title: Voice of America

text: On June 3, 2020, the Senate confirmed Michael Pack, a maker of conservative documentaries and close ally of Steve Bannon, to serve as head of the United States Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA. Subsequently, Director Bennet and deputy director Sandy Sugawara resigned from VOA. CNN reported on June 16 that plans for a leadership shakeup at VOA were being discussed, including the possibility that controversial former White House aide Sebastian Gorka would be given a leadership role at VOA. On June 17, the heads of VOA's Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Technology Fund were all fired, their boards were dissolved and external communications from VOA employees made to require approval from senior agency personnel in what one source described as an "unprecedented" move, while Jeffrey Shapiro, like Pack a Bannon ally, was rumored to be in line to head the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Four former members of the advisory boards subsequently filed suit challenging Pack's standing to fire them. On July 9, NPR reported VOA would not renew the work visas of dozens of non-resident reporters, many of whom could face repercussions in their home countries. In late July, four contractors and the head of VOA's Urdu language service were suspended after a video featuring extensive clips from a Muslim-American voter conference, including a campaign message from then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, was determined not to meet editorial standards and taken down.


title: Voice of America

text: On August 12, 2020, USAGM chief financial officer Grant Turner and general counsel David Kligerman were removed from their positions and stripped of their security clearances, reportedly for their opposition to what Turner called "gross mismanagement," along with four other senior agency officials. Politico reported on August 13 that Trump administration official and former shock jock Frank Wuco had been hired as a USAGM senior advisor, responsible for auditing the agency's office of policy and research. As a radio host, Wuco issued insults and groundless claims against former US President Barack Obama, CIA Director John O. Brennan and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. VOA's Twitter account during this period featured stories favorable to Vice President Mike Pence and White House advisor Ivanka Trump.


title: Voice of America

text: In response to Pack's August 27 interview with The Federalist website, a group of VOA journalists sent a letter to VOA Acting Director Elez Biberaj complaining that his "comments and decisions 'endanger the personal security of VOA reporters at home and abroad, as well as threatening to harm U.S. national security objectives.'" VOA's response was that "it would not respond directly to the letter because it was 'improper' and 'failed to follow procedure.' Instead, the leadership of USAGM and VOA 'are handling the choice of complaint transmission as an administrative issue,' which suggested that the journalists could face sanctions for their letter," according to "The Washington Post". In the same story, the "Post" reported that VOA Spanish-language service White House correspondent's Brigo Segovia's interview with an official about the administration's response to Pack's personnel and other moves had been censored and his own access to VOA's computer system restricted.


title: Voice of America

text: On July 20, 2020, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine filed suit under the District's Nonprofit Corporations Act to reverse Pack's replacement of the Open Technology Fund (OTF) board. Beginning in August 2020, OTF came under increasing pressure from Peck and USAGM leadership. According to Axios, this was related to OTF's reluctance to extend grants to Falun Gong-related enterprises working on technology directed against China's Great Firewall; "The New York Times" noted Falun Gong and its Epoch Times media group frequently supported the Trump administration. On August 18, USAGM announced it was setting up its own Office of Internet Freedom with less strict grant requirements and began soliciting OTF's grantees to apply to the new office. On August 20, OTF sued USAGM in the US Court for Federal Claims for withholding nearly $20 million in previously-agreed grant funds. On October 15, summary judgment was granted nullifying Pack's attempt to replace the OTF board.


title: Voice of America

text: On September 29, six senior USAGM officials filed a whistleblower complaint in which they alleged that Pack or one of his aides had ordered research conducted into the voting history of at least one agency employee, which would be a violation of laws protecting civil servants from undue political influence. NPR reported that two Pack aides had compiled a report on VOA White House bureau chief Steven L. Herman's social media postings and other writings in an attempt to charge him with a conflict of interest, and that the agency released a conflict of interest policy stating in part that a "journalist who on Facebook 'likes' a comment or political cartoon that aggressively attacks or disparages the President must recuse themselves from covering the President." A preliminary injunction issued on November 20 barred Pack "from making personnel decisions involving journalists at the networks; from directly communicating with editors and journalists employed by them; and from investigating any editors or news stories produced by them" and characterized the investigation of Herman as an "unconstitutional prior restraint" of his, his editors' and fellow journalists' free speech.


title: Voice of America

text: Suspended officials from Voice of America sued the agency news outlet on October 8. They accused its chief operating officer, Michael Pack, of using Voice of America as a vehicle to promote the personal agenda of President Trump and of violating a statutory firewall intended to prevent political interference with the agency, and they are seeking their reinstatement.


title: Voice of America

text: Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign told Vox News in June 2020 that Biden would fire Pack if he won election. In November 2020, US District Judge Beryl Howell found Pack violated the First Amendment rights of Voice of America journalists.


title: Voice of America

text: In December 2020, the "Washington Post" reported Pack was refusing to cooperate with President-elect Biden's transition team and, in an end run around the court order, had persuaded VOA Acting Director Biberaj to step down, replacing him with Robert Reilly, a former VOA director who had written critically of Muslims, gays and lesbians. On December 19, 33 days before President-elect Biden's inauguration, Pack named Ted Lipien, a former VOA veteran journalist who headed the Polish Service during the final struggle for democracy in Poland in the 1980s and a former acting associate director of VOA who, according to NPR, "became a sharp critic of USAGM, VOA and the other affiliated networks on a pair of blogs" and "of the three network presidents affected, the only one without established partisan ties," – as head of RFE/RL, and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a writer for Breitbart and "The Washington Times" who had claimed President Obama "hates America," as head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. On December 30, NPR reported Pack was attempting to add contractual language that would make it impossible to fire the broadcasting board members he had installed for two years, after which they could only be fired "for cause." Reportedly the new contracts had been withdrawn after inquiries from media and Congress.


title: Voice of America

text: On January 11, 2021, VOA interim director Reilly ordered veteran reporter Patsy Widakuswara off the White House beat. Earlier that day, Widakuswara had followed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo out of the building after his speech criticizing the VOA and his VOA-sponsored interview with VOA Director Robert Reilly during which reporters were not allowed to ask questions. Widakuswara asked Pompeo what he was doing to repair the international reputation of the U.S. and whether he regretted saying there would be a second Trump administration. The theme of the preceding interview with VOA Director Robert Reilly was reportedly the dangers of censorship. In response, dozens of VOA journalists, including Widakuswara, wrote and circulated a petition calling on Reilly and public affairs specialist Elizabeth Robbins to resign. In a statement, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks and ranking member Michael McCaul said, "Absent a legitimate reason for this move, which has not been provided, we believe she should be reinstated". Widakuswara was reinstated to the White House beat after President Biden requested the resignation of Michael Pack.


title: Voice of America

text: On January 19, the Government Accountability Project, representing fired USAGM employees and whistleblowers, sent a letter to the Congressional foreign affairs committees, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Inspector General of the US Department of State. The letter reported that Pack had hired the McGuireWoods law firm to investigate USAGM employees and the OTF at a cost of over $2 million in the last quarter of 2020 alone, bypassing US government investigators including USAGM's own Office of Human Resources, and called for further investigation of what it termed a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. "The Washington Post" later reported a second law firm, Caplin & Drysdale, had also been granted a similar no-bid contract in possible violation of Federal contracting regulations for a total cost of $4 million.


title: Voice of America

text: Also on January 19, the last full day of the Trump presidency, Pack named a slate of five directors to head each of the three USAGM boards for RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks: conservative radio talk show host Blanquita Cullum, Liberty Counsel officer Johnathan Alexander, former White House staffer Amanda Milius, conservative writer Roger Simon and Center for the National Interest Fellow Christian Whiton. The following day, Pack resigned at the request of the Biden administration. Shapiro resigned from the Office of Cuba Broadcasting on January 21. Biden named veteran VOA journalist Kelu Chao to replace Pack. Chao in turn dismissed Riley and Robbins from VOA, naming Yolanda Lopez, another VOA veteran, as acting director; Lopez had also been reassigned in the wake of the Pompeo interview. On January 22, the Biden administration fired Victoria Coates and her deputy Robert Greenway from the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, naming Kelley Sullivan as acting head.


title: Voice of America

text: On April 19, 2017, VOA interviewed the Chinese real estate tycoon Guo Wengui in a live broadcast. The whole interview was scheduled for 3 hours. After Guo Wengui alleged to own evidence of corruption among the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of China, the highest political authority of China, the interview was abruptly cut off, after only one hour and seventeen minutes of broadcasting. Guo's allegations involved Fu Zhenhua and Wang Qishan, the latter being a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the leader of the massive anti-graft movement. It was reported that the Government of China warned VOA's representatives not to interview Guo for his "unsubstantiated allegations". Four members of the U.S. Congress requested the Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into this interruption on August 27, 2017. The OIG investigation concluded that the decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices rather than any pressure from the Chinese government.


