title: The Last House on the Left

text: Though the film passed with an R-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America after numerous cuts were made, director Craven claimed that on several occasions, horrified audience members would demand that theater projectionists destroy the footage, sometimes stealing the film themselves. John Saco, a British film archivist, recalled discussing the film with American theater owners: "Projectionists were so offended, they would just cut up the film as they were watching it. I'd ask people, 'How cut is your version?' They'd say, 'It's not as cut as some of the others I've seen' – that's hardly what you want to hear!"


title: The Last House on the Left

text: "Last House on the Left" was refused a certificate for cinema release by the British Board of Film Censors in 1974, due to scenes of sadism and violence. During the early 1980s home video boom, the film was released uncut (save for an incidental, gore-free scene with the comic relief cops, and the end credit roll) as a video that did not fall under the BBFC's remit at the time. This changed when the "video nasty" scare which started in 1982 led to the Video Recordings Act 1984. The movie landed on the Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties", and was banned.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: The film remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However, it had developed an underground cult reputation in the UK, and critics such as Mark Kermode began to laud the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for theatrical certification and it was again refused. The independent film label Blue Underground toured an uncut print around Britain without a BBFC certificate; Southampton City Council granted it its own "18" certificate. The film was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000, after which the BBFC again declared that it would not receive any form of certification.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: In June 2002 the BBFC prevailed against an appeal made to the Video Appeals Committee by video distributor Blue Underground Limited. The BBFC had required 16 seconds of cuts to scenes of sexual violence before it would grant the video an "18" certificate. Blue Underground Limited refused to make the cuts, and the BBFC therefore rejected the video. The distributor then appealed to the VAC, who upheld the BBFC's decision. During the appeal, film critic Kermode was called in as a horror expert to make a case for the film's historical importance. However, after his report, the committee not only upheld the cuts, but demanded additional ones. The film was eventually given an "18" certificate, on July 17, 2002, with 31 seconds of cuts, and was released in the UK on DVD in May 2003. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a link to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The BBFC finally classified the uncut film at 18 for video release on March 17, 2008.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: Contrary to popular belief, the film was never banned in Australia on its initial release – rather, it was never picked up for distribution in the country due to the censorship issues that it would have created at the time. The film was submitted to the censorship board in 1987 for VHS release by Video Excellence under the alternative title "Krug and Company", but it was rejected because of its violent and sexual content. In October 1991, "The Last House on the Left" was part of a package of fifteen tapes that was seized by the Australian Customs Service. The package of tapes was forwarded to the Australian Classification Board (then known as the Office of Film and Literature Classification) who declared them "prohibited pursuant to Regulation 4A(1A)(a)(iii) of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations". The film was eventually classified "R" by the OFLC for its DVD premiere on November 15, 2004. It had a theatrical screening that same month at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: Many different versions of the film exist on various DVD and VHS releases struck from different cuts of the film, many of them from different countries. To get a completely uncut version is difficult as even some cinema machinists cut footage from prints of the movie before screening it during the 1970s; many copies were cut or "hacked to pieces" and because of this, some scenes have become rarities.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: In the "Krug and Company" cut, Mari is still alive when her parents find her. She tells her parents what happened to her and Phyllis before dying in front of them.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: "The Last House on the Left" has been released multiple times on home media in the United States; MGM Home Entertainment released a DVD version on August 27, 2002, which featured outtakes, a making-of documentary, and "Forbidden Footage," a featurette exploring the film's most violent shocking sequences. On February 1, 2011, a Blu-ray was released by MGM through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, which featured multiple featurettes and making-of documentaries, two audio commentary tracks, never-before-seen footage, and cast and crew interviews.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: A limited edition Blu-ray box set was released in the United States and United Kingdom on July 3, 2018 from Arrow Video, which features three different cuts of the film each restored in 2K from the original film elements, a double-sided poster, lobby card reproductions, a book featuring writings on the film, a CD soundtrack, various archival bonus materials, and new interviews with cast, crew, and associates of Craven.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: In the 1980s, Vestron Pictures hired Danny Steinmann to write and direct a sequel, though the film fell apart in pre-production due to rights issues. Mario Bava's film "Twitch of the Death Nerve" was also released under the titles "Last House on the Left – Part II", "Last House – Part II" and "New House on the Left".


title: The Last House on the Left

text: In August 2006, Rogue Pictures finalized a deal to remake "The Last House on the Left" with original writer and director Wes Craven as a producer. The company intended to preserve the storyline of the original film. Craven described his involvement with the remake: "I'm far enough removed from these films that the remakes are a little like having grandchildren. The story, about the painful side effects of revenge, is an evergreen. The headlines are full of people and nations taking revenge and getting caught up in endless cycles of violence." Craven formed Midnight Pictures, a shingle of Rogue, to remake "The Last House on the Left" as its first project. Production was slated for early 2007. Screenwriter Adam Alleca was hired to write the script for the remake.


title: The Last House on the Left

text: In May 2007, Rogue entered negotiations with director Dennis Iliadis to direct the film. The film was released to theaters in the U.S. and Canada on March 13, 2009.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Stripe and Twitch. The combined valuation of the top YC companies was more than $300 billion by January 2021. The company's accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, expanded to San Francisco in 2019, and has been entirely online since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Forbes" characterized the company in 2012 as one of the most successful startup accelerators in Silicon Valley.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator was founded in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Tappan Morris, and Trevor Blackwell.


title: Y Combinator

text: From 2005 to 2008, one program was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one was in Mountain View, California. As Y Combinator grew to 40 investments per year, running two programs became too much. In January 2009, Y Combinator announced that the Cambridge program would be closed and all future programs would be in Silicon Valley.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2009, Sequoia Capital led the $2 million investment round into an entity of Y Combinator to enable it to invest in approximately 60 companies a year. In 2010, Sequoia led an $8.25 million funding round for Y Combinator to further increase the number of startups the company could fund.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2011, Yuri Milner and SV Angel offered every Y Combinator company a $150,000 convertible note investment. The amount put into each company was changed to $80,000 when Start Fund was renewed.


title: Y Combinator

text: In September 2013, Y Combinator began funding nonprofit organizations that were accepted into the program after testing the concept with Watsi.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2014, Sam Altman replaced Graham as president of Y Combinator. In 2014, Y Combinator began a new deal for startups, offering $150,000 for 7 percent equity.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2014, Altman announced a partnership with Transcriptic to provide increased support for Y Combinator's growing community of biotech companies. In 2015, he announced a partnership with Bolt and increased support for hardware companies.


title: Y Combinator

text: The YC Fellowship Program was announced in July 2015, with the goal of funding companies at the idea or prototype stage. The first batch of YC Fellowship included 32 companies that received an equity-free grant instead of an investment.


title: Y Combinator

text: In January 2016, Y Combinator changed the fellowship program, with participating companies receiving $20k investment for a 1.5 percent equity stake. The equity stake is structured as a convertible security that converts into shares only if a company has an initial public offering (IPO), or a funding event or acquisition that values the company at $100 million or more. The fellowship was discontinued in 2017.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2016, Y Combinator announced that YC partners would visit 11 countries to meet with founders and learn more about how they could be helpful to international startup communities. Those 11 countries were Nigeria, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Israel, and India.


title: Y Combinator

text: Former Twitter chief financial officer and chief operating officer Ali Rowghani, who was in charge of the YC Continuity Fund when it began, became CEO of YC Continuity. Michael Seibel, who co-founded Justin.tv, became CEO of YC Core, the program that Paul Buchheit had run since 2016.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2017, Y Combinator began Startup School, an online course that released public videos and coached individual startups. More than 1500 startups graduated the program in its first year.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2018, Y Combinator announced a new batch of startup school. After a software glitch, all 15,000 startups that applied to the program were accepted, only to learn a few hours later that they had been rejected. But the ensuing outcry led Y Combinator to change course again and decided over an official blog to accept all those 15,000 companies. Now, every company is accepted to join YC Startup School without any restrictions.


title: Y Combinator

text: In the summer of 2022, Y Combinator intentionally shrunk the number of startups within its accelerator down 40% from 414 companies to 250 companies.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator interviews and selects two or more batches of companies per year. The companies receive total of $500,000 seed money as well as advice, and connections. The companies receive $125,000 on a post-money safe in return for 7% equity and $375,000 on an uncapped safe with a Most Favored Nation (MFN) provision. Non-profits receive $100,000 donation. The program includes "office hours", where startup founders meet individually and group meetings. Founders also participate in weekly dinners where guests from the Silicon Valley ecosystem (successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, etc.) speak to the founders.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator's motto is "Make Something People Want." The program teaches founders to market their product, team and market, refining their business model, achieving product/market fit, and scaling the startup into a high growth business, etc. The program ends with Demo Day, where startups present their business and sometimes technology to potential investors.


title: Y Combinator

text: The Y combinator operates an additional program and fund designed to support and invest in startups which have already graduated from the main accelerator program. The YC Growth Program and YC Continuity fund are operated by the same team and focus on helping fast growing startups which are approaching 50 employees, and startups raising their Series B funding of $20 million to $100 million.


title: Y Combinator

text: As of late 2021, Y Combinator had invested in >3,000 companies, most of which are for-profit. Non-profit organizations can also participate in the main YC program. Few non-profits have been accepted in the last years, among them Watsi, Women Who Code, New Story, SIRUM, Zidisha, 80,000 Hours, and Our World in Data.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator was founded in March 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell.


