title: Greater London

text: In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London and the much wider Greater London. This arrangement has come about because as the area of London grew and absorbed neighbouring settlements, a series of administrative reforms did not amalgamate the City of London with the surrounding metropolitan area, and its unique political structure was retained. Outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965.


title: Greater London

text: The term "Greater London" was used well before 1965, particularly to refer to the Metropolitan Police District (such as in the 1901 census), the area of the Metropolitan Water Board (favoured by the London County Council for statistics), the London Passenger Transport Area and the area defined by the Registrar General as the "Greater London Conurbation". The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916. One of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied and included 9 million people.


title: Greater London

text: Although the London County Council (LCC) and County of London were created in 1889, the area did not cover all of London. London's built-up area, postal district, transport network and Metropolitan Police District, extended vastly beyond the boundaries of the new administrative county. Many of the LCC housing projects, including the vast Becontree Estates, were also outside its boundaries. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan and City Police Districts there were 122 housing authorities. A Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties. Protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCC's scheme. Two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission. Reform of local government in the County of London and its environs was next considered by the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, chaired by Sir Edwin Herbert, which issued the 'Herbert Report' after three years of work in 1960. The commission applied three tests to decide if a community should form part of Greater London: how strong is the area as an independent centre in its own right; how strong are its ties to London; and how strongly is it drawn outwards towards the country rather than inwards towards London.


title: Greater London

text: Greater London was created by the London Government Act 1963, which came into force on 1 April 1965, replacing the administrative counties of Middlesex and London, including the City of London, where the London County Council had limited powers, and absorbing parts of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey. Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council (GLC) sharing power with the City of London Corporation (governing the small City of London) and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985. Its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London formed the London region in 1994.


title: Greater London

text: The 1998 London referendum established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. In 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone (L), who had been the final leader of the GLC. The 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson (C). The 2016 and 2021 elections were won by Sadiq Khan (L). London was covered by a single Parliamentary constituency in the European Parliament prior to the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union.


title: Greater London

text: Greater London includes the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers and includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a similar way to the city's parks. The closest and furthest boundaries are with Essex to the northeast between Sewardstonebury next to Epping Forest and Chingford and with the Mar Dyke between Bulphan and North Ockendon. Greater London is also bounded by Hertfordshire to the north, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire to the west, Kent to the southeast and Surrey to the south and southwest. The highest point is Westerham Heights, in the North Downs and on the boundary with Kent, at .


title: Greater London

text: Central government has implemented small boundary changes. The greatest were the 1969 transfers of Farleigh to Surrey and Knockholt to Kent. Others have included exchange of two Thames islands with Surrey and adjustments during the 1990s to parts of the boundaries of three boroughs near the M25. The only part of Greater London outside the motorway is North Ockendon, the furthest land unit from its centre. The majority of Greater London forms the London low emission zone.


title: Greater London

text: Greater London is under the strategic local governance of the Greater London Authority (GLA). It consists of an elected assembly, the London Assembly, and an executive head, the Mayor of London.


title: Greater London

text: The current Mayor (not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of London) is Sadiq Khan. He is scrutinised by the elected London Assembly, which may amend his annual budget (by two-thirds majority) but otherwise lacks the power to block his directives. The headquarters of the GLA, previously at City Hall in Southwark, moved to The Crystal in Newham in January 2022. The Mayor is responsible for Greater London's strategic planning and is required to produce or amend the London Plan each electoral cycle.


title: Greater London

text: The Mayor of London is a directly elected politician who, along with the London Assembly, is responsible for the strategic government of Greater London.


title: Greater London

text: For elections to the London Assembly, London is divided into 14 constituencies, each formed from two or three boroughs. The City of London forms part of the City and East constituency.


title: Greater London

text: London is divided into 73 Parliamentary borough constituencies, formed from the combined area of several wards from one or more boroughs. Typically a borough is covered by two or three constituencies.


title: Greater London

text: The London Region does not have city status granted by the Crown. The Cities of London and Westminster within it have received formal city status. Despite this, Greater London is commonly regarded as a city in the general senses of a conurbation and a municipality. A Lord Lieutenant of Greater London is appointed for its area, excluding the City of London. For the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997, this area is defined as a county.


title: Greater London

text: The term "London" usually refers to region or to the conurbation, but not often to the ancient, tiny City of London. That small area is often referred to as "the City" or "the Square Mile" and it forms the main financial district. Archaically, the urbanised area of London was known as the Metropolis. In common usage, the terms "London" and "Greater London" are usually used interchangeably. Greater London is officially divided for some purposes, with varying definitions, into Inner London and Outer London. For some strategic planning purposes, it is divided into five sub-regions.


title: Greater London

text: Greater London is divided into 32 London Boroughs, each governed by a London Borough council. The City of London has a unique government dating back to the 12th century and is separate from the county of Greater London, although is still part of the region served by the Greater London Authority.


title: Greater London

text: All London Borough councils belong to the London Councils association. Three London Boroughs carry the honorific title of "Royal Borough": Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston, and Greenwich. Within the City of London are the liberties of Middle Temple and Inner Temple.


title: Greater London

text: With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was the most populated city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925. Its population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939. There were an estimated 7,753,600 official residents in mid-2009.


title: Greater London

text: London's wider metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 13 million depending on the definition of that area. According to Eurostat, London has been the most populous city and metropolitan area of the European Union.


title: Greater London

text: The region covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres. The population density is 4,761 people per square kilometre, more than ten times that of any other British region. In terms of population, London is the 25th largest city and the 17th largest metropolitan region in the world. It is ranked 4th in the world in the number of US dollar billionaires residing in the city. It ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world, alongside Tokyo and Moscow.


title: Greater London

text: In the 2001 UK Census, 71.15% of the population classed their ethnic group as White, including White British (59.79%), White Irish (3.07%) or "Other White" (8.29%, mostly Greek-Cypriot, Italian, Polish and Portuguese). 12.09% classed themselves as British Asian, including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and "Other Asian" (mostly Sri Lankan, Arab and other Southern Asian ethnicities). 10.91% classed themselves as Black British (around 6% as Black African, 4% as Black Caribbean, 0.84% as "Other Black"). 3.15% were of mixed race; 1.12% as Chinese; and 1.58% as other (mostly Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and other "British Orientals"). 21.8% of inhabitants were born outside the European Union. Irish people, from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, number about 200,000, as do the Scots and Welsh combined.


title: Greater London

text: In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that there were more than 300 languages spoken and more than 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2006 London's foreign-born population was 2,288,000 (31%), up from 1,630,000 in 1997. The 2001 UK Census showed that 27.1% of the population were born outside the UK, and a slightly higher proportion were classed as Non-White.


title: Greater London

text: In the 2011 UK Census, 59.79% of the population classed their ethnic group as White, including White British (44.89%), White Irish (2.15%) or "Other White" (12.65%, mostly Greek-Cypriot, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Colombians and Portuguese). 18.49% classed themselves as British Asian, including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and "Other Asian" (mostly Sri Lankan, Arab and other Southern Asian ethnicities). 13.32% classed themselves as Black British (7% as Black African, 4.22% as Black Caribbean, 2.08% as "Other Black"). 4.96% were of mixed race; and 3.44% as other (mostly Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and other "British Orientals").


title: Greater London

text: The table shows the top 21 countries of birth of residents in 2011, the date of the last UK Census. These figures do not give a fair indication of the total population of the specific ethnic groups associated with each country. For example, Londoners of Greek origin (from both Greece and Cyprus) number 300,000, since an organised Greek community has been established for nearly two centuries. The same can be said for Italian and French Londoners whose communities have been here for centuries (the French Embassy estimates there are between 300,000 and 400,000 French citizens living in the UK, with "a huge majority of them living in London"). Though a Polish community has existed in London since the late-Middle Ages, it was not significant in the 2001 Census but has grown significantly since 2004, when Poland joined the European Union and by June 2010; London had 122,000 Polish residents. The German-born population figure may be misleading, however, because it includes British nationals born to parents serving in the British armed forces in Germany.


title: Greater London

text: London has been a focus for immigration for centuries, whether as a place of safety or for economic reasons. Huguenots, Eastern European Jews, Cypriots and East African Asians are examples of the former; Irish, Bangladeshis and West Indians came for new lives. The East End district around Spitalfields has been first home for several ethnic groups, which have subsequently moved elsewhere in London as they gained prosperity.


title: Greater London

text: The population of the current area of Greater London rose from about 1.1 million in 1801 (when only about 850,000 people were in the urban area, while 250,000 were living in villages and towns not yet part of London) to an estimated 8.6 million in 1939, but declined to 6.7 million in 1988, before starting to rebound in the 1990s.


title: Greater London

text: By 2006, the population had recovered to the level of 1970 (and the level of population in the 1920s). It has now surpassed the previous 1939 peak, and is over 9 million.


