title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, meaning that it is not set out in any single document. The British constitution consists of many documents and most importantly for the evolution of the office of the prime minister, it is based on customs known as constitutional conventions that became accepted practice. In 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs:In this country we live ... under an unwritten Constitution. It is true that we have on the Statute-book great instruments like Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights which define and secure many of our rights and privileges; but the great bulk of our constitutional liberties and ... our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the formal assent of the King, Lords and Commons. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, but which in the course of time received universal observance and respect.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The relationships between the prime minister and the sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the prime minister's executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still formally vested in the sovereign, who remains the head of state. Despite its growing dominance in the constitutional hierarchy, the premiership was given little formal recognition until the 20th century; the legal fiction was maintained that the sovereign still governed directly. The position was first mentioned in statute only in 1917, in the schedule of the Chequers Estate Act. Increasingly during the 20th century, the office and role of prime minister featured in statute law and official documents; however, the prime minister's powers and relationships with other institutions still largely continue to derive from ancient royal prerogatives and historic and modern constitutional conventions. Prime ministers continue to hold the position of First Lord of the Treasury and, since November 1968, that of Minister for the Civil Service, the latter giving them authority over the civil service.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Under this arrangement, Britain might appear to have two executives: the prime minister and the sovereign. The concept of "the Crown" resolves this paradox. The Crown symbolises the state's authority to govern: to make laws and execute them, impose taxes and collect them, declare war and make peace. Before the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, the sovereign exclusively wielded the powers of the Crown; afterwards, Parliament gradually forced monarchs to assume a neutral political position. Parliament has effectively dispersed the powers of the Crown, entrusting its authority to responsible ministers (the prime minister and Cabinet), accountable for their policies and actions to Parliament, in particular the elected House of Commons.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Although many of the sovereign's prerogative powers are still legally intact, constitutional conventions have removed the monarch from day-to-day governance, with ministers exercising the royal prerogatives, leaving the monarch in practice with three constitutional rights: to be kept informed, to advise and to warn.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: In modern times, much of the process involving prime ministerial appointments is informally governed by constitutional conventions and authoritative sources, like The Cabinet Manual, paragraphs 2.7 to 2.20 and 3.1 to 3.2.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister is appointed by the monarch, through the exercise of the royal prerogative. In the past, the monarch has used personal choice to dismiss or appoint a prime minister (the last time being in 1834), but it is now the case that they should not be drawn into party politics.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister "...holds that position by virtue of his or her ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, which in turn commands the confidence of the electorate, as expressed through a general election." By convention, the prime minister is also an MP and is normally the leader of the political party that commands a majority in the House of Commons.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The Prime Minister's Office helps the prime minister to 'establish and deliver the government's overall strategy and policy priorities, and to communicate the government's policies to Parliament, the public and international audiences'. The Prime Minister's Office is formally part of the Cabinet Office, but the boundary between its work and that of the wider Cabinet Office can be unclear; the wider Cabinet Office might carry out very similar work. Peter Hennessy has claimed that this overall arrangement means there is in fact effectively a Prime Minister's Department, though it is not called this.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Prime Minister's Questions is a constitutional convention, currently held as a single session every Wednesday at noon when the House of Commons is sitting, in which the prime minister answers questions from members of Parliament (MPs). The leader of the opposition usually asks the prime minister six questions, and the leader of the third-largest parliamentary party can ask two questions. It is an occasion when the prime minister appears regularly on live television and radio.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister also appears before the Liaison Committee to answer questions about public policy.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The personal protection of the prime minister and former prime ministers is the responsibility of Protection Command within the Metropolitan Police Service. The fleet of Prime Ministerial Cars provides the prime minister with a number of security features as well as transport. The vehicles are driven by officers from this unit. Air transport for the prime minister is provided by a variety of military and civilian operators.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: One of the roles of the prime minister is to represent the UK at home and abroad, for example at the annual G7 Summit. The prime minister makes many international trips. According to Gus O'Donnell, the number of overseas visits for the prime minister has gone up.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister's second-in-command has variably served as deputy prime minister, first secretary of state and "de facto" deputy and at other times prime ministers have chosen not to select a permanent deputy at all, preferring "ad hoc" arrangements.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Nobody has the right of automatic succession to the prime ministership. However, it is generally considered by those with an interest in the matter that in the event of the death of the prime minister, it would be appropriate to appoint an interim prime minister, though there is some debate as to how to decide who this should be.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: According to Rodney Brazier, there are no procedures within government to cope with the sudden death of the prime minister. There is also no such title as acting prime minister of the United Kingdom. Despite refusing "...to discuss a hypothetical situation" with BBC News in 2011, the Cabinet Office said the following in 2006:Additionally, when the prime minister is travelling, it is standard practice for a senior duty minister to be appointed who can attend to urgent business and meetings if required, though the prime minister remains in charge and updated throughout.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: On 6 April 2020, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted into ICU, he asked First Secretary of State Dominic Raab "to deputise for him where necessary".


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: A prime minister ends their tenure by offering their resignation to the British monarch. This can happen after their party has suffered a general election defeat, so that they no longer command the confidence of the House of Commons. It can also happen mid-term, if they are forced to resign for political reasons, or for other reasons such as ill-health. If the prime minister resigns mid-term, and their party has a majority in the Commons, the party selects a new leader according to its rules, and this new leader is invited by the monarch to become the new prime minister. The outgoing prime minister is likely to remain in post until the new leader has been chosen by the party. After resigning, the outgoing prime minister remains a Member of Parliament. An outgoing prime minister can ask the monarch to bestow honours on any number of people of their choosing, known as the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours. No incumbent prime minister has ever lost their own seat at a general election. Only one prime minister has been assassinated: Spencer Perceval, in 1812.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: On taking office a new prime minister usually makes a public statement to announce to the country that they have been appointed by the reigning monarch (called "kissing hands"). This is usually done by saying words to the effect of:


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Throughout the United Kingdom, the prime minister outranks all other dignitaries except members of the royal family, the lord chancellor, and senior ecclesiastical figures.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: In 2010, the prime minister received £142,500 including a salary of £65,737 as a member of parliament. Until 2006, the lord chancellor was the highest-paid member of the government, ahead of the prime minister. This reflected the lord chancellor's position at the head of the judicial pay scale. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 eliminated the lord chancellor's judicial functions and also reduced the office's salary to below that of the prime minister.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister is customarily a member of the Privy Council and thus entitled to the appellation "The Right Honourable". Membership of the council is retained for life. It is a constitutional convention that only a privy counsellor can be appointed prime minister. Most potential candidates have already attained this status. The only case when a non-privy counsellor was the natural appointment was Ramsay MacDonald in 1924. The issue was resolved by appointing him to the Council immediately prior to his appointment as prime minister.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: According to the now-defunct Department for Constitutional Affairs, the prime minister is made a privy counsellor as a result of taking office and should be addressed by the official title prefixed by "The Right Honourable" and not by a personal name. Although this form of address is employed on formal occasions, it is rarely used by the media. As "prime minister" is a position, not a title, the incumbent should be referred to as "the prime minister". The title "Prime Minister" (e.g. "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak") is technically incorrect but is sometimes used erroneously outside the United Kingdom and has more recently become acceptable within it. Within the UK, the expression "Prime Minister Sunak" is never used, although it, too, is sometimes used by foreign dignitaries and news sources.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: 10 Downing Street, in London, has been the official place of residence of the prime minister since 1732; they are entitled to use its staff and facilities, including extensive offices. Chequers, a country house in Buckinghamshire, gifted to the government in 1917, may be used as a country retreat for the prime minister.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Upon retirement, it is customary for the sovereign to grant a prime minister some honour or dignity. The honour bestowed is commonly, but not invariably, membership of the UK's most senior order of chivalry, the Order of the Garter. The practice of creating a retired prime minister a Knight of the Garter (KG) has been fairly prevalent since the mid-nineteenth century. Upon the retirement of a prime minister who is Scottish, it is likely that the primarily Scottish honour of Knight of the Thistle (KT) will be used instead of the Order of the Garter, which is generally regarded as an English honour.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Historically it has also been common to grant prime ministers a peerage upon retirement from the Commons, elevating the individual to the Lords. Formerly, the peerage bestowed was usually an earldom. The last such creation was for Harold Macmillan, who resigned in 1963. Unusually, he became Earl of Stockton only in 1984, over twenty years after leaving office.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: Macmillan's successors, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher, all accepted life peerages (although Douglas-Home had previously disclaimed his hereditary title as Earl of Home). Edward Heath did not accept a peerage of any kind and nor have any of the prime ministers to retire since 1990, although Heath in 1992, John Major in 2005 and Tony Blair in 2022 were later appointed as Knights of the Garter, the latter had previously disclosed that he did not want honours bestowed for himself or future prime ministers.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The most recent former prime minister to die was Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990) on 8 April 2013. Her death meant that for the first time since 1955 (the year in which the Earldom of Attlee was created, subsequent to the death of Earl Baldwin in 1947) the membership of the House of Lords included no former prime minister, a situation which remains the case as of 2022.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: All former prime ministers are entitled to claim for salary or office expenses incurred in fulfilling public duties in that role. The allowance may not be used to pay for private or parliamentary duties. It is administered by the Cabinet Office Finance Team.


