title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui's trial was seen in some circles as a barometer of the ability and willingness of the United States to give a fair hearing to terrorism suspects. Others objected to the degree to which the court and especially Judge Leonie Brinkema tolerated the bizarre and threatening courtroom behavior of Moussaoui. Moussaoui expressed contempt for the trial and court by introducing legal motions deriding Judge Brinkema, surprised onlookers by electing to represent himself in court, and rankled federal prosecutors by requesting the presence of captured al-Qaeda members as witnesses in his case.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: During the trial, Moussaoui initially stated that he was not involved in the September 11 attacks, but that he was planning an attack of his own. Some al-Qaeda members reportedly corroborated Moussaoui's statement to an extent, saying that he was involved in a plot other than September 11, but prosecutors believed that his story had no merit. On April 3, 2006, Moussaoui was found to be eligible for the death penalty. Before leaving the courtroom, he was reported to have shouted, "You will never get my blood. God curse you all!"


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On May 3, 2006, a jury decided against the death penalty for Moussaoui. The next day, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As he was led out of the courtroom, Moussaoui clapped his hands and said, "America, you lost ... I won." Judge Brinkema responded by telling him that he would "die with a whimper" and "never get a chance to speak again". Three jurors decided Moussaoui had only limited knowledge of the September 11 plot, and three described his role in the attacks as minor, if he had any role at all.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Following sentencing, Moussaoui recanted his trial testimony stating he was not a member of the September 11, 2001, conspiracy, but "part of another al-Qaeda plot which was to occur after September 11."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Aicha el-Wafi, Moussaoui's mother, was 14 when she was married to a man that she did not previously know, in Morocco. Five years later, Moussaoui's parents moved to France, where he was born. After enduring domestic violence, his mother left his father Omar while her four children were still young. She raised her children on a cleaner's wages. There was no religious education within the family. Witnesses testified at Moussaui's trial that, as first-generation immigrants from Morocco, the family frequently faced racism in their new country. From 1982, Moussaoui, his brother and sisters, were brought up in a bungalow on the edge of the town of Narbonne. His mother has said that she believes two 'wounding' incidents in his French adolescence contributed to the formation of an extremist sensibility: the first the day that his school careers adviser pushed him towards minor, technical studies, with "the clear implication that he was only an Arab and would need nothing more," and the second the day that the father of his teenage sweetheart warned him off because he was an Arab. "Don't think that you will ever get your feet under my table," the man said. "


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: For Zacarias [his brother wrote in "the Guardian"], handball quickly became more than a sport—it was his passion. He was brilliant. Everyone recognized it—his trainers, his team-mates, even his opponents. For Zacarias, the future was all mapped out. He would study and play sports.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui has been known by other names, reportedly including Abu Khaled al Sahrawi and Shaquil while he was in Oklahoma. He holds a master's degree in International Business from South Bank University in London, having enrolled in 1993 and graduated in 1995. He attended, amongst others, the Brixton Mosque, where he may have met Richard Reid, the future shoe bomber. He was proselytised by groups such as al-Muhajiroun ("the Emigrants"), who leafleted people attending moderate mosques such as that in Brixton. It is possible that he had connections with members of the Finsbury Park mosque, where the extremist Abu Hamza al-Masri taught.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: French authorities began monitoring Moussaoui in 1996 when they observed him with Islamic extremists in London. In 1998, he attended the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan, allegedly returning the next year as well. In September 2000, he visited Malaysia and stayed in a condominium owned by Yazid Sufaat who, in October 2000, signed letters identifying Moussaoui as a representative of his company. Two of the September 11 hijackers lived in the same condominium in January 2000. Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Ismauddin sent Sufaat to provide Moussaoui with and travel documents in Malaysia in October.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: From February 26 to May 29, 2001, Moussaoui attended flight training courses at Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma. Despite 57 hours of flying lessons, he failed and left without ever having flown solo. This school was also visited by Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who piloted planes into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: During his time in Norman, Moussaoui had a roommate named Hussein al-Attas. On August 11, 2001, Hussein al-Attas drove Moussaoui to Minnesota from Oklahoma. Hussein al-Attas said that he and Moussaoui planned to take a trip to New York City in late August/early September 2001. In 2002, al-Attas admitted that he lied to the FBI to conceal Moussaoui's name, lied to the inquisitive FBI to conceal Moussaoui's extremist jihadi and anti-American beliefs, lied to conceal his own tendencies, lied to conceal that Moussaoui had been trying to convince him to become more active in the jihad or struggle, and lied to conceal the names of other Middle Easterners who were taking flight lessons in Oklahoma.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui allegedly received US$14,000 in wire transfers from bin al-Shibh, originating from Düsseldorf and Hamburg, Germany, in early August. This money could have helped him pay for flight training about two weeks later at Pan-Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minnesota. On August 13, Moussaoui paid US$6,800 with US$100 bills to receive training in a 747-400 simulator. The simulator that Pan-Am uses is operated by Northwest Aerospace Training Corporation (NATCO), a training facility affiliated with Northwest Airlines. Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters. Plans to include Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had doubts about his reliability.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Clarence Prevost, the flight instructor assigned to Moussaoui, began to have suspicions about his student. His behavior largely resembled that of other seemingly wealthy men who had come to the center in the past to receive jumbo jet training despite the fact that they would likely never use it, but some characteristics were unusual. Prevost said later that in pre-simulator instruction, Moussaoui would ask questions that had the right jargon but were otherwise nonsensical. Moussaoui read through the 747 training manuals, but had a lack of understanding of the plane's systems. Prevost was confused as to why Moussaoui would seek simulator time if he lacked basic plane knowledge. After some convincing, his supervisors contacted the FBI, who came to meet with him. (Despite later reports, Moussaoui did not skip the training for takeoff and landing).


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On August 16, 2001, Moussaoui was arrested by Harry Samit of the FBI and INS agents in Minnesota and charged with an immigration violation. Materials itemized when he was arrested included a laptop computer, two knives, flight manuals pertaining to Boeing's 747 aircraft, a flight simulator computer program, fighting gloves and shin guards, and a computer disk with information about crop dusting.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Some agents worried that his flight training had violent intentions, so the Minnesota bureau tried to get permission (sending over 70 emails in a week) to search his laptop, but they were turned down. FBI agent Coleen Rowley made an explicit request for permission to search Moussaoui's personal rooms. This request was first denied by her superior, Deputy General Counsel Marion "Spike" Bowman, and later rejected based upon FISA regulations (amended after 9/11 by the USA Patriot Act). Several further search attempts similarly failed.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Ahmed Ressam, the captured al-Qaeda Millennium Bomber, was at the time sharing information with the US authorities, in an effort to gain leniency in his sentencing. One person whom he was not asked about until after 9/11, but whom he was able to identify when asked as having trained with him at al-Qaeda's Khalden Camp in Afghanistan, was Moussaoui. The 9/11 Commission Report opined that had Ressam been asked about Moussaoui, he would have broken the FBI's logjam. Had that happened, the Report opined, the U.S. might conceivably have disrupted or derailed the September 11 attacks altogether.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On December 11, 2001, Moussaoui was indicted by a federal grand jury in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on six felony charges: conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to murder United States employees, and conspiracy to destroy property. The indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui named as unindicted co-conspirators Ramzi Bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, among others, for their role in the attack "to murder thousands of innocent people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania".


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On January 2, 2002, Moussaoui refused to enter any plea to the charges and so Judge Leonie Brinkema entered pleas of not guilty. A hearing was held on April 22, 2002, to determine his right to self-representation, for by then Moussaoui had declined the assistance of his court-appointed attorneys, and asked to defend himself. At another hearing on June 13, 2002, Brinkema deemed him competent to defend himself and allowed the case to move forward. However, Moussaoui later requested the occasional assistance of attorneys to help him with technical issues.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui admitted his involvement with al-Qaeda, but claimed he was not involved in the 9/11 attacks. Rather, he claimed that he was preparing for a separate attack. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had earlier told investigators that Moussaoui met with him prior to September 11, but that he, Mohammed, chose not to use him. No evidence directly linking Moussaoui to the 9/11 attacks has yet been released.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: The trial highlighted a tension in the United States between the judiciary and national security. Moussaoui made requests for access to confidential documents and the right to call captive al-Qaeda members as witnesses, notably bin al-Shibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. Both requests were claimed by prosecutors to be potential threats to national security. Brinkema denied the motion to access confidential documents, although Moussaoui was permitted to use several al-Qaeda prisoners as witnesses.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Brinkema put the death penalty "off limits" on October 2, 2003, in reply to government defiance of her order to provide access to Moussaoui's witnesses. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Brinkema ruling, holding that the U.S. government could use summaries of interviews/interrogations of these witnesses. On March 21, 2005, the United States Supreme Court, without comment, declined to hear Moussaoui's pre-trial appeal of the Fourth Circuit's decision, returning the case to Brinkema.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On April 22, 2005, in one of the court sessions near the end of that phase of the proceedings, Moussaoui surprised the court by unexpectedly pleading guilty to all charges, while at the same time denying having any intention to produce a massacre like 9/11. He said that it was not his conspiracy, and that he intended to free Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. According to Moussaoui, his master plan was to hijack a Boeing 747-400, since the plane is one of a few that could reach Afghanistan from the U.S. without any intermediate stops.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On February 6, 2006, Moussaoui shouted "I am al-Qaeda. They do not represent me; they are Americans," referring to his attorneys while being escorted from the courtroom in front of 120 potential jurors.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: In March 2006, during the Moussaoui trial, several premises made headlines, including FBI agents stating that the bureau was aware, years before the attacks in 2001, that al-Qaeda planned to use planes to destroy important buildings, and Brinkema's decision to consider dismissal of the death penalty. However, days later, under significant media attention, Brinkema decided not to dismiss the case, and instead ruled that witnesses could not testify and the government would be allowed to continue to seek the death sentence against him.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On March 27, 2006, Moussaoui testified that he and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid had planned to crash a hijacked airplane into the White House in the September 11 attacks. No direct connection between Moussaoui and Reid had ever before been alleged, and this testimony contradicted earlier testimony by Moussaoui that he had been intended for an operation after September 11. When asked why he had previously lied, he stated that "You're allowed to lie for jihad. You're allowed any technique to defeat your enemy." There has been commentary in the mainstream media that Moussaoui's preference to die as an identified 9/11 plotter rather than receive a life sentence as a member of an unrealized scheme throws doubt on his self-admitted connection to 9/11.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui refused legal representation for years; he entered confusing, insulting, and parallel court pleadings. His pleadings, statements, and behavior included the following:


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: January 2, 2002: Moussaoui stated, "In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plea, and I enter no plea."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: April 22, 2002: Moussaoui tried to fire his court-appointed lawyers. Judge Brinkema took the request under advisement; on June 13, 2002, she ordered that he had the right to defend himself, and a search began for a Muslim lawyer. Moussaoui cited several surahs of the Qur'an—including Al-i-imran 3:118, Al-anfal 8:36, Al-anfal 8:45, Al-i-Imran 3:175 and Al-An-am 6:162—to the judge as justification for firing his lawyers, proof of the government's and judge's corruption, confirmation of his innocence, and assurance that he was taking the best possible course of defense. He then prayed to Allah for the return of Al-Andalus (Spain and Portugal) and the deliverance of Ceuta, Melilla, India and Kashmir to the Muslims. He also prayed for the destruction of several nations—including Israel (and the Jewish people as a whole), Russia, Canada, UK, Australia, and the U.S.—and for the liberation of Palestine, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. The Court ordered a psychiatric evaluation in response.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: June 11, 2002: Moussaoui filed a motion, titled "Motion for pre-contempt of Leonie Brinkema order to declare Zacarias Moussaoui crazy", which insisted on his competence to stand trial. In it, he said he had tried "to get the help of the European Court of Justice and Parliaments". He then offered a psychological analysis of Judge Brinkema:


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Mental Status Enumeration: Axis 1; Acute symptoms of Islamophobia with complex of gender inferiority.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Diagnostic Impressions: Legal pathological killer instinct with egoboasting dementia to become supreme.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Conclusion and Recommendations: Immediate psychiatric hospitalization to specialist unit (propose unit UBL treatment center ... )


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: July 18, 2002: Moussaoui entered a guilty plea, stating, "I have knowledge and I participated in al-Qaeda. I am a member of al-Qaeda ... I pledge bayat to Osama bin Laden." The Court rejected the guilty plea as unconsidered and ordered Moussaoui to rethink his plea.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: July 24, 2002: Moussaoui's roommate from Oklahoma flight school, 24-year-old Hussein al-Attas, pleaded guilty to seven counts of making false statements, including the following:


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: The truth is that on several occasions, during the short time I knew him (Moussaoui) had expressed a general desire to participate in jihad, so my statement to the contrary was false ... When the agents asked if I (also) knew his real name, I lied and said I did not.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Al-Attas stated that he told the FBI he was going to Pakistan to seek medical assistance for a sick relative in Saudi Arabia, but admitted, "The real reason was (Moussaoui) had convinced me to go to speak to Islamic scholars and others who hold the belief that Islamic religion favors participation in jihad."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Furthermore, al-Attas admitted to lying about his plans to go with Moussaoui to New York City in late August, 2001. He also confessed that he lied about some of Moussaoui's classmates at an Oklahoma flight school.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: July 28, 2002: Moussaoui pleaded guilty to four of six counts of conspiracy. He denied charges of conspiracy to murder United States employees and destroy property.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Today, I truthfully will enter on some of the charges, not all, a plea of guilty ... It should not be misunderstood that I endorse the entire indictment. There is enough factual basis for me to plead guilty in a truthful manner.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: The Court rejected the guilty plea as too informal and reappointed his counsel. Moussaoui's response to this order to work with court-appointed counsel was, "It is most disgusting."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: April 22, 2003: Moussaoui filed a pleading with the header shown below. In the pleading, Judge Brinkema is referred to as "Death Judge Leonie".


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: July 18, 2003: Moussaoui filed two pleadings. The first was titled "Wanted for WTC Bankruptcy" and offered an accounting of "WTC profit and loss" of "Loss: 3000 sons of evil. Profit: 19 slaves of Allah." That document had the following header:


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: The second pleading was titled "No Pig Man Role in Moussaoui Deliverance Scenario" and stated "To be seen in all God Fearing World Theatre Cinema. Deadline for 3000+ hotseat tickets (please contact United Booking Limited)."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Moussaoui, charged with conspiring to hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was in jail in Minnesota when the Sept. 11 attacks unfolded. In seeking a death sentence, prosecutors were required to prove that he "intentionally participated in an act ... and the victim died as a direct result of the act". Moussaoui admitted he knew about the attacks and did nothing to stop them.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Having entered a guilty plea, Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty. Germany said it would not release evidence against Moussaoui unless the U.S. promised not to seek death as punishment. On April 27, 2005, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said, "When France gave elements of information about Mr Moussaoui to the American justice, I obtained a written engagement of the United States not to use these elements to require or execute the death penalty."


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On March 14, 2006, Brinkema ruled that the prosecution could continue to seek the death penalty against Moussaoui, but could not use key witnesses coached by government lawyer Carla Martin. On April 3, 2006, the jury in his case decided that Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that, prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center". Maltbie had refused to act on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On May 3, 2006, the jury reached a verdict: that Moussaoui be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Moussaoui was sentenced to six consecutive life terms on May 4, as Judge Brinkema expressed her belief that the sentence was an appropriate one, inasmuch as it would deprive Moussaoui of "martyrdom in a great big bang of glory" and of the "chance to speak again", after Moussaoui entered the courtroom proclaiming his victory and asserting that the United States would "never get Osama bin Laden". As he was leaving the courtroom, Moussaoui said, "America, you lost and I won," and clapped his hands twice. In fact, a single juror had saved Moussaoui from the foreman of the 12-person federal jury told "The Washington Post" that the panel voted 11–1, 10–2 and 10–2 in favor of the death penalty on the three charges for which Moussaoui was eligible for execution. A unanimous vote on any one of the three terrorism charges was required to return a death sentence.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On May 8, 2006, Moussaoui filed papers with the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia requesting to withdraw his guilty plea, stating that his earlier claim of participation in the September 11 plot was a "complete fabrication". He said that he was "extremely surprised" that he was not sentenced to death. "I now see that it is possible that I can receive a fair trial even with Americans as jurors," he said. However, federal sentencing rules forbid pleas to be withdrawn after a sentence has already been executed, and Moussaoui had already waived his rights to appeal.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On May 13, 2006, Moussaoui was moved from his holding cell in Alexandria, Virginia, and transported via JPATS to the supermax United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, located near Florence, Colorado. The facility—considered the most secure federal penitentiary—is called the "Alcatraz of the Rockies". He has the Federal Bureau of Prisons number 51427-054.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On July 31, 2006, the 1,202 exhibits presented during the case of "United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui" were posted online, marking the first time the exhibits of a criminal case in U.S. courts were so published.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On November 20, 2007, Judge Brinkema publicly stated that the US government had provided incorrect information about evidence in the Moussaoui trial and that due to those actions, she was considering ordering a new trial in a related terrorism case, that of Ali al-Timimi, a Virginia Muslim cleric. Brinkema said that she could no longer trust the CIA and other government agencies on how they represent classified evidence in cases regarding terrorism after Moussaoui case prosecutors admitted that the CIA had assured her that no videotapes or audiotapes existed of interrogations of certain high-profile terrorism detainees, but later, in a letter made public November 13, two such videotapes and one audio tape were made known. According to his testimony, the citizen had training in accounting and organized the Al Qaeda's finances.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On May 23, 2006, an audio recording attributed to Osama bin Laden said in translation that Moussaoui "had no connection at all with September 11 ... I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission ... Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning to fly, he wasn't number 20 in the group, as your government claimed". The voice alleged to be bin Laden also suggested that Moussaoui's confession was "void" as it was a result of pressures applied during his incarceration.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: Civil action is being taken by relatives of September 11 attacks victims, insurers and others against the Saudi Arabian government. In the course of this Zacarias Moussaoui has stated on oath and wrote to Judge George B. Daniels that Saudi royal family members helped finance the September 11 attacks and al-Qaeda. Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, of the Saudi royal family were specifically mentioned as Al-Qaeda donors—but the project's major patrons was Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who in January 2015 became Saudi Arabia's king. Moussaoui's testimony provides new details of the extent and nature of that support in the pre-9/11 period. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema declared "Moussaoui is completely competent", called him "an extremely intelligent man" and added: "He has actually a better understanding of the legal system than some lawyers I've seen in court".


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: The former senators Bob Graham of Florida and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and the former Navy secretary John Lehman believed the Saudi role in the 9/11 plot had never been adequately examined and they demanded the release of 28 pages of the congressional report that explored Saudi connections. Both the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama had refused to declassify the 28 pages on grounds of "national security", but as Graham argued, the opposite was true; the real "threat to national security is non-disclosure": The Saudis know what they did and the U.S. knows what they did, and when the U.S. government takes a position of passivity, or actively shuts down inquiry, that sends a message to the Saudis. "They have continued, maybe accelerated their support for the most extreme form of Islam known as Wahhabism" he stated, arguing that both al Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are "a creation of Saudi Arabia". On January 7, 2015, Graham, Congressmen Walter Jones and Stephen F. Lynch, and members of the 9/11 families including Terry Strada, national co-chair of the ″9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism″, held a press conference on Capitol Hill announcing the reintroduction of the resolution calling for the declassification of the 28 pages. Graham said that those pages "point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as the principal financier" of the 9/11 hijackers: "This may seem stale to some but it's as current as the headlines we see today," referring to the terrorist attack on a satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. In 2016 a partially redacted form of the pages were declassified by the Obama administration.


title: Zacarias Moussaoui

text: On January 24, 2008, Clarence Prevost, the flight instructor who led authorities to Moussaoui, received a $5 million reward from the U.S. government. The payment was questioned by agent Coleen Rowley and Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, among others, on the basis that two other flight instructors had made the initial calls to the FBI.


title: Song to Song

text: Song to Song is a 2017 American experimental romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring an ensemble cast including Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, and Cate Blanchett.


title: Song to Song

text: After a lengthy post-production period of over three years, the film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 17, 2017, by Broad Green Pictures. Critical reception for the film was mixed.


title: Song to Song

text: In Austin, Texas, Faye is a guitarist looking for success as a musician. She starts an affair with record producer Cook, hoping that he will help her. Then she begins a relationship with BV, who has had slightly more success than she and is also working with Cook. Cook and Faye keep their affair a secret from BV and the three take a trip together to Mexico.


title: Song to Song

text: Rhonda is a former kindergarten teacher working as a waitress at a diner, where she is courted by Cook. The two eventually marry and he buys her mother a house. Business gets rough between Cook and BV and their professional relationship and friendship end.


title: Song to Song

text: Faye feels increasingly guilty about her affair with Cook, and finally tells BV, who breaks up with her. Faye then has a relationship with Zoey, a French woman living in the US. Rhonda begins to feel uncomfortable with Cook's wild lifestyle, which includes sex with other women and drugs. BV dates New Yorker Amanda for some time, but eventually they break up too.


title: Song to Song

text: Rhonda takes her own life, leaving Cook shocked and saddened. Faye and BV reconnect and start dating again. Later, BV moves back west to his hometown to take care of his sick father and the rest of his family, and pursues a simpler life, taking a job as a worker at a drilling rig. Faye follows him and the two of them declare their eternal love for each other.


title: Song to Song

text: Florence Welch, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, The Black Lips, Alan Palomo, John Lydon, Flea, Spank Rock, Tegan Quin, Sara Quin, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Josh Klinghoffer, First Aid Kit, Erik Sprague and Big Freedia, all make cameo appearances in the film.


title: Song to Song

text: In November 2011 it was announced that Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Haley Bennett had been cast in the film. The film was originally titled "Lawless", but Malick allowed filmmaker John Hillcoat to use the title for his 2012 film. When the film was announced as in pre-production in November 2011 the production company was FilmNation Entertainment and its producers were Sarah Green and Nicolas Gonda. In November 2012 it was announced that Bérénice Marlohe had joined the cast. It was revealed in March 2015 the title was "Weightless". In February 2016 Sarah Green confirmed the title was "Weightless", but it was later changed to "Song to Song". In December 2016 it was announced that Iggy Pop, John Lydon, Arcade Fire, Alan Palomo, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes and The Black Lips would appear in the film.


title: Song to Song

text: Rooney Mara said in December 2011 that filming was scheduled to begin in September 2012. That month, scenes were shot in Austin, Texas. In March 2012 Alan Palomo of Neon Indian shot scenes for the film. In October 2012 Mara, Michael Fassbender, Florence Welch and Holly Hunter were spotted on set filming. Mara said in an interview that Patti Smith shot scenes for the film, playing herself. In November 2012 Val Kilmer was spotted filming. Christian Bale only shot three days on the film, but his scenes were ultimately cut.


title: Song to Song

text: Post-production on the film took longer than expected because the film's eight-hour first cut required Malick to ask the financiers and studios more than once for additional time.


title: Song to Song

text: In October 2013, Michael Fassbender provided voice-over that the actor said might be cut from the completed film: "I'm not sure [if I'm in the final cut]. I've got to go actually and do some more voice-over ... just like reams and reams of that." Bale also expressed doubts about whether he would appear, saying in November 2013, "I unfortunately wasn't able to do everything I was meant to do, so I ended up doing like three, four days on that. Which in Terry's world means you're never going to see me in it." In January 2016 Mara revealed she did voice-over for the film.


title: Song to Song

text: Bale, Haley Bennett, Benicio del Toro, Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes and Angela Bettis were all cut from the film.


title: Song to Song

text: In February 2015 Broad Green Pictures acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2017. The film was released on March 17, 2017.


title: Song to Song

text: "Song to Song" has polarized film critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 44% approval rating based on 131 critics and an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As visually sumptuous as it is narratively spartan, Terrence Malick's "Song to Song" echoes elements of the writer-director's recent work—for better and for worse." On Metacritic the film holds a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Song to Song

text: In a five-star review for "The Independent", Christopher Hooton claimed that it has become fashionable among critics to ridicule Malick's recent films, but that given a chance the film is a "masterpiece" and even "life-changing". In "Entertainment Weekly", Joe McGovern derided it as "incoherent, disconnected, self-interrupting, obsessed with pointless minutiae and crammed full of odd, limp stabs at profundity [...] you’ll find yourself searching in the margins of each shot for something or someone tangible to grasp onto."


title: Song to Song

text: Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film two and a half out of four stars. Although he had always praised Malick's work and style in the past ("I don't believe that the Austin-based director has ever made a bad movie"), he wrote that "Song to Song" "is the first Malick film I’ve watched where the dots never came together to form a legible image", emphasizing the film's need for more "rhetorical connective tissue" that would further connect to the film's themes as well as better characterizations, because of the film's highly chaotic nature. Seitz concluded that the film is "a brainy concept album made up of B-sides and filler. The musicianship is superb but the songs needed work."


title: Lateran Treaty

text: The Lateran Treaty (; ) was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman Question. The treaty and associated pacts were named after the Lateran Palace where they were signed on 11 February 1929, and the Italian parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929. The treaty recognized Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. The Italian government also agreed to give the Roman Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States. In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the Constitution of Italy as regulating the relations between the state and the Catholic Church. The treaty was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: The Lateran Pacts are often presented as three treaties: a 27-article treaty of conciliation, a three-article financial convention, and a 45-article concordat. However, the website of the Holy See presents the financial convention as an annex of the treaty of conciliation, considering the pacts as two documents:


title: Lateran Treaty

text: During the unification of Italy in the mid-19th century, the Papal States resisted incorporation into the new nation, even as all the other Italian countries, except for San Marino, joined it; Camillo Cavour's dream of proclaiming the Kingdom of Italy from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica did not come to pass. The nascent Kingdom of Italy invaded and occupied Romagna (the eastern portion of the Papal States) in 1860, leaving only Latium in the pope's domains. Latium, including Rome itself, was occupied and annexed in 1870. For the following sixty years, relations between the Papacy and the Italian government were hostile, and the status of the pope became known as the "Roman Question".


title: Lateran Treaty

text: Negotiations for the settlement of the Roman Question began in 1926 between the government of Italy and the Holy See, and culminated in the agreements of the Lateran Pacts, signed—the Treaty says—for King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and for Pope Pius XI by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, on 11 February 1929. It was ratified on 7 June 1929.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: The agreements included a political treaty which created the state of the Vatican City and guaranteed full and independent sovereignty to the Holy See. The Pope was pledged to perpetual neutrality in international relations and to abstention from mediation in a controversy unless specifically requested by all parties. In the first article of the treaty, Italy reaffirmed the principle established in the 1848 Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, that "the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Religion is the only religion of the State". The attached financial agreement was accepted as settlement of all the claims of the Holy See against Italy arising from the loss of temporal power of the Papal States in 1870.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: The sum thereby given to the Holy See was actually less than Italy declared it would pay under the terms of the Law of Guarantees of 1871, by which the Italian government guaranteed to Pope Pius IX and his successors the use of, but not sovereignty over, the Vatican and Lateran Palaces and a yearly income of Lire 3,250,000 as indemnity for the loss of sovereignty and territory. The Holy See, on the grounds of the need for clearly manifested independence from any political power in its exercise of spiritual jurisdiction, had refused to accept the settlement offered in 1871, and the popes thereafter until the signing of the Lateran Treaty considered themselves prisoners in the Vatican, a small, limited area inside Rome.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: To commemorate the successful conclusion of the negotiations, Mussolini commissioned the Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation), which would symbolically link the Vatican City to the heart of Rome.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: The Constitution of the Italian Republic, adopted in 1948, states that relations between the State and the Catholic Church "are regulated by the Lateran Treaties".


title: Lateran Treaty

text: In 1984, the concordat was significantly revised. Among other things, both sides declared: "The principle of the Catholic religion as the sole religion of the Italian State, originally referred to by the Lateran Pacts, shall be considered to be no longer in force". The Church's position as the sole state-supported religion of Italy was also ended, replacing the state financing with a personal income tax called the "otto per mille", to which other religious groups, Christian and non-Christian, also have access. , there are ten other religious groups with access. The revised concordat regulated the conditions under which civil effects are accorded by Italy to church marriages and to ecclesiastical declarations of nullity of marriages. Abolished articles included those concerning state recognition of knighthoods and titles of nobility conferred by the Holy See, the undertaking by the Holy See to confer ecclesiastical honours on those authorized to perform religious functions at the request of the State or the Royal Household, and the obligation of the Holy See to enable the Italian government to present political objections to the proposed appointment of diocesan bishops.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: In 2008, it was announced that the Vatican would no longer immediately adopt all Italian laws, citing conflict over right-to-life issues following the trial and ruling of the Eluana Englaro case.


title: Lateran Treaty

text: Italy's anti-Jewish laws of 1938 prohibited marriages between Jews and non-Jews, including Catholics: the Vatican viewed this as a violation of the Concordat, which gave the church the sole right to regulate marriages involving Catholics. Further, Article 34 of the Concordat had also specified that marriages performed by the Catholic Church would always be considered valid by civil authorities: the Holy See understood this to apply to all marriages in Italy celebrated by Roman Catholic clergy, regardless of the faiths of those being married.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Pedro Munhoz (born September 7, 1986) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist currently fighting in the Bantamweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is the former Bantamweight Champion of Resurrection Fighting Alliance. As of December 6, 2022, he is #9 in the UFC bantamweight rankings.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz began training Shotokan karate at the age of six, picking up judo a couple of years later before starting to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the age of 13.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: A professional since 2009, Munhoz began his career competing in local promotions in his native São Paulo, Brazil before moving to the United States in 2011. He competed in several regional promotions across the United States, compiling an undefeated record and eventually became Resurrection Fighting Alliance bantamweight champion on August 16, 2013, after defeating notable veteran Jeff Curran by split decision. Munhoz defended his title for the first time on January 24, 2014, defeating Billy Daniels via first round submission. After the victory over Daniels, Munhoz signed with the UFC in early February 2014.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz made his promotional debut on February 22, 2014, as a short notice replacement for an injured Francisco Rivera and faced top contender Raphael Assunção at UFC 170. Assunção defeated Munhoz via unanimous decision.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced promotional newcomer Matt Hobar on May 31, 2014, at . Munhoz defeated Hobar via first round TKO.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Jerrod Sanders on October 4, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 54. He won the fight via submission in the first round. A few months later, it was revealed that Munhoz tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Munhoz's camp requested testing documentation and didn't receive it until three months later. He said a review of the results by anti-doping specialist Paul Scott determined that his testosterone was not, in fact, elevated, coming in at 850 ng/mL, or on the high end of the normal range for men his age. He admitted to using two supplements allowed by the UFC that may have elevated his testosterone, but not outside the legal limit. On November 4, 2015, Munhoz was suspended for one year retroactive to his fight due to testosterone metabolites of an exogenous origin and his win was changed to a no-contest.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Jimmie Rivera on November 7, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 77. He lost the fight via split decision.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz next faced Russell Doane on July 7, 2016, at . He won the fight via submission in the first round and was awarded a "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Justin Scoggins on November 19, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 100. He won the bout submission in the second round and was awarded a "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Rob Font on October 28, 2017, at . He won the fight via submission in round one. This win earned him a "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz was expected to face John Dodson at on February 3, 2018. However, Munhoz missed weight by four pounds over the bantamweight non title fight upper limit of 136 pounds, and Dodson declined to take the fight and the fight was cancelled. The fight was rescheduled to UFC 222 on March 3, 2018. Munhoz lost the fight via split decision.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Brett Johns August 4, 2018, at UFC 227. He won the fight by unanimous decision after knocking Johns down several times during the bout.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Bryan Caraway on November 30, 2018, at . He won the fight via technical knockout in round one.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced former UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt on March 2, 2019, at UFC 235. He won the fight via knockout in the first round. The win also earned Munhoz his first "Fight of the Night" bonus award.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz was scheduled to face former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar on July 15, 2020, at . However, on July 6, it was announced that Munhoz was pulled from the bout after testing positive for COVID-19. The pairing was redscheduled and took place on August 22, 2020 at UFC on ESPN 15. Munhoz lost the back-and-forth fight via split decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: A rematch against Jimmie Rivera was scheduled on January 30, 2021 at UFC on ESPN 20. On December 26, 2020, it was announced that the bout was moved to January 20, 2021 at UFC on ESPN 20. The pairing was rescheduled once again in early January as they were moved to UFC 258 on February 13, 2021 due to undisclosed reasons. During the week leading up to the event, the bout was delayed again due to a positive COVID-19 test for someone within the two camps. The pairing remained intact and took place two weeks later at . Munhoz won the fight via unanimous decision. This bout earned him a "Fight of the Night" bonus award.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Dominick Cruz on December 11, 2021 at UFC 269. Despite knocking Cruz down twice and almost finishing him in the first round, Munhoz ultimately lost the fight via unanimous decision. The bout earned the "Fight of the Night" bonus award.


title: Pedro Munhoz

text: Munhoz faced Sean O'Malley on July 2, 2022, at UFC 276. It was ruled a no contest in the second round due to an inadvertent eye poke that rendered Munhoz unable to continue. Following the bout, Munhoz published his medical record showing that he suffered an abrasion across his right cornea.


title: Now United

text: Now United (sometimes abbreviated as NU) is a global pop group, formed in Los Angeles in 2017 by "Idols" creator Simon Fuller. Originally, the group was consisted of 14 members from 14 countries; but as of 2022, the group consist of 19 members of which 4 have left, and 3 are inactive. Each one represents a different country and nationality from around the world and there are possibilities of upcoming new members.


title: Now United

text: In mid-2016, Idols creator and Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller began searching for talent to fulfill his plan of creating a global pop group with members from all over the world. The selection took place through social media as well as dance schools and music academies, using expert choreographers, vocal coaches, and songwriters.


title: Now United

text: In September 2017, Fuller indicated that "to recruit the 14 youngsters in Now United, he employed 20 people to travel the world for 18 months, holding auditions with groups of 10 to 20 people at a time". But after seeing the talents of various youngsters he decided to make a group of 14 members of different nationalities, with future possible members. From 11 to 22 November 2017, each of the members was revealed. On 13 November, the first teaser of the complete group was released, in the song "Boom Boom" by the record producer and record executive RedOne.


title: Now United

text: On 5 December 2017, Now United released their first single "Summer in the City", on Al Gore's "24 Hours of Reality", a global broadcast intended to work to raise awareness around the global climate crisis.


title: Now United

text: In April 2018, the group began its Promo World Tour, where they appeared on many TV shows across the world. The tour began in Moscow, making their first public appearance on television performing "Summer in the City" on the finale of the Russian version of The Voice Kids.


title: Now United

text: On 5 July, Now United debuted in the United States on The Late Late Show with James Corden performing "Summer in the City". In less than three months, the group released the official videos of three singles, on 24 July, "What Are We Waiting For", shot in South Korea; on 28 September, "Who Would Think That Love?" shot in Mexico; and on 6 November, "All Day", shot in California. During their Indian tour, Now United shot "How We Do It", released on December 15, which featured Indian rapper Badshah. On 29 December, Dreams Come True: The Documentary was released, showcasing the creation process of the group.


title: Now United

text: During the Philippines tour, Now United shot and released "Afraid of Letting Go" on 17 March. On 28 April, "Sundin Ang Puso", which was also shot in the Philippines was released. The group also participated in the Opening Ceremony of the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. On 7 June, "Paraná", was released. By mid-2019, it was announced that two new members would be added to Now United. The selection took place through social media and fan voting. On 25 July, Now United released "Sunday Morning". On 11 August, "Crazy Stupid Silly Love" was released. The month after, "Like That" was released on 8 September. On 20 September, "You Give Me Something" was released. The song is a bilingual cover of the song by James Morrison and is performed in English and Portuguese by members Lamar Morris and Any Gabrielly. In October, it was officially announced that the search for a new member from the Middle East or North Africa had commenced. They also shot their music video called "Legends" while on tour, which was released on 14 November. During November 2019, the group embarked on their "Dreams Come True Tour" in Brazil. On 15 December, "Na Na Na", which has main vocals from Sabina, which was filmed at the Municipal Theatre in Rio de Janeiro was released. "Let Me Be the One" was released on the 28th.


title: Now United

text: On February 11, the group introduced its 15th member, Savannah Clarke from Australia. On February 12, "Live This Moment" was released being the first single of the year. On March 7, the single "Come Together" featured Savannah Clarke for the first time. The group was set to embark on their "Come Together" Tour between May and June, which was postponed on March 20, due to COVID-19 concerns.


title: Now United

text: On April 3, the third single of the year, "Wake Up," was released. A few days later, "By My Side" was released, which was filmed by members in their homes. Their single "Better" was released on the 30th, and a lyrics video for Better was released on June 30.


title: Now United

text: On May 8, the single "Dana Dana" was released, which was filmed remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic, the song had been teased for several months and included Shivani Paliwal's rap in Hindi. "Stand Together" was released on June 23 of the same year.


title: Now United

text: On August 8, "Nobody Fools Me Twice" was released, in the Korean language. On August 18, "Feel It Now" was released. On September 2, the Spanish version of the single "Na Na Na" was released as "Na Na Na - Spanish Version". On September 5, Diarra Sylla announced her departure from the group during an interview with The Hollywood Fix. On September 14, members Heyoon and Josh announced on YouTube that the search for the 16th member would officially begin The single/music video for "The Weekend's Here" was filmed in Dubai with Sofya, Savannah, Sina, and Heyoon. On September 21, Simon Fuller, the group's manager, announced the 16th member, Nour Ardakani from Lebanon. On the 30th, the last single of the month was released, called "Somebody" with the first line from Sina Deinert.


title: Now United

text: On October 7, "Chained Up" was released, which had been in the works for some time, same as "Live This Moment", the song/music video features the group's boys, but with the addition of Heyoon. On October 10, the single "Paradise" debuted, but this music was only later released as a music video. The music video/single "Habibi" was released on October 19, it was the first music video featuring Nour Ardakani, who served as the center. On November 7, another single, "One Love", was released. "Pas Le Choix (Manal Mix)" was the group's new single for the first time. On December 10, this single was officially released, featuring the girls of the group. This marked the debut of Joalin and Hina in singing, Diarra's return due to a contract still valid from the time she was in the group, and Melanie Thomas' first music video appearance. On December 30, the last single of the year, "Hewale", starring former-member Diarra, and Mélanie, was released.


title: Now United

text: The group released its first song of the year, "How Far We've Come" on January 8, 2021. The next single, which debuted on January 15, was titled "Lean On Me". "Lean On Me" was shot by choreographer Nicki Andersen and was set in Emirates Place in Dubai. "All Around The World" debuted on January 29. The video was filmed by each of the members in their native countries.


title: Now United

text: The first clip, released in March for the single "Paradise" and is called "Paradise - Official Memories Video," debuted on March 9. Later on March 16 the music video for "Turn It Up" was released, as a part of a partnership with KitKat.


title: Now United

text: On April 10, the single "Fiesta" was released, which was filmed in Mexico, in the hotel garden of Cancun where the members were stranded. Then "Baila" was released. When they finished filming in San Luis Obispo, they left the farm on April 5 to shoot. A few days later, on April 9, the boys traveled from Los Angeles to Malibu. After a few days of filming, they traveled to Hawaii on April 13, where they shot a few music videos. On April 25, it was revealed that the 18th member is Spanish. On April 28, the identity of the new member was disclosed, 15 year-old Mallorca native Alex Mandon Rey.


title: Now United

text: "Let the Music Move You", which was filmed in Hawaii was released on May 1. The next release was on May 8, when the music video for the single "Show You How To Love" was released in Malibu, the single had been previously released solely as audio. Over-the-record lyric videos were released the same month, with "Baila" released on May 15, "Stand Together" on May 17, and "Come Together" on May 26. As a part of a Partnership with Forever 21, they released "Nobody Like Us", which was filmed in Hawaii.


title: Now United

text: On June 1, the group announced that it would hold an online concert, the "Now Love Live Show". The music video released of their "NU Party" was released on the 18th, this featured member Lamar who was on Hiatus. On June 28, the group announced that it would host its first virtual camp, known as "Camp Now United 2021". The "Now Love Live Show" was filmed at Louvre Abu Dhabi and streamed exclusively through YouTube Premium on July 1, the online concert marked the group's first major concert since 2019 and the debut concert for Nour, Savannah, Melanie and Alex.


title: Now United

text: "Camp Now United 2021" began filming on July 5, 2021, in Brazil. The music video of "Wave Your Flag" was officially released on the 14th. Filmed at Louvre Abu Dhabi, it marked the debut of Alex Mandon Rey. On July 15, the launch of the Camp Now United competition was announced, with 12 winners being selected for a trip to Abu Dhabi. Now United's music appeared at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with several songs being played at competitions. A lyrics video for "Wave Your Flag" was released on the 30th.


title: Now United

text: On August 15, the group announced their first musical, "Love, Love, Love", would be coming soon; it was filmed during their Bootcamp in San Luis Obispo in March–April 2021. A trailer was released the next day on the group's YouTube channel. "Love, Love, Love" was released on August 28, alongside "When You Love Somebody", "Dance Like That" and "Momento" on the group's YouTube Channel. Bailey May described the experience of filming a musical stating that it was not challenging as he was playing his own character.


title: Now United

text: It was announced on September 6, that the group would be traveling to Abu Dhabi for their Bootcamp. On September 10, all three of the "Love, Love, Love" songs ("When You Love Somebody", "Dance Like That" and "Momento") were released on all music platforms. "Ikou" Music video, which was filmed in Mexico, was released on the 11th. Following their Bootcamp, it was revealed that they would be traveling to Portugal. The official Music video for "Dance Like That" was released on the 16th. It was announced on the 27th, that the group would be partnering with SheinX Rock the Runway online fashion show.


title: Now United

text: On October 3, the group performed "Wave Your Flag" at the 25th Globos de Ouro awards ceremony. A new edition of "Come together" was released on the 4th, alongside the 12 camp winners. The Bootcampers released their first song, "Good Days" on the 7th. The group released two more music videos, "I Got You" and "Anything for You" were released on the 22nd. Another song, "Future Me" which was filmed in Abu Dhabi was released on the 30th. "I Got You" and "Anything For You" was released across all streaming platforms on November 11. It was announced that the group would be returning to Brazil. Any Gabrielly leaked information during an interview that the group would be touring in 2022. "Future Me" was released across streaming platforms on the 18th. It was officially announced on November 21, that the group would be embarking on their "Wave Your Flag World Tour" with dates announced in Brazil and Portugal, members reassured fans that future dates would be later announced.


title: Now United

text: Information surrounding the filming of the "Jump" music video was leaked on December 5. The group performed "All Day", "Future Me" and "Wave Your Flag" on an aired broadcast of Domingao com Huck on the 12th. Due to high demand, 3 new dates were announced on December 17 in Brazil. The official music video for "Badna Nehlam" was released on the 22nd. The group announced on December 29, that they will release an upcoming song featuring Alta B. On December 30, their single "Jump" was released, featuring Alta B and R3HAB as producers, the music video was made in partnership with Verizon. Jump reached a milestone of 50 million views in the span of 3 weeks.


title: Now United

text: On January 6, the group announced the launch of the "#badnanehlamchallenge" online dance challenge, with two winners being selected to meet with the group, winners were announced on February 6. On January 24, R3HAB's CYB3RPVNK radio station first heard the band's soon-to-be debut latest single "Heartbreak On The Dance Floor".On January 28, members of the group began traveling to Dubai and Los Angeles. On February 14, The group as a whole began their first Bootcamp of 2022 in preparation for the "Wave Your Flag World Tour".


title: Now United

text: Sabina Hidalgo announced her pregnancy on February 24, Hidalgo reassured fans that she would continue performing but would refrain from certain songs.


title: Now United

text: "Heartbreak On The Dance Floor" was officially released on March 4th. On March 11, the group launched the Wave Your Flag Tour at Porto Alegre, Brazil with two shows. The group performed their new single "All Night Long" with Melanie serving as the main vocals. The group also performed "Jump", "Golden", "Heartbreak On The Dance Floor" and "Future Me" for the first time. The tour also shows the music video for "It's Your Birthday" before they released it on YouTube on Shivani's birthday. On March 13 the group flew to Curitiba, Brazil to perform their tour for two days. On March 16, the group flew to Any's hometown, São Paulo, Brazil to perform their tour for three days. On March 17, the group released the lyric video for "Dana Dana" to celebrate Holi, the video was shot during their 2020 Bootcamp before the pandemic. On March 27, the group performed in Recife, the group's last performance in Brazil as part of the tour. On March 28, the group left Brazil and traveled to Portugal to begin preparations for the tour's performances there.


title: Now United

text: On April 1, the group performed its first concert in Portugal in Lisbon, this marked the first time the group performed with 15 members with the addition of Joalin. On April 3, the group performed on the talent show Got Talent Portugal. After the concerts in Lisbon and Porto in Portugal, Melanie and Bailey traveled to the Ivory Coast to shoot a secret music video there, while the others traveled back home for a break, and some members traveled to the United States and Brazil for some reasons.


title: Now United

text: After a break, the group released a music video for the single "Heartbreak On The Dancefloor" on May 20, which was released by Vevo. On June 14, it was announced that the group will star in a musical film on the OP3N App. In June, the group released dance videos with members of The Future X, choreographed by Nicky Andersen. Pre-production of the already confirmed musical began and members of the LA began rehearsals. The group confirmed that the musical will begin filming in the UK in August. Zane Carter was a member of boot campers introduced last year.


title: Now United

text: On July 6, VEVO, a post on its Instagram page summing up the Top 10 music video of the year, reached number 6 on this list with the group's single "Jump". On July 19, the group confirmed that after they had completed the UK, the group's next destination would be France. On July 27, the group's logo changed across all their social media platforms, resulting in TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter as well. On August 8, they announced that their newest single "Like Me" would soon debut, the song was remixed by Eric Kupper. On August 10, the single "Like Me" was released on the PRO MOTION website in a 5-minute version and a radio edit which is 3 minutes long. PRO MOTION also served as a producer on the single and music video. On August 16, a dance video version of the group's newest single "Like Me" was released on their YouTube channel. On August 17, filming/work began for the upcoming musical. On August 19, the official music video for the single "Like Me" was released. The music video does not feature the version remixed by Eric Kupper.


title: Now United

text: On September 22, the group announced that they would be touring in November, the tour has 1 Brazilian (São Paulo) and 2 Portuguese (Lisbon, Braga) stops. The tour starts as "Forever United." 2 days after the tour was announced, Any Gabrielly announced that she was going to start her solo career, therefore announcing her departure from the group. She revealed that Simon Fuller will continue to be her manager and that he will help in the search for a new Brazilian member. On October 18, Noah Urrea announced via his Instagram profile that he was going to start his solo career, effectively announcing his departure from Now United, and Zane Carter, one of the 12 winners of the Now United Bootcampers in Abu Dhabi would replace him in representing the USA. On October 19, the group announced that the search for the 19th member from Portugal officially started. At the end of October, the group spent 4 days in Saud-Arabia. During this time, they filmed a music video for one of their singles in which R3HAB will once again be a co-performer. On October 31, Now United released the music video for Mélanie's highlight song "All Night Long". The music video served as a memory of their previous tour and as an invitation to the Forever United Tour. It also had scenes shot in the studio with Mélanie and Any.


title: Now United

text: On November 10, Josh Beauchamp announced through Instagram that he was going to start his solo career, also announcing his departure from the group. On November 14, the group released the music video for Noah’s solo "Good Intentions" which looked at the past 5 years Noah spent with the group. On November 15, the trailer for the group's newest musical was officially released, with the performance being "The Musical: Welcome To The Night Of Your Lives!" named. On November 16, the casting of the new Brazilian member was held at the Rexona Dance Studio in Sao Paulo. On November 19, the group announced on its TikTok page the 4 finalists among whom it will be decided who will represent Brazil. On November 19, the "Forever United Tour" kicked off, with the group performing in Sao Paulo as the first stop. During their time in Brazil, the group was invited to the TV Show The Noite com Danilo Gentili where, in addition to the "interview", they performed with the singles "All Night Long" and "Clockwork". They also gave interviews to the Brazilian MTV Hits, which was released on the Brazilian MTV YouTube channel. On 25 and 27 November, the "Forever United Tour" continued in Portugal, including Lisbon and then in Braga. The concerts in Portugal differed in stage appearance from those in Brazil, where various stage elements such as fire and confetti were used. In Portugal, they gave an interview to the SIC channel and performed with "All Night Long" for one of the charity shows.


title: Now United

text: On December 1, the group's single "Clockwork" was released, which was first heard on the Brazilian TV show The Noite. Any Gabrielly posted on her Twitter page that this "Clockwork" is her last song with Now United.


title: Now United

text: Now United has been perceived as a response from North American music managers in reaction to the rising global popularity of K-pop. Much of Now United's popularity is based in Latin America, where most of its streams and views come from. In a more critical article, BBC music correspondent, Mark Savage stated that the group have not yet troubled the charts and do not have the impact that Fuller's other clients have had.


title: Now United

text: In addition to singing, the group is known to perform elaborate and synchronized choreography. Fan interaction between the members and their fanbase has been seen as a factor behind their success, with the content being produced and released on a daily basis. The Group has since gained over 130 million followers across online platforms and over 1.8 billion views on their YouTube Channel.


title: Now United

text: Now United's status as one of Brazil's most popular music acts, their large fanbase, and social media following have made them attractive to large corporate brands including Pepsi, Forever 21, and KitKat. Now United is the official dance partner of Rexona Brazil, they have filmed several commercials for the brand and have released limited edition products. The group signed with Brazilian licensing agency, Redibra in 2021 which aims to offer exclusive products in the Brazilian market. In January 2019, the group signed a global sponsorship deal with Pepsi. In April 2021, the group teamed up with KitKat to launch a special edition KitKat Bar, which was sold exclusively in Brazil. Since December 2021, the group have partnered with record label VEVO for the promotion of their music videos.


title: Norman language

text: Norman or Norman French (, , Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to describe not only the Norman language, but also the administrative languages of "Anglo-Norman" and "Law French" used in England. For the most part, the written forms of Norman and modern French are mutually intelligible. This intelligibility was largely caused by the Norman language's planned adaptation to French orthography (writing).


title: Norman language

text: When Norse Vikings from modern day Scandinavia arrived in Neustria, in the western part of the then Kingdom of the Franks, and settled the land that became known as Normandy, these North-Germanic–speaking people came to live among a local Gallo-Romance–speaking population. In time, the communities converged, so that "Normandy" continued to form the name of the region while the original Norsemen were largely assimilated by the Gallo-Romance people, adopting their speech but still contributing some elements from Old Norse language and Norse culture. Later, when conquering England, the Norman rulers in England would eventually assimilate, thereby adopting the speech of the local English. In both cases, the elites contributed elements of their own language to the newly enriched languages that developed in the territories.


title: Norman language

text: In Normandy, the Norman language inherited only some 150 words from Old Norse. The influence on phonology is disputed, although it is argued that the retention of aspirated and in Norman is due to Norse influence.


title: Norman language

text: Norman is spoken in mainland Normandy in France, where it has no official status, but is classed as a regional language. It is taught in a few colleges near Cherbourg-Octeville.


title: Norman language

text: The British and Irish governments recognize Jèrriais and Guernésiais as regional languages within the framework of the British–Irish Council. Sercquiais is in fact a descendant of the 16th-century Jèrriais used by the original colonists from Jersey who settled the then uninhabited island.


title: Norman language

text: The last first-language speakers of Auregnais, the dialect of Norman spoken on Alderney, died during the 20th century, although some rememberers are still alive. The dialect of Herm also lapsed at an unknown date; the patois spoken there was likely Guernésiais (Herm was not inhabited all year round in the Norman culture's heyday).


title: Norman language

text: An isogloss termed the "Joret line" ("ligne Joret") separates the northern and southern dialects of the Norman language (the line runs from Granville, Manche to the French-speaking Belgian border in the province of Hainaut and Thiérache). Dialectal differences also distinguish western and eastern dialects.


title: Norman language

text: Three different standardized spellings are used: continental Norman, Jèrriais, and Dgèrnésiais. These represent the different developments and particular literary histories of the varieties of Norman. Norman may therefore be described as a pluricentric language.


title: Norman language

text: The Anglo-Norman dialect of Norman served as a language of administration in England following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This left a legacy of Law French in the language of English courts (though it was also influenced by Parisian French). In Ireland, Norman remained strongest in the area of south-east Ireland, where the Hiberno-Normans invaded in 1169. Norman remains in (limited) use for some very formal legal purposes in the UK, such as when the monarch gives royal assent to an Act of Parliament using the phrase, "Le Roy (la Reyne) le veult" ("The King (the Queen) wills it").


title: Norman language

text: The Norman conquest of southern Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries brought the language to Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula, where it may have left a few words in the Sicilian language. "See: Norman and French influence on Sicilian."


title: Norman language

text: Literature in Norman ranges from early Anglo-Norman literature through the 19th-century Norman literary renaissance to modern writers ("see" list of Norman-language writers).


title: Norman language

text: Norman French preserves a number of Old French words which have been lost in Modern French. Examples of Norman French words of Old French origin:


title: Norman language

text: Examples of Norman French words with "c-" / "qu-" and "g-" instead of "ch-" and "j" in Standard French


title: Norman language

text: In some cases, Norse words adopted in Norman have been borrowed into French – and more recently some of the English words used in French can be traced back to Norman origins.


title: Norman language

text: Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Norman and other languages and dialects spoken by the new rulers of England were used during several hundred years, developing into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo-Norman French, and leaving traces of specifically Norman words that can be distinguished from the equivalent lexical items in French:


title: Norman language

text: Other borrowings, such as "canvas", "captain", "cattle" and "kennel", exemplify how Norman retained Latin /k/ that was not retained in French.


title: Norman language

text: In the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament are confirmed with the words "Le Roy le veult" ("The King wishes it") and other Norman phrases are used on formal occasions as legislation progresses.


title: Norman language

text: Norman immigrants to North America also introduced some "Normanisms" to Quebec French and the French language in Canada generally. Joual, a working class sociolect of Quebec, in particular exhibits a Norman influence. For example the word "placoter" can mean both to splash around or to chatter comes from the Normand French word "clapoter" which means the same thing.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Gamora is a fictional character portrayed primarily by Zoe Saldaña in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Gamora is depicted as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, having escaped her previous life as an assassin after she was forcibly adopted by Thanos after he eliminated half of her planet's race, including her mother. For the next twenty years, she served Thanos as a cybernetically enhanced warrior, until betraying him to join the Guardians. She becomes romantically involved with Peter Quill, and develops a positive relationship with her adopted sister Nebula despite their rivalrous upbringing. She is eventually killed by Thanos when he sacrifices her on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. When the Avengers use time travel in an effort to undo Thanos' actions, an alternate 2014-Gamora accompanies 2014-Thanos to confront the Avengers in 2023 after he hijacks their technology. However, she switches sides and joins the fight against her father, but disappears after his defeat.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: , Gamora has appeared in four films and will return in the upcoming film "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023). The character and Saldaña's portrayal have been met with positive reception.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Alternate versions of Gamora from within the MCU multiverse appear in "" (2019) and in the animated series "What If...?" (2021). One version, voiced by Cynthia McWilliams, usurped Thanos's warlord position and is recruited into the Guardians of the Multiverse by the Watcher to help defeat an alternate version of Ultron.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Gamora debuted as a comic book character in "Strange Tales" #180 (1975), and was created by Jim Starlin. She returned in issue #181, "Warlock" vol. 1 #9, 10, 11 and 15 (1975–1976), and in the 1977 annuals for "Avengers" and "Marvel Two-in-One". In 1990, she returned in "Silver Surfer" vol. 3 #46–47. She had a minor role in "Infinity Gauntlet" #1–6 (1991) and co-starred in "Warlock and the Infinity Watch" #1–42 (1992–1995). She was also featured in the "Infinity War" (1992) and "Infinity Crusade" (1993) crossovers. After appearing in "Infinity Abyss" #1–6 (2002), "Annihilation: Ronan" #1–4 (2006), "Annihilation" #1–6 (2006), "Annihilation: Conquest" #6 (2008) and "Nova" vol. 4 #4–12 (2007–2008), Gamora costarred in "Guardians of the Galaxy" vol. 2 #1–25 (2008–2010).


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige first mentioned "Guardians of the Galaxy" as a potential film at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, stating, "There are some obscure titles, too, like "Guardians of the Galaxy". I think they've been revamped recently in a fun way in the [comic] book." Feige reiterated that sentiment in a September 2011 issue of "Entertainment Weekly", saying, "There's an opportunity to do a big space epic, which "Thor" sort of hints at, in the cosmic side" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Feige added, should the film be made, it would feature an ensemble of characters, similar to "X-Men" and "The Avengers". Feige announced that the film was in active development at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International during the Marvel Studios panel, with an intended release date of August 1, 2014. He said the film's titular team would consist of the characters Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In early April 2013, Zoe Saldaña entered into negotiations to star as Gamora in the film, and it was confirmed she had been cast later that month. Amanda Seyfried had been offered the role, but declined due to the excessive hours of make-up required for the role, and her uncertainty over the film's commercial viability.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: As a child, Gamora's planet was invaded by Thanos, whose forces killed half the population, including her parents. Gamora confronted him, who admired her courage in doing so, with Thanos adopting her as his daughter. She was trained as an assassin, and raised alongside Nebula, whom she was often pitted against in fights, in which Gamora always won.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Gamora plans to rebel against Thanos when he sends her to aid Ronan the Accuser, a Kree fanatic who wants to destroy the planet Xandar. She travels to Xandar to retrieve an Infinity Stone that has been acquired by Peter Quill in order to sell it for enough money to afford to live the rest of her life. Due to the interference of bounty hunters Rocket and Groot, she is instead captured by Xandar's law enforcement, the Nova Corps, and sent to a space prison called the Kyln, along with Quill, Rocket and Groot. There, she is threatened by Drax the Destroyer, whose family was killed by Ronan under the command of Thanos, but Drax spares her life when Quill assures him that her presence will draw Ronan to them. Gamora joins Quill, Rocket, Groot, and Drax in escaping the prison. The group form the Guardians of the Galaxy and travel to Knowhere, where Gamora meets with the Collector. After being attacked by Nebula, Gamora and the Guardians are able to save Xandar from Ronan. Because of her heroic actions, Gamora is cleared of her previous crimes.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Some months later, Gamora and the Guardians are hired by the Sovereign to fight off an alien attacking their valuable batteries, in exchange for a captured Nebula. After they leave, they are chased by the Sovereign's fleet after Rocket reveals that he stole some of the batteries. Crash landing on a planet, they meet Quill's father, Ego. Gamora, Quill, and Drax decide to go with Ego to his planet, while Rocket, Groot, and Nebula stay behind. On Ego's planet, they meet Ego's assistant Mantis, and Gamora and Quill begin a romantic relationship. While exploring the planet, Gamora is attacked by an escaped Nebula. After Gamora saves Nebula from her burning spaceship, the two sisters reconcile. They meet up with the Guardians and find out about Ego's true evil plans. She and Nebula then help each other get to safety while escaping the planet, and once in space, she and Nebula say their goodbyes, after Nebula tells her that she's going after Thanos.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Four years later, Gamora and the Guardians respond to a distress signal in space and end up rescuing Thor from his destroyed spacecraft, thereby learning about Thanos's quest to obtain the Infinity Stones. Gamora grimly tells Quill that she knows something Thanos does not and asks him to kill her if needed. On Knowhere, Gamora, Quill, Mantis, and Drax see Thanos, and Gamora immediately attacks him, seemingly killing him. However, Thanos reveals himself, showing her that Knowhere is destroyed and that he already has the Reality Stone. After a failed attempt to kill her by Quill, Thanos kidnaps her and takes her upon his spaceship. He shows her a captured and tortured Nebula to emotionally manipulate Gamora into revealing the location of the Soul Stone. Thanos and Gamora go to the planet Vormir where they are met by the Red Skull who tells them that to obtain the Soul Stone, one must sacrifice what they love. Thanos admits that he truly loves Gamora as his daughter, and tearfully throws her off the cliff to her death. When Thanos later uses the completed Infinity Gauntlet, he briefly reunites with a younger Gamora inside the Soul World.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate 2014, Gamora and Nebula are summoned by Thanos, who orders them to assist Ronan in obtaining the Power Stone. Before they can leave, however, Nebula begins to malfunction due to the presence of the time-traveling 2023 Nebula. After capturing 2023-Nebula, Thanos analyzes her memories and learns about his deceased 2018 self's victory. Gamora is then brought through the Quantum Realm to the current timeline and is recruited by the current Nebula to join her side. They find 2014-Nebula in the destroyed Avengers Compound and try to convince her to abandon Thanos. However, she refuses, and is killed by the current Nebula. Gamora then joins her in participating in the battle alongside the restored Avengers and 2023-Nebula's Guardians of the Galaxy. During the battle, Gamora encounters Quill, but not knowing who he is, knocks him down. After the battle is over, she leaves the battlefield.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Several alternate versions of Gamora appear in the animated series "What If...?", in which she is voiced by Cynthia McWilliams.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In an alternate 2015, Gamora, along with the other Guardians of the Galaxy, is killed while defending the Sovereign from Ultron.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In another universe, Gamora kills Thanos, seizes his armor and sword, assumes his position as a warlord, befriends Tony Stark, and becomes a champion on Sakaar.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: While traveling to Nidavellir with Stark, she is recruited by the Watcher to join the Guardians of the Multiverse to help stop Ultron. The Guardians devise a plan to destroy Ultron's Infinity Stones using the Infinity Crusher, only to discover that the Crusher does not work outside of Gamora's reality. After Ultron is eventually defeated, the Watcher returns Gamora to her universe, where she resumes her travels with Stark.


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Gamora is an orphan from an alien world who seeks redemption for her past crimes. She was trained by Thanos to be his personal assassin. Saldaña said that she became Gamora through make-up rather than computer-generated imagery (CGI) or performance capture. On taking the role, Saldaña said, "I was just excited to be asked to join by James Gunn and to also play someone green. I've been blue before [in "Avatar"]." Saldaña described Gamora as "a warrior, she's an assassin and she's very lethal, but what saves her is the same thing that can doom her. She has a sense of righteousness. She's a very righteous individual."


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: She appears as a member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, eventually finding love with Peter Quill as seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "". Saldaña described Gamora's role in "Vol. 2", as the team's "the voice of reason", saying, "She's surrounded by all these dudes who are so stupid half the time," and added that she is the "Mom" of the team, saying that she is "just a meticulous, detailed, professional individual." Regarding Gamora's relationship with Nebula, Saldaña described it as "volatile" and added, "we're starting somewhere very crazy but appropriate given where we had ended things off in the first installment".


title: Gamora (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: In "", Gamora is still in a relationship with Quill. She is captured by Thanos and taken to Vormir where she is killed so Thanos can receive the Soul Stone. Ariana Greenblatt portrays a young Gamora in "Infinity War" in a flashback, as well as when she is with Thanos in the Soul Stone's "Soul World".


title: Annabel Chong

text: Grace Quek (), known professionally as Annabel Chong, is a Singaporean former pornographic actress who became famous after starring in an adult film that was promoted as "The World's Biggest Gang Bang". The film was commercially successful and started a trend of "record-breaking" gang bang pornography. Four years later, Quek was the subject of the documentary "", in which she was interviewed about her pornography career. She retired from the adult industry completely in 2003 to work in software engineering.


title: Annabel Chong

text: Quek was born and raised in Singapore in a middle-class Protestant Singaporean Chinese family. She was the only child of two teachers. She was a student at Raffles Girls' School, where she was enlisted in the country's Gifted Education Programme and Hwa Chong Junior College. Former teachers and classmates describe Quek as quiet, conservative, intelligent, and studious.


title: Annabel Chong

text: After taking her A-levels, she took three gap-years, including a year spent in the United States, before going on to study law at King's College London on a scholarship.


title: Annabel Chong

text: While in the United Kingdom, Quek was riding on a train and met a man she became attracted to, and agreed to have sex with him in an alleyway. He brought along other men, and she was gang raped and robbed in a rubbish closet under an inner-city housing block.


title: Annabel Chong

text: At the age of 21, she dropped out of law school and went on to study photography, art and gender studies at the University of Southern California (USC), where she excelled academically. At the same time, she also began working in pornographic films. She later went on to do graduate studies in gender studies at USC.


title: Annabel Chong

text: Since her parents did not approve of her dropping out of law school, she needed a source of income to pay her college fees. In 1994, she started in porn by answering an advertisement for a modelling agency in "LA Weekly". Quek was reportedly interested in blurring the boundary between pornography and performance art in her work.


title: Annabel Chong

text: The production that propelled her into the limelight was another Bone production, "The World's Biggest Gang Bang". Quek took part in this gang bang on January 19, 1995, when she was 22 years old. She said part of her motivation to do the film was a desire to challenge gender roles. She appeared in advertisements on adult television to solicit 300 participants for the event. Initial reports differed as to whether she had sex with 251 men over the course of 10 hours, or with around 70 men multiple times to reach a total of 251: the largest number ever in a pornographic film. Acting on the understanding that male participants who had verified a recent negative test for HIV would wear a colour-coded tag, Quek had sex with some men without a condom. It later emerged that the testing had not been as strictly verified as the producers had led her to believe. Even though the film became one of the highest-grossing pornographic films of all time, she was never paid the US$10,000 she was promised, and she apparently never received any money from the video.


title: Annabel Chong

text: After the event Quek made a host of media appearances, including "The Jerry Springer Show" and "The Girlie Show". Loretta Chen viewed Quek's work in pornography as an attempt to challenge the settled notions and assumptions of viewers about female sexuality and gender boundaries, but was not taken seriously enough. For example, her conception of a gang bang was based on the example of Messalina, a wife of the emperor Claudius. Historically Messalina suffered from a poor reputation, a fact that some attributed (at least partly) to gender bias. According to Quek, she sought to question the double standard that denies women the ability to exhibit the same sexuality as men, by modelling what a female "stud" would be.


title: Annabel Chong

text: In her March 2000 appearance on the radio program "Loveline", Quek admitted that there were slightly fewer than 70 men in her gang bang and that there were water and lunch breaks during the ten-hour shoot. For her performance, she earned a "dubious achievement award" in "Esquire" magazine.


title: Annabel Chong

text: The event also prompted author Chuck Palahniuk to write a novel, "Snuff", about a fictional character who aimed to surpass Quek's record by having sex with 600 men. In 2007 a play written by Ng Yi Sheng based on her story, "251", was staged in Singapore, directed by Loretta Chen.


title: Annabel Chong

text: Quek's media appearances caught the interest of Canadian film student Gough Lewis. He met Quek and set out to produce a documentary about her. While filming, Quek and Lewis became involved in a romantic relationship. The film, "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story," was released in 1999. It includes footage from the gang bang shooting and her subsequent publicity appearances, explores her motives, revisits with her the site of her rape and depicts a painful conversation in Singapore between Quek and her mother, who had not known about her daughter's porn career before then. It was directed by Lewis and featured contributions from Quek, Al Goldstein, Ron Jeremy and Seymore Butts. In the film, Quek stated that she intended the "World's Biggest Gang Bang" to challenge "the notion of women as passive sex objects," and added, "We're not wilting violets, we're not victims, for Christ's sake. Female sexuality is as aggressive as male sexuality. I wanted to take on the role of the stud. The more [partners], the better." She also self-harmed in the film, taking a knife to her arm. The documentary propelled her further into the world media as it became a hit at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. Since the release of the documentary, Quek has accused Lewis of misconstruing events in the film and portraying events in "misleading" way.


title: Annabel Chong

text: Quek continued to work in the adult industry for a short while after the documentary came out, directing and starring in films as well as setting up a website. In 2000 she directed and performed in the gang bang film "Pornomancer", her take on William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer". After 2000 she largely stopped appearing in mainstream adult videos, concentrating instead on producing content for her website and appearing in a few BDSM videos. In 2003 she completely retired from porn, thanking her fans in a final message on her website that announced, "Annabel is dead and is now replaced full time by her Evil Doppelgänger, who is incredibly bored with the entire concept of Annabel and would prefer to do something different for a change." She stated that she intended to "begin her new life of peace and relative obscurity." She stopped discussing her former career in the adult industry after her retirement. In limited correspondence for the biographical play "251," she told the producers, "Do whatever you want with Annabel Chong because this person doesn't exist anymore." In 2011 "Complex" magazine ranked her at #41 in their list of "The Top 50 Hottest Asian Porn Stars of All Time".


title: Annabel Chong

text: In 2000, while working in a strip club, she role-played as a student learning how to write computer codes, while her client would spank her whenever she made a mistake. After the role-play, she was inspired to learn how to write computer codes. In 2001, she attained an associate degree in software engineering at Westwood College. After graduating, she worked as a freelance consultant until becoming a full-time engineer after retiring from porn. she works as a web developer in California.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936. The draft was held April 26–27, 2003 at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: The draft was broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 beginning at noon on Saturday, April 26 and beginning at 11:00 am on Sunday, April 27. The draft consisted of seven rounds, with teams selecting in the reverse order of the finish the previous season. There were 32 compensatory picks distributed among 15 teams, with five teams each receiving four additional selections. In addition, the Houston Texans, who started play as an expansion franchise the previous season, were granted a supplemental selection in the middle of each of the draft's final five rounds, plus the final selection in the final two rounds.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: There was little drama when the draft began with the Cincinnati Bengals selecting Carson Palmer, as Palmer had agreed to contract terms with the Bengals the previous day. He became the first Heisman Trophy winner selected first overall in the draft since Vinny Testaverde in 1987. The event ended nearly 30 hours later with Ryan Hoag being chosen by the Oakland Raiders with the final pick and thus gaining the distinction of "Mr. Irrelevant".


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: The draft took an odd turn with the Minnesota Vikings' pick in the first round. The Vikings were apparently attempting to consummate a trade when their fifteen-minute time allowance elapsed. The Jaguars who selected next were quick to pounce, turning in their card to select QB Byron Leftwich immediately after the Vikings' time elapsed. The Panthers also took advantage of the gaffe, selecting OT Jordan Gross before the Vikings recovered and selected DT Kevin Williams. Nevertheless, the mistake may have worked in the Vikings' favor as Williams went on to be a mainstay in their team, missing only four games in his first 10 seasons in the NFL and making six Pro Bowls.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: The colleges with the most players selected in the draft were Florida, Miami and Tennessee which each had eight players chosen. Meanwhile, Penn State and Miami each had four players selected in the first round. Eleven defensive linemen were selected in round one, eclipsing the previous record of nine, set in 2001. Ten underclassmen were taken in the first round, including three of the first four overall selections. The first round lasted nearly five hours. The Buffalo Bills selection of Miami's Willis McGahee as the first running back off the board was notable because he was recovering from a career-threatening injury he suffered in the Fiesta Bowl which it was believed could have caused him to miss the upcoming season.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: This draft is notable for its excellent undrafted players, including longtime Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and longtime San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: As of 2021, the 2003 draft is the most recent draft with no remaining active players; the last active player from this draft was third-round tight end Jason Witten, who played his last game in 2020 for the relocated Las Vegas Raiders.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: In the explanations below, (D) denotes trades that took place during the draft, while (PD) indicates trades completed pre-draft.


title: 2003 NFL Draft

text: For each player selected in the Supplemental Draft, the team forfeited its pick in that round in the draft of the following season.


title: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen

text: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (born 16 January 1982) is a Danish actress. She has been nominated for three Robert Awards and one Bodil Award. Born in Hillerød and raised in Birkerød, Sørensen aspired to an acting career after watching the West End production of the musical "Chicago" while at school. She graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts. Her acting debut was in a minor role in the television series "The Eagle" in 2005. She followed this by playing Roxie Hart in a Copenhagen production of "Chicago", and later on the West End. Sørensen's breakthrough role was as journalist Katrine Fønsmark in the television political drama "Borgen" (2010–2013, 2022).


title: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen

text: Sørensen was born in Hillerød on 16 January 1982. She grew up in Birkerød. Both her parents are doctors and she has two elder sisters. Her early education was at the Bistrup School in Birkerød and Øregård Gymnasium in Hellerup. At the latter, she was the student council chairman and editor of the school magazine. Sørensen decided in her early teens not to follow her parents' footsteps in pursuing a career in medicine after work experience with her mother at a geriatrics ward. She stated, 'Being met with that number of people who can no longer go to the bathroom or eat by themselves, it was traumatising. I lived too much with their misery.'


title: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen

text: While on a school trip to London at the age of 19, she watched the West End production of the musical "Chicago" which motivated her to become an actress. Sørensen spoke of the experience in an interview for "The Guardian", "It was so amazing and sexy, and I sat there thinking, 'I want to be on that stage one day.'". Her motivation was solidified by her participation in a mini-musical school organised by the which provided a six month introduction to musical theatre. She continued her studies at the Danish National School of Performing Arts, during which time Sørensen made her acting debut in 2005 as a receptionist on the television series "The Eagle". The school forbid its students from having jobs so Sørensen feigned illness to appear on the television show. Two years later she played the lead role of Roxie Hart in the 2007 production of "Chicago" at the Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen. The musical was critically acclaimed and became the highest grossing Danish theatre production of the year. For her performance she received a Reumert prize. Sørensen then reprised the role in the West End production in 2008 at the Cambridge Theatre.