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A psychiatric hospital (also called at various places and times, mental hospital, mental ward, sanitarium or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. Psychiatric wards differ only in that they are a unit of a larger hospital.

Types of psychiatric hospitals
There are a number of different types of modern psychiatric hospitals, but all of them house people with mental problems.

Crisis stabilization
One type is the crisis stabilization unit, which is in effect an emergency room for mental disorders. Involuntary commitment laws in many jurisdictions require a judge to issue a commitment order within a short time (often 72 hours) of the patient's entry to the unit.

Open units
Open units are psychiatric units that are less secure than crisis stabilization units. They are not used for acutely suicidal persons; the focus in these units is to make life as normal as possible for patients while continuing treatment to the point where they can be discharged. However, patients are usually still not allowed to hold their own medications in their rooms, because of the risk of an impulsive overdose. While some open units are still physically unlocked, other open units still use locked entrances and exits. This is to keep patients from escaping, which may be described as "leaving impulsively," or leaving without being discharged from the unit.

Medium-term
Another type of psychiatric hospital is a medium term, which provides care lasting several weeks. Most drugs used for psychiatric purposes take several weeks to take effect, and the main purpose of these hospitals is to watch over the patient while the drugs begin their expected effect and the patient can be discharged.

Juvenile wards
Juvenile wards are sections of psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric wards set aside for children and/or adolescents with mental illness.

These usually consist of anyone aged under 18.

Geriatric wards
Geriatric wards are designed to help treat older adult patients. The staff of these wards are specially trained to deal with older patients.


Long term care facilities
In the UK, at least, long term care facilities are now being replaced with smaller secure units (some within the hospitals listed above). Modern buildings, modern security and locally sited to help with reintegration into society once medication has stabilized the condition. An example of this being the Three Bridges Unit, in the grounds of Hanwell Asylum in West London. However these modern units, have the goal of treatment and rehabilitation back into society within a short time-frame (two or three years) and not all forensic patients treatment can meet this criteria, so the large hospitals mentioned above retain this role.

Halfway houses
One final type of institution for the mentally ill, that is not a hospital, is a community-based halfway house. These houses provide assisted living for patients with mental illnesses for an extended period of time. These institutions are considered to be one of the most important parts of a mental health system by many psychiatrists, although many localities fail to provide sufficient funding for them.

Used as a form of prison
In some countries the mental institution may be used for the incarceration of political prisoners, as a form of oppression .

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Some critics, notably psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, have objected to calling mental hospitals "hospitals" . Lawrence Stevens has described mental hospitals as "jails" . Michael Foucault is widely known for a comprehensive critique of the use and abuse of the mental hospital system. Erving Goffman coined the term 'Total Institution' for places which took over and confined a person's whole life. The anti-psychiatry movement coming to the fore in the 1960s oppose many of the practices, conditions or existence of mental hospitals. The Consumer/Survivor Movement has often objected to or campaigned against conditions in mental hospitals or their use, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Some anti-psychiatry activists have advocated for the abolition of long-term hospitals for the criminally insane, including on the grounds that those judged not guilty by reason of insanity should not then be indefinitely confined with potentially less legal rights, or on the converse grounds that insanity is not a coherent concept and so should not be a basis for different treatment.

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Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975) is an American film actor and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported. Jolie has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR.


Jolie at the premiere of Alexander in Cologne

Early life and family
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Jolie is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, she is of Slovak and German descent,and on her mother's side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois, although Voight once claimed Bertrand is "not seriously Iroquois," and they merely said it to enhance his ex-wife's exotic background.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades, New York. As a child Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father.When she was 11, the family moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions. She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (later Moreno High School), and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of the area's more affluent families. Jolie's mother survived on a more modest income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely thin, and for wearing glasses and braces. Her self-esteem was further diminished when her initial attempts at modeling proved unsuccessful. She started to cut herself; later commenting, "I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me." At 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming a funeral director. During this period, she wore black, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend.Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home. She returned to theatre studies and graduated from high school, though in recent times she has referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heart — and always will be — just a punk kid with tattoos".

Jolie has been long estranged from her father, though a reconciliation was attempted, and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. In July 2002, Jolie filed a request to legally change her name to "Angelina Jolie", dropping Voight as her surname; the name change was made official on September 12, 2002.In August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had "serious emotional problems" on Access Hollywood. Jolie later indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father, and said, "My father and I don't speak. I don't hold any anger toward him. I don't believe that somebody's family becomes their blood. Because my son's adopted, and families are earned." She stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight.


Jolie with Colin Powell in Washington, D.C., June 2004


Jolie and Condoleezza Rice at World Refugee Day 2005


Jolie at a photo op in Washington, D.C.

Angelina Jolie
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Shannen Maria Doherty (born April 12, 1971) is an American actress and television director, perhaps best known for her work as Heather Duke in Heathers, as Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 and its spinoff series 90210, and as Prue Halliwell in Charmed.


Doherty at the Governor's Ball following the 43rd Annual

Early life and career beginnings
Doherty was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Rosa, a beauty parlor owner, and Tom Doherty, a mortgage consultant.Doherty has Irish Catholic ancestry, though was raised in her mother's Southern Baptist religion. In 1978, when Doherty was seven, her family moved to Los Angeles[1] and she immediately announced that she wanted to be an actress.