title: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

text: The maximum amount which may be claimed per year is £115,000, plus 10% towards any staff pension costs. This limit is reviewed annually, and at the start of each Parliament, by the Prime Minister. The maximum level may be adjusted downwards if the former prime minister receives any public funds for fulfilling other public appointments.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Laal Singh Chaddha is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Advait Chandan from a screenplay by Eric Roth and Atul Kulkarni. Produced by Aamir Khan Productions and Viacom18 Studios, it is a remake of the 1994 American film "Forrest Gump" which itself is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film stars Aamir Khan as the title character alongside Kareena Kapoor, Naga Chaitanya (in his Hindi film debut) and Mona Singh.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The adaptation of "Forrest Gump" underwent a series of changes over a period of two decades, with Kulkarni spending the first ten years adapting the script, and another ten years purchasing the remake rights. Aamir Khan bought the rights of the film in early 2018 with the help of Los Angeles-based producer and director Radhika Chaudhari and announced the film officially on 14 March 2019, with its title. The film's score is by Tanuj Tiku, while its original songs are composed by Pritam and their lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Laal Singh Chaddha" has been filmed in more than 100 Indian locations. Principal photography began in October 2019 and concluded in September 2021, after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was initially scheduled for cinema release during multiple dates in 2020–2022, but kept getting delayed due to the production halt caused by the pandemic, and was theatrically released worldwide on 11 August 2022, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day. It opened to mixed reviews with criticism for Khan's performance. Against its ₹180 crore budget, the film generated a worldwide revenue of less than ₹90 crore in its first week and was thus declared a box office bomb, although, it became the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022 at international box office, earning more than "Gangubai Kathiawadi" and "The Kashmir Files".


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: In 2014, on a train bound for Chandigarh, a man named Laal Singh Chaddha recounts the story of his life to strangers who happen to sit next to him, while eating golgappas. As a boy in 1977, Laal has an IQ of 75 and is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine. He lives in Karoli, Punjab, with his mother who runs a farm and encourages him to live beyond his disabilities. He meets a girl named Rupa D'Souza on his first day at school and the two become best friends. One day, a group of bullies starts pelting stones at Laal. When he runs to escape them, his leg braces come off, and he realizes that he is a fast runner. Rupa's father is arrested by the police as he was abusive towards her mother. When Rupa's mother dies, she is sent to live with her grandmother, who used to work at Laal’s house. Laal was happy because now he and Rupa could always be together. When the 1984 anti-Sikh riots break out, Laal and his mother go to stay at his aunt's place to be safe. There, Laal meets a young Shah Rukh Khan and teaches him dance steps and poses which he would later go on to use in his films.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: To save Laal from rioters, Laal's mother cuts off his long hair and removes his turban, to hide his identity as a Sikh. Laal’s mother sends him and Rupa to Hindu College in Delhi. There, Laal witnesses L.K. Advani's Ram Rath Yatra. Laal takes part in track and field, and wins many prizes whereas Rupa starts taking part in modeling competitions, as she dreams of becoming a model in Mumbai and becoming rich. Sometime later, Laal joins the army, where he meets Balaraju Bodi aka Bala, who wants to start an undergarment business. They both decide to start an undergarment-manufacturing company together, once they leave the army. Rupa goes to Mumbai to pursue her dreams.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: In 1999, the Kargil War breaks out between India and Pakistan. Laal and Bala were in the same battalion. Rupa had told Laal to start running as soon as his life was in danger. When the Pakistani soldiers had an advantage, he runs but realizes that Bala is left behind. He goes back, but every time he goes back, he finds another soldier who is injured and asks for help. He also saves a Pakistani commander, not knowing he was the enemy. He could not save Bala, leaving him heartbroken, but is awarded a medal by the Indian Government for saving five soldiers.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Rupa never responded to any letters that Laal sent her. She had become the mistress of a gangster who took advantage of her and lied to her about fulfilling her dreams (parallels are made to the controversial relationship of the infamous gangster Abu Salem and Monica Bedi). Laal goes to meet her and sees the gangster slap her; Laal responds angrily by beating him up. Laal says that he loves Rupa, but she tells him that they have no future together and that he should forget her. Laal suddenly sees Mohammed Paaji, the Pakistani commander he had saved during the war. He had escaped from the hospital before anyone could know his true identity and has been living alone ever since, and has been wheelchair-bound. The two strike a friendship and Mohammed loves him for his purity and innocence, also feeling guilty for his violent acts of terrorism.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Laal finally starts the undergarment business but doesn't know how to market his product. Then, Mohammed Paaji joins the team. Mohammed gives the idea that if the brand is named after a girl, then maybe their sales would increase. Laal knew only one girl, so he renames his company Rupa (a reference to the knitwear company of the same name). The sales start to grow, and soon the company was selling innerwear to all of India, making Laal and Mohammed successful entrepreneurs. Mohammed invests money in Bombay Stock Exchange what Laal thinks is "some kind of cowshed" and they become even richer. After a while, Mohammed returns to his country and opens a school for children. Laal gives half his earnings to Bala's family for having inspired the undergarment business venture. Laal's mother also passes away from cancer, leaving him alone.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Laal dedicates his time to tending to the land his mother left him. Rupa comes back to stay with him. She reciprocates his feelings and the two make love. Sometime later, the police come and arrest Rupa, as she had links with the underworld, and take her away, without Laal knowing. She is sent to prison for six months. Laal is heartbroken and decides to go running "for no particular reason". He goes on a cross-country marathon for over four years. People think that he might be running for some great purpose, and the media start covering his journey. His run covers almost every inch of the country. After years of running, he suddenly stops. Many people had started running along with him, thinking that he was running for some great purpose. They ask him why he stopped, expecting a philosophical answer. Laal says that he is tired and that he just wants to go back home.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: On reaching home, Laal wears a turban again after many years. He is pleasantly surprised to know that Rupa had written him a lot of letters. He tells his fellow passengers on the train that Rupa had served her sentence and is now living in Chandigarh, and he is going to meet her. Laal reunites with Rupa and finds out that he is the father of her son named Aman. Laal is overwhelmed with emotion and the two get married. Rupa dies sometime later due to a disease. Laal takes care of Aman and takes him to the same school he went to, thinking his life had come full circle.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: In August 2018, Khan announced that he had purchased the remake rights of the 1994 American drama "Forrest Gump", from Paramount Pictures, which produced the film, and also suggested he will play the lead role in this film. On 14 March 2019, coinciding with his 54th birthday, Khan officially announced the project which has been named "Laal Singh Chaddha", with his ex-wife Kiran Rao co-producing the film. Advait Chandan, who previously directed Khan's "Secret Superstar" (2017), was signed in to direct the remake.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Kulkarni, who also worked with Khan in "Rang De Basanti" (2006), wrote the Hindi adaptation for the original. In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Kulkarni said, "I wrote the script ten years ago, but Aamir took a couple of years because he did not believe that I must have written a good script. So he did not want to hurt me. After a few years, he heard the script and within 30 seconds he said I am going to do the film." Kulkarni also said that it took over seven years to get the remake rights from the makers of the original (Paramount), as the movie is solely based on the original. Once the studio confirmed with Radhika Chaudhari that the rights were available, Khan made a trip to Los Angeles in February 2018 and met with the studio heads along with Radhika Chaudhari and the process of acquisition started.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Aamir Khan playing the title character, Kareena Kapoor was confirmed to play the female lead role in June 2019, thus pairing up with Khan for the third time after "3 Idiots" (2009) and "" (2012). Manushi Chhillar was first choice for leading lady but, already signed a contract with Yash Raj Films. In August 2019, Vijay Sethupathi was signed alongside Khan, however he later opted out due to other commitments. In September 2019, Yogi Babu was approached to play a pivotal role. In November 2019, Mona Singh who also starred in Khan's "3 Idiots", was also cast in the pivotal role. Aamir Khan lost 20 kilograms for the younger version of his role in the film. In May 2021, Naga Chaitanya was confirmed to be a part of the cast, making his Bollywood debut.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: While the film's principal photography was expected to commence in October 2019, Khan and his team went on scouting location in April 2019, across Dharmasala for five days.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Laal Singh Chaddha" is reportedly filmed in more than 100 Indian locations. The principal photography of the film was commenced on 31 October 2019, with a muhurat shot given by Khan's mother Zeenat Hussain. The first schedule took place at Chandigarh, on 1 November and was completed within 21 days. Stills featuring Khan and Kapoor from the sets were leaked onto the internet, with Khan's look featuring him with a thick beard and turban went viral. A romantic track featuring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor was shot at Chandigarh on 28 November 2019.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The second schedule was kickstarted in Kolkata on 5 December 2019. Aamir Khan and his team flew to Kerala in the second week of December, where Khan's photos of shooting from Thekkumbhagam, Changanassery and Kappil went viral. Khan completed the second schedule on 19 December 2019, and kickstarted the third schedule on 21 December 2019, with shooting took place in Jaisalmer, Goa and Himachal Pradesh. The third schedule was completed on 12 February 2020, and Khan headed to Chandigarh for their next schedule. The team wrapped up the last leg of shoot on 6 March 2020. The cast and crew flew back to shoot in Punjab on 16 March 2020, before production of the film got halted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Aamir Khan cancelled the Ladakh schedule on 6 July, owing to the India-China standoff along the Galwan Valley. Later due to difficulties in shooting the film across India, Aamir decided to resume the film's shoot in Turkey, for the recce of new shoot. On 7 September 2020, Aamir Khan resumed the shooting of the film in Mumbai, with safety measures and guidelines instructed by the government. On 27 September 2020, Aamir and his team flew to Delhi to shoot some portions, with pictures featuring his younger version went viral. Some scenes were shot at the Hotel Centaur in Delhi on 7 October 2020. Kareena Kapoor wrapped up her portions on 15 October 2020.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Khan suffered a rib injury while shooting an action sequence, but ensuring that there is no delay in the shoot, the actor took a few pain killers and tried to subside his injury for the time being and continued working as he knew that there were special arrangements made for the shooting schedule. Earlier, while shooting for an important running sequence, Aamir Khan had suffered extreme physical exertion due to constant running. The actor shot few sequences at a sports complex located at Noida on 28 October 2020.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: In July 2021, Aamir Khan and his team flew to Ladakh, where they spent some one month and shot war sequences. After wrapping up the Ladakh schedule the team reached to Srinagar in the first week of August. In Srinagar, the shooting of the film was carried out at various places, some important sequences were shot at Delhi Public School Srinagar (DPS), Amar Singh College and Boulevard Road near Dal Lake. During shooting in the premises of DPS, a 12-year-old, visually impaired student Zainab Bilal aka RJ Zainab has interviewed Aamir Khan for the school's in-house radio station, Radio DPS. Chaitanya joined the production in July 2021 and completed shooting his portions by August 2021.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prakash Vaghasiya were seen resuming the shoot of the film in Mumbai on 13 September. After wrapping up portions together last year, the two of them reunited for patchwork shoot in Andheri. The film was wrapped up on 16 September 2021.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The film score is composed by Tanuj Tiku while the original songs featured in the film are composed by Pritam, in his third collaboration with Aamir Khan after "Dhoom 3" (2013) and "Dangal" (2016), and lyrics for the songs are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The music sitting discussion was held at Khan's Panchgani House in August 2019, with composer Pritam and lyricist Bhattacharya, working on the film's music. The title track of "Laal Singh Chaddha", which featured in the motion poster, was recorded by Mohan Kannan of the Agnee band in January 2020. The singer didn't initially know that he was singing for Aamir's film, who "loved" the song, a studio recording person told him. He mentioned in the article that lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya has written a "gold" song and has beautifully "encapsulated the whole story". Sonu Nigam on his official YouTube page on 13 January 2022 mentioned that he just completed a recording of a "very beautiful" and "wonderfully written" song that took about 5 hours to record. The first song of the film "Kahani" was released on 28 April 2022. Sonu Nigam's song, "Main Ki Karaan," was released on 12 May 2022. A song sung by Arijit Singh, "Phir Na Aisi Raat Aayegi," released on 24 June 2022. The fourth song "Tur Kalleyan" took more than 6 weeks of shoot and was shot at multiple locations across India. The song was released on 15 July 2022. A second version of "Kahani," sung by Sonu Nigam was released on 18 July 2022. "Tere Hawaale," a duet sung by Arijit Singh and Shilpa Rao, was released on 4 August 2022.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The songs "Kahani" and "Tur Kalleyan" had been re-recorded in both Tamil and Telugu languages prior to the release of the movie in both languages respectively. The Tamil lyrics have been penned by Muthamil and the Telugu lyrics by Bhaskarabhatla.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Pinkvilla" reviewing the track "Kahani" stated that "The 2-minute song takes you inside the world of Laal Singh Chaddha which is innocent, heartwarming, and all about creating beautiful memories." "The Indian Express" stated that "The mood and flavours of Laal Singh Chaddha are beautifully packed in its latest song "Kahani". "Hindustan Times" reviewing the track "Tur Kalleyan" stated that "The song captures the beauty of rising above everything else and walking alone."


