title: Soulja Boy

text: On August 25, 2012, Way made controversial comments towards fellow rapper Hopsin on one of his webcam chats with his fans, when Way stated "fuck Hopsin, I'm about to go in the studio and record this Hopsin diss real quick". Way continued on by stating the words "that nigga's a bitch, fuck that bitch-ass nigga". The situation was caused by Hopsin's controversial song "Sag My Pants" which was a direct diss towards Way with the lines "Soulja Boy you got a corny flow, So you can suck my fucking dick through a glory hole" though Way previously didn't focus on the diss. On August 28, 2012, on Way's Tinychat, Hopsin and Way confronted each other: though Hopsin admitted he liked Way, nothing was really resolved. On September 3, 2012, Way released a Hopsin diss titled "That Nigga Not Me". Hopsin stated the song was horrible, but did not respond with a diss track of his own.


title: Soulja Boy

text: On April 19, 2013, Way sent a number of death threats to Chicago rapper Chief Keef via Facebook. The threats were likely provoked by an earlier incident, where Keef's affiliate Ballout stole Way's chain and bragged about it on Twitter. Way posted both Keef's cellphone numbers, urging people to notify him he's coming for him with a gun. He continued posting, stating he's in Keef's hometown of Chicago and asking Keef and Ballout to come to him. Chief Keef responded that he is currently in London but would talk to Way on his new number. Later the same day, Way issued a statement that his Facebook, Instagram and email were hacked and none of the earlier messages were written by him. On June 1, 2014, Way revealed on his Instagram that he and fellow artist Chief Keef had resolved their differences. Little is known as to whether Way has settled his differences with Ballout.


title: Soulja Boy

text: On January 3, 2017, Way was entangled in a debacle with singer Chris Brown. The feud eventually started after Way intimidated Brown's former girlfriend, model Karrueche Tran, when Way liked a photo that involved the model. The two began to exchange Instagram videos towards each other in a matter of minutes, for example: Chris Brown accusing Way of "snitching" or Way poking fun of Brown's daughter and his infamous incident with singer Rihanna in 2009. The next day, Way apologized to Brown and fans about the event and wished to collaborate with Brown.


title: Soulja Boy

text: In early 2019, Soulja Boy drew attention for claiming he had the biggest comeback of 2018 over fellow rapper Tyga on the radio show The Breakfast Club, which started a series of exchanges between the two. The feud eventually resulted in the two trading diss tracks back and forth over the instrumental from Blueface's song, Thotiana.


title: Soulja Boy

text: Later in the same year, YouTube celebrity Jake Paul published a tweet directed at Way, saying "i wanna box @souljaboy", to which Way responded "boy I'll knock you out". The feud was started by Paul in reference to his participation as an undercard in the Logan Paul vs. KSI boxing fight. The two eventually confronted each other in person when Paul drove to Way's house to confirm they would be participating in an official boxing match, which Paul had stated he would put twenty million dollars on. Paul posted a video on YouTube the same day indicating his own status in the rematch between Logan Paul and KSI was undecided, leaving the official status of the fight between him and Way in question.


title: Soulja Boy

text: On August 18, 2021, Way claimed during an Instagram Live stream that he had gained ownership of the video game company Atari, saying "I am now the owner of Atari. I own the video game company Atari," and alleged that he had been given control of the company after they had been impressed with his "SouljaGame" console. The following day, Atari's official Twitter account made a post indirectly referencing and refuting Way's claim of ownership, saying "We know that CEO of Atari is a dream job, but that honor belongs to Wade Rosen." During a video responding to the tweet, Way showed a contract which promised him Atari tokens, Atari's cryptocurrency.


title: Hamsa

text: The hamsa () is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout North Africa and in the Middle East and commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings. Depicting the open right hand, an image recognized and used as a sign of protection in many times throughout history, the "hamsa" has been traditionally believed to provide defense against the evil eye.


title: Hamsa

text: "Khamsah" is an Arabic word that means "five", but also refers to images of "the five fingers of the hand". In Jewish culture, the "hamsa" is associated with the number five because of the five fingers depicted on the hand, and because the word "khamsa" is cognate to the Hebrew "ḥamishah" (חֲמִישָׁה), which also means "five."


title: Hamsa

text: Early use of the "hamsa" could be traced to ancient Mesopotamian artifacts in the amulets of the goddess Inanna or Ishtar. The image of the open right hand is also seen in Carthage (modern-day Tunisia) and ancient North Africa and in Phoenician colonies in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). An 8th-century BCE Israelite tomb containing a hamsa-like hand inscription was discovered at Khirbet el-Qom.


title: Hamsa

text: Other symbols of divine protection based around the hand include the Hand-of-Venus (or Aphrodite), the Hand-of-Mary, that was used to protect women from the evil eye and/or boost fertility and lactation, promote healthy pregnancies and strengthen the weak. In that time, women were under immense pressure and expectation to become mothers. The woman's upbringing was centered on becoming a mother as an exclusive role, and it indicated childbearing as necessary. It was also thought that marriage was a sense of protection for both the man and the woman.


title: Hamsa

text: One theory postulates a connection between the "khamsa" and the "Mano Pantea" (or Hand-of-the-All-Goddess), an amulet known to ancient Egyptians as the Two Fingers. In this amulet, the Two Fingers represent Isis and Osiris and the thumb represents their child Horus. It was used to invoke the protective spirits of parents over their child. Another theory traces the origins of the "hamsa" to Carthage or Phoenicia where the hand (or in some cases vulva) of the supreme deity Tanit was used to ward off the evil eye.


title: Hamsa

text: According to Bruno Barbatti, at that time this motive was the most important sign of apotropaic magic in the Islamic world, though many modern representations continue to show an obvious origin from sex symbolism. This relates to the belief that God exists in everything.


title: Hamsa

text: Another meaning of this symbol relates to the sky god, Horus. It refers to the Eye of Horus, which means humans cannot escape from the eye of conscience. It says that the sun and moon are the eyes of Horus. The Hand of Fatima also represents femininity and is referred to as the woman's holy hand. It is believed to have extraordinary characteristics that can protect people from evil and other dangers.


title: Hamsa

text: It is speculated that Sephardic Jews were among the first to use this amulet due to their beliefs about the evil eye. The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling as the Hebrew letter "Shin", the first letter of "Shaddai", one of the names referring to God. The use of the hamsa in Jewish culture has been intermittent, utilized often by Jews during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, then less and less over time into the mid-twentieth century. However, the notion of a protective hand has been present in Judaism dating back to Biblical times, where it is referenced in Deuteronomy 5:15, stated in the Ten Commandments as the "strong hand" of God who led the Jews out of Egypt. The "hamsa" is later seen in Jewish art as God's hand reaching down from heaven during the times of late antiquity, the Byzantine period, and even medieval Europe. Its use by Ashkenazi Jewish communities from this period is well-known, and evidence has also emerged of the hamsa being used by Jews from medieval Spain, often associated with "sympathetic magic". Historians such as Shalom Sabar believe that after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, exiled Jews likely used the hamsa as protection in the foreign lands they were forced to relocate to, however this assumption has been difficult to prove. According to Sabar, the hamsa has also been used later by Jews in Europe "as a distinctive sign of the priesthood, especially when they wished to show that a person was of priestly descent...".


title: Hamsa

text: The "khamsa" holds recognition as a bearer of good fortune among Christians in the region as well. Levantine Christians call it the "hand of Mary" (Arabic: "Kef Miryam", or the "Virgin Mary's Hand"). 34 years after the end of Islamic rule in Spain, its use was significant enough to prompt an episcopal committee convened by Emperor Charles V to decree a ban on the Hand of Fatima and all open right hand amulets in 1526.


title: Hamsa

text: The Hand ("Khamsa"), particularly the open right hand, is a sign of protection that also represents blessings, power and strength, and is seen as potent in deflecting the evil eye. One of the most common components of gold and silver jewellery in the region, historically and traditionally, it was most commonly carved in jet or formed from silver, a metal believed to represent purity and hold magical properties. It is also painted in red (sometimes using the blood of a sacrificed animal) on the walls of houses for protection, or painted or hung on the doorways of rooms, such as those of an expectant mother or new baby. The hand can be depicted with the fingers spread apart to ward off evil, or as closed together to bring good luck. Similarly, it can be portrayed with the fingers pointing up in warding, or down to bestow blessings. Highly stylized versions may be difficult to recognize as hands, and can consist of five circles representing the fingers, situated around a central circle representing the palm.


title: Hamsa

text: Used to protect against evil eye, a malicious stare believed to be able to cause illness, death or just general unluckiness, hamsas often contain an eye symbol. Depictions of the hand, the eye or the number five in Arabic (and Berber) tradition are related to warding off the evil eye, as exemplified in the saying "khamsa fi ainek" ("five [fingers] in your eye"). Raising one's right hand with the palm showing and the fingers slightly apart is part of this curse meant "to blind the aggressor". Another formula uttered against the evil eye in Arabic, but without hand gestures, is "khamsa wa-khamis" ("five and Thursday"). As the fifth day of the week, Thursday is considered a good day for magic rites and pilgrimages to the tombs of revered saints to counteract the effects of the evil eye.


title: Hamsa

text: Due to its significance in both Arabic and Berber culture, the "hamsa" is one of the national symbols of Algeria and appears in its emblem. It is also the most popular among the different amulets (such as the Eye and the "Hirz"—a silver box containing verses of the Quran) for warding off the evil eye in Egypt. Egyptian women who live in "baladi" ("traditional") urban quarters often make "khamaysa", which are amulets made up of five ("khamsa") objects to attach to their children's hair or black aprons. The five objects can be made of peppers, hands, circles or stars hanging from hooks.


title: Hamsa

text: Although significant in Arab and Berber culture, Jewish people have long interpreted and adopted the symbol of the hand with great importance since the Ten Commandments. A portion of these commandments states that the "Lord took Israel out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm". The "strong hand" is representative of the hamsa which rooted its relevance in the community then. The helping hand exemplified God's willingness to help his people and direct them out of struggle. Around the time of the Byzantine period, artists would depict God's hand reaching from up above. God's hand from heaven would lead the Jewish people out of struggle, and the Jews quickly made a connection with the hamsa and their culture. The hand was identified in Jewish text and acquired as an influential icon throughout the community.


