title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In baseball the Tucson Saguaros of the independent Pecos League started play in 2016 and play at Amphitheater High School. They won the league in their inaugural season. The Tucson Padres played at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium from 2011 to 2013. They served as the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The team, formerly known as the Portland Beavers, temporarily moved to Tucson from Portland while the team awaited a new stadium in Escondido. Legal issues derailed the plans to build the Escondido stadium, so they moved to El Paso, Texas for the 2014 season. Previously, the Tucson Sidewinders, a triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, won the Pacific Coast League championship and unofficial AAA championship in 2006. The Sidewinders played in Tucson Electric Park and were in the Pacific Conference South of the PCL. The Sidewinders were sold in 2007 and moved to Reno, Nevada after the 2008 season. They now compete as the Reno Aces.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League moved to Tucson following the 2015–2016 season to become the Tucson Roadrunners. They play in the AHL's Pacific division, and are affiliated with the Arizona Coyotes.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is also host to the Mobile Mini Sun Cup, the largest pre-season Major League Soccer (MLS) tournament in the country. As many as 11 MLS soccer clubs train in Tucson every winter. Tucson is also host to FC Tucson, a professional soccer club that plays


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Tucson Monsoon, a full-contact women's football team, was a member of the Independent Women's Football League where they played from their inception in 2006 until their demise in 2009. In 2009, the Arizona She-Devils also played women's football in Tucson as an expansion team of the Women's Football Alliance.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tracks include Tucson Raceway Park and Rillito Downs. Tucson Raceway Park hosts NASCAR-sanctioned auto racing events and is one of only two asphalt short tracks in Arizona. Rillito Downs is an in-town destination on weekends in January and February each year. This historic track held the first organized quarter horse races in the world, and they are still racing there. The racetrack is threatened by development. The Moltacqua racetrack, was another historic horse racetrack on what is now Sabino Canyon Road and Vactor Ranch Trail, but it no longer exists.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 2018, the Indoor Football League announced they were bringing an expansion team to Tucson to play at the Tucson Convention Center's newly renovated Tucson Arena. That team would be announced as the Tucson Sugar Skulls.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The city has more than 120 parks, from small and local to larger parks with ballfields, natural areas, lakes, 5 public golf courses, and Reid Park Zoo. "The Loop" is a popular system of walking/running/bicycling/horseback trails encircling the city primarily along washes, and it is usually well separated from traffic. Several scenic parks and points of interest are also nearby, including the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Tohono Chul Park, Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon, and Biosphere 2 (just north of the city, near the town of Oracle).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tumamoc Hill is an active research site maintained by the University of Arizona and Pima County that doubles as a popular walking/running trail. The paved trail on Tumamoc Hill is 1.5 miles up hill (3 miles full trip), divided into two parts. The lower half is a much gradual slope compared to the steep upper half reaching a final elevation of 2,340 ft where it over looks most of the city of Tucson. The trail attracts around 1500 visits a day from various demographics of the Tucson area.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Mt. Lemmon is north (by road) and over above Tucson in the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado National Forest. Outdoor activities in the Catalinas include hiking, mountain biking, birding, rock climbing, picnicking, camping, swimming in mountain stream pools, sky rides at Ski Valley, fishing and photography. In winter with enough snow the sky ride converts back to skiing at the southernmost ski resort in the continental United States. Summerhaven, a community near the top of Mt. Lemmon, is also a popular destination.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The League of American Bicyclists gave Tucson a gold rating for bicycle friendliness in late April 2007. Tucson hosts the largest perimeter cycling event in the United States. The ride, called "El Tour de Tucson", takes place each November on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. El Tour de Tucson produced and promoted by Perimeter Bicycling has had as many as 10,000 participants from all over the world. In 2019, ridership is expected to be 6,000 cyclists. Tucson is one of only nine cities in the U.S. to receive a gold rating or higher for cycling friendliness from the League of American Bicyclists. The city is known for its winter cycling opportunities, with teams and riders from around the world spending a portion of the year training in Tucson's year-round biking climate. Popular mountain biking areas include Tucson Mountain Park, Sweetwater Preserve, the Tortolita Mountain trail systems, and Fantasy Island. Road cyclists take on Catalina Highway's steep climb year-round.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Pima County supported John Kerry 53% to 47% in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, and Barack Obama 54% to 46% in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election. In the latter year, Pima was the only county to vote against Arizona's gay marriage ban. In 2013, Tucson became the second city in Arizona to approve of civil unions for same-sex partners. The city was the first in the state to pass a domestic partnership registry earlier in 2003.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In general, Tucson and Pima County support the Democratic Party, while the state's largest metropolitan area, greater Phoenix, has traditionally supported the Republican Party. Congressional redistricting in 2013, following the publication of the 2010 Census, divided the Tucson area into three Federal Congressional districts (the first, second and third of Arizona). The city center is in the 3rd District, represented by Raul Grijalva, a Democrat, since 2003, while the more affluent residential areas to the south and east are in the 2nd District, represented by Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick since 2019, and the exurbs north and west between Tucson and Phoenix in the 1st District are represented by Democrat Tom O'Halleran since 2016.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The United States Postal Service operates post offices in Tucson. The Tucson Main Post Office is at 1501 South Cherrybell Stravenue.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson follows the "weak mayor" model of the council-manager form of local government. The six-member city council holds exclusive legislative authority, and shares executive authority with the mayor, who is elected by the voters independently of the council. An appointed city manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the city. Tucson is the only city in Arizona that holds officially partisan elections for city offices, with candidates nominated through party primaries.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Both the council members and the mayor serve four-year terms; none face term limits. Council members are nominated by their wards via a ward-level primary held in August. The top vote-earners from each party then compete at-large for their ward's seat on the November ballot. In other words, on election day the whole city votes on all the council races up for that year. Council elections are severed: Wards 1, 2, and 4 (as well as the mayor) are up for election in the same year (most recently 2015), while Wards 3, 5, and 6 share another year (most recently 2017).


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson is known for being a trailblazer in voluntary partial publicly financed campaigns. Since 1985, both mayoral and council candidates have been eligible to receive matching public funds from the city. To become eligible, council candidates must receive 200 donations of $10 or more (300 for a mayoral candidate). Candidates must then agree to spending limits equal to 33¢ for every registered Tucson voter, or $79,222 in 2005 (the corresponding figures for mayor are 64¢ per registered voter, or $142,271 in 2003). In return, candidates receive matching funds from the city at a 1:1 ratio of public money to private donations. The only other limitation is that candidates may not exceed 75% of the limit by the date of the primary. Many cities, such as San Francisco and New York City, have copied this system, albeit with more complex spending and matching formulas.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Mayor Regina Romero (D) was sworn into office on December 2, 2019, succeeding Jonathan Rothschild (D) who was sworn into office on December 5, 2011, succeeding Robert E. Walkup (R), who took office in 1999. Walkup was preceded by George Miller (D), 1991–1999; Tom Volgy (D), 1987–1991; Lew Murphy (R), 1971–1987; and Jim Corbett (D), 1967–1971.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Primarily, students of the Tucson area attend public schools in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). TUSD has the second highest enrollment of any school district in Arizona, behind Mesa Unified School District in the Phoenix metropolitan area. There are also many publicly funded charter schools with a specialized curriculum.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1956, Tucson High School had the largest enrollment of any secondary school in the United States, with a total of more than 6,800 students. In 2018, Tucson High School enrollment was just over 3,000. The facility operated on a two-shift basis while construction went on for two other high schools that opened within a year to educate children in the rapidly booming Tucson population.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson has one daily newspaper, the morning "Arizona Daily Star". Wick Communications publishes the daily legal paper "The Daily Territorial", while Boulder, Colo.-based 10/13 Communications publishes "Tucson Weekly" (an "alternative" publication), "Inside Tucson Business" and the "Explorer". TucsonSentinel.com is a nonprofit independent online news organization. "Tucson Lifestyle Magazine", "Lovin' Life in Tucson", "DesertLeaf", and "Zócalo Magazine" are monthly publications covering arts, architecture, decor, fashion, entertainment, business, history, and other events. The "Arizona Daily Wildcat" is the University of Arizona's student newspaper, and the "Aztec News" is the Pima Community College student newspaper. "Catholic Outlook" is the newspaper for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, and the "Arizona Jewish Post" is the newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The Tucson metro area is served by many local television stations and is the 65th largest designated market area (DMA) in the U.S. with 433,330 homes (0.39% of the total U.S.). It is limited to the three counties of southeastern Arizona (Pima, Santa Cruz, and Cochise)


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson's primary electrical power source is a natural gas power plant managed by Tucson Electric Power that is within the city limits on the southwestern boundary of Davis-Monthan Air-force base adjacent to Interstate 10. The air pollution generated has raised some concerns as the Sundt operating station has been online since 1962 and is exempt from many pollution standards and controls due to its age.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Solar has been gaining ground in Tucson with its ideal over 300 days of sunshine climate. Federal, state, and even local utility credits and incentives have also enticed residents to equip homes with solar systems.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Davis-Monthan AFB has a 3.3 Megawatt (MW) ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) array and a 2.7 MW rooftop-mounted PV array, both of which are in the Base Housing area. The base will soon have the largest solar-generating capacity in the United States Department of Defense after awarding a contract on September 10, 2010, to SunEdison to construct a 14.5 MW PV field on the northwestern side of the base.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Global Solar Energy, which is at the University of Arizona's science and technology park, is one of the planet's largest CIGS solar fields at 750 kilowatts.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The biggest sustainability problem in Tucson, with its low-desert climate, is a potable water supply. The state manages all water in Arizona through its Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). The primary consumer of water is Agriculture (including golf courses), which consumes about 69% of all water. Municipal (which includes residential use) accounts for about 25% of use. Energy consumption and availability is another sustainability issue. However, with over 300 days of full sun annually, Tucson has demonstrated its potential to be an ideal solar energy producer.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson and Pima County adopted dark sky ordinances to control light pollution in support of the region's astronomical observatories in 1972. Last amended in 2012, the City of Tucson/Pima County Outdoor Lighting Code establishes maximum illumination levels, shielding requirements, and limits on signage in "continuing support of astronomical activity and minimizing wasted energy, while not compromising the safety, security, and well-being of persons engaged in outdoor nighttime activities."


