio of more benevolent roles, including a patient coach to a chess prodigy in Searching for Bobby Fischer, a U.S. vice president in the comedy Dave, costarring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, and Itshak Stern, the trusted friend of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Holocaust epic Schindler's List (all 1993). This last performance garnered Kingsley his best reviews since Gandhi, and once again proved the actor's gift for portraying complicated characters of uncommon dignity and historical importance.

A series of less well received movies followed, including Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden (1994), the science fiction thriller Species (1995), the spy drama The Assignment (1997), the alien comedy What Planet are You From? (2000), costarring Garry Shandling and Annette Bening, and the military thriller Rules of Engagement (2000). In addition, Kingsley acted in a number of high profile TV projects, including the TNT miniseries Joseph (1995) and Moses (1996, in which Kingsley played the title role), Showtime's The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998), and the NBC movies Dostoevsky's “Crime and Punishment” (1998) and Alice in Wonderland (1999).

Kingsley had a busy year in 2001, beginning with his chilling, outrageous performance as the tightly wound British gangster Don Logan in the British import Sexy Beast. For the scene-stealing turn, Kingsley earned rave reviews and numerous critical accolades, including his fourth Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. The same year, he nabbed an Emmy nod for another supporting performance, as Otto Frank in the well received ABC miniseries Anne Frank. Kingsley also narrated the Spielberg-directed science fiction film A.I. Artificial Intelligence and costarred with Mira Sorvino in The Triumph of Love, which was released in the U.S. in 2002. In 2004, Kingsley received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film adaptation of Andre Dubus III's acclaimed novel, House of Sand and Fog.

Kingsley has a son and daughter, Thomas and Jasmine, from his first marriage to actress Angela Morant, and two sons, Edmund and Ferdinand, from his second to theatre director Alison Sutcliffe, with whom he worked on the one-man show Edmund Kean. He and his third wife, Alexandra, separated after just 15 months of marriage in 2005.

On March 19, 2002, Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain.

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH

LEONARD LAKE

In 1981, Lake married Claralyn Balasz, whom he met while working at a local Renaissance fair. Later that year, Lake met Charles Ng, who had just escaped Marine Corps jail where he was being held on charges of weapons theft. The two men struck up a friendship, and Ng moved in with Lake and Balasz.

Soon after, Ng and Lake began a campaign of abduction, rape and murder based from Lake's remote cabin in Wilseyville. Altogether, the bodies of seven men, three women, two baby boys and forty-five pounds of bone fragments would be recovered from in and around the cabin site.

The killings came to an end only through chance. Having broken the vice they were using to torture their victims, the two men drove into town to get a replacement. The clerk at the lumberyard spotted Ng trying to shoplift the vice and called the police. When they arrived, Ng had departed on foot. Upon being arrested, Lake gave the police the name of his partner and then swallowed two cyanide pills he had taped to the collar of his shirt. Ng, however, had disappeared.

In Ng's absence, the police began to investigate Lake's cabin. In addition to the corpses and body parts, they also unearthed caches of weapons, personal effects from the victims and even videotapes of Lake and Ng raping and killing in their bunker.

Ng was eventually caught shoplifting in Canada and was brought back to face trial in California in 1991. The trial didn't take place until 1999 and lasted eight months. The jury deliberated for a couple of hours before finding Ng guilty of the murders and sentencing him to death, a judgment that he is appealing to this day.

JOSEPH LIEBERMAN

Lieberman practiced law in New Haven for several years before running successfully for the Connecticut State Senate in 1970. Lieberman, a Democrat, spent the next 10 years in the State Senate, winning reelection easily in 1974 and 1978 and serving as majority leader from 1974 on. In 1980, he gave up his seat to make a bid for Congress, which he lost.

In 1982, Lieberman bounced back from his congressional defeat to win election as Connecticut's state attorney general. He was a popular figure in the state, known for his support of environmental issues and his ability to advocate on behalf of consumers, and won reelection by a large margin in 1986. Two years later, Lieberman decided once again to make a run for national office, this time shooting for the United States Senate. As the underdog in a race with the three-term Republican Senator Lowell Weicker Jr., Lieberman waged an uphill battle to become the first Orthodox Jew ever to serve in the U.S. Senate.

During his tenure in the Senate (he was reelected in 1994 by a convincing majority), Lieberman has become known for his willingness to go against Democratic Party leaders on certain issues, and to vote according to his strong moral conscience and not strictly along party lines. While he has voted on the liberal side of such causes as abortion rights, gun control, and welfare reform, Lieberman crossed party boundaries in his enthusiastic support of military spending, school vouchers, and free trade.

Lieberman also became known in the Senate for his strong moral views and his tendency to support traditionally conservative causes, most notably those related to so-called “family values.” In 1998, he and former Secretary of Education William Bennett began giving what they called “Silver Sewer Awards” to bring producers of sexually explicit or violent movies, television programs, and video games to the public attention. Lieberman has also supported measures that would regulate television ratings and would supply electronic devices to parents to control their children's television viewing.

On September 3, 1998, Lieberman made headlines by becoming the first prominent Democrat to openly chastise President Clinton for his admitted affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Speaking from the floor of the Senate, Lieberman denounced Clinton's behaviour as “immoral” and “harmful,” and stating that he believed the president “has undercut the efforts of millions of American parents trying to instil in our children the values of honesty.” Coming from an old friend and longtime political ally of the president (while a student at Yale Law, Clinton worked on Lieberman's 1970 Connecticut State Senate campaign), Lieberman's rebuke was both personal and political. Though Lieberman eventually voted to acquit Clinton in his impeachment trial, he confirmed his widespread reputation as a strong moral leader and an independent thinker regardless of party allegiance.

Since 1995, Lieberman has served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. He is a member of the Armed Services Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, and the Small Business Committee; and in 1999, he became the ranking Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Committee. He is the author of several books, including In Praise of Public Life (2000), written with Michael D'Orso.

In the months leading up to the 2000 presidential election, Lieberman emerged as one of the individuals in the running for a place on the ballot alongside likely Democratic presidential nominee and current Vice President Al Gore. On August 8, 2000, Gore officially announced Lieberman as his running mate at a rally in Gore's home state of Tennessee. Their nomination was made official at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in mid-August.

The choice of Lieberman, a strong supporter of campaign finance reform, was seen as an important way to help Gore deflect expected Republican criticism of his aggressive fund-raising tactics during the 1996 campaign. Lieberman's memorable speech chastising Clinton and his reputation for high moral standards was also expected to give Gore some much-needed distance from the less savoury aspects of the Clinton legacy.

Lieberman was the first Jewish-American ever to be nominated on the ticket of a major national party, a groundbreaking achievement that clearly invited comparison to the 1960 Democratic National Convention (also in Los Angeles), when John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, received his party's nomination for president.

