title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield's debut solo album "A Girl Called Dusty" – featuring mostly covers of her favourite songs – was released on 17 April 1964 in the UK (but not in America). Tracks included "Mama Said", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", "You Don't Own Me" and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". In May 1964 the album reached no. 6 in the UK – one of only two of her Top Ten non-hits albums. Following "I Only Want to Be with You", Springfield charted with five more singles in 1964, with just "Stay Awhile" registering as a transatlantic success (UK no. 13/US no. 38). Its B-side, "Somethin' Special", was written by Springfield, later described as "a first-rate Springfield original" by AllMusic's Richie Unterberger. Springfield was quoted as saying "I don't really see myself as a songwriter. I don't really like writing ... I just don't get any good ideas and the ones I do get are pinched from other records. The only reason I write is for the money – oh mercenary creature!" The highest-charting of Springfield's 1964 releases were both Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs: "Wishin' and Hopin'" – a US no. 6 hit which featured on "A Girl Called Dusty" – and "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", which in July peaked at no. 3 on the UK singles chart (behind the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night and the Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now"). The dramatic and emotive "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" set the standard for much of her later material. In the autumn of 1964 Springfield peaked at no. 41 in the States with "All Cried Out", but in her native Britain she hit big with "Losing You" (UK no. 9/US no. 91), which peaked in December – the same month in which the singer's tour of South Africa, with her group The Echoes, was terminated following a controversial performance before an integrated audience at a theatre near Cape Town, in defiance of the government's segregation policy. Springfield was deported. Her contract specifically excluded segregated performances, making her one of the first British artists to do so. In the same year she was voted the year's top British Female Singer in the "New Musical Express" readers' poll, ahead of Lulu, Sandie Shaw, and Cilla Black. Springfield received the award again for the next three years.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1965 Springfield reached the UK Top 40 with three hit singles: "Your Hurtin' Kinda Love" (no. 37), "In the Middle of Nowhere" (no. 8) and the Gerry Goffin/Carole King-penned "Some of Your Lovin' " (no. 8), though none was included on her next UK album recorded with The Echoes, "Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty". Released in October 1965, the LP featured songs by Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Rod Argent and Randy Newman, and a cover of the traditional Mexican song "La Bamba". In November 1965 the album peaked at no. 6 on the UK chart. Springfield's one appearance on "Billboard"'s Hot 100 in 1965 was "Losing You", which stalled at 91.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: From 28 to 30 January 1965 Springfield took part in the Italian Song Festival in San Remo, reaching a semi-final with "Tu che ne sai?" (English: "What Do You Know?") while failing to qualify for the final. During the competition she heard the song "Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te)", performed by one of its composers, Pino Donaggio, and separately by US country music singer Jody Miller. An English-language version, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", would feature lyrics newly written by Springfield's friend (and future manager) Vicki Wickham and another future manager, Simon Napier-Bell. Springfield's dramatic recording of the ballad was released in March 1966 and reached number one in the UK in its fifth week on the singles chart. Success followed in the US, where in July it reached no. 4 on "Billboard"'s Hot 100, ranking 21 for the year. Springfield called it "good old schmaltz", and it became her signature song. In 1967 Springfield was nominated for the Best Contemporary (R&R) Solo Vocal Performance – Male or Female award at the 9th Annual Grammy Awards, losing to Paul McCartney for "Eleanor Rigby". In 1999 "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" featured in an all-time Top 100 of songs as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 2.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1966 Springfield scored with three other UK hits, all varying in style: the snappy "Little By Little" (no. 17), a cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King's poignant and reflective "Goin' Back" (no. 10), and the sweeping dramatic ballad "All I See Is You" (no. 9), co-written by Ben Weisman and Clive Westlake. The latter peaked at no. 20 in the States. In August and September 1966 she hosted "Dusty", a six-part BBC TV music/talk show series. A compilation of her singles, "Golden Hits", released in November 1966, peaked at no. 2 in the UK (behind the soundtrack to "The Sound of Music"). From the mid-1960s onward Springfield used the pseudonym "Gladys Thong" when recording backing vocals for other artists including Madeline Bell, Kiki Dee, Anne Murray and Elton John. Bell was a regular backing singer on early Springfield albums, and the pair, together with Lesley Duncan, co-wrote "I'm Gonna Leave You" , the B-side of "Goin' Back".


title: Dusty Springfield

text: During this period, Springfield was also known for her love of Motown. She introduced the Motown sound to a wider UK audience, both with her covers of Motown songs and by facilitating the first UK TV appearance for the Temptations, the Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, the Miracles and Stevie Wonder in a special edition of the 1963–66 British TV music series "Ready Steady Go!", produced by Vicki Wickham. "The Sound of Motown" was broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion/ITV on 28 April 1965, with Springfield opening each half accompanied by Martha and the Vandellas and Motown's in-house band, the Funk Brothers. The associated touring Tamla-Motown Revue – featuring the Supremes, the Miracles and Stevie Wonder – had started in London in March and was, according to the Supremes' Mary Wilson, a flop: "It's always ... disheartening when you go out there and you see the house is half-full ... but once you're on stage ... You perform as well for five as you do for 500." Wickham, a fan of the Motown artists, booked them for the "Ready Steady Go!" special and enlisted Springfield to host it.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: As with Springfield's chart success in the previous three years, there was minimal agreement in 1967 and 1968 between UK and US releases. The closest Springfield got to a transatlantic hit during this period was the spirited "I'll Try Anything", which charted in the spring of 1967 (UK no. 13/US no. 40). The follow-up single, "Give Me Time" – the singer's last traditional-sounding sweeping ballad – peaked outside the UK Top 20 (no. 24) and stalled at 76 in the States. However, the single's B-side – the smokey-sultry Bacharach-David song "The Look of Love", recorded for the James Bond parody film "Casino Royale" – emerged as one of Springfield's five defining US 1960s hits.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: For "one of the slowest-tempo hits" of the sixties, Bacharach created the "sultry" feel by the use of "minor-seventh and major-seventh chord changes", while Hal David's lyrics "epitomized longing and, yes, lust." The song was recorded in two versions at the Philips Studios in London. The soundtrack version was released on 29 January 1967. The single version charted briefly in July, then re-entered "Billboard"'s Hot 100 in early September, peaking at no. 22. However, it reached the Top Ten in several markets across the US, reaching number one in San Francisco (KFRC and KYA) and San Jose (KLIV) and no. 2 in Boston (WBZ), among other cities. "The Look of Love" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In August and September 1967 Springfield headlined the second season of her BBC TV series "Dusty" (aka "The Dusty Springfield Show"), in which she welcomed guests and performed songs, among them a rendition of "Get Ready" and her then-recent hit "I'll Try Anything". The series attracted a healthy audience but was seen as not keeping up with changes in pop music. Springfield's next LP "Where Am I Going?" (October 1967) – her first album of new material since 1965 – experimented with various styles including a "jazzy", orchestrated version of "Sunny" and an acclaimed cover of Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" ("If You Go Away"). Though critically appreciated, the album peaked at 40 in the UK and failed to chart in the US. In November 1968, a similar fate befell "Dusty... Definitely", which was not issued in the US, though it reached no. 30 in the UK during a six-week chart run. Material ranged from the rolling "Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone" to the achingly emotive cover of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today". Also in 1968, Springfield scored with one of her biggest UK hits of the decade: the dramatic "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten", written by Clive Westlake. The single peaked at no. 4 in August 1968. Its flip side, "No Stranger Am I", was co-written by American singer-songwriter Norma Tanega – known for her transatlantic 1966 Top 30 folk-pop hit "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" – and Norma Kutzer. By late 1966 Springfield was in a domestic "relationship" with Tanega. Springfield's 1968 TV series "It Must Be Dusty" was broadcast on ITV in May and June; episode six featured a duet performance of "Mockingbird" with singer-guitarist Jimi Hendrix, fronting his band the Experience.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: By the late 1960s Carole King – who with Gerry Goffin co-wrote "Some of Your Lovin'", "Goin' Back" and four songs on the "Dusty in Memphis" album – had embarked on a solo singing career. At the same time, Springfield's relationship with the high-charting Bacharach-David partnership was floundering. Her status in the music industry was further complicated by a "progressive" music revolution which dictated an uncomfortable dichotomy: underground/"fashionable" vs. pop/"unfashionable". Her performing career was limited to the UK touring circuit of working men's clubs, hotels and cabarets. Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, she signed with Atlantic Records, the label of her idol Aretha Franklin. (She signed with the label only in the United States; in her native United Kingdom she remained under contract with Philips.)


title: Dusty Springfield

text: The Memphis sessions at the American Sound Studio were produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin; with the back-up vocal band Sweet Inspirations; and the instrumental band Memphis Boys, led by guitarist Reggie Young and bass guitarist Tommy Cogbill. The producers recognised that Springfield's natural soul voice should be placed at the forefront, rather than competing with full string arrangements. At first she felt anxious when compared with the soul greats who had recorded in the same studios. She had never worked with just a rhythm track, and it was her first time with outside producers; many of her previous recordings had been self-produced, while not being credited. Wexler felt Springfield had a "gigantic inferiority complex", and due to her pursuit of perfection, her vocals were re-recorded later, in New York.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In November 1968, during the Memphis sessions, Springfield suggested to Wexler (one of the heads of Atlantic Records) that he should sign the newly formed UK band Led Zeppelin. She knew their bass guitarist, John Paul Jones, from his session work on her earlier albums. Without ever having seen them and partly on her advice, Wexler signed Led Zeppelin to a $200,000 deal with Atlantic – the biggest such contract for a new band until then.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: The album "Dusty in Memphis" received excellent reviews on its initial releases both in the UK and US. Greil Marcus of "Rolling Stone" magazine wrote: "most of the songs ... have a great deal of depth while presenting extremely direct and simple statements about love ... Dusty sings around her material, creating music that's evocative rather than overwhelming ... Dusty is not searching – she just shows up, and she, and we, are better for it".