title: Greater London

text: Figures here are for Greater London in its 2001 boundaries. Figures before 1971 have been reconstructed by the Office for National Statistics based on past censuses to fit the 2001 boundaries. Figures from 1981 onward are mid-year estimates (revised in August 2007), which are more accurate than the censuses, known to underestimate the population of London.


title: Greater London

text: This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added (GVA) of Inner London at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by "Office for National Statistics" with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.


title: Greater London

text: Eurostat data shows the GDP of Inner London to be 232 billion euros in 2009 and per capita GDP of 78,000 euros.


title: Greater London

text: This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Outer London at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by "Office for National Statistics" with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.


title: Greater London

text: Eurostat data shows the GDP of Outer London to be 103 billion euros in 2009 and per capita GDP of 21,460 euros.


title: Greater London

text: The largest religious groupings are Christian (48.4%), Muslim (8.4%), Hindu (8.0%), Jewish (1.8%), and Sikh (1.5%), alongside those of no religion (21.7%). The United Kingdom has traditionally been Christian, and London has a large number of churches, particularly in the City. St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, while the clerical head of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has his main residence at Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth.


title: Greater London

text: Important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales. Religious practice in London is lower than in any other part of the UK or Western Europe and is around seven times lower than American averages. Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, weekly observance is low within that denomination, although in recent years church attendance, particularly at evangelical Anglican churches in London, has started to increase.


title: Greater London

text: London is home to sizeable Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham; the most important Muslim buildings are the East London Mosque in Whitechapel and the London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park. London's large Hindu community is in the north-western boroughs of Harrow and Brent, the latter containing one of Europe's largest Hindu temples, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London.


title: Greater London

text: Sikh communities are in East and West London, particularly Southall in the western borough of Ealing, which is also home to the largest Sikh temple in the capital. The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant communities in Stamford Hill (the most Orthodox Jewish area outside New York City and Israel) and St. John's Wood, Golders Green, and Edgware in North London.


title: Greater London

text: Publicly funded education has been administered through 33 LEAs, which correspond to the City of London and the 32 London boroughs, since the 1990 enactment of the Education Reform Act 1988. From 1965 to 1990, 12 Inner London boroughs and the City of London were served by the Inner London Education Authority.


title: Greater London

text: The introduction of comprehensive schools, directed by Circular 10/65 in 1965, was mostly followed in Greater London; however, 19 grammar schools have been retained in some Outer London boroughs, with Sutton having the most with five, followed by Bexley with four and others in five other boroughs. In these boroughs the state schools outperform the (relatively few) independent schools. In inner London, private schools always get the best results and are larger in number. At GCSE and A level, Outer London boroughs have broadly better results than Inner London boroughs.


title: Greater London

text: At GCSE, the best borough is Kingston upon Thames, closely followed by Sutton. Both boroughs have selective schools, and get the top two average GCSE results in England for LEAs. Next is Kensington and Chelsea, the third best in England, then Redbridge, Hammersmith and Fulham, Bromley, Barnet and Harrow. Only ten boroughs have GCSE results under the England average, and some inner-London boroughs have surprisingly good results considering where they lie on the scale of deprivation, e.g. Lambeth. Overall at GCSE in 2009, Greater London had the best results for regions of England. Greater London is generally a prosperous region, and prosperous areas generally have good GCSE results. The City of London has no state schools, just two independent schools. Haringey and Kensington and Chelsea have the most people that pass no GCSEs.


title: Greater London

text: At A-level, the average results for LEAs are disappointing compared to their good GCSE results. Although Kingston upon Thames gets the best GCSE results in England, at A-level it is not even above average. Sutton gets the best A-level results in London and in England. Three of the schools in the top four at A-level in London are in Sutton. It has only one independent school. The few other boroughs with above-average A-level results are Havering, Barnet, Bexley, Redbridge, and Ealing. The poor A-level results in many London boroughs is explained by the quantity of independent schools getting good A-level results. The state school system is often bypassed at age 16 by the more able pupils. Some London boroughs need more good sixth form colleges.


title: Greater London

text: The region's 34 further education colleges are funded through the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. Large colleges include Kingston College, Havering College of Further and Higher Education, and Croydon College.


title: Greater London

text: The University of London has 20 federated colleges and schools. The two main constituents of the University of London are (in order of total funding) University College London (UCL) and King's College London (KCL). Imperial College was part of the University of London until 2007, and is now an independent university. UCL, KCL and Imperial have very large research grants – some of the largest in England after Cambridge and Oxford, UCL and Imperial receive around £600 million each which is more than twice as much as any other in the region. The next largest institution by funding is Queen Mary University of London, followed by City, University of London. London is also home to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), one of the few solely social science institutions in the world. Together with UCL and Imperial, they make up the London vertex of the Golden Triangle universities, the other institutions being Oxford and Cambridge. The region has many medical schools although these are part of other institutions such as UCL, KCL and Imperial. The Royal Veterinary College is based in Camden (with another site in North Mymms in Hertfordshire).


title: Greater London

text: 50% of students come from the region, and around 30% from other regions. Most students from other regions come from South East England, the East of England, and, to a lesser degree, South West England; the vast majority are from the south of England. Over 50% students native to the region stay in the region, with 15% going to South East England, 30% to either Scotland, Wales or the North East and around 5% go elsewhere. London is a draw for UK graduates from all over the UK.


title: Greater London

text: Over 70% of UK students to graduate from the University of London remain in London; just under 15% go to the South-East, and just over 5% go to the East of England and 10% elsewhere.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw (; born 21 April 1983) is a British actress who began acting in British television and stage productions, appearing in the science-fiction series "Doctor Who" (2007), and went on to appear in Tom Hanks' comedy film "Larry Crowne" (2011), and the short-lived television series "Undercovers" (2010) and "Touch" (2012).


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw's breakthrough came with the British period drama "Belle" (2013), for which she won the BIFA Award for Best Actress, and the romantic drama "Beyond the Lights" (2014). Her leading performance as the titular character in Jessica Swale's 2015 play "Nell Gwynn" earned her a nomination for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress. She gained critical acclaim for her starring role in "San Junipero" (2016), an episode in season three of the anthology series "Black Mirror". Her career progressed with roles in the films "Miss Sloane" (2016), "Beauty and the Beast" (2017), "Motherless Brooklyn" (2019), "Misbehaviour" (2020), "Summerland" (also 2020), the Apple TV+ drama series "The Morning Show" (2019), and the Disney+ series "Loki" (2021).


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2017 she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. In February 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw was born on 21 April 1983 in Oxford, the daughter of Patrick Mbatha, a South African doctor, and Anne Raw, an English nurse. Her father, as a student, was a member of the African National Congress and activist opposing apartheid in South Africa, having to flee as a result. Her parents separated when she was a year old, and she lived mostly with her mother.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw was educated at The Henry Box School, a state comprehensive school in the market town of Witney in Oxfordshire, where she grew up. Her first name is a contraction of , which means "our pride" in Zulu.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Interested in acting, dance, and musical theatre from a young age, Mbatha-Raw participated in the National Youth Theatre. Her credits include dancing at the Judy Tompsett School of Dance, now known as the Marsh Tompsett School of Dance. In 2001, she moved to London to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw played minor roles on television series such as "Bad Girls" (2006) and "Marple" (2007). In "Doctor Who" she is featured as Tish Jones, the sister of companion Martha Jones, most prominently in "The Lazarus Experiment" (2007). One of her earliest breakthroughs in drama was in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in 2005, playing Juliet opposite Andrew Garfield as Romeo. Mbatha-Raw was nominated for best actress in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards for her portrayal of Juliet. She also appeared as Octavia in "Antony and Cleopatra" at the same theatre in 2005.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2009, Mbatha-Raw was cast as Ophelia in "Hamlet" on London's West End and Broadway, opposite Jude Law in the title role In September 2010, she was cast in J. J. Abrams' television series "Undercovers" after he spotted her in "Hamlet". The series was cancelled two months later.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In June 2011, Mbatha-Raw was cast as the female lead on the Fox television series "Touch" opposite Kiefer Sutherland. She had a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Larry Crowne" (2011), written and directed by Tom Hanks, who starred in the title role. She was also named one of 42 Brits to Watch by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw garnered praise starring in Amma Asante's film "Belle" (2013), playing the eponymous historical character, Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race woman raised as a gentlewoman in her paternal uncle Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's household in 18th-century England.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: The film debuted at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It was released in 2014. Mbatha-Raw was nominated for numerous awards for her performance, including two British Independent Film Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film, which she won, and Most Promising Newcomer. She was also nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress. In 2014, Mbatha-Raw spoke at the United Nations headquarters when the film was screened in honor of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2014, Mbatha-Raw also starred as a popular singer in the romantic drama "Beyond the Lights". The film debuted at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. For her work in "Beyond the Lights", Mbatha-Raw was nominated for Best Actress at the 2014 Gotham Awards.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2014, Mbatha-Raw was recognized by "Elle Magazine" during the Women in Hollywood Awards, honoring women for their outstanding achievements in film. These awards span all aspects of the motion picture industry, including acting, directing and producing.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In recognition of her body of work, Mbatha-Raw was nominated in 2015 for a BAFTA Rising Star Award. That year, she had a supporting role in the space opera "Jupiter Ascending".


