title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 2008, he returned to The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry (the theatre where he started his career) to direct Joanna Murray-Smith's adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film "Scenes from a Marriage" starring Imogen Stubbs and Iain Glen. His musical adaptation of "Gone with the Wind" opened at the New London Theatre in April 2008 and, after poor reviews, closed on 14 June 2008 after 79 performances. In December 2008, he directed a revival of "A Little Night Music" at the Menier Chocolate Factory, which transferred to the West End at the Garrick Theatre in 2009. The production transferred to Broadway, opening in November 2009, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree Armfeldt and Angela Lansbury as Madame Armfeldt. Other members of the original London cast also transferred with the production. The production closed in January 2011 after 425 performances.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 2010, Nunn directed a revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Aspects of Love" from July to September 2010 at the Menier Chocolate Factory and the play "Birdsong", which opened in September 2010 at the Comedy Theatre, based on the Sebastian Faulks novel of the same title.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: Nunn marked his debut as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a revival of "Flare Path" (as part of the playwright, Terence Rattigan's, centenary year celebrations). The production, starring Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith, opened in March 2011 and closed in June 2011, and was followed by productions of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", (June – August 2011) and "The Tempest", starring Ralph Fiennes (September – October 2011). His final production at the Haymarket, "The Lion in Winter" (November 2011 – January 2012), starred Joanna Lumley and Robert Lindsay.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: For Christmas 2018, Nunn directed a revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Menier Chocolate Factory, before transferring to the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End for a limited season in spring 2019. The production starred Andy Nyman as Tevye and Judy Kuhn as Golde.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 2020, he was due to direct a new musical "Identical" based on "The Parent Trap". It was due to have its world premiere at the Nottingham Playhouse before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Bath over the summer of 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the production has been delayed until 2021.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: Nunn has directed opera at Glyndebourne. He re-staged his highly successful Glyndebourne production of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" for television in 1993, and was highly praised.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: He has directed for film, including "Lady Jane" (1986), "Hedda", an adaptation of Hedda Gabler, and a of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night".


title: Trevor Nunn

text: Nunn has been married three times and has five children. He was married to actress Janet Suzman from 17 October 1969 until their divorce in 1986. They have one son, Joshua. From 1986 until their 1991 divorce, he was married to Sharon Lee-Hill, with whom he has two children, Laurie and Amy.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 1994, he married actress Imogen Stubbs with whom he has two children, Ellie and Jesse. In April 2011 Stubbs announced their separation.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 1998 Nunn was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. In 2002, he was knighted.


title: Trevor Nunn

text: In 2014, Nunn told "The Telegraph" that Shakespeare was his religion. "Shakespeare has more wisdom and insight about our lives, about how to live and how not to live, how to forgive and how to understand our fellow creatures, than any religious tract. One hundred times more than the Bible. I'm sorry to say that. But over and over again in the plays there is an understanding of the human condition that doesn't exist in religious books".


title: Trevor Nunn

text: Sources: Internet Broadway Database, Tony Awards Database (broadwayworld.com), Drama Desk History, Olivier Awards: Past Nominees and Winners


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Thanks for Sharing is a 2012 American comedy-drama film directed by Stuart Blumberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Winston. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit, Carol Kane, and Pink (credited as Alecia Moore), with a supporting cast including Michaela Watkins, Emily Meade, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews, and was released in the United States a year later.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Set in New York City, "Thanks for Sharing" centers around three people undergoing a 12-step process to recover from their sexual addiction.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Adam has been abstinent for five years. He's shown walking the streets of New York, tempted by sexy ads and gorgeous women on his way to work. Neil is a young doctor who's been court ordered to attend sex addiction meetings after he was convicted of frottage (rubbing against people in public). He's shown grinding against a stranger on the subway (and getting punched for it) on the way to the sex addiction meeting. Mike is a married recovering sex addict and group leader. He sponsors Adam, who in turn sponsors Neil.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: They are all at the sex addiction meeting, talking about their progress. Neil lies about being one month sober to the addiction group. At the coffee shop social afterwards, Mike encourages Adam to date, saying "it's time." Adam says he's not sure.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Neil is shown being a good doctor at work, but also making inappropriate jokes, which gets him in trouble. Adam had asked Neil to do journaling work, but Neil has blown it off, watching porn instead. When Adam finds out, he says he can no longer sponsor Neil if he's not going to do the work.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Adam meets Phoebe at a party and they hit it off. They go out on a date, where Phoebe reveals she is a breast cancer survivor and her ex is an alcoholic. She says she refuses to date another addict, and while Adam assures her he's not an alcoholic, he doesn't tell her the whole truth about his own addiction. They begin a relationship.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Dede joins the sex addiction meetings, saying her addiction began from a very young age and sex is the only way she knows how to relate to men.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: At Neil's work, he tries to excuse his behavior the previous day to his boss, and by accident is caught secretly filming up her skirt. It's only after he's fired does he admit to the group that he's out of control and intends to take his meetings seriously. Adam agrees to sponsor him once again, but demands that he isn't allowed to take the subway, and must attend 90 meetings in 90 days. Neil, clearly freaked out, agrees.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Meanwhile, Mike's son Danny, a recovering drug addict, has returned home and is attempting to make amends to his parents. He tells them he's been clean and sober for the past eight months, and has been traveling around the country.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Phoebe discovers a sobriety medal after sleeping with Adam and confronts him about it. Adam admits the sex addiction, and Phoebe seems judgmental. Which Adam says is why he was hesitant to tell her. She takes some time away from him, but eventually she returns, and asks him what his sex addiction looked like. He tells her everything: about the constant masturbation, hitting on every woman he met, one-night stands, and prostitutes. She expresses worry that he'll fall off the wagon. After Adam tells her his sobriety is the most important thing in his life, she agrees to resume their relationship.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Dede calls Neil in a panic, wanting to have sex with her abusive ex, but she can't get a hold of her sponsor. Neil is very compassionate and talks her through what the ramifications of her having sex with her ex would be. He literally runs to her location to give her support. She lends Neil her bike, and soon we see him embracing the biking lifestyle. Later they go dancing. They almost kiss, but don't.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Phoebe and Adam are having a nice dinner when they are approached by a young girl who is clearly one of Adam's casual flings. Phoebe makes a joke about it, but later that night she catches Adam on the phone. He says it's someone he sponsors. Phoebe doesn't believe him and asks to see his phone. At first Adam refuses but then relents. He was telling the truth but it's clear Phoebe doesn't trust him. Adam brings up some of Phoebe's issues, and the two have harsh words, with Phoebe leaving.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Mike and Danny get into a fight when Mike assumes he stole his mother's pills. Danny mentions Mike gave Katie hepatitis C, and confronts him about hitting him when as a child. Mike slaps him, he attacks back knocking Katie over; realizing what he has done, Danny panics and runs out.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: The next day Adam goes on a work trip to DC. There he tries to get hold of Mike for support, as he's afraid he's going to fall off the wagon. Since Mike is busy with family issues, Adam goes on a bender. He buys a laptop to jerk off to porn, and hires a prostitute.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Dede goes over to Neil's and helps him to clean up his house and burn his porn. She admits she has never been "just friends" with a man before.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Mike finds Katie's pills, realizing Danny didn't steal them. She tells him off for "always having to be right" and tells him to leave the house. While he is about to relapse with a bottle of bourbon, Katie calls to tell him Danny is in the hospital after a DUI. Danny says Mike is probably glad to see he fucked up, but Mike, clearly upset, hugs his son and says, "I'm sorry" over and over.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: After he returns to New York, Adam invites Becky over, and they start doing daddy/daughter role play. It gets intense very quickly and Becky starts slapping Adam, daring him to slap her back. When he tells her he isn't into that, she freaks out and starts screaming and crying, then locks herself in the bathroom. In desperation Adam calls Neil, who takes the train to get to Adam's. He breaks down the bathroom door and discovers Becky has taken a bunch of pills. Neil switches to calm doctor mode and takes care of her.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Adam gets sober and apologizes to Phoebe, who admits she needed to hear what he said about her own issues. Neil confronts his inappropriately sexual mother, Roberta, and the addicts celebrate their sobriety.


