title: Florida

text: The Florida Legislature comprises the Florida Senate, which has 40 members, and the Florida House of Representatives, which has 120 members. The current governor of Florida is Ron DeSantis.


title: Florida

text: Florida has 67 counties. Some reference materials may show only 66 because Duval County is consolidated with the City of Jacksonville. There are 379 cities in Florida (out of 411) that report regularly to the Florida Department of Revenue, but there are other incorporated municipalities that do not. The state government's primary revenue source is sales tax. Florida does not impose a personal income tax. The primary revenue source for cities and counties is property tax; unpaid taxes are subject to tax sales, which are held (at the county level) in May and (due to the extensive use of online bidding sites) are highly popular.


title: Florida

text: In a 2020 study, Florida was ranked as the 11th hardest state for citizens to vote in. In April 2022, the state prohibited ranked-choice voting in all federal, state and municipal elections.


title: Florida

text: From 1952 to 1964, most voters were registered Democrats, but the state voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election except for 1964. The following year, Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, providing for oversight of state practices and enforcement of constitutional voting rights for African Americans and other minorities in order to prevent the discrimination and disenfranchisement which had excluded most of them for decades from the political process.


title: Florida

text: From the 1930s through much of the 1960s, Florida was essentially a one-party state dominated by white conservative Democrats, who together with other Democrats of the Solid South, exercised considerable control in Congress. They have gained slightly less federal money from national programs than they have paid in taxes. Since the 1970s, conservative white voters in the state have largely shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Though the majority of registered voters in Florida are Democrats, it continued to support Republican presidential candidates through 2004, except in 1976 and 1996, when the Democratic nominee was from the South.


title: Florida

text: In the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Barack Obama carried the state as a northern Democrat, attracting high voter turnout, especially among the young, independents, and minority voters, of whom Hispanics comprise an increasingly large proportion. 2008 marked the first time since 1944, when Franklin D. Roosevelt carried the state for the fourth time, that Florida was carried by a Northern Democrat for president.


title: Florida

text: The first post-Reconstruction era Republican elected to Congress from Florida was William C. Cramer in 1954 from Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast, where demographic changes were underway. In this period, African Americans were still disenfranchised by the state's constitution and discriminatory practices; in the 19th century, they had made up most of the Republican Party. Cramer built a different Republican Party in Florida, attracting local white conservatives and transplants from northern and midwestern states. In 1966, Claude R. Kirk, Jr. was elected as the first post-Reconstruction Republican governor, in an upset election. In 1968, Edward J. Gurney, also a white conservative, was elected as the state's first post-reconstruction Republican US senator. In 1970, Democrats took the governorship and the open US Senate seat and maintained dominance for years.


title: Florida

text: Florida is sometimes considered a bellwether state in presidential elections because every candidate who won the state from 1996 until 2020 won the election. The 2020 election broke that streak when Donald Trump won Florida but lost the election.


title: Florida

text: In 1998, Democratic voters dominated areas of the state with a high percentage of racial minorities and transplanted white liberals from the northeastern United States, known colloquially as "snowbirds". South Florida and the Miami metropolitan area are dominated by both racial minorities and white liberals. Because of this, the area has consistently voted as one of the most Democratic areas of the state. The Daytona Beach area is similar demographically and the city of Orlando has a large Hispanic population, which has often favored Democrats. Republicans, made up mostly of white conservatives, have dominated throughout much of the rest of Florida, particularly in the more rural and suburban areas. This is characteristic of its voter base throughout the Deep South.


title: Florida

text: The fast-growing I-4 corridor area, which runs through Central Florida and connects the cities of Daytona Beach, Orlando, and Tampa/St. Petersburg, has had a fairly even breakdown of Republican and Democratic voters. The area is often seen as a merging point of the conservative northern portion of the state and the liberal southern portion, making it the biggest swing area in the state. Since the late 20th century, the voting results in this area, containing 40% of Florida voters, has often determined who will win the state in federal presidential elections.


title: Florida

text: The Democratic Party maintained an edge in voter registration, both statewide and in 18 of the 67 counties, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, the state's three most populous.


title: Florida

text: In 2000, George W. Bush won the U.S. presidential election by a margin of 271–266 in the Electoral College. Of the 271 electoral votes for Bush, 25 were cast by electors from Florida. The Florida results were contested and a recount was ordered by the court, with the results settled in a Supreme Court decision, "Bush v. Gore".


title: Florida

text: Reapportionment following the 2010 United States census gave the state two more seats in the House of Representatives. The legislature's redistricting, announced in 2012, was quickly challenged in court, on the grounds that it had unfairly benefited Republican interests. In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on appeal that the congressional districts had to be redrawn because of the legislature's violation of the Fair District Amendments to the state constitution passed in 2010; it accepted a new map in early December 2015.


title: Florida

text: The political make-up of congressional and legislative districts has enabled Republicans to control the governorship and most statewide elective offices, and 17 of the state's 27 seats in the 2012 House of Representatives. Florida has been listed as a swing state in presidential elections since 1952, voting for the losing candidate only twice in that period of time.


title: Florida

text: In the closely contested 2000 election, the state played a pivotal role. Out of more than 5.8million votes for the two main contenders Bush and Al Gore, around 500 votes separated the two candidates for the all-decisive Florida electoral votes that landed Bush the election win. Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is more severe than most European nations or other American states. A 2002 study in the "American Sociological Review" concluded that "if the state's 827,000 disenfranchised felons had voted at the same rate as other Floridians, Democratic candidate Al Gore would have won Florida—and the presidency—by more than 80,000 votes."


title: Florida

text: In 2008, delegates of both the Republican Florida primary election and Democratic Florida primary election were stripped of half of their votes when the conventions met in August due to violation of both parties' national rules.


title: Florida

text: In the 2010 elections, Republicans solidified their dominance statewide, by winning the governor's mansion, and maintaining firm majorities in both houses of the state legislature. They won four previously Democratic-held seats to create a 19–6 Republican majority delegation representing Florida in the federal House of Representatives.


title: Florida

text: In 2010, more than 63% of state voters approved the initiated Amendments5 and6 to the state constitution, to ensure more fairness in districting. These have become known as the Fair District Amendments. As a result of the 2010 United States Census, Florida gained two House of Representative seats in 2012. The legislature issued revised congressional districts in 2012, which were immediately challenged in court by supporters of the above amendments.


title: Florida

text: The court ruled in 2014, after lengthy testimony, that at least two districts had to be redrawn because of gerrymandering. After this was appealed, in July 2015 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers had followed an illegal and unconstitutional process overly influenced by party operatives, and ruled that at least eight districts had to be redrawn. On December 2, 2015, a 5–2 majority of the Court accepted a new map of congressional districts, some of which was drawn by challengers. Their ruling affirmed the map previously approved by Leon County Judge Terry Lewis, who had overseen the original trial. It particularly makes changes in South Florida. There are likely to be additional challenges to the map and districts.


title: Florida

text: According to The Sentencing Project, the effect of Florida's felony disenfranchisement law is such that in 2014, "[m]ore than one in ten Floridians—and nearly one in four African-American Floridians—are [were] shut out of the polls because of felony convictions", although they had completed sentences and parole/probation requirements.


title: Florida

text: The state switched back to the GOP in the 2016 presidential election, and again in 2020, when Donald Trump headed the party's ticket both times. 2020 marked the first time Florida sided with the eventual loser of the national election since 1992.


title: Florida

text: In the 2018 elections, the ratio of Republican to Democratic representation fell from 16:11 to 14:13. The U.S. Senate election between Democratic incumbent senator Bill Nelson and then governor Rick Scott was close, with 49.93% voting for the incumbent and 50.06% voting for the former governor. Republicans also held onto the governorship in a close race between Republican candidate Ron DeSantis and Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum, with 49.6% voting for DeSantis and 49.3% voting for Gillum. In 2022, incumbent Governor DeSantis won reelection by a landslide against Democrat Charlie Crist. The unexpectedly large margin of victory led many pundits to question Florida's perennial status as a swing state, and instead identify it as a red state.


title: Florida

text: In November 2021, for the first time in Florida's history, the total number of registered Republican voters exceeded the number of registered Democrats.


title: Florida

text: In 1972, the state made personal injury protection auto insurance mandatory for drivers, becoming the second in the nation to enact a no-fault insurance law. The ease of receiving payments under this law is seen as precipitating a major increase in insurance fraud. Auto insurance fraud was the highest in the nation in 2011, estimated at close to $1billion. Fraud is particularly centered in the Miami-Dade and Tampa areas.


title: Florida

text: Capital punishment is applied in Florida. If a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the first degree. The only two sentences available for that statute are life imprisonment and the death penalty. If a person commits a predicate felony, but was not the direct contributor to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the second degree. The maximum prison term is life. In 1995, the legislature modified Chapter 921 to provide that felons should serve at least 85% of their sentence.


title: Florida

text: Florida approved its lottery by amending the constitution in 1984. It approved slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade County in 2004. It has disapproved casinos (outside of sovereign Seminole and Miccosukee tribal areas) three times: 1978, 1986, and 1994.


