Brad Pitt

Before doing research for this piece, we just assumed Brad Pitt was the product of a genetic experiment in which scientists attempted to create the perfect human specimen for reasons that remain unknown. It turns out that Brad was conceived naturally and actually does have parents -- Jane Etta, a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner -- go figure. A classic go-getter while attending Springfield, Missouri's Kickapoo High School, Brad first caught the acting bug while starring in various high school musicals. After graduating, he attended the University of Missouri where he majored in journalism and continued acting as a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. But two weeks prior to graduation, something compelled Brad to leave university and move to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Let's let the man himself explain why: "I had this sinking feeling as graduation approached. I saw my friends getting jobs. I wasn't ready to settle down. I loved films. They were a portal into different worlds for me, and Missouri wasn't where movies were made. Then it hit me: If they didn't come to me, I'd go to them." Something tells us he made the right decision.

brad pitt's humble beginnings

If you think superstardom just fell into Brad Pitt's lap, you're sorely mistaken. Unlike today's generation of young stars, Brad Pitt's rise to the top was littered with meandering appearances on television shows like Growing Pains, Dallas and 21 Jump Street and films like No Way Out, No Man's Land and Less Than Zero. These small roles in mostly inconsequential projects would continue until 1991, when Pitt played Geena Davis' outlaw lover in Ridley Scott's smash hit Thelma and Louise. The breakout role earned Pitt widespread attention and acclaim, and would prove to be the catalyst for many fo his early successes including the films Johnny Suede, Cool World, A River Runs Through It, and Kalifornia.

brad pitt becomes a movie star

Already armed with unbelievable physical attributes, Pitt used his turns in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It, and Kalifornia to prove to the world that he could act too. For Brad Pitt, taking over Hollywood seemed inevitable. With roles in films like Interview With The Vampire, and Legends of The Fall (for which he received his first Golden Globe nod for best actor), Pitt managed to achieve widespread popularity but failed to find the perfect marriage of script and his talent. That is until David Fincher unleashed the grim thriller Se7en on the world, with Pitt's portrayal of the brash young detective David Mills going down as one of his best performances even to this day. Pitt followed that up with a role in the twisted sci-fi film Twelve Monkeys, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. However, Pitt's cinematic comfort zone continued to elude him, as his roles in Sleepers, The Devil's Own, Seven Years in Tibet, and Meet Joe Black were largely ignored by critics and audiences alike.

brad pitt's love life overshadows his acting career

Even with roles in films like Meet Joe Black, Fight Club, Snatch, The Mexican opposite Julia Roberts and Spy Games opposite Robert Redford, all anybody could talk about was what Brad was doing offscreen. Having already been involved in a highly publicized and ultimately failed engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt's love life came under even more scrutiny when he courted and eventually married Jennifer Aniston in 2000. With a seemingly successful marriage and a soaring film career--thanks to massive hits like Troy, Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve -- Brad Pitt could do no wrong. Then, in a move that still reverberates through the fabric of pop culture today, Brad Pitt signed on to appear in a film called Mr. and Mrs. Smith; his costar was a woman named Angelina Jolie. The rest, as they say, is history.

brad pitt gets together with angelina jolie to form "brangelina"

If someone were to tell us a decade ago that in due time, the world's two biggest stars would fall in love and then travel the world acquiring babies from some of the planet's most desperate countries, while giving birth to three of their own, we would laugh, and continue drinking our key lime milkshake. But alas, it came true! After inciting one of Hollywood's biggest scandals of all time by leaving Aniston for Jolie, Brad Pitt shamelessly began seeing Angelina, and claimed to have fallen in love with her while working on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Since then, "Brangelina" as they are more commonly known, have gone on to become one of the world's most powerful couples--jet-setting celebrities who somehow seem more concerned with the world's struggles than they do their own careers. Most importantly, their desire to help others actually seems genuine, as opposed to simply an attempt at good publicity. Since meeting Angelina, Brad has been involved with various humanitarian initiatives including the ONE Campaign, aimed to fight AIDS and poverty in developing countries, and Not On Our Watch, an organization aimed at focusing global attention on the atrocities occurring in Darfur. Brad's love of architecture has also led to the creation of the Make It Right Foundation which will help in constructing 150 new houses in New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Ninth Ward, with an emphasis on sustainability and affordability. When Brad and Angelina aren't busy fixing the world's ills, they spend their time devoted to their children Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne. The Obama's may be The United States' first family, but the Jolie-Pitt's are the world's first family, no doubt.

what's up next for brad pitt?