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Laal Singh Chaddha" released on 11 August 2022 alongside dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu languages. Earlier, it was announced to release on 25 December 2020, coinciding with Christmas. However, due to production halt owing to COVID-19 pandemic in India, the release was delayed by a year to 24 December 2021, aiming for the Christmas weekend. It was later rescheduled to release on 11 February and then 14 April 2022, however, it was postponed. The Motion Picture Association gave the film a PG-13 rating for "some violent content, thematic elements and suggestive material."


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The film was distributed in India by Viacom18 Studios, while international distribution of the film was taken through Paramount Pictures. The Telugu rights for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region of the film were acquired by Geetha Arts. The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights are acquired by Red Giant Movies.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The digital distribution rights were acquired initially by Netflix at a cost of 150 crore. However, after the catastrophic performance of the film, Netflix canceled the deal. Netflix had initially offered a figure of around 80–90 crore. Netflix finally offered a deal at 50 crore. The film was digitally streamed on Netflix from 6 October 2022 in Hindi and dubbed versions of Tamil and Telugu languages. Upon release, the film ranked in the top 10 in 13 countries in its first week on Netflix, the film finished second on the global non-English movies chart, with over 6.6 million hours viewed.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Laal Singh Chaddha" received mixed reviews from critics. Devesh Sharma of "Filmfare" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Atul and Advait have invested more in the story than history. As a result, this has a better emotional core than the original". Sonil Dedhia of "News 18" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Aamir Khan's "Laal Singh Chaddha" is a movie that deftly grapples with the pessimism of the world, but handled in a mature way". Renuka Vyavahare of "The Times Of India" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "LSC holds onto the good old values that make it worthy of a family outing. You will particularly remember a crackling "Shah Rukh Khan" cameo". Stutee Ghosh of "The Quint" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote ""Laal Singh Chaddha" is made up of many memorable, heartwarming moments. It says a lot that will leave us smiling or moist eyed". Sukanya Verma of "Rediff" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote ""Laal Singh Chaddha" does not let its source down. And replacing a box of chocolates with a ready-to-eat gol gappe kit is geeeenius, like Laal's Ustad would say". Sanchita Jhunjhunwala of "Zoom" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The movie leaves you teary eyed, even though it doesn't make you cry, and that, we feel, makes it a job well done by the entire team!". Avinash Lohana of "Pinkvilla" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Aamir Khan and his team manage to live up to the original and present an entertaining watch". Nairita Mukherjee of "India Today" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "For the most part, director Advait Chandan's "Laal Singh Chaddha" remains faithful to the original material".


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Nandini Ramnath of "Scroll.in" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Except for a few crucial changes, the film is faithful to the beats of its source material".


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Laal Singh Chaddha received mixed to positive reviews from International critics. Proma Khosla of "Indie Wire" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Kulkarni and Chandan deserve a whole box of gol gappe". Mike McCahill of "The Guardian" rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Advait Chandan is too literal in his adaptation of the 90s classic but finds a warmth and political honesty the original lacks". Witney Seibold of "Slash Film" rated the film 7 out of 10 stars and wrote "Despite how corny it is, "Laal Singh Chaddha" it unexpectedly disarming". Carlos Aguilar of "The Wrap" stated "The setting and language have changed, but the story still thinks it's being uplifting about the neuroatypical even as it punches down". Siddhant Adlakha of "Joy Sauce" stated ""Laal Singh Chaddha" is an effective adaptation that not only localizes the specifics of "Forrest Gump", but translates its relationship with its setting, swapping the self-professed peace and prosperity of '90s America for the more volatile and nationalistic climate of modern India, where the country's image of itself remains in constant flux". Nicolas Rapold of "The New York Times" commented that "The movie’s charms are limited by what comes to feel like a coddling conceit.".


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: The supporters of the ruling party in India Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boycotted the film with twitter hashtags, prior to the release of the film. BJP supporters claimed the boycott was due to lead actor Aamir Khan's remarks in 2015 about "growing intolerance" in India, his 2014 movie "PK" that mocked Hindu gods and Hinduism, and his 2017 meeting with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (who is Hinduphobic).


