Woman Fashion: British pop culture

Showing posts with label British pop culture. Show all posts

David Thewlis

Name: David Wheeler
DOB: March 20, 1963
Where: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Occupation: actor, author, director, screenwriter
Years Active: 1987-present
Partner: Anna Friel(2001-2010, 1 child)

-English actor of stage and screen
-Most successful role to date was that of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series
-Other roles include: Kingdom of Heaven(2005), James and the Giant Peach(1996)

Early Life
-2nd of 3 children born to Maureen Thewlis and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his father's shop, which sold toys in summer, wallpaper and paint in winter
-Enrolled in Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Graduated in 1984. Wanted to use 'David Wheeler' as his stage name, but it was taken, so he used his mother's maiden name Thewlis instead

Career
-First acting role: play called Buddy Holly at the Regal
-Through the 1990s, he appeared in a variety of movies, mostly fantasy anf period, such as Restoration(1995), Black Beauty(1994), Dragonheart(1996), Seven Years in Tibet(1997)
-In the movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, he played an SS Commandant in the Nazi death camp.

Personal Life
-In 2001, began a relationship with actress Anna Friel. They have one daughter, Gracie Ellen May Friel.

Filmography

Jeremy Irons

Name: Jeremy John Irons
DOB: Sept. 19, 1948
Where: Cowes, Isle of Wight, England
Occupation: Actor
Years Active: 1971-present
Spouse: Julie Hallam(1969), Sinead Cusack(1978-present)

Die Hard with a Vengeance. Playing a terrorist named Simon Gruber

-English actor who received his training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.
-Began his career in 1969
-His first film role was in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman. After that, he played in various roles, such as Moonlighting(1982), Betrayal(1983), The Mission(1986). He received alot of good attention by playing twin gynaecologists in Dead Ringers(1988)
-Also has appeared on TV. He currently stars on the HBO show The Borgias.

Early Life
-Born to Barbara Anne Brereton, a houswife, and Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant.
-Has a brother named Christopher and a sister named Felicity Anne.
-In school, played the drums, and was able to play "Stairway to Heaven" on harmonica.

Career
-Went on to the London stage playing John the Baptist and Judas alongside David Essex in Godspell
-In 2005, he appeared on the BBC show Who Do You Think You Are?
-On Jan. 12, 2011, Irons was a guest star on Law and Order:SVU, in an episode titled "Mask". On that episode, he played a sex therapist named Dr. Cap Jackson. He has said that that was the most fun he has ever had on TV. He apparently enjoys working on TV rather than film
-Played the Musketeer Aramis opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Man in the Iron Mask(1998)
-One of his better known roles was providing his voice for the character Scar in The Lion King(1994)

Law and Order:SVU

The Lion King

The Man in the Iron Mask

Eragon

Personal Life
-Married Irish actress Sinead Cusack in March 1978. They have 2 sons, Samuel James Brefni Irons, who works as a photographer and Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons, also an actor, who appeared in the 2006 Burberry fashion campaign.

Other things
-At the 1991 Tony Awards, Irons was one of the few celebs to wear the recently created red ribbon to support the fight against AIDS.

Filmography

IMDb
Trademark
-Haunting voice
-Aggressive, industrious work ethic

Trivia
-Had his motorcycle license suspended for 3 months after going 97 mph on his BMW motorcycle in England

The English Patient

-1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri-Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje.
-Directed by Anthony Minghella
-Set before WWII, it's a story of love, fate, misunderstanding and healing. Told in a series of flashbacks.

Did You Know?
-Ralph Fiennes burn make up took 5 hours to apply every day
-Both Naveen Andrews and Kevin Whately had to learn how to operate motorcycles for the film

Hmmm, might have to check this out. I'm always up for a good, old fashioned love story.