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: On 3 July 2015, it was announced that Mbatha-Raw would be the first to play the title role in Jessica Swale's "Nell Gwynn" playing the actress who became the mistress of King Charles II of England; it premiered at Shakespeare's Globe from 19 September to 17 October 2015. She was nominated for an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Also in 2015, she appeared in the biopic "Concussion", starring Will Smith. It is the story of Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who first discovered extensive brain damage in NFL players due to concussions, and tried to put a stop to practices that contributed to the condition. She played Prema Mutiso, the wife of Bennet Omalu. The film premiered at the 2015 AFI Festival.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw starred opposite Matthew McConaughey in an American biopic on Newton Knight, a yeoman farmer, and resister of the Confederacy, in "Free State of Jones" (2016), directed by Gary Ross. She plays Knight's common-law wife Rachel, a freedwoman he had a family with after the Civil War.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2016, Mbatha-Raw appeared in "San Junipero", an episode of the anthology series "Black Mirror", and played a major supporting role in "Miss Sloane", a drama about Washington lobbyists, starring Jessica Chastain. The film premiered at the AFI Film Festival in November.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Gina Prince-Bythewood announced in March 2016 that Mbatha-Raw would star in her adaptation of Roxane Gay's novel "An Untamed State".


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2017, Mbatha-Raw played Plumette in the live-action adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast", directed by Bill Condon and co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2018, Mbatha-Raw starred in a number of science fiction feature productions, including "A Wrinkle in Time", directed by Ava DuVernay, and "The Cloverfield Paradox". The latter film made history that year, with a marketing campaign that saw the film's release onto the streaming platform Netflix, directly after it was advertised worldwide at the 2018 Super Bowl. Mbatha-Raw also played in an independent feature film "Fast Color", which premiered worldwide at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Texas.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In February 2020, it was announced that she would play Ravonna Lexus Renslayer in the Disney+ series "Loki". She was cast to star in the Apple TV+ series "Surface". In addition to her starring role, she is also an executive producer on the series, which was created by Veronica West and premiered on 29 July 2022. On 2 December 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In 2021, Mbatha-Raw was appointed to be a global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since 2018, she has visited Burundian and Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Uganda as well as taken part in UNHCR's EveryOneCounts and "Films of Hope" campaigns. In June 2021 she helped announce the Refugee Paralympic team specifically announcing Alia Issa who will compete in the club throw. In November 2021, she was cast in the romantic film "Nobody's Heart" with Edgar Ramírez, directed by Isabel Coixet.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: In April 2022, Mbatha-Raw was set to play the female lead in Netflix action film "Lift" co-starring Kevin Hart.


title: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

text: Mbatha-Raw has "always loved art", and had considered becoming an artist instead of an actor for a time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she painted portraits of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, using painting supplies that her "Concussion" co-star Will Smith had given to her in 2016.


title: Cory Booker

text: Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey. He attended Stanford University, receiving a BA in 1991 and a master's degree a year later. He attended Queen's College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship before attending Yale Law School. He won an upset victory for a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark in 1998, staging a 10-day hunger strike and briefly living in a tent to draw attention to urban development issues in the city. He ran for mayor in 2002 but lost to incumbent Sharpe James. He ran again in 2006 and defeated Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice. Booker's first term saw the doubling of affordable housing under development and the reduction of the city budget deficit from $180 million to $73 million. He was reelected in 2010. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2013 special election and reelected in 2014 and in 2020.


title: Cory Booker

text: Throughout his Senate tenure, Booker has written, sponsored, and passed legislation advancing women's rights, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and single-payer healthcare. He has pushed for economic reforms to address wealth inequality in the U.S., particularly the racial wealth gap. Booker has pursued measures to reform the criminal justice system, combat climate change, and restructure national immigration policy. In foreign policy, he has voted successfully for tougher sanctions against Iran, voiced support for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and lobbied for increased diplomacy in the Middle East. He was the first senator to ever testify against another senator during attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions's 2017 confirmation hearing. Booker was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, suspending his campaign on January 13, 2020.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker was born in Washington, D.C.; he grew up in Harrington Park, New Jersey, northeast of Newark. His parents, Carolyn Rose (née Jordan) and Cary Alfred Booker, were among the first black IBM executives. Booker has said that he was raised in a religious household and that he and his family attended a small African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Jersey. Booker has Sierra Leonean ancestry, which he learned when featured on the PBS television program "Finding Your Roots".


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, where he played varsity football and was named to the 1986 USA Today All-USA high school football team. He graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991 and a master of arts in sociology in 1992. He played football for Stanford at the position of tight end and was teammates with Brad Muster and Ed McCaffrey, making the All–Pacific-10 Academic team. He was elected senior class president. In addition, Booker ran The Bridge Peer Counseling Center, a student-run crisis hotline, and organized help from Stanford students for youth in East Palo Alto, California.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Queen's College, Oxford, earning a degree in United States history in 1994. At Oxford, Booker served as president of the Oxford University L'Chaim Society. He obtained his Juris Doctor in 1997 from Yale Law School and operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven, Connecticut. At Yale, Booker was a founding member of the Chai Society (now Shabtai). He also was a Big Brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and active in the National Black Law Students Association.


title: Cory Booker

text: Contemplating advocacy work and a run for city council in Newark after graduating from law school, Booker lived in the city during his final year at Yale. After graduation, he served as staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and program coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. In 1998, Booker won an upset victory for a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark, defeating four-term incumbent George Branch. To draw attention to the problems of open-air drug dealing and associated violence, he went on a 10-day hunger strike, living in a tent and later in a motor home near drug-dealing areas of the city. Booker also proposed council initiatives that affected housing, young people, law and order, and the efficiency and transparency of City Hall, but was regularly outvoted.


title: Cory Booker

text: On January 9, 2002, Booker announced his campaign for mayor of Newark rather than running for reelection as councilman. That pitted him against longtime incumbent Sharpe James. James, who had easily won election four consecutive times, saw Booker as a real threat and responded with mudslinging. At one campaign event James called him "a Republican who took money from the KKK [and] Taliban ... [who's] collaborating with the Jews to take over Newark." In the campaign James's supporters questioned Booker's suburban background, calling him a carpetbagger who was "not black enough" to understand the city. Booker lost the election, garnering 47% of the vote to James's 53%. The Oscar-nominated documentary "Street Fight" chronicles the election.


title: Cory Booker

text: On February 11, 2006, Booker announced that he would run for mayor again. Although James filed paperwork to run for reelection, he announced shortly thereafter that he would instead cancel his bid to focus on his work as a state senator, a position to which he was elected in 1999. At James's urging, Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice decided to run for mayor. Booker's campaign, raising over $6 million, outspent Rice's 25 to 1, for which Rice attacked him. Booker, in turn, attacked Rice as a "political crony" of James. Booker won the May 9 election with 72% of the vote. His slate of city council candidates, known as the "Booker Team", swept the council elections, giving Booker firm leadership of the city government.


title: Cory Booker

text: On April 3, 2010, Booker announced his candidacy for reelection. At his announcement event, he remarked that a "united government" was crucial to progress, knowing his supporters in the city council faced tough reelections. Heavily favored to win, Booker faced former judge and Essex County prosecutor Clifford J. Minor and two minor candidates. Booker was reelected with 59% of the vote.


title: Cory Booker

text: Before taking office as mayor, Booker sued the James administration, seeking to terminate cut-rate land deals favoring two redevelopment agencies that had contributed to James's campaigns and listed James as a member of their advisory boards. Booker argued that the state's "pay-to-play" laws had been violated and that the land deals would cost the city more than $15 million in lost revenue. Specifically, Booker referenced a parcel at Broad and South Streets that would generate only $87,000 under the proposed land deals yet was valued at $3.7 million under then-current market rates. On June 20, 2006, Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello ruled in Booker's favor.


title: Cory Booker

text: In late June 2006, before Booker took office, New Jersey investigators foiled a plot to assassinate him led by Bloods gang leaders inside four New Jersey state prisons. The motive for the plot was unclear, but was described variously as a response to the acrimonious campaign and to Booker's campaign promises to take a harder line on crime.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker took office as mayor of Newark on July 1, 2006. After his first week in office, he announced a 100-day plan to implement reforms. The proposed changes included increasing police forces, ending background checks for many city jobs to help former offenders find employment in the city, refurbishing police stations, improving city services, and expanding summer youth programs.