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Less than 100 years ago, the Santa Cruz River flowed nearly year-round through Tucson. This supply of water has slowly disappeared, causing Tucson to seek alternative sources.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In 1881, water was pumped from a well on the banks of the Santa Cruz River and flowed by gravity through pipes into the distribution system.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson currently draws water from two main sources: Central Arizona Project (CAP) water and groundwater. In 1992, Tucson Water delivered CAP water to some customers that was unacceptable due to discoloration, bad odor and flavor, as well as problems it caused with some customers' plumbing and appliances. Tucson's city water currently consists of CAP water mixed with groundwater.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: In an effort to conserve water, Tucson is recharging groundwater supplies by running part of its share of CAP water into various open portions of local rivers to seep into their aquifer. Additional study is scheduled to determine how much water is lost through evaporation from the open areas, especially during the summer. The City of Tucson provides reclaimed water to its inhabitants, but it is only used for "applications such as irrigation, dust control, and industrial uses." These resources have been in place for more than 27 years, and deliver to over 900 locations.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: To prevent further loss of groundwater, Tucson has been involved in water conservation and groundwater preservation efforts, shifting away from its reliance on a series of Tucson area wells in favor of conservation, consumption-based pricing for residential and commercial water use, and new wells in the more sustainable Avra Valley aquifer, northwest of the city. An allocation from the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct (CAP), which passes more than across the desert from the Colorado River, has been incorporated into the city's water supply, annually providing over 20 million gallons of "recharged" water which is pumped into the ground to replenish water pumped out. Since 2001, CAP water has allowed the city to remove or turn off over 80 wells.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: The city of Tucson, Arizona, in an attempt to combat climate change, is providing financial incentives for residents to harvest their rainwater. Tucson's water supply, like many Western cities, is drawn from two main sources: "surface water" that is pumped more than 300 miles from the Colorado River and "groundwater". The pump expends a significant amount of energy and the Colorado River is diminishing as a result of climate change and overuse. In 2012, the city began a program that rebates residents as much as $2,000 for the purchase of water harvesting systems. “"Water harvesting"” refers to "rainwater", gathered from building surfaces, and "stormwater" harvesting which collects non-potable storm runoff from streets and earth. The program is financed by a water bill fee of 10 cents per 748 gallons of city water used. In the first few years, the rebate program was not conserving water as efficiently as they anticipated. But in fiscal year 2018 to 2019, the rebate program saved 52.1 million gallons of water. That is enough water to meet the annual usage of 160 households. The city has been trying to grow the approximately 250 people who obtain active rebates each year by introducing a loan program to bring rebates within reach of lower-income residents.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Along with water scarcity, Tucson is having to reckon with the urban heat island effect which has trapped heat in the city and brought incredibly high temperatures into the night. The city government has an ambitious goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 and is integrating changes that will help change local resident's conventional thinking and practices. On May 1, 2020, Tucson began charging residents and businesses within city limits a monthly Green Stormwater Infrastructure fee (13 cents per 748 gallons of city water used), which is projected to raise some $3 million a year for public stormwater capture installations and other projects. But this comes at a time when unemployment is rising and the number of low income residents facing unaffordable bills between 2010 and 2018 doubled to 46% as the average bill increased by 119% in Tucson. Additionally, as part of the citywide climate resiliency effort, Mayor Regina Romero recently announced the planting of a million trees over the next decade. Water harvesting will be a critical aspect of that plan and the broader effort by city officials to cool down one of the country's fastest-warming cities.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson's Sun Tran bus system serves greater Tucson with standard, express, regional shuttle, and on-demand shuttle bus service. It was awarded Best Transit System in 1988 and 2005. A streetcar line, Sun Link, connects the University of Arizona campus with 4th Avenue, downtown, and the Mercado District west of Interstate 10 and the Santa Cruz River. Ten-minute headway passenger service began July 25, 2014. The streetcar uses Sun Tran's card payment and transfer system, connecting with the University of Arizona's CatTran shuttles, Amtrak, and Greyhound intercity bus service.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Tucson three times weekly in both directions, operating its "Sunset Limited" between Los Angeles, California and New Orleans, Louisiana; and "Texas Eagle" service between Los Angeles and Chicago, Illinois.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Tucson International Airport , is south of the city's center. TIA is the second-largest commercial airport in Arizona, providing nonstop flights to 15 destinations throughout the United States. In addition to passenger and freight service, TIA supports the 162d Fighter Wing's fleet of seventy F-16s stationed at the Tucson Air National Guard Base. There are two general aviation reliever airports in the area. The city of Tucson operates Ryan Airfield southwest of the city center, and the town of Marana operates Marana Regional Airport to the northwest. Pinal Airpark is also within the metropolitan area.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: There are two Interstate highways in the metropolitan area. Interstate 10 runs southeast from Phoenix through Marana, passes west of downtown, and continues east toward El Paso. Interstate 19 leaves the I-10 south of downtown and heads south to the Mexican border. Arizona State Route 210 is a shorter expressway that links downtown with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Tucson's southeast side. Tucson does not have a beltway system, and relies almost entirely on surface streets.


title: Tucson, Arizona

text: Cycling is popular in Tucson. Tucson and Pima County maintain an extensive network of marked bike routes, signal crossings, on-street bike lanes, mountain-biking trails, and dedicated shared-use paths. The Loop is a network of seven linear parks, built mainly along river beds, comprising of paved, vehicle-free trails that encircles the majority of the city with links to Marana and Oro Valley. The Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee (TPCBAC) serves in an advisory capacity to local governments on issues relating to bicycle recreation, transportation, and safety. The League of American Bicyclists awarded Tucson a gold rating for bicycle-friendliness in 2006.


title: Alex Wolff

text: Alexander Draper Wolff (born November 1, 1997) is an American actor and musician. He first gained recognition for starring alongside his older brother Nat in the Nickelodeon musical comedy series "The Naked Brothers Band" (2007–09), which was created by the boys' mother Polly Draper. Wolff and his brother released two soundtrack albums for the series, "The Naked Brothers Band" and "I Don't Want to Go to School", which were co-produced by their father Michael Wolff. Subsequent to the conclusion of the Nickelodeon series, Wolff and his older brother formed a duo called Nat & Alex Wolff, and released the albums "Black Sheep" (2011) and "Public Places" (2016). The brothers also co-starred in their mother's comedy-drama film "Stella's Last Weekend" (2018).


title: Alex Wolff

text: Wolff focused his career on film roles, portraying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in "Patriots Day" (2016) and John "Derf" Backderf in "My Friend Dahmer" (2017). His other acting roles include "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" (2016), "" (2017), and "Hereditary" (2018). Wolff made his directorial debut with the drama film "The Cat and the Moon" (2019).


title: Alex Wolff

text: Wolff was born in Manhattan, New York City, to actress and writer Polly Draper and jazz pianist Michael Wolff. He is the younger brother of actor and musician Nat Wolff. His father is Jewish and his mother is Christian. Wolff is a maternal grandson of venture capitalist and civic leader William Henry Draper III, a nephew of venture capitalist Tim Draper, a cousin of actress Jesse Draper, and a great-grandson of banker and diplomat William Henry Draper Jr.


title: Alex Wolff

text: Wolff began his acting career at the age of 6 in the 2005 musical comedy film "", written and directed by his mother. It was commissioned by Nickelodeon as the pilot to the television series "The Naked Brothers Band" (2007–2009) which was also created, produced, written and directed by his mother. He contributed lyrics, vocals, and instrumentation for both the film and series; their father produced and supervised the music. The show released two soundtrack albums and the song "Crazy Car" ranked #83 on the "Billboard Hot 100" charts.


title: Alex Wolff

text: In 2007, he portrayed the young boy in the Fall Out Boy music video "The Take Over, The Breaks Over". Wolff made a cameo in the Nickelodeon TV movie "Mr. Troop Mom" and the USA police-procedural, comedic television drama "Monk", both in 2009. He also starred in his playwriting "What Would Woody Do?" at The Flea Theater—which was directed by his mother—and the HBO medical drama "In Treatment", both in 2010. Wolff later appeared in the comedy film "The Sitter" (2011) and starred alongside Brendan Fraser in the independent film "HairBrained" (2012).


title: Alex Wolff

text: In 2015, he starred in the indie drama "Coming Through the Rye". In 2016, he had a supporting role in the comedy sequel "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" and played terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the drama "Patriots Day", about the Boston Marathon bombing.


title: Alex Wolff

text: In 2018, Wolff starred in the supernatural horror film "Hereditary". He made his directorial debut with 2019's "The Cat and the Moon", which he also wrote and starred in.


title: Alex Wolff

text: In 2020, Wolff participated in "Acting for a Cause", a live classic play and screenplay reading series, created, directed and produced by Brando Crawford. Wolff played Algernon in "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde and Warren Straub in "This Is Our Youth" by Kenneth Lonergan. The reading raised funds for non-profit charities including Mount Sinai Medical Center. Wolff co-produced the second reading.


title: Alex Wolff

text: For Wolff's work on "The Naked Brothers Band" series and film, he obtained a Broadcast Music, Inc. Cable Award in 2007, Audience Award for a Family Feature Film at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2005, and was nominated for a Young Artist Award both in 2008 and 2009. He also received a Certificate of Outstanding Achievement for Best Actor at the Brooklyn International Film Festival for his lead role in the film "HairBrained" in 2013. On October 11, 2018, Wolff received the Auteur Award at the San Diego International Film Festival.


title: Alex Wolff

text: He received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, for his performance in the film "Castle in the Ground".