In an interview in the December 2006 issue of Glamour, she said:

“ When I was nine, my mother developed an excruciating headache and had to be hospitalized - she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. She came through it but the experience was terrifying. The following year my father had a massive stroke. In a single year I nearly lost both my parents. I felt my classmates couldn't relate to what I was going through, so I closed myself off. ”

Success began early, with guest spots on TV series including Voyagers!, Father Murphy and Airwolf in 1984. When a casting notice was released in Hollywood for a regular role on the popular Little House on the Prairie she leapt at the opportunity and eventually won the role of Jenny Wilder at the age of eleven, thanks in part to actor/producer Michael Landon seeing her guest spot on Father Murphy, which he also produced.


Doherty at the 1991 Emmy Awards red carpet with Jason Priestly and Fred Savage.

Shannen Doherty
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Shawn Machel Johnson (born January 19, 1992) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic women's balance beam gold medalist, the individual all-around silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion.


Shawn Johnson on top of the all-around podium at the 2008 U.S. National Championships.

Personal life
Johnson is the daughter of Doug and Teri Johnson. She was enrolled in a gymnastics class, after her parents noticed her climbing up cabinets and jumping down from tables. At the age of six, she was among the first students when Liang Chow opened a gymnastics school in Des Moines.

Johnson currently attends Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, entering the 2008–09 school year as a junior. Unlike most elite gymnasts who train approximately 40 hours a week and have private tutors, Johnson trains 20-25 hours a week and attends a public high school where she is currently on the “A” Honor Roll and takes part in numerous extra-curricular activities.

Although not yet old enough to vote, Johnson might have signaled what may be political leanings as she is slated to lead the pledge of allegiance on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.


Johnson performs on the vault at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shawn Johnson
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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham first attracted national attention in 1969 for her remarks as the first student to deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College. She embarked on a career in law after graduating from Yale Law School in 1973. Following a stint as a Congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas in 1974, and married Bill Clinton in 1975. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979, and was twice listed as one of the one hundred most influential lawyers in America. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 and was active in a number of organizations concerned with child welfare, as well as sitting on the boards of Wal-Mart and several other corporations.

As First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval from the U.S. Congress in 1994. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the several other investigations during her husband's administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton is also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution. She has subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and has opposed it on most domestic issues. She was reelected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but after a long campaign, Senator Barack Obama became the party's presumptive nominee in June 2008 and Clinton endorsed him.


Hillary Rodham Clinton, official portrait.




Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1992


The Clinton family takes an Inauguration Day walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to start Bill Clinton's second term in office. January 20, 1997.


Re-enactment of Hillary Rodham Clinton being sworn in as a United States Senator by Vice President Al Gore in the Old Senate Chamber, as President Clinton and daughter Chelsea look on. January 3, 2001.


Senator Clinton listens as Chief of Naval Operations Navy Admiral Mike Mullen responds to a question during his 2007 confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee.










Governor Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton attend the 1987 Dinner Honoring the Nation's Governors with President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.


The Clinton family arrives at the White House courtesy of Marine One, 1993.


Clinton reads to a child during a school visit


Clinton speaking at a large campaign rally. South Hall, San Jose, California, February 1, 2008.


Clinton campaigning at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before Super Tuesday 2008.


Clinton at a campaign stop

Hillary Rodham Clinton
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Jessica Claire Biel (born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and former model, who has appeared in several Hollywood films, including Summer Catch, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Illusionist, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, and is also well known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven.


Biel at the Gen Art Premiere and Party for The Illusionist

Early life
Born Jessica Claire Biel on March 3, 1982 in Ely, Minnesota, to Kimberly Biel (née Conroe) a homemaker, and Jon Biel, an entrepreneur. She has a younger brother, Justin, born in 1985.

Although she was born in Minnesota, her family moved a lot during her childhood, living in Texas, Illinois and Connecticut, before finally settling in Boulder, Colorado, which she calls home.


Biel aboard USS Abraham Lincoln, June 15, 2004 on Stealth set.


Biel at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January 2007


Biel at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego Bay, July 17, 2005


Biel on the set of Stealth, 2005

Jessica Biel
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Mia Hamm (born Mariel Margaret Hamm on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama) is a former American soccer player. Playing for many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team, she scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female, in the history of the sport (158).

Hamm eventually became one of the most famous women athletes in the world, an iconic symbol of women's sports, and an inspiration and role model to a generation of sports-minded girls. She was named the women's FIFA World Player of the Year the first two times that award was given (in 2001 and 2002), and is listed as one of FIFA's 125 best living players (as chosen by Pelé). She retired from the sport in 2004, when she played her last game in the 2004 Fan Celebration Tour to commemorate the US's Women's National team's victory in the 2004 Olympics. In 2007, her first year of eligibility, she was selected for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame by having 137 votes of the 141 ballots cast. Women's Professional Soccer, a professional soccer league that plans to launch in 2009, features Hamm's silhouette in its logo.

Hamm was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on March 11, 2008.

She is the author of Go For the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life (Harper Collins, 1999). She appeared in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team.


Mia Hamm signing autographs in Cary, NC

Early years
Hamm spent her childhood on Air Force bases with her parents Bill and Stephanie Hamm and her five siblings.She played organized sports from a very young age, and at age 15 she joined the U.S. National Team, becoming the youngest ever to play for them.