title: Hamsa

text: Amongst the Jewish people, the "hamsa" is a very respected, holy, and common symbol. It is used in the "Ketubah", or marriage contracts, as well as items that dress the Torah such as pointers, and the Passover Haggadah. The use of the hand as images both in and out of the synagogue suggests the importance and relevance that the Jewish people associated with the hamsa. The hand decorated some of the most religious and divine objects and has since emerged from its uncommon phase.


title: Hamsa

text: At the time of the establishment of the State of Israel, the hamsa became a symbol in everyday Israeli life, and to a degree, a symbol of Israel itself. It has come to be a symbol of secularity, and a trendy talisman; a "good luck" charm appearing on necklaces, keychains, postcards, telephone and lottery cards, and in advertisements. It is also a commonly used symbol by Jews outside of the Middle East, particularly in Jewish communities of the United States. It is also incorporated into high-end jewellery, decorative tilework and wall decorations.


title: Hamsa

text: Similar to the Western use of the phrase "knock on wood" or "touch wood", a common expression in Israel is "Hamsa, Hamsa, Hamsa, tfu, tfu, tfu", the sound for spitting, supposedly to spit out bad luck.


title: Hamsa

text: At the Mimouna, a Maghrebi Jewish celebration held after Passover, tables are laid with various symbols of luck and fertility, with an emphasis on the number "5", such as five pieces of gold jewellery or five beans arranged on a leaf of pastry. The repetition of the number five is associated with the hamsa amulet.


title: Hamsa

text: In Morocco, the "Hamsa" is called 'Khamsa' or 'Khmisa' and is widely used as a protection from bad luck and evil people. The "Hamsa" is incorporated in many home decor items, but still, the most common use is in jewellery. Most Moroccan women have at least one jewellery piece with a "Hamsa".


title: The Nanny

text: The Nanny is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Flushing, Queens, New York, who becomes the nanny of three children from the New York–British high society.


title: The Nanny

text: The show was created and produced by Drescher and her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, taking much of its inspiration from Drescher's personal life growing up in Queens, involving names and characteristics based on her relatives and friends. The show earned a Rose d'Or, and one Emmy Award, out of a total of twelve nominations; Drescher was twice nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy. The sitcom has also spawned several foreign adaptations, loosely inspired by the original scripts.


title: The Nanny

text: Jewish-American Fran Fine turns up on the doorstep of British Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) to sell cosmetics after having been dumped, and subsequently fired by, her bridal-shop-owner boyfriend. Maxwell reluctantly hires her to be the nanny of his three children: Maggie, Brighton, and Grace. In spite of Mr. Sheffield's misgivings, Fran turns out to be just what he and his family needed.


title: The Nanny

text: While Fran Fine manages the children, butler Niles (Daniel Davis) manages the household and watches all the events that unfold with Fran as the new nanny. Niles, recognizing Fran's gift for bringing warmth back to the family (as Maxwell is a widower), does his best to undermine Maxwell's business partner C.C. Babcock (Lauren Lane) who has her eyes on the very available Maxwell Sheffield. Niles is often seen making witty comments directed towards C.C., with C.C. often replying with a comment of her own in their ongoing game of one-upmanship.


title: The Nanny

text: As the series progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that Maxwell is smitten with Fran even though he will not admit it, and Fran is smitten with him. The show teases the viewers with their closeness and "near misses" as well as with an engagement. Towards the later seasons, they finally marry and expand their family by having fraternal twins. By the end of the series, it is also clear that Niles and C.C.'s constant sharp barbs are their own bizarre form of flirtation; after a few false starts (including multiple impulsive and failed proposals from Niles), the pair marry in the series finale and subsequently discover they are expecting a child.


title: The Nanny

text: "The Nanny" maintained an ensemble cast, keeping the same set of characters for its entire six-season run.


title: The Nanny

text: Renée Taylor, Rachel Chagall, and Ann Morgan Guilbert were only given starring credit for their roles in the sixth and final season, even though they had previously appeared in most episodes of the series, particularly in seasons where the role of the Sheffield children was somewhat reduced.


title: The Nanny

text: Although largely operating around the main ensemble cast, "The Nanny" featured an enormous number of guest stars over the years. Notable repeat guests included Lainie Kazan as Fran's paternal aunt Freida, Steve Lawrence as Fran's never before seen father Morty Fine, Pamela Anderson as Fran's bubble-headed nemesis Heather Biblow, Ray Charles as Yetta's fiancé Sammy, Spalding Gray as Fran's therapist Dr. Jack Miller, Fred Stoller for the frequently featured pharmacist Fred, and Andrew Levitas as Maggie's boyfriend Michael.


title: The Nanny

text: Several celebrities guested as characters in single episodes, such as Dan Aykroyd, John Astin, Jason Alexander, Robert Culp, Cloris Leachman, Rita Moreno, Robert Urich, Wallace Shawn, Joan Van Ark, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., George Murdock, Roseanne Barr as Fran's cousin Sheila, Joan Collins as Maxwell's stepmother, Robert Vaughn as Maxwell's father, Twiggy as Maxwell's sister (in her first appearance, in season 1), and Dina Merrill as his mother. Others appeared as themselves, primarily in connection with Maxwell's business relations, such as Bob Barker, Chevy Chase, Carol Channing, Robert Culp, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lesley-Anne Down, Erik Estrada, Dan Aykroyd, Joe Lando, Joan Collins, Richard Kline, Bette Midler. Eydie Gormé, Jane Seymour, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Lamb Chop and Shari Lewis, Andrew Dice Clay, Lynn Redgrave, Hugh Grant, Margaret Cho, Jeanne Cooper, Melody Thomas Scott, Eric Braeden, Shemar Moore, Joshua Morrow, Hunter Tylo, Alex Trebek; media personalities Roger Clinton, Alicia Machado, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Sally Jessy Raphael and Donald Trump; and musicians Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle, Lisa Loeb, Eartha Kitt, Brian Setzer, Celine Dion, Rapper Coolio, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Lawrence, and Rosie O'Donnell. Jonathan Penner appeared as Fran's former fiancé, Danny Imperialli. James Marsden appeared as Maggie's boyfriend, Eddie, and Telma Hopkins appeared as Fran's "mother" in the episode "Fran's Roots". Scott Baio made an appearance as a rookie doctor who was Fran's former schoolmate. Jon Stewart portrayed a Jewish love interest of Fran's until it was discovered at a family wedding that the two were cousins; on the June 29, 2011 airing of "The Daily Show", Stewart stated he agreed to make an appearance after receiving a personal call from Fran Drescher.


title: The Nanny

text: Marvin Hamlisch appeared as Fran's former high school music teacher, a Marvin Hamlisch look-alike. Fran Drescher also reprised her role of Bobbi Fleckman from the 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap" and made a cameo appearance as herself in the third to last episode. Charles Shaughnessy had a double role as a fictional Middle Eastern oil potentate in one episode. Drescher's real-life parents, Morty and Sylvia, initially appeared as a couple in the waiting room of Grace's therapist and made subsequent appearances as Fran's Uncle Stanley and Aunt Rose; her Pomeranian Chester appeared as C.C.'s pet in more than a dozen episodes. Renée Taylor's husband, actor Joseph Bologna, and their son Gabriel Bologna, had guest roles on the show. Ray Romano appeared as Fran's former high school classmate Ray Barone, linking "The Nanny" with his comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond". Romano and Drescher actually knew each other in high school. Tom Bergeron appeared as himself, the host of "Hollywood Squares", in an episode in which Maxwell appeared as a star on the show's board as a replacement for Andrew Lloyd Webber. Tyne Daly appeared as a fellow nanny facing forced retirement. David Letterman made an uncredited appearance during a fantasy sequence, where Fran describes how she exaggerated her fame to impress a pen pal. Donna Douglas, who played Elly Mae Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies", would make her last television appearance in an episode in which the Fines would buy the mansion (made famous in the aforementioned series) she was selling (Douglas was a realtor in real life), and in a nod paid homage to the "Hillbillies" closing scene with Donna and the cast waving goodbye to viewers.


title: The Nanny

text: The theme song featured in the pilot was a version of "If My Friends Could See Me Now", performed by Gwen Verdon from the 1966 Broadway musical "Sweet Charity". Following the pilot, the theme changed to "The Nanny Named Fran", written by Ann Hampton Callaway and performed by her and her sister Liz Callaway. Two instrumental versions of the theme song were used in the closing credits: one that is a direct instrumental version of the theme (used only in a few season one episodes), and another with a slightly different arrangement.


title: The Nanny

text: Along with the change of the theme song from "If My Friends Could See Me Now" to "The Nanny Named Fran" came the change of the opening sequence, which like the theme, describes (with the main characters in animated form) the story of how Fran Fine went from being fired from the bridal shop by Danny Imperiali to becoming the nanny of the Sheffield children.


title: The Nanny

text: The animated opening sequence begins with Fran Fine walking into the bridal shop, only to be kicked out by an unseen Danny Imperalli in one of those crushing scenes. Then, she hitches a ride in a cab, crosses the bridge from Queens, New York to Manhattan and arrives at the Sheffield mansion. Maxwell Sheffield opens the door and observes Fran. Then, he pulls her inside and she falls into the flower pot. Niles dusts her off and puts a cap on her head that reads "Nanny". Fran whistles for Maggie, Brighton, and Gracie and the four of them form a conga line. C.C. arrives at the door and Fran bumps the door with her hip to close it in her face. Finally, the Sheffields, Niles and Fran gather on the couch for a group picture similar to that of the "One Day at a Time" series opening. However, when Fran presses the camera's button, smoke emits from the camera, covering the entire group in dust and messing up their best clothes.


