Passage 1:
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards; one for his acting and the other as a producer.
He has been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2015, the Honorary César in 2017, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2018, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2022.Clooney started his career in television, gaining wide recognition in his role as Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999, for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He expanded to leading roles in films, with his breakthrough role in From Dusk till Dawn (1996). followed by superhero film Batman & Robin (1997), Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998), David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999), Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm (2000), and the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Greater stardom came from his starring role in Soderbergh's Ocean's film series from 2001 to 2007.
Clooney made his directorial debut with the spy drama Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), and has since directed the historical drama Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), the political drama The Ides of March (2011), the war film The Monuments Men (2014), and the science fiction film The Midnight Sky (2020). Clooney won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the thriller Syriana (2005), and earned Best Actor nominations for the legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007), and the comedy-dramas Up in the Air (2009) and The Descendants (2011). He received the Academy Award for Best Picture for co-producing the political thriller Argo (2012). He has also starred in Burn After Reading (2008), The American (2010), Gravity (2013), Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Ticket to Paradise (2022).
As of 2023, Clooney is one of two people to have been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories, a position shared with Walt Disney. Clooney was included on Time's annual Time 100 list, which identifies the most influential people in the world, every year from 2006 to 2009. He is also noted for his political and economic activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since 2008. Clooney is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Outside of acting, Clooney is known for cofounding Casamigos tequila, which was one of the best-selling spirits of 2022.

Early life
Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce (née Warren), was a beauty queen and city councilwoman. His father, Nick Clooney, is a former anchorman and television host, including five years on the AMC network. Clooney is of Irish, German, and English ancestry. His maternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Sparrow, was the half-sister of Nancy Lincoln, mother of President Abraham Lincoln, making Clooney and Lincoln half-first cousins five times removed. Clooney has an older sister named Adelia (known as Ada). Cabaret singer and actress Rosemary Clooney was an aunt. Through Rosemary, his cousins include actors Miguel Ferrer, Rafael Ferrer, and Gabriel Ferrer, who is married to singer Debby Boone.Clooney was raised a strict Roman Catholic but said in 1998 that he did not know if he believed "in Heaven or even God." He has said, "Yes, we were Catholic, big-time, whole family, whole group." He began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. He attended St. Michael's School in Worthington, Ohio; then Western Row Elementary School (a public school) in Mason, Ohio, from 1968 to 1974; and St. Susanna School in Mason, where he served as an altar boy. The Clooneys moved back to Kentucky when George was midway through the seventh grade. In middle school, Clooney developed Bell's palsy, a medical condition that partially paralyzes the face. The malady went away within a year. In an interview with Larry King, he stated that "yes, it goes away. It takes about nine months to go away. It was the first year of high school, which was a bad time for having half your face paralyzed." He also described one positive outcome of the condition: "It's probably a great thing that it happened to me because it forced me to engage in a series of making fun of myself. And I think that's an important part of being famous. The practical jokes have to be aimed at you."After his parents moved to Augusta, Kentucky, Clooney attended Augusta High School. He has stated that he earned all As and a B in school, and played baseball and basketball. He tried out to play professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but he did not pass the first round of player cuts and was not offered a contract. He attended Northern Kentucky University from 1979 to 1981, majoring in broadcast journalism, and very briefly attended the University of Cincinnati, but did not graduate from either. He earned money selling women's shoes, insurance door to door, stocking shelves, working in construction, and cutting tobacco.

Career
Early work (1978–1993)
Clooney's first role was as an extra in the television mini-series Centennial in 1978, which was based on the novel of the same name by James A. Michener and was partly filmed in Clooney's hometown of Augusta, Kentucky. Clooney's first major role came in 1984 in the short-lived CBS sitcom E/R (not to be confused with ER, the long-running medical drama). He played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life and appeared as Bobby Hopkins, a detective, on an episode of The Golden Girls. His first prominent role was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's supervisor Booker Brooks, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk, a co-starring role on the CBS drama Bodies of Evidence as Detective Ryan Walker, and then a year-long turn as Det. James Falconer on Sisters. In 1988, Clooney played one of the lead roles in the comedy-horror film Return of the Killer Tomatoes. In 1990, he starred in the short-lived ABC police drama Sunset Beat. During this period, Clooney was a student at the Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school for five years.

Breakthrough and stardom (1994–1999)
Clooney rose to fame when he played Dr. Doug Ross, alongside Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, and Noah Wyle, on the hit NBC medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999. After leaving the series in 1999, he made a cameo appearance in the 6th season and returned for a guest spot in the show's final season. For his work on the series, Clooney received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1995 and 1996. He also earned three Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1995, 1996, and 1997 (losing to co-star Anthony Edwards).Clooney began appearing in films while working on ER. His first major Hollywood role was in the horror comedy-crime thriller From Dusk till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez and co-starring Harvey Keitel. He followed its success with the romantic comedy One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer, and the action-thriller The Peacemaker with Nicole Kidman. Clooney was then cast as Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, which was a modest box office performer, but a critical failure (with Clooney himself calling the film "a waste of money"). In 1998, he co-starred in the crime-comedy Out of Sight opposite Jennifer Lopez, marking the first of his many collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. He also starred in Three Kings during the last weeks of his contract with ER.

Established leading man (2000–2004)
After leaving ER, Clooney starred in commercially successful films including Wolfgang Petersen's disaster film The Perfect Storm (2000) which was a box office success. The same year he starred in the Coen brothers adventure comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) alongside John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Goodman. The film, a modern satire, is loosely based on Homer's epic Greek poem the Odyssey and the Preston Sturges 1941 classic film Sullivan's Travels. This film is set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. He plays escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination for his performance. Variety film critic Todd McCarthy compared Clooney to Clark Gable writing, "Not for the first time recalling Clark Gable in his looks and line delivery, Clooney clearly delights in embellishing Everett's vanity and in delivering the Coens’ carefully calibrated, high-toned dialogue".
The following year In 2001, Clooney reunited with Soderbergh for the heist comedy Ocean's Eleven, a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name, with Clooney playing Danny Ocean, originally portrayed by Frank Sinatra. The film starred Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, and Andy Garcia. The film cemented Clooney as a leading film star. It is Clooney's most successful film with him in the lead role, earning $451 million worldwide (he appeared, but did not star, in Gravity, which has a $723 million worldwide box office). Ocean's Eleven inspired two sequels starring Clooney, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. In 2001, Clooney and Soderbergh co-founded Section Eight Productions, for which Grant Heslov was president of television.
The following year he would work with Soderbergh yet again in the science fiction drama Solaris (2002) an adaptation of the acclaimed 1972 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Famed critic Roger Ebert praised the film and Clooney writing, "Clooney has successfully survived being named People magazine's sexiest man alive by deliberately choosing projects that ignore that image. His alliance with Soderbergh, both as an actor and co-producer, shows a taste for challenge." That same year Clooney made his directorial debut in the 2002 film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, based on the autobiography of TV producer Chuck Barris. The film premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. Though the film did not do well at the box office, critics stated that Clooney's directing showed promise.In 2003, Clooney reunited with the Coen brothers in the romantic comedy Intolerable Cruelty opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times praised their chemistry and the casting of Clooney in the role writing, "the good work comes from George Clooney, who happens to have the Art Deco profile fit for a 1930's comedy. He scores with his willingness to mock his above-average charisma level and the chiseled chin, cover-guy good looks".

Directorial debut and acclaim (2005–2013)
In 2005, Clooney starred in Syriana, which was based loosely on former Central Intelligence Agency agent Robert Baer's memoirs of his service in the Middle East. Clooney suffered an accident on the set of Syriana, which caused a brain injury with complications from a punctured dura. The same year he directed, produced, and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck, a film about 1950s television journalist Edward R. Murrow's famous war of words with Senator Joseph McCarthy. At the 2006 Academy Awards, Clooney was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. He won the Oscar for his role in Syriana.Clooney next appeared in The Good German (2006), a film noir directed by Soderbergh that is set in post-World War II Germany. In August 2006, Clooney and Heslov started the production company Smokehouse Pictures. In October 2006, Clooney received the American Cinematheque Award, which honors someone in the entertainment industry who has made "a significant contribution to the art of motion pictures". On January 22, 2008, Clooney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for Michael Clayton (2007) losing to Daniel Day-Lewis who won for Paul Thomas Anderson's drama There Will Be Blood (2007).
Later that year, he directed his third film, Leatherheads, in which he also starred. On April 4, 2008, Variety reported that Clooney had quietly resigned from the Writers Guild of America over a dispute concerning Leatherheads. Clooney, who is the director, producer and star of the film, claimed that he had contributed in writing "all but two scenes" of it, and requested a writing credit alongside Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, who had worked on the screenplay for 17 years. Clooney lost an arbitration vote 2–1, and withdrew from the union over the decision. He became a "financial core status" non-member, meaning he no longer has voting rights, and cannot run for office or attend membership meetings, according to the Writers Guild of America's constitution.
In 2009, he starred in the war comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats alongside Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. The film was directed by Heslov and released in November 2009. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to positive reviews. Also in November 2009, he voiced the title character opposite Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox in Wes Anderson's animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox. The same year, Clooney starred in the Jason Reitman directed comedy-drama Up in the Air, which was initially given limited release, and then wide-released on December 25, 2009. Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter praised Clooney's performance writing, "Boasting one of George Clooney’s strongest performances, the film seems like a surefire awards contender". For his performance in the film he was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA, and an Academy Award. The following year Clooney produced and starred in the dark crime drama The American (2010), based on the novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth and directed by Anton Corbijn.As of 2011, Clooney is represented by Bryan Lourd, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). In 2011 Clooney starred in The Descendants as a husband whose wife has an accident that leaves her in a coma. He earned critical praise for his work, and won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Also, he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the political drama The Ides of March.
In 2013, Clooney won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Argo. The following year Clooney co-starred with Sandra Bullock in Gravity (2013), a space thriller directed by Alfonso Cuarón.In 2013, Clooney co-founded Casamigos Tequila with Rande Gerber and Michael Meldman. It was sold to Diageo for $700 million in June 2017, with an additional $300 million possible depending on the company's performance over the next ten years. According to Forbes annual ranking, he was the world's highest-paid actor for 2017–2018, earning $239 million between June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018.