She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she helped the Tar Heels to four NCAA women's championships in five years (she sat out the season of 1991 to concentrate on the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China). North Carolina only lost one game in ninety five she played. She was an All-American and Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year for her last three years. She also won ACC Female Athlete of the Year in 1993 and 1994.


Mia Hamm
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Anna Kay Faris (born November 29, 1976) is an American actress best known for her lead role as Cindy Campbell in the Scary Movie films and as April in the movie The Hot Chick.


Anna Faris in January 2007.

Biography

Early life
Faris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Karen and Robert Faris. She has a brother, Jack, and grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her parents encouraged her to pursue acting when she was young and she gave her first professional acting performance at age nine at the Seattle Repertory Theater. After attending Edmonds Woodway High School, she studied English literature at the University of Washington.

Film career
Her first significant film role was in the independent production Lovers Lane (1999). Her breakout role was the horror film parody Scary Movie (2000). The 5'5" Faris is a natural blonde, but dyed her hair black for the filming of Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2 so that her character more closely resembled Neve Campbell, who played the equivalent character in Scream, one of the films that Scary Movie parodied.

Faris gained further popularity after becoming recurring character Erica in the final season of the popular American sitcom Friends. She also was in the critically acclaimed film Lost in Translation—in which she plays an actress promoting the fictional action movie Midnight Velocity.

Faris was in the film Waiting... with Ryan Reynolds and Justin Long. In 2005, she appeared again with Reynolds in Just Friends, playing a supporting role as a pop-diva singer named Samantha James. Faris' role as the motor mouthed LaShawn Malone in Brokeback Mountain (2005) brought her to the attention of a much wider audience, her character being parodied by fans of the movie on the internet. Faris starred with Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson in the feature film My Super Ex-Girlfriend, released on July 21, 2006. She is currently in production on the comedy Kids in America, playing Topher Grace's twin sister, in addition to her upcoming films Mama's Boy with Jeff Daniels and Diane Keaton, and Smiley Face with Adam Brody and John Cho. As of 2007, she was producing and starring in The House Bunny, a film with Happy Madison Productions about a retired Playboy bunny. In the summer 2007 season of HBO's Entourage, Faris guest-starred as herself.

Personal life
In 2004, Faris married actor Ben Indra, whom she met while working on Lovers Lane and whom she had dated since 1999. She filed for divorce on April 3, 2007, citing irreconcilable differences. Anna Faris won the "Stonette of the Year" award at High Times magazine's Stony Awards in Los Angeles on October 13, 2007.

Anna Faris
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Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American film and television actress.


Amanda Peet, February 2008

Early life
Peet was born in New York City, the daughter of Penny (née Levy), a social worker, and Charles Peet, a corporate lawyer. The two are now divorced. Her father is a Quaker and her mother is Jewish.She has one older sister, who is a doctor named Alisa Peet. Peet attended Friends Seminary, then studied history at and graduated from Columbia University, where she auditioned for acting teacher Uta Hagen and decided to become an actress after taking Hagen's class. During her four-year period of study with Hagen, Peet appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing.

Career
Peet's first screen performance was a television commercial for Skittles. Her early roles included a guest role on the television series Law & Order. She made her film debut in Animal Room (1995). Peet maintained a steady acting career in relatively obscure indie movies.

Her first major role was as "Jack" in the 1999 WB network series Jack & Jill (which aired for two seasons). She also appeared in the eighth-season finale of Seinfeld ("The Summer of George") as a waitress whom Jerry Seinfeld meets. Her character is notable for seemingly dating two men at once: Jerry and her apparent roommate ("dude"), Lyle. Peet's first role in a widely-released feature film came in 2000, with The Whole Nine Yards, which, together with the cult film Whipped, helped to elevate her status from supporting actress to lead. That same year, she was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine. Peet was also in the movie Saving Silverman with Jack Black and Steve Zahn. She also starred in Something's Gotta Give in 2003, playing Diane Keaton's daughter, and, at one point, Jack Nicholson's girlfriend.

In 2005, Peet appeared in the play This Is How It Goes, filling in for Marisa Tomei at the last minute after six days of rehearsal. In the same year, she also co-starred in the films Syriana with Matt Damon, and A Lot Like Love, with Ashton Kutcher. In February 2006, she was performing in Neil Simon's Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park.

Peet was a member of the cast of the television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which premiered on NBC on September 18, 2006. She starred with Matthew Perry, with whom she worked in The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards, and Sarah Paulson, with whom she co-starred in Jack & Jill. In Studio 60, Peet's character Jordan McDeere was the newly-appointed president of the National Broadcasting System (NBS). In 2006, she also starred along with Dermot Mulroney in Griffin and Phoenix, where she played a terminally-ill woman living life to the fullest.

In 2007's The Ex, a comedy co-starring Zach Braff, Peet played an attorney who stays home to raise a new baby. In 2008, Peet went on to play an FBI agent in The X-Files: I Want to Believe.She will next co-star with Hilary Duff, Amanda Seyfried and Amber Tamblyn in Safety Glass, a film set around the Space Shuttle Challenger launch; filming will begin this fall.

In 2008 she was hired by the American Academy of Pediatrics to be an advocate for the Every Child by Two vaccination campaign.