title: The Nanny

text: Rosie O'Donnell employed the same team that created "The Nanny"s opening credits to do the opening credits for her popular daytime talk show. O'Donnell mentioned this in an interview with Drescher on that show.


title: The Nanny

text: "The Nanny" began in 1991 with a chance meeting on a transatlantic flight between Drescher and Jeff Sagansky, at the time president of CBS Corporation, for whom she had starred in the short-lived TV series "Princesses". Drescher persuaded Sagansky to let her and her then-husband Jacobson pitch an idea for a sitcom to CBS. Sagansky agreed to a future meeting once all of the parties were back in Los Angeles; however, neither Drescher nor Jacobson had any idea what to pitch.


title: The Nanny

text: Later, while in London, Drescher was visiting friend Twiggy Lawson and her family in London, England, where she went on a culture-clash shopping tour with Lawson's then-teenage daughter. Drescher was inspired by her behavior towards the teenage daughter on the shopping trip as functioning in a less parental but "humorous [...] kind of Queens logic, self-serving advice" mode.


title: The Nanny

text: Drescher immediately called her husband in Los Angeles with her sitcom idea, which she pitched as a spin on "The Sound of Music", except, in Drescher's words, "Instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door." Jacobson replied: "That could be it" and the idea for "The Nanny" was spawned.


title: The Nanny

text: Back in Los Angeles, the pair pitched their idea to Tim Flack and Joe Voci, both in comedy development at CBS. Sagansky brought in experienced producers Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser, another husband-and-wife team with whom Drescher had worked before while guesting on "Who's the Boss?" in 1985 and 1986. Interested, both couples teamed up to write the script for the pilot together, creating a character with the intention to build off Drescher's image. "Our business strategy was to create a show that was going to complement our writing, complement me as a talent," Drescher said in a 1997 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter". As a result, the characters draw deeply on the Drescher family, including Fran Fine's parents, Sylvia and Morty, and grandmother Yetta, who all were named after their real-life counterparts. Drescher also drew from her own life in creating her character. Like the character in "The Nanny", Drescher was born and raised in Flushing, Queens, and attended beauty school. However, unlike her on-screen counterpart, Drescher never worked in a bridal shop; Drescher wrote that into the character as a tribute to her mother, who did work in a bridal shop. While visiting with his relatives in Fort Lauderdale around the holidays, Sagansky watched a few episodes with his relatives, realized that he had a hit, and ordered a full 22 episodes for the first season.


title: The Nanny

text: Most of the early episodes of "The Nanny" were shot in front of a live studio audience on Stage 6 at the Culver Studios. During later seasons the taping was no longer performed before an audience due to the complexities of the fantasy sequences, costume changes, etc. On Mondays, the cast went through the script as a table read. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they rehearsed before the series' producers and executives. And, on Thursdays and Fridays, the series was shot using a multi-camera set up in front of a live studio audience.


title: The Nanny

text: Nearly 100 crew members were involved in the shooting of a single episode. Although Drescher, Fraser, Jacobson and Sternin, the show's only executive producers for the first four seasons, coordinated "pretty much everything" at the beginning, according to Sternin, they eventually found their niche and in the following years, Drescher and Sternin decided to focus on writing story outlines, while Jacobson presided over the writing team, and Fraser observed the run-throughs. The four of them were later joined by Frank Lombardi, Caryn Lucas and Diane Wilk, who served as the series' executive producer throughout the fifth and sixth season respectively.


title: The Nanny

text: Stemming from a home invasion and attack she experienced in 1985, Fran Drescher requested the show to provide prescreened audiences, based upon her fear of having random strangers invited to the productions. The show hired Central Casting to gather a cast of "laughers" who would be recorded during taping. The audio track of the laughers would then be added to the episodes in post-production. Casting director Lisette St. Claire became the world's first "laugher wrangler" for this new type of service, which would continue to be used on other shows.


title: The Nanny

text: The comedy in "The Nanny" was formulated with many running gags, which contributed heavily to the success of the series. Much of this formula was character-based, with all major characters possessing a specific trait or quirks that provided a source of parody for other characters. The conflicting elements of each character's own comedy were often played off against one another (Fran and Maxwell, Niles and C.C., Maggie and Brighton). Occasionally the characters would break the fourth wall and comment on the situations themselves, or Fran would comment to the audience or look into the camera. Other running gags are the many references to Beatles songs and the musicals "Fiddler on the Roof" and "My Fair Lady". Most of the humor Fran uses is aimed toward a Jewish audience. She makes references to Yiddish words and teaches the Sheffield children to be stereotypical Jews (to never pay retail price, to go after men like doctors, etc.). Much of this humor is featured in scenes including her mother Sylvia.


title: The Nanny

text: At times, they would also make humorous references to the stars' previous careers or real life off-screen time. This was noticeable when Yetta saw her reflection in the mirror and thought she was seeing Millie Helper from "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (the role that Guilbert played on that long-running show), Maxwell remembering how he wanted to hire a former cast member from "Days of Our Lives" but thought he was not "British" enough (a reference to Charles Shaughnessy's former series), C.C. using props to hide Lauren Lane's real-life pregnancy at the time, and Fran meeting her idol—Fran Drescher—who gave her a hint on what she (the TV Fran) was going to do in the next scene in the second-to-last episode in the last season. Drescher also appeared in the series as tough-talking music publicist Bobbi Fleckman, reprising her role from the 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap", setting up an obvious visual gag where Drescher (as the Nanny) would disguise herself as Fleckman in order to get Mr. Sheffield's attention.


title: The Nanny

text: More running gags include Fran's frequent references to classic TV sitcoms (such as "Gilligan's Island" and "Bewitched") and her many eccentric family members (some never shown, most of them dying); Fran lying about her age—especially to men; Maxwell fighting through his rivalry with actual Broadway producer Andrew Lloyd Webber; Maxwell's physical resemblance to Pierce Brosnan; Maxwell's fondness for Kaye Ballard; Sylvia loving food in excess; Niles delivering sharp one-liners, often aimed at C.C.; C.C. cold-heartedly reacting to situations that are usually sentimental to others (e.g. the death of Bambi's mother); Gracie psychologically analyzing various situations; Niles getting fired because he embarrasses Maxwell or gives Fran ideas that Maxwell extremely dislikes (such as suggesting that Max, C.C. and Fran go to Barbra Streisand's house); Fran and Val lacking intelligence and obsessing over material possessions (e.g. clothes); frequent references to Fran's flamboyant wardrobe, her "big hair" and her nasal voice (which was much less grating in early episodes); Fran frequently mentioning shopping at Loehmann's; Yetta making disconnected comments revealing her senility; Fran criticizing Maxwell's and Niles' reserved and inhibited British nature; Brighton morphing into a hopeless dork; Fran's attraction to Jewish males; Maxwell passing up the incredibly popular musical, "Cats", then becoming upset when such an idiotic idea became a success; Niles' last name never being revealed; C.C. covering her long-unrevealed name (finally given as Chastity Claire in the series finale); C.C. failing to remember the names of the Sheffield children (even convinced by Niles in one episode that there was a fourth child named Sydney; note: she did not have trouble remembering in the early seasons); Sylvia constantly nagging Fran to get married; Fran finding solace in food when she's depressed; Fran's father, Morty, often featured in the series but never actually seen (until portrayed by Steve Lawrence in a few later episodes); Morty's only physical trait being the fact that he is bald, in which he is always comically losing his wig, and has several head mannequins to hold different wigs; Niles offering obvious hints to Maxwell and Fran about them realizing they should be together and hints from each other; C.C. pining over her unrequited romantic interest in Maxwell; C.C. developing a nervous tic and eventually ending up in a sanitarium; Fran obsessing with Barbra Streisand. In one episode Streisand's sister, Roslyn Kind appears singing a song with Fran thinking Barbra is at the Sheffield home. There was also the occasional tryst between Niles and C.C., contrasting with their typical open disdain for each other, which was actually love. Season 4 featured a running gag where both Fran and Maxwell kept secret from the other household members "The Thing" (the fact that in the season 3 finale Maxwell tells Fran he loves her, but then in the Season 4 premiere he takes it back). It is also following "The Thing" that whenever Maxwell makes comments denying he has feelings for Fran, she is temporarily "paralyzed" (she cannot feel her arm, her entire left side shuts down, etc.).


title: The Nanny

text: In addition, there is also a great deal of physical comedy in "The Nanny" including exaggerated falls and chases. Drescher's facial expressions, when shocked or surprised, can also be seen as reminiscent of Lucille Ball's portrayals of Lucy Ricardo and Lucy Carmichael. The parallels were suggested in a few episodes, where an exasperated Mr. Sheffield refers to Fran as "Mrs. Carmichael", and asks in another: "Mr. Mooney fire you from the bank again?" Another Lucy reference (in which the family travels to Hollywood) is when he alludes to Fran and "Ethel" stealing John Wayne's footprints, and again when Maxwell says "Miss Fine, you got' some 'splaining to do!" like Ricky Ricardo often said to Lucy Ricardo. The episode that featured a visit from Elizabeth Taylor (who also appeared on "Here's Lucy" as a guest star) began with Maxwell and Niles trying to hide the visit from Fran ("Boys, boys, boys. Now do you think my mother gave birth to a dummy 25 years ago?") followed by her gripe "You never introduce me to any of the stars that you know; I've got a good mind to take Little Ricky and... oh. Never mind." Also, there was a reference from the episode of "I Love Lucy" called "Ricky has Labor Pains" where Lucy and Ethel dress up like men and go to Ricky's daddy shower. In an episode of "The Nanny", Fran sees a man watching "I Love Lucy" on TV and as the theme song plays she gets a sneaky look on her face and gets the idea to gain entry into Mr. Sheffield's men's only club dressed as a man. Viewers for Quality Television called "The Nanny" "the '90s version of "I Love Lucy". It was well written and entertaining."