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The Dictator is a 2012 political satire black comedy film co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen as his fourth feature film in a leading role. The film is directed by Larry Charles, who previously directed Baron Cohen's mockumentaries "Borat" and "Brüno". Baron Cohen, in the role of Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya visiting the United States, stars alongside Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas, and an uncredited appearance by John C. Reilly.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Producers Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel said that Baron Cohen's character was inspired by real-life dictators like Kim Jong-il, Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Saparmurat Niyazov. The film's opening credits dedicate it to Kim Jong-il, "in loving memory". It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $179 million.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: For 40 years, the fictional North African nation of Wadiya (shown as coterminous with the boundaries of Eritrea on a map) has been ruled by Admiral-General Haffaz Aladeen, a childish, sexist, anti-Western, and antisemitic dictator who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, sponsors terrorism (especially giving shelter to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden after "they killed his double one year ago"), changes many words in the Wadiyan dictionary to "Aladeen", and is working on developing nuclear weapons to "destroy Israel". He also refuses to sell Wadiya's oil fields, a promise he made to his father before his death. After the United Nations Security Council resolves to intervene militarily, Aladeen travels to the UN Headquarters in New York City to address the council.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Shortly after arriving, Aladeen is kidnapped by Clayton, supposedly in charge of the security preparations but actually a hitman hired by his treacherous uncle Tamir, whom Aladeen's father passed over as successor in favor of his son. Tamir then replaces Aladeen with a moronic look-alike named Efawadh, whom he intends to manipulate into signing a document nominally democratizing Wadiya while opening up the country's oil fields to foreign vested interests. Aladeen escapes after Clayton accidentally burns himself to death in a failed torture attempt. When his burnt corpse is discovered, Tamir thinks Aladeen has been killed. However, Aladeen is practically unrecognizable as Clayton shaved off his iconic beard prior to his death.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Wandering through New York City in civilian clothes, Aladeen (assuming the false identity of "Allison Burgers") encounters Zoey, a human rights activist who offers him a job at her socially progressive, alternative lifestyle co-op. Aladeen refuses the offer and encounters "Nuclear" Nadal, the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons programme, whom Aladeen thought he had previously executed over an argument about the warhead's design. Aladeen follows him to New York's "Little Wadiya" district, which is populated by refugees from his own country, and meets him in "Death to Aladeen Restaurant", a restaurant run by and visited by numerous people whom Aladeen had ordered to be executed. After a failed attempt to cover up his identity, Aladeen is accused of being an "Aladeen sympathizer" by the restaurant's waiter and the refugees. Nadal saves Aladeen from being attacked and reveals to Aladeen that all the people he had ordered to be executed are instead sent into exile to the United States, as the executioner is a member of the resistance movement. Nadal agrees to help Aladeen thwart Tamir's plot and regain his power, on condition that Aladeen makes him head of Wadiya's nuclear programme again. Aladeen agrees and accepts Zoey's job offer, as she is catering at the hotel where the signing is to occur. Aladeen grows closer to Zoey after she refuses his sexual advances and teaches him how to masturbate, and eventually falls in love with her after seeing her angry. Turning around Zoey's struggling business, Aladeen begins imposing strict schedules on everyone, forming a personality cult around Zoey and intimidating an inspector into giving the store a good review.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: However, Aladeen's relationship with Zoey becomes strained after he decides to be honest with her and reveal his true self; she cannot love a man who was so brutal to his own people. After acquiring a new beard taken from a corpse, Aladeen ziplines into the hotel and tells Efawadh he has recovered; his double was fooled into thinking the Supreme Leader was ill. At the signing ceremony, he tears up Tamir's document in front of the media and holds an impassioned speech praising the virtues of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to current issues in the United States. However, upon seeing Zoey in the room, he declares his love for her and, knowing Zoey's strongly-held views, vows to democratize his country and open up Wadiya's oil fields for business, but in a way where the general populace will benefit. Furious with Aladeen staying in power, Tamir attempts to shoot him but Efawadh jumps in front of the bullet and survives, as it is his job "to be shot in the head". Tamir is arrested afterwards.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: A year later, Wadiya holds its first democratic elections, although they are rigged in favor of Aladeen (who has now added the title "President Prime Minister" to his previous Admiral-General). Afterwards, he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she breaks a glass with her foot and reveals herself to be Jewish; throughout the film he was shown vowing to destroy Israel. Scenes during the credits show Aladeen's convoy, now consisting of eco-friendly cars, Aladeen visiting a re-instated Nadal, and later Zoey revealing in a television interview that she is pregnant with the couple's first child. Aladeen responds to the news by asking if Zoey is having "a boy or an abortion".


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The unrated cut of "The Dictator" runs an additional fifteen minutes from the original 83-minute theatrical version. Much of the added material is additional sexual content and dialogue. There is a scene following Aladeen falling asleep in the back of the store where one of his bodyguards, Etra, tries to kill him by beating him with her enlarged breasts on orders by Tamir. Another added scene is Mr. Ogden, the manager of the Lancaster Hotel, talking to Zoey at The Collective and cancelling the catering contract because of Aladeen.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Paramount Pictures described the film as "the heroic story of a North African dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed." Paramount said the film was inspired by the novel "Zabibah and the King" by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, though "The New York Times" later reported it is not an adaptation. Kristen Wiig and Gillian Jacobs had been considered for the role that Anna Faris eventually played and which "Variety" said "calls for strong improvisational skills". Baron Cohen, who also plays Efawadh in the film, based his performance primarily on Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. The film is dedicated to Kim Jong-il.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Morocco had been considered as a filming location. Location shooting took place at the Plaza de España in Seville and on the island of Fuerteventura, Spain, and in New York City from June to August 2011. Baron Cohen said the United Nations refused to let him film scenes inside the UN Headquarters and claimed they explained this by saying, "we represent a lot of dictators, and they are going to be very angry by this portrayal of them, so you can't shoot in there." When asked about it, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman commented by saying only, "Sacha Baron Cohen has a wonderful sense of humor." The United Nations shots were at a soundstage at Grumman Studios in Bethpage, New York.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Although Aladeen is portrayed as antisemitic and wishes to destroy Israel, the language he speaks throughout the film is actually Hebrew, as Baron Cohen is himself Jewish.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: A version of the trailer was made for a Super Bowl XLVI commercial in February 2012. Archival news footage of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and David Cameron in the beginning of the trailer are excerpts of their 2011 speeches condemning Colonel Gaddafi.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Internet rumors claimed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had banned Baron Cohen from attending the 84th Academy Awards in his role as Admiral General Aladeen, but the academy said the rumors were unfounded, saying, "We haven't banned him. We're just waiting to hear what he's going to do", and specifying of the publicity stunt: "We don't think it's appropriate. But his tickets haven't been pulled. We're waiting to hear back." Baron Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards (resembling Gaddafi's Amazonian Guard) and wielding an urn purportedly containing the ashes of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, which the actor spilled onto E! host Ryan Seacrest. The ashes were later reported to be pancake mix.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Baron Cohen appeared in character on the May 5, 2012, episode of "Saturday Night Live" during the "Weekend Update" segment, in which he appeared to torture film critics A. O. Scott and Roger Ebert to give the film positive reviews, as well as seemingly holding director Martin Scorsese hostage. Baron Cohen released a video in the wake of the 2012 French Presidential Election, congratulating François Hollande on his victory, and appeared in character with the pair of uniformed female bodyguards on the May 7, 2012 episode of "The Daily Show".


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: A publicity prank involved fake invitations that have been arriving in mailboxes in Washington D.C., according to which "President Robert Mugabe and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art, and Culture invite you to the Premiere of "The Dictator"." The screening of the film would purportedly take place at Mugabe's palace in Zimbabwe on May 12.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The film score was composed by Erran Baron Cohen. "The Dictator – Music from the Motion Picture" was released on May 8, 2012, by Aladeen Records. The majority of the songs are sung in Wadiyan despite it being a fictional language; however, it is closely associated with the German, Hungarian, and Arabic languages.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: "Mundian To Bach Ke" by Panjabi MC and Jay-Z was featured in the trailers. "Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)" by Pitbull was featured in the second trailer.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 57% based on 222 reviews, and a rating average 5.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wildly uneven but consistently provocative, "The Dictator" is a decent entry in the poli-slapstick comedy genre." On Metacritic, the film was given score of 58 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "C" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars out of a possible four, saying, ""The Dictator" is funny, in addition to being obscene, disgusting, scatological, vulgar, crude and so on. Having seen Sacha Baron Cohen promoting it on countless talk shows, I feared the movie would feel like déjà vu. But no. He establishes a claim to be the best comic filmmaker now working. And in a speech about dictatorships, he practices merciless political satire." "Slant Magazine" conversely concluded, "bound to be one of the year's biggest comedy letdowns, "The Dictator" doesn't so much stir hot-button issues as showcase a great satirist off his game." Keith Uhlich of "Time Out" approved, giving it four stars out of five, and calling the opening scenes in the film "a brisk, hilarious jeremiad" and its ending monologue "a rousing, uproarious climactic speech worthy of both Chaplin and ""."