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: "Thanks for Sharing" was met with mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a positive score of 51% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 5.59/10. The site's critics consensus reads: ""Thanks For Sharing" showcases some fine performances but doesn't delve into its thorny premise as deeply as it should". Metacritic reports a score of 54 out of 100, based on 38 reviews, indicating "Mixed or average reviews".


title: Thanks for Sharing

text: Richard Roeper gave the film a largely positive review, saying "First-time director Blumberg does a fine job and makes some brave choices." Laremy Legel of Film.com was among the most critical, giving the film a D+, and commenting that it "can't quite find its footing as either a drama or a comedy, and near the end it's actively sliding off the rails". Nigel Barrington of the "Daily Chronicle" also criticized the film heavily, dubbing it "First World Problems: The Movie". Otherwise, Alecia Moore's role was praised by critics. Dan Callahan wrote about her performance saying, "Of all the cast here, the least experienced is the pop singer Pink, yet she does the best acting in the film: natural, a little harsh, a little unstable. Pink, like Macy Gray in her Lee Daniels movie roles, knows instinctively how to behave on camera by just pretending that the camera isn't there." Sandy Schaefer praised the film, arguing that "the good elements outweigh the bad in Thanks for Sharing and the final result is a commendable examination of addiction, sex and the nature of grown-up relationships (among other issues that are rarely black and white)."


title: Naaman

text: Naaman ( "Naʿămān", "pleasantness") the Aramean was a commander of the armies of Ben-Hadad II, the king of Aram-Damascus, in the time of Joram, king of Israel.


title: Naaman

text: According to the Bible, Naaman was a commander of the army of Syria. He was a good commander and was held in favor because of the victory that God brought him. Yet Naaman was a leper. Naaman's wife had a servant girl from Israel who said that a prophet there would be able to heal him. Naaman tells his lord this and he is sent to Israel with a letter to the king. The king of Israel didn't know what to do, yet Elisha (Eliseus) sent a message to the King, advising that the King tell Naaman to come to see him. Elisha then told Naaman to go bathe in the Jordan seven times and he would be clean. Naaman was angry and would have left, but his servant asked him to try it and he was healed. A servant of Elisha, Gehazi, seeing Naaman being turned away from offering God offerings, ran after him and falsely asked for clothing and silver for visitors. And the leprosy from Naaman fell on Gehazi and would remain in his descendants.


title: Naaman

text: Naaman is mentioned in 2 Kings 5 of the Tanakh in Hebrew as "וְ֠נַעֲמָן שַׂר־ צְבָ֨א מֶֽלֶךְ־ אֲרָ֜ם" or "Naaman captain of the army of the King of Aram".


title: Naaman

text: According to the narrative, he is called a "mezora" (מְּצֹרָע), a person affected by the skin disease "tzaraath" (צָּרַעַת, tzara'at). When the Hebrew slave-girl who waits on his wife tells her of a Jewish prophet in Samaria who can cure her master, he obtains a letter from King Ben-Hadad II of Aram to King Joram of Israel in which Ben-Hadad asks Joram to arrange for the healing of his subject Naaman. Naaman proceeds with the letter to King Joram. The king of Israel suspects in this – to him – impossible request a pretext of Syria for later starting a war against him, and tears his clothes.


title: Naaman

text: When the prophet Elisha hears about this, he sends for general Naaman. But rather than personally receiving Naaman when the latter arrives at Elisha's house, Elisha merely sends a messenger to the door who tells Naaman to cure his affliction by dipping himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman, a man of heathen faith who is unfamiliar with the Jewish "mezora", had expected the prophet himself to come out to him and to perform some kind of impressive ritual magic; he angrily refuses, and prepares to go home unhealed. Only after Naaman's slaves suggest to their master that he has nothing to lose by at least giving it a try since the task is a simple and easy one, he takes his bath in the Jordan river as a "mikveh" as instructed and finds himself healed. (The "mikveh" is a bath used for ritual immersion in Judaism.)


title: Naaman

text: Naaman returns to Elisha with lavish gifts, which Elisha flatly refuses to accept. Naaman also renounces his former god Rimmon after being cured by Elisha - acknowledges solely the God of Israel.


title: Naaman

text: He does, however, ask for sacrificial altar soil to be given him to take back home and that the God of Israel pardon him when he enters the temple of Rimmon as part of his obligations to the king of Syria.


title: Naaman

text: According to Rabbinic teaching, Naaman was the archer who drew his bow at a venture and mortally wounded Ahab, King of Israel (I Kings xxii. 34). This event is alluded to in the words "because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria" (II Kings v. 1), and therefore the Syrian king, Naaman's master, was Benhadad (Midrash Shoḥer Ṭob to. Ps. lx.; Arama, "'Aḳedat Yiẓḥaḳ," ch. lxi.). Naaman is represented as vain and haughty, on account of which he was stricken with leprosy (Num. R. vii. 5; comp. Arama, l.c.). Tanḥuma, Tazria' (end), however, says that Naaman was stricken with leprosy for taking an Israelitish maiden and making her his wife's servant (comp. II Kings v. 2). Naaman is understood as Moab in the expression "Moab is my washpot" (Ps. lx. 8), which the Rabbis regard as an allusion to Naaman's bathing in the Jordan; the appellation "Moab" is a play on the word "abi" (= "my father"), by which Naaman was addressed by his servants in II Kings v. 13 (Num. R. xiv. 4). Naaman was a "ger toshab," that is, he was not a perfect proselyte, having accepted only some of the commandments (Giṭ. 57b; Deut. R. ii.). The Mekilta (Yitro, 'Amaleḳ, 1), however, places Naaman's conversion above Jethro's.


title: Naaman

text: As the object of the narrative of Naaman's sickness and restoration to health is, apparently, to form a link in the long series of miracles performed by Elisha, the redactor of II Kings did not concern himself to indicate the time when this event occurred. The rabbinical tradition that Naaman was the archer (I Kings xxii. 34) who mortally wounded Ahab seems to have been adopted by Josephus ("Ant." viii. 15, § 5). If the tradition is correct, the Syrian king whom Naaman served must have been Ben-hadad II.; but as the interval between the death of Ahab and the curing of Naaman's leprosy is not known, it is impossible to identify the King of Israel to whom Naaman was sent with a letter. Ewald ("Gesch." iii. 552 et seq.) thinks the king referred to was Jehoahaz, while Schenkel ("Biblical Lexicon") suggests Jehu, but the general view is that it was Jehoram. The passage ("because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria," II Kings v. 1) upon which the identification of Naaman with Ahab's slayer is based by the Rabbis is referred by G. Rawlinson, however (in the "Speaker's Commentary"), to the Syrian triumph over Shalmaneser II. (comp. Rawlinson, "Ancient Monarchies," ii. 344, 361).


title: Naaman

text: The request of Naaman to be permitted to carry away two mules' burden of Israelitish earth for the purpose of erecting upon it an altar on which to offer sacrifices to Yhwh, reflects the belief of those days that the god of each land could be worshiped only on his own soil. The expression "So he departed from him a little way" (; II Kings v. 19) seems to contradict the assertion of Naaman's intention to return to Syria with the two loads of earth. The word is transliterated in the Septuagint (Vatican) δεβραθα and (Lucian) χαβραθα, while the Alexandrian codex has καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ' ἀυτōν ἀπό τῆς γῆς Ἰσραηλ, apparently reading . Klostermann ("Die Bücher Samuelis und der Könige"), while supplying, with the Alexandrian codex, the word , connects this passage with Naaman's departure with the loads of earth, and renders the passage as "and he carried away from him about a cor of the earth of Israel."


title: Naaman

text: Naaman is also mentioned in Luke 4 of the New Testament, in Greek as "Ναιμὰν ὁ Σύρος" or "Naaman the Syrian", a leper.


title: Naaman

text: Christian theology depicts Naaman as an example for the will of God to save people who are considered by men as less than pious and unworthy of salvation.


title: Naaman

text: The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, uses the word "baptizein" for the dipping that heals the heathen Naaman from the skin disease called "tzaraath". The new baptism takes place in the Jordan River where Jesus of Nazareth, also called the Christ by his followers, was baptized many centuries later.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Regular Show: The Movie is a 2015 American animated science fiction comedy film based on the animated series "Regular Show". Produced by Cartoon Network Studios, the film was directed by J. G. Quintel and features the voices of William Salyers, Quintel, Sam Marin, and Mark Hamill reprising their respective roles from the series, with Jason Mantzoukas and David Koechner joining the cast. The film follows Mordecai and Rigby, along with their groundskeeping co-workers Benson, Pops, Muscle Man, Hi-Five Ghost and Skips, as they embark on a mission to save the universe, and their friendship, from a vengeful volleyball coach.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The film premiered on August 14, 2015, at The Downtown Independent theater in Los Angeles, where it was shown until August 20, 2015. The film was released digitally on September 1, 2015, on DVD on October 13, 2015, and ultimately had its television premiere on November 25, 2015, on Cartoon Network. The events of the film take place during the seventh season of the show. "Regular Show: The Movie" was the first Cartoon Network original film since 2009's "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show".