title: The Nanny

text: The show began off-network syndication in September 1998, distributed by Columbia TriStar Television Distribution on various broadcast television networks in the United States. The show had aired on Lifetime Television from 2000 until 2008. The show could also be seen on Nick at Nite from April 2009 to October 5, 2013, in the United States, but was pulled and its timeslot of 6AM-7AM was replaced with Hangin' With Mr. Cooper. It also appears on The Hallmark Channel in the Philippines, Super RTL and VOX in Germany, and Go! and TV1 in Australia. On February 8, 2010, Fran Drescher hosted a week-long marathon of "The Nanny", titled "Valentine Schmalentine", on Nick at Nite. The success of the stunt led to Fran hosting "Falling for Fran", a similar week-long Valentine's Day marathon in February 2011.


title: The Nanny

text: On August 2, 2010, "The Nanny" began airing on TV Land, commencing with a week-long marathon and remained on the channel until 2016. On January 1, 2011, "The Nanny" began airing on Antenna TV, a new digital broadcast network. On August 16, 2011, "The Nanny" began airing on Logo. Similarly, on April 30, 2018, Freeform began airing the series, showing 5-episode blocks in the early morning hours. Additionally, the show can be seen on local US television channels.


title: The Nanny

text: The series' third and fourth seasons are available for streaming on Pluto TV, the Roku Channel rotates between seasons 1–2 and 3–4, and on April 1, 2021, the entire series became available on HBO Max.


title: The Nanny

text: Outside of North America, "The Nanny" is broadcast in various other countries and television networks, each with their own schedule for the series. In the United Kingdom, the entire series aired on the digital network Living. It is currently re-airing on newly launched channel TLC.


title: The Nanny

text: In France, the show was broadcast and rebroadcast the same multi-and was a huge success on the channel M6 then W9. The French title is "Une nounou d'enfer" ("A Hell of a Nanny"). The character of Fran Fine is very famous in France.


title: The Nanny

text: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released seasons 1, 2 and 3 of "The Nanny" on DVD in regions 1, 2 and 4. Season 3 was released on March 17, 2009, in Region 1, almost 3 years after the release of season 2.


title: The Nanny

text: On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including "The Nanny". They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on August 5, 2014.


title: The Nanny

text: On January 12, 2015, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently released a complete series set on May 26, 2015. It contains all 146 episodes.


title: The Nanny

text: In late 2015, Shout! began releasing individual season sets; the fourth season was released on September 22, 2015, followed by the fifth season on December 22, 2015. The sixth and final season was released on March 15, 2016.


title: The Nanny

text: The show performed poorly in its first year. When it was nearly canceled, Sagansky stepped in as its champion. According to Jacobson: "At all those affiliate meetings, he used to say, 'Stick by "The Nanny"!' He knew it was something special." The sitcom was the first new show delivered to CBS for the 1993 season and the highest-tested pilot at the network in years. The series was also hugely successful internationally, especially in Australia, where it was one of the highest-rated programs during the mid-to-late 1990s.


title: The Nanny

text: Although soon emerging as a favorite among the company, sponsors questioned whether the writers had ventured too far in terms of ethnicity and Drescher acted too obviously Jewish. The actress, however, declined to change Fran Fine into an Italian American: "On TV, you have to work fast, and the most real, the most rooted in reality to me is Jewish. I wanted to do it closest to what I knew." By contrast, the producers came to the conclusion that to oppose her should be a family of British origin, so "she wouldn't come across as Jewish so much as the American you were rooting for," Sternin explained. "The idea was to make her the American girl who happens to be Jewish rather than the Jewish girl working for the WASPs."


title: The Nanny

text: In June 2018, in regards to reviving the series, Drescher said, "We’re talking about it. Peter and I are talking about it," Drescher told "Entertainment Tonight", referencing her ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, who co-created the series with her. "She would’ve maybe gotten involved in more things [that] Fran Drescher is involved with," the actress told "Entertainment Tonight". "All kinds of things from environmental issues, to health, to civil liberties, that’s what I think Fran [Fine] would be doing now — opening her big Queens mouth for the greater good."


title: The Nanny

text: "The Nanny" was shown in more than eighty countries worldwide. In addition, several local versions of the show have been produced in other countries. These shows follow the original scripts very closely, but with minor alterations in order to adapt to their respective country's culture. The remake in Russia was so popular that some original American writers of the show were commissioned to write new scripts after all original episodes were remade.


title: The Nanny

text: On January 8, 2020, it was announced that Drescher and Jacobson were writing the book for a musical adaptation of the series. Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" fame were to write the songs, while Marc Bruni ("") was slated to direct. Drescher will not portray the title role, as she joked that if she did "We'd have to change the title to "The Granny"." However, since Schlesinger's unexpected death from COVID-19, the status of the musical is unknown.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: Ian McDiarmid (; born 11 August 1944) is a Scottish actor and director of stage and screen, best known for portraying the Sith Lord Emperor Sheev Palpatine / Darth Sidious in the "Star Wars" multimedia franchise. Making his stage debut in "Hamlet" in 1972, McDiarmid joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974, and has since starred in a number of Shakespeare's plays. He has received an Olivier Award for Best Actor and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his stage performances.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: McDiarmid was born in Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland, on 11 August 1944. He became a theatre aficionado when he was five years old, when his father took him to see an act named Tommy Morgan at a theatre in Dundee. In 2004, he stated, "It sort of fascinated me, and it also scared me. All those lights, all that make-up. I said to myself, 'I don't know what this is, but I want it.'"


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: However, fearing his father's disapproval, McDiarmid attended Queen's College, Dundee (now the University of Dundee, but then a constituent part of the University of St Andrews), where he received a Master of Arts in psychology. Soon after, he decided to pursue a career in the theatre instead, and took acting training courses at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: In 1968, McDiarmid received a gold medal for his work from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the first of many recognitions given to him for his work in the theatre. McDiarmid claimed he became its recipient "by doing all the boring jobs you have to do when you are young, to eke out an existence."


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: McDiarmid has worked as an actor and director in British theatre. He has starred in several Shakespeare plays, including "Hamlet" (1972), "The Tempest" (1974, 2000), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1976), Trevor Nunn's 1976 "Macbeth" (television 1978), "The Merchant of Venice" (1984), and "King Lear" (2005). He played Ivanov in Tom Stoppard's play "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" at the Mermaid Theatre in 1978.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: From 1990, McDiarmid and Jonathan Kent served as the artistic directors of the Almeida Theatre in Islington, London, gaining the commitment of prominent actresses such as Glenda Jackson and Claire Bloom for their productions. The two men resigned in 2001 with the venue in good shape. Their tenure was marked by a string of highly successful performances involving actors such as Kevin Spacey and Ralph Fiennes. While connected with the Almeida, McDiarmid directed plays such as "Venice Preserv'd" (1986) and "Hippolytus" (1991). In 2002, McDiarmid won Almeida Theatre's Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor for his role as Teddy in a revival of Brian Friel's "Faith Healer". Five years later in 2006, he reprised this role in his debut on Broadway. Directed by Kent, he performed alongside Ralph Fiennes and Cherry Jones, and won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. From April to June 2012, he played the title role in "Timon of Athens" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: He portrayed Harry Hackamore in Sam Shepard's play "Seduced". McDiarmid described Hackamore as a Howard Hughes-type character. To play the part, he was made up in prosthetics, including a false beard and long fingernails. McDiarmid was only 37 at the time, and this convinced George Lucas and Richard Marquand that he could convincingly play a much older character in extreme cinematic close-up, which helped him land the role of Palpatine.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: After a minor part in the film "Dragonslayer" (1981), McDiarmid was cast by George Lucas in "Return of the Jedi" (1983) as Emperor Palpatine, the main villain. CNN named McDiarmid fourth in their top 10 British villains, stating it was his "darkly seductive voice" that "stole the show", and it was a "masterclass in ruling through fear and manipulation." Sixteen years after "Return of the Jedi", he reprised the role as the character's younger incarnation of Senator (and later Chancellor) Palpatine and Sith Lord Darth Sidious in the prequel films: "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones", and "". The prequels had him play two faces to his character; he re-created his diabolical interpretation of Palpatine from "Return of the Jedi" when playing Darth Sidious, the Chancellor's Sith alter ego, but created a pleasant, charming character in Palpatine's public persona. McDiarmid returned to the role of Palpatine on screen for the first time since "Revenge of the Sith" in the 2019 film "The Rise of Skywalker", the third film in the sequel trilogy, and the ninth and final episode in the Skywalker saga.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: In the 2004 re-release of "The Empire Strikes Back", a brief scene between Darth Vader and a hologram of Emperor Palpatine was updated to include McDiarmid. The Emperor was originally voiced by Clive Revill for that scene, and visually portrayed by Marjorie Eaton. With this addition to "The Empire Strikes Back", McDiarmid has now appeared in every live-action film version in which Palpatine appears.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: He has also worked with the "Star Wars" expanded universe as the voice of Palpatine in the video game adaptations of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi": "" and "". McDiarmid made a small appearance during Celebration Europe. From 23 to 26 August 2012, he attended Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida, and had his own show titled "The Phantom Menace: Ian McDiarmid", hosted by James Arnold Taylor, in which he talked about his experience working on "Star Wars" and how he landed the role of Palpatine. McDiarmid also voiced a pig version of Palpatine for a promo video on "Angry Birds Star Wars II", entitled "Join the Pork Side". McDiarmid appeared as Emperor Palpatine in the 2022 TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi, in both new scenes and archive material from the prequel trilogy.


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: McDiarmid took an early role as Mickey Hamilton, a killer intent on avenging the death of his wife and child in "The Professionals" (Season 2, Episode 13) for London Weekend Television. In 1990, he starred in the Central Independent Television series "Inspector Morse"s episode "Masonic Mysteries" as the psychopathic con man Hugo DeVries. In 1997, McDiarmid played the villain, Ronald Hinks, in the "Touching Evil" two-part episode "Through the Clouds/The Lost Boys". He played the role of police detective Porfiry Petrovich in the BBC's 2002 adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment". In 2003, McDiarmid took the role of the Stuart statesman Edward Hyde, in the BBC series "".