Gore and Lieberman faced Republican nominee George W. Bush, governor of Texas, and his running mate, former Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney, in one of the closest and most disputed presidential elections in U.S. history. On election night, November 7, it all came down to the state of Florida and its 25 electoral votes. With a razor-thin lead in the state (though he trailed Gore in the popular vote), Bush was first declared the winner by the news networks, and Gore called to concede the election. Hours later, the final count in Florida looked too close to call, and Gore rescinded his concession as the recounts began. After five weeks of complicated legal battles that stretched all the way to the highest court in the land, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stop the recounts in Florida, effectively declaring Bush the winner of the state by a margin of 537 votes. On December 13, one day after this decision, Gore ended his campaign and congratulated Bush on his victory, as both men urged the nation to try to put partisan differences aside in the wake of the extraordinary election.

Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, who married in 1983, live in New Haven and Georgetown with their daughter, Hana. She has a son, Ethan, from a previous marriage, and he has two children, Matt and Rebecca, from his marriage to Elizabeth Hass, which ended in divorce in 1981.

JENNIFER LOPEZ

TRACI LORDS

COURTNEY LOVE (MICHELLE HARRISON)

When Cobain committed suicide in 1994, Love was left to take care of their daughter, Frances Bean. Following her husband's death, Love's acting and music careers subsequently took off, a result of talent, publicity and sheer determination. "Live Through This", Hole's second album, went platinum soon after Cobain's death, and she has appeared in numerous films including Feeling Minnesota (1996), Basquiat (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) (for which Love won a New York Film Critics Circle award and a Golden Globe nomination) and Man on the Moon (1999).

ERNEST SHACKLETON

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THEODORE J. KACZYNSKI (Unabomber)

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JACK RUBY

JOHN WATERS

HENRY LEE LUCAS

BRUNO LUDKE

His murderous career was particularly prolific in the years leading up to WWII, when, while working as a laundry truck driver, he stabbed and strangled as many as 80 women, frequently raping them before and even after their deaths. During the war authorities apprehended Ludke as he molested a young woman, and under the Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler's orders, he was sterilized.

On January 29, 1943, he murdered his final victim, Frieda Rosner, and slipped into a state of severe dementia. The police accidentally discovered Ludke while conducting a routine investigation. In his madness he attempted to assault them, and was arrested. Once in custody, Ludke admitted to 85 killings, claiming rape was the main objective. Rather than prosecute him as criminally insane, the Nazi's decided to use Ludke as a human guinea pig in their experiments, and Ludke died in Vienna on April 8, 1944, when an experiment involving lethal chemicals proved fatal.

STEVE MARTIN

Martin released four comedy albums between 1977 and 1981, winning Grammy awards for Let's Get Small and A Wild and Crazy Guy. He also received a gold record for his hit comedy song, “King Tut.” Martin wrote his first book Cruel Shoes, in 1977.

Martin's first feature, a short film he wrote called The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977), was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1979, he starred in his first full-length feature film, The Jerk, the first of many collaborations between Martin and director Carl Reiner, including the lampoon of detective thrillers, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), the sci-fi comedy The Man With Two Brains (1983), and the identity-swapping comedy All of Me (1984) with Lily Tomlin. Martin received Best Actor awards from both the New York Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review for his performance in All of Me. He also won rave reviews for his portrayal of a demented dentist in Frank Oz's Little Shop of Horrors (1986).

In 1987, Martin stretched his talent even further by co-writing, executive-producing, and starring in Roxanne (1987), a modern interpretation of the story of Cyrano De Bergerac. For his work in Roxanne he won a Best Actor award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association as well as an award for Best Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. In 1991, Martin wrote, starred in and co-executive produced L.A. Story co-starring actress Victoria Tennant, whom he later married, in 1986 (they later divorced in 1994). Martin also starred in the Disney remake of Father of the Bride (1992), and it's sequel in 1995.

In 1993, Martin had success as a playwright with Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which opened at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, moving to Boston and Los Angeles as well as running off-Broadway.

More recent work included David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner (1997), a voice role in the animated Dreamworks film The Prince of Egypt (1998) and a co-starring role with Goldie Hawn in a remake of The Out of Towners (1999). Martin wrote and starred in the comedy Bowfinger with Eddie Murphy in 1999. In 2001, he starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the dark comedy Novocaine. That same year, he took on a new challenge, hosting the notoriously long Academy Awards ceremony. His trademark humour and antics earned him an invitation to return in 2003.

A frequent contributor to The New Yorker magazine, Martin published Shopgirl, a novella, to great acclaim in 2001. The story of a disenchanted saleswoman struggling to choose between a would-be musician and a wealthy married man, the book is set to grace the big screen starring Martin, SNL's Jimmy Fallon and Claire Danes. The same year, Martin starred opposite Queen Latifah in the romantic comedy Bringing Down the House, which debuted at a surprising No. 1 at the box office. In 2004, Martin costarred with Bonnie Hunt to reprise the 1950s comedy Cheaper by the Dozen. He is set to take on two more remakes: the 1937 Cary Grant vehicle Topper and a Pink Panther adaptation.

Martin lives in the Los Angeles area with his dog Roger, and two cats, Lucy and Bub. An avid art collector, Martin is a trustee of the Los Angeles Museum of Art and owns works by O'Keeffe, Diebenkorn, de Kooning, Frankenthaler, Hopper, Hockney, Lichtenstein, and Picasso, among others.

MICHAEL MOORE

Critical opinion was high but divided. The Washington Post described Roger & Me as a "hilariously cranky bit of propaganda" and critics such as Roger Ebert gave it rave reviews, but others, including the doyenne of the New Yorker, Pauline Kael, attacked Moore for re-arranging the narrative events of the movie. He responded in an interview in Film Comment that "the movie is essentially what has happened to this town [Flint] during the 1980s. I wasn't filming in 1982 ... so everything that happened happened. As far as I'm concerned, a period of seven or eight years ... is pretty immediate and pretty devastating.... I think it's a document about a town that died in the 1980s." The critical controversy notwithstanding, the film was voted Best Documentary by the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics, as well as Best Film at the Toronto, Vancouver, and Chicago Film Festivals. It was included on several critics' "best of the decade" lists, but conspicuously failed even to be nominated for an Academy Award. Roger & Me was creatively financed by Moore and his friends through bingo games and other fund raising efforts, but also through an out of court settlement Moore made with Mother Jones magazine over his dismissal from the publication after a short tenure as editor in 1986-87.

Moore came to Mother Jones after a successful career as an alternative journalist in his hometown of Flint, Michigan (though he is actually from the suburb of Davison). Moore's comedy and politics emerged from his roots in a working-class community that enjoyed a boom from manufacturing automobiles at a dozen General Motors factories until the company abandoned the town, as chronicled in Roger & Me. Moore had been a staunch opponent of GM and local Flint politics since founding the Flint Voice at the age of 22. He partially funded the newspaper through the weekly showing of alternative movies, and promoted it through work on the local public radio station where he hosted a show called "Radio Free Flint." He also wrote essays for National Public Radio. A rabble rouser from early on, Moore was elected to his local school board at age 18 and successfully fought to have its meetings open to the public.