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: In the distant future, Rigby leads Benson, Skips, Hi-Five Ghost, Muscle Man, and Pops against a madman named Mr. Ross, who is plotting to erase all of time. They find Mr. Ross' weapon is guarded by a cyborg version of Mordecai, who attempts to kill Rigby for a transgression he did in the past. The entire team is killed except for Rigby, who escapes using a timeship to travel to the past, though not before Mordecai mortally shoots him.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: In the present, Mordecai and Rigby barely convince Benson not to fire them after running late due to Rigby's idea to get breakfast burritos. When the timeship crash lands in the park, future Rigby appears to tell Mordecai, Rigby and their co-workers that when Mordecai and Rigby were in high school, they built a time machine that backfired and created a "Time-nado", a tornado with the ability to travel through space and time and create portals through time, which was later harnessed and weaponized by their former science teacher and volleyball coach, Mr. Ross, who was held responsible for the incident and arrested. Before dying, future Rigby also reveals future Mordecai shot him, shocking the group, and tells Rigby that he will soon have to reveal a secret from his past to save the universe, even if it costs him his friendship with Mordecai. When questioned for details, Mordecai explains they created the time machine because Rigby got into their dream college, College University, but he did not.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: After preparing for the mission, the employees use the timeship to travel back in time, but damage the ship's engines in the process. Skips, Muscle Man, and Hi-Five Ghost stay behind to fix them, while the others go to Mordecai and Rigby's old high school to destroy the time machine that their past selves are working on with past Mr. Ross, who is angry at Rigby for costing his volleyball team the championship but was forced to let him do an extra credit assignment to pass his class. After an encounter with the volleyball team, who mistake Benson and Pops for spies from a rival school, Mordecai and Rigby meet their past selves and convince past Rigby to make a model volcano instead.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Believing their mission to be over, the group returns to the timeship, only to find the repairs stalled due to an encounter with Muscle Man and Hi-Five Ghost's past selves. Complicating matters further is that temporal ruptures begin appearing just as the repairs are finished. Rigby, who had slipped away earlier, informs the group that his and Mordecai's past selves are heading to the high school to finish a second time machine future Mr. Ross planted (it is unknown where and how he obtained it). The employees race back to the school but are held up by Mr. Ross and future Mordecai, allowing past Mordecai and past Rigby to botch the second time machine and create the Time-nado. Seeing that Rigby is still unwilling to reveal the truth, Mr. Ross forces Rigby to admit the truth while holding Mordecai hostage: he never got into College University, but Mordecai did; not wanting to lose his best friend, Rigby faked Mordecai's rejection letter, thus ruining his promising future. Mr. Ross then tries to kill Mordecai with a volleyball bomb, but future Mordecai, having a change of heart, jumps into the bomb's path, forcing Mr. Ross to retreat.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Enraged at Rigby's duplicity, Mordecai ends his friendship with him, prompting a heartbroken Rigby to run off with the timeship and leave the group behind. Before dying, future Mordecai gives his present self his timeship and instructs him to patch things up, saying what Rigby did was no excuse to side with Mr. Ross. As the group tries to rebound, a distress call from future Gene the Vending Machine prompts them to help out. Meanwhile, after a suicide attempt to fly into the Sun, Rigby encounters Father Time, who is falling apart due to the Time-nado, and convinces Rigby to apologize to Mordecai. Rigby heads to the future and races back to the Time-nado space station, but gets intercepted along with Mordecai by Mr. Ross at the temporal crystal power core. With Techmo's help, they manage to defeat Ross and restore their friendship before using the plutonium from Mordecai's timeship to destroy the Time-nado. Meanwhile, past Rigby apologizes to past Mr. Ross before the latter is arrested and imprisoned for life, ending the feud between them.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Returning to the present, Mordecai and Rigby agree that, despite how cool their future selves turned out, they will not let their friendship degrade into trying to kill each other, which alters the future and erases their dead future selves. The following day, as Benson catches them out of the park, the pair race back in the timeship from a fast food place with Rigby saying they will "never be late again" before using the timeship to travel back in time to the point before Benson catches them.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The film was first announced in February 2015 during the Cartoon Network upfront. Series creator J. G. Quintel announced on June 11, 2015, via Twitter that the production of the film had been completed. A trailer for the film was shown at the 2015 Comic Con International event on July 10, 2015 and was later released online on July 12, 2015. Despite the film being announced in February 2015, the film began production in 2014.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: During production of the fourth season, the network asked the creator if he would like to do a forty-minute special episode. Quintel turned down the offer and asked to do a film instead. The network agreed. The idea was then put into development.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Quintel confirmed that the film is canon to the events of the show, and is set between the first two episodes of season seven, "Dumptown U.S.A." and "The Parkie Awards".


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The sixth season of "Regular Show" was affected by the film. It was set to have 40 episodes, but due to the production of the film, only 31 were produced. Season seven featured 39 episodes.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The soundtrack for the film featured three real-life songs including, "March of the Swivel Heads", "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and "Pale Blue Eyes".


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The film first screened at the L.A. Downtown Independent on August 14, 2015, and continued to screen until August 20, 2015. The film also screened at select Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas across the United States and it had a select showtime at the SVA Theatre of New York and at the Cinema Montrereal CANADA during October 2015.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: "Regular Show: The Movie" premiered on Cartoon Network United States and Cartoon Network Canada on November 25, 2015. It premiered on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom and Ireland and Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand on November 28, 2015. The film premiered in Asia (including Philippines) on November 30, 2015, and in Central and Latin America on December 7, 2015. The film premiered in France on December 18, 2015, on Cartoon Network.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: The film was released on digital platforms such as iTunes and Google Play Movies & TV on September 1, 2015. The movie was later released to DVD by Warner Home Video on October 13, 2015. It includes an audio commentary, deleted scenes, movie animatics, the trailer, original board pitch, concept art and movie art galleries. Is estimated to have grossed $151,389 in domestic DVD sales. The movie is available on HBO Max.


title: Regular Show: The Movie

text: Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media said in her review, ""Regular Show: The Movie" is full of far-fetched scenarios and story tangents. There's a lot of cartoon violence, including some fistfights, explosions, the use of hand-held blasters, and the disintegration of some characters. Language is marginal ("stupid," "butt," and the like), and the characters sometimes act on selfish or vengeful urges. That said, a main character realizes when his actions affect others in a negative way and attempts to set things right in the end." Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Crazed called it "a great treat for devotees of the series; it’s simple, very entertaining, and never loses sight of what makes the show so excellent."


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career, he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, conte crayon drawings, and etchings.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague, Normandy, close to the coast. Under the guidance of two village priests—one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux—Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm work; because Millet was the eldest of the sons. So all the farmer's work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs returned in his later art.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: In 1833, his father sent him to Cherbourg to study with a portrait painter named Bon Du Mouchel. By 1835 he was studying with , a pupil of Baron Gros, in Cherbourg. A stipend provided by Langlois and others enabled Millet to move to Paris in 1837, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts with Paul Delaroche. In 1839, his scholarship was terminated, and his first submission to the Salon, "Saint Anne Instructing the Virgin", was rejected by the jury.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: After his first painting, a portrait, was accepted at the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg to begin a career as a portrait painter. The following year he married Pauline-Virginie Ono, and they moved to Paris. After rejections at the Salon of 1843 and Pauline's death by consumption in April 1844, Millet returned again to Cherbourg. In 1845, Millet moved to Le Havre with Catherine Lemaire, whom he married in a civil ceremony in 1853; they had nine children and remained together for the rest of Millet's life. In Le Havre he painted portraits and small genre pieces for several months, before moving back to Paris.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: It was in Paris in the middle 1840s that Millet befriended Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacque, and Théodore Rousseau, artists who, like Millet, became associated with the Barbizon school; Honoré Daumier, whose figure draftsmanship influenced Millet's subsequent rendering of peasant subjects; and , a government bureaucrat who became a lifelong supporter and eventually the artist's biographer. In 1847, his first Salon success came with the exhibition of a painting "Oedipus Taken down from the Tree", and in 1848, his "Winnower" was bought by the government.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: "The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon", Millet's most ambitious work at the time, was unveiled at the Salon of 1848, but was scorned by art critics and the public alike. The painting eventually disappeared shortly thereafter, leading historians to believe that Millet destroyed it. In 1984, scientists at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston x-rayed Millet's 1870 painting "The Young Shepherdess" looking for minor changes, and discovered that it was painted over "Captivity". It is now believed that Millet reused the canvas when materials were in short supply during the Franco-Prussian War.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: In 1849, Millet painted "Harvesters", a commission for the state. In the Salon of that year, he exhibited "Shepherdess Sitting at the Edge of the Forest", a very small oil painting which marked a turning away from previous idealized pastoral subjects, in favor of a more realistic and personal approach. In June of that year, he settled in Barbizon with Catherine and their children.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: In 1850, Millet entered into an arrangement with Sensier, who provided the artist with materials and money in return for drawings and paintings, while Millet simultaneously was free to continue selling work to other buyers as well. At that year's Salon, he exhibited "Haymakers" and "The Sower", his first major masterpiece and the earliest of the iconic trio of paintings that included "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus".


title: Jean-François Millet

text: From 1850 to 1853, Millet worked on "Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz)", a painting he considered his most important, and on which he worked the longest. Conceived to rival his heroes Michelangelo and Poussin, it was also the painting that marked his transition from the depiction of symbolic imagery of peasant life to that of contemporary social conditions. It was the only painting he ever dated, and was the first work to garner him official recognition, a second-class medal at the 1853 salon.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: In the mid-1850s, Millet produced a small number of etchings of peasant subjects, such as "Man with a Wheelbarrow" (1855) and "Woman Carding Wool" (1855–1857).