title: Voice of America

text: Another investigation, by Mark Feldstein, Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park and a journalist with decades of experiences as an award-winning television investigative reporter, concluded that "The failure to comply with leadership's instructions during the Guo interview "was a colossal and unprecedented violation of journalistic professionalism and broadcast industry standards." The report also said that "There had been a grossly negligent approach" to pre-interview vetting and failure to "corroborate the authenticity of Guo's evidence or interview other sources" in violation of industry standards. The interview team apparently "demonstrated greater loyalty to its source than to its employer — at the expense of basic journalistic standards of accuracy, verification, and fairness," the Feldstein report concluded.


title: Voice of America

text: It has been reported that a Voice of America relay station in Udon Thani Province Thailand was used as a CIA black site referred to as "Cat's Eye" or "Detention Site Green".


title: Voice of America

text: DEEWA Radio, of the VOA, airs in Pakistan. Although some listeners are suspicious that the program is promoting an American agenda, others claim to be experiencing a positive effect. Some listeners feel that the programs are giving a voice to the voiceless, leading them to a sense of empowerment.


title: Voice of America

text: VOA's service in Iran has had a negative impact on Kurds and Kurdistan according to the publication, Kurdish Life. They claim that the VOA has exacerbated the conflict between the Talabani and the Barzani. They further claim that the VOA is covering up wrongful imprisonments, wrongful arrests, and the building of extremist mosques. According to the same publication, Kurds are being turned into fanatics, and a new generation of terrorists is forming because of the VOA. They claim the VOA is doing this to help PUK.


title: Voice of America

text: There is evidence to suggest that the people who listen to the Latin American service are being influenced, but not in the way the VOA wants. Instead of understanding and adopting the American way of life, listeners are parroting values and beliefs that do not mesh with their lives. However, others have adopted a negative view of America, because they think that the VOA is propaganda.


title: Voice of America

text: A study was done on Chinese students in America. It found that through the VOA, they disapproved of the actions of the Chinese government. Another study was done on Chinese scholars in America, and found that the VOA had an effect on their political beliefs. Their political beliefs did not change in relation to China, though, as they did not tend to believe the VOA's reports on China.


title: Voice of America

text: In response to the request of the United States Department of Justice that RT register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Russia's Justice Ministry Konovalov labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as foreign agents in December 2017.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian-American comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel voiced the character Gizmo in the 1984 film "Gremlins" and the 1990 sequel "". In 1987, Mandel starred alongside Amy Steel in the comedy film "Walk Like a Man". From 1982 to 1988, Mandel played the rowdy ER intern Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama "St. Elsewhere". He also created, voiced and starred in the FOX children's cartoon "Bobby's World". Additionally, he has been a judge on NBC's "America's Got Talent" since 2010, and Citytv's "Canada's Got Talent" since 2022. He hosted the American NBC and later CNBC game show "Deal or No Deal", as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. In 2022, he began hosting the first season of Netflix's "Bullsh*t the Game Show".


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel was born and raised in the Willowdale area of North York, Ontario. He is Jewish, and his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland. Mandel is a distant cousin of Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman. His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate agent. Mandel attended William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, where he was expelled for impersonating a school official and hiring a construction company to build an addition to the school. Afterwards, Mandel worked as a carpet salesman. He was a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, and by September 1978 he had a week-long booking as a featured act, which was billed as "a wild and crazy borderline psychotic." His repertoire included placing a latex glove over his head and inflating it by blowing through his nose, the fingers of the glove extending above his head like a cockscomb. When the audience reacted uproariously to that and similar antics, his trademark response was to extend his arms palms up, look incredulous, and say, "It's you."


title: Howie Mandel

text: On a trip to Los Angeles, Mandel performed a set at The Comedy Store, which resulted in his being hired as a regular performer. A producer for the syndicated comedy game show "Make Me Laugh" saw him there, and booked Mandel for several appearances during the show's run in 1979 and 1980. He was booked to open for David Letterman at shows in the summer of 1979. CBC-TV's head of variety programming saw his performance in October 1979 and immediately signed him for a TV special. In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie "Gas", co-starring Susan Anspach and Donald Sutherland. Mandel was one of the first "VeeJays" to appear on Nickelodeon's music video series "PopClips".


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel came to national attention in the United States during a six-year run on "St. Elsewhere", starting in 1982 and playing the role of Dr. Wayne Fiscus, opposite Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd. He also appeared on a week's worth of episodes of the short-lived NBC game show "Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour" in March 1984. While working as Dr. Fiscus and continuing to work as a comedian, Mandel also did movies, including providing the voice of Gizmo in the 1984 hit "Gremlins" and its 1990 sequel, "". In 1985, Mandel made a cameo in the Michael J. Fox directed short "The Iceman Hummeth," which was subsequently broadcast on "Late Night with David Letterman" in November 1985. In 1986, he starred in "A Fine Mess" alongside Ted Danson. He performed his stand-up comedy act in several cities (the "Watusi Tour"), which was followed by his "Watusi" music video in 1987. For the first two seasons of "Muppet Babies", he voiced Bunsen Honeydew, Animal, and Skeeter. He starred alongside Amy Steel in the 1987 comedy film "Walk Like a Man". He was also "Maurice" in the 1989 movie "Little Monsters". In 1990, he starred in the short-lived sitcom "Good Grief" on Fox. He was also the creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated children's animated series "Bobby's World" (1990–1998) to which he supplied the voices of the title character and his father. "Bobby's World" ran for seven seasons on Fox and was later syndicated.


title: Howie Mandel

text: 1992 saw the weekly airing of his self-titled comedy show "Howie", with multiple guest stars such as Gilbert Gottfried and Little Richard and Lita Ford as the in-house band guitarist. His character Bobby made a regular appearance on the show. In 1994, Mandel voiced the lead character, Little Howie, of the video game "Tuneland". He starred in the sketch comedy series "Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies" in 1995 on Showtime. Mandel appeared in the 1995 Clint Black music video "Summer's Comin'." He played the lead role of the professor in the short-lived TV series "The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys", and he guest-starred on a 1996 episode of the ABC TV series "" as DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk. In 1998, he hosted his own syndicated talk show, "The Howie Mandel Show", which was canceled after one season. In 1999 to 2000, he played Jason in the film "", was the voice of Jack in the movie "The Tangerine Bear" in 2000, and in 2002 he played the Sand Man in the movie "Hansel and Gretel". In 2006, he appeared as himself as a guest host in a parody of "Deal or No Deal" in the show-within-a-show of the TV series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". In 2007, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of NBC's "Medium" and made a dream cameo of himself on "Deal or No Deal". In that episode, he booted the nighttime drama's protagonist off for "cheating" since in the show, he is a psychic medium and appeared to "know" the contents of the cases. Mandel plays his alter ego, Phil Skorjanc, in most of his comedy shows, which are a fan favorite. Bobby also made a cameo appearance in a February 2007 episode of "Deal or No Deal". On a special two-hour Christmas episode, first aired on December 25, 2007, Mandel delivered one line with Bobby's voice, as requested by the contestant.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel's signature stunt as a stand-up comedian (besides his Bobby alter ego) was stretching a latex glove over his head, inflating it with his nostrils, and filling it until it suddenly propelled itself off his head. That trick also lent itself to the title and cover photo of his comedy album "Fits Like a Glove" (1986). He eventually gave up the routine under doctor's orders after being diagnosed with a perforated sinus. However, in a cameo role as himself on "My Name is Earl", he did the routine. He guest-starred in two episodes of "Monk" ("Mr. Monk Joins a Cult" and "Mr. Monk's 100th Case").


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel is known for his frequent appearances as a comedian and for his hidden camera segments on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". He has appeared in many television commercials for Boston Pizza as their hired spokesperson. In April 2004, he appeared as number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. In October 2005, he was named to be the host of the US version of "Deal or No Deal", which debuted on December 19, 2005, on NBC, and became a popular program in early 2006. Mandel also hosts "Deal or No Deal Canada"; originating from Toronto, "Deal or No Deal Canada" debuted in January 2007 on Global, which made him one of the few game show hosts ("Weakest Link'"s Anne Robinson, "The Chair"s John McEnroe, "Pyramid"s Donny Osmond, "The Singing Bee"s Joey Fatone, and "Minute to Win It"s Darren McMullen being others) to host both a domestic and an international version of the same game show. Mandel joins Alex Trebek, Jim Perry, and Geoff Edwards on the list of game show hosts who emceed one game show simultaneously in Canada and the United States.


title: Howie Mandel

text: In 2007, Mandel made an appearance in an episode of "Sesame Street" 38th season. That same year, he was parodied on the show as Howie Eatswell, the Muppet host of "Sesame"s game show segment "Meal or No Meal." Mandel has hosted the DVD game version of "Deal or No Deal", "Fact or Crap Beat Da Bomb" and "Would You Rather" for Imagination Games.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel had a cameo appearance as himself on the NBC show "My Name is Earl" in the episode where Earl's roommates robbed an Indian casino at which Mandel was performing. While stealing money, they also kidnapped Mandel. In the episode, Mandel performed his old routine of inflating a rubber glove over his head with his nostrils.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel is a notable alumnus of Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am's Hebrew School located in Toronto, as well as three other Toronto high schools. Mandel is currently performing a variety/comedy act at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Starting in 2007, Mandel became a spokesperson for Internet retailer buy.com. He is sometimes featured in a section called "What's Shakin'?" with Mandel. On September 8, 2008, Mandel began hosting a five-day-a-week syndicated daytime version of "Deal or No Deal", with a top prize of $500,000. On January 9, 2009, Mandel's reality show "Howie Do It" premiered on NBC.


