title: American Psycho (film)

text: Ellis considered his controversial novel potentially unfilmable, but producer Edward R. Pressman was determined to adapt it and bought the film rights in 1992. Stuart Gordon, David Cronenberg, and Rob Weiss considered directing the film before Harron and Turner began writing the screenplay in 1996. They sought to make a 1980s period film that emphasized the novel's satire. The pre-production period was tumultuous; Harron chose Bale to play Bateman, but because distributor Lions Gate Films sought Leonardo DiCaprio in the role, Harron was fired and replaced with Oliver Stone. After Stone and DiCaprio left due to creative differences, Harron was rehired and allowed to cast Bale. Principal photography began in February 1999 in Toronto and New York City.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: "American Psycho" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 14. The film received mostly positive reviews, with praise for Bale's performance and the screenplay, and grossed over $34 million on a $7 million budget. It has since developed a cult following and a strong presence in contemporary meme culture. A direct-to-video sequel, "American Psycho 2", was released in 2002.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: In 1987, Patrick Bateman, a young and wealthy New York City investment banker, spends most of his time dining at popular restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiancée Evelyn Williams and his circle of wealthy associates, most of whom he despises. At a business meeting, Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards, focusing on their design and style. Enraged by the superiority of his colleague Paul Allen's card, Bateman confronts a homeless man in an alley at night and stabs him and stomps his dog to death. Bateman and Allen, who mistakes Bateman for another co-worker, make plans for dinner after a Christmas party. Bateman resents Allen for his affluent lifestyle and ability to obtain reservations at Dorsia, an exclusive restaurant that Bateman is unable to get reservations at. Bateman manipulates Allen into getting drunk. He lures Allen into his apartment and kills him with an axe while listening to Huey Lewis and the News. Bateman goes into Allen's apartment and leaves a message on his answering machine claiming that Allen has gone on a business trip to London.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: After private investigator Donald Kimball interviews Bateman regarding Allen's disappearance, Bateman takes two prostitutes, Christie and Sabrina, to his apartment, where they have sex before he tortures them and sends them on their way after paying them. Bateman's colleague Luis Carruthers reveals a new business card, so Bateman tries to strangle him in the restroom of an expensive restaurant. Carruthers mistakes the attempt for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who panics and flees. Kimball conducts a second interview with Bateman, revealing that a colleague of Bateman's claims to have spotted Allen in London, calling the entire investigation into question. Bateman is relieved, but is perturbed and begins to doubt himself. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary Jean to dinner, suggesting that she meet him at his apartment for drinks. Bateman plans to kill her with a nail gun, but desists after he receives a message from Evelyn on his answering machine.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: An agonized Bateman meets Kimball for lunch. Kimball reveals that a colleague of Bateman claims to have had dinner with him, cementing his alibi. Kimball remarks that someone murdering Allen for no reason is simply not believable, to which Bateman nervously smiles. Bateman brings Christie to Allen's apartment where he drugs his acquaintance Elizabeth before having sex with her and Christie. After Bateman kills Elizabeth, Christie runs, discovering multiple female corpses as she searches for an exit. Bateman chases her and drops a chainsaw on her as she flees down a staircase. Afterwards, Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: As Bateman uses an ATM, he sees a cat. The ATM displays the text "FEED ME A STRAY CAT", so he prepares to shoot the cat. When a woman confronts him, he instead shoots her. A police chase ensues, but Bateman kills the officers and blows up a police car. Bateman kills two more people before hiding in his office. He calls his lawyer Harold Carnes and frantically leaves a confession, claiming to have killed 20–40 people. The following morning, Bateman visits Allen's apartment to clean up the remains, but finds it vacant and for sale. The realtor cryptically tells him that the apartment does not belong to Allen before ordering him to leave.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: While Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues for lunch, Jean finds detailed drawings of murder and mutilation in Bateman's office journal. Bateman sees Carnes and mentions the phone message. Carnes mistakes Bateman for another colleague and laughs off the confession as a joke. Bateman clarifies who he is and again confesses the murders, but Carnes says his claims are impossible since he recently had dinner with Allen in London. A confused Bateman returns to his friends; they muse whether Ronald Reagan is a harmless old man or hidden psychopath before discussing their dinner reservations. Bateman, unsure if his crimes were real or imaginary, realizes he will never receive the punishment he desires. His narration declares that his confession has meant nothing.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Other cast members include Stephen Bogaert as Harold Carnes, Bateman's lawyer; Reg E. Cathey as Al, a homeless man; Krista Sutton as Sabrina, a prostitute; Catherine Black as Vanden, Williams' cousin; Patricia Gage as Mrs. Wolfe, a real estate agent; and Anthony Lemke as Marcus Halberstram, Bateman's colleague. Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan appears in archive footage of his 1987 address concerning the Iran–Contra affair.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The film is an adaptation of the satirical novel "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis, which was published in 1991 amid significant controversy over its graphic depiction of violence against women. Ellis had been disappointed by the 1987 adaptation of his first novel, "Less than Zero" (1985), and did not expect that anyone would be interested in adapting "American Psycho", which he considered possibly unfilmable. Nonetheless, development of a film adaptation began in 1992, after Johnny Depp expressed interest and producer Edward R. Pressman bought the film rights. Pressman, to Ellis' surprise, was "obsessed" with turning "American Psycho" into a film. Ellis discussed the project with filmmaker Stuart Gordon but felt that he was unsuitable.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: David Cronenberg and Brad Pitt respectively became attached to direct and star, and Ellis was brought on to write the screenplay. The process was difficult for Ellis; Cronenberg did not want to use any of the restaurant or nightclub material from the novel (which he considered boring), wanted to excise the violence, and mandated that the script be 65–70 pages. Ellis considered Cronenberg's directions "insane" and ignored them. Ellis' draft departed significantly from the novel, as he had "been living with it for, like, three and a half years, four years" and had grown bored with it. It ended with an elaborate musical sequence to Barry Manilow's "Daybreak" atop the World Trade Center, a change which Ellis felt exemplified how bored he was with the material.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The development was prolonged due to what "Variety" called "American Psycho" "literary complexity", which made adapting it to film difficult. Cronenberg was dissatisfied with Ellis' draft and by March 1994 had sought a new draft from Norman Snider; Ellis later recalled that Cronenberg left the project after he disliked Snider's draft even more. Ellis wrote another draft for Rob Weiss in 1995, but the film again failed to materialize. Pressman did not want to make a film that would offend people and described Ellis' draft as "completely pornographic". Pressman appeared at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival to pre-sell the distribution rights to no avail.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: After her film "I Shot Andy Warhol" premiered at the 49th Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews in January 1996, Mary Harron received a call from Roberta Hanley—who operated the production company which held the "American Psycho" film rights—with an offer to direct the film. Harron had attempted to read the novel when it was originally published, but found it too violent. However, rereading it, she realized that "just enough time ha[d] passed" to produce a period film set in the 1980s, "bring out the satire", and comment on the era, which interested her. Harron was ambivalent towards the other "very mainstream and boring" offers she was receiving following "I Shot Andy Warhol" and decided to make "American Psycho" due to its "risky" nature.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Harron read the existing drafts; while she somewhat enjoyed Ellis', she felt that most were too moralistic, missing the novel's preciseness in depicting social privilege. Harron told Pressman that she would join the project only if she could write her own screenplay. Pressman commented that out of all the directors who attached themselves to "American Psycho", Harron was "the only person who actually ever conveyed a clear solution as to how to do it". Harron recruited Guinevere Turner, who she had been working with on what would become "The Notorious Bettie Page" (2005), to co-write. Turner was not a horror fan and had never heard of "American Psycho", but Harron convinced her that it would be a good project to pursue. Though she found the novel unsavory, Turner appreciated its blend of humor and horror and concluded that "with the right spin it could be a really subversive, feminist movie".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Harron and Turner excised most of the novel's violence outside four sequences of Bateman's murders. Their approach to the material and Bateman's character was influenced by Mario Bava's "giallo" film "Hatchet for the Honeymoon" (1970), with Bava historian Tim Lucas noting that both films feature protagonists motivated by a desire for self-discovery in their killings. Harron recalled facing scrutiny for depicting Bateman as homophobic—a criticism she found odd, since no objections were raised over his murders. She also received requests to delve into Bateman's psychology, but said that "having a very clear psychological explanation [wasn't] of great interest to me" since she found the concept generic, shallow, and unrealistic. Harron rejected suggestions to explore Bateman's family and background; she felt it was unnecessary and that Bateman was simply "a monster".