title: Jean-François Millet

text: This is one of the most well known of Millet's paintings, "The Gleaners" (1857). While Millet was walking the fields around Barbizon, one theme returned to his pencil and brush for seven years—gleaning—the centuries-old right of poor women and children to remove the bits of grain left in the fields following the harvest. He found the theme an eternal one, linked to stories from the Old Testament. In 1857, he submitted the painting "The Gleaners" to the Salon to an unenthusiastic, even hostile, public.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: A warm golden light suggests something sacred and eternal in this daily scene where the struggle to survive takes place. During his years of preparatory studies, Millet contemplated how best to convey the sense of repetition and fatigue in the peasants' daily lives. Lines traced over each woman's back lead to the ground and then back up in a repetitive motion identical to their unending, backbreaking labor. Along the horizon, the setting sun silhouettes the farm with its abundant stacks of grain, in contrast to the large shadowy figures in the foreground. The dark homespun dresses of the gleaners cut robust forms against the golden field, giving each woman a noble, monumental strength.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: The painting was commissioned by Thomas Gold Appleton, an American art collector based in Boston, Massachusetts. Appleton previously studied with Millet's friend, the Barbizon painter Constant Troyon. It was completed during the summer of 1857. Millet added a steeple and changed the initial title of the work, "Prayer for the Potato Crop" to "The Angelus" when the purchaser failed to take possession of it in 1859. Displayed to the public for the first time in 1865, the painting changed hands several times, increasing only modestly in value, since some considered the artist's political sympathies suspect. Upon Millet's death a decade later, a bidding war between the US and France ensued, ending some years later with a price tag of 800,000 gold francs.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: The disparity between the apparent value of the painting and the poor estate of Millet's surviving family was a major impetus in the invention of the droit de suite, intended to compensate artists or their heirs when works are resold.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Despite mixed reviews of the paintings, he exhibited at the Salon, Millet's reputation and success grew throughout the 1860s. At the beginning of the decade, he contracted to paint 25 works in return for a monthly stipend for the next three years and in 1865, another patron, Emile Gavet, began commissioning pastels for a collection that eventually included 90 works. In 1867, the Exposition Universelle hosted a major showing of his work, with the "Gleaners", "Angelus", and "Potato Planters" among the paintings exhibited. The following year, Frédéric Hartmann commissioned "Four Seasons" for 25,000 francs, and Millet was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: In 1870, Millet was elected to the Salon jury. Later that year, he and his family fled the Franco-Prussian War, moving to Cherbourg and Gréville, and did not return to Barbizon until late in 1871. His last years were marked by financial success and increased official recognition, but he was unable to fulfill government commissions due to failing health. On 3 January 1875, he married Catherine in a religious ceremony. Millet died on 20 January 1875.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Millet was an important source of inspiration for Vincent van Gogh, particularly during his early period. Millet and his work are mentioned many times in Vincent's letters to his brother Theo. Millet's late landscapes served as influential points of reference to Claude Monet's paintings of the coast of Normandy; his structural and symbolic content influenced Georges Seurat as well.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Millet is the main protagonist of Mark Twain's play "Is He Dead?" (1898), in which he is depicted as a struggling young artist who fakes his death to score fame and fortune. Most of the details about Millet in the play are fictional.


title: Jean-François Millet

text: Millet's painting "L'homme à la houe" inspired the famous poem "The Man With the Hoe" (1898) by Edwin Markham. His paintings also served as the inspiration for American poet David Middleton's collection "The Habitual Peacefulness of Gruchy: Poems After Pictures by Jean-François Millet" (2005).


title: Jean-François Millet

text: The "Angelus" was reproduced frequently in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dalí was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, "The Tragic Myth of The Angelus of Millet". Rather than seeing it as a work of spiritual peace, Dalí believed it held messages of repressed sexual aggression. Dalí was also of the opinion that the two figures were praying over their buried child, rather than to the Angelus. Dalí was so insistent on this fact that eventually an X-ray was done of the canvas, confirming his suspicions: the painting contains a painted-over geometric shape strikingly similar to a coffin. However, it is unclear whether Millet changed his mind on the meaning of the painting, or even if the shape actually is a coffin.


title: World Passport

text: The World Passport is a fantasy travel document sold by the World Service Authority, a non-profit organization founded by Garry Davis in 1954.


title: World Passport

text: The World Passport is similar in appearance to a genuine national passport or other such authentic travel document. In 1979 the World Passport was a 42-page document, with a dark blue cover, and text in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Esperanto. It contained a five-page section for medical history and a six-page section for listing organisational affiliation. The fee charged at that time was US$32 plus postage for a three-year World Passport that could be renewed for a further two years.


title: World Passport

text: The version of the World Passport current was produced in January 2007. It has an embedded "ghost" photo for security, covered with a plastic film. Its data page is in the format of a machine-readable passport, with an alphanumeric code bar in the machine-readable zone (MRZ) enabling it to be scanned by an optical reader. However, in place of a valid ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code in the MRZ "issuer" and "nationality" fields, it uses the non-standard code "WSA".


title: World Passport

text: According to the WSA website, the fee is $75 for a three-year World Passport, $100 for five years, and $125 for ten years. A "World Donor Passport" valid for fifteen years with a special cover is issued gratis to donors of at least $500 which, according to the WSA, is used to provide free documents to refugees and stateless persons. In addition, the customer can choose between two World Passport covers: "World Passport" or "World Government Passport". The WSA recommends their customers purchase the second option.


title: World Passport

text: A potential customer must provide as proof of identity a notarized certification of the details on the form, a copy of their national identity papers, or a fingerprint from their right index finger. People have been known to obtain World Passports in names other than their legal names; see the relevant section below.


title: World Passport

text: The appearance is so similar to a genuine passport that in 1974 a criminal case was lodged against Garry Davis in France regarding his sale of World Passports.


title: World Passport

text: According to the WSA, the version of the document introduced in 2007 was filed as a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD) with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). However, ICAO documents on MRTDs cite the World Service Authority and its World Passport as an example of "Fantasy Documents".


title: World Passport

text: Success in crossing a border using a World Passport is generally attributable to the whim or ignorance of individual immigration officers, not official recognition of the document. The World Service Authority website has scans of letters dating from many decades ago from six countries (Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Mauritania, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia) which the WSA claims is legal recognition of the World Passports. These letters of recognition are several decades old (1954 for Ecuador, 1972 for Burkina Faso, 1975 for Mauritania, 1995 for Tanzania, 1983 for Togo, 1973 for Zambia).


title: World Passport

text: According to the World Service Authority website, some World Passports have reportedly been accepted on a case-by-case basis by over 180 countries (i.e., they have been stamped with a national visa or entry or exit stamp), and according to the World Service Authority some countries in the past accorded the document legal recognition.


title: World Passport

text: The World Passport came under increased international scrutiny in 1996, after the hijacking of the MS "Achille Lauro". In the aftermath of the incident, one of the captured hijackers, Youssef Majed al-Molqi, escaped imprisonment in Italy and used a World Passport which he had purchased in 1988 to leave the country and travel to Spain before he was recaptured.


title: World Passport

text: Many countries and territories say they do not recognize the World Passport because it is not issued by a competent government authority, and thus does not meet the definition of a passport. By 1975, Garry Davis had already been detained twenty times for his attempts to cross international borders with a World Passport.


title: World Passport

text: The Russian government states that it does not recognise the World Passport. In a 1995 interview with "Kommersant", a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Consular Services stated that the World Passport is not an acceptable document for proving identity or citizenship status at Russian border crossings; only a diplomatic passport, official passport, seaman's passport, or general civil passport are accepted. However, one Russian media report claims that some members of the House of Romanov, travelling to Saint Petersburg for the reburial of the remains of one of their ancestors, were permitted by Russian authorities to obtain visas in their World Passports, in light of the special situation.


title: World Passport

text: In December 2008, a man claiming to be a Russian citizen attempted to cross the border from Latvia into Belarus at the Urbany checkpoint using a World Passport; he stated he lost his Russian documents while in Sweden. He was arrested by the Belarusian border guards. A spokesman for Belarus' State Border Committee in an interview with a local newspaper stated that Belarus does not accept the World Passport at border crossings. He also claimed it was the first known case of its kind in the country.


title: World Passport

text: The United States Department of State's official position on the World Passport is that it is a booklet produced by a private organisation upon payment of a fee, and not a passport. As early as 1991, the US Air Transport Association specifically included the World Passport in a training film as an example of unacceptable travel papers. In 2012, a Belizean man attempted to enter the U.S. through the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates using a World Passport. The man in question had prior felony convictions for drug trafficking and immigration offences, and had previously been deported from the United States multiple times. He claimed that he wanted to speak with President Obama about genocide in Belize. In a bench trial, Judge Andrew S. Hanen found the man guilty of felony attempted re-entry after deportation.


title: World Passport

text: Activist Kenneth O'Keefe tried to travel to Iraq using a World Passport in 2003, but was rejected transit rights by Turkey, and had to apply for an American passport to continue his journey.


title: World Passport

text: In 2004, two men from China on board Cathay Pacific Flight 302 from Hong Kong to Guangzhou attempted to pass through immigration at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport using World Passports. The officers at the airport arrested them for illegal entry.


title: World Passport

text: Also, though Garry Davis claims to have traveled to India using a World Passport and to have given one personally to Jawaharlal Nehru, in May 2007 an Indian citizen was arrested for attempting to "leave" India at Begumpet Airport using a World Passport. The man, intending to travel to the United States, had purchased what he believed was a genuine passport and visa. His travel agency and Air India staff both accepted his World Passport, but Indian immigration did not. The Times of India called it a clear case of "internet fraud" and stated that the man had been "duped".


title: World Passport

text: The Council of the European Union has a table of travel documents entitling the holder to cross external borders of Schengen states and which may be endorsed with a visa; the World Passport is listed as a fantasy passport to which a visa may not be affixed.


title: World Passport

text: In February 2013, both Panama and Costa Rica rejected the use of the World Passport by Sage Million, a fugitive from Hawaii.


title: World Passport

text: Hip-hop artist and actor Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) was arrested in South Africa on January 15, 2016 for attempting to leave the country using a World Passport. He had entered the country using an American passport and had lived in Cape Town since May 2013. South Africa's Department of Home Affairs released a statement saying that Mr. Bey would be allowed to appeal the immigration action and possibly seek permanent residency.