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Several reviews noted that the Marx Brothers' 1933 film, "Duck Soup", inspired parts of Baron Cohen's 2012 film.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" noted that "Admiral General Aladeen and Rufus T. Firefly share the same bloodline, representing a more generalized contempt for world leaders of any stripe, whether they don a 'supreme beard' or a greasepaint moustache." Scott Wilson of the "Nashville Scene" detected "an echo here of that funniest of xenophobe-baiting funnies, "Duck Soup"." Peter Travers of the "Rolling Stone" claimed that Baron Cohen's film "dodges soothing convention and ultimately merits comparisons to the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup" and Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator"."


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The "Irish Examiner" wrote that “Sacha Baron Cohen atones for the sins of 'Bruno' with this gleefully bad-taste fish-out-of-water comedy, which kicks sand in the eye of political correctness” and that “no subject is off limits – the September 11 attacks, rape, sexual equality, Judaism – and Larry Charles's film tramples merrily over social taboos, hitting more targets than it misses as the titular despot runs amok in the capitalist playground of New York City.“


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The "Times" argued that “with "The Dictator", Sacha Baron Cohen makes a radical break with the comedic style of his past films. Gone is the con-man comedian, fooling celebrities and the public with fictional characters. Gone, too, is the mockumentary style that he and his director on Borat, Bruno and now this film, Larry Charles, made their own. "The Dictator" is the kind of conventional feature that Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock or even Mike Myers could have made.” The publication also claimed that “it's likely to offend prudes of both the sexually and politically correct persuasions.”


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The "Washington Post" wrote that “Cohen has thankfully dispensed with ambushing real-life people for squirm-inducing interviews. But an early stunt involving a Wii game based on the 1972 Munich Olympics falls flatter than a stale matzo, a running gag about Hollywood stars selling sexual favors quickly loses steam and it can be stipulated that rape jokes simply aren't funny.”


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The film is banned in several member-countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, in particular nations with real-life leaders commonly described as dictators, including Belarus and Tajikistan, described as "unlikely" to be shown in Turkmenistan, shortened to 71 minutes by the censorship in Uzbekistan, and banned from screens two weeks after its premiere in Kazakhstan. Rumours were circulating that the film has been also informally banned from showing in Belarus, but state officials denied this referring to deficiency of properly equipped movie theaters suitable for showing the film distributed exclusively in digital format.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: Outside of the CIS, only the censored version of the film was released in Pakistan, and the film was reportedly blocked from theaters in Malaysia. In Italy, the reference to the "Italian Prime Minister" in the scene with Megan Fox was substituted by a generic "politician" to avoid reference to the then-Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi.


title: The Dictator (2012 film)

text: The film has been described by some critics as being Islamophobic, particularly noting the pronounced stereotype of Middle Eastern dictators, which are mostly Muslims.


title: Otter

text: Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among other animals.


title: Otter

text: The word "otter" derives from the Old English word or . This, and cognate words in other Indo-European languages, ultimately stem from the Proto-Indo-European language root , which also gave rise to the English word "water".


title: Otter

text: An otter's den is called a holt or couch. Male otters are called dogs or boars, females are called bitches or sows, and their offspring are called pups or cubs. The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp (being descriptive of their often playful nature) or, when in water, raft.


title: Otter

text: The feces of otters are typically identified by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish; these are known as spraints.


title: Otter

text: The gestation period in otters is about 60 to 86 days. The newborn pup is cared for by the bitch, dog, and older offspring. Bitch otters reach sexual maturity at approximately two years of age and males at approximately three years. The holt is built under tree roots or a rocky cairn, more common in Scotland. It is lined with moss and grass.


title: Otter

text: After one month, the pup can leave the holt and after two months, it is able to swim. The pup lives with its family for approximately one year. Otters live up to 16 years; they are by nature playful, and frolic in the water with their pups. Its usual source of food is fish, and further downriver, eels, but it may sample frogs and birds.


title: Otter

text: Otters have long, slim bodies and relatively short limbs. Their most striking anatomical features are the powerful webbed feet used to swim, and their seal-like abilities holding breath underwater. Most have sharp claws on their feet and all except the sea otter have long, muscular tails. The 13 species range in adult size from in length and in weight. The Asian small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and the giant otter and sea otter are the largest. They have very soft, insulated underfur, which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hairs. This traps a layer of air which keeps them dry, warm, and somewhat buoyant under water.


title: Otter

text: Several otter species live in cold waters and have high metabolic rates to help keep them warm. European otters must eat 15% of their body weight each day, and sea otters 20 to 25%, depending on the temperature. In water as warm as , an otter needs to catch of fish per hour to survive. Most species hunt for three to five hours each day and nursing mothers up to eight hours each day.


title: Otter

text: For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet. This is often supplemented by frogs, crayfish and crabs. Some otters are experts at opening shellfish, and others will feed on available small mammals or birds. Prey-dependence leaves otters very vulnerable to prey depletion. Sea otters are hunters of clams, sea urchins and other shelled creatures. They are notable for their ability to use stones to break open shellfish on their stomachs. This skill must be learned by the young.


title: Otter

text: Otters are active hunters, chasing prey in the water or searching the beds of rivers, lakes or the seas. Most species live beside water, but river otters usually enter it only to hunt or travel, otherwise spending much of their time on land to prevent their fur becoming waterlogged. Sea otters are considerably more aquatic and live in the ocean for most of their lives.


title: Otter

text: Otters are playful animals and appear to engage in various behaviors for sheer enjoyment, such as making waterslides and then sliding on them into the water. They may also find and play with small stones. Different species vary in their social structure, some being largely solitary, while others live in groups – in a few species these groups may be fairly large.


title: Otter

text: The European otter ("Lutra lutra"), also called the Eurasian otter, inhabits Europe, most of Asia and parts of North Africa. In the British Isles, they were common as recently as the 1950s, but became rare in many areas due to the use of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, habitat loss and water pollution (they remained relatively common in parts of Scotland and Ireland). Population levels reached a low point in the 1980s, but are now recovering strongly. The UK Biodiversity Action Plan envisages the re-establishment of otters by 2010 in all the UK rivers and coastal areas they inhabited in 1960. Roadkill deaths have become one of the significant threats to the success of their re-establishment.


title: Otter

text: The North American river otter ("Lontra canadensis") became one of the major animals hunted and trapped for fur in North America after European contact. River otters eat a variety of fish and shellfish, as well as small land mammals and birds. They grow to one meter (3 to 4 ft) in length and weigh from five to 15 kilograms (10 to 30 lb).


title: Otter

text: In some areas, the North American river otter is a protected species, and some places have otter sanctuaries that help sick and injured otters to recover.


title: Otter

text: Sea otters ("Enhydra lutris") are classified as marine mammals and live along the Pacific coast of North America. Their historic range included shallow waters of the Bering Strait and Kamchatka, and as far south as Japan. Sea otters have about 26,000 to 165,000 hairs per square centimeters of skin, a rich fur for which humans hunted them almost to extinction. By the time the 1911 Fur Seal Treaty gave them protection, so few sea otters remained that the fur trade had become unprofitable.


title: Otter

text: Sea otters eat shellfish and other invertebrates (especially clams, abalone, and sea urchins). Otter populations are affected by the density of prey they hunt. Because the otter food source is easier to excavate from rocky-bottom habitats, as opposed to soft-bottom habitats, more otters tend to live in waters with rocky bottoms with access to shallow-burrowing prey. They frequently carry a rock in a pouch under their forearm and use this to smash open shells, making them one of the relatively small number of animals that use tools. They grow to in length and weigh . Although once near extinction, they have begun to spread again, from remnant populations in California and Alaska.


title: Otter

text: Unlike most marine mammals (such as seals or whales), sea otters do not have a layer of insulating blubber. As with other species of otter, they rely on a layer of air trapped in their fur, which they keep topped up by blowing into the fur from their mouths. They spend most of their time in the water, whereas other otters spend much of their time on land.


title: Otter

text: The giant otter ("Pteronura brasiliensis") inhabits South America, especially the Amazon river basin, but is becoming increasingly rare due to poaching, habitat loss, and the use of mercury and other toxins in illegal alluvial gold mining. This gregarious animal grows to a length of up to , and is more aquatic than most other otters.


title: Otter

text: Otters have been hunted for their pelts from at least the 1700s, although it may have begun well before then. Early hunting methods included darts, arrows, nets and snares but later, traps were set on land and guns used.


title: Otter

text: There has been a long history of otter pelts being worn around the world. In China it was standard for the royalty to wear robes made from them. People that were financially high in status also wore them. The tails of otters were often made into items for men to wear. These included hats and belts. Even some types of mittens for children have been made from the fur of otters.


