Passage 1:
Vera Miletić
Vera Miletić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вера Милетић; 8 March 1920 – 7 September 1944) was a Serbian student and soldier. She was notable for being the mother of Mira Marković, posthumously making her the mother-in-law of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević.

Personal life
Her cousin was Davorjanka Paunović who was the personal secretary of Communist Party of Yugoslavia leader Josip Broz Tito.
Passage 2:
Doria Ragland
Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956) is an American social worker, and former makeup artist and yoga instructor. She is the mother of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Early life
Doria Ragland was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011), an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets. Ragland's maternal grandparents, James and Nettie Arnold, respectively worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator at the Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. Her parents moved to Los Angeles when Ragland was a baby and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow, who is near to Ragland's age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce. Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph (known as "JJ"; 1949–2021) and Saundra Johnson (born 1952), and a younger paternal half-brother, Alvin Joffrey Ragland. According to inferred conclusions and information passed down (much of it verbally) from earlier generations, the Ragland family descend from Richard Ragland, born into slavery c.1792 in Chatham County, North Carolina; his son, Stephen Ragland (1848-1926) of Jonesboro in Georgia, lived long enough to experience the abolition of slavery in 1865. Ragland's surname came from slave-owner William Ragland, a Methodist planter and land speculator who had emigrated during the eighteenth century from Cornwall, England, to North America.

Career and education
After leaving Fairfax High School, Ragland worked as a temp assistant makeup artist and met her future husband, Thomas Markle, while employed on the set of the television show General Hospital. Later on, their daughter Meghan stayed with Thomas Markle as Ragland pursued a career. She later worked as a travel agent and owned a small business before filing for bankruptcy in the mid-2000s. Ragland completed a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. In 2011, she earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California. After passing California's licensing exam in 2015, she was a social worker for three years at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services clinic in Culver City. Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor. In 2020, it was reported that she would teach a jewelry making course at Santa Monica College. In the same year, Ragland became CEO, CFO and secretary of a care home firm in Beverly Hills, called Loving Kindness Senior Care Management.

Personal life
Ragland married lighting director Thomas Markle Sr. on December 23, 1979, at Hollywood's Paramahansa Yogananda Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in a ceremony performed by Brother Bhaktananda. Their daughter, Meghan, was born in 1981. The couple separated when their daughter was two years old. They divorced in 1987. Both parents contributed to raising Meghan until, at the age of 6, she began living with Thomas Markle full-time while Ragland pursued a career.Ragland resides in View Park–Windsor Hills, California, in a house inherited from her father in 2011. She has accompanied Meghan to public events and attended her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry in Berkshire. Ragland became a grandmother on May 6, 2019. She flew to the United Kingdom to see her grandson, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and his parents. In July, she attended Mountbatten-Windsor's christening at the private chapel at Windsor Castle. Her granddaughter, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on June 4, 2021, in Santa Barbara, California.

See also
"(Almost) Straight Outta Compton", a 2016 tabloid article headline about Meghan Markle and her mother's background

Notes
Passage 3:
Maria Thins
Maria Thins (c. 1593 – 27 December 1680) was the mother-in-law of Johannes Vermeer and a member of the Gouda Thins family. She was raised in a devout Dutch Catholic family with two sisters and a brother. Outliving her parents and siblings, she received inheritances over the years, making her a wealthy woman. She married a prosperous brickmaker, Reynier Bolnes, in 1622. They had three children together, Catharina, Willem, and Cornelia. By 1635, Bolnes verbally and physically abused his wife and daughters. Thins moved to Delft with her daughters. Her son Willem stayed with his father. Thins was a wealthy woman due to the separation settlement of her husband in 1649 and the estates she inherited from her family.
Her daughter Catharina married Johannes Vermeer, an artist, art dealer, and operator of the family's inn in Delft. Vermeer and Catharina lived at Thins house by 1660. The couple had fifteen children, four of whom died in infancy. Raising nearly a dozen children strained Vermeer financially. He relied on the support from his mother-in-law. During the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1674), Vermeer became impoverished. Thins reduced the money she provided to Catharina and her husband due to the loss of income during that period. Vermeer died in 1675, and Thins died five years later. Catharina was the only one of Thins' children to survive her. Thins drew up her will to maximize what she could provide for her grandchildren and their education, while limiting how much might be taken by Catharina's creditors. Catharina died in 1687.

Early life
Maria was born c. 1593 in Gouda to a prominent Dutch Catholic family, Catharina van Hensbeeck (d. 1633) and William Thin (d. 1601). They lived in the house named De Trapjes (The Little Steps) in Gouda. Maria had three siblings, none of whom were married. Her sister Elisabeth became a nun. She also had a sister Cornelia and a brother Jan. Since none of her siblings married, Thins ultimately inherited a large estate. The family conducted mass in their home, while at the time it was illegal for a group of Roman Catholics to assemble in Gouda. The local sheriffs broke up a religious meeting at their house in 1619.Garrit Camerling (d. 1627) of Delft became her stepfather in 1605 when he married Catharina van Hensbeeck. She was related to Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651) through her cousin Jan Geensz Thins. Before her marriage, Thins lived in Delft with a prosperous young woman who was her friend.

Marriage and children
In 1622, Maria Thins married Reynier Bolnes (ca. 1593–1676), a prominent and prosperous brickmaker. Thins was an heiress when she married, and she collected art, including several in the style of Utrecht Caravaggists.

Children
Thins had three children, the youngest of whom was Catharina Bolnes (c. 1631–1688), nicknamed Trijntge. She also had a son Willem, and a daughter Cornelia. Around 1635, Reynier became verbally and physically abusive with her and her children. At the age of nine, Catharina ran to neighbors because she thought that Reynier's abuse of Cornelia could kill her. Reynier confessed that he physically abused Cornelia and would do it again if Thins beat their son Willem. Reynier and Willem began eating separately from the female members of the family, and the father encouraged his son to be abusive and noncompliant with Thins.

Divided family
Thins moved to Delft in 1642 to get away from her abusive husband. Jan Geensz Thins, who was her guardian and cousin, purchased a home for her there the prior year. Jan became Thin's guardian following the early death of her father. Thins attained custody of her daughters in 1641 and moved with them to Delft. William stayed with his father, whose business began to fail. Thins lived on Oude Langendijk next to the Jesuit Catholic Church in the Catholic section of Delft called paepenhoek (the Papists' Corner).Thins received half of her husband's assets, a substantial amount, in 1649. By 1653, Reynier Bolnes was bankrupt. Thins derived income from annuities, interest income, and property rentals, including farmland. She also lived off of the capital of her investments. Thins and her sister Cornelia Thins (d. 1661) received a sizeable inheritance from their brother Jan Willemsz Thins following his death in 1651. Thins attained a comfortable standard of living of 15,000 or more guilders a year in the 1660s.Cornelia died in 1649. In 1664, Thin's son Willem, a jobless bachelor, was locked up in an institution after an argument with his mother, and for attacking Catharina, his pregnant sister, with a stick. In 1665, Maria Thins was entrusted with her son's property. She wrote a will, which limited Willem's share to the legal minimum of one sixth of her estate. She mentioned that he had been calling her names since his youth. Willem died in 1676.