title: Florida

text: The economy of the state of Florida is the fourth-largest in the United States, with a $1.2trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2021. If Florida were a sovereign nation (2021), it would rank as the world's 16th-largest economy according to the International Monetary Fund, ahead of Indonesia and behind Mexico. In the 20th century, tourism, industry, construction, international banking, biomedical and life sciences, healthcare research, simulation training, aerospace and defense, and commercial space travel have contributed to the state's economic development.


title: Florida

text: There were 2.7million Medicaid patients in Florida in 2009. The governor has proposed adding $2.6billion to care for the expected 300,000 additional patients in 2011. The cost of caring for 2.3million clients in 2010 was $18.8billion. This is nearly 30% of Florida's budget. Medicaid paid for 60% of all births in Florida in 2009. The state has a program for those not covered by Medicaid.


title: Florida

text: In 2013, Florida refused to participate in providing coverage for the uninsured under the Affordable Care Act, colloquially called Obamacare. The Florida legislature also refused to accept additional Federal funding for Medicaid, although this would have helped its constituents at no cost to the state. As a result, Florida is second only to Texas in the percentage of its citizens without health insurance.


title: Florida

text: Florida has the largest collection of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, both in the United States and in the entire world, most of which are located in the Miami metropolitan area, especially Miami Beach's Art Deco District, constructed as the city was becoming a resort destination. A unique architectural design found only in Florida is the post-World WarII Miami Modern, which can be seen in areas such as Miami's MiMo Historic District.


title: Florida

text: Being of early importance as a regional center of banking and finance, the architecture of Jacksonville displays a wide variety of styles and design principles. Many of the state's earliest skyscrapers were constructed in Jacksonville, dating as far back as 1902, and last holding a state height record from 1974 to 1981. The city is endowed with one of the largest collections of Prairie School buildings outside of the Midwest. Jacksonville is also noteworthy for its collection of Mid-Century modern architecture.


title: Florida

text: Some sections of the state feature architectural styles including Spanish revival, Florida vernacular, and Mediterranean Revival. A notable collection of these styles can be found in St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the United States.


title: Florida

text: In 2020, Florida was ranked the third best state in America for K-12 education, outperforming the nation in 15 out of 18 metrics in "Education Week"'s 2020 Quality Counts report. In terms of K-12 Achievement, which measures progress in areas such as academic excellence and graduation rates, the state was graded "B-" compared to a national average of C. Florida's higher education was ranked first and pre-K-12 was ranked 27th best nationwide by "U.S. News & World Report".


title: Florida

text: With an educational system made up of public school districts and independent private institutions, Florida had 2,833,115 students enrolled in 4,269 public primary, secondary, and vocational schools in Florida's 67 regular or seven special school districts . Miami-Dade County is the largest of Florida's 67 regular districts with more than 350 thousand students and Jefferson County is the smallest with less than one thousand students. Florida spent $8,920 for each student in 2016, and was 43rd in the nation in expenditures per student.


title: Florida

text: Florida's primary and secondary school systems are administered by the Florida Department of Education. School districts are organized within county boundaries. Each school district has an elected Board of Education that sets policy, budget, goals, and approves expenditures. Management is the responsibility of a Superintendent of schools.


title: Florida

text: The Florida Department of Education is required by law to train educators in teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).


title: Florida

text: The State University System of Florida was founded in 1905, and is governed by the Florida Board of Governors. During the 2019 academic year, 346,604 students attended one of these twelve universities. In 2016, Florida charged the second lowest tuition in the nation for four-year programs, at $26,000 for in-state students and $86,000 for out-of-state students; this compares with an average of $34,800 nationally for in-state students.


title: Florida

text: As of 2020, four Florida universities are among the top 10 largest universities by enrollment in the United States: The University of Central Florida (1st), Florida International University (4th), the University of Florida (5th), and the University of South Florida (8th).


title: Florida

text: The Florida College System comprises 28 public community and state colleges with 68 campuses spread out throughout the state. In 2016, enrollment consisted of more than 813,838 students.


title: Florida

text: The Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida is an association of 30 private, educational institutions in the state. This Association reported that their member institutions served more than 158,000 students in the fall of 2020.


title: Florida

text: The University of Miami, located in Coral Gables, is one of the top private research institutions in the United States. Florida's first private university, Stetson University, was founded in 1883.


title: Florida

text: Florida's highway system contains of interstate highway, and of non-interstate highway, such as state highways and U.S. Highways. Florida's interstates, state highways, and U.S. Highways are maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation.


title: Florida

text: In 2011, there were about 9,000 retail gas stations in the state. Floridians consumed 21million gallons of gasoline daily in 2011, ranking it third in national use behind California and Texas.


title: Florida

text: Drivers between 15 and 19 years of age averaged 364 car crashes a year per ten thousand licensed Florida drivers in 2010. Drivers 70 and older averaged 95 per 10,000 during the same time frame. A spokesperson for the non-profit Insurance Institute stated "Older drivers are more of a threat to themselves."


title: Florida

text: Intercity bus travel, which utilizes Florida's highway system, is provided by Greyhound, Megabus, and Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach.


title: Florida

text: Before the construction of routes under the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, Florida began construction of a long cross-state toll road, Florida's Turnpike. The first section, from Fort Pierce south to the Golden Glades Interchange was completed in 1957. After a second section north through Orlando to Wildwood (near present-day The Villages), and a southward extension around Miami to Homestead, it was finished in 1974.


title: Florida

text: Florida has 131 public airports. Florida's seven large hub and medium hub airports, as classified by the FAA, are the following:


title: Florida

text: Florida has three NFL teams, two MLB teams, two NBA teams, two NHL teams, and two MLS teams. Florida gained its first permanent major-league professional sports team in 1966 when the American Football League added the Miami Dolphins. Florida has given professional sports franchises some subsidies in the form of tax breaks since 1991.


title: Florida

text: About half of all Major League Baseball teams conduct spring training in the state, with teams informally organized into the "Grapefruit League". Throughout MLB history, other teams have held spring training in Florida.


title: Florida

text: NASCAR (headquartered in Daytona Beach) begins all three of its major auto racing series in Florida at Daytona International Speedway in February, featuring the Daytona 500. Daytona also has the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR race weekend in August. NASCAR also has a race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead in October. The 24 Hours of Daytona is one of the world's most prestigious endurance auto races. The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and Grand Prix of Miami have held IndyCar races as well.


title: Florida

text: Florida is a major golf hub. The PGA of America is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, the PGA Tour is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, and the LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach. The Players Championship, WGC-Cadillac Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Honda Classic and Valspar Championship are PGA Tour rounds.


title: Florida

text: Florida has teams in all five American major league sports. Florida's most recent major-league team, Inter Miami, began play in MLS in 2020.


title: Florida

text: The Miami Masters is an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 and WTA Premier tennis event, whereas the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships is an ATP World Tour 250 event.


title: Florida

text: There are minor league baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer and indoor football teams based in Florida. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is the largest football stadium in Florida, the 12th largest stadium in American college football, and the 18th largest stadium in the world, as measured by its official seating capacity of 88,548—though, it has often held over 90,000 for Florida's home football games.


title: Florida

text: Florida's universities have a number of collegiate sport programs. Major college football programs include the Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Florida Gators of the Southeastern Conference. Since 1996, Florida has added four additional teams to the ranks of Division I FBS: UCF Knights, South Florida Bulls, Florida Atlantic Owls and FIU Panthers.


title: Florida

text: The majority of the symbols were chosen after 1950; only the two oldest symbols—the state flower (chosen in 1909), and the state bird (chosen in 1927), and the state nickname (chosen in 1970)—are not listed in the 2010 Florida Statutes.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume dramas such as "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996), "Shooting Fish" (1997) (a contemporary romantic crime comedy) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000), in addition to various stage and radio productions.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale started film work in the United States in the late 1990s. After appearing in small-scale dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), she starred in the war drama "Pearl Harbor" (2001), the romantic comedy "Serendipity" (2001), and "Tiptoes" (2003). She followed those with starring roles in "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006). All these films established her as a protagonist in Hollywood.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Since playing the role of Selene in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known for her work in action films, including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012), and "Total Recall" (2012). She continues to make appearances in smaller dramatic projects such as "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), and "Everybody's Fine" (2009). For the two first films she received positive reviews. In 2016, she received critical acclaim for her performance in the period comedy film "Love & Friendship", for which she received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy. She returned in action films with "Jolt" (2021). She also starred in two television projects with "The Widow" (2019) and "Guilty Party" (2021).