Moore followed up Roger & Me with a sequel, Pets or Meat: A Return to Flint (1992) a short film shown on PBS. The second film repeated the narrated style of the first and seemed more of a continuation than a sequel. In it, Moore caught up on the lives of people from the first film, including "the Rabbit Lady," who sold rabbits as pets or meat. The film was also an update on Moore himself, containing snippets from his appearances on television talk shows such as Donahue. He made an unlikely movie "star"--he is heavyset with a goofy grin, a fondness for baseball caps, and a preference untucked shirts--yet there is no doubt that the "star" of all of Moore's films is Michael Moore.

His next project was a narrative film, Canadian Bacon (1994), starring John Candy, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollack, Alan Alda, and Rip Torn. Alda plays a liberal U.S. president who decides to invade Canada in order to boost his popularity in the polls. A cross between Dr. Strangelove (there's a similar Doomsday device) and Wag the Dog (the invasion of a foreign country for shabby domestic reasons), the film never received wide release, nor were the reviews particularly enthusiastic.

Moore's next move was to take the basic Roger & Me idea--good guy Mike harasses evil corporate America--to television. His political comedy show, TV Nation, was a summer replacement on NBC in 1994. The show featured weekly, off-the-wall polls like 16&percent; of Perot voters believe that "if dolphins are really that smart they could get out of those nets," and showcased memorable events such as a day of picnicking with "Doctor Death" Jack Kevorkian. The first episode featured the "CEO Challenge" in which he asked executives to perform menial tasks, such as getting the head of IBM to format a disk. While not all the stories had a political bent, TV Nation was an eclectic mix of news magazine, sketch comedy, and David Letterman-style comedy of the banal. Only on TV Nation would you see a guy in a Detroit Tigers baseball cap attempting to end the conflict in Bosnia by getting leaders from the warring factions to share a pizza together.

NBC passed on TV Nation, but Fox picked it up for eight episodes in the summer of 1995. It was more of the same, including a segment featuring Moore performing maneuvers with the Michigan Militia. He also introduced Crackers, the corporate crime-fighting chicken, alongside featured guests such as Merrill Markoe (David Letterman's former chief writer), actress and stand-up comedian Janeane Garofalo, former MTV VJ Karen Duffy, and filmmaker Rusty Cundieff, who wrote and directed a comedy movie, Fear of a Black Hat. Moore chronicled his experiences with the show in a book, Adventures in TV Nation (1998), written with wife Kathleen Glynn.

The book was not his first. He had published Downsize This: Random Threats from an Unarmed American, an unlikely best seller, in 1994. The book began with two photos: one of the bombed out Federal building in Oklahoma City, the other of a pile of rubble which used to be an auto factory in Flint. The point of that piece, and the book, is to expose, through satire, irony, and poke-in-the-eye comedy, corporate America's war on working-class families. With chapters such as "Would Pat Buchanan take a check from Satan?" "Why doesn't GM sell crack?" and "Why are Union Leaders so stupid?" the book is part stand-up comedy in printed form, part political manifesto, and part Spy magazine-like pranks. The author embarked on an unconventional book promotion tour, refusing to sign books at certain chain stores and seeking out independent booksellers. After a few stops, he was joined by a film crew, which led to the making of his movie The Big One (1997). The film features stunts familiar to Moore's fans, including the presentation of Downsizer of the Year awards to company bigwigs. It opened in selected cities as benefits for local charities, unions, and leftist political groups. Moore would answer questions, promote local causes, tell some jokes, and then inspire the audience to political action. Despite excellent reviews, The Big One failed to achieve commercial success; an angry film about corporate America seemed out of synch when the Dow was at an all-time record high.

As the twentieth century ended, Moore was still pitching his political message to a larger audience, attempting a weekly talk show and developing Better Days (1998), a sitcom about a town where everybody is unemployed. In conjunction with Britain's Channel 4, he negotiated another incarnation of TV Nation, which launched in early 1999 under the title The Awful Truth. It kicked off with a scathing attack on health insurance companies in the United States and a somewhat crude and gauche sideswipe at Kenneth Starr morality in the form of a sketch delivered like a scene from Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Moore looked set to remain a viable force in popular culture in the twenty-first century. Virtually the country's lone left-wing satirist, he pops up regularly on talk shows such as Politically Incorrect. Popular culture has never seen a figure quite like Michael Moore: a comedian who one minute offers a critical analysis of legislation, and in the next a suggestion that Queen's "We Will Rock You" become the new national anthem.

In 2003, Moore's Bowling for Columbine, which took a dark-comic look at gun culture in the United Sates, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The director's acceptance speech included a very Moore-like statement against the war with Iraq. "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you!" The film was also awarded the Special 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. In late 2002, the director launched a one-man stage show, Michael Moore--Live, in London and New York. In 2004, The Walt Disney Company banned Miramax from distributing Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which critiques the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and the war on terror. The film won the coveted Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and, when it eventually hit theatres in June, became the first documentary to win the weekend box office.

SAMANTHA MORTON

Morton gained a measure of recognition for her roles in three acclaimed BBC/A&E TV productions: she played Harriet Smith in Emma (1997), the title role in Jane Eyre (also 1997), and Sophia Western in an adaptation of Tom Jones (1998). Her feature film debut, in the low-budget drama Under the Skin (1997), earned her a Best Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics.

The pace of Morton's career moved up several notches in 1999, when she made no fewer than five films. She first garnered praise for her starring role in Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999), also featuring Rupert Graves. Also in 1999, she turned in an impressive performance—and scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress—as the long-suffering mute companion of Sean Penn's dissolute jazz guitarist in Sweet and Lowdown, written and directed by Woody Allen. Other films she completed in 1999 included Jesus' Son, the comedy caper The Last Yellow, and Pandemonium, in which she played the very-pregnant wife of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (played by Linus Roache).

After appearing in several small-budget films that never saw release in the United States, Morton began production on Steven Spielberg's $80 million sci-fi thriller Minority Report. In 2004, she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in In America.

Morton gave birth on February 5, 2000, to her first child, a daughter named Esme. The father is actor Charlie Creed-Miles (1997's The Fifth Element), Morton's co-star in The Last Yellow. The couple lives in London.

EDDIE MURPHY

Murphy watched a lot of television growing up and developed a great skill for impressions, doing such characters as Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle, and Sylvester the Cat. Murphy told Gene Lyons of Newsweek, “my mother says I never talked in my own voice—always cartoon characters.” Although he was never a dedicated student, Murphy found a great forum for his verbal agility in grade school, excelling in the popular game of “ranking”—trading witty insults with classmates. Hosting a talent show at the Roosevelt Youth Center at age 15, Murphy delighted his young audience with an impersonation of Al Green.