Personal life
Peet married screenwriter David Benioff (whom she met on a blind date) on September 30, 2006 in New York City and gave birth to a daughter, Frances Pen, on February 20, 2007. The three live in Manhattan and Los Angeles. She was also maid of honor at Lauren Holly's marriage in 2001 with Francis Greco.

Amanda Peet
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Measles is a disease caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. 'German measles' is an unrelated condition caused by the rubella virus.

Measles is spread through respiration (contact with fluids from an infected person's nose and mouth, either directly or through aerosol transmission), and is highly contagious—90% of people without immunity sharing a house with an infected person will catch it[citation needed]. Airborne precautions should be taken for all suspected cases of measles.

The incubation period usually lasts for 4–12 days (during which there are no symptoms). Infected people remain contagious from the appearance of the first symptoms until 3–5 days after the rash appears.

Reports of measles go as far back to at least 600 B.C. however, the first scientific description of the disease and its distinction from smallpox is attributed to the Persian physician Ibn Razi (Rhazes) 860-932 who published a book entitled "The Book of Smallpox and Measles" (in Arabic: Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah). In roughly the last 150 years, measles has been estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide. In 1954, the virus causing the disease was isolated from an 11-year old boy from the US, David Edmonston, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo tissue culture. To date, 21 strains of the measles virus have been identified. Licensed vaccines to prevent the disease became available in 1963.


Measles virus

Symptoms
The classical symptoms of measles include a fever for at least three days, the three Cs—cough, coryza (runny nose) and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The fever may reach up to 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit). Koplik's spots seen inside the mouth are pathognomonic (diagnostic) for measles but are not often seen, even in real cases of measles, because they are transient and may disappear within a day of arising.

The characteristic measles rash is classically described as a generalized, maculopapular, erythematous rash that begins several days after the fever starts. It starts on the head before spreading to cover most of the body, often causing itching. The rash is said to "stain", changing colour from red to dark brown, before disappearing.

Diagnosis and treatment
Clinical diagnosis of measles requires a history of fever of at least three days together with at least one of the three Cs. Observation of Koplik's spots is also diagnostic of measles.

Alternatively, laboratory diagnosis of measles can be done with confirmation of positive measles IgM antibodies or isolation of measles virus RNA from respiratory specimens. In cases of measles infection following secondary vaccine failure IgM antibody may not be present. In these cases serological confirmation may be made by showing IgG antibody rises by Enzyme immunoasay or complement fixation. In children, where phlebotomy is inappropriate, saliva can be collected for salivary measles specific IgA test.

Positive contact with other patients known to have measles adds strong epidemiological evidence to the diagnosis.

There is no specific treatment or antiviral therapy for uncomplicated measles. Most patients with uncomplicated measles will recover with rest and supportive treatment.

Some patients will develop pneumonia as a sequela to the measles. Histologically, a unique cell can be found in the paracortical region of hyperplastic lymph nodes in patients affected with this condition. This cell, known as the Warthin-Finkeldey cell, is a multinucleated giant with eosinophilic cytoplasmic and nuclear inclusions.

Transmission
The measles is a highly contagious airborne pathogen which spreads primarily via the respiratory system. The virus is transmitted in respiratory secretions, and can be passed from person to person via aerosol droplets containing virus particles, such as those produced by a coughing patient. Once transmission occurs, the virus infects and replicates in the lymphatic system, urinary tract, conjunctivae, blood vessels and central nervous system of its new host. The role of epithelial cells is uncertain, but the virus must infect them to spread to a new individual.

Patients with the measles should be placed on droplet precautions.

Humans are the only known natural hosts of measles, although the virus can infect some non-human primate species.

Complications
Complications with measles are relatively common, ranging from relatively mild and less serious diarrhea, to pneumonia and encephalitis (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), corneal ulceration leading to corneal scarring Complications are usually more severe amongst adults who catch the virus.

The fatality rate from measles for otherwise healthy people in developed countries is low: approximately 1 death per thousand cases. In underdeveloped nations with high rates of malnutrition and poor healthcare, fatality rates of 10 percent are common. In immunocompromised patients, the fatality rate is approximately 30 percent.

Public health
Measles is a significant infectious disease because, while the rate of complications is not high, the disease itself is so infectious that the sheer number of people who would suffer complications in an outbreak amongst non-immune people would quickly overwhelm available hospital resources. If vaccination rates fall, the number of non-immune persons in the community rises, and the risk of an outbreak of measles consequently rises.

In developed countries, most children are immunized against measles by the age of 18 months, generally as part of a three-part MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella). The vaccination is generally not given earlier than this because children younger than 18 months usually retain anti-measles immunoglobulins (antibodies) transmitted from the mother during pregnancy. A second dose is usually given to children between the ages of four and five, in order to increase rates of immunity. Vaccination rates have been high enough to make measles relatively uncommon. Even a single case in a college dormitory or similar setting is often met with a local vaccination program, in case any of the people exposed are not already immune. In developing countries, measles remains common.