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Commercial and chart success did not follow. The album failed to chart in the UK, and in April 1969 it stalled at no. 99 on "Billboard"'s Top LP's chart, with sales of 100,000 copies. However, by 2001 the album had received the Grammy Hall of Fame award and was listed among the greatest albums of all time by US music magazine "Rolling Stone" and in polls conducted by VH1, "New Musical Express" and UK TV network Channel 4.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In November 1968, the album's lead single, "Son of a Preacher Man", was issued. It was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. Credited as "Son-of-a Preacher Man" on UK, US and other releases, it became an international hit, reaching no. 9 in the UK singles chart and no. 10 on "Billboard"'s Hot 100 in January 1969. In continental Europe the single reached the Top Ten in the Austrian, Dutch and Swiss charts. In 1970 Springfield was nominated for the Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female award at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards, losing to "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee, whom Springfield often cited as an influence. In 1987 "Rolling Stone" magazine placed the single at no. 77 in its critics' list The 100 Best Singles of the Last 25 Years. In 2002 the record ranked 43 in the 100 Greatest Singles of All Time, as voted for by "New Musical Express" critics. In 2004 "Rolling Stone" ranked it 240 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "Son of a Preacher Man" found a new audience when it was included on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film "Pulp Fiction". The soundtrack reached no. 21 on "Billboard"'s Billboard 200 album chart and at the time went platinum (100,000 units) in Canada alone. It is thought that "Son of a Preacher Man" contributed to the sales of the soundtrack album, which sold more than 2 million copies in the US.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: During September and October 1969, Springfield hosted her third and final BBC musical variety series (her fourth variety series overall), "Decidedly Dusty" (co-hosted by Valentine Dyall). All eight episodes were later wiped from the BBC archives, and to date the only surviving footage consists of domestic audio recordings.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Until her 1987 comeback with Pet Shop Boys, 1969 marked the last year in which Springfield achieved any notable singles chart presence. In Britain, following "Son of a Preacher Man", she charted with only "Am I the Same Girl" (no. 43), while on the US Hot 100 she charted with the double A-side "Don't Forget About Me" (no. 64)/"Breakfast in Bed" (no. 91), a cover of "The Windmills of Your Mind" (no. 31), "Willie & Laura Mae Jones" (no. 78) and A Brand New Me (no. 24).


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield's 1960s repertoire also is noted for interpretations of songs associated primarily with other artists. Those which have appeared on Springfield EPs and compilations include "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa", "You Don't Own Me", "La Bamba", "If You Go Away", "Piece of My Heart" (released as "Take Another Little Piece of My Heart"), "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today", "Spooky" and "Yesterday When I Was Young".


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield was one of the best-selling UK singers of the 1960s. She was voted the Top Female Singer (UK) by the readers of the "New Musical Express" in 1964 to 1966 and Top Female Singer in 1965 to 1967 and 1969.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: By the start of the 1970s, Springfield was a major star, though her record sales were declining. Her partner, Norma Tanega, had returned to the US after their relationship had become stressful, and Springfield was spending more time in the US herself. In January 1970 her second and final album on Atlantic Records, "A Brand New Me" (re-titled as "From Dusty... With Love" in the UK), was released; it featured tracks written and produced by Gamble and Huff. The album and related singles only sold moderately, and Springfield was unhappy with both her management and record company. She sang backing vocals with her friend Madeline Bell on two tracks on Elton John's 1971 hit album "Tumbleweed Connection". She recorded some songs with producer Jeff Barry in early 1971, which were intended for an album to be released by Atlantic Records. However, her new manager Alan Bernard negotiated her out of the Atlantic contract; some of the tracks were used on the UK-only album "See All Her Faces" (November 1972) and the 1999 release "Dusty in Memphis-Deluxe Edition". Springfield signed a contract with ABC Dunhill Records in 1972, and "Cameo" was issued in February 1973 to respectable reviews, though poor sales.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1973, Springfield recorded the theme song for the TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man", which was used for two of its film-length episodes: "Wine, Women & War" and "The Solid Gold Kidnapping". Her second ABC Dunhill album was given the working title "Elements" and was then scheduled for release in late 1974 as "Longing". However, the recording sessions were abandoned, although part of the material, including tentative and incomplete vocals, was issued on the 2001 posthumous compilation "Beautiful Soul". In the mid-1970s she sang background vocals on Elton John's album "Caribou" (June 1974), including his single "The Bitch Is Back"; and on Anne Murray's album "Together" (November 1975).


title: Dusty Springfield

text: By 1974 Springfield had put her solo musical career on hold to live as a recluse in the US and avoid scrutiny by UK tabloids. In the 1960s and early 1970s, gay or bisexual performers "knew that being 'out' would lead to prurient media attention, loss of record contracts ... the tabloids became obsessively interested in the contents of celebrity closets". Springfield would not start recording again until the Summer of 1977 when she had begun recording It Begins Again.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In the late 1970s, Springfield released two albums on United Artists Records. The first was 1978's "It Begins Again", produced by Roy Thomas Baker. The album peaked in the UK top 50 and was well received by critics. Her 1979 album, "Living Without Your Love", did not reach the top 50. In early 1979, Springfield played club dates in New York City. In London, she recorded two singles with David Mackay for her UK label, Mercury Records (formerly Philips Records). The first was the disco-influenced "Baby Blue", co-written by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, which reached no. 61 in the UK. The second, "Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees", released in January 1980, was Springfield's final single for Mercury Records; she had been with them for nearly 20 years. On 3 December 1979, she performed a charity concert for a full house at the Royal Albert Hall, in the presence of Princess Margaret.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1980, Springfield sang "Bits and Pieces", the theme song from the movie "The Stunt Man". She signed a US deal with 20th Century Records, which resulted in the single "It Goes Like It Goes", a cover of the Oscar-winning song from the film "Norma Rae". Springfield was uncharacteristically proud of her 1982 album "White Heat", which was influenced by new wave music. She tried to revive her career in 1985 by returning to the UK and signing to Peter Stringfellow's Hippodrome Records label. This resulted in the single "Sometimes Like Butterflies" and an appearance on Terry Wogan's TV chat show "Wogan". None of Springfield's recordings from 1971 to 1986 charted on the UK Top 40 or "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1987, she accepted an invitation from Pet Shop Boys to duet with their lead singer, Neil Tennant, on the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?". Tennant cites "Dusty in Memphis" as one of his favourite albums, and he leapt at the suggestion of using Springfield's vocals for "What Have I Done To Deserve This?". She also appeared on the promotional video. The single rose to no. 2 on both the US and UK charts. It appeared on the Pet Shop Boys album "Actually", and on both artists' greatest hits collections. Springfield sang lead vocals on the Richard Carpenter song "Something in Your Eyes". "Something in Your Eyes" was featured on Carpenter's first solo album "Time" (October 1987); released as a single, it became a US no. 12 adult contemporary hit. Springfield recorded a duet with B. J. Thomas, "As Long as We Got Each Other", which was used as the opening theme for the US sitcom "Growing Pains" in season 4 (1988–89). (Thomas had collaborated with Jennifer Warnes on the original version, which was neither re-recorded with Warnes nor released as a single.) It was issued as a single and reached no. 7 on the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 1988, a new compilation, "The Silver Collection", was issued. Springfield returned to the studio with Pet Shop Boys, who produced her recording of their song "Nothing Has Been Proved", commissioned for the soundtrack of the 1989 drama film "Scandal". Released as a single in February 1989, it gave Springfield her fifteenth UK Top 20 hit. In November its follow-up, the upbeat "In Private", also written and produced by Pet Shop Boys, peaked at no. 14.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield's 1990 album, "Reputation", was her third UK Top 20 studio album. The writing and production credits for half the album, which included the two recent hit singles, went to Pet Shop Boys, while the album's other producers included Dan Hartman. By 1988 Springfield had left California and, other than when recording tracks for "Reputation", she returned to the UK to live. In 1993, she recorded a duet with her former 1960s professional rival and friend, Cilla Black. In October, "Heart and Soul" was released as a single and, in September it had appeared on Black's album, "Through the Years". Springfield's next album, provisionally titled "Dusty in Nashville", was started in 1993 with producer, Tom Shapiro, but was issued as "A Very Fine Love" in June 1995. Though originally intended by Shapiro as a country music album, the track selection by Springfield pushed the album into pop music with an occasional country feel.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: The last studio track Springfield recorded was George and Ira Gershwin's song "Someone to Watch Over Me" – in London in 1995 for an insurance company TV ad. It was included on "Simply Dusty" (2000), an anthology that she had helped plan. Her final live performance was on "The Christmas with Michael Ball" special in December 1995.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Influenced by US pop music, Dusty Springfield created a distinctive blue-eyed soul sound. BBC News noted "[h]er soulful voice, at once strident and vulnerable, set her apart from her contemporaries ... She was equally at home singing Broadway standards, blues, country or even techno-pop". Allmusic's Jason Ankeny described her as:


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Most responses to her voice emphasise her breathy sensuality. Another powerful feature was the sense of longing, in songs such as "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and "Goin' Back". The uniqueness of Springfield's voice was described by Bacharach: "You could hear just three notes and you knew it was Dusty". Wexler declared, "[h]er particular hallmark was a haunting sexual vulnerability in her voice, and she may have had the most impeccable intonation of any singer I ever heard". Greil Marcus of "Rolling Stone" captured Springfield's technique as "a soft, sensual box (voice) that allowed her to combine syllables until they turned into pure cream." She had a finely tuned musical ear and extraordinary control of tone. She sang in a variety of styles, mostly pop, soul, folk, Latin, and rock'n'roll. Being able to wrap her voice around difficult material, her repertoire included songs that their writers ordinarily would have offered to black vocalists. In the 1960s, on several occasions, she performed as the only white singer on all-black bills. Her soul orientation was so convincing that early in her solo career, US listeners who had only heard her music on radio or records sometimes assumed that she was black. Later, a considerable number of critics observed that she sounded black and American or made a point of saying she did not.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield consistently used her voice to upend commonly held beliefs on the expression of social identity through music. She did this by referencing a number of styles and singers, including Martha Reeves, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Peggy Lee, Astrud Gilberto, and Mina. Springfield instructed UK backup musicians to capture the spirit of US musicians and copy their instrumental playing styles. However, the fact that she could neither read nor write music made it hard to communicate with session musicians. In the studio, she was a perfectionist. Despite producing many tracks, she did not take credit for doing so. During extensive vocal sessions, she repeatedly recorded short phrases and single words. When recording songs, headphones were typically set as high in volume as possible – at a decibel level "on the threshold of pain".


title: Dusty Springfield

text: The Philips Record company's studio was slated as "an extremely dead studio", where it felt as though it had turned the treble down: "There was no ambience and it was like singing in a padded cell. I had to get out of there". Springfield would end up recording in the ladies' toilets for the superior acoustics. Another example of refusal to use the studio is "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" – recorded at the end of a corridor.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield's parents, Catherine and Gerard, lived in Hove, East Sussex from 1962. Catherine died in a nursing home there in 1974 of lung cancer. In 1979, Gerard died of a heart attack in Rottingdean, East Sussex.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Some of Springfield's biographers and journalists have speculated that she had two personalities: shy, quiet Mary O'Brien, and the public face she had created as Dusty Springfield. An editorial review at "Publishers Weekly" of Valentine and Wickham's 2001 biography, "Dancing with Demons", finds that "the confidence [Springfield] exuded on vinyl was a façade masking severe insecurities, addictions to drink and drugs, bouts of self-harm and fear of losing her career if exposed as a lesbian". Simon Bell, one of Springfield's session singers, disputed the twin personality description: "It's very easy to decide there are two people, Mary and Dusty, but they were the one person. Dusty was most definitely Dusty right to the end."


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In her early career, much of her odd behaviour was seen as more or less in fun, described as a "wicked" sense of humour, including her food fights and hurling crockery down stairs. Springfield had a great love for animals, particularly cats, and became an advocate for animal protection groups. She enjoyed reading maps and would intentionally get lost to navigate her way out. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Springfield's alcoholism and drug addiction affected her musical career. She was hospitalised several times for self-harm, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield was never reported to be in a heterosexual relationship, and this meant that the issue of her sexual orientation was raised frequently during her life. From mid-1966 to the early 1970s, Springfield lived in a domestic partnership with fellow singer Norma Tanega. In September 1970, Springfield told Ray Connolly of the "Evening Standard":


title: Dusty Springfield

text: By the standards of 1970, that was a bold statement. Three years later, she explained to Chris Van Ness of the "Los Angeles Free Press":


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the United States that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community. From 1972 to 1978, she had an "off and on" domestic relationship with Faye Harris, an American photojournalist. In 1981 she had a six-month relationship with singer-musician Carole Pope of the rock band Rough Trade.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: During periods of psychological and professional instability, Springfield's involvement in some intimate relationships, influenced by addiction, resulted in episodes of personal injury. She met an American actress, Teda Bracci, at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 1982; they moved in together in April 1983 and seven months later exchanged vows at a wedding ceremony, which was not recognised under California law. The pair had a "tempestuous" relationship that led to an altercation with both hospitalised; Bracci had hit Springfield in the mouth with a saucepan and knocked out her teeth, necessitating plastic surgery. The pair separated within two years.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In January 1994, while recording her penultimate album, "A Very Fine Love", in Nashville, Tennessee, Springfield began feeling ill. When she returned to England a few months later, her physicians diagnosed her with breast cancer. She received months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and the cancer was found to be in remission. In 1995, in apparent good health, Springfield set about promoting the album, which was released that year. By mid-1996, the cancer had returned, and despite vigorous treatments, she died in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on 2 March 1999, a month before her 60th birthday.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield's funeral service was attended by hundreds of fans and people from the music business, including Elvis Costello, Lulu and Pet Shop Boys. It was a Catholic funeral, which took place at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Henley-on-Thames, where Springfield had lived during her last years. A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard. In accordance with Springfield's wishes, she was cremated and some of her ashes were buried at Henley, while the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield, at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks after her death. Her friend Elton John helped induct her into the Hall of Fame, declaring: "I'm biased, but I just think she was the greatest white singer there ever has been ... every song she sang, she claimed as her own."


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Of the female singers of the British Invasion, Springfield made one of the biggest impressions on the US market, scoring 18 singles in the "Billboard" Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970 including six in the top 20. Quentin Tarantino caused a revival of interest in her music in 1994 by including "Son of a Preacher Man" on the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack, which sold over three million copies. In that same year, in the documentary "Dusty Springfield: Full Circle", guests of her 1965 "Sound of Motown" show credited Springfield's efforts with popularising US soul music in the UK.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 2008, country/blues singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne recorded a tribute album featuring ten of Springfield's songs as well as one original. The album, titled "Just a Little Lovin'", featured two tracks selected from Springfield's debut, four from "Dusty in Memphis", and four from throughout her back catalogue. Lynne's album received critical acclaim, charted at number 41 on the US Billboard Charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical).


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield was popular in Europe and performed at the Sanremo Music Festival. Recordings were released in French, German, and Italian: her French works include a 1964 four-track extended play with "Demain tu peux changer" (aka "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"), "Je ne peux pas t'en vouloir" ("Losing You"), "L'été est fini" ("Summer is Over") and "Reste encore un instant" ("Stay Awhile"); German recordings include the July 1964 single, "Warten und hoffen" ("Wishin' and Hopin' ") backed with "Auf dich nur wart' ich immerzu" ("I Only Want to Be with You"); Italian recordings include "Tanto so che poi mi passa" ("Every Day I Have to Cry") issued as a single. Her entries at the Sanremo festival were "Tu che ne sai" and "Di fronte all'amore" ("I Will Always Want You").