This early success spurned a passion for showbiz, and Murphy began working on his comedy routines after school and performing stand-up at local bars, clubs, and "gong shows." His schoolwork suffered, however, and Murphy had to repeat the 10th grade. By doubling up on classes and attending summer and night school, he graduated only a couple of months late. Murphy was voted the “most popular” boy in his graduating class. His declared career plan: comedian.

Responding to the pleas of his mother, Murphy enrolled at Nassau Community College and worked part-time as a shoe store clerk. He continued to perform in local clubs, and eventually worked his way into such New York City venues as the Comic Strip—billing himself as a disciple of the great comedian Richard Pryor. Although his raunchy, profanity-ridden routines resembled his idol's, Murphy stayed away from drinking, smoking, and drugs, and would later declare to Barbara Walters, “I don't have to sniff cocaine to make me funny.”

When Murphy learned that the producers of NBC's popular late night comedy show, Saturday Night Live, were seeking a black cast member for the 1980-81 season, he jumped on the opportunity and auditioned six times. He finally got a part as an “extra” and appeared sporadically throughout the show's unsuccessful season. One fateful night, during a moment of panic when producers realized they had four minutes of airtime remaining and no material, they pushed Murphy before the camera and told him to do his stand-up routine. His improvised performance was called “masterful” by Rolling Stone and Murphy became one of only two cast members (along with Joe Piscopo) asked back for the next season.

Murphy became Saturday Night Live's strongest comedic presence, creating such memorable characters as Mister Robinson, a ghetto version of TV's Mister Rogers; a grown-up Little Rascals' Buckwheat; and an illiterate convict-poet Tyrone Green. He also continued his skilful impersonations, adding Bill Cosby, Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Jerry Lewis, and Stevie Wonder to his repertoire. Murphy received some criticism for his satirical characterizations based on black stereotypes, but in defence, he claimed that his characters were far too absurd and abstract to be taken seriously.

In 1982, Murphy received a Grammy nomination for an album of stand-up material, which eventually went gold, and at age 21, he landed his first major motion picture role, alongside Nick Nolte in 48 Hours (1982). He approached the role with confidence and ingenuity, convincing director Walter Hill to adjust some of the dialogue to more genuinely depict a black speaker. His charming and inspired performance as the fast-talking convict stole the film, and 48 Hours grossed over $5 million in its first week.

Murphy followed this success with the 1930s style farce Trading Places (1983). Playing alongside fellow SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd, Murphy's street-wise Billy Ray Valentine becomes the victim, then the victor, of two Wall Street moguls'shortsighted bet. Paramount proceeded to sign the 23-year-old to a six-picture contract worth $25 million. Murphy's next film, Beverly Hills Cop (1984), hit number nine on the list of all-time box office hits. He played bad boy/good cop Axel Foley, a role originally slated for Sylvester Stallone, and earned a Golden Globe nomination. Taking advantage of his status as a hot commodity, Murphy released his first album How Could it Be? featuring the hit single “Party All the Time.”

Murphy went on the make Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987, which received mixed reviews from critics, but major rewards from the box office. However, his other efforts of this period including The Golden Child (1986), and his violence and profanity riddled directorial debut Harlem Nights (1989), starring Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx, were deemed failures by critics and audiences alike. The only film of the period that seemed to showcase his comedic charm was Coming to America (1988), a light romantic farce costarring Arsenio Hall, in which both Murphy and Hall play several characters each. Another 48 Hours (1990) did little to redeem his career, and Murphy decided to take a break from the Hollywood scene.

He returned as a smooth, impeccably dressed bachelor in 1992's Boomerang, costarring Halle Berry, about a lady-chasing cosmetics executive who finally meets his match. The film met mixed reviews, but many critics found Murphy's mellowed performance a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, he followed this semi-success with an uninspired Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) and the unmemorable Vampire in Brooklyn (1995).

In 1996, Murphy rediscovered his love for over-the-top comedic invention in a hit remake of the Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor. Murphy earned some unfortunate publicity when he was discovered by L.A. police with a transvestite male prostitute in the early hours of May 2, 1997. He claimed he was merely trying to give the prostitute a ride, but the incident made him the target of jokes nonetheless. Despite the scandal in his personal life, Murphy went on to play the voice of Mushu the Lizard in Disney's animated picture Mulan (1998) to enormous critical praise, and starred in the family film, Doctor Doolittle (1998).

In 1999, Murphy starred in the comedy Bowfinger, costarring Steve Martin, who also wrote the screenplay. Nutty Professor II: The Klumps was released in the summer of 2000, with Murphy featured as all six lead characters. He also voiced the lead character, superintendent Thurgood Stubbs, on The PJs, an animated TV show for which he also serves as executive producer. In the summer of 2001, Murphy had two more big box office successes, starring in Dr. Doolittle 2 and lending his voice to the character of Donkey in the fantastical animated feature Shrek, also featuring the voices of Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz. In 2003, Murphy starred in yet another family comedy, this time as an overwhelmed babysitter in Daddy Day Care. The following year, he revived Donkey for the hit sequel Shrek 2.

In 1993, Murphy married model Nicole Mitchell. The couple has four children together: Bria, Myles, Shayne Audra, and Zola Ivy.

BILL MURRAY

He eventually relocated to New York City where he took his comedic talents on air in National Lampoon Hour alongside Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner and John Belushi. In 1975, both Murray brothers were in an off-Broadway spin-off of the radio show when Bill was spotted by sportscaster Howard Cosell, who recruited him for the cast of his ABC variety program, Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell. On NBC, a program also named Saturday Night Live was creating a much bigger sensation. A year later producer Lorne Michaels tapped Murray to replace Chevy Chase, who had moved on to pursue a film career.

It was on the set of Saturday Night Live that Murray created the sleazy, insincere comedic character that became his calling card for many films to come. He also earned an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for his work on the show. His first major film role was with the 1979 box office hit Meatballs. This was followed by the biography flop Where the Buffalo Roam, where Murray starred as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. In 1980, he redeemed himself by going back to his comedic roots with the cult classic Caddyshack. The roll continued with the army farce Stripes in 1981, Tootsie in 1982, and Ghostbusters in 1984 with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The comedy was one of the decade's biggest hits, spawning a cartoon series, action figures and even a chart-topping theme song.

Murray's next move caught loyal fans off guard. He starred in and co-wrote an adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel The Razor's Edge in 1984, which had been a lifelong dream. The hairpin turn from farce to literary drama proved too sharp, and the film was a failure. Murray spent the next several years away from Hollywood, making only a cameo appearance in the 1986 musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors.

He finally made his comeback in 1988 with Scrooged, a darkly comedic version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. While it performed moderately well, it was not the smash many predicted. Nor was 1989's Ghostbusters II. But in 1991, he starred in What About Bob?, which was an unqualified hit followed by the equally acclaimed Groundhog Day in 1993 and Ed Wood in 1994.