Unvaccinated populations are at risk for the disease. After vaccination rates dropped in northern Nigeria in the early 2000s due to religious and political objections, the number of cases rose significantly, and hundreds of children died. A 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana was attributed to children whose parents refused vaccination. In the early 2000s the MMR vaccine controversy in the United Kingdom regarding a potential link between the combined MMR vaccine (vaccinating children from mumps, measles and rubella) and autism prompted a comeback in the measles party, where parents deliberately infect the child with measles to build up the child's immunity without an injection. This practice poses many health risks to the child, and has been discouraged by the public health authorities. Scientific evidence provides no support for the hypothesis that MMR plays a role in causing autism. However, the MMR scare in Britain caused uptake of the vaccine to plunge, and measles cases came back: 2007 saw 971 cases in England and Wales, the biggest rise in occurrence in measles cases since records began in 1995.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), measles is a leading cause of vaccine preventable childhood mortality. Worldwide, the fatality rate has been significantly reduced by partners in the Measles Initiative: the American Red Cross, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Globally, measles deaths are down 60 percent, from an estimated 873,000 deaths in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005. Africa has seen the most success, with annual measles deaths falling by 75 percent in just 5 years, from an estimated 506,000 to 126,000.

The joint press release by members of the Measles Initiative brings to light another benefit of the fight against measles: "Measles vaccination campaigns are contributing to the reduction of child deaths from other causes. They have become a channel for the delivery of other life-saving interventions, such as bed nets to protect against malaria, de-worming medicine and vitamin A supplements. Combining measles immunization with other health interventions is a contribution to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal Number 4: a two-thirds reduction in child deaths between 1990 and 2015."

Recent outbreaks
Main article: Measles outbreaks in the 2000s
In 2007, a large measles outbreak in Japan caused a number of universities and other institutions to close in an attempt to contain the disease.

Approximately 1000 cases of the disease were reported in Israel between August 2007 and May 2008 (in sharp contrast to just some dozen cases the year before). Many children in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities were affected due to low vaccination coverage.As of 2008 the disease is endemic in the United Kingdom and epidemics have been reported in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. Low vacciation rates are responsible.

United States
Indigenous measles were declared to have been eliminated in North, Central, and South America; the last endemic case in the region was reported on November 12, 2002. Outbreaks are still occurring, however, following importations of measles viruses from other world regions. In June 2006, an outbreak in Boston resulted after a resident became infected in India,and in October 2007, a Michigan girl who had been vaccinated contracted the disease overseas.

Between January 1 and April 25, 2008, a total of 64 confirmed measles cases were preliminarily reported in the United States to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most reported by this date for any year since 2001. Of the 64 cases, 54 were associated with importation of measles from other countries into the United States, and 63 of the 64 patients were unvaccinated or had unknown or undocumented vaccination status.

By July 9, 2008, a total of 127 cases were reported in 15 states (including 22 in Arizona), making it the largest US outbreak since 1997 (when 138 cases were reported).Most of the cases were acquired outside of the United States and afflicted individuals who had not been vaccinated.

By July 30, 2008, the number of cases had grown to 131. Of these, about half involved children whose parents rejected vaccination. The 131 cases occurred in 7 different outbreaks. There were no deaths, and 15 hospitalizations. 11 of the cases had received at least one dose of the measles vaccine. 122 of the cases involved children who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. Some of these were under the age of one year old, and so below the age when vaccination is recommended, but in 63 cases the vaccinations had been refused for religious or philosophical reasons. Many of the cases involved church groups and the home schooled.


Skin of a patient after 3 days of measles infection.

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The goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni, is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae. The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin shark is the unorthodox shape of its head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks' snouts. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws. When the jaws are retracted, the shark resembles a pink grey nurse shark, Carcharias taurus, with an unusually long nose.

Mitsukurina owstoni is found in the deep ocean, far below where the sun's light can reach at depths greater than 200 m. They can be found throughout the world, from Australia in the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean.They are best known from the waters around Japan, where the species was first discovered by modern science.

Goblin sharks feed on a variety of organisms that live in deep waters. Among some of their known meals are deep-sea squid, crabs and deep-sea fishes. Very little is known about the species' life history and reproductive habits, as encounters with them have been relatively rare. As seemingly rare as they are however, there seems to be no real threat to their populations and so they are not classified as endangered species by the IUCN.


Mitsukurina owstoni

Taxonomy
The goblin shark was originally described in 1898 by Jordan as Mitsukurina owstoni, from a specimen obtained in the Sagami Sea, near Yokohama, Japan.

Another specimen caught was described in 1909 as Scapanorhynchus jordoni by Louis Hussakof. For a time, the species was moved to the genus Scapanorhynchus and was referred to as Scapanorhynchus owstoni, a scientific name now invalid.

The fossil record includes another two dozen or so related species in two (extinct) genera, Scapanorhynchus and Anomotodon.

The genus' name Mitsukurina is named after Kakichi Mitsukuri, a Japanese zoologist from the University of Tokyo who was responsible for bringing the then-unidentified specimen to David Jordan for proper taxonomic identification and description. The species itself was named by Jordan in honor of avid wildlife collector Allan Owston, who acquired the first specimen from a Japanese fisherman.

The shark's common name is a translation of the Japanese name tenguzame, which was the original term that Japanese fishermen used to refer to the shark prior to its description. It refers to the goblin-like tengu of Japanese folklore, which has a long nose reminiscent of the goblin shark's snout.


Image Source TItle: Illustrated Catalogue of the Fishes of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia : G. Hassell & Son, 1921

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Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988), is an American actress and singer. She made her debut in 2003 appearing in the Hollywood films Thirteen and Thunderbirds, before reaching fame in 2006 after appearing in the Disney Channel film High School Musical hit series. Hudgens began a music career and released her debut album, V, in 2006. Her sophomore album, Identified, was released July 1, 2008.