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in the Chiswick district of London, the only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe. She has an older paternal half-sister, actress Samantha Beckinsale, but they are not in regular contact. Her father was partly of Burmese descent. Her parents did not marry until 1977, prior to Beckinsale starting nursery school, when she made her first television appearance at age four, in an episode of "This Is Your Life" dedicated to her father. When she was five, her 31-year-old father died instantly of a heart attack; she was deeply traumatised by the loss and "started expecting bad things to happen." Her widowed mother moved in with director Roy Battersby when Beckinsale was nine, and she was brought up alongside his four sons and daughter. She has a close relationship with her stepfather, who was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party during her youth. She helped to sell "The News Line", a Trotskyist newspaper, as a little girl and has said the household phone was tapped following Battersby's blacklisting by the BBC. Family friends included Ken Loach and Vanessa Redgrave.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent school for girls in Hammersmith, West London, and was involved with the Orange Tree Youth Theatre. She was twice a winner of the WH Smith Young Writers Award for both fiction and poetry. She has described herself as a "late bloomer": "All of my friends were kissing boys and drinking cider way before me. I found it really depressing that we weren't making camp fires and everyone was doing stuff like that." She had a nervous breakdown and developed anorexia at age fifteen, and underwent Freudian psychoanalysis for four years.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale read French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford, and was later described by contemporary journalist Victoria Coren Mitchell, as "whip-clever, slightly nuts, and very charming". She became friends with


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Roy Kinnear's daughter Kirsty. She was involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, most notably being directed by fellow student Tom Hooper in a production of "A View from the Bridge" at the Oxford Playhouse. As a Modern Languages student, she was required to spend her third year abroad, and studied in Paris. She then decided to quit university to focus on her burgeoning acting career: "It was getting to the point where I wasn't enjoying either thing enough because both were very high pressure." Beckinsale has stated she would like to complete her studies at Oxford University.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale decided at a young age she wanted to be an actress: "I grew up immersed in film. My family were in the business. I quickly realised that my parents seemed to have much more fun in their work than any of my friends' parents." She was inspired by the performances of Jeanne Moreau. She made her television debut in 1991 with a small part in an ITV adaptation of P. D. James' "Devices and Desires". In 1992, she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston in "Rachel's Dream", a 30‑minute Channel 4 short, and in 1993, she appeared in the pilot of the ITV detective series, "Anna Lee", starring Imogen Stubbs.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 1993, Beckinsale landed the role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing". It was filmed in Tuscany, Italy, during a summer holiday from Oxford University. She attended the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere and remembered it as an overwhelming experience. "Nobody even told me I could bring a friend!" "I had Doc Martens boots on, and I think I put the flower from the breakfast tray in my hair." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" was won over by her "lovely" performance while Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" noted that she and Robert Sean Leonard "look right and behave with a certain naive sincerity, although they often seem numb with surprise at hearing the complex locutions they speak." The film grossed over $22 million at the box office. She made three other films while at university. In 1994, she appeared as Christian Bale's love interest in "Prince of Jutland", a film based on the Danish legend which inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet", and starred in the murder mystery "Uncovered". In 1995, while studying in Paris, she filmed the French language "Marie-Louise ou la Permission".