title: Y Combinator

text: In early 2010, Harj Taggar joined as an advisor. In September 2010, Alexis Ohanian joined. In November 2010, Paul Buchheit and Harj Taggar were named partners. In 2015, Taggar left YC.


title: Y Combinator

text: In January 2011, Garry Tan joined YC, first as designer-in-residence and later as partner. He left YC in November 2015.


title: Y Combinator

text: Michael Seibel joined Y Combinator as part-time partner in January 2013 and later became a full-time Partner in 2014.


title: Y Combinator

text: The company includes managing directors, group partners, visiting group partners and team members as listed on its website.


title: Y Combinator

text: In 2018, Y Combinator announced that Lu Qi, a former CEO of Baidu and Bing, would join the company as CEO of YC China. Y Combinator announced that Lu left YC in November 2019 and that it had decided not to pursue a program in China.


title: Y Combinator

text: In March 2019, Y Combinator announced its president Sam Altman would be transitioning into a Chairman position to focus more on OpenAI and Geoff Ralston would be the new president.


title: Y Combinator

text: Y Combinator has been blamed for its encouragement of the ageism culture in Silicon Valley. Paul Graham said in 2005 that people over 38 lacked the energy to launch startups. It was also at a Y Combinator event, the 2007 Startup School, that Mark Zuckerberg said, "Young people are just smarter". Research on this issue published by "Harvard Business Review" found Y Combinator's views to be misguided, as the average age of a successful startup founder was found to be 45 years old.


title: Y Combinator

text: The Human Advancement Research Community (HARC) project was set up with the "mission to ensure human wisdom exceeds human power". The project was inspired by a conversation between Sam Altman and Alan Kay. Its projects include modelling, visualizing and teaching software, as well as programming languages. Members included Alan Kay, Bret Victor, and Vi Hart. Patrick Scaglia was chair of HARC and was listed as an advisor in 2017. YC Research disaffiliated with Y Combinator and now operates as Open Research.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Australia is a 2008 epic adventure drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan. The film is a character story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatised backdrop of events across northern Australia at the time, such as the bombing of Darwin during World War II.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra and Bowen. The film was released to cinemas on 26 November 2008 in the United States and in Australia on 26 December 2008, with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December 2008 and January and February 2009. "Australia" received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $211 million worldwide.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: In 1939, weeks before the start of World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley of England travels to Australia to force her philandering husband to sell his faltering cattle station, Faraway Downs. The huge station straddles Western Australia and the Northern Territory, reaching north to the Timor Sea. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover, called "The Drover," to transport her to Faraway Downs.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Lady Sarah's husband is murdered before she arrives; the authorities tell her the killer is an Aboriginal elder nicknamed "King George." The station's manager, Neil Fletcher, secretly tries to gain control of Faraway Downs in order to sell it to meat tycoon Lesley 'King' Carney, thereby creating a complete cattle monopoly. Meanwhile, at Darwin, Australian Army logistics officer Captain Dutton negotiates beef prices with Carney on behalf of the Allies.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the boy Nullah, who has an Aboriginal mother and a white father. Nullah, who has been spying on Fletcher, reveals his plan to Lady Sarah, who fires Fletcher and runs the cattle station aided by her remaining staff. The next day, policemen arrive to take Nullah away to Mission Island as they have with other half-Aboriginal children. While evading them, Nullah's mother Daisy drowns when she hides with him in a water tower. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song "Over the Rainbow." Nullah tells her that "King George" is his grandfather, and that like the Wizard of Oz, he too is a "magic man".


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover leads a team of seven riders, including his Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri, Goolaj, Nullah, Lady Sarah, Bandy, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn, to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. They encounter various obstacles along the way, including a fire set by Carney's men that scares the cattle, resulting in the death of Flynn when the group rushes to stop the cattle from stampeding over a cliff. Lady Sarah and Drover fall in love, and she grows to appreciate the Australian territory. The two share a romantic moment under a tree, where he reveals that he was once married to an Aboriginal woman who died after being refused medical treatment in a white hospital. Because he is friendly with the Aboriginals, many of the other whites in the territory shun him. Lady Sarah reveals her inability to have biological children. Over the next few days, the team drives the cattle through the treacherous Never Never desert. Upon finally arriving at Darwin, the group races to load the cattle onto the ship before Carney's cattle in order to secure payment.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover happily lived together at Faraway Downs for two years. Meanwhile, Fletcher manages to take over Carney's cattle empire after orchestrating Carney's death in an accident and marrying his daughter, Catherine, all between 1940 and 1941. He returns to Faraway Downs and threatens Nullah's safety unless Lady Sarah sells her cattle station. Fletcher intimidates her by revealing that "he" murdered Lady Sarah's husband (not "King George") and that he is also Nullah's father.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Nullah intends to go on a walkabout with "King George," much to Lady Sarah's dismay. She and Drover argue about what is best for Nullah, after which Drover leaves Faraway Downs. Nullah is apprehended by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island. Lady Sarah, who has come to regard Nullah as her adopted son, vows to rescue him. As World War II escalates, she goes to work as a radio operator alongside Catherine. When the Japanese attack Mission Island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah has been killed.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Drover returns to Darwin after hearing about the attack. He learns of Nullah's abduction to Mission Island and goes with Magarri, Ivan, and a young Christian brother to rescue him and the other children. During the rescue, Magarri sacrifices himself as a diversion so the others can flee. Meanwhile, Lady Sarah and the other townsfolk are being evacuated South by Captain Dutton. Drover and the children sail into port at Darwin as Nullah plays "Over the Rainbow" on his harmonica; Lady Sarah hears the music and the three are reunited. Fletcher, distraught at his financial ruin and Catherine's death during the Japanese attack, attempts to shoot Nullah with a soldier's rifle. As Lady Sarah and Drover rush to save Nullah, "King George" strikes Fletcher with a spear, killing him.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Lady Sarah, Drover, and Nullah return to the safety of the remote Faraway Downs. Sometime later, "King George" calls out to Nullah, who returns to the Outback with his grandfather as Lady Sarah and Drover look on.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: In addition, Arthur Dignam and Matthew Whittet play the priest and Christian brother, respectively, at Mission Island.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Originally, Baz Luhrmann was planning to make a film about Alexander the Great starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, with a screenplay by David Hare. The director had built a studio in the northern Sahara but "Alexander" made by Oliver Stone was released first and after several years in development, Luhrmann abandoned the project to make a film closer to home. The visual effects were done by Animal Logic and The LaB Sydney. Luhrmann spent six months researching general Australian history. At one point he considered setting his film during the First Fleet, 11 ships that sailed from Britain in 1787 and set up the first colony in New South Wales. The director wanted to explore Australia's relationship with England and with its indigenous population. He decided to set the film between World Wars I and II in order to merge a historical romance with the Stolen Generations, where thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families by the state and integrated into white society. Luhrmann has said that his film depicts "a mythologised Australia".


