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Her part on the show, only her second professional role, made Holmes a star. Her movie roles have ranged from art house films such as The Ice Storm to thrillers such as Abandon to blockbusters such as Batman Begins, but she has not found the same success in films as she did on television and admits most of her films have been "bombs".

Weeks after ending her engagement with actor Chris Klein, Holmes began in early 2005 a highly publicized relationship with actor Tom Cruise, sixteen years her senior. In June, two months after they first met, she became engaged to Cruise. Their relationship has made Holmes the subject of international media attention, much of it highly negative, the press speculating the relationship was only a publicity stunt to promote the couple’s films. Many reports commented negatively about the interest of Holmes, born a Roman Catholic, in Cruise’s religion, Scientology. The couple announced Holmes was pregnant in October 2005; on April 18, 2006, Holmes gave birth to a baby girl, Suri Holmes Cruise. Since she began dating Cruise, Holmes has not worked as an actress.

Holmes was born in the northwestern Ohio city of Toledo, the youngest in a family of five children (four daughters, one son) of Kathleen and Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr. (born 1945), an attorney specializing in divorces. She lived in the Corey Woods section of Sylvania Township, Lucas County, in a brick 1862 Italianate home with a white picket fence. Her siblings are Tamara (born c. 1968), Holly (born c. 1970), Martin (born 1970), and Nancy (born c. 1975). Holmes, born a Roman Catholic, attended Christ the King Church and parochial schools in Toledo. Her high school was the all-female Notre Dame Academy, her mother’s alma mater, where Katie was a 4.0 student. At St. John’s Jesuit, a nearby all-male high school, she appeared in school musicals, playing a waiter in Hello, Dolly and Lola in Damn Yankees. She scored 1310 on her SAT and was accepted to Columbia University; her father wanted her to be a doctor. Holmes loved reading: "I never feel lonely in a bookstore," she said. A British writer profiling her in 2003 said "The way Holmes approached her unusual education was as American as apple pie: she went to cheerleading practice, got straight A grades, and made a pledge that she would remain a virgin until marriage." Holmes told her hometown paper The Blade that the three words best describing herself were "honest, determined, and imaginative."

The Associated Press reported that "Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s choice of a Hebrew-flavored name for their newborn daughter has speakers of the language scratching their heads" and quoted an Israeli television anchor saying "We seem to have learned a new Hebrew word—and from Tom Cruise, no less," while Reuters quoted a linguistics professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who said "I really don’t know what they were thinking when they chose this name. It’s a term that denotes expulsion, like ‘Get out of here’. It’s pretty blunt.

Branagh was born in Belfast, where he was educated at Grove Primary School, Belfast; but at the age of nine relocated with his family to Reading in England. He received a honorary doctorate in Literature (D.Litt.) from the Queen’s University of Belfast in 1990.

The actor achieved some measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC’s Play for Today series known as the Billy Plays, written by Graham Reid (writer) and set in Belfast.

He has worked on both stage and screen. He received initial acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, including the title role in Hamlet. He is probably best known for his popular film adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V in 1989 and including versions of Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) and Hamlet (1996). He has also starred in a number of other films unrelated to Shakespeare, some successful, some not. In recent years, he has branched out into made-for-TV films, none of which he has directed. One of his most acclaimed portrayals has been that of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film Warm Springs, the story of how FDR sought a cure for his polio by buying the rehabilitation institute at Warm Springs, Georgia, and turning it into one of the most famous rehab institutes in the world. It was nominated for sixteen Emmys and won five, though none for Branagh. Branagh did win an Emmy Award for his performance in the 2001 TV film Conspiracy which is the story of how the Nazis conceived the Final Solution. Branagh played Reinhard Heydrich in the film.

Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including two for directing and acting in Henry V and another for the screenplay of Hamlet. Branagh was also nominated for the Worst supporting actor "Razzie" in 1999 for his work in the film Wild Wild West.