title: Cory Booker

text: One of Booker's first priorities was to reduce the city's crime rate. In furtherance of this, he appointed former deputy commissioner of operations of the New York City Police Department Garry McCarthy director of the Newark Police Department. Crime reduction was such a central concern of Booker's administration that he and his security team were known to personally patrol the Newark's streets until as late as 4 a.m.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bipartisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets". In October 2009, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave him the Sarah Brady Visionary Award for his work in reducing gun violence. During his mayoralty, crime dropped significantly in Newark, which led the nation in violent crime reduction from 2006 to 2008. March 2010 marked Newark's first murder-free month in over 44 years, although murder and overall crime rates began to rise again after 2008. In addition to his crime-lowering initiatives, Booker doubled the amount of affordable housing under development and quadrupled the amount under pre-development, and reduced the city budget deficit from $180 million to $73 million.


title: Cory Booker

text: After taking office, Booker voluntarily reduced his own salary twice, first by 8% early in his first year as mayor. He also raised the salaries of many city workers. But his administration imposed one-day-a-month furloughs for all non-uniformed employees from July through December 2010, as well as 2% pay cuts for managers and directors earning more than $100,000 a year. In 2008 and 2009, the City of Newark received the Government Finance Officers Association's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. In an effort to make government more accessible, Booker held regular open office hours during which city residents could meet with him to discuss their concerns. In 2010, Booker was among the finalists for the World Mayor prize, ultimately placing seventh; he was also an unsuccessful candidate for the 2012 award. In March 2010, Booker won a Shorty Award in the government category for having the best microblog.


title: Cory Booker

text: In July 2010, Booker attended a dinner at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he was seated with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, who had no known ties to Newark, announced in September 2010 that he was donating $100 million to the Newark school system. According to "The New York Times", Booker and Zuckerberg continued their conversation about Booker's plans for Newark. The initial gift was made to start a foundation for education. The gift was formally announced when Booker, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Zuckerberg appeared together on "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Some considered the timing of Zuckerberg's donation a move for damage control to his image, as it was announced on the opening day of the movie "The Social Network", a film that painted an unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg. But on her show, Winfrey told the audience that Zuckerberg and Booker had been in talks for months, had planned the announcement for the month before, and that she and Booker had to force Zuckerberg to put his name on the donation, which he had wanted to make anonymously.


title: Cory Booker

text: On October 10, 2010, Booker established Let's Move! Newark as part of First Lady Michelle Obama's national Let's Move! initiative against childhood obesity.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker gained national attention on December 28, 2010, when a constituent asked him on Twitter to send someone to her elderly father's house to shovel his driveway because he was about to attempt to do it himself. Booker responded by tweeting, "I will do it myself; where does he live?" Other people volunteered, including one person who offered his help on Twitter, and 20 minutes later Booker and some volunteers showed up and shoveled the man's driveway.


title: Cory Booker

text: In October 2011, Booker expanded the Let's Move! Newark program to include Let's Move! Newark: Our Power, a four-month fitness challenge for Newark public school students run by public health advocate Jeff Halevy.


title: Cory Booker

text: On April 12, 2012, Booker saved a woman from a house fire, suffering smoke inhalation and second-degree burns on his hands in the process. Newark Fire Chief John Centanni said that Booker's actions possibly saved the woman's life. After Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of New Jersey's and New York's shoreline areas in late October 2012, Booker invited Newarkers without electrictiy and similar services to eat and sleep in his home. In February 2013, responding to a Twitter post, Booker helped a nervous constituent propose to his girlfriend. Booker rescued a dog from freezing temperatures in January 2013 and another dog that had been abandoned in a cage in July 2013.


title: Cory Booker

text: On November 20, 2012, a melee occurred at a Newark City Council meeting Booker attended. The nine-seat council was to vote on the successor to the seat vacated by newly elected U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne, Jr. Booker's opponents on the council, including Ras Baraka, sought to appoint John Sharpe James, son of former mayor Sharpe James, while Booker and his supporters favored Shanique Speight. Booker attended the meeting to deal with the eventuality of the lack of a quorum or a tie vote, in which state law would allow him to cast a deciding vote. After acting Council President Anibal Ramos Jr. refused Baraka an opportunity to address the council, Baraka and two other council members walked away in protest. Booker cast the deciding vote for Speight. Supporters of James stormed the stage and were held back by riot police, who eventually used pepper spray on some members of the crowd. Baraka later blamed Booker for inciting the disturbance. Booker refused to comment to the media after the vote.


title: Cory Booker

text: In December 2012, after discussions with a constituent about New Jersey's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Booker began a weeklong challenge attempting to live on a food budget of $30 per week—the amount he said that New Jersey paid SNAP recipients. When critics noted that the very name of the SNAP program shows that it is intended to "supplement" an individual's food budget, not be its sole source, Booker replied that his aim was to spark a discussion about the reality that many Americans rely solely on food stamps to survive.


title: Cory Booker

text: Throughout Booker's mayoralty, Fairleigh Dickinson University's public opinion poll PublicMind asked New Jersey residents whether they had heard of Booker and whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him. The results were:


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker's mayoralty and celebrity drew substantial media attention to Newark. While he had high ratings from Newarkers, his legacy has received mixed reviews. During his tenure, millions of dollars were invested in downtown development, but underemployment and high murder rates continue to characterize many of the city's neighborhoods. Despite legal challenges initiated during his term, Newark Public Schools remained under state control for nearly 20 years. Newark received $32 million in emergency state aid in 2011 and 2012, requiring a memorandum of understanding between Newark and the state that obligated the city to request and the state to approve appointments to City Hall administrative positions.


title: Cory Booker

text: While mayor, Booker claimed in an interview that Newark's unemployment rate had fallen by two percentage points. PolitiFact rated the claim "false" because he used data that had not been seasonally adjusted; the adjusted rate was 0.7 percentage points.


title: Cory Booker

text: On December 20, 2012, Booker announced that he would explore running for the U.S. Senate seat then occupied by Frank Lautenberg in the 2014 election, ending speculation that he would challenge Governor Chris Christie in the 2013 gubernatorial election. On January 11, 2013, Booker filed papers to form a campaign committee without announcing whether he would run. About a month later, Lautenberg—then 89 years old—announced that he would not seek reelection in 2014.


title: Cory Booker

text: On June 3, Lautenberg died of viral pneumonia; five days later, Booker announced his intention to run for Lautenberg's seat in a 2013 special election. Booker announced his candidacy at two events, one in Newark and the other in Willingboro.


title: Cory Booker

text: On August 13, 2013, Booker was declared the winner of the Democratic primary, with approximately 59% of the vote. On October 16, he defeated Republican Steve Lonegan in the general election, 54.9% to 44.0%. Booker was the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. The night before his victory, he visited the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, offering prayers and lighting a vigil candle in memory of his father.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker resigned as mayor of Newark on October 30, and on October 31 was sworn in as the junior U.S. senator from New Jersey. He is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey.


title: Cory Booker

text: On January 9, 2014, Brian D. Goldberg, a West Orange resident and New Jersey businessman, announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. On January 27, 2014, Freehold Township businessman Richard J. "Rich" Pezzullo announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Pezzullo had run for the US Senate in 1996 as the Conservative Party candidate. On February 4, 2014, conservative political consultant Jeff Bell announced his bid for the nomination. Bell was the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 1978. Ramapo College professor Murray Sabrin, who ran for the Senate in 2000 and 2008, announced his candidacy on February 13.


title: Cory Booker

text: Bell won the Republican primary and received support from the conservative American Principles Fund, which ran a direct-mail operation costing over $80,000, and the National Organization for Marriage, an organization opposing same-sex marriage, which paid for $6,000 of automated calling. Booker defeated Bell in the general election with 55.8% of the vote to Bell's 42.4%.


title: Cory Booker

text: In his reelection campaign, Booker faced Republican nominee Rik Mehta, a pharmaceutical executive and attorney. The election was primarily conducted by mail-in ballots, as mandated by Governor Phil Murphy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Booker and Mehta participated in a virtual debate sponsored by the New Jersey Globe, in which they sparred over issues including the Trump presidency, COVID-19 lockdowns, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and systemic racism.


title: Cory Booker

text: In November 2013, Booker co-sponsored and voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In December 2013, he was one of the original cosponsors of Bob Menéndez's Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013, which would toughen sanctions against Iran. He also voted for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. In January 2014, he cosponsored the Respect for Marriage Act. In February 2014, Booker voted against the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. In March, Booker pledged to meet with each of his Republican colleagues in the Senate in order to find common ground, and was spotted having dinner with Senator Ted Cruz in Washington.


title: Cory Booker

text: Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Booker endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He was considered a potential vice-presidential candidate during the primary and as the general election began, though he said on June 16 that he was not being vetted. After the election, in which Donald Trump defeated Clinton, Booker testified on January 11, 2017, against Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, the first instance of a sitting senator testifying against another during a cabinet position confirmation hearing.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker supported fellow New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez when Menendez faced trial on federal corruption and bribery charges. During the trial, Booker was a character witness for Menendez, giving him effusive praise. After the judge declared a mistrial, Booker argued that prosecutors ought not to take Menendez to trial again. When Menendez ran for reelection, Booker praised Menendez, saying he was "so grateful for Bob Menendez and that I get to work with him and stand beside him." Booker downplayed the corruption allegations, saying "to try to continue to try to throw this kind of mud at him, it's not going to stick. It didn't stick when the government tried to do it and it should not stick now."