title: Otter

text: Otters have also been hunted using dogs, specifically the otterhound. From 1958 to 1963, the 11 otter hunts in England and Wales killed 1,065 otters between them. In such hunts, the hunters notched their poles after every kill. The prized trophy that hunters would take from the otters was the penis bone, which would be worn as a tie-pin.


title: Otter

text: Traffic (the wildlife trade monitoring network) reported that otters are at serious risk in Southeast Asia and have disappeared from parts of their former range. This decline in populations is due to hunting to supply the demand for skins.


title: Otter

text: For many generations, fishermen in southern Bangladesh have bred smooth-coated otters and used them to chase fish into their nets. Once a widespread practice, passed down from father to son throughout many communities in Asia, this traditional use of domesticated wild animals is still in practice in the district of Narail, Bangladesh.


title: Otter

text: Otters are territorial in nature. Certain regions, such as Florida, have seen both otter and human populations expand during the first decade of the 21st century. A 2011 review by the IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group showed that otter attacks reported between 1875 and 2010 occurred most often in Florida, with the majority involving the North American otter. At least 42 instances of attack were found, including one resulting in death and another case of serious injury. Rabies was present in 36% of the anecdotal reports. 80% of otter bite victims do not end up obtaining medical treatment.


title: Otter

text: Animal welfare groups say that unless threatened, otters rarely attack humans. In November 2021, a British man in his 60s was ambushed during his early morning walk in Singapore Botanic Gardens by about 20 otters. Despite weighing over 200 pounds, he was trampled and bitten and could not stand up without help from a nearby rescuer. The man speculated that another runner might have stepped on one of the animals earlier and wished that there could be more lighting installed at that location.


title: Otter

text: Norse mythology tells of the dwarf Ótr habitually taking the form of an otter. The myth of "Otter's Ransom" is the starting point of the Volsunga saga.


title: Otter

text: In Irish mythology, the character Lí Ban was turned from a woman into a mermaid, half human and half salmon, and given three hundred years of life to roam the oceans. Her lapdog assumed the form of an otter and shared her prolonged lifetime and her extensive wanderings.


title: Otter

text: The otter is held to be a clean animal belonging to Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrian belief, and taboo to kill.


title: Otter

text: In popular Korean mythology, it is told that people who see an otter ("soodal") will attract 'rain clouds' for the rest of their lives.


title: Otter

text: In the Buddhist Jataka tales, The Otters and The Wolf, two otters agreed to let a wolf settle their dispute in dividing their caught fish but it was taken away by the cunning wolf.


title: Otter

text: In Japanese, otters are called "kawauso" (). In Japanese folklore, they fool humans in the same way as foxes (kitsune) and tanuki.


title: Otter

text: In the Noto region, Ishikawa Prefecture, there are stories where they shapeshift into beautiful women or children wearing checker-patterned clothing. If a human attempts to speak to one, they will answer "oraya" and then answer "araya," and if anybody asks them anything, they say cryptic things like "kawai." There are darker stories, such as one from Kaga Province (now Ishikawa Prefecture) in which an otter that lives in the castle's moat shapeshifts into a woman, invites males, and then kills and eats them.


title: Otter

text: In the kaidan, essays, and legends of the Edo period like the "Urami Kanawa" (), "Taihei Hyaku Monogatari" (), and the "Shifu Goroku" (), there are tales about strange occurrences like otters that shapeshift into beautiful women and kill men.


title: Otter

text: In the town of Numatachi, Asa District, Hiroshima Prefecture (now Hiroshima), they are called "tomo no kawauso" () and "ato no kawauso" (). It is said that they shapeshift into bōzu (a kind of monk) and appear before passers-by, and if the passer-by tries to get close and look up, its height steadily increases until it becomes a large bōzu.


title: Otter

text: In the Tsugaru region, Aomori Prefecture, they are said to possess humans. It is said that those possessed by otters lose their stamina as if their soul has been extracted. They are also said to shapeshift into severed heads and get caught in fishing nets.


title: Otter

text: In the Kashima District and the Hakui District in Ishikawa Prefecture, they are seen as a yōkai under the name "kabuso" or "kawaso". They perform pranks like extinguishing the fire of the paper lanterns of people who walk on roads at night, shapeshifting into a beautiful woman of 18 or 19 years of age and fooling people, or tricking people and making them try to engage in sumo against a rock or a tree stump. It is said that they speak human words, and sometimes people are called and stopped while walking on roads.


title: Otter

text: In the Ishikawa and Kochi Prefectures, they are said to be a type of kappa, and there are stories told about how they engage in sumo with otters. In places like the Hokuriku region, Kii, and Shikoku, the otters are seen as a type of kappa. In the Kagakushū, a dictionary from the Muromachi period, an otter that grew old becomes a kappa.


title: Otter

text: In an Ainu folktale, in Urashibetsu (in Abashiri, Hokkaido), there are stories where monster otters shapeshift into humans, go into homes where there are beautiful girls, and try to kill the girl and make her its wife.


title: Otter

text: In China, like in Japan, there are stories where otters shapeshift into beautiful women in old books like "In Search of the Supernatural" and the "Zhenyizhi" ().


title: Ang Lee

text: Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and a range of accolades.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee's early successes included "Pushing Hands" (1991), "The Wedding Banquet" (1993), and "Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994), which explored the relationships and conflicts between tradition and modernity, Eastern and Western; the three films are informally known as the ""Father Knows Best"" trilogy. The films were critically successful both in his native Taiwan and internationally. His first entirely English-language film was "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), for which he received critical praise and a number of accolades. He went on to direct films in a broad range of genres, including the drama "The Ice Storm" (1997); the Civil War epic "Ride with the Devil" (1999); the martial arts "wuxia" drama "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000); the superhero blockbuster "Hulk" (2003); the romantic drama "Brokeback Mountain" (2005); the erotic espionage period film "Lust, Caution" (2007); and the magic realist survival drama "Life of Pi" (2012). Most of Lee's work is known for its emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, of which he has won three: Best Foreign Language Film for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" and Best Director for "Brokeback Mountain" and "Life of Pi", becoming the first non-white director to win the latter. For "The Wedding Banquet" and "Sense and Sensibility", Lee won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival; for "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lust Caution", he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Lee is one of four directors to win the Golden Lion twice and the sole filmmaker to have been awarded the Golden Bear twice. Lee has also been awarded Directors Guild of America Awards, Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards, among others, and is the recipient of the Order of Brilliant Star, the second highest civilian honor bestowed by the government of Taiwan.


title: Ang Lee

text: Ang Lee was born in a Waishengren family, in a military dependents' village of the Republic of China Armed Forces, located in Chaochou, Pingtung, a southern agricultural county in Taiwan. Both of Lee's parents moved following the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 from De'an, Kiangsi province in Mainland China to Taiwan. He grew up in a household that put heavy emphasis on education.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee studied in the Provincial Tainan First Senior High School (now National Tainan First Senior High School) where his father was the principal. He was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Republic of China. But after failing the exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a three-year college, the National Arts School (now reorganized and expanded as National Taiwan University of Arts), and graduated in 1975. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had become interested in drama and the arts in college. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art. Seeing Ingmar Bergman's film "The Virgin Spring" (1960) was a formative experience for him.


title: Ang Lee

text: After finishing his mandatory military service in the Republic of China Navy (ROCN), Lee went to the US in 1979 to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he completed his bachelor's degree in theater in 1980. Originally, Lee was interested in acting, but his challenges with speaking English made it difficult, and he quickly turned to directing. At UIUC, Lee met his future wife, Jane Lin (), also a student from Taiwan, who was pursuing her PhD degree. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, where he received his MFA in film production. He was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, "."


title: Ang Lee

text: During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, "Shades of the Lake" (1982), which won the Best Drama Award in Short Film in Taiwan. His own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, "Fine Line" (1984), won NYU's Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was also chosen for broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee's NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent and literary agency that later represented Lee. At first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin, a molecular biologist, was the sole breadwinner for the family of four. This arrangement put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lin's support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in film but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, "Pushing Hands" and "The Wedding Banquet", to a competition sponsored by Government Information Office of R.O.C., and they came in first and second, respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Hsu Li-kong (), a recently promoted senior manager in a major studio who had a strong interest in Lee's unique style and freshness. Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct "Pushing Hands", a full-length feature that debuted in 1991.


title: Ang Lee

text: "Pushing Hands" (1991) was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office. It received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan's premier film festival. Inspired by the success, Hsu Li-kong collaborated with Lee in their second film, "The Wedding Banquet" (1993), which won the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film in both the Golden Globe and the Academy Awards. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and made Lee a rising star. These first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 1994, Hsu invited Lee to return to Taiwan to make "Eat Drink Man Woman", a film that depicts traditional values, modern relationships, and family conflicts in Taipei. The film was a box office hit and was critically acclaimed. For a second consecutive year, Lee's film received the Best Foreign Language Film nomination in both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards, as well as in the British Academy Awards (BAFTA)s. "Eat Drink Man Woman" won five awards in Taiwan and internationally, including the Best Director from Independent Spirit.