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Harron met with several actors for the role of Patrick Bateman, but struggled to find a suitable candidate. She noted that "if someone isn't 100 percent on a role like [Bateman], you can't cast them and they shouldn't do it". Billy Crudup was attached to the role for a month and a half, but was uneasy and left the project. Turner appreciated Crudup's honesty in admitting he could not understand the character. Harron sent the script to Christian Bale, but he had never read "American Psycho" and thus had no interest. Harron contacted Christine Vachon, who was working with Bale on "Velvet Goldmine" (1998) at the time, and Vachon told him to read the script. Bale found the script humorous and immediately became interested, and flew to New York to audition in Harron's living room.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Bale struggled to speak in an American accent since he had been speaking in a Manchester accent for "Velvet Goldmine", but Harron thought it was clear he understood the role. Like Harron, Bale was uninterested in Bateman's backstory; he saw the character as "an alien who landed in the unabashedly capitalist New York of the '80s". Harron felt he was the only one who fit the role, later saying he "saw the part the way that I did, and he got the humor of it". When auditioning others she "had the feeling a lot of the other actors kind of thought Bateman was cool". Bale, she said though, did not. Harron thought casting the relatively unknown Bale was risky, but "had a lot of faith in him", as "Velvet Goldmine" director Todd Haynes told her that Bale was "the best actor I've ever worked with". Harron and Bale, in-character as Bateman, met with Ellis for dinner, an experience Ellis said was "unnerving" since it was the first time he had met "someone pretending to be this monster that I created".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Lions Gate Films acquired the "American Psycho" distribution rights in May 1998 and set a budget of $10 million. Harron and Bale were planning to begin filming the following August and though no actors were signed on yet, Willem Dafoe and Jared Leto had expressed interest in joining. Harron suggested that the slim Bale go to a gym since Bateman frequently exercises; she said that within two weeks, Bale had "totally transformed". Turner said Bale "became completely ripped, super tan, got his teeth turned into perfect American teeth. I think he said he was modeling himself after his lawyer, or his agent, or Tom Cruise — an amalgam of those". Bale received numerous warnings that starring in "American Psycho" was "career suicide", but this only made him more committed.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Bale was a relative unknown at the time; he was only 13 at the time of his then-most famous role, in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" (1987). Lions Gate did not want to cast him and pushed for a more famous star like Edward Norton or Leonardo DiCaprio, who Lions Gate was willing to pay $20 million (although the budget for the film itself would remain only $6 million). DiCaprio was considered the biggest star in the world at the time (having just starred in "Titanic" (1997), then the highest-grossing film ever) and was interested in playing Bateman, but Harron opposed casting him, comparing the prospect to Demi Moore's casting in the critically panned 1995 "Scarlet Letter" film. She argued he was too boyish to play Bateman and that his presence would harm the film given his young female fanbase. Harron refused to even consider meeting with him, despite Pressman's pleas. Ellis did not mind the idea of DiCaprio as Bateman, though he knew this annoyed Bale and Harron.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: At the 51st Cannes Film Festival in May 1998, Lions Gate suddenly announced that DiCaprio had been cast as Bateman. Though Pressman wanted Harron to stay, Harron was fired after making it clear that she would not direct "American Psycho" without Bale. Furthermore, DiCaprio wanted to work with a major director and had drafted a shortlist that included Danny Boyle, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. Oliver Stone was hired to direct and, after a reading with DiCaprio, Leto, and Cameron Diaz, began reworking the script. Stone and DiCaprio wanted to take the film in a more psychological direction in contrast to Harron's satire and turn it into a Jekyll and Hyde-like story. Their endeavor was beset by creative differences; Pressman said, "[DiCaprio] was looking for solutions to things that weren't problems... As time went on more and more questions came into Leo's mind — which might have been about the script or other factors". Bale was so confident DiCaprio would depart that he turned down other roles for nine months and continued preparing.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: DiCaprio departed in favor of Danny Boyle's "The Beach" (2000), which led to Stone's withdrawal. Turner later said she heard from a friend that DiCaprio chose to leave after Gloria Steinem, a strong critic of the novel, convinced him to abandon the project due to his young fanbase. Lions Gate rehired Harron, but was still against casting Bale as Bateman. Lions Gate offered the role to Ewan McGregor, who turned it down after Bale personally urged him to do so. Harron spoke with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Norton, and Vince Vaughn, but after they all declined, Lions Gate begrudgingly agreed to hire Bale with a small $50,000 salary. Lions Gate also mandated that the budget not exceed $10 million and that recognizable actors would fill the supporting roles. By that point, Dafoe, Leto, Reese Witherspoon, and Chloë Sevigny were already committed; Harron and Bale unsuccessfully tried to convince Winona Ryder to play Evelyn Williams.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Principal photography commenced on February 28, 1999, and lasted seven weeks, with a budget of $7 million. Andrzej Sekuła served as cinematographer; he and Harron frequently argued, with Ross recalling that "[Sekula] was setting up shots that in [Harron]'s mind may have been cool shots, pretty shots, but didn't tell the story she wanted to". As American companies did not want to be associated with "American Psycho", the production team had to turn to European companies for clothes and cosmetics, though these still imposed restrictions. Rolex made Harron change the novel's line "don't touch the Rolex" to "don't touch the watch", while Cerruti 1881 disallowed Bale from wearing its clothes during the murder scenes.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Though some outdoor shots were captured in New York City (where the film is set), the majority of filming took place in downtown Toronto, with a variety of scenes shot in bars and restaurants around the city. Anti-violence advocates petitioned Toronto City Hall to deny the production permission to film in Toronto and organized protests because of reports that Paul Bernardo—who committed serial murders and rapes in Toronto—owned a copy of the novel. As a result, the production faced difficulty securing shooting locations; the scenes in Bateman's office had to be filmed on a sound stage because the owners of the building that Harron intended to film in feared negative publicity. Harron had been unaware of the novel's connection to the Bernardo case and sympathized with the protesters, but reasoned that she did not "want to put horrible mayhem on the screen... there's something to do here that hasn't really been done, a portrait of the late 80's that's worth putting on the screen". To avoid protests, the production removed the title from daily call sheets and parking permits.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Bale brought his copy of the novel to the set every day. Harron remained faithful to the novel's dialogue, so he "would kind of be skimming through it and looking at it and finding little bits and conferring in the corner with [her]". Bale drew inspiration from Nicolas Cage's performance in "Vampire's Kiss" (1989) and Tom Cruise in an interview on "Late Night with David Letterman". He kept images of 1980s figures who he felt Bateman would attempt to emulate, such as Cruise and Donald Trump, in his trailer. A Method actor, Bale never broke character during the shoot—he did not socialize off-camera, always spoke with an American accent, and worked out at a gym for hours to maintain Bateman's physique. His behavior confused other actors, with Sevigny saying that she had never seen an actor commit to a role to such a degree. Josh Lucas later told Bale that the other actors "thought that [he] was the worst actor they'd ever seen" and did not understand why Harron fought for him. Harron nicknamed Bale "Robo-Actor" for his ability to control his sweat glands, which she and his co-stars noticed during the business card scene.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Harron and Bale excluded Leto from rehearsals of the murder of Paul Allen so Leto's expression of shock when Bale ran at him with an axe would be genuine. The shots of Bateman swinging his axe at Allen had to be done quickly since the scene's use of theatrical blood limited the number of takes. Bale swung at a Plexiglass-coated camera as the crew squirted fake blood at his face. The blood covered only half of Bale's face by accident, but Harron found this "a perfect metaphor for the Jekyll-and-Hyde aspect of Bateman: pristine on the outside, bloody and psychotic on the inside". Bale improvised Bateman's moonwalk, a change from the novel that Ellis initially disliked, but grew to appreciate over time. For the subsequent interview scenes featuring Donald Kimball, Harron shot three takes and requested that Dafoe act differently in each of them. Dafoe acted as if Kimball knew Bateman was Allen's killer in the first, only suspected him in the second, and did not suspect anything in the third. The three takes were then blended in post-production to confuse audiences.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Harron and Turner kept most violence off-screen, but Harron wanted "one classic horror movie scary scene" with "a big explosion of violence" that embraced the novel's brutality. They conceived a threesome with Bateman and two women that ends with him murdering them. Bale had no problem appearing nude, though he wore sneakers and covered his penis with a sock. One of the women was portrayed by Turner, who found it "very daunting" being directed by Harron, despite having been her co-writer for years. The shot in which Bateman murders Turner's character while having sex with her took several takes, as it was difficult to get the theatrical blood to ooze through the sheets as they intended. Bateman's phone confession took around 15 takes because Harron felt Bale's acting got better as he became more flushed. In contrast, a shot in which Bateman peels off a facial mask took only one take.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: "American Psycho" soundtrack features licensed 1980s pop music from a variety of artists, including David Bowie, Phil Collins, the Cure, the Mediæval Bæbes, New Order, and Eric B. & Rakim. Due to the film's controversial nature, obtaining the rights proved difficult. Though the production was able to obtain the rights to all necessary songs, Whitney Houston refused to allow the use of her performance of "The Greatest Love of All", so an orchestral arrangement had to be used instead. The Huey Lewis and the News song "Hip to Be Square" appears in the film and was intended to be on the soundtrack album, but was removed, forcing Koch Records to recall approximately 100,000 copies. Koch Records president Bob Frank said that the removal was due to Huey Lewis objecting to the film's violence, but in 2013, Lewis said Frank's story was "completely made up". Lewis's manager Bob Brown said that "Hip to Be Square" was included on the album without their permission, which he speculated was a publicity stunt.