Career slump and resurgence (2014–present)
In 2014, Clooney co-wrote, directed and starred in The Monuments Men, an adaptation of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel. The film starred an ensemble cast of A-list stars including Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Bob Balaban as well as European stars Hugh Bonneville, and Jean Dujardin. The film was a critical misfire and a box office failure. Many historians were critical of the film for its historical inaccuracies. The Guardian film critic Andrew Pulver, panned the film writing, that the film was "filled with unearned patriotic sentiment, sketchy to the point of inanity, and interrupted every few minutes with neurotic self-justification". That same year Clooney produced August: Osage County (2013), an adaptation of the play of the same name. The film stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
His next film was Tomorrowland (2015), a science fiction adventure film in which he played Frank Walker, an inventor. Later in the year, he was featured as himself in the Netflix Christmas musical comedy A Very Murray Christmas, starring Bill Murray. The following year he starred in
Hail, Caesar!, a comedy from the Coen brothers set in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, which premiered in February 2016. Clooney portrayed Baird Whitlock, a Robert Taylor-type film star who is kidnapped during the production of a film. Josh Brolin co-starred as fixer Eddie Mannix. Clooney reunited with Julia Roberts for the Jodie Foster-directed thriller Money Monster (2016), playing the host of a television show that investigates conspiracies on commerce and Wall Street, who is taken hostage by a bankrupt viewer given a bad tip.
In October 2017, his directorial project Suburbicon a 1950s-set crime comedy was released. It stars Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac, from a script written by the Coen brothers in the 1980s, that they had originally intended to direct themselves. He received the 2018 AFI Life Achievement Award on June 7, 2018. The award was presented to him by Shirley MacLaine, and was honored by Julianna Margulies, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Anna Kendrick, Jimmy Kimmel, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and his wife Amal Clooney.
In 2019, Clooney returned to television, starring, directing, and producing the Hulu historical miniseries Catch-22 based upon the novel of the same name by Joseph Heller. Clooney was initially cast in a main role in the series; however, he opted to take a smaller supporting role instead. The series premiered on May 31, 2019, to critical acclaim.After a four year absence from acting in film Clooney starred in the science fiction film,The Midnight Sky a film he also directed, and produced based upon the Lily Brooks-Dalton debut novel, Good Morning, Midnight, for Netflix. He also directs The Tender Bar adaptation for Amazon Studios with Ben Affleck in the lead. It will have a limited release in Los Angeles and New York theatres on December 17, 2021, followed by a nationwide premiere on December 22, 2021. The coming-of-age film will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video from January 7, 2022.In February 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures would be teaming with Sports Illustrated Studios and 101 Studios to produce a docuseries about the Ohio State University abuse scandal, and that the series would be based on an October 2020 Sports Illustrated article by Jon Wertheim.In September 2021, Clooney reteamed with Brad Pitt for an untitled thriller film written and directed by Jon Watts.In 2022, he reunited with Julia Roberts for a romantic comedy film Ticket to Paradise directed by Ol Parker. It was initially set to release in theatres on September 30, 2022, but was pushed by a month to October 21, 2022.In 2023, Clooney reprised the role of Bruce Wayne / Batman in a cameo in The Flash.

Activism and public advocacy
Political views
Clooney supported both of Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Clooney endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election. Clooney endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential election, and he hosted a virtual fundraiser for Biden together with Obama on July 28, 2020.He has also made humorous statements against Republican Party figures. In 2006, Clooney sarcastically thanked Jack Abramoff at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards before concluding with "Who would name their kid 'Jack' with 'off' at the end? No wonder the guy's screwed up". Clooney has also described Republican donor Steve Wynn as an "asshole" and a "jackass", after the two had a heated disagreement over the Affordable Care Act.

Humanitarian work
Clooney is involved with Not On Our Watch Project, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities, along with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, David Pressman, and Jerry Weintraub. In February 2009, he visited Goz Beida, Chad, with New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof. In January 2010, he organized the telethon Hope for Haiti Now, which collected donations for the 2010 Haiti earthquake victims.In March 2012, Clooney starred with Martin Sheen and Brad Pitt in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play '8'—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as attorney David Boies. The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. In September 2012, Clooney offered to take an auction winner out to lunch to benefit the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN works to create a safe space in schools for children who are or may be perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.On August 7, 2020, George and Amal Clooney donated $100,000 to three Lebanese charities after the capital, Beirut, was left devastated by a deadly explosion. They donated money to the Lebanese Red Cross, Impact Lebanon, and Baytna Baytak. The blast claimed the lives of at least 145 people and injured more than 5,000.

Darfur
Clooney has advocated a resolution of the Darfur conflict. He spoke at a 2006 Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C. In April 2006, he spent ten days in Chad and Sudan with his father to make the TV special "A Journey to Darfur" reflecting the situation of Darfur's refugees, and advocated for action. The documentary was broadcast on American cable TV as well as in the UK and France. In 2008, it was released on DVD with the sale proceeds being donated to the International Rescue Committee. In September of the same year, he spoke to the UN Security Council with Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel to ask the UN to find a solution to the conflict and to help the people of Darfur. In December, he visited China and Egypt with Don Cheadle and two Olympic winners to ask both governments to pressure Sudan's government.On March 25, 2007, he sent an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling on the European Union to take "decisive action" in the region given the failure of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir to respond to UN resolutions. He narrated and was co-executive producer of the 2007 documentary Sand and Sorrow. Clooney also appeared in the documentary film Darfur Now, a call-to-action film released in November 2007 for people all over the world to help stop the Darfur crisis. In December 2007, Clooney and fellow actor Don Cheadle received the Summit Peace Award from the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. In his acceptance speech, Clooney said that "Don and I ... stand here before you as failures. The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur ... those people are not better off now than they were years ago." On January 18, 2008, the United Nations announced Clooney's appointment as a UN messenger of peace, effective January 31.Clooney conceived of and, with John Prendergast – human rights activist, co-founder of the Enough Project, and Strategic Advisor for Not on Our Watch Project – initiated the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), after an October 2010 trip to South Sudan. SSP aims to monitor armed activity for signs of renewed civil war between Sudan and South Sudan, and to detect and deter mass atrocities along the border regions there.Clooney and Prendergast co-wrote a Washington Post op-ed piece in May 2011, titled "Dancing with a dictator in Sudan", arguing that:

President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, is escalating bombing and food aid obstruction in Darfur, and he now threatens the entire north-south peace process ... the evidence shows that incentives alone are insufficient to change Khartoum's calculations. International support should be sought immediately for denying debt relief, expanding the ICC indictments, diplomatically isolating the regime, suspending all non-humanitarian aid, obstructing state-controlled bank transactions and freezing accounts holding oil wealth diverted by senior regime officials.
On March 16, 2012, Clooney was arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy for civil disobedience. He intended to be arrested when he planned the protest. Several other prominent participants were also arrested, including Martin Luther King III. Clooney has been described as one of the most strident critics of Omar al-Bashir.

Armenian genocide
Clooney supports the recognition of the Armenian genocide. He is one of the chief associates of the 100 Lives Initiative, a project which aims to remember the lives lost during the event. As part of the initiative, Clooney launched the Aurora Prize, which awards to those who risk their lives to prevent genocides and atrocities. Clooney had also urged various American government officials to support the United States' recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Clooney visited Armenia to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the event in April 2016.

Syria
In May 2015, Clooney told the BBC that the Syrian conflict was too complicated politically to get involved in and he wanted to focus on helping the refugees. In March 2016, he and his wife, Amal Clooney, met with Syrian refugees living in Berlin to mark the fifth anniversary of the conflict, before meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to thank her for Germany's open-door policy.

Gun control
In 2018, following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the Clooneys pledged $500,000 to the March for Our Lives and said they would be in attendance.

LGBT rights
Clooney is a supporter of gay rights. On March 28, 2019, Clooney wrote an open letter calling for the boycott of the Sultan of Brunei's hotels over a new law that came into force on April 3, 2019, that punishes homosexual sex and adultery with death by stoning. Clooney lists nine hotels including The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane, Coworth Park, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Hotel Bel-Air, Le Meurice, Hotel Plaza Athenee, Hotel Eden and Hotel Principe di Savoia and asks readers to consider how "we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery."

Personal life
Relationships
Clooney dated actress Kelly Preston (1987–1989). During this relationship, he purchased a Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig named Max as a gift for Preston, but when their relationship ended, Clooney kept the pig for an additional 18 years until Max died in 2006. He has jokingly referred to Max as the longest relationship he had ever had.Clooney was married to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. He also had a relationship with actress Ginger Lynn Allen. In 1995, Clooney dated Cameron Diaz and Frances Fisher. Clooney dated French reality TV personality Céline Balitran (1996–1999). In 2000 he was linked to Charlize Theron and Lucy Liu. After meeting British model Lisa Snowdon in 2000, he had a five-year on-again, off-again relationship with her. Clooney dated Renée Zellweger (2001), Jennifer Siebel Newsom (2002), Krista Allen (2002–2008), and Linda Thompson (2006). In June 2007, he started dating reality personality Sarah Larson, but the couple broke up in May 2008. In July 2009, Clooney was in a relationship with Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis until they split in June 2011. In July 2011, Clooney started dating former WWE personnel Stacy Keibler, and they ended their relationship in July 2013.Clooney became engaged to British-Lebanese human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin on April 28, 2014. He subsequently said they forged a strong bond because of their interest in campaigning work, and particularly over the issue of the Elgin Marbles, when she was acting for the government of Greece in support of their return from the British Museum and he, while promoting his film The Monuments Men, had argued for this and been criticised by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.In July 2014, Clooney publicly mocked the British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail after it claimed his fiancée's mother opposes their marriage on religious grounds. When the tabloid apologized for its false story, Clooney refused to accept the apology. He called the paper "the worst kind of tabloid. One that makes up its facts to the detriment of its readers." On August 7, 2014, Clooney and Alamuddin obtained marriage licenses at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea of the United Kingdom. Alamuddin and Clooney were officially married on September 27, 2014, at Ca' Farsetti. They were married by Clooney's friend Walter Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome.In 2015, Clooney and Alamuddin adopted a rescue dog, a Bassett Hound named Millie, from the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society.On February 9, 2017, it was reported by the CBS talk show, The Talk, that Amal was pregnant, and that they were expecting twins. On June 6, 2017, Amal gave birth to a daughter, Ella, and a son, Alexander. In 2020, Clooney revealed to Jimmy Kimmel and Graham Norton in their respective talk shows that the twins can speak Italian fluently, despite both Clooney and Alamuddin not speaking the language.