He starred several times with his then wife, Emma Thompson; they were married in 1989, and divorced in 1995. For several years he was in a well-publicised relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he also starred. He married again, in 2003, to film art director Lindsay Brunnock, who had been introduced to him by Carter in 1997, although they did not begin seeing each other seriously until 2002. ([1])

He also narrated the book The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis for Harper Audio.

By SANDY COHEN

 
The 21-year-old actress was arrested and released on bail for investigation of misdemeanor driving under the influence and with a suspended license, and felony cocaine possession, early Tuesday in Santa Monica, less than two weeks after completing her second trip to rehab.

"I am innocent … did not do drugs they’re not mine. I was almost hit by my assistant Tarin’s mom I appreciate everyone giving me my privacy," Lohan wrote in an e-mail to "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush, the show reported on its Web site Tuesday night.

Police found cocaine in one of Lohan’s pockets during a pre-booking search, Sgt. Shane Talbot said. Police initially said Lohan was also being booked for investigation of transporting a narcotic but later said she was not.

Police received a 911 call from the mother of Lohan’s former personal assistant saying that Lohan was chasing her in an SUV, said Lt. Alex Padilla. The assistant had quit hours before, he said.

Authorities found Lohan and the woman in a "heated debate" in the parking lot of Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium at about 1:30 a.m.

Lohan’s arrest comes as she still faces DUI allegations connected to a Memorial Day weekend hit-and-run crash in Beverly Hills. The actress completed more than six weeks in rehab less than two weeks ago, and had checked into a recovery clinic in January.

She had worn an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet since her July 13 release from rehab and was tested daily to support her sobriety, her attorney, Blair Berk, said. She said Lohan had relapsed and was receiving medical care at an undisclosed location. Lohan’s publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, had no comment.

Lohan joins a long list of young actors who have battled problems with drugs, alcohol, or both. They include River Phoenix, Drew Barrymore, Corey Feldman, Anissa Jones, Danny Bonaduce and Macaulay Culkin.

Phoenix, who starred in "Stand By Me" as a teen, died outside a Hollywood nightclub in 1993 from a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin. He was 23. Feldman, his "Stand By Me" co-star, also battled addiction and was arrested for heroin possession when he was 19.

Jones, who played Buffy on TV’s "Family Affair," was just 18 when she died of a drug overdose in 1976. Bonaduce found fame at 10 as a star of "The Partridge Family," only to struggle with addiction and homelessness as a teenager. Culkin, best known for his starring turn in the kid-friendly "Home Alone" films, was busted in his early 20s for possession of pot and Xanax.

Barrymore, 32, has fared best. After going to rehab for drugs and alcohol at 13, she is a sought-after actress and filmmaker with her own production company, Flower Films.

Dr. David Deitch, an addiction specialist for more than 40 years and director of Phoenix House, a national nonprofit provider of substance-abuse treatments, said the glitter and glamor of Hollywood could be partly to blame.

"That life is all about the excitement, drama and peak performance followed by a letdown that gets medicated with entertainment and medication," he said.

Deitch said the average age at which children start using drugs has dropped every decade since the 1960s, and that today’s youngsters start experimenting with drugs about age 12.

"The earlier the age of onset of chronic drug-taking, the greater the prognosis is for long-term problems," he said.

The actress was chastised last summer for repeatedly arriving late to the set of "Georgia Rule," and her latest legal troubles may cost her movie roles. She was set to start shooting "Poor Things," a comedy featuring Shirley MacLaine, when she entered rehab in May. The film’s producers, who previously had supported Lohan, would not say Tuesday whether she would be part of the production.

Lohan is still set to appear in the film "Dare to Love Me," which is to begin shooting this summer, said Michael Sands, a consultant for production company Bowline Entertainment.

"The producers have compassion and kindness for her, so for now she’s insured and still with the movie," he said. "She hasn’t been convicted of any crimes."

All Hollywood productions need insurance, and troublesome or troubled actors can often stand in the way of that requirement.