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield is known to have brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience. In April 1965, she hosted a special Motown edition of the hugely popular British TV music series "Ready Steady Go!", featuring the first national TV performances of many top-selling Motown artists. Although her music was not directly associated with the British music/dance movement northern soul, her efforts were seen as a contributing factor in the formation of the genre.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield is a cultural icon of the Swinging Sixties, where she "was an instantly recognisable celebrity". In public and on stage, Springfield developed a joyful image supported by her peroxide-blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" mascara. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve and pasted them together according to her own taste.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: By the 1990s, she had also become a camp icon, especially with her ultra-glamorous look; this, combined with her emotive vocal performances, won her a powerful and enduring following in the gay community. Besides being a prototypical female for drag queens, she was presented in the roles of the 'Great White Lady' of pop and soul and the 'Queen of Mods'.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Springfield is an inductee of both the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999) and the UK Music Hall of Fame (2006). She has been placed among the top 25 female artists of all time by readers of "Mojo" magazine (May 1999), editors of "Q" magazine (January 2002), and a panel of artists on VH1 TV channel (August 2007). In 2008, Dusty appeared at No. 35 on the "Rolling Stone"s "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In the 1960s she topped a number of popularity polls, including "Melody Maker"s Best International Vocalist for 1966; in 1965 she was the first British singer to top the "New Musical Express" readers' polls for Female Singer, and topped that poll again in 1966, 1967, and 1969 as well as gaining the most votes in the British Singer category from 1964 to 1966. Her album "Dusty in Memphis" has been listed among the greatest albums of all time by "Rolling Stone" and in polls by VH1 artists, "New Musical Express" readers, and the Channel 4 viewers, and in 2001, received the Grammy Hall of Fame award. In March 1999 Springfield was scheduled to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her award as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, given for "services to popular music". Due to the recurrence of the singer's breast cancer, officials of Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for the medal to be collected earlier, in January, by Wickham and it was presented to Springfield in hospital with a small group of friends and relatives attending. She died on the day that she would otherwise have collected her award from the Palace.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Various films and stage musicals have been created or proposed to commemorate her life. On 12 January 2006 an Australian stage musical, "Dusty – The Original Pop Diva", received its world premiere at the State Theatre of the Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. In May 2008, actress Nicole Kidman was announced as star and producer of a biographical film, but, , it was yet to surface. Another reported candidate for a role as Springfield was Madonna in a TV film project. Universal Pictures scheduled another biopic with "The West Wing"s Kristin Chenoweth in the starring role, however, according to Chenoweth, in January 2012, "[w]e had a script that needed a lot of work" and she did not know where the project was up to. In 1970 US jazz singer-pianist, Blossom Dearie, recorded a tribute song, "Dusty Springfield", on her album, "That's Just the Way I Want to Be" – it was co-written by Dearie, Tanega (Springfield's then-partner) and Jim Council. UK singer-songwriter David Westlake on his 2002 release, "Play Dusty for Me", "fêted [Springfield] in both the album title and opening title track". US singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne's tenth studio album "Just a Little Lovin'" (2008) was issued as a tribute. In 2012, a biographical jukebox musical titled "Forever Dusty" opened Off-Broadway in New York City at New World Stages. The production starred Kirsten Holly Smith as Springfield. Smith also co-wrote the book of the musical.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: In 2015, Springfield was named by Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Produced by Stanley Dorfman. Musical director: Johnny Pearson. Broadcast Thursdays on BBC1 at 9:00 pm (Except Episode 4 at 9:05 pm)


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Produced by Stanley Dorfman. Backing vocals: Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan and Maggie Stredder. Musical director: Johnny Pearson. Broadcast Tuesdays on BBC1 at 9:05 pm


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Series Guests: The Breakaways, Kiki Dee, Donovan, Georgie Fame, Julie Felix, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Manfred Mann, The Mike Sammes Singers, Abi Ofarim, Malcolm Roberts, Des Ryan, David Snell, The Spinners, Tom Springfield, The Tremeloes, Trio Athénée, Scott Walker, Roger Webb.


title: Dusty Springfield

text: Produced by Mel Cornish. Introduced by Valentine Dyall. Dancers: Cassandra Mahon & Peter Newton. Choreographer: Ruth Pearson. Vocal backing: Kay Garner, Lesley Duncan & Madeline Bell. Musical associate: Larry Ashmore. Musical Director: Johnny Pearson. Broadcast Tuesdays on BBC1 at 7:30 pm


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Boardwalk Empire is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson. Winter, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer, created the show, inspired by Nelson Johnson's 2002 non-fiction book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City", about the historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The pilot episode was directed by Martin Scorsese and produced at a cost of $18 million. On September 1, 2009, HBO picked up the series for an additional 11 episodes. The series premiered on September 19, 2010, and its five-season run of 56 episodes ended on October 26, 2014.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Boardwalk Empire" received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its visual style and basis on historical figures, as well as for Buscemi's lead performance. The series received 57 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series, winning 20. The series also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama in 2011 and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2012.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Boardwalk Empire" is a period drama focusing on Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson), a political figure who rises to prominence and controls Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. Nucky interacts with historical characters in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections as well as Nucky's lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure. The final season jumps ahead seven years, to 1931, as Prohibition nears its end.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Emmy Award-winner Terence Winter, who served as executive producer and writer on the HBO series "The Sopranos", was hired on June 4, 2008 to adapt the non-fiction book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City". Winter had already been interested in creating a series set in the 1920s, feeling that it had never properly been explored before. For this reason he decided to focus his adaptation of the book section about Prohibition. On September 1, 2009, it was announced that Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese would direct the pilot. It would be the first time he had directed an episode of television since an episode of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" in 1986. The production would be very ambitious, with some even speculating it would be too large scale for television. "I kept thinking, 'This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire? says creator Terence Winter. "We can't call it 'Boardwalk Empire' and not see a boardwalk." The production would eventually build a boardwalk in an empty lot in Brooklyn, New York, at the cost of $5 million. Despite a reported budget of up to $50 million, the pilot's final budget came in at $18 million.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: On why he chose to return to television, Scorsese said "What's happening the past nine to 10 years, particularly at HBO, is what we had hoped for in the mid-'60s with films being made for television at first. We'd hoped there would be this kind of freedom and also the ability to create another world and create long-form characters and story. That didn't happen in the 1970s, 1980s and in the 1990s I think. And of course... HBO is a trailblazer in this. I've been tempted over the years to be involved with them because of the nature of long-form and their development of character and plot." He went on to praise HBO by saying, "A number of the episodes, in so many of their series, they're thoughtful, intelligent [and] brilliantly put together... It's a new opportunity for storytelling. It's very different from television of the past."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Scorsese is an actor magnet," commented Winter. "Everybody wants to work with him. I had all these pictures on my wall and I thought, 'I'd really better write some good stuff for these people. In casting the role of Nucky Thompson (based upon real-life Atlantic City political boss Enoch L. Johnson), Winter wanted to stray from the real life Johnson as much as possible. "If we were going to cast accurately what the real Nucky looked like, we'd have cast Jim Gandolfini." The idea of casting Steve Buscemi in the lead role came about when Scorsese mentioned wanting to work with the actor, whom Winter knew well having worked with him on "The Sopranos". Winter sent the script out to Buscemi, who responded very enthusiastically. "I just thought, 'Wow. I'm almost sorry I've read this, because if I don't get it, I'm going to be so sad.' My response was 'Terry, I know you're looking at other actors'... and he said, 'No, no, Steve, I said we want you. Explained Scorsese, "I love the range he has, his dramatic sense, but also his sense of humor."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The casting of Buscemi was soon followed by Michael Pitt, best known for his roles in films such as "Murder by Numbers", "The Dreamers", and in the television series "Dawson's Creek". He was soon joined by Kelly Macdonald, Vincent Piazza and Michael Shannon, who had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in the Sam Mendes film "Revolutionary Road".