title: Ang Lee

text: The three films show the Confucian family at risk and star the Taiwanese actor Sihung Lung to form what has been called Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 1995, Lee directed Columbia TriStar's British classic "Sense and Sensibility". This made Lee a second-time winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and won Best Adapted Screenplay for screenwriter Emma Thompson, who also starred in the movie alongside Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet. "Sense and Sensibility" also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. Thompson has described the experience of working with Lee in his first English language film, noting how taken aback Lee was when the actors asked questions or provided suggestions, something Thompson notes as uncommon in Chinese culture. Once this disjuncture was bridged, Thompson remembered having "the most wonderful time because his notes were so brutal and funny."


title: Ang Lee

text: After this, Lee directed two more Hollywood movies: "The Ice Storm" (1997), a drama set in 1970s suburban America, and "Ride with the Devil" (1999), an American Civil War drama. Although the critics still highly praised these two films, they were not particularly successful at the box office, and for a time this interrupted Lee's unbroken popularity – from both general audiences and arthouse aficionados – since his first full-length movie. However, in the late 1990s and 2000s, "The Ice Storm" had high VHS and DVD sales and rentals and repeated screenings on cable television, which has increased the film's popularity among audiences.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 1999, Hsu Li-kong, Lee's old partner and supporter, invited him to make a movie based on the traditional "wuxia" genre concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Excited about the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream, Lee assembled a team from the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Mainland China for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). The film was a surprising success worldwide. With Chinese dialogue and English subtitles, the film became the highest grossing foreign film in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and was nominated in 10 categories at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Director. It ended up winning Best Foreign Language Film and three technical awards.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 2003, Lee returned to Hollywood to direct "Hulk", his second big-budget movie after the disappointment of "Ride with the Devil"s restricted release. The film received mixed reviews while being a financial success, grossing over $245 million at the box office. After the setback, Lee considered retiring early, but his father encouraged him to continue making movies.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee took on a small-budget, low-profile independent film based on Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-finalist short story, "Brokeback Mountain". In a 2005 article by Robert K. Elder, Lee was quoted as saying, "What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?" In spite of the director's distance from the subject at hand, "Brokeback Mountain" showcased Lee's skills in probing the depths of the human heart. The 2005 movie about the forbidden love between two Wyoming sheepherders immediately caught public attention and became a cultural phenomenon, initiating intense debates and becoming a box office hit.


title: Ang Lee

text: The film was critically acclaimed at major international film festivals and won Lee numerous Best Director and Best Picture awards worldwide. "Brokeback Mountain" was the most acclaimed film of 2005, winning 71 awards and an additional 52 nominations. It won the Golden Lion (best film) award at the Venice International Film Festival and was named 2005's best film by the Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and London film critics. It also won best picture at the 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America (Adapted Screenplay), Producers Guild of America and the Independent Spirit Awards as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Lee winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. "Brokeback Mountain" also won Best Film and Best Director at the 2006 BAFTAs. It was nominated for a leading eight Oscars and was the front runner for Best Picture heading into the 5 March ceremony, but lost out to "Crash", a story about race relations in Los Angeles, in a controversial upset. He became the first non-white person to win the Best Director at the Academy Awards (which he won again for "Life of Pi"). In 2006, following his Best Director Oscar, Lee was bestowed the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon, the second highest civilian award, by the R.O.C. government.


title: Ang Lee

text: His next film was "Lust, Caution", which was adapted from a novella by the Chinese author Eileen Chang. The story was written in 1950, and was loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939–1940 in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, during World War II. Similar to "Brokeback Mountain", Ang Lee adapted and expanded a short, simple story into a feature film in a way that allows individual figures to develop sophisticated layers of reserved emotions, without being sidetracked by complicated plots or overstuffed material.


title: Ang Lee

text: "Lust, Caution" was distributed by Focus Features and premiered at international film festivals in the summer and early fall of 2007. In the U.S., the movie received a NC-17 rating (no children 17 and under admitted) from the MPAA mainly due to several strongly explicit sex scenes. This was a challenge to the film's distribution because many theater chains in the United States refuse to show NC-17 films. The director and film studio decided not to appeal the decision. Lee removed 9 minutes from the film to make the content suitable for minor audiences in order to be permitted to show "Lust, Caution" in mainland China.


title: Ang Lee

text: "Lust, Caution" captured the Golden Lion from the 2007 Biennale Venice Film Festival, making Lee the winner of the highest prize for the second time in three years (Lee is one of only four filmmakers to have won the Golden Lion twice). When "Lust, Caution" was played in Lee's native Taiwan in its original full-length edition, it was very well received. Staying in Taiwan to promote the film and to participate in a traditional holiday, Lee got emotional when he found that his work was widely applauded by fellow Taiwanese. Lee admitted that he had low expectations for this film from the U.S. audience since "its pace, its film language;– it's all very Chinese." The film was ignored by the Oscars, receiving no nominations. It was snubbed from consideration in the Best Foreign Language Film category; after being officially submitted by Taiwan, the academy ruled that an insufficient number of Taiwanese nationals had participated in the production, thus disqualifying it from further consideration.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee's next film after 2009's "Taking Woodstock" was "Life of Pi", which was adapted from the novel of the same name written by Yann Martel.


title: Ang Lee

text: The story was a retrospective first-person narrative from Pi, a then 16-year-old boy from India, who is the only human to survive the sinking of a freighter on the way from India to Canada. He finds himself on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a wounded zebra and a Bengal tiger. During this unlikely journey, young Pi questions his belief in God and the meaning of life. The novel was once considered impossible to make into a movie, but Lee persuaded 20th Century Fox to invest $120 million and heavily relied on 3D special effects in post-production. Unlike most other sci-fi precedents, Lee explores the artistic horizon of applying 3D effects and pushes the boundary of how this technology can serve the movie's artistic vision. The movie made its commercial premiere during Thanksgiving weekend of 2012 in the US and worldwide, and became a critical and box office success. In January 2013, "Life of Pi" earned 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Visual Effects. He went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director.


title: Ang Lee

text: In March 2013, it was announced that Lee would direct a television pilot for the drama series "Tyrant", created by Gideon Raff and developed by Howard Gordon and Craig Wright. Production was scheduled for the summer of 2013 for the FX series. However, Lee decided to quit the project to take a break from his hectic schedule.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee next directed "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" based on the novel of the same name. It was his first film since winning the Oscar for Best Director for "Life of Pi". The film was released in November 2016, and received a mixed response from audiences and critics alike and was a box office failure.


title: Ang Lee

text: In April 2017, Ang Lee began discussions with Skydance Media to helm an action thriller film, "Gemini Man", that follows a senior DIA official being hunted by a young clone of himself right as he is about to retire from the agency. Will Smith was cast in the lead role. In January 2018, Clive Owen and Mary Elizabeth Winstead had been cast as the antagonist and female lead respectively. The film was released on 11 October 2019 to negative reviews and flopped at the box office.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 2013, Ang Lee began development on a film dramatising Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali's heavyweight title fight, known as the Thrilla in Manila. The film was being produced by Universal with a screenplay written by Peter Morgan, but Lee later put it on hold in 2014 in order to make "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk". In December 2015, it was announced that the project, tentatively titled "Thrilla in Manila", now with Studio 8, would be his next film after "Gemini Man". David Oyelowo and Ray Fisher are reportedly Lee's top choices for the leading roles of Frazier and Ali, respectively, and he hopes to film in 3D.


title: Ang Lee

text: Ang Lee announced on November 2022 that he is working on a biopic on the life of Bruce Lee starring his son, Mason Lee.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee lives in Larchmont, in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, Jane Lin, a microbiologist. They married in 1983 and have two sons, including Mason. Lee is sometimes described as a naturalized US citizen but has said he is a permanent resident of the United States. Lee has stated that he believes in the Taoist-Buddha.


title: Ang Lee

text: Lee has been involved in the process of filmmaking in various capacities, though the highlight of his career and legacy is his directorial work. The following are Lee's various credits.


title: Ang Lee

text: In 2003, Lee was ranked 27th in "The Guardian" 40 best directors. In August 2007, Lee was named the 41st greatest director of all time in a poll by "Total Film" magazine. Lee has also received awards from the French Government including becoming a Knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2012). and a Knight of the French Legion of Honor (2021) In 2020 he received a BAFTA Fellowship for his Outstanding Contributions to British Cinema.


title: Ang Lee

text: On 30 November 2021, Lee received the Presidential Culture Award in the arts and culture category from Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen.