title: World Passport

text: The World Service Authority sells World Passports to refugees and other people who are unable to obtain valid, authentic travel documents. According to the WSA, refugees in camps are given free World Passports. WSA reports that it "has [given out] more than 10,000 free World Passports to refugees residing in camps throughout the world" and that it "has documentary evidence that the issuance of such passports may permit refugees to leave such camps to seek asylum elsewhere or to claim other rights often denied to refugees". However, many of those refugees have found World Passports to be useless. According to statements by Garry Davis in the mid-1970s, major users of World Passports at the time included persons in Southeast Asia fleeing from wars, as well as holders of Rhodesian passports who were otherwise unable to travel internationally as no other country accepted their documents besides South Africa.


title: World Passport

text: Many East African refugees arriving in Nordic countries in the early 1990s had World Passports. In July 2011, a Georgian citizen attempted to pass through Latvian border control with a World Passport, though he also had a valid Georgian passport in his possession; after presenting his World Passport, he requested asylum in Latvia.


title: World Passport

text: Another category of users of World Passports are stowaways on ships. Vessel owners are legally responsible for the stowaways until they can find a country to let them ashore, but countries are often reluctant due to questions over the validity of the stowaways' documents. From 1992 to 2006 the WSA sold their document to such individuals on five occasions.


title: World Passport

text: The World Service Authority promotes the World Passport not just as a document for international travel, but a "neutral, apolitical document of identity". Investor Doug Casey, himself a World Passport customer, has suggested that a World Passport is useful at hotels and other non-governmental institutions where security is uncertain; if one is asked to hand over one's real passport in such situations, one can provide the World Passport instead of a genuine national passport. Governmental authorities do not share this assessment.


title: World Passport

text: The Criminal Records Bureau of the United Kingdom Home Office states that registered bodies should not accept the World Passport as a proof of identity, warning that "a fake 'World Passport' can be purchased online by members of the public and should not be confused with a genuine passport". The Isle of Man's Financial Supervision Commission, which regulates the isle's banks and company formation agents, states that the World Passport is not an acceptable document to prove either the nationality or identity of the bearer. Specifically, it classifies it as a spurious or fantasy passport, a term which it defines to mean as documents which "have the appearance of a passport, but are issued by organisations with no authority and to which no official recognition has been given".


title: World Passport

text: The United States Social Security Administration will also not accept any World Service Authority document (including the World Passport and World Donor Passport) as evidence of identity, age, citizenship, alien status, or marital status for either claims or enumeration purposes. The Virginia Department of Social Services explicitly classifies all World Service Authority documents as "unacceptable documents" for verification of identity. The United States Department of State instructs all U.S. embassies and consulates not to provide any notarial, apostille, or other authentication services in respect of World Passports, whether regarding the World Passport itself or documents relating to the purchase of a World Passport. They warn that such documents could be used for fraudulent or criminal purposes. In 1996 a man was able to buy a World Passport in a name that was not his own, but was detected after repeated attempts to use it to prove his identity when opening accounts at various banks in Indiana, without providing a verifiable address or telephone number. He was convicted of fraud on a financial institution.


title: World Passport

text: Regardless of its almost universal lack of acceptance, an individual may also seek to obtain a World Passport as part of a political statement. A number of Russian citizens have obtained the World Passport as a form of protest against the "red tape" imposed by the Russian government on their own citizens aiming to travel abroad. In 1977, two mayors of West Bank towns bought World Passports during a visit by Garry Davis.


title: World Passport

text: Despite its limited acceptance, other entities have also sought to manufacture and sell the fantasy travel document, without the consent of the WSA. The Isle of Man's Financial Supervision Commission reports that they have identified counterfeit World Passports. Also, the first cross-jurisdictional fake passport case ever found in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, involved counterfeit World Passports. In February 1981, the local Public Security Bureau identified some Hong Kong criminals who were charging World Passport customers HK$18,000 plus CN¥50-100 (roughly US$3,300 at the official exchange rate at that time) in processing fees, and misrepresenting to them that World Passport customers could settle in any country in the world.


title: World Passport

text: As mentioned above, Russia does not accept World Passports, but in the 1990s, many company formation agents in Russia sold the World Passport together in a package-deal with the setup of an offshore company (international business company), and falsely claimed that all countries of the world accept it as an identity document. In some cases, such companies charged up to US$1,000 for the document alone.


title: World Passport

text: In Malaysia in 1994, a Nigerian man was arrested at the Central Market, Kuala Lumpur by tourist police during an identity check, after he showed a World Passport. A search of his belongings showed that he carried a total of five World Passports, as well as a real Nigerian passport that had been used by another person to travel to Malaysia and Hong Kong. Authorities suspected he might have been trying to sell the fantasy travel documents to other foreign nationals lacking valid travel documents.


title: World Passport

text: Many notable people have owned World Passports. Although some may have purchased them, the WSA typically gives them to prominent people. Garry Davis, the WSA founder, owned World Passport No. 1, originally manufactured in 1954.


title: World Passport

text: Entertainers who have been given or purchased World Passports include violinist Yehudi Menuhin, actor Patrick Stewart, and actor LeVar Burton. Other World Passport holders include activists such as whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.


title: World Passport

text: Criminals and terrorists who have owned World Passports include Triston Jay Amero, an American man charged with hotel bombings in Bolivia, and Youssef Majed al-Molqi, one of the hijackers of the MS "Achille Lauro" in 1985. The WSA has awarded a number of "honorary World Passports", though these are without approval from those who received them. These honorary documents have been given to figures including Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, 34th president of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, and last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Gianluca Lapadula Vargas (born 7 February 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Cagliari. Born in Italy, he represents the Peru national team.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Lapadula was born in Turin on 7 February 1990, to Gianfranco Lapadula, from the region of Apulia, and Blanca Aida Vargas Higinio, a Peruvian woman. He has a brother named David, who was also a forward in the lower amateur leagues.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Lapadula began his career with Juventus before being released in 2004 because he was not doing well in his studies. After that he moved to Collegno Paradiso, then left on loan to Treviso in 2006. He returned to Piedmont for Serie C2 side Pro Vercelli on 31 August 2007. He played for the reserve team. In the 2008–09 season, he left for Lega Pro Seconda Divisione (ex–Serie C2) side Ivrea, and was selected to the Lega Pro 2nd Div. A representative team for Lega Pro Quadrangular Tournament and scored a goal against 2nd Div. C representative team in the third place match. Eventually, Group A finished third. In August 2009 he was signed by Parma and spent one season with their Primavera team. In July 2010, he left for Atletico Roma.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Lapadula made his debut for Atletico Roma on 8 August 2010, in the Coppa Italia preliminary round, lost in extra time (1–2). In January 2011, he left for Ravenna. He concluded the 2011–12 season as the topscorer in Group A with 24 goals.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 15 June 2012, Lapadula joined Serie B club Cesena in co-ownership, signing a five-year contract. Lapadula failed to play regularly for Cesena, and on 8 January 2013 he was signed by Frosinone. In July 2013 the co-ownership between Cesena and Parma was resolved, and Lapadula returned to Parma.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Lapadula was loaned to Slovenian club ND Gorica on 1 July, along with Bright Addae, Daniele Bazzoffia, Uroš Celcer, Massimo Coda, Alex Cordaz, Sebestyén Ihrig-Farkas, Alen Jogan, Floriano Vanzo and Fabio Lebran. The deals were finalised on 12 July.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: In July 2014 he was loaned to Teramo, where he scored 21 goals and helped the club achieve promotion to Serie B, then cancelled in August 2015 by the final judgement of the Italian Football Federation, due to match-fixing on the part of the President of Teramo, Luciano Campitellii, in the penultimate round of the league in the match against Savona.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: After the bankruptcy of Parma, Lapadula was released on a free transfer, and in July 2015 he was signed by Pescara in Serie B on a four-year contract. In the 2015–16 season he scored 30 goals in 43 appearances (including three goals in as many appearances in the playoffs), without scoring any penalties, earning the honour of top scorer in the Italian second division.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 24 June 2016, Lapadula passed his medical test with A.C. Milan, who reportedly paid Pescara €9 million plus bonus for the transfer, while the player signed a five-year deal. He made his debut for Milan on 27 August 2016, coming on as an 86th-minute substitute during a 4–2 loss away against Napoli in Serie A. He scored his first goal for Milan and in Serie A on 6 November 2016 in the 2–1 away victory against Palermo, three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Carlos Bacca. On 26 November, Lapadula scored his first brace in Serie A in a 1–4 away victory against Empoli. He finished the 2016–17 season with 8 goals in 27 games, two of which were scored from a penalty spot.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 18 July 2017, Lapadula moved to Genoa, on a one-season loan with an obligation to make the deal permanent. The total transfer fee was €13 million (€2 million loan + €11 million for outright) which was Genoa's most expensive signing of all-time.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 2 September 2020, Lapadula joined Benevento from Genoa on a three-year contract, for a reported fee of €4 million.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: Lapadula is eligible to play for Italy and Peru as a result of his family background. He had received a call-up by Peru for the Copa América Centenario but had not officially decided which international side to represent at the time. On 7 November 2016, he was called up to the Italy senior squad for the first time for a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Liechtenstein and a friendly match against Germany, replacing the injured Napoli forward Manolo Gabbiadini.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 30 October 2020, Lapadula was called-up by Ricardo Gareca to the Peru senior team for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Chile and Argentina. He made his debut on 13 November 2020, as a substitute in the match against Chile.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: On 23 June 2021, he scored his first senior international goal for Peru in a 2–2 draw against Ecuador in the first round of the 2021 Copa América, later also assisting André Carrillo's goal. On 2 July, Lapadula scored once and contributed to Gustavo Gómez's own goal in a 3–3 draw against Paraguay in the quarter-finals of the competition, later also netting his nation's first penalty in the resulting 4–3 penalty shoot-out victory. On 9 July, he scored Peru's second goal in a 3–2 loss to Colombia in the third-place match of the tournament.


title: Gianluca Lapadula

text: A dynamic forward, Lapadula is a tenacious and physically strong striker, who stands out for his work-rate and temperament; due to his versatility, he can play as a centre-forward, and can also adapt to more creative roles, as a second striker, or winger on either flank, courtesy of his solid technical qualities, as well as his ability to both score and assist goals. An uncommonly accurate and powerful finisher, he also has a strong left foot, and an eye for goal.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Arthur Machen (; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella "The Great God Pan" (1890; 1894) has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror, with Stephen King describing it as "Maybe the best [horror story] in the English language." He is also well known for "The Bowmen", a short story that was widely read as fact, creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones in Caerleon, Monmouthshire. The house of his birth, opposite the Olde Bull Inn in The Square at Caerleon, is adjacent to the Priory Hotel and is today marked with a commemorative blue plaque. The beautiful landscape of Monmouthshire (which he usually referred to by the name of the medieval Welsh kingdom, Gwent), with its associations of Celtic, Roman, and medieval history, made a powerful impression on him, and his love of it is at the heart of many of his works.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen was descended from a long line of clergymen, the family having originated in Carmarthenshire. In 1864, when Machen was two, his father John Edward Jones, became vicar of the parish of Llanddewi Fach with Llandegveth, about five miles north of Caerleon, and Machen was brought up at the rectory there. Jones had adopted his wife's maiden name, Machen, to inherit a legacy, legally becoming "Jones-Machen"; his son was baptised under that name and later used a shortened version of his full name, Arthur Machen, as a pen name.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Local historian and folklorist Fred Hando traces Machen's interest in the occult to a volume of "Household Words" in his father's rectory library, in which he read, at the age of eight, an entrancing article on alchemy. Hando recounts Machen's other early reading:


title: Arthur Machen

text: He bought De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" at Pontypool Road Railway Station, "The Arabian Nights" at Hereford Railway Station, and borrowed "Don Quixote" from Mrs. Gwyn, of Llanfrechfa Rectory. In his father's library he found also the "Waverley Novels", a three-volume edition of the "Glossary of Gothic Architecture", and an early volume of Tennyson.


title: Arthur Machen

text: At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche "The Anatomy of Tobacco", and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the "Heptameron" of Marguerite de Navarre, "Le Moyen de Parvenir" ("Fantastic Tales") of Béroalde de Verville, and the "Memoirs" of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In 1887, the year his father died, Machen married Amelia (Amy) Hogg, an unconventional music teacher with a passion for the theatre, who had literary friends in London's bohemian circles. Hogg had introduced Machen to the writer and occultist A. E. Waite, who was to become one of Machen's closest friends. Machen also made the acquaintance of other literary figures, such as M. P. Shiel and Edgar Jepson. Soon after his marriage, Machen began to receive a series of legacies from Scottish relatives that allowed him to gradually devote more time to writing.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, "The Great God Pan". It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and consequently sold well, going into a second edition.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen next produced "The Three Impostors", a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included "The Hill of Dreams", "Hieroglyphics", "A Fragment of Life", the story "The White People", and the stories which make up "Ornaments in Jade".


title: Arthur Machen

text: In 1899, Machen's wife Amy died of cancer after a long period of illness. This had a devastating effect on Machen. He only gradually recovered from his loss over the next year, partially through his close friendship with A. E. Waite. It was through Waite's influence that Machen joined at this time the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, though Machen's interest in the organization was not lasting or very deep.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's recovery was further helped by his sudden change of career, becoming an actor in 1901 and a member of Frank Benson's company of travelling players, a profession which took him round the country.


title: Arthur Machen

text: This led in 1903 to a second marriage, to Dorothie Purefoy Hudleston, which brought Machen much happiness. Machen managed to find a publisher in 1902 for his earlier written work "Hieroglyphics", an analysis of the nature of literature, which concluded that true literature must convey "ecstasy". In 1906 Machen's literary career began once more to flourish as the book "The House of Souls" collected his most notable works of the nineties and brought them to a new audience. He also published a satirical work, "Dr Stiggins: His Views and Principles", generally considered one of his weakest works.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen also was at this time investigating Celtic Christianity, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Publishing his views in Lord Alfred Douglas's "The Academy", for which he wrote regularly, Machen concluded that the legends of the Grail actually were based on dim recollections of the rites of the Celtic Church. These ideas also featured strongly in the novel "The Secret Glory" which he wrote at this time, marking the first use in fiction of the idea of the Grail's surviving into modern times in some form, an idea much utilised ever since, as by Charles Williams ("War in Heaven"), Dan Brown ("The Da Vinci Code") and George Lucas ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"). In 1907, "The Hill of Dreams", generally considered Machen's masterpiece, was finally published, though it was not recognized much at the time.


title: Arthur Machen

text: The next few years saw Machen continue with acting in various companies and with journalistic work, but he was finding it increasingly hard to earn a living and his legacies were long exhausted. Machen was also attending literary gatherings such as the New Bohemians and the Square Club.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Finally Machen accepted a full-time journalist's job at Alfred Harmsworth's "Evening News" in 1910. In February 1912 his son Hilary was born, followed by a daughter Janet in 1917. The coming of war in 1914 saw Machen return to public prominence for the first time in twenty years due to the publication of "The Bowmen" and the subsequent publicity surrounding the "Angels of Mons" episode. He published a series of stories capitalizing on this success, most of which were morale-boosting propaganda, but the most notable, "The Great Return" (1915) and the novella "The Terror" (1917), were more accomplished. He also published a series of autobiographical articles during the war, later reprinted in book form as "Far Off Things". During the war years Machen also met and championed the work of a fellow Welshman, Caradoc Evans.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In general, though, Machen thoroughly disliked work at the newspaper, and it was only the need to earn money for his family which kept him at it. The money came in useful, allowing him to move in 1919 to a bigger house with a garden, in St John's Wood, which became a noted location for literary gatherings attended by friends such as the painter Augustus John, D. B. Wyndham Lewis, and Jerome K. Jerome. Machen's dismissal from the "Evening News" in 1921 came as a relief in one sense, though it caused financial problems. Machen, however, was recognized as a great Fleet Street character by his contemporaries, and he remained in demand as an essay writer for much of the twenties.


title: Arthur Machen

text: The year 1922 saw a revival in Machen's literary fortunes. "The Secret Glory", considered by some to be Machen's final masterpiece, was finally published, as was his autobiography "Far Off Things", and new editions of Machen's Casanova, "The House of Souls" and "The Hill of Dreams" all came out. Machen's works had now found a new audience and publishers in America, and a series of requests for republications of books started to come in. Vincent Starrett, James Branch Cabell, and Carl Van Vechten were American Machen devotees who helped in this process.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Another sign of his rising fortunes was the publication in 1923 of a collected edition of his works (the "Caerleon Edition") and a bibliography. That year also saw the publication of a recently completed second volume of autobiography, "Things Near and Far"—the third and final volume, "The London Adventure", being published in 1924. Machen's earlier works suddenly started becoming much-sought-after collectors' items at this time, a position they have held ever since. In 1924 he issued a collection of bad reviews of his own work, with very little commentary, under the title "Precious Balms". In this period of prosperity Machen's home saw many visitors and social gatherings, and Machen made new friends, such as Oliver Stonor.


title: Arthur Machen

text: By 1926 the boom in republication was mostly over, and Machen's income dropped. He continued republishing earlier works in collected editions, as well as writing essays and articles for various magazines and newspapers and contributing forewords and introductions to both his own works and those of other writers—such as the Monmouthshire historian Fred Hando's "The Pleasant Land of Gwent" (1944)—but produced little new fiction. In 1927, he became a manuscript reader for the publisher Ernest Benn, which brought in a much-needed regular income until 1933.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In 1929, Machen and his family moved away from London to Amersham in Buckinghamshire, but they still faced financial hardship. He received some recognition for his literary work when he received a Civil List pension of £100 per annum in 1932, but the loss of work from Benn's a year later made things difficult once more. A few more collections of Machen's shorter works were published in the thirties, partially as a result of the championing of Machen by John Gawsworth, who also began work on a biography of Machen that was only published in 2005 thanks to the Friends of Arthur Machen.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's financial difficulties were only finally ended by the literary appeal launched in 1943 for his eightieth birthday. The initial names on the appeal show the general recognition of Machen's stature as a distinguished man of letters, as they included Max Beerbohm, T. S. Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Walter de la Mare, Algernon Blackwood, and John Masefield. The success of the appeal allowed Machen to live the last few years of his life, until 1947, in relative comfort.


title: Arthur Machen

text: From the beginning of his literary career, Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and decadent works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. Machen's later works became somewhat less obviously full of gothic trappings, but for him investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation and sacrifice. Machen loved the medieval world view because he felt it manifested deep spirituality alongside a rambunctious earthiness.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen was a great enthusiast for literature that expressed the "rapture, beauty, adoration, wonder, awe, mystery, sense of the unknown, desire for the unknown" that he summed up in the word "ecstasy". His main passions were for writers and writing he felt achieved this, an idiosyncratic list which included the "Mabinogion" and other medieval romances, François Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Thomas de Quincey, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Those writers who failed to achieve this, or far worse did not even attempt it, received short shrift from Machen.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of neo-romanticism. He was deeply suspicious of science, materialism, commerce, and Puritanism, all of which were anathema to Machen's conservative, bohemian, mystical, and ritualistic temperament. Machen's virulent satirical streak against things he disliked has been regarded as a weakness in his work, and rather dating, especially when it comes to the fore in works such as "Dr Stiggins". Similarly, some of his propagandistic First World War stories also have little appeal to a modern audience.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen, brought up as the son of a Church of England clergyman, always held Christian beliefs, though accompanied by a fascination with sensual mysticism; his interests in paganism and the occult were especially prominent in his earliest works. Machen was well read on such matters as alchemy, the kabbalah, and Hermeticism, and these occult interests formed part of his close friendship with A. E. Waite. Machen, however, was always very down-to-earth, requiring substantial proof that a supernatural event had occurred, and was thus highly sceptical of Spiritualism. Unlike many of his contemporaries, such as Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, his disapproval of the Reformation and his admiration for the medieval world and its Roman Catholic ritualism did not fully tempt him away from Anglicanism—though he never fit comfortably into the Victorian Anglo-Catholic world.


title: Arthur Machen

text: The death of his first wife led him to a spiritual crossroads, and he experienced a series of mystical events. After his experimentation with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the orthodox ritual of the Church became ever more important to him, gradually defining his position as a High Church Anglican who was able to incorporate elements from his own mystical experiences, Celtic Christianity, and readings in literature and legend into his thinking.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In politics, Machen was reactionary. He stated in response to a 1937 questionnaire on the Spanish Civil War in the "Left Review", "Mr. Arthur Machen presents his compliments and begs to inform that he is, and always has been, entirely for General Franco."


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's literary significance is substantial; his stories have been translated into many languages and reprinted in short story anthologies countless times. In the early 1970s, a paperback reprint of "The Three Impostors" in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series brought him to the notice of a new generation. More recently, the small press has continued to keep Machen's work in print. In 2010, to mark the 150 years since Machen's birth, two volumes of Machen's work were republished in the prestigious Library of Wales series.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Literary critics such as Wesley D. Sweetser and S. T. Joshi see Machen's works as a significant part of the late Victorian revival of the gothic novel and the decadent movement of the 1890s, bearing direct comparison to the themes found in contemporary works like Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", Bram Stoker's "Dracula", and Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray". At the time authors like Wilde, William Butler Yeats, and Arthur Conan Doyle were all admirers of Machen's works. He is also usually noted in the better studies of Anglo-Welsh literature. The French writer Paul-Jean Toulet translated Machen's "The Great God Pan" into French and visited Machen in London. Charles Williams was also a devotee of Machen's work, which inspired Williams' own fiction.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Historian of fantastic literature Brian Stableford has suggested that Machen "was the first writer of authentically modern horror stories, and his best works must still be reckoned among the finest products of the genre".


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's popularity in 1920s America has been noted, and his work was an influence on the development of the pulp horror found in magazines like "Weird Tales" and on such notable fantasy writers as James Branch Cabell, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long (who wrote a tribute to Machen in verse, "On Reading Arthur Machen"), Donald Wandrei, David Lindsay and E. Charles Vivian.


title: Arthur Machen

text: His significance was recognized by H. P. Lovecraft, who in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" named Machen as one of the four "modern masters" of supernatural horror (with Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and M. R. James). Machen's influence on Lovecraft's own work was substantial. Lovecraft's reading of Machen in the early 1920s led him away from his earlier Dunsanian writing towards the development of what became the Cthulhu Mythos. Machen's use of a contemporary Welsh or London background in which sinister ancient horrors lurk and are capable of interbreeding with modern people obviously helped inspire Lovecraft's similar use of a New England background. Machen's story "The White People" includes references to curious unknown rites and beings, an idea Lovecraft uses frequently in the mythos.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Lovecraft pays tribute to the influence by directly incorporating some of Machen's creations and references, such as Nodens and Aklo, into his Cthulhu Mythos and using similar plotlines, most notably seen by a comparison of "The Dunwich Horror" to "The Great God Pan" and of "The Whisperer in Darkness" to "The Novel of the Black Seal". Other Lovecraft tales with a debt or reference to Machen include "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Festival", "Cool Air", "The Descendant", and "The Colour Out of Space".


title: Arthur Machen

text: His intense, atmospheric stories of horror and the supernatural have been read and enjoyed by many modern horror and fantasy writers, influencing directly Peter Straub, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Karl Edward Wagner, "Sarban" (John William Wall), Joanna Russ, Graham Joyce, Simon Clark, Tim Lebbon, and T. E. D. Klein, to name but a few. Klein's novel "The Ceremonies" was partly based on Machen's "The White People", and Straub's novel "Ghost Story" was influenced by "The Great God Pan".


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen's influence is not limited to genre fiction, however. Jorge Luis Borges recognized Machen as a great writer, and through him Machen has had an influence on magic realism. He was also a major influence on Paul Bowles and Javier Marías, the latter of whom dedicated a subplot of his 1989 novel "All Souls" to collecting the works of Machen and his circle of peers. He was one of the most significant figures in the life of the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who attributed to Machen his conversion to High Church Anglicanism, an important part of his philosophy and poetry. Sylvia Townsend Warner (a niece of Machen's second wife, Purefoy) admired Machen and was influenced by him, as is his great-granddaughter, the contemporary artist Tessa Farmer.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Machen was also a pioneer in psychogeography, due to his interest in the interconnection between landscape and the mind. His strange wanderings in Wales and London recorded in his beautiful prose make him of great interest to writers on this subject, especially those focusing on London, such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd. Alan Moore wrote an exploration of Machen's mystical experiences in his work "Snakes and Ladders". Aleister Crowley loved Machen's works, feeling they contained "Magickal" truth, and put them on the reading list for his students, though Machen, who never met him, detested Crowley. Other occultists, such as Kenneth Grant, also find Machen an inspiration. Far closer to Machen's personal mystical world view was his effect on his friend Evelyn Underhill, who reflected some of Machen's thinking in her highly influential book "Mysticism".


title: Arthur Machen

text: One chapter of the French best-seller "The Morning of the Magicians", by L. Pauwels and J. Berger (1960), deals extensively with Machen's thought and works. Machen's approach to reality is described as an example of the "fantastic realism" which the book is dedicated to.


title: Arthur Machen

text: In music, the composer John Ireland found Machen's works to be a life-changing experience that directly influenced much of his composition. Mark E. Smith of The Fall also found Machen an inspiration. Likewise, Current 93 have drawn on the mystical and occult leanings of Machen, with songs such as "The Inmost Light", which shares its title with Machen's story. Some artists on the Ghost Box Music label like Belbury Poly and The Focus Group draw heavily on Machen. It is an interest also shared by film directors like Mexican Rogelio A. González who made a successful version of "The Islington Mystery" as "El Esqueleto de la señora Morales" (1960), adapted by Luis Alcoriza, a frequent collaborator in Luis Buñuel's classic films. This interest in Machen's works among filmmakers is also shared by Guillermo del Toro and Richard Stanley. Other notable figures with an enthusiasm for Machen have included Brocard Sewell, Barry Humphries, Stewart Lee and Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.


title: Arthur Machen

text: An Arthur Machen Society was established in 1948 in the United States and survived until the 1960s. It was followed by the Arthur Machen Society based in the UK, in 1986, which in turn was replaced by the current literary society, The Friends of Arthur Machen.


title: Arthur Machen

text: The Friends of Arthur Machen (FoAM) is a non-profit international literary society founded in 1998 dedicated to supporting interest in Arthur Machen and his work, and to aid research. It publishes two journals: "Faunus", which reprints rare Machen articles and criticism of his work, and "Machenalia". It fosters interest not only in Machen but in events in which he played a key part, such as the Angels of Mons affair, and organises psychogeographic excursions.


title: Arthur Machen

text: Prominent members include Javier Marías, Stewart Lee and R. B. Russell of Tartarus Press. The society was nominated for a in 2006.


title: Mario Monti

text: Mario Monti, (born 19 March 1943) is an Italian economist and academic who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti served as a European Commissioner from 1995 to 2004, with responsibility for the Internal Market, Services, Customs and Taxation from 1995 to 1999 and for Competition from 1999 to 2004. Monti has also been rector and president of Bocconi University in Milan for many years.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 12 November 2011, in the midst of the European sovereign debt crisis, Monti was invited by President Giorgio Napolitano to form a new technocratic government following the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi. Monti was sworn in as Prime Minister on 16 November 2011, just a week after having been appointed a Lifetime Senator by President Napolitano, and initially became Minister of Economy and Finances as well, giving that portfolio up the following July.


title: Mario Monti

text: From 16 May 2013 to 17 October 2013, Monti was the president of Civic Choice, a centrist political party in Italy.


title: Mario Monti

text: Mario Monti was born in Varese on 19 March 1943. His mother was from Piacenza. Although his father grew up in Varese, he was born in Luján in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, where his grandfather Abramo had emigrated to from Italy in the 19th century and built up a soft-drink and beer-production business. Monti's father went back to Argentina during World War II, but later returned to his family home in Varese.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti studied at the private Leo XIII High School and attended Bocconi University of Milan, where he obtained a degree in economics in 1965. Later, he won a scholarship to Yale University where he studied under James Tobin, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti began his academic career at the University of Trento, before moving to teach economics at the University of Turin from 1970 to 1985, and finally to Bocconi University, where he was appointed Rector in 1989, and President in 1994. He also served as President of the SUERF (The European Money and Finance Forum) from 1982 to 1985. His research helped to create the "Klein-Monti model", aimed at describing the behaviour of banks operating under monopoly circumstances.


title: Mario Monti

text: In 1994, Monti was appointed to the Santer Commission, along with Emma Bonino, by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In his office as a European Commissioner from 1994 to 1999, he was responsible for internal market, financial services and financial integration, customs, and taxation. His work with the Commission earned him the nickname "Super Mario" from his colleagues and from the press.


title: Mario Monti

text: In 1999, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema confirmed Monti's appointment to the new Prodi Commission and he was given one of the most powerful positions at the Commission, with responsibility for Competition.


title: Mario Monti

text: As Competition Commissioner, Monti led the investigation into a number of high-profile and controversial mergers, including: Scania AB & Volvo (1999), WorldCom & Sprint (2000), General Electric & Honeywell (2001), Schneider Electric & Legrand (2001) and Carnival Corporation & P&O Ferries (2002). His term in office also saw the European Court of Justice, for the first time, overrule the Commission's decision to block a merger in three separate cases, although two were decided by his predecessor. Monti was also responsible for levying the EU's largest ever fine at the time (€497 million) against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position in 2004.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti was criticised in the media and by competition lawyers for the perceived inflexibility of the merger oversight process and the high number of cases that were being blocked. On 1 November 2002, Monti responding to the European Court of Justice's ruling which reversed his decision to block the merger between Airtours & First Choice Holidays said, "Last week was a tough week for the Commission's merger control policy and of course for me." This ruling in combination with his decision to block the General Electric & Honeywell merger led to criticism in the United States against both the Commission's procedures and accusations that Monti's decisions were politically motivated. Monti, however, was defended by supporters who saw his actions as an important step in the development of competition law in the EU. Dan Rubinfeld, economics professor at the University of California who worked on the US Justice Department's antitrust case against Microsoft, said of Monti, "There has been a lot of talk of politics in this and other cases, but I believe he has been driven entirely by the desire to do the right thing."


title: Mario Monti

text: On 11 December 2002, Monti proposed a series of reforms to the EU's merger rules and made structural changes within the Commission's Competition department which aimed to improve transparency for companies throughout the merger review process. The reforms were adopted by the EU as Regulation 139/2004 (known as ECMR).


title: Mario Monti

text: In 2004, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi returned to power in Italy and chose not to re-appoint Monti to the Commission when his second term ended.


title: Mario Monti

text: In 2010, Monti was asked by Commission President Manuel Barroso to draft a "Report on the Future of the Single Market" proposing further measures towards the completion of the EU's Single Market. The published report, adopted by the EU on 13 April 2011, proposed 12 reforms to the Single Market and was intended to "give new momentum" to the European economy.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 9 November 2011, Monti was appointed a lifetime senator by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. He was seen as a favourite to replace Silvio Berlusconi to lead a new unity government in Italy in order to implement reforms and austerity measures. On 12 November 2011, following Berlusconi's resignation, Napolitano invited Monti to form a new government. Monti accepted the offer, and held talks with the leaders of the main Italian political parties, declaring that he wanted to form a government that would remain in office until the next scheduled general elections in 2013. On 16 November 2011, Monti was sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, after unveiling a technocratic cabinet composed entirely of unelected professionals. He also chose to hold the post of Minister of Economy and Finances. On 17 and 18 November 2011, the Italian Senate and Italian Chamber of Deputies both passed motions of confidence supporting Monti's government, with only Lega Nord voting against.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 4 December 2011, Monti's government introduced emergency austerity measures intended to stem the worsening economic conditions in Italy and restore market confidence, especially after rising Italian government bond yields began to threaten Italy's financial stability. The austerity package called for increased taxes, pension reform and measures to fight tax evasion. Monti also announced that he would be giving up his own salary as part of the reforms. On 16 December 2011, the Lower House of the Italian Parliament adopted the measures by a vote of 495 to 88. Six days later the Upper House gave final approval to the package by a vote of 257 to 41.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 20 January 2012, Monti's government formally adopted a package of reforms targeting Italy's labour market. The reforms are intended to open certain professions (such as taxi drivers, pharmacists, doctors, lawyers and notaries) to more competition by reforming their licensing systems and abolishing minimum tariffs for their services. Article 18 of Italy's labour code, which requires companies that employ 15 or more workers to re-hire (rather than compensate) any employee found to have been fired without just cause, would also be reformed. The reforms to Article 18 are intended to make it easier for companies to dismiss or lay-off employees, which would hopefully encourage companies to hire more employees on permanent rather than short-term renewable contracts. The proposals have been met by strong opposition from labour unions and public protests. In early January 2012, consultations between the government and labour unions commenced and on 13 February it was reported in the Italian media that a compromise on the proposals was very close and the government was hopeful that reforms could be approved by the Italian parliament in March.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 21 December 2012, Monti announced his resignation as Prime Minister, having made a public promise to step down on 8 December, after the passing of the 2013 Budget. He initially stated that he would only remain in office until an early election could be held. However, on 28 December, he announced that he would seek to remain Prime Minister by contesting the election, as the leader of a centrist coalition, the Civic Choice.


title: Mario Monti

text: The election was held on 24 February 2013, and Monti's centrist coalition was only able to come fourth, with 10.5% of the vote. Monti remained Prime Minister until a coalition was formed on 28 April led by Enrico Letta.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 9 November 2011, Monti was appointed a Lifetime Senator by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, in accordance with the second paragraph of "Article 59 of the Constitution, which merits national honor distinguished in science and society". He was a member of the Commission for Industry, Commerce and Tourism from 30 November 2011 to 14 March 2013 in the sixteenth legislature. Monti was a member of the independents' mixed parliamentary group until 19 March 2013, when he joined the Civic Choice (SC) parliamentary group, becoming the first lifetime senator aligned with a party group. On 7 May 2013, he became a member of the Commission for Foreign Affairs and Emigration.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 4 January 2013, Monti launched Civic Choice as an electoral list of the civil society, to realize the implementation of his agenda in a future government. SC was announced as part of the With Monti for Italy (CMI) centrist coalition, alongside Union of the Centre (UdC) and Future and Freedom (FLI). In the 2013 general election, the party obtained 8.3% of the vote, 37 deputies (on own lists) and 15 senators (within CMI). On 12 March 2013, Civic Choice was turned into a political party as Monti took office as acting SC president in the Provisional Committee of the party and appointed senator Andrea Olivero as provisional political coordinator. On 16 May 2013, Mario Monti was unanimously elected president of the Civic Choice.


title: Mario Monti

text: On 17 October 2013 he resigned and was replaced by his deputy Alberto Bombassei as acting president. Monti cited his disagreement with 12 senators (out of 20), including Mario Mauro, Andrea Olivero, Gabriele Albertini, Pier Ferdinando Casini (UdC leader), Maria Paola Merloni, Luigi Marino and Lucio Romano. Particularly, Monti criticized Mauro's line of unconditioned support to the government and of transforming SC in a larger centre-right political party, open to The People of Freedom.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti actively participates in several major think tanks. He was the founding chairman of Bruegel, another European think tank, which was formed in 2005.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti is a leading member of the exclusive Bilderberg Group. He has also been an international advisor to Goldman Sachs and The Coca-Cola Company.


title: Mario Monti

text: In 2007, Monti was one of the first supporters of the first European civic forum, États Généraux de l'Europe, initiated by European think tank EuropaNova and European Movement. He was also a member of the French government's Attali Commission from 2007 to 2008, appointed by Nicolas Sarkozy to provide recommendations to enhance economic growth in France.


title: Mario Monti

text: Monti is a founding member of the Spinelli Group, an organization launched in September 2010 to facilitate integration within the European Union (other members of the steering group include Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff and Elmar Brok).


title: Mario Monti

text: In January 2014, Monti became Chairman of the High Level Group on Own Resources, a consultative committee of the European Union aimed at proposing new forms of revenue for the European Union's budget. The final report of the group was adopted in December 2016 and published in January 2017. It argued for new tax sources, such as on carbon and fuel.


title: Mario Monti

text: In 2019, Monti chaired a search committee which recommended to the European Commission the appointment of Mauro Ferrari as the next President of the European Research Council (ERC). In 2020, he was appointed by the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe to chair the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development to make recommendations on investments and reforms to improve the resilience of health and social care systems.


title: Mario Monti

text: Since 1970, Monti has been married to Elsa Antonioli (born 1944), an Italian Red Cross volunteer, with whom he has two children, Federica and Giovanni.