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The original score was composed by Welsh musician and Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, who also scored "I Shot Andy Warhol", alongside M.J. Mynarski. Cale joined because, like "I Shot Andy Warhol", he found Harron's script intelligent. He composed in his studio using a sampler and sent the music file to someone who turned it into a composition and hired musicians to record it. Harron described Cale's work as "a soulful, even melancholy sound to complement the soundtrack's poppy brightness". Cale was uninvolved with the selection of licensed music and sound mixing, though for one scene that Harron wanted to be unsettling, he suggested using animal noises, like the tapes of rabbits screaming that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used against the Branch Davidians during the Waco siege. The soundtrack album was released on April 4, 2000.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: As promotion, one could register to receive e-mails "from" Patrick Bateman, supposedly to his therapist. The e-mails, written by a writer attached to the film and approved by the book's author Bret Easton Ellis, follow Bateman's life since the events of the film. He discusses such developments as his marriage to (and impending divorce settlement with) his former secretary, Jean, his complete adoration of his son, Patrick Jr., and his efforts to triumph over his business rivals. The e-mails also describe or mention interactions with other characters from the novel, including Timothy Price (Bryce in the film version), Evelyn, Luis, Courtney, David, Detective Kimball, and Marcus. However, the film's star, Christian Bale, was not happy with this kind of marketing: "My main objection is that some people think it will be me returning those e-mails. I don't like that ... I think the movie stands on its own merits and should attract an audience that can appreciate intelligent satire. It's not a slasher flick, but it's also not "American Pie". The marketing should reflect that".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Lionsgate spent $50,000 on an online stock market game, "Make a Killing with American Psycho", which invited players to invest in films, actors, or musicians using fake Hollywood money. This marketing ploy did little to help the film's box office but the studio's co-president Tom Ortenberg still claimed that it was a success: "The aim was to gain exposure and awareness for the picture, and we did that. Lionsgate will make a tidy profit on the picture".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: "American Psycho" premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) initially gave the film an NC-17 rating for a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. The producers excised approximately 18 seconds of footage to obtain an R-rated version of the film.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: A special-edition DVD was released on July 21, 2005. In the U.S., two versions of the film have been released: an R-rated and unrated version. For the edited version and R-rated cinematic release in the U.S., the producers excised about 18 seconds of footage from a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. Some dialogue was also edited: Bateman orders a prostitute, Christie, to bend over so that another, Sabrina, can "see your asshole", which was edited to "see your ass". The unedited version also shows Bateman receiving oral sex from Christie. The uncut version was released on Blu-ray on February 6, 2007. A 4K Blu-ray was released with the Uncut Version on September 25, 2018 in US and October 15 in United Kingdom. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also released the film on Blu-ray around Australia, Spain, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Thailand, and Taiwan in December 2008.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: "American Psycho" debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it polarized audiences and critics; some showered the film with praise for its writing and performance from Christian Bale, others with criticism for its violent nature. Upon its theatrical release, the film received positive reviews in crucial publications, including "The New York Times" which called it a "mean and lean horror comedy classic". On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads: "If it falls short of the deadly satire of Bret Easton Ellis's novel, "American Psycho" still finds its own blend of horror and humor, thanks in part to a fittingly creepy performance by Christian Bale". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and regarded Christian Bale as being "heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor". In his review for the "Los Angeles Times", Kenneth Turan wrote: "The difficult truth is that the more viewers can model themselves after protagonist Bateman, the more they can distance themselves from the human reality of the slick violence that fills the screen and take it all as some kind of a cool joke, the more they are likely to enjoy this stillborn, pointless piece of work". "Newsweek" magazine's David Ansen wrote: "But after an hour of dissecting the '80s culture of materialism, narcissism and greed, the movie begins to repeat itself. It becomes more grisly and surreal, but not more interesting". In his review for "The Village Voice", J. Hoberman wrote: "If anything, Bale is too knowing. He eagerly works within the constraints of the quotation marks Harron puts around his performance".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers wrote: "Whenever Harron digs beneath the glitzy surface in search of feelings that haven't been desensitized, the horrific and hilarious "American Psycho" can still strike a raw nerve". In a somewhat positive review for "Slate" magazine, David Edelstein noted the toned-down brutality and sexual content in comparison to the novel and wrote that the moment where Bateman spares his secretary is when "this one-dimensional film blossoms like a flower". Edelstein would later describe the film "Joker" and "American Psycho" as an "anthem for incels". Owen Gleiberman gave the film an "A−" rating, writing for "Entertainment Weekly": "By treating the book as raw material for an exuberantly perverse exercise in '80s Nostalgia, Harron recasts the go-go years as a template for the casually brainwashing-consumer/fashion/image culture that emerged from them. She has made a movie that is really a parable of today". "Time" magazine's Richard Corliss wrote that "Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do understand the book, and they want their film to be understood as a period comedy of manners". A.O. Scott (also from the aforementioned "New York Times") praised the film as well.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Bloody Disgusting ranked the film at No. 19 in its list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", with the article praising "Christian Bale's disturbing/darkly hilarious turn as serial killer/Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman, a role that in hindsight couldn't have been played by any other actor. ... At its best, the film reflects our own narcissism, and the shallow American culture it was spawned from, with piercing effectiveness. Much of the credit for this can go to director Mary Harron, whose off-kilter tendencies are a good complement to Ellis's unique style".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Original author Ellis said, ""American Psycho" was a book I didn't think needed to be turned into a movie", as "the medium of film demands answers", which would make the book "infinitely less interesting". He also said that while the book attempted to add ambiguity to the events and to Bateman's reliability as a narrator, the film appeared to make them completely literal before confusing the issue at the very end. On a 2014 appearance on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast, Ellis indicated that his feelings towards the film were more mixed than negative; he reiterated his opinion that his conception of Bateman as an unreliable narrator did not make an entirely successful transition from page to screen, adding that Bateman's narration was so unreliable that even "he", as the author of the book, didn't know if Bateman was honestly describing events that actually happened or if he was lying or even hallucinating. Ellis appreciated that the film clarified the humor for audiences who mistook the novel's violence for blatant misogyny as opposed to the deliberately exaggerated satire he'd intended, and liked that it gave his novel "a second life" in introducing it to new readers. Ultimately, Ellis said "the movie was okay, the movie was fine. I just didn't think it needed to be made".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Since the mid 2000s, the film has attracted a sizeable cult following, which has grown in the 2010s due to various social media platforms.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: A direct-to-video sequel, "American Psycho 2", directed by Morgan J. Freeman and starring Mila Kunis, was released in 2002. The sequel's only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask), briefly shown in a flashback. The film was denounced by "American Psycho" author Bret Easton Ellis. In 2005, Kunis expressed embarrassment over the film, and spoke out against the idea of a sequel.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom used the film's ending monologue "My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone [...]" as a segue between two songs on their 2003 album Hate Crew Deathroll.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The film's influence can be seen in Kanye West's music video "Love Lockdown" and Maroon 5's music video "Animals".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: In 2013, FX and Lionsgate were developing an "American Psycho" television series that would have served as a sequel to the film. It was to be set in the present, with Patrick Bateman in his 50s, grooming an apprentice (Andrew Low) to be just like him. As of 2022 it is presumed to have been cancelled or in development hell.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The character Bateman mistakenly attributes a quote by Edmund Kemper to Ed Gein, which has led to it being mistaken as such by others; Bateman says: "You know what Ed Gein said about women? ... He said 'When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part of me wants to take her out, talk to her, be real nice and sweet and treat her right ... [the other part wonders] what her head would look like on a stick'".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: Funny or Die recreated the "Hip to be Square" scene with Huey Lewis in the Bateman role and "Weird Al" Yankovic in the Allen role. In the scene, Lewis discusses the artistic merits of the film "American Psycho" and shows the actual scene. It ends with Lewis killing Yankovic saying "Try parodying one of my songs now, you stupid bastard!" The video then plays "I Want a New Duck", Yankovic's parody of the Huey Lewis and the News song "I Want a New Drug".