In 1998, Murray played what many believed to be his finest role yet in Wes Anderson's Rushmore. As a business tycoon competing with an eccentric 15-year-old for the affections of a first grade teacher, Murray won Best Supporting Actor from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. The film's success helped put the actor back in the forefront, and he drew further exposure that year from his appearance as a sleazy lawyer in the controversial Wild Things. In 1999, he appeared in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock and in 2000 he played the affably dense Bosley in the Charlie's Angels remake. In 2001, he once again gained critical praise for his role in The Royal Tenenbaums. In 2003, Murray signed on to voice Garfield in Fox's upcoming live-action adaptation of the comic-strip feline. He will also join a team with Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson for the offbeat comedy The Life Aquatic. In 2004, Murray received an Oscar nomination for his starring role in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.

He was married to Margaret "Mickey" Kelley from 1981-1994. They have two sons, Homer and Luke. In 1997, he married Jennifer Butler with whom he has three sons, Jackson, Cal and Cooper.

MIKE MYERS

Myers began acting in commercials at the age of eight and appeared in ads for Datsun, Pepsi, Kmart, and Apple Jacks, among others. At the end of his senior year at Stephen Leacock High School in 1981, he auditioned for and was accepted into the Second City Comedy Troupe. Myers performed with the group in Toronto and Chicago. In 1989, producer Lorne Michaels hired him as an actor and writer for Saturday Night Live.

As one of the youngest actors on the famous show, Myers once again had big shoes to fill—former members of the SNL cast included Second City alumni Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi, as well as Eddie Murphy. Myers soon built up a portfolio of personae for himself—some of the most recognizable were Dieter, German host of the dance party/talk show "Sprockets;" Linda Richman, the often-“Verklempt” New York Jewish host of “Coffee Talk;” and Lank Thompson, the “Handsome Actor.” His most famous alter-ego, heavy metal enthusiast Wayne Campbell, broadcast his own TV show, “Wayne's World,” from the basement of his parents' house in suburban Aurora, Illinois—Myers has said he based the character on his own experience growing up in Scarborough.

The tremendous popularity of “Wayne's World” on SNL led to a movie version, which Myers co-wrote and starred in alongside Dana Carvey as Wayne Campbell's dim sidekick, Garth Algar. Wayne's World earned $200 million in combined box office and video sales. In 1993, Myers's film career seemed well on its way, with two reasonably successful releases, Wayne's World 2, and So I Married An Axe Murderer, both of which had moderate success. After six years on SNL, Myers left the show in 1995.

After a two year hiatus from filmmaking, Myers returned in 1997 with a bang in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which he also wrote. Like Wayne's World, this outrageous spoof of British spy movies was a hit in theatres, but went on to make millions more in video sales. Myers' hilarious dual performances as the libidinous Powers and his archenemy, Dr. Evil, were followed by a critically acclaimed “serious” turn as disco-owner Steve Rubell in 1998's mediocre 54.

In 1999, Myers had his biggest hit yet with Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Released in June, the movie temporarily pushed Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace from the top spot at the box office, earning $54.7 million in its first weekend for the third highest opening ever. Austin Powers 2 also earned more that weekend than the first installment did in its entire run.

As part of a two-picture deal with Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, he was reportedly set to receive $20 million to write and direct Sprockets, a film version of his SNL skit, elevating him to the ranks of Hollywood's highest-paid actors. After Myers left the project in June 2000, citing the project's poor quality, Universal and Imagine both filed a lawsuit against him in an attempt to force the actor to fulfill his commitment. Myers filed a $20 million countersuit against Universal claiming defamation and invasion of privacy. He later signed a settlement with Imagine agreeing to make a replacement comedy (which cannot be an Austin Powers sequel) with Imagine and Universal before making another film.

Myers lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Robin Ruzan, whom he married in 1993. Before they wed, the couple co-wrote Wayne's World: Extreme Close Up, about the making of his first hit film. Myers has said he based “Coffee Talk's” Linda Richman on Ruzan's mother.

In a landmark agreement, Myers will reportedly receive $25 million from New Line to star in a third installment of Austin Powers. A deal is expected to go through in the spring of 2001. In 2001 and 2004, Myers lent his voice to the title character, a green ogre with a Scottish burr, in the Dreamworks animated hits Shrek and Shrek 2, also featuring the voices of Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz. In 2003, the actor starred in Miramax's romantic comedy A View From the Top opposite Gwyneth Paltrow.

CHARLES NG

ROSIE O'DONNELL

Rosie caught the acting bug when she imitated Gilda Radner's character “Roseanne Rosannadanna” for a high school skit--inciting praise, then a conviction to pursue an acting career through comedy. By watching and imitating other comics, such as Jerry Seinfeld, O'Donnell eventually came up with her own material and honed her magnetic presence for the stage. After graduating from high school (O'Donnell was elected prom queen, homecoming queen, most school-spirited student, and class president), she embarked on a grand tour of the United States, appearing in 49 states over a five-year period. It was a difficult and enlightening time for O'Donnell, as she realized the unhealthy lifestyle and the sexist climate revolving around the comedy world. She told Robert Hoffler of Buzz, “Everybody was doing drugs and drinking, and I was just this little girl on the road, scared in her room.”

O'Donnell studied briefly at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Boston University and made five winning appearances on Star Search before moving to Los Angeles in 1984. She landed a part on the last season of NBC's popular sitcom Gimme a Break before cable music video channel, VH-1, snatched her up as a veejay. When the station decided to stop using veejays, O'Donnell convinced them both to create a showcase for comedians, Stand-Up Spotlight, and keep her on as its host. Stand-Up Spotlight became the VH-1's most popular show, and O'Donnell hosted for four years.

In 1992, after appearing in several television specials, O'Donnell made a much-desired and anticipated move to film when Penny Marshall cast her as Madonna's loveable sidekick in A League of Their Own. During filming, O'Donnell forged many connections and friendships which served to enhance her career, including an enduring relationship with co-star Madonna. Her role spurned a string of “best-friend” roles including “Becky,” Meg Ryan's closest pal in 1993's Sleepless in Seattle. She played assistant district attorney, Gina Garrett, in John Badham's Another Stakeout alongside Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez, and made a cameo in Carl Reiner's Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct spoof, Fatal Instinct. She also appeared as a wise-cracking hairdresser in Beautiful Girls. O'Donnell began a trend of making praiseworthy performances in less than extraordinary films.

In 1994, O'Donnell's dream of performing live on stage materialized when she was cast as Rizzo in Tommy Tune's Broadway revival of Grease!. However, both the production and O'Donnell's performance met lukewarm reviews. O'Donnell also expressed concern about the message of the play, with its sexist premise about a girl who must transform herself into a tightly-clad tramp to gain acceptance by her boyfriend and his friends. Following her Broadway debut, O'Donnell appeared in Lesli Linka Glatter's coming of age film, Now and Then alongside Demi Moore and Melanie Griffith and made a cameo on the TV sitcom Bless This House. In February 1995, after a two-year hiatus, O'Donnell returned briefly to stand-up in order to prepare for an HBO comedy special.