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: Khan said that he was 'heartbroken' after seeing this trend, and requested people to watch his film. There were mixed opinions as to whether the film's poor performance was due to the boycott trend, unsatisfactory content, or an inappropriate time of release.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: "Laal Singh Chaddha" earned 11.70 crores at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected 7.26 crore. On the third day, the film collected 9 crore. On the fourth day, the film collected 10 crore, taking a total domestic weekend collection to 37.96 crore.


title: Laal Singh Chaddha

text: , the film grossed in India and overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of . It also became the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022 at international box office, earning more than "Gangubai Kathiawadi" and "The Kashmir Files".


title: Betty White

text: Betty Marion White (January 17, 1922December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television, with a television career spanning almost seven decades, White was noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry and being one of the first women to work both in front of and behind the camera. She was the first woman to produce a sitcom, "Life with Elizabeth" (19531955).


title: Betty White

text: After making the transition from radio to television, White became a staple panelist of American game shows, including "Password", "Match Game", "Tattletales", "To Tell the Truth", "The Hollywood Squares", and "The $25,000 Pyramid". Dubbed "the first lady of game shows", White became the first woman to receive the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for the show "Just Men!" in 1983.


title: Betty White

text: She was also known for her appearances on "The Bold and the Beautiful", "Boston Legal", and "The Carol Burnett Show". Her biggest roles include Sue Ann Nivens on the CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1973–1977), Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom "The Golden Girls" (1985–1992), and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" (2010–2015). She gained a renewed career resurgence with her role in the romantic comedy film "The Proposal" (2009). She then hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2010, garnering her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She was the subject of the 2018 documentary, "Betty White: First Lady of Television" which detailed her life and career.


title: Betty White

text: White earned a Guinness World Record for "Longest TV career by an entertainer (female)" in 2014 and in 2018 for her lengthy work in radio, television, and film. White received various awards including five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Regional Emmy Award as well as three American Comedy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was a 1995 Television Hall of Fame inductee.


title: Betty White

text: Betty Marion White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on January 17, 1922. She stated that Betty was her legal name and not a shortened version of Elizabeth. She was the only child of Christine Tess ( Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace Logan White, a lighting company executive from Michigan. Her paternal grandfather was Danish, and her maternal grandfather was Greek, with her other roots being English and Welsh (both of her grandmothers were Canadians with roots in Ontario).


title: Betty White

text: White's family moved to Alhambra, California, in 1923 when she was a little over a year old and later to Los Angeles during the Great Depression. To make extra money, her father built crystal radios and sold them wherever he could. Since it was the height of the Depression, and hardly anyone had a sizable income, he would exchange the radios for other goods, including dogs on some occasions.


title: Betty White

text: White attended Horace Mann Elementary School in Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills High School, graduating in 1939. Her interest in wildlife was sparked by family vacations to the Sierra Nevada. She initially aspired to a career as a forest ranger but was unable to accomplish this because women were not allowed to serve as rangers at that time. Instead, White pursued an interest in writing. She wrote and played the lead in a graduation play at Horace Mann School and discovered her interest in performing. Inspired by her idols Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, she decided to pursue a career as an actress.


title: Betty White

text: One month after her high school graduation, she and a classmate sang songs from "The Merry Widow" on an experimental television show, as the medium of television itself was still in development. White found work modeling, and her first professional acting job was at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre.


title: Betty White

text: After the United States entered World War II in 1941, White volunteered for the American Women's Voluntary Services. Her assignment included driving a PX truck with military supplies to the Hollywood Hills. She also participated in events for troops before they were deployed overseas. Commenting on her wartime service, White said, "It was a strange time and out of balance with everything."


title: Betty White

text: After the war, White made the rounds to movie studios looking for work, but was turned down because she was "not photogenic". She started to look for radio jobs, where being photogenic did not matter.


title: Betty White

text: Her first radio jobs included reading commercials and playing bit parts, and sometimes even doing crowd noises. She made about five dollars a show. She would do just about anything, like singing on a show for no pay. She appeared on shows such as "Blondie", "The Great Gildersleeve", and "This Is Your FBI". She was then offered her own radio show, called "The Betty White Show".


title: Betty White

text: In 1949, she began appearing as co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily live television variety show "Hollywood on Television", originally called "Make Believe Ballroom", on KFWB and then on KLAC-TV (now KCOP-TV) in Los Angeles.


title: Betty White

text: White began hosting the show by herself in 1952 after Jarvis's departure, spanning five and a half hours of live ad lib television six days per week, over a continuous four-year span. In all of her various variety series over the years, White would sing at least a couple of songs during each broadcast. In 1951, she was nominated for her first Emmy Award as "Best Actress" on television, competing with Judith Anderson, Helen Hayes, and Imogene Coca; the award went to Gertrude Berg. At this point, the award was for body of work, with no shows named in nominations.


title: Betty White

text: In 1952, the same year that she began hosting "Hollywood on Television", White co-founded Bandy Productions with writer George Tibbles and Don Fedderson, a producer. The trio worked to create new shows using existing characters from sketches shown on "Hollywood on Television". White, Fedderson, and Tibbles created the television comedy "Life with Elizabeth", with White portraying the title character. The show was originally a live production on KLAC-TV in 1951, and won White a Los Angeles Emmy Award in 1952.


title: Betty White

text: "Life with Elizabeth" was nationally syndicated from 1953 to 1955, allowing White to become one of the few women in television with full creative control in front of and behind the camera. The show was unusual for a sitcom in the 1950s because it was co-produced and owned by a twenty-eight-year-old woman who still lived with her parents. White said they did not worry about relevance in those days, and that usually the incidents were based on real-life situations that happened to her, the actor who played Alvin, and the writer.


title: Betty White

text: White also performed in television advertisements seen on live television in Los Angeles, including a rendition of the "Dr. Ross Dog Food" advertisement at KTLA during the 1950s. She guest-starred on "The Millionaire" in the 1956 episode "The Virginia Lennart Story", as the owner of a small-town diner who received an anonymous gift of $1 million.


title: Betty White

text: From 1952 to 1954, White hosted and produced her own daily talk/variety show, "The Betty White Show", first on KLAC-TV and then on NBC (her first television, but second show to feature that title). Like her sitcom, she had creative control over the series, and was able to hire a female director. In a first for American network variety television, her show featured an African-American performer, but the show faced criticism for the inclusion of tap dancer Arthur Duncan as a regular cast member. The criticism followed when NBC expanded the show nationally. Local Southern stations in the Jim Crow era threatened to boycott unless Duncan was removed from the series. In response, White said "I'm sorry. Live with it", and gave Duncan more airtime. Initially a ratings success, the show repeatedly changed time slots and suffered lower viewership. By the end of the year, NBC quietly cancelled the series.


title: Betty White

text: Following the end of "Life with Elizabeth", she appeared as Vicki Angel on the ABC sitcom "Date with the Angels" from 1957 to 1958. As originally intended, the show, loosely based on the Elmer Rice play "Dream Girl", would focus on Vicki's daydreaming tendencies. However, the sponsor was not pleased with the fantasy elements and was pressured to have them eliminated. "I can honestly say that was the only time I have ever wanted to get out of a show", White later said. The sitcom was a critical and rating disaster, but ABC wouldn't allow White out of her contractual agreement and required her to fill the remaining thirteen weeks in their deal. Instead of a retooled version of the sitcom, White rebooted her old talk/variety show, "The Betty White Show", which aired until her contract was fulfilled."


title: Betty White

text: The sitcom did give White some positive experiences: she first met Lucille Ball while working on it, as both "Date With the Angels" and "I Love Lucy" were filmed on the same Culver Studios lot. The two quickly struck up a friendship over their accomplishments in taking on the male-dominated television business of the 1950s. They relied on one another through divorce, illness, personal loss, and even competed against one another on various game shows.


title: Betty White

text: In July 1959, White made her professional stage debut in a week-long production of the play, "Third Best Sport", at the Ephrata Legion Star Playhouse in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.


title: Betty White

text: By the 1960s, White was a staple of network game shows and talk shows: including both Jack Paar and later Johnny Carson's era of "The Tonight Show". She made many appearances on the hit "Password" show as a celebrity guest from 1961 through 1975. She married the show's host, Allen Ludden, in 1963. She subsequently appeared on the show's three updated versions, "Password Plus", "Super Password", and "Million Dollar Password". White made frequent game show appearances on "What's My Line?" (starting in 1955), "To Tell the Truth" (in 1961, 1990, and 2015), "I've Got a Secret" (in 1972–73), "Match Game" (1973–1982), and "Pyramid" (starting in 1982). She made her feature film debut as fictional Kansas Senator Elizabeth Ames Adams in the 1962 drama "Advise & Consent"; in 2004, on talk show "Q&A", host Brian Lamb remarked on White's longevity as an actress besides the fact she was playing a strong female senator in 1962. He and Donald A. Ritchie noted that viewers would have seen the Senator Adams character to reflect Margaret Chase Smith. In 1963, White starred in a production of "The King and I" at the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre, with Charles Korvin co-starring as the king.


title: Betty White

text: NBC offered her an anchor job on their flagship breakfast television show "Today". She turned the offer down because she didn't want to move permanently to New York City (where "Today" is produced). The job eventually went to Barbara Walters. Through the 1950s and 1960s, White began a nineteen-year run as hostess and commentator on the annual Rose Parade broadcast on NBC (co-hosting with Roy Neal and later Lorne Greene), and appeared on a number of late-night talk shows, including Jack Paar's "The Tonight Show", and various other daytime game shows.