"I don’t see how she’s employable for the next 18 months," said longtime publicist Michael Levine, who does not represent Lohan. "Who’s going to insure her?"

Lohan’s latest film, "I Know Who Killed Me," is set to open Friday.

His father Dick Cusack, as well as his siblings Ann, Bill, Joan, and Susie have also been actors. His mother, Nancy, is a former teacher and political activist.

Cusack began acting in childhood. He attended the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago and he did many voice-overs for commercials and appeared in some stage productions by the age of 12. His first film was the comedy Class in 1983. Later, he was given the role of John Bender in John Hughes’ film The Breakfast Club but was replaced by Judd Nelson. In 1988, he founded a theatre group ("The New Criminals"), for which he has directed several productions.

After success at an early age as the star of several teen-oriented films, Cusack has generally sought roles which cast him as an ethically conflicted everyman. He is often cast as an anti-hero who can be very neurotic, but has played a wide variety of characters. He frequently appears in films with members of his family (particularly his older sister, Joan) and with long-time best friend Jeremy Piven, whose parents, Byrne and Joyce Piven, founded and continue to run the Piven Theatre Workshop.

After playing mostly character roles for a number of years, Cusack became an A-list star in 1997 with the widely acclaimed black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (which he also co-wrote and produced) and the action movie Con Air, both of which were very commercially successful. He continues to choose roles in movies outside the mainstream, however, such as Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity, which is largely considered to be a definitive role for the actor, as a troubled record store owner with too many relationship hangups. Among some of the films he has turned down include Indecent Proposal, Crash and Apollo 13. He will next appear in the horror film 1408, based on the Stephen King short story about a supernatural writer who gets something to really write about when the notorious hotel room he’s staying in, is actually haunted.

Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, reasoning that he had "too much fire in [his] belly."

Since May 2005 he’s been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

He is not married, but has been romantically linked to a number of women. Cusack is fiercely protective of his private life and rarely makes public appearances between his films or events. He has said that "celebrity is the worst thing that can happen to an actor."

Jennifer Aniston’s big break came when she moved to Los Angeles and seized the opportunity to audition for a TV pilot called "Friends".  Jennifer was given the role of Rachel and the TV series was a huge success.  She soon became a household name along with her costars — Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox Arquette, David Schwimmer, and Lisa Kudrow.

Jennifer Aniston’s stardom was confirmed when she was included among People magazine’s list of "Most Intriguing People" of 1995 and 1996.  Her layered hairstyle, adopted in the early years of the show, became an overwhelming trend with American women.  She was named "America’s First Hairdo" by the popuplar magazine "Rolling Stone".

Jennifer has appeared in several films. These fun-hearted movies include, "She’s the One" with Edward Burns and Cameron Diaz, "Picture Perfect" and "The Object of My Affection".

The cast of  "Friends" finished their last season in 2004, but it still remains one of the most popular sitcoms on television.  Jennifer and her cast members negotiated an estimated one million dollars per episode and the show has won several Emmys.

Jennifer received a Best Actress Emmy for her role as Rachel in 2002.  Since her very public marriage and divorce to heartthrob actor Brad Pitt, Jennifer has most recently starred in the blockbuster hit "The Breakup" starring alongside her current boyfriend, Vince Vaughan.
 

As a grade schooler, he showed promise in baseball and basketball. But by junior high his adolescent ways got the best of him, and he became a disciplinary problem for his teachers. His mother pushed him to get involved with an after-school activity. He chose football, and basically gave up all other sports in the ninth grade.

Michael Vick first came to prominence while at Ferguson High School in Newport News, VA. As a freshman he began opening eyes with his athletic ability and throwing for over 400 yards in a game that year. Later on as a junior, Vick and Coach Tommy Reamon both moved to Warwick High School,also in Newport News, in 1996 after Ferguson was shut down.