title: Howie Mandel

text: On March 31, 2011, Mandel premiered a flash-mob show on Fox called "Mobbed". Originally a presentation pilot, the ratings after "American Idol" prompted Fox to pick up the show for eight to ten episodes.


title: Howie Mandel

text: On November 30, 2012, he hosted the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony. On December 10, 2012, his six-night special game show "Take It All" premiered.


title: Howie Mandel

text: He appeared in one episode of the animated series "Fugget About It" as the voice of FBI Agent Rick Chickmagnet in 2013. Since 2013, Mandel has executive-produced the TBS hidden-camera show "Deal with It". He also regularly makes appearances and co-hosts the show along with main host Theo Von.


title: Howie Mandel

text: In 2003, while Mandel was deciding whether or not to quit show business, the executive producers at NBC asked him to host the show, but he declined many times. They then mailed him a tape of the overseas version and he finally accepted. In 2007, he hosted a five-episode run of the Canadian-English version "Deal or No Deal Canada". The show then went to daytime with Mandel remaining as host, although Arsenio Hall was originally intended to host the show. In a January 2009 interview on "Anytime with Bob Kushell", Mandel expressed mild, jovial frustration over how some of his contestants hold out during the game show, despite the fact that the grand prize is many times what they would make in a year.


title: Howie Mandel

text: On March 12, 2018, it was announced that Mandel would host the 2018 CNBC revival of the game show and also become an executive producer. The show premiered on December 3, 2018.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel is one of three game show hosts to host the same game show in two different countries, the others being Donny Osmond for "Pyramid" and Anne Robinson for "The Weakest Link".


title: Howie Mandel

text: In January 2010, it was announced that Mandel would replace David Hasselhoff as one of the judges on NBC's "America's Got Talent" after Hasselhoff announced that he was leaving to work on a new television series. Out of all judges on the show, Mandel currently has the longest tenure than any other judge or host, spanning thirteen consecutive seasons (season 5–present).


title: Howie Mandel

text: In October 2021, it was announced that Mandel will be a judge on the second season of "Canada's Got Talent", which aired in 2022.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Since February 2021, Mandel has hosted the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff Podcast" with his daughter, Jackelyn Shultz, as co-host. According to the Apple Podcasts preview: "Together, these two make prank calls, discuss pop culture, interview interesting people, say weird things, chat with listeners, get deep..."


title: Howie Mandel

text: On April 27, 2022, Netflix released the 10 episode debut season of "Bullsh*t the Game Show" with Mandel as host of the program. It was Mandel's first game show since the cancellation of the "Deal or No Deal" revival on CNBC in 2019. In this game show contestants have a chance to win up to $1,000,000 by answering a series of trivia questions but have to also be able to convince ("bullshit") a group of prospective challengers that the answer they give is right, even if it's not. (The contestant is shown whether or not their answer is correct as soon as they choose it.) After explaining their reasoning, the judges will vote on whether they think the contestant is "bullshitting" (lying), or telling the truth. At a certain time after they are done convincing the judges, Mandel will ask the contestant if their answer is correct, or if they were "bullshitting." If the contestant's answer is correct (or if it's incorrect, but they successfully convinced at least one judge that they were telling the truth), they win and move on to the question. If they lie and none of the three judges buy it, they are removed from the game. The next contestant is the judge who most accurately guessed whether or not the contestant was truthful during each question.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel has been married to Terry Mandel (née Soil) since 1980. Together they have three children: daughters Jackie and Riley and son Alex.


title: Howie Mandel

text: On September 4, 2008, Mandel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Comedy Central listed him as No. 82 on their list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on September 12, 2009.


title: Howie Mandel

text: In October 2008, Mandel revealed that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the morning talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly", adding that he is currently working to raise adult ADHD awareness among the general public. On January 12, 2009, Mandel was reportedly sent to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto suffering from chest pains and what was reported as a minor heart attack. According to various news reports, he was experiencing an irregular heartbeat, but the reports were later revealed as inaccurate. He was later discharged. Mandel has written and published an in-depth autobiography which details his life with OCD, ADHD, and comedy called "".


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel is colorblind and a germaphobe. He contracted COVID-19 at the 2022 Kids' Choice Awards, which caused him to miss parts of the third, eighth, and tenth episodes, and the entire seventh episode of the seventeenth season of "America's Got Talent". It also led to physical and mental health struggles, including drug and substance abuse.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel has spoken publicly about having obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), which can take many forms, including mysophobia. Mandel's anxiety affects him to the point that he does not shake hands with anyone, including enthusiastic contestants on "Deal or No Deal", unless he is wearing latex gloves. Instead of shaking contestants' hands when they offer them, Mandel often opts to exchange fist bumps, put his hands on contestants' shoulders, or give an occasional hug. He once kissed a female contestant on the show for good luck despite his disorder. He now takes medicine to control his condition and even pokes fun at himself for it. On March 24, 2006, he revealed on "The Howard Stern Show" that his shaved head is not related to natural hair loss but to OCD. He stated that the lack of hair makes him feel cleaner. In the back yard of Mandel's house is a second, smaller house which he had built especially to live in solitude when a family member is sick. During his appearance on "Mad TV", Mandel and cast member Bobby Lee made fun of the former's condition. Mandel also confronted his germophobia in Season 4, Episode 1 of the Comedy Central series "This Is Not Happening". The show aired on February 3, 2018.


title: Howie Mandel

text: While guest-hosting on "Live with Regis and Kelly" in 2005, Mandel had an altercation in which his hand was seized by guest Rob Schneider, who condescendingly teased Mandel, stating he needed to 'get over' his phobia. Host Kelly Ripa admonished Schneider on-air, while also obtaining hand sanitizer for Mandel from an audience member.


title: Howie Mandel

text: In September 2007, Mandel interviewed former NFL running back Marshall Faulk on NFL Network. Faulk asked him to shake hands, but Mandel refused, noting he would rather have the fist tap, as he does with "Deal or No Deal" contestants. Seconds later, Faulk subjected him to a "sneak attack" and shook his right hand. Mandel screamed and walked away from Faulk. He then washed his hands several times. On a guest appearance on "Free Radio", Mandel explained that not only is he afraid of public bathrooms, but he is unable to use any bathroom other than his own.


title: Howie Mandel

text: During the ninth episode of season 5 of "America's Got Talent" in Chicago, contestant Zach Carty attempted an act involving sneezing. Mandel pressed his X button at the beginning of the act and ran into an aisle until the act was over. Carty was unable to perform the act. Mandel kept yelling at the other judges, Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne, to press their X buttons and for the audience to turn in his direction. Morgan eventually pressed the X button, but Osbourne refused, so Mandel promptly ran over and pressed her button, ending the act. In a backstage interview, he expressed to the television audience that he receives therapy to help him cope. In another "America's Got Talent" season 5 incident, Dan Sperry, a contestant on the YouTube quarterfinal depicted in episodes 21 and 22, dropped some dental floss that he had run through his neck as part of a magic act. He dropped the floss in Mandel's vicinity, prompting him to get up and run to the other side of the judges' table. Just before Sperry's next performance in the semifinals, Mandel admitted that it was "the most horrified" he'd been on the show and that his therapist "loves [Dan Sperry]" because there had been two extra sessions that week. During the premiere of season 6, juggler Frank Olivier grabbed Mandel's head to balance himself during a unicycle act. Despite receiving a buzzer from Mandel, Olivier moved on to the next round. Mandel refused to give Olivier any feedback during the judge's voting process.


title: Howie Mandel

text: During "AGT" 10th-season premiere, contestant Chris Jones directly utilized Mandel's fear of germs as the subject of his hypnotism act. Under the post-hypnotic suggestion that Jones and the other judges were wearing latex gloves, Mandel shook the bare hands of all involved, which elicited shouts of amazement. After viewing the video of the act, Mandel said that he was "upset" and "somewhat betrayed" by the act, but his therapist subsequently said it was a good thing. Jones progressed to the Judge's Cuts where he was eliminated from the competition.


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel commented in 2011 that he has struggled with the condition since childhood but did not seek help until he was an adult:


title: Howie Mandel

text: Mandel started his own charitable foundation called Breakout the Masks, which helps provide personal protective equipment to health care workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also involved in Bell's Let's Talk Day initiatives to help people struggling with mental health issues.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: In statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC, pronounced ) ― also known as Pearson's "r", the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC), the bivariate correlation, or colloquially simply as the correlation coefficient ― is a measure of linear correlation between two sets of data. It is the ratio between the covariance of two variables and the product of their standard deviations; thus, it is essentially a normalized measurement of the covariance, such that the result always has a value between −1 and 1. As with covariance itself, the measure can only reflect a linear correlation of variables, and ignores many other types of relationships or correlations. As a simple example, one would expect the age and height of a sample of teenagers from a high school to have a Pearson correlation coefficient significantly greater than 0, but less than 1 (as 1 would represent an unrealistically perfect correlation).