Vanessa Hudgens performing at the High School Musical: The Concert tour

Early life
Hudgens was born in Salinas, California, the daughter of Gina (née Guangco) and Greg Hudgens. She has a younger sister, Stella Hudgens. Hudgens's father is an American of Irish and Native American descent, and her mother, who grew up in Manila, is a Filipino-born of Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese descent. Hudgens has been home-schooled since after her seventh-grade year at the Orange County High School of the Arts.

Starting at the age of eight, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I, The Music Man, and Cinderella, among others.

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America Georgine Ferrera (born April 18, 1984) is an American actress.


America Ferrera

Biography
Ferrera, the youngest of six siblings, was born in Los Angeles, California, to parents who emigrated to the United States from Honduras in the mid-1970s. Her mother is a hotel executive in charge of housecleaning staff. Later, her mom divorced her father and raised six children – five girls, one boy – while stressing the importance of higher education.Five have graduated from college and America is working on earning her degree.

She was raised by her mother in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. She started acting at age eight in school plays and community theater. She attended George Ellery Hale Middle School and El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. From the time she was seven years old, when she landed a small role in a school production of Hamlet, Ferrera knew that she wanted to be a performer. She acted in school plays and community theater in Los Angeles throughout her youth, but with little help from her mom, who insisted that she pursue other interests because she was concerned whether or not her daughter would get a fair shake. Ferrera was forced to take the bus to auditions, though eventually her mom saw her daughter’s dedication and began to drive her.

In interviews Ferrera has noted the contrast between the image of the “typical Latina” experience and her own childhood. Observing that growing up in a mostly Jewish, non-Latino neighborhood, she attended 52 bar mitzvahs and not a single quinceañera. She was raised speaking English and is now learning to speak Spanish.

Ferrera’s famous smile is insured by AquafreshToothpase through Lloyd's of London for US$10 million/GB£5million to generate sales/donations for their Smile For Success campaign. The campaign is a program plans to cover part of the cost for dental care for women trying to get off welfare. Aquafresh claims they will donate $1 to Smiles for Success for each box of Aquafresh White Trays that was purchased through August 31, 2007.

Personal
Ferrera is the youngest of six siblings which include one brother and four sisters. Her longterm boyfriend since college is Ryan Piers Williams. Williams is from Texas, and is an aspiring film director. In 2007 he was an assistant to director Steven Soderbergh. They first met while working on his student film at USC. Ferrera has repeatedly denied rumors that they are engaged.Rumors that they had split up in January 2008 were not[citation needed] denied but Ferrera and Williams attended the NAACP Awards together in February 2008. The two have been seen together throughout Spring 2008 out and about in California. In April 2008 they purchased a home together. They have two dogs — Buddy the Golden Retriever and a lady Great Dane.

Ferrera attends the University of Southern California, where she is majoring in International Relations; as of January 2007, she lacked only one semester’s coursework to earn her degree.She spent the autumn of 2004 studying in the American University Washington Semester Program and also attended New York University as a part of their Spring in New York program in the spring of 2006 while she was performing in Dog Sees God.

In January 2008, Ferrera announced her endorsement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for president and joined the senator and her daughter Chelsea Clinton during several campaign events in Nevada and Pennsylvania. She has been quoted as saying that the United States should take responsibility for illegal immigration and provide more help to immigrants.

At the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, Ferrera said that America won't be free until 2008 when George W. Bush leaves office.

America Ferrera
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Gwen Renée Stefani (born October 3, 1969) (pronounced /ˈgwɛn stɛˈfɑːni/), is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, and occasional actress. Stefani fronts the rock/ska punk band No Doubt, whose 1995 album Tragic Kingdom propelled them to stardom, selling 16 million copies worldwide. It spawned the singles "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak". The band's popularity went into decline with its fourth album, Return of Saturn (2000), but Rock Steady (2001) introduced reggae production into its music, and generally received positive reviews.

Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was primarily inspired by music of the 1980s, taking Stefani's work further into more pop and dance music,and enjoyed international success with sales of over seven million. The album's third single "Hollaback Girl" became the first U.S. digital download to sell one million copies. Stefani's second solo album The Sweet Escape (2006) yielded "Wind It Up", a moderate worldwide success, and "The Sweet Escape". Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. She won the World's Best-Selling New Female Artist at the World Music Awards 2005.

Stefani is known as a fashion trendsetter. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion. Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She married British grunge musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002; they have a son, Kingston James McGregor, who was born in 2006 and are expecting their second child in August 2008.


Gwen Stefani performing "Cool"

Early life
Gwen Renée Stefani was born in Fullerton, California and raised in Anaheim, California, and grew up in a Roman Catholic household. Her mother named her after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops' 1968 cover of The Left Banke's 1966 hit song "Walk Away Renée". Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and works as a Yamaha marketing executive. Her mother, Patti Flynn, is of Irish and Scottish descent and worked as an accountant before becoming a homemaker. Her parents were fans of folk music and presented music by Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris to their daughter. She is the second oldest of four children; she has a younger sister, Jill, a younger brother, Todd, and an older brother, Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt but left the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons.