title: Betty White

text: White made several appearances in the fourth season (1973–74) of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", as the "man-hungry" Sue Ann Nivens. Although considering the role a highlight of her career, White described the character's image as "icky sweet", feeling she was the very definition of feminine passivity, owing to the fact she always satirized her own persona onscreen in just such a way. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" producers made Sue Ann Nivens a regular character and brought White into the main cast starting with the fifth season, after Valerie Harper, who played Rhoda Morgenstern, left the program.


title: Betty White

text: A running gag was how Sue Ann's aggressive, cynical personality was the complete opposite of her relentlessly perky TV persona on the fictional WJM-TV show, "The Happy Homemaker". "We need somebody who can play sickeningly sweet, like Betty White", Moore suggested at a production meeting, which resulted in casting White herself. White won two Emmy Awards back-to-back for her role in the hugely popular series, in 1975 and 1976.


title: Betty White

text: Mary Tyler Moore and her husband Grant Tinker were close friends with White and her husband Allen Ludden. In 2010 interview, Moore explained that producers, aware of Moore and White's friendship, were initially hesitant to audition White for the role, for fear that if she hadn't been right, it would create awkwardness between the two.


title: Betty White

text: In 1975, NBC replaced White as commentator hostess of the Tournament of Roses Parade, feeling that she was identified too heavily with rival network CBS's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". White admitted to "People" that it was difficult "watching someone else do my parade", although she would soon start a ten-year run as hostess of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for CBS. Following the end of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1977, White was offered her own sitcom on CBS, her fourth, entitled "The Betty White Show" (the first of thet name running a quarter century earlier), in which she co-starred with John Hillerman and former "Mary Tyler Moore" co-star Georgia Engel. Running up against "Monday Night Football" in its timeslot, the ratings were poor and it was canceled after one season.


title: Betty White

text: White appeared several times on" The Carol Burnett Show" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" appearing in many sketches, and began guest-starring in a number of television movies and television miniseries, including "With This Ring", "The Best Place to Be", "Before and After", and "The Gossip Columnist".


title: Betty White

text: In 1983, White became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Game Show Host", for the NBC entry "Just Men!" Due to the amount of work she did on them, she was deemed the "First Lady of Game Shows".


title: Betty White

text: From 1983 to 1984, White had a recurring role playing Ellen Harper Jackson on the series "Mama's Family", along with future "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan. White had originated this character in a series of sketches on "The Carol Burnett Show" in the 1970s.


title: Betty White

text: In 1985, White scored her second signature role and the biggest hit of her career as the St. Olaf, Minnesota native Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls". The series chronicled the lives of four widowed or divorced women in their "golden years" who shared a home in Miami. "The Golden Girls", which also starred Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Rue McClanahan, was immensely successful and ran from 1985 through 1992. White won one Emmy Award, for "Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series", for the first season of "The Golden Girls" and was nominated in that category every year of the show's run (Getty was also nominated every year, but in the supporting actress category).


title: Betty White

text: White had a strained relationship with her "The Golden Girls" co-star Bea Arthur on and off the set of their television show, commenting that Arthur "was not that fond of me" and that "she found me a pain in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude – and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she'd be furious." After Arthur's death in 2009, White said, "I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much." Despite their differences, "The Golden Girls" was a positive experience for both actresses and they had great mutual respect for the show, their roles, and the achievements made as an ensemble cast.


title: Betty White

text: White was originally offered the role of Blanche in "The Golden Girls", and Rue McClanahan was offered the role of Rose (the two characters being similar to roles they had played in "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Maude", respectively). Jay Sandrich, the director of the pilot, suggested that since they had played similar roles in the past, they should switch roles, Rue McClanahan later said in a documentary on the series. White originally had doubts about her ability to play Rose, until Sandrich explained to her that Rose was "terminally naive". White says "if you told Rose you were so hungry you could eat a horse, she'd call the ASPCA."


title: Betty White

text: "The Golden Girls" ended in 1992 after Arthur announced her decision to depart the series. White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their roles as Rose, Blanche, and Sophia in the spin-off "The Golden Palace". The series was short-lived, lasting only one season. In addition, White reprised her Rose Nylund character in guest appearances on the NBC shows "Empty Nest" and "Nurses", both set in Miami.


title: Betty White

text: After "The Golden Palace" ended, White guest-starred on a number of television programs including "Suddenly Susan", "The Practice", and "Yes, Dear" where she received Emmy nominations for her individual appearances. She won an Emmy in 1996 for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series", appearing as herself on an episode of "The John Larroquette Show". In that episode, titled "Here We Go Again", a parody on "Sunset Boulevard", a diva-like White convinces Larroquette to help write her memoir. At one point "Golden Girls" co-stars McClanahan and Getty appear as themselves. Larroquette is forced to dress in drag as Bea Arthur, when all four appear in public as the "original" cast members.


title: Betty White

text: In December 2006, White joined the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful" in the role of Ann Douglas (where she would make 22 appearances), the long-lost mother of the show's matriarch, Stephanie Forrester, played by Susan Flannery. She also began a recurring role in ABC's "Boston Legal" from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally played as a guest star on "The Practice" in 2004.


title: Betty White

text: White appeared several times on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" appearing in many sketches and returned to "Password" in its latest incarnation, "Million Dollar Password", on June 12, 2008, (episode #3), participating in the Million Dollar challenge at the end of the show. On May 19, 2008, she appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", taking part in the host's "Mary Tyler Moore Show" reunion special alongside every surviving cast member of the series.


title: Betty White

text: Beginning in 2007, White was featured in television commercials for PetMed Express, highlighting her interest in animal welfare.


title: Betty White

text: In 2009, White starred in the romantic comedy "The Proposal" alongside Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Also in 2009, the candy company Mars, Incorporated launched a global campaign for their Snickers bar; the campaign's slogan was: "You're not you when you're hungry". White appeared, alongside Abe Vigoda, in the company's advertisement for the candy during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV. The advertisement became very popular, and won the top spot on the Super Bowl Ad Meter.


title: Betty White

text: Following the success of the Snickers advertisement, a grassroots campaign on Facebook called "Betty White to Host SNL (Please)" began in January 2010. The group was approaching 500,000 members when NBC confirmed on March 11, 2010, that White would in fact host "Saturday Night Live" on May 8. The appearance made her, at age 88, the oldest person to host the show, beating Miskel Spillman, the winner of "SNL"s "Anybody Can Host" contest, who was 80 when she hosted in 1977. In her opening monologue, White thanked Facebook and joked that she "didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time." The appearance earned her a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. White and Jean Smart are the only actresses to have wins in all three comedy Emmy nominations.


title: Betty White

text: In June 2010, White took on the role of Elka Ostrovsky, the house caretaker on TV Land's original sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" along with Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick. "Hot in Cleveland" was TV Land's first attempt at a first-run scripted comedy (the channel has rerun other sitcoms since its debut). White was only meant to appear in the pilot of the show but was asked to stay on for the entire series. In 2011, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role as Elka, but lost to Julie Bowen for "Modern Family". The series ran for six seasons, a total of 128 episodes, with the hour-long final episode airing on June 3, 2015.


title: Betty White

text: White also starred in the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation of "The Lost Valentine" on January 30, 2011 (this presentation garnered the highest rating for a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation in the previous four years and according to the Nielsen Media Research TV rating service won first place in the prime time slot for that date), and from 2012 to 2014, White hosted and executive produced "Betty White's Off Their Rockers", in which senior citizens play practical jokes on the younger generation. For this show, she received three Emmy nominations.


title: Betty White

text: A Betty White calendar for 2011 was published in late 2010. The calendar features photos from White's career and with various animals. She also launched her own clothing line on July 22, 2010, which features shirts with her face on them. All proceeds go to various animal charities she supported.


title: Betty White

text: White's success continued in 2012 with her first Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for her bestseller "If You Ask Me". She also won the UCLA Jack Benny Award for Comedy, recognizing her significant contribution to comedy in television, and was roasted at the New York Friars Club. A television special, "Betty White's 90th Birthday Party", aired on NBC a day before her birthday on January 16, 2012. The show featured appearances of many stars whom White worked with over the years as well as a message from then sitting president Barack Obama. In January 2013, NBC once again celebrated White's birthday with a TV special featuring celebrity friends, including former president Bill Clinton; the special aired on February 5.


title: Betty White

text: On February 15, 2015, White made her final appearance on "Saturday Night Live" when she attended the "40th Anniversary Special". She participated in "The Californians" sketch alongside members of the current "SNL" cast members as well as Bill Hader, Taylor Swift and Kerry Washington. In the memorable sketch White ends up kissing Bradley Cooper.


title: Betty White

text: On August 18, 2018, White's career was celebrated in a PBS documentary called "Betty White: First Lady of Television". The documentary was filmed over a period of ten years, and featured archived footage and interviews from colleagues and friends. In 2019, White appeared in Pixar's "Toy Story 4", providing the voice of Bitey White, a toy tiger that was named after her. The other toys she shared a scene with were named and played by Carol Burnett, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks. White commented that "It was wonderful the way they incorporated our names into the characters ... And I'm a sucker for animals, so the tiger was perfect!"