Real estate
Clooney has property in Los Angeles. He purchased the 7,354-square-foot (683.2 m2) house in 1995 through his George Guilfoyle Trust. His home in Italy is in the village of Laglio, on Lake Como, near the former residence of Italian author Ada Negri. Clooney also owns a home in Los Cabos, Mexico, that is next door to the home of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber. In 2014, Clooney and his new British wife Amal Alamuddin bought the Grade II listed Mill House on an island in the River Thames at Sonning Eye in Oxfordshire, England at a cost of around £10 million. In May 2021, The Economic Times reported Clooney plans to buy a vineyard near the village of Brignoles, in France, which includes an 18th-century manor with its own swimming pool and a tennis court.

Motorcycle accidents
On September 21, 2007, Clooney and then-girlfriend Sarah Larson were injured in a motorcycle accident in Weehawken, New Jersey, when his motorcycle was hit by a car. The driver of the car reported that Clooney attempted to pass him on the right, while Clooney said that the driver signaled left and then decided to make an abrupt right turn and clipped his motorcycle. On October 9, 2007, more than two dozen staff at Palisades Medical Center were suspended without pay for looking at Clooney's medical records in violation of federal law.On July 10, 2018, Clooney was hit by a car while riding a motorcycle to a film set in Sardinia. He was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Sports
Growing up around Cincinnati, Clooney is a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds. He tried out to be a Red in 1977. Clooney is also an association football fan and supports EFL League One club Derby County F.C.

Relationship with the media
In November 2021, Clooney wrote an op-ed to British tabloid The Daily Mail, petitioning them to stop publishing photos of his children, highlighting that his wife is an international lawyer who works "confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups" and that the tabloid was endangering their lives. In 2014, Clooney had rejected an apology from the Daily Mail for printing a false story, calling the Mail, the "worst kind of tabloid."

In the media
Clooney has appeared in commercials outside the U.S. for Fiat, Nespresso, Martini vermouth, Omega, and Warburtons. Clooney was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007, 2008, and 2009. He is sometimes described as one of the most handsome men in the world. In 2005, TV Guide ranked Clooney No. 1 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list. The cover story in a February 2008 issue of Time magazine was headlined with: "George Clooney: The last movie star".He was parodied in the South Park episode "Smug Alert!", which criticizes his acceptance speech at the 78th Academy Awards. Clooney has also lent his voice to South Park as Sparky the Dog in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" and as the emergency room doctor in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Clooney was caricatured in the American Dad! episode "Tears of a Clooney", in which Francine Smith plans to destroy him.Director Alexander Cartio made his debut feature film, Convincing Clooney, about a Los Angeles artist who, faced with rejection as an actor and screenwriter, concocts a master plan to get Clooney to star in his first-ever low-budget short film. The movie was released on DVD in November 2011.

Publications
"The Key to Making Peace in Africa". Co-authored with John Prendergast. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 97, No. 2, March 14, 2018.

Awards and nominations
Throughout his career, Clooney has won two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana and one for Best Picture as one of the producers for Argo, as well as a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. For his role in The Descendants, he won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Satellite Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Lead Actor and Best Cast. On January 11, 2015, Clooney was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.
Passage 2:
Mwansa the Great
Mwansa the Great is a 2011 film.

Synopsis
While trying to prove he is a hero, Mwansa does the unforgivable and accidentally breaks his big sister Shula's special mud doll. He goes on a quest not only to fix it, but to finally prove he is Mwansa the Great.

Awards
FCAT 2011
International Price - Silence, on court !

External links
African Film Festival of Cordoba-FCAT (license CC BY-SA)
Mwansa the Great at IMDb
Passage 3:
Robyn Moore (British actress)
Robyn Moore (born 15 September 1960) is a British actress, best known for playing Shirley Benson in EastEnders from 2003 to 2004.
She is the daughter of actor Stephen Moore and the niece of actor James Hazeldine. Her cousins, Sam and Angela Hazeldine, are also actors. She found out that she had gotten the part of Shirley on the day of her uncle James's funeral.Moore has also appeared in Agatha Christie's Poirot, Family Affairs, The Bill and Doctors.
In November 2008, she began a month-long run at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington, in the new Australian play The Ides of March.
Passage 4:
Zebennus
Zebennus was a third-century bishop and Christian Martyr from Palaestina Prima (Modern Israel).
Little is known about his early life, career or episcopacy in Eleutheropolis, however, he is credited that during his episcopacy he had a dream revealing the burial place of Micah and Habbakuk.He was martyred, executed on the Ides of November, with two others, Germanus and Antoninus a presbyter. Their feast day is November 13.
Passage 5:
Killer's Romance
Killer's Romance (released in the Philippines as The Cyprus Tiger) is a 1990 Hong Kong action film written, produced and directed by Phillip Ko, who also co-stars in a supporting role in the film. The film is a loose adaptation of the Japanese manga, Crying Freeman, and stars Simon Yam as the titular protagonist.

Plot
Jenny is a student studying abroad in London living a quiet and happy campus life inadvertently witnesses and took photographs of Yakuza hitman Jeffrey killing an elderly man and her life changes when she becomes involved in the vortex of an underworld vendetta. When Jeffery kills Chinatown triad elder Martin, he encounters Jenny once again, leading the police to believe that Jenny knows Jeffrey and bring her to the police station to question her. Martin's assistant, Charlie, sends his henchmen to follow Jenny in order to find Jeffrey. Jeffery, who broke into Jenny's house, wanted to silence her, but the seeing that the latter deliberately concealed the fact that she witnessed Jeffrey's killings and at the same time, attracted by her temperament, Jeffrey promises a future meeting with her instead. Jenny's good friend, Amy, poses as her friend in order to divert the surveillance of both Charlie and the police in order for Jenny to go meet Jeffrey. As Jeffrey and Jenny meet again, the former reveals to the latter of his life and his decision to leave the Yakuza and his killings committed were to avenge his adopted father, the leader of the Yakuza who took him as an orphan. Yakuza deputy chief Yoshikawa turns out  be scheming with Charlie to eliminate Jeffery and sends Jeffrey's assistant Eko to betray Jeffrey and murder him. In an attacked staged by Yoshikawa and Charlie she remains loyal to Jeffrey and was instead killed by her ambitious younger brother, who in turn, was killed by Jeffery, who also kills Charlie. Eventually, Yoshikawa and kidnaps Jenny where he shoots and cripples Jenny's legs when confronted by Jeffrey, leading to final showdown of a sword duel between Jeffrey and Yoshikawa.

Cast
Simon Yam as Jeffrey
Joey Wong as Jenny
Yasuyoshi Shikamura (Luk Chuen) as Yoshikawa
Phillip Ko as Charlie
Chan Fung-chi as Eko
Ka Man
Lau Siu-ming as Boss Martin
Ishida Kenichi as Eko's younger brother
Jason Pai as Siu Yuk-long
Kam Seung-yuk
Foo Wang-tat as Jeffrey's adopted father
Carmen Lee as Amy
Ling Hon
Fung Wai-lun as Thug
Yiu Chan-lam as Thug
Ho Wan
Wong Cho-wa
Lee Wah-kon
Mak Shu-san
Ho Chi-moon
Leung Sam

Release
Killer's Romance was released in Hong Kong on 17 May 1990. In the Philippines, the film was released as The Cyprus Tiger in mid-1992.

Critical reception
John Krewson of The A.V. Club praised star Simon Yam's acting and physical performance but notes its brush-cuts, poor music and clothes. In the book, The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios, John Charles gave the film a score of 6/10 and praises Yam's convincing performance but criticizes its non-innovative script. So Good Films praised the film's action choreography along with Yam's performance.

Box office
The film grossed HK$3,232,936 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 17 to 30 May 1990.
Passage 6:
Matt Corboy
Matt Corboy (born June 4, 1973) is an American actor. He has appeared in both films and television series.

Early life
Corboy was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and grew up there, before leaving to attend Colorado State University, where he earned a degree in business.

Career
Corboy took up acting in 1996, and has appeared in many commercials, films, and had one-time guest roles in television series. His best-known role was on The Shield, where he appeared as Officer Ray Carlson in 17 episodes. In 2011, he played Cousin Ralph in The Descendants, which received widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
While growing up in Hawaii, Corboy would play poker with his friends. His affinity for the game led to him becoming the lead commentator for the Professional Poker Tour in 2006.In mid–2017, Corboy was cast in the recurring character Jared Preston Jr. on the ABC soap opera General Hospital to help facilitate Rebecca Budig's character Hayden Barnes exit off of the soap.

Personal life
Corboy has been married to Kara McNamara Corboy since August 4, 2001.

Filmography
Film
Television
Passage 7:
The Ides of March (1961 film)
The Ides of March is a 1961 Australian television play. Director William Sterling said it was a more impressionistic production than the usual television drama.

Premise
A fantastia  on certain events and persons in the last days of the Roman Republic.