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: In May 2005, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman entered negotiations to star in an untitled 20th Century Fox project written by director Baz Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Luhrmann directing the film. In May 2006, due to Crowe's demanding personal script approval before signing onto the project, Luhrmann sought to replace the actor with Heath Ledger. Crowe said he didn't want to work in an environment that was influenced by budgetary needs. About this casting issue, Luhrmann said, "it was hard pinning [Crowe] down. Every time I was ready, Russell was in something else, and every time he was ready, I would be having another turmoil". The following June, Luhrmann replaced Crowe with actor Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, actors Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, and David Wenham were cast into "Australia". In November 2006, Luhrmann began searching for an actor to play an Aboriginal boy of 8–10 years old and by April 2007, 11-year-old Brandon Walters was cast into the role of Nullah. Academic D. Bruno Starrs has written about how this casting choice and the decision to have the character of Nullah narrate the film reinforce its "left-leaning" message regarding the 'Stolen Generations'.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: The untitled project was scheduled to begin production in September 2006, but scheduling conflicts and budget issues postponed the start of production to February 2007. In November 2006, Luhrmann explored The Kimberley to determine the amount of production to be shot there. In December 2006, Bowen was chosen as a filming location for a third of the production, portraying the look of Darwin. Bowen was chosen as a prospect due to the financing of $500,000 by the Queensland government. In April, Kununurra was chosen as another location for "Australia", this time to serve as Faraway Downs, the homestead owned by Kidman's character. Entire sets were built from scratch, including a stand-alone set in the Queensland town of Bowen, the re-creation of war scenes near Darwin Harbour, and the construction of an outback homestead in Western Australia.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Academy Award-winning costume designer Catherine Martin did extensive research for the film's outfits, studying archival images and newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s Australia. She also interviewed descendants of the original Darwin stockmen in order to find out if they "wore socks with his boots when he rode a horse, that's something you either get through a snapshot, or something you have to go talk to the people who lived there about". The Asian-inspired costumes of the film were intended to evoke the romanticism of the era, and one of the centrepieces of the film's costuming is a red chrysanthemum-printed Chinese cheongsam or qipao that was made for Nicole Kidman's character. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: The director planned to begin filming in March 2007. However, principal photography began on 30 April 2007 in Sydney, and Kidman found out that she was pregnant. She instantly withdrew from her next film, "The Reader". Afterwards, the production moved to Bowen on 14 May. Filming in Kununurra was a gruelling experience for the cast and crew with temperatures soaring to which, one day, caused Kidman to faint while on a horse. In addition, she worked 14- and 15-hour days while dealing with morning sickness. While shooting in a remote region of Western Australia, the shoot had to be rescheduled when the Faraway Downs set, the homestead central to the film's story, was reduced to mud from torrential rain – the first in 50 years. The cast and crew went back to Sydney to shoot interior scenes until the expensive set dried out. In addition, at one point, the entire country's horses were in lock down over equine flu. Scenes using Darwin harbour were shot in July 2007, with parts of Stokes Hill Wharf blocked to the public and mini buses used to ferry tourists past the film set. Filming lasted five months, wrapping up at Fox Studios, Sydney, on 19 December 2007. In late April, Luhrmann titled his project "Australia". Two other titles that he considered for the film had been "Great Southern Land" and "Faraway Downs". On 11 August 2008, eight months after filming wrapped, several members of the cast and crew were back at Fox Studios, Sydney, to film pick up shots.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Two weeks before the film's premiere, the "Daily Telegraph" erroneously reported that Luhrmann gave in to studio pressure after "intense" talks with executives and re-wrote and then re-shot the ending of "Australia" for a happier conclusion after "disastrous reviews" from test screenings. To counter these negative reports, the studio had Jackman and Kidman promoting "Australia" on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", which dedicated an entire episode of the program to the film, and Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman spoke to the "Los Angeles Times" where he described the "Telegraph" article as "patently nonsensical. It's all too typical of the way the world works today that everybody picked up an unsourced, anonymous quote-filled story in a tabloid from Sydney and nobody ever bothered to check to see if it was accurate". Rothman also said that Luhrmann had final cut on his film. The director admitted that he wrote six endings in the drafts he authored, and shot three of them.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: David Hirschfelder composed the score to "Australia". Interpolated musical numbers include the jazz standards "Begin the Beguine", "Tuxedo Junction", "Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)", and "Brazil". Edward Elgar's "Nimrod" from "Enigma" Variations is heard in the final scene of the film. Luhrmann hired singer Rolf Harris to record his wobble board for the opening credits, and Elton John composed and performed a song called "The Drover's Ballad", to lyrics by Luhrmann, for the end credits. Also used in the end credits is "By the Boab Tree", a song nominated for a 2008 Satellite Award, again with Luhrmann lyrics, performed by Sydney singer Angela Little. Little's rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" completes the end credits in some versions of the film. The jazz soundtrack to "Australia" was performed by the Ralph Pyle big band with clarinet solos by Andy Firth.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Tourism Western Australia spent $1 million on a campaign linked with the release of "Australia" in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and South Korea that ties in with an international Tourism Australia plan. Concerned about the recession and fluctuating international fuel prices, the tourism industry hoped that Luhrmann's film would deliver visitors from all over the world in the same kind of numbers that came to the country following the 1986 release of "Crocodile Dundee", and follow the significant increase in visitors to New Zealand since 2001 after the release of "The Lord of the Rings" films. Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said, "This movie will potentially be seen by tens of millions of people, and it will bring life to little-known aspects of Australia's extraordinary natural environment, history and indigenous culture". Tourism Australia worked with Luhrmann and 20th Century Fox on a publicity campaign titled, "See the Movie, See the Country", based on movie maps and location guides, to transform the film into "a real-life travel adventure". In addition, the director made a $50 million series of commercials promoting the country.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: "Australia" received mixed reviews from critics. , the film holds a 55% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 223 reviews with an average rating of 5.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Built on lavish vistas and impeccable production, "Australia" is unfortunately burdened with thinly drawn characters and a lack of originality." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Jim Schembri in "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Age" (Melbourne) wrote, "The film is fine, and never boring but, boy, is it overlong," and added, "More importantly, local films with black themes or major indigenous characters tend to do poorly, so if "Australia" succeeds here it could represent a breakthrough. We've always had trouble dealing with racial issues on film, so, in that regard, the film could be a landmark." Claire Sutherland, in her review for the "Herald Sun" (Melbourne) wrote, "A love letter to the Australian landscape and our history, "Australia" has international blockbuster written all over it", and Sydney's "The Daily Telegraph" wrote, "Kidman's screen presence is nothing short of radiant." In his review for "The Australian" (Sydney), David Stratton wrote, "It's not the masterpiece that we were hoping for, but I think you could say that it's a very good film in many ways. While it will be very popular with many people I think there's a slight air of disappointment after it all. Despite its flaws – and it certainly has flaws – I think "Australia" is an impressive and important film." Mark Naglazas of "The West Australian" (Perth) accused positive reviews from News Ltd press outlets of being manipulated by 20th Century Fox, as they are all owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, calling "Australia" a film of "unrelenting awfulness" that "lurches drunkenly from crazy comedy to Mills and Boonish melodrama in the space of a couple of scenes".


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Anne Barrowclough of "The Times" (London) gave the film four out of five stars, and states the film defies expectation and "in what turns out to be a multi-layered story it describes an Australia of the 1940s that is at once compellingly beautiful and breathtakingly cruel". Bonnie Malkin of "The Daily Telegraph" (London) stated: "Local critics had worried that the much-anticipated film "Australia" would present to the world a series of time-honoured Antipodean clichés. Their fears were well founded".


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Megan Lehmann, writing in the "Hollywood Reporter", said that the film "defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling," and it is "much less earnest than the trailer suggests, layered with a thin veneer of camp and a nod and a wink to accompany the requisite Aussie clichés," and the bottom line is "In epic style, Baz Luhrmann weaves his wizardry on Oz." Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, noting "Baz Luhrmann dreamed of making the Australian "Gone with the Wind", and so he has, with much of that film's lush epic beauty and some of the same awkwardness with a national legacy of racism." David Ansen, in his review for "Newsweek", wrote, "Kidman seems to blossom under Luhrmann's direction: she's funny, warm and charming, and the erotic charge between her and the gruff, hunky Jackman is delicious. In a solemn season, "Australia" bold, kitschy, unapologetic artifice is a welcome respite." In her review for the "New York Times", Manohla Dargis wrote, "This creation story about modern Australia is a testament to movie love at its most devout, cinematic spectacle at its most extreme, and kitsch as an act of aesthetic communion."


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: Andrew Sarris, in his review for the "New York Observer", wrote, ""Australia" is clearly a labor of love, and a matter of national pride. It is also a bit of a mess. I must confess that I might have been harder on Mr Luhrmann's film if I had not remained entranced by Ms. Kidman ever since I first saw her in Phillip Noyce's "Dead Calm" in 1989; in my opinion, she has lost none of her luster in the 20 years since." In his review for "Time", Richard Schickel wrote, "Have you seen everything "Australia" has on offer a dozen times before? Sure you have. It's a movie less created by director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann than assembled, Dr Frankenstein-style, from the leftover body parts of earlier movies. Which leaves us asking this question: How come it is so damnably entertaining?" Joe Morgenstern of the "Wall Street Journal", opines that, "In its heart of hearts "Australia" is an old-fashioned Western—a Northern, if you will—and all the more enjoyable for it." Nick Rogers, of FilmYap, adds that, "Luhrmann mythologized his homeland as American directors like John Ford did with Westerns—dramatic-license exaggerations that pay off in droves." Ann Hornaday, in her review for the "Washington Post", wrote, "A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and revisionism, "Australia" is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely [?] entertaining." In her review for Salon.com, Stephanie Zacharek wrote, "The second half of "Australia", Luhrmann's attempt to pull off a wartime weeper, is so aggressively sentimental that it begins to feel more like punishment than pleasure. I left "Australia" feeling drained and weakened, as if I'd suffered a gradual poisoning at the hands of a mad scientist."


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: The film had better box office success in overseas markets and a disappointing gross in the United States – a pattern similar to Luhrmann's three previous films. , the film has grossed $211,342,221 in its worldwide releases. In Australia, the film grossed A$6.37 million in its opening weekend, setting the record for the highest grossing opening weekend for an Australian film and bumping the latest James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" to second place. "Australia" performed less well in the U.S., where it surprised box office analysts by opening only at #5, behind "Quantum of Solace", "Twilight", "Bolt", and "Four Christmases", and grossed $20 million opening weekend. However, Fox officials were reportedly happy with the numbers, as they said they were expecting only an $18 million opening gross for the film. They further pointed out that Baz Luhrmann's other films, like "Moulin Rouge!", "Strictly Ballroom", and "Romeo + Juliet", started slowly and then built momentum. "Australia" eventually grossed $49,554,002 in the U.S., 23.4% of its total worldwide gross. "Australia's" ticket sales outside the United States are $161,788,219 from 51 countries. It opened at No. 1 in Spain, France, Australia, and Germany, and at No. 3 in Britain. "Australia" grossed $37,555,757 at the box office in Australia. The DVD was released in the United States on 3 March 2009, opening at #2, and sold 728,000 units in the opening weekend, translating to revenue of $12.3 million. "Australia" sold almost two million DVDs in one month, 80% of what the studio predicted it would sell altogether. , "Australia" had sold 1,739,700 units in the U.S., for a revenue of $27.9 million. Since being released in Australia, the DVD has sold double what the studio expected.