In 1995, O'Donnell accepted a post as host of a variety talk show for NBC, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, featuring such attractions as celebrity guests and Broadway performances. Inspired by The Merv Griffin Show, O'Donnell pitted her nice and cozie attitude against the swarm of sensationalist talk shows commanding the airwaves. Her move to television also allowed her to continue in show-business while raising her two adopted children, Parker and Chelsea Belle in New York (producers built a deluxe nursery for her children right in the Rockefeller Center studio). The show quickly became one of the most popular in daytime television, and O'Donnell was hailed as the “Queen of Nice” due to her down-to-earth frankness and eye-to-eye sense of humour.

O'Donnell continued to make occasional appearances in films; playing a nanny in the children's film Harriett the Spy and a schoolteacher-nun in 1998's Wide Awake. She blossomed in the children's movie arena, playing the voice of Terk, Tarzan's gorilla-companion in Disney's animated production of Tarzan in 1999. Although O'Donnell's repertoire is broad rather than deep, her appeal crosses the boundaries of many different media, attesting to her status as a thoroughly versatile and talented performer. Her continual support of Broadway shows, and theatre in general, brought renewed attention to the stage, and the Tony's award show enjoyed its highest ratings in years when she hosted. In 1999, she hosted the Grammy awards.

After living in Los Angeles for 10 years, O'Donnell returned to New York, where she feels more at home with the matter-of-fact attitude toward celebrity. In late 1999, she adopted a third child, Blake Christopher. O'Donnell received two Emmy awards in 1998 for “Outstanding Talk Show” and “Outstanding Talk Show Host” (the latter for which she illustriously tied with established talk show great, Oprah Winfrey).

In November 2000, O'Donnell admitted that she is planning to leave her talk show after her contract expires in 2002 in order to spend more time on her nonprofit organization, Rosie Adoptions. The organization helps facilitate the process of adoption between birth mothers and adoptive families.

In early 2002, Rosie began making headlines again, with word that she would officially come out as a lesbian in her autobiography Find Me. Later that year, she announced that she would no longer produce her namesake magazine after a little over a year on newsstands. Though the magazine was fairly well received, Rosie cited editorial differences for pulling the plug, causing Rosie's publisher to file a $100 million lawsuit for breach of contract. O'Donnell later filed a $125 million countersuit, claiming the publishers seized control and forced her out. In the midst of the media-heavy trial that ensued, O'Donnell continued to produce her Broadway musical Taboo about the life of Boy George. However, after negative reviews and publicity, the show closed just three months after it opened.

In November 2002, O'Donnell's girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter (who has since legally changed her name to O'Donnell), gave birth to a baby girl, Vivienne Rose.

MARY-KATE OLSEN

LARRY PAGE

GWENYTH PALTROW

As she grew up, Paltrow's burgeoning beauty and developing acting talent began to win her small film roles, beginning with Shout and Hook in 1991. After a well-received spot opposite her mother in the television mini-series Cruel Doubt (1992), Paltrow decided to abandon her art history studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara to pursue acting full time.

The decision paid off--Paltrow won a string of roles in films like Malice (1993), co-starring Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin, Flesh and Bone (1993), and Jefferson in Paris (1995), co-starring Nick Nolte. In 1995, Paltrow appeared in the controversial Seven with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. A romance with the latter helped propel Paltrow into the headlines, just as she began to win starring roles in The Pallbearer (1996), Emma (1996), Great Expectations (1998), and A Perfect Murder (1998) with Michael Douglas. Paltrow confirmed her superstar status with an inspired performance in 1998's Shakespeare in Love, as the immortal Bard's purported muse. The role won her a Best Actress Oscar and made her one of Hollywood's most sought-after female performers.

The willowy blonde also made a name for herself in the gossip columns with much-publicized relationships—and break-ups—with both Pitt and Ben Affleck, the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter of Good Will Hunting(1997). Affleck also appeared (in a relatively small role) in Shakespeare in Love. He and Paltrow, who broke up amicably in early 1998 after a yearlong romance, are still “good friends.”

In 1999, Paltrow starred with Matt Damon in director Anthony Minghella's lush production of The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel by Patricia Highsmith. In 2000, she starred in the karaoke comedy-drama Duets, directed by her father, Bruce Paltrow, and the romantic Bounce, opposite Affleck. In late 2001, Paltrow donned an unflattering fat suit for some of her scenes in the crude comedy Shallow Hal, costarring Jack Black and directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. She also joined an all-star cast, including Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, and Luke and Owen Wilson, in The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson. In 2002, she starred in the literary adaptation Possession, as well as Miramax's romantic spoof A View From the Top.

In October 2002, while vacationing in Italy to celebrate her 30th birthday, Gwyneth's father, Bruce, succumbed to complications from pneumonia after a battle with throat cancer. Following his death, Gwyneth pulled out of some film projects, returning to the screen in the literary drama Sylvia in 2003, about the iconic, tragic poet Sylvia Plath, who killed herself in 1963.

In December 2003, Paltrow married Chris Martin, front man for the British rock group Coldplay. Their daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born in May 2004.

RAMONES, THE

The group formed in 1974 in Forest Hills, New York. The founding members -- Joey (Jeffrey Hyman), Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin), Johnny (John Cummings) and Tommy (Tommy Erdelyi) – jettisoned their birth names and adopted the surname “Ramone”, a moniker once used as an alias by Beatle Paul McCartney.

Having either dropped out or squeaked through high school, the foursome saw rock stardom as an escape from a system they felt had nothing to offer. Disgusted with the ornate style and affectation of then-popular bands like Led Zeppelin, they sought inspiration from the purer forms of 1960s pop. They supercharged these bubble-gum melodies with a considerable dose of modern frustration and accompanied them with morbidly comic lyrics.

Their primitive style was not only a conceptual choice, but also a practical necessity. The decision to become rock stars pre-dated their ability to actually play instruments. Unable to mimic even their favorite contemporaries, they began composing their own music right off the bat. Their signature songs were simple, fast-paced, chord-heavy arrangements devoid of musical trimmings like solos and finger picking.

Sporting torn jeans and motorcycle jackets, the Ramones rose to local prominence through their performances at CBGB, a dilapidated club on Manhattan's Bowery that would later become the epicentre of the punk movement. In 1975, they were signed to Sire Records, an independent label that welcomed their raw, determinedly unpolished sound. Their first release, Ramones (1976), was initially panned by critics, but has since been reappraised as a milestone in the history of modern rock. Featuring songs like “Blitzkrieg Bop”, “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”, and “Beat on the Brat”, the Ramones' tongue-in-cheek anthems of rebellion earned them a solid cult following.