title: American Psycho (film)

text: American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills wrote a song based on the film for their 2021 album "The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood" called "Hip To Be Scared" and features Papa Roach vocalist Jacoby Shaddix.


title: American Psycho (film)

text: The film is frequently a topic of memes and has been said by some to be relevant due to its themes and satirical nature.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: XXX (stylized as xXx and pronounced Triple X) is a 2002 American action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Rich Wilkes. The first installment in the "XXX" film series, the film stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious athlete-turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas and Samuel L. Jackson. Cohen, Moritz and Diesel had previously worked on "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) as director, producer and cast member respectively.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: The film grossed $277.4 million worldwide and was followed by two sequels, "" and "", released in 2005 and 2017, respectively.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Anarchy 99, a Russian terrorist group, acquires a biochemical weapon, "Silent Night", presumed missing since the fall of the Soviet Union. Anarchy 99 easily discover and kill an undercover agent sent by the American National Security Agency to recover it. NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons suggests sending someone who lacks ties to the US government, such as Xander "XXX" Cage, an extreme sports professional wanted by the FBI for acts protesting against a senator. Gibbons takes Cage into custody, who then passes two field tests, before reluctantly accepting the job after he is told the only other option is prison.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Cage meets the NSA support team in Prague, which includes Czech agent Milan Sova, who has been tasked with supervising and, if necessary, deporting Cage. While scouting an Anarchy 99 party, Cage identifies Sova as a police officer to Anarchy 99's leader, Yorgi, earning him favor with the group. Cage asks Yorgi about purchasing high end sports cars, and Yelena, Yorgi's girlfriend and lieutenant, gives Cage an account number.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Gibbons calls Cage about changes to the plan but is impressed when Cage gives them information provided by the star-struck Kolya. As a result, Gibbons sends tech-specialist Agent Toby Shavers, who provides Cage with a special revolver, binoculars that can see through walls and explosives disguised as bandages. As Cage attends the car deal he made with Yorgi, Sova attempts to intercede. Using the trick revolver and special effects, Cage fakes killing Sova. Having earned Yorgi's trust, Cage joins Anarchy 99.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Yorgi brings Cage back to a castle after a dance party at one of his nightclubs that serves as Anarchy 99's headquarters. Cage, while searching for the biochemical weapon, catches Yelena investigating Yorgi's secret safe. He takes her to a nearby restaurant to discuss the matter and reveals his true identity. Sova betrays Cage to Yorgi on the phone. Furious, Yorgi sends his trusted sniper Kirill to kill Cage. While watching the pair, Kirill, who is in love with Yelena, warns her. As Cage and Yelena stage a fight, the NSA suddenly appears to capture Cage, and Yelena is taken back to Anarchy 99.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Cage meets with Gibbons, who demands that Cage return to America now that his cover is blown and special forces are planning to siege the castle. Cage refuses, fearing for Yelena's life and bitter that Sova purposely blew his cover. Cage sneaks into Yorgi's castle and follows him into a secret underground lab. Cage overhears Yorgi's plan to launch "Silent Night" from a water-borne drone named Ahab. Cage flees the area after killing Kolya. At his hideout, he finds Sova waiting for him, now with Yorgi. Before Sova can kill Cage, Yelena saves him and reveals herself to be an undercover Russian Federal Security Service agent abandoned by her handlers. Cage relays Yorgi's plans to the NSA in return for Yelena's asylum. Against orders, Cage gives his car to Shavers and tells him to load it up with weaponry. Cage parachutes from a plane on a snowboard near Anarchy 99's communication tower. He starts an avalanche that destroys the tower but is captured by Yorgi, who already knew Yelena's identity. As Yorgi prepares to kill them, the special forces attack. Cage and Yelena free their restraints, but Yorgi launches Ahab before Cage kills him.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: The Czech military prepares to destroy Ahab with airstrikes, though this will release some of the biochemical agent. Cage and Yelena take his car, now heavily modified by Agent Shavers, to race alongside the river to catch up to Ahab. Cage harpoons the drone, crosses over to it, and disables the weapon moments before it goes off. Cage and Yelena are recovered, and Gibbons follows through on his promises. In the conclusion, Cage and Yelena are relaxing in Bora Bora when Gibbons contacts Cage to offer him another mission, but Cage ignores him.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: To imply Xander Cage's credibility within extreme sport subcultures, various personalities make cameo appearances:


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: In July 2001 it was announced that Vin Diesel will receive in the neighborhood of $10 million to star in the film, with an initial release date of July 26, 2002. In August 2001, Sony put a large billboard of "XXX" in Hollywood, before a script had been written. There was also a teaser trailer released on May 3, 2002. It was then attached to "Spider-Man", and shown on the web.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Filming took place at three locations. Most of the film is set in Prague, Czech Republic. The Corvette jump was filmed at the Foresthill Bridge in Auburn State Recreation Area, Auburn, California. The final scenes were set in Bora Bora, Tahiti, and other areas in southern West Virginia.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Several Czech Su-22s were used for the film. It was one of the last "actions" of these aircraft – Czech Air Force decommissioned Sukhois in 2002.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Vin Diesel did many of his own stunts, director Rob Cohen said: "I think the thing is that Vin did more than he should have, but less than he wanted to." Diesel took a fall during the avalanche scene, and landed head first and wasn't moving, and Cohen was worried the star of the film might have broken his neck. The Corvette bridge based jump was performed by Tim Rigby wearing a Vin Diesel mask. The motorcycle jump was performed by professional motocross rider and stuntman Jeremy Stenberg, and Diesel's face was later added digitally.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Stunt player Harry O'Connor, Diesel's stunt double, was killed on April 4, 2002, when he hit a pillar of the Palacký Bridge in Prague, para-sailing during one of the action scenes. The accident occurred while filming the second take of the stunt; O'Connor's first attempt was completed without incident and can be seen in the completed film, which was dedicated to him.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: The first few minutes of the film take place at a concert of German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein in Prague, performing the song "Feuer Frei". The same clip is available, but from the band's perspective (with only brief scenes from the film) in their video compilation "Lichtspielhaus".


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: The film score was composed by Randy Edelman, a frequent collaborator of Cohen's. The film also featured a contemporary rock music soundtrack. Rammstein provided some of the music and was even featured in the film in the opening scene. During the club scene in Prague, Orbital can be seen playing their exclusive track "Technologicque Park" live before the dancing crowd. The soundtrack album also features Queens of the Stone Age, Drowning Pool, Hatebreed, Nelly, Lil Wayne, N.E.R.D, Fermín IV and Moby. It was released on August 6, 2002, through Universal Records. It peaked at #9 on the "Billboard" 200, #16 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #1 on the Top Soundtracks. The "Tweaker remix" of the song "Adrenaline" by Gavin Rossdale (the lead singer of Bush) was featured was in the film, while the original version is included on the soundtrack. None of Edelman's score was included on the album, with a separate disc of his work released by Varèse Sarabande.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: The film opened in 3,374 theaters and grossed $44,506,103 in its opening weekend. It grossed a total of $142 million, and a further $135 million internationally for a worldwide total of $277.4 million worldwide


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 48% based on reviews from 180 critics, with an average rating of 5.59/10. The site's consensus reads: "It has an endearing lack of seriousness, and Vin Diesel has more than enough muscle for the starring role, but ultimately, "XXX" is a missed opportunity to breathe new life into the spy thriller genre." On Metacritic the film has a score of 48 out of 100, based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.


title: XXX (2002 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave it stars out of 4, writing, "In its own punk way, "XXX" is as good as a good Bond movie, and that's saying something." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "It's hard to hate a movie, even one this droolingly crass, that knows how to laugh at itself." Adam Smith of "Empire" called the movie, "Sporadically entertaining, but seriously hampered by a very choppy screenplay", and rating it three out of five stars.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films including "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989); "The Crying Game" (1992); "Pulp Fiction" (1994); "Heavenly Creatures" (1994); "Flirting with Disaster" (1996); and "Shakespeare in Love" (1998). Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing "Shakespeare in Love" and also won seven Tony Awards for plays and musicals including "The Producers", "Billy Elliot the Musical", and "". After leaving Miramax, Weinstein and his brother Bob founded The Weinstein Company, a mini-major film studio. He was co-chairman, alongside Bob, from 2005 to 2017.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In October 2017, following sexual abuse allegations dating back to the late 1970s, Weinstein was dismissed from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More than 80 women made allegations of sexual harassment and/or rape against Weinstein by October 31. The allegations sparked the #MeToo social media campaign and subsequent sexual abuse allegations against many powerful men around the world; this phenomenon is referred to as the "Weinstein effect". Weinstein was arrested and charged with rape in New York in May 2018, and was found guilty of two of five felonies in February 2020. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison, and began serving his sentence at Wende Correctional Facility. His earliest possible release date is November 9, 2039, when he will be 87 years old. On July 20, 2021, he was extradited to Los Angeles to face further charges at a subsequent trial, where he was found guilty of three of seven charges on December 19, 2022.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein was born on March 19, 1952, in the Flushing section of Queens, New York City, to diamond cutter Max Weinstein (1924–1976) and his wife, Miriam ("née" Postel; 1926–2016). His family is Jewish, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland. He grew up with his younger brother, Bob, in a housing co-op named Electchester in New York City. Weinstein graduated from John Bowne High School and attended the State University of New York at Buffalo. Weinstein, his brother Bob, and Corky Burger independently produced rock concerts as "Harvey & Corky Productions" in Buffalo through most of the 1970s. "Harvey & Corky Productions" brought top acts to Buffalo, including Frank Sinatra, The Who, Jackson Browne, and the Rolling Stones. Weinstein's longtime friend, Jonathan A. Dandes, followed him to Buffalo and has described Weinstein as "aggressive" and "consumed" in matters of business.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In the late 1970s, using profits from their concert promotion business, Weinstein and his brother founded the independent film distribution company Miramax, named after their parents Miriam and Max. The company's initial releases were primarily music-oriented concert films such as Paul McCartney's "Rockshow".