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2018, "Politico" named Booker part of the "Hell-No Caucus", along with Senators Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, after he voted "overwhelmingly to thwart his [Trump's] nominees for administration jobs", including Rex Tillerson, Betsy De Vos, and Mike Pompeo; all the senators on the list were considered potential 2020 presidential contenders.


title: Cory Booker

text: In April 2018, after the FBI raided the hotel room and offices of Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, Booker, Chris Coons, Lindsey Graham, and Thom Tillis introduced new legislation to "limit President Trump's ability to fire special counsel Robert Mueller." Termed the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, the legislation would allow any special counsel, in this case Mueller, to receive an "expedited judicial review" in the 10 days following being dismissed to determine if said dismissal was suitable. If not, the special counsel would be reinstated. At the same time, according to "The Hill", the bill would "codify regulations" that a special counsel could be fired by only a senior Justice Department official, while having to provide reasons in writing.


title: Cory Booker

text: On September 5, 2018, during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh (nominated by Trump to replace retiring Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court), Booker questioned Kavanaugh on a series of emails marked "committee confidential" dating to Kavanaugh's time in the office of the White House Counsel during George W. Bush's presidency. The emails, which Booker's office released to the public the next day, show Kavanaugh and others in the Counsel's office discussing racial profiling as a means to combat terrorism, particularly after 9/11. Booker said that he was violating Senate rules in releasing the documents, with the penalty including possible expulsion from the Senate; he nonetheless defended his decision, referring to the process of producing documents for the hearing as a "sham" and challenging those who warned him about the consequences to "bring it on". Booker also described the release as "probably the closest I'll ever have in my life to an 'I am Spartacus' moment", referring to a line in the 1960 film "Spartacus". Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said the documents had already been cleared for public release the night before, and that Booker was not violating any rules, leading some Republicans to accuse Booker of engaging in "theatrics" and "histrionics". Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas mocked Booker in comments the following week, saying, "Honorable—if we could use that word about more people who are in public life, people who actually ask the questions at confirmation hearings, instead of 'Spartacus. Booker was also one of several Democratic lawmakers and critics of President Trump who was targeted with a mailed pipe bomb.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker played a leading role in the push to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill. He has introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize cannabis in the United States on the federal level, defund some law enforcement in jurisdictions that have shown racial bias in marijuana arrests, and increase funding to communities affected by the war on drugs.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election on February 1, 2019.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Minutes after rioters breached the Capitol, Booker and his fellow senators were evacuated from the chambers. Booker blamed Trump for inciting the attack. After the attack, Booker called for the invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and/or impeachment to remove Trump.


title: Cory Booker

text: On February 1, 2019, Booker announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 presidential election. Before his announcement, it was widely speculated that he would run for president but he expressed uncertainty about it. Within a month after Booker announced his candidacy, Governor Phil Murphy, Bob Menendez, and every Democratic member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey endorsed him. Booker held a campaign kickoff rally in Newark on April 13. After qualifying for the first five Democratic Party presidential debates, he failed to meet the polling thresholds to participate in the sixth debate in December 2019. On January 13, 2020, Booker announced that he was suspending his campaign. In March 2020, Booker endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker has been called a liberal and progressive Democrat. As a senator, he has a liberal voting record. In a July 2013 "Salon" interview, Booker said, "there's nothing in that realm of progressive politics where you won't find me." In a September 2013 interview with "The Grio", when asked whether he considered himself a progressive, he said he was a Democrat and an American. According to the Humane Society, Booker has had the most pro-animal welfare voting record in the Senate year after year.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker supports long-term deficit reduction efforts to ensure economic prosperity, cap and trade taxation to combat climate change, and increased funding for education. He has spoken in favor of creating a federal job guarantee and baby bonds (low-risk savings accounts that minors get access to at age 18). In the Senate, he has emphasized issues of racial and social justice. He played a leading role in the push to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill. He supports ending the War on Drugs. Booker supports abortion rights and affirmative action. He also supports a single-payer health care plan: in September 2017, he joined Bernie Sanders and 14 other co-sponsors in submitting a single-payer health care plan to Congress called the "Medicare for All" bill.


title: Cory Booker

text: On foreign policy, Booker supports scaling down U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and opposes intervention in Syria. After the US strike on Syria in April 2017, he criticized military action "without a clear plan" or authorization from Congress. He supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Booker has stated that Iran poses a direct threat to American and Israeli security and feels all options should be on the table for dealing with the conflict, but his decision to back the Iran nuclear deal framework damaged his long-term relationship with some Jewish voters and supporters. In an attempt to reduce the damage, he initiated an emergency summit for Jewish leaders, which some of his longstanding supporters did not attend.


title: Cory Booker

text: Despite his reputation as a progressive, progressives have criticized Booker on occasion. In 2017, he voted against a proposal to lower prescription drug prices, which led to criticism that he was too dependent on corporate support. In 2021, "The American Prospect" criticized Booker and Bob Menendez for recommending Christine O'Hearne to a federal judgeship after she had spent much of her career defending employers against discrimination and sexual harassment claims, and had defended a school against allegations that its swim coach had sexually abused a girl from ages 13 to 19.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2009, after Barack Obama became President of the United States, Booker was offered the leadership of the new White House Office of Urban Affairs. He turned the offer down, citing a commitment to Newark.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker generated controversy on May 12, 2012, when he appeared on "Meet The Press" as a surrogate for Obama's reelection campaign and made remarks critical of that campaign. Booker said that the attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital were "nauseating to me on both sides. It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright." The Romney campaign used the comments against Obama. Booker made follow-up comments clarifying that he believed Obama's attacks on Romney's record at Bain were legitimate but did not retract his point about attacking private equity in general. Two weeks later, Booker's communications director Anne Torres tendered her resignation, although she maintained it was unrelated to "Meet the Press".


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker sits on the board of advisers of the political action committee Democrats for Education Reform. He is a member of the board of trustees at Teachers College, Columbia University and was formerly a member of the executive committee at Yale Law School and the board of trustees at Stanford University.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2010, Booker received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by the Jefferson Awards.


title: Cory Booker

text: In May 2009, Booker received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the Newark-based New Jersey Institute of Technology for "his outstanding career in public service as the Mayor of Newark." In May 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University and was a commencement speaker that year. Booker received another honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in December 2010 from Yeshiva University for "his bold vision for Newark and setting a national standard for urban transformation." In June 2011, Booker received an honorary doctor of laws degree for the urban transformation of Newark and served as that year's commencement speaker at Williams College. In May 2012, Booker received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Bard College and gave the commencement speech. In 2010, he delivered the commencement addresses at Pitzer College on May 15; at Columbia University's Teachers College on May 17; and at Suffolk University Law School on May 23. Booker gave the commencement address to New York Law School graduates on May 13, 2011, at Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at Lincoln Center. He gave the commencement address at the University of Rhode Island in May 2011; he also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. He delivered a commencement address to Stanford University graduates on June 17, 2012, at Stanford Stadium. He also received an honorary degree at Fairleigh Dickinson's 69th commencement ceremony in May 2012.


title: Cory Booker

text: In May 2013, Booker gave the commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis and received an honorary doctorate of law.


title: Cory Booker

text: On May 16, 2014, Booker gave the commencement speech at Ramapo College of New Jersey at the IZOD Center.


title: Cory Booker

text: During the 2016 presidential election, when Clinton had an illness described as pneumonia, Donna Brazile, the then-DNC interim chair considered that her ideal replacement ticket would consist of Biden and Booker. But the possibility of a divisive reaction and the possibility of "allowing Trump to capture votes in confusion" caused her to "not entertain any more thoughts of replacing Hillary."


title: Cory Booker

text: Filmmaker Marshall Curry chronicled Booker's 2002 mayoral campaign in the documentary "Street Fight". The film was nominated in 2005 for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.


title: Cory Booker

text: Since 2009, Booker has starred in the documentary series "Brick City". The series focuses on Booker's efforts to improve Newark by reducing crime and bring about economic renewal. "Brick City" won a Peabody Award in 2009 and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2010.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker contributed to the 2011 documentary "Miss Representation" and commented on the representations of women in politics in mass media.