title: Australia (2008 film)

text: In June 2022, 20th Television announced a six-part limited television series titled "Faraway Downs", consisting of a serialized version of the film with additional unused footage from the original production. The series will premiere on Hulu in the U.S. and Star in international markets.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) is a 2015 English-language Dutch black comedy body horror film written and directed by Tom Six. It is the conclusion to Six's "The Human Centipede" trilogy.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Starring Dieter Laser and Laurence R. Harvey, the leading actors from the first two films, in new roles, "The Human Centipede 3" was released both theatrically and on video on demand on 22 May 2015. The film was slammed with negative reviews from critics.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: At George H. W. Bush State Prison in Southwestern United States, William "Bill" Boss, a cigar-smoking, chauvinistic, arrogant, cannibalistic, racist, psychopathic warden, watches the end of "The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)" with his accountant, Dwight Butler. Dwight explains his pitch of a "brilliant idea" to fix the prison's horrible retention and violence rates, but he is interrupted by a phone call.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Back in the Warden's office, Bill receives a mysterious package, which is revealed to contain a jar of specially imported, dried African clitorises which he eats "for strength." After eating a few, he receives a threatening prank phone call from one of the inmates. Bill waterboards him with three buckets of boiling water as punishment, horribly disfiguring him. Governor Hughes arrives immediately afterwards, ordering Bill and Dwight to put a stop to the violence and promising that they will both be fired otherwise. In anger and retaliation, Bill orders a mass castration of the inmates, and castrates one of the prisoners himself, then cooking and eating the testicles for "energy food."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Finally, Dwight is able to pitch his idea to Bill, where he suggests that all of the inmates are sutured together mouth-to-anus, forming a giant human centipede, which would be the ultimate deterrent to crime. Bill is skeptical and opposed to the idea. Bill then has a nightmare about being attacked by inmates, and being raped by the inmate he castrated. Bill then summons the director himself, Tom Six, to the prison. Bill is assured that the films are "100% medically accurate." Six gives the prison permission to use his Centipede idea, provided that he is permitted to witness the operation. The first two films are then shown to the inmates as a display of their future. This causes a riot, which results in inmates chasing Bill and Dwight to the warden's office, where they beat his assistant Daisy unconscious.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Bill then goes around each cell and shoots every inmate with tranquilizers, readying them for the operation. Incompatible inmates are shot and killed, including one with a colostomy bag, whom Bill kills by inserting his gun into the inmate's stoma and pulling the trigger. They also discover an inmate with Crohn's disease, who suffers from severe diarrhea. Bill orders the man who raped him in the dream to be attached to him as an added punishment. Daisy is revealed to be in a coma, where she is raped by Bill. Six returns to the prison, where he is met by Bill and Dwight. After touring the cells, they discover a mentally unstable inmate eating his own feces wanting to be sewn to the centipede. In response, Bill shoots and kills the inmate as he does not want anyone to enjoy the punishment. Death row inmates are discovered being dismembered for a "special project."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Upon the centipede's completion, Governor Hughes arrives greatly disgusted at what he sees. In addition to the centipede, a “Human Caterpillar” where the victims’ limbs have been amputated has been created for inmates serving life sentences. It is also revealed that Daisy has accidentally been sewn into the Centipede. Hughes leaves the prison, telling Dwight and Bill they should receive the death sentence.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Hughes then returns to prison with a sudden change of heart, stating that the Centipede punishment is "exactly what America needs." The film ends with Dwight and Bill celebrating their success. Dwight is then shot and killed for trying to take credit for the idea. The final scene is of a naked Bill screaming with joy overlooking the centipede while "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: In an alternate ending, Doctor Josef Heiter lay in his bed, implying that the previous events were part of a dream. He finds his three rottweilers, his first centipede creation, deceased. The camera pans over his house and the film transitions into the beginning of "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)".


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Six noted that casting for the third film was much easier than the first, as more people were familiar with the concept and wanted to appear in the film. To this end, Eric Roberts was easier to attract to the film, because according to Six, he was a fan of the original. Six decided to cast porn actress Bree Olson because he wanted a female character, even though the movie was set in an all-male prison, and wanted "the ultimate American female," which he believed to be a porn actress. Both Laser and Harvey had starred in previous entries as the main antagonists, Dr. Josef Heiter and Martin, respectively.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Six chose a prison setting to bring back the theme of "punishment" that generated the idea for the series, although Six admits that "I totally ignored [it] in the first two films." Six filmed the movie in the style of "a Hollywood film," which according to him meant shooting "everything widescreen with over-the-top color grading and big Hollywood music," after receiving encouragement to do so from film festivals audiences Six noted that this helped bring out how "ridiculous" the concept was.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Six has stated that some of the crew members did not agree to put their full names in the credits, and adding these same members did not have such reservations about the second part. In order to promote the film, Six distributed 250 hand-signed prints of the film in March 2015.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: On 7 April 2015, "Entertainment Weekly" announced the film's theatrical and video on demand release date to be 22 May 2015.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: The film passed uncut in Australia on 6 May, with an R18+ rating, and screened in a national tour throughout June, with Harvey appearing as a special guest. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Australia on 22 July 2015.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Despite controversy over the second film in the franchise, the film passed uncut in the UK with an 18 certificate and in New Zealand with an R18 certificate. It was released in the UK on 20 July.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: "The Human Centipede 3" has received generally negative reviews from critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 20% rating based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 2.2/10. The site's critical consensus states that ""Human Centipede" fans may find enough extreme body horror in the third installment to satisfy, but filmgoers of every other persuasion are strongly advised to stay far, far away from "Final Sequence"." Metacritic reports an average score of 5 out of 100, indicating "overwhelming dislike" from 15 critics.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" ranked the film as the second worst movie of 2015, specifying, "sleazy sadism served with a wink and a smile, Six’s anus-to-mouth trilogy is a satire without any clue of what it’s satirizing." Additionally, "The A.V. Club" also ranked the film as the second worst of 2015, declaring, "Writer-director Tom Six lives for disapproval, and he’s finally made a movie that basically no one—not even those amused or unnerved by the past two installments—could possibly enjoy."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: In his review for "Variety", Dennis Harvey noted, "As with earlier chapters, the packaging is as competent (if not particularly inspired) as the content is remedial. Indeed, perhaps the series’ only really good joke has been the inherent absurdism of seeing an ever-rising level of expense, polish and now “name” actors applied to something so fundamentally dumb." Eddie Goldberger of "New York Daily News" concluded his review with, "The movie passes time until it can get to the centipeding. Even the big namesake event, when it finally arrives, is ho-hum. Turns out, whether it’s three people stuck together or 500, if you’ve seen one human centipede, you’ve seen them all."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: "The New York Times" critic Jeannette Catsoulis said of the film, "An ugly, claustrophobic celebration of sexual violence that’s anchored by one of the most repellent characters ever to appear on screen: the prison warden Bill Boss. Portrayed by Dieter Laser, Boss is a capering obscenity whose oft-protruding tongue deserves its own agent."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Greg Cwik of "Indiewire" gave the film a C- and said: ""Final Sequence" is too self-serious to be camp, but too silly to be scary, so Six just settles for gross."


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: "The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 27 October 2015 in the United States. Additionally, a Blu-ray box set containing all of the films was released on the same day.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: At the Golden Raspberry Award, this movie was nominated as Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and its director, Tom Six, was nominated as Worst Director.


title: The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence)

text: Bree Olson starred in a parody of the feature that was directed by Graham Rich and shot in Hollywood, California.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.


title: Peter Shilton

text: His 30-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the distinction of playing over 1,000 league games, including in excess of 100 for each of five different clubs. During his time at Nottingham Forest, Shilton won many honours, including two European Cups, a UEFA Super Cup, the First Division championship, and the Football League Cup.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton represented England at the FIFA World Cup in 1982, 1986 (where Diego Maradona scored two famous goals against him) and 1990, and the UEFA European Championship in 1980 and 1988. Despite not making his World Cup finals debut until the age of 32, Shilton has played in 17 finals matches, and shares the record of 10 clean sheets in World Cup finals matches with French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.


title: Peter Shilton

text: He holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in world football – 1,390. With 125 caps, Shilton is also the England national team's most-capped player. The IFFHS ranked Shilton among the top ten goalkeepers of the 20th century in 2000.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton was a 13-year-old pupil at King Richard III Boys School in Leicester, when he started training at schoolboy level with his local club Leicester City in 1963. He caught the eye of first-team goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who commented to the coach about how promising he was.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In May 1966, a 16-year-old Shilton made his debut for Leicester against Everton and his potential was quickly spotted to the extent that the Leicester City management sided with their teenage prodigy and soon sold World Cup winner Banks to Stoke City. Shilton settled into first team life thereafter, even managing to score a goal at The Dell against Southampton in October 1967 direct from a clearance at the opposite end of the pitch; the Southampton goalkeeper Campbell Forsyth misjudged Shilton's long punt upfield, which instead of splashing harmlessly in the mud spun off the pitch and flew over Forsyth's head into the goal. Leicester won the game 5–1.