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In the early 1980s, Miramax acquired the rights to two British films of benefit shows filmed for the human rights organization Amnesty International. Working closely with Martin Lewis, the producer of the original films, the Weinstein brothers edited the two films into one movie tailored for the American market. The resulting film was released as "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" in May 1982, and it became Miramax's first hit. The movie raised considerable sums of money for Amnesty International and was credited by Amnesty with having helped to raise its profile in the United States. The Weinsteins slowly built upon this success throughout the 1980s with arthouse films which achieved critical attention and modest commercial success.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Harvey Weinstein and Miramax gained wider attention in 1988 with the release of Errol Morris' documentary "The Thin Blue Line", which detailed the struggle of Randall Dale Adams, a wrongfully convicted inmate sentenced to death row. The publicity that soon surrounded the case resulted in Adams' release and nationwide publicity for Miramax. In 1989, their successful launch release of Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" propelled Miramax to become the most successful independent studio in America.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In 1989, Miramax also released two arthouse films, Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" and director Pedro Almodóvar's film "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!", both of which the MPAA rating board gave an X-rating, effectively stopping nationwide release for these films. Weinstein sued the MPAA over the rating system. His lawsuit was later thrown out, but the MPAA introduced the NC-17 rating two months later.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Miramax continued to grow its library of films and directors until, in 1993, after the success of "The Crying Game", Disney offered the Weinsteins $80 million for ownership of Miramax. The brothers agreed to the deal which in turn cemented their Hollywood clout and also ensured that they would remain at the head of their company. The following year, Miramax released its first blockbuster, Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", and distributed the popular independent film "Clerks".


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Miramax won its first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1997 with the victory of "The English Patient". "Pulp Fiction" was nominated in 1995 but lost to "Forrest Gump". This started a string of critical successes that included "Good Will Hunting" (1997) and "Shakespeare in Love" (1998), with both films receiving several awards, including numerous Academy Awards.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: The Weinstein brothers left Miramax on September 30, 2005, to form their own production company, The Weinstein Company, with several other media executives, directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and Colin Vaines, who had successfully run the production department at Miramax for ten years. In February 2011, filmmaker Michael Moore took legal action against the Weinstein brothers, claiming they owed him $2.7 million in profits for his documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004), which he said were denied to him by "Hollywood accounting tricks." In February 2012, Moore dropped the lawsuit for an undisclosed settlement.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: An analysis of Academy Award acceptance speeches from 1966 to 2016 found that Weinstein had been thanked or praised in 34 speeches—as many times as God, and second only to Steven Spielberg (with 43 mentions).


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: On October 8, 2017, Harvey Weinstein was fired from The Weinstein Company after a list of sexual abuse charges was released to the press. After months of unsuccessful attempts to sell the company or its library, The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy, with Lantern Entertainment subsequently purchasing all assets in 2018. The company was shut down on July 16, 2018, and its website sometime thereafter.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: While lauded for opening up the independent film market and making it financially viable, Weinstein has been criticized for the techniques he applied in his business dealings. Peter Biskind's book "Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film" denounced Miramax's release history and editing of arthouse films. For example, the book states that "54" had been originally made as an arthouse film but, after Ryan Phillippe's sudden rise to stardom, Weinstein forced director Mark Christopher to re-edit and re-shoot the film to make it more mainstream.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein re-edited several Asian films and dubbed them in English. Weinstein tried to release the English-dubbed versions of "Shaolin Soccer" and "Hero" in the United States theatrically, but they scored badly in test screenings, leading Weinstein to release the films in United States cinemas in their original language. Furthermore, Weinstein re-edited 1993 Cannes Palme d'Or winner "Farewell My Concubine" for U.S. theatrical release; 1993 Cannes jury head Louis Malle was furious. "The film we admired so much in Cannes is not the film seen in this country, which is twenty minutes shorter — but it seems longer, because it doesn't make any sense," complained Malle.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: When Weinstein was charged with handling the U.S. release of "Princess Mononoke", director Hayao Miyazaki was reported to have sent him a samurai sword in the mail. Attached to the blade was a stark message: "No cuts." Miyazaki commented on the incident: "Actually, my producer did that. Although I did go to New York to meet this man, this Harvey Weinstein, and I was bombarded with this aggressive attack, all these demands for cuts. I defeated him." Weinstein and his brother Bob have also been criticized for altering the vision of foreign filmmakers hired to create movies for Miramax, such as on the 1997 projects "Mimic" (directed by Guillermo del Toro) and "Nightwatch" (directed by Dane Ole Bornedal). Weinstein has always insisted that such changes were done in the interest of creating the most financially viable film. "I'm not cutting for fun," he said in an interview. "I'm cutting for the shit to work. All my life I served one master: the film. I love movies."


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Another example cited by Biskind was Phillip Noyce's "The Quiet American" (2002), the release of which Weinstein delayed following the September 11 attacks owing to audience reaction in test screenings to the film's critical tone toward past U.S. foreign policy. After being told the film would go straight to video, Noyce planned to screen the film at the Toronto International Film Festival in order to mobilize critics to pressure Miramax to release it theatrically. Weinstein decided to screen the film at the festival only after he was lobbied by star Michael Caine, who threatened to boycott publicity for another film he had made for Miramax. "The Quiet American" received mostly positive reviews at the festival, and Miramax eventually released the film theatrically. However, it was alleged that Miramax did not make a major effort to promote the film for Academy Award consideration, though Caine was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and fits of anger. According to Biskind, Weinstein once put a "New York Observer" reporter in a headlock while throwing him out of a party. On another occasion, Weinstein yelled at director Julie Taymor and her husband during a disagreement over a test screening of her movie "Frida," saying to Taymor, "You are the most arrogant person I have ever met!" and to her husband, "I don't like the look on your face. Why don't you defend your wife, so I can beat the shit out of you?"


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In a 2004 newspaper article, in "New York" magazine, Weinstein appeared somewhat repentant for his often aggressive discussions with directors and producers. However, a "Newsweek" story on October 13, 2008, criticized Weinstein, who was accused of "hassling Sydney Pollack on his deathbed" about the release of the film "The Reader". After Weinstein offered $1 million to charity if the accusation could be proven, journalist Nikki Finke published an email sent by Scott Rudin on August 22 asserting that Weinstein "harassed" Anthony Minghella's widow and a bedridden Pollack until Pollack's family asked him to stop.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In September 2009, Weinstein publicly voiced opposition to efforts to extradite Roman Polanski from Switzerland to the U.S. regarding a 1977 charge that he had drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl, to which Polanski pleaded guilty before fleeing the country. Weinstein, whose company distributed "", a film about the Polanski case, questioned whether Polanski committed any crime, prompting Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley to insist that Polanski's guilty plea indicated that his action was a crime, and that several other serious charges were pending.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Ronan Farrow reported in "The New Yorker" that Weinstein hired British-Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube in order to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against him. Using false identities, private investigators from Black Cube reportedly tracked and met journalists and actresses, in particular Rose McGowan, who accused Weinstein of rape. Weinstein reportedly had Black Cube and other agencies "target, or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories." Weinstein also reportedly used Black Cube to attempt to silence journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor reporting on the allegations against him. According to Kantor a Black Cube agent posing as a women's rights advocate attempted to manipulate and dupe her.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In October 2019, it was reported that Weinstein had approached Hillary Clinton in an attempt to help him stop Ronan Farrow from publishing his story about the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Clinton publicist Nick Merrill emailed Farrow and unsuccessfully attempted to convince him to not publish the story. According to Rose McGowan, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California Governor Gavin Newsom's wife, aided Weinstein lawyer David Boies in attempting to bribe McGowan and keep her silent about her allegations against Weinstein.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In October 2017, "The New York Times" and "The New Yorker" reported that more than a dozen women accused Weinstein of sexually harassing, assaulting, or raping them. Many other women in the film industry subsequently reported similar experiences with Weinstein, who denied "any nonconsensual sex". As a result of these allegations, Weinstein was dismissed from his production company, suspended from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also resigned from the Directors Guild of America and was denounced by leading figures in politics whom he had supported. The Los Angeles Police Department opened a criminal investigation for alleged rape, and New York and London police began investigating other sexual assault allegations. On October 10, 2017, Weinstein's wife, Georgina Chapman, announced that she was leaving him and their divorce was finalized in July 2021.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: The sexual abuse allegations precipitated a wave of "national reckoning" against sexual harassment and assault in the United States known as the Weinstein effect. Compounded by other sexual harassment cases earlier in the year, the Weinstein reports and subsequent #MeToo hashtag campaign, which encouraged individuals to share their suppressed stories of sexual misconduct, created a cavalcade of allegations across multiple industries that brought about the swift ouster of many men in positions of power both in the United States and, as it spread, around the world.<ref name="Cook/Simons"></ref>


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein was charged by the New York County District Attorney's Office with "rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women" on May 25, 2018. He was arrested the same day after surrendering to the New York City Police Department (NYPD).


