title: Pink film

text: When ownership of VCRs first became widespread in the early 1980s, adult videos made their appearance, and quickly became highly popular. As early as 1982 the AVs had already attained an approximately equal share of the adult entertainment market with theatrical erotic films. In 1984, new government censorship policies and an agreement between Eirin (the Japanese film-rating board) and the pink-film companies added to Nikkatsu's difficulties by putting drastic new restrictions on theatrical films. Theatrical pink movie profits dropped 36% within a month of the new ruling. Eirin dealt a serious blow to the pink film industry in 1988 by introducing stricter requirements for sex-related theatrical films. Nikkatsu responded by discontinuing their Roman Porno line. "Bed Partner" (1988) was the final film of the venerable 17-year-old "Roman Porno" series. Nikkatsu continued to distribute films under the name Ropponica, and pink films through Excess Films, however these were not nearly as popular or critically respected as the Roman Porno series had been in its heyday. By the end of the 1980s, adult videos had become the main form of adult cinematic entertainment in Japan.


title: Pink film

text: The dominant directors of "pink films" of the 1980s, Genji Nakamura, Banmei Takahashi and Mamoru Watanabe are known collectively as "The Three Pillars Of Pink". All three were veterans of the "pink film" industry since the 1960s. Coming to prominence in the 1980s, a time when the theatrical porn film was facing considerable difficulties on several fronts, this group is known for elevating the "pink film" above its low origins by concentrating on technical finesse and narrative content. Some critics dubbed the style of their films ""pink" art".


title: Pink film

text: By the time Nakamura joined Nikkatsu in 1983, he had already directed over 100 films. While the plots of his films, which could be extremely misogynistic, were not highly respected, his visual style earned him a reputation for "erotic sensitivity." Nakamura directed one of Japan's first widely distributed, well-received films with a homosexual theme, "Beautiful Mystery: Legend of the Big Penis" (1983), for Nikkatsu's ENK Productions, which was founded in 1983 to focus on gay-themed "pink films". Some of Nakamura's later "pink films" were directed in collaboration with Ryūichi Hiroki, and Hitoshi Ishikawa under the group pseudonym Go Ijuin.


title: Pink film

text: Banmei Takahashi directed "intricate, highly stylistic "pinku eiga"", including "New World of Love" (1994), the first Japanese theatrical film to display genitals. Another prominent cult director of this era, Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu, is known for his Herschell Gordon Lewis-influenced "splatter-eros" films, which bridge the genres of horror and erotica.


title: Pink film

text: Nikkatsu, Japan's largest producer of "pink films" during the 1970s and 1980s, filed for bankruptcy protection in 1993. Nevertheless, even in this most difficult period for the "pink film", the genre never completely died out, and continued exploring new artistic realms. Indeed, at this time the pink film was viewed as one of the last refuges of the "auteur" in Japan. So long as the director provided the requisite number of sex scenes, he was free to explore his own thematic and artistic interests.


title: Pink film

text: Three of the most prominent "pink film" directors of the 1990s, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō and Takahisa Zeze all made their directorial debuts in 1989. A fourth, Hisayasu Satō, debuted in 1985. Coming to prominence during one of the most precarious times for the "pink film", these directors worked under the assumption that each film could be their last, and so largely ignored their audience to concentrate on intensely personal, experimental themes. These directors even broke one of the fundamental "pink" rules by cutting down in the sex scenes in pursuit of their own artistic concerns. Their films were considered "difficult"—dark, complex, and largely unpopular with the older "pink" audience. The title


title: Pink film

text: The newest prominent group of seven "pink film" directors all began as assistant directors to the "shitennō". Their films display individualistic styles and introspective character indicative of the insecurity of Japan's post-bubble generation. Known together as the they are Toshiya Ueno, Shinji Imaoka, Yoshitaka Kamata, Toshiro Enomoto, Yūji Tajiri, Mitsuru Meike and Rei Sakamoto. Ueno was the first director of this group to rise to prominence, acting as an "advance guard" for the group when his "" (1994) won the "Best Film" award at the Pink Grand Prix. Founded in 1989, the Pink Grand Prix has become a yearly highlight for the "pink film" community by awarding excellence in the genre and screening the top films.


title: Pink film

text: The 2000s have seen a significant growth in international interest in the "pink film". Director Mitsuru Meike's "The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai" (2003) made an impression in international film festivals and gained critical praise. A planned annual "women-only" "pink film" festival was first held in South Korea in 2007, and again in November 2008. In 2008 a company called Pink Eiga, Inc. was formed with the sole purpose of releasing "pink films" on DVD in the U.S.


title: Pink film

text: While some directors have used pink films as a steppingstone for their careers, others work exclusively with the genre. Some notable directors of pink films include:


title: Pink film

text: Outstanding "Pink films" and their actors and directors have been given awards both from the adult entertainment industry and from the mainstream film community. The following is a partial listing.


title: Pink film

text: Tabloid magazine award for "the girl you think of while masturbating". The other yearly award was given for the "Tsuma No Mibun", or "girl you would like to marry."<br>


title: Pink film

text: Hosted every April by "PG" magazine. Currently the major "pink film" award ceremony. Founded 1989, covers 1988–present.


title: Pink film

text: The Zoom-Up Film Festival (ズームアップ映画祭) pink film awards began in 1980 for movies released in the previous year. The awards continued to at least 1994. Since no listing of the awards seems to be presently available, the following scattered references are what items can be gleaned from the web.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen (; born Chin-Yun Wong; 14 May 1937) is a Taiwanese Buddhist nun (bhikkhuni), teacher, and philanthropist. She is the founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, ordinarily referred to as Tzu Chi, a Buddhist humanitarian organization based in Taiwan. In the West, she is sometimes referred to as the "Mother Teresa of Asia".


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen was born in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation. She developed an interest in Buddhism as a young adult, ordaining as a Buddhist nun in 1963 under the well known proponent of humanistic Buddhism, master Yin Shun. After an encounter with a poor woman who had a miscarriage, and a conversation with Roman Catholic nuns who talked about the various charity work of the Catholic Church, Cheng Yen founded the Tzu Chi Foundation in 1966 as a Buddhist humanitarian organization. The organization began as a group of thirty housewives who saved money for needy families. Tzu Chi gradually grew in popularity and expanded its services over time to include medical, environmental, and disaster relief work, eventually becoming one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world, and the largest Buddhist organization in Taiwan.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen is considered to be one of the most influential figures in the development of modern Taiwanese Buddhism. In Taiwan, she is popularly referred to as one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism, along with her contemporaries Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain, Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan and Wei Chueh of Chung Tai Shan.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen was born "Chin-Yun Wong" () in 1937 in Kiyomizu Town, Taikō District, Taichū Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Qingshui, Taichung City, Taiwan). Unlike most of the other prominent Taiwanese Buddhist leaders, Cheng Yen was born in Taiwan rather than mainland China. Her uncle was childless, so she was given to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Cheng-Yen grew up during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan during World War II, where she witnessed the devastating effects of war and experienced the bombings in Taiwan. These experiences were credited as contributing to what she regarded as the truth behind the concept of impermanence. In 1945, when she was eight years old, she looked after her sick brother in a hospital for eight months, and so learned more closely about people's pain and helplessness. At the age of 23, her father died suddenly from brain blood vessel disorder that brought about hemorrhaging and stroke. It was in searching for a burial place for him that Cheng Yen first came into close contact with the Buddhist Dharma, associated doctrines, and Buddhist scriptures (sutras). After her father's death, Cheng Yen took over managing her father's theaters and became financially responsible for her family.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Upon deciding to become a nun, Cheng Yen ran away to a temple in 1960, fearing that if she were to ask for permission in advance, she might not be permitted to go. After her first attempt at running away, her mother found her three days later and brought her back home. She ran away from home a second time in 1961. She left to travel through eastern Taiwan with a friendly nun by the name of Xiūdào (修道法師; ). Cheng Yen followed a nontraditional route to becoming a nun, traveling for two years with Xiūdào. Cheng Yen even shaved her own head before she had been officially ordained a nun. After traveling for two years, Cheng Yen decided that she needed to become an ordained nun in order to continue her lifestyle. She went to the Linji Huguo Chan Temple to register for ordination, but was turned down because she did not have a master. Typically, to become a nun in Taiwan, one must be the disciple of a master for two years before ordination. Cheng Yen encountered Yin Shun, whom she asked to be her mentor. He accepted her request, an hour before the registration closed. In February 1963, she became the disciple of her mentor, Yin Shun, who gave her the dharma name of Cheng Yen and the courtesy name of Huìzhāng (慧璋; ). Yin Shun also gave her the expectation of "doing all for the Buddhist religion and for all beings", which is written with six characters in Chinese. These six characters became the highest ideals for Cheng Yen in belief, teaching, and practice.


title: Cheng Yen

text: In May 1963, shortly after receiving her ordination as a nun, she went to Pu Ming Temple (普明寺; ) in Hualien County to continue her spiritual formation. As a part of that formation, she recited the Lotus Sutra, which she revered, every day and transcribed every month. It was during her six months there that she vowed to commit herself to the Lotus Sutra and the "Path of the Bodhisattvas".


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen was heavily influenced by the Lotus Sutra, which she called the culmination of the Buddha's teachings. Cheng Yen's initial exposure to the Lotus Sutra happened when she left her family in Fengyuan, Taichung County, and stayed away from the world by lodging in a small hut in Taitung County, in eastern Taiwan. While in Taitung, she accidentally found a Japanese version of the Lotus Sutra, and was pleased with what the book said. Later, she had a friend bring back a Japanese copy of the Lotus Sutra (Myoho Renge Kyo) from Japan, and was inspired by the Muryōgi Kyō, or what is better known as the Innumerable Meanings Sutra, which is traditionally regarded as the prologue to the Lotus Sutra. The Innumerable Meanings Sutra addresses human problems, weather behavior, and psychiatric, psychological, and spiritual issues.


title: Cheng Yen

text: There were two watershed events that occurred in 1966 that are credited with having inspired Cheng Yen to found Tzu Chi. The first event occurred while Cheng Yen was visiting a hospital in Fenglin. After seeing blood on the hospital floor, she learned that a Taiwanese aborigine woman had a miscarriage. They were forced to carry the pregnant woman back up the mountain after they could not afford the 8000 New Taiwan dollar deposit. The aborigine woman later died. This story actually became the source of a legal case in the early 2000s. While Cheng Yen never mentioned the name of the doctor when telling the story, one of her followers did, resulting in a defamation suit against Cheng Yen by the doctor's family.


title: Cheng Yen

text: The second event was a now-famous discussion Cheng Yen had with three Roman Catholic nuns at Pu Ming temple in 1966. While the nuns admitted the profundity of Buddhist teachings, they noted that the Catholic Church had helped people around the world by building schools and hospitals and inquired, "But what has Buddhism done for society?". The discussion is credited with having made Cheng Yen realize that Buddhism had to do more than simply encourage the private cultivation of people's souls.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Influenced by the Lotus Sutra, and the encounters with the Taiwanese aborigine woman and the Roman Catholic nuns, Cheng Yen established the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation on 14 May 1966 in an endeavor to help the poor of east Taiwan. The organization started when Cheng Yen encouraged her followers, consisting of thirty housewives, to save fifty cents (US$0.02) from their grocery money every day and store them in bamboo savings banks to help needy families. When posed with the question, "Why can't we give once a week?", Cheng Yen replied, "Because giving is a practice and we need to give every day. If we have a yearning or a positive desire in us, we must nourish it and bring it to fulfillment. Just as Buddha was guided by a noble desire to help others, we too can listen to those who are sad or help those who are in pain." In the first year, fifteen families were provided with aid by the initial thirty followers.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Tzu Chi expanded its work from helping needy families to medical aid in 1970. In 1986 Tzu Chi established its first Hospital in Hualien. Tzu Chi has since built hospitals in Yuli, Hualien County; Dalin, Jiayi County; Guanshan, Taitung County; and Xindian, New Taipei City.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Tzu Chi experienced modest growth in the first two decades of its establishment, it grew to 293 members in 1968 and by 1986 had just 8,000 members. However, with the surge in popularity of Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan in the late 1980s and 1990s, Tzu Chi enjoyed a rapid expansion in membership alongside several other major Taiwanese Buddhist organizations. From 1987 to 1991, Tzu Chi membership doubled in size each year, by 1994 Tzu Chi membership was estimated at 4 million members.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Tzu Chi is most well known for its work in disaster relief, Cheng Yen's philosophy includes the notion that not only are those receiving assistance benefiting materially by receiving the aid, but those delivering the aid are also spiritually rewarded when they see the gratitude in the eyes and smiles of the recipients. Tzu Chi's first major disaster relief effort was in 1991, when it undertook relief operations after severe floods hit central and eastern China. One of the most iconic attributes of Tzu Chi disaster relief efforts is that volunteers not only provide short term aid but also partake in long-term projects to rebuild the communities affected. Tzu Chi often builds new homes, schools, hospitals, and places of worship (including churches and mosques for non-Buddhists) for victims following a disaster. As of 2015, Tzu Chi has provided disaster relief aid to over 85 countries worldwide.


title: Cheng Yen

text: A significant fraction of funds raised by Tzu Chi revolves around environmentally friendly goals such as the encouragement of recycling and using reusable items to reduce waste. As of 2014, the foundation operates over 5,600 recycling stations.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Tzu Chi has grown to become a significant actor in civil society, Tzu Chi is not only the largest Buddhist organization in Taiwan, but also Taiwan's largest owner of private land. As of 2013, the organization was estimated to have approximately 10 million members worldwide, and chapters in 47 countries.


title: Cheng Yen

text: In January 1998, Cheng Yen launched Da Ai (literally "Great Love") Satellite Television (慈濟大愛電視台; "Chû-chè Tāi-ài Tiān-sī-tâi") a 24-hours in daily of satellite television station. Da Ai is commercial free and operates twenty-four hours a day. It is funded by donations as well as partially by Tzu Chi's recycling programs. Da Ai features non-political news, lectures from Cheng Yen and serial programs focused on the virtues, often profiling people who made major changes in their life for the better.


title: Cheng Yen

text: Cheng Yen makes a broadcast every morning in an address known as "Wisdom at Dawn" and makes another address in the evening. She wakes up around 3:45 am to start her activities, such as receiving visitors, and overseeing Tzu Chi's projects throughout Taiwan. She often makes monthly trips around the country to check in on Tzu Chi's projects and activities.


title: Jive Records

text: Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, and dance acts in the 1980s and 1990s, along with teen pop and boy bands during the late 1990s and early 2000s.


title: Jive Records

text: Jive was acquired by Bertelsmann Music Group in 2002. In 2008, BMG itself was bought out by Sony Music Entertainment. Jive Records thereupon remained a unit wholly owned by Sony up until the label’s dissolution in 2011, when Jive was absorbed into RCA Records.


title: Jive Records

text: In 1971, South African businessmen Clive Calder and Ralph Simon began a publishing and management company. It was named Zomba Records and relocated to London, England, four years later; their first client was a young Robert "Mutt" Lange. Zomba originally wanted to avoid record labels to instead focus on their songwriters and producers while allowing other established labels to release the material. Later that decade, the company opened offices in the US, where Calder began a business relationship with Clive Davis, whose Arista Records began releasing material by Zomba artists.


title: Jive Records

text: In 1981, Zomba formed Jive Records, whose operations began with the release of British dance and pop music from groups such as Q-Feel, A Flock of Seagulls, and Tight Fit. Its name was inspired by township Jive, a type of music that originated in South Africa. Clive Davis had hoped that Zomba's connection with Mutt Lange would help alleviate the difficulties Arista was having with launching rock acts to success.


title: Jive Records

text: By 1982, Calder was introduced to Barry Weiss, a young college graduate who took Calder out to hip-hop clubs in New York City for his job interview with Zomba. Weiss and Calder began grooming musicians for what would eventually become the hip hop group Whodini. After two days, the group created and recorded its hit single "Magic's Wand." While the group would eventually leave Jive, the early success allowed the label to focus on hip-hop artists throughout the 1980s. In 1987, Jive cut distribution ties with Arista, effectively separating them from Davis, who eschewed hip hop music at his label. As the 1980s drew to a close, the label entered a distribution deal with Arista's sister label RCA Records, and it continued to sign hip hop acts including DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Too $hort, Schoolly D, in addition to rap act Kid Rock.


title: Jive Records

text: In 1990, Calder bought Simon’s stake in Zomba and became the sole owner of Jive Records. Jive's distribution deal with RCA expired in 1991. At this time, Bertelsmann Music Group acquired a minority share of the label and began to distribute its records directly. Weiss became chief executive of Jive Records that year. Jive opened branches in Chicago and had also become a premier label in the genres of hip hop and R&B with the success of acts like D-Nice, E-40, UGK, A Tribe Called Quest, Hi-Five, KRS-One/Boogie Down Productions, R. Kelly and Aaliyah. In 1996, BMG deepened their relationship with the label by purchasing a 20 percent stake of Jive. By the late 1990s, Jive began signing pop acts Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Britney Spears. All three acts achieved massive success as the 2000s dawned, becoming the three best-selling acts in the label's history.


title: Jive Records

text: In 2002, Calder sold Zomba to BMG for US$2.74 billion, which at the time was the largest-ever acquisition of an independent label with major-label distribution. Calder then announced his resignation from Zomba, but continued to stay on at Jive in a temporary advisory role as Zomba was integrated into BMG. Weiss succeeded Calder as the new head of Zomba. In 2004, BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment to form Sony BMG. During this time, Jive's management and distribution were restructured under the newly formed Zomba Label Group. Artists who had previously been on LaFace and Arista Records were subsequently absorbed under the Zomba group and placed under the purview of Jive Records’ staff. Thus, artists such as Pink, Usher, and Outkast became de facto Jive artists. Though both physical record sales and teen pop had steadily declined since the early 2000s, the output from Jive’s newer artists — particularly Usher’s "Confessions" album and Outkast’s "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" — would prove to be profitable successes for Jive. In addition to releasing Spears’ 2007 album "Blackout", Jive was now also the home of a solo Justin Timberlake, whose "FutureSex/LoveSounds" also saw high sales. Other Jive artists at that time included Ciara and Chris Brown.


title: Jive Records

text: By early 2008, the BMG Label Group was said to include RCA Records, J Records, LaFace, Arista, Volcano Entertainment, Verity, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul — all overseen by Weiss. Later that year, Sony and BMG dissolved its merger, with the former buying out shares of the latter. As a result of Sony's buyout, Jive (along with its BMG sisters RCA and Arista) became a wholly owned unit of a refreshed Sony Music Entertainment.


title: Jive Records

text: After two decades as president of Jive, Barry Weiss left for Universal Music Group in March 2011. On October 7, 2011, it was announced that Jive, along with Arista and J Records, would be retired to refresh and re-brand RCA Records by not confusing or diluting it with other labels. All retained artists on those labels were then moved to RCA Records.


title: Jive Records

text: The label is currently in hibernation, with the distribution of its back catalog handled by Sony Music's Legacy Recordings. Previously, the Jive brand was being exclusively used under the Sony Music France division under the name Jive Epic in France until 2019, when it was absorbed into RCA Records France.


title: Jive Records

text: On September 27, 2021, singer R. Kelly was found guilty by a federal jury of acts including bribery and sexual exploitation of a child. Allegations of Kelly’s sexual misconduct had long followed the singer since his early career with Jive in the early 1990s, as well as throughout the 2000s when a video tape surfaced allegedly showing Kelly engaging in sexual acts with a minor and when Kelly was arrested for possession of child pornography. Despite the scandals, Kelly remained signed to Jive’s roster and continued to release albums with the label up to 2010. In 2018, the "Washington Post" ran a lengthy article alleging industry executives at Jive had been aware of Kelly's sexually abusive behavior towards young women for years, but did nothing about them due to his success as a performer and songwriter. Though the article reported Clive Calder had been warned about Kelly’s behavior as early as 1994, Calder retrospectively told the "Post" he regretted not having done more at the time, saying "Clearly, we missed something”. Former Jive president Barry Weiss told the newspaper that during his 20 years with the label, he never concerned himself with Kelly's private life, and was unaware of two lawsuits filed against Kelly and the label by women alleging sexual misconduct, suits in which the label had successfully argued it was not liable. Larry Khan, another Jive executive who worked closely with the singer even after viewing the sex tape, similarly implied Kelly’s misconduct was not the label's responsibility.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The 2002 NBA Finals was the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s championship series for the 2001–02 season. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers (who were also two-time defending NBA champions), and the Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets. The Lakers swept the Nets, four games to none, to win the franchise's 14th NBA championship and third consecutive NBA championship. The 56th edition of the championship series was played between June 5 and June 12 and was broadcast on NBC — the last NBA games broadcast on the network to date.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Shaquille O'Neal, who averaged 36 points and 12 rebounds in the Finals, was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Lakers coach Phil Jackson won his ninth ring, tying him with Red Auerbach for most all-time. During the series, he surpassed Pat Riley for most career playoffs wins with 156.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Los Angeles Lakers and New Jersey Nets split both games in the regular season, each winning on their home court.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Entering the 2001–02 season, the New Jersey Nets were enduring a three-year playoff drought and had a 73–141 record over that span. In 1999, the Nets hired Rod Thorn as team president and immediately, he hired the recently retired Byron Scott to coach New Jersey. Thorn then dealt for Stephon Marbury in a three-team trade with the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, trading Sam Cassell away to the Bucks. Due to the Nets' 31–51 season in 1999–2000 season, they had the first overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft, which they used to select power forward Kenyon Martin out of the University of Cincinnati. Despite the reshuffling of the roster and a Rookie of the Year season for Martin, New Jersey struggled, ending the season with a 26–56 () record, and owned the 7th pick in the upcoming draft.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: With another lottery pick, Thorn dealt it to the Houston Rockets for draftees Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong. The next day, Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo announced a franchise-shaking trade; Phoenix would swap their point guard Jason Kidd for his New Jersey counterpart Stephon Marbury.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: With the Princeton offense installed from the coaching staff, the Nets rebounded to a 52–30 () mark, a twenty-six-win improvement from the last season, and clinched the number-one seed in the Eastern Conference. Kidd finished the season awarded with first team spots on both the All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams and was selected for his fifth All-Star game. He also finished runner-up to San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan in the Most Valuable Player voting. Richard Jefferson was an All-Rookie second team selection and Thorn, the architect of the franchise's resurgence, was awarded NBA Executive of the Year.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: In the first round of the playoffs, New Jersey survived a scare against the Indiana Pacers, escaping game five in double overtime to advance. It was the Nets' first playoff series win since 1984. They then dismissed the Charlotte Hornets in five games before meeting their Atlantic Division rivals, the Boston Celtics, in the Conference Finals. The Nets and Celtics split the first two games in New Jersey before moving to Boston. In Game 3, the Nets were dominating the Celtics, leading by as much as 21 in the fourth quarter. However, Boston, led by small forward Paul Pierce, then proceeded to outscore New Jersey 41–16 in the final period, rallying to win 94 to 90. Pierce himself scored 19 points, more than the Nets combined in the fourth, to complete the greatest fourth-quarter comeback in NBA playoff history.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Nets rebounded in a 94–92 Game 4 victory, that saw another Boston comeback, albeit one that fell short because Pierce missed crucial free throws late. New Jersey then took control of the series and won the next two games in large fashion to finish off Boston in six games, earning the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance and becoming the third former American Basketball Association (ABA) team to make the Finals (the Spurs and the Pacers being the first two). With averages of 17.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game during the six-game Conference Finals, Kidd become only the fourth player in NBA history to average a triple-double over a course of a series and the second to have at least three.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: In stark contrast to New Jersey, the Los Angeles Lakers entered the season with high expectations, having won the last two NBA championships. In addition, Los Angeles was coming off of a 15–1 ( winning percentage) run through the 2001 NBA Playoffs, the greatest in NBA history, besting the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers' 12–1 () run and were the first team to go undefeated on the road in the playoffs. Since Phil Jackson had arrived to coach the Lakers in 1999, they had a 123–41 mark in the regular season and a 28–9 record in the postseason.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Amid tensions between co-captains Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the franchise had another stellar season, finishing 58–24 (), good for second in the Pacific Division and earning the third seed in the Western Conference. Bryant and O'Neal were voted starters in the 2002 NBA All-Star Game, where Bryant won the game MVP trophy in his hometown Philadelphia. The duo appeared on the All-NBA First Team and Bryant was honored with a Second-Team All-Defensive Team selection.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Lakers shot out to another quick start in the playoffs, finishing the Portland Trail Blazers in three games with a Robert Horry game-winner. The San Antonio Spurs were dispatched in five games before Los Angeles met their biggest challenge in the duration of their championship reign in the Western Conference Finals: the Sacramento Kings. With the best record in the West, the Kings held home court advantage against the Lakers and split the first two games in ARCO Arena before the series shifted to Staples Center, where Sacramento blew out Los Angeles in Game 3 and led as much as 27 before settling with a 103–90 decision.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Game 4 did not give the Lakers any more hope, as Sacramento led Los Angeles 40–20 at the end of the first quarter and held a lead as large as 26. But, the Lakers staged a furious second-half comeback to win 100–99, punctuated by Horry's buzzer-beating three-point shot. Back in Sacramento for Game 5, the Kings staged some late-game heroics of their own as Mike Bibby nailed a jumper with 8.2 seconds remaining, giving his team not only a 92–91 win, but a 3–2 series advantage.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: With their season on the line, the Lakers returned home for Game 6. In a controversial contest, one in which the Lakers attempted 27 free throws in the fourth quarter to Sacramento's 9, O'Neal had one of the most dominant performances of his career with 41 points and 17 rebounds to force a Game 7 in ARCO Arena. The outrage was such that politician Ralph Nader demanded an investigation. In Game 7, the Lakers prevailed in overtime 112–106 to earn their third straight NBA Finals berth.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Los Angeles's Staples Center sold out for the inaugural game of the 2002 NBA Finals, with nearly 19,000 on hand. The Nets trotted out a lineup of Jason Kidd, Kerry Kittles, Kenyon Martin, Keith Van Horn, and Todd MacCulloch to hold up against the two-time defending and heavily favored champions. The Lakers brought out Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Shaquille O'Neal, Robert Horry, and Kobe Bryant, who drew the assignment of guarding Kidd. New Jersey head coach Byron Scott, a member of the Showtime Lakers, received a standing ovation.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: Taking advantage of a late arrival to the arena by New Jersey, L.A. dominated the first 17 minutes of play with a 42–19 score by the 6:41 mark in the second quarter. From that point on, the Nets went on a 17–6 run to close the lead to a respectable 12. They had no answer for O'Neal, however, who had bullied MacCulloch into 16 points and 6 rebounds by half-time. The Nets outscored the Lakers in the third but stood steadfast as Bryant scored 11 of his 22 in the third.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: New Jersey battled back, coming as close as three several times in the final quarter. Desperate to take the lead, they utilized the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy midway in the fourth. It backfired, as O'Neal was 5–8 from the free throw line and had 16 points and 9 rebounds in the period alone.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: New Jersey was doomed by their late start and poor shooting. The Nets, who shot 45% from the field and 74% on free throws were 39% and 57% respectively. Kidd finished with a triple-double, the 26th in Finals history and the first since Charles Barkley's in the 1993 series.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Finals were produced and televised in the United States by NBC. Marv Albert provided play-by-play calling. Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton and Steve "Snapper" Jones handled color duties. Jim Gray and Lewis Johnson roamed the sidelines for the Lakers and Nets respectively. Bob Costas hosted pregame and half-time shows with analyst Tom Tolbert. Brent Musburger and Jack Ramsay called the four games on ESPN Radio. Hannah Storm hosted the post-game show.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: As previously mentioned, this series was the last broadcast by NBC. In January 2002, the league's broadcast rights were awarded to ABC/ESPN in a six-year deal, which was renewed for an additional eight years in 2007.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: At the conclusion of Game 4, NBC presented highlights of the twelve years of their NBA broadcasts; among them the Chicago Bulls' dynasty led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the retirements of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers' current Shaq/Kobe reign, as the credits rolled. NBC also played "Winning It All" by The Outfield, which they had used for the close of their NBA Finals broadcasts from 1992 to 1996. The last image displayed was of an empty gym, showing a basketball bouncing into the background, as "To The Flemish Cap" from the soundtrack to the film "The Perfect Storm" played. NBC ended the broadcast (and their 12-year run broadcasting NBA basketball) by displaying over the shot the message "Thanks for the memories".


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The 2002 Finals was also Marv Albert's last NBA Finals assignment. After the series, Albert's national TV duties continued with TNT and remained with the network until his retirement in 2021, but only called games until the Conference Finals each season.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Lakers victory in this year's Finals would also mark the beginning of what would become a successful year for professional sports teams in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The nearby Anaheim Angels would later claim their first World Series championship four months later. It marked the second occurrence that a city/metropolitan area won both NBA and Major League Baseball championships in the same calendar year. The last time this occurred was in 1988, when the Lakers won that year's NBA Finals in June; the Dodgers followed suit with a World Series victory four months later. In relation to sports of smaller leagues, the Los Angeles Sparks won the WNBA Finals two months after the Lakers' 2002 Finals victory; the Los Angeles Galaxy won the MLS Cup exactly one week prior to the Angels' World Series victory in October. The successes of Los Angeles area teams led "Sporting News" magazine to declare Anaheim/Los Angeles as "Best Sports City" in 2003. , the Lakers are the last team to pull off a 'three-peat' in North American professional sports. No other team won a "three-peat" since this year's Finals. Since then, only two teams are close to doing so, the Miami Heat and the Golden State Warriors. Whereas the Heat, led by the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, made four consecutive NBA Finals appearances since 2011, won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013 against different teams (Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and San Antonio Spurs in 2013), but lost in 2014 to the Spurs, the Warriors, led by the Splash Brothers (Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson), Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Kevin Durant, won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but ended their 3-peat journey in 2019 as they fell to the Toronto Raptors in six games.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Lakers were off to a slow start in the 2002–03 NBA season. By this time, the relationship between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal began to show cracks. Injuries were also starting to slow the Lakers down. Nevertheless, the Lakers won 50 games, but would only earn the fifth seed, thereby not earning the home-court advantage. Still, the Lakers took down the fourth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in six games. However, they were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs, who finally earned revenge after their previous two defeats to the Lakers in the 2001 and 2002 NBA playoffs. In Game 5, Robert Horry, a perennial clutch threat in the playoffs, missed a game-winning three that would've given the Lakers a 3-2 lead. The miss eventually led to Horry's free-agent defection to the Spurs the following season.


title: 2002 NBA Finals

text: The Nets made it back to the Finals in 2003. They won 49 games and the Atlantic Division title, and heading into the Finals they won ten straight games, two in the six-game first round win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and two four-game sweeps of the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons. However, they still came up short, losing in six games to the Spurs, in the first NBA finals series featuring former ABA teams.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Neighbors (released in some countries as Bad Neighbours) is a 2014 American comedy film directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien. The film stars Seth Rogen and Zac Efron with Rose Byrne, Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse in supporting roles. The plot follows a couple who come into conflict with a fraternity that has recently moved in next door, which leads them into an all out war.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2014 and was released on May 9 in the United States. The film received positive reviews, with praise aimed at Efron's breakout performance, and was a commercial success, grossing over $270 million worldwide, and became Rogen's highest grossing live-action film. A sequel, "", was released on May 20, 2016, with Stoller returned to direct, and much of the cast reprising their roles.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Mac Radner and his Australian-born wife Kelly are adjusting to life with their infant daughter, Stella. The restrictions of parenthood make it difficult for them to maintain their old lifestyle, which alienates them from their friends Jimmy Blevins and his ex-wife, Paula. Delta Psi Beta, a fraternity known for outrageous parties, moves in next door. The fraternity's leaders, Teddy Sanders and Pete Regazolli, aspire to join Delta Psi's Hall of Fame by throwing a massive end-of-the-year party.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: The Radners ask Teddy to keep the noise down, and to earn their favor, he invites them to join the party. Kelly meets Teddy's girlfriend Brooke Shy, and Teddy shows Mac his bedroom, which includes a stash of fireworks and a breaker box that controls the house’s power. Teddy agrees to manage the noise, but has Mac and Kelly promise to always call him instead of the police. The following night, when the party next door keeps Stella awake, Mac is unable to reach Teddy. Kelly convinces Mac to call the police anonymously, but Officer Watkins identifies them to Teddy. Betrayed, Teddy leads Delta Psi in hazing Mac and Kelly, resulting in Stella nearly eating an unused condom after the fraternity dumps their garbage on the Radners’ lawn. Mac and Kelly go to the college dean Carol Gladstone, but the school has a “three strikes” policy before it will intervene; Delta Psi's first strike was burning down their old house.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Failing to force the fraternity to move by damaging their house, Kelly manipulates Pete and Brooke into having sex, and Mac leads Teddy to catch them in the act. Teddy and Pete fight, and a barbecue grill injures a passing professor. This gives Delta Psi their second strike and places them on probation, effectively ending their party plans. Determined to shut down the fraternity, Mac and Kelly enlist the help of Jimmy, who is jealous that Paula is sleeping with Delta Psi member Scoonie. To acquire evidence of Delta Psi's hazing, they hire a pledge nicknamed Assjuice to stand up to Teddy and record him threatening retaliation. When Teddy instead shows him kindness, he reveals that Mac and Kelly hired him and are trying to sabotage the fraternity. A vengeful Teddy violently pranks the Radners and Jimmy with airbags.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: They send Teddy a counterfeit letter from Gladstone lifting Delta Psi’s probation. The fraternity prepares for their end-of-the-year party, which Mac, Kelly, and Jimmy widely publicize to ensure it will be out of control. Once the party is in full swing, they notify the police, but Teddy realizes what the Radners have done, and stops the party just as Watkins arrives. Jimmy throws himself from the balcony to distract Teddy, allowing Kelly to sneak into Teddy's bedroom as Mac fights him off. Unable to open the breaker box to restart the party and alert Watkins, Kelly shoots one of the fireworks at his patrol car. Paula convinces Scoonie to turn on the power, reigniting the party, and she reunites with Jimmy. Teddy takes the blame for the party, convincing Pete to flee with the others, and is arrested; the fraternity is shut down.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Four months later, Mac runs into Teddy, who is working as a shirtless greeter at Abercrombie & Fitch. They greet each other warmly and Teddy reveals he is attending night classes to complete his degree. Mac takes off his shirt and jokingly acts as a greeter with Teddy. Later, Mac and Kelly take pictures of Stella in various costumes for a calendar. They get a call from Jimmy and Paula inviting them to attend Burning Man. Mac and Kelly decline, accepting their new roles as parents.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, Anders Holm, Kyle Newacheck, and Jake Johnson make cameo appearances as historical members of Delta Psi Beta.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Seth Rogen and Zac Efron became attached to the film before it was pitched to studios. Universal and New Line Cinema put in bids for the film, with Universal eventually securing the rights of the then-untitled project in July 2011, which was written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien. The script was written shortly after. It was inspired by Cohen and O'Brien's fear of adulthood. In May 2012, Nicholas Stoller was in talks to direct the film. The story was originally about Rogen's character and students in a frat but as it was too similar to "Old School", Stoller changed the script so that it would focus on Rogen's character and his wife against the frat students. Producer Evan Goldberg said: "The initial idea was frat war with Zac Efron. Maybe Seth, but definitely Zac Efron." Byrne's role grew from a footnote relegated to the responsibilities of adulthood to a full-on partner-in-crime. Cohen also said: "Initially, our biggest problem with the script was that it was too repetitious, and amping up Kelly’s involvement and bringing her into the war broke everything wide open." Rogen welcomed the change, "to me that made it even better because it became less about me and some guys fucking with a frat. It was much more about me and my wife, which was way more interesting." The cast and crew had two weeks of rehearsals during which they practised improvisation.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Principal photography began in April 2013 and was completed by the end of May 2013 in Los Angeles, United States. Filming lasted 38 days. The two houses used in the film are situated in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Cameras and iPhones were distributed to extras, partygoers, and cast members for additional first-person perspective. On August 26, 2013, the film's original title "Townies" was changed to "Neighbors". The film was released as "Bad Neighbours" outside of the U.S., to prevent confusion with the similarly titled Australian soap opera.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: A "work-in-progress" cut of the film was screened on March 8, 2014, at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas during South by Southwest.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: "Neighbors" grossed $150.2 million in North America and $120.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $270.7 million against a budget of $18 million. Calculating in all expenses, "Deadline Hollywood" estimated that the film made a profit of $136.1 million. It is Rogen's highest grossing non-animated film, surpassing "Knocked Up" ($219.1 million).


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: The film grossed $49 million in its opening weekend in North America, finishing the weekend in first place at the box office. The opening total was the third highest United States opening for a non-sequel R-rated comedy behind "Sex and the City" ($57 million) in 2008 and "Ted" ($54.4 million) in 2012.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73% based on 224 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With plenty of bawdy humor evenly spread between its well-matched stars, "Neighbors" earns its R rating -- and filmgoers' laughs." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: Critics praised Efron's performance, and noted that he had successfully shed the "Disney kid" pretty boy stereotype. Critics also praised Byrne's performance and the writers' decision to have her character be a co-conspirator with Rogen's character as opposed to having her on the sidelines.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: The soundtrack was released as a digital download in the US on April 29, 2014, and in the UK on May 12, 2014.


title: Neighbors (2014 film)

text: On February 6, 2015, it was announced that a sequel to "Neighbors" is in development, entitled "Sorority Rising", with Stoller set to return to direct. Once again written by Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien, the film follows Mac and Kelly joining forces with Teddy to take on the sorority girls who move into the old frat house. Rogen, Byrne and Efron, as well as Franco, Barinholtz and Gallo, all reprised their roles. Chloë Grace Moretz, Kiersey Clemons, Beanie Feldstein and Selena Gomez also joined the cast. Principal photography began in mid-2015 and the film was released May 20, 2016.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Nathaniel Nyakie Chalobah (born 12 December 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or defender for Premier League club Fulham. Born in Sierra Leone, he has represented the England national team.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: After initially joining the academy system at Fulham, Chalobah moved to the Chelsea academy at the age of 10. During the 2010–11 season, he featured for Chelsea reserves while still a schoolboy, winning the national championship with the team that season. In 2011–12, Chalobah regularly captained both Chelsea's reserve and youth teams, and led the 2012 FA Youth Cup winning team. He signed a professional contract with Chelsea in January 2012 shortly after turning 17, lasting until summer 2014. He was an unused substitute for the Chelsea first-team at the age of 15, in their League Cup clash against Newcastle and travelled with them to the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final at the Allianz Arena, which Chelsea won. On 30 August 2013, Chalobah signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea, stating that he wished to stay at Chelsea for his entire career.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah signed on loan for Championship club Watford on 31 August 2012 until January 2013. He made his first-team debut for the club on 18 September 2012 against Brighton & Hove Albion, coming on as 73rd-minute substitute for Fernando Forestieri. He later made his first start, lasting the full 90 minutes in Watford's 2–2 draw with Bristol City on 23 September. On 17 November, Chalobah scored his first goal for Watford in a 2–1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. He scored his second goal for Watford in a 1–1 draw against Burnley, on 15 December, with a fine volley from the edge of the box.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 2 January 2013, Chalobah extended his loan at Watford until the end of the 2012–13 season. In April, he scored with a 35-yard shot that Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said he never saw; Watford won 2–1.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah played for Watford as they reached the 2013 Championship play-off Final, in which they were defeated 1–0 by Crystal Palace.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 19 September 2013 Chalobah signed a loan deal with Nottingham Forest until 15 January 2014. Manager Billy Davies remarked upon his arrival, "He's a tremendous young talent." Chalobah made his debut from the start in Forest's trip to Doncaster Rovers on 21 September 2013. On 5 October 2013, Chalobah was sent off after a second booking in the 67th minute after already picking up a yellow in the first half during the away match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Though Forest were down to 10 men, they saw out a 3–1 victory. Chalobah scored his first Forest goal in a 3–1 defeat away to Yeovil Town on 26 October 2013.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 16 January 2014, Chalobah joined Middlesbrough on loan for the remainder of the 2013–14 season. On 25 January 2014, Chalobah made his debut against Leicester City, coming off the bench in the 77th minute to replace Emmanuel Ledesma. The match ended in a 2–0 loss for Middlesbrough. Chalobah made his first start on 1 February 2014, in a match against Doncaster Rovers which ended in a 0–0 draw. On 5 April 2014, Chalobah scored his first Boro goal in a 1–0 win at home to Derby County.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 1 September 2014, Chalobah joined Premier League newcomers Burnley on loan from Chelsea until 2 January 2015. On 28 September 2014, Chalobah made his debut as a first-half substitute against West Bromwich Albion, although he could not prevent Burnley from losing 4–0. On 30 September, Chalobah suffered an injury after being hit with an elbow in the throat in a Burnley U21s match, which caused a cartilage to fracture. Chalobah returned to the pitch for the first team on 18 October 2014 against West Ham United. On 1 November 2014, Chalobah played his last match for Burnley against Arsenal, which ended in a 3–0 loss.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah was unable to break into the first team at Burnley and returned to Chelsea when the loan ended on 2 January 2015. During his time with Burnley, Chalobah only made four substitute appearances.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 22 January 2015, Chalobah joined Championship club Reading on loan for the remainder of the season. On 24 January 2015, Chalobah made his debut in a FA Cup match against Cardiff City, as the team won 2–1 to advance into the fifth round. Three days later, Chalobah made his league debut against Millwall.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 31 January 2015, in his home debut, Chalobah scored the second of a 2–0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, helping the Royals to their first league win since December. During his time with Reading, Chalobah made a total of 20 appearances and started in every appearance.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 1 September 2015, Italian club Napoli confirmed that Chalobah had joined the club on a season long loan from Chelsea. On 1 October 2015, Chalobah made his Napoli debut in a UEFA Europa League tie against Legia Warsaw. The fixture resulted in a 2–0 victory for the Italian team, with Chalobah featuring for five minutes after replacing Allan. On 26 November 2015, Chalobah was given his first Napoli start in a 1–0 victory over Club Brugge in the UEFA Europa League group stage tie. On 10 December 2015, Chalobah scored his first Napoli goal in a 5–2 win over Legia Warsaw, scoring Napoli's first. On 6 January 2016, Chalobah finally made his Serie A debut in a 2–1 victory against Torino, replacing Marek Hamšík in the 89th minute.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah went on to make four more league appearances for Napoli before returning to Chelsea at the end of the campaign.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: In the summer of 2016, Chelsea rejected loan offers for Chalobah after new manager Antonio Conte had been impressed with Chalobah in pre-season, deciding that he should remain as part of Chelsea's first-team group. Chalobah made his first-team debut on 20 September 2016, when he came off the bench to replace Michy Batshuayi in the 79th minute of a 4–2 win over Leicester City to advance to the Fourth round of the EFL Cup. On 15 October 2016, on his second league appearance for Chelsea, Chalobah provided a back-heel pass to play Victor Moses through for the third goal in a 3–0 victory over Leicester City.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On 13 July 2017, Chalobah signed for Premier League club Watford on a five-year contract for an undisclosed fee. On 26 September 2017, Chalobah was reported to have suffered a knee injury in a training session and was expected to have surgery.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: On the last day of the summer transfer window(2021), Chalobah joined recently relegated Championship side Fulham on a free transfer, keeping him until 2023 with an option to extend by a further year and was once again reunited with manager Marco Silva. He made his debut for the club, starting the whole game, in a 4–1 win against Birmingham City on 15 September 2021.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah made his England under-16 debut at the age of 13 in October 2008, and his England under-17 debut aged 14 in July 2009. He won the 2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and later captaining the team at the age of 15. Chalobah made his England under-19 debut in September 2011., and went on to captain them until 8 November 2012 when he was called up to the England under-21 squad for a match against Northern Ireland. Chalobah made his England Under-21 debut on 13 November 2012, replacing Jordan Henderson in the 76th minute.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah was also eligible to play for Sierra Leone, the country where he was born, but has stated that he has a strong affiliation to England, the country of his upbringing.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: In August 2017, Chalobah was named in the England squad for the first time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovakia. He made his debut on 15 October 2018 as a substitute for Harry Winks in the first minute of stoppage time in England's 3–2 win away to Spain in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League A, with the competitive status of the fixture tying him to England permanently from then on. As he came on in added time for his only England cap, Chalobah officially has an England career of zero minutes, but in actual time he played for 6 minutes and 54 seconds. This is one second more than Martin Kelly, who holds the record for shortest England career in actual time played.


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Chalobah is known for his versatility, work-rate, and fitness levels, both in defending and attacking sense. He is described as, "Tall, athletic and can operate in either midfield or defence, being notably quick in the tackle."


title: Nathaniel Chalobah

text: Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Chalobah moved to England at the age of seven and grew up in Gipsy Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth. He played football for the first time at the age of nine. Chalobah attended St Andrews R.C. Primary school and further studied at Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham, South London. His younger brother Trevoh joined Chelsea as an Under-9 and has been capped by England up to U21 level.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: 102 Dalmatians is a 2000 American crime comedy film directed by Kevin Lima and produced by Edward S. Feldman and Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to the 1996 film "101 Dalmatians", a live-action remake of the 1961 Disney animated film of the same name, it stars Glenn Close reprising her role as Cruella de Vil as she attempts to steal puppies for her "grandest" fur coat yet. Glenn Close and Tim McInnerny were the only two actors from the 1996 film to return for the sequel. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was unable to achieve the box office success of its predecessor, although the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: A reboot film in its own continuity, "Cruella", was released on May 28, 2021, with Emma Stone in the title role and Close acting as an executive producer.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: After three years in prison, Cruella de Vil has been cured of her desire for fur coats by Dr. Pavlov. She is released on probation but warned that if she breaks parole she will be immediately sent back to prison, as well as be forced to pay the remainder of her fortune, some eight million pounds, to all the dog shelters in Westminster. Cruella, therefore, mends her working relationship with her much-abused valet Alonzo and has him lock away all her fur coats, including her sketch of a dalmatian fur coat. Cruella's probation officer, Chloe Simon, is the owner of Dipstick (one of the original 101, bought from the Dalmatian Plantation of Roger and Anita Dearly); she suspects Cruella will strike again.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: Dipstick's mate, Dottie, gives birth to three puppies: Domino, Little Dipper, and Oddball, who appears to be an albino, and begins to feel self-conscious about her lack of spots as she grows up. Cruella buys the Second Chance Dog shelter, owned by Kevin Shepherd, and saves it from insolvency, to restore her reputation. Meanwhile, Dr. Pavlov discovers that when his therapy patients are subjected to loud bell noises, they revert to their former personalities, but he conceals these findings from the public. Inevitably, when Big Ben rings in her presence, Cruella reverts to her former personality. She enlists the help of French furrier Jean-Pierre LePelt to steal Dalmatian puppies for a new fur coat with a hood, explicitly modifying the original design to use Dipstick's children.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: Chloe and Kevin go out on a date while their dogs stay home. Kevin tells Chloe that, if Cruella violates her parole, her entire fortune will go to him, since his dog shelter is the only one currently operating in Westminster. Knowing this, Cruella has Kevin framed for the theft of the first ninety-nine puppies LePelt takes, also exploiting the fact that Kevin has a prior record of dog-napping. She invites Chloe and Dipstick to her house for a dinner party, to decoy them away while LePelt steals Dottie and her three puppies. Dipstick quickly returns to the apartment and hides in LePelt's truck but is later captured at the train station. Chloe rushes home to save her pets but arrives too late. She is joined by Kevin, who has escaped from prison with help from his dogs and talking macaw, Waddlesworth (who thinks he, too, is a dog). Kevin explains that his earlier conviction was for breaking animals out of a lab, where they were being used for experiments.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: Upon finding LePelt's lost ticket for the Venice-Simplon Orient Express to Paris, Kevin and Chloe attempt and fail to stop Cruella and LePelt before they get on the train. Oddball and Waddlesworth manage to board the train, and Kevin and Chloe follow to Paris, where they are discovered and locked in a cellar. Despite this, they free the puppies through a hole in the ceiling. Cruella goes after the puppies alone, while Alonzo, having been mistreated beyond his patience, defeats LePelt and frees Kevin and Chloe. They pursue Cruella to a bakery and find that the puppies, led by Oddball, have tricked Cruella into being baked in an enormous cake. Cruella survives, and she and LePelt are both arrested.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: Chloe and Kevin, exonerated from the theft accusation, return to London and are personally awarded the remnants of Cruella's fortune by Alonzo himself. Oddball's coat finally develops a few small spots, much to everyone's surprise.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: The early working title was "101 Dalmatians Returns." Production began in December 1998 and ended in mid-November 1999 without the use of John Hughes who wrote and produced the 1996 film, due to the critical failure of "Flubber" and the shutdown of Great Oaks Entertainment. The film was set to be released on June 30, 2000, but was pushed back to November 22. The film's teaser was released on the same month the film came out in 1999, and shows stock footage from "The Shawshank Redemption". Oxford Prison was used for the scene as Cruella walked out of prison. The teaser appeared in theaters before "Toy Story 2" and "Stuart Little". "102 Dalmatians" was filmed partially in Paris. On November 7, Disney released the soundtrack to the movie, including pre-eminently, a cover of Paul Anka's "Puppy Love" (sung by Myra) and original songs: Mike Himelstein's "What Can a Bird Do?" (voiced by Jeff Bennett), "My Spot in the World" (sung by Lauren Christy) and "Cruella De Vil 2000" (better known as "Cruella De Vil (102 Dalmatians)", sung by Camara Kambon and Mark Campbell of Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, a derivation of "Cruella de Vil").


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: The film opened at the third position behind M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" and Ron Howard's "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The film performed poorly at the box office, earning $67 million in the U.S. and $116.7 million in other territories, bringing its total to $183.6 million worldwide, grossing less than its predecessor.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 31% based on 90 reviews, and an average rating of 4.42/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "This sequel to the live-action "101 Dalmatians" is simply more of the same. Critics say it also drags in parts-- potentially boring children-- and that it's too violent for a G-rated movie." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out of 4, writing: "Glenn Close does what can be done with the role. Indeed, she does more than can be done; Cruella is almost too big for a live-action film and requires animation to fit her operatic scale."


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: "102 Dalmatians" was released on VHS and DVD on April 3, 2001. It was re-released on DVD on September 16, 2008.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: A video game loosely based on the film, that was entitled "", was released in 2000, with Frankie Muniz as the voice of Domino, Molly Marlette as the voice of Oddball and Susanne Blakeslee as the voice of Cruella de Vil. Horace and Jasper also appeared in the game despite not being present in the film.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: A reboot film, centered around Cruella de Vil titled "Cruella" was in development. Glenn Close served as an executive producer on the project while Emma Stone played the eponymous role. The film was released on May 28, 2021.


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: A potential follow-up film to "Cruella" was discussed with Stone and Thompson mentioning the possibility of Close also appearing in a sequel with inspiration from "The Godfather Part II".


title: 102 Dalmatians

text: In May 2021, Glenn Close revealed that while working on "Cruella" as an executive producer, she wrote a new story as a sequel to the films where she would reprise the role of Cruella De Vil. The plot would involve the character in New York City, New York and also take inspiration from "The Godfather Part II". The actress intends to pitch it to the studio.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Donald George Malarkey (July 31, 1921 – September 30, 2017) was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. Malarkey was portrayed in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" by Scott Grimes.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Donald Malarkey was born in Astoria, Oregon, on July 31, 1921, to Leo and Helen (née Trask) Malarkey, married in 1918. He graduated from Astoria High School in 1939 and was of Irish descent. As a youth, he worked on a purse seiner crew on the Columbia River. He was a volunteer firefighter during the destructive Tillamook Burn forest fire, which destroyed thousands of acres of Oregon timber. He was in his first semester at the University of Oregon in the fall of 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: After Pearl Harbor, Malarkey tried enlisting in the Marines, but was rejected because of dental problems. He then tried the Army Air Corps, but lacked the requisite mathematics background. As such, when he was drafted in July 1942, he volunteered for the paratroops of the United States Army, after reading a "Life magazine" article about them being the best. He trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Of the enlisted men who trained at Toccoa, only one man in six received certification as a member of the fledgling paratroops. He received his jump certification in 1942.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Malarkey became a member of E ("Easy") Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He went to England in 1944 to participate in Mission Albany, the airborne landing portion of Operation Neptune, the largest amphibious invasion in history, which was the assault portion of Operation Overlord. Malarkey parachuted into France with his unit. Later that day, in a pitched battle, he helped knock out four German 105 mm artillery battery, an action now called the Brécourt Manor Assault, for which he received the Bronze Star for his heroism.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: He fought for twenty-three days in Normandy, nearly eighty in the Netherlands, thirty-nine in the Battle of Bastogne in Belgium, and nearly thirty more in and around Haguenau, France, and the Ruhr Pocket in Germany. He was promoted to sergeant before Operation Market Garden. Malarkey, who was never seriously wounded, served more consecutive time on the front lines than any other member of Easy Company. Malarkey was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, and others.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Malarkey returned to the University of Oregon in 1946 to complete his degree. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity (Gamma Zeta). While attending the university, he met and became engaged to Irene Moor (1926–2006) of Portland. They were married on 19 June 1948. Malarkey graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in business. The couple lived in Astoria, Oregon, where Malarkey became the sales manager for Lovell Auto Company. During this time, he ran for the position of County Commissioner of Clatsop County, Oregon, and was elected in 1954. The family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Malarkey worked as an insurance and real estate agent.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Malarkey and his wife Irene had four children, a son, Michael and three daughters, Martha, Sharon, and Marianne. Irene died in April 2006 of breast cancer.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: In 1987, Malarkey was introduced to author and University of New Orleans Professor of History Stephen Ambrose at an Easy Company reunion in New Orleans. In 1989, Malarkey traveled with Ambrose and other members of Easy Company, including Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton, to various sites where they had fought in Europe. The oral history and first-person recollections that Malarkey and the others provided became the basis for Ambrose's book "Band of Brothers", which was published in 1992. During Ambrose's collection of anecdotal information for the book, Malarkey told of the saga of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, New York, how two had died on D-Day and another was presumed killed. Fritz, one of the four Niland brothers, was close friends with Malarkey's best friend and fellow Easy Company member Sergeant Warren H. "Skip" Muck who was from the same town as the Nilands. This episode was the impetus for the screenplay of "Saving Private Ryan".


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Malarkey lived in Salem, Oregon, and formerly spoke extensively to high school and college students and other groups on his Easy Company experiences. He traveled with the USO to Army posts and hospitals in the United States and Europe, where he met with soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. In 2005, he appeared in an advertisement urging repeal of the estate tax. For many years Malarkey extensively traveled with his friend Vance Day, who is a circuit court judge in Oregon and a former trial attorney and chairman for the Oregon Republican Party. Together they have done many leadership seminars through Day's Frontline Leadership by On-Point Strategies. Following its premiere in August 2010, the two also held events around a new documentary titled "The Battle at Brecourt Manor" (Brecourt Manor Assault) executive produced by Day according to the group's promotional manager Justin Alderman. In 2012, Malarkey retired from public speaking events.


title: Donald Malarkey

text: Following the death of Sergeant Paul Rogers on March 16, 2015, Malarkey became the oldest surviving member of Easy Company. Malarkey died on September 30, 2017, of age-related causes. He was interred at Willamette National Cemetery.


title: Bella Swan

text: Isabella Marie Swan-Cullen (née Swan) is the protagonist character of the "Twilight" book series by Stephenie Meyer. She is initially an ordinary teenage girl, but during the series, Bella marries vampire Edward Cullen, with whom she has a human-vampire hybrid daughter, Renesmee Cullen. The "Twilight" series, consisting of the novels "Twilight", "New Moon", "Eclipse", and "Breaking Dawn", is primarily narrated from Bella's point of view. In "The Twilight Saga" film series, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart.


title: Bella Swan

text: She is the daughter of Charlie Swan and Renée Swan-Dwyer and the daughter-in-law of Edward Masen Sr. and Elizabeth Masen (Edward’s deceased biological parents). Bella is the step-daughter of Phil Dwyer (Renée’s best friend and second husband) and the adoptive daughter-in-law of Esme Cullen and Carlisle Cullen (Edward’s second and adoptive parents). Bella is the adoptive sister-in-law of Alice Cullen and Emmett Cullen as well as Rosalie Hale and Jasper Hale, the granddaughter of Geoffrey and Helen Swan (Charlie’s deceased parents) and Marie Higginbotham (Renée’s deceased mother).


title: Bella Swan

text: In "Twilight", 17-year-old Bella moves to her father's home in Forks, Washington, meets the mysterious Cullen family, and falls in love with seemingly teenage Edward Cullen. However, she soon discovers that the family is a coven of vampires. Bella expresses a desire to become a vampire herself, but Edward refuses to turn her. In the second novel, "New Moon", Edward and the other Cullens leave Forks in an effort to keep now-18-year-old human Bella safe from the vampire world. Jacob Black, a member of the Quileute tribe who is also a shape-shifter taking a werewolf form, comforts the distraught and severely depressed Bella. She comes to care deeply for Jacob, though less than she loves Edward. At the end of "Eclipse", she becomes engaged to Edward Cullen, and they marry in "Breaking Dawn", one month prior to her 19th birthday. On their honeymoon, she becomes pregnant, and, due to the peculiar nature of her baby, Bella nearly dies giving birth to their daughter, Renesmee. Edward turns Bella into a vampire to save her.


title: Bella Swan

text: The premise for both Bella and the "Twilight" series originated in a dream Stephenie Meyer had in which an "average girl" and a "fantastically beautiful, sparkly... vampire... were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods." In this dream, the pair "were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that... they were falling in love with each other while... the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her."


title: Bella Swan

text: Meyer's original characters were unnamed; she took to calling the characters, who would later become Edward and Bella, "he" and "she" for the purpose of convenience as she "didn't want to lose the dream." Meyer explained that the name "Isabella" was decided upon because "after spending so much time with [the character], I loved her like a daughter. ... Inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter... Isabella."


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella's positive reception at her new school in Forks, particularly her popularity with male characters, was modelled after Meyer's real life move from high school to college. Meyer has said that there are similarities between Bella and the title character of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre", a novel which she has cited as an influence on the "Twilight" series.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella, who first appears in "Twilight", is a 17-year-old human girl who moves from her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona, to live with her father, Charlie Swan, a police chief, in her birthplace of Forks, Washington. There, she is enrolled at Forks High School, where she becomes intrigued by a 17-year-old vampire student, Edward Cullen, and his siblings. When Edward saves her life, she is determined to find out what Edward Cullen is and how he saved her with his super-human qualities. Later, Bella learns from Jacob Black that Quileute legends say the Cullen family are Cold Ones, or vampires. Edward eventually admits that he is a vampire, though his family has what they call a "vegetarian" diet, only hunting animals. Edward constantly warns Bella against being with him, perceiving her life to be at constant risk because her blood's scent is more seductive to him than any other human he has ever met, due to her being his 'singer'. Cantante is the Italian expression that the Volturi use to describe a human whose blood particularly appeals to a certain vampire in an extreme sense. "Cantante" is the Italian word for "singer", denoting when the blood of the human sings for the vampire. Bella's love and confidence in Edward's restraint are such that his warnings go unheeded. While playing baseball with the Cullen family, she becomes the target of a sadistic vampire, James. Edward saves Bella from James' predation, though Edward is still unwilling to change Bella into a vampire himself.


title: Bella Swan

text: "New Moon" begins on Bella's 18th birthday. She has a dream where she looks like her late grandmother while her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, is still young. During a birthday celebration at the Cullen residence, Bella gets a small paper cut while unwrapping a present. Edward's brother, Jasper, instinctively thirsting for her blood, lunges for Bella, but Edward and Emmett restrain him. In a misguided attempt to protect Bella, Edward moves away with his family. Edward's departure results in Bella falling into a deep depression and isolation lasting months.


title: Bella Swan

text: Charlie, concerned about Bella, wants her to live with her mother in Jacksonville, hoping a new environment will help with her depression. In an effort to stay in Forks, Bella begins seeing her old friends and attends a frightening movie with Jessica. While there, she carelessly approaches a group of dangerous-looking bikers gathered outside a bar; she discovers she can hear Edward's voice when she gets into trouble. Desperate to hear his voice again, Bella continually seeks out danger and convinces her friend Jacob Black to repair two old motorcycles and teach her how to ride them. Their friendship gradually deepens and Jacob admits his romantic feelings for Bella, though she does not reciprocate them.This results into Jacob joined a gang of strange boys. When the vampire Laurent returns to Forks, he tries to attack Bella. She is saved by a pack of giant wolves. Later, Bella learns that Jacob and other tribe members are shape-shifters who phase into wolf form to protect humans from vampires. Bella also discovers that Victoria has also returned to Forks, seeking to kill Bella to avenge her vampire mate, James' death.


title: Bella Swan

text: To hear Edward's voice again, Bella attempts cliff jumping and nearly drowns, but Jacob rescues her. Alice returns to Forks after having a vision that Bella jumped off a cliff and has died, only to discover that Bella is alive. After Harry Clearwater died from a heart attack, her vision misread his funeral for Bella's. Edward, believing Bella has committed suicide, travels to Volterra, Italy, to request the Volturi to destroy him, though they refuse his request.


title: Bella Swan

text: Alice and Bella follow Edward to Italy, barely in time prevent him from showing himself in daylight to humans, an act that would result in his execution. The trio is taken to the Volturi. Because Bella knows about vampires, the Volturi would either kill her or have her become a vampire. Alice shows Aro a vision she had of Bella as a vampire, and they are free to leave and are given a strict warning that there will be consequences if Bella remains human.


title: Bella Swan

text: Upon returning home, Edward tells Bella that he never stopped loving her and only left Forks to protect her. Edward promises never to leave Bella again. Edward still opposes Bella becoming a vampire and intends to fool the Volturi. Intent on becoming an immortal, Bella asks the Cullens to vote on her fate. Only Rosalie and Edward oppose it. Later, Jacob reminds Edward about the treaty, and biting any human will nullify it. Bella insists it is her choice. Edward later agrees he will change her if she marries him.


title: Bella Swan

text: "Eclipse" continues the paranormality of 18-year-old human Bella and the vampire Edward's relationship. Edward is reluctant to change Bella into a vampire, believing that becoming a vampire will destroy her soul. Bella agrees to marry Edward on the condition that he will make love to her while she is still human and then turn her into a vampire. Edward initially declines, saying that he could easily lose control and unintentionally kill her. He reminds Bella that he is from another era, where relationships had fewer complications and couples remained celibate until marriage.


title: Bella Swan

text: The plot is driven by the machinations of the vampire Victoria, who first encountered Bella and the Cullens during the first novel, "Twilight". Victoria, seeking to avenge the death of her lover James, hunts Bella while building a new vampire army to wipe out the Cullen coven. To combat this threat, a reluctant truce is struck between the Cullens, and the shape-shifting wolf pack led by Sam Uley. Jacob Black pits himself against Edward as a love interest for Bella, but she considers him as a friend. Despite her love for Edward, she shares a kiss with Jacob and realizes she loves him, too, but loves Edward more. Bella acknowledges that Edward is the most important person in her life. After Victoria is killed and Edward has formally proposed, Bella must now tell her father, Charlie, knowing he will oppose her marrying Edward.


title: Bella Swan

text: "Breaking Dawn" begins with the wedding of human Bella and vampire, Edward, at the Cullen residence. They spend their honeymoon on Isle Esme, a small island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the Cullens own. Their lovemaking sparks a conflict between the newlyweds: Edward is horrified that he has bruised Bella, but she insists she is fine and wants Edward to make love to her again. Although he vows not to do so again while she is still human, he eventually helps her fulfill her wish for being a vampire.


title: Bella Swan

text: Two weeks into their honeymoon, Bella thinks she may be pregnant, even though it is "actually" believed that a vampire cannot father a child. Edward and Bella return to Forks. Carlisle, a doctor, confirms that Bella is "indeed" pregnant. Her health quickly deteriorates as the baby's growth accelerates. Edward wants the pregnancy terminated to save Bella. Bella refuses, and asks her sister-in-law, Rosalie, to intervene as her advocate and protector. Edward comes to love the baby after hearing its thoughts and learns it loves Bella and does not mean to harm her.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella goes into labor and Edward performs an emergency cesarean to deliver their daughter, Renesmee. As Bella lies, presumably dying, Edward repeatedly injects his venom into Bella's body. During Bella's transformation into a vampire and recovery, Jacob imprints —an involuntary process in which a shape-shifter finds his soulmate— on Edward and Bella's baby, Renesmee.


title: Bella Swan

text: When Bella completes her transformation into a vampire, she goes on a hunting trip with her beloved Edward. On the trips, she meets hunters. After mastering her self-control, Edward brings her to her daughter. Their happiness is cut short when the Cullens' vampire cousin, Irina, mistakes Renesmee for an immortal child (a forbidden creation in the vampire world), she reports it to the Volturi. Alice foresees the Volturi arriving to destroy the Cullen coven for the alleged transgression. The Cullens gather vampire witnesses to verify Renesmee's mortality, only to realize later the Volturi always intended to destroy their coven and recruit Alice for her foresight ability. Meanwhile, Bella learns that she is a "shield" and can block others' mental thoughts and senses. She can also project a protective barrier around others. Edward and Bella stand with the other Cullens and their allies to convince the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child or poses a threat to their existence. Once the Volturi are impelled to leave or else face their own destruction as Alice has foreseen, Edward, Bella, Renesmee, and the other Cullens can finally live their lives in peace.


title: Bella Swan

text: This is a retelling of the events of Twilight from Edward Cullen's perspective. Much light is shed on Bella's character. Whereas in Twilight, we only see Bella as she sees herself: incredibly average. However, with this new perspective, all the things that make Bella unusual and different from her female peers are brought to light. Bella is shown to possess uncanny intelligence and is able to put pieces together in her mind, figuring out with only a little help from Jacob Black that the Cullens are vampires.


title: Bella Swan

text: Time and time again, she is shown with courage and fearlessness in the face of absolute danger. With Edward, she trusts and loves him unconditionally, and does not harbor the fear that an average person normally should or would have. Instead, her deep compassion and love for Edward and her friends and family continue to take precedence in all her actions.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella also shows her courage, selflessness, and intelligence multiple times by outwitting Alice and Jasper and deciding to go alone to meet the vampire James in an attempt to save her mother. She is observed by Edward to repeatedly be almost motherly in the way that she cares for her parents and those around her, putting their feelings and needs before her own. This depth of compassion and sharp intuition seen by Edward is not as apparent in the original Twilight story, due to Bella's own perspective of herself being from a place of lower self-esteem. Bella tends to be quite hard on herself, unable to see the good nature, compassion, and actual physical beauty that Edward sees in her.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella also shows herself to be insatiably curious. She is always wanting to know more about anything that interests her and is an avid reader of fiction books. This fascination and intense curiosity are especially prevalent with Edward, much to his irritation as he is just as curious about her. Neither of them finds themselves particularly interesting, and continuously are trying to find out more about the other while sharing little unprompted about themselves, though Bella seems to win more in this regard as she is good at prying things out of Edward and stubbornly getting what she wants from him, just as he is continuously shown to give in to her demands and questions. In addition, while Edward is continuously boggled by the mind he can't read—and her reactions which are so unlike any other human he's known—Bella shows a natural intuition in stride with her curiosity to ask exactly what Edward doesn't want to share. In the aftermath, Renesmee admits that her parents have found each other but she tells Bella of how Edward proposed to her sometime after they graduate from high school and Bella told her daughter that Renesmee's maternal grandparents' early experience of marriage and divorce and remarriage by the time Renesmee reached 18, she will understand what early marriage looks like for her and Jacob just like Edward and Bella were and Charlie and Renée were.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella is described as being petite, with a height of roughly 5'4", and a very translucent, pale complexion. She has thick, long, brown hair, with a wide forehead, and a widow's peak. Her eyes are described as being "chocolate brown" and widely spaced. She has a small, thin nose, prominent cheekbones, lips a bit too full for her slim jawline, and thin eyebrows that are straighter than they are arched. Her fingernails are described as stubby from being bitten down. There are several references to Bella's hair having a red tinge to it which is only very visible in the sunlight; in overcast and dimly lit conditions, it appears browner.


title: Bella Swan

text: The scent of her O-positive blood is incredibly attractive to vampires, described by Bree Tanner to be the "sweetest scent she'd ever smelled", though it is a thousand times more intense to Edward Cullen.


title: Bella Swan

text: As for distinguishing features, Bella has a small crescent-shaped scar on her hand where she was bitten by James, a tracker vampire, in "Twilight". The scar is described as being pale, always a few degrees colder than the rest of her body, and it shines like a vampire's skin when exposed to the sunlight. After Bella is changed into a vampire by Edward, she becomes extremely beautiful with even paler skin, straight waist-length hair, and crimson red eyes that will eventually turn gold after months of drinking animal blood. Her features are also heightened and perfected by the transformation.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella wears plain shirts, jeans, and sneakers everywhere she goes, as she lacks care in her appearance during the beginnings of The Twilight Saga. However, she is shown to take more care in looking better for Edward the more she falls in love with him. In Midnight Sun, Edward listens from a tree branch outside her window as Bella frantically searches through her wardrobe in search of something nice to wear for the day he planned on taking her to the meadow.


title: Bella Swan

text: In the movie, Twilight, these changes are also shown gradually in the clothing she chooses from day to day. She wears more plain clothes that look comfortable and easy to live in, with not much care for her appearance in earlier scenes. After beginning to have feelings for Edward Cullen, Bella is shown to dress in more stylish or eye-catching clothing, having a deeper V-neck shirt with embroidery in a cafeteria scene where she keeps sneaking glances at Edward.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella is described as being clumsy, having a weak constitution, and adverse towards physical activity. Bella is also described as reclusive, reticent, insecure, and very sensitive. She also cares for the rest of the Cullen family, her husband, Edward, her daughter, Renesmee, her parents, Charlie and Renée, and her friend, Jacob Black. She has a tendency to underestimate the people around her mainly because of her concerns for their safety.


title: Bella Swan

text: Having learned to take care of her mother over the years and being naturally responsible, Bella had developed into a very mature person, especially for her age. She mostly prefers to spend her free time reading classics from school.


title: Bella Swan

text: When it comes to fashion, Bella is not traditionally feminine. She hates dressing up, saying that makeup "is a pain" and that she feels uncomfortable in impractical, elegant clothes; however, Alice does not care what Bella thinks and continues to persuade her to dress up and look glamorous. She is not materialistic and does not like spending money on luxurious items, telling Edward in "New Moon" "not to spend a dime on [her] birthday," and those fast cars are unnecessary, saying that Edward gave her himself and anything else he gives her would throw their relationship off balance. She hates being singled out and does not like her birthday being celebrated. She also has very negative views on teen marriage due to her parents' early experience but learns to overcome them later.


title: Bella Swan

text: She is an extremely private person who keeps her thoughts and feelings to herself and hates when someone tries to understand her, which is thought to be why Edward is unable to hear her thoughts. Bella tends to daydream, getting lost in her own little world. She is also known to be incredibly stubborn with herself, because of her determination to become a vampire in order to be with Edward forever. Bella is also said to possess poor acting skills. Ironically, she demonstrates good acting ability in Twilight when she makes her father believe that she has dumped Edward and is leaving Forks. Bella is a very reserved girl with a stiff uptight position, habit of biting her lip, which she shares with Kristen Stewart. She knits together her eyebrows when feeling strong emotions such as nervousness. As a human, Bella easily fainted at the sight of blood, though it changes after she became a vampire. Bella is also shown in Breaking Dawn, to have a good mood climate, and is able to run away from the smell of human blood when she goes on her first hunting trip as a vampire.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella has a sarcastic sense of humor, especially when she gets mad; She is almost always a very forgiving person who is hard to anger. Bella can surprisingly be very brave, able to block painful thoughts and memories (hence her special vampire ability), and tends to come face-to-face with life-threatening danger head-on, even though she can get scared later. She puts Edward before herself and everybody and everything else, but several 'selfish' tendencies emerge (as when she asked Edward to stay with her instead of fighting vampires in Eclipse). Meyer has stated that Bella's "tragic flaw" in "Eclipse" is her lack of self-knowledge. This is most obviously illustrated in her consistent denial of any romantic feelings for Jacob Black, despite the fact that she later realizes that she is, indeed, in love with him.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella is also a very bad liar, except to herself. According to Eclipse, Jacob and Edward say that she's a terrible liar, this is evidence of this. Besides, she also admits this throughout the whole saga, though she seemingly manages to lie to herself about her romantic feelings for Jacob.


title: Bella Swan

text: In contrary to her low profile demeanor, Bella, according to Edward in Midnight Sun, has no sense of fear when she finds out Edward is a vampire. Instead of running away, as she should have, she decides to ask many questions with extreme curiosity. This makes Edward believe that it is not bad luck that follows her around, but that she has no sense of self-preservation. Bella is book-smart but is lacking in common sense. She can be considered impractical at times.


title: Bella Swan

text: She hates anything cold and wet, even snow, which is why she initially hated to live in Forks. However, after meeting Edward, she found the town much more comfortable, even calling it "home". As a vampire, she also dislikes the idea of feeding on humans, but is glad to have found the strength she needed to protect her loved ones.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella inherited her mother's high perceptiveness as she was able to guess Edward was a mind reader, the first human to do so. However, she was not able to guess that Edward was in love with her.


title: Bella Swan

text: After being turned into a vampire, she describes having a much clearer view of the world. She is also very self-controlled, being able to ignore the scent of human blood on her first hunting trip. Bella's private mind that was able to repel some vampires' mental abilities while she was human evolved after she became a vampire; her skill strengthened, allowing her to shield herself and those around her from other vampires' mental gifts. By the end of "Breaking Dawn", she is able to cast the shield away from herself. She is also described by Edward as "very graceful", even for a vampire, in comparison to her earlier clumsiness as a human.


title: Bella Swan

text: In the film adaptations, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart. Meyer stated that she was "very excited" to see Stewart play the part and that she was "thrilled to have a Bella who has practice [in a vast array of film genres]", since, according to Meyer, "Twilight" has moments that fit into many genres. Stewart wears contact lenses in the films in order to achieve a chocolate brown eye color as described in the books.


title: Bella Swan

text: Bella has received a generally negative reception from critics. "Publishers Weekly" states that, after her transformation into a vampire, "it's almost impossible to identify with her" in "Breaking Dawn". Lilah Lohr of the "Chicago Tribune" compares Bella's character to the story of the Quileute wolves and describes it as "less satisfying." During "Twilight", "Kirkus Reviews" stated that "Bella's appeal is based on magic rather than character", but that her and Edward's "portrayal of dangerous lovers hits the spot". In the review of "New Moon", "Kirkus Reviews" said that Bella's personality was "flat and obsessive". Laura Miller of "salon.com" said, in regards to Edward and Bella, "neither of them has much personality to speak of." "Entertainment Weekly"s Jennifer Reese, in her review of "Breaking Dawn" noted, in regard to Bella, "You may wish she had loftier goals and a mind of her own, but these are fairy tales, and as a steadfast lover in the Disney Princess mold, Bella has a certain saccharine appeal", and that during Bella's pregnancy "she is not only hard to identify with but positively horrifying, especially while guzzling human blood to nourish the infant." "The Washington Post" journalist Elizabeth Hand noted how Bella was often described as breakable and that "Edward's habit of constantly pulling her onto his lap or having her ride on his back further emphasize her childlike qualities", continuing to write that "the overall effect is a weird infantilization that has repellent overtones to an adult reader and hardly seems like an admirable model to foist upon our daughters (or sons)." Gina Dalfonzo, in an article posted on the "National Review" website, calls Bella "self-deprecating" before her transformation into a vampire, and afterwards she is "insufferably vain". Dalfonzo also states that Bella gets what she wants and discovers her worth "by giving up her identity and throwing away nearly everything in life that matters."


title: Panamax

text: Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". These requirements also describe topics like exceptional dry seasonal limits, propulsion, communications, and detailed ship design.


title: Panamax

text: The allowable size is limited by the width and length of the available lock chambers, by the depth of water in the canal, and by the height of the Bridge of the Americas since that bridge's construction. These dimensions give clear parameters for ships destined to traverse the Panama Canal and have influenced the design of cargo ships, naval vessels, and passenger ships.


title: Panamax

text: Panamax specifications have been in effect since the opening of the canal in 1914. In 2009, the ACP published the New Panamax specification which came into effect when the canal's third set of locks, larger than the original two, opened on 26 June 2016. Ships that do not fall within the Panamax-sizes are called "post-Panamax" or "super-Panamax".


title: Panamax

text: The increasing prevalence of vessels of the maximum size is a problem for the canal, as a Panamax ship is a tight fit that requires precise control of the vessel in the locks, possibly resulting in longer lock time, and requiring that these ships transit in daylight. Because the largest ships traveling in opposite directions cannot pass safely within the Culebra Cut, the canal effectively operates an alternating one-way system for these ships.