Cast
Brian James as Caesar
Lynn Flanagan as Claudia
Bruce Barry as Brutus
Edward Brayshaw as Catullus
Don Crosby as Cassius
Keith Dare as Casca
Edward Howell as Decius
Fay Kelton as Pompeia
Kevin McBeath as Cicero
David Mitchell as Clodius
Dennis Mitchell as Marc Antony
Carole Potter as Cleopatra

Production
William Sterling said:

There is no beginning, middle or end in the recognised manner. Rather the treatment will be impressionistic and sstylised with much of the action mimed by the characters to prerecorded speech. The form of the novel is followed closely and the TV screen can 'picture' the thoughts of the principal characters as well as illustrating the events that have provoked these thoughts.  There will be dialogue scenes as well but the play concentrates on centralising the character of Caesar against a vast background canvas that recreates the turbulent of the first century of Rome.
More than 500 yards of material were used to make 24 costumes, five for Cleopatra.

Reception
The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald thought "nothing could have seemed less promising" than an adaptation of the novel, which did not seem suited to television, but "the results were surprisingly successful" praising the writing and direction.
Passage 8:
Phillip Ko
Phillip Ko-Fei (June 18, 1949 – March 30, 2017) was a Hong Kong filmmaker.
He directed the movies Angel on Fire, Magkasangga 2000, Kakambal ko sa tapang and Romano Sagrado: Talim sa Dilim.

Filmography
Director
Screenwriter
Lang man sha shou zi you ren (1990)
Iyo ang Hong Kong, akin ang Manila! (1994)
Die xue rou qing (1995)
Magkasangga 2000 (1995)
Dian zi ge men zhan shi (1998)
Sao hei te qian dui (1999)
Supercop.com (2000)
Huo xian sheng si lian (2002)

Actor
Passage 9:
The Ides of March (2011 film)
The Ides of March is a 2011 American political drama film directed by George Clooney from a screenplay written by Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon. The film is an adaptation of Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North. It stars Ryan Gosling and Clooney alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood.
The Ides of March was featured as the opening film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and at the 27th Haifa International Film Festival, and was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. It received a wide theatrical release on 7 October 2011, and grossed $76 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics and was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2011. Gosling earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance, while Clooney, Heslov and Willimon were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Plot
Stephen Meyers is the junior campaign manager for Governor of Pennsylvania Mike Morris, who is competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman in the Democratic presidential primary. Both campaigns are vying for the endorsement of Senator Franklin Thompson, who controls 356 delegates; these would clinch the nomination for either candidate. At the Morris campaign's headquarters in Cincinnati, Meyers receives a call from Tom Duffy, Pullman's campaign manager; Duffy asks him to meet in secret at a local bar. Meyers calls his boss, Morris campaign manager Paul Zara, who does not answer. Meyers decides to meet with Duffy anyway and Duffy offers him a position in Pullman's campaign; Meyers refuses. When Zara calls back, Meyers does not tell him about the meeting.
Meyers starts a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns, an attractive intern whose father is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Meyers admits to an angry Zara that he met with Duffy, who said that Pullman will offer Thompson the position of Secretary of State in exchange for his endorsement. Zara and Meyers discuss the matter with Morris, saying they must make the same offer to Thompson. Morris refuses on principle, as he thoroughly disagrees with Thompson and his policies, and wants a "clean" campaign without such deals.
While Molly is sleeping, Meyers picks up her phone by mistake and finds that Morris is trying to call her. He discovers that Molly and Morris had a brief sexual liaison several weeks previously shortly after Molly arrived on the campaign in Iowa, and Molly is now pregnant with Morris' child. Molly needs $900 for an abortion, but cannot tell her father because her family is Catholic. Meyers helps her with the money but warns her not to tell anybody and fires her from the campaign to make the problem go away. Ida Horowicz, a reporter for The New York Times, reveals to Meyers that an anonymous source leaked his meeting with Duffy and that she plans to publish an article unless Meyers gives her the details about the Morris campaign's overtures to Thompson.
After dropping Molly off at the abortion clinic, Meyers goes to Zara for help. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida with Morris's approval as a pretext for firing Meyers over his purported disloyalty. An angry and desperate Meyers offers his services to Duffy, who says he met with Meyers only to influence his opponent's operation, under the likelihood that Meyers either would come to work for him or would be fired for taking the meeting. Meyers offers to sell out Morris but Duffy declines, believing Thompson's endorsement of Pullman is assured. Meyers berates Duffy for using him, for which Duffy halfheartedly apologizes, and advises him to quit politics before he becomes a cynic like Duffy.
Having been told that Meyers had threatened to take down the campaign, Molly fatally overdoses on pills in a hotel room. Meyers comes across the scene and steals her phone. Unbeknownst to the Morris campaign, he meets with Thompson to set the conditions for his endorsement and his delegates. Meyers confronts Morris and gives him an ultimatum: Either give him Zara's job and offer Thompson the post of Vice President, or Meyers will go to the press with Molly's purported suicide note and expose the affair, all but assuring Morris's reputation tarnished and Pullman getting Thompson's endorsement. Morris relents, giving up what is left of his personal integrity, and meets Meyers' demands. Zara takes his firing philosophically and is amicable when he chats with Meyers at Molly's funeral.
Thompson officially endorses Morris, making him the de facto Democratic nominee. Promoted to senior campaign manager, Meyers is on the way to a remote TV interview with John King when Ida Horowicz ambushes him and says her next story will be about how Meyers delivered Thompson and his delegates and got his promotion. He reacts by having security bar Horowicz from entering the auditorium. Meyers takes his seat for the interview, just as Morris finishes a speech about how integrity and dignity matter. King then asks Meyers for insight as to how the events surrounding the primary unfolded.

Cast
Ryan Gosling as Stephen Meyers, Morris' junior campaign manager.
George Clooney as Mike Morris, Governor of Pennsylvania and a Democratic presidential candidate.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Paul Zara, Morris' campaign manager and Meyers's superior and mentor.
Paul Giamatti as Tom Duffy, Ted Pullman's campaign manager.
Evan Rachel Wood as Molly Stearns, an intern for Morris's campaign and Meyers' love interest.
Marisa Tomei as Ida Horowicz, a reporter for the New York Times.
Jeffrey Wright as Franklin Thompson, Democratic Senator from Ohio.
Max Minghella as Ben Harpen, a member of Morris's campaign staff.
Jennifer Ehle as Cindy Morris, wife to Governor Mike Morris and the First Lady of Pennsylvania.
Gregory Itzin as former Senator Jack Stearns, father of Molly Stearns and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Michael Mantell as Ted Pullman, Senator from Arkansas and Morris's opponent in the Democratic primaries.

Production
In October 2010, Variety reported that Clooney signed on to produce, direct, and star in the film adaptation of Beau Willimon's Broadway play Farragut North. Exclusive Media Group, Cross Creek Pictures, Smoke House Pictures, and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions financed the film. Filming in Cincinnati, Ohio began in February 2011 in Downtown Cincinnati at Fountain Square, Over-the-Rhine historic district, Northside, Mount Lookout, Xavier University, other neighborhoods and at Miami University's Farmer School of Business and Hall Auditorium (Miami University and Hall Auditorium are located in Oxford, Ohio). Principal photography also took place in Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. On 14 March, filming began at the University of Michigan and included 1,000 extras.The theatrical release failed to recognize Cincinnati in the credits as a filming location. Producer and screenplay co-writer Grant Heslov said that "the omission of Cincinnati in the credits was an inadvertent mistake, something that slipped through the cracks." He also said that the credits would be corrected for the home release of the film.

Music
Release
The Ides of March premiered on 31 August 2011 as the opening film of the 68th Venice International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Entertainment bought the distribution rights for the United States only, while Alliance Films bought Canadian distribution. Sony wanted Clooney to keep the play's title, but The Ides of March was picked as the title. The Ides of March was originally planned to have a limited release in December 2011 and a wide release in January 2012. However, Sony eventually moved the film's opening date to 14 October 2011. This was later moved again, to 7 October 2011.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 243 reviews, with an average rating of 7.38/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "While not exactly exposing revelatory truths, The Ides of March is supremely well-acted drama that moves at a measured, confident clip." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.Some critics gave the film mixed or even negative reviews. A. O. Scott of the New York Times wrote, "But it is difficult, really, to connect this fable to the world it pretends to represent. Whatever happens in 2012, within either party or in the contest between them, it seems fair to say that quite a lot will be at stake. That is not the case in The Ides of March, which is less an allegory of the American political process than a busy, foggy, mildly entertaining antidote to it."

Accolades
See also
Politics in film
Passage 10:
Ribhu Dasgupta
Ribhu Dasgupta is an Indian film and television director.  He made his directorial debut with 2011 film Michael.
He was nominated at the Shanghai International Film Festival for Asian New Talent Award of Best Film for the film Michael.

Biography
Born in Kolkata, Ribhu's father, Raja Dasgupta, and grandfather, Harisadhan Dasgupta, are a filmmaker and noted documentary filmmaker, respectively. Bengali filmmaker Birsa Dasgupta is his brother in relation. Towards the end of 2004 he went to Mumbai from Kolkata and stayed with his brother Birsa. In Mumbai he worked as an assistant to filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. His first film as an Assistant director was 1971, which was directed by Amrit Sagar.

Filmography


Passage 1:
Louis IV, Count of Chiny
Louis IV the Young (1173 – 7 October 1226), count of Chiny from 1189 to 1226, son of Louis III, count of Chiny, and Sophie.  Louis was the last of the first dynasty of counts of Chiny. Having no son, he prepared his eldest daughter Jeanne as his successor. Louis marked his reign by issuing the first postage stamp in the county.
He succeeded as count in 1189 when his father died on the Third Crusade, but was under the supervision of his mother and uncle Thierry, Lord of Mellier, because of his young age. He likely participated in the Albigensian Crusade, where he died in Cahors.
He married Matilda of Avesnes, widow of Nicolas IV, Lord of Rumigny, and daughter of James, Lord of Avesnes and Conde, and Adele, Lady of Guise. They had three children:

Jeanne, Countess of Chiny, married to Arnold IV, Count of Looz
Agnes, Lady of Givet and Abemont
Isabelle, married to Otto, Lord of Trazegnies.Isabelle was referred to as Madame de Florenville during the Tournament of Chauvency in 1285, hosted by Louis' grandson Louis V, successor Count of Chiny,Upon Louis’ death, his daughter Jeanne became Countess of Chiny until her marriage to Arnold IV, when he became the first Count of Chiny of the second dynasty as Arnold II.
Louis IV was also a direct paternal descendant of Charlemagne.