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Filming for the pilot took place at various locations in and around New York City in June 2009. In creating the visual effects for the series, the company turned to Brooklyn-based effects company Brainstorm Digital. Says Glenn Allen, visual effects producer for "Boardwalk Empire" and co-founder of Brainstorm, "It's our most complex job to date. Everything is HD now, so we have to treat it like a feature film." "Anytime you get to work on a period piece, it's more fun," comments visual effects artist Chris "Pinkus" Wesselman, who used archival photographs, postcards, and architectural plans to recreate the Atlantic City boardwalks as accurately as possible. "We got to explore what the old Atlantic City was really like. The piers were one of the toughest parts because every summer they would change—new houses, new advertisements." It took two months for the firm to complete all the visual effects for the pilot. "Boardwalk Empire" began filming on location at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island in March 2012.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Designed by John Dunn and tailored by Martin Greenfield, "Boardwalk Empire's" costumes were based on 1920s tailoring books from the Fashion Institute of Technology's research libraries and examples found at the Brooklyn Museum and the Met. The costumes have also been rented from the Daybreak Vintage Company located in Albany, NY which also exhibits at the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show. Dunn's designs were meticulously detailed, including a collar pin for Nucky's shirts and even going so far as to incorporate specially ordered woolens for suiting. Dunn told "Esquire" magazine in a September 2010 interview, "With Marty and Terry Winters, I developed the feel for each of the characters. We all wanted it to be very, very accurate and specific to the period... I don't like to do boring clothing, but you also have to make sure that you're not suddenly putting somebody in something that isn't going to make sense four episodes from now."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Martin Scorsese was involved in the filming even before creator Terence Winter. He directed the pilot and established the look of the show, which other directors later emulated for consistency. He is also one of the executive producers of the show. Winter has stated that Scorsese weighed in on the casting decisions and reviewed all of the cuts and dailies. Up until the shooting of the show's first season, Scorsese and Winter would meet every Sunday afternoon to review what went on during the week where Scorsese would have comments and suggestions. Scorsese continued to be creatively involved in the ongoing production, but did not direct any more episodes.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Scorsese and Winter were joined as executive producers by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Tim Van Patten. Van Patten had been a regular director on "The Sopranos" and also served as a regular director for "Boardwalk Empire". Lawrence Konner was a co-executive producer. Konner also wrote for the show and had previously been a writer on "The Sopranos". Howard Korder and Margaret Nagle served as supervising producers and writers for the first season. The crew were recognized with multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations for their work on the first season. Korder returned as a co-executive producer and writer for the show's second season and as an executive producer in the third season.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The music used for the opening titles is "Straight Up and Down" by The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It was chosen by series creator Winter to create a sense of the "unexpected."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The soundtrack is composed of music from the 1890s to 1920s performed by artists such as Regina Spektor, Leon Redbone, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Catherine Russell, Nellie McKay, Kathy Brier, and Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks Orchestra. "", featuring music from seasons 1 and 2, was released on September 13, 2011.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 54th Grammy Awards.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: To promote the second season, which started on September 25, 2011, the producers paid the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $150,000 to decorate and operate a New York Transit Museum train of four retired New York City Subway Lo-V cars for each weekend in September 2011. The two pairs of subway cars used were 5290 & 5292 (both built in 1917) and 5443 & 5483 (both built in 1924). The train operated between noon and 6 p.m. and as an express between 96th Street and Times Square–42nd Street Subway on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. While the MTA runs "nostalgia trains" each year, this was the first time they had been used for an advertising tie-in.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: HBO also sponsored an Atlantic City beautification project with the tag line "Compliments of Nucky Thompson" and paid for eastbound tolls into Atlantic City on the AC Expressway for the weekend of September 24, 2011.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Boardwalk Empire" has received critical acclaim. For its first and second seasons, The American Film Institute named "Boardwalk Empire" one of the ten "best television programs of the year."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 88 out of 100, and the second season scored 81 out of 100, both indicating "universal acclaim." The third season scored 76 of 100, and the fourth season scored 77 out of 100, both indicating "generally favorable reviews." In the show's fifth and final season, it scored 83 out of 100.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: On another review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, the first season received a rating of 95%. Season two received an 91%, the third season an 89% and the fourth season a 98%, stating ""Boardwalk Empire" continues to benefit from its meticulously realized period trappings, but what keeps the show watchable is its supremely talented ensemble players". The fifth season of the show holds a rating of 88%, with the site's consensus reading: "The final season of "Boardwalk Empire" is as visually dazzling and well-acted as ever, but it's the emphasis on Nucky Thompson's history that's particularly rewarding this time out."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: David Hinkley of the "New York Daily News" awarded the series five stars, saying, "Watching HBO's new 'Boardwalk Empire' is like sitting in your favorite tavern and hearing someone say, 'Drinks are on the house.' Friends, it does not get much better." Paige Wiser of the "Chicago Sun-Times" called it "... an event not to be missed," and praised Buscemi in particular, calling his performance "fascinating."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "TV Guide"'s Matt Roush praised the partnership of Scorsese and Winter, saying it "... brilliantly marries Martin Scorsese's virtuosic cinematic eye to Terence Winter's panoramic mastery of rich character and eventful story," and finished his review by stating, "It's the most purely—and impurely—enjoyable storytelling HBO has delivered in ages, like a movie that you never want to end."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Variety"'s Brian Lowry praised the show for returning network HBO to top form, saying, "This is, quite simply, television at its finest, occupying a sweet spot that—for all the able competition—still remains unique to HBO: An expensive, explicit, character-driven program, tackling material no broadcast network or movie studio would dare touch ... For those wondering when the channel would deliver another franchise to definitively put it on top of the world, Ma, the wait is over: Go directly to "Boardwalk"."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "One of the unexpected joys of "Boardwalk Empire", though, lies in the way the show revels in the oddities of its time, peeling back the layers of polite society to reveal a giddy shadow world of criminals and politicians collaborating to keep the liquor flowing," says online magazine "Salon's" Heather Havrilesky, who went on to call the pilot "breathtaking." Roberto Bianco from "USA Today" said in his review that "Boardwalk Empire" was "Extravagantly produced, shockingly violent and as cold and hard as ice, "Boardwalk Empire" brings us back to the world's former playground at the start of Prohibition—and brings HBO back to the forefront of the TV-series race."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The second season received widespread acclaim. Verne Gay from "Newsday" stated that ""Mad Men", of course, remains the King of the Emmys, while "Empire" nailed the equally prestigious Golden Globe for best drama last winter. But Sunday begins to build the case for "Empire", and build it convincingly." Matt Roush of "TV Guide" stated, "This is a gorgeous piece of storytelling that requires and rewards patience." Brian Lowry stated in his review for "Variety" that: "A few creative flourishes feel a trifle heavy-handed – starting with Shannon's philandering fed. Unlike Nucky, though, "Boardwalk" isn't campaigning for anything except the gratitude of a pay-cable audience (and award voters) eager to take refuge in its sordid charms. By that measure, the show doesn't just go down smoothly; it's good to the last illicit, intoxicating drop."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Nancy Franklin of "The New Yorker" considered Buscemi miscast as the central figure in the drama. "Buscemi can’t play that kind of character; even at the age of fifty-two, he looks cagey and restless—not like a guy at the top but like the guy who gets killed when he tries to knock off the guy at the top." The review concludes ""Boardwalk Empire" is at great pains to give viewers a sense that they are there, and yet rarely did I feel engrossed in the show. Even if its point is to show you the ugly side of fun, "Boardwalk Empire" should be much more fun to watch."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times" review states that "surprisingly, given the extraordinary talent and money behind it, "Boardwalk Empire" falls short. One possible reason is that the star, Steve Buscemi, is hard to accept in the lead role of Enoch Thompson," going on to observe "it takes a lot of squinting to see him as a powerbroker straddling two worlds."


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: On July 14, 2011, for the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, "Boardwalk Empire" was nominated for 18 Primetime Emmy Awards for the first season that included Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Buscemi), and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Kelly Macdonald), with Martin Scorsese winning Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, along with seven other wins at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. "Boardwalk Empire" won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series and was nominated for Best Dramatic Series. In addition, the show won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama and Steve Buscemi won Best Actor – Television Series Drama, while Kelly Macdonald was nominated for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. The cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2012, while Steve Buscemi won for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series as well in 2011 and 2012, for the first and second season. In 2011, Martin Scorsese won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series for the pilot. "Boardwalk Empire" was also listed in the American Film Institute's Top Ten List for Television in 2010 and 2011 for the first and second season.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: "Boardwalk Empire" also won two awards at the 9th Annual Visual Effects Society Awards. The first for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program and second for Outstanding Models & Miniatures in a Broadcast Program or Commercial. The former was received by Richard Friedlander (of Brainstorm Digital), Robert Stromberg, Paul Graff and David Taritero; the latter was received by Brendan Fitzgerald, John Corbett and Matthew Conner of Brainstorm Digital. The show's Season One Soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media in 2012.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: For the second season, "Boardwalk Empire" won once again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Tim Van Patten for the season finale "To the Lost", along with three other wins at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: For the third season, Bobby Cannavale won the show's first acting award at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Gyp Rosetti, along with four other wins at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: On its original airing, the pilot episode gained a 2.0/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49 and garnered 4.81 million viewers. The episode was re-played twice that night, once at 10:15 p.m. and again at 11:30 p.m. Taking these broadcasts into account, a total of 7.1 million Americans viewed the episode on the night of its original broadcast, and is the highest rated premiere for an HBO series since the pilot of "Deadwood" in March 2004. The season finale was watched by 3.29 million viewers, attaining a 1.3 rating adults aged 18–49.