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: It was developed by Karl Pearson from a related idea introduced by Francis Galton in the 1880s, and for which the mathematical formula was derived and published by Auguste Bravais in 1844. The naming of the coefficient is thus an example of Stigler's Law.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Pearson's correlation coefficient is the covariance of the two variables divided by the product of their standard deviations. The form of the definition involves a "product moment", that is, the mean (the first moment about the origin) of the product of the mean-adjusted random variables; hence the modifier "product-moment" in the name.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Pearson's correlation coefficient, when applied to a population, is commonly represented by the Greek letter "ρ" (rho) and may be referred to as the "population correlation coefficient" or the "population Pearson correlation coefficient". Given a pair of random variables formula_1, the formula for "ρ" is:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Peason's correlation coefficient does not exist when either formula_4 or formula_6 are zero, infinite or undefined.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Pearson's correlation coefficient, when applied to a sample, is commonly represented by formula_29 and may be referred to as the "sample correlation coefficient" or the "sample Pearson correlation coefficient". We can obtain a formula for formula_29 by substituting estimates of the covariances and variances based on a sample into the formula above. Given paired data formula_31 consisting of formula_32 pairs, formula_29 is defined as:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: This formula suggests a convenient single-pass algorithm for calculating sample correlations, though depending on the numbers involved, it can sometimes be numerically unstable.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: An equivalent expression gives the formula for formula_29 as the mean of the products of the standard scores as follows:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Alternative formulae for formula_29 are also available. For example, one can use the following formula for formula_29:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Under heavy noise conditions, extracting the correlation coefficient between two sets of stochastic variables is nontrivial, in particular where Canonical Correlation Analysis reports degraded correlation values due to the heavy noise contributions. A generalization of the approach is given elsewhere.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Some distributions (e.g., stable distributions other than a normal distribution) do not have a defined variance.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The values of both the sample and population Pearson correlation coefficients are on or between −1 and 1. Correlations equal to +1 or −1 correspond to data points lying exactly on a line (in the case of the sample correlation), or to a bivariate distribution entirely supported on a line (in the case of the population correlation). The Pearson correlation coefficient is symmetric: corr("X","Y") = corr("Y","X").


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: A key mathematical property of the Pearson correlation coefficient is that it is invariant under separate changes in location and scale in the two variables. That is, we may transform "X" to and transform "Y" to , where "a", "b", "c", and "d" are constants with , without changing the correlation coefficient. (This holds for both the population and sample Pearson correlation coefficients.) Note that more general linear transformations do change the correlation: see "" for an application of this.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The correlation coefficient ranges from −1 to 1. An absolute value of exactly 1 implies that a linear equation describes the relationship between "X" and "Y" perfectly, with all data points lying on a line. The correlation sign is determined by the regression slope: a value of +1 implies that all data points lie on a line for which "Y" increases as "X" increases, and vice versa for −1. A value of 0 implies that there is no linear dependency between the variables.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: More generally, note that is positive if and only if "X" and "Y" lie on the same side of their respective means. Thus the correlation coefficient is positive if "X" and "Y" tend to be simultaneously greater than, or simultaneously less than, their respective means. The correlation coefficient is negative (anti-correlation) if "X" and "Y" tend to lie on opposite sides of their respective means. Moreover, the stronger either tendency is, the larger is the absolute value of the correlation coefficient.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Rodgers and Nicewander cataloged thirteen ways of interpreting correlation or simple functions of it:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For uncentered data, there is a relation between the correlation coefficient and the angle "φ" between the two regression lines, and , obtained by regressing "y" on "x" and "x" on "y" respectively. (Here, "φ" is measured counterclockwise within the first quadrant formed around the lines' intersection point if , or counterclockwise from the fourth to the second quadrant if .) One can show that if the standard deviations are equal, then , where sec and tan are trigonometric functions.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For centered data (i.e., data which have been shifted by the sample means of their respective variables so as to have an average of zero for each variable), the correlation coefficient can also be viewed as the cosine of the angle "θ" between the two observed vectors in "N"-dimensional space (for "N" observations of each variable)


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Both the uncentered (non-Pearson-compliant) and centered correlation coefficients can be determined for a dataset. As an example, suppose five countries are found to have gross national products of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 billion dollars, respectively. Suppose these same five countries (in the same order) are found to have 11%, 12%, 13%, 15%, and 18% poverty. Then let x and y be ordered 5-element vectors containing the above data: and .


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: By the usual procedure for finding the angle "θ" between two vectors (see dot product), the "uncentered" correlation coefficient is:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Note that the above data were deliberately chosen to be perfectly correlated: . The Pearson correlation coefficient must therefore be exactly one. Centering the data (shifting x by and y by ) yields and , from which


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Several authors have offered guidelines for the interpretation of a correlation coefficient. However, all such criteria are in some ways arbitrary. The interpretation of a correlation coefficient depends on the context and purposes. A correlation of 0.8 may be very low if one is verifying a physical law using high-quality instruments, but may be regarded as very high in the social sciences, where there may be a greater contribution from complicating factors.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Statistical inference based on Pearson's correlation coefficient often focuses on one of the following two aims:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Permutation tests provide a direct approach to performing hypothesis tests and constructing confidence intervals. A permutation test for Pearson's correlation coefficient involves the following two steps:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: To perform the permutation test, repeat steps (1) and (2) a large number of times. The p-value for the permutation test is the proportion of the "r" values generated in step (2) that are larger than the Pearson correlation coefficient that was calculated from the original data. Here "larger" can mean either that the value is larger in magnitude, or larger in signed value, depending on whether a two-sided or one-sided test is desired.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The bootstrap can be used to construct confidence intervals for Pearson's correlation coefficient. In the "non-parametric" bootstrap, "n" pairs ("x", "y") are resampled "with replacement" from the observed set of "n" pairs, and the correlation coefficient "r" is calculated based on the resampled data. This process is repeated a large number of times, and the empirical distribution of the resampled "r" values are used to approximate the sampling distribution of the statistic. A 95% confidence interval for "ρ" can be defined as the interval spanning from the 2.5th to the 97.5th percentile of the resampled "r" values.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: If formula_59 and formula_50 are random variables, a standard error is associated to the correlation in the null case is:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For pairs from an uncorrelated bivariate normal distribution, the sampling distribution of the studentized Pearson's correlation coefficient follows Student's "t"-distribution with degrees of freedom "n" − 2. Specifically, if the underlying variables have a bivariate normal distribution, the variable


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: has a student's "t"-distribution in the null case (zero correlation). This holds approximately in case of non-normal observed values if sample sizes are large enough. For determining the critical values for "r" the inverse function is needed:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Another early paper provides graphs and tables for general values of "ρ", for small sample sizes, and discusses computational approaches.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: In the case where the underlying variables are not normal, the sampling distribution of Pearson's correlation coefficient follows a Student's "t"-distribution, but the degrees of freedom are reduced.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For data that follow a bivariate normal distribution, the exact density function "f"("r") for the sample correlation coefficient "r" of a normal bivariate is


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: In the special case when formula_69 (zero population correlation), the exact density function "f"("r") can be written as:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: where formula_71 is the beta function, which is one way of writing the density of a Student's t-distribution, as above.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Confidence intervals and tests can be calculated from a confidence distribution. An exact confidence density for "ρ" is


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: In practice, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests relating to "ρ" are usually carried out using the Fisher transformation, formula_73":


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: where "n" is the sample size. The approximation error is lowest for a large sample size formula_32 and small formula_62 and formula_81 and increases otherwise.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: under the null hypothesis that formula_83, given the assumption that the sample pairs are independent and identically distributed and follow a bivariate normal distribution. Thus an approximate p-value can be obtained from a normal probability table. For example, if "z" = 2.2 is observed and a two-sided p-value is desired to test the null hypothesis that formula_69, the p-value is , where Φ is the standard normal cumulative distribution function.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For example, suppose we observe "r" = 0.3 with a sample size of "n"=50, and we wish to obtain a 95% confidence interval for ρ. The transformed value is arctanh("r") = 0.30952, so the confidence interval on the transformed scale is 0.30952 ± 1.96/, or (0.023624, 0.595415). Converting back to the correlation scale yields (0.024, 0.534).


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The square of the sample correlation coefficient is typically denoted "r" and is a special case of the coefficient of determination. In this case, it estimates the fraction of the variance in "Y" that is explained by "X" in a simple linear regression. So if we have the observed dataset formula_88 and the fitted dataset formula_89 then as a starting point the total variation in the "Y" around their average value can be decomposed as follows


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: where the formula_91 are the fitted values from the regression analysis. This can be rearranged to give


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The two summands above are the fraction of variance in "Y" that is explained by "X" (right) and that is unexplained by "X" (left).


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Next, we apply a property of least square regression models, that the sample covariance between formula_91 and formula_94 is zero. Thus, the sample correlation coefficient between the observed and fitted response values in the regression can be written (calculation is under expectation, assumes Gaussian statistics)


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: can be proved by noticing that the partial derivatives of the residual sum of squares () over "β" and "β" are equal to 0 in the least squares model, where


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The symbol formula_103 is called the regression sum of squares, also called the explained sum of squares, and formula_104 is the total sum of squares (proportional to the variance of the data).