title: Betty White

text: In December 2021, before White's death, it was announced that a new documentary-style film about her, "" would be released in U.S. theatres on what would have been her 100th birthday, January 17, 2022. It features a cast of friends including Ryan Reynolds, Tina Fey, Robert Redford, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Leno, Carol Burnett, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Valerie Bertinelli, James Corden, Wendie Malick, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. In addition to the planned documentary, "People" magazine featured her as the cover story of its January 10, 2022, newsstand publication and a separate commemorative edition to celebrate the anticipated milestone, which were released days before her death.


title: Betty White

text: Following White's death, producers Steve Boettcher and Mike Trinklein of the event distributors Fathom Events announced in a Facebook post that the pre-filmed production would be going ahead as scheduled.


title: Betty White

text: White won five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards (including the 2015 Daytime Emmy for Lifetime Achievement), and received a Los Angeles Emmy Award in 1952. White was the only woman to have received an Emmy in all performing comedic categories, and also holds the record for longest span between Emmy nominations for performances—her first was in 1951 and her last was in 2014, a span of over 60 years. In 2015, she received the Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy. She also won three American Comedy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990), and two Viewers for Quality Television Awards. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Boulevard alongside the star of her late husband Allen Ludden. In 2009, White received the TCA Career Achievement Award from the Television Critics Association.


title: Betty White

text: In 1955 she was named the honorary Mayor of Hollywood. White was the recipient of The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Golden Ike Award and the Genii Award from the Alliance for Women in Media in 1976. The American Comedy Awards awarded her the award for Funniest Female in 1987 as well as the list of lifetime achievement awards in 1990.


title: Betty White

text: The American Veterinary Medical Association awarded White with its Humane Award in 1987 for her charitable work with animals. The City of Los Angeles further honored her for her philanthropic work with animals in 2006 with a bronze commemorative plaque near the Gorilla Exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. The City of Los Angeles named her "Ambassador to the Animals" at the dedication ceremony.


title: Betty White

text: In September 2009, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced plans to honor White with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards. Actress Sandra Bullock presented White with the award on January 23, 2010, at the ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. She was a Kentucky Colonel. In 2009, White and her "Golden Girls" cast mates Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty were awarded Disney Legends awards. White was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December 2010. In 2010, she was chosen as the Associated Press's Entertainer of the Year.


title: Betty White

text: On November 9, 2010, the USDA Forest Service, along with Smokey Bear, made White an honorary forest ranger, fulfilling her lifelong dream. White said in previous interviews that she wanted to be a forest ranger as a little girl but that women were not allowed to do that then. When White received the honor, more than one-third of Forest Service employees were women.


title: Betty White

text: In January 2011, White received a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Elka Ostrovsky in "Hot in Cleveland". The show itself was also nominated for an award as Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, but it lost to the cast of "Modern Family". She won the same award again in 2012 and later received a third nomination.


title: Betty White

text: In October 2011, White was awarded an honorary degree and a white doctor's coat by Washington State University at the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association's centennial gala in Yakima, Washington.


title: Betty White

text: A 2011 poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos revealed that White was considered the most popular and most trusted celebrity among Americans, beating the likes of Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock, and Tom Hanks.


title: Betty White

text: In 2017, after 70 years in the industry, White was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At age 95, this made her the oldest new member at the time.


title: Betty White

text: While volunteering with the American Women's Voluntary Services, White met her first husband Dick Barker, a United States Army Air Forces P-38 pilot. After the war, the couple married and moved to Belle Center, Ohio, where Barker owned a chicken farm; he wanted to embrace a simpler life, but White did not enjoy this. They returned to Los Angeles and divorced within a year.


title: Betty White

text: In 1947, she married Lane Allen, a Hollywood talent agent. They divorced in 1949 because he wanted a family but she wanted a career rather than children.


title: Betty White

text: On June 14, 1963, White married television host and personality Allen Ludden, whom she had met on his game show "Password" as a celebrity guest in 1961, and her legal name was changed to Betty White Ludden. He proposed to White at least twice before she accepted. The couple appeared together in an episode of "The Odd Couple" featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on "Password".


title: Betty White

text: Among the couple's high-profile friends was writer John Steinbeck. In her 2011 book "If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)", White writes about her friendship with the author. Ludden had attended the same school as Steinbeck's wife Elaine Anderson Steinbeck. Steinbeck gave an early draft of his Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech to Ludden for his birthday. The couple also had a close and lifelong friendship with blind musician and motivational speaker Tom Sullivan; they met in 1968 while Sullivan was singing in a small club, and White and Ludden were performing in a play on Cape Cod. White and Sullivan co-wrote a book, "Leading Lady", about Sullivan's first seeing eye dog, who lived with White after being retired.<ref name="people/white-friend-sullivan"></ref>


title: Betty White

text: While White and Ludden had no children together, she was stepmother to his three children with Margaret McGloin Ludden, who died of cancer in 1961. Allen Ludden died from stomach cancer on June 9, 1981, in Los Angeles. White never remarried. When asked the reason for this in an interview with Larry King, White responded by saying "Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?". When asked by James Lipton on "Inside the Actors Studio" in 2010 that should Heaven exist, what would she like God to say to her when she walked through the Pearly gates, White replied "Come on in Betty. Here's Allen."


title: Betty White

text: On the morning of December 31, 2021, White died in her sleep at her home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles from a stroke she had on Christmas Day. She was 99. Her remains were cremated and given to Glenn Kaplan, who was entrusted with carrying out her advanced health care directive.<ref name="hollywoodreporter/1235072921"></ref>


title: Betty White

text: White's death was met with statements of sympathy and tribute from many people and organizations. The United States Army released a statement, as White had volunteered with the American Women's Voluntary Services during World War II. Additionally, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center tweeted their condolences and praised White for her early support of racial equality. There were additional tributes from numerous media organizations, celebrities, political commentators, sports teams, musicians, politicians, and other public figures. White's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was flooded with flowers and tributes within hours of the announcement of her death.


title: Betty White

text: White's two homes in Carmel and Los Angeles were sold in April and June 2022 respectively, with her personal belongings sold at auction in September. Her estate donated a substantial portion of television ephemera to the National Comedy Center in September 2022, including wardrobe pieces, annotated notes and five of her Emmy Awards.


title: Betty White

text: White was a pet enthusiast and animal welfare advocate, who worked with organizations including the Los Angeles Zoo Commission, The Morris Animal Foundation, African Wildlife Foundation, and Actors and Others for Animals. Her interest in animal welfare began in the early 1970s while she was producing and hosting the syndicated series "The Pet Set", which spotlighted celebrities and their pets. As of 2009, White was the president emerita of the Morris Animal Foundation, where she served as a trustee of the organization beginning in 1971. She was a member of the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974. Additionally, White served the association as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years.


title: Betty White

text: According to the Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Garden's "ZooScape" member newsletter, White hosted "History on Film" from 2000 to 2002. White donated nearly $100,000 to the zoo in the month of April 2008 alone. White served as a judge at the 2011 American Humane Hero Dog Awards ceremony.


title: Betty White

text: White served as a judge alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Wendy Diamond for the American Humane's Hero Dog Awards on the Hallmark Channel on November 8, 2011.


title: Betty White

text: In 1954, as "The Betty White Show" became national across the United States, White was criticized by many in the Southern states for having Arthur Duncan, a Black tap dancer, on her variety show and was asked to remove him. In the 2018 documentary "Betty White: First Lady of Television", White recalled threats to take the show off-air "if we didn't get rid of Arthur, because he was Black." She refused, saying "he stays, live with it".


title: Betty White

text: In 2017, sixty-three years after the show was canceled, Duncan appeared as a surprise guest on the series premiere of the reality talent series "", where he performed and reunited with White, later thanking her again for her support.


title: Betty White

text: A supporter and advocate of LGBT rights, White said that "If a couple has been together all that timeand there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual onesI think it's fine if they want to get married. I don't know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don't worry about other people so much." In a 2011 interview, White said that she always knew her close friend Liberace was gay and that she sometimes accompanied him to premieres.


title: Betty White

text: In September 2011, White teamed up with English singer Luciana to produce a remix of her song "I'm Still Hot". The song was released digitally on September 22 and the video later premiered on October 6. It was made for a campaign for a life settlement company, The Lifeline Program, and it is her only commercial single to date, peaking at number 1 on the Dance Club Songs chart. White has also covered songs on her live television shows, such as "Nevertheless I'm in Love with You", "It's a Good Day", "Getting to Know You" and "A 'No' That Sounds like 'Yes'".


title: Betty White

text: White published several books. In August 2010, she entered a deal with G.P. Putnam's Sons to produce two more books, the first of which, "If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)", was released in 2011. In February 2012, White received her first Grammy Award ("Best Spoken Word Recording") for the audio recording of the book.