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Shortly after leaving Oxford University in 1995, Beckinsale starred in "Cold Comfort Farm", as Flora Poste, a newly orphaned 1930s socialite sent to live with distant family members in rural England. The John Schlesinger-directed film was an adaptation of Stella Gibbons's novel and also featured Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Rufus Sewell and Stephen Fry. Beckinsale was initially considered too young, but was cast after she wrote a pleading letter to the director. Emanuel Levy of "Variety" was reminded of "the strength of a young Glenda Jackson and the charm of a young Julie Christie." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" classed the actress as "yet another of those effortlessly skilled British beauties who light up the screen." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" felt she played the role "with the perfect snippy aplomb." The film grossed over $5 million at the US box office. Also in 1995, she appeared in "Haunted", a ghost story in which Derek Elley of "Variety" felt she "holds the screen, with both physical looks and verbal poise." 1995 also saw Beckinsale's first professional stage appearance as Nina in "The Seagull" at Theatre Royal, Bath. She became romantically involved with co-star Michael Sheen after meeting during play rehearsals. She later said: "I was all revved up to feel very intimidated. It was my first-ever play and my mother had cut out reviews of him in previous productions. And then he walked in ... It was almost like, 'God, well, I'm finished now. That's it, then.'... He's the most outrageously talented person I've ever met." Irving Wardle of "The Independent" felt that "the casting, including Michael Sheen's volcanic Kostya and Kate Beckinsale's steadily freezing Nina, is mainly spot-on." In early 1996, she starred in two further plays; "Sweetheart" at the Royal Court Theatre and "Clocks and Whistles" at the Bush Theatre.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale next starred in an ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma", playing Emma to Mark Strong's Mr Knightley and Samantha Morton's Harriet Smith. "You shouldn't necessarily like Emma," Beckinsale has said of her character. "You do love her, but in the way the family of a young girl could be exasperated by her outrageous behaviour and still love her." The programme was aired in autumn 1996, just months after Gwyneth Paltrow had starred in a film adaptation of the same story. Caryn James of "The New York Times" felt that while "Ms. Beckinsale's Emma is plainer looking than Ms. Paltrow's," she is "altogether more believable and funnier." Jonathan Brown of "The Independent" has described Beckinsale's interpretation as "the most enduring modern performance" as Emma. In 1997, Beckinsale appeared opposite Stuart Townsend in the comedy "Shooting Fish", one of the most commercially successful British films of that year. "I'd just had my wisdom teeth out," Beckinsale later recalled of the initial audition. "I was also on very strong painkillers, so it was not the most conventional of meetings." Elley wrote of "an incredibly laid-back performance" while Thomas felt she "just glows as an aristocrat facing disaster with considerable aplomb." She narrated Austen's "Emma" for Hodder & Stoughton AudioBooks and Diana Hendry's "The Proposal" for BBC Radio 4. Also in 1997, she played Juliet to Michael Sheen's Romeo in an AudioBook production of "Romeo and Juliet", directed by Sheen.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In Beckinsale's last film before her move to the US, she starred as Alice in Channel 4's "Alice through the Looking-Glass", released in July 1998.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: At this point in her career, Beckinsale began to seek work in the United States, something she has said wasn't "a conscious decision... My boyfriend was in a play on Broadway so that's why we ended up in New York, and my auditions happened to be for American films." She starred opposite Chloë Sevigny in 1998's "The Last Days of Disco". The Whit Stillman film focused on a group of mostly Ivy League and Hampshire College graduates socialising in the Manhattan disco scene of the early 1980s. Beckinsale's attempt at an American accent was widely praised. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" felt her role as the bossy Charlotte was "beautifully played." Todd McCarthy of "Variety" was unimpressed by the film but noted that "compensations include Beckinsale, looking incredible in a succession of black dresses, whose character can get on your nerves even if the actress doesn't." Her performance earned her a London Critics' Circle Film Award. The film grossed $3 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 1999, Beckinsale appeared opposite Claire Danes in "Brokedown Palace", a drama about two young Americans forced to deal with the Thai justice system on a post-graduation trip abroad. A then 26-year-old Beckinsale played a young girl. Danes had hoped to become friends with Beckinsale during the shoot but found her "complicated" and "prickly." McCarthy said the leads "confirm their status as two of the young actresses on the scene today most worth watching," finding Beckinsale "very effective at getting across layered character traits and emotions." "Danes and Beckinsale are exceptionally talented young actresses," said Thomas, but "unfortunately, the script's seriously underdeveloped context defeats their considerable efforts at every turn." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" felt that Beckinsale's character "never comes into focus." The film was a box office failure.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: 2000's "The Golden Bowl" marked Beckinsale's first role following the birth of her daughter. The Merchant/Ivory production was based on the novel by Henry James and also starred Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam. Beckinsale's partner, Michael Sheen, hit Northam on the film set after he followed Beckinsale to her trailer to scold her for forgetting a line. Holden noted "the most satisfying of the four-lead performances belong to the British cast members, Ms. Beckinsale and Mr. Northam, who are better than their American counterparts at layers of emotional concealment," adding each beat of Beckinsale's performance "registers precisely." Thomas felt her performance would take her to "a new career level." Andrew Sarris of "The New York Observer" asserted that she "comes close to capturing the sublimity of Maggie, despite the obvious fact that no movie can capture the elegant copiousness of James' prose." The film grossed over $5 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale rose to fame in 2001 with a leading role in the war film "Pearl Harbor", as a nurse torn between two pilots (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett). She was drawn to the project by the script: "It's so unusual these days to read a script that has those old-fashioned values to it. Not morals, but movie values. It's a big, sweeping epic...You just never get the chance to do that." Director Michael Bay initially had doubts about casting the actress: "I wasn't sure about her at first...she wore black leather trousers in her screen test and I thought she was a little nasty...it was easy to think of this woman as a slut." He eventually decided to hire her because she wasn't "too beautiful. Women feel disturbed when they see someone's too pretty." He asked her to lose weight during filming. In a 2004 interview, the actress noted that his comments were "upsetting" and said she wore leather trousers because "it was snowing out. It wasn't exactly like I had my nipple rings in." She felt grateful that she had not had to deal with such criticism at a younger age: "If I had come on to a movie set at [a younger] age and someone had said, 'You're a bit funny-looking, can you go on a diet?'—I might have jumped off a building. I just didn't have the confidence to put that into perspective at the time."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: However, speaking in 2011, she said she was "very fond" of Bay. "Pearl Harbor" received negative reviews. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" praised "the avid eyed, ruby lipped Kate Beckinsale, the rare actress whose intelligence gives her a sensual bloom; she's like Parker Posey without irony." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" noted that "Mr. Affleck and Ms. Beckinsale do what they can with their lines, and glow with the satiny shine of real movie stars." However, Mike Clark of "USA Today" felt that the "usually appealing Kate Beckinsale" is "inexplicably submerged —like her hospital colleagues —under heaps of tarty makeup that even actresses of the era didn't wear." The film was a commercial success, grossing $449 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2001 was in the romantic comedy "Serendipity", as the love interest of John Cusack. It was filmed directly after "Pearl Harbor" and Beckinsale found it "a real relief to return to something slightly more familiar." Turan praised the "appealing and believable" leads, adding that Beckinsale "reinforces the strong impression she made in "Cold Comfort Farm", "The Golden Bowl", and "The Last Days of Disco"" after "recovering nicely" from her appearance in the much-maligned "Pearl Harbor". Claudia Puig of "USA Today" felt that "Beckinsale's talents haven't been mined as effectively in any other film since "Cold Comfort Farm"." McCarthy found her "energetic and appealing" while Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" described her as "luminous but determined." In an uncomplimentary review of the film, Roger Ebert described her as "a good actress, but not good enough to play this dumb." The film has grossed over $77 million at the worldwide box office.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2002, Beckinsale starred in Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon", as a strait-laced academic who finds herself increasingly attracted to her free-spirited future mother-in-law. The independent film was another opportunity for Beckinsale to work with Christian Bale, her "Prince of Jutland" co‑star. She found their sex scene awkward because she knew Bale well: "If it was a stranger, it would have been easier." While Frances McDormand's performance as Bale's mother was widely praised, Beckinsale received negative reviews. Holden found the film "superbly acted, with the exception of Ms. Beckinsale, whose tense, colourless Alex conveys no inner life." Critic Lisa Schwarzbaum was unimpressed by the "tedious" characters and criticised "the fussy performances of Bale and Beckinsale" in particular. The film has grossed over $4 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale became known as an action star after playing a vampire in 2003's "Underworld". The film was markedly different from her previous work, and Beckinsale has said she was grateful for the change of pace after appearing in "a bunch of period stuff and then a bunch of romantic comedies," adding that "It was quite a challenge for me to play an action heroine and pull off all that training when [in real life] I can't catch a ball if it's coming my way." The film received negative to mixed reviews but was a surprise box-office hit and has gained a cult following. Also that year, she starred in the little seen "Tiptoes" with Gary Oldman and Matthew McConaughey.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2004, Beckinsale starred in the action horror film "Van Helsing". She was "so surprised" to be appearing in her second action film in two years. "It just seemed like a very good role." Beckinsale had just separated from her long-term boyfriend Michael Sheen at the time of filming and appreciated the warm atmosphere created on set by director Stephen Sommers and co‑star Hugh Jackman: "I really did find that working with people like Stephen and Hugh made it possible to get through what I was going through." The film grossed over $120 million at the US box office and over $300 million worldwide, but it was not well-reviewed. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" described her as "a pretty actress doing her best to maintain dignity, vainly trying to craft a feminist statement from a filmmaker's whimsy" while Rex Reed of "The New York Observer" felt she was "desperately in need of a new agent."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Also in 2004, Beckinsale portrayed Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic "The Aviator". Scorsese decided to cast Beckinsale because, "I've always liked her. I've seen all her work, and I was glad that she agreed to audition." Beckinsale's performance received mixed reviews. Ken Tucker of "New York Magazine" said she played the part "in full va-va-voom blossom" while LaSalle felt that she manages "to convince us that Ava was one of the great broads of all time." However, Clark described it as "the one performance that doesn't come off (though Beckinsale has the requisite beauty)" while Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" stated that "Gardner's rich, voluptuous sexiness is completely absent as Beckinsale sleepwalks through the role as if she was advertising perfume." The film grossed over $213 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2006, Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel "", directed by her husband. It was the first time she had "been involved with a movie from the moment it's a germ of an idea right through the whole editing process." Her daughter had a small role as the younger Selene. The film was a box office success, grossing $111 million worldwide. Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2006 was opposite Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in "Click", a comedy about an overworked family man who discovers a magical remote control that allows him to control time. The opportunity to play a mother "was one of the things that was attractive to me" about the part. It was highly profitable, grossing $237 million worldwide against a production budget of $82.5 million.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale then made a return to smaller-scale projects: "My experience is that I sort of stepped away from the independent movies and did a couple of big movies. But that's not necessarily how it's perceived by everybody else, which I do understand." "I enjoy an action movie as much as the next person [but] it's not something that I would like to do solely." She explained that she had originally decided to appear in "Underworld" because she felt typecast in classical roles — it was "assumed that I use a chamber pot and wear bloomers"—but that her action career "kind of took off a little too much."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2007, Beckinsale starred opposite Sam Rockwell in the independent drama "Snow Angels", based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan. The harrowing film, in which she played an overwhelmed single mother, put Beckinsale "in kind of a tough place." "I did have my kid, my husband and, in fact, my ex was around a lot, so it was very nice to come home to my people whom I love." Puig felt "Beckinsale gives her best performance in years" while Richard Corliss of "Time" described it as "her sharpest work yet." However, Scott felt that "her skill and discipline cannot overcome the sense that she is an exotic species transplanted into this grim ecosystem. Hard as she works to convince us otherwise, it's a stretch to believe that a woman with the kind of poised confidence in her own beauty she manifests would wind up with an underachieving mouth breather like Glenn." The film grossed solely $414,404 worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Also in 2007, Beckinsale appeared alongside Luke Wilson in "Vacancy", a thriller set in an isolated motel. Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast in the part, but she dropped out before filming began. Bradshaw felt "Wilson and Beckinsale have the chops for scary movies" while Gleiberman noted "Luke Wilson, with his hangdog defensive mopiness, and Kate Beckinsale, all sexy severity, are ideally matched as a couple who hate each other." However, Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" was unimpressed, referring to Beckinsale as "the reigning queen of the bland B's." The film was profitable, grossing $35 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2008, Beckinsale appeared in "Winged Creatures", a film about how six different witnesses cope with the aftermath of a shooting. Beckinsale played a waitressing single mother in an ensemble cast which included Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, and Forest Whitaker. "It was a really, really nice experience but it was quick," said Beckinsale of the filming process. "I just felt a bit like I was shot through a cannon." Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" felt she played the role "with a white trash verve" and found her character's "raw ache for that someone with money and respectability is palpable." However, Dargis felt that Beckinsale and her cast mates have a "tough time filling out characters that are at best abstractions of grief and often just clichés." The film received a very limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles; it was released simultaneously on DVD.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Also in 2008, Beckinsale starred in "Nothing but the Truth", as a journalist who refuses to reveal her source. The film, co‑starring Vera Farmiga and Matt Dillon, was inspired by the case of Judith Miller. As part of her research for the role, "I spent some time at "The L.A. Times" with some female reporters, and I spoke to Judith Miller about her experience...I really researched the hell out of that one and it was an amazingly fulfilling, brilliant experience." Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" asserted that Beckinsale and Farmiga played "two of the most fascinating female movie characters to hit screens in a long while, and they've been brought to life by two gifted actresses, each working at the top of her game." Beckinsale received a Critic's Choice Award nomination for her performance. The film never received a full theatrical release after the distributor filed for bankruptcy and the film has grossed solely $186,702 worldwide. "I have prayed—"prayed"—for film companies to go bankrupt on films I've made, and then this happens on the one I love," said Beckinsale. "Usually it's the ones you're most embarrassed about that are on the side of every bus."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2009, Beckinsale starred in the comic-book adaption "Whiteout", as a US Marshal tasked with investigating a murder in Antarctica. It was filmed in Manitoba, Canada. She found the action scenes less physically demanding than those in "Underworld" because "three pairs of trousers and a parka gives you a bit more protection than the latex suit." The film was critically panned and a box office failure, failing to recoup its budget. With critics consensus: Beckinsale is the lovely as ever, and does her best with the material, but moribund pacing and an uninspired plot leave Whiteout in the cold. She also made a brief cameo in the prequel ""; she appeared in flashforwards composed of footage from 2003's "Underworld". Also in 2009, Beckinsale starred in the family drama "Everybody's Fine" alongside Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, and Rockwell, her "Snow Angels" co-star. Beckinsale was excited by the opportunity to work with De Niro, whom she had first encountered "years and years ago when I just had Lily and he was putting together a reading of "The Good Shepherd".". "Everybody's Fine" was a box office flop, failing to recoup its production budget. In May 2010, Beckinsale sat on the nine-member 2010 Cannes Film Festival jury, chaired by director Tim Burton. Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films. Beckinsale first appeared in the action thriller "Contraband". She had a supporting role as the wife of Mark Wahlberg's character, a former criminal who gets forced back into a life of crime after his family members are threatened. The film was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who also starred in the Icelandic language version of the film, "Reykjavík-Rotterdam". The "San Francisco Chronicle" felt Beckinsale was "stuck in a bit of a thankless role as the victimised wife, but she does try to infuse a harder edge to the character." "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that "Beckinsale, her innate classiness calibrated down a few notches, has little to do but be supportive, worried and, eventually, besieged." "Entertainment Weekly" felt that the "woman-in-peril stuff is second-rate, giving off a whiff of exploitation" while "Variety" found the repeated violence towards Beckinsale's character disturbing. The film had a production budget of $25 million and has grossed over $96 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth instalment of the vampire franchise "". The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script. "The Hollywood Reporter" noted that "when she's not actually fighting, her performance consists of little more than striding purposefully toward or away from the camera." The "Los Angeles Times" remarked that she "finally manages to perfect the monotone delivery she'd been honing for the series' first two entries." The film had a production budget of $70 million and has grossed over $160 million worldwide. Also in 2012, Beckinsale appeared as the wife of a factory worker in the sci-fi action remake "Total Recall", directed by her husband Len Wiseman. She has said Wiseman joined the project because he was unable to receive studio financing for an original sci-fi idea: "You're constantly finding yourself having to defend doing a remake when you didn't really want to make one in the first place." The film received mainly negative reviews. "Variety" found her performance "one-note" while "The Hollywood Reporter" described her as "one-dimensional." "USA Today" remarked that she "spends much of the movie strutting down hallways and looking relentlessly, though blandly, nasty." The "New York Post" asserted Beckinsale "vastly overstays her welcome." The film has grossed $198 million against a production budget of over $125 million.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2012, she appeared alongside Judy Greer and Andrea Savage in the Funny or Die video "Republicans, Get in My Vagina", a satire of the Republican Party's policies concerning abortion and prenatal care.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2013, Beckinsale starred in the legal thriller "The Trials of Cate McCall" opposite Nick Nolte and James Cromwell. The film received negative reviews and was released as a Lifetime movie. She next appeared in the little-seen psychological thriller "Stonehearst Asylum", loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether". A lukewarm critical reception greeted the film upon its DVD release; Jeannette Catsoulis of "The New York Times" said Beckinsale was "emoting as if an Oscar nomination depended on it" while Dennis Harvey of "Variety" found her performance "overwrought." In 2014, she provided the voice for Queen Ayrenn, a character in "The Elder Scrolls Online" video game. Also in 2014, Beckinsale starred in the psychological thriller "The Face of an Angel" alongside Daniel Brühl. The film, directed by Michael Winterbottom, was inspired by the case of Meredith Kercher. Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" felt her "charismatic" performance was wasted. Also in 2015, she starred alongside Simon Pegg in the poorly received British comedy "Absolutely Anything", as an author agency employee and the love interest of a man (Pegg) chosen by four aliens to do anything he wants. Tom Huddleston of "Time Out" said her character "is never really developed—which is perhaps a blessing, because her cut-glass-posh performance is almost as grating as Pegg's." A fan of Monty Python growing up, in 2014 Beckinsale appeared on the fourth episode of "Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly)" where she spoke of her favourite Python comedy sketch.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In the 2016 romantic comedy "Love & Friendship", which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Beckinsale reunited with her "Last Days of Disco" collaborators Stillman and Sevigny. Based on Jane Austen's "Lady Susan", the film revolved around her role as the title character, a wry and calculating widow, as she pursues a wealthy and hapless man for marriage originally intended for her daughter, though she eventually marries him herself. The film was universally acclaimed by critics and found commercial success in arthouse cinemas. Justin Chang of "Variety" described the role as "one of the most satisfying screen roles of her career[...] Beckinsale magnetizes the screen in a way that naturally underscores how far ahead of everyone else she is: an effect that doesn't always work to the movie's advantage." Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" remarked, "There aren't great depths to the role, but Beckinsale excels with the long speeches and in defining her character as a very self-aware egoist."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Also in the year, she starred in the horror film "The Disappointments Room", opposite Mel Raido, both playing a couple in a new house that contains a hidden room with a haunted past. The film was heavily panned by critics and flopped at the box office; it only made $1.4 million in its opening weekend, and a total of $2.4 million in North America. Christian Holub of "Entertainment Weekly" concluded that "[m]ost of the film is just Beckinsale walking around looking worried", while Joe Leydon of "Variety" found her "credible and compelling [...] except for when she's trying way too hard in a rather unfortunate scene that calls for drunken ranting." In late 2016, Beckinsale returned as Selene in the fifth installment of the "Underworld" franchise, "", which grossed $81.1 million worldwide.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale starred opposite Pierce Brosnan, Callum Turner, and Jeff Bridges in Marc Webb's romantic coming-of-age drama "The Only Living Boy in New York" (2017), as a book editor and the mistress of a publisher whose son sees his life upended. Reviews of the film were mediocre, while it found a limited audience in theaters. "The A.V. Club" found Brosnan and Beckinsale to be "vastly more interesting by the twin virtues of not disguising their voices and fitting so poorly into the sad-faced melodrama this movie wants to be". She is attached to star in an adaptation of "The Chocolate Money" by Ashley Prentice Norton, with a screenplay by Emma Forrest. In 2018, Beckinsale starred as Ingrid Carpenter in the British film "Farming".