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein was later released after $1 million USD bail was posted on his behalf. He surrendered his passport and was required to wear an ankle monitor, with travel being restricted to New York and Connecticut. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Weinstein would plead not guilty. A trial date was set for January 6, 2020. On that date, Weinstein was also charged in Los Angeles with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in 2013.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: During his New York trial, Weinstein appeared entering the court using a walker and being assisted by his attorney, attributing severe back pain to the use of the walker. To overcome the display of weakness, the prosecution stated "The man seated on that side of the courtroom, despite what your eyes are looking at, is not a harmless old man."


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: On June 8, 2022, Weinstein was formally charged by the Metropolitan Police with two counts of indecent assault against a woman in London, UK, between July 31 and August 31, 1996.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: After deliberating for five days, a jury convicted Weinstein on February 24, 2020, of two of five criminal charges: one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree. The jury found him not guilty regarding predatory sexual assault, which could have led to a life sentence. He was remanded to jail at Rikers Island in New York City pending his sentencing hearing on March 11, 2020, when he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was then transferred to Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County, New York. He stated—through his attorneys—that he would appeal against the verdict. Weinstein was stripped of his honorary CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) on September 18, 2020.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: In March 2020, while incarcerated in Wende Correctional Facility in western New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, Weinstein tested positive for COVID-19. He reportedly did not show symptoms of the disease, was placed in isolation at the prison, and on April 1, 2020, was stated to be recovering. On November 17, 2020, Weinstein was again placed in isolation due to suspected COVID-19 symptoms. On November 19, it was reported that he did not have COVID-19, but that his health was declining.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: On June 2, 2022, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department issued its decision on Weinstein's appeal, upholding the verdicts and judgment. For the court's decision, Judge Angela Mazzarelli wrote, "We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence, and we have considered defendant's remaining arguments and find them unavailing."


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein continued to face a criminal trial in Los Angeles and his extradition was scheduled for July 2020, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His lawyers recently objected for paper work demanding his extradition, putting the trial on another delay, and his representative Norman Effman says that he suffers from health problems such as almost being legally blind, sleep apnea, and back problems typical for old age.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: On June 15, 2021, Weinstein was scheduled to be extradited to California to face more charges relating to rape and sexual assault. On July 20, 2021, he was flown to Los Angeles and taken to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: On September 15, 2022, Weinstein's attorneys claimed that Weinstein's teeth were decayed and that he needed private medical care (to be paid by Weinstein) because the prison dentists have given him the option of having teeth extracted and the gaps left open, or to leave the decaying teeth in place and continue to deteriorate. Weinstein wants a bridge to plug the gaps.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: The trial in Los Angeles commenced in October 2022. Weinstein was charged with 11 counts of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery, stemming from alleged acts between 2004 and 2013. He was found guilty of 3 of 7 charges (four of the initial 11 charges were dropped) on December 19, 2022.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein has been married twice. In 1987, he married his assistant Eve Chilton and the couple divorced in 2004. They had three daughters: Remy (previously Lily; born 1995), Emma (born 1998), and Ruth (born 2002). In 2007, he married English fashion designer and actress Georgina Chapman. They have a daughter and a son. On October 10, 2017, Chapman announced she was leaving Weinstein after the sexual harassment accusations. They reached a settlement in January 2018 and their divorce was finalized in July 2021.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein was active on issues such as gun control, poverty, AIDS, juvenile diabetes, and multiple sclerosis research. Until October 2017, he served on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City-based non-profit that targets poverty, and co-chaired one of its annual benefits. He was critical of the lack of universal healthcare in the United States.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein is a longtime supporter of and contributor to the Democratic Party, including the campaigns of President Barack Obama and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. He supported Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and in 2012 he hosted an election fundraiser for Obama at his home in Westport, Connecticut.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Weinstein was active in the fashion industry. He produced "Project Runway", the fashion reality show, making stars of designer Michael Kors, model Heidi Klum and editor Nina Garcia. He was instrumental in the revival of Halston, collaborating with Tamara Mellon, Sarah Jessica Parker, and stylist Rachel Zoe. He licensed the option to revive the Charles James brand. Celebrities were asked to wear Marchesa (his ex-wife's label) at least once if they were in a Weinstein movie. His production companies were frequently involved in fashion-themed movies, including Madonna's "W.E.", Robert Altman's "Prêt-à-Porter", and Tom Ford's "A Single Man". Stars of Weinstein's films appeared on more than a dozen "Vogue" covers.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: Harvey Weinstein had won numerous awards before his sexual assault allegations surfaced. On September 26, 2000, Harvey Weinstein was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) by the University at Buffalo. On April 19, 2004, Weinstein was appointed an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his contributions to the British film industry. This award was "honorary" because Weinstein is not a citizen of a Commonwealth country. On March 2, 2012, Weinstein was made a knight of the French Legion of Honour, in recognition of Miramax's efforts to increase the presence and popularity of foreign films in the United States.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: The University of Buffalo revoked his honorary doctorate, saying his conduct "contradicts the spirit of the honorary degree", while French President Emmanuel Macron revoked his Legion of Honour, both in late 2017. On September 18, 2020, Weinstein was stripped of the honorary CBE.


title: Harvey Weinstein

text: The table below lists additional awards given to Weinstein. Those not shared with others have also since been rescinded.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: Maurizio Gucci (26 September 1948 – 27 March 1995) was an Italian businessman and the one-time head of the Gucci fashion house. He was the son of actor Rodolfo Gucci, and grandson of the company's founder Guccio Gucci. On 27 March 1995 he was assassinated by a hitman hired by his former wife Patrizia Reggiani.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: Maurizio Gucci was born on 26 September 1948 in Florence as the only child of actors Rodolfo Gucci and Sandra Ravel. In 1972, Gucci moved to New York City to work for the Gucci company with his uncle Aldo Gucci. In the early 1980s, he lived in a luxury penthouse in the Olympic Tower, gifted to him by his father. In 1982, he moved back to Milan, and in 1983, launched a legal battle against Aldo for control over Gucci after becoming the majority shareholder following his father's death.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: In 1986, Gucci fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution after Aldo, seeking revenge, had accused him of forging his father's signature to avoid paying inheritance taxes. He was originally found guilty, but was later acquitted. In 1988, 47.8% of Gucci was sold to the Bahrain-based investment fund Investcorp.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: Maurizio Gucci was made chairman of the Gucci group in 1989. From 1991 to 1993, Gucci's finances were in the red. Maurizio Gucci was blamed for spending extravagantly on the company's headquarters in Florence and Milan. He went on to sell his remaining company stock in 1993 for $170 million to Investcorp, ending the Gucci family's association with the company.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: In 1972, Gucci married Patrizia Reggiani, with whom he had two daughters, Allegra and Alessandra. Alessandra Gucci was born on June 28, 1976, and Allegra Gucci was born on January 27, 1981.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: Maurizio's father, Rodolfo Gucci, originally did not approve of their marriage, calling Patrizia "a social climber who has nothing in mind but money." On March 21, 1985, Maurizio told his wife he was going on a short business trip to Florence. The following day - March 22 - he sent a friend to tell his wife he would not be returning, and that the marriage was over. The two were considered separated.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: From 1984 to 1990, Gucci dated Sheree McLaughlin Loud, an American model from Orange, Connecticut. McLaughlin Loud was 26 (b. 1958) at the time of their first meeting; and Gucci, 35 years old. The two met in the Sardinian town of Porto Cervo during the 12-Metre Class World Championship for the upcoming 1987 America's Cup after McLaughlin Loud had joined Maurizio's sailing crew for the event, coaching and teaching Gucci's other crew members. Both Gucci and McLaughlin Loud were married to other people at the time, and McLaughlin Loud reported seeing Gucci with Patrizia Reggiani from time to time. McLaughlin Loud claims that Gucci left his wife in 1985 due to having an affair with her; Gucci had pursued McLaughlin Loud relentlessly under the guise of wanting to offer McLaughlin Loud employment, tracking her and her husband to Clearwater, Florida, and calling her every day. McLaughlin Loud divorced her husband in 1988, and Gucci rented her an apartment in New York City. Gucci also paid for McLaughlin Loud to fly on regular Concorde trips between the United States and London or Paris to visit him, where Gucci would then drive her to St. Moritz, Switzerland, in his black Ferrari sports car.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: Loud got a job at Sotheby’s in 1988, and moved to London, which made it easier for her and Gucci to see each other. Gucci doted on her, but Loud claimed that he did not want her to move to Milan, where he thought the strict social codes — and the Milanese socialites — "would make them both miserable". The same year, Gucci forced out his remaining family members from the fashion company. McLaughlin Loud would continue to meet Gucci in European port cities — Bremen, Monte Carlo, and Palma de Mallorca — to help restore Gucci's prized historic sailing yacht, "The Creole". However, the drama between Gucci and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, and the constant travel between the U.S. and Europe started to weigh on McLaughlin Loud in 1989. She told Gucci that she wanted to end their relationship, even though she said she would always be in love with him. McLaughlin Loud also wanted to settle down, start a family, and "live a normal life". She and Gucci ultimately ended their relationship due to this, as Gucci stated that he wanted to focus more on the company and reconciling with his two daughters from his previous marriage, Alessandra and Allegra. McLaughlin Loud would later go on to work for "Vogue" as a merchandizing editor, where she learned of Gucci's murder via a phone call with Gucci's lawyer, Allan Tuttle, in 1995.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: In 1990, Gucci began dating Paola Franchi, a childhood friend who had attended his wedding to Patrizia, after the two encountered each other at a private club in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Both were reeling from unhappy marriages; and, with Franchi and her husband, Giorgio Colombo, on the outs, Franchi became Gucci's partner. Franchi divorced Colombo in 1991. Maurizio Gucci's divorce from Reggiani was finalized in 1994.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: In 2022, Maurizio's younger daughter, Allegra Gucci, released her book "Game Over" (Italian: "Fine dei Giochi"), which is about the aftermath of her father's murder and the conviction of her mother.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: As of 2022, Maurizio has three grandchildren through his daughters, Alessandra and Allegra, who have both married in the time since Maurizio's death. Alessandra Gucci has one son with her husband, and the three have taken up permanent residence in Switzerland. Allegra Gucci married Enrico Barbieri in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in a civil ceremony on November 24, 2011, and then in religious ceremony on December 20, 2011. The couple have two children.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: On 27 March 1995, Gucci was shot by a hired hitman on the steps outside his office as he arrived at work. His former wife Patrizia Reggiani was convicted in 1998 of arranging the killing. According to prosecutors, Reggiani's motives were a mixture of jealousy, money, and resentment towards her former husband. She served 18 years in prison and was released in October 2016.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: A film inspired by the story, titled "House of Gucci", was directed by Ridley Scott, and features Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani and Adam Driver as Maurizio Gucci. "House of Gucci" was released in the United States on November 24, 2021, by United Artists Releasing.