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The population Pearson correlation coefficient is defined in terms of moments, and therefore exists for any bivariate probability distribution for which the population covariance is defined and the marginal population variances are defined and are non-zero. Some probability distributions, such as the Cauchy distribution, have undefined variance and hence ρ is not defined if "X" or "Y" follows such a distribution. In some practical applications, such as those involving data suspected to follow a heavy-tailed distribution, this is an important consideration. However, the existence of the correlation coefficient is usually not a concern; for instance, if the range of the distribution is bounded, ρ is always defined.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Like many commonly used statistics, the sample statistic "r" is not robust, so its value can be misleading if outliers are present. Specifically, the PMCC is neither distributionally robust, nor outlier resistant (see ""). Inspection of the scatterplot between "X" and "Y" will typically reveal a situation where lack of robustness might be an issue, and in such cases it may be advisable to use a robust measure of association. Note however that while most robust estimators of association measure statistical dependence in some way, they are generally not interpretable on the same scale as the Pearson correlation coefficient.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Statistical inference for Pearson's correlation coefficient is sensitive to the data distribution. Exact tests, and asymptotic tests based on the Fisher transformation can be applied if the data are approximately normally distributed, but may be misleading otherwise. In some situations, the bootstrap can be applied to construct confidence intervals, and permutation tests can be applied to carry out hypothesis tests. These non-parametric approaches may give more meaningful results in some situations where bivariate normality does not hold. However the standard versions of these approaches rely on exchangeability of the data, meaning that there is no ordering or grouping of the data pairs being analyzed that might affect the behavior of the correlation estimate.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: A stratified analysis is one way to either accommodate a lack of bivariate normality, or to isolate the correlation resulting from one factor while controlling for another. If "W" represents cluster membership or another factor that it is desirable to control, we can stratify the data based on the value of "W", then calculate a correlation coefficient within each stratum. The stratum-level estimates can then be combined to estimate the overall correlation while controlling for "W".


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Variations of the correlation coefficient can be calculated for different purposes. Here are some examples.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The sample correlation coefficient is not an unbiased estimate of . For data that follows a bivariate normal distribution, the expectation for the sample correlation coefficient of a normal bivariate is


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: An approximately unbiased estimator can be obtained by truncating and solving this truncated equation:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Suppose observations to be correlated have differing degrees of importance that can be expressed with a weight vector "w". To calculate the correlation between vectors "x" and "y" with the weight vector "w" (all of length "n"),


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The reflective correlation is a variant of Pearson's correlation in which the data are not centered around their mean values. The population reflective correlation is


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Scaled correlation is a variant of Pearson's correlation in which the range of the data is restricted intentionally and in a controlled manner to reveal correlations between fast components in time series. Scaled correlation is defined as average correlation across short segments of data.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Let formula_118 be the number of segments that can fit into the total length of the signal formula_119 for a given scale formula_120:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: By choosing the parameter formula_120, the range of values is reduced and the correlations on long time scale are filtered out, only the correlations on short time scales being revealed. Thus, the contributions of slow components are removed and those of fast components are retained.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: A distance metric for two variables "X" and "Y" known as "Pearson's distance" can be defined from their correlation coefficient as


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: Considering that the Pearson correlation coefficient falls between [−1, +1], the Pearson distance lies in [0, 2]. The Pearson distance has been used in cluster analysis and data detection for communications and storage with unknown gain and offset.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: The Pearson "distance" defined this way assigns distance greater than 1 to negative correlations. In reality, both strong positive correlation and negative correlations are meaningful, so care must be taken when Pearson "distance" is used for nearest neighbor algorithm as such algorithm will only include neighbors with positive correlation and exclude neighbors with negative correlation. Alternatively, an absolute valued distance: formula_128 can be applied, which will take both positive and negative correlations into consideration. The information on positive and negative association can be extracted separately, later.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: For variables X = {"x"...,"x"} and Y = {"y"...,"y"} that are defined on the unit circle , it is possible to define a circular analog of Pearson's coefficient. This is done by transforming data points in X and Y with a sine function such that the correlation coefficient is given as:


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: where formula_130 and formula_38 are the circular means of "X" and "Y". This measure can be useful in fields like meteorology where the angular direction of data is important.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: If a population or data-set is characterized by more than two variables, a partial correlation coefficient measures the strength of dependence between a pair of variables that is not accounted for by the way in which they both change in response to variations in a selected subset of the other variables.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: It is always possible to remove the correlations between all pairs of an arbitrary number of random variables by using a data transformation, even if the relationship between the variables is nonlinear. A presentation of this result for population distributions is given by Cox & Hinkley.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: A corresponding result exists for reducing the sample correlations to zero. Suppose a vector of "n" random variables is observed "m" times. Let "X" be a matrix where formula_132 is the "j"th variable of observation "i". Let formula_133 be an "m" by "m" square matrix with every element 1. Then "D" is the data transformed so every random variable has zero mean, and "T" is the data transformed so all variables have zero mean and zero correlation with all other variables – the sample correlation matrix of "T" will be the identity matrix. This has to be further divided by the standard deviation to get unit variance. The transformed variables will be uncorrelated, even though they may not be independent.


title: Pearson correlation coefficient

text: where an exponent of represents the matrix square root of the inverse of a matrix. The correlation matrix of "T" will be the identity matrix. If a new data observation "x" is a row vector of "n" elements, then the same transform can be applied to "x" to get the transformed vectors "d" and "t":


title: Saweetie

text: Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper (born July 2, 1993), known professionally as Saweetie (), is an American rapper. After the release of her debut single "Icy Grl" in 2017, she was signed to her then-manager Max Gousse's record label Artistry Worldwide, a subsidiary of Warner Records.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie released her debut extended play, "High Maintenance", in 2018. Her second EP, "Icy", was released in March 2019 and spawned the top 40 single "My Type". Her debut album, "Pretty Bitch Music", is scheduled to be released in 2022 and was preceded by the singles "Tap In" and "Best Friend" (featuring Doja Cat), both of which reached the top 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In 2021, she received two nominations for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards including one for Best New Artist.


title: Saweetie

text: Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper was born on July 2, 1993, in Santa Clara, California, to Trinidad Valentin, who is of Filipino and Chinese heritage, and Johnny Harper, who is African-American. She grew up in Sacramento, California, attending Merrill F. West High School in Tracy and graduating from Monterey Trail High School in Elk Grove. She began writing music at age 13. After high school, she attended San Diego State University, where she studied communications and business before transferring to the University of Southern California, where she completed her degree and received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in communications. After graduating, she began to focus on her rap career.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie began posting short raps on her Instagram account in 2012. One video featured her rapping over the beat from American rapper Khia's "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)", which eventually became "Icy Grl". The song was released on her SoundCloud in the summer of 2017 and brought her to the attention of Max Gousse, a well-known producer and A&R executive, who became her manager. The video went viral online, accruing 100 million views on YouTube as of June 2020.


title: Saweetie

text: That same month, Saweetie released a freestyle rap, "High Maintenance", accompanied by a short clip of herself rapping a verse to the song, all while chilling in her kitchen. It too went viral, on Instagram and Twitter. In October 2017, she released a video for her song "Focus", which samples DRAM's "Gilligan".In January 2018, Saweetie was named Tidal's Artist of the Week and one of "Pigeons & Planes"'s Best New Artists of the Month. During Super Bowl LII in February 2018, she was featured in an ad for Rihanna's cosmetic company, Fenty Beauty. That month, she signed to Warner Bros. Records (since May 2019 Warner Records) and Gousse's record label, Artistry Worldwide.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie released her major label debut EP, "High Maintenance", on March 16, 2018. It has nine tracks and was produced by CashMoneyAP, Nyrell and Saweetie's cousin, Zaytoven. The single "Icy Girl" was certified Gold in June 2018, for sales of 500,000 in the U.S. In September 2019, the single was certified RIAA multi-platinum and reached No. 1 on Billboard's rhythmic songs airplay chart.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie released her second major label EP, "Icy", on March 29, 2019. Its first single, "My Type", written by Saweetie and produced by London on da Track, samples "Freek-a-Leek" by Petey Pablo. Debuting on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 81, It was Saweetie's first song to enter the Hot 100. "My Type" peaked at number 21, becoming Saweetie's first top-40 hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100. A remix of the song featuring Jhené Aiko and City Girls was released on August 23, 2019. "My Type" hit number 1 on the Rhythmic Radio charts in September 2019 and was later certified double platinum in the U.S.


title: Saweetie

text: In September 2019, Saweetie collaborated with PrettyLittleThing to launch a 59-piece clothing collection, PrettyLittleThing x Saweetie. She said the theme of the capsule was "a boujie rich girl enjoying the finer things in life. I want to show the boys and girls that if you hustle hard your work will pay off." It debuted during New York Fashion Week. Saweetie appeared on VH1's "" on January 28, 2020, as a guest performer, performing "My Type".