The Vermeers
Thin's daughter, Catharina, came to know Johannes Vermeer and wished to marry him. Her mother disapproved of the marriage because he was not Catholic, and also likely because he was of a lower artisan class. By 1652, Vermeer helped his mother run the family's inn and was an art dealer, taking over his deceased father's business. Before they married, Thins stated that although she did not approve, she would not prevent Catharina and Vermeer from marrying. Vermeer likely converted from Reformed Protestant to Catholicism by the time of their union. Catharina and Vermeer married in Schipluy (present-day Schipluiden) on 20 April 1653. By December 1660, the Vermeers lived in the large house of his wealthy mother-in-law Maria Thins, described as a "strong-willed" woman. It was unusual at the time for married men and women to settle into the houses of their parents. Vermeer relied on Thin's residence and financial support to take care of his family.Vermeer painted in the artist's studio and sold art from the house. His works portray subjects with clothing and furnishings more luxurious than his own. Biographer Anthony Bailey claims that since Vermeer used models from his household, it is likely that he made a painting of his wife. He asserts that Catharina is depicted in A Lady Writing a Letter due to her "fond expression" and "concentrated gaze of the unseen painter."Thins played an essential role in their life. She was a devotee of the Jesuit order in the nearby Catholic Church, and this seems to have influenced Johannes and Catharina.They had eleven children at the time of Vermeer's death, four of their children died young between 1660 and 1673. Most of their children were born at Thin's house. Their third son was called Ignatius, after the founder of the Jesuit Order. Catharina inherited the Ben Repas estate following her Aunt Cornelia's death in February 1661.Thins hired Vermeer to manage financial issues for her in 1667 and 1675. He collected monies owed her, and he handled her investments. The Rampjaar (disaster year) following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1674) was particularly hard on Vermeer's ability to make money as an artist and an art dealer. He had to take a loss on sales of works of art and was unable to sell his own works. His mother-in-law was financially strained during this period due to the loss of rental income from farmland due to the war. In one instance, she rented out land near Schoonhoven that was flooded to prevent the French army from crossing the Dutch Water Line. The farmland was not arable for a time. Thins reduced the money that she spent to support the Vermeers. In 1675, Vermeer went on several business trips for his mother-in-law, first to Gouda, when her husband had died, and then to Amsterdam. There Vermeer borrowed money by fraudulently using her name.Vermeer died and was buried on 15 December 1675. Unable to pay their debts, Catharina blamed the financial fallout of the war for their losses and petitioned for bankruptcy in April 1676. Ten of their eleven children were still underage when Vermeer died. Catharina continued to live at her mother's house with their children. After Vermeer's death, Maria Thins received The Art of Painting for her financial support of Catharina's family. Catharina paid off other debts with paintings or used them as surety until she paid off debts.

Later years and death
Thins died and was buried on 27 December 1680. The burial record states that she was the widow of Reijnier Bolnes. Thins crafted her will to maximize her grandchildren's support and education, preventing her estate from going to Catharina's creditors. The grandchildren were assigned a guardian, Hendrick van Eem, to look out for their interests. Catharina, considered responsible, was encouraged by her mother to ensure that her children were educated so that they could support themselves. Her daughter Catharina moved to Breda. Catharina Bolnes received "Holy Oil" on 23 December 1687, before being buried on 2 January 1688.

See also
Writing to Vermeer an opera depicting Maria Thins and Catharina Bolnes
Passage 4:
Priscilla Pointer
Priscilla Marie Pointer (born May 18, 1924) is an American retired actress. She began her career in the theater in the late 1940s, including productions on Broadway. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood and making appearances on television in the early 1950s.
She didn't however become a regular screen actress until the 1970s.
She is the mother of actress and singer Amy Irving, (whom she often appeared alongside as her mother or mother-in-law) therefore making her the former mother-in-law of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Bruno Barreto and the mother-in-law of documentary filmmaker Kenneth Bowser, Jr.

Personal life
Pointer was born on May 18, 1924, in New York City. Her mother Augusta Leonora (née Davis) was an artist and an illustrator, and her father Kenneth Keith Pointer was an artist. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Jacob Barrett Cohen, was from a Jewish family that had lived in the United States since the 1700s.

Marriages and family
Pointer was previously married to film and stage director Jules Irving, former artistic director of Lincoln Center, from 1947 until his death in 1979; they are the parents of Katie Irving, director David Irving, and actress Amy Irving. In 1980, she married actor/director/producer Robert Symonds, who had been Jules Irving's producing partner at Lincoln Center. She appeared several times in stage productions with Symonds, and they remained married until the latter's death in 2007. Her granddaughter is artist and photographer Austin Irving

Career
Early career
Pointer has been a performer since thee late 1940s starting her career in theatre and appearing on Broadway, and she featured in the TV series China Smith  (The New Adventures of China Smith) in 1954. After a long hiatus, she seemed to have caught the acting bug again, in the early 1970s and has been a regular performer ever since.
Pointer' first major starring role was on the TV soap opera Where the Heart Is as Adrienne Harris Rainey from 1972 and 1973

Films
Pointer has appeared in many films, including Carrie (1976), in which she played the onscreen mother of Amy Irving's character; The Onion Field (1979); Mommie Dearest (1981); Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987); David Lynch's Blue Velvet; and Coyote Moon (1999). In addition to Carrie, she has played the onscreen mother to Amy Irving in Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Carried Away (1996). They were both in the films The Competition in 1980 and Micki & Maude in 1984.
Pointer appeared in three films that her son David Irving directed: Rumpelstiltskin (a 1987 musical version, which starred her daughter), Good-bye, Cruel World, and C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D.

Television
She has made many guest appearances on television, including Adam-12, L.A. Law, The A-Team, Judging Amy, The Rockford Files, and Cold Case.
From 1981 to 1983, Pointer had a recurring role on the soap opera Dallas as Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, the mother of Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal), and Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany).

Filmography
Film
Partial Television Credits
Passage 5:
Prince Radu of Romania
Prince Radu of Romania (born Radu Duda on 7 June 1960, formerly known as Prince Radu of Hohenzollern-Veringen from 1999 to 2007) is the husband of Margareta of Romania, head of the House of Romania and a disputed pretender to the former Romanian throne. On 1 January 1999, he was given the name, not title, of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" by Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, the Head of the Sigmaringen branch of the Hohenzollern family. He has also called himself "Radu Hohenzollern-Veringen-Duda". Since 2007, when he had his legal name changed from "Radu Duda" to "Radu al României Duda", Radu no longer uses the name of Hohenzollern.
The Fundamental Rules of the Romanian Royal Family, proclaimed by former King Michael I on 30 December 2007, gave Radu the title of "Prince of Romania", with the style of "Royal Highness", which King Michael had given him earlier on 5 January 2005.In 1996 (24 July, civilly; 21 September, religiously), he married Princess Margareta, eldest daughter of King Michael I of Romania and Queen Anne.
As spouse of Princess Margareta, Radu often accompanies his wife, sometimes solo, to support social projects and promote the Romanian economy. He is also the patron and a member of numerous Romanian charities and organisations.

Early life
Radu was born in Iași, Socialist Republic of Romania, the elder of the two children of Professor Dr. René Corneliu Duda and his wife, Dr. Gabriela Eugenia Duda née Constandache. His only brother is Professor Gabriel Dan Duda.

Education and work
Radu graduated from the Costache Negruzzi High School in Iași in 1979, and from the University of Drama and Film in Bucharest in 1984, and had over twenty years of artistic activity in Romania as well as in other European countries, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. He was the artistic director of the first art therapy project for abandoned children in Romanian orphanages. The project, started in 1993, was developed in eight cities over six years. In 1994, while working as an art therapist in orphanages, he met Princess Margareta, when she was touring the programmes of her Princess Margareta Foundation. On 24 July 1996, Margareta married Duda in a civil wedding at Versoix. On 21 September 1996 they were married in Lausanne, and on 1 January 1999 he was granted the title "Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen".In 2002, he graduated from the National College of Defence of Romania, and the George C. Marshall College, Garmisch, Germany. In August 2004 he participated in the two-week Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.In September 2002, he was appointed as Special Representative of the Romanian Government for Integration, Co-operation and Sustainable Development. He is also Patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Member of the Board of Directors of "House of NATO" Association in Bucharest, and Honorary Member of the Senate of "Aurel Vlaicu" University of Arad and of the University of Oradea, Romania.
Prince Radu is the author of several books: Dincolo de mască (Bucharest: Unitext, 1997), L'Âme du masque (Brussels, 1998), Război, un exil, o viață (Bucharest, 2000; translated into English as Anne of Romania: A War, an Exile, a Life, Bucharest: Romanian Cultural Foundation, 2002), Michael of Romania: A Tribute (San Francisco and Bucharest, 2001), Kildine (Bucharest, 2003; a translation into Romanian of the fairy-tales book of Queen Marie of the Romanians), Seven (Bucharest: Nemira, 2003), The Royal Family of Romania (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2004), Persona (Bucharest: Nemira, 2006), The Elisabeta Palace (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2006).
Prince Radu's lectures address topics related to Romania's integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, defense, and security, geopolitics and diplomacy, culture, economics, and education. He has equally spoken out about the issue of ethnic minorities, in particular about the Romani minority, an important issue for Romania and South Eastern Europe today, through conferences in Romania and around Europe, in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Finland, etc. His activity report "2005 Annual Report and 2002–2004 Retrospective" is available in English and Romanian on his official website.
Prince Radu currently serves on the Board of Advisors to the Global Panel Foundation, an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.