title: Maurizio Gucci

text: The Gucci family issued a statement to the portrayal of the family and the murder. "Although the film claims to tell the 'true story' of the family, the narrative is anything but accurate, depicting Aldo Gucci — president of the company for 30 years — and other members of the Gucci family who were the protagonists of well-documented events, as hooligans, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them."


title: Member states of NATO

text: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international military alliance that consists of 30 member states from Europe and North America. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Article 5 of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it shall be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary. Article 6 of the treaty limits the scope of Article 5 to the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer, the North American and European mainlands, the entirety of Turkey, and French Algeria. As such, an attack on Hawaii, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Ceuta, or Melilla, among other places, would not trigger an Article 5 response.


title: Member states of NATO

text: Of the 30 member countries, 28 are in Europe and two in North America. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbours were set up, including the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.


title: Member states of NATO

text: All members have militaries, except for Iceland, which does not have a typical army (but it does have a coast guard and a small unit of civilian specialists for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member states. Three more members joined between 1952 and 1955, and a fourth new member joined in 1982. After the end of the Cold War, NATO added 14 more members from 1999 to 2020.


title: Member states of NATO

text: NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Georgia, Sweden, and Ukraine as aspiring members as part of their Open Doors enlargement policy.


title: Member states of NATO

text: NATO was established on 4 April 1949 via the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (Washington Treaty). The 12 founding members of the Alliance were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Member states of NATO

text: The various allies all sign the Ottawa Agreement, which is a 1951 document that acts to embody civilian oversight of the Alliance.


title: Member states of NATO

text: Current membership consists of 30 countries. In addition to the 12 founding countries, four new members joined during the Cold War: Greece (1952), Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955) and Spain (1982). In 1990, the territory of the former East Germany was added with the reunification of Germany. NATO further expanded after the Cold War, adding the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020). Of the territories and members added between 1990 and 2020, all were either formerly part of the Warsaw Pact (including the formerly Soviet Baltic states) or territories of the former Yugoslavia (which was not a Warsaw Pact member). No countries have left NATO since its founding.


title: Member states of NATO

text: , five additional states have formally informed NATO of their membership aspirations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Georgia, Sweden and Ukraine.


title: Member states of NATO

text: The three Nordic countries which joined NATO as founding members, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, chose to limit their participation in three areas: there would be no permanent peacetime bases, no nuclear warheads and no Allied military activity (unless invited) permitted on their territory. However, Denmark allowed the U.S. Air Force to maintain an existing base, Thule Air Base, in Greenland.


title: Member states of NATO

text: From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism". Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the return of France to the integrated military command and the Defence Planning Committee in 2009, the latter being disbanded the following year. France remains the only NATO member outside the Nuclear Planning Group and unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, will not commit its nuclear-armed submarines to the alliance.


title: Member states of NATO

text: The following list is constructed from "The Military Balance", published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.


title: Member states of NATO

text: The defence spending of the United States is more than double the defence spending of all other NATO members combined. Criticism of the fact that many member states were not contributing their fair share in accordance with the international agreement by then US president Donald Trump caused various reactions from American and European political figures, ranging from ridicule to panic.


title: Member states of NATO

text: Pew Research Center's 2016 survey among its member states showed that while most countries viewed NATO positively, most NATO members preferred keeping their military spending the same. The response to whether their country should militarily aid another NATO country if it were to get into a serious military conflict with Russia was also mixed. Roughly half or fewer in six of the eight countries surveyed say their country should use military force if Russia attacks a neighboring country that is a NATO ally. And at least half in three of the eight NATO countries say that their government should not use military force in such circumstances. The strongest opposition to responding with armed force is in Germany (58%), followed by France (53%) and Italy (51%). More than half of Americans (56%) and Canadians (53%) are willing to respond to Russian military aggression against a fellow NATO country. A plurality of the British (49%) and Poles (48%) would also live up to their Article 5 commitment. The Spanish are divided on the issue: 48% support it, 47% oppose.


title: Judy Garland

text: Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). She attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 1961 live recording titled "Judy at Carnegie Hall".


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland began performing as a child with her two older sisters, in a vaudeville group "The Gumm Sisters" and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She appeared in more than two dozen films for MGM. Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly and regularly collaborated with director and second husband Vincente Minnelli. Other starring roles during this period included "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944), "The Harvey Girls" (1946), "Easter Parade" (1948) and "Summer Stock" (1950). In 1950, after 15 years with MGM, the studio released her amid a series of personal struggles that prevented her from fulfilling the terms of her contract.


title: Judy Garland

text: Although her film career became intermittent thereafter, two of Garland's most critically acclaimed roles came later in her career: she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "A Star Is Born" (1954) and a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). She also made record-breaking concert appearances, released eight studio albums and hosted her own Emmy-nominated television series, "The Judy Garland Show" (1963–1964). At age 39, Garland became the youngest and first female recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her as the eighth-greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema.


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland struggled in her personal life from an early age. The pressures of early stardom affected her physical and mental health from the time she was a teenager; her self-image was influenced by constant criticism from film executives who believed that she was physically unattractive and who manipulated her onscreen physical appearance. Throughout her adulthood she was plagued by alcohol and substance abuse, as well as financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Her lifelong substance use disorder ultimately led to her death from an accidental barbiturate overdose in 1969, at age 47.