title: Peter Shilton

text: The following season Leicester had a mixed season, suffering relegation from the First Division but reaching the FA Cup Final at Wembley; 19-year-old Shilton became one of the event's youngest-ever goalkeepers. It did not go his way, however, as a single goal from Manchester City's Neil Young early in the match was enough to win the game. Despite the many honours and accolades which were to come Shilton's way, he would not appear in an FA Cup Final again.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton joined Stoke City in November 1974 for £325,000, a world record for a goalkeeper at that time. Shilton played in 26 matches for Stoke in 1974–75 as they narrowly missed out on the league title. He was an ever-present in 1975–76 playing in all of the club's 48 fixtures that season. However, in January 1976 a severe storm caused considerable damage to the Victoria Ground and to pay for the repair work Stoke had to sell off their playing staff. The summer of 1976 saw Manchester United lodge a bid for Shilton. Stoke agreed a fee of £275,000 for the goalkeeper, but they could not agree on Shilton's wage demands, which would have made him the highest paid player at the club. He remained with Stoke in 1976–77 and a young and inexperienced side suffered relegation to the Second Division. He was sold to Nottingham Forest in September 1977.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Nottingham Forest made an offer of £250,000 and Shilton signed a month into the new season. Forest had just been promoted to the First Division and were riding high under the management of Brian Clough. They won the League Cup in a replay after initially drawing with Liverpool at Wembley, though Shilton played no part as he was cup-tied, and then won the League title in their first season back in the First Division. Shilton made a save in the clinching 0–0 draw against Coventry City which critics regarded among his greatest ever – a vicious close-range header from Mick Ferguson seemed destined for the net with Shilton slightly out of position, but he got across to palm it over the bar. During the season as a whole, Shilton conceded just 18 goals in 37 league appearances. Shilton subsequently won the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, voted for by his fellow professionals.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Forest won the League Cup again in 1979 – this time Shilton played as they defeated Southampton 3–2 at Wembley – before reaching the European Cup final where a Trevor Francis goal was enough to beat Swedish side Malmö in Munich. Shilton had another eventful season with Forest, reaching a third consecutive League Cup final, with Wolverhampton Wanderers the opponents at Wembley. There was no third successive victory, however, a communication error between Shilton and defender David Needham resulted in a collision on the edge of the Forest penalty area, leaving Andy Gray free to tap the ball into the net for the game's only goal.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Forest then reached the European Cup final again in 1980 – as holders they were entitled to defend the trophy and faced SV Hamburg in Madrid. Like the 1979 final, the game was tight and one goal settled it from Forest winger John Robertson. Among the disappointed Hamburg players was Kevin Keegan, now Shilton's captain at international level.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Life began to decline for Shilton afterwards. Forest failed to continue their trophy-winning form while Shilton began what would be a long-standing gambling addiction which would cause considerable strain to his family. There were also stories of an extramarital affair and a conviction for drink-driving, with the player fined £350 for the offence. All of this contributed to Shilton's decision to leave Nottingham Forest in 1982 and start afresh.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton left Forest for Southampton, where his former international teammate Alan Ball was playing. Shilton suffered FA Cup semi final defeat again when he was beaten by a last minute Adrian Heath header which gave Everton a place in the final.


title: Peter Shilton

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in March 1986 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Waterloo Station


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton helped the Derby side of Mark Wright, Dean Saunders and Ted McMinn finish fifth in the league, and they only missed out on competing in the UEFA Cup due to the ban on English clubs in European competition (which ran from 1985 to 1990) arising from the Heysel disaster. In 1991, Derby were relegated and Shilton started to consider his playing future. He was 42 years old and was ready to become a coach or manager. In early 1991, he had rejected an offer to replace Stan Ternent as Hull City manager for geographical reasons.


title: Peter Shilton

text: He finally left Derby in February 1992 on accepting an offer to become player-manager of Plymouth Argyle – a turbulent era that is documented in the 2009 book, "Peter Shilton's Nearly Men". Plymouth were battling against relegation in the Football League Second Division but Shilton's efforts were unable to save Plymouth from the drop. His £300,000 record signing Peter Swan proved to be a disaster as the player had an awful relationship with both his teammates and the fans.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In 1994, he started to concentrate solely on management and Plymouth reached the Division Two play-offs, but lost in the semi finals to Burnley. In January 1994, he had been linked with Southampton for a possible return as manager following the departure of Ian Branfoot, but the job went to Alan Ball instead. The following February, with Plymouth heading for relegation, he left the club and announced his intention to start playing again. He was now 45 years old.


title: Peter Shilton

text: He joined Wimbledon in the Premier League for a short period, as injury cover for the first choice goalkeeper Hans Segers, but did not play a first team game for them. He subsequently signed for Bolton Wanderers, making a couple of appearances, including the Division One play-off semi final against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Bolton lost 2–1, but eventually overcame Wolves in the second leg, Shilton however did not play in this game; Keith Branagan did instead. He then signed for Coventry City, where he failed to make a first-team appearance, before joining West Ham United, where again he never played a first-team game, although he was selected as a substitute on several occasions.


title: Peter Shilton

text: With 996 Football League matches to his name, Shilton was anxious to reach 1,000 and he did when he joined Leyton Orient in November 1996, in an exchange deal for 39-year-old Les Sealey. His thousandth League game came on 22 December 1996, against Brighton & Hove Albion, which was screened live on Sky Sports and was preceded by the presentation from the Football League of a special edition of the "Guinness Book of Records" to Shilton. He played five more matches before retiring on 1,005 league games at the age of 47 at the end of the 1996–97 season. By the time of his retirement, he was the fifth oldest player ever to have played in the Football League or Premier League. Shilton recovered from financial troubles caused by business decisions and gambling, and became a prolific after-dinner speaker.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Despite playing at a lower level, he impressed England manager Alf Ramsey sufficiently to give him his debut against East Germany in November 1970. England won 3–1. Little more than six months later, Leicester were promoted back to the First Division. His second England cap came in a goalless draw against Wales at Wembley; and his first competitive match for his country was his third appearance as England drew 1–1 with Switzerland in a qualifying game for the 1972 European Championships. At this stage, Banks was still England's first choice keeper, but the remaining brace of back-ups from the 1970 World Cup, Peter Bonetti and Alex Stepney, had been cast aside by Ramsey so Shilton could begin to regard himself as his country's number two goalkeeper at the age of 22. His fourth and fifth England caps came towards the end of 1972, before a tragic incident suddenly saw Shilton propelled into the limelight as England's number one keeper. In October 1972, Gordon Banks was involved in a car crash which resulted in the loss of the sight in one eye and thus ended his career. Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence was called up to make his debut a month later for England's opening qualifier for the 1974 World Cup, (a 1–0 win over Wales). Shilton ended up with over 100 caps compared to Clemence's 61.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In the summer of 1973, Shilton kept three clean sheets as England defeated Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Against Scotland, Shilton made a right handed save diving to his left from Kenny Dalglish's shot that Shilton considered among his best saves. While drawing with Czechoslovakia earned Shilton his tenth cap – as a warm-up to a crucial World Cup qualifier against Poland in Chorzów a week later. This went badly for England, with Shilton unable to stop both goals in a 2–0 defeat and therefore making victory in the final qualifier, against the same opposition at Wembley four months later, a necessity if England were to make the finals. A perceived blunder by Shilton in this match led to a crucial goal by Jan Domarski for Poland, Shilton's night contrasting with the performance of Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski, who, though famously derided as "a clown" by Brian Clough (later Shilton's manager at Nottingham Forest), made a string of crucial saves as Poland got the draw they needed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup at England's expense.


title: Peter Shilton

text: This experience perhaps led incoming England manager Don Revie to favour Ray Clemence in his selections. In 1975, Clemence won eight of the nine caps available, though England failed to reach the 1976 European Championships during this period. From 1977 new manager Ron Greenwood started to select Shilton as regularly as Clemence, eventually reaching the stage where he made a point of alternating them, seemingly unable to choose. This indecision attracted some adverse comment, with some commentators questioning Greenwood's ability to manage at the highest level. Shilton then featured heavily as England qualified for the 1980 European Championships in Italy – their first tournament for a decade. Shilton had won his 30th England cap in a 2–0 win over Spain in March 1980; his 31st would not come until the European Championships themselves. It was a 1–0 defeat to Italy, which proved crucial as England failed to get through to the knockout phase.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In the midst of Shilton's issues, he had the matter of the 1982 World Cup to consider. Shilton had played in half of the qualifying games in England's group, UEFA group four UEFA group four – home wins over Norway, and Switzerland, a goalless draw against Romania, and a vital 1–0 win over Hungary. The latter was the last game of the campaign, and in spite of England's previous humiliating away defeat against Norway, famously mocked by Norwegian commentator Bjørge Lillelien, results elsewhere meant that a draw would be sufficient for Shilton and England to avoid a repeat of the elimination at the qualification stage they had experienced eight years previously. The result went England's way this time and they qualified for their first World Cup for a dozen years, with Shilton appearing in the finals in Spain for the first time at the comparatively mature age of 32.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Clemence had played in the friendlies building up to the competition, but it was Shilton who was selected for the opening group game against France in Bilbao. England won 3–1 and Shilton stayed in goal for the two remaining group games, three wins meaning England advanced to the second phase as group winners.


title: Peter Shilton

text: With Bobby Robson now running the England team, Shilton's international career flourished, playing in Robson's first ten matches and even captaining the side in seven of them in the absence of Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins. One game, a 2–0 win over Scotland, earned Shilton his 50th cap.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Clemence returned for a qualifier for the 1984 European Championships against Luxembourg, but this game, Clemence's 61st for his country, also proved to be his last.


title: Peter Shilton

text: England failed to qualify for the European Championships. However, he was now the established first pick goalkeeper for his country, and would remain so through to the end of his international career. Almost half his international caps (61 out of 125) were earned after his 35th birthday. It was 1985 before another goalkeeper was selected for an England game, when Robson could give a debut to the Manchester United goalkeeper Gary Bailey in a relatively unimportant friendly match. Shilton was still the keeper for the qualifying campaign for the 1986 World Cup, which thus far had seen three wins from three matches and no goals conceded.


title: Peter Shilton

text: A 70th cap came Shilton's way in a 1–0 defeat against Scotland at Hampden Park; he later saved a penalty from Andy Brehme as England beat West Germany 3–0 in a tour match in Mexico, a year before England were hoping to return there for the World Cup.