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker appeared in a scene in the 2015 "Parks and Recreation" episode "Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington" alongside Orrin Hatch.


title: Cory Booker

text: In the fall of 2009, "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien engaged in a satirical on-air and YouTube feud with Booker, with O'Brien jokingly insulting Newark and Booker responding that he would ban O'Brien from the Newark airport. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the feud to end during a prepared comedy skit, telling Booker to chalk it up to a head injury O'Brien suffered less than two weeks earlier. Booker then appeared on O'Brien's show and assured viewers that the feud was over and that he was actually a big fan of O'Brien, who agreed that every time he made a joke about Newark, he would donate $500 to the City of Newark, and also made a $50,000 donation to the Newark Now charity, which NBC Universal matched.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2012, Booker and tech executives Sarah Ross and Nathan Richardson formed Waywire, a company focused on video sharing technology. Early investors included Oprah Winfrey, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Weiner, and Troy Carter. After Booker's relationship to Waywire was discussed in a front-page "New York Times" story, board member Andrew Zucker stepped down from his position. Shortly thereafter, Waywire CEO Richardson departed the business as the company shifted its focus from content creation to content curation. In August 2013, Booker told NBC News he intended to resign from the Waywire board and put his holdings in a trust if elected to the Senate; by September, he had resigned from the board and donated his share of the company to charity. Waywire was sold to another video curation business the next month.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2016, Booker wrote an autobiography, "United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good".


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker regularly exercises and has been a vegetarian since 1992, when he was a student at Oxford University. He abstains from alcohol and "has no known vices or addictions" other than coffee. In 2014, Booker began practicing a vegan diet and has expressed his vegan ethical philosophy and advocacy for animals. As of June 2016, Booker worshiped at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 1992, Booker recounted in his column for "The Stanford Daily" that as a 15-year-old kissing a friend on New Year's Eve, he reached for her breast, had his hand pushed away once and then "reached [his] 'mark. The column described Booker's changed attitudes towards sexual relations and how "skewed attitudes" lead to rape. "The Daily Caller" and Fox News brought up the column during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in September 2018.


title: Cory Booker

text: From 1998 to 2006, Booker lived in Brick Towers, a troubled housing complex in Newark's Central Ward. In November 2006, as one of the last remaining tenants in Brick Towers, Booker left his apartment for the top unit in a three-story rental on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark's South Ward, an area described as "a drug- and gang-plagued neighborhood of boarded-up houses and empty lots." Brick Towers has since been demolished, and a new mixed-income development was built there in 2010.


title: Cory Booker

text: Since 2013, Booker has lived in a townhouse he owns in the Lincoln Park section of Newark's Central Ward, also known as "the Coast" for its arts, jazz, and nightlife history.


title: Cory Booker

text: In 2020, Booker learned that he and entertainer RuPaul are cousins, after both appeared on the TV show "Finding Your Roots".


title: Cory Booker

text: In November 2022, Booker wrote a letter of support and leniency for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to the federal judge before her sentencing hearing. In the letter, Booker said that Holmes "holds onto the hope that she can make contributions to the lives of others and that she can, despite mistakes, make the world a better place."


title: Cory Booker

text: Booker has never been married, and in 2013 he was named one of "Town & Country"s "Top 40 Bachelors". Although he has generally tried to keep his personal life private, Booker has in the past referred to himself as a "straight male" and said that he is trying to date more in hopes of finding someone to settle down with. He has been romantically linked to poet Cleo Wade. In March 2019, actress Rosario Dawson confirmed to TMZ that she was in a relationship with Booker. Their relationship ended in February 2022.


title: Cory Booker

text: In a 1992 column in "The Stanford Daily", Booker admitted that as a teenager he had "hated gays." He has himself been the target of rumors about being gay and has generally refused to address these on principle, as he explained in 2013:


title: Cory Booker

text: Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, "So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight."


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle ( ; born March 9, 1969) is an American television news personality and former prosecuting attorney in San Francisco. A Republican, she became an advisor to the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle studied at University of California, Davis, and the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she earned a J.D. degree. She became a prosecuting attorney in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. She was an assistant district attorney in San Francisco from 2000 to 2004. Guilfoyle married Democratic politician Gavin Newsom. She was First Lady of San Francisco during Newsom's first two years as mayor of that city. He later served as governor of the state. Since 2018 she has been the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: She worked at Fox News from 2006 to 2018, and co-hosted "The Five" on the network. She later joined America First Policies, a pro-Trump super PAC, to campaign for Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle was born in San Francisco on March 9, 1969. Her mother was Puerto Rican and her father was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States at the age of 20. She was raised Catholic. She grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco and in Westlake, Daly City.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle's mother, Mercedes, taught special education. She died of leukemia when Guilfoyle was 11. Her father, Anthony "Tony" Guilfoyle, was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States in 1957 at the age of 20. In 1958, while still an Irish citizen, he was drafted and spent four years in the U.S. Army. After being discharged from the army, Tony Guilfoyle took up work in the construction trades. He later became a real estate investor. Until his death in 2008, he was a close advisor to his son-in-law, then-San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle graduated from San Francisco's Mercy High School, and the University of California, Davis. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1994. While in law school, she interned at the San Francisco district attorney's office. She also modeled for Macy's and a bridal magazine.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: She later studied at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. While there, Guilfoyle published research in international children's rights and European Economic Community law.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: After law school, Guilfoyle taught in a public school district and briefly worked as a prosecutor in San Francisco. She lost her job in 1996 when Terence Hallinan was elected district attorney and fired 14 of the city's prosecutors.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle worked for four years in Los Angeles as a deputy district attorney, serving on adult and juvenile cases, including alleged crimes related to narcotics, domestic violence, kidnapping, robbery, arson, sexual assault, and homicide cases. She received several awards at the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, including Prosecutor of the Month.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2000, Guilfoyle was rehired by Hallinan in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, where she was an assistant district attorney from 2000 to 2004. During this time she obtained a conviction while co-prosecuting with James Hammer in the 2002 case "People v. Noel and Knoller", a second-degree murder trial involving a dog mauling; it received international attention.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In January 2004, Guilfoyle moved to New York to host the program "Both Sides" on Court TV. In addition, she worked as a legal analyst on "Anderson Cooper 360°".


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: She joined Fox News in February 2006 as host of the weekend show "The Lineup". This was eventually canceled. Guilfoyle remained a regular contributor for the network, and in 2011 was picked as co-host of "The Five". She worked as a host on the show until 2018.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2014, she began hosting and then co-hosting "Outnumbered" for nearly fifty episodes, plus a few more appearances until June 2018. Guilfoyle also appeared weekly on the recurring segment "Is It Legal?" on "The O'Reilly Factor", until that show was cancelled in 2017, and as a weekly Thursday guest on Brian Kilmeade's Kilmeade and Friends radio show. Guilfoyle guest-hosted "Hannity", "On the Record", "Justice with Judge Jeanine", and "Fox and Friends".


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In mid-2017, Guilfoyle signed a long-term contract extension with Fox. A year later, in July 2018, Guilfoyle abruptly left Fox News; she began working for a pro-Donald Trump super PAC. "HuffPost" reported that, at the time of her departure, the network had been in the midst of a year-long investigation of a sexual harassment accusation against Guilfoyle. Network officials had given Guilfoyle an ultimatum: resign by the end of July or be fired. "The New Yorker" subsequently corroborated reports that Guilfoyle had been forced to resign rather than leaving by choice.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: After Guilfoyle left, Fox News agreed to an out-of-court settlement with an assistant who had accused Guilfoyle of sexual harassment. Terms were not disclosed. "The New Yorker" reported that the settlement was at least $4 million. The assistant alleged that Guilfoyle frequently displayed herself naked, showed photographs of the genitalia of men she had sex with, and required her to sleep over at Guilfoyle's apartment. "The New Yorker" independently verified several of the assistant's allegations.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2015, Guilfoyle published a semi-autobiographical advice book, titled "Making the Case: How to Be Your Own Best Advocate", on her experiences growing up, working as a prosecutor, and encouraging people to advocate for themselves.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In December 2016, it was reported that Guilfoyle was being considered for the position of press secretary for President Donald Trump. Sean Spicer was considered the front-runner for the position and was ultimately selected. On the May 12, 2017, edition of "The Five", co-host Bob Beckel hinted that Guilfoyle turned the job down. However, in an interview with Bay Area News Group on May 15, 2017, Guilfoyle confirmed she was in contact with the White House about the position following Spicer's resignation. "I'm a patriot, and it would be an honor to serve the country", Guilfoyle said. "I think it'd be a fascinating job, it's a challenging job, and you need someone really determined and focused, a great communicator in there with deep knowledge to be able to handle that position." However, on May 19, Guilfoyle said she was under contract with Fox, indicating she turned the White House down. One month later, she extended her contract with Fox.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2018, "The Washington Post" described Guilfoyle as a "conservative cheerleader for President Trump".