After many personal and professional struggles, Brad Pitt finally seems to be in a groove. His last slew of films, including Babel (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination), Ocean's Thirteen, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Burn After Reading, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which he received his first Oscar nomination for best actor in a leading role, seem to be his most assured, and everyone is talking about his latest role as Lt. Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's WWII romp Inglourious Basterds. Also look for Brad to make waves starring in Terrence Malick's highly anticipated The Tree of Life, which also stars Sean Penn and is expected to be released by year's end.

Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment--who had a hand in films like The Departed and A Mighty Heart--also has a slew of films on the way including Kick-Ass, Eat, Pray, Love, and The Sparrow.

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Tom Cruise

In true rags-to-riches fashion, Tom Cruise's stunning climb to the top of the Hollywood food chain began in the most humbling of circumstances. Moving often and facing a double whammy of dyslexia and a difficult relationship with his strict father, Tom Cruise (then known as Thomas Cruise Mapother) came to find outlets for his struggles in athletics and drama. During a stint at Henry Munro Middle School in Ottawa, Ontario, he became a seasoned floor hockey player and performed in stage plays like IT, which was picked up for filming by a local TV network. In the wake of his parents' separation, Cruise returned to the U.S. where he was enrolled in three high schools -- and briefly considered a future as a Catholic priest -- before finding a second home in the drama department of a New Jersey high school and realizing that acting was his calling.

Fueled by a stronger desire to act than to finish high school, Tom Cruise bailed out of class in his senior year, and hightailed it to the Big Apple in search of stardom. Early on, he had the typical working actor experience of dreaming big while waiting tables, but thanks to Creative Arts Agency agent Paula Wagner, he found his way into the business. It came via 1981's Endless Love with Brooke Shields, which is now widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made.

With nowhere else to go but up, Tom Cruise had better luck in Taps, where his bit part was upgraded to a supporting role, and The Outsiders, where he perfected his art under the watchful eye of Francis Ford Coppola and shared the screen with future stars Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, and Diane Lane. If these films represented a warm-up for Tom Cruise, his first true break would be his Golden Globe-nominated performance in 1983's Risky Business, where his high-watt charisma kicked into full gear as Joel Goodson, the young Chicago man who learns a few lessons in life from the savvy and sexy Rebecca De Mornay.

tom cruise stars in top gun and mission: impossible

Now at a stage in his career where he could headline his own movie, Tom Cruise went from bright new talent to top-shelf movie star with a little 1986 effort called Top Gun. Besides recharging the flyboy genre and imprinting the likes of Val Kilmer and the movie's signature anthem into pop culture immortality, Top Gun was the perfect vehicle to brand Tom Cruise as the cocky, sure-minded movie star for his generation. Even if he could have coasted along strictly on the foundation of his new career swagger, Cruise chose not to. Instead, he surrounded himself with great talent in front of and behind the camera. Films like Rain Man, The Color of Money, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, and The Firm put the actor alongside greats like Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, and with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Rob Reiner and Oliver Stone keeping watch.

The success of all of these films -- and the Oscar nomination that accompanied his portrayal of real-life Vietnam vet Ron Kovic in July -- made Tom Cruise the most bankable star in Hollywood. Even projected disasters like Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt became profitable hits, ultimately giving him the power to create his own lucrative production company with Paula Wagner. Their first effort was a 1996 cinematic update of the classic TV series, Mission: Impossible. In ringleader Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise found a confident modern update of Top Gun's Maverick and an ultra-successful franchise that continued with the $400-million-grossing sequel in 2000. In between, he earned his second and third Oscar nominations as a sports agent facing a new reality in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and a hotheaded motivational speaker in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. Along with his wife at the time, Nicole Kidman, he starred as a doctor coping badly with his wife's thoughts of infidelity in the sexual odyssey Eyes Wide Shut, the final film in the oeuvre of the legendary Stanley Kubrick.