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: In 2005, he portrayed Satan in the 41-part BBC Radio 4 drama based on John Milton's "Paradise Lost", which was subsequently re-broadcast on BBC 7. Recently, he played the writer and pioneer of policing, Henry Fielding, in the Channel 4 historical drama series "City of Vice" and Denis Thatcher in 2009's "Margaret".


title: Ian McDiarmid

text: McDiarmid played intelligence chief LeClerc in a 2009 BBC Radio dramatization of John le Carré's "The Looking Glass War". In 2014, he played a leading role as British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey in the BBC television drama "37 Days", which is about the diplomatic crisis preceding the First World War. He also had a recurring role on series 2 of "Utopia", playing the role of Anton. In September 2016, McDiarmid starred in the audio podcast drama series "Akiha Den Den". He played Cuttings, a ham radio buff who picks up a mysterious voice (Joy McAvoy) coming from an abandoned amusement park and Prospero in a BBC Radio 3 "new, environmentally-inflected production of The Tempest to coincide with COP26 in Glasgow", 7 Nov. 2021.


title: Riga

text: Riga (; , ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.


title: Riga

text: Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, 2013 World Women's Curling Championship and the 2021 IIHF World Championship. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). In 2017, it was named the European Region of Gastronomy.


title: Riga

text: In 2016, Riga received over 1.4 million visitors. The city is served by Riga International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in the Baltic states. Riga is a member of Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) and Union of Capitals of the European Union (UCEU).


title: Riga

text: However, the most reliably documented explanation is the affirmation by German historian Dionysius Fabricius (1610) that Riga's name comes from its already established role in trade: ""Riga nomen sortita est suum ab aedificiis vel horreis quorum a litus Dunae magna fuit copia, quas livones sua lingua Rias vocare soliti."" ("Riga obtained its name from the buildings or warehouses found in great number along the banks of the Duna, which the Livs in their own language are accustomed to call Riae."). The "j" in Latvian "rīja" (REE-eh) hardened to a "g" in German. English geographer Richard Hakluyt (1589) corroborates this account, calling Riga "Rie", as pronounced in Latvian.


title: Riga

text: The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings' Dvina–Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour upriver from the mouth of the Daugava—the site of today's Riga—has been recorded, as "Duna Urbs", as early as the 2nd century. It was settled by the Livs, a Finnic tribe.


title: Riga

text: Riga's inhabitants occupied themselves mainly with fishing, animal husbandry, and trading, later developing crafts (in bone, wood, amber, and iron).


title: Riga

text: The "Livonian Chronicle of Henry" testifies to Riga having long been a trading centre by the 12th century, referring to it as "portus antiquus" (ancient port), and describes dwellings and warehouses used to store mostly flax, and hides. German traders began visiting Riga, establishing a nearby outpost in 1158.


title: Riga

text: Along with German traders the monk Meinhard of Segeberg arrived to convert the Livonian pagans to Christianity. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity had already arrived in Latvia more than a century earlier, and many Latvians had been baptised. Meinhard settled among the Livs, building a castle and church at Uexküll (now known as Ikšķile), upstream from Riga, and established his bishopric there. The Livs, however, continued to practice paganism and Meinhard died in Uexküll in 1196, having failed in his mission. In 1198, the Bishop Berthold arrived with a contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianisation. Berthold died soon afterwards and his forces were defeated.


title: Riga

text: The Church mobilised to avenge this defeat. Pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians. Bishop Albert was proclaimed Bishop of Livonia by his uncle Hartwig of Uthlede, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg in 1199. Albert landed in Riga in 1200 with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders. In 1201, he transferred the seat of the Livonian bishopric from Uexküll to Riga, extorting agreement to do this from the elders of Riga by force.


title: Riga

text: The year 1201 also marked the first arrival of German merchants in Novgorod, via the Dvina. To defend territory and trade, Albert established the Order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202, which was open to nobles and merchants.


title: Riga

text: The Christianisation of the Livs continued. In 1207, Albert started to fortify the town. Emperor Philip invested Albert with Livonia as a fief and principality of the Holy Roman Empire. To promote a permanent military presence, territorial ownership was divided between the Church and the "Order", with the Church taking Riga and two-thirds of all lands conquered and granting the "Order" a third. Until then, it had been customary for crusaders to serve for a year and then return home.


title: Riga

text: Albert had ensured Riga's commercial future by obtaining papal bulls which decreed that all German merchants had to carry on their Baltic trade through Riga. In 1211, Riga minted its first coinage, and Albert laid the cornerstone for the Riga Dom. Riga was not yet secure as an alliance of tribes failed to take Riga. In 1212, Albert led a campaign to compel Polotsk to grant German merchants free river passage. Polotsk conceded Kukenois (Koknese) and Jersika to Albert, also ending the Livs' tribute to Polotsk.


title: Riga

text: Riga's merchant citizenry chafed and sought greater autonomy from the Church. In 1221, they acquired the right to independently self-administer Riga and adopted a city constitution.


title: Riga

text: That same year Albert was compelled to recognise Danish rule over lands they had conquered in Estonia and Livonia. Albert had sought the aid of King Valdemar of Denmark to protect Riga and Livonian lands against Liv insurrection when reinforcements could not reach Riga. The Danes landed in Livonia, built a fortress at Reval (Tallinn) and set about conquering Estonian and Livonian lands. The Germans attempted, but failed, to assassinate Valdemar. Albert was able to reach an accommodation with them a year later, however, and in 1222 Valdemar returned all Livonian lands and possessions to Albert's control.


title: Riga

text: Albert's difficulties with Riga's citizenry continued; with papal intervention, a settlement was reached in 1225 whereby they no longer had to pay tax to the Bishop of Riga, and Riga's citizens acquired the right to elect their magistrates and town councillors. In 1226, Albert consecrated the Dom Cathedral, built St. James's Church, (now a cathedral) and founded a parochial school at the Church of St. George.


title: Riga

text: In 1227, Albert conquered Oesel and the city of Riga concluded a treaty with the Principality of Smolensk giving Polotsk to Riga.


title: Riga

text: Albert died in January 1229. He failed in his aspiration to be anointed archbishop but the German hegemony he established over the Livonia would last for seven centuries.


title: Riga

text: In 1282, Riga became a member of the Hanseatic League. The Hansa was instrumental in giving Riga economic and political stability, thus providing the city with a strong foundation which endured the political conflagrations that were to come, down to modern times.


title: Riga

text: As the influence of the Hanseatic League waned, Riga became the object of foreign military, political, religious and economic aspirations. Riga accepted the Reformation in 1522, ending the power of the archbishops. In 1524, iconoclasts targeted a statue of the Virgin Mary in the cathedral to make a statement against religious icons. It was accused of being a witch, and given a trial by water in the Daugava river. The statue floated, so it was denounced as a witch and burnt at Kubsberg. With the demise of the Livonian Order during the Livonian War, Riga for twenty years had the status of a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire before it came under the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Treaty of Drohiczyn, which ended the war for Riga in 1581. In 1621, during the Polish–Swedish War (1621–1625), Riga and the outlying fortress of Daugavgrīva came under the rule of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who intervened in the Thirty Years' War not only for political and economic gain but also in favour of German Lutheran Protestantism. During the Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658), Riga withstood a siege by Russian forces.


title: Riga

text: Riga remained one of the largest cities under the Swedish crown until 1710, a period during which the city retained a great deal of autonomous self-government. In July 1701, during the opening phase of the Great Northern War, the "Crossing of the Düna" took place nearby, resulting in a victory for king Charles XII of Sweden. Between November 1709 and June 1710, however, the Russians under Tsar Peter the Great besieged and captured Riga, which was at the time struck by a plague. Along with the other Livonian towns and gentry, Riga capitulated to Russia, but largely retained their privileges. Riga was made the capital of the Governorate of Riga (later, Livonia). Sweden's northern dominance had ended, and Russia's emergence as the strongest Northern power was formalised through the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. At the beginning of the 20th century Riga was the largest timber export port in the Russian Empire and ranked the 3rd according to the external trade volume. At the same time, Riga was also the third largest city in Russian Empire.


title: Riga

text: During these many centuries of war and changes of power in the Baltic, and despite demographic changes, the Baltic Germans in Riga had maintained a dominant position. By 1867, Riga's population was 42.9% German. Riga employed German as its official language of administration until the installation of Russian in 1891 as the official language in the Baltic provinces, as part of the policy of Russification of the non-Russian-speaking territories of the Russian Empire, including Congress Poland, Finland and the Baltics, undertaken by Tsar Alexander III. More and more Latvians started moving to the city during the mid-19th century. The rise of a Latvian bourgeoisie made Riga a centre of the Latvian National Awakening with the founding of the Riga Latvian Association in 1868 and the organisation of the first national song festival in 1873. The nationalist movement of the Neo-Latvians was followed by the socialist New Current during the city's rapid industrialisation, culminating in the 1905 Revolution led by the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party.


title: Riga

text: The 20th century brought World War I and the impact of the Russian Revolution of 1917 to Riga. As a result of the battle of Jugla, the German army marched into Riga on 3 September 1917. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving the Baltic countries to Germany. Because of the armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918, Germany had to renounce that treaty, as did Russia, leaving Latvia and the other Baltic States in a position to claim independence. Latvia, with Riga as its capital city, thus declared its independence on 18 November 1918.


title: Riga

text: Between World War I and World War II (1918–1940), Riga and Latvia shifted their focus from Russia to the countries of Western Europe. The United Kingdom and Germany replaced Russia as Latvia's major trade partners. The majority of the Baltic Germans were resettled in late 1939, prior to the occupation of Estonia and Latvia by the Soviet Union in June 1940.