Sources
Settipani, Christian, La Préhistoire des Capétiens (Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France, vol. 1), Villeneuve d'Ascq, éd. Patrick van Kerrebrouck, 1993, 545 pg.
Arlette Laret-Kayser, Entre Bar et Luxembourg : Le Comté de Chiny des Origines à 1300, Bruxelles (éditions du Crédit Communal, Collection Histoire, série in-8°, n° 72), 1986
Passage 2:
Louis, Count of Verdun
Louis I (murdered September 29, 1025), Count of Chiny (987–1025) and Count of Verdun (as Louis) (1024–1025), son of Otto I, Count of Chiny, and an unknown mother.Upon Otto’s death, Louis became the second Count of Chiny. Virtually nothing is known about his rule in Chiny.
In 1024, Reginbert, the Bishop of Verdun, appointed Louis as Count of Verdun when Count Herman of Ename, son of Godfrey the Prisoner, retired to a monastery. Herman's nephew, Godfrey the Bearded, coveted the position, and Gothelo (Herman’s brother and Godfrey’s father) invaded the city and murdered Louis.
Louis married Adelaide (d. after 1025), of unknown parentage. They had two children:

Louis II, Count of Chiny
Liutgarde (born 1002), married to Richer de Sancy (died before 1084). Luitgarde and Richer had four sons:  Hughes (died after 1109), Louis (died after 1084), Roderic (d. after 1109) and Richwin (killed before 1084). Nothing further is known about them.Louis’ son Louis II assumed the position of Count of Chiny after his father’s death, and Godfrey the Bearded was appointed Count of Verdun.
Passage 3:
Albert, Count of Chiny
Albert (Albert I) (before 1131 – 29 September 1162), Count of Chiny, son of Otto II, Count of Chiny, and Adélaïs of Namur.  He succeeded his father before 1131 and spent most of his time in Chiny, not taking part in the various conflicts which shook the region.
He married Agnes, daughter of Renaud I, Count of Bar and Gisèle Vaudémont, daughter of Gerard, Count of Vaudémont.  Their children were:

Louis III, Count of Chiny
Thierry (d. after 1207), Lord of Mellier, married Elizabeth
Arnulf of Chiny-Verdun (killed in 1181), Bishop of Verdun, 1172–1181
Alix (d. after 1177), married to Manasses of Hierges
Ida of Chiny, married to Gobert V, Lord of Aspremont (see Fredelon and the House of Esch for a discussion of their descendants)
A daughter, mother of Roger Walehem
Hughes, married to a daughter of Renaud de Donchéry
A daughter, Abbess of Givet.Arnulf was killed by an arrow to the head in front of the castle of Saint Manehulde during an attack on the bishopric of Verdun.
Alix and Mannases were the parents of Albert II of Hierges, Bishop of Verdun (1186–1208). Ida and Gobert were the grandparents of John I of Aspremont, Bishop of Verdun (1217–1224).
Albert was succeeded as Count of Chiny by his son Louis.
Passage 4:
John I, Count of Looz
John I (Jean) (d. 1278 or 1279), Count of Looz and Count of Chiny, eldest son of Arnold IV, Count of Looz and Chiny, and Jeanne, Countess of Chiny. He succeeded his father in 1272 or 1273, as the Count of Looz and Chiny.  Virtually nothing is known about his reign.
He first married, in 1258, Matilda, daughter of William IV, Count of Jülich, and Matilda of Gelderland.  Their children were:

Arnold V, Count of Looz and Count of Chiny (as Arnold II)
Louis de Looz
William, Seigneur of Neufchatel and Ardenne.Widowed, he married secondly, in 1269, Isabelle de Conde (d. after 1280), daughter of Jacques, Seigneur of Conde and Bailleul, and his wife Agnes of Rœulx.  Their children were:

John II (1270-1311), Seigneur of Agimont, Givet and Warcq, married Marie, daughter of Raoul de Nesle and Alix de Roye (see House of Nesle)
Jacques (Jacquemin) (d. February 27, 1330), Canon of Liege.Upon his death, he was succeeded as Count of Chiny by his brother Louis, and as Count of Looz by his son Arnold.

Sources
Settipani, Christian, La Préhistoire des Capétiens (Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France, vol. 1), Villeneuve d'Ascq, éd. Patrick van Kerrebrouck, 1993, 545 p.
Thonissen, JJ., Arnold IV, Royal Academy of Belgium, National Biography, Vol. 1, Brussels, 1866
Arlette Laret-Kayser, Entre Bar et Luxembourg : Le Comté de Chiny des Origines à 1300, Bruxelles (éditions du Crédit Communal, Collection Histoire, série in-8°, n° 72), 1986
Passage 5:
Otto II, Count of Chiny
Otto II (1065 – after 1131), Count of Chiny, son of Arnold I, Count of Chiny, and Adélaïs.
He succeeded his father in 1106 and completed the construction of the Abbey of Orval that his father had started in 1070, installing the canons in 1124. The installation of a Cistercian community in Orval in 1131 marked his last appearance in any proceedings.
He married Adelaide (Alix) (1068–1124), daughter of Albert III, Count of Namur and Ida of Saxony (widow of Frederick of Lower Lorraine). Their children were:

Ida (died before 1125), married to Godfrey I, Count of Leuven
Oda (died after 1134), married to Giselbert II, Count of Duras
Hugues, probably died young
Albert of Chiny (before 1131–1162)
Frederick, (died after 1124), Provost at Reims from 1120
Adalbero II of Chiny-Namur (died 26 March 1145), Bishop of Liège, 1135–1145
Eustache (died after 1156), married to a daughter of Wiger de Waremme, Avoué of Liège Saint-Lambert and Hesbaye. His son Louis de Lumaine was also Avoué of Hesbaye.Ida (also known as Ida of Namur) and Godfrey I (also known as Godfrey the Bearded, not to be confused with the uncle of his father Henry II, Godfrey) were parents of Adeliza of Louvain, wife of Henry I of England.  Oda’s husband Gislebert was son of Otto, Count of Duras and therefore the grandson of Giselbert, the first Count of Looz, whose family would eventually be merged with the Counts of Chiny with the marriage of Otto's great-great granddaughter Jeanne, Countess of Chiny, with Arnold IV of Looz.
After his death, Otto was succeeded as Count of Chiny by his son Albert.
Passage 6:
Louis II, Count of Chiny
Louis II (died before 1066), Count of Chiny (from 1025 until his death), son of Louis I, Count of Chiny and Verdun, and Adélaïde de Saint Varme.  He left very few traces in history and nothing is known about his reign.
Louis was married to Sophie. They had two children:

Arnold I, Count of Chiny
Manasses (died 1068), a monk at the Church of St. Hubert.Legend has it that Louis held hunting parties in his huge game park.  Here, Thibault of Champagne established a hermitage and found a source of holy springs, and Louis built a shrine to the spring's healing powers. The shrine became famous, with many pilgrims who came to implore the grace of Saint-Thibault. Later, monks from Calabria, Italy, founded a monastery nearby at Orval at the invitation of Louis’ son Arnold.
Upon Louis' death, his son Arnold became Count of Chiny.
Passage 7:
Arnold VI of Rummen, Count of Loon
Arnold VI de Rumigny (died May 1373), Count of Looz and Count of Chiny (as Arnold IV) (1362–1364), son of William of Oreye, Lord of Rumigny (by donation of Louis IV, Count of Looz in 1331), and Jeanne de Looz, daughter of Arnold V, Count of Loon and Chiny, and, Marguerite Vianden, Lady of Perwez and Grimbergen.
In 1336, at the death of his uncle, Louis IV, Count of Loon and Chiny, Arnold laid claim to the estates, but without success.  Instead, the estates passed to another nephew, Thierry de Heinsberg. Finally, on January 25, 1362, he bought the rights to the counties from his cousin Godfrey, Count of Looz and Chiny.  Looz, however, was still occupied by the troops of Engelbert III of the Marck, Prince-Bishop of Liege.
On December 25, Arnold approached the Emperor Charles IV for his help in financing the reconquest of Looz, but he failed in that endeavor.  Without options, he sold the counties to  Wenceslaus, Duke of Luxembourg, on June 16, 1364. On September 23, 1366, he entered into a transaction with John of Arkel, Prince-Bishop of Liège, receiving some financial compensation for the occupation of the counties
In 1346, Arnold married Elizabeth of Flanders, illegitimate daughter of Louis of Flanders, Count of Nevers.  No children are recorded.