title: Peter Shilton

text: England accomplished going through the whole qualifying campaign undefeated. By the time they played Mexico in an acclimatisation match prior to the competition, Shilton was 80 games into his England career, having beaten Banks' record for a goalkeeper of 73 caps the previous year against Turkey.


title: Peter Shilton

text: At the World Cup itself, England started slowly, losing the opening group match to Portugal and then drawing against outsiders Morocco, during which time Robson was led off injured and Wilkins was sent off. In their absences, Shilton was handed the captaincy as England found their form to defeat Poland 3–0 in their final group game – Gary Lineker scored them all – and progress to the second round.


title: Peter Shilton

text: There they met Paraguay and though Shilton did have to make one fingertip save during the first half, England were rarely troubled. Lineker scored twice and Peter Beardsley once as England went through 3–0 and into a quarter final meeting with Argentina, a match which again would ultimately form part of the legend of Shilton's whole career.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Argentina captain Diego Maradona had been the man of the tournament thus far, but in a tight first half England managed to keep his creativity reasonably at bay. But early in the second half, Maradona changed the game, much to Shilton's anger.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Maradona began an attack which seemingly broke down on the edge of the England box as Steve Hodge got a foot to the ball. The ball was skewed back towards the penalty area and Maradona, continuing the run from his initial pass, went after it as Shilton came out to punch the ball clear. Maradona managed to punch the ball over Shilton and into the net. Shilton and his teammates signalled that Maradona had used his hand – a foul for any player except a goalkeeper – but the Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser allowed the goal. A photograph subsequently showed Maradona outjumping Shilton and his fist clearly making contact with the ball as Shilton was still midway through his own stretch, arm extended (having not anticipated Maradona's action). Maradona later said the goal was scored by the "Hand of God". Nasser never refereed at such a high level again, having missed such a blatant infringement.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shortly afterwards, Maradona scored a legitimate individual goal, taking on almost the whole England defence and Shilton before shooting into an empty net. In 2002, the goal was voted "Goal of the Century" as part of the buildup to the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament on the FIFA website. Lineker pulled one back and nearly equalised in the closing seconds, but England were out.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In 1987, Grandslam Entertainment released a computer game with the unsubtle title of "Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona!".


title: Peter Shilton

text: However, he continued to play for England, featuring in a straightforward and successful qualification campaign for the 1988 European Championships, which were to be held in West Germany.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton had won his 90th cap for England in a 2–0 win over Northern Ireland in a European Championship qualifier.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton's 99th cap came in England's first game in group 2 at the Championship finals. This game ended in a 1–0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland with Shilton beaten by an early Ray Houghton header. Shilton's 100th was against the Netherlands, who had also lost their first game at the finals. Marco van Basten eliminated England from the tournament with a hat-trick as England lost this match 3–1. Robson left Shilton out of the third and final group game as it was now meaningless, but England still lost it, also 3–1. Chris Woods, longtime understudy to Shilton (and his teenage understudy a decade earlier at Forest – he had played in the League Cup final when Shilton was cup-tied) was given a rare game.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton played in all bar one of the England games over the next 18 months – the one he missed saw a debut for a future England goalkeeping first choice, David Seaman of Queens Park Rangers. In June 1989, Shilton broke his old England skipper Bobby Moore's record of 108 appearances for his country when he won his 109th cap in a friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen. Prior to the match he was handed a framed England goalkeeper's jersey with '109' on the front. He had, by this time, kept three clean sheets in three qualifying matches for the 1990 World Cup and would ultimately concede no goals at all as England qualified for the tournament, to be held in Italy.


title: Peter Shilton

text: His 119th appearance for his country saw England draw 1–1 with the Republic of Ireland in the opening group game; England got through the group, beat Belgium 1–0 in the second round match, and then edged past Cameroon 3–2 in the quarter finals, thanks to two Lineker penalties after England went 2–1 down. Then came the West Germans in the semi finals, Shilton's 124th England game.


title: Peter Shilton

text: It was goalless at half time, but shortly after the restart Shilton was beaten by Andreas Brehme's deflected free kick that looped off Paul Parker's shin and dropped into the net over Shilton's head, despite his back pedalling attempts to tip the ball over. Lineker's late equaliser salvaged a draw for England but Shilton could not get close enough to any of the penalties taken by the Germans in the deciding shoot out, while England missed two of theirs and went out of the tournament.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton was the keeper for the third place play-off game, which ended in a 2–1 win for hosts Italy, Shilton suffering an embarrassing moment when he dithered over a back pass and was tackled by Roberto Baggio who scored as a result of Shilton's error. It was his 125th appearance for his country and, after the tournament ended, he announced it would be his last. His final appearance came just four months before the 20th anniversary of his international debut, making his full international career one of the longest on record. He was never booked or sent off at full international level.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Considered by pundits to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world in his prime, as well as one of the best shot-stoppers of his generation, and as one of England's greatest players ever in his position, he is even being described by some in the media as one of the greatest keepers of all time. Shilton was an intelligent and efficient goalkeeper, who was regarded above all for his physical presence, handling, positional sense, composure and consistency, as well as his ability to communicate with his teammates, organise his defence, and inspire confidence in his back-line. He possessed significant physical strength, which made him an imposing presence in the area, despite not being the tallest of goalkeepers. Furthermore, he was known for his agility, and also possessed excellent reflexes, and good shot-stopping abilities. Known for his work-rate, mentality, discipline in training, and physical conditioning. He also stood out for his exceptional longevity throughout his career, which spanned four decades. He retired at the age of 47, having competed in over 1,000 professional matches. However, he also drew criticism in the English media at times for his increasing lack of pace and agility with age in his later career, which along with his timing and relatively modest stature for a goalkeeper, is thought to have limited him when facing penalties, most noticeably in England's penalty shoot-out defeat to eventual champions West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final; indeed, throughout his international career, his penalty–saving record was not particularly impressive, with his only save coming against Andreas Brehme of West Germany in 1985.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton married Sue Flitcroft in September 1970, and the couple have two sons, Michael and Sam, who later became a professional footballer.


title: Peter Shilton

text: Shilton was charged with drinking and driving in March 2013. He was banned for 20 months and ordered to pay £1,020 costs.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In March 2015, it was announced that Shilton was to marry his second wife, jazz singer Stephanie Hayward, the pair having got engaged in 2014. The couple were married at the Parish of St Peter and St Paul Church in West Mersea, on 10 December 2016.


title: Peter Shilton

text: In January 2020, Shilton revealed that he had overcome a 45-year gambling addiction with the help of his wife, Steph. Shilton was now working with the Government to raise awareness of associated issues including mental health problems.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet (billed as the Osmond Brothers) and a quintet (as the Osmonds). The group has consisted of siblings who are all members of a family of musicians from Ogden, Utah, and have been in the public eye since the 1960s.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmond Brothers began as a barbershop quartet consisting of brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay. They were later joined by younger siblings Donny and Jimmy, both of whom enjoyed success as solo artists. With the addition of Donny, the group became known as the Osmonds; performing both as teen idols and as a rock band, their peak lasted from 1971 to 1975. Their only sister Marie, who rarely sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful career in 1973, both as a solo artist and as Donny's duet partner. By 1976, the band was no longer producing hit singles; that year, they transitioned into television with "Donny & Marie", a popular variety show that ran until 1979.


title: The Osmonds

text: A revival of the original Osmond Brothers lineup in the 1980s achieved moderate success in country music, and both Donny and Marie separately made comebacks in their respective fields in the late-1980s. The Osmonds have sold over 77 million records worldwide.


title: The Osmonds

text: The quartet continued to perform through their 50th anniversary in 2007, at which point Alan and later Wayne retired due to health issues; Jimmy was recruited after Alan's retirement, with the group performing as a trio until Jimmy suffered a stroke and retired in 2018. Alan's son David Osmond performed with the group in 2019. On October 14, 2019, the original Osmond Brothers quartet reunited for CBS' "The Talk" for their sister Marie's 60th birthday, billed as the last appearance for the lineup. The brothers performed "The Last Chapter", written as a farewell song and introduced in 2018. Donny & Marie ended an 11-year Las Vegas residency on November 16, 2019. Merrill and Jay continued to perform and tour, as does Donny as a solo artist. Merrill announced his retirement in 2022.


title: The Osmonds

text: George Virl Osmond, Sr. and Olive Osmond, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, resided in Ogden, Utah. They bore nine children: Virl, Tom, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donny, Marie, and Jimmy. Virl and Tom have both had severe hearing impairment since birth.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmond Brothers' career began in 1958 when Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay began singing barbershop music for local audiences in and around Ogden. In their made-for-TV movie "Inside the Osmonds", they explain that they originally performed to earn money to support Virl and Tom in buying hearing aids and serving missions for the church. Despite their young ages (Alan was 9, Wayne 7, Merrill 5, and Jay 3) and within a few years, the boys' talent and stage presence were strong enough that their father, George Osmond, took them to audition for Lawrence Welk in California. Welk was unable to meet with them, but on the same trip, they visited Disneyland. Tommy Walker, Disneyland's Director of Entertainment and Customer Relations from 1955 to 1966, found the Osmond Brothers singing with the Dapper Dans on Main Street. Walker hired the Osmonds to perform on a segment of "Disneyland After Dark". This episode aired on 4/15/62 and 7/01/62.