Plot
-Set during WWII and shows a critically burned man, at first known only as "the English patient", who is being cared for by Hana(Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse in an Italian monastery. The patient is hesitant to reveal any info but through a series of flashbacks, people who watch the movie can see into his past. It reveals that he is in fact a Hungarian geographer, Count Laszlo de Almasy(Ralph Fiennes), who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman, Katharine Clifton(Kristin Scott Thomas), brought his situation to light. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio(Willem Dafoe), a Canadian intelligence officer and former thief, arrives at the monastery. He lost his thumbs while being interrogated by German officers and he reveals that it was the actions of the patient that had brought about his torture. In addition to the story, the film devotes time to Hana and her romance with Kip(Naveen Andrews), an Indian Sikh sapper in the British Army. Due to events in her past, Hana believes that anyone who comes close to her is likely to die, and Kip's position as a bomb defuser makes their romance full of stress

-In the 1st phase, set in the late 1930s, the minor Hungarian noble Count Laszlo de Almasy(Ralph Fiennes) is the co-leader of a Royal Geographical Society archaeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya. He and his English partner Madox are at heart academics with little sophistication in the politics of Europe and Africa. Shortly, both the morale and finances of their trip are bolstered by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katherine Clifton(Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas). The Count is very attracted to Katharine. When Geoffrey is away from the group, an affair begins. The final months before the onset of the war, he Count's discovery of an ancient Saharan cave with "swimming figure" paintings ffrom the prehistoric times are found. Romance between the Count and Katharine get stronger. She is plagued with the guilt of infidelity, while he shows a streak of jealousy along with an imbalance that later haunts him

-The fall of 1939 and the war all bring excavation to a halt and Madox and the Count go their own ways. Geoffrey Clifton has pieced together the outline of the affair and seeks a sudden revenge: crashing his plane, with Katharine aboard, in the Count's desert camp. The wreck injures Katharine and narrowly misses the Count, and kills Geoffrey. He manages to take Katharine into the shelter of the swimming figure cave, leaves water for her, a flashlight and a fire and begins his 3 day walk back to the nearest town and help. The town is held by British Army and the dazed Count, with his non English name, is unable to explain his situation. He loses temper and is thrown into military jail. He is sent in chains on a train "north to Benghazi", escapes, finds himself behind Afrika Korps lines and quickly trades his desert maps with the Germans for a biplane. By the time he returns to the cave, Katharine is dead- and in all but a physical sense, so is the Count. He manages to bundle her body into the plane and take off. Ironically, a German anti-aircraft battery shoots down the plane as he pilots it over the desert. Horribly burned, he is rescued by Bedouin tribesmen

-The film's 2nd phase shifts to Italy and the last months of the war. The Count by now is an invalid, and dependent on morphine and care of his French-Canadian nurse Hana. That monastery becomes the main point for the movie and it shows Hana seeing a fiancee and friend die in the Italian campaign and is left to wonder if her relationship with a British-Indian will break her chain of bad luck. A visitor named Caravaggio is in search of the Count that he thinks played a role in the problems in Egypt. He lost both thumbs to an interrogation by the Nazis and has killed those who he deems responsible.

-Hana finds solace in the film. Her lieutenant survives a brush with death on the last day of the war and her hope in love is made stronger. The Count asks for, and dies of, an overdose of morphine from Hana

Cast

Ralph Fiennes as Count László Almásy
Juliette Binoche as Hana
Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio
Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton
Naveen Andrews as Kip
Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton
Julian Wadham as Madox
Jürgen Prochnow as Major Muller
Kevin Whately as Sgt. Hardy
Clive Merrison as Fenelon-Barnes
Nino Castelnuovo as D'Agostino
Hichem Rostom as Fouad
Peter Rühring as Bermann
Geordie Johnson as Oliver
Torri Higginson as Mary
Liisa Repo-Martell as Jan
Raymond Coulthard as Rupert Douglas
Philip Whitchurch as Corporal Dade
Lee Ross as Spalding
Anthony Smee as Beach Interrogation Officer
Matthew Ferguson as Young Canadian Soldier
Jason Done as Kiss Me Soldier
Roger Morlidge as Sergeant – Desert Train

The Spice Girls

-British all girl pop group formed in 1994
-Consisted of Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell
-They earned the credit of being pioneers in the breakthrough of teen pop in the late 1990s.
-Their trademarks include Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress, representing "girl power".
-They used aliases, nicknames basically. They used Ginger, Baby, Posh and Scary
-They are considered to be part of the 'second wave' of 1990s British Invasion of the US
-In 2007, they all reformed to launch a renunion tour that played at London's O2 Theatre

History
-In the mid 90s, father and son management team Bob and Chris Herbert set about creating an all female group to compete with the popular boy bands in the heavily male dominated world of music.
-400 women showed up, and each was asked to dance to "Stay" by Eternal.
-Victoria Beckham sang "Mein Herr", Melanie Brown sang "Greatest Love of All", Melanie Chisholm sang "I'm So Excited", Michelle Stephenson sang "Don't Be a Stranger".