title: Tom Cruise filmography

text: Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama "Endless Love". His breakthrough role was in the coming-of-age comedy "Risky Business" (1983), which garnered Cruise his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a naval aviator in the Tony Scott-directed action drama "Top Gun" (the highest-grossing film that year), and also appeared with Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama "The Color of Money". Two years later, he starred with Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning drama "Rain Man" (1988), and also appeared in the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture-winning romantic drama "Cocktail" (1988). In doing so Cruise became the first and only person as of 2014 to star in a Best Picture Oscar winner and a Worst Picture Razzie winner in the same year. His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the film adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.


title: Tom Cruise filmography

text: In 1992, he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the legal drama "A Few Good Men", an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name also written by Aaron Sorkin. Cruise next appeared in "The Firm" (1993), a film adaptation of the John Grisham legal thriller of the same name, and in the same year also made his directorial debut by directing an episode of the anthology television series "Fallen Angels". Cruise starred as spy Ethan Hunt in the action film "" (1996), the first project of his production company Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he had co-founded with Paula Wagner in 1993. As of 2018, Cruise has appeared in five more films in the "" franchise: "" (2000), "" (2006), "" (2011), "" (2015), and "" (2018).


title: Tom Cruise filmography

text: He played the title role in the Cameron Crowe-directed comedy-drama "Jerry Maguire" (1996), which garnered Cruise the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1999, Cruise starred in the Stanley Kubrick-directed erotic thriller "Eyes Wide Shut" opposite his then wife Nicole Kidman, and also appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed drama "Magnolia". For the latter he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise reteamed with Crowe on the science fiction thriller "Vanilla Sky" (2001), which earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor. The following year he starred in the Steven Spielberg-directed "Minority Report" (2002). In 2005, he collaborated again with Spielberg on "War of the Worlds", and received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from BAFTA Los Angeles. Three years later he appeared in the satirical action comedy "Tropic Thunder" and played German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg in the historical thriller "Valkyrie" (both in 2008). In 2010, Cruise reunited with his "Vanilla Sky" co-star Cameron Diaz in the action comedy "Knight and Day", followed by the action thriller "Jack Reacher" (2012), in which he starred in the titular role and in its sequel "" (2016). He starred in "Oblivion" (2013), and "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014), both of which saw his return to the science fiction genre. Three years later, he played drug smuggler Barry Seal in the action comedy "American Made" (2017). In 2022, Cruise starred in and produced the action film sequel "", which has grossed over $1.4 billion and became his highest-grossing film.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara rose to prominence while co-hosting two television shows for Spanish-language television network Univision in the late 1990s. Her first notable acting job in English was in the film "Chasing Papi" (2003). She subsequently appeared in "Four Brothers" (2005) and Tyler Perry's comedies "Meet the Browns" (2008) and "Madea Goes to Jail" (2009), receiving an ALMA Award nomination for the latter. In 2009, she began playing Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC comedy series "Modern Family" for which she was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and eleven Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara has also had roles in the films "The Smurfs" (2011), "New Year's Eve" (2011), "The Three Stooges" (2012), "Machete Kills" (2013), "Fading Gigolo" (2013), "Chef" (2014), and "Hot Pursuit" (2015). She also had voice-over roles in the animated films "Happy Feet Two" (2011), "Escape from Planet Earth" (2013), and "The Emoji Movie" (2017). Vergara was also the highest-paid Hollywood actress in 2020. Since 2020, Vergara has been a judge on "America's Got Talent".


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara was born to a Roman Catholic family in Barranquilla. Her mother, Margarita Vergara de Vergara, was a homemaker, and her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, was a cattle rancher for the meat industry. She was nicknamed "Toti" by her five siblings and many cousins. Vergara initially studied dentistry for three years at National University of Colombia, but she left two semesters away from completing her degree to pursue opportunities in modeling and show business.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: In 1998, her older brother Rafael was murdered during an attempt to kidnap him. Not wanting to be caught in the unrest that resulted in the murder, Vergara emigrated to the United States, settling in Miami, Florida. Her cousin and adopted sister, Sandra, is also a television actress in the United States.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking on a beach, and she was quickly presented with offers of modeling and television work. She was "apprehensive about doing her first television commercial—until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her their personal permission to take the assignment." She made her first appearance, aged 17, in a Pepsi commercial aired in Latin America. She then began studies at the Creative Workshops School of Acting, where Gloria Estefan also trained.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: In 2011, Vergara was named the face of CoverGirl, with the first advertisements appearing in January 2012. In April 2011, she appeared in a Diet Pepsi commercial with David Beckham and another in January 2012. Also in 2011, it was announced that Vergara was designing a clothing line for Kmart targeting soccer moms and appeared in a number of commercials for Comcast's Xfinity brand and State Farm. Vergara was supposed to star in "The Paperboy", an independent drama directed by Lee Daniels. When shooting was delayed for a week and conflicted with her shooting schedule for the third season of "Modern Family", she dropped out. In July 2011, she finished filming the Farrelly brothers' "The Three Stooges", her first leading role in a major film. She said, "I play a mean woman that tries to manipulate the Three Stooges into killing her husband so that she gets all the money." In April 2012, she appeared in her son Manolo's YouTube web series "Vida con Toty".


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara was the highest-earning woman in U.S. television, earning $19 million for the previous 12 months on a list released by Forbes.com on July 18, 2012. Vergara was named one of "People" magazine's "50 most beautiful people", and named by "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Billboard" as one of the most influential Latin women in Hollywood. Vergara received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 7, 2015. In 2013, she signed endorsement contracts with Diet Pepsi, Rooms To Go, and the medicine Synthroid. In 2015, "Forbes" estimated Vergara's annual income at $28.5 million. She starred on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family" as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from 2010 to 2013.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: In 2014, Vergara became a brand ambassador for the American anti-dandruff shampoo brand Head & Shoulders. In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Vergara and others told the stories of the people killed there. As of September 2016, "Forbes" reported that Vergara was the highest-paid actress in television, bringing in $43 million in the past year. In March 2017, she reached a settlement with Venus Concept for alleged improper use of her likeness, which Vergara said created the false impression that she endorsed their beauty products. In February 2020, it was announced that Vergara would be a judge on "America's Got Talent", starting with its fifteenth season. She returned for her second season in 2021, and her third in 2022.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara has naturally blonde hair. For movies and television, she is sometimes asked to colour her hair dark brown or black to make her look more stereotypically Hispanic. Vergara was married at the age of 18 to her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez. They had a son named Manolo, who was born in September 1991. They divorced in 1993. Vergara and her boyfriend Nick Loeb became engaged in 2012 after dating for two years. On May 23, 2014, Vergara announced that the engagement had been called off. Vergara and "True Blood" star Joe Manganiello became engaged on Christmas Eve 2014 after dating for six months. They married in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 21, 2015.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: Vergara was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000. She had her thyroid removed, underwent radioiodine therapy, and made a full recovery. She takes medication to prevent hypothyroidism. On May 9, 2011, Vergara's younger brother Julio was deported from the United States to Colombia after being arrested in April that year; Julio also had a longtime drug addiction and previous brushes with the law. Vergara told "Parade" magazine, "To see somebody dying over 10 years, little by little, that's the worst punishment. Now he's like another person." During her December 2014 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Vergara revealed that she had become a United States citizen after getting a perfect score on her citizenship test.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: From 2015 to 2017, Vergara was involved in a legal dispute regarding the future of two fertilized embryos produced by in vitro fertilization while she was still in a relationship with Loeb; the embryos were kept in storage in cryopreservation in a medical clinic in California. Following the couple's split in 2014, Loeb filed a lawsuit for custody of the embryos in a California court, but he later dropped that lawsuit when the court demanded that Loeb identify two women who had abortions after he had impregnated them.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: In December 2016, a right-to-life lawsuit against Vergara was initiated in Louisiana with Vergara's embryos as plaintiffs. The embryos were named "Emma" and "Isabella" in the lawsuit, and their "trustee" was listed as James Charbonnet, a New Orleans resident of no relation to Vergara. The intent of the suit was to give the embryos a chance to further develop using a surrogate carrier, hence to be born, and to benefit from an inheritance trust that had been created for them and is administered by Charbonnet. While a contract between Vergara and Loeb had been signed prior to the creation of the embryos stipulating that neither party could use the embryos without the consent of the other, the lawsuit had tried to void this agreement. Loeb had written “Keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them,” in a 2015 op-ed in "The New York Times". The suit also tried to terminate parental rights of Vergara because by keeping them in cryopreservation in a medical clinic she allegedly abandoned and neglected the embryos. The legal case was novel and took advantage of Louisiana's embryo laws; the state passed a law in 1986 that declares embryos to be “juridical persons,” giving embryos the right to sue or be sued. In August 2017, a Louisiana judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over the embryos, which were conceived in California.


title: Sofía Vergara

text: In 2014, Vergara was ranked as the 32nd most powerful woman in the world by "Forbes"; her position was 38 the previous year.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Catherine Zeta-Jones (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Known for her versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her film and humanitarian work.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Born and raised in Swansea, Zeta-Jones aspired to be an actress from a young age. As a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals "Annie" and "Bugsy Malone". She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London and made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of "42nd Street". Her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film "1001 Nights" (1990), and she went on to find greater success as a regular in the British television series "The Darling Buds of May" (1991–1993). Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles. She established herself in Hollywood with roles that highlighted her sex appeal, such as in the action film "The Mask of Zorro" (1998) and the heist film "Entrapment" (1999).