title: The Osmonds

text: While the Osmond Brothers were performing on that Disney special, Andy Williams's father Jay saw them and was so impressed he told his son to book them for his television show The Andy Williams Show. Andy did, and the Osmond Brothers were regulars on the show from 1962 to 1969, where they earned the nickname "one-take Osmonds" among staff due to their professionalism and tireless rehearsing. Donny soon joined them on the show, making the Osmond Brothers a 5-member group. Marie and Jimmy were also introduced on the show as the years passed. During this time, the Osmonds also toured Europe, performing with Sweden's most popular singer, Lars Lönndahl, and even releasing a single where they sang a Swedish version of "Two Dirty Little Hands" (""Fem smutsiga små fingrar"").


title: The Osmonds

text: "The Andy Williams Show" ended its first run in 1967, after which the Osmond Brothers were signed to "The Jerry Lewis Show", staying with that show until it was canceled (and, coincidentally, "The Andy Williams Show" returned for a second run) in 1969. but soon decided they wanted to perform popular music and shed their variety-show image. They wanted to become a rock and roll band. The change was a difficult one for their father, who was suspicious of rock and roll, but he was persuaded and the boys began performing as a pop band.


title: The Osmonds

text: To this end, the Osmonds recorded a single, "Flower Music" "I Can't Stop," for UNI records in 1967. They achieved only modest success at first, but they found fame in 1971.


title: The Osmonds

text: Record producer Mike Curb saw the Osmonds perform as a band and recognized that they combined a rare mix of polished performing style, instrumental skill, and vocal talent. He signed the Osmonds to MGM Records and arranged for them to record at Muscle Shoals with R&B producer Rick Hall. Under Hall's guidance, the Osmonds hit the top spot on the pop chart with "One Bad Apple" in 1971. The song, "One Bad Apple", written by George Jackson, was composed in the style of the Jackson 5 (it was not originally offered to that group, though the Osmonds would later state that the Jackson 5 considered recording it). It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 2, 1971 then hit the top of the charts on February 13, 1971 and stayed there for five weeks. The Osmond and Jackson families would eventually meet in 1972 and become friends.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmonds soon had hits with other light, R&B-style pop numbers like "Double Lovin'" (#14) and "Yo-Yo" (#3). In each of these hits, the formula was the same; Merrill sang lead, and Donny was "co-lead" in essence, singing the "hook" or "chorus" of the song. At this time the Osmonds also recorded several hits that were billed to Donny, the lead soloist on the songs: "Sweet and Innocent" (#7), "Go Away Little Girl" (#1), "Hey Girl" (#9) and "Puppy Love" (#3).


title: The Osmonds

text: With the Osmonds having finally broken through, Uni Records re-released their 1967 single, this time with "I Can't Stop" as the A-side, where it reached number 96.


title: The Osmonds

text: Since the transition to pop stars required more elaborate choreography than most barbershop quartets had required, older brother Virl Osmond taught the quintet how to dance. Virl was estimated to hear about 15% of what most people can hear, good enough to follow a rhythm.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmonds began writing and performing their own music and their sound moved towards rock music beginning with their album "Phase III". In addition to "Yo-Yo", "Phase III" produced the major hit "Down by the Lazy River" (#4). The following "Crazy Horses" album was the band's first really personal statement – the brothers have been quoted as saying that the title song refers to air pollution from cars, and its instrumentation featured an even harder rock sound bordering on early heavy metal. They wrote all the songs and played all the instruments with Alan on rhythm guitar, Wayne on lead guitar, Merrill on lead vocals and bass, Jay on drums and Donny on keyboards. All the brothers sang backing vocals and an occasional lead on album cuts (Jay sang lead on some of the harder-edged songs, two of which were released as singles), but Donny largely switched to instrumental contributions for much of 1972 to accommodate his voice change; by 1973, the change was largely complete, as Donny had settled from his former boy soprano range into a smooth baritenor voice.


title: The Osmonds

text: With their clean-cut image, talent, and energetic pop-rock sound, the Osmonds toured to crowds of screaming fans in the US. They even had their own 1972–1973 Saturday-morning cartoon series, "The Osmonds", on ABC-TV. By this time, the Osmonds had broken through in the UK as well: counting group and solo recordings, members of the Osmond family charted 13 singles on the UK charts during 1973. Some observers coined a new word, "Osmondmania", to describe the phenomenon, by analogy with the similar "Beatlemania" of the previous decade.


title: The Osmonds

text: Donny's voice change was a major upset to the group's formula that had proved so successful, mainly in that it eliminated Merrill's young-sounding co-lead's voice (forcing Merrill's already mature tenor voice to strain to cover most of the higher notes, with audible difficulty, through the next few years). The success of "Crazy Horses" singles "Hold Her Tight" (#14) and title track "Crazy Horses" (on which Donny did not sing, but did contribute with a prominent synthesizer riff) kept the group very popular through 1973. As the group toured, Donny continued to sing his solo hits, with the band progressively lowering the key until his voice change was complete.


title: The Osmonds

text: The older male Osmonds were of age to go on church missions, yet they believed they could reach more people through their music. They recorded an ambitious album in 1973 called "The Plan", perhaps best described as a Mormon concept album with progressive rock aspirations. One reviewer suggested that "The Plan" carried a too-strong religious message—Mormonism is, after all, fairly conservative and not usually associated with the themes of rock-and-roll. He likewise suggested that the music was too varied and experimental. The album produced only two minor hits: "Let Me In" and "Goin' Home" (both #36 in the US, although they both went top 5 in the UK and "Let Me In" was also a major hit on the easy listening charts). Furthermore, the older boys may have wanted to reduce the regular touring that is a necessity in popular music but not so good for marriage; Alan, Wayne and Merrill would all marry their wives in 1973 and 1974 (Donny married in 1978; Jay would not marry until 1987). But "The Plan" was a major departure from the pop music which made them so popular. The combination of this album, along with Donny's voice change the year before, meant that with young fans the Osmonds' popularity would soon wane.


title: The Osmonds

text: Another major factor in the band's decline was the sheer diversity of its output: within three years, the Osmonds had waffled between bubblegum pop, hard rock, and easy listening, and Donny's solo career as an oldies cover artist further muddled the band's direction. Donny's collaboration with Steve and Eydie, "We Can Make it Together" (billed as featuring all of the Osmonds as Alan, Wayne and Merrill had penned the track for Donny), came out on the easy listening charts at the same time the much harder "Crazy Horses" song was charting.


title: The Osmonds

text: Donny, and to a lesser extent, Marie and Jimmy, soon began to emerge as solo artists. Jimmy was becoming "big in Japan", and in 1972 had a #1 hit in the United Kingdom with "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool". Marie, then 13 years old, hit #1 on the US country chart in 1973 with "Paper Roses" (a song originally recorded by Anita Bryant a decade before). Donny had a string of pop hits with covers of earlier teen-pop songs, including "Go Away Little Girl" (#1, originally by Steve Lawrence), "Puppy Love" (#3, a Paul Anka composition) and "The Twelfth of Never" (#8, originally recorded by Johnny Mathis). From 1971 to 1976, he had 12 Top 40 hits, including 5 in the Top 10; for most of these, the Osmonds were still performing as a full band, but backing and giving star billing to Donny for songs on which he sang lead.


title: The Osmonds

text: Donny's numerous solo hits have led many to assume he was the group's lead. Merrill was usually the lead singer; Donny would usually sing the choruses on songs billed to the Osmonds, thus being a "co-lead". (All five members of the group sang lead at various times; Jay would sing lead on some of the group's harder rock tunes, while Alan and Wayne would occasionally contribute a lead vocal on some album tracks.) Donny's emergence as a solo star and the record company's desire to appeal to the teen-girl audience often thrust Donny out in front of the group.


title: The Osmonds

text: By now the family was touring, recording, creating and producing for five technically separate artists: The Osmonds, Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond and Jimmy Osmond — plus Donny and Marie had begun recording duets and had hits with "I'm Leaving It Up to You" (#4) and "Morning Side of the Mountain" (#8). Through all the stress and pressures created by these many efforts, the family hung together. The 2001 ABC-TV movie "Inside the Osmonds" depicts the family mottoes as being "It doesn't matter who's out front, as long as it's an Osmond" and "family, faith, and career. In that order".


title: The Osmonds

text: The original Osmonds as a group still produced hits. In 1974, "Love Me for a Reason" reached #10 in the US and #1 in the UK. The Irish boy band Boyzone took the song to #2 in the UK in 1994. "Love Me for a Reason" was the title track to the album of the same name, which featured a blue-eyed soul format (their fourth style change in less than a decade) arranged by H. B. Barnum.


title: The Osmonds

text: By 1976, though, the group's record sales were softening; Osmondmania had long faded and been replaced by "Rollermania", as the Bay City Rollers became the hot pop band of choice in the mid-1970s. Their 1975 album "The Proud One" sold poorly (despite the title track providing a chart-topping easy listening hit and the group's last U.S. top-40 hit to date), and MGM Records was sold to PolyGram. Their first album on the subsidiary label Polydor was the album "Brainstorm"; that album sold only slightly better than its predecessor, and its lead single, "I Can't Live a Dream", fell short of the top 40. Polydor would release two more albums from the family (a Christmas album that included all of the performing family members, and a greatest hits compilation).