Initiatives
Europe of Regions
Radu initiated a project to promote Romania's major interests and to strengthen Romania's bilateral relations. Its aims are to encourage and promote economic, cultural, and educational partnerships between Romanian regions and different European regions, as well as to raise awareness about Romania through meetings, conferences, and lectures. It will involve Prince Radu visiting up to four different regions a year, meeting local businessmen, political and local administration leaders, university teachers and students, Romanian communities and the press. Regions covered so far are the Italian regions of Tuscany and Sicily (provinces of Palermo, Caltanisetta, Enna, and Catania), the French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Aquitaine (Pays Beaumontois). The Europe of Regions initiative will continue with visits to the Lands of Germany, to Spain, and further regions of France and Italy.

The Friendship Tour
The Friendship Tour is a similar initiative created to promote Romania's major interests, mainly in the United States of America, aiming to encourage, promote, and support Romanian partnerships in the economic, educational, and cultural domains. Visits are planned to 3–4 states each year to meet local businessmen and women, politicians, and local administration, university teachers and students, as well as the Romanian diaspora. The aim is also to raise awareness about Romania's potential and to strengthen bilateral relations. The Friendship Tour kicked off with a ten-day visit to the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Massachusetts, during which Prince Radu met with governors, mayors, state congressmen, professors, students, businessmen, journalists, and American citizens of Romanian origin. The Friendship Tour II and The Friendship Tour III plan to reach five other USA states.

Personality
In an interview for Observator Plus, Prince Radu talked frankly about himself. He says that during communism he had lived in an amoral world that lacked role models and where it was difficult to have principles. He discovered the latter only when he met King Michael, when he realized that "life can be marked, here and there, by principles."

Controversies
Corruption accusations
BAE Systems, one of the donors to Princess Margareta's charity, and its representatives, have been involved in a corruption scandal regarding the purchase by the Romanian Government of two decommissioned UK Royal Navy frigates refurbished by BAE, for which an alleged £7 million bribe was paid. Some of this money, it is also alleged, "ended up in the pockets of the royal family of Hohenzollern". The Gardianul newspaper, noting that both Margarita and Radu, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times formally or informally with the BAE Systems representatives before and after the signing of the governmental contract, inquired whether the royal family was involved in any lobbying on behalf of the company. In an official communique sent to the newspaper, Radu denied any such lobbying activities, stating that as patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce in which BAE Systems is a member, he met with this as well as other British companies' representatives.

Securitate informer
Radu has been the target of press attacks for having been an informer for Communist Romania's dreaded Securitate, the secret police, during Nicolae Ceauşescu's dictatorship.
Căminul românesc magazine from Geneva published an article by Nicolette (Nicoleta) Franck, a journalist close to King Michael, about whom she wrote many books. The article alleged that Radu Duda was a Securitate agent infiltrated in the Royal House so as to compromise it, on orders from Ion Iliescu, the former high ranking Communist who served as President of Romania and was, allegedly, a friend of Radu's father, also a former high ranking Communist. No proof of these allegations was offered.
In an article published by the Adevărul daily, Radu denied allegations of his supposed involvement with the Securitate: "I have not collaborated with the Securitate…in 1986 there was an attempt to recruit me. I refused politely and I was never contacted again." The article revealed that in 1989 Radu's name was found on a list of 1,000+ people entitled "support persons" of the Securitate. In another interview for the same daily, Radu explained that in 1986 he had been asked by the Securitate to collaborate due to his successful career as an actor: "Everybody who was somebody knew that there was this risk" to be called upon by Securitate to become an informer. At that time Radu had been working on an Iaşi stage as a theatre graduate for two years and was about to go on his second and last theatre tour abroad to Israel, accompanying two renowned Romanian actors. The former head of the local Iaşi branch of the Securitate explained in an interview that a "support person" such as Duda and the other people on the 1,000+ list were not informers, did not sign any agreement with the Securitate, nor did they receive money, but were Communist Party members, in particular people who traveled abroad, targeted by the Securitate with the Party's approval to carry out well-defined missions for a limited period of time. He also confirmed in a subsequent interview that the list in question is real.
It has also been reported that "many of the royal family's supporters have stopped offering financial aids after Radu Duda joined the Royal House. Wealthy Romanians in exile, who have been surveyed by the communist era political police Securitate even in subway stations, considered the compromise as intolerable."
In 2005 Radu sued Marco Houston and Sena Julia Publications, the publishers of Royalty Magazine. The case arose due to an article that was published in the magazine in 2004. On 15 July 2010, Radu obtained a Statement in Open Court from Marco Houston, editor of Royalty Magazine, acknowledging that all the accusations were untrue, that Radu was never a member or collaborator of the Securitate, and that this should never have been published. The statement also confirmed that the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives has found Prince Radu did not support in any way the Securitate.

Princely title
On 1 January 1999, Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, granted Radu an ad personam title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" (German: Prinz von Hohenzollern-Veringen). In August 2004, representatives of Friedrich Wilhelm's eldest son Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern, accused Radu of using the Hohenzollern name without permission as well as of having demanded "considerable" sums of money from whoever may be interested in buying it. Karl Friedrich also warned Radu that the Hohenzollern family would take "legal measures" in case these things were to happen again and demanded that he cease to use the title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen". In a 2009 interview, Karl Friedrich re-iterated these demands and stated that his father has no right to issue titles in a republic, calling Radu's title "of Hohenzollern-Veringen" a "farce." Since then King Michael has severed all ties with the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, ordering that all such titles once used were no longer appropriate for use by any member of the Romanian Royal House.

Military rank
Some sources have contested the legality of Radu's rapid rise in the Romanian Army from a reserve lieutenant (locotenent-major in Romanian) to the rank of active colonel in much less time than that prescribed for ordinary advancements. The former Chief of Army Staff has argued that his activation was done at Radu's own request, while his promotion was granted for "extraordinary" merits, such as Radu's lobby for Romania's admission into NATO. Radu's official response argues, however, that his own activation was not as a result of any unilateral request, but of a joint request of both the Royal House and the Defence Ministry.