While the Ramones never received significant radio airplay, they maintained their popularity by touring heavily. Their 1976 tour of England planted the seed for the emergence of the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

During the next two decades, the Ramones produced over 20 albums. Although few performed well on the charts, their continuous touring schedule nurtured a devoted following. Despite several lineup changes, including the departure of Tommy and Dee Dee and the addition of Marc "Marky" Bell (1978), Richard "Ritchie" Beau (1983) and Chris "C.J." Ward (1989), the Ramones consistently drew large crowds to their high-energy live performances.

Their fierce devotion to their minimalist sound resisted the influence of record producers, who sought make them more palatable to a mainstream audience. However, many contemporary musicians have recently been citing the band as a fundamental influence. On March 19, 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Joey Ramone died on April 15, 2001, at the age of 49 of lymphatic cancer. Dee Dee Ramone -- possibly the member of the band most faithful to the punk lifestyle -- died of a suspected drug overdose on June 5, 2002. Johnny Ramone died just two years later, on September 15, 2004, at the age of 55, after fighting prostate cancer.

GARY RIDGWAY

JOEL RIFKIN

RINGLING BROS

GARY SINISE

Sinise began his film and television career in the director's chair on such series as Crime Story and thirtysomething and the feature film Miles From Home. In 1992, he directed, produced and starred in a remake of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

In 1994, Sinise became familiar to mainstream audiences as Lt. Dan in the blockbuster film Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks. His performance as the physically crippled and emotionally shattered veteran earned him an Oscar nomination. He re-teamed with Hanks for Apollo 13 in 1995 and starred in the television Biopics Truman in 1995 (for which he won a Golden Globe) and George Wallace in 1997 (for which he won an Emmy). In 2000, he appeared in the drama Mission to Mars and the thriller Imposter. Sinise returned to the small screen in 2004 to star in the crime series CSI: New York.

Sinise is married to actress Moira Harris, who is an original member of Steppenwolf Theater. They have two daughters, Sophie and Ella, and a son, McCanna.

MIRA SORVINO

Despite her father's worries, Sorvino appeared in several student productions throughout high school and college. After graduating, she moved to New York and spent three years waiting tables as she tried to make her name as an actress. She first stepped into the spotlight in 1992 in the short-lived syndicated teen serial Swans Crossing. When that ended she landed a role on the soap opera Guiding Light but she turned down a three-year contract there in the hope that better opportunities lay ahead. She was right – just one year later she made her Hollywood debut as Rob Morrow's intellectual wife in Quiz Show (1994), directed by Robert Redford and starring Ralph Fiennes.

Sorvino's breakthrough role was Linda, the squeaky-voiced, bleached blonde prostitute with a heart of gold in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995). The film's casting agents nearly prohibited her from auditioning for the role because she seemed too refined to play a call girl. However, her facility with languages and accents helped her land the role for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her then-boyfriend, the writer-director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), escorted her to the ceremony the night she won, but the couple has since broken up.

Sorvino went on to appear in a number of diverse projects, including a turn as Marilyn Monroe in HBO's Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996), costarring Ashley Judd as the legendary sex symbol's more timid side. Sorvino also played an entomologist (the 1997 thriller Mimic), and a kung fu fighter (1998's The Replacement Killers, costarring Chow Yun Fat). She also starred opposite Lisa Kudrow in the comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and as John Leguizamo's wife in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). In early 2001, Sorvino stars as Daisy Buchanan in A&E's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age classic, The Great Gatsby, costarring Paul Rudd.

Sorvino married her 22-year-old actor beau Christopher Backus in June 2004.

BRITNEY SPEARS

At age 11, Spears auditioned again, this time successfully, for the Mickey Mouse Club. For the 1993 and 1994 seasons, she lived in Orlando, Florida, where the show is filmed, in a dorm with the rest of the cast—including two future members of the group 'N Sync and Keri Russell, future star of the WB's Felicity. After her run on the MMC, Spears attended high school at home in Louisiana for a year, before heading back to New York at age 15 to audition for executives at Jive Records. She signed a development deal with Jive and over the next two years recorded her debut album with producers Eric Foster White, who had worked with Whitney Houston (one of Spears's professed influences, with Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey), and Max Martin, who worked with fellow pop stars the Backstreet Boys.

The album, Baby One More Time, was completed by early 1998 but wasn't released until January 1999. During the interim, Spears set out on a promotional tour to shopping malls throughout America, prompting inevitable comparisons with '80s teen pop stars such as Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Her first single, also titled “Baby One More Time,” was released in October 1998; its success got Spears a gig opening for 'N Sync, by then a popular teen band. When Spears's album was released on January 12, 1999, it went straight to the top of the Billboard charts, becoming the first album of the year to debut at No. 1. The single, spurred along by a racy video featuring Spears dressed as a bare-midriff Catholic schoolgirl, also shot up to No. 1. By September, Baby One More Time had sold over 6 million copies. Spears's first eagerly-awaited solo tour opened in June 1999.

Some controversy surrounded a Rolling Stone cover story in March 1999, picturing the 17-year-old Spears in a seductive, Lolita-esque pose. Spears has vigorously denied the widespread rumor that she has breast implants, as well as the rumor that she is actually in her 20s.

Before the Grammy Awards, held in February 2000, Spears had emerged as one of the leading contenders for Best New Artist. She eventually lost the award, to fellow ex-Mickey Mouse Clubber and teen pop sensation Christina Aguilera.

Spears' second album, Oops!...I Did It Again, hit stores in May of 2000. With 1.3 million copies sold in its first week in stores, the album became the top-selling debut by a solo female artist ever. It earned Spears two more Grammy nominations, for Best Vocal Pop Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for the single "Oops!...I Did It Again").

Spears released her third album, Britney, in November 2001.

Spears dated fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum Justin Timberlake of the blockbuster boy band 'N Sync. Their much-talked-about breakup was followed by an annulled impromptu marriage to childhood pal Jason Allen Alexander in 2003. Spears married dancer Kevin Federline in a much-publicized wedding in September 2004.

DOROTHY STRATTEN

RUBEN STUDDARD

Studdard not only earned a spot on American Idol, but eventually won first place in May 2003 thanks to more than 24 million viewers who cast their votes. Dubbed “The Velvet Teddy Bear” by guest judge Gladys Knight, he crooned to triumph over his rival, fellow Southerner Clay Aiken. Shortly after the win, Studdard produced his debut single, a cover of Westlife's "Flying Without Wings.” After completing a 39-city tour with his fellow competitors, he returned to record his first album, Soulful. Advance orders for the album topped the 1 million mark before it was even released in December 2003.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND

His interest in acting took him to the stage at an early age, in a production of Throne of Strow. In 1983, he appeared in his first feature film, Max Dugan Returns, alongside his father. He appeared in numerous coming-of-age films throughout the 1980s, including The Bay Boy, Rob Reiner's Stand by Me and the vampire thriller The Lost Boys. In 1986, Sutherland founded Still Water Productions, named after a river that ran through his Montana ranch.