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale starred in the ITV/Amazon Prime drama "The Widow" (2019), her first TV series for more than 20 years. The series stars Beckinsale as an Englishwoman who believes her husband, killed in a plane crash three years prior, is still alive in the Congo. Beckinsale starred in the American action comedy film "Jolt" alongside Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci and Jai Courtney. "Jolt" was adapted from a screenplay by Scott Wascha and directed by Tanya Wexler and released by Amazon Studios on 23 July 2021. That same year she starred in the Paramount+ dark comedy streaming television "Guilty Party". In that series, she served as executive producer as well.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2021, Deadline announced that Beckinsale will star in the Catherine Hardwicke directed family drama "Prisoner's Daughter".


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Labelled an "English rose" by the BBC as early as 2001, Beckinsale has worked occasionally as a model. In 1997, she appeared in the music video for George Michael's "Waltz Away Dreaming". She starred opposite Orlando Bloom in a 2002 Gap television advertisement directed by Cameron Crowe. She appeared in a Diet Coke television advertisement in 2004, directed by Michel Gondry. She advertised Absolut Vodka in a 2009 print campaign photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. She has also promoted Lux shampoo in a Japanese television advertisement.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale was in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 to 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of "The Seagull" in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterwards. In 1997, they voiced an audiobook production of "Romeo and Juliet". Their daughter, Lily, was born in 1999 in London. In 2001, Beckinsale said she was "embarrassed" that Sheen never proposed, but felt as though she was married. They broke up in early 2003, after the filming of "Underworld". Beckinsale and Sheen remain close friends; she remarked in 2016, "He's really dear, close family. He's somebody I've known since I was 21 years old. I really love him a lot."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale met American director Len Wiseman while working together on 2003's "Underworld". She persuaded Wiseman to cast Sheen in the film, but while on set, the two fell in love. Wiseman's then-wife Dana, a kindergarten teacher, claimed infidelity in Budapest, but Beckinsale and Wiseman denied having a sexual relationship while in the midst of filming "Underworld". They married on 9 May 2004 in Bel-Air, California, but separated in November 2015. Wiseman filed for divorce in 2016, citing "irreconcilable differences", and their divorce was finalised in November 2019.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In January 2019, Beckinsale was reported to be dating American comedian Pete Davidson, but by April they had "called time on their romance".


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: Beckinsale is a smoker. When she was nine, her mother moved in with Roy Battersby, and his sons introduced her to cigarettes.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: She is a teetotaller, stating in 2003, "I've never been drunk even. I've never taken drugs. I've never had a one-night-stand."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In 2007, she appeared alongside David Schwimmer in the sixth of the Writers Guild of America member-conceived Internet videos for Project "Speechless", in support of the WGA labour strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In July 2003, the Press Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint filed by Beckinsale. She alleged that the tabloid "Daily Mail" had invaded her and her daughter's privacy by publishing photographs of the actress embracing and kissing her then-boyfriend Len Wiseman. The article in question was headlined, "Mummy's latest love scene leaves Lily unimpressed" and included a picture in which her then-four-year-old daughter appeared to be ignoring her mother's romantic actions. The Commission found that "the photographs had been taken in a public place and did not reveal any private details about Lilysuch as her health or schoolingbut were restricted to general observations about her apparent reaction to her surroundings."