Michael Vick was somewhat overshadowed locally by quarterback Ronald Curry of Hampton High School in Hampton, Virginia, who would earn Gatorade National Football Player of the Year honors and make first team Parade All-American in basketball; in Curry’s shadow, Vick never even made first-team all-district. Curry recevived a scholarship to the University of North Carolina, but suffered injury problems and eventually was drafted by the NFL’s Oakland Raiders as a wide receiver.

After high school, Michael Vick attended Virginia Tech. He exploded onto the scene in his first collegiate game as a redshirt freshman in 1999 with three rushing TDs, in just over one quarter of play. His last touchdown was a spectacular flip in which he landed awkardly on his ankle, forcing him to miss the remainder of the game in addition to the following game. He led the Virginia Tech Hokies to an 11-0 season and to the 2000 Bowl Championship Series national title game in the Nokia Sugar Bowl against Florida State University. Although Virginia Tech lost, 46-29, Vick was able to bring the team back from a 21 point deficit to take a brief lead. He led the NCAA in passing efficiency, setting a record for a freshman (180.4), which was also good enough for the second-highest all-time mark to Shaun King’s record from the 1998 season at Tulane. Vick was awarded an ESPY as the nation’s top college player, the first-ever Archie Griffin Award as college football’s most valuable player, and finished third in the balloting for the 1999 Heisman Trophy, matching the highest finish ever by a freshman in the voting.

It did have its share of highlights, such as his career rushing high of 210 yards against the Boston College Eagles in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. After finishing with a 11-1 record and a Toyota Gator Bowl MVP award in 2001, Mike decided to take his game to the NFL. Virginia Tech later retired his jersey.

Many would argue that Michael Vick has revolutionized the quarterback position and has nearly single-handedly transformed the Falcons from a team with a spotty reputation to one of the rising franchises in the NFL. Vick’s #7 jersey has become one of the best-selling pieces of NFL apparel. Vick has also become a focal point in the growing rivalry between the Falcons and Carolina Panthers. Vick currently resides in Duluth, GA.

The most frequent criticism is that he has poor fundamental skills, followed by the suggestion that he puts himself at unnecessary risk of injury for a quarterback. Critics cite the leg fracture he suffered in the 2003 pre-season against the Ravens, and a knee injury he suffered early in the current season (which reoccurred a few weeks later), that has hampered his mobility throughout the year as prime evidence that Vick needs to learn to "pick his spots", citing the example of Steve Young, another mobile left-handed signal-caller who had a mediocre professional career before being placed in an offensive system that optimized his talents. Young eventually won a Super Bowl and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Vick was selected to the Pro Bowl for the 2005 season, a controversial pick, since Vick’s season of 15 touchdowns and 13 interceptions and a little over 2,400 passing yards would be considered, at best, an average performance for a quarterback. He also has over 500 yards rushing with 6 touchdowns. Following Vick’s selection, sports columnist Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News called Vick "the most overrated player in the League."

However, regardless of the controversy that surrounds his playing style, Michael Vick continues to wow crowds with his explosive style of play.

During a stellar 21-season career, Frank Robinson became the first player to win League MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues, won the Triple crown, was a member of two teams that won the World Series (the 1966 and 1970 Baltimore Orioles), and amassed the fourth-most career home runs in history (he is currently sixth).

After retirement as a player, he became the first permanent African-American manager in Major League history. Currently, he is the manager of the Washington Nationals.

Robinson was born in Beaumont, Texas and grew up in California. Robinson attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California where he was a basketball teammate of future NBA great Bill Russell.

Robinson had a long and successful playing career. Unusually for a star in the era before free agency, he split his best years between two teams: the Cincinnati Reds (1956 - 1965) and the Baltimore Orioles (1966 - 1971). The later years of his career were spent with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1972), California Angels (1973 - 1974) and Cleveland Indians (1974 - 1976). He was the first player to be named Most Valuable Player in both leagues, in 1961 with the Reds and again in 1966 with the Orioles.

In 1956, as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, he hit 38 home runs (then a rookie record) and was named Rookie of the Year. His best of many good seasons with the Reds was 1961, when the Reds won the pennant and Robinson won his first MVP award. The Reds lost the 1961 World Series to the Yankees.