title: Boardwalk Empire

text: The second-season premiere was watched by 2.91 million viewers, down 39% from the pilot and down 12% from its first-season finale.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Matthew Louis Gaetz II ( ; born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A Republican, he has been described as an ally of former president Donald Trump, as well as a proponent of far-right politics.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: The son of prominent Florida politician Don Gaetz, Gaetz was raised in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After graduating from the William & Mary Law School, he briefly worked in private practice before running for state representative. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 until 2016, and received national attention for defending Florida's controversial "stand-your-ground law". In 2016, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In late 2020, the Department of Justice opened an investigation into allegations that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in exchange for money in violation of federal sex trafficking laws, which Gaetz denied. In April 2021, the House Ethics Committee also announced an investigation. A September 2022 "Washington Post" article reported that career prosecutors have recommended not to charge Gaetz in the sex-trafficking investigation, telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction is unlikely in part because of credibility questions about the two central witnesses.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Matthew Louis Gaetz II was born on May 7, 1982, in Hollywood, Florida, to Victoria (née Quertermous) and Don Gaetz, who later became a prominent local politician.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz grew up near Fort Walton Beach, and graduated from Niceville High School. He graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences and from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 with a Juris Doctor. Gaetz was admitted to the Florida Bar on February 6, 2008. In October 2021, the Florida bar suspended Gaetz from practicing law due to unpaid fees.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz's father represented parts of Northwest Florida as a member of the Florida State Senate from 2006 to 2016 and was Senate president from 2012 to 2014. Gaetz's grandfather, Stanley Jerome (Jerry) Gaetz, was the mayor of Rugby, North Dakota, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of North Dakota at the 1964 North Dakota Republican Party state convention, where he died of a heart attack.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After graduating from William & Mary Law School, Gaetz worked at the law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon (now AnchorsGordon) in Fort Walton Beach.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In March 2010, after Republican state representative Ray Sansom's resignation on corruption charges in February 2010, Gaetz ran in the special election to succeed Sansom in the 4th district, which included southern Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County. In a crowded Republican primary that included Craig Barker, Kabe Woods, Jerry G. Melvin, and Bill Garvie, Gaetz won with 43 percent of the vote. In the special general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Jan Fernald with 66 percent of the vote. During his campaign, Gaetz received almost $480,000 in contributions, about five times more than anyone else in the field, and almost 50 times more than Fernald, including $100,000 of his own money.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz was unopposed for a full term in 2010. In 2012, following the reconfiguration of Florida House of Representatives districts, Gaetz's district no longer contained any of Santa Rosa County. He was reelected unopposed in 2012 and 2014.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: While serving in the state house, Gaetz and state senator Joe Negron proposed legislation that would hasten the execution of many inmates on Florida's death row by requiring the governor to sign a death warrant for those who had exhausted their appeals. He also joined state senator Greg Evers in proposing legislation to eliminate the federal ethanol content mandate that 10 percent of gasoline sold in Florida contain ethanol; Governor Rick Scott signed the legislation in May 2013.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz was one of two members to vote against a Florida bill against revenge porn in 2015, after having successfully blocked the bill previously.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Florida House speaker Will Weatherford announced that he would order hearings on the stand-your-ground law. Gaetz, the chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee, was tasked with reviewing the legislation; he announced before hearings that he would not support changing "one damn comma", but said he would listen to both sides' testimony. After the hearings, he authored legislation to allow defendants who successfully used a stand-your-ground defense during trial to be able to expunge relevant information from their criminal records.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: When his subcommittee was considering legislation that would keep suspects' mugshots off the Internet until their convictions, Gaetz brought up his 2008 arrest and non-conviction, arguing that his mistakes made him who he is and that publicly available mugshots "could be a problem for those unaccustomed to publicity."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2013, Gaetz announced that, in 2016, he would run for the 1st district State Senate seat held by his father, Don Gaetz, who was term-limited in 2016. On March 21, 2016, Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the U.S. House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On August 30, 2016, Gaetz won the Republican primary with 35.7 percent of the vote to Greg Evers's 21.5 percent and Cris Dosev's 20.6 percent, along with five other candidates. This virtually assured Gaetz of victory in the general election; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+22, the 1st is Florida's most Republican district, and one of the most Republican in the nation.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In the November 8 general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Steven Specht with 69 percent of the vote. He is only the seventh person to represent this district since 1933 (the district was numbered the 3rd before 1963).


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Though a financial disclosure form Gaetz filed in 2016 showed a net worth of $388,000, he donated $200,000 of his own money to his congressional campaign. He also resigned from two Florida House political action committees he had started and chaired; the PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super-PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose purpose was to support Gaetz's congressional campaign.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On September 25, 2016, following the death of Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández, Gaetz criticized the athletes protesting during the national anthem in a tweet.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz was listed as a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership from at least January to June 2017.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz served as a top campaign adviser to Ron DeSantis during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign. He managed debate preparations and "drafted early administration organizational charts, helped steer early policy decisions and played a huge role in DeSantis' appointments", according to "Politico".


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In January 2018, Gaetz invited alt-right Holocaust denier Charles C. Johnson to attend Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Johnson previously raised money for the neo-Nazi website "The Daily Stormer". Gaetz defended Johnson in an interview, saying that Johnson was neither a Holocaust denier nor a white supremacist.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After the 2020 State of the Union Address, Gaetz filed an ethics complaint against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, claiming she had committed a "flagrant violation of decorum" and perhaps broken the law when she ripped up her copy of the speech.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In February 2020, Gaetz announced that he will no longer accept campaign contributions from federal political action committees.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On January 10, 2021, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy complained on a phone call that Gaetz was unnecessarily "putting people in jeopardy", noting that the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 "came prepared with rope". The conversation was reported in April 2022.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2021, Gaetz and Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene began a nationwide "America First Tour" on May 7, in The Villages, Florida. During the tour, Gaetz and Greene repeated debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election, attacked Big Tech and, at one event, claimed that the Second Amendment was for "maintaining, within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary." As a consequence of the controversy the speakers had generated, their appearance at a conference site at Laguna Hills, in Orange County, California, was canceled.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In June 2021, Gaetz was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On February 26, 2019, the night before the scheduled public hearing of Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, before the House Oversight Committee, Gaetz directed a tweet to Cohen that implied without evidence that Cohen had had multiple extramarital affairs and also suggested his wife might be unfaithful while he was imprisoned due to new information disclosed to her. Other members of Congress saw the tweet as an attempt to intimidate a witness. Gaetz initially defended his tweet, saying it was part of "witness testing, not witness tampering" and "I don't threaten anybody." Asked to clarify, he said his "tweet speaks for itself". After sharp criticism from other members of Congress and an implicit rebuke by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Gaetz deleted the tweet and posted a tweet in which he apologized. Despite not being a member of the House Oversight Committee, Gaetz appeared at Cohen's hearing, saying that he wanted to observe and ask questions. During the hearing, U.S. Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett, a member of the Oversight Committee, recommended that Gaetz be referred to both the House Ethics Committee and criminal prosecutors for witness intimidation and tampering. After the hearing, Gaetz reportedly texted an apology to Cohen, who thanked him for it. The Florida Bar opened an investigation into Gaetz for the tweet, as did the House Ethics Committee. In August 2019, the Florida Bar announced it had found no probable cause that Gaetz had violated its rules.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In April 2020, "Politico" reported that Gaetz had spent nearly $200,000 of taxpayer funds renting an office from Collier Merrill, a Pensacola real estate developer and restaurateur and longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor, and legal client. Gaetz and Merrill separately told "Politico" that Gaetz paid below-market rent for the space, but Gaetz later said that the rent was "at or below market rate." House rules explicitly disallow below-market rentals, and require that parties to such leases "have [not] had, [n]or continue to have, a professional or legal relationship (except as a landlord and tenant)." On July 1, 2020, the Office of Congressional Ethics notified Gaetz it had terminated its review of the lease arrangements.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In July 2020, "Politico" reported that its investigation had found expenditures by Gaetz that appeared to violate the House ethics rules: spending tens of thousands of dollars for a speech-writing consultant and having a private company install a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Florida, which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Gaetz's office acknowledged that he spent $28,000 on speech-writing services, which is prohibited by House rules except in special circumstances and with prior approval from congressional officials, but said that it was a clerical error that it would fix. Of the television studio, Gaetz said that the company received $100 per month from his office, an amount not reported in his congressional spending records, and also charged television networks each time a network connected to the studio. A statement from Gaetz's office said the arrangement complied with House rules, and that during the setup process, his office consulted with the House Ethics Committee and the House Administration Committee.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In late February 2021, Gaetz and a dozen other Republican House members skipped votes and enlisted others to vote for them, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But he and the other members were actually attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held at the same time as their absences. In response, the Campaign for Accountability, an ethics watchdog group, filed a complaint with the House Committee on Ethics and requested an investigation into Gaetz and the other lawmakers.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In August 2022, Gaetz criticized President Joe Biden for forgiving up to $10,000 of student loan debt for eligible borrowers. Gaetz was criticized for hypocrisy because he had $476,000 of debt from his PPP loan forgiven.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz has self-identified as a "libertarian populist". Observers have described his views as far right. Gaetz was an early supporter of Donald Trump and his appeal to the Republican Party base, echoing his talking points. In several commercials during his 2016 congressional campaign, Gaetz promised to "kill Muslim terrorists and build the wall".


