title: Mette Frederiksen

text: On 3 January 2020, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by the United States, which considerably heightened the existing tensions between the two countries. Frederiksen called it "a really serious situation". She avoided the question on whether the killing was right, instead calling for de-escalation.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: At the request of the United States, Frederiksen initiated diplomatic talks in early 2022 on the possible presence of American troops on Danish soil. Frederiksen expressed enthusiasm for the talks, stating that "We want a stronger American presence in Europe and in Denmark".


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Frederiksen's government initiated political talks with the five main political parties of the Folketing (Social Liberal Party, Socialist People's Party, Venstre, and Conservative People's Party), and presented the "National Compromise on Danish Security Policy" on 4 March 2022, in which a significant increase in Danish defence spending, an emergency allocation of DKK 7 billion for the Danish defence, a plan for independence from Russian gas, and a referendum on the Danish EU defence opt-out were presented. The country will gradually increase defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2033 (as agreed within NATO), which corresponds to an increase in annual defense spending of around 18 billion DKK ($2.65 billion).


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: On 21 April, together with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, she visited Ukraine's capital Kyiv and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At the meeting, Frederiksen promised an increase in arms and military aid to Ukraine by 600 million DKK, bringing the total Danish aid to 1 billion DKK. Denmark has previously sent 2,700 M72 LAW light anti-tank weapons to the Ukrainian army.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: In 2020, Frederiksen was labeled "Denmark's most eurosceptic PM in a long time" by the Danish online newspaper Altinget, as she has often criticised the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and their vaccine program.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: During the 2022 referendum on the EU defense opt-out, Frederiksen campaigned against maintaining the opt-out. Following the abolition of said opt-out, Frederiksen stated that she had no intentions of seeking the abolition of the remaining opt-outs. She had previously, as justice minister, supported the abolition of the judicial opt-out in the 2015 referendum.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen said the 2022 Nord Stream gas leaks were deliberate sabotage, while cautioning that it was not an attack on Denmark as they occurred in international waters. Frederiksen travelled to London and Brussels to discuss the leaks with British Prime Minister Liz Truss, President of the European Council Charles Michel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. She also talked with French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone. She reiterated to all she spoke with that there is a need for increased surveillance of critical infrastructure and that they must take Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats seriously.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen has been leading the Danish Government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark. In 2020, she issued an order to mink farmers to cull millions of these animals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; this decision later turned out to be unconstitutional. By 2021, she joined forces with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in setting up a joint research and development fund, and possibly production facilities for COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure they had long-term supplies for booster shots or to contend with virus mutations.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: In June 2021, Frederiksen's government announced a new model of distributing gymnasium applicants. The model aims to solve the issue of ethnic and economic disparity and "parallel society tendencies" between gymnasiums by considering parent income. Heavy criticism was directed at the suggestion by the blue bloc, who called it "forced distribution". A petition for scrapping the law gained over 50000 signatures, allowing it to be presented before the Folketing.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: A year later, in June 2022, Frederiksen and her government announced their intention to introduce a ceiling to the entry quotient of higher education. Education offers with a higher entry quotient than the proposed ceiling, 10, would have to offer admission through other means, such as a subject-specific admission test. The goal of the ceiling is to lessen the pressure on students by reducing the need for high grades, and to allow students greater freedom in selecting education.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: In September 2022, Frederiksen proposed that approximately half of all Master's degrees would be shortened from two years to one year. This would mostly affect degrees in the social sciences and humanities, with natural sciences and medicine being left mostly untouched. The proposal was met with harsh criticism from students, academics, rectors and parts of the business world, claiming it would negatively affect the quality of education and require the learning of two years material in one year. Frederiksen denied this, claiming the quality of education was to increase and that workers could be trained on the job.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen has stated a desire to be "Prime Minister of Children", and in 2021, she presented a plan, called, "Law of Children", in order to put the children at front in social cases, including giving municipalities more resources to take children away from violent parents, and to give children more rights in divorce cases. In 2020, she also made a deal with the Socialist People's Party, the Red-Green Alliance, and the Danish People's Party, in order to give people who have worked for long the ability to get early retirement. This was also one of Frederiksen's main promises during the 2019 election campaign.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen is a vocal opponent of prostitution because she considers it violence against women. For many years, she has strongly advocated for the prohibition of the purchase of sex, as in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. In 2002, she opened the debate on the abolition of prostitution, and was behind the 2009 congressional decision that the Social Democrats would "work for a ban on the purchase of sexual acts", saying that prostitution caused mental health damage to the prostitute.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen became increasingly sceptical of liberal mass immigration, as she believes it has had negative impacts for much of the population, a more pressing issue since at least 2001 after the 11 September attacks which intensified during the 2015 European migrant crisis. In a recent biography, Frederiksen stated: "For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalization, mass immigration, and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes."


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Under Frederiksen, the Social Democrats voted in favour of a law allowing Danish authorities to confiscate money, jewellery, and other valuable items from refugees crossing the border. The bill received harsh condemnation from the United Nations Human Right Council, and widespread comparisons between the plan and the treatment of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Social Democrats voted for a law banning the wearing of burqas and niqabs, while abstaining during a vote on a law on mandatory handshakes, irrespective of religious sentiment, at citizenship ceremonies and on a plan to house criminal asylum seekers on a bridgeless island on which they would have to stay at night. Frederiksen also backed the right-wing populist Danish People's Party in their paradigm shift push to make repatriation, rather than integration, the goal of asylum policy. She has called for a cap on non-Western immigrants, expulsion of asylum seekers to a reception centre in North Africa, and forced 37-hours-per-week labour for immigrants in exchange for benefits.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen has referred to Islam as a "barrier to integration", arguing that some Muslims "do not respect the Danish judicial system", that some Muslim women refuse to work for religious reasons, and that Muslim girls are subject to "massive social control", and has called for Muslim schools to be closed.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: In April 2021, Frederiksen announced that Denmark's "ultimate goal" shall henceforth be one of "zero spontaneous asylum seekers". Danish Integration Minister Mattias Tesfaye added that "no exceptions will be made" towards that goal. Danish Refugee Council's Secretary General Charlotte Slente called the move "irresponsible". The Danish state subsequently ceased the renewal of temporary residency permits to about 189 Syrian refugees, claiming that it is "now safe to return to Syria".


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Despite having adopted new stricter migration policies than earlier Social Democratic governments, she and her government has also introduced a few relaxations of Danish immigration policies. Even though Mette Frederiksen and her government are against the idea of spontaneous asylum seekers, they are supporters of the UN refugee quota system and has reintroduced Denmark's participation in that system. Other relaxations include getting the children out of the infamous migration center Sjælsmark and increasing social benefits for refugees.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: She has argued that perception of the Social Democrats adopting the Third Way and practicing centrist, neoliberal economics and supporting unrestricted globalisation contributed to the party's poor electoral performance in the early 21st century. Labeling economic foreign policies of Europe as too liberal, Frederiksen has criticised other social democratic parties for losing their voters' trust by failing to prevent globalisation chipping away at labour rights, increasing inequality and exposing them to uncontrolled immigration.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen's government made international news with the agreement to reduce Denmark's territorial emissions by 70% in 2030 compared to 1990, the decision to stop oil and gas exploration after 2050 (also driven by the fact that only one company applied for a lease in the latest auction), and the energy islands in the North Sea.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen publicly said: "I was a social democrat before I got green. And when I wake up in the morning, I am still a social democrat before I am green."


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: More than a year after having set an ambitious reduction target for the decade, there are in March 2021 no concrete plans for dealing with the remaining two-thirds of the needed reductions to achieve the Danish 2030 emission target. Green NGOs have largely viewed Frederiksen's Minister of Climate Dan Jørgensen's tenure negatively in 2020.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen's government has described its climate action strategy as a "hockey stick" model. This means it plans to await new technologies and falling costs and thus only achieve most reductions at the end of the decade. This strategy has been described by other political parties as a "Bjørn Lomborg" dream.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Despite pleas from the UNFCCC, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Danish Economic Councils and the Danish Council on Climate Change, Frederiksen's government has postponed the implementation of a higher carbon pricing mechanism, even though Denmark was a pioneer with its adoption in 1992. The opposition to higher carbon taxes was positively received by associations representing the major emitting sectors such as the Confederation of Danish Industry and Danish Agriculture and Food Council.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: As of March 2021, Denmark stands to have a much lower price on carbon than its neighbours in 2030, with consequences such as trucks from Germany waiting to refuel until they are in Denmark to benefit from the low diesel prices in Denmark. Denmark is also one of the four EU countries without carbon taxes on passenger flights. In fact, Frederiksen's government had plans to guarantee domestic flights during the COVID-19 crisis by subsidising domestic flights, a decision decried by green NGOs and the supporting parties Red-Green Alliance and the Socialist People's Party. The decision was not implemented as the European Commission would not approve it due to regulations on state aid.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen's government entered a formal agreement with the cement manufacturer Aalborg Portland (Denmark's largest carbon emitter standing for 4% of the national emissions) concluding that they did not have to reduce their annual emissions below their 1990 level of 1.54 million tons. Previously, Mette Frederiksen had said: "I will chain myself to Portland before anyone is allowed to close them".


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Similarly, her government has been criticised for allowing state-owned companies to continue the build-out of fossil fuel infrastructure like a natural gas pipeline of 115 km, with an associated socio-economic cost of $113 million for Denmark. In a formal answer to the Parliament, the Minister of Climate Dan Jørgensen confirmed that the gas pipeline would not reduce the carbon emissions in the short term nor add any jobs in Denmark.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: As stipulated in the Climate Act, the Danish Council on Climate Change has to make annual recommendations for and provide a status update on the Danish government's climate efforts. In February 2021, the Danish Council on Climate Council found it was not likely that Frederiksen's government would achieve their original target of a 70% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: In May 2010, it was revealed that Frederiksen's daughter, along with the children of several other prominent Social Democrat politicians, was being educated at a private school. Along with her colleagues, Frederiksen was accused of hypocrisy by the Danish press as her party had long seen the promotion of public education as a key policy. In 2005, Frederiksen had openly criticised parents who sent their children to private schools. Frederiksen responded to the criticism by saying that her opinion on private education had become more nuanced since her remarks in 2005 and that it would have been hypocritical of her to put her own political career ahead of her daughter's best interest.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: On 14 March 2013, Ekstra Bladet announced that she and her ministry had failed to inform the Folketing about the correct figures regarding how many unemployment benefit recipients would drop out of the unemployment benefit system in 2013. According to Ekstra Bladet, on 5 December 2012, the Ministry of Employment had new figures for how many people were expected to lose the right to unemployment benefits on 1 January 2013 and the following six months. The number was 22,679 people and thus significantly higher than the 7–12,000 people that the government had announced. She was strongly criticized for this - and both the Unity List and the Danish People's Party subsequently called her in consultation on the matter.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: The new unemployment benefit rules were adopted in 2010 by the VK government and the Danish People's Party, and were to be fully implemented on 2 July 2012. The changes mean that the unemployment benefit period is shortened from 4 to 2 years. In the Finance Act agreement for 2012, it was agreed to extend the unemployment benefit period by up to half a year for all insured unemployed who exhausted the unemployment benefit entitlement in the second half of 2012. Therefore, it was not until 1 January 2013 that many began to lose their unemployment benefit entitlement.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Her government endured criticism in 2020 and 2021 for refusing to repatriate children with Danish citizenship from Syrian refugee camps in Kurdish-controlled Syria, due to their parents allegedly having joined the Islamic State. A medical report released in April 2022 revealed that many of the children were undernourished and that one 4-year-old in particular needed hospitalization. This led to her government preparing to evacuate the children on the condition that their parents do not come with, which again led to criticism, notably from her supporting parties, the Social Liberal Party and the Green Left.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: At a press conference on 4 November 2020, Mette Frederiksen stated that the government had decided that all mink in Denmark should be killed due to the risk of infection with COVID-19. Subsequently, it emerged that this order was illegal and by many is described as in violation of the Constitution. The government came up with changing explanations and several parties in the Folketing demanded an account of the mink case. The statement was published on 18 November 2020 and it emerged that 6 ministers had been warned on 1 October 2020 that the order was illegal. Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen withdrew immediately. Mette Frederiksen has denied knowledge of the lack of legal basis.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the case, delivering its report on 30 June 2022. The report stated that Frederiksen's statements at the press conference on 4 November 2020 were "objectively grossly misleading", but that she wasn't aware of the illegality of the order to kill all mink. The Red-Green Alliance and Green Left, both of which are supporting parties of Frederiksen, announced they would not be voting for independent lawyer examination of the report, which could lead to impeachment. Leader of the Social Liberal Party, also a supporting party, Sofie Carsten Nielsen similarly did not want independent examination, but demanded a general election before 4 October 2022. If her demands aren't met, she promised to support a motion of no confidence against Frederiksen. Frederiksen later announced on 5 October 2022 that a general election would be held on 1 November 2022.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: Frederiksen received an official reprimand from the Folketing on 5 July 2022 for her actions in handling the mink case. The reprimand stated that Frederiksen had "acted highly criticisable". This was given to her by her own government, with her own party, Social Democrats, not stating that she had committed any errors; the opposition did not participate as they considered it inadequate.


title: Mette Frederiksen

text: On 15 July 2020, Frederiksen married her longtime boyfriend Bo Tengberg, a film director. They were married at the Magleby Church, an affiliate of the Church of Denmark on the island of Møn.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: The Stepford Wives is a 1972 satirical "feminist horror" novel by Ira Levin. The story concerns Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer, wife and young mother who suspects that something in Stepford's environment is changing the wives from free-thinking, intelligent women into compliant wives dedicated solely to homemaking. As her friends slowly transform Joanna realises the horrific truth.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: The book has had two feature film adaptations, both using the same title as the novel: the 1975 version, and the 2004 remake. Edgar J. Scherick produced the 1975 version as well as all three of the television sequels. Scherick was credited posthumously as producer of the 2004 remake.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: In a March 27, 2007, letter to "The New York Times", Levin said that he based the town of Stepford on Wilton, Connecticut, where he lived in the 1960s. Wilton is a "step" from Stamford, a major city lying away.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: The premise involves the married men of the fictional Fairfield County town of Stepford, Connecticut and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the submissive wives of Stepford who seem to lack free will, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends, fellow new arrivals to Stepford, turn into mindless, docile housewives following a romantic weekend. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and researches the pasts of Stepford's wives, discovering that some of the women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals and that the leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to inquire about possible toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife and has no interest in her previous activities.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home, she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot and several of the men's club members track her down. They corner her in the woods, and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees to this, and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing as if to cover screams. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident of and the first black woman in Stepford) appears poised to become the town's next victim.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: Michelle Arrow says: "not only a satire of male fears of women’s liberation, but a savage view of heterosexual marriage. In this telling, a man would rather kill his wife and replace her with a robot than commit to equality and recognise her as a whole person."


title: The Stepford Wives

text: There are many feminist themes in "The Stepford Wives". The novel tackles the role of women in the nuclear family and the control they have over their bodies by allowing the readers to observe what happens in Stepford when Joanna moves in. Before the women in Stepford turned into lifeless, docile robots, they were avid activists and successful career women who had lives outside of being a wife. However, the men in Stepford were opposed to this, turning their wives into robots and reducing their only purposes in life down to serving their husbands.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: The theme of consent is tackled in "The Stepford Wives" franchise. The reason why the men in Stepford make their wives into submissive robots is that they are afraid of losing control over their wives. The similarity between sex robots and the women in Stepford is that they are both lifeless and docile, hence the men do not need consent in order to fulfill their sexual desire.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: In 1975, the book was adapted into a science fiction thriller directed by Bryan Forbes with a screenplay by William Goldman and starring Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson and Tina Louise. While the script emphasis is on gender conflict and the sterility of suburban living, and thus the science fiction elements are only lightly explored, the movie still makes it much clearer than the book that the women are being replaced by some form of robot. Goldman's treatment of the book differed from that of Forbes, with the robots closer to an idealized Playboy Bunny; it has been claimed that the look was scrapped when Forbes' actress wife Nanette Newman was cast as one of the town residents.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: A 1980 television sequel was titled "Revenge of the Stepford Wives". In this film, instead of being androids, the wives underwent a brainwashing procedure and then took pills that kept them hypnotized. In the end, the wives broke free of their conditioning and a mob of them killed the mastermind behind the conspiracy.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: In a 1987, a television sequel/remake titled "The Stepford Children", both the wives and the children of the male residents were replaced by drones. It ended with the members of the conspiracy being killed.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: A 1996 version called "The Stepford Husbands" was made as a third television movie with the gender roles reversed and the men in the town being brainwashed by a female clinic director into being perfect husbands.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: Another film titled "The Stepford Wives" was released in 2004. It was directed by Frank Oz and featured Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Roger Bart, Faith Hill, Glenn Close and Jon Lovitz. It was intended to be more comedic than the previous versions. The new script by screenwriter Paul Rudnick has the women being transformed into carefully controlled cyborgs rather than being murdered and replaced with robots. The script culminates in a twist ending in which it is a powerful woman (played by Glenn Close) who is the evil mastermind of the injustice perpetrated on other women, and features a "Stepfordized" male partner of a gay town resident. Unlike the original novel and most of the adaptations, the perpetrators of the conspiracy neither die nor get away with their crimes; the victims are freed from their control programming and subject their husbands to a taste of their own medicine as restitution.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: Both versions were filmed in various towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut, including Redding, Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Wilton and Norwalk. The 1975 version had several locations in the Greenfield Hill section of Fairfield, Connecticut, including the Eberharts' house and the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church. Additional scenes from the 2004 movie were filmed in Bedminster, New Jersey, with extras from surrounding communities.


title: The Stepford Wives

text: The term "Stepford wife" entered common use in the English language after the publication of Levin's book. It is generally used as a derogatory term for a submissive and docile wife who seems to conform blindly to the stereotype of an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband.


title: Jessica Chastain on screen and stage

text: Jessica Chastain is an American actress of film, television and stage. As a final-year student at the Juilliard School, she was signed on for a talent holding deal by the television producer John Wells. From 2004 to 2010, she had guest roles in television shows, including "ER", "Veronica Mars", and "". She also appeared in stage productions with Michelle Williams for "The Cherry Orchard" in 2004, and with Al Pacino for "Salome" in 2006. In 2008, Chastain made her film debut as the title character in the drama "Jolene". She had a minor role in "Stolen" (2009), a critically panned mystery-thriller, following which she played the younger version of Helen Mirren's character in the action thriller film "The Debt" (2010).


title: Jessica Chastain on screen and stage

text: The year 2011 proved a breakthrough for Chastain. Among her six film releases that year, she starred with Brad Pitt in "The Tree of Life", an experimental drama from Terrence Malick, and portrayed an aspiring socialite in 1960s America in the drama "The Help". For the latter, Chastain received her first Academy Award nomination, in the supporting actress category. In 2012, she voiced Gia in the $747 million-grossing animated film "". She also played a CIA analyst in Kathryn Bigelow's thriller "Zero Dark Thirty"a partly fictionalized account of the manhunt for Osama bin Ladenwhich garnered her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress. Also in 2012, Chastain made her Broadway debut in a revival of "The Heiress", playing a naive young girl who becomes a powerful woman.


title: Jessica Chastain on screen and stage

text: In 2013, Chastain starred in the horror film "Mama", and played an unhappily married woman in Ned Benson's three-part drama film, collectively titled "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby". Chastain's biggest live-action commercial successes came in the next two years with the science fiction films "Interstellar" (2014) and "The Martian" (2015), both of which grossed over $600 million worldwide. In the former, directed by Christopher Nolan, she played a scientist, and in the latter, directed by Ridley Scott, she featured as an astronaut alongside Matt Damon. Chastain went on to play strong-willed titular protagonists in the political thriller "Miss Sloane" (2016), the historical drama "The Zookeeper's Wife" (2017), and the crime film "Molly's Game" (2017). In 2019, Chastain played the adult Beverly Marsh in the horror sequel "It Chapter Two". In 2021, she starred in the HBO miniseries "Scenes from a Marriage", and produced and starred as the televangelist Tammy Faye in the biopic "The Eyes of Tammy Faye". For the latter, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.


title: Emilie Livingston

text: Emilie Goldblum (née Livingston; born 4 January 1983) is a Canadian dancer, aerialist and contortionist, and retired Olympic rhythmic gymnast.


title: Emilie Livingston

text: At the age of 10, she moved to Russia (to Novogorsk near Moscow) to train with Russian rhythmic gymnasts and Russian coaches, such as Irina Viner and Lusi Dimitrova.


title: Emilie Livingston

text: Livingston is a three-time national champion of Canada in rhythmic gymnastics. She represented Canada at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, winning the gold medal as in the individual all-around. She also represented Canada at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, placing 18th in the individual all-around competition.


title: Emilie Livingston

text: In the film "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", Livingston was a body double for Rihanna performing Bubble's pole dance scene. She was also a body double for Emma Stone's aerial work in "La La Land".


title: Emilie Livingston

text: Livingston married American actor Jeff Goldblum on 8 November 2014. Their first son, Charlie Ocean, was born on 4 July 2015, and second son, River Joe, was born 7 April 2017.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Major military efforts were taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty in 1274 and 1281 to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of macro-historical importance because they set a limit on Mongol expansion and rank as nation-defining events in the history of Japan. The invasions are referred to in many works of fiction and are the earliest events for which the word "kamikaze" ("divine wind") is widely used, originating in reference to the two typhoons faced by the Yuan fleets.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The invasions were one of the earliest cases of gunpowder warfare outside of China. One of the most notable technological innovations during the war was the use of explosive, hand-thrown bombs.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: After a series of Mongol invasions of Korea between 1231 and 1281, Goryeo signed a treaty in favor of the Mongols and became a vassal state. Kublai was declared Khagan of the Mongol Empire in 1260 (although that was not widely recognized by the Mongols in the west) and established his capital at Khanbaliq (within modern Beijing) in 1264.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Japan was then ruled by the Shikken (shogunate regents) of the Hōjō clan, who had intermarried with and wrested control from Minamoto no Yoriie, "shōgun" of the Kamakura shogunate, after his death in 1203. The inner circle of the Hōjō clan had become so pre-eminent that they no longer consulted the council of the shogunate (), the Imperial Court of Kyoto, or their gokenin vassals, and they made their decisions at private meetings in their residences ().


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Mongols also made attempts to subjugate the native peoples of Sakhalin, the Ainu and Nivkh peoples, from 1264 to 1308. However, it is doubtful if Mongol activities in Sakhalin were part of the effort to invade Japan.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: In 1266, Kublai Khan dispatched emissaries to Japan demanding for Japan to become a vassal and send tribute under a threat of conflict.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: However, the emissaries returned empty-handed. The second set of emissaries were sent in 1268 and returned empty-handed like the first. Both sets of emissaries met with the Chinzei Bugyō, or Defense Commissioner for the West, who passed on the message to Shikken Hōjō Tokimune, Japan's ruler in Kamakura, and to the Emperor of Japan in Kyoto. After discussing the letters with his inner circle, there was much debate, but the Shikken had his mind made up and had the emissaries sent back with no answer. The Mongols continued to send demands, some through Korean emissaries and some through Mongol ambassadors on 7 March 1269; 17 September 1269; September 1271; and May 1272. However, each time, the bearers were not permitted to land in Kyushu.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Japanese Imperial Court suggested compromise, but really had little effect in the matter, due to political marginalization after the Jōkyū War. The uncompromising shogunate ordered all those who held fiefs in Kyūshū, the area closest to the Korean Peninsula and thus most likely to be attacked, to return to their lands and forces in Kyūshū moved west, further securing the most likely landing points. After acknowledging its importance, the Imperial Court led great prayer services to calm local residents, and much government business was put off to deal with the crisis.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The invasion fleet was scheduled to depart in the seventh lunar month of 1274 but was delayed for three months. Kublai planned for the fleet to first attack Tsushima Island and Iki Island before making landfall in Hakata Bay. The Japanese plan of defense was simply to contest them at every point with gokenin. Both Yuan and Japanese sources exaggerate the opposing side's numbers, with the "History of Yuan" putting the Japanese at 102,000, and the Japanese claiming they were outnumbered at least ten to one. In reality, there are no reliable records of the size of Japanese forces, but estimates put their total numbers at around 4,000 to 6,000. The Yuan invasion force was composed of 15,000 Mongol, Han Chinese, and Jurchen soldiers, 6,000 to 8,000 Korean troops, and 7,000 Korean sailors.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Yuan invasion forces set off from Hoppo (, now Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea) on 2 November 1274 (Dōngyuè 5 in the Chinese calendar). Two days later they began landing on Tsushima Island. The principal landing was made at Komoda beach near Sasuura, on the northwestern tip of the southern island of Shimono. Additional landings occurred in the strait between the two islands of Tsushima, as well as at two points on the northern island of Kamino. The following description of events is based on contemporary Japanese sources, notably the "Sō Shi Kafu", a history of the Sō clan of Tsushima.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: At Sasuura, the invasion fleet was spotted offshore, allowing the deputy governor ("jitodai") Sō Sukekuni (1207–74) to organize a hasty defense. On that day, the shrine to Hachiman caught fire, which would have been an omen of bad luck, but Sukekuni interpreted it as an omen of warning.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: With eighty mounted samurai and their retinue, Sukekuni confronted an invasion force of what the "Sō Shi Kafu" describes as 8000 warriors embarked on 900 ships. The Mongols landed at 02:00 in the morning on 4 November, and ignored the Japanese negotiation attempts, shooting with their archers and forcing them to retreat. The fight was engaged by 04:00. The small garrison force was quickly defeated, but according to the "Sō Shi Kafu", one samurai, Sukesada, cut down 25 enemy soldiers in individual combat. The invaders defeated a final Japanese cavalry charge around nightfall.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: After their victory at Komoda, the Yuan forces burnt down most of the buildings around Sasuura and slaughtered most of the inhabitants. They took the next few days to secure control of Tsushima.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Yuan fleet departed Tsushima on 13 November and attacked Iki Island. Like Sukekuni, Taira no Kagetaka, the governor of Iki, gave a spirited defence with 100 samurai and the local armed populace before falling back to his castle by nightfall. The next morning, Yuan forces had surrounded the castle. Kagetaka sent his daughter with a trusted samurai, Sōzaburō, on a secret passage to the shore, where they boarded a ship and fled for the mainland. A passing Mongol fleet shot arrows at them and killed the daughter but Sōzaburō managed to reach Hakata Bay and report Iki's defeat.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Kagetaka made a final failed sortie with 36 men, 30 of whom died in battle, before committing suicide with his family. According to the Japanese, the Mongols then held down the women and stabbed them through their palms with knives, stripped them naked, and tied their corpses to the sides of their ships.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Yuan fleet crossed the sea and landed in Hakata Bay on 19 November, a short distance from Dazaifu, the ancient administrative capital of Kyūshū. The following day brought the Battle of Bun'ei (文永の役), also known as the "First Battle of Hakata Bay".


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Conlan argues that the "History of Yuan"'s account of the battle suggests that both the Japanese and Yuan forces were of similar size. Conlan estimates that both armies numbered around 3,000 each (not including the Yuan sailors) during this battle while Japanese historians estimate 6,000 defenders on the Japanese side. The Japanese forces, being inexperienced with non-Japanese tactics, found the Mongol army perplexing. The Yuan forces disembarked and advanced in a dense body protected by a screen of shields. They wielded their polearms in a tightly packed fashion with no space between them. As they advanced they also threw paper and iron casing bombs on occasion, frightening the Japanese horses and making them uncontrollable in battle. When the grandson of a Japanese commander shot an arrow to announce the beginning of battle, the Mongols burst out laughing.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The battle lasted for only a day and the fighting, though fierce, was uncoordinated and brief. One low-ranking samurai, Takezaki Suenaga, received word from his commander Shōni Kagesuke that he was to wait until the Mongols advanced due to difficult terrain, but Takezaki attacked the Mongols anyway. On his way to the beach, he encountered Kikuchi Takefusa, who had already encountered a Yuan detachment, driven them away and killed two. Kikuchi told him the 'pirates' had already fled. Takezaki and his five companions charged the small Yuan detachment that Kikuchi had previously encountered, but their horses got stuck in the mud, and they were wounded by a barrage of arrows. Takezaki and three surviving retainers managed to retreat with the aid of Shiroishi Michiyasu, who charged the Yuan detachment and drove them away. By nightfall the Yuan invasion force had forced the Japanese off the beach with a third of the defending forces dead, driving them several kilometres inland, and burning Hakata.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Japanese were preparing to make a last stand at Mizuki (water castle), an earthwork moat fort dating back to 664. However the Yuan attack never came. One of the three commanding Yuan generals, Liu Fuxiang (Yu-Puk Hyong), was shot in the face by the retreating samurai, Shōni Kagesuke, and seriously injured. Liu convened with the other generals Holdon and Hong Dagu back on his ship. Holdon wanted to keep advancing through the night before more Japanese reinforcements arrived but Hong was worried that their troops were too exhausted and needed rest. There was also fear of being ambushed in the night. Liu agreed with Hong and recalled the Yuan forces back to their ships.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: By morning, most of the Yuan ships had disappeared. According to a Japanese courtier in his diary entry for 6 November 1274, a sudden reverse wind from the east blew back the Yuan fleet. A few ships were beached and some 50 Yuan soldiers and sailors were captured and executed. According to the "History of Yuan", "a great storm arose and many warships were dashed on the rocks and destroyed." It is not certain whether the storm occurred at Hakata or if the fleet had already set sail for Korea and encountered it on their way back. Some accounts offer casualty reports that suggest 200 ships were lost. Of the 30,000 strong invasion force, 13,500 did not return.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: A story widely known in Japan is that back in Kamakura, Tokimune was overcome with fear when the invasion finally came and wanting to overcome his cowardice, he asked Mugaku Sogen, his Zen master, also known as Bukkō, for advice. Bukkō replied that he had to sit in meditation to find the source of his cowardice in himself. Tokimune went to Bukkō and said, "Finally there is the greatest happening of my life." Bukkō asked, "How do you plan to face it?" Tokimune screamed, ""Katsu!"" as if he wanted to scare all the enemies in front of him. Bukkō responded with satisfaction, "It is true that the son of a lion roars as a lion!" Since then, Tokimune was instrumental in spreading Zen and Bushido in Japan among the samurai.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: After the invasion of 1274, the shogunate made efforts to defend against a second invasion, which they thought was sure to come. They better organized the samurai of Kyūshū and ordered the construction of forts and a large stone wall (石塁, Sekirui or 防塁, Bōrui) and other defensive structures at many potential landing points, including Hakata Bay, where a high wall was constructed in 1276. In addition, a large number of stakes were driven into the mouth of the river and the expected landing sites to prevent the Mongol Army from landing.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Religious services increased, and the Hakozaki Shrine, which had been destroyed by the Yuan forces, was rebuilt. A coastal watch was instituted, and rewards were given to some 120 valiant samurai. There was even a plan for a raid on Goryeo (modern-day Korea) to be carried out by Shōni Tsunesuke, a general from Kyūshū, but that was never executed.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Kublai Khan sent five Yuan emissaries in September 1275 to Kyūshū, who refused to leave without a reply. Tokimune responded by having them sent to Kamakura and then beheading them. The graves of those five executed Yuan emissaries still exist at Jōryū-ji, in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, near the Tatsunokuchi Execution Place in Kamakura. Five more Yuan emissaries were sent on 29 July 1279, in the same manner, and were again beheaded, this time in Hakata.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: In the autumn of 1280, Kublai held a conference at his summer palaces to discuss plans for a second invasion of Japan. The major difference between the first and the second invasion was that the Yuan dynasty had finished conquering the Song dynasty in 1279 and was able to launch a two-pronged attack. The invading force was drawn from a number of sources, including criminals with commuted death sentences and even those mourning the loss of their parents, a serious affair in China. More than 1,500 ships were requisitioned for the invasion: 600 from Southern China, 900 from Korea. Reportedly 40,000 troops were amassed in Korea and 100,000 in Southern China. Those numbers are likely an exaggeration, but the addition of Southern Chinese resources probably meant the second invasion force was still several times larger than the first invasion. Nothing is known about the size of the Japanese forces.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Orders for the second invasion came in the first lunar month of 1281. Two fleets were prepared, a force of 900 ships in Korea and 3,500 ships in Southern China with a combined force of 142,000 soldiers and sailors. The Mongol general Arakhan was named supreme commander of the operation and was to travel with the Southern Route fleet, which was under the command of Fan Wenhu but was delayed by supply difficulties.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Eastern Route army set sail first from Korea on 22 May and attacked Tsushima on 9 June and Iki Island on 14 June. According to the "History of Yuan", the Japanese commander Shōni Suketoki and Ryūzōji Suetoki led forces in the tens of thousands against the invasion force. The expeditionary forces discharged their firearms, and the Japanese were routed, with Suketoki killed in the process. More than 300 islanders were killed. The Yuan soldiers sought out the children and killed them as well. However, the "History of Yuan" merges events in June with the later battle in July, when Shōni Suketoki actually fell in battle.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Eastern Route army was supposed to wait for the Southern Route army at Iki, but their commanders, Hong Dagu and Kim Bang-gyeong, disobeyed orders and set out to invade Mainland Japan by themselves. They departed on 23 June, a full week ahead of the expected arrival of the Southern Route army on 2 July. The Eastern Route army split their forces in half and simultaneously attacked Hakata Bay and Nagato Province. Three hundred ships attacked Nagato on 25 June but were driven off and forced to return to Iki.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Meanwhile, the rest of the Eastern Route army attacked Hakata Bay, which was heavily fortified with a defensive wall. Some Mongol ships came ashore but were unable to make it past the defensive wall and were driven off by volleys of arrows.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Unable to land, the Mongol invasion force occupied the islands of Shika and Noko from which it had planned to launch raids against Hakata. Instead, the Japanese launched raids at night on board small ships. The "Hachiman Gudōkun" credit Kusano Jirō with boarding a Mongol ship, setting fire to it, and taking 21 heads.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The next day, Kawano Michiari led a daytime raid with just two boats. His uncle Michitoki was immediately killed by an arrow, and Michiari was wounded both in the shoulder and the left arm. However, upon boarding the enemy ship, he slew a large Mongol warrior for which he was made a hero and richly rewarded. Takezaki Suenaga was also among those who raided the Yuan fleet. Takezaki also participated in driving the Mongols from Shika island, although in that instance, he was wounded and forced them to withdraw to Iki on 30 June.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Japanese defence of Hakata Bay is known as the Battle of Kōan. On 16 July, fighting commenced between the Japanese and Mongols at Iki Island, resulting in Mongol withdrawal to Hirado Island.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: After the Southern Route fleet convened with the Eastern Route fleet, the two fleets took some time rearranging themselves before they advanced on Taka island. After taking Taka island, the Yuan army advanced on Hakata. A two-week battle ensued throughout the countryside that entered a stalemate.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: On 12 August, the Japanese repeated their small raids on the invasion fleet that lasted throughout the night. The Mongols responded by fastening their ships together with chains and planks to provide defensive platforms. There are no accounts of the raids from the Japanese side in this incident, unlike at the defence of Hakata Bay. According to the "History of Yuan", the Japanese ships were small and were all beaten off:


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: On 15 August, a great typhoon, known in Japanese as "kamikaze", struck the fleet at anchor from the west and devastated it. Sensing the oncoming typhoon, Korean and south Chinese mariners retreated and unsuccessfully docked in Imari Bay, where they were destroyed by the storm. Thousands of soldiers were left drifting on pieces of wood or washed ashore. The Japanese defenders killed all those they found except for the Southern Chinese, who they felt had been coerced into joining the attack on Japan.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: According to a Chinese survivor, after the typhoon, Commander Fan Wenhu picked the best remaining ships and sailed away, leaving more than 100,000 troops to die. After being stranded for three days on Taka island, the Japanese attacked and captured tens of thousands. They were moved to Hakata where the Japanese killed all the Mongols, Koreans, and Northern Chinese. The Southern Chinese were spared but made slaves. According to a Korean source, of the 26,989 Koreans who set out with the Eastern Route fleet, 7,592 did not return. Chinese and Mongol sources indicate a casualty rate of 60 to 90 percent.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Many modern historians believe the figures for the invasion force to be exaggerated, as was common in post-classical chronicles. Thomas Conlan, from Princeton University, writes that they were likely exaggerated by an order of magnitude, implying 140,000 soldiers and sailors, and expresses skepticism that a medieval-era kingdom could have managed an invasion on the scale of D-Day during World War II, across over ten times the distance, and questions if even 10,000 soldiers attacked Japan in 1281.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Morris Rossabi writes that Conlan was correct in his assertion that the invasion force was much smaller than traditionally believed but argues that the expenditures lavished on the mission confirm that the fighting force was sizable and much larger than 10,000 soldiers and 4,000 sailors. He puts forward the alternative figure of 70,000 soldiers and sailors, half of what is stated in the Yuanshi and later Japanese claims.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: Turnbull thinks that more than 140,000 is an exaggeration but does not offer his own precise estimate for the size of the army. Rather, he states only that given the contributions of the Southern Song, the second invasion should have been around three times larger than the first. As he earlier listed the common figure of 23,000 for the first invasion uncritically, unlike the estimate of more than 140,000 for the second, which would imply an invasion force of around 70,000, on par with Rossabbi's estimate.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The defeated Mongol Empire lost most of its naval power, and its naval defense capability declined significantly. Korea, which was in charge of shipbuilding for the invasion, also lost its ability to build ships and its ability to defend the sea since a large amount of lumber was cut down. On the other hand, in Japan there was no newly-acquired land because it was a defensive war and so the Kamakura shogunate could not give rewards to gokenin who participated in the battle, and its authority declined. Later, taking advantage of the situation, the number of Japanese joining the wokou began to increase, and attacks on the coasts of China and Korea intensified.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: As a result of the war, there was a growing recognition in China that the Japanese were brave and violent and the invasion of Japan was futile. During the Ming Dynasty, invasion into Japan was discussed three times, but it was never carried out considering the result of this war.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Zen Buddhism of Hōjō Tokimune and his Zen master Bukkō gained credibility beyond national boundaries, and the first mass followings of Zen teachings among samurai began to flourish.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The failed invasions also mark the first use of the word "kamikaze" ("Divine Wind"). The fact that the typhoon that helped Japan defeat the Mongol Navy in the first invasion occurred in late November, well after the normal Pacific typhoon season (May to October), perpetuated the Japanese belief that they would never be defeated or successfully invaded, which remained an important aspect of Japanese foreign policy until the very end of World War II. The failed invasions also demonstrated one of the Mongols' weaknesses – the inability to mount naval invasions successfully After the death of Kublai, his successor, Temür Khan, unsuccessfully demanded the submission of Japan in 1295.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Mongol invasions are an early example of gunpowder warfare outside of China. One of the most notable technological innovations during the war was the use of explosive bombs. The bombs are known in Chinese as "thunder crash bombs" and were fired from catapults, inflicting damage on enemy soldiers. An illustration of a bomb is depicted in the Japanese Mongol Invasion scrolls, but Thomas Conlan has shown that the illustration of the projectiles was added to the scrolls in the 18th century and should not be considered to be an eyewitness representation of their use. However, archaeological discoveries since Conlan's statement have confirmed the existence of bombs in the Yuan invasion's arsenal. Multiple bomb shells were discovered in an underwater shipwreck off the shore of Japan by the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology. X-rays by Japanese scientists of the excavated shells show that they contained gunpowder and were also packed with scrap iron.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Yuan forces may have also used cannons during the invasion. The "Taiheiki" mentions a weapon shaped like a bell that made a noise like thunder-clap and shot out thousands of iron balls.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The "yumi" (longbow) and "naginata" were the main weapons of samurai in this period. Yumi is able to shoot while riding on horseback with the Japanese sword acting as a secondary weapon. As a result of the war, intellectuals of the Mongol Empire regarded Japanese swords as a threat. For example, Wang Yun, who served Kublai, and Zheng Si-xiao, a surviving retainer of the Song Dynasty, mentioned in their book that "Japanese swords are long and extremely sharp." They argued that the combination of a violent samurai and a Japanese sword was a threat.


title: Mongol invasions of Japan

text: The Mongol invasions of Japan facilitated a change in the designs of Japanese swords. The swordsmiths of the Sōshū school represented by Masamune studied "tachi" that were broken or bent in battle, developed new production methods, and created innovative "tachi". They forged the blade using a combination of soft and hard steel to optimize the temperature and timing of the heating and cooling of the blade, resulting in a lighter but more robust blade. They made the curve of the blade more gentle, lengthened the tip linearly, widened the width from the cutting edge to the opposite side of the blade, and thinned the cross section to improve the penetration and cutting ability of the blade.


title: Steven Knight

text: Steven Knight (born 1 April 1959) is a British screenwriter, film director and film producer. Knight wrote the screenplays for the films "Closed Circuit", "Dirty Pretty Things", and "Eastern Promises", and also wrote and directed the films "Locke" and "Hummingbird" (a.k.a. "Redemption").


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight is also one of three creators of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", a game show that has been remade and aired in around 160 countries worldwide, and has written for BBC's "Commercial Breakdown", "The Detectives", "Peaky Blinders", "See" and "Taboo".


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight's father was a blacksmith. He attended The Streetly School (now The Streetly Academy) as a teenager, in Streetly, Walsall, in the West Midlands. He then went on to study English at University College London (UCL) where he is an Honorary Fellow. His first experience of writing was in preparing property descriptions for an Estate Agent.


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight is best known for screenplays he wrote for the films "Dirty Pretty Things" and "Eastern Promises". His work on the screenplay for "Dirty Pretty Things" earned him the Edgar Award for "Best Motion Picture Screenplay" and London Film Critics Circle award for "British Screenwriter of the Year". The screenplay was also nominated for several other awards including the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film "Closed Circuit," which was directed by John Crowley and which starred Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall.


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight also wrote a draft of a screenplay based on the book "Shutter Island" written by Dennis Lehane, but the draft that was used for the movie of the same name was written by Laeta Kalogridis.


title: Steven Knight

text: Recent films based on screenplays that Knight has written include "The Hundred-Foot Journey" directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the book of the same name by Richard C. Morais, and starring Helen Mirren, "Seventh Son", an adventure story starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington and Jason Scott Lee, as well as the film "Pawn Sacrifice", based on U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer, with Tobey Maguire playing Fischer in the film. He also wrote the screenplay of "World War Z II."


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight wrote the script for the 2021 dramedy "Locked Down", about a couple (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) attempting a high-stakes jewellery heist during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knight also wrote the script for the film "Spencer", starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales.


title: Steven Knight

text: In addition to his writing, Knight has directed three films: "Hummingbird" (2013), starring Jason Statham, "Locke" (2014), starring Tom Hardy, and "Serenity" (2019) starring Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane, and Anne Hathaway. "Locke" won a British Independent Film Award in 2013 for Best Screenplay. Knight has directed several episodes of the TV series for which he also frequently wrote, "The Detectives".


title: Steven Knight

text: In 2022, Knight was the co-director of the Opening Ceremony for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which took place on 28 July 2022.


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight also created the TV series "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (along with Mike Whitehill and David Briggs) and also is the creator of the TV series "Show do Milhão " and "All About Me".


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight created the television series "Peaky Blinders" and has written for TV series including, BBC's "Commercial Breakdown" (with Jimmy Carr), "The Detectives", "Comedy Playhouse" (the episode "Wild Oats" in 1993), "Frankie's On...", "Auntie's Big Bloomers", Taboo, and "Canned Carrott".


title: Steven Knight

text: He also created and co-wrote "A Christmas Carol", a dark adaptation of the Dickens story for BBC One in the UK and FX in the US, starring Guy Pearce as Scrooge and Andy Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past.


title: Steven Knight

text: Knight's writing sometimes involves "groups of men who are probably not the easiest people to fit into conventional society."


title: Steven Knight

text: He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and the community in Birmingham.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 American legal drama film written and directed by Robert Benton, based on Avery Corman's 1977 novel of the same name. The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, and Justin Henry.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: It tells the story of a couple's divorce, its impact on their young son, and the subsequent evolution of their relationship and views on parenting.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: The film explores the psychology and fallout of divorce and touches upon prevailing or emerging social issues such as gender roles, women's rights, feminism, fathers' rights, work-life balance, and single parents.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: "Kramer vs. Kramer" was theatrically released on December 19, 1979, by Columbia Pictures. It was a major critical and commercial success, grossing over $173 million on an $8 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1979 in the United States and Canada and receiving a leading nine nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards, winning five (more than any other film nominated that year); Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (for Streep), and Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Workaholic New York City advertising executive Ted Kramer has just signed a very important account and been promoted. Sharing the good news with his wife Joanna, he learns that she is leaving him and their son Billy. Ted and Billy initially resent one another as Ted no longer has time for his increased workload, and Billy misses his mother. Ted and Billy eventually learn to cope and bond.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret Phelps, in whom Joanna had confided. As a fellow single parent, she and Ted become kindred spirits. As the two sit in the park watching their children play, Billy falls off the jungle gym resulting in a gash to his face. Ted runs several blocks through traffic carrying Billy to the hospital, where he comforts his son during treatment.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Fifteen months after walking out, Joanna returns from California to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues. Neither Ted nor Joanna are prepared for the brutal character assassinations their lawyers unleash. While on the witness stand, Margaret is compelled to confirm she had advised an unhappy Joanna to leave Ted, though she also attempts to tell Joanna that her husband has profoundly changed. Ted's firing from his job and Billy's accident are brought up to discredit Ted.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: The court awards custody to Joanna. Ted wants to appeal, saying he will pay any price, but when his lawyer advises that the price would be to put Billy on the stand he says he cannot do that and decides not to contest custody.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: On the morning that Joanna is to collect Billy, Ted and Billy make breakfast together. Joanna calls on the intercom asking Ted to come down to the lobby alone. In the lobby she tells Ted how she had been wishing she had painted Billy's new room like his old one so he'd think he was waking up at home. She then realized Billy's true home is with Ted. She loves Billy very much and won't be taking him with her. She asks if she can go up and talk to Billy, and Ted says he'll wait downstairs. She enters the elevator wiping away tears and asks how she looks. Just as the elevator door closes, Ted says "You look terrific".


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Producer Stanley R. Jaffe and writer and director Robert Benton read Avery Corman's source novel and were so moved by the story that they bought the rights to make it into a movie. Dustin Hoffman was the only actor they envisioned in the lead role of Ted Kramer.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Hoffman, himself going through a divorce at the time, initially turned down the role. He has since stated that at that time he had wanted to quit film acting and return to the stage due to his depression and distaste for Hollywood. While Jaffe and Benton were courting Hoffman, James Caan was offered the role but turned it down as he was concerned the film would be a flop. Al Pacino was offered the role but felt that it was not for him. Jon Voight turned down the role. Hoffman met with Jaffe and Benton at a London hotel during the making of "Agatha" and was convinced to accept the role. Hoffman has credited Benton and this film for rejuvenating his love of film acting and inspiring the emotional level of many scenes. Hoffman was reminded of his love for children and "got closer being a father by playing a father."


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Benton and Jaffe selected Justin Henry to play Billy. Hoffman worked extensively with Henry, then 7 years old, in each scene to put him at ease. Benton encouraged Henry to improvise to make his performance more natural. The famous ice cream scene where Billy defies Ted by skipping dinner and eating ice cream was all improvised by Hoffman and Henry. Hoffman contributed many personal moments and dialogue; Benton offered shared screenplay credit but Hoffman declined.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Kate Jackson was offered the role of Joanna Kramer but had to turn it down as producer Aaron Spelling was unable to rearrange the shooting schedule of the TV series "Charlie's Angels", in which Jackson was starring. The part was offered to Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda and Ali MacGraw, before Meryl Streep was cast.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Streep was initially cast as Phyllis (the role eventually taken by JoBeth Williams), but she was able to force her way into auditioning for Joanna in front of Hoffman, Benton, and Jaffe. She found the character in the novel and script unsympathetic ("an ogre, a princess, an ass", as she called her) and approached Joanna from a more sympathetic point of view. Hoffman believed that the death of Streep's fiancé, John Cazale, only months earlier, gave her an emotional edge and "still-fresh pain" to draw on for the performance. Streep was only contracted to work 12 days on the film.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Gail Strickland was first cast as Ted's neighbor Margaret, but departed after a week of filming (according to Columbia Pictures due to "artistic differences") and was replaced by Jane Alexander. Michael Schulman claims Strickland was so rattled by the intensity of filming with Hoffman that she developed a stammer, making her lines difficult to follow. Strickland herself disputes this account, saying that she couldn't quickly memorize improvised lines that Hoffman gave her, which agitated him and she was fired two days later.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Cinematographer Néstor Almendros, a collaborator on numerous François Truffaut films, had been hired with the expectation that Truffaut would direct. Truffaut turned it down as he was busy with his own projects, and suggested screenwriter Robert Benton direct the film himself.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: JoBeth Williams was hesitant about shucking her clothes, especially in the scene with a young Justin Henry. "I was afraid my nudity would traumatize the little boy," she said.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Hoffman has been widely reported to have harassed Streep during the making of the movie, and the two had a contentious working relationship. In a 1979 "Time" magazine interview, Streep claimed that Hoffman groped her breast on their first meeting. When Streep advocated portraying Joanna as more sympathetic and vulnerable than she was written, she received pushback from Hoffman. Such was his commitment to method acting, he would hurl insults and obscenities at Streep, taunt her with the name of her recently deceased fiancé, John Cazale, claiming it was designed to draw a better performance from her. He famously shattered a wine glass against the wall without telling her (although he did inform the cameraman beforehand), sending glass shards into her hair. Her response was: "Next time you do that, I'd appreciate you letting me know." Hoffman slapped her hard without warning while filming a scene, she said in 2018: "This was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie. It was overstepping."


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: "Kramer vs. Kramer" received positive reviews from critics. It holds an 89% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 99 reviews, with an average score of 8.20/10. The consensus reads: "The divorce subject isn't as shocking, but the film is still a thoughtful, well-acted drama that resists the urge to take sides or give easy answers."


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four stars, giving praise to Benton's screenplay: "His characters aren't just talking to each other, they're revealing things about themselves and can sometimes be seen in the act of learning about their own motives. That's what makes "Kramer vs. Kramer" such a touching film: We get the feeling at times that personalities are changing and decisions are being made even as we watch them." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it a "fine, witty, moving, most intelligent adaptation of Avery Corman's best-selling novel," with Streep giving "one of the major performances of the year" and Hoffman "splendid in one of the two or three best roles of his career." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, Kramer vs. Kramer' never loses its low-key, realistic touch. You will sit at the end of the film wondering why we don't see more pictures like this. After all, its story is not all that unusual." He thought that Hoffman gave "one of his most memorable performances" and "should win the Academy Award next April." "Variety" wrote, "Stories on screen about men leaving women, and women leaving men have been abundant as of late, but hardly any has grappled with the issue in such a forthright and honest fashion as 'Kramer' ... While a nasty court battle ensues, the human focus is never abandoned, and it's to the credit of not only Benton and Jaffe, but especially Hoffman and Streep, that both leading characters emerge as credible and sympathetic." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" declared it "as nearly perfect a film as can be" and "a motion picture with an emotional wallop second to none this year." Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" called the film "a triumph of partisan pathos, a celebration of father-son bonding that astutely succeeds where tearjerkers like "The Champ" so mawkishly failed." Stanley Kauffmann of "The New Republic" wrote "All the people go through expected difficulties the way that runners take the hurdles in a track event: no surprise in it, it's just a question of how they do it. But the actors make it more."


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: Shortly after the film's release, "The New York Times" and "Time" magazine published separate articles in which members of the bar and bench criticized the court battle scenes as "legally out of date." According to the legal experts interviewed for the articles, a modern judge would have made use of psychological reports and also considered the wishes of the child; another criticism was that the option of joint custody was never explored.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: The film grossed $5,559,722 in its opening week from 534 theatres. It went on to gross $106.3 million in the United States and Canada. In its first 13 weeks overseas, it had grossed over $67 million. It went on to become Columbia's highest-grossing film overseas with theatrical rentals of $57 million until surpassed in 1990 by "Look Who's Talking" (released by Columbia TriStar internationally).


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: "Kramer vs. Kramer" reflected a cultural shift which occurred during the 1970s, when ideas about motherhood and fatherhood were changing. The film was widely praised for the way in which it gave equal weight and importance to both Joanna and Ted's points of view.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: The film made use of the first movement of Antonio Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C Major, making the piece more familiar among classical music listeners.


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: The song, "Mon fils, ma bataille", about a painful divorce and a father's struggle to keep custody of his child, was inspired by Daniel Balavoine's parents' divorce, his guitarist Colin Swinburne's divorce and also by the film Kramer vs. Kramer (1980).


title: Kramer vs. Kramer

text: In 1990, the film was remade in Turkish as "Oğulcan", directed and acted by Cüneyt Arkın, in Hindi as "Akele Hum Akele Tum" in 1995, starring Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala and in Urdu as "Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay" in 2016 starring Sajal Ali and Feroze Khan.


title: Associate degree

text: An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.


title: Associate degree

text: The first associate degrees were awarded in the UK (where they are no longer awarded) in 1873 before spreading to the US in 1898. In the United States, the associate degree may allow transfer into the third year of a bachelor's degree. Associate degrees have since been introduced in a small number of other countries.


title: Associate degree

text: In 2004, Australia added "associate degree" to the Australian Qualifications Framework. This title was given to courses more academically focused than advanced diploma courses, and typically designed to articulate to bachelor's degree courses.


title: Associate degree

text: In Brazil, undergraduate degrees are known as ('graduate') while graduate degrees are known as ('postgraduate'). Brazil follows the major traits of the continental European system; free public schools are available from kindergarten up to postgraduate degrees, both as a right established in Article 6, caput of the Brazilian Constitution and as a duty of the State in Article 208, Items I, IV, and V, of the Brazilian Constitution.


title: Associate degree

text: In 2001, Brazil added ('technologist') as a form of undergraduate degree (). A technologist's degree varies between 2 and 3 years of full time studies to complete. This degree takes a shorter time period to obtain than a bachelor or teaching degree (some of which may take between 4 and 6 years to complete), and it aims to provide highly specialized knowledge (e.g., agribusiness technical degree, tourism management degree, web development technical degree, etc.).


title: Associate degree

text: Education in the Canadian federation is a provincial power: each province and territory regulates tertiary education and degree system in their jurisdictions, with pan-Canadian co-ordination in a Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. British Columbia is the only Canadian province offering American-style associate degrees. Similar to the U.S., these consist of a two-year program and allow for articulation onto the third year of a bachelor's degree program. Other provinces do not offer associate degrees but do offer similar higher education qualifications below the bachelor's level: These are two-year courses resulting in a diploma in a broad range of technical, professional and academic subjects. Articulation into bachelor’s programs are the norm but can differ by subject (with some specialties rarer among bachelor's). Ontario also offers three-year advanced diplomas which are not considered as associate degrees. The territories have fewer but similar diploma programs, some being particularly geared to Arctic environments, and northern Indigenous cultures and languages, with bachelor’s programs being a mix of local provision, partnerships with institutions based elsewhere in Canada and international consortia. Indigenous nations in most provinces have education systems also provide First Nations-focused diplomas programs, with North American Aboriginal education bodies. In Quebec, the "Diplôme d'études collégiales" (diploma of college studies), taught at post-secondary "collèges d'enseignement général et professionnel" (colleges of general and professional education; "cégeps") can be a two-year pre-university qualification that is a pre-requisite for entry into the third year of bachelor's degree courses. Quebec also has a three-year Cégep technical programme preparing students for employment.


title: Associate degree

text: Qualifications on the short cycle of the Bologna Process/level 5 on the European Qualifications Framework sit between secondary education and bachelor's degree level and are thus approximately equivalent to an associate degree. Such qualifications include the Foundation degree (FdA, FdSc, FdEng), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE) and Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) in the United Kingdom, the Higher Certificate in the Republic of Ireland, and the French "Diplôme universitaire de Technologie" (DUT) and "Brevet de Technicien supérieur" (BTS).


title: Associate degree

text: For many decades, a diploma comparable to an associate degree was considered a very adequate degree for those willing to work as qualified technicians. Yet as the general population spends an increasing amount of time studying, they are no longer as attractive to students who wish to distinguish themselves. In 2021, the "Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie" (DUT) was reframed as an intermediate degree part of a three-year curriculum now referred to as BUT. Prior to the reform of 2006, universities awarded a two-year diploma called DEUG, the purpose of which was also to help the student pursue studies in a field that differed from what was initially intended. The degree was considered a 'stepping stone' ahead of the completion of a bachelor's degree. Aside from the "Brevet de Technicien Supérieur" (BTS) which remains relevant in many fields for which long academic studies are not deemed crucial and for which young professionals are in demand, degrees comparable to an associate degree are gradually being phased out, although their legitimacy remains in theory (but not always in practice) unchanged for those who were awarded one in the past.


title: Associate degree

text: In the Netherlands, there were four pilots between 2005 and 2011 to assess the added value of the associate degree. In 2007 the associate degree was added to the Dutch system of higher education within the Higher Professional Education ("HBO") stream taught at universities of applied sciences ("hogeschool"). Associate degree courses form part of HBO bachelor's degree courses, and advising requirements are the same for the two-year associate degree and the related four-year bachelor's degree. Those gaining the associate degree may proceed to an HBO bachelor's degree in only two years, but it does not articulate to bachelor's degrees in the research-oriented ("WO") stream.


title: Associate degree

text: The title of "Associate in Physical Science" ("Associate in Science" (ASc) from 1879) was introduced in 1865 by the University of Durham College of Physical Sciences (now Newcastle University) and awarded from 1873.


title: Associate degree

text: It required (in 1884) passes in three of mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology, and allowed students to go on to take the examination for the Bachelor of Science. As a university-level qualification lying below the bachelor's degree, this is considered to be the world's first associate degree in the modern sense, having been first awarded 25 years prior to the introduction of associate degrees into the US by the University of Chicago. The ASc was withdrawn in 1904. Durham also introduced an "Associate in Theology" (ATh) in 1901, which was only offered in 1901 and 1902. Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds) offered "Associate in Engineering" and "Associate in Coal Mining" degrees from 1877 and there were thirteen different types of associate degrees offered in British universities in 1927.


title: Associate degree

text: The title of "Associate in Arts", introduced by the University of Oxford in 1857 and sometimes referred to as the degree of Associate in Arts, predates the Durham degree. However, it was an examination for "those who are not members of the university" and who were under the age of 18; as such it was at the level of a high school qualification rather than a modern associate degree. Examinations were held in English, languages, mathematics, science, drawing and music, with the title being conferred on those students who passed any two (as long as the two were not drawing and music).


title: Associate degree

text: British equivalents to associate degrees vary depending on the national system which issued them. Based on assessment by the UK NARIC, American and Canadian associate degrees are considered equivalent to one year higher education courses such as the Higher National Certificate at level 4 of the British Framework for Higher Education Qualifications. Australian associate degrees, however, are considered equivalent to two-year higher education courses such as the Higher National Diploma at level 5 on the framework.


title: Associate degree

text: A 2-2.5 year education on BA-level is called "Erhvervsakademiuddannelse". This is called an AP-Degree (Academy Professional Degree) in English.


title: Associate degree

text: A two-year education on BA-level is called "Høgskolekandidat", translated "university college graduate". Only a few professions require 120 ECTS, e.g. piano tuner, driving instructor.


title: Associate degree

text: A 2-2.5 year education on BA-level is called an AP-Degree (Academy Professional Degree). See also: List of universities and colleges in Sweden.


title: Associate degree

text: Business academies offer two-year academy profession programmes; some business academies also offer professional bachelor programmes, further adult education and diploma programmes.


title: Associate degree

text: In Hong Kong, associate degrees were first introduced into the territory in 2000 with the aim of increasing the number of students with post-secondary qualifications. As originally introduced, the qualification took two or three years, but this was reformed in 2012 to a two-year course. The associate degree is designed as a general academic education qualification, compared to the more vocational Diploma/Higher/Advanced Diploma (Qualifications Frameworks Level 4), and allows articulation onto the third year of a four-year (US-style) bachelor's degree or the second year of a three-year (British-style) bachelor's degree. A survey in 2016 showed that most students believe associate degrees will help them to get onto bachelor's degree courses, but not (by themselves) in gaining a career; however only 30% of associate degree graduates gained places for further study, leading to accusations that the degree is "a waste of time and money" and calls for the government to address this by making more bachelor's degree places available. This has been criticized, with others saying that education had benefits beyond income, which is only a short-term measure.


title: Associate degree

text: An associate degree is called a "carrera técnica", "tecnicatura" or "Técnico Superior Universitario" (TSU) in Hispanic America, while a bachelor's degree would be known as a "licenciatura" or "ingeniería".


title: Associate degree

text: An associate degree is called a "önlisans derecesi" in Turkey, while a bachelor's degree would be known as a "lisans derecesi".


title: Associate degree

text: In the United States, an associate degree (or an associate's degree) is an academic degree awarded after two or more years of study at a community college, technical college, vocational school, or university. Associate degrees are generally awarded after completion of 90-179 quarter college credits.


title: Associate degree

text: The two most commonly awarded associate degrees are the Associate of Arts (sometimes "Associate in Arts") (AA) and Associate of Science (sometimes "Associate in Science") (AS) degrees.


title: Associate degree

text: AA degrees are usually earned in the liberal arts and sciences such as humanities and social science fields; AS degrees are awarded to those studying in applied scientific and technical fields and professional fields of study. Generally, one year of study is focused on college level general education and the second year is focused on the area of discipline.


title: Associate degree

text: Students who complete a technical, professional, or vocational program can often earn a terminal associate degree such as the Associate of Applied Arts (AAA) (sometimes "Associate in Applied Arts") or the Associate of Applied Science (sometimes "Associate in Applied Science") (AAS).


title: Associate degree

text: Transfer admissions in the United States sometimes allows courses taken and credits earned on an AA or AS to be counted toward a bachelor's degree via articulation agreements or recognition of prior learning, depending on the courses taken, applicable state laws/regulations, and the transfer requirements of the university.


title: Associate degree

text: The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act was signed into legislation on September 29, 2010, which is a legislation that grants any California Community College student who has earned the Associate in Arts degree for Transfer (AA-T) or the Associate in Science degree for Transfer (AS-T) will be granted priority admission to the CSU (California State University) into a similar baccalaureate (BA) degree program with a guarantee of junior standing.


title: Associate degree

text: The University of Chicago was established in 1891 with four groups of colleges – liberal arts, literature, science, and practical arts (later commerce and administration). These were subdivided into 'junior' (or 'academic') and 'senior' (or 'university') colleges. Bachelor's degrees were awarded by the senior colleges, and certificates were initially awarded by the junior colleges. In 1899 the board of trustees voted to replace these certificates with associate degrees (Associate in Arts, Associate in Literature, and Associate in Science), which were first awarded in 1900. Eells concludes that it is "not unlikely" that people at Chicago knew of the associate degrees being awarded in the United Kingdom, but there is no direct evidence of this. Chicago discontinued its associate degrees in 1918.


title: Associate degree

text: The associate degree spread across the US, with California College in Oakland (now the American Baptist Seminary of the West) introducing Associate in Arts and Associate in Letters degrees in 1900, and the Lewis Institute in Chicago (now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology) introducing Associate in Literature and Associate in Science degrees in 1901 (both replaced by the Associate in Arts in 1904) followed by the Associate in Domestic Economy degree in 1908. Associate degrees were not always two-year sub-bachelor's awards in the early 20th century: Harvard University and associated colleges awarded Associate in Arts degrees to students who had passed university extension courses "equal in number and standard to the courses required of a resident student for the degree of Bachelor of Arts" from 1910 to 1933.


title: Associate degree

text: By 1918, 23% of junior colleges were awarding Associate in Arts degrees. By 1941–42, 40% of junior colleges awarded some form of associate degree, and by 1960 this had grown to 75%, with 137 different associate degrees in use. Over a third of associate degrees awarded in the US in 1958–59 were granted by Californian junior colleges.


title: Associate degree

text: Two year associate degrees are found throughout the West Indies. They are offered by regional organisations such as the Caribbean Examinations Council and the University of the West Indies, and at institutions of higher education in particular, within The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and St. Kitts and Nevis, among others.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Bacon's Law is a parlor game where players challenge each other to arbitrarily choose an actor and then connect them to another actor via a film that both actors have appeared in together, repeating this process to try to find the shortest path that ultimately leads to prolific American actor Kevin Bacon. It rests on the assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to Bacon within six steps. The game's name is a reference to "six degrees of separation", a concept that posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In 2007, Bacon started a charitable organization called SixDegrees.org. In 2020, Bacon started a podcast called "The Last Degree of Kevin Bacon".


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In a January 1994 interview with "Premiere" magazine, Kevin Bacon mentioned while discussing the film "The River Wild" that "he had worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them." Following this, a lengthy newsgroup thread which was headed "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" appeared. In 1994, three Albright College students - Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelli - invented the game that became known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" after seeing two movies on television that featured Bacon back to back, "Footloose" and "The Air Up There". During the latter film they began to speculate on how many movies Bacon had been in and the number of people with whom he had worked.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: They wrote a letter to talk show host Jon Stewart, telling him that "Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe" and explaining the game. They appeared on "The Jon Stewart Show" and "The Howard Stern Show" with Bacon to explain the game. Bacon admitted that he initially disliked the game because he believed it was ridiculing him, but he eventually came to enjoy it. The three inventors released a book, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" (), with an introduction written by Bacon. A board game based on the concept was released by Endless Games.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In 1995 Cartoon Network referenced the concept in a commercial, having Velma (from Scooby-Doo) as the central figure in the 'Cartoon Network Universe'. The commercial cites connections as arbitrary as fake appearances, sharing of clothes, or physical resemblance.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: The concept was also presented in an episode of the TV show "Mad About You" dated November 19, 1996, in which a character expressed the opinion that every actor is only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. Bacon spoofed the concept himself in a cameo he performed for the independent film "We Married Margo". Playing himself in a 2003 episode of "Will and Grace", Bacon connects himself to Val Kilmer through Tom Cruise and jokes "Hey, that was a short one!". The headline of "The Onion", a satirical newspaper, on October 30, 2002, was "Kevin Bacon Linked To Al-Qaeda". Bacon provides the voice-over commentary for the NY Skyride attraction at the Empire State Building in New York City. At several points throughout the commentary, Bacon alludes to his connections to Hollywood stars via other actors with whom he has worked.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In "Scream 2", written by Kevin Williamson, a sorority sister played by Portia De Rossi refers to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Bacon himself later starred in "The Following", also created and written by Williamson, and broadcast on Fox between 2013 and 2015.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: The annual "31 Days of Oscar" event on the Turner Classic Movies television channel sometimes includes a "360 Degrees of Oscar" strand where each film shown shares an actor with the previous one. It has been used as recently as 2020.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In 2009, Bacon narrated a National Geographic Channel show "The Human Family Tree" – a program which describes the efforts of that organization's Genographic Project to establish the genetic interconnectedness of all humans. Bacon appeared in a commercial for the Visa check card that referenced the game. In the commercial, Bacon wants to write a check to buy a book, but the clerk asks for his ID, which he does not have. He leaves and returns with a group of people, then says to the clerk, "Okay, I was in a movie with an extra, Eunice, whose hairdresser, Wayne, attended Sunday school with Father O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who recently removed the appendix of Kim, who dumped you sophomore year. So you see, we're practically brothers."


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In 2011, James Franco made reference to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon while hosting the 83rd Academy Awards. EE began a UK television advertising campaign in November 2012, based on the Six Degrees concept, where Bacon illustrates his connections and draws attention to how the EE 4G network allows similar connectivity.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Lame Claim to Fame", one of the lines is, "I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows Kevin Bacon." American rapper MC Zappa also makes reference to the game in his 2018 song "Level Up (The Ill Cypher)".


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: The most highly connected nodes of the Internet have been referred to as "the Kevin Bacons of the Web", inasmuch as they enable most users to navigate to most sites in 19 clicks or less.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: The Bacon number of an actor is the number of degrees of separation he or she has from Bacon, as defined by the game. This is an application of the Erdős number concept to the Hollywood movie industry. The higher the Bacon number, the greater the separation from Kevin Bacon the actor is.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: The computation of a Bacon number for actor X is a "shortest path" algorithm, applied to the co-stardom network:


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: Therefore, Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon) has a Bacon number of 2.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: Because some people have both a finite Bacon "and" a finite Erdős number because of acting and publications, there are a rare few who have a finite Erdős–Bacon number, which is defined as the sum of a person's independent Erdős and Bacon numbers.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: Inspired by the game, the British photographer Andy Gotts tried to reach Kevin Bacon through photographic links instead of film links.


title: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

text: Gotts wrote to 300 actors asking to take their pictures, and received permission only from Joss Ackland. Ackland then suggested that Gotts photograph Greta Scacchi, with whom he had appeared in the film "White Mischief". Gotts proceeded from there, asking each actor to refer him to one or more friends or colleagues. Eventually, Christian Slater referred him to Bacon. Gotts' photograph of Bacon completed the project, eight years after it began. Gotts published the photos in a book, "Degrees" (), with text by Alan Bates, Pierce Brosnan, and Bacon.


title: A Doll's House

text: A Doll's House (Danish and ; also translated as "A Doll House") is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play is set in a Norwegian town circa 1879.


title: A Doll's House

text: The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world, despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play. It was a great sensation at the time, and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society.


title: A Doll's House

text: In 2006, the centennial of Ibsen's death, "A Doll's House" held the distinction of being the world's most performed play that year. UNESCO has inscribed Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of "A Doll's House" on the Memory of the World Register in 2001, in recognition of their historical value.


title: A Doll's House

text: The title of the play is most commonly translated as "A Doll's House", though some scholars use "A Doll House". John Simon says that "A Doll's House" is "the British term for what [Americans] call a 'dollhouse. Egil Törnqvist says of the alternative title: "Rather than being superior to the traditional rendering, it simply sounds more idiomatic to Americans."