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2020, Guilfoyle was reported to be the chair of the finance committee of the Trump Victory Committee. As of early 2020, the Trump campaign was secretly paying Guilfoyle $15,000 per month through the campaign manager's private company, Parscale Strategy. Guilfoyle served as a surrogate on the stump and took on broad advisory roles. In the Trump 2020 campaign, Guilfoyle managed a fund-raising division. This division paid socialite Somers Farkas to raise money. The fundraising division managed by Guilfoyle was in internal turmoil amid departures of experienced staff and accusations of irresponsible spending.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In August 2020, at the Republican National Convention, Guilfoyle gave a speech endorsing Trump that was widely described by some observers as unnecessarily loud or unhinged. Others in media described it as passionate. She was criticized for describing herself as a first-generation American when her mother was from Puerto Rico and thus an American citizen. She is a first generation American on her father's side, as he immigrated here from Ireland.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In January 2021, Guilfoyle joined President Trump, Donald Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Eric Trump, and others on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. to address the "Save America March". This resulted in the attack on the Capitol. Having raised millions of dollars to support the rally, Guilfoyle was also involved in organizing the protest at the Capitol. She was paid $60,000 for her 2-3 minute rally speech.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: Guilfoyle was featured in a video screened at the rally by Donald Jr., "break[ing] into the hip-shaking dance she's been showcasing at other recent pro-Trump rallies" and "tell[ing] Trump fans: 'Have the courage to do the right thing! Fight!'".


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In 2001, Guilfoyle married politician Gavin Newsom, then a San Francisco city supervisor. Newsom was elected Mayor of San Francisco in 2003. While married to Newsom, she used the name Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom. The couple appeared in the September 2004 issue of "Harper's Bazaar"; the spread had them posed at the Getty Villa, and they were referred to in the title as the "New Kennedys". In January 2005, citing the strain of a bicoastal marriage, Guilfoyle and Newsom jointly filed for divorce. Their divorce was final on February 28, 2006.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: On May 27, 2006, in Barbados, Guilfoyle married furniture heir Eric Villency. Guilfoyle gave birth to their son, Ronan Anthony, on October 4, 2006. In June 2009, Guilfoyle and Villency announced that they were separating; their divorce was finalized later that year.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In June 2018, Vanessa Trump, who had filed for divorce three months earlier, confirmed that Guilfoyle was dating her estranged husband, Donald Trump Jr. The Trumps' divorce was final in 2018.


title: Kimberly Guilfoyle

text: In mid-2019, Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. jointly purchased a $4.4 million home in The Hamptons. They sold it in March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic for $8.14 million. In March 2021, Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. jointly purchased a $9.7 million home in Jupiter, Florida. Guilfoyle and Trump became engaged on December 31, 2020. The news of the engagement was not made public until January 2022.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: Eddi-Rue McClanahan (February 21, 1934 – June 3, 2010) was an American actress and comedian best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on "Maude" (1972–78), Aunt Fran Crowley on "Mama's Family" (1983–84), and Blanche Devereaux on "The Golden Girls" (1985–92), for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1987.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: Eddi-Rue McClanahan was born in Healdton, Oklahoma, on February 21, 1934. She was the daughter of Dreda Rheua-Nell ( Medaris), a beautician, and William Edwin "Bill" McClanahan, a building contractor. Her mother's maiden name was reportedly a variation of the Portuguese or Galician surname Medeiros (a derived from the Portuguese word, "medeiro," meaning "a place where shocks of maize are gathered").


title: Rue McClanahan

text: She was raised Methodist and was of Irish and Choctaw ancestry. Her Choctaw great-grandfather was named Running Hawk according to her autobiography "My First Five Husbands... and the Ones Who Got Away" (2007). She grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma; she graduated from Ardmore High School, where she acted in school plays and won the gold medal in oration. A National Honor Society member, McClanahan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, "cum laude", at the University of Tulsa, where she majored in both German and Theatre, and joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, serving as vice-president.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: A life member of the Actors Studio, McClanahan made her professional stage début at Pennsylvania's Erie Playhouse in 1957, in the play "Inherit the Wind". She began acting off-Broadway in New York City in 1957, but did not make her Broadway début until 1969, when she portrayed Sally Weber in the original production of John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's play with music, "Jimmy Shine", with Dustin Hoffman in the title role.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: Her role as Caroline Johnson on the TV show "Another World" (from July 1970 to September 1971) brought her notice. Once her role on "Another World" ended, McClanahan joined the cast of the CBS soap opera "Where the Heart Is", in which she played Margaret Jardin.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: In the 1972 episode of "All in the Family", "The Bunkers and the Swingers", McClanahan and Vincent Gardenia play a swinging couple who meet the unsuspecting Bunkers. McClanahan first worked with actress Beatrice Arthur on the sitcom "Maude" (1972–78). Arthur played Maude Findlay, and McClanahan played Maude's best friend Vivian Cavender, who eventually married Maude's next-door neighbor Dr. Arthur Harmon (played by Conrad Bain).


title: Rue McClanahan

text: After "Maude", McClanahan starred in "Apple Pie", a series created for her by Norman Lear, but which only aired 2 episodes before it was cancelled. In an interview, McClanahan said she also did the pilot episode of "The Baxters" for Norman Lear but told him she didn't want to do the series itself. It is unknown if her appearance was in the actual pilot or an unaired pilot, presumably the latter given she is not credited and the show is not attributed to her anywhere. It is also possible she never actually filmed the episode but was just considering it. A script binder entitled "The Baxters" was discovered many years later to be a part of her personal collection.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: On "Mama's Family" (1983–90), McClanahan portrayed an uptight spinster sister Fran Crowley to Mama Thelma Harper (Vicki Lawrence). Fran was a journalist for the local paper. Also in the cast was McClanahan's future "Golden Girls" costar Betty White. McClanahan and White appeared on the first two seasons before the show was cancelled by NBC and then retooled for first run syndication.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: On "The Golden Girls" (1985–92) and its short-lived successor "The Golden Palace" (1992–93), McClanahan portrayed man-crazed Southern belle Blanche Devereaux, owner of the house she lived in and rented out to her three roommates and best friends: Dorothy Zbornak (Beatrice Arthur), Rose Nylund (Betty White), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). McClanahan received four Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show, winning the award in 1987.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: She appeared as a leader of Al-Anon in a 1970s informational film called "Slight Drinking Problem", in which Patty Duke played the enabling and eventually self-empowered wife of an alcoholic. In feature films, she appeared in "The Rotten Apple" (1961) and "Walk the Angry Beach" (1968). She appeared as Ruth Rempley, the wife of a swinger couple in an episode of "All in the Family" in 1972. She appeared in the Walter Matthau-Jack Lemmon comedy "Out to Sea" (1997).


title: Rue McClanahan

text: On television, she appeared as Matilda Joslyn Gage, mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum in the made-for-TV movie "" (1990). She made guest appearances on "Murder, She Wrote" and "Newhart". In the early 1990s, McClanahan appeared as Margaret Becker in a trilogy of made-for-television films: "Children of the Bride", "Baby of the Bride", and "Mother of the Bride". She voice-acted in cartoons, voicing Scarlett in the 1997 Fox Christmas special "Annabelle's Wish". She played the role of Steve's grandmother in the "Blue's Clues" video "Blue's Big Treasure Hunt" (1999). On "Spider-Man: The Animated Series", she appeared in the 1994 episode "Doctor Octopus: Armed And Dangerous" as Anastasia Hardy. She played a biology teacher in 1997's "Starship Troopers". She voiced the role of Bunny in a 2007 episode of "King of the Hill", "Hair Today, Gone Today". In 2009, she appeared in an episode of "Law & Order" as a woman who had an affair with John F. Kennedy.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: On Broadway, McClanahan replaced Tammy Grimes as "The Visitor from New York" (Hannah Warren) in the Neil Simon comedy "California Suite" from April 4, 1977, until the show closed on July 2 of that same year.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: In 2003, she appeared alongside Mark Hamill in the two-hander "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. She chose not to continue with the production and was replaced by Polly Bergen for the Broadway performances. The same year, she appeared in the musical romantic comedy film "The Fighting Temptations" as Nancy Stringer, which costarred Cuba Gooding, Jr., Beyoncé Knowles, Mike Epps, and Steve Harvey. On Broadway, she replaced Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible in the musical "Wicked" on May 31, 2005. She played the role for eight months until January 8, 2006. She was replaced by Carol Kane on January 10, 2006.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: Her autobiography, "My First Five Husbands ... and the Ones Who Got Away", was released in 2007. In June 2008, "The Golden Girls" was awarded the 'Pop Culture' award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. McClanahan accepted the award with co-stars Bea Arthur and Betty White. McClanahan's final acting role was in the cable series "" on the Logo network, which premiered July 23, 2008, playing Peggy Ingram.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: An animal rights advocate and vegetarian, McClanahan was one of the first celebrity supporters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She supported Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to transforming communities to protect and improve the lives of cats, and appeared in a public service announcement for the organization in early 2010.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: McClanahan was a supporter of gay rights, including advocating for same-sex marriage in the United States. In January 2009, she appeared in the star-studded "Defying Inequality: The Broadway ConcertA Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights".