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In a September 2022 episode of Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, Gaetz said that Republicans should prioritize "impeachment inquiries" against Democrats "to investigate them and to hold them accountable" if Republicans won the 2022 U.S. House of Representatives elections. He added, "it should be investigations [of Democrats] first—[and] policy, bill-making, to support the lobbyists and the PACs, as a far, far diminished priority."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz has introduced legislation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. He has also introduced legislation to loosen federal restrictions on the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes. Gaetz has criticized the federal government for having "lied to the American people for a generation" about cannabis's medical benefits. As a member of the Florida House, he sponsored a bill, eventually signed into law, to expand the state's Right to Try Act to include the medical use of cannabis. In September 2017, Gaetz keynoted the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association's annual conference.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In November 2019, Gaetz was one of only two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which among other reforms would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. He was also the only Republican cosponsor of the bill (of 55 cosponsors) at the time of its passage. Gaetz has introduced the STATES Act to prevent federal interference in states that have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes. Gaetz has said he has had multiple conversations with President Trump about cannabis policy.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On February 23, 2017, worried about protesters disrupting his appearance at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a nonverbal town hall. He printed out part of his speech onto giant boards that he would hold up if he was unable to speak. Gaetz arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting, where at least 500 constituents crowded into a bowling alley. At the meeting, he was questioned about his relationship with Trump, his stance on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and his proposal to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. He said that Trump should release his tax returns, but stopped short of saying Congress should subpoena them. Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In April 2018, "Politico" called Gaetz "one of the most enthusiastic defenders of President Trump on cable news" and a "proud Trump protégé". Aaron Blake of "The Washington Post" called him one of Congress' "most controversial members", and one who has "unabashedly aligned himself with Trump on basically all things."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In May 2018, Gaetz was one of 18 House Republicans to vote to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in peace talks with North Korea.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Appearing on "The View" in February 2020, shortly before Trump associate Roger Stone was sentenced, Gaetz said he would support a pardon for Stone.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, but not of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, or Oversight and Reform Committees, and so was not allowed to join lawmakers' closed-door deposition of former White House Russia aide Fiona Hill in October 2019. He told reporters that, since his committee oversees impeachment, he should have been allowed to be part of depositions related to the Trump impeachment inquiry.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On April 6, "The New York Times" reported that during the final weeks of Trump's presidency, Gaetz privately asked the White House for a blanket pardon for himself and some unknown congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed. The White House reportedly never seriously considered the request because it was decided that issuing preemptive pardons would set a bad precedent. The "Times" also reported that aides had told Trump of the request. On April 7, Trump denied that Gaetz had asked him for a pardon and noted that Gaetz "totally denied the accusations against him". On April 8, it was revealed that Trump had reportedly wanted to defend Gaetz, but that his advisors talked him out of it due to the seriousness of the allegations.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In November 2017, Gaetz introduced a congressional resolution calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as special counsel because of what were said to be conflicts of interest. He also asked for a special counsel investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's handling of the Hillary Clinton email controversy, undue interference by U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch in the investigation, and the Russian state corporation Rosatom's acquisition of Uranium One during Mueller's time as FBI director. Gaetz said he did not trust Mueller to lead the investigation because of Mueller's alleged involvement in approval of the Uranium One deal and alleged close relationship with dismissed FBI director James Comey, a probable person of interest in a proposed new investigation.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After Ohio congressman Jim Jordan denied that he was aware of the sexual abuse of Ohio State University wrestlers during the period when Jordan was a coach there, Gaetz said that the allegations came from people in the "deep state" and were intended to reduce the credibility of Jordan's criticism of Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz said of then-U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions that "over at the Department of Justice, he's got Stockholm syndrome, he's become sympathetic with his captors over there in the Deep State."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: During Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Gaetz told him, "if Russians were lying to Christopher Steele to undermine our confidence in our newly elected president, that would be precisely in your purview because you stated in your opening that the organizing principle was to fully and thoroughly investigate Russian interference. But you weren't interested in whether the Russians interfered through Steele—and if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying like you charged a variety of other people."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In October 2019, Gaetz organized a "storming" of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility on Capitol Hill by about two dozen Republican congressmen, including House minority whip Steve Scalise, in an effort to sit in on and hear the deposition of a Pentagon official during the impeachment inquiry against Trump. The congressmen's cell phones and other devices put the secure facility, and U.S. national security, at risk.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: One committee member said, "It was the closest thing I've seen around here to mass civil unrest as a member of Congress." House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi wrote to the House sergeant-at-arms about Gaetz and others, requesting that he take action regarding their "unprecedented breach of security". South Carolina's senior U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, admonished the House members, calling them "nuts" for having made a "run on the SCIF." Ohio representative Jim Jordan said, "The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what's going on." A day later, Jordan appeared on Fox News to justify the intrusion, saying of the chair of the committee: "Adam Schiff is doing this unfair, partisan process in secret and our members finally said, 'Enough'. We're so frustrated. They reached a boiling point and these guys marched in and said we want to know what's going on." In the 116th Congress, Pelosi, who is a committee member ex officio, appointed Schiff and 12 Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, also an ex officio member, appointed the ranking member, Devin Nunes, and eight other Republicans to the committee. Each side got equal time to question witnesses. The disruption delayed Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper's testimony by many hours.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On January 7, 2021, after a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, Gaetz falsely said there was "pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters" but were rather "masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group antifa". Gaetz acknowledged during his speech on the House floor that he did not know "if the reports are true." Gaetz's suggestion that "antifa" was to blame for the attack on the Capitol is false and baseless.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Joel Valdez, a senior communications aide to Gaetz, posted a video on Parler hours before the storming of the Capitol with the caption "From the top of the Capitol office buildings, WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR! #StopTheSteal". Gaetz voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He acknowledged that the bill's pass-through tax deduction would benefit Trump, but added, "so many Americans benefit when commercial real estate becomes easier and more accessible."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2016, Gaetz acknowledged global warming but said he disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is the primary cause. In April 2017, the Center for American Progress and Vice Media said Gaetz was a climate change denier, citing his 2016 statements.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In January 2017, Gaetz proposed legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that it hurts small businesses via the costs associated with compliance.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In November 2017, Gaetz joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. He said he advocated technological innovation and economic incentives that address climate change, and increased federal funds for global warming research by NASA, NOAA and universities, but remained opposed to increased environmental regulation.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2019, Gaetz introduced the bipartisan Super Pollutants Act, which aimed to slow climate change by regulating greenhouses gases, especially black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane. A press release stated, "These short-lived climate pollutants, also called super pollutants, are significantly more potent than carbon dioxide."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2021, Gaetz was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'état that overwhelmingly passed, for reasons reported to be unclear.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In June 2021, Gaetz was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In December 2017, Gaetz supported Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and said that the move would pressure Palestine to recognize Israel.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2019, Gaetz was one of 60 representatives to vote against condemning Trump's withdrawal from Syria.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In April 2019, after the House passed a resolution withdrawing American support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Gaetz was one of nine lawmakers to sign a letter to Trump requesting a meeting with him and urging him to sign Senate Joint Resolution 7, which invokes the War Powers Act of 1973, to end unauthorized US military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's armed conflict against Houthi forces in Yemen.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On June 1, 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, Gaetz tweeted, "Now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" In response, Twitter hid the tweet and labeled it as "[violating] the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence". Gaetz called the label a "badge of honor", accused Twitter of enabling Antifa, and again said that "[o]ur government should hunt [Antifa] down".