Political support
Between September 2002 and September 2008, Radu maintained an official position as Special Representative of the Romanian Government under two successive administrations, that of the centre-left Partidul Social Democrat (PSD) coalition government as well as that of the centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance coalition government. Meanwhile, the main pro-monarchist party Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNŢCD), which holds no seats in the parliament, has been rejecting any role for him or Princess Margareta in a restored monarchy. In 2003, however, the Cluj branch of PNŢCD officially invited Princess Margareta to be its candidate to the Senate in the upcoming elections. The former president of Romania Traian Băsescu does not appreciate Prince Radu and thinks he is detrimental to the Romanians' public perception of the idea of monarchy. The Romanian historian and avowed monarchist Neagu Djuvara also considers Radu as detrimental, as an "undertaker" to the cause of the Romanian monarchy. On 17 September 2008 Radu resigned his governmental position.
In a 2004 poll conducted by the PSD, of whose coalition government he was at that time the Special Representative, Prince Radu scored just 3.4% as a potential candidate in the upcoming Romanian presidential elections. In a more recent 2006 opinion poll taken by an institute affiliated with the Royal House in running many of its public events and its hospitality management school, 48.80% of those questioned answered that it would be good for Prince Radu to accept a state function, while 46.41% were of the opposite opinion. The same 2006 poll showed that 66% of the Romanians interviewed would like to see a more active involvement of the Royal House in the democratisation and development of Romania. In a 2008 poll, Radu was preferred as president of Romania by 2.6% of the Romanian electorate. In the presence of Princess Margareta, Prince Radu announced his candidacy for the Romanian Presidency in a press conference at the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, Romania, on 9 April 2009. Five months later, on 2 September 2009, he retracted his candidacy.

Titles, styles, honours and awards
The titles mentioned are not based in present Romanian law but in the Statute of the Romanian Royal Family, signed by former King Michael I of Romania on 30 December 2007.
7 June 1960 – 1 January 1999: Radu Duda
1 January 1999 – 5 January 2005: His Serene Highness Prince Radu of Hohenzollern-Veringen
5 January 2005 – 30 December 2007: His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Hohenzollern-Veringen
30 December 2007 – 5 December 2017: His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Romania
5 December 2017 – present: His Royal Highness The Prince Consort of Romania

Honours
Dynastic
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Carol I
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown

Ecclesiastical
Romanian Orthodox Church: Knight of the Order of Our Lady of Prayer

National
Romania: Recipient of the Medal of National Merit

Foreign
Czech Republic: Recipient of the Medal of the Cross of Merit of the Ministry of Defence, 2nd Class
 Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
 Sweden: Recipient of the 70th Birthday Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
 United Kingdom: Recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal

Awards
National
Romania: Honorary Citizen of the Cluj County
 Romania: Honorary Citizen of Iași

Foreign
Slovakia: Recipient of the Medal of the Memorial Tree of Peace, Special Class
 Switzerland: Honorary degree of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations

Ranks
Romania: Colonel of the Romanian Armed Forces

Filmography
Laissez-passer (2002) .... Andrejew
Ciocârlia (2002) (TV) ....
Capitaine Conan (1996) .... Insp. Stefanesco
Passage 6:
Marian Shields Robinson
Marian Lois Robinson (née Shields; born July 29, 1937) is the mother of Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States, and Craig Robinson, a basketball executive. She is the mother-in-law of 44th U.S. President Barack Obama.

Ancestry and early life
Marian Shields was born in Chicago in 1937, the fourth of seven children—five girls, followed by two boys—born to Purnell Nathaniel Shields, a house painter and carpenter, and his wife Rebecca Jumper, a licensed practical nurse. Both parents had multi-racial ancestry. Her mother's grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields (c. 1860–1950), was a direct descendant of slavery, with his mother a slave and his white father the heir of the slaveowner; he had moved from rural Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama, where he established his own carpentry and tool sharpening business. His descendants would eventually move to Chicago during the Great Migration.

Personal life
Shields married Fraser Robinson III on October 27, 1960, in Chicago. They had two children together, Craig Malcolm and Michelle LaVaughn, named after Fraser's mother. She worked as a secretary for mail-order retailer Spiegel, the University of Chicago, and a bank. In the late 60's, Shields lived with her family in a rented second floor apartment of a brick bungalow the South Side of Chicago that belonged to her aunt Robbie and her husband Terry. This is where she raised her two children, Michelle and Craig, and continued to live until she eventually moved to the White House with the Obamas. Michelle Obama, in her book Becoming, describes her mother's strong attachment to her Chicago home and her commitment to raising her children as a stay at home mother. Shields resumed work as an executive assistant at a bank when her daughter Michelle started high school.

Relationship with Michelle Obama
Michelle describes her mother as forthright and honest, and speaks of her implacability and her silent support as a child and beyond. Shields used to take her daughter Michelle to the library long before she started school and used to sit beside her as she learned to read and write. Usually the kind of mother who expected her children to settle their own disputes, Shields was quick to see real distress and stepped in to help when needed. For example, when Michelle was in second grade and was distressed because of being devalued by a teacher, Shields advocated for her and was instrumental in getting her daughter better learning opportunities at school. Shields encouraged her children to communicate with her about all subjects by being available when needed and giving practical advice. She entertained Michelle's school friends when they visited and enabled her to make her own choices in important matters.

Obama campaign and life in the White House
While Michelle and Barack Obama campaigned for his candidacy as president in 2008, Robinson helped them by providing support to her granddaughters, Malia and Sasha Obama. During Barack Obama's presidency, Robinson was living at the White House with the First Family.
Passage 7:
Minamoto no Chikako
Minamoto no Chikako (源 親子) was the daughter of Kitabatake Morochika, and Imperial consort to Emperor Go-Daigo. She had earlier been Imperial consort to Go-Daigo's father, Emperor Go-Uda.
She was the mother of Prince Morinaga.
Passage 8:
Margareta of Romania
Margareta, Custodian of the Crown of Romania (Romanian: Custode al Coroanei Române; born 26 March 1949) is the eldest daughter of King Michael I and Queen Anne of Romania. She assumed her father's duties in March 2016, upon his retirement, and has claimed the headship of the House of Romania since his death on 5 December 2017. She also heads the Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation.Until 2011, Margareta also used the style of a princess of Hohenzollern. Margareta has four sisters and no brothers or children. Her heir-presumptive is her next sister, Princess Elena of Romania. According to the defunct royal constitutions of 1923 and 1938, women were barred from wearing the crown, and Margareta and her sisters would not be in the line of succession to the throne.
On 30 December 2007, King Michael designated Margareta as heir presumptive to the defunct throne by an act that is not recognized by the Romanian government and lacks legal validity without approval by Romania's Parliament. On the same occasion, Michael also requested that, should the Romanian Parliament consider restoring the monarchy, the Salic law of succession not be reinstated, allowing female succession. According to the new statute of the Romanian Royal House as declared by Michael, no illegitimate descendants or collateral lines may claim dynastic privileges, titles or rank and any such are excluded from the Royal House of Romania and from the line of succession to the throne.

Early life
Birth
Margareta was born on 26 March 1949 at Clinique de Montchoisi in Lausanne, Switzerland, as the first of King Michael I and Queen Anne's five daughters. She was baptised in the Romanian Orthodox Church; her godfather was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Her godmother was her maternal grandmother Princess Margaret of Denmark who was also her namesake. She was followed by four sisters: Princess Elena (born 1950), Princess Irina (born 1953), Princess Sophie (born 1957) and Princess Maria (born 1964).

Childhood
Margareta spent her childhood at family homes in Lausanne and at Ayot House, St Lawrence, in Hertfordshire, England. During holidays she and her sisters spent time with their grandparents; paternally with Helen, Queen Mother, at Villa Sparta in Italy and maternally, with Princess Margaret and her husband Prince René of Bourbon-Parma in Copenhagen. She and her sisters were told "fascinating tales of a homeland they couldn't visit" by their father. She also spent time with relatives in Greece, Italy, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain.Margareta met Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom for the first time in the summer of 1952 at Balmoral Castle, when she was three years old. In her childhood, she spent holidays with Prince Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, who were close to Margareta, as well as Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (her cousin), and the Greek, Danish and Luxembourg royal families.Queen Helen's interest in horses influenced Margareta to become an equestrian.In 1964, along with five other princesses, Margareta was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark to King Constantine II of Greece.

Education
Early education
In 1956, Margareta lived with Queen Helen for six months at her villa in Florence, attending kindergarten until returning to Switzerland, where she attended a primary school, with Princess Sophie, from age six to nine.

Secondary education
In 1960, she was sent to a boarding school in Old Basing, Hampshire, where she stayed until she was 13; she found it difficult to be away from home but was glad that she became more mature, noting that her English improved later.Her favourite subjects were: art, riding and natural sciences (she learned how to grow plants) and also piano lessons.
In 1964, she began secondary education at a French school in Switzerland, where she studied philosophy."I did my baccalaureate in Switzerland, got my driving licence the next day and I left very fast. I really didn't enjoy the baccalaureate, I didn't enjoy school, I didn't enjoy Switzerland" Margareta said in an interview in 2007.After her Swiss-French baccalaureate, rather than heading straight for Paris and studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, her preferred destination, she was persuaded to return to Florence to spend a year with her Romanian grandmother, whom she described as "my spiritual guide, my mentor, guiding star. She taught me a lot about life, opened my eyes to all that is beautiful and good in the world". Her dreams of art school were soon replaced by a determination to go to university.

Further education
Margareta studied sociology, political science and public international law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, graduating in 1974. Known there as "Margareta de Roumanie", for the first few weeks she felt a depressing "sense of foreignness" but later became active in campus politics, becoming a member of the students' representative council.During an interview from 2011, she confessed that her first desire was studying philosophy: "I really enjoyed philosophy, but I realized I had to be a bit more practical. Then, in the 1970s, sociology was fashionable, so I chose it alongside the international law I wanted for the United Nations, and the political sciences because they could relate to international relations and give the opportunity to know systems. This combination of studies was very interesting. Maybe now, if I had to resume, I would do something more practical."While at the university during her twenties, Margareta was involved in a five-year romantic relationship with Gordon Brown, who would serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010; in 2007, she was interviewed by an editor of The Daily Telegraph: "It was a very solid and romantic story; I never stopped loving him, but one day it didn't seem right any more, it was politics, politics, politics, and I needed nurturing," she said.

Career
After her graduation in 1974, she worked in a number of British universities for a few years, specialising in medical sociology and public health policy. Later she participated in an international research program coordinated by the World Health Organization that focused on developing health policy recommendations and preventive pilot projects.In 1979, she then worked for the agencies of the United Nations: The World Health Organization and The United Nations Population Fund, where she joined Social projects in public health, based in Africa and Latin America where she came into contact with suffering and deficiencies of the disadvantaged which was the kick start of her experience of the beginning of a road in humanitarian service, which she has still followed since then.In 1983, she moved to Rome and joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations where, as a member of the World Food Day project team, she worked for three years on the public awareness campaign concerning agricultural programs, nutrition, and poverty alleviation. She belonged to the International Fund for Agricultural Development team until 1986.In 1986, she joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development where she handled relations with nongovernmental organizations and assisted in raising funds for IFAD programs.In the summer of 1989 Margareta resigned from her job as civil unrest started in Romania. Concluding that fundamental change was about to occur in Eastern Europe, she moved to Geneva to work with the Romanian Crown Council and the royal family, whose members began preparing themselves for what was to come.

Romania
Romanian revolution
In mid 1989, civil and governmental unrest started arising in the Eastern Bloc as the loosening of control of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union had triggered most of the impact for the former states which started a Revolutionary wave leading to the Revolutions of 1989.In early December 1989, there was civil unrest by the anti-government protesters and on 16 December the 12-day Romanian Revolution started; on the commands of President Nicolae Ceaușescu a mass genocide was led by members of the military who unanimously switched on the 22nd from supporting him to backing the protesting population. On 25 December, President Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Deputy Prime Minister Elena Ceaușescu were deposed, captured and executed by orders from a Drumhead military tribunal; 42 years of the Socialist Republic of Romania had ended. The revolution was the first overthrow of the ruling governmental system since King Michael's Coup which he successfully staged in 1944 by arresting members of the military government which supported Nazi Germany.During the Revolution, all members of the Royal Family took a part to console the situation outside of Romania.

Arrival in Romania
While she was visiting one orphanage, a child in a filthy cot died in front of her. It spurred her to establish the Princess Margareta of Romania Foundation in 1990. The foundation has raised more than five million euros, through which it contributes to the development of Romanian civil society.A 25th anniversary celebration of Margareta's return to Romania was held at the Romanian Athenaeum, followed by a dinner at the CEC Palace with Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta and Senate President Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu; around 200 other prominent guests participated in the festivities. Margareta also hosted a March 2015 gala at the dynasty's historical family seat, Peleș Castle, in honour of the Romanian Rugby Union, attended by Klaus Johannis, the first incumbent Romanian president to pay an official visit to the former royal family.

Romanian Red Cross
On 15 May 2015, the General Assembly of the Romanian Red Cross elected Margareta as President of the Romanian Red Cross. The Red Cross was instituted as a Romanian branch of the International Red Cross in 1876, under the reign of her great-great grand uncle King Carol I of Romania.
In her acceptance statement, she expressed her gratitude to the Romanian Red Cross representatives, who re-established a long and valuable tradition of partnership between the oldest organization in the country and the Romanian Crown.

Custodian of the Crown of Romania
Succession
Although at Margareta's birth she was not expected to inherit the defunct Romanian throne and the headship of the Romanian royal family, the birth of four younger sisters and no brother meant that without a change in the royal family's succession laws, male members of the House of Hohenzollern would succeed her father as pretenders to the Romanian throne, in accordance with the Salic law enshrined in both the defunct royal Romanian Constitution of 1923 and the defunct Statute of the Romanian royal house, dated 1884.
In 1997 King Michael designated Margareta as successor to "all prerogatives and rights" of his, indicating his desire for a gender-blind succession to the throne; although there was much consideration of altering the line of succession, no actions were taken until 30 December 2007, when King Michael I issued the statutes for the Royal House, called The Fundamental Rules of the Royal House of Romania.Following the announcement of The Fundamental Rules, King Michael asked the Romanian Government that, should it consider restoring the monarchy, it should also abolish the Salic law of succession.Margareta does not use the title of queen; instead she claims the title "Custodian of the Romanian Crown", with the style "Her Majesty", a title that Michael I offered her.Paul-Philippe Hohenzollern (son of King Michael's illegitimate half-brother, Carol Lambrino) denounced King Michael's actions of creating The Fundamental Rules and severing ties with the House of Hohenzollern. Paul also claims to be head of the Romanian royal family, unlike his father.

Foreign relations
Although Margareta has no official role within the politics of Romania to maintain ties with other countries, she has fostered diplomatic relationships with numerous foreign dignitaries in her capacity as a head of the House of Romania. During these visits she is often accompanied by her husband Prince Radu, who is a special Romanian government representative for Integration, Co-operation and Sustainable Development.

Marriage
In 1994, Margareta met Radu Duda, a Romanian citizen and part-time actor, through the work of the Princess Margareta Foundation. He was working as an art therapist in orphanages when he was introduced to her during her tour of the foundation's programs. On 24 July 1996, she married Duda in a civil wedding at Versoix.Radu Duda was accorded the style "Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" on 1 January 1999, and was subsequently styled "HRH Radu, Prince of Romania", being referred to by King Michael on 30 December 2007, as future "Prince Consort of Romania". In Margareta's company and, more often alone, he has represented the former royal family publicly on various occasions. They live in the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest.

Controversies
BAE Systems, one of the donors to the Princess Margareta of Romania Foundation, and its representatives have been involved in a corruption scandal involving purchase by the Romanian government of two decommissioned UK Royal Navy frigates refurbished by BAE, for which an alleged £7 million bribe was paid, some of which, it has also been alleged, ended up in the pockets of the Hohenzollern royal family to which Margareta belongs. The "Gardianul" newspaper, noting that both Margareta and her husband, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times with the BAE Systems representatives before and after the signing of the governmental contract, inquired whether the royal family was involved in any lobbying on behalf of the company. In an official communiqué sent to the newspaper, Prince Radu denied any such lobbying activities, stating that as patron of the British-Romanian Chamber of Commerce of which BAE Systems is a member, he met with its representatives as well as those of other British companies.

Political support
The main pro-monarchist party PNŢCD, currently extra-parliamentary, is ambiguous in its support for Margareta. In 2002, it rejected any role for her or her husband in a restored monarchy, while in 2003 the Cluj branch of PNŢCD officially invited her to be its electoral candidate to the Senate of the Republic in upcoming elections.Prior to his death, King Michael had not given up the hope for the restoration of the throne: "We are trying to make people understand what Romanian monarchy was and what it can still do."In a July 2013 survey about a potential restoration of monarchy in Romania, 19% of respondents gave Margareta as their favorite, while 29.9% supported her father. 48.1% said they did not know or did not answer.
In December 2017, on the backdrop of the increased capital of trust in the Royal House of Romania, re-emerging with the death of King Michael, the executive chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party Nicolae Bădălau said that one could organize a referendum on the transition to the monarchical ruling form, arguing that "it is not a bad thing, considering that the countries that have the monarchs are developed countries", being a project of the future. At the same time, the leader of the coalition party and the president of the Senate of Romania, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, reinforced this idea, claiming that he is a convinced monarchist and "constitutional monarchy has the advantage of placing the monarch over political games, case: the president, instead of being an arbitrator, prefers to be a player. "

Honours and awards
Honours
Dynastic
House of Romania: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of Carol I
 House of Romania: Sovereign Royal Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Crown
 House of Romania: Sovereign Knight of the Royal Decoration of the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, Special Class
 Portuguese Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Isabel

Ecclesiastical
Order of Our Lady of Prayer (Romanian Orthodox Church)

Foreign
Czech Republic: Recipient of the Medal of Merit of the Ministry of Defence, 2nd Class
 France: Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour
 SMOM: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit
 Moldova: Recipient of the Medal of Democracy

Honorary titles and medals
In Romania
Honorary Citizen of the Cluj County
Honorary Citizen of Iași
Recipient of the Gold Olympic Order of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee

Outside Romania
Recipient of the Académie Française’s medal
Honorary Citizen of The Jerash Governorate
Honorary Citizen of Scotland
Recipient of the Jordan Red Crescent’s Golden Medal
Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Northern Europe: The North Cross
Recipient of the Dimitrie Cantemir Medal from the Academy of Sciences of Moldova
Recipient of the 50th Birthday Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Recipient of the 70th Birthday Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf
Memorial Medal of Tree of Peace in Special class with rubies by Slovak NGO Servare et ManereHonorific eponymPrincipesa Mostenitoare Margareta Scoala GimnazialaHonorary academic degreesHonorary degree of the University of Pitești
Honorary degree of the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine
Honorary degree of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations
Honorary degree of the Babeș-Bolyai University

Ancestry
Publications
The Romanian Crown at 140 years. Coroana română- la 140 de ani, 2008
The Diamond wedding. Nunta de diamant, 2008
Royal cookery book. Carte regală de bucate, 2010 – recenzie
The king's music. Albumul Muzica Regelui, 2011
The royal Christmas. Crăciunul Regal, 2013, 2014
Săvârșin. The detail. Săvârșin. Detaliul* , 2015
Encourage with your hand the Romanian Crown. Susţine cu a ta mână Coroana Română, 2017 - The volume includes texts about the kings and queens of Romania, as well as about the current generation of the Royal Family.

See also
Monarchism in Romania
Passage 9:
Eldon Howard
Eldon Howard was a British screenwriter. She was the mother-in-law of Edward J. Danziger and wrote a number of the screenplays for films by his company Danziger Productions.

Selected filmography
A Woman of Mystery (1958)
Three Crooked Men (1958)
Moment of Indiscretion (1958) (with Brian Clemens)
Innocent Meeting (1959)
An Honourable Murder (1960)
The Spider's Web (1960)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1960)
Highway to Battle (1961)
Three Spare Wives (1962)
Passage 10:
Baroness Gösta von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen
Baroness Gösta von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (German: Freiin Gösta Julie Adelheid Marion Marie von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen; 26 January 1902 – 13 June 1996)  was the mother of Prince Claus of the Netherlands, who was the Prince Consort of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, thus making her the mother-in-law of the former Dutch Queen. She is also the paternal grandmother of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who is the current Dutch King.

Early life
Gösta was born at Döbeln, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire (now Saxony, Germany), the second child and daughter of Baron George von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (1869–1923), and his wife, Baroness Gabriele von dem Bussche-Ippenburg (1877–1973). Her father belonged to the Bussche-Haddenhausen branch of the Bussche family, her mother belonged to the Bussche-Ippenburg branch. Both descended from Clamor von dem Bussche (1532–1573).
Her mother was the heir of Dötzingen estate near Hitzacker, which her maternal grandfather had inherited from the counts von Oeynhausen after 1918. Gösta's father was an officer in the Royal Saxon Army. Dötzingen estate later passed on to her brother Baron Julius von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (1906–1977). After her return from Africa, and her husband's death in 1963, she spent the rest of her life in Dötzingen.

Marriage
Gösta married on 4 September 1924 at Hitzacker to Claus Felix von Amsberg (1890–1963), son of Wilhelm von Amsberg and Elise von Vieregge.
Together they had six daughters and one son:

Sigrid von Amsberg (Hitzacker-Dötzingen, 26 June 1925 – 1 April 2018), married in 1952 to Ascan-Bernd Jencquel (17 August 1913 – 4 November 2003), had issue.
Claus von Amsberg (Hitzacker-Dötzingen, 6 September 1926 – Amsterdam, 6 October 2002), married in 1966 to Beatrix of the Netherlands (b. 31 January 1938), had issue.
Rixa von Amsberg (Hitzacker-Dötzingen, 18 November 1927 – 6 January 2010), married to Peter Ahrend (17 April 1920 – 2011), no issue.
Margit von Amsberg (Bumbuli, 16 October 1930 – 1988), married in 1964 to Ernst Grubitz (14 April 1931 – 5 June 2009), had issue.
Barbara von Amsberg (Bumbuli, 16 October 1930), married in 1963 to Günther Haarhaus (22 October 1921 – 9 February 2007), had issue.
Theda von Amsberg (Tanga, 30 June 1939), married in 1966 to Baron Karl von Friesen (b. 1933), had issue.
Christina von Amsberg (Salisbury, 20 January 1945), married in 1971 to Baron Hans Hubertus von der Recke (b. 1942), had issue.

Life in Africa
Her husband had returned from the Tanganyika Territory, a German colony (now Tanzania) during World War I to become manager of Dötzingen estate in 1917. Shortly after, the estate passed on to the Bussche family. In 1924 he married his employer's daughter, and in 1926, their son Claus war born at Dötzingen. In 1928 the family moved to Tanganyika where they remained during the outbreak of World War II. Her husband was manager of a German-British tea and sisal plantation. Her son was sent back to a German boarding school in 1933, but returned to Africa in 1936; in 1938 Gösta returned to Germany, and Claus was sent to a boarding school in Misdroy, before becoming drafted by the army. Her husband returned to Germany in 1947.

Death
She died, aged 94, in Hitzacker, Germany.

Family relations
Gösta was a second cousin of Dorothea von Salviati (wife of Kronprinz Wilhelm's eldest son Prince Wilhelm of Prussia), both being great-granddaughters of Heinrich von Salviati and Caroline Rahlenbeck. Her younger and only brother Julius (1906-1977) was married to Anna-Elisabeth von Pfuel (1909-2005).
Her family's home, Dötzingen castle, Lower Saxony, had passed to her maternal grandfather Eberhard Friedrich Gustav von dem Bussche-Ippenburg from the counts von Oeynhausen. It was at a dinner party of a distant cousin, the count von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff in Bad Driburg, on New Year's Eve 1962 that her son Claus met crown-princess Beatrix for the first time, herself also being a cousin of the host: Beatrix' paternal grandmother Armgard von Cramm was a daughter of Baron Aschwin von Sierstorpff-Cramm (1846–1909) and his wife, Baroness Hedwig von Sierstorpff-Driburg (1848–1900), and Armgard von Cramm had first been married to count Bodo von Oeynhausen, before marrying Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (1872–1934), Beatrix' grandfather; Armgard's elder sister Baroness Hedwig von Sierstorpff-Cramm (1874–1907) was the heir of her mother's family's estate Driburg, and she also married a count von Oeynhausen, Wilhelm Karl Ludwig Kuno Graf von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff (1860–1922), whose descendants still own Driburg estate.

Ancestry
Notes and sources
thePeerage.com - Gosta Freiin von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen
Die Ahnen Claus Georg von Amsberg, Limburg a.d. Lahn, 1966, Euler, F. W., Reference: 3
Ancestor list HRH Claus Prince of The Netherlands, 1999 and 2003, Verheecke, José, Reference: 3


Passage 1:
Scotty Fox
Scott Fox is a pornographic film director who is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame.

Awards
1992 AVN Award – Best Director, Video (The Cockateer)
1995 AVN Hall of Fame inductee
Passage 2:
Elliot Silverstein
Elliot Silverstein (born August 3, 1927) is a retired American film and television director. He directed the Academy Award-winning western comedy Cat Ballou (1965), and other films including The Happening (1967), A Man Called Horse (1970), Nightmare Honeymoon (1974), and The Car (1977). His television work includes four episodes of The Twilight Zone (1961–1964).

Career
Elliot Silverstein was the director of six feature films in the mid-twentieth century. The most famous of these by far is Cat Ballou, a comedy-western starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin.
The other Silverstein films, in chronological order, are The Happening, A Man Called Horse,  Nightmare Honeymoon, The Car, and Flashfire.
Other work included directing for the television shows The Twilight Zone, The Nurses, Picket Fences, and Tales from the Crypt.
While Silverstein was not a prolific director, his films were often decorated. Cat Ballou, for instance, earned one Oscar and was nominated for four more. His high quality work was rewarded in 1990 with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of America.

Awards
In 1965, at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Youth Film Award – Honorable Mention, in the category of Best Feature Film Suitable for Young People for Cat Ballou.
He was also nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear.In 1966, he was nominated for the DGA Award in the category for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Cat Ballou).
In 1971, he won the Bronze Wrangler award at the Western Heritage Awards in the category of Theatrical Motion Picture for A Man Called Horse, along with producer Sandy Howard, writer Jack DeWitt, and actors Judith Anderson, Jean Gascon, Corinna Tsopei and Richard Harris.In 1985, he won the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America.
In 1990, he was awarded the DGA Honorary Life Member Award.

Personal life
Silverstein has been married three times, each ending in divorce. His first marriage was to Evelyn Ward in 1962; the couple divorced in 1968. His second marriage was to Alana King. During his first marriage, he was the step-father of David Cassidy.
He currently lives in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. Actively retired, Silverstein has taught film at USC and continues to work on screen plays and other projects.

Filmography
Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) (1991–94)
Picket Fences (TV Series) (1993)
Rich Men, Single Women (TV Movie) (1990)
Fight for Life (TV Movie) (1987)
Night of Courage (TV Movie) (1987)
Betrayed by Innocence (TV Movie) (1986)
The Firm (TV Series) (1982–1983)
The Car (1977)
Nightmare Honeymoon (1974)
A Man Called Horse (1970)
The Happening (1967)
Cat Ballou (1965)
Kraft Suspense Theatre (TV Series) (1963–64)
The Defenders (TV Series) (1962–64)
Arrest and Trial (TV Series) (1964)
The Doctors and the Nurses (TV Series) (1962–64)
Twilight Zone (TV Series) (1961–64)
Breaking Point (TV Series) (1963)
Dr. Kildare (TV Series) (1961–63)
The Dick Powell Theatre (TV Series) (1962)
Belle Sommers (TV Movie) (1962)
Naked City (TV Series) (1961–62)
Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series) (1961)
Route 66 (TV Series) (1960–61)
Checkmate (TV Series) (1961)
The Westerner (TV Series) (1960)
Assignment: Underwater (TV Series) (1960)
Black Saddle (TV Series) (1960)
Suspicion (TV Series) (1958)
Omnibus (TV Series) (1954–56)
Passage 3:
Robert G. Vignola
Robert G. Vignola (born Rocco Giuseppe Vignola, August 7, 1882 – October 25, 1953) was an Italian-American actor, screenwriter, and film director. A former stage actor, he appeared in many motion pictures produced by Kalem Company and later moved to directing, becoming one of the silent screen's most prolific directors. He directed a handful of films in the early years of talkies but his career essentially ended in the silent era.

Early life
Vignola was born in August 7, 1882 in Trivigno, a village in the province of Potenza, Basilicata, to Donato Gaetano Vignola, a stone mason, and Anna Rosa Rago.  It is unsure why he used August 5th as his birthday in America. He had two brothers and three sisters, his oldest sister having died at the age of 19 months in Italy. Travelling with his mother and siblings, he left Italy in May 1886, at the age of three. He was raised in Albany, New York. Because of his Christian name of Rocco he was nicknamed "Rocky" on the family’s first census in New York. His name Rocco was later changed to Robert. Trained as a barber in his youth, Vignola by age 14 became interested in the circus, practicing contortion and slackwire. Three years later, in 1899, he found his true vocation—acting—and the following year in Albany he established a small performance company that he named "The Empire Dramatic Club".

Acting career
In 1901 he started acting on stage professionally and joined the "American Stock Company" in New York. He made his stage debut in "Romeo and Juliet", performing with Eleanor Robson Belmont and Kyrle Bellew. In the following years he played leads and became a character actor. Vignola's motion picture career began in 1906 with the short film The Black Hand, directed by Wallace McCutcheon and produced by Biograph Company, generally considered the film that launched the mafia genre.In 1907 he joined Kalem Studios, starring in numerous movies directed by his long-time friend Sidney Olcott often dealing with Irish culture such as The Lad from Old Ireland (1910), The Colleen Bawn (1911), and Arrah-na-Pogue (1911). Olcott would later promote him to assistant director. The Kalem Company traveled across Europe and Middle East, where Vignola did one of his most notable roles as Judas Iscariot in From the Manger to the Cross (1912), among the most acclaimed films of the silent years. According to Moving Picture World, he was the first actor who was placed upon a permanent salary by Kalem.

Directing career
Vignola directed 110 pictures from 1911 to 1937. His debut as a film director was Rory O'More (1911), co-directed with Olcott. The Vampire (1913), starring Alice Hollister, was well-received by critics and is sometimes cited as the earliest surviving "vamp" movie (another title with the same name produced by William Nicholas Selig in 1910 is considered lost). He returned to the theme with The Vampire's Trail (1914), featuring Alice Joyce, Tom Moore and Hollister in a secondary role. He had a long association directing the early movies of Pauline Frederick such as Audrey (1916), Double Crossed (1917), and The Love That Lives (1917).
Vignola is best known for directing Marion Davies in several romantic comedies including Enchantment (1921), Beauty's Worth (1922), and the big-budget epic When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), which achieved critical and commercial acclaim and established Davies as a movie star. In 1920, he was offered the role of director-general for the Kinkikan Cinematograph Company in Japan and was honored as "outstanding director of the year" by Frederick James Smith of the Motion Picture Classic in 1921. The Woman God Changed (1921) and Adam and Eva (1923) were praised for the "innovative" use of shadows and lighting effects.With the arrival of the sound era, he directed Broken Dreams (1933), in competition for the Best Foreign Film at the 2nd Venice International Film Festival, and The Scarlet Letter (1934), the last film of Colleen Moore. His sound films were not successful and Vignola retired. His final film work was The Girl from Scotland Yard (1937).  Later that year he directed The Pilgrimage Play (live play in Los Angeles, not the related movie.).  Vignola was associated with the play at least to 1944.

Death
Vignola died in Hollywood, California in 1953. He was buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Personal life
He lived in a mansion at Whitley Heights owned by William Randolph Hearst. According to legend, Hearst's mistress Marion Davies was allowed to stay without him at Vignola's mansion, worried that she was having affairs and considering Vignola a trusted companion for her as he was homosexual. Sidney Olcott, alone after the passing of his wife Valentine Grant, spent his later life at Vignola's home, where he died in 1949.Vignola was described by Delight Evans as "the sanest and least temperamental of all celluloid creators. He has infinite patience. He has one quality which makes actors want to work for him: consideration." He once said: "Before a director can learn to control thousands of people and big stars and big scenes, he must first learn to control himself." He identified himself as a Republican, although he was not much interested in politics. Vignola visited his birthplace Trivigno with his family, provided money to build the town's war monument and maintained correspondence with some of his relatives.

Partial filmography
Actor
Director
Passage 4:
She Wants Me
She Wants Me is a 2012 comedy film written and directed by Rob Margolies and starring Josh Gad and Kristen Ruhlin.

Plot
Sam is a writer working on a feature film. His girlfriend Sammy has been promised the lead role, but the producers want a famous actress. After some problems and the return of Sammy’s ex-boyfriend John, the relationship get complicated and they break up. Sam needs to deal with John, who becomes his friend and roommate, his lack of inspiration to write the film, his new single life and a new girlfriend who has had sex with many men, though all he really wants is Sammy back.

Cast
Casting
Margolies originally penned the role of Sam Baum for Jonah Hill, and intended Elliot Page to play Sammy Kingston. Kate Bosworth was originally attached to play the role of Kim Powers, but due to scheduling conflicts with another film, was unable to participate. Hilary Duff replaced her in October 2010.
The cameo role of Charlie Sheen was penned originally for Jeff Goldblum, but when the producers of the film mentioned an option to have Sheen participate, Margolies jumped at the chance to work with him. Sheen eventually became one of the executive producers of the film.
Passage 5:
Dan Milne
Dan Milne is a British actor/director who is possibly best known for his role in EastEnders.

Career
He started his career in 1996 and made an appearance in Murder Most Horrid and as a pub poet in In a Land of Plenty. He then appeared in EastEnders as David Collins, Jane Beale's dying husband.
As a member of the Young Vic, he collaborated with Tim Supple to originate  Grimm Tales, which toured internationally, culminating in a Broadway run at the New Victory Theater. Since that time he has collaborated on more than seven major new works, including Two Men Talking, which has run for the past six years in various cities across the world. In 2013, he replaced Ken Barrie as the voice of the Reverend Timms in the children's show, Postman Pat.
Passage 6:
Rob Margolies
Rob Margolies (born February 28, 1983) is an American film producer and director.
Margolies grew up in Rumson, New Jersey and graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in the class of 2001  before going on to study filmmaking at the New York Film Academy.In 2005, he produced We All Fall Down, a short subject about the Great Plague of 1666. In 2008 he directed Wherever You Are. He directed the 2010 movie Life-ers which stars Kevin Ryan, from the  Barry Levinson BBC TV show Copper. He directed the film She Wants Me (2012) starring Josh Gad, Hilary Duff and Kristen Ruhlin with a cameo by Charlie Sheen, who was also an executive producer. He also directed the independent thriller Roommate Wanted (2015), a.k.a. 2BR/1BA, starring Spy Kids star Alexa Vega, Kathryn Morris and CW Greek star Spencer Grammer.
Margolies later directed Weight (2018), which earned him two awards at the 2018 Northeast Film Festival, including "Best Feature Film".
Passage 7:
Women's Weapons
Women's Weapons is a lost 1918 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Robert G. Vignola and starring Ethel Clayton.

Cast
Ethel Clayton as Anne Elliot
Elliott Dexter as Nicholas Elliot
Vera Doria as Esmee Hale
James Neill as Peter Gregory
Josephine Crowell as Margaret
Pat Moore as Nicholas, Jr.
Joan Marsh as Nicholas, Jr.'s sister (credited as Dorothy Rosher)
Passage 8:
Kristen Ruhlin
Kristen Ruhlin is an American actress. She is known for her roles in The Girl in the Park, One Life to Live, Human Giant, and She Wants Me.

Personal
Ruhlin grew up in Charleston, West Virginia and graduated from Charleston Catholic High School. She graduated from Ohio State University in 2006 with a B.S. in Fiber Properties and a minor in Theatre and Dance. She is from Charleston, West Virginia. After graduating from college she relocated to New York city in the Fall of 2006. In 2009 she moved to Los Angeles to work on a film called Missing Child, and remained there for the next few years with frequent trips back to New York, where she worked on films such as She Wants Me. Since 2013 she has been residing in New York City.

Filmography
2013 The Road Home, with Lily Tomlin.
2012 She Wants Me, starring as Sammy Kingston with Josh Gad, Hilary Duff, Wayne Knight and Charlie Sheen.
2012 Stuck, with Madeline Zima.
2010 Life-ers, TV movie from the producers of CBS and Darren Starr's We Need Girlfriends.
2007 The Girl in the Park, with Kate Bosworth, Keri Russell and Sigourney Weaver.
2007 Human Giant, TV show with Jonah Hill.
2015 Missing Child
Passage 9:
Dorothy Sue Cobble
Dorothy Sue Cobble (June 28, 1949) is an American historian, and a specialist in the historical study of work, social movements, and feminism in the United States and worldwide. She is currently a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, holding dual appointments in the Departments of Labor Studies and History since 1986.
Her book The Other Women’s Movement (2005) coined the term labor feminism.

Early life and education
Cobble grew up in the South, before receiving her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. She worked briefly as a trade union stevedore in the mid-1970s before earning her Ph.D. in history from Stanford University in 1986. A student of Carl Degler, she became a leading historian of women's labor movements.

Career
Cobble's first book Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (1991) was among the earliest studies of unionism and the service sector. Her second book, The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in America (2005) is a political and intellectual history of women’s contributions to reforming the workplace. It received the 2005 Philip Taft Book Prize from Cornell University for the best book in American labor history. She edited The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor (2007), published by the Cornell University Press. Most recently she coauthored, with Linda Gordon and Astrid Henry, Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements (2014).

Publications
Books
Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (1991)
The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in America (2005)
The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor (2007)
Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements with Linda Gordon and Astrid Henry (2014)

== Notes ==
Passage 10:
Ben Palmer
Ben Palmer (born 1976) is a British film and television director.
His television credits include the Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta! (2002–2006), the second and third series of the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners (2009–2010) and the Sky Atlantic comedy-drama Breeders (2020). Palmer has also directed films such as the Inbetweeners spin-off, The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) and the romantic comedy Man Up (2015).

Biography
Palmer was born and raised in Penny Bridge, Barrow-in-Furness. He attended Chetwynde School.His first directing job was the Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta!, which he co-developed with its main star, Leigh Francis. Palmer directed the second and third series of the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Filmography
Bo' Selecta! (2002–06)
Comedy Lab (2004–2010)
Bo! in the USA (2006)
The Inbetweeners (2009–2010)
The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
Comedy Showcase (2012)
Milton Jones's House of Rooms (2012)
Them from That Thing (2012)
Bad Sugar (2012)
Chickens (2013)
London Irish (2013)
Man Up (2015)
SunTrap (2015)
BBC Comedy Feeds (2016)
Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back (2016)
Back (2017)
Comedy Playhouse (2017)
Urban Myths (2017–19)
Click & Collect (2018)
Semi-Detached (2019)
Breeders (2020)