title: Rue McClanahan

text: On November 14, 2009, she was to be honored for her lifetime achievements at an event, "Golden: A Gala Tribute to Rue McClanahan", at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California. The event was postponed due to McClanahan's hospitalization. She underwent triple bypass surgery on November 4. It was reported on January 14, 2010, by "Entertainment Tonight", that, while recovering from surgery, the actress had suffered a minor stroke. In March 2010, fellow "Golden Girls" cast member Betty White reported on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" that McClanahan was doing well and that her speech had returned to normal.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: McClanahan died on June 3, 2010, at age 76, at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital after she suffered a brain hemorrhage. After cremation, her ashes were given to her family.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: McClanahan was survived by her sixth husband, Morrow Wilson (from whom she separated in 2009); her son from her first marriage, Mark Bish (of Austin, Texas); her sister, Melinda Lou McClanahan (of Silver City, New Mexico); and other family including her niece, actress and author Amelia.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: No funeral service was held for McClanahan; her family created an official memorial page on Facebook, and memorial services were held during the summer of 2010 in New York and Los Angeles. On June 10, 2010, her New York apartment went on the market for an asking price of $2.25 million.


title: Rue McClanahan

text: In February 2017, a "Golden Girls–"themed eatery named Rue La Rue Cafe, owned by McClanahan's close friend Michael La Rue (who inherited many of the star's personal belongings and in turn decorated the restaurant with them), opened in the Washington Heights section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. However, after less than a year in business, the cafe closed in November 2017.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Robert James Smith (born 21 April 1959) is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band the Cure, which he co-founded in 1978. He was also the lead guitarist for the band Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1982 to 1984, and was part of the short-lived group the Glove in 1983.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith is known for his guitar-playing style, distinctive voice, and fashion sense, with the lattera pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, a dishevelled nest of wiry black hair, and all-black clothesbeing highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Robert James Smith was born in Blackpool on 21 April 1959, the third of four children of Rita Mary (née Emmott) and James Alexander Smith. He came from a musical family; his father sang, and his mother played the piano. Raised as a Catholic, he later became an atheist. When he was three years old, his family moved to Horley, where he attended St Francis' Primary School. When he was six, his family moved to Crawley, where he attended St Francis' Junior School. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School from 1970 to 1972, and St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School from 1972 to 1977. He and his younger sister Janet received piano lessons as children. Smith said, "[Janet] was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldn't get her fingers around the neck." He told Chris Heath of "Smash Hits" that from about 1966 (when Smith turned seven years old) his brother Richard, who is 13 years older, taught him "a few basic chords" on guitar.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith began taking classical guitar lessons from the age of nine with a student of John Williams, who he said was "a really excellent guitarist". However, he said, "I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun. I wish I'd stuck with it." He has said his guitar tutor was "horrified" by his playing. He gave up formal tuition and began teaching himself to play by ear, listening to his older brother's record collection. He was 13 or 14 when he became more serious about rock music and "started to play and learn frenetically". Up until December 1972, he did not have a guitar of his own and had been borrowing his brother's, so his brother gave him the guitar for Christmas. Smith said of this gift, "I'd commandeered it anyway–so whether he was officially giving it to me at Christmas or not, I was going to have it!" Rock biographer Jeff Apter maintains that the guitar Smith received for Christmas of 1972 was from his parents, and equates this item with Smith's notorious Woolworths "Top 20" guitar, later used on many of The Cure's earliest recordings. Smith was quoted in several earlier sources as saying he purchased the guitar himself for £20 in 1978.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith described Notre Dame Middle School as "a very free-thinking establishment" with an experimental approach, a freedom he claims to have abused. On one occasion, he said that he wore a black velvet dress to school and kept it on all day because "the teachers just thought 'oh, it's a phase he's going through, he's got some personality crisis, let's help him through it'". According to Smith, "four other kids" beat him up after school, although Jeff Apter notes that Smith has given several conflicting versions of the story. Apter also reports that Smith put in minimal effort at Notre Dame, sufficient enough to pass tests, and quotes Smith as saying, "If you were crafty enough, you could convince the teachers you were special: I did virtually nothing for three years." St Wilfrid's was reportedly stricter than Notre Dame. In the summer of 1975, Smith and his school bandmates took their O Levels, but only he and Michael Dempsey stayed on to attend sixth form at St Wilfrid's from 1976 to 1977.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith has said that he was expelled from St Wilfrid's as an "undesirable influence" after his band Malice's second live performance shortly before Christmas 1976, which took place at the school and allegedly caused a riot: "I got taken back [in 1977] but they never acknowledged that I was there [...] I did three A levels – failed biology miserably, scraped through French and got a 'B' in English. Then I spent eight or nine months on social security until they stopped my money, so I thought, 'Now's the time to make a demo and see what people think.'" According to Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray, biographers of The Cure, the school expelled ex-Malice co-founder Marc Ceccagno along with Smith, whose new band Amulet played the December school show. Smith has given conflicting accounts of his alleged expulsion, elsewhere saying that he was merely suspended and that it was because he did not get along with the school headmaster, and on another occasion saying he was suspended because his "attitude towards religion was considered wrong".


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith has said that his first band when he was 14 consisted of himself, his brother Richard, their younger sister Janet, and some of Richard's friends. He remarked, "It was called the Crawley Goat Band – brilliant!" However, while the Crawley Goat Band may have been Smith's first regular group, he would have been just 13 when he and his Notre Dame schoolmates gave their first one-off performance together as The Obelisk, an early incarnation of what would eventually become The Cure. The Obelisk featured Smith (still playing piano at this point) alongside Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar), Michael Dempsey (guitar), Alan Hill (bass), and Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion) and, according to The Cure's official biography "Ten Imaginary Years", gave their only performance at a school function in April 1972. Jeff Apter, however, dates the performance to April 1973, which is at variance with Smith and his bandmates having already left Notre Dame Middle School by this time.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: During the latter part of 1972, the nucleus of Smith, Ceccagno, Dempsey and Tolhurst had gone on to secondary school together at St Wilfrid's Comprehensive, where they and their friends continued playing music together. Smith said that they were known simply as "The Group" "because it was the only one at school so we didn't need a name." Dempsey, who eventually moved from guitar to bassist for "The Group", said that another name they toyed with was the Brat's Club – a reference to Evelyn Waugh's "A Handful of Dust". Smith said that "the group" eventually became Malice, "sort of a sub-metal punk group -with Michael Dempsey, Laurence and two other blokes." According to the band's "Ten Imaginary Years" biography, between January and December 1976, the shifting line-up for Malice featured several "other blokes", with founding guitarist Marc Ceccagno being replaced by Porl Thompson, an early drummer known only as "Graham" replaced by Lol Tolhurst, and "Graham's brother" replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy. By 1977, Malice had become Easy Cure.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: Smith did not intend to become the lead vocalist of The Cure. Bowler and Dray note that The Obelisk had "featured Dempsey and Ceccagno as guitarists and him [Robert] on piano as very much a background player." As "The Group" gradually became Malice and began regular rehearsals in January 1976, Smith was still one of several floating members. Of their first "proper" rehearsal at St Edwards Church, Smith said:


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: By December 1976, Graham's brother had been replaced by vocalist Martin Creasy, a journalist with "The Crawley Observer", whose brief tenure with the group was a live débâcle according to those involved. By January 1977 Malice had changed their name to Easy Cure, partly to distance themselves from these earlier shows. Both drummer Lol Tolhurst and bassist Mick Dempsey are also noted as having performed vocals with the group in the early years. Tolhurst also sang on a cover of "Wild Thing" at Malice's early shows, and Dempsey sang backing vocals on songs like "Killing An Arab", and even recorded lead vocals on one track on The Cure's debut album, their cover of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady". During March 1977, a vocalist named Gary X came and went, and was replaced by Peter O'Toole, described as "a demon footballer and Bowie fan" who made his singing debut in April. O'Toole remained Easy Cure's steady front man for several months while the group played the local pub circuit, "building up an enormous local following", and was even the singer on the home demo tapes that landed them their first recording contract with Hansa Records.


title: Robert Smith (musician)

text: However, by the time Easy Cure entered London's Sound And Vision Studio to record for Hansa in October 1977, O'Toole had left to work on a Kibbutz in Israel. Smith then fell into the vocalist role by default, since no better replacement appeared. He told "Musician" magazine in 1989: