Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Her real birth name is "Orpah," the name of a biblical figure in the Book of Ruth. She changed it because people didn’t really know how to pronounce ‘Orpah’ and misspelt it as Oprah. Therefore she just stuck with it and began to call herself Oprah.

Oprah was born to a single teenage mother, Vernita Lee, a maid. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, had broken up with Oprah's mom long before she was born.

She spent her first six years living in rural poverty and wore potato sacks for clothes.

Oprah Winfrey 2014 By https://www.flickr.com/photos/aphrodite-in-nyc

During her childhood, Oprah Winfrey was molested by her uncle, cousin, and a family friend to the point where she ran away from home. When she discussed this with her family when she was older, they denied her allegations.

Oprah Winfrey gave birth at the age of 14 to a baby who died in the hospital weeks later.

She was crowned Miss Black Tennessee while in college and began co-anchoring the evening news when she was nineteen.

In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's movie The Color Purple as distraught housewife Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Oprah Winfrey's first talk show was a local one in Baltimore called People Are Talking. She hosted it along with journalist Richard Sher.

Her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, first went on the air on September 8, 1986. The topic for the premiere show was "How to Marry the Man or Woman of Your Choice".

Winfrey used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.. It was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011.

The most watched interview in television broadcast history is Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Michael Jackson from February, 1993—90 million people tuned in.

Winfrey is also a best-selling author. Her books include 1998's Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life co-authored with her personal trainer Bob Greene.

She became the world's first female black billionaire and the richest self-made American woman.

Winfrey celebrating her fiftieth birthday by Alan Light

Oprah Winfrey is the only African-American among the 400 richest people in the United States.

Winfrey and her longtime partner Stedman Graham have been together since 1986. They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place. Graham is the author of several self-help and business-related books.

Oprah Winfrey is chiclephobic, she is scared of chewing gum.

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California, the third child of homemaker Gertrude Temple and bank worker George Temple.

Temple in Glad Rags to Riches (1933)

FILM CAREER

Shirley Temple made her on-screen debut at the age of 3, when she and a handful of other toddlers starred in the 1932 satire series Baby Burlesks. The kids wore adult clothing on the top and diapers fastened with large safety pins on the bottom, and their roles included prostitutes and World War I soldiers.  In her 1988 autobiography Temple described the series as "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence".

The 1934 comedy drama movie Bright Eyes was the first film to be written and developed specifically for Shirley Temple, and the first in which her name was raised above the title. The movie featured her singing her best known musical number, "On the Good Ship Lollipop."

Movie poster for Bright Eyes. Wikipedia

Shirley Temple was honored in February 1935 with a special "pint-sized" Academy Award for her contributions on nine feature films and two shorts in 1934.

Shirley Temple stopped believing in Santa Claus at the age of 6 after her mother took her to see him in a department store and he asked for her autograph.

She was the top U.S. box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, beating out Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, and Joan Crawford.

Shirley Temple received received 135,000 presents for her ninth birthday in 1937. The film star's gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon in the U.S. The calf was named "Shirley Temple" in her honor, and she even visited the calf on her birthday.

She was so famous they named a drink after her: The Shirley Temple cocktail is traditionally made with ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.

During Temple’s reign as a child star, because she was very physically coordinated and never seen missing baby teeth, there was a lingering rumor in Europe that she was actually an adult dwarf in disguise. The gossip was put to rest after the Vatican sent Father Silvio Massante to verify that Temple was indeed a little girl.

Her mother Gertrude was said to have done her hair for each movie, with every hairstyle having precisely 56 golden curls styled laboriously.

Temple's first on-screen kiss was in the 1942 comedy-drama Miss Annie Rooney when she played a modest girl who falls in love with a rich young man, played by Dickie Moore. He bestowed a kiss on her left cheek.

Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple starred together in That Hagen Girl in 1947.

Wikipedia

POST MOVIE CAREER

Shirley Temple retired from acting at age 22 and became active in the Republican Party in California.

Shirley Temple in 1948

In 1967 Temple campaigned to fill an unexpired California congressional term. Her support of the Vietnam War and conservative Republicanism cost her the election, however.

However, her public career was not over, though. When Henry Kissinger overheard Temple talking about South West Africa at a party, he was surprised how knowledgeable she was. In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Temple to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. 

Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford, made Temple U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, a position she held from December 1974 to July 1976. 

Temple (far left) with First Lady Pat Nixon in Ghana, 1972

Later, Ford made Temple the first female Chief of Protocol of the United States. She held that title for half a year and was then in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter's inauguration and inaugural ball.

Shirley Temple hated her namesake cocktail. She reportedly found it too sweet and even once said that it tasted like "liquid candy." In 1988, Temple sued the company that was bottling and selling a version of the drink called "Shirley Temple's Ginger Ale." She argued that the company was using her name without her permission and that the drink was not a true representation of her taste. Temple won the lawsuit and the company was forced to stop selling the drink.

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed Temple as U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

Temple in 1990

PRIVATE LIFE

Shirley Temple married her first husband, John Agar on September 19, 1945. They'd met through Agar's sister, who was a schoolmate of the child actress. The bride wore a traditionally styled satin wedding gown, while John Agar was in military uniform. The ceremony took place in front of 500 guests.

Agar and Temple had a daughter together, Linda Susan Agar.  However, the marriage floundered due to Agar's drinking and pressures of their high public profile. The two were divorced on December 7, 1950.

John Agar

Temple met her second husband, Charles Black, a San Francisco businessman in Honolulu and they married a week after her divorce on December 16, 1950.

Black had never seen any of Temple's movies before they got together. The pair remained a couple until his death from complications of a bone marrow disease in 2005.

HEALTH AND DEATH

Shirley Temple was president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and a co-founder of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, a position that took her around the world. She was in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on MS Society business in 1968 when the Soviet Union's Red Army rolled into crush attempted democratic reform.

Temple had breast cancer in the early 1970s and had a mastectomy. She announced the results of the operation on radio and television and in a February 1973 article for the magazine McCall's. 

She was a lifelong smoker but Temple avoided displaying her habit in public because she did not want to set a bad example for her fans.

Shirley Temple died on February 10, 2014 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia at her Woodside, California home, at the age of 85.

Sources About.com, LA Times

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London on February 27, 1932. Her parents, Francis Lenn Taylor and Sara Sothern, were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas and were living in England. They returned to the United States on the onset of World War II. 

Colorized Film still of Elizabeth Taylor, late 1950s.

FILM CAREER

Elizabeth Taylor began her movie career as a child actress in the early 1940s, making her screen debut in a minor role in There's One Born Every Minute (1942). Her breakthrough role in National Velvet (1944), made her one of Hollywood's most popular teenage stars. 

Mickey Rooney and Taylor in National Velvet (1944), 

Taylor made the transition to adult roles in the early 1950s, when she starred in the comedy Father of the Bride (1950) and the following year received critical acclaim for her performance in the drama A Place in the Sun alongside Montgomery Clift. 

Working steadily during the 1950s, Taylor's notable movies  included; Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly last Summer (1959), Butterfield 8 (1960).

In 1963, Taylor played the lead role in the hugely expensive Cleopatra opposite Richard Burton, This was, of course, the film that kick started their fiery and passionate romance (plus two marriages).

Richard Burton as Mark Antony with Taylor as Cleopatra in Cleopatra (1963)

Elizabeth Taylor had a record 65 costume changes playing the title role in Cleopatra, and received Hollywood's first million dollar contract for her part. 

Taylor won two Academy Awards for best actress, the first for her performance in Butterfield 8, the second for her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

In 1999 Taylor won the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, a lifetime achievement award. 

She has appeared twice on The Simpsons – once as herself and once saying Maggie's first word "Daddy." It took Taylor 24 takes to get the voice of a baby, because Matt Groening said: 'They were always too sexual.'"

PRIVATE LIFE

Taylor often received media attention because of her seven husbands and eight marriages. Her marriage partners were Nicky Hilton, Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton (twice), John Warner and Larry Fortensky.

She had two sons with Michael Wilding and a daughter with Mike Todd. Taylor also adopted a daughter while married to Richard Burton. 

Taylor with her third husband Mike Todd and her three children in 1957

On January 29, 1951, Elizabeth Taylor was divorced from U.S. hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jnr — the first of her eight marriages, to seven men, to fail.

Elizabeth Taylor almost called off her wedding to film producer Mike Todd on February 4, 1957. The ceremony, at the beach resort of Acapulco, Mexico, was delayed for more than an hour before Todd convinced the highly strung actress to go through with it. Singer Eddie Fisher was best man and his wife Debbie Reynolds was maid of honor. 

Fisher went on to marry Taylor after an affair following Todd's death in a plane crash.

Taylor's marriages to Richard Burton lasted from March 15, 1964 to June 26, 1974 and from October 10, 1975 to July 29, 1976. Their first wedding was at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal.

Richard Burton indulged Taylor's love of jewellery. He once gave her a £127,000 ring "just because it was a Tuesday."

Taylor made 11 films with Richard Burton, plus one made-for-TV movie in 1973 entitled Divorce His, Divorce Hers, about a couple whose marriage had ended. Just a year after that film's release, the real-life couple of Taylor and Burton got divorced for the first time.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton secretly married for the second time at a game park in Botswana on October 10, 1975, 16 months after getting divorced.

In 1991 Michael Jackson gave Elizabeth Taylor away to Larry Fortensky during her eighth wedding, held at Jackson's 2,700-acre Neverland estate near Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Taylor was the godmother of two of Michael Jackson's children. 

FASHION

Taylor was the first celebrity to create her own collection of fragrances. In collaboration with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., she began by launching two best-selling perfumes – Passion in 1987, and White Diamonds in 1991. 

£40m ($50m) worth of Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds perfume was bought in 2010. making it the best-selling celebrity perfume. According to biographers Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, Taylor earned more money through the fragrance collection than during her entire acting career.

Taylor promoting her first fragrance, Passion, in 1987. By SMU Central University Libraries

Elizabeth Taylor allegedly wouldn't let anyone else on her movie sets wear the same shade of lipstick as her.

Her vast collection of fine jewelry purchased by her and given to her as gifts are well documented in her jewelry autobiography My Love Affair With Jewelry that came out in 2002.

Eighty pieces of jewellery that had belonged to Elizabeth Taylor sold for $116 million (£74.9 million) in 2011, including the fabulous Krupp diamond, the 33.19 carat ring given to her by Richard Burton. He bought it at an auction for $ 307,000 (£ 230,000) in 1968 and presented it to Taylor on board their yacht while moored on the Thames in London.

BELIEFS 

Elizabeth Taylor converted to Judaism on March 28, 1959, taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel, a year after the death of her Jewish third husband Mike Todd. The ceremony, consisting of a prayer read in Hebrew by a rabbi with Miss Taylor replying, took place in the Temple Israel of Hollywood. She converted, she said, "because, in a way, it was what I told my husband I would do."

Taylor was refused entry to Egypt in 1962 because of her conversion to Judaism in 1959 and her Israeli sympathies. But Egypt's government relented when Cleopatra came out in 1963 and they realized the great publicity could make them millions.

In 1976, Taylor offered herself as a hostage to save more than 100 Air France passengers hijacked by terrorists in Uganda before Israeli forces rescued them.

From the mid-1980s, Taylor supported HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993. 

Picture below shows congresswoman Nancy Pelosi alongside Taylor, who is testifying in 1990 before the House Budget Committee on HIV-AIDS Funding.

By Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco, CA 

Elizabeth Taylor advised: "Milk is my recipe for lovely skin, sparkling eyes and a well-rounded figure. Without these, you cannot be attractive."

HEALTH AND DEATH 

Elizabeth Taylor‘s voluminous eyelashes were caused by a rare genetic mutation which was responsible for her having two rows of eyelashes.

Taylor was pronounced dead in 1960 while playing a high-class call girl in Butterfield 8, due to a rare strain of pneumonia. But she rose from her deathbed to pick up an Oscar for the film.

She suffered many years of ill health. In 2004, Taylor was diagnosed with congestive heart failure for which she underwent cardiac surgery five years later. 

In early 2011, new symptoms related to congestive heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment. Taylor died on March 23, 2011, surrounded by her four children at the same medical center in Los Angeles at the age of 79.

Elizabeth Taylor wanted to be late for her own funeral, so the coffin arrived 15 minutes after the announced start time. 

Barbra Streisand

EARLY LIFE

She was born Barbara Joan Streisand to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. 

Barbara changed her name to Barbra when she was 18-years-old as she wanted to be unique, but didn't want to change her name completely.

1966 promotional photo of Barbra Streisand

Her mother Diana (born Ida Rosen) had been a soprano singer as a teenager and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary.

Her father was a high school teacher, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage when Barbra was just fifteen months old.

Diana Streisand worked as a low-paid bookkeeper while bringing up Barbara and her older brother. They struggled financially until Barbra's mom remarried in 1949.

Barbra attended Bais Yakov School in Brooklyn, New York as a child.

While a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, Barbra had an unrequited crush on a schoolmate who also would achieve international renown - chess genius Bobby Fischer.

At Erasmus Hall High School. she sang in the school choir alongside Neil Diamond. The pair teamed up again in 1978 for the smash hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers".

CAREER

Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut aged 19 on March 22, 1962 in the musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale. Streisand played the role of Miss Marmelstein in the production, which ran for 300 performances at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre in New York City. Her performance in the musical was widely praised, and she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her work.

Barbra Streisand, c. 1962.

In 1970 Barbra Streisand became the first person ever to receive a Grammy, an Emmy, an Academy Award, and a Tony. She won her first Grammy in 1963, her first Emmy in 1965, her first Oscar in 1968, and her one Tony, an honorary "Star of the Decade" Tony Award, in 1970.

Streisand is still the only artist ever to receive an Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy plus record a number one single and album.

With the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio movie.

On New Year's Eve 1993, Barbra Streisand embarked on her first ever full tour. The tour consisted of 26 shows and ended in Anaheim, California in July 1994. Although she had sung concerts this was her first tour after a 28 year bout of stage fright.

Barbra: The Concert was broadcast on HBO August 21, 1994 and received a television audience of 11.2 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated musical event in HBO’s history.

When in 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced the biggest-selling artists of the century in the United States, it was revealed that Barbra Streisand was the best-selling female solo act of the 20th century.

When Barbra Streisand's 2014 long player Partners topped the Billboard 200, she created US chart history by becoming the first artist to score number one albums in every decade from the 1960s to the 2010s. 

PERSONAL LIFE 

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who appeared as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides.

Streisand with husband Elliott Gould and son Jason (1967)

Her second husband is actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998

Both of Streisand's husbands, Elliott Gould and James Brolin, starred in Capricorn One (1977).

A photograph of Barbra Streisand's Malibu, California home was taken in 2003 by aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for the California Coastal Records Project. 

Streisand's attempts to suppress the photograph led to the unintended consequence of publicizing it much more widely; before the singing star filed her lawsuit, the image had been downloaded only six times, whereas in the month after the lawsuit afterwards more than 420,000 people visited the site. The term "Streisand effect" evolved from the controversy and has been used to describe subsequent cases of the phenomenon.

The image of Streisand's Malibu house By Copyright (C) 2002 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman

Barbra Streisand had her dead dog Sammie cloned twice and both pets now have different personalities than the original.

Leaked documents from a U.S. tour revealed that Streisand demanded 120 luxury towels and a sprinkling of rose petals in the toilet bowl at every show.

She founded the Streisand Foundation in 1986 to support social and political causes.

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey on June 22, 1949.

Her mother, Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson; 1915–2001), was a commercial artist and an art editor, and her father, Harry William Streep, Jr. (1910–2003), was a pharmaceutical executive.

Meryl Streep 2016. Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan -

Meryl Streep had operatic lessons at the age of 12 from vocal coach Estelle Liebling, who performed in more than 1600 concerts with John Philip Sousa and his band. Later she played the title role in Florence Foster Jenkins, about an opera singer who was known for her painful lack of singing skill.

Streep originally applied to Law School but slept in on the morning of her interview and took it as a sign she was destined for other things.

In 1974 future screen queens Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver acted together as drama students in Aristophanes' Greek comedy, The Frogs, which was performed in Yale universities swimming pool.

She received her Master's degree in Fine Arts from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1975. One of her acting classmates at Yale said Streep was so intense, her name became a verb. "To Streep it up" meant to step up your game.

She made her stage debut in 1975 with The Public Theater production of Trelawny of the Wells.

Meryl Streep made her film début in The Deadliest Season, a 1977 movie about sports violence.

Meryl Streep took on the role of Linda in the 1978 war drama The Deer Hunter despite not liking the character, in part to be close to her boyfriend John Cazale, who was terminally ill with lung cancer at the time. Streep and Cazale had been dating since 1976 and when he was diagnosed with cancer, Streep wanted to support him as much as possible. She was also aware that his time was limited, and she wanted to make the most of their time together. Cazale died in March 1978, just a few months before The Deer Hunter was released. 

Her supporting role in The Deer Hunter proved to be a breakthrough for Streep and she received her first Academy Award nomination for it. She also won an Emmy Award that year for her role in the mini-series Holocaust.

Streep won the Academy Award the following year for playing a troubled wife in the top-grossing divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). However, after the ceremony Streep absent-mindedly left the statue on top of the room in the ladies at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, where the awards were being held.

Streep in 1979. By Jack Mitchell, 

Streep established herself as a leading Hollywood actress in the 1980s. She played dual roles in the 1981 period drama The French Lieutenant's Woman, and starred the following year as a Polish holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice, winning the Best Actress Oscar for the latter.

Her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 biopic The Iron Lady earned Streep another Academy Award for Best Actress.

Meryl Streep has received 21 Academy Award nominations, more than any other actor or actress in history.

The real-life characters Streep has played include: Julia Child, Ethel Rosenberg, Karen Silkwood, Karen Blixen, Roberta Guaspari, Lindy Chamberlain, Susan Orlean, Margaret Thatcher, Florence Foster Jenkins and Kay Graham.

Streep learned to play the violin, by practicing six hours a day for eight weeks, for her role in Music of the Heart.

Streep married sculptor Don Gummer in the garden of her parent's home on September 30, 1978.

They have four children, son Henry Wolf Gummer (born November 13, 1979) and daughters Mary Willa Gummer (born August 3, 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born June 12, 1991).

Marilyn Monroe

EARLY LIFE

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage.

At the age of 16, Norma Jean married a fellow worker in an aircraft factory, James Doughty but they divorced a few years later.

Norma Jean Mortenson was athletic. In the early 1940s, she studied weightlifting with a former Olympic champion named Howard Corrington.

MODELLING CAREER

Norma Jean Mortenson was discovered while building drone aircraft at Radioplane Company in 1944 and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency in August 1945.

Monroe photographed by David Conover while she was still working at the Radioplane factory in 1944

Ronald Reagan sent out the army photographer, David Conover, who first discovered Norma Jean Mortenson.

Pictures from Norma Jean's first photoshoot in 1946 sold for $352,000 (£225,000) in 2011. According to the auction catalog, the images "captured a sweet, girlish and natural beauty yet to be transformed into the epitome of female glamour’."

In 1946 Mortenson signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She appeared in two small film roles during the contract and was let go after a year.

Monroe in a studio publicity photo taken when she was a contract player at 20th Century-Fox in 1947. 

She returned to modeling, famously posing naked in May 1949 to raise $50 to pay the rent for her room at the Hollywood Studio Club.

Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe's first modelling agency.

FILM CAREER

After two short-lived film contracts,  Monroe was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1951. The next year, the scandalous nude photographs of her taken in 1949 were featured in a popular calendar. One of them was also featured in the inaugural issue of Playboy magazine in 1953.

She became one of the most bankable Hollywood actresses with starring roles in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Monroe in 1952

Disappointed in being typecast and underpaid, Monroe formed her own production company in 1955 and successfully fought for a better contract with Fox.

She received critical acclaim for her performances in Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959), winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter.

Marilyn Monroe had a strained relationship with Laurence Olivier on The Prince And The Showgirl (1957), which he directed. It’s said she never forgave him for saying to her on set: "Try to be sexy."

Monroe needed 47 takes to get the phrase "It's me, Sugar" right in Some Like it Hot. She kept switching from "Sugar, it's me" to "It's Sugar, me" and the director, Billy Wilder, had to write the line on a blackboard.

Marilyn Monroe was so terrified of acting in front of cameras that she broke out in a rash all over her body whenever she did.

Her last completed film was the 1961 drama The Misfits.

Marilyn Monroe, in her final completed film, The Misfits 

Marilyn Monroe, began filming her last movie Something’s Got To Give in April 1962, but she was fired for absenteeism on June 7, 1962 and sued her for breach of contract, with the studio demanding $750,000 in damages.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Monroe's first hiusband, James Dougherty, later became a detective in the LAPD. He forbidden by his second wife from going to see any of the Hollywood star’s films.

Marilyn Monroe published an article in the January 1953 edition of Motion Picture and Television Magazine called "Wolves I Have Known." She writes of the creepy harassment she received from photographers, producers and screen writers who tried to take advantage of new and aspiring actresses.

Marilyn Monroe married her second husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954. DiMaggio's jealousy meant their relationship was fraught and possibly violent. Just nine months after the wedding, the actress told a court her husband had become "cold and indifferent" and a divorce was granted. Their union had lasted just 274 days

With second husband Joe DiMaggio.

Marilyn Monroe secretly married Jewish playwright Arthur Miller in the court house of a New York suburb on June 29, 1956. Only two witnesses and a photographer attended the civil ceremony. The bride, who wore a sweater and a creased skirt, had said she would not care for a Grace Kelly-style white wedding.

Monroe converted to Judaism before the wedding and had a second, Jewish ceremony on July 1. One newspaper greeted their nuptials with the headline "Egghead Weds Hourglass."

As a result of of Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were granted a divorce in Mexico on the grounds of ‘incompatibility’, after less than five years of marriage, on January 24, 1961.

With third husband Arthur Miller at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, 1957

Marilyn Monroe had a higher IQ (163) than that of Albert Einstein (160).

Marilyn Monroe had six toes.

Monroe was so paranoid about sweat and spots that she washed her face up to 15 times a day.

She suffered from Endometriosis, a condition that causes severe pain due to uterine lining growing throughout the body. Monroe had multiple surgeries for it and couldn't carry any of her much wanted pregnancies to term.

Marilyn Monroe was such an animal lover that her first husband recalled her trying to bring a cow into her house to get it out of the rain.

Monroe had a beloved Maltese terrier who was given to her by Frank Sinatra; he'd acquired the pooch from Natalie Wood's mother. In a nod to the singer's supposed mob connections, she mischievously named him Mafia, or Maf for short. The cute English dog became her inseparable companion in her last years.

DEATH 

Troubled by mental health and addiction problems, Monroe was found dead by her housekeeper in her Los Angeles home at age 36 in the early morning hours of August 5, 1962. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was "caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide."

Front page of the New York Daily Mirror on August 6, 1962

Joe Di Maggio claimed Marilyn Monroe's body after her suicide, and arranged her funeral, paying for her casket and crypt. The funeral took place at 1:00pm on August 8, 1962, at the Mortuary Chapel on the grounds of Westwood Memorial Cemetery.

Joe DiMaggio wept over the body of Marilyn Monroe at her funeral and kissed her on the forehead. He refused to allow any movie stars to attend the ceremony, saying: "if it hadn’t been for some of her friends, she wouldn’t be where she is now."