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie released the lead single, "Tap In", from her upcoming debut album, "Pretty Bitch Music", on June 20, 2020. The single peaked at number 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming her first top-20 single and her first song to enter the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 38. In September 2020, the single reached number one on Mediabase's Urban Radio Chart as well as the Billboard x Triller US and Global charts. The track was Saweetie's second single to reach Billboard's Hot 100. In August 2020, Saweetie released a remix of the single, "Tap In Remix", that featured rappers Post Malone, DaBaby and Jack Harlow. This was followed by the promotional single "Pretty Bitch Freestyle" on July 2, 2020.


title: Saweetie

text: On July 31, 2020, Saweetie appeared alongside American rapper Tay Money on the song "Bussin 2.0", with a music video premiering the same day. On August 6, 2020, she was featured on Ava Max's song, "Kings & Queens, Pt. 2", alongside Lauv. On October 23, 2020, she released "Back to the Streets", featuring Jhené Aiko, which serves as the second single from "Pretty Bitch Music". The album's third single, "Best Friend", featuring Doja Cat, was released on January 7, 2021.


title: Saweetie

text: In 2020, Saweetie was added to Forbes' 30 Under 30 Music list and Variety's Hitmakers Impact list. In March 2020, she embarked on her first beauty collaboration by becoming the face of the KISS Colors edge fixer glue in the Edge Fixer Glued x Saweetie collection. In October 2020, she launched her own virtual educational content series, Icy University.


title: Saweetie

text: As of March 2021, Saweetie has also launched a jewelry line, a capsule clothing collection (partnering with retailer PrettyLittleThing), and a co-branded makeup collection with cosmetics retailer Morphe. Her other brand partnerships include her February 2021 Essenchills collection with Sinful Colors, and the Saweetie Meal at McDonald's in August 2021. Saweetie also expanded her appearances by hosting Culture Con 2021 for creatives of color and making her television acting debut as the character Indigo in 3 episodes of "Grown-ish".


title: Saweetie

text: In April 2021, Saweetie released the extended play "". It was supported by the singles "Risky", featuring Drakeo the Ruler, and "Talkin' Bout" by Loui, featuring Saweetie. On April 30, 2021, Saweetie collaborated with British girl group Little Mix to be featured on the remix version of its song "Confetti" with a video released the same day. The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart . On May 7, 2021, Saweetie released "Fast (Motion)" as the fourth single from "Pretty Bitch Music".


title: Saweetie

text: In November 2021, Netflix released a sex-positive comedy special titled "Sex: Unzipped" in which Saweetie was the host. On November 19, she released the single "Icy Chain" which she performed on "Saturday Night Live" the following day. During her SNL debut, she also performed "Tap In" and "Best Friend". In January 2022, Saweetie appeared as the star of MAC Cosmetics' "Challenge Accepted" campaign alongside Cher.


title: Saweetie

text: On November 18, 2022, Saweetie released her fourth EP, "The Single Life". The EP was preceded by the single "Don't Say Nothin'", which was released just hours ahead of the project's release.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie began dating American rapper Quavo of Migos in September 2018. They were first seen together during New York Fashion Week. On March 19, 2021, Saweetie confirmed via social media that she and Quavo are no longer together. She also mentioned on social media that Quavo had been unfaithful, writing "Presents don't band aid scars and the love isn't real when the intimacy is given to other women." In late March 2021, video footage surfaced showing the pair in a physical altercation that allegedly happened in 2020.


title: Saweetie

text: Saweetie is a first cousin once-removed of actress Gabrielle Union. Her grandfather, Willie Harper, played football for the San Francisco 49ers.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: War for the Planet of the Apes is a 2017 American science fiction film directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay by Reeves and Mark Bomback, and produced by Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is the sequel to "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014) and the third installment in the "Planet of the Apes" reboot franchise. It stars Andy Serkis as Caesar, alongside Woody Harrelson and Steve Zahn. In the film, conflict between apes and humans has escalated into full war, and Caesar sets out to avenge those he has lost.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Development for "War for the Planet of the Apes" began in January 2014, after 20th Century Fox viewed Reeves' cut of its predecessor; his return was soon confirmed, along with Bomback's. A conditional 2016 release date was announced in May 2015, which led to a closer and faster pre-production relationship between writer and director. The film shares similarities to "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973), with emphasis on the impact of psychosocial development and interaction of apes and humans. Casting began in August 2015 and finished that October, with principal photography commencing soon thereafter and concluding in March 2016, with filming locations including Lower Mainland and the Kananaskis Range.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: "War for the Planet of the Apes" premiered on July 10, 2017 at the SVA Theatre in New York City, and was theatrically released worldwide by 20th Century Fox on July 14. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Reeves' direction, Serkis' performance, visual effects, themes, emotional weight, Michael Giacchino's score, and Michael Seresin's cinematography. "War for the Planet of the Apes" was a commercial success, grossing over $490 million, and received numerous awards and nominations, including nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Special Visual Effects at the 90th Academy Awards and 71st British Academy Film Awards, respectively. A sequel, titled "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes", is in development with a release date set for 2024.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Caesar and his tribe of intelligent apes have been forced to be at war with a human militia led by a ruthless colonel. A platoon assaults an ape outpost and several paramilitaries such as Preacher are captured. Caesar was not surprised when he was informed that there are apes derogatorily called "donkeys" serving the militia. The tribe releases the humans to show the colonel a desire for peace; the "donkey" named Red flees by injuring the ape Winter. Caesar's eldest son, Blue Eyes, and friend Rocket return from an oasis in a desert that is ideal for a safer home. The colonel leads a team in infiltrating the apes' home that night and kills Caesar's wife and Blue Eyes after mistaking him for Caesar. The apes are unable to find Winter, who betrayed them and had purposefully let Red go.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Rocket, Maurice and Luca accompany Caesar to serve as a decoy as the tribe journey. Caesar kills a paramilitary in self-defense and find the man's mute daughter whom Maurice befriends, giving her a rag doll. Winter is found serving as a "donkey" at a militia camp. He informs that the colonel has left and attempts to call out for help, but the other apes restrain Winter and Caesar accidentally suffocates him. Some paramilitaries were abandoned and left for dead. A man who was shot reveals that he is mute like the girl.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Caesar's group chases someone who has stolen one of their horses and is surprised to see that he is another intelligent ape, named Bad Ape. Bad Ape informs them that the militia is at a quarantine facility with an arsenal in the mountains. Attempting to get close, Luca is killed and Caesar is captured. Caesar learns that his tribe was captured and is being forced to build a wall.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Caesar deduces that the militia is barricading the facility to fend off the United States army. The colonel explains the "holy war": the simian flu has mutated and the infected become mute and devolve, and he had elected to kill his son and other carriers before they could infect other people. The U.S army is searching for a cure through the manipulation of nature again. The colonel publicly starves Caesar to force the tribe to work. The mute girl, named Nova by Maurice, sneaks into the facility to give Caesar water and her doll. Rocket allows himself to be captured to prevent Nova from being seen. The colonel later confiscates the doll.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Caesar and Rocket manage to free the apes via an underground tunnel leading out of the facility. The facility comes under attack by the army and Caesar sneaks into the colonel's quarters and is about to shoot him but realizes the colonel has become mute after handling the doll. The colonel instead commits suicide.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: The escaping apes are caught in the crossfire. Caesar attempts to blow up a fuel tank to take out the militia from behind but is shot by Preacher. Red has a change of heart and kills Preacher but is immediately killed by another paramilitary. This allows Caesar to blow up the tank, triggering an avalanche that kills the militia and the army while the apes carry Nova and survive by climbing nearby trees.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: The apes and Nova reach the oasis. As Maurice and Caesar watch Nova and Caesar's son play in their new home, Maurice discovers Caesar's wound. He promises Caesar that his son will know who Caesar was and what he did for the apes before Caesar dies.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: After seeing his cut of "Dawn", 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment signed Matt Reeves to return as director for a third installment of the reboot series. In January 2014, the studio announced the third film, with Reeves returning to direct and co-write along with Bomback, and Peter Chernin, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver serving as producers. During an interview in mid-November 2014 with MTV, Andy Serkis said they did not know the next film's setting. "...It could be five years after the event. It could be the night after the events of where we left "Dawn"." In May 2015, the title was first given as "War of the Planet of the Apes". By October 2015, it had been retitled as "War for the Planet of the Apes". When director Reeves and screenwriter Bomback came on board to helm "Dawn", the film already had a release date, which led to an accelerated production schedule. However, with the third installment, Fox wanted to give the duo plenty of time to write and make the film. Taking advantage of this, the two bonded with each other more than before.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: In interviews for "Dawn", Reeves talked about the inevitable war Caesar would have with the humans: "As this story continues, we know that war is not avoided by the end of "Dawn". That is going to take us into the world of what he is grappling with. Where he is going to be thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with, and was hoping he could avoid. And now he is right in the middle of it. The things that happen in that story test him in huge ways, in the ways in which his relationship with Koba haunts him deeply. It's going to be an epic story. I think you've probably read that I sort of described it where in the first film was very much about his rise from humble beginnings to being a revolutionary. The second movie was about having to rise to the challenge of being a great leader in the most difficult of times. This is going to be the story that is going to cement his status as a seminal figure in ape history, and sort of leads to an almost biblical status. He is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses."