title: Ang Lee

text: Ang Lee has had a career-long collaboration with producer and screenwriter James Schamus and editor Tim Squyres. He has also worked several times with music composer Mychael Danna and a few times with Danny Elfman.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Paul John Hollywood (born 1 March 1966) is an English celebrity chef and television presenter, widely known as a judge on "The Great British Bake Off" since 2010.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood began his career at his father's bakery as a teenager and went on to serve as head baker at a number of British and international hotels. After returning from working in Cyprus, Hollywood appeared as a guest on a number of British television programmes on both BBC and ITV. After beginning his broadcast career in food programming, he diversified into other areas, including motoring.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood was born in 1966 in Wallasey, Cheshire, the son of bakery proprietor John F. Hollywood and Gillian M. Hollywood (nee Harman). He was a pupil at The Mosslands School. Hollywood studied sculpture at the Wallasey School of Art based at Liscard Hall, but left to start work as a baker. He first worked in his father's bakery in York (the headquarters of a chain called Bread Winner which eventually stretched all the way down the east coast from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire) and then in other bakeries on Merseyside. He eventually went on to become head baker at a number of hotels including The Dorchester, Chester Grosvenor and Spa, and the Cliveden Hotel. He then left the UK for Cyprus, where he worked at two resorts.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood has appeared in guest spots on a number of television programmes, including BBC One's "The Generation Game", "The Heaven and Earth Show," ITV's "This Morning", and "The Alan Titchmarsh Show". Since the show launched in 2010, Hollywood has been a judge on the BBC programme "The Great British Bake Off". In this capacity, he has been described as the "antidote" to judges such as Len Goodman or Simon Cowell in other reality television programmes, on account of his straightforward and honest manner and because his judging is restricted purely to the finished product. His partnership with Mary Berry has been described in "The Guardian" as being the "secret weapon" of the show and potentially one of the best judging combinations to have appeared on reality television. In September 2016, Love Productions agreed to a three-year deal to move the show from the BBC to Channel 4. Hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins announced that they would not be moving to the new network, followed shortly after by Berry. On the same day as Berry, Hollywood announced that he would be staying with the show.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards named his 2005 book "100 Great Breads" as the "Top Bread and Pastry Book" for that year.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: In 2008, Hollywood created an almond and roquefort sourdough recipe that was said to be the most expensive bread in Britain. The roquefort is supplied from a specialist in France at £15 per kilo, while the flour for the bread is made by a miller in Wiltshire. Hollywood describes it as a "Rolls-Royce of loaves". Hollywood is a guest speaker at several food festivals, including the Cumbrian Food Festival, and the BBC Good Food Show and the Cake and Bake Show, both in London. In May 2013, Hollywood began appearing as a judge on "The American Baking Competition" on CBS.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood has also starred in "Sadie J", a children's television programme. In 2013, he presented "Paul Hollywood’s Bread" on BBC Two, in which he gave advice on recipes for different types of bread; however, also featured on the series were recipes for some cakes such as the Danish pastry. He also presented "Paul Hollywood's Pies and Puds", a cookery television series on BBC One.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: In August 2015 Hollywood was featured on the BBC genealogy documentary series "Who Do You Think You Are?" The programme revealed that his grandfather Norman Harman, who served in the Army during World War II, saw action in the Tunisia Campaign and at the Battle of Anzio and that his great-great-grandfather, Kenneth MacKenzie, had been a policeman in the City of Glasgow Police in the 1850s. Hollywood's great-great-great-grandfather, Donald MacKenzie, had been a crofter in Poolewe, Wester Ross. Donald had also been the post-runner between Poolewe and Dingwall, where he delivered post on foot over a distance of . He covered this distance every week, during his forties, on foot for over a decade. He lived into his 80s.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: In May and June 2017 he presented "Paul Hollywood's Big Continental Road Trip". In December 2017, Hollywood appeared as a judge on "The Great American Baking Show", the second incarnation of the "GBBO" series in the United States.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: November 2019, the four-part series "Paul Goes to Hollywood" premiered on Food Network; the series follows Paul Hollywood on a 3000-mile culinary road trip across America, travelling from New York to Los Angeles onboard a Harley-Davidson.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood travelled across Japan to discover some of the finest culinary experiences the country has to offer in the three-part Channel 4 series called "Paul Hollywood Eats Japan"; aired during April–May 2020.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: In December 2020, Hollywood was featured in a two-part Channel 4 series called "The Great British Bake Off: Best Bits"; celebrating some of the most memorable moments from the first ten years of the series.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Later in 2022, the three-part series "Paul Hollywood Eats Mexico" will premier on Channel 4; the series follows Paul Hollywood as he experiences authentic local cuisine on a culinary tour across Mexico.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: In 2015 Hollywood began his racing career, making his debut in the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4 with Andrew Howard, founder of Beechdean Dairies. The pair qualified second in the Britcar Trophy Championship's first round at Silverstone taking second in class in both races. He also competed at Le Mans in 2015 in the Aston Martin festival. Hollywood has also competed in GT Cup with Jonny Adam and finished first in class. He entered the British GT championship in 2016 and competed in the last three rounds with Jamie Chadwick as his driving partner. In July 2017 he came first in class at the Dunlop endurance race at Silverstone in an Aston Martin GT4, and in November 2017 he raced in his first 24 hr race at Circuit of the Americas coming second in class in an Aston Martin GT8.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood met his former wife Alexandra in Cyprus where he was a head baker at a five star hotel and she was a scuba diving instructor. They later married on the island. They have a son.


title: Paul Hollywood

text: Hollywood separated from Alexandra in 2013 after having an affair with his "The American Baking Competition" co-judge Marcela Valladolid. They later reconciled, then separated again in November 2017. They divorced in July 2019. In August 2019 Hollywood split from 23-year-old girlfriend Summer Monteys-Fullam, ending a two-year relationship.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the "Queen of Funk", Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with "I Feel for You" in 1984. Khan has won ten Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.


title: Chaka Khan

text: With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, and two platinum albums. In the course of her solo career, Khan achieved three gold singles, three gold albums, and one platinum album with "I Feel for You". She has collaborated with Steve Winwood, Ry Cooder, Robert Palmer, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Guru, Chicago, De La Soul, Mary J. Blige, among others. In December 2016, "Billboard" magazine ranked her as the 65th most successful dance artist of all time. She was ranked at No. 17 in VH1's original list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Khan has been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times as a solo artist and four times as a member of Rufus featuring Chaka Khan; the first time in 2012 as a member of Rufus.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Yvette Marie Stevens was born on March 23, 1953, into an artistic, bohemian household in Chicago, Illinois. The eldest of five children born to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman, she has described her father as a beatnik and her mother as "able to do anything". She was raised in the Hyde Park area, "an island in the middle of the madness" of Chicago's rough South Side housing projects. Her sister Yvonne later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother, Mark, who formed the funk group Jamaica Boys and was a member of Aurra, also became a successful musician. She has two other sisters, Zaheva Stevens and Tammy McCrary.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan was raised as a Catholic. She attended the elementary school of Saint Thomas the Apostle Church in Hyde Park. She attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan became a fan of rhythm and blues music as a preteen and at eleven formed a girl group, the Crystalettes, which included her sister Taka. In the late 1960s, Khan attended several civil rights rallies with her father's second wife, Connie, a strong supporter of the movement, and joined the Black Panther Party after befriending a fellow member, activist and Chicago native Fred Hampton in 1967. Though many think that she was given the name Chaka while in the Panthers, she has made it clear that her name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi was given to her at age 13 by a Yoruba Babalawo. In 1969, she left the Panthers and dropped out of high school, having attended Calumet High School and Kenwood High School (now Kenwood Academy). She began to perform in small groups around the Chicago area, first performing with Cash McCall's group Lyfe, which included her then-boyfriend Hassan Khan. Chaka and Hassan married in 1970.


title: Chaka Khan

text: She was asked to replace Baby Huey of Baby Huey & the Babysitters after Huey's death in 1970. The group disbanded a year later. While performing in local bands in 1972, Khan was spotted by two members of a new group called Rufus and soon won her position in the group, replacing her good friend Paulette McWilliams, who had recently left the group. The group caught the attention of musician Ike Turner who flew them out to Los Angeles to record at his studio Bolic Sound in Inglewood, California. Turner wanted Khan to become an Ikette; she declined stating she was "really happy with Rufus. But Ike's attention was certainly a boost."


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1973, Rufus signed with ABC Records and released their eponymous debut album. Despite their fiery rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby" from Wonder's acclaimed "Talking Book" and the modest success of the Chaka-led ballad "Whoever's Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)", the album failed to gain attention. That changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan. That song, "Tell Me Something Good", became the group's breakthrough hit, reaching No. 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1974, later winning the group their first Grammy Award. The single's success and the subsequent follow-up, "You Got the Love", which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart, helped their second parent album, "Rags to Rufus", go platinum, selling over a million copies. From 1974 to 1979, Rufus released six platinum-selling albums including "Rufusized", "Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan", "Ask Rufus", "Street Player" and "Masterjam". Hits the group scored during this time included "Once You Get Started", "Sweet Thing", "Hollywood", "At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)", and "Do You Love What You Feel".


title: Chaka Khan

text: The band gained a reputation as a live performing act, with Khan becoming the star attraction, thanks to her powerful vocals and stage attire—which sometimes included Native American garb and showing her midriff. Most of the band's material was written and produced by the band itself with few exceptions. Khan has also been noted for being an instrumentalist playing drums and bass; she also provided percussion during her tenure with Rufus. Most of her compositions were collaborations with guitarist Tony Maiden. Relations between Khan and the group, particularly between her and drummer Andre Fischer, became stormy. Several members left with nearly every release. While Khan remained in the group, she signed a solo contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1978. While Khan was busy at work on solo material, Rufus released three albums without her participation including 1979's "Numbers", 1980's "Party 'Til You're Broke", and 1983's "Seal in Red".