Sources
Arlette Laret-Kayser, Entre Bar et Luxembourg : Le Comté de Chiny des Origines à 1300, Bruxelles (éditions du Crédit Communal, Collection Histoire, série in-8°, n° 72), 1986
Passage 8:
Arnold I, Count of Chiny
Arnold I (died 16 April 1106), Count of Chiny, son of Louis II, Count of Chiny, and his wife Sophie. He succeeded his father as count before 1066.
Arnold is best known for his many clashes with the authorities.  The only known positive action of his was the founding of the Abbey of Orval with Conrad I, Count of Luxembourg. In addition he began other religious institutions, apparently as atonement for his many crimes. He had many run-ins with the clergy, particularly with Henry, Bishop of Liège, a relative of Godfrey the Bearded, no doubt due to the murder of his grandfather by Godfrey’s father. There were also issues with Henry's successor Otbert.
A convenient story is that Arnold regularly confronted Godfrey’s grandson Count Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade and nephew of Countess Mathilda of Tuscany, but that they eventually became friends. Because of this newly-found friendship, he allegedly entrusted Godfrey with his sons Otto and Louis to take part in the crusade. The reality is that this is likely a story concocted by Count Louis V, much like the rest of his version of the history of Chiny (see the discussion in the Counts of Chiny), to enhance his standing at the Tournament of Chauvency in 1285, which included such royalty as Rudolf I, King of Germany.
It is clear that Otto and Louis never actually joined the crusade, as their names are not listed among the participants in the Holy quest. The reality of the situation appears that Godfrey's army included relatively few of the major nobles of the duchy, especially those of comital rank. The nobles of Lower Lotharingia were not all vassals of the Duke (and later Defender of the Holy Sepulchre) and felt no obligation to follow him, despite the seriousness of the taking of the cross. Notable absentees were Arnold, Albert III of Namur and Henry of Arlon and Limburg. These were all part of the coalition that had waged war on Godfrey and his principal allies Henry of Verdun and his successor Otbert, Prince-Bishops of Liège. There is some uncertainty as to his sons' whereabouts during the crusade, but upon their return, Otto, who became the next Count of Chiny, found Orval falling in ruins. The Calabrian monks left in 1108, and the Cistercians revived Orval with Otto's help.
Apparently unable to abide by normal legal traditions, Arnold attempted to capture Richilde, Countess of Hainaut, widow of Baldwin VI the Good, Count of Flanders, and her son Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut. Like most of his ventures, he failed in this. In 1082, Richilde and her son went on a pilgrimage to Rome, but on her return in 1084, she learned as she approached Chiny that Arnold was planning to kidnap her. She escaped by taking refuge in Benedictine Abbey of Amdain, in the present-day Saint Hubert.
He married Adélaïs (Adelaide), daughter of Hilduin IV, Count of Montdidier, Roucy and Ramerupt, and Alix de Roucy.  They had six children:

Otto II, Count of Chiny
Louis, founder of the priory of Saint-Valpurge at Chiny
Halide (Hadvide, Hadwida), married to Dodo of Cons (Dudo of Konz-Saarburg), who took the cross and became a Crusader in the army of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1096. He was one of two sons of Adelon de Cons.
Clemence, married to Hugel de Waha, Châtelain de Mirwart, who was son of Hériman de Duras, who in turn was son of Otto I, Count of Duras, and grandson to Giselbert I, Count of Duras.
Beatrix, mother of Arnulf, Archdeacon of Trier.
Unnamed daughter, mother to Arnoul and Conon.
Arnold's second wife was Ermengarde (d. 1081), a union for which no children are recorded.  Arnold and his third wife Agnes had one child:

Adelbero III of Chiny, Bishop of Verdun (1131-1156)Upon his death, Arnold’s son Otto assumed the title of Count of Chiny.
Passage 9:
Joan, Countess of Chiny
Joan (c. 1205 – 17 January 1271) was the Countess of Chiny. Joan was the daughter of Louis IV, Count of Chiny, and Matilda of Avesnes, and became ruler of the county upon her father’s death on 7 October 1226. She married Arnold IV, Count of Loon, son of Gerard III, Count of Rieneck, and Kunigunde von Zimmern, in 1228, whereupon he assumed the role of Count of Chiny.
Joan and Arnold had the following children:

John I, Count of Chiny and Loon
Arnaul II (died 1273), Bishop of Châlons (1272–73)
Henry, Seigneur d’Agimont
Gerard (died after April 1284), Seigneur de Chauvency le-Château, married Marguerite de Meurs
Elisabeth (died before 1251), married Thomas III of Coucy, Seigneur of Vervins, and Albert, Seigneur of Voorne
Adelaide (died after 1268), married to Thierry II, Seigneur of Valkenburg
Juliana, married to Nicolas, Seigneur of Quiévrain
Louis V, Count of Chiny
Margaret (died 1292)?, married William IV, Lord of HornShe was succeeded as ruler of Chiny by her husband, Arnold II, Count of Chiny.
Passage 10:
Louis III, Count of Chiny
Louis III (d. August 12? 1189), Count of Chiny, son of Albert, Count of Chiny, and his spouse Agnes of Bar.
He succeeded his father in 1162 and continued the family's support of the Abbey of Orval. He entered the Third Crusade alongside Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, dying in transit in Belgrade.
He married Sophie (d. 1207), whose family is unknown. Their children were:

Louis IV, Count of Chiny
Gertrude, married to Thierry II, Seigneur de Walcourt, Count of Montaigu.Upon his death, his son Louis assumed the role of Count of Chiny.


Passage 1:
Karel Zich
Karel Zich (10 June 1949 – 13 July 2004) was a Czech singer, guitarist and composer whose voice was often compared with that of Elvis Presley.

Life
Karel Zich was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, into a musical family. His grandfather was Otakar Zich, composer and professor of music aesthetics, and his uncle was the composer Jaroslav Zich. Karel attended the Prague State Conservatory (Státní konzervatoř Praha) for three years and later graduated from Charles University in sociology.Between 1964 and 1965 he performed with the band Framus as a singer. In 1968 Zich joined Spirituál kvintet and stayed with them until 1973. His main interest was in rock'n'roll, and he is sometimes called the "Czech Elvis".After his successes in the Czech pop scene with various bands, Zich decided to start his solo career. In 1974 he left Spirituál kvintet and in 1976 released his first album, Dům č.5 (House No. 5). Although he sang his own songs, he also worked with famous composers Karel Svoboda, Petr Janda, and others.In 1975 Zich reached the top of his career by winning 4th place in Zlatý Slavík. In 1979 he founded the band Flop and recorded 50 singles and 15 albums, one with the legendary Wanda Jackson. During his career Zich sold over one million discs and performed at thousands of concerts in most European countries, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile and elsewhere. His most famous songs are Paráda (Awsome) and Měla na očích brýle. Twice took 2nd place in the country's top music festival and song contest, Bratislavská lýra, in 1977 and 1983.In his last years he often performed guitar solos and sometimes performed with his band. In 1992 he joined Spirituál kvintet again.

Death
Karel Zich died of complications following a heart attack during a diving holiday in Porto-Vecchio, Corsica.

Selected discography
Let's Have a Party in Prague (with Wanda Jackson) – 1988
Passage 2:
Karol Hochberg
Karol Hochberg (1911–1944, also Karl or Karel) was a collaborator during the Holocaust, who led the "Department for Special Affairs" within the Ústredňa Židov, the Judenrat in Bratislava which was created by the Nazis to direct the Jewish community of Slovakia.

Life
Hochberg was born in Hungary in 1911 and studied in Vienna and Prague. He moved to Slovakia in 1939. In 1940, the Slovak Jews were forced to form the Ústredňa Židov (ÚŽ), a Judenrat, to implement Nazi orders. Most of the members of the ÚŽ had been prominent in Jewish public life before the Holocaust, and worked on public relief for Jews who had been dispossessed by anti-Jewish measures. However, the ÚŽ's reputation was harmed by the Jews within it who informed or collaborated, of whom Hochberg was the most notorious, according to YIVO (Institute for Jewish Research). In early 1941, the first head of the ÚŽ was deposed and arrested for sabotaging a census of Jews in eastern Slovakia with an aim to remove them to the west of the country. His replacement was an ineffectual schoolteacher named Arpad Sebestyen, who took a position of complete collaboration with the Germans. Hochberg was appointed to lead the "Department for Special Affairs",  which was created to ensure the prompt implementation of Dieter Wisliceny's orders; he promptly organized the census and removal, tarnishing the ÚŽ's reputation in the Jewish community. Due to Sebestyen's ineffectuality, Hochberg's department came to dominate the operations of the ÚŽ.In 1942, Hochberg's department worked on categorizing Jews for deportation, but it did not actually draw up the lists. About 57,000 Jews, two-thirds of the population, were deported that year; only a few hundred survived. Later, Hochberg played an important role in negotiations between the Bratislava Working Group, the resistance group within the ÚŽ, and Wisliceny. Hochberg, who made regular visits to Wisliceny's office, was the only feasible option because contact with Wisliceny had to be done clandestinely. The Working Group employed him as an intermediary despite its intense dislike and distrust of Hochberg, its fear that associating with him would harm their reputations, and its belief that he was unreliable.In November 1942, as the Working Group began to negotiate the Europa Plan with Wisliceny in an effort to save all European Jews from deportation and death, Hochberg was arrested for bribery and corruption. According to the Slovak police records, Hochberg had an illegal account in which large bribes were deposited in return for the cessation of transports. Andrej Steiner, a member of the Working Group, distrusted Hochberg and had provided the Slovak police with evidence against him. However, his colleague Michael Dov Weissmandl advocated that the Working Group try to get Hochberg released; Weissmandl believed that he was useful and was concerned that he would reveal the negotiations. The leader of the Working Group, Gisi Fleischmann, sided with Steiner, and the Working Group did not intervene on Hochberg's behalf. Imprisoned at Nováky labor camp and later Ilava prison, Hochberg escaped during the Slovak National Uprising and joined the partisans. He was executed as a collaborator by Jewish partisans.
Passage 3:
Maximus of Tyre
Maximus of Tyre (Greek: Μάξιμος Τύριος; fl. late 2nd century AD), also known as Cassius Maximus Tyrius, was a Greek rhetorician and philosopher who lived in the time of the Antonines and Commodus, and who belongs to the trend of the Second Sophistic.  His writings contain many allusions to the history of Greece, while there is little reference to Rome; hence it is inferred that he lived longer in Greece, perhaps as a professor at Athens. Although nominally a Platonist, he is really a sophist rather than a philosopher, although he is still considered one of the precursors of Neoplatonism.