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Toby Kebbell, who portrayed Koba in "Dawn", had expressed interest in reprising his role or performing as other characters. Plans to include Koba in a larger role in the film were abandoned early, with Bomback saying, "If you stayed until the very end of "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes", you hear Koba's breathing. We did that to give us a tiny crack of a possibility that we could revive Koba if we wanted to. Very early on in spitballing, we realized there was nothing more to do with Koba—certainly nothing that would exceed what he had done in the last story. But we knew we wanted to keep him alive as an idea. In playing out the reality of what happened at the end of the last film, Caesar would be traumatized by having to kill his brother. That would have resonance, and we wanted to make sure that did not get lost. So the answer was that we could go inside Caesar's mind at this point and revisit Koba that way."


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: In August 2015, "Deadline" reported that Gabriel Chavarria had been cast as one of the humans in the film. In September 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that Woody Harrelson had been cast as the film's antagonist, and that Chavarria's role was supporting. In October 2015, TheWrap reported that Steve Zahn was cast as a new ape in the film. It was also announced that actress Amiah Miller was cast as one of the film's humans, with Judy Greer and Karin Konoval reprising their roles as Cornelia and Maurice, while Aleks Paunovic and Sara Canning were cast as new apes.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Principal photography on the film began on October 14, 2015, in the Lower Mainland in Vancouver, under the working title "Hidden Fortress". Filming was expected to take place there until early March 2016. Parts of the film were expected to shoot for up to five days in the Kananaskis in late January and early February. In March, Serkis confirmed that he had finished shooting his portions.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: As with "Rise" and "Dawn", the visual effects for "War" were created by Weta Digital; the apes were created with a mixture of motion-capture and CGI key-frame animation, as they were performed in motion-capture technology and animated in CGI.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: At New York Comic-Con 2016, Reeves explained that he and Bomback were influenced by many films before writing. He said, "One of the first things that Mark and I did because we had just finished "Dawn" was that we decided to watch a million movies. We decided to do what people fantasize what Hollywood screenwriters get to do but no one actually does. We got Fox to give us a theater and we watched movie after movie. We watched every "Planet of the Apes" movie, war movies, westerns, "Empire Strikes Back"... We just thought, 'We have to pretend we have all the time in the world,' even though we had limited time. We got really inspired." According to Reeves, the treacherous apes being nicknamed "donkeys" is both a reference to the video game character Donkey Kong and the fact that they are used as "pack mules".


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Additionally, during production, Reeves and Bomback sought broader inspirations from films like "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "The Great Escape". Feeling that there was a need to imbue Biblical themes and elements, they also watched Biblical epics like "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments". The influences and inspirations were made evident in the relationship between Caesar and Woody Harrelson's Colonel, a military leader with pretensions toward godhood. Reeves has compared their relationship to the dynamic between Alec Guinness's British Commander and Sessue Hayakawa's prison camp Colonel in "Bridge on the River Kwai". Another comparison is in Caesar's journey to find the Colonel, flanked by a posse of close friends—a situation Reeves explicitly tied to Clint Eastwood's war-weary soldier in "The Outlaw Josey Wales". Influences from the film "Apocalypse Now", notably Harrelson's character and his Alpha-Omega faction being similar to Colonel Kurtz's renegade army, were also noted by several journalists. Harrelson has also acknowledged the similarities and inspiration. In the third act of the film, the words "Ape-ocalypse Now" are written on a wall in the Colonel's prison camp.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: On October 17, 2015, it was confirmed that Reeves' frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino, who composed its predecessor, would return to score for "War for the Planet of the Apes". For Caesar, Giacchino had wrote few emotional themes that would focus on the character's emotional side, with Reeves' idea on turning Caesar into a sort of "mythical and historical character" and referred him to Exodus or Moses. Several themes were created on the character dynamics, his relationship with Nova and a theme for Colonel, had been produced into that process. The soundtrack was digitally released to iTunes and Amazon on July 14, 2017, and in its physical form by Sony Classical Records on July 28, 2017.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: The film was initially set for a July 15, 2016, release. However, in January 2015, Fox postponed the film's release date to about a year later on July 14, 2017.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Special behind-the-scenes footage for the film was aired on TV on November 22, 2015, as part of a contest announcement presented by director Matt Reeves and Andy Serkis. The footage aired during "The Walking Dead" on AMC. The announcement allowed winners to wear a performance-capture suit and appear in a scene as an ape. The announcement was released on 20th Century Fox's official YouTube page later the same day.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: At a New York Comic Con special event on October 6, 2016, Reeves, Serkis and producer Dylan Clark debuted an exclusive look at the film.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Serkis has also mentioned that the film would be accompanied by a video game, for which he performed motion capture. Titled "", the game was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in fall 2017.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: "War for the Planet of the Apes" grossed $146.9 million in the United States and Canada and $343.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $490.7 million, against a production budget of $150–152 million.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: In North America, the film was projected to gross $50–60 million in its opening weekend; however, given its acclaimed status and strong word-of-mouth, rival studios believed the film had the potential to debut as high as $70–80 million. "War" was closely monitored by analysts while the summer was witnessing a decline in ticket sales, a situation that they blamed on franchise fatigue for an overabundance of sequels and reboots (such as "", "" and "The Mummy"). However, box office analysts noted that well-reviewed films have tended to perform in-line with estimates ("Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Wonder Woman" and ""). The film grossed $5 million from Thursday night previews at 3,021 theaters, up 22% from the $4.1 million earned by its predecessor, and $22.1 million on its first day. It went on to debut to $56.3 million, topping the box office, albeit with a 22% drop from "Dawn"s $72.6 million debut. In its second weekend, the film grossed $20.9 million (a drop of 62.9%, more than the 50.1% fall "Dawn" saw), finishing 4th at the box office. In its third weekend, the film made $10.5 million (dropping another 49.9%), finishing 6th at the box office. It was lower than the third weeks of both "Rise" ($16.1 million) and "Dawn" ($16.8 million).


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, ""War for the Planet of the Apes" combines breathtaking special effects and a powerful, poignant narrative to conclude this rebooted trilogy on a powerful—and truly blockbuster—note." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: "War for the Planet of the Apes" received praise for the cast's performances (particularly Serkis'), Reeves' direction, visual effects, musical score, cinematography and its morally complex storyline. Scott Collura of IGN awarded the film a score of 9.5 out of 10, saying: ""War for the Planet of the Apes" is an excellent closing act to this rebooted trilogy, but also one that does enough world-building that the series can potentially continue from here—and it's a rare case where, after three movies, we're left wanting more." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" said of the film, ""War for the Planet of the Apes", directed by Matt Reeves, is the grimmest episode so far, and also the strongest, a superb example—rare in this era of sloppily constructed, commercially hedged cinematic universes—of clear thinking wedded to inventive technique in popular filmmaking," and lauded Andy Serkis's performance in the film, stating that "Andy Serkis's performance as Caesar is one of the marvels of modern screen acting."


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, and said that Serkis performed "with a resonant power and depth of feeling that's nearly Shakespearean. Oscar, get busy: Serkis deserves the gold," and went on to say that ""War for the Planet of the Apes"—No. 9 in the simian cinema canon—is the best of the Apes films since the 1968 original." Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a B+ rating, and praised Matt Reeves's directing, saying "It's a given that an expensive 21st-century sci-fi movie with talking animals, exploding tanks, and jarring machine guns would look and sound great, but Reeves applies these effects with such a measured strategy that they're always working in service of a greater narrative agenda." Kohn went on to applaud the visuals and musical score, stating that "The breathlessly paced montage of flying bullets and angry monkeys raining down on terrified men, aided by Michael Giacchino's vibrant score, is a strong indicator of the next-level craftsmanship that distinguishes these movies from so many cacophonous Hollywood spectacles; not only is the action easy to follow, but you care for the motion-captured characters at the center of it, while the humans cower in fear."