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: In August 2003, Beckinsale received a published apology from the "Daily Mail" after it claimed that she had "spent time in a clinic" following her breakup with Michael Sheen. The apology was issued after she filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission. In 2009, Beckinsale was awarded £20,000 in damages by the British High Court after taking legal action against "Express Newspapers". The "Daily Express" had falsely reported that she was "facing heartbreak" after losing out on a role in a remake of "Barbarella".


title: Kate Beckinsale

text: The British Heart Foundation has been Beckinsale's charity of choice "ever since [she] was six years old" when her father, who had a congenital heart defect, died of a massive heart attack. She has also donated film memorabilia to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, MediCinema, Habitat For Humanity and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In 2008, she hosted the 4th Annual Pink Party to raise funds for the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and organised a screening of "All About Eve" for FilmAid International. In 2012, Beckinsale joined Nestlé's Share the Joy of Reading Program to raise awareness about the importance of people's literacy.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and the other six were adult staff members. Earlier that day, before driving to the school, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza died by suicide, shooting himself in the head.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The incident is the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history, and the fourth-deadliest mass shooting overall. The shooting prompted renewed debate about gun control in the United States, including proposals to make the background-check system universal, and for new federal and state gun legislation banning the sale and manufacture of certain types of semi-automatic firearms and magazines which can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: A November 2013 report issued by the Connecticut State Attorney's office concluded that Lanza acted alone and planned his actions, but provided no indication why he did so, or why he targeted the school. A report issued by the Office of the Child Advocate in November 2014 said that Lanza had Asperger syndrome and as a teenager had depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but concluded that they had "neither caused nor led to his murderous acts." The report went on to say, "his severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems[...] combined with an atypical preoccupation with violence[...] (and) access to deadly weapons[...] proved a recipe for mass murder."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: As of November 30, 2012, 456 children were enrolled in kindergarten through fourth grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The school's security protocols had recently been upgraded, requiring visitors to be individually admitted after visual and identification review by video monitor. Doors to the school were locked at 9:30a.m. each day, after morning arrivals.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Newtown is in Fairfield County, Connecticut, about from New Haven, from Hartford, and from New York City. Violent crime had been rare in the town of 28,000 residents; there was only one homicide in the town in the ten years before the school shooting.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Under Connecticut law at the time, the 20-year-old Lanza was old enough to carry a long gun, such as a rifle or shotgun, but too young to own or carry handguns. The guns he used had been purchased legally by his mother.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Sometime before 9:30a.m. EST on Friday, December 14, 2012, Lanza shot and killed his mother Nancy Lanza, aged 52, with a .22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle at their Newtown home. Investigators later found her body clad in pajamas, in her bed, with four gunshot wounds to her head. Lanza then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in his mother's car.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Shortly after 9:35a.m., armed with his mother's Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and ten magazines with 30 rounds each, Lanza shot his way through a glass panel next to the locked front entrance doors of the school. He was wearing black clothing, yellow earplugs, sunglasses, and an olive green utility vest. Initial reports that he was wearing body armor were incorrect. Some of those present heard the initial shots on the school intercom system, which was being used for morning announcements.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were meeting with other faculty members when they heard, but did not recognize, gunshots. Hochsprung, Sherlach, and lead teacher Natalie Hammond went into the hall to determine the source of the sounds and encountered Lanza. A faculty member who was at the meeting said that the three women called out "Shooter! Stay put!" which alerted their colleagues to the danger and saved their lives. An aide heard gunshots. A teacher hiding in the math lab heard school janitor Rick Thorne yell, "Put the gun down!" Lanza killed both Hochsprung and Sherlach. Hammond was hit first in the leg, and then sustained another gunshot wound. She lay still in the hallway and then, not hearing any more noise, crawled back to the conference room and pressed her body against the door to keep it closed. She was later treated at Danbury Hospital.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: A nine-year-old boy said he heard the shooter say "Put your hands up!" and someone else say "Don't shoot!" He also heard many people yelling and many gunshots over the intercom while he, his classmates, and his teacher took refuge in a closet in the gymnasium. Diane Day, a school therapist who had been at the faculty meeting with Hochsprung, heard screaming followed by more gunshots. A second teacher, who was a substitute kindergarten teacher, was wounded in the attack. While she was closing a door further down the hallway, she was hit in the foot with a bullet that ricocheted. Lanza never entered her classroom.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: After killing Hochsprung and Sherlach, Lanza entered the main office but apparently did not see the people hiding there, and returned to the hallway. School nurse Sarah (Sally) Cox, 60, hid under a desk in her office. She later described seeing the door opening and Lanza's boots and legs facing her desk from approximately away. He remained standing for a few seconds before turning around and leaving. She and the school secretary Barbara Halstead called 9-1-1 and hid in a first-aid supply closet for as long as four hours. Janitor Rick Thorne ran through hallways, alerting classrooms.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza entered Room 8, a first-grade classroom where Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher, had herded her first-grade students to the back of the room, and was trying to hide them in a bathroom, when Lanza forced his way into the classroom. Rousseau, Rachel D'Avino (a behavioral therapist who had been employed for a week at the school to work with a special needs student), and fifteen students in Rousseau's class were killed. Fourteen of the children were dead at the scene; one injured child was taken to a hospital for treatment, but was later declared dead. Most of the teachers and students were found crowded together in the bathroom. A six-year-old girl, the sole survivor, was found by police in the classroom following the shooting. She hid in a corner of the classroom's bathroom during the shooting. Her family's pastor said she survived by playing dead. When she reached her mother, she said, "Mommy, I'm okay, but all my friends are dead." The child described the shooter as "a very angry man." A girl hiding in a bathroom with two teachers told police that she heard a boy in the classroom screaming, "Help me! I don't want to be here!" to which Lanza responded, "Well, you're here," followed by "hammering" sounds.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza also went to Room 10, another first-grade classroom nearby; at this point, there are conflicting reports about the order of events. According to some reports, the classroom's teacher, Victoria Leigh Soto, had concealed some of the students in a closet or bathroom, and some of the other students were hiding under desks. Soto was walking back to the classroom door to lock it when Lanza entered the classroom. Lanza walked to the back of the classroom, saw the children under the desks, and shot them. First-grader Jesse Lewis shouted at his classmates to run for safety, and several of them did. Lewis was looking at Lanza when Lanza fatally shot him. Another account, given by a surviving child's father, said that Soto had moved the children to the back of the classroom, and that they were seated on the floor when Lanza entered. According to this account, neither Lanza nor any of the occupants of the classroom spoke. Lanza stared at the people on the floor, pointed the gun at a boy seated there, but did not fire. The boy ran out of the classroom. The final report into the shooting concluded that the sequence of events in Rooms 8 and 10 was "indeterminate".


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: A "Hartford Courant" report said that six of the children who escaped did so when Lanza stopped shooting, either because his weapon jammed or he erred in reloading it. Earlier reports said that, as Lanza entered her classroom, Soto told him that the children were in the auditorium. When several of the children came out of their hiding places and tried to run for safety, Lanza fatally shot them. Soto put herself between her students and the shooter, who then fatally shot her. Anne Marie Murphy, the special education teacher who worked with special-needs students in Soto's classroom, was found covering six-year-old Dylan Hockley, who also died. Soto and four children were found dead in the classroom. Soto was near the north wall of the room with a set of keys nearby. One child was taken to the hospital, but was pronounced dead. Six surviving children from the class and a school bus driver took refuge at a nearby home. According to the official report released by the state's attorney, nine children ran from Soto's classroom, and police found two hiding in a class bathroom. Five of Soto's students were killed.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: First-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29 years old, hid fourteen students in a bathroom and barricaded the door, telling them to be completely quiet to remain safe. It is believed that Lanza bypassed her classroom, which was the first classroom on the left side of the hallway. Following a lockdown drill weeks earlier, Roig had failed to remove a piece of black construction paper covering the small window in her classroom door. Lanza may have assumed that Roig's classroom was empty because the door was closed and the window covered.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: School library staff Yvonne Cech and Maryann Jacob tried to hide eighteen children in a part of the library the school used for lockdown in practice drills. When they discovered that one door would not lock, they had the children crawl into a storage room, where Cech barricaded the door with a filing cabinet.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Music teacher Maryrose Kristopik, 50, barricaded her fourth-graders in a tiny supply closet during the rampage. Lanza arrived moments later, pounding on the door and yelling, "Let me in," while the students in Kristopik's class quietly hid inside.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Two third-grade students, chosen as classroom helpers, were walking down the hallway to the office to deliver the morning attendance sheet as the shooting began. Teacher Abbey Clements pulled both children into her classroom, where they hid.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Laura Feinstein, a reading specialist at the school, gathered two students from outside her classroom and hid with them under desks after they heard gunshots. Feinstein called the school office and tried to call 911, but could not connect due to lack of reception on her cell phone. She hid with the children for approximately 40 minutes, at which point law enforcement came to lead them out of the room.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The police heard the final shot at 9:40:03a.m. They believed that it was Lanza shooting himself in the lower rear portion of his head with the Glock 20SF in classroom 10. Lanza's body was found wearing a pale green pocket vest over a black polo shirt, over a black T-shirt, black sneakers, black fingerless gloves, black socks, and a black canvas belt. Other objects found in the vicinity of Lanza included a black boonie hat and thin frame glasses. The Glock was found, apparently jammed, near Lanza, and the rifle was found several feet away from him. A 9mm SIG Sauer P226, which was not fired during the incident, was found on Lanza's person.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Authorities determined that Lanza reloaded frequently during the shootings, sometimes firing only 15 rounds from a 30-round magazine. He shot all but two of his victims multiple times. Most of the shooting took place in two first-grade classrooms near the entrance of the school. The students among the victims totaled eight boys and twelve girls, all either six or seven years old, and the six adults were all women who worked at the school. Bullets were also found in at least three cars parked outside the school, leading police to believe that he fired at a teacher who was standing near a window. When police interviewed survivors, a teacher recalled hearing Lanza curse several times, as well as say such things as, "Look at me!" and "Come over here!" and "Look at them!"