Prior to the 1966 season, Reds owner Bill DeWitt made the controversial decision of sending Robinson to Baltimore in the same deal that sent ace pitcher Milt Pappas to Cincinnati. The trade tarnished Dewitt’s legacy, and outrage over the deal made it difficult for Pappas to adjust to pitching in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Robinson’s first year in Baltimore was a historic one. He accomplished the rare feat of winning the Triple Crown, leading the American League with a .316 batting average, 49 home runs and 122 runs batted in. The Orioles won the World Series (something Robinson’s Reds had never accomplished), and Robinson was named the Series MVP.

On June 26, 1970, Robinson hit back-to-back grand slams (in the fifth and sixth innings) in the Orioles’ 12-2 victory over the Washington Senators at RFK Stadium. Coincidentally, the same runners were on base on both home runs�Dave McNally on third, Don Buford on second and Paul Blair on first.

Robinson’s Orioles won three consecutive pennants between 1969 and 1971, and won the 1970 World Series.

His career totals include a .294 batting average, 586 home runs, 1812 runs batted in, and 2808 games played. At his retirement, his 586 career home runs were the fourth-best in history (behind only Henry Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays), though he has since been passed by Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.

Frank Robinson became the first black manager of a Major League Baseball team, when he was a player-manager with Cleveland in 1975. He managed the Cleveland Indians (1975 - 1977), San Francisco Giants (1981 - 1984), Baltimore Orioles (1988 - 1991) and Montreal Expos (2002 - 2004). When the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. after the 2004 season, Robinson followed them there, becoming manager of the new Washington Nationals starting in 2005.

Robinson’s managerial record, as of April 20, 2006 is 1000-1095, a .477 record. He was awarded the American League Manager of the Year Award in 1989 for leading the Baltimore Orioles to an 87-75 record, a huge turnaround from their previous season in which they went 54-107. After spending some years in Major League Baseball as the Director of Discipline, MLB offered the former manager the chance to manage the Expos.

Robinson’s style of managing is somewhat controversial. In 2005, the Montreal Gazette’s Stephanie Myles reported that he had spent much time playing golf during his years in Montreal. The septuagenarian sometimes spent 16 hour days between the course and the games at night. This practice came under heightened scrutiny in the American capital. In addition, he has occasionally been caught talking on a cell phone during his team’s games. Also, some journalists have questioned his lack of use of statistics to determine pitching match-ups with his hitting line-ups. Robinson defended his style of managing by saying that he goes by his "gut feeling."

    * In 2005, one of Robinson’s Nationals players asked him, in all seriousness, if he had ever played in the majors. This was reported on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel as an illustration of how little some current players are aware of the history of the game.

    * On Thursday, April 20, 2006, with the Nationals winning 10-4 against their division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, Nats manager Frank Robinson got his 1,000th win, becoming the 53rd manager to reach that milestone[1]. He had earned his 1,000th loss two seasons earlier.[2]

    * During a game against the Houston Astros on May 25, 2006, Frank Robinson was forced to pull out the Nationals catcher, Matt LeCroy, during the middle of the 7th inning. In baseball, there is an unwritten rule that managers do not remove position players in the middle of an inning. Instead, managers are supposed to discretely switch position players in between innings. However, Nationals third string catcher, Matt LeCroy, let Houston Astros baserunners steal seven bases over seven innings with two throwing errors. Although the Nationals won the game 8-5, Frank Robinson found the decision so difficult to make on a player he respected so much, he broke down crying during the post-game interviews.[3].

In addition to his two Most Valuable Player awards (1961 and 1966) and his World Series Most Valuable Player award (1966), Robinson was honored in 1966 with the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year in any sport.

In 1982, Frank Robinson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Robinson is also a charter member of the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame (along with Brooks Robinson), and a member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, being inducted into both in 1978. Both the Reds and the Orioles have retired his uniform number 20.