-Later on, Geri Halliwell was let in to audition and she sang "I Wanna Be a Nightclub Queen" and aftr the interviews, they were divided in to groups of 3 and asked to sing "Just A Step from Heaven" by Eternal.
-1 week later, the women had a recall and they all learned to sing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."
-Stephenson left the group to take care of her mother whow as diagnosed with breast cancer
-On June 7, 1996, they released their debut album Wannabe.

-The success they received from releasing chart topping single after single was compared to the Beatlemania experienced back in the 1960s.
-In 7 weeks, they released 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making them the fastest selling British act since The Beatles.
-In January 1997, they released Wannabe in to the notoriously hard to break U.S. market. They managed to make it onto the Hot 100 and it was the highest debut by a British(or non-American) act in the US, beating the record held previously by The Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

-Later that month, The Spice Girls won 2 Brit Awards for Best Video, "Say You'll Be There", and Best Single for "Wannabe".
-They performed "Who Do You Think You Are?" to open the 1997 Brit Awards with Geri Halliwell debuting her Union Jack min dress, causing it to become one of pop history's biggest icons
-On May 31, 1998, Halliwell announced she was leaving the band

-In 1999, Victoria Adams went on to marry soccer star David Beckham and she became Victoria Beckham.
-At the 2008 Live Vodafone Music Awards, they beat acts such as rock bands Led Zeppelin and The Sex Pistols.

Fashion Trends and nicknames
-Early Spice Girls look was casual, calm and laid back, maintaining an image of everyday young British females. But as they got more famous, their look changed. Each girl had a unique look and nickname

Victoria Beckham(nee Adams)
-Posh Spice because of her upper middle class background, her choppy brunette bob and refined attitude, form fitting designer outfits, and love of high heeled shoes

Melanie Brown
-Scary Spice because of her outrageous "in your face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, throaty laugh, pierced tongue, style of dress(leopard skin outfits), curly hair

Emma Bunton
-Baby Spice because she was the youngest of the group, wearing her hair in long, blonde pigtails, wearing babydoll dresses, innocent smile, and a girly girl personality

Melanie Chisholm
-Sporty Spice because she usually wore tracksuits, her hair in a ponytail, and a tough girl attitude.

Gerri Halliwell
-Ginger Spice because of her "liveliness" and flaming red hair. She usually wore outrageous stuff on stage, such as her Union Jack dress. And was seen as the leader because of her conversational style and business savvy nature.

What a Girl Wants

This is one of my biggest favorite movies EVER!!!!

What a Girl Wants

-2003 movie starring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, and Oliver James

Did You Know?
-The boy who plays Ian, Oliver James, is a drummer in the movie and a drummer in real life

Plot
-Daphne Reynolds(Amanda Bynes), a young American girl, has a style all her own. She lives with her uncoventional, but loving Bohemian mother Libby(Kelly Preston) above a Chinese restuarant in New York. She dreams of one day meeting the father she never knew, the man Libby loved long ago. Bound and determined to find him, she does a little internet research and discover's that his aristocratic family found her and her mother unsuitable. So on an impulse, she gets on a flight to London, where she finds her father is a high profile politician named Lord Henry Dashwood(Colin Firth), who has controversially renounced his place in the royal succession to run for the House of Commons. Henry opens his life and social calendar to the daughter he never knew he had, but Daphne's appearance in his society creates a rift that threatens to undermine his career.

-Not wanting to cause trouble, Daphne stifles her vibrant personality, refashions herself as a proper debutante and plunges in to proper British society. Bur when Henry's support, she does not get any help from his conniving fiancee or jealous daughter, who are bent on ruining everything for Daphne. With the help of a society savvy, charming local musician named Ian(Oliver James), Daphne proves that love can truly conquer all. But she soon realizes that she does not like the person she is becoming. As much as she wants to reconnect with her father, she realizes it's not worth it if she can't be herself. Though mostly through interferences from Henry's fiancee during the debutante ball, when she cruelly locks Daphne in a room during the father-daughter dance, she goes back home but not Henry, not before finding Libby's banishment was a plot, created by his fiancee's politically ambitious father. He realizes how much he loves Daphne and goes to find her. He brings Ian with him. The film ends with Daphne's mother officially getting married to Daphne's father. Ian becomes Daphne's boyfriend and she goes to Oxford University so she can be near him.