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmonds poured themselves into a new venture: the older brothers began producing "The Donny & Marie Show" which was a hit on ABC from 1975 to 1979. But the success came at a cost. The family built and operated at great expense a first-class television studio in Orem, Utah, where the show was produced beginning in 1977. As a result, the Osmonds as a performing band became a lower priority to Donny and Marie. The older brothers deferred or gave up their dreams of being a rock-and-roll band, although Donny and Marie as a duo continued to record hits into 1978; in an interview with "The Lost 45s", Wayne Osmond suggested their abandonment of songwriting and working on material during the TV run may have been a mistake, as their career never recovered from the hiatus. Donny experienced stage anxiety, Merrill struggled with bipolar disorder, and Marie had a brief bout with an eating disorder after a network executive told her she looked heavy. Both Donny and Marie were offered roles in a film adaptation of the hit musical "Grease", with Donny being considered for the role of the Teen Angel and Marie for the role of Sandy; Marie turned the role down, concerned that the character's rebellious turn at the end was not a fit for her. Frankie Avalon and Olivia Newton-John played the respective roles instead.


title: The Osmonds

text: When the show was cancelled in 1979, the Osmonds were taken by surprise, as they had believed that the show would be renewed, and found themselves in debt and without a clear direction. The group switched from Polydor to corporate affiliate Mercury Records and attempted another album, "Steppin' Out", which was a major failure with the album failing to chart and its only charting single, "You're Mine," reaching only to number 138 on the "Record World" charts; it would be their only album on the Mercury label. "Steppin' Out" was a transitional album for the Osmonds and was produced under the auspices of Maurice Gibb; among its tracks was the first recorded version of "Rest Your Love on Me", a country song that would become a hit for Gibb's own group, the Bee Gees, and topped the country charts in a cover version by Conway Twitty. "Goin' Coconuts", a film produced by the Osmonds as a musical for Donny and Marie, was a major critical and commercial flop, although its lead track "On the Shelf" reached the top 40. They produced two unsuccessful projects for Marie, a sitcom pilot that never aired and a variety show revival that lasted seven episodes in 1980 and 1981. Donny permanently separated from the group (and, for a time, from Marie) shortly thereafter.


title: The Osmonds

text: They recovered and eventually paid their debts and re-established their careers. Rather than go into bankruptcy, they resolved to honor all of their financial obligations. But the Osmond artists and enterprises began operating separately.


title: The Osmonds

text: Jimmy worked as a businessman and manager. He eventually moved to Branson, Missouri, and opened the Osmond Family Theater, where he and his brothers performed until 2002. They appear in Branson during the Christmas season.


title: The Osmonds

text: Marie recorded a number of successful duets with Donny and continued to sing country music; she had several Top 40 country hits in the mid-1980s, the biggest of which was "Meet Me in Montana" with Dan Seals (#1). She starred in the Broadway revivals of the musicals "The King and I" (as the lead, Anna) and "The Sound of Music" (as the lead, Maria) in the mid-1990s. She returned to television first in the short-lived 1995 ABC sitcom "Maybe This Time" and then with Donny in 1998 to co-host "Donny & Marie", a talk-entertainment show that lasted two seasons.


title: The Osmonds

text: Marie suffered from postpartum depression and wanted to help other women who suffered from it. In 2001 Marie, Marcia Wilkie and Dr. Judith Moore wrote a book on postpartum depression titled, "Marie Osmond Behind the Smile". Marie remarried her first husband Stephen Craig in 2011. She was able to wear the same wedding dress after 26 years.


title: The Osmonds

text: Donny returned to the pop music scene in 1989; when he released "Soldier of Love" to much success in the UK, American music industry insiders were wary of the Osmond brand and promoted the song as being by a "mystery artist". The song became a turntable hit in this manner, and when Osmond's identity as the mystery artist was revealed, "Soldier of Love" eventually rose to number 2 on the US charts and was enough of a success to warrant follow-up singles, including "Sacred Emotion", which peaked at number 13, and "My Love Is a Fire," which peaked at number 21. In 1998, Donny sang "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for the film "Mulan". He performed on Broadway as Gaston in the stage production of "Beauty and the Beast", and also gave over 2,000 performances as Joseph in the touring production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". He has hosted games shows in the US and UK (most notably the 2002–2004 revival of "Pyramid" and the British version of "Identity"), continues to appear on television, winning the ninth season (Fall 2009) of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars", and still tours in the US and England. From September 2008 to November 2019, Donny & Marie performed a 90-minute show at the Flamingo Las Vegas.


title: The Osmonds

text: The show began in September 2008 and was originally scheduled to run for six months. The response was so overwhelming that the Flamingo immediately asked for a two-year extension. The Donny & Marie Show ultimately ran for 11 years, ending its run in 2019. "Donny & Marie" have been awarded “The Best Show in Las Vegas” for 2012, 2013, and 2014, according to the "Las Vegas Review Journal". The showroom was renamed "The Donny and Marie Showroom" in 2013.


title: The Osmonds

text: Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay returned to using the name "the Osmond Brothers" and, building on the boom in country pop crossover artists and drawing from the success of the covers of "Rest Your Love on Me" from the previous album, started focusing on recording country music full-time. They had two top-30 Billboard Country hits in the early 1980s: "I Think About Your Lovin'" (#17) and "It's Like Fallin' in Love (Over and Over)" (#28), in addition to a handful that reached the bottom of or narrowly missed the top 40. The Osmond Brothers' record sales were hampered by a reluctance to go on tour; the group instead opted to stay in Branson, Missouri and promote their music through promotional music videos. The brothers continue to perform with various line-ups and sometimes with their children in Branson. Merrill performs and records as a solo artist as well; his biggest hit independent of his siblings was a duet with Jessica Boucher, "You're Here to Remember, I'm Here to Forget", a piece Merrill specifically chose to break from his family-friendly image (like Donny, Merrill had to hide his Osmond identity and recorded the song under the name "Merrill and Jessica") and which became a hit on the country charts in 1987. Alan has multiple sclerosis, and does not perform as often today; likewise, Wayne, who survived a brain tumor in 1997, retired from the group in the early 2010s. All of the brothers are married, some with large families.


title: The Osmonds

text: In 2007–2008 all of the Osmonds went on a tour of Europe to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their career in show business. A special televised concert in Las Vegas (the only tour stop in the US), commemorating the anniversary, aired on US PBS stations on March 10, 2008. Alan played piano with the orchestra for most of the show and Virl and Tom provided signed lyrics for two songs. The Osmonds' long-time friend and mentor Andy Williams made a surprise appearance, reminiscing about how his father had told him to put the brothers on his variety show.


title: The Osmonds

text: In 2009, Donny and Marie Osmond recorded a television special for the British channel ITV1: "An Audience with Donny and Marie", part of ITV's long-running "An Audience with..." series was based on their Las Vegas stage show.


title: The Osmonds

text: From 2008 to 2019, Donny and Marie performed a residency in Las Vegas at the Flamingo. Both tour extensively around the world, with Alan's son David Osmond occasionally filling in for Donny. Merrill, Jay and Jimmy also sing together at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, along with some limited touring, mostly in the UK. Since Andy Williams's death, Merrill, Jay and Jimmy took over operations of his long-running Christmas show, which they perform in Branson, Missouri in November. In 2012, the trio released their first studio album in 28 years, "I Can't Get There Without You", which featured the recording debut of Jimmy as lead singer.


title: The Osmonds

text: Alan and Wayne rejoined the group for one time only for what was billed as their last ever performance as the Osmond Brothers at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu in October 2018, a concert that also included Marie and David among the performers. Since that time, Merrill and Jay toured as "the Osmonds", sometimes appearing with Marie and David; in these shows (billed as "Marie and the Osmonds"), Jay and Merrill sing many of their old hits, and substitute for the late Paul Davis and Dan Seals on Marie's country duets. Jimmy toured separately with various projects at the time before suffering a stroke in December 2018; he stated in April 2019 that he was in good health and had decided to take a "long-overdue break" from performing. Alan and Wayne made a second "last ever performance" in October 2019, appearing on "The Talk" for Marie's birthday. In 2022, Merrill announced his retirement from performing; his final American show was in April 2022 and featured a special appearance by Donny.


title: The Osmonds

text: The Osmonds rank among the poorest performers in terms of having their hits of the 1970s survive in recurrent rotation; classic hits and oldies stations rarely play any of their music, with the occasional exception of "One Bad Apple." According to Sean Ross at RadioInsight, discussing the fifteen popular songs of 1971 that saw the biggest declines in airplay:


title: The Osmonds

text: Teen acts had been with us from the beginning, of course, but not since the early ‘60s had they seemed so particularly stigmatized (...) Five songs by teen idols — four of them Osmonds-related. We haven’t shown individual breakouts for every year of the ‘70s, but we can tell you that there’s an Osmonds-related song every year between 1971 and 1976, except for 1973, when Donny Osmond was being challenged by the DeFranco Family and didn’t have a big enough hit.


title: The Osmonds

text: Ross later noted of the top 100 songs in the 1970 to 1974 period ranked by drop-off in airplay, the Osmond family had six listed, the most of any collection of acts; this was twice as high as the next two artists on the list (Cher and Helen Reddy, each of whom recorded three). The Osmond family as a whole ranked the most neglected musical act of the classic hits era, from 1970 to 1994. Broadening to the period of 1960 to 1999, the top 100 most neglected songs (which had a disproportionate number of early 1960s songs largely neglected by modern radio) had three performed by at least one Osmond, tied for the most with Connie Francis on the list; this was especially notable because other neglected 1970s artists such as Reddy and Barbra Streisand failed to make the broader list at all. Such was the Osmonds' fall into obscurity that Karen Osmond, Jay's second and current wife, had never heard of the group before meeting him.