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: "War for the Planet of the Apes" was released on Digital HD on October 10, 2017, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 24, 2017, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: According to screenwriter Rick Jaffa, a version of the spaceship from the 1968 "Planet of the Apes" under the name "Icarus" was in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" as a deliberate hint to a possible sequel readapting the events of the original film, something the end of "War" also implies, featuring a younger version of the character Nova. During an interview of Andy Serkis with MTV in mid-November 2014, Serkis talked about possible sequels: "It might be three films, It could be four. It could be five. Who knows? The journey will continue." By October 2016, it was reported that a fourth "Planet of the Apes" film was being discussed. Shortly before the release of "War" in July 2017, Reeves said that he expressed interest in making more "Apes" films and that Steve Zahn, who played Bad Ape in the film, had set up a story for further sequels. Writer Mark Bomback hinted that more films would be possible, saying, "Truthfully, we haven't had those kinds of conversations. I've been working on these films for about seven years now. I'm ready to take a breather and let things rest a bit." In April 2019, following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Disney announced that future "Planet of the Apes" films are in development. It was also confirmed in August 2019 that any future installments would take place in the same universe first established in "Rise."


title: War for the Planet of the Apes

text: On December 3, 2019, it was reported that Wes Ball is currently set to write and direct an untitled "Planet of the Apes" film. On February 17, 2020, it was reported that the film will be produced by Joe Hartwick Jr. and David Starke. Later that same day, Ball confirmed that he would be directing the film, and that it would be set after the events of "War", following "Caesar's legacy". On May 26, 2020, Ball revealed that Josh Friedman will write the screenplay, while Jaffa and Silver will return as producers. He also said that, while the film will be set in the same universe as "Rise", it won't be a direct sequel to "War", saying that the film "will feel" like a follow-up to the overall "Rise" trilogy, but at the same time, the filmmakers will "do some really cool new stuff". Ball also said that the film could begin virtual production soon in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic due to it being a mostly CGI film. In a March 2022 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell stated that production would start between the late summer or early fall of 2022. In August 2022, Owen Teague was cast in the lead role. In September 2022, it was announced that the fourth movie in the current franchise would be titled "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes", that Freya Allan was cast as the human lead with Peter Macon co-starring, and that the film would be released in 2024. Wes Ball has been tabbed to direct the film, and it will pick up many years after the end of "War for the Planet of the Apes." Production for the film began in October 2022 in Sydney, New South Wales at Disney Studios Australia.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Miriam Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British-Australian actress, writer, political activist and television personality. She's gained prominence as a character actor on stage and screen. She received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" (1993) and portrayed Professor Sprout in the "Harry Potter" film series (2002–2011). She's also known for the BBC series "Call the Midwife" (2018-2021). Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: After starting her career in theatre, she made her film acting debut in the British comedy "A Nice Girl Like Me" (1969). She has since appeared in "Reds" (1981), "Yentl" (1982), "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986), "Little Dorrit" (1988), "Romeo + Juliet" (1996), and "Being Julia" (2004). She's also known for her voice roles in "Babe" (1995), "James and the Giant Peach" (1996), "Mulan" (1998), "Happy Feet" (2006), "Flushed Away" (2006), and "Early Man" (2018).


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: She's also known for her television appearances including in "Blackadder", "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Vanity Fair" (1998), and "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2004). She's also known for her recurring roles as Prudence Stanley in Australian series "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" (2012-2015) and Sister Mildred in the BBC/PBS series "Call the Midwife" (2018-2021). She has starred in productions in both the United Kingdom and Australia, including her 1989 one-woman show "Dickens' Women" and the Australian premiere of the 2013 play, "".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes has spent many years dividing her time between the United Kingdom, Australia and Italy. She became an Australian citizen in 2013. She has also written two books, "Dickens' Women" (2012) and her autobiography "This Much is True" (2021).


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes was born in Oxford on 18 May 1941, the only child of Joseph Margolyes (1899–1995), a Scottish physician and general practitioner from the Gorbals area of Glasgow, and property-developer Ruth (née Sandman; 1905–1974), daughter of a second-hand furniture dealer and auctioneer at Kirkdale, Liverpool, who later relocated to London. The maternal family surname changed from Sandeman to Walters before Margolyes' birth. She grew up in a Jewish family, with ancestors who moved to the UK from Belarus and Poland. Her maternal great-grandfather, Symeon Sandmann, was born in the Polish town of Margonin, which Margolyes visited in 2013. Her grandfather Margolyes was born in a small shtetl called Amdur (now – Indura) in Belarus, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes attended Oxford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read English. There, in her 20s, she began acting and appeared in productions by the Cambridge Footlights. She represented Newnham College in the first series of "University Challenge", where she may have been one of the first people to say "fuck" on British television; she claims to have used the word in frustration on the show in 1963.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: With her versatile voice, Margolyes first gained recognition for her work as a voice artist. In the 1970s, she recorded a soft-porn audio called "Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook". She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series "Monkey". She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series "The Water Margin" (credited as Mirium Margolyes).


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 1974, she appeared with Kenneth Williams and Ted Ray in the BBC Radio 2 comedy series "The Betty Witherspoon Show".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes's first major role in a film was as Elephant Ethel in "Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers" (1977). In the 1980s, she made appearances in "Blackadder" opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in "The Black Adder", Lady Whiteadder in "Blackadder II" and Queen Victoria in "Blackadder's Christmas Carol". In 1986, she played a major supporting role in the BBC drama "The Life and Loves of a She-Devil". She won the 1989 LA Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the film "Little Dorrit" (1988). On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom "Frannie's Turn". In 1994, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" (1993).


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 1989, Margolyes co-wrote and performed a one-woman show, "Dickens' Women", in which she played 23 characters from Dickens' novels. In 2005 Margolyes hosted a ten-part BBC Four documentary, "Dickens in America", which retraced Dickens's 1842 journey across the United States of America.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes played Aunt Sponge and voiced the Glow-Worm in "James and the Giant Peach" (1996). She played the Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" (1996). She voiced the rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the Australian-American family film "Babe" (1995).


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: She played Professor Sprout in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" released in 2002. She reprised her role as Professor Sprout in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011). In a 2011 interview on "The Graham Norton Show", in regard to her "Potter" costars, Margolyes said that she got on well with Maggie Smith, but rather bluntly admitted that she, "didn't like the one that died", referring to Richard Harris.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 2004, Margolyes played the role of Peg Sellers, the mother of Peter Sellers, in the Golden Globe winning film "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical "Wicked" opposite Idina Menzel in 2006, playing Madame Morrible, a role she played again on Broadway in 2008.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 2009, she appeared in a new production of "Endgame" by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in the West End.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 2011, Margolyes recorded a narrative for the album "The Devil's Brides" by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes played recurring character Prudence Stanley in the Australian-based TV series "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" from 2012 to 2015.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In January 2016, Margolyes appeared in "The Real Marigold Hotel", a travel documentary in which a group of eight celebrities traveled to India to see whether retirement would be more rewarding there than in the UK. The series was reprised for two Christmas Specials "The Real Marigold On Tour", from Florida and Kyoto. She narrated the 2016 ITV documentary about Lady Colin Campbell entitled "Lady C and the Castle".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In December 2017, Margolyes appeared in the second season of "The Real Marigold On Tour" to Chengdu and Havana. She appeared in the first episode of the third series, in which she traveled to St Petersburg with Bobby George, Sheila Ferguson and Stanley Johnson.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In January 2018, Margolyes hosted a three-part series for the BBC titled "Miriam's Big American Adventure", highlighting the citizens of the United States and the issues facing the country. She voiced Queen Oofeefa in the film "Early Man".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: She played Miss Shepherd in a 2019 production of "The Lady in the Van" for the Melbourne Theatre Company in Melbourne in Australia.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In 2021, she played Lillian opposite Helen Monks in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom "Charlotte and Lillian", where she introduced her autobiography "This Much Is True". On 5 November 2021 she appeared on BBC One's "The Graham Norton Show", where she introduced her autobiography "This Much Is True", explaining that it was written only because she "was paid an enormous amount of money". On 16 September 2021, Margolyes released "This Much Is True" through Hachette Books.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In April 2022, Margolyes was the subject of the BBC documentary "Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs" in the "Imagine..." series, where she was interviewed by Alan Yentob.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: In November 2022 it was revealed Margolyes had been signed up to appear in the "Doctor Who" 60th anniversary special.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes is a lesbian. On becoming an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2013, she referred to herself as a "dyke" live on national television and in front of the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Since 1968, she has been in a relationship with Heather Sutherland, a now-retired Australian professor of Indonesian studies. They divide their time between homes in London and Kent in England, Robertson in Australia, and Montisi in Italy.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes is a Patron of My Death My Decision, an organisation in the UK which seeks a more compassionate approach to dying, including the legal right to a medically assisted death, if that is a person's persistent wish.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes is a supporter of Sense (the National Deafblind and Rubella Association) and was the host at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards, held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London in December 2006, where she read a number of works written by talented deafblind people.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes' political activism started at university. "I came from a very middle-class Jewish background, always Tory-voting", she later said. However, in the 1970s, she joined the Workers Revolutionary Party with other actors and Equity members such as Vanessa Redgrave, Frances de la Tour and Tom Kempinski. She is a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Margolyes said, "What I want to try to do is to get Jewish people to understand what's really going on, and they don't want to hear it. If you speak to most Jews and say, 'Can Israel ever be in the wrong?' they say, 'No. Our duty as Jews is to support Israel whatever happens.' And I don't believe that. It is our duty as human beings to report the truth as we see it." She is also a campaigner for the respite care charity Crossroads.


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes is a member of the Labour Party and is registered to vote in Vauxhall. In August 2015, she was a signatory to a letter criticising "The Jewish Chronicle"s reporting of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's alleged associations with antisemites. In November 2019, she endorsed the Labour Party in the UK general election because of their policies on the National Health Service. Later in the month, along with other public figures, she signed a letter supporting Corbyn and describing him as a "beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia, and racism in much of the democratic world".


title: Miriam Margolyes

text: Margolyes was very critical of the British Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. She considered that it was "a public scandal" and "a disgrace." With the Prime Minister hospitalised suffering from COVID-19, Margolyes said "I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die."