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On August 26, 2020, Gaetz tweeted: "The mob wants to destroy America. We need PATRIOTS who will defend her" in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and shot and killed two people and injured another claiming self-defense during the riots that occurred during the protests of the Jacob Blake shooting. Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, but was acquitted based on self-defense in November 2021. Gaetz was one of three representatives to offer Rittenhouse a Congressional internship.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Former National Rifle Association president Marion Hammer called Gaetz "one of the most pro-gun members to have ever served in the Florida Legislature." Gaetz is a lifetime member of the NRA, and has an A+ rating from it.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: When Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives, he led an unsuccessful effort to allow Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry those weapons openly in public. In lobbying for the bill, he said that the open carry of weapons was a right "granted not by government but by God." Gaetz supports Florida's stand-your-ground law and supported legislation that strengthened it against legal challenges. He also supports concealed carry reciprocity.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: During a May 2021 "America First" rally with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Gaetz told an audience: "We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it!" He then said this meant allowing Americans "the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary." Immediately before his remarks on the Second Amendment, Gaetz criticized Big Tech companies for trying to "suppress us, discourage us", saying, "Silicon Valley can't cancel this movement, or this rally, or this congressman". As a result, Gaetz was accused of inciting violence against Silicon Valley employees, which he denied.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In October 2017, Gaetz claimed that the Medicaid expansion permitted by the Affordable Care Act fueled the opioid crisis. PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false", noting that "experts were universal in saying that the evidence that Medicaid expansion is somehow fueling the opioid crisis doesn't exist."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In June 2021, Gaetz introduced the Digital Health Pass Prevention Act (DHPPA) with the support of representatives Louie Gohmert and Lance Gooden. The full title of the bill is "To prohibit Federal funds from being used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out programs with respect to digital health passes, and for other purposes." It was sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In early March 2020, Gaetz wore a gas mask during a House debate on funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Gaetz has claimed that wearing the gas mask was not an act of mockery but a way of "demonstrating his concern." Several journalists characterized the decision as a stunt. A few days later, on March 9, Gaetz's office reported that he had been in contact with a Conservative Political Action Conference attendee who tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Gaetz was placed under self-quarantine for 14 days. On March 10, he said his test was negative, but that he would stay under self-quarantine until the 14-day period ended on March 12.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On April 14, Gaetz said the Wuhan Institute of Virology "birthed a monster", a reference to the theory that COVID-19 was leaked out of a Chinese research lab. He also claimed that the National Institutes of Health had given the Institute a $3.7 million grant. The U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance that worked with the Institute under a grant the Trump administration approved eventually had that funding withdrawn. but the EcoHealth Alliance later admitted that under the grant it had enhanced a bat coronavirus so it became potentially more infectious to humans, which the NIH said was an "unexpected result" of the research it had funded that was carried out in partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Nevertheless, the NIH denied it had helped create the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After "Politico" reported on November 7 that Gaetz had tested positive for COVID-19, he texted "Politico" "I have tested positive for antibodies" and "I have no live virus". He said he had no symptoms and was not sure when he had contracted the disease.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On December 4, 2020, Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country. He was seen posing for photos in a crowd of unmasked attendees, prompting New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop to publicly condemn him. Gaetz and other GOP members mocked Democrats and their COVID-19 regulations on social media. Murphy also said state officials were investigating whether the event violated the state's COVID-19 regulations.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After a contentious House committee hearing on June 10, 2021, Gaetz claimed a Chinese whistleblower possessed text messages and documents concerning COVID-19's origins that U.S government investigators had failed to pursue.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On July 31, Gaetz said of COVID-19 variants that "next it'll be the Chi Omega variant or the Pi Kappa Psi variant. I got the Florida variant. I got the freedom variant. It affects the brain. It gets you to think for yourself where you don't just surrender to the truth that they're trying to create in corrupt big media."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz opposes abortion. On July 23, 2022, he gave a speech at a Student Action Summit gathering in Tampa, Florida, in which he said that overweight or unattractive women were unlikely to become pregnant and mocked them for supporting abortion rights, saying, "They're like 5'2", 350 pounds, and they're like, 'Give me my abortions or I'll get up and march and protest.'" A Texas teenager tweeted a post mocking Gaetz, who responded with a photo of her that according to "NPR" implied his comments had touched a nerve; she used the incident to raise over $2 million for abortion funds.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On December 19, 2017, Gaetz was the only representative to vote against the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act, a bill allocating additional government resources to help combat human trafficking.<ref name="Little_12/29/2017"></ref> Gaetz later explained that his vote was due to his small government principles and his belief that existing federal agencies could adequately combat human trafficking.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On February 27, 2018, Gaetz voted against the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which had by then been combined with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. It passed, 388–25.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On July 26, 2022, Gaetz voted against the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, which passed 401–20.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz opposes sanctuary cities, which opt not to dedicate local law enforcement resources to prosecuting people solely for being undocumented. Upon announcing his run for Congress in 2016, he said that illegal immigrants were "sucking us dry." In January 2018, Gaetz defended a statement by Trump that reportedly said Haiti and African nations were "shithole" countries, saying that Haiti was covered by "sheet metal and garbage" and in "disgusting" condition.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In October 2018, Gaetz falsely claimed that George Soros paid for a caravan of migrants from Central America to the United States.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz voted against Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158) which effectively prohibits ICE from cooperating with Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children (UACs).


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On June 23, 2021, Gaetz tweeted that the FBI should be defunded while it is investigating him for alleged sex trafficking and having sex with a minor. He wrote, "If Democrats want to defund the police, they should start with the FBI." Gaetz later deleted the tweet. The week before, he claimed without evidence that "FBI operatives organized and participated in the January 6th Capitol riot."


title: Matt Gaetz

text: As a Florida state representative in 2015, Gaetz and Representative David Richardson sponsored an amendment to repeal Florida's ban on adoptions by same-sex couples. He also persuaded his father, in the Florida State Senate, to support the repeal.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: After the U.S. Supreme Court decided "Obergefell v. Hodges" in 2015, legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, Gaetz said he disagreed with the court's ruling. He said each state should have the right to decide for itself whether to allow same-sex marriage. The decision was an example of "judicial activism" that posed "a threat to our democracy", he said.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2022, Gaetz was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In 2008, Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence as he was driving back from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida. Police recorded him driving in a zone and noted that he showed physical signs of intoxication. Gaetz initially denied that he had drunk alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two beers. He failed an eye test twice, then declined field sobriety tests. After Gaetz was arrested, he refused to take a breathalyzer test.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Shortly after Gaetz's case was referred to state attorney Steve Meadows, Gaetz's driving license was reinstated. Though Florida law requires a year's suspension when a driver refuses a breathalyzer test, Gaetz's suspension was less than a year long. His refusal also did not lead to a criminal prosecution, during which it could have been used against him. A field officer for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breathalyzer test, despite the arresting police officer having documented it in an affidavit and the arrest report and Gaetz's own attorney also having documented it. Gaetz's attorney also claimed that an unnamed witness who knew Gaetz "observed no indication of impairment". The charges against Gaetz were dismissed.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: In January 2020, the U.S. Secret Service reportedly received a tip that, in April 2018, Gaetz had accompanied Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg to a government office where Greenberg was producing fake IDs. Greenberg was indicted in August 2020 on an array of charges, including sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and creating fake IDs to facilitate sex trafficking. The investigation of Greenberg led federal officials to look into some of Gaetz's related activities. In late 2020, the Justice Department opened its investigation of Gaetz for allegedly sex trafficking the same 17-year-old girl in 2017 and whether he had violated federal sex trafficking laws by paying her to travel with him across state lines. As part of his plea bargain, Greenberg cooperated with the investigation of Gaetz and others.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: On March 30, 2021, "Axios" reported that Gaetz was "seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax". The same day, "The New York Times" reported the Justice Department's investigation of Gaetz. According to CNN, a person briefed on the matter said investigators also examined whether Gaetz used campaign money in his relationships with young women for travel and expenses and whether cash and drugs were involved. By April 2, the Justice Department was examining whether Gaetz asked women to recruit others for sex.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: According to the 2021 reports, federal investigators were looking into Gaetz's September 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Gaetz was reportedly joined by marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid trip accommodations, traveling expenses, and escort services. Investigators were reportedly exploring whether the escorts were sexually trafficked for Gaetz and whether Gaetz accepted the offer as a political favor to Pirozzolo, who at the time chaired the board of the Medical Marijuana Physicians Association. Gaetz made two speeches for the organization while in Congress, and Pirozzolo gave two separate donations of $1,000 to Gaetz's campaign arm "Friends of Matt Gaetz", in March 2016 and May 2017. A spokeswoman for Gaetz denied the new allegations. A woman on the Bahamas trip—a Capitol Hill intern who did not work in Gaetz's office but who was dating Gaetz—reportedly agreed in May 2021 to cooperate with investigators, who believe she has information about Gaetz's financial transactions on the trip.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Investigators believe that Greenberg met women through a website for sex and introduced them to Gaetz, who also had sex with them. Evidence including mobile payment receipts reportedly suggesting Gaetz had illegally exchanged money for sex, such as May 2018 Venmo transaction records showing Gaetz sending $900 (with a memo referring to a woman) to Greenberg, who then relayed the money (with the memos "tuition" and "school") to three women, one of whom was 18. Joseph Ellicott, an associate of both Gaetz and Greenberg, pleaded guilty in January 2022 to two charges related to this investigation and is also cooperating with authorities.


title: Matt Gaetz

text: Gaetz had argued in a November 2020 Fox News appearance that Trump "should pardon Michael Flynn [and] everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic". In late 2020, Greenberg apparently attempted to secure a pardon from the Trump administration via a confession letter (first reported by "The Daily Beast" in April 2021), writing that he and Gaetz had had sex with a 17-year-old girl they believed was 19, and that payments had been made on behalf of Gaetz to her and other women in exchange for sex. Greenberg attempted to bribe Roger Stone with a $250,000 Bitcoin payment to secure a presidential pardon, texting Stone, "They know [Gaetz] paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage." By the end of the Trump administration, Greenberg was under indictment, investigators had been questioning some Gaetz associates, and federal agents had seized the phone of one of Gaetz's former girlfriends. Gaetz's phone was also seized, and he changed his phone number in late December.