Writings
The Dissertations
There exist 41 essays or discourses on theological, ethical, and other philosophical subjects, collected into a work called The Dissertations. The central theme is God as the supreme being, one and indivisible though called by many names, accessible to reason alone:
In such a mighty contest, sedition and discord, you will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of God, ruling together with him.
As animals form the intermediate stage between plants and human beings, so there exist intermediaries between God and man, viz. daemons, who dwell on the confines of heaven and earth. The soul in many ways bears a great resemblance to the divinity; it is partly mortal, partly immortal, and, when freed from the fetters of the body, becomes a daemon. Life is the sleep of the soul, from which it awakes at death. The style of Maximus is superior to that of the ordinary sophistical rhetorician, but scholars differ widely as to the merits of the essays themselves.Dissertation XX discusses "Whether the Life of a Cynic is to Be Preferred". He begins with a narrative of how Prometheus created mankind, who initially lived a life of ease "for the earth supplied them with aliment, rich meadows, long-haired mountains, and abundance of fruits" – in other words, a Garden of Eden that resonates with Cynic ideas. It was "a life without war, without iron, without a guard, peaceful, healthful unindigent".
Then, taking perhaps from Lucretius, he contrasts that Garden to mankind's "second life", which started with the division of the earth into property, which they then enclosed into fortifications and walls, and started to wear jewellery and gold, built houses, “molested the earth by digging into it for metals”, and invaded the sea and the air (killing animals, fish and birds), in what he described as a “slaughter and all-various gore, pursuing gratification of the body”. Humans became unhappy and, to compensate, sought wealth, “fearing poverty...dreading death...neglecting the care of life...They blamed base actions but did not abstain from them and “the hated to live, but dreaded to die”.He then contrasts the two lives – that of the original Garden and of the “second life” he has just described and asks, which man would not choose the first, who “knows that by the change he shall be liberated from a multitude of evils” and what he calls “a dreadful prison of unhappy men, confined to a dreadful prison of unhappy men, confined in a dark recess, with large iron fetters round their feet, a great weight about their neck…passing their time in filth, in torment, and in weeping”. He asks, “Which of these images shall we proclaim blessed”? He goes on to praise Diogenes of Sinopeus, the Cynic, for choosing his ascetic life, but only because he avoided the often fearful fates of other philosophers – such as Socrates being condemned. But there is no mention of he himself taking up the ascetic life himself; rather he only talks about how the Garden would be preferable to the life mankind has made for itself. So it is unlikely he was a Cynic, but was just envious of that idealised pre-civilisation Life in the Garden.Maximus of Tyre must be distinguished from the Stoic Claudius Maximus, tutor of Marcus Aurelius.

Ancient Greek Text
Maximus Tyrius, Philosophumena, Dialexeis - Edited by George Leonidas Koniaris, Publisher Walter de Gruyter, 1995, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110882568 - this critical edition presents the Ancient Greek text of Maximus of Tyre.

Translations
Taylor, Thomas, The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius. C. Wittingham (1804)
Trapp, Michael. Maximus of Tyre: The Philosophical Orations, (NY: Oxford University Press, 1997)
Passage 4:
Charles Emmanuel Biset
Charles Emmanuel Biset or Karel Emmanuel Biset (1633 in Mechelen – between 28 September 1693 and 1713) was a Flemish painter who had a peripatetic career working in various cities and countries including his hometown Mechelen, Paris, Annonay, Brussels, Antwerp and Breda.  He worked in many genres including genre scenes of interiors with merry companies and gallery paintings, history painting, still life and portraiture.

Life
Charles Emmanuel Biset was born on 26 December 1633 in Mechelen as Karel Emmanuel Biset.  He was the son of the decorative painter Joris Biset who had trained under Michiel Coxie III, a grandson of the great Renaissance painter Michiel Coxie.  Charles Emmanuel Biset likely trained under his father.

He worked in Mechelen from about 1640 until the early or mid-1650s. He was subsequently active in Paris where he is presumed to have worked for the court. Thereafter he is recorded for a while in Brussels before moving to Antwerp. Here he was active from 1661 to 1687.He became a master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke in 1662 and was its dean in 1674.  He was also appointed a director of the Academy of Antwerp.He married in 1662 with the painter Maria van Uden who was the daughter of the landscape painter Lucas van Uden.  After her death in 1665, he began a relationship with her sister Anna.  In 1670 he married Anna Cleymans.  Their children were the painters Jan Andreas (also called Jan Baptist) and Jan Karel Biset. He enjoyed the patronage of Juan Domingo de Zuñiga y Fonseca, Count of Monterrey, and later the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands for whom he may have worked on a quasi-exclusive basis for a while.In 1687 he is recorded in Breda.  It is possible he stayed there for the rest of his life while visiting Antwerp occasionally.  The last record of his life dates to 28 September 1693 when he was in Antwerp.
The place and date of his death are not clear but he is believed to have died between 28 September 1693 and 1713.He was the master of his nephew Jan Anthonie Coxie, who was the son of his sister Joanna and fellow Mechelen painter Jan Coxie.Biset was highly regarded as an artist in his time as is attested by the fact that both the early Flemish biographer Cornelis de Bie and the Dutch biographer Jacob Campo Weyerman included him in their artist biographies.

Work
General
Biset was a very versatile artist and the range of his work is very diverse: he painted genre scenes with merry companies, gallery paintings, portraits, history paintings and still lifes. Because of this diversity and the specific genres and themes he worked in, it is believed he may have received some training from Gonzales Coques who also painted in such diverse areas.Biset is regarded by some art historians as a follower of Coques. In fact, some works now ascribed to Biset were formerly attributed to Coques.  This is for instance the case with the composition A Family Seated at a Table in an Elegant Garden Exterior (Sotheby's, 6 December 2006 in New York, lot 7), which was originally regarded as a collaboration between Gonzales Coques and some specialist artists such as Peeter Gijsels and Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg but is regarded by the RKD specialists as entirely by Biset's hand.As was the custom in Antwerp in the 17th century Biset regularly collaborated with other painters who were specialists in a particular genre.  Collaborations with the landscape painters Philips Augustijn Immenraet and Cornelis Huysmans and the architecture painter Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg are recorded.

Portraits
Biset painted individual as well as family and group portraits, including merry companies.  The Hermitage collection holds a beautiful Portrait of a Musician.  It depicts a musician standing next to a column with some sheet music and a theorbo and viola da gamba resting against the column.  The figure dressed in black is set off against the velvet curtain behind him.  A stool placed next to the musician indicates that he has just finished or is about to commence a musical performance.

The headmen of the Antwerp schutterij De Oude Voetboog are known to have ordered a group portrait from Biset. It is likely that this work is the large composition referred to as The Legend of William Tell shown to the Antwerp Schutterij of St Sebastian.  This work, which is now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, was made for the hall of the Antwerp schutterij pursuant to a contract made before a notary on 28 April 1672.  The work is a collaboration with Philips Augustijn Immenraet and Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg. The architecture is painted by Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg and the landscape by Philips Augustijn Immenraet and the rest by Charles Emmanuel Biset.  The composition uses the tale of William Tell to create a group portrait of the leading members of the schutterij.The  Portrait of a family in an interior (Sold at Christie's on 19 April 2007 in New York, lot 31) was originally attributed to Gerard Pietersz van Zijl but is now attributed to Biset. This composition follows the model of the merry companies with its informal setting which includes children and musicians.  A less informal rendering of the same subject is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.

Genre scenes
Genre subjects involving indoor scenes of playing persons were quite popular in Flemish and Dutch painting in the 17th century and in particular among the so-called Caravaggists.  Biset painted similar genre scenes an example of which is his composition the Tric-trac players (Statens Museum for Kunst).

The composition shows an interior with two standing men playing tric-trac and three onlookers. One of the onlookers is engaged in a lively exchange with a maid who is handing him a glass of wine.  A young male servant is pouring drinks for the company at a table on which also food is placed including oysters, a few of which have fallen on the floor.  The overall setting seems to point to a company that is actively enjoying itself but may be on the verge of losing control.

Gallery paintings
Biset worked also in the genre of the 'gallery paintings'.  The 'gallery paintings' genre is native to Antwerp where Frans Francken the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder were the first artists to create paintings of art and curiosity collections in the 1620s. Gallery paintings depict large rooms in which many paintings and other precious items are displayed in elegant surroundings.  The earliest works in this genre depicted art objects together with other items such as scientific instruments or peculiar natural specimens.  The genre became immediately quite popular and was followed by other artists such as Jan Brueghel the Younger, Cornelis de Baellieur, Hans Jordaens, David Teniers the Younger, Gillis van Tilborch and Hieronymus Janssens.  The art galleries depicted were either real galleries or imaginary galleries, sometimes with allegorical figures.

An example of Biset's work in this genre is the Interior of an Imaginary Picture Gallery (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) dated to 1666.  This composition falls into the category of allegorical picture galleries, which can be considered a sub-category of the imaginary art gallery type. This composition depicts a large imaginary gallery in which are present a number of persons admiring and scrutinizing artworks and, on the right hand side, figures representing gods and allegorical figures. Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg painted the architecture as well as the ceiling (which is made up of copies of Rubens' works for the Carolus Borromeuskerk in Antwerp) (later destroyed in a fire). The figures are believed to be by Charles Emmanuel Biset. The painting is a collaboration with each of the individual painters whose work is depicted in the painting and have signed their own work: Theodoor Boeyermans (Daughters of Cecrops and Erychtonius), Pieter Boel (Animal Piece), Jan Cossiers (Diana and Actaeon), Cornelis de Heem (Fruit Still Life), Robert van den Hoecke (Winter Landscape), Philips Augustijn Immenraet (Italianate Landscape), Jacob Jordaens (Gyges and Kandaules and Allegory of Painting), Pieter Thijs (Adoration of the Shepherds), Lucas van Uden (Landscape) and the monogrammists missed PB (Fish Still Life) and PVI or PVH (Satyr and Nymph). This type of painting can be regarded as a carefully crafted advertisement of the present talent and past legacy of the Antwerp school of painting.