Many of the women in Stefani's family were seamstresses, and much of her clothing was made by her or her mother. As a child, Stefani's musical interests consisted of musicals such as The Sound of Music and Evita. After making a demo tape for her father, she was encouraged to take music lessons to train her "loopy, unpredictable" voice.

Stefani made her onstage debut during a talent show at Loara High School, where she sang "I Have Confidence," from The Sound of Music, in a self-made tweed dress inspired by one from the film. Stefani was on the Loara swim team in an attempt to lose weight. She first worked scrubbing floors at a Dairy Queen and later manning the MAC makeup counter of a department store.After graduating from high school in 1987, she began attending California State University, Fullerton.


Stefani performing with No Doubt in 2002.


Gwen Stefani performing "Cool" at the Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, Massachusetts, United States


Gwen Stefani performing "Hollaback Girl" in Duluth, Georgia, United States


Gwen Stefani performing "Wind It Up" at the Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, New York, United States


Stefani's husband, Gavin Rossdale


Gwen Stefani performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston, Texas, United States


Gwen Stefani with her Harajuku Girls performing "Serious" in Anaheim, California, United States on the Harajuku Lovers Tour

Gwen Stefani
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Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is well-known for her television and film roles in the Fox television series Party of Five, as Sarah Reeves, and also starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel, as Julie James. Hewitt can currently be seen on the CBS television program Ghost Whisperer, as Melinda Gordon, a young newlywed who can communicate with the ghost of the dead.


Hewitt in 2002

Early life and career
Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Mae (née Shipp), a speech-language pathologist, and Herbert Daniel Hewitt, a medical technician. Hewitt grew up in Nolanville, Texas; after the divorce of her parents, Hewitt and her only sibling, Todd Hewitt, were brought up by her mother. Her first name was given to her by her brother, after a girl he was fond of as a youngster, while her middle name, "Love", was given to her by her mother after her best friend in college.

As a young girl, Hewitt was attracted to music, which led to her first encounters with the entertainment industry. At the age of three, she sang "The Greatest Love of All" at a livestock show. Just a year after that, at a restaurant-dance hall, she entertained an audience with her version of "Help Me Make It Through the Night". By the time she was five, Hewitt already had tap dancing and ballet in her portfolio. At nine, she became a member of the Texas Show Team (which also toured in the Soviet Union). At the age of ten, at the suggestion of talent scouts and winning the title of Texas Our Little Miss Talent Winner, she moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother to pursue a career in both acting and singing.


Jennifer Love Hewitt, January 2008


Jennifer Love Hewitt as one of the main dancers in the Dance! Workout With Barbie video, released in 1992.

Jennifer Love Hewitt
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Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer and an unprecedented 13-time Olympic Gold medalist, who currently holds seven world records.

He shares the record with Mark Spitz of seven gold medals at a single Olympics. He also shares the record with Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin of the most medals (of any type) at a single Olympics—eight medals at Athens in 2004.

Overall, Phelps has won 15 Olympic medals. He won 6 gold and 2 bronze medals at Athens in 2004, and 7 gold at Beijing in 2008, six of which were in world record time. He currently ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Larissa Latynina, who accumulated 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games. Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being awarded the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007.

Phelps has won a total of 47 career medals thus far: 39 golds, 6 silvers and 2 bronze. This includes all the Championships he has competed in The Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships. Phelps has qualified to compete in eight swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.


Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Personal life
Phelps was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in the Rodgers Forge neighborhood. He graduated from Towson High School in 2003. His father, Fred Phelps, worked for the Maryland State Police and his mother, Debbie Davisson Phelps, is a middle school principal. The two divorced in 1994. Michael, whose nickname is "MP", has two older sisters, Whitney and Hilary.Both of them were swimmers as well, with Whitney coming close to making the U.S. national team for the 1996 Summer Olympics before injuries derailed her career.

In his youth, Phelps was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).He started swimming at age seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. He excelled as a swimmer, and by the age of 10 held a national record for his age group. More age group records followed, and Phelps' rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15.

In November 2004, at the age of 19, Phelps was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Salisbury, Maryland. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired the following month and was granted probation before judgment and ordered to serve 18 months probation, fined $250, obligated to speak to high school students about drinking and driving and had to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting.Questioned about the incident later that month by Matt Lauer on the Today Show, Phelps said it was an "isolated incident" and that he had "definitely let myself down and my family down...I think I let a lot of people in the country down."

Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps said he intends to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there when he leaves the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Aquatic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in Baltimore next year." The club has announced that Bowman is leaving the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO.

Physique and lifestyle
Phelps has a body particularly suited to swimming. He has a long, thin torso with arms which span 6 feet 7 inches (200 cm), disproportionate with his height of 6 feet 4 inches (190 cm).However, he has relatively short legs which reduce resistance through the water, but despite this he has size 14 feet (49.5 Europe) and double-jointed ankles. He can extend his ankle beyond the point of a ballet dancer which enables him to whip his feet for maximum thrust.

In a front page illustrated article profiling Phelps on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics, The Baltimore Sun described the hometown swimmer as "a solitary man" with a "rigid focus" at the pool prior to a race, but afterwards "a man incredibly invested in the success of the people he cares about". Bowman told a Sun interviewer, "He's unbelievably kind-hearted", recounting Phelps' interaction with young children after practices.