In 1990, Sutherland earned national attention for his role in Flatliners, a psychodrama costarring Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Julia Roberts. Two years later, he starred in the blockbuster A Few Good Men, and within a year, he made his directorial debut with the television drama Last Light, in which he also starred as a prison inmate.

The late 1990s showcased Sutherland's preference for dark, intensely psychological scripts. In 1997, he starred in the modern film noir The Last Days of Frankie the Fly and the science fiction-mystery film Dark City. He released his second self-directed TV movie, Woman Wanted in 1999, as well as the psychotic drama Ground Control.

Sutherland shifted gears in 2000 for Picking Up the Pieces, a satirical comedy infused with screwball humour. The same year, he starred in Stephen Hopkins' hit series 24, which earned him a Golden Globe award.

Sutherland was married to Camelia Kath from 1987-1990; they have a daughter, Sarah Jude. He married Kelly Winn in 1996; the couple separated in 1999, and Kiefer officially filed for divorce in 2004. He is currently linked to 24 costar Reiko Aylesworth.

CHARLIZE THERON

In 1996, Theron received both exposure and critical praise for her first film, Two Days in the Valley. The film proved to be a stepping stone for the young actress, who landed subsequent roles as Keanu Reeves' wife in The Devil's Advocate and Trial and Error, both in 1997. In 1998, Theron was cast as a perpetually aroused super model in Woody Allen's Celebrity, and earned her first starring role in Disney's remake of Mighty Joe Young.

In 1999, she landed a string of roles in notable films, including The Astronaut's Wife opposite Johnny Depp and the critically acclaimed The Cider House Rules with Tobey Maguire. In 2001, she joined a team with Reeves for the weepy and romantic Sweet November. Two years later, she starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in the heist thriller The Italian Job. In 2004, Theron received an Academy Award for her performance in Monster, a Biopic of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

Off screen, Theron as been coupled with actor Craig Bierko and Third Eye Blind vocalist Stephan Jenkins.

BILLY BOB THORNTON

UMA THURMAN

Thurman capitalized on the popular success of Pulp Fiction by appearing in a series of big-budget productions including Gattaca (1997), Batman and Robin (1997), Les Miserables (1998), and The Avengers (1998).

In recent years, Thurman has taken a more "independent" tack, favoring a series of riskier projects including Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown(1999), a Merchant/Ivory production of Henry James' The Golden Bowl (2000), and Chelsea Walls (2001), directed by husband Ethan Hawke. In 2003, she starred in Quentin Tarantino's two-volume epic Kill Bill as a vengeful sword slashing assassin. The actress will also join Ben Affleck in the sci-fi thriller Paycheck.

In 1998, she married Gattaca co-star Ethan Hawke, and in the same year they welcomed their first child, Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke. In 2001, the couple had a son, Roan. Thurman and Hawke split up two years later.

JACK UNTERWEGER

In 1976, Unterweger was convicted of the murder of Margaret Schaefer and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he learned to read and write, eventually earning literary respect both inside and outside the prison. In 1984, his prison autobiography Fegefeur (Purgatory) became a bestseller. Convinced that he was a reformed man, the state released him on parole in 1990.

After his release, Unterweger became a literary celebrity, appearing on talk shows and booking speaking engagements. Fegefeur was made into a feature film, and the former murderer became a journalist.

Not everyone was convinced of his transformation, however. After a string of prostitute murders matched the details of the Schaefer crime, police put Unterweger under surveillance. After several months of detective work, they had gathered enough evidence to arrest him.

In 1992, Unterweger was detained, but even then, he continued to give interviews freely, proclaiming his innocence and calling upon his colleagues for support. Despite his chatty demeanor, the evidence against him was overwhelming, and he was found guilty of nine counts of murder in 1994. Soon after sentencing, Unterweger used the string from his prison jumpsuit to hang himself.

GIANNI VERSACE

Versace's illustrious career was decorated with numerous awards, including four L'Occhio d'Oros and an American Fashion Oscar in 1993. Some of his most imaginative creations could be found in theatres; the designer was often applauded for his costume designs for such ballets as Richard Strauss' Josephlegende in 1982, Gustav Mahler's Lieb und Leid in 1983 and Bejart's Chaka Zulu in 1989. In 1987, Versace was awarded with theatre's Maschera D'Argento prize. He has also created stage costumes for such pop performers as Elton John, Madonna and Tina Turner.

Versace's designs have been showcased in several museums, including Chicago's National Field Museum, London's Royal College of Art, Japan's Kobe City Museum and Germany's Kunstgewerbemuseum. A skilled businessman, the designer was constantly debuting extensions of his original line. In 1989, he announced the opening of Atelier Versace, a workshop for high fashion models. That same year, he introduced Versus, a contemporary, alternative line for young people. He launched his classic Signature line in 1991 and Home Signature in 1993. He has also published numerous books, including Rock and Royalty, The Art of Being You and Men Without Ties.

In July 1997, Versace was gunned down in his South Beach home in Miami, Florida. The prime suspect for his killing was found dead in a Miami Beach boathouse. A designer to the stars, Versace brought vitality and art to an industry considered out of touch with the street. In less than 10 years, he built an empire worth $807 million.

CHARLES WHITMAN

RENEE ZELLWEGER

The film's critical and commercial success made Zellweger one of Hollywood's hottest new commodities. Instead of cashing in with another big-budget film, she took a risk and made several independent films, including Deceiver (1997), opposite Tim Roth, and A Price Above Rubies (1998), in which she played a rebellious wife in a Hasidic Jewish family. She later turned in a critically acclaimed performance opposite Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998), an adaptation of Anna Quindlen's novel about a daughter coping with her mother's slow death from cancer.

In 1999, Zellweger starred with Chris O'Donnell in The Bachelor and made headlines on account of her budding romance with comic star Jim Carrey. In the comedy Me, Myself and Irene (2000), written and directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Carrey played a character with two personalities, both of whom are in love with Zellweger's Irene. That same year, Zellweger turned in a critically acclaimed performance in the black comedy Nurse Betty, costarring Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, and Greg Kinnear. In January 2001, she won a Golden Globe for the performance.

In 2001, Zellweger starred as the neurotic British title character in the film adaptation of Helen Fielding's bestselling novel, Bridget Jones's Diary. The film costarred Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, and its sequel, The Edge of Reason, is slated for a mid-2004 release. In 2003, Zellweger earned her second Goden Globe for her performance in Chicago, the film adaptation of the 1970s musical costarring Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones. That year, she also starred in the retro-romantic comedy Down With Love opposite Ewan McGregor. The following year, Zellweger continued her winning streak by capturing the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Ruby in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain. Upcoming projects include the Biopic Piece of My Heart, in which Zellweger stars as singing legend Janis Joplin, and Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe.

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