For twenty years after the death of Marilyn Monroe, Di Maggio had a half-dozen red roses placed at her crypt three times a week.

Marilyn Monroe left most of her estate to her acting coach Lee Strasberg. When Strasberg died in 1982, his wife Anna, who had never known Monroe inherited her estate. In 1999 she auctioned off Monroe's personal belongings for $14 million.

Hugh Hefner owned the burial vault next to Marilyn at the Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. He had a rose delivered to Marilyn Monroe's grave every day.

Source Daily Mirror

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

EARLY LIFE

The Duchess of Sussex was born Rachel Meghan Markle on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California.

Meghan Markle By Northern Ireland Office - https://www.flickr.com

Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, worked as a lighting director on Married…with Children and General Hospital.

Her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, is a social worker and yoga instructor. She calls her famous daughter "Flower,"

Meghan's parents divorced when she was six years old. She has two older paternal half-siblings, Thomas Markle Jr. and Samantha Grant.

Her father is Caucasian and her mother African American.

Markle grew up attending an all-girls school with a Catholic affiliation, Immaculate Heart High School, although she identifies as Protestant. She attended both middle school and high school there, graduating in 1999

Most days for ten years, Meghan found herself on Married…With Children sets after school.

CAREER

The teenage Meghan Markle's first job was at Humphrey Yogart, a frozen yogurt shop. She earned a minimum wage.

She got her first acting job before graduation from Northwestern University. In 2002, on a summer break from the university's prestigious theater program, Meghan was cast in a small role as a nurse on soap opera General Hospital.

Meghan was a double major at Northwestern University in theater and international relations.

After graduating, Meghan did an internship at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the time she was planning for a future in politics rather than acting.

Over the next few years, Meghan took on several contract acting and modeling jobs that included a stint as an understudy "briefcase girl" on the US game show Deal or No Deal. Though she appeared regularly in Season 2, Meghan’s job was to fill in whenever a model couldn’t appear.

Between 2011 to 2018, Markle portrayed Rachel Zane on the legal drama series Suits.

After becoming engaged to Prince Harry, she announced her retirement from acting.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Meghan Markle has been interested in philanthropy since she was a child. She wanted to make the world a better place after seeing the slums of Jamaica during trips with her social worker mom.

Meghan is a self proclaimed foodie and founded the lifestyle website TheTIG.com. She derived the name from the Tignanello red wine.

She has incredibly neat handwriting and even dabbles in calligraphy. Meghan penned the invitations for Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding back in 2005.

MARRIAGE 

Markle married actor and producer Trevor Engelson in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, on September 10, 2011 after the two dated for 7 years. They divorced in August 2013.

Meghan and Prince Harry were both in Afghanistan at the same time before they met. Meghan was doing a USO tour with other celebrities for the U.S. troops while Harry was stationed in the Middle East.

Harry and Meghan attending church on Christmas Day, 2017. By Mark Jones 

Prince Harry and Markle met on a blind date that a mutual friend set up. No one has ever confirmed who that friend is, but some sources have said fashion designer Misha Nonoo was responsible.

The press began to report their relationship in October 2016 and Markle's engagement to Prince Harry was announced on November 27, 2017.

Meghan and Prince Harry's marriage ceremony took place on May 19, 2018, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Meghan and her husband announced in January 2020 that they would “step back as ‘senior members’ of the royal family” and planned to divide their time between Britain and North America and become financially independent. They made a deal with representatives of Queen Elizabeth II, in which they agreed to stop using their British royal titles, forgo some state funding and repay at least $3 million in taxpayer money that was used to refurbish their residence at Windsor Castle. 

Madonna (entertainer)

PERSONAL LIFE

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born to Catholic parents Silvio Anthony "Tony" Ciccone (b. 1931) and Madonna Louise Fortin (c. 1933 – December 1, 1963) in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958.
Tony worked as an engineer designer for Chrysler and General Motors.

Madonna's mother died of breast cancer when she was five. Her father later married the housekeeper and insisted that the kids call her "Mom."