Still lifes
A number of still lifes with books are attributed to Biset.  These still lifes stand in a tradition of vanitas still lifes with books that was popular in Flemish and Dutch still life painting in the 17th century.  An example is the Still life with books and a skull (Sold at Alain Truong, 18 December 2008 in Paris).  The composition depicts a table on which rest a number of writing implements, some sealed letters and old books.  On top of one book which is opened and appears to be handwritten rests a human skull.  The message of the work appears to be that human endeavours as expressed in personal writings are futile as death is the ultimate outcome.

Book illustrations
Biset provided some designs for illustrations for a number of publications in Antwerp.  This includes the book on mushrooms by the priest Franciscus van Sterbeeck entitled Theatrum fungorum oft het toneel der campernoelien ... vergaedert ende beschreven door Franciscus van Sterbeeck, which was published by Joseph Jacobs in Antwerp in 1675 and by the same author and publisher the Citricultura oft Regeringhe der uythemsche boomen te weten oranien, citroenen, limoenen, granaten, laurieren en andere on the cultivation of non-native trees, published in 1682 in Antwerp.
Passage 5:
Rita Blumenberg
Rita Blumenberg (born 23 June 1936) is a West German retired pair skater.  With her husband Werner Mensching, she won the silver medal at the 1958 German Figure Skating Championships.  The pair finished 7th at the 1960 Winter Olympics and 4th at the European Figure Skating Championships in 1961.

Results
(with Mensching)
Passage 6:
Werner Mensching
Werner Mensching (23 December 1933 – 21 June 1997) was a West German pair skater.  With his wife Rita Blumenberg, he won the silver medal at the 1958 German Figure Skating Championships.  The pair finished 7th at the 1960 Winter Olympics and 4th at the European Figure Skating Championships in 1961.

Results
(with Blumenberg)
Passage 7:
Karl von Czyhlarz
Karl Ritter von Czyhlarz, or Karel Cihlář (August 17, 1833, Lovosice, Bohemia - July 21, 1914, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian jurist, politician.
He taught as a professor at the Charles University in Prague (1858-1892), University of Vienna (1892-1904).
He was a specialist of the Roman law.
Karl was a member of an assembly of Bohemia (1866-1886), and a member of the Upper Chamber of the Austrian Reichsrat (1898-).

Literary works
Lehrbuch der Institutionen des römischen Rechts, 1933

External links
Das weltweite Österreich Journal - für Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in aller Welt at oe-journal.at
Representatives of Viennese Scholarship at www.univie.ac.at
AEIOU
http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/oebl/oebl_C/Czyhlarz_Karl_1833_1914.xml
Passage 8:
Carel Beschey
Carel Beschey or Karel Beschey (1706, Antwerp – c. 1770, likely Antwerp) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who mainly painted landscapes that were in the style of, or inspired by, the Flemish masters of the previous century and in particular Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 – 1625).

Life
Carel Beschey was born in Antwerp the son of Jacob Beschey and Maria-Theresia Huaert.  Carel had three brothers who all became painters.  The best known was Balthasar who was a landscape, history and portrait painter. His younger brothers were Jacob Andries, a history painter, and Jan Frans, a copyist and art dealer.  Jan Frans was for a while resident as a painter and art dealer in London.

Carel Beschey was a pupil of Hendrick Govaerts.  In 1727 he won the first prize in the life drawing competition of the Academy of Arts in Antwerp.  Like his brother Balthasar, he became a director of the Academy of Arts of Antwerp.Thanks to the connections of his younger brother Balthasar who was also an art dealer and portrait painter, Carel Beschey was able to find patrons and buyers for his paintings.  At his brother's house, art lovers regularly met up to study the work of the great Dutch and Flemish masters.It is not known when or where Carel Beschey died but it is assumed he died in Antwerp c. 1770.

Work
Carel Beschey painted mainly landscapes usually with many figures and occasionally with a religious scene.  He was one of a number of Antwerp artists from the second half of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century who painted landscapes in a style reminiscent of earlier Flemish landscape painting. In particular, the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder.  These artists included, amongst others, Izaak van Oosten, Peeter Gijsels, Adriaen Frans Boudewyns, Pieter Bout, Joseph van Bredael and his brother Balthasar Beschey.   What these artists had in common was that they liked to paint pleasant landscapes with peasant scenes in fresh colours, which exuded a bucolic sense of happiness. Most of their landscapes were populated with small figures in anecdotal poses set against a backdrop of a nice landscape or of some buildings.  The preferred palette was pronounced blue-green.

The landscapes of Carel Beschey are closely based on the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder. Carel Beschey had a preference for wide, rural landscapes in which the rich scenery with farmers and travellers clearly evokes the model of landscape painting of the 17th century.Beschey painted a few pairs of winter and summer landscapes.  His winter landscapes display a greater level of independence from the Brueghel model.  An example is A winter landscape with hunters and skaters on a frozen river running through a village (sold at Sotheby's on 9 December 2009 in London, lot 5).
Passage 9:
Charles Buls
Charles Buls or Karel Buls (13 October 1837 – 13 July 1914) was a Belgian politician and mayor of the City of Brussels.

Early life
Charles François Gommaire Buls was born in Brussels as the son of a goldsmith from the region of Mechelen. Buls received an artistic education, and spent a year in Paris, and nine months in Italy, studying fine arts. He also learned several languages including English, German, Italian and Latin, besides his mother tongue Dutch. He followed in his father's footsteps and worked as a goldsmith.
In 1862 he became a Freemason in "Les vrais amis", and in 1871 joined "La libre pensée".  At the same time, he was a member of "de Veldbloem" and "Vlamingen vooruit", two Flemish organisations of the Flemish movement. Together with his brother in law, Leo Van der Kindere, the later mayor of Uccle, he became a "flamingant".

Politics
Buls entered politics in 1870 as a Flemish candidate on a radical list but he was not elected until 1877, when he was elected to the Brussels city council on a liberal list. He became schepen or échevin of education in 1879. Buls was a supporter of progressive causes, especially in language issues and education, and the education of women, on which he wrote frequently. He was a supporter of Isabelle Gatti de Gamond's educational reforms. From 1879 on he played an important role in the development of Flemish education in Brussels.On the national stage, Buls served in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 1882, and again from 1886 to 1894.
Buls became Mayor of Brussels in 1881 and remained in office until 1899. At his initiative policemen had to be able to speak both French and Dutch and bilingual signposting was established throughout the city. However, along with these reforms, his most lasting achievement was the result of his opposition to the grandiose architectural schemes of King Leopold II, and the resulting preservation of old parts of Brussels. In particular, Buls was a steadfast defender and admirer of the Mont des Arts and the Grand-Place, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, successfully proposing the 1883 city ordinance protecting the façades of the Grand-Place buildings and providing funds for their restoration which took place between 1883 and 1923. In 1899, the architects of Brussels who had been involved in this restoration work paid for a memorial commemorating Buls, designed by Victor Horta and executed by Victor Rousseau, to be placed in the rebuilt "L'Etoile" or "De Ster" house on the Grand-Place. At the reopening of the restored Town Hall, Buls greeted Leopold II in Dutch, and the King replied in the same language, which was unusual at the time. In 1999, a new fountain with a larger-than-life-sized seated statue of Buls and his dog was erected at the Place Agoraplein, close to the Grand-Place.
Buls was an accomplished and prolific author, not merely on educational and artistic issues but also publishing accounts of his travels abroad.

See also
List of mayors of the City of Brussels
Passage 10:
Carolus Gallus
Gallus, Carolus (or Karel de Haan) (16 August 1530 in Arnhem – 28 January 1616 in Nijbroek) was a Reformed minister and polemicist against the Anabaptists. Native to the Netherlands, Gallus was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and studied law and theology to become a priest.

Life
As a Roman Catholic preparing to study for the priesthood, and against the warnings of his friend Joannes Visser, Carolus Gallus chose to study theology under John Calvin and Theodore de Beze at the Genevan Academy.
In early 1560, he became a priest at Deventer, though by February 1561, he was sued by dean of Deventer and brought under charges of heresy due to his administration of the Eucharist during a Christmas Mass. The city kept him in his position until June 1561, when he fled to the city of Hamm. He was appointed as Evangelical pastor by the Duke of Cleves and remained in this position until 1576. He moved to Bremen for a brief time and became a bitter opponent to the Anabaptists. He published his first book against the Anabaptists entitled Lehre de Christelicken geloovens in veer boecken tegen den wedertöpern erdömmen (Bremen, 1577 ?).  From 1578 to 1581, at the behest of Count Johan Nassau, he was a military chaplain with his friend Johannes Fontanus in Gelderland, where the Reformation was beginning to take hold.
Between the years of 1583 and 1586, he ministered once again in Deventer, but once again had to flee as Roman Catholics from Spain who infiltrated the city. He was appointed as professor of theology at the University of Leiden in 1587 and maintained this position rather shortly, as he took a call to become minister in Oldenbroek in 1592, where he remained until his death.

Chief works
Lehre de Christelicken geloovens in veer boecken tegen den wedertöpern erdömmen. Bremen, 1577(?).
Exegetica adversus catabaptistas: effte gruendtlike und uthuqeorlike vorklaringe. 1577.
Clavis prophetica nova apocatypseos, Joannis apostoli et evangeliographi. 1592.
Accesserunt theses de antichristo, & tractatus de magistratu. Apoc. 22 vers 10. Lugd. Bat. 1592.
De febribus pestilentibus, ac malignis, tractatus bipartitus. In quo elegantissima & copiosa alexipharmaca usuque comprobata per eumdem acurate examinantur. Nec non quaestio an venae sectio cucurbitule hyrudines vel scarificationes conveniant in dictis febribus authoritatib. eximiorum virorum absolvitur. Ferrariae, Apud Victorium Baldinum, 1600.
Malleus Anabaptistarum Een hamer op dat hoeft aller Wederdoperschen secten. Arnhem: Jan Janssen, 1606.
Brevis responsio ad solutiones ad solutiones datas ad Adversariis ad argumenta Maccovii. Franeker, 1642.