In 1999, he ranked Number 22 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005.

Los Angeles (E! Online) - In one of Harry Potter’s neater tricks, he just about made one of the year’s most notorious movies disappear.

The weekend box office, as expected, was all about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with the franchise’s fifth installment raising $140 million in five days, including $77.4 million from Friday to Sunday, according to preliminary figures from Exhibitor Relations.

With two-thirds of weekend moviegoers buying tickets to either Order of the Phoenix or the still-gigantic Transformers (second place, $36 million; $223 million overall), there wasn’t much disposable income, much less interest, left for Captivity.

Best known for a billboard campaign that tried, but failed, to spark audiences to its tagline (and accompanying photos of a distressed Elisha Cuthbert)—"Abduction. Confinement. Torture. Termination"—the so-called torture-porn movie opened, barely, in a relatively sparse 1,050 theaters, grossed an absolutely sparse $1.5 million, finished out of the top 10, and presumably began the wait for its unrated DVD release.

Lionsgate celebrated Captivity in a much-publicized Los Angeles premiere party, but, per newspaper critics, kept the movie itself under wraps. In the Boston Globe, reviewer Ty Burr wrote of having to commute to Danvers, Massachusetts, about 20 miles north of Boston, to catch a screening. His eventual verdict: "Wholly pointless," which was one of the more charitable blurbs for a film that scored only three positive reviews out of the 47 tracked and categorized by Sunday afternoon on Rotten Tomatoes.

Life at Hogwarts, meanwhile, was considerably brighter, even as the Potter series continued to grow ever darker.

Order of the Phoenix’s five-day take was the franchise’s biggest yet, although its Friday-Sunday opening-weekend gross was the smallest yet. A key mitigating factor: Order of the Phoenix was the first Potter movie to open on a Wednesday; the other four opened on Fridays.

Per usual for Potter, Order of the Phoenix has been a hit worldwide, so far taking in an estimated $190.3 million from foreign markets, according to Box Office Mojo. All together, the reported $150 million production has taken in $330.3 million since last Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Ratatouille ate up another $18 million (third place), pushing its cumulative take to $143 million, which still makes it the caboose of Pixar-produced features, but puts it within a car’s distance of A Bug’s Life, which grossed $162.8 million nearly 10 years ago.

Live Free or Die Hard ($10.9 million, fourth place) moved past the vaunted $100 million mark, while License to Wed ($7.4 million, fifth place) broke the less-vaunted $30 million mark.

In its fifth weekend, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($1.6 million) fell out of the top 10. At $127.1 million overall, the superhero sequel looks to fall short of its predecessor, which grossed $154.7 million in 2005.

In limited release, Talk to Me, Don Cheadle’s pet project about 1960s-era deejay Petey Greene, got the conversation going at 33 theaters, grossing $405,000. The French comedy My Best Friend did even better, per-screen average-wise, taking in $44,000 at just three theaters.

Sienna Miller continued to maintain her low profile, on screen, at least, courtesy the Steve Buscemi-directed Interview, which made $41,620 at six theaters.

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $77.4 million

2. Transformers, $36 million

3. Ratatouille, $18 million

4. Live Free or Die Hard, $10.9 million

5. License to Wed, $7.4 million

6. 1408, $5 million

7. Evan Almighty, $4.97 million

8. Knocked Up, $3.7 million

9. Sicko, $2.7 million

10. Ocean’s Thirteen, $1.9 million

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an Academy Award–winning American actor, director and producer best known for acting in the Mad Max movie series, the Lethal Weapon series, acting in and directing the Academy Award–winning Braveheart and directing the 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ.
In February of 1985, he was the first person ever to garner the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" from People magazine.

Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of ten children born to Hutton Gibson (whose parents were US businessman, John Hutton Gibson, and Irish-Australian opera singer Eva Mylott) and Anne Reilly Gibson (who was born in the parish of Columcille, County Longford, Ireland). The family also adopted a child, bringing the total number of children in the family to eleven. One of Mel’s younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. His unusual first name comes from a 5th-century Irish saint, Mel, who was the founder of the diocese of Ardagh, which contains most of his mother’s native county.

Although Gibson always maintained his United States citizenship, he lived in Australia from the age of twelve. Following a victory on the TV game show Jeopardy!, Gibson’s father moved his family to Australia in 1968 in protest of the Vietnam War for which his elder sons were potentially at risk for being drafted, and also because he believed that changes in American society were immoral. Early Gibson films feature a distinct, noticeable Australian accent.

Extremely devoted to his faith, Mel Gibson has donated money to finance the construction of an "Independent" Traditional Catholic chapel in Malibu, California, in which only the Latin Tridentine Mass is celebrated. Gibson claims to go to Catholic Mass everyday.

In a July 1995 interview with Playboy magazine, Gibson said President Bill Clinton was a "low-level opportunist" because someone was "telling him what to do." He said he thought Clinton and other politicians who had won Rhodes Scholarships were part of a "stealth" trend of Rhodes scholars becoming politicians who were striving for a "new world order." He said this was a form of Marxism and that "Karl had the right idea."[1][2] During the interview, Gibson also said the assassinations (or attempts) of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan may have been related to actions they took regarding the Federal Reserve; he said his father told him about this theory.

She initially became known for her role as Annie Dutton on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light from 1994 to 1998. Watros’ character began as a heroine, but she gained notice and critical acclaim when her character’s rivalry with Reva Shayne (played by Kim Zimmer) led her to become a scheming villianess. In 1998, Watros won a Daytime Emmy Award as “Outstanding Lead Actress” for her role on Guiding Light.

In 1998, Watros briefly filled in for Jensen Buchanan as Victoria Hudson McKinnon on Another World while Buchanan was on maternity leave.

She is also known for her TV role as Erin Fitzpatrick on Titus from 2000 to 2002 and Kellie Newmark on The Drew Carey Show from 2002 to 2004. On Titus, she broke through as a comedic actress, playing the real-life fiance of the title character. According to the DVD commentary, Erin was originally supposed to be more like Tommy in the series (worrysome, neurotic), and Tommy was supposed to be more like how Erin was (strong, supportive). The characters’ personality changes were made a week before the pilot was shot. After Titus was canceled, she took on the role of Kellie Newmark on “The Drew Carey Show,” as a replacement for the departure of Christa Miller. As a welcoming gesture, Drew Carey sent flowers to her on a weekly basis.

From 2005 to 2006, she is a cast member on the popular ABC series Lost. She played psychologist Libby, a member of the “Tailies”, a group of survivors of the plane crash who were in the tail section of the plane (and not seen during Season One).

Watros overcame a serious disease as a teenager; she was diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disease of the blood. It required several years of chemotherapy and a splenectomy. In an interview in the Season 3 DVD of Titus, she stated that she had lost her hair and gained over 100 pounds as a result of this disease.

Watros has had a complicated history with Guiding Light co-star Kim Zimmer. Zimmer and Watros met when they co-starred in an off-Broadway show, “Four Dogs and a Bone” by John Patrick Shanley. Although there is no long-standing rivalry, working in close quarters apparently caused a serious rift between them when they both appeared on Guiding Light. In particular, a physical altercation between the two actors was captured on tape during filming of a Guiding Light episode.

Watros is married to Curtis Gilliland and has twin daughters, Emma Rose and Sadie Anna (b. July 14, 2001).
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Watros and her Lost co-star Michelle Rodriguez were each pulled over and arrested on the morning of December 1, 2005 in Kailua, Hawaii, where Lost is filmed. Both actresses were charged with drunk driving. At trial, Watros plead guilty and was ordered to pay a fine and go into counseling. Five months later both characters in the show were killed, leading some fans and TV pundits to suggest it was punishment for their arrests. Rodriguez and the producers have denied this, saying it was to be so from the beginning.