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1978, Warner Bros. Records released Khan's solo debut album, which featured the crossover disco hit, "I'm Every Woman", written for her by singers-songwriters Ashford & Simpson. The success of the single helped the album go platinum, selling over a million copies. Khan also featured on Quincy Jones's hit "Stuff Like That", also released in 1978, which also featured Ashford & Simpson as co-writers, along with Jones and several others. Ashford & Simpson performed with Khan on the song.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1979, Khan reunited with Rufus to collaborate on the Jones-produced "Masterjam", which featured their hit "Do You Love What You Feel", which Khan sang with Tony Maiden. Despite her sometimes-acrimonious relationship with some of her bandmates, Khan and Maiden have maintained a friendship over the years. In 1979. she also dueted with Ry Cooder on his album "Bop Till You Drop". That year, she spent time working on her producing and writing skills at Ike Turner's Bolic Sound studio. They had planned to record together. In 1980, while Rufus released "Party 'Til You're Broke", again without Khan, she released her second solo album, "Naughty", which featured her on the cover with her six-year-old daughter Milini. The album yielded the disco hit "Clouds" and the R&B ballad "Papillon".


title: Chaka Khan

text: Also in 1980, Khan had a cameo appearance as a church choir soloist in "The Blues Brothers" starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Khan released two albums in 1981, the Rufus release, "Camouflage" and the solo album "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me". The latter album went gold. The same year, Khan appeared on three tracks on Rick Wakeman's concept album "1984". In 1982, Khan issued two more solo albums, the jazz-oriented "Echoes of an Era" and a more funk/pop-oriented self-titled album "Chaka Khan". The latter album's track, the jazz-inflected "Be Bop Medley", won Khan a Grammy and earned praise from jazz singer Betty Carter who loved Khan's vocal scatting in the song.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1983, following the release of Rufus's final studio album, "Seal in Red", which did not feature Khan, the singer returned with Rufus on a live album, "Stompin' at the Savoy - Live", which featured the studio single, "Ain't Nobody", which became the group's final charting success reaching No. 22 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number-one on the Hot R&B chart, while also reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom. Following this release, Rufus separated for good.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1984, Khan released her sixth studio album, "I Feel for You". The title track, the first single released, was originally written and recorded by Prince in 1979 and had also been recorded by The Pointer Sisters and Rebbie Jackson. Khan's version featured a harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder and an introductory rap by Grandmaster Melle Mel. It became a million-selling smash in the U.S. and United Kingdom and helped to relaunch Khan's career. "I Feel for You" topped not only the U.S. R&B and dance charts, but achieved great success on the U.S. pop chart and reached No. 1 in the U.K. The song reached No. 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in December 1984 and remained on that chart for 26 weeks, well into 1985. Additionally, it hit No. 1 on the Cash Box chart. It was listed as "Billboard"′s No. 5 song for 1985 and netted Prince the 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. In addition to the song's successful radio airplay and sales, a music video of Khan with breakdancers in an inner-city setting enjoyed heavy rotation on television and helped to solidify Khan's notoriety in popular culture.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Other singles that helped the "I Feel For You" album go platinum included "This is My Night" and the ballad "Through the Fire", the latter of which was also successful on the adult contemporary chart. Khan was featured in Steve Winwood's 1986 number-one hit, "Higher Love". That same year, a duet was planned with Robert Palmer for the song "Addicted To Love". However, her manager declined to release the duet, citing the desire not to have too much product from her in the marketplace at one time. She was still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album's liner notes, and the song became an international hit. Khan followed up the success of the "I Feel For You" album with 1986's "Destiny" and 1988's "CK". Khan found more success in the late 1980s with a remix album, "", which reached the top ten on the British albums chart. As a result, she performed regularly in the U.K., where she maintained a strong fan base.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1990, she was a featured performer on another major hit when she collaborated with Ray Charles and Quincy Jones on a new jack swing cover of The Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", which was featured on Jones's "Back on the Block". The song reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart, later winning her and Ray Charles a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group. Khan returned with her first studio album in four years in 1992 with the release of "The Woman I Am", which was a success due to the R&B songs "Love You All My Lifetime" and "You Can Make the Story Right". Around this time, Khan also did a duet with Peter Cetera on the song "Feels Like Heaven," which was a minor success. .


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan also contributed to soundtracks and worked on a follow-up to "The Woman I Am" she titled "Dare You to Love Me", which was eventually shelved. In 1995, she and rapper Guru had a hit with the duet "Watch What You Say", in the U.K. That same year, she provided a contemporary R&B cover of the classic standard, "My Funny Valentine", for the "Waiting to Exhale" soundtrack. In 1996, following the release of her greatest-hits album, "", Khan abruptly left Warner Bros. after stating the label had neglected her and failed to release "Dare You to Love Me".


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 1998, Khan signed a contract with Prince's NPG Records label and issued "Come 2 My House", followed by the single "Don't Talk 2 Strangers", a cover of a 1996 Prince song. She later went on a tour with Prince as a co-headlining act. In 2000, Khan departed NPG and she released her autobiography "Chaka! Through The Fire" in 2003. The following year she released her first jazz covers album in twenty-two years with 2004's "ClassiKhan". She also covered "Little Wing" with Kenny Olson on the album "".


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 2006, Khan was a featured vocalist on Arif Mardin's "All My Friends Are Here" album of his life's work, also appearing in the companion documentary "". She performed a jazz vocal for "So Blue", composed by Mardin in the '60s with lyrics written for the project by Roxanne Seeman.


title: Chaka Khan

text: After signing with Burgundy Records, Khan released what many critics called a "comeback album" with "Funk This", produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis & Big Jim Wright. The album featured the hit, "Angel", and the Mary J. Blige duet, "Disrespectful". The latter track went to No. 1 on the U.S. dance singles chart, winning the singers a Grammy Award, while "Funk This" also won a Grammy for Best R&B Album. The album was also notable for Khan's covers of Dee Dee Warwick's "Foolish Fool" and Prince's "Sign o' the Times". In 2008, Khan participated in the Broadway adaptation of "The Color Purple" playing Ms. Sofia to Fantasia Barrino's Celie.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In December 2004, Khan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music during the inauguration of its president, Roger H. Brown.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In a 2008 interview Khan said that she, unlike other artists, felt very optimistic about the current changes in the recording industry, including music downloading. "I'm glad things are shifting and artists – not labels – are having more control over their art. My previous big record company (Warner Bros.) has vaults of my recordings that haven't seen the light of day that people need to hear. This includes Robert Palmer's original recording of 'Addicted to Love' – which they took my vocals off of! We are working on getting it (and other tracks) all back now." In 2009, Khan hit the road with singers Anastacia and Lulu for Here Come the Girls.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 2009, Khan was guest singer with the song "Alive" on jazz drummer Billy Cobham's album "Drum ' n voice 3". In 2010, she contributed to vocals for Beverley Knight's "Soul Survivor", collaborated with Clay Aiken on a song for the kids show "Phineas and Ferb", and appeared as a featured artist on "One More Try" and a cover of her song "Through the Fire" on Japanese-American singer-songwriter Ai's eighth studio album "The Last Ai." Both Khan and Ai were nominated for and won the International Collaboration Special Award at the 2010 "Billboard Japan" Music Awards for the two songs. Khan continues to perform to packed audiences both in her native United States and overseas.


title: Chaka Khan

text: On May 19, 2011, Khan was given the 2,440th Hollywood Walk of Fame star plaque on a section of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Her family was present when the singer accepted the honor, as was Stevie Wonder, who had written her breakout hit "Tell Me Something Good". On September 27, 2011, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame committee announced that Khan and her former band Rufus were jointly nominated for induction to the hall. It was the collective's first nomination 13 years after they were first eligible. The group were nominated partly due to Khan's own storied reputation, including her own solo career in conjunction with her years with Rufus. Recently, Khan rerecorded her song, "Super Life", under the title "Super Life: Fear Kills, Love Heals" with Eric Benet, Kelly Price, and Luke James in tribute to Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was killed on February 26. A number of celebrities also joined in the recording including Loretta Devine, Terry Crews, Eva Pigford, and reporter Kevin Frazier.


title: Chaka Khan

text: On December 6, 2012, Khan performed at a benefit for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF originally invited Stevie Wonder, however after a successful lobbying campaign by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Wonder withdrew and was replaced by Khan who was able to raise $14 million for the IDF. This support contrasted with her earlier support for the Black Panther Party that publicly supported Palestine.


title: Chaka Khan

text: On July 27, 2013, Khan was honored 40 years after signing her first recording contract with a ceremonial renaming of Blackstone Avenue between 50th and 51st street (where her former high school, Kenwood Academy, sits) as Chaka Khan Way and on July 28 the city declared the day Chaka Khan Day. She performed at Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion on the 28th. In August 2014, Khan served as grand marshal at the 85th annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic in her hometown of Chicago.


title: Chaka Khan

text: On August 27, 2015, Khan was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on season 21 of "Dancing with the Stars". She was paired with professional dancer Keo Motsepe. Khan and Motsepe were the first couple eliminated from the competition on September 21, 2015. In July 2016, she canceled her upcoming concert performances and entered rehab.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In June 2018 she released a new single called "Like Sugar", a collaboration with Major Lazer member Switch. She later went on to promote the single on the Ellen show. "Like Sugar" is included on her 2019 album "Hello Happiness". The album was released on February 15, 2019, and is her first album in twelve years.


title: Chaka Khan

text: Khan served as Grand Marshal in the 2019 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 2019, in Pasadena, California.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In October 2019, Khan was an honoree at Variety's "Power of Women" luncheon for supporting Little Kids Rock. Other honorees were Mariah Carey, Jennifer Aniston, Brie Larson, Awkwafina, and Dana Walden.


title: Chaka Khan

text: In 2020, Khan competed in season 3 of "The Masked Singer" as "Miss Monster". She was eliminated and unmasked in the third episode.