According to an article in The Guardian, Phelps eats around 12,000 calories each day, or about six times more than the average adult male. Leslie Bonci, the University of Pittsburgh Director of Sports Nutrition, says that eating that many calories a day is "almost impossible". She estimates that his intake is closer to 6,000 calories per day.

Endorsements
He has made an estimated $5 million in endorsements, including a $1 million bonus from swimsuit maker Speedo for winning seven gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games.


Phelps swims the 400 IM at the 2008 Missouri GP


Michael Phelps poses for a photo with U.S. President George W. Bush after Phelps won his first Olympic gold medal in the men's 400 meter individual medley.


Phelps holds his gold medal on the podium on August 10 2008. Pictured with Ryan Lochte and Laszlo Cseh

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Epic.
It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time. He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet. ”
—Mark Spitz (on Phelps winning his 7th gold medal)

Scarlett I. Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an actress and singer, of dual American and Danish citizenship. Johansson rose to fame with her role in 1998's The Horse Whisperer and subsequently gained critical acclaim for her roles in Ghost World, Lost in Translation (for which she won a BAFTA), and Girl with a Pearl Earring, the latter two earning her Golden Globe Award nominations in 2003.

On May 20, 2008, Johansson debuted as a vocalist on her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, with cover versions of Tom Waits songs.


Scarlett Johansson in January 2008

Early life
Johansson was born in New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter and director (Scarlett Johansson holds Danish citizenship).Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx. Johansson's parents met in Denmark, where her mother lived with Johansson's maternal grandmother, Dorothy, a former bookkeeper and schoolteacher. Johansson has an older sister, Vanessa, who is also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; a twin brother, Hunter, also an actor; and a half-brother, Christian, from her father's re-marriage.

Johansson grew up in a household with "little money" with a mother who was a "film buff".Johansson began her theater training by attending and graduating from Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002.


Johansson at the film set of Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2007

Scarlett Johansson
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Christian Charles Bale ( born 30 January 1974) is a Welsh-born English actor whose famous film credits include Empire of the Sun, The Prestige, American Psycho, Equilibrium, 3:10 To Yuma, The Machinist, Batman Begins, Harsh Times, The Dark Knight and the upcoming film Terminator Salvation, where he will play the role of John Connor. Bale is known for his mastery of accents and harsh regimens of shedding and gaining weight (particularly for The Machinist, Batman Begins and, most recently, Rescue Dawn). In addition to starring roles, such as Batman, in big budget Hollywood films, he has long been heavily involved in independent and art house films.

Bale first caught the public eye when he was cast in the starring role of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun at the age of 13, playing an English boy who becomes separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Since then, he has portrayed a wide range of characters. Bale is especially noted for his cult following. The tenth anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly hailed him as one of the “Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures of the Past Decade”, citing his impressive cult status on the Internet. In a 2007 poll of IMDb users, he was voted their favourite actor who is under 40.Entertainment Weekly also called Bale one of the “Most Creative People in Entertainment,” after his dynamic performance in American Psycho.


Christian Bale, 2005

Early life
Christian Bale was born to entrepreneur, commercial pilot, and talent manager David Bale and circus clown and performer Jenny James, both English.He is the youngest of four children. After leaving Wales, Bale spent his childhood in several countries, including England, Portugal, and the United States.

In 1976, when Bale was two years old, his family left Wales and returned to England. They settled for four years in Bournemouth, where Bale attended Bournemouth School and participated actively in rugby union. Bale has described his childhood, with respect to his mother being in the circus, as interesting. He recalled his first kiss was with an acrobat named Barta. As a child, he trained in ballet and guitar.His sister Louise's work in theatre also influenced his decision to become an actor. Furthermore, in an interview Bale speaks of his grandfather being a stand up comedian, ventriloquist, and magician. Bale's father David was very supportive of his son's acting, resigning from his job as a commercial pilot to travel and manage Bale's burgeoning career. David later married feminist icon Gloria Steinem on September 3, 2000 (he had previously divorced Bale's mother Jenny). He died on December 30, 2003, from brain lymphoma, aged 62.

Bale's first foray into acting was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982, when he was eight years old. He appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial playing a child rock star a year later and in 1984 made his stage debut in the The Nerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson.


A 14-year old Bale in Stockholm, Sweden in February 1988 while promoting Empire of the Sun.


13-year-old Bale with Nigel Havers in Empire of the Sun (1987).


Bale in American Psycho (2000), as Patrick Bateman.


Bale as Cleric John Preston in Equilibrium (2002).


Bale, after losing over 60 pounds for his role in The Machinist (2004).


Bale as the new Batman in Batman Begins (2005).

Christian Bale
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Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American actress, who was one of her nation's most popular movie stars in the late 1950s. She is perhaps best known for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).


Cropped screenshot of Kim Novak from the trailer for the film Picnic

Early life
Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, Illinois, a Roman Catholic of Czech extraction. Her father was a railroad clerk and former teacher; her mother also was a former teacher, and Novak has a sister. While in grammar school, she won a scholarship to the famed Chicago Art Institute.

After graduating from high school, she began a career modeling teen fashions for a local department store. She later received a scholarship at a modeling academy and continued to model part-time. She worked as an elevator operator, a sales clerk and a dental assistant. After a job touring the country as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturer, "Miss Deepfreeze," Novak moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to find work as a model.

Kim Novak
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