Madonna's stepmother and father, Joan and Tony Ciccone (2009)

Since Madonna had the same name as her mother, family members called her "Little Nonni".

She has two elder brothers, Anthony (born 1956) and Martin (born 1957), and three younger siblings, Paula (born 1959), Christopher (born 1960), and Melanie (born 1962).

According to her brother Christopher, the only thing Madonna can cook is Rice Krispie cakes.

The first gig that Madonna ever attended was David Bowie 's show at the Cobo Hall in Detroit on June 22, 1974.

When Madonna and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat broke up in the early 1980s, he took back all of the paintings he made for her and painted them black.

Both Madonna's marriages ended in divorce. She was married to actor Sean Penn from 1985-1989 and to film director Guy Ritchie from 2000-2008.

Robbie Williams' song "She's Madonna" is about how Guy Ritchie broke up with his partner to be with the Queen of Pop.

Madonna married Guy Ritchie on December 22, 2000 in a Scottish castle, with Gwyneth Paltrow as maid of honor — before enjoying smoked salmon and haggis at a champagne reception.

Raised Catholic and named after the Virgin Mary, Madonna wanted to be either a film star or a nun when she grew up. During her career she has sometimes be seen as mocking the Christian faith and has often been denounced by religious leaders.

After the birth of her daughter Lourdes, Madonna became involved in Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah. She was introduced to Jewish mysticism by actress Sandra Bernhard in 1997.

A self-professed insomniac, Madonna told iHeartRadio’s 103.5 KTU hosts Cubby and Christine 4-11am "is my window of sleep," the time frame when she gets shut-eye if she’s lucky. From 2-4am is the window she describes as “magic” for writing songs .

Madonna suffers from brontophobia: a fear of thunder and lightning.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Madonna moved from Michigan to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance.

In 1979 Madonna became romantically involved with musician Dan Gilroy. Together, they formed her first band, the Breakfast Club, for which Madonna sang and played drums and guitar.

After Madonna signed a deal with Sire, her debut single, "Everybody", was released in October 1982. Her first album, Madonna, followed in 1983.

Madonna performing during the Who's That Girl World Tour, 1987. By Olavtenbroek -Wikipedia Commons

Madonna released her self-titled debut album on July 27, 1983. The album's upbeat synthetic disco sound was a new sound for the time, and it helped to set the standard for the genre of dance-pop for decades to come. The album's singles, including "Holiday", "Borderline", and "Lucky Star", were all major hits, and they helped to make Madonna a household name. 

The organizers of the 1985 benefit single "We Are the World" didn't invite Madonna to participate on the recording because "they didn't think she could sing" and "it broke her heart" that that was the case.

Madonna's “Like A Prayer” was debuted in a two-minute commercial for Pepsi. It was the first song by a major artist to be used in a commercial before being released to stores or radio stations. Worldwide, it is Madonna's most popular song.

The music video for the 1989 song "Express Yourself" had a budget of $5 million, making it the most expensive music video at the time of its release.

The 2008-2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour broke many records in terms of its ticket sales, commercial gross and audience attendance. After the first leg, it became the highest grossing tour by a solo artist, earning $282 million, breaking the previous record Madonna herself held with her Confessions Tour.

Madonna is the only artist to perform at Live Aid (1985), Live 8 (2005) and Live Earth (2007).

Madonna is the best-selling female artist of all time and the fourth best-selling act ever, behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson.

Madonna_by_David_Shankbone.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia Commons

Movies that Madonna  has appeared in include Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, A League Of Their Own, Shanghai Surprise and Evita.

In 2003 Madonna became the first person to receive Razzle awards for Worst Actress (Swept Away), Worst Supporting Artist (Die Another Day) and Worst Screen Couple (Swept Away).

In 2014, a collector paid $252,000 (£159,000) for the jacket Madonna wore in her first movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, in 1985

Madonna was in the Guinness Book of Records for most costume changes in a movie. She changed 85 times in Evita.

Source Artistfacts