tom cruise stars in tropic thunder and knight and day

With more hits on the way like Vanilla Sky, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and 2004's Collateral, it seemed like Tom Cruise would maintain his impossible hold over Hollywood until retirement. Things changed in a hurry in 2005 during his promotional tour for his second collaboration with Steven Spielberg, War of the Worlds. The new relationship between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, as well as the actor's outspoken pro-Scientology stance against anti-depressants and conventional psychiatry, began to rub many of his fans the wrong way. This culminated in a manic couch-jumping appearance on Oprah that made Tom Cruise into an ideal target for South Park and general pop culture ridicule instead of encouraging people to see his movie. While War of the Worlds still finished as the biggest worldwide box office earner in the actor's career, more media appearances -- like an ill-fated interview with Matt Lauer -- didn't help him any and Paramount Pictures dissolved its 14-year partnership with him after the release of Mission: Impossible III in 2006.

With a celebrity approval rating to match that of outgoing President George W. Bush, Tom Cruise tried to rehabilitate his image, with disappointing results early on. He and Paula Wagner jumped studios to United Artists, where they made the 2007 political dud, Lions for Lambs, a film ignored at the box office despite the presence of Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The following year, Tom Cruise buried himself under heavy makeup to play the supporting role of foul-mouthed studio big shot Les Grossman in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. The role represented a little-seen comedic side of Tom Cruise and won back some of his disillusioned fans. His next film for United Artists, the historical thriller Valkyrie, earned over $200 million worldwide and did more to add some luster to his fading reputation. After bringing back Les Grossman as a recurring character at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Cruise made amends with Paramount and both have signed on to develop Mission: Impossible IV.

For now, what happens next with the career of Tom Cruise will be a direct result of the success or failure of Knight and Day, his pricey reunion with his Vanilla Sky costar, Cameron Diaz. It could give him a much-needed professional resuscitation or give his detractors more reasons to dismiss him.

Early box office numbers were disappointing, however; Knight and Day didn't break $30 million domestically during its first weekend.

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Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was born into what later became one of the most well-known and flat-out successful musical families ever created. Having displayed a keen appreciation for music before his 5th birthday, Michael Jackson took his greatest inspiration from the song and dance moves of James Brown and enjoyed sharing his musical gifts with others. In school, he performed for his classmates before joining his brothers Jermaine Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Tito Jackson, and Jackie Jackson to form a musical group that became The Jackson Five. As the youngest member of the group, Michael Jackson started as a backup performer, but much greater things were in store. By 1966, he became the face of the group and its lead singer.

In the wake of taking the top prize at a musical talent contest, Michael Jackson and his brothers worked with Indiana-based music label Steeltown, before hitting it big with a recording contract in 1968 from the legendary Motown Records. A year later, the group released its debut song "I Want You Back," the first of four consecutive singles (the others being "ABC," "The Love You Save," "I'll Be There) that topped the Billboard Hot 100 and become favorites for future generations. Barely older than 10, Michael Jackson had already earned the nickname of "genius" by Rolling Stone and appeared as a musical guest on the highly rated Ed Sullivan Show. His giddy performance style made him an audience favorite, but off the stage, life wasn't nearly as happy. Although his father, Joseph Jackson, was the architect of the group, he inflicted physical and emotional abuse on Michael Jackson. The group's runaway success and busy recording schedule also prevented Michael Jackson from having a normal childhood. Even with these obstacles, he did find a friend in musical legend Diana Ross, who lived with him temporarily and offered him further musical inspiration that came through in much of his later material.

michael jackson releases off the wall and thriller

During his time with Motown, Michael Jackson began branching out as a solo artist, with his first No. 1 single as a solo musician being 1972's "Ben." While filming a role as The Scarecrow in 1978's The Wiz (which starred Diana Ross), Michael Jackson met musical producer Quincy Jones, and the two soon began an album collaboration for Epic Records. The finished product was 1979's Grammy-winning Off the Wall, which sold more than 20 million units around the world and spawned hits like "Rock With You," "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "She's Out of My Life." Even though the album was the first one in U.S. history to have four Top 10 singles, Michael Jackson -- always the perfectionist -- believed that he was capable of something even better.

In 1982, that "something even better" arrived in the form of Thriller. With the album, Michael Jackson raised the musical bar to a success level that no one else has ever reached and also revolutionized the ways that people saw and heared music. The album became the biggest seller in music history and boasted seven singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. One of them was "Beat It," a rock anthem featuring a guitar solo from the one-and-only Eddie Van Halen, while another one was "Billie Jean," a song that first brought Michael Jackson (and black artists) to the attention of MTV. A now legendary live performance of "Billie Jean" was done by Michael Jackson at the 25th anniversary of Motown in 1983, complete with a dance move now universally known as The Moonwalk. The success of the song was especially ironic given that producer Quincy Jones had initially wanted it removed from the album. The title track from Thriller took on a zombie theme for its memorable video -- a short film that became one of MTV's most popular videos ever and spawned dance moves copied around the world by fans and even prisoners.

michael jackson releases bad and dangerous

In the midst of the success of Thriller, Michael Jackson signed an advertising contract with Pepsi, but during the filming of a commercial in 1984, the singer suffered burns to his scalp. His overall appearance began to change, most noticeably his nose and skin color. Where music and popularity were concerned, he stayed in the celebrity driver's seat by cowriting the 1985 all-star charity single, "We Are the World," and starring in his own movie (Moonwalker) and 3-D film Captain Eo (from director Francis Ford Coppola). 1987 saw the release of his next album, Bad. While it didn't sell to Thriller-like numbers, the album did provide more instant classics like "Dirty Diana," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "The Man in the Mirror," and "Smooth Criminal." The latter song featured a patented dance move known as The Anti-Gravity Lean, while the album's title anthem was made into a memorable gang-themed video that was directed by Martin Scorsese.

The release of Bad was followed by a concert tour that played to 4.4 million guests and brought in $125 million, a Guinness World Record. Even so, the years between Bad and the release of Michael Jackson's 1991 album, Dangerous, featured more questions about his appearance and increasingly bizarre rumors. While he lived on the grounds of his privately funded amusement park, Neverland, Michael Jackson was alleged to have bought the bones of John Merrick (aka The Elephant Man) and thought to be regularly sleeping in an oxygen chamber. Both of these rumors were false, but Michael Jackson did disclose that his pale skin was the result of a skin disease called vitiligo.

Dangerous went on to be the singer's second biggest album after Thriller with "Black or White" (a music video featuring Macaulay Culkin), "Remember the Time" (which starred Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson), and "Will You Be There?" (the anchor to the Free Willy soundtrack) being among the most memorable songs. While the singer's immensely popular 1993 Super Bowl halftime performance showed that he was still a global entertainment force, allegations of child molestation later that year and a substantial multi-million dollar payment from Michael Jackson to his accuser forever tainted his legacy.

michael jackson releases history and prepares this is it

After marrying Lisa Marie Presley, Michael Jackson sought to rehabilitate his career with the release of HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I in 1995. The album, which featured the hits "Scream" (the most expensive music video ever made) and "You Are Not Alone" had more longevity than the marriage. By the time Michael Jackson's year-long concert tour for HIStory had ended, he was married to Debbie Rowe and a soon-to-be father. Save for two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a 30th anniversary reunion with his brothers at Madison Square Gardens in 2001 and his marginally successful 2001 album, Invincible, Michael Jackson slowly began to fade into eccentric obscurity by wearing surgical masks in public and displaying the effects of cosmetic surgery gone terribly wrong. His career and personal life came to a grinding halt when he was brought to trial in 2005 on counts relating to another accusation of child molestation, but Michael Jackson was ultimately vindicated with a verdict of not guilty.

Four years removed from a Santa Monica courthouse, Michael Jackson offered up a number of shocking surprises in 2009. A full 12 years after his last concert tour, he announced a series of 10 concerts in London that were titled This Is It. Intended as a thank you to his fans and a chance for his own children to see him perform, the concerts were meticulously planned with a number of larger-than-life elements, like 3-D technology, eye-popping sets, aerial dancing, and short film clips. Any questions about Michael Jackson's level of popularity were answered when the enormous degree of public interest expanded the concert series to 50 shows, making them into "must-see" musical events. Michael Jackson described the concerts as "the final curtain call" and he was eerily correct.

On June 25th, 2009, the world stopped when he died suddenly of cardiac arrest from a lethal drug combination. An unprecedented musical memorial service -- watched by over 30 million Americans and featuring the likes of John Mayer, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, and Stevie Wonder -- came next, as did a spike in album sales and digital downloads that reintroduced the music of Michael Jackson to the world all over again. While the concert series never came to be, This Is It still served as Michael Jackson's curtain call for live performing. The surviving rehearsal footage was edited into a concert film. London audiences never got to see him perform in person, but Michael Jackson's colossal legion of fans got to see him on stage and in action one final time when the musical documentary was released worldwide.

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Justin Bieber Biography

By now the story of how Justin Bieber came to be is the stuff of legend. In an age where fame is only a viral video away, Bieber’s meteoric ascension to pop super stardom is still an exception, not yet a rule. Born in Stratford, Ontario, to a single, teenage mother, Bieber grew up playing sports, while secretly teaching himself how to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet.

It wasn’t until he was 12, that Bieber was ready to show the world what he could do. After placing second in a local singing competition, his mother posted a video of his performance on YouTube for friends and family that weren’t able to attend. The video went viral, and Bieber’s mother continued uploading videos of Bieber covering a string of syrupy hits by the likes of Usher, Justin Timberlake and other future colleagues.

justin bieber impresses usher

When the former marketing executive of So So Def, Scooter Braun, accidentally stumbled upon Justin Bieber’s YouTube channel (he was actually trying to track down a different singer) he knew he had found a star. Braun literally hunted Bieber down -- tracking down former teachers, school board members and even unearthing footage of Bieber busking in front of a theater.

Though Bieber’s mother originally envisioned her son serving God through his music, she gave in to Braun’s aggressive advances. After continuing to build his profile on YouTube, Braun arranged a meeting between his keen protege and R'n'B impresario Usher. Bieber’s natural charisma and talent immediately impressed Usher -- who had once been in Bieber’s shoes -- who signed him to Raymond Braun Media Group. Just like that, the prepubescent tween from Stratford, Ontario, had a record deal with Island Records, and a new home in Atlanta, where his path toward super-stardom began.

justin bieber releases my world

By the time Justin Bieber released his debut EP My World in 2009, he already had the luxury of a mass following shrewdly constructed by his management team on YouTube. In short, there was no way this thing would fail. Couple Bieber’s arsenal of syrupy confection of R’n’B pop, with his newly polished urban teenybopper aesthetic (thanks in large to his Usher-appointed swagger coach Ryan Good) and tween girls everywhere had found their ultimate crush. The record debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard charts with four singles landing safely in the Top 100. It wasn’t long before Bieber-mania was as ubiquitous as text messaging, with the mop-topped one performing for everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Mr. and Mrs. Obama.

justin bieber releases my world 2.0

When Justin Bieber released “Baby,” the infectious lead single off his follow-up disc My World 2.0, he had become one of the music industry’s foremost saviors -- a camera-ready Messiah in purple sneakers and a straight-brimmed cap. The single propelled My World 2.0 to No. 1 on the Billboard charts, making Bieber the youngest male solo act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder did it in 1963. But by now, Justin Bieber had become more than just a best-selling pop star -- the pint-sized pipsqueak from Stratford, Ontario had become a genuine cultural phenomenon. Gigs on Saturday Night Live, The View and The Late Show meant that in 2010, there was no escaping Justin Bieber.

can justin bieber escape the backlash?

Justin Bieber’s omnipresence in the media, and his lightning-quick rise to fame were sure to inspire backlash, especially in the quick-to-hate blogosphere. Bieber’s shrewd embracing of social media (the boy tweets!), and his easy-to-pick-on effeminacy (lesbians who look like Justin Bieber has become its own meme) made him an easy target for both critics and creeps.

Internet trolls have perpetuated a string of maliciously preposterous rumors about the Biebster; no he does not have syphilis, no he has not joined a cult, and as far as we know he’s not dead. But despite his many critics, Bieber has been embraced by the cred-solidifying hip-hop community; he pals around with Drake, Ludacris appears on his album; and Kanye West’s admitted fandom led to a much-tweeted about remix of Bieber’s “Runaway Love” featuring none other than Wu-Tang’s street disciple Raekwon.

love him or hate him, justin bieber isn’t going anywhere

If Justin Bieber was the prince of 2010, he may just end up being the king of 2011. So for all the haters out there, a warning: Justin Bieber is here to stay. With his best-selling tour wrapping