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The first call to 911 was around 9:35a.m. Newtown 911 police dispatch first broadcast that there was a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) at 9:36a.m., about 30 seconds after they received the first call. Connecticut State Police (CSP) were dispatched at 9:37a.m. Newtown police arrived at the school street at 9:39a.m., approximately three-and-a-half minutes after the 911 call, and Connecticut State Police arrived at the school street at 9:46a.m. Newtown police first entered the school at 9:45a.m., approximately nine minutes after the first 911 call and approximately ten minutes after the shooting started. This was approximately five minutes after the last shot was heard. No shots were fired by the police.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The Newtown police and Connecticut State Police mobilized local police dog and police tactical units, a bomb squad, and a state police helicopter. Police locked down the school and began evacuating the survivors room by room, escorting groups of students and adults away from the school. They swept the school for other shooters at least four times.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: At approximately 10:00a.m., Danbury Hospital sent extra medical personnel in expectation of having to treat numerous victims. Three wounded patients were evacuated to the hospital, where two children were later declared dead. The other was an unidentified adult.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The New York City medical examiner dispatched a portable morgue to assist the authorities. The victims' bodies were removed from the school and formally identified during the night after the shooting. A state trooper was assigned to each victim's family to protect their privacy and provide them with information.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Investigators did not find a suicide note or any messages referring to the planning of the attack. Janet Robinson, superintendent of Newtown schools, said she had not found any connection between Lanza's mother and the school, in contrast to initial media reports that said Lanza's mother had worked there. Police also investigated whether Lanza was the person who had been in an altercation with four staff members at Sandy Hook School the day before the massacre. It was presumed that he killed two of the four staff members involved in the altercation (the principal and the psychologist) and wounded the third (the lead teacher) in the attack; the fourth staff member was not at the school that day. The state police said they did not know of any reports about any altercations at the school.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Police sources initially reported that Lanza's brother Ryan Lanza, then aged 24, was the perpetrator. This was probably because Adam was carrying Ryan's identification, Ryan told "The Jersey Journal". Ryan, who lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and was at his job in New York City at the time of the shooting, voluntarily submitted to questioning by New Jersey State Police, Connecticut State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police said he was not considered a suspect, and he was not taken into custody. Ryan said he had not been in touch with Adam since 2010; when asked why, Ryan said his brother was "sick", "[doesn't] talk to anyone", and that Ryan "didn't know him anymore". Connecticut State Police indicated their concern about misinformation being posted on social media sites and threatened prosecution of anyone involved with such activities. Ryan was also mistakenly reported to have mourned his mother and brother on social media and to have been interviewed by the "New York Post". A spokesperson for the Lanza family later said an impostor gave the interview.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: A large quantity of unused ammunition was recovered inside the school along with three semi-automatic firearms found with Lanza: a .223-caliber Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, a 10mm Glock 20SF handgun, and a 9mm SIG Sauer P226 handgun. Outside the school, an Izhmash Saiga-12 shotgun was found in the car Lanza had driven to the school, a black Honda Civic.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On March 28, 2013, court documents released from the investigation showed that the shooting had occurred in the space of fewer than five minutes with 156 shots fired. This comprised 154 shots from the rifle and two shots from the 10mm pistol. Lanza fired one shot from the Glock in the hallway and killed himself with another shot from the pistol to the head.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Shortly after the shooting, police announced that Lanza used the rifle to kill the victims at the school. At a press conference on December 15, Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut, was asked about the wounds, and replied "All the ones that I know of at this point were caused by the long weapon." When asked if the children suffered before dying, Carver replied by stating that "If so, not for very long". Carver, whose office autopsied the victims and who personally performed seven, said the injuries were "devastating" and that parents identified their children from photographs to spare them the sight. All the child victims were first-graders, and all were killed with the Bushmaster XM15. Carver said the bullets used were "designed in such a fashion the energy is deposited in the tissue so the bullet stays in."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Investigators evaluated Lanza's body, looking for evidence of drugs or medication through toxicology tests. Unusually for an investigation of this type, DNA testing of Lanza was utilized. The results of the toxicology report were published in October 2013, and stated that no alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Lanza's autopsy showed no tumors or gross deformities in his brain.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza removed the hard drive from his computer and damaged it prior to the shooting, creating a challenge for investigators to recover data. At the time of publication of the final report, it had not been possible to recover data from it. Police believe that Lanza extensively researched earlier mass shootings, they found that Lanza had downloaded videos relating to the Columbine High School massacre, other shootings and two videos of suicide by gunshot.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Details of the investigation were reported by law enforcement officials at a meeting of the International Association of Police Chiefs and Colonels held during the week of March 11, 2013. An article published in the "New York Daily News" on March 17, 2013, provided purported details of this report by an anonymous law enforcement veteran who had attended the meeting. The source stated that the investigation had found that Lanza had created a 7-by-4-foot sized spreadsheet listing around 500 mass murderers and the weapons they used, which was considered to have taken years of work and to have been used by Lanza as a "score sheet". On March 18, 2013, Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police responded that the information from this meeting was "law enforcement sensitive information" and considered the release to be a leak.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The March 28 documents also provided details on items found at Lanza's home, including three samurai swords, a newspaper article about the Northern Illinois University shooting, and a National Rifle Association certificate. The NRA denied that Adam Lanza or Nancy Lanza were members and reporters noted that the NRA site provides training certificate completion templates for courses offered by NRA Certified Instructors. A gun safe was found in a bedroom and investigators found more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition and other firearms. At home, Lanza had access to three more firearms: a .45 Henry rifle, a .30 Enfield rifle, and a .22 Marlin rifle. These were legally owned by Lanza's mother, who was described as a gun enthusiast. According to "Time", authorities also found a photograph of Lanza holding a gun to his head at his home following his death.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: According to "The New York Times", law enforcement officials commented that Lanza would spend most of his time in his basement doing solitary activities. According to the same officials, it also appeared that Lanza "may have taken target practice in the basement".


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The final report of the State Attorney summarizing the investigation into the shooting was published on November 25, 2013. It concluded that Adam Lanza had acted alone, and that the case was closed. The report noted that "[Lanza] had a familiarity with and access to firearms and ammunition and an obsession with mass murders, in particular the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado." The report did not identify a specific motive for the shooting, stating, "The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook elementary school."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On the question of Lanza's state of mind, the report noted "significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others, even those to whom he should have been close ... What contribution this made to the shootings, if any, is unknown as those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior." The report found no evidence that Lanza had taken drugs or medication that would have affected his behavior, and observed, "'Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?' Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively, despite the collection of extensive background information on the shooter through a multitude of interviews and other sources."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On December 27, 2013, police released thousands of pages of documents pertaining to the investigation. In accordance with law, the names of victims and witnesses were redacted or withheld. The summary report included information about items found on Lanza's computer equipment, including writings and material about previous mass shootings. A former teacher of Lanza's noted that he exhibited antisocial behavior, rarely interacted with other students, and was obsessed with writing "about battles, destruction and war."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The Report of the Office of the Child Advocate concluded: "There was not one thing that was necessarily the tipping point driving Lanza to commit the Sandy Hook shooting. Rather there was a cascade of events, many self-imposed, that included: loss of school; absence of work; disruption of the relationship with his one friend; virtually no personal contact with family; virtually total and increasing isolation; fear of losing his home and of a change in his relationship with Mrs. Lanza, his only caretaker and connection; worsening OCD; depression and anxiety; profound and possibly worsening anorexia; and an increasing obsession with mass murder occurring in the total absence of any engagement with the outside world. Adam increasingly lived in an alternate universe in which ruminations about mass shootings were his central


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The authors also noted that despite multiple developmental and mental health problems, Lanza had not received adequate mental health treatment. They wrote: "It is fair to surmise that, had Lanza's mental illness been adequately treated in the last years of his life, one predisposing factor to the tragedy of Sandy Hook might have been mitigated".


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The report also tentatively disagreed with the conclusions of the State Attorney about why Lanza targeted Sandy Hook. They noted that "According to the FBI, shooters are likely to target places or people that are familiar to them ... The elementary school may have been targeted because he could overpower people, a dynamic that is very important for mass shooters as they do not want to be thwarted".