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She was the youngest child of Ethel Marion ( Milne; 1893–1953) and Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm (1886–1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts. She was of Irish, English, Scottish, and French Huguenot ancestry, named after both of her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church.


title: Judy Garland

text: "Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two, when she joined her elder sisters Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells". The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years, accompanied by their mother on piano.


title: Judy Garland

text: The family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926, following rumors that her father had homosexual inclinations. Frank bought and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel began managing her daughters and working to get them into motion pictures.


title: Judy Garland

text: In 1928, the Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietor of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. They appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show. Through the Meglin Kiddies, they made their film debut in a short subject called "The Big Revue" (1929), where they performed a song-and-dance number called "That's the Good Old Sunny South". This was followed by appearances in two Vitaphone shorts the following year: "A Holiday in Storyland" (featuring Garland's first on-screen solo) and "The Wedding of Jack and Jill". They next appeared together in "Bubbles". Their final on-screen appearance was in an MGM Technicolor short entitled "La Fiesta de Santa Barbara" (1935).


title: Judy Garland

text: The trio had toured the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters" for many years by the time they performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel in 1934. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after "Gumm" was met with laughter from the audience. According to theater legend, their act was once erroneously billed at a Chicago theater as "The Glum Sisters".


title: Judy Garland

text: Several stories persist regarding the origin of their use of the name Garland. One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film "Twentieth Century" (1934), which was then playing at the Oriental in Chicago; another is that the girls chose the surname after drama critic Robert Garland. Garland's daughter Lorna Luft stated that her mother selected the name when Jessel announced that the trio "looked prettier than a garland of flowers". A TV special was filmed in Hollywood at the Pantages Theatre premiere of "A Star Is Born" on September 29, 1954, in which Jessel stated:


title: Judy Garland

text: A later explanation surfaced when Jessel was a guest on Garland's television show in 1963. He said that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland" and it stuck in his mind. However, Garland asked Jessel just moments later if this story was true and he blithely replied "No".


title: Judy Garland

text: By late 1934, the Gumm Sisters had changed their name to the Garland Sisters. Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song. The group broke up by August 1935, when Suzanne Garland flew to Reno, Nevada and married musician Lee Kahn, a member of the Jimmy Davis orchestra playing at Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe.


title: Judy Garland

text: In September 1935, Louis B. Mayer asked songwriter Burton Lane to go to the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles to watch the Garland Sisters' vaudeville act and to report to him. A few days later, Judy and her father were brought for an impromptu audition at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City. Garland performed "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and "Eli, Eli", a Yiddish song written in 1896 and regularly performed in vaudeville. The studio immediately signed Garland to a contract with MGM, presumably without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. The studio did not know what to do with her; aged thirteen, she was older than the traditional child star, but too young for adult roles.


title: Judy Garland

text: Her physical appearance was a dilemma for MGM. She was only and her "cute" or "girl-next-door" looks did not exemplify the most glamorous persona then required of leading female performers. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. Garland went to school at Metro with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, "real beauties", said Charles Walters, who directed her in a number of films. "Judy was the big money-maker at the time, a big success, but she was the ugly duckling ... I think it had a very damaging effect on her emotionally for a long time. I think it lasted forever, really." Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback".


title: Judy Garland

text: During her early years at the studio, she was photographed and dressed in plain garments or frilly juvenile gowns and costumes to match the "girl-next-door" image created for her. They had her wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized discs to reshape her nose. Eventually, on the set of "Meet Me in St. Louis" when she was 21 years old, Garland met Dorothy "Dottie" Ponedel, a makeup artist who worked at MGM. After reviewing the additions to her look, Garland was surprised when Ponedel said that the caps and discs that Garland had been using were not needed, as she was "a pretty girl". Ponedel became Garland's makeup artist. The work that Ponedel did on Garland for "Meet Me in St. Louis" made Garland so happy that Ponedel became Garland's advisor every time she worked on a film for MGM.


title: Judy Garland

text: On November 16, 1935, 13-year-old Garland was in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the "Shell Chateaux Hour" when she learned that her father had been hospitalized with meningitis and had taken a turn for the worse. Frank Gumm died the following morning at age 49, leaving her devastated.


title: Judy Garland

text: Her song for the "Shell Chateau Hour" was her first professional rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", a song which became a standard in many of her concerts. Garland performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical-short "Every Sunday" (1936). The film contrasted her vocal range and swing style with Durbin's operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for them, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster.


title: Judy Garland

text: Judy's first feature-length film was on a loan-out to Fox titled "Pigskin Parade" a football-themed musical comedy where she was billed tenth after Stuart Erwin, Jack Haley, Patsy Kelly, Betty Grable and others. Judy sang three solos including "The Texas Tornado" and "The Balboa".


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland came to the attention of studio executives when she sang a special arrangement of "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" to Clark Gable at a birthday party that the studio arranged for the actor. Her rendition was so well regarded that she performed the song in the all-star extravaganza "Broadway Melody of 1938" (1937), when she sang to a photograph of him.


title: Judy Garland

text: MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of what were known as "backyard musicals". The duo first appeared together as supporting characters in the B movie "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" (1937). Garland was then put in the cast of the fourth of the Hardy Family movies as a literal girl-next-door to Rooney's character Andy Hardy, in "Love Finds Andy Hardy" (1938), although Hardy's love interest was played by Lana Turner. They teamed as lead characters for the first time in "Babes in Arms" (1939), ultimately appearing in five additional films, including Hardy films "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante" (1940) and "Life Begins for Andy Hardy" (1941).


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland stated that she, Rooney and other young performers were constantly prescribed amphetamines to stay awake and keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another. They were also given barbiturates to take before going to bed so they could sleep. This regular use of drugs, she said, led to addiction and a life-long struggle. She later resented the hectic schedule and believed MGM stole her youth. Rooney, however, denied their studio was responsible for her addiction: "Judy Garland was never given any drugs by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mr. Mayer didn't sanction anything for Judy. No one on that lot was responsible for Judy Garland's death. Unfortunately, Judy chose that path."


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland's weight was within a healthy range, but the studio demanded she constantly diet. They even went so far as to serve her only a bowl of soup and a plate of lettuce when she ordered a regular meal. She was plagued with self-doubt throughout her life; despite successful film and recording careers, awards, critical praise and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, she required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.


title: Judy Garland

text: In 1938 when she was sixteen, Garland was cast as the young Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. In the film, she sang the song with which she would be constantly identified afterward, "Over the Rainbow". Although producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy had wanted to cast her in the role from the beginning, studio chief Mayer first tried to borrow Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, but they declined. Deanna Durbin was then asked, but was unavailable; this resulted in Garland being cast.


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her blue gingham dress was chosen for its blurring effect on her figure, which made her look younger. Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938, and it was completed on March 16, 1939, with a final cost of more than $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ). With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of "Babes in Arms" (also 1939), directed by Busby Berkeley. She and Rooney were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in the August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.


title: Judy Garland

text: Reports of Garland being put on a diet consisting of cigarettes, chicken soup and coffee are erroneous; as clarified in the book "The Road to Oz: The Evolution, Creation and Legacy of a Motion Picture Masterpiece" by historians Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, at that time Garland was an anti-smoker and she was allowed solid food. However, in a further attempt to minimize her curves, her diet was accompanied by swimming and hiking outings, plus games of tennis and badminton with her stunt double Bobbie Koshay.


title: Judy Garland

text: "The Wizard of Oz" was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and promotions costs of an estimated $4 million (equivalent to $ million in ), coupled with the lower revenue that was generated by discounted children's tickets, meant that the film did not return a profit until it was re-released in the 1940s and on subsequent occasions. At the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received her only Academy Award, an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including "The Wizard of Oz" and "Babes in Arms". She was the fourth person to receive the award as well as only one of twelve in history to ever be presented with one. After the film, Garland was one of the most bankable actresses in the United States.


title: Judy Garland

text: Garland starred in three films released in 1940: "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante", "Strike Up the Band" and "Little Nellie Kelly". In the last, she played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. "Little Nellie Kelly" was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her to display both her audience appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss and the only death scene of her career. Her co-star George Murphy regarded the kiss as embarrassing. He said it felt like "a hillbilly with a child bride".


title: Judy Garland

text: During this time, Garland was still in her teens when she experienced her first serious adult romance with bandleader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner. Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose and on her 18th birthday, he gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because, at the time, he was still married to actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce to become final. During that time, Garland had a brief affair with songwriter Johnny Mercer. After her breakup with Mercer, Garland and Rose were wed on July 27, 1941. "A true rarity" is what media called it. The couple agreed to a trial separation in January 1943 and divorced in 1944.


title: Judy Garland

text: In 1941, Garland had an abortion while pregnant with Rose's child at the insistence of her mother and the studio since the pregnancy wasn't approved. She had a second one in 1943 when she became pregnant from her affair with Tyrone Power.


title: Judy Garland

text: In her next film, "For Me and My Gal" (1942), Garland performed with Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was given the "glamor treatment" in "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943), in which she was dressed in "grown-up" gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared on screen or in photographs, she was never confident in her appearance and never escaped the "girl-next-door" image that the studio had created for her.


title: Judy Garland

text: One of Garland's most successful films for MGM was "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944), in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". This was one of the first films in her career that gave her the opportunity to be the attractive leading lady. Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct and he requested that make-up artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways, including extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs and dental caps. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.


title: Judy Garland

text: At this time, Garland had a brief affair with film director Orson Welles, who at that time was married to Rita Hayworth. The affair ended in early 1945 and they remained on good terms afterwards.


title: Judy Garland

text: During the filming of "Meet Me in St. Louis", Garland and Minnelli had some initial conflict between them, but they entered into a relationship and married on June 15, 1945. On March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born. The couple divorced by 1951.