title: Riga

text: During World War II, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 and then was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941–1944. On 17 June 1940, the Soviet forces invaded Latvia occupying bridges, post/telephone, telegraph, and broadcasting offices. Three days later, Latvian president Karlis Ulmanis was forced to approve a pro-Soviet government which had taken office. On 14–15 July, rigged elections were held in Latvia and the other Baltic states, The ballots held the following instructions: "Only the list of the Latvian Working People's Bloc must be deposited in the ballot box. The ballot must be deposited without any changes." The alleged voter activity index was 97.6%. Most notably, the complete election results were published in Moscow 12 hours before the election closed. Soviet electoral documents found later substantiated that the results were completely fabricated. The Soviet authorities, having regained control over Riga and Latvia imposed a regime of terror, opening the headquarters of the KGB, massive deportations started. Hundreds of men were arrested, including leaders of the former Latvian government. The most notorious deportation, the June deportation took place on 13 and 14 June 1941, estimated at 15,600 men, women, and children, and including 20% of Latvia's last legal government. Similar deportations were repeated after the end of WWII. The building of the KGB located at 61 Brīvības iela, known as 'the corner house', is now a museum. Stalin's deportations also included thousands of Latvian Jews. (The mass deportation totalled 131,500 across the Baltics.)


title: Riga

text: During the Nazi occupation, the Jewish community was forced into the Riga Ghetto and a Nazi concentration camp was constructed in Kaiserwald. On 25 October 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto. Most of Latvia's Jews (about 24,000) were killed on 30 November and 8 December 1941 in the Rumbula massacre. By the end of the war, the remaining Baltic Germans were expelled to Germany.


title: Riga

text: The Soviet Red Army re-entered Riga on 13 October 1944. In the following years the massive influx of labourers, administrators, military personnel, and their dependents from Russia and other Soviet republics started. Microdistricts of the large multi-storied housing blocks were built to house immigrant workers.


title: Riga

text: By the end of the war, Riga's historical centre was heavily damaged from constant bombing. After the war, huge efforts were made to reconstruct and renovate most of the famous buildings that had been part of the skyline of the city before the war. Such buildings were, amongst others, St. Peter's Church which lost its wooden tower after a fire caused by the Wehrmacht (renovated in 1954). Another example is the House of the Blackheads, completely destroyed, its ruins subsequently demolished; a facsimile was constructed in 1995.


title: Riga

text: In 2004, the arrival of low-cost airlines resulted in cheaper flights from other European cities such as London and Berlin, and consequently a substantial increase in numbers of tourists. In the spring of 2006, the hitherto biggest party of hospitality exchange service HC took place in Riga, counting 430 participants from 36 countries.


title: Riga

text: On 21 November 2013, the roof of a supermarket collapsed in Zolitūde, one of the neighbourhoods of the city, possibly as a result of the weight of materials used in the construction of a garden on the roof. Fifty-four people were killed. Latvian President Andris Bērziņš described the disaster as "a large-scale murder of many defenceless people".


title: Riga

text: Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014. During Latvia's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2015, the 4th Eastern Partnership Summit took place in Riga.


title: Riga

text: Riga is the second largest city (after Vilnius) in the three Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Riga is home to approximately one tenth of the three Baltic countries' combined population.


title: Riga

text: Riga's administrative divisions consist of six administrative entities: Central, Kurzeme and Northern districts and the Latgale, Vidzeme and Zemgale suburbs. Three entities were established on 1 September 1941, and the other three were established in October 1969. There are no official lower-level administrative units, but the Riga City Council Development Agency is working on a plan, which officially makes Riga consist of 58 neighbourhoods. The current names were confirmed on 28 December 1990.


title: Riga

text: The climate of Riga is humid continental (Köppen "Dfb"). The coldest months are January and February, when the average temperature is but temperatures as low as can be observed almost every year on the coldest days. The proximity of the sea causes frequent autumn rains and fogs. Continuous snow cover may last eighty days. The summers in Riga are mild and rainy with an average temperature of , while the temperature on the hottest days can exceed .


title: Riga

text: The head of the city government in Riga is the mayor, or officially the Chairman of the Riga City Council. He is assisted by one or more Vice Mayors (deputy mayors). The current mayor since October 2020 is Mārtiņš Staķis elected from Movement For!, which is a part of the Development/For!/Progressives faction, but on 24 March 2022, he left the party. The three other parties in the governing coalition each received a Vice Mayor post.


title: Riga

text: The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the final decision-making authority in the city. The Council consists of 60 members or deputies who are elected every four years. The Presidium of the Riga City Council consists of the Chairman of the Riga City Council and the representatives delegated by the political parties or party blocks elected to the City Council. From February to October 2020, the offices of the Mayor and Vice Mayors were suspended and the council itself had been dissolved and replaced by an interim administration of representatives from three governmental ministries until snap elections were held in 2020.


title: Riga

text: With 605,800 inhabitants in 2022 as according to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Riga was the largest city in the Baltic states, though its population has decreased from just over 900,000 in 1991 and it is expected to be decrowned by Vilnius. Notable causes include emigration and low birth rates. According to the 2017 data, ethnic Latvians made up 44.03% of the population of Riga. Slavs (mainly Eastern ones) made up the same percentage - Russians formed 37.88%, Belarusians 3.72%, Ukrainians 3.66%, Poles 1.83%, other ethnicities consisted 8.10%. By comparison, 60.1% of Latvia's total population was ethnically Latvian, 26.2% Russian, 3.3% Belarusian, 2.4% Ukrainian, 2.1% Polish, 1.2% are Lithuanian and the rest of other origins.


title: Riga

text: Upon the restoration of Latvia's independence in 1991, Soviet-era immigrants (and any of their offspring born before 1991) were not automatically granted Latvian citizenship because they had migrated to the territory of Latvia during the years when Latvia was part of the Soviet Union. The proportion of ethnic Latvians in Riga increased from 36.5% in 1989 to 42.4% in 2010. In contrast, the percentage of Russians fell from 47.3% to 40.7% in the same time period. Latvians overtook Russians as the largest ethnic group in 2006. In 2013 citizens of Latvia made up 73.1%, non-citizens 21.9% and citizens of other countries 4.9% of the population of Riga.


title: Riga

text: Riga is one of the key economic and financial centres of the Baltic states. Roughly half of all the jobs in Latvia are in Riga and the city generates more than 50% of Latvia's GDP as well as around half of Latvia's exports. The biggest exporters are in wood products, IT, food and beverage manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, transport and metallurgy. Riga Port is one of the largest in the Baltics. It handled a record 34 million tons of cargo in 2011 and has potential for future growth with new port developments on Krievu Sala. Tourism is also a large industry in Riga and after a slowdown during the global economic recessions of the late 2000s, grew 22% in 2011 alone.


title: Riga

text: Riga was intended to become the global financial centre in the former Soviet Union. One bank, which provided high levels of secrecy for its customers, promoted itself as "We are closer than Switzerland!" () On 28 July 1995, twenty Latvian banks with assistance of persons from the Paris Stock Exchange organised the Riga Stock Exchange which was the first Latvian stock exchange in Riga.


title: Riga

text: Riga hosted the biannual 2014 World Choir Games from 9 to 19 July 2014 which coincided with the city being named European Capital of Culture for 2014. The event, organised by the choral foundation, Interkultur, takes place at various host cities every two years and was originally known as the "Choir Olympics". The event regularly sees over 15,000 choristers in over 300 choirs from over 60 nations compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in over 20 categories. The competition is further divided into a Champions Competition and an Open Competition to allow choirs from all backgrounds to enter. Choral workshops and festivals are also witnessed in the host cities and are usually open to the public.


title: Riga

text: The radio and TV tower of Riga is the tallest structure in Latvia and the Baltic States, and one of the tallest in the European Union, reaching . Riga centre also has many great examples of Gothic revival architecture, such as the Kalpaka Boulevard Library, and a bevy of Art Nouveau architecture, as well as a medieval old town.


title: Riga

text: Riga has one of the largest collections of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with at least 800 buildings. This is due to the fact that at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, when Art Nouveau was at the height of its popularity, Riga experienced an unprecedented financial and demographic boom. In the period from 1857 its population grew from 282,000 (256,200 in Riga itself and another 26,200 inhabitants beyond the city limits in the patrimonial district and military town of Ust-Dvinsk) to 472,100 in 1913. The middle class of Riga used their acquired wealth to build imposing apartment blocks outside the former city walls. Local architects, mostly graduates of Riga Technical University, adopted current European movements and in particular Art Nouveau. Between 1910 and 1913, between 300 and 500 new buildings were built each year in Riga, most of them in Art Nouveau style and most of them outside the old town.


title: Riga

text: Riga has a rich basketball history. In the 1950s, Rīgas ASK became the best club in the Soviet Union and also in Europe, winning the first three editions of the European Cup for Men's Champions Clubs from 1958 to 1960.


title: Riga

text: In 1960, ASK was not the only team from Riga to take the European crown. TTT Riga clinched their first title in the European Cup for Women's Champion Clubs, turning Riga into the capital city of European basketball because for the first and, to date, only time in the history of European basketball, clubs from the same city were concurrent European men's and women's club champions.


title: Riga

text: Riga, with its central geographic position and concentration of population, has always been the infrastructural hub of Latvia. Several national roads begin in Riga, and European route E22 crosses Riga from the east and west, while the Via Baltica crosses Riga from the south and north.


title: Riga

text: As a city situated by a river, Riga also has several bridges. The oldest-standing bridge is the Railway Bridge, which is also the only railroad-carrying bridge in Riga. The Stone Bridge ("Akmens tilts") connects Old Riga and Pārdaugava; the Island Bridge ("Salu tilts") connects Maskavas Forštate and Pārdaugava via Zaķusala; and the Shroud Bridge ("Vanšu tilts") connects Old Riga and Pārdaugava via Ķīpsala. In 2008, the first stage of the new Southern Bridge ("Dienvidu tilts") route across the Daugava was completed, and was opened to traffic on 17 November.


title: Riga

text: The Southern Bridge was the biggest construction project in the Baltic states in 20 years, and its purpose was to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre. Another major construction project is the planned Riga Northern transport corridor; its first segment detailed project was completed in 2015.


title: Riga

text: The Freeport of Riga facilitates cargo and passenger traffic by sea. Sea ferries connect Riga Passenger Terminal to Stockholm operated by Tallink.