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Zeta-Jones received critical acclaim for her performances as a vengeful pregnant woman in "Traffic" (2000) and a murderous singer in the musical "Chicago" (2002), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She starred in high-profile films for much of the decade, including the black comedy "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003), the heist film "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), the comedy "The Terminal" (2004), and the romantic comedy "No Reservations" (2007). Parts in smaller-scale features were followed by a decrease in workload, during which she returned to the stage and played an ageing actress in a Broadway production of "A Little Night Music" (2009), winning a Tony Award. Zeta-Jones worked intermittently in the subsequent decades, starring in the films "Side Effects" (2013), "Red 2" (2013) and "Dad's Army" (2016). She took on supporting roles in television, portraying Olivia de Havilland in "Feud: Bette & Joan" (2017) and Morticia Addams in "Wednesday" (2022).


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Aside from acting, Zeta-Jones is a brand endorser and supports various charitable causes. Her struggle with depression and bipolar II disorder has been well documented by the media. She is married to actor Michael Douglas, with whom she has two children.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Catherine Zeta Jones was born on 25 September 1969 in Swansea, Wales, to David Jones, the owner of a sweet factory, and his wife Patricia (née Fair), a seamstress. Her father is Welsh and her mother is of Irish Catholic descent. She was named after her grandmothers, Zeta Jones (derived from the name of a ship that her great-grandfather sailed on) and Catherine Fair. She has an older brother, David, and a younger brother, Lyndon, who worked as a sales representative before venturing into film production. She was raised in the Mumbles district of Swansea. Because Zeta-Jones was a hyperactive child, her mother sent her to the Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was four years old. She was educated at Dumbarton House School, a private school in Swansea. The family came from a modest background, but their fortunes improved when they won £100,000 in a bingo competition, thus enabling them to pay for their daughter's dance and ballet lessons.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Zeta-Jones participated in school stage shows from a young age and gained local media attention when her rendition of a Shirley Bassey song won a Junior Star Trail talent competition. As part of a dance troupe, she routinely took trips to London, where she auditioned for roles in the theatre. At age nine, Zeta-Jones was selected to play July, one of the orphan girls in the original West End production of the musical "Annie", and in her early teens, she became a national tap dancing champion. In 1981, she played the lead role of Annie in a Swansea production of the musical, which was staged at the Swansea Grand Theatre. Two years later, she played the lead role of Tallulah in a West End production of "Bugsy Malone". When she was fifteen, Zeta-Jones left school without obtaining O-levels and decided to live in London to pursue a full-time acting career; she was also engaged to perform in a touring production of "The Pajama Game". Describing her teenage years in London, Zeta-Jones said, "I would queue up for auditions and then change my costume or put on a different leotard and audition again. It might take me two tries, but I always got the job. I figured out what they wanted". She went on to attend the independent Arts Educational Schools in the Chiswick district of London, for a three-year course in musical theatre.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: In 1987, seventeen-year-old Zeta-Jones was picked as the second understudy to the lead actress in a West End production of "42nd Street". During one of the performances, both the star and the first understudy were unavailable, and Zeta-Jones was asked to play the role of Peggy Sawyer—a chorus girl who becomes a star. The producer was impressed by her acting ability and allowed her to play the role for the following two years. Her next stage appearance was with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 where she played Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's "Street Scene".


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: In 1990, Zeta-Jones made her film debut in the director Philippe de Broca's film "1001 Nights". An adaptation of the Persian fable "One Thousand and One Nights", the French-Italian production recounts the tale from the perspective of Scheherazade (Zeta-Jones), one of the brides of King Sharir (Thierry Lhermitte). "1001 Nights" did not perform well at the box office, and according to de Broca's obituary in "The Daily Telegraph", the film "is best remembered for its enjoyable nude scenes." Greater success followed when she starred opposite David Jason and Pam Ferris in the ITV period comedy-drama television series "The Darling Buds of May" from 1991 to 1993. Adapted from H. E. Bates novel of the same name, Zeta-Jones played the role of the eldest daughter of a family living in the countryside in 1950s Britain. The series was the highest-rated television show in the country at the time, and Zeta-Jones gained wide public recognition for it. "Literally, with one hour of television my life completely changed. I couldn't go anywhere", she remarked.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Following a brief appearance as Beatriz Enríquez de Arana in the unsuccessful adventure film "" (1992), Zeta-Jones featured as a belly dancer in disguise in a 1992 episode of George Lucas television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles". She next took on the part of an aspiring duchess in "Splitting Heirs" (1993), a farcical period drama from the director Robert Young about two children (Eric Idle and Rick Moranis) who are separated at birth. Reviews of the film were negative, though the critic Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" found her to be "very funny". In 1994, Zeta-Jones played the melancholic Eustacia Vye in the television film "The Return of the Native", an adaptation of the 1878 novel of the same name by Thomas Hardy, and the wife of Lloyd Owen's character in the television war drama "The Cinder Path". She was then cast as the eponymous protagonist of the 1995 television biopic "Catherine the Great". In a mixed review, critic Lisa Nesselson of "Variety" found the miniseries to be "brightly colored" but "wooden and hollow", though thought that Zeta-Jones "imparts a certain grace and resolve to her sovereign-in-the-making". She next appeared as the pragmatic girlfriend of Sean Pertwee's character in "Blue Juice" (1995), publicised as Britain's first surf film, which the critic Leonard Maltin dismissed as a "superficial and predictable" production.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles, stating: "There was all this fuss about who I was and wasn't dating. I was a pretty face and a big bust and nothing else. People in the business believed what they read about me. So I decided to move away and start again." She believed that her anonymity in America helped her obtain roles on merit and not due to her public image. She earned the part of Sala, the henchwoman to the villainous Drax (Treat Williams) in the superhero film "The Phantom" (1996), starring Billy Zane in the titular role. A reviewer for "Variety" considered Zeta-Jones to be a standout in her part, but the film received a negative critical reception and earned little at the box office. The CBS television miniseries "Titanic" (1996), however, was better received. Starring opposite Peter Gallagher and George C. Scott, she played the lead role of Isabella Paradine, a young mother who engages in an extramarital affair aboard the ill-fated RMS "Titanic".


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Steven Spielberg took notice of Zeta-Jones in "Titanic" and recommended her to Martin Campbell, who was directing "The Mask of Zorro" (1998) for Spielberg's production company. Campbell cast her as the leading lady instead of Izabella Scorupco, who was his original choice for the part. Co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas, the film tells the story of Zorro (Hopkins), a Spanish warrior (the film is set in Old California) who sets out to avenge the death of his wife and find his lost daughter Elena (Zeta-Jones). She found similarities between her "volatile" Celtic personality and her Latin character's temperament, and in preparation she studied dancing, riding and sword-fighting, and took diction lessons in Spanish. Filming the action and dance sequences while wearing heavy corsets in the dry Mexican desert proved challenging for Zeta-Jones, but she found the experience "worth suffering for". "The Mask of Zorro" was positively received by the critics and grossed over $250 million worldwide. The role proved to be a breakthrough for her and she was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: Zeta-Jones's first release of 1999 was the heist film "Entrapment", in which she starred opposite Sean Connery as a seductive insurance agent on the lookout for an art thief. Despite a negative critical reception, the film was a commercial success; Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" thought the film provided Zeta-Jones a platform to "show off her slithery skills", and Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" called on viewers to appreciate the sex appeal she brought to the role. Later that year, Zeta-Jones appeared alongside Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor in "The Haunting", a remake of the 1963 film of the same name about a team of paranormal experts who look into strange occurrences in an ill-fated mansion. The horror feature received generally poor reviews but found a significant worldwide audience. In a scathing review, the critic Mick LaSalle wrote that "Zeta-Jones seems less an actress and more a pretty face, and not an interesting one at that".


title: Catherine Zeta-Jones

text: After taking the supporting part of the lead John Cusack's former romantic interest in the comedy-drama "High Fidelity" (2000), Zeta-Jones starred in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic" (2000). In the ensemble thriller on drug abuse co-starring Michael Douglas and Benicio del Toro, she played Helena, the pregnant wife of a drug lord who takes over the business when her husband is arrested. Originally written as a mother of two, Soderbergh changed the part to that of a pregnant woman on Zeta-Jones's suggestion to accommodate her own pregnancy. Highly profitable at the box office and critically acclaimed, "Traffic" was described by the "Dallas Observer" as "a remarkable achievement in filmmaking, a beautiful and brutal work". Edward Guthman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" considered Zeta-Jones to be a standout among the cast and labelled her "sensational" in a scene in which Helena confronts a Tijuana dealer, adding that "through sheer conviction, she electrifies a moment that could have been absurd". The ensemble of "Traffic" won the SAG Award for Outstanding Cast and Zeta-Jones was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.