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Drop Dead Gorgeous (film)
''Drop Dead Gorgeous'' is a 1999 American satirical mockumentary black comedy film directed by Michael Patrick Jann and written by Lona Williams. It stars Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Kirsten Dunst and Denise Richards, along with Brittany Murphy, Allison Janney and Amy Adams in her film debut. The film follows a small town beauty pageant and the fierce, deadly lengths the contestants will take to secure the crown. Though the film was not a box office success and critical reviews were mixed, it has gained a following over time and has come to be regarded as a cult film. Plot In 1995, the small, conservative town of Mount Rose, Minnesota, is preparing for their annual local qualifying pageant for the national Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant. A film crew is in town to document the pageant and its lead-up. One of the interviewees is 17-year-old Amber Atkins, who signs up for the pageant in the hopes of winning a college scholarship and following in the foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Patrick Jann
Michael Patrick Jann (born May 15, 1970, Albany, New York) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director best known as a cast member on MTV's '' The State''. Career Jann attended New York University, where, as a freshman, he joined the then-new comedy troupe The New Group, which was eventually renamed to The State. The troupe continued performing after college, and in 1993 they gained their own series on MTV, the sketch comedy show '' The State'', which ran until 1995. Jann and David Wain directed a majority of the sketches on the series. In 1999, Jann directed the film '' Drop Dead Gorgeous'', which is his feature film directorial debut. Jann produced and directed many episodes of the 2003-2009 Comedy Central series '' Reno 911!'', which was created by several members of The State. He co-wrote the 2006 film '' Let's Go to Prison'', along with The State members (and ''Reno 911!'' cast members) Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. He directed most of the episodes of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beauty Pageant
A beauty pageant is a competition in which the contestants are judged and ranked based on various physical and mental attributes. Per its name, beauty pageants traditionally focus on judging the contestants' physical attractiveness, sometimes solely so, but most modern beauty pageants have since expanded to also judge contestants based on "inner beauty"—their individual traits and characteristics, including personality, Human intelligence, intelligence, aptitude, moral character, and Charity (practice), charity. Though typically perceived as a female-oriented competition, male beauty pageants also exist, as do child beauty pageants for youth. The term beauty pageant refers originally to the Big Four beauty pageants: Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth. Hundreds and thousands of beauty contests are held annually, but the Big Four are considered the most prestigious, and are widely covered and broadcast by news media. The earliest formal beauty pageants w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mindy Sterling
Mindy Lee Sterling (born July 11, 1953) is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress who has amassed multiple live action and voice-over credits across film and television. Her accolades include nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. In film, Sterling played Frau Farbissina in the ''Austin Powers'' series (1997–2002) and appeared in '' Drop Dead Gorgeous'' (1999), '' How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (2000), '' All About Nina'' (2018), and '' Bobcat Moretti'' (2023). On television, she played Francine Briggs on the Nickelodeon series ''iCarly'' (2007–2012), Mitzi Kinsky on the ABC series ''Desperate Housewives'' (2010–2011), Susan Skidmore on the Disney Channel series '' A.N.T. Farm'' (2011–2013), Bobbie on the Vimeo series '' Con Man'' (2015–2017), and Linda Schwartz on the ABC series '' The Goldbergs'' (2017–2023). Sterling provided the voice of Miss Endive on the Cartoon Network series ''Chowder'' (2007–2010), Lin Beifong on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam McMurray
Samuel McMurray (born April 15, 1952) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Supervisor Patrick O'Boyle in the CBS sitcom series ''The King of Queens'', Glen in the Coen Brothers comedy film '' Raising Arizona'', Trent Culpepper in the sitcom '' Cristela'' and for voicing Roy in the family sitcom television series ''Dinosaurs''. He also appeared as Doug on the NBC sitcom ''Friends'', and as Ned on the CBS sitcom '' Mom''. Early life Sam McMurray was born in New York City on 15 April 1952, the son of Jane (née Hoffman) and Richard McMurray, both actors. Lesley Woods was his stepmother. McMurray is Jewish on his mother's side of the family and Irish on his father's side of the family. Career Among McMurray's film credits are '' C.H.U.D.'' (1984), '' Raising Arizona'' (1987), '' The Wizard'' (1989) as Jimmy's stepfather Mr. Bateman, '' National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'' (1989), '' L.A. Story'' (1991), '' Addams Family Values'' (1993), and '' Drop Dead Gorgeou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tax Evasion
Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxpayer's tax liability, and it includes dishonest tax reporting, declaring less income, profits or gains than the amounts actually earned, overstating deductions, bribing authorities and hiding money in secret locations. Tax evasion is an activity commonly associated with the informal economy. One measure of the extent of tax evasion (the "tax gap") is the amount of unreported income, which is the difference between the amount of income that the tax authority requests be reported and the actual amount reported. In contrast, tax avoidance is the legal use of tax laws to reduce one's tax burden. Both tax evasion and tax avoidance can be viewed as forms of tax noncompliance, as they describe a range of activities that intend to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food Poisoning
Foodborne illness (also known as foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the contamination of food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease), and toxins such as aflatoxins in peanuts, poisonous mushrooms, and various species of beans that have not been boiled for at least 10 minutes. While contaminants directly cause some symptoms, many effects of foodborne illness result from the body's immune response to these agents, which can vary significantly between individuals and populations based on prior exposure. Symptoms vary depending on the cause. They often include vomiting, fever, aches, and diarrhea. Bouts of vomiting can be repeated with an extended delay in between. This is because even if infected food was eliminated from the stomach in the first bout, microbes, like bacteria (if applicable), can pass through the stomach into the intestine and begin to multiply. Some types of microbes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the Major religious groups, world's largest religion. Most Christians consider Jesus to be the Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation of God the Son and awaited Messiah#Christianity, messiah, or Christ (title), Christ, a descendant from the Davidic line that is prophesied in the Old Testament. Virtually all modern scholars of classical antiquity, antiquity agree that Historicity of Jesus, Jesus existed historically. Accounts of Life of Jesus, Jesus's life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Since the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Quest for the historical Jesus, academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Can't Take My Eyes Off You
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio's Four Seasons bandmate Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and reaching No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for a week, making it Valli's biggest solo hit until he hit No. 1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You". Gaudio describes the song as "the one that almost got away" until Windsor, Ontario, radio station CKLW (a station also serving the Detroit metro on the American side of the border) intervened. In 1967, the record's producers urged Paul Drew, program director at the station, to consider the tune for rotation. For much of the 1960s and 1970s, CKLW was credited with launching hit records via its powerful signal, blanketing the Great Lakes region. Drew did not warm to the song at first, but accepted an invitation to hear it live at the Roostertail, where Valli was performing a weeklong stint with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tap Dance
Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music. It is an American artform that evolved alongside the advent of jazz music. Tap is a type of step dance that began with the combination of Southern American and Irish dance traditions, such as Irish soft-shoe and hard-shoe step dances, and a variety of both slave and freeman step dances. The fusion of African rhythms and performance styles with European techniques of footwork led to the creation of tap dance. This fusion began in the mid-17th century but did not become popular until the mid-19th century. There are two major versions of tap dance: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Threshing Machine
A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of agricultural machinery, farm equipment that separates grain seed from the plant stem, stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshing was done by hand with Flail (tool), flails: such hand threshing was very laborious and time-consuming, taking about one-quarter of agricultural labour by the 18th century. Mechanization of this process removed a substantial amount of drudgery from farm labour. The first threshing machine was invented circa 1786 by the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle, and the subsequent adoption of such machines was one of the earlier examples of the mechanised agriculture, mechanization of agriculture. During the 19th century, threshers and mechanical reapers and reaper-binders gradually became widespread and made grain production much less laborious. Separate reaper-binders and threshers have largely been replaced by machines that combine all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conflict Of Interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in which the personal interest of an individual or organization might adversely affect a duty owed to decision-making, make decisions for the benefit of a third party. An "interest" is a commitment, obligation, duty or goal associated with a specific social role or practice. By definition, a "conflict of interest" occurs if, within a particular decision-making context, an individual is subject to two coexisting interests that are in direct conflict with each other ("competing interests"). This is important because under these circumstances, the decision-making process can be disrupted or compromised, affecting the integrity or reliability of the outcomes. Typically, a conflict of interest arises when an individual occupies tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