title: Riga

text: Riga has one active airport that serves commercial airlines—the Riga International Airport (RIX), built in 1973. Renovation and modernisation of the airport was completed in 2001, coinciding with the 800th anniversary of the city. In 2006, a new terminal extension was opened. Extension of the runway was completed in October 2008, and the airport is now able to accommodate large aircraft such as the Airbus A340, Boeing 747, 757, 767 and 777. Another terminal extension is under construction . The annual number of passengers has grown from 310,000 in 1993 to 4.7 million in 2014, making Riga International Airport the largest in the Baltic States.


title: Riga

text: The former international airport of Riga, Spilve Airport, located from Riga city centre, is used for small aircraft, pilot training and recreational aviation. Riga was also home to a military air base during the Cold War—Rumbula Air Base.


title: Riga

text: Public transport in the city is provided by Rīgas Satiksme which operates a large number of trams, buses and trolleybuses on an extensive network of routes across the city. In addition, up until 2012 many private owners operated minibus services, after which the City Council established the unified transport company "Rīgas mikroautobusu satiksme", establishing a monopoly over the service.


title: Riga

text: As the population of Riga city started to approach 1 million people in the 1980s, the city became eligible (under the Soviet standards of the time) for the construction of a subway system Riga Metro, which would have been paid for by the Soviet government. However, the population decline and shortage of funding following Latvian independence put an end to this plan.


title: Riga

text: Riga is connected to the rest of Latvia by domestic trains operated by the national carrier Passenger Train, whose headquarters are in Riga. The main railway station is the Riga Central Station. It has stops for public transport along the streets Satekles iela, 13. janvāra iela Marijas iela, and Merķeļa iela. There are also international rail services to Russia and Belarus, and plans to revive passenger rail traffic with Estonia. International overnight service is with Latvia Express trains (). A TEN-T project called Rail Baltica envisages building a high-speed railway line via Riga connecting Tallinn to Warsaw using standard gauge, expected to be put into operation in 2024. Latvian Railways ( or "LDz") operates the Latvian Rail History Museum in Riga.


title: Liger

text: The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion ("Panthera leo") and a female tiger ("Panthera tigris"). The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the similar hybrid called the tigon, and is the largest of all known extant felines. They enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons.


title: Liger

text: The history of lion-tiger hybrids dates to at least the early 19th century in India. In 1798, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844) made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and a tiger. The name "liger", a portmanteau of "lion" and "tiger", was coined by the 1930s. "Ligress" is used to refer to a female liger, on the model of "tigress".


title: Liger

text: In 1825, G. B. Whittaker made an engraving of liger cubs born in 1824. The parents and their three liger offspring are also depicted with their trainer in a 19th-century painting in the naïve style.


title: Liger

text: Two liger cubs born in 1837 were exhibited to King William IV and to his successor Queen Victoria. On 14 December 1900 and on 31 May 1901, Carl Hagenbeck wrote to zoologist James Cossar Ewart with details and photographs of ligers born at the Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg in 1897.


title: Liger

text: In "Animal Life and the World of Nature" (1902–1903), A. H. Bryden described Hagenbeck's "lion-tiger" hybrids:


title: Liger

text: It has remained for one of the most enterprising collectors and naturalists of our time, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, not only to breed but to bring successfully to a healthy maturity, specimens of this rare alliance between those two great and formidable Felidae, the lion and tiger. The illustrations will indicate sufficiently how fortunate Mr. Hagenbeck has been in his efforts to produce these hybrids. The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born on the 11th May 1897. This fine beast, now more than five years old, equals and even excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring as he does from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, and standing only three inches less than 4 ft at the shoulder. A good big lion will weigh about 400 lb [...] the hybrid in question, weighing as it does no less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior of the most well-grown lions, whether wild-bred or born in a menagerie. This animal shows faint striping and mottling, and, in its characteristics, exhibits strong traces of both its parents. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the tail is more like that of a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand, it has no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast.


title: Liger

text: In 1935, four ligers from two litters were reared in the Zoological Gardens of Bloemfontein, South Africa. Three of them, a male and two females, were still living in 1953. The male weighed and stood a foot and a half (45 cm) taller than a full grown male lion at the shoulder.


title: Liger

text: Although ligers are more commonly found than tigons today, in "At Home in the Zoo" (1961), Gerald Iles wrote "For the record I must say that I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They seem to be even rarer than tigons."


title: Liger

text: The liger has a faint tiger-like striped pattern upon a lionesque tawny background. In addition, it may inherit rosettes from the lion parent (lion cubs are rosetted and some adults retain faint markings). These markings may be black, dark brown or sandy. The background color may be correspondingly tawny, sandy or golden. In common with tigers, as an example of countershading, the underparts are pale. The specific pattern and color depend upon which subspecies the parents were and how the genes interact in the offspring.


title: Liger

text: White tigers have been crossed with lions to produce "white" (actually pale golden) ligers. In theory, white tigers could be crossed with white lions to produce white, very pale or even stripeless ligers. There are no black ligers. Very few melanistic tigers have ever been recorded, most being due to excessive markings (pseudo-melanism or abundism) rather than true melanism; no reports of black lions have ever been substantiated. As blue or Maltese tigers probably no longer exist, gray or blue ligers are exceedingly improbable. It is not impossible for a liger to be white, but it is very rare. The first known white ligers were born in December 2013 at Myrtle Beach Safari in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to a white male lion and a white female tiger.


title: Liger

text: The liger is often believed to be the largest cat in the world. Males reach a total length of , which means that they rival even large male lions and tigers in length. Imprinted genes may be a factor contributing to the large size of ligers. These are genes that may or may not be expressed on the parent they are inherited from, and that occasionally play a role in issues of hybrid growth. For example, in some dog breed crosses, genes that are expressed only when maternally-inherited cause the young to grow larger than is typical for either parent breed. This growth is not seen in the paternal breeds, as such genes are normally "counteracted" by genes inherited from the female of the appropriate breed.


title: Liger

text: Other big cat hybrids can reach similar sizes; the litigon, a rare hybrid of a male lion and a female tigon, is roughly the same size as the liger, with a male named Cubanacan (at the Alipore Zoo in India) reaching . The extreme rarity of these second-generation hybrids may make it difficult to ascertain whether they are larger or smaller, on average, than the liger.


title: Liger

text: It is sometimes wrongly believed that ligers continue to grow throughout their lives due to hormonal issues. It may be that they simply grow far more during their growing years and take longer to reach their full adult size. Further growth in shoulder height and body length is not seen in ligers over six years old, as in both lions and tigers. Male ligers also have the same levels of testosterone on average as an adult male lion, yet are azoospermic in accordance with Haldane's rule. In addition, female ligers may also attain great size, weighing approximately and reaching long on average, and are often fertile. In contrast, pumapards (hybrids between pumas and leopards) tend to exhibit dwarfism.


title: Liger

text: Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, is recognised by the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the largest living cat on Earth, weighing . Hercules was featured on the "Today Show", "Good Morning America", "Anderson Cooper 360", "Inside Edition", and in a "Maxim" article in 2005, when he was only three years old and already weighed .


title: Liger

text: Though ligers typically have a life expectancy of between 13 and 18 years, they are occasionally known to live into their 20s. A ligress named Shasta was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on 14 May 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24. Nook, a liger at a facility in Wisconsin, died in 2007, at 21 years old. Hobbs, a male liger at the Sierra Safari Zoo in Reno, Nevada, lived to almost 15 years of age before succumbing to liver failure, and weighed .


title: Liger

text: "Panthera" hybrids tend to experience a higher rate of injury and neurological disorder than non-hybrids. Though not universal, ligers and tigons may develop health issues. Organ failure issues have been reported in ligers, in addition to neurological deficits, sterility, cancer, and arthritis.


title: Liger

text: The fertility of hybrid big cat females is well documented across a number of different hybrids. This is in accordance with Haldane's rule: in hybrids of animals whose sex is determined by sex chromosomes, if one of the two sexes is absent, rare or sterile, it will be the heterogametic sex. Male ligers are consequently sterile, while female ligers are not.


title: Liger

text: Ligers and tigons were long thought to be totally sterile. However, in 1943, a fifteen-year-old hybrid between a lion and an island tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, though of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.


title: Liger

text: In September 2012, the Russian Novosibirsk Zoo announced the birth of a "liliger", the offspring of a liger mother and a lion father. The cub was named Kiara.


title: Liger

text: As with the tigon, the liger exists only in captivity. Historically, the Asiatic lion and the Bengal tiger co-occurred in some Asian countries, and there are legends of male lions mating with tigresses in the wilderness, or of ligers existing there. The two species' ranges are known to overlap in India's Gir National Park, though no ligers were known to live there until the modern era. The range of the Caspian tiger has overlapped with that of the lion in places such as northern Iran and eastern Anatolia.


title: Liger

text: Keeping the two species separate has been standard procedure. However, ligers have occurred, and do occur, by accident in captivity. Several AZA zoos are reported to have ligers. The USA holds the greatest population of around 30 ligers. China holds about 20 ligers. There are a few countries worldwide that hold a few, but probably less than 100 exist worldwide.


title: Liger

text: The breeding of ligers and other "Panthera" hybrids has come under fire from animal rights activists and organisations, who argue that the health problems experienced by these animals makes their creation immoral. Despite these assertions of immorality, some unlicensed zoos still breed ligers for profit.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Blood Diamond is a 2006 American political war action thriller film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts, and thereby profit warlords and diamond companies around the world.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002, the film depicts a country torn apart by the struggle between government loyalists and insurgent forces. It also portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of civilians' hands to discourage them from voting in upcoming elections.


title: Blood Diamond

text: The film's ending, in which a conference is held concerning blood diamonds, refers to a historic meeting that took place in Kimberley, South Africa, in 2000. It led to development of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which sought to certify the origin of rough diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds; the certification scheme has since been mostly abandoned as ineffective.