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Adam Peter Lanza (April 22, 1992 – December 14, 2012) lived with his mother, Nancy Lanza, in Newtown, from the elementary school. He did not have a criminal record. He had access to guns through his mother, who was described as a "gun enthusiast who owned at least a dozen firearms". She often took her two sons to a local shooting range, where they learned to shoot. Lanza's father has said that he does not believe Nancy feared Adam. She did not confide any fear of Adam to her sister or to her best friend, slept with her bedroom door unlocked, and kept guns in the house.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary School for four and a half years. He began at Newtown Middle School in 2004, but according to his mother was "wracked by anxiety". She told friends that her son started getting upset in middle school because of frequent classroom changes during the day. The movement and noise were too stimulating and made him anxious. At one point his anxiety was so intense that she took him to the emergency room at Danbury Hospital. Because of the smaller class sizes, his mother moved him to a parochial school, St. Rose of Lima. According to a classmate at St. Rose of Lima, he entered "late in the school year", and he left in June 2005.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: At age 14, he went to Newtown High School, where he was named to the honor roll in 2007. Students and teachers who knew him in high school described Lanza as "intelligent but nervous and fidgety". He avoided attracting attention and was uncomfortable socializing. He is not known to have had any close friends in school. Schoolwork often triggered his underlying sense of hopelessness and by 2008, when he turned 16, he was only going to school occasionally. The intense anxiety Lanza experienced at the time suggests his autism might have been exacerbated by the hormonal shifts of adolescence. He was taken out of high school and home-schooled by his mother and father. He earned a GED. In 2008 and 2009, he also attended some classes at Western Connecticut State University.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza was born and partially raised in Kingston, New Hampshire, about southwest of Exeter, east of Manchester, and north of Boston. While living in New Hampshire at the time, Lanza exhibited developmental challenges before the age of three. These included communication and sensory difficulties, socialization delays, and repetitive behaviors. He was seen by the New Hampshire Birth to Three intervention program and referred to special education preschool services. Once at elementary school, he was diagnosed with a sensory-integration disorder. The sensory-processing disorder does not have official status by the medical community as a formal diagnosis but is a common characteristic of autism. His anxiety affected his ability to attend school and in 8th grade he was placed on "homebound" status, which is reserved for children who are too disabled, even with supports and accommodations, to attend school.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: When he was 13, Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome by a psychiatrist, Paul Fox. When he was 14, his parents took him to Yale University's Child Study Center, where he was also diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He frequently washed his hands and changed his socks 20 times a day, to the point where his mother did three loads of laundry a day. He also sometimes went through a box of tissues in a day because he could not touch a doorknob with his bare hand.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza was treated by Robert King, who recommended extensive support be put in place, and King's colleague Kathleen Koenig at the Yale Child Study Center prescribed the antidepressant Celexa. Lanza took the medication for three days. His mother Nancy reported: "On the third morning he complained of dizziness. By that afternoon he was disoriented, his speech was disjointed, he couldn't even figure out how to open his cereal box. He was sweating profusely ... it was actually dripping off his hands. He said he couldn't think ... He was practically vegetative." He never took the medication again. A report from the Office of the Child Advocate found that "Yale's recommendations for extensive special education supports, ongoing expert consultation, and rigorous therapeutic supports embedded into (Lanza's) daily life went largely unheeded."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: In a 2013 interview, Peter Lanza said he suspected his son might have also had undiagnosed schizophrenia in addition to his other conditions. Lanza said that family members might have missed signs of the onset of schizophrenia and psychotic behavior during his son's adolescence because they mistakenly attributed his odd behavior and increasing isolation to Asperger syndrome. Because of concerns that published accounts of Lanza's autism could result in a backlash against others with the condition, autism advocates campaigned to clarify that autism is a brain-related developmental disorder rather than a mental illness. The violence Lanza demonstrated in the shooting is generally not seen in the autistic population and none of the psychiatrists he saw detected troubling signs of violence in his disposition.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Lanza appears to have had no contact with mental health providers after 2006. The report from the Office of the Child Advocate stated: "In the course of Lanza's entire life, minimal mental health evaluation and treatment (in relation to his apparent need) was obtained. Of the couple of providers that saw him, only one—the Yale Child Study Center—seemed to appreciate the gravity of (his) presentation, his need for extensive mental health and special education supports, and the critical need for medication to ease his obsessive-compulsive symptoms."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: Investigators found Lanza was fascinated with mass shootings, such as the Columbine High School massacre. Among the clippings found in his room, there was a story from "The New York Times" about a man who shot at schoolchildren in 1891. His computer contained two videos of gunshot suicides, movies that showed school shootings, and two pictures of Lanza pointing guns at his own head.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: This only came to light after Lanza died, because he never permitted others to access his bedroom, including his mother. Lanza had also taped black plastic garbage bags over the windows in his bedroom to block out sunlight. He had cut off contact with both his father and brother in the two years before the shooting and at one point communicated with his mother, who lived in the same house, only by email. A document titled "Selfish", describing Lanza's belief in the inherent selfishness of women, was found on his computer after his death.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: According to a report by the Office of the Child Advocate in Connecticut in November 2014, Lanza may have had anorexia nervosa. The authors wrote that "Anorexia can produce cognitive impairment and it is likely that anorexia combined with an autism spectrum disorder and OCD compounded Lanza's risk for suicide". They also noted that at the time of his death, Lanza "was anorexic (he was six feet tall (183 cm) and weighed 112 pounds (51 kg)), to the point of malnutrition and resultant brain damage."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: He was also living in almost total isolation in his room, spending most of his time on the internet playing "World of Warcraft" and other video games. The report stated that he "descended" into a world where his only communication with the outside world was with members of a cyber-community, "a small community of individuals that shared his dark and obsessive interest in mass murder".


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: In the weeks before the killings, Lanza's mother was considering moving him to another town. She planned to purchase a recreational vehicle for him to stay in so that potential purchasers could see the house without disturbing him. The Report of the Child Advocate stated that:


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: James Knoll, a forensic psychiatrist at SUNY Upstate Medical University, was consulted about what motivated Lanza to kill. Knoll states that Lanza's final act conveyed a distinct message: "I carry profound hurt—I'll go ballistic and transfer it onto you."


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: In January 2015, the families of two of the first-graders who died in the shooting filed a lawsuit against the city of Newtown and the Newtown Board of Education alleging inadequate security at the school. In March, it was announced that parents of children and teachers killed in the shooting had filed lawsuits against the estate of Nancy Lanza. The suits are based on a claim that she did not properly secure her firearms, which allowed her son, a person with mental health issues, to gain access to them. The attorneys representing the families said Lanza was believed to have had homeowner's insurance on her home worth more than $1 million and they were seeking compensation based on that.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On October 16, 2019, a jury awarded Leonard Pozner $450,000 for defamation by James Fetzer, who had co-written the book "Nobody Died at Sandy Hook". The book claimed that Pozner had fabricated the death certificate of his son Noah, a six-year-old victim of the shooting. Fetzer said he would appeal the decision.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On December 15, 2014, nine families of the 26 victims of the shooting filed a class-action lawsuit in Connecticut against Bushmaster, Remington Arms, Camfour, a distributor of firearms, and the now-closed East Windsor store, Riverview Sales, where the gunman's rifle was purchased, seeking "unspecified" damages, claiming an exemption from the 2005 Federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) that would normally disallow such a suit as lacking standing. The plaintiffs allege that the XM15-E2S is suitable only for military and policing applications and that Bushmaster inappropriately marketed it to civilians. In January 2015, Bushmaster's attorneys petitioned to have the suit moved to federal court because, although the shooting took place in Connecticut, it is located in North Carolina. In February 2015, the victims' families' attorneys made a motion to move the suit back to state court. On April 14, 2016, a Connecticut court denied the defendants' motion to summarily dismiss the case. Lawyers for the defense filed a second motion for dismissal a month later. On October 14, 2016, the defendants' motion to dismiss the lawsuit was granted. The judge ruled the complaint was not valid per federal and Connecticut laws.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: The families appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court. In March 2019, the court decided in a 4–3 vote to reverse parts of the trial court's rulings and remand the case back to Bridgeport Superior Court for additional hearings. It ruled that the families' appeal to the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, demonstrating that the gun manufacturers had used advertising that presented the weapons in an "unfair, unethical, or dangerous manner", with Remington seeking to "expand the market for [its] assault weapons through advertising campaigns that encouraged consumers ... to launch offensive assaults against their perceived enemies", was not prohibited by PLCAA, and thus that the plaintiffs had sufficient standing to argue their case at trial court. It also ruled that the plaintiffs can subpoena internal documents on how gun companies have marketed the AR-15. Remington asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review the state court ruling, but in November 2019 the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, allowing the families' suit to proceed.


title: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

text: On July 26, 2021, a judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit. In court documents the next day, Remington offered $33 million to be shared by the nine families. On February 15, 2022, Remington agreed to settle for $73 million, according to the families' attorney, Josh Koskoff.