title: Blood Diamond

text: The film received mainly positive reviews, with praise directed toward the performances of DiCaprio and Hounsou. The film grossed $171 million worldwide and received five Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for DiCaprio and Best Supporting Actor for Hounsou. DiCaprio received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (also nominated that year in the same category for "The Departed"). In addition, DiCaprio and Hounsou were nominated for Outstanding Male Actor in a Leading Role and Outstanding Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Blood Diamond

text: The film is set in 1999 in Sierra Leone, a West African nation ravaged by a decade of civil war. Rebel factions such as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) frequently terrorize the countryside, intimidating Mende locals and enslaving many to harvest diamonds, which fund their increasingly successful war effort. One such unfortunate local is fisherman Solomon Vandy from Shenge. While his family escapes the rebels, Vandy is assigned to a workforce overseen by Captain Poison, a ruthless warlord.


title: Blood Diamond

text: One morning, while mining a river, Vandy discovers an enormous pink diamond. Captain Poison tries to take the stone, but the area is suddenly raided by government troops. Vandy buries the stone before being captured. Both Vandy and Poison are incarcerated in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown, along with Danny Archer, a Rhodesian smuggler and mercenary. Archer, a veteran of the 32 Battalion during the South African Border War, was jailed while trying to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. They were intended for Rudolph van de Kaap, a corrupt South African mining executive and a major part of the international diamond industry.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Hearing of the pink diamond in prison, Archer arranges for himself and Vandy to be freed from detention. He travels to Cape Town to meet his employer, Colonel Coetzee, an Afrikaner formerly with the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, who now commands a private military company. Archer wants the diamond so he can sell it and leave the continent forever, but Coetzee wants it as compensation for Archer's botched smuggling mission. Archer returns to Sierra Leone, locates Vandy, and offers to help him find his family if he will help recover the diamond.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Meanwhile, RUF insurgents escalate hostilities; Freetown falls to their advance while Vandy's son Dia is among those rounded up to serve as child soldiers under a liberated Captain Poison. Archer and Vandy narrowly escape to Lungi, where Vandy encounters his wife and daughters in a refugee camp, but finds that his son has been taken by the RUF. Vandy and Archer plan to reach Kono, where Vandy buried the diamond, with an American journalist named Maddy Bowen, who is attempting to write an exposé on the illicit diamond trade. In exchange for her help, Archer promises to provide her the evidence she needs for her story.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Archer and Vandy, disguised as television journalists, travel with Maddy and a press convoy destined for Kono, but the convoy is ambushed by rebels and the three are forced to flee. While trekking through the jungle, they encounter Kamajor militiamen, who take them to the home of a friendly local named Benjamin Kapanay. The kindhearted Kapanay offers to drive them to Kono, though he is injured by an RUF child soldier on the way. The trio arrive in Kono after a harrowing journey, where Coetzee and his private army—contracted by the Sierra Leone government—prepare to repulse the rebel offensive.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Archer, having developed respect for Maddy, gives her the evidence and forces her to evacuate the country with other civilians; Archer and Vandy, having stolen weapons and supplies from Colonel Coetzee's army, set out for Captain Poison's encampment to retrieve the nearby diamond. Along the way, the two men begin fighting over what they perceive as the ultimate goal: Archer wants the diamond, while Vandy cares only about finding his son.


title: Blood Diamond

text: They arrive at the encampment where Archer, seeing they are heavily outnumbered, calls Coetzee's army via satellite phone to request an airstrike. Vandy, still desperate to find his son, sneaks into the encampment and locates Dia; due to Dia's brainwashing, he refuses to acknowledge his father. Vandy is captured but manages to escape once Coetzee's army arrives. Vandy finds Captain Poison and beats him to death with a shovel as the mercenaries overwhelm the RUF defenders. Coetzee then takes Dia hostage and forces Vandy to produce the diamond, but Archer kills Coetzee after realizing the colonel would eventually kill them both. Dia briefly holds the pair at gunpoint, but Vandy is able to talk him down by reminding him of who he was before his kidnapping. Pursued by vengeful mercenaries, Archer discloses he has been mortally wounded and entrusts the stone to Vandy, telling him to take it for his family. Vandy and his son rendezvous with Archer's pilot, who flies them to safety while Archer makes a final phone call to Maddy, who is in Cape Town; they share final farewells as he asks her to assist Vandy and his family, and he gives her permission to finish her article. Archer finally takes in the beautiful African landscape before dying.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Vandy and Maddy meet in London, where they execute an undercover operation meant to expose the van de Kaap operation's dirty dealings. Vandy exchanges the pink diamond for £2 million pounds and a reunion with his entire family. Maddy takes photographs of the exchange and publishes her exposé on the diamond trade and van de Kaap's criminal actions. Later, Vandy appears as a guest speaker at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, where he is met with a standing ovation.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Charles Leavitt was hired by Warner Bros. in February 2004 to rewrite an early draft of the film, then titled "Okavango". The story had been stuck in development hell at the studio for years before producers Paula Weinstein and Gillian Gorfil finally decided on the story of an African farmer caught up in the conflict between an American smuggler and the local diamond mining organization. Leavitt researched the diamond industry at great length before he began writing the screenplay, explaining that he has "always been a stickler for immersing [himself] in research". He wrote the film with the assumption that it would offend the diamond industry, particularly De Beers, and so made sure to portray the industry truthfully, aware that he could potentially be sued by De Beers and other powerful mining corporations. Paula Weinstein was impressed by Leavitt's "Blood Diamond" draft, but hired writers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz to rewrite it. By the time he had completed the script, Zwick had become so interested in the story that he agreed to direct the film as well.


title: Blood Diamond

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 219 critics, with an average score of 6.30/10. The site's consensus states ""Blood Diamond" overcomes poor storytelling with its biting commentary and fine performances." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 39 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of A− on a scale from A to F.


title: Blood Diamond

text: Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film a positive review, calling "Blood Diamond" "a gem in a season with lots of worthy movies". Puig also praised DiCaprio's acting, calling it "the first time the boyish actor has truly seemed like a man on film". Peter Rainer of "The Christian Science Monitor" also gave the film a positive review, and like Puig, praised DiCaprio's acting: "DiCaprio is remarkable—his work is almost on par with his performance this year in "The Departed"." William Arnold of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" gave the film a positive review, saying "Zwick's narrative skills keep us hooked on the story, and the first-rate production values and imaginative use of locations (it was shot in Mozambique) give the film an enthralling scope and epic sweep." Damon Wise of "Empire" magazine gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Great performances, provocative ideas and gripping action scenes fall prey to Hollywood logic and pat storytelling in the final hour." David Edelstein of "New York" magazine found the film exceeded his expectations: "Given that the movie doesn't have a single narrative surprise—you always know where it's going and why, commercially speaking, it's going there—it's amazing how good "Blood Diamond" is. I guess that's the surprise." Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" also praised DiCaprio's acting in both "Blood Diamond" and "The Departed" (released the same year), saying that he "has undergone a major growth spurt this year". She called the film as a whole "an unusually smart, engaged popcorn flick".


title: Blood Diamond

text: James Berardinelli of the "ReelViews" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's a solid performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, who has grown into this sort of gritty role and is more believable after having been seen dancing on the dark side in "The Departed"." Dana Stevens of "Slate" magazine wrote, ""Blood Diamond" is a by-the-numbers message picture, to be sure... But the director, Edward Zwick, is craftsman enough that the pace never slackens, the chase scenes thrill, and the battle scenes sicken. And if it makes viewers think twice about buying their sweethearts that hard-won hunk of ice for Christmas, so much the better." Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe", after giving the film a positive review, stated: "As an entry in the advocacy-entertainment genre, in which glamorous movie stars bring our attention to the plight of the less fortunate, "Blood Diamond" is superior to 2003's ridiculous "Beyond Borders" while looking strident and obvious next to last year's "The Constant Gardener".


title: Blood Diamond

text: Pete Vonder Haar of the "Film Threat" gave the film a mixed review, saying, "It's a reasonably entertaining actioner, and Zwick doesn't shy away from depicting violence or the horrors of war, but as a social statement it falls a little short. And emeralds are prettier anyway." Marc Savlov of "The Austin Chronicle" also gave the film a mixed review: "While the film never quite reaches the emotional peaks it so obviously seeks to scale, Zwick's film is still potent enough to save you three months salary." Nathan Lee of the "Village Voice", like Vonder Haar and Savlov, also gave the film a mixed review, suggesting that "De Beers can relax; the only indignation stirred up by "Blood Diamond" won't be among those who worry about where their jewelry came from, but with audiences incensed by facile politics and bad storytelling". Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a C grade: "Much like Zwick's "Glory" and "The Last Samurai", "Blood Diamond" strives to be an important film while stopping well short of being genuinely provocative and artistically chancy." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film a negative review, arguing that "director Edward Zwick tried to make a great movie, but somewhere in the process he forgot to make a good one".


title: Blood Diamond

text: "Blood Diamond" opened on December 8, 2006, in the United States and Canada in 1,910 theaters. The film ranked at #5 on its opening weekend, accumulating $8,648,324, with a per-theater average of $4,527. The film's five-day gross was $10,383,962.


title: Blood Diamond

text: The film dropped down to #7 on its second weekend, accumulating $6,517,471 in a 24.6% drop from its first weekend, and per-theater average of $3,412. By its third weekend it dropped even more to #12 and made $3,126,379, with its per-theater average being $1,628.


title: Blood Diamond

text: "Blood Diamond" went on to gross $57,377,916 in the United States and Canada and $114,029,263 overseas. In total, the film has grossed $171,407,179 worldwide.


title: Blood Diamond

text: "Blood Diamond: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, released on December 19, 2006, by Varèse Sarabande. It was composed by James Newton Howard and won the Soundtrack of the Year award at the 2008 Classic Brit Awards.


title: Blood Diamond

text: "Blood Diamond" was released on DVD in region 1 format on March 20, 2007. Both a single-disc and a two-disc version were released. The film has sold an estimated 3.6 million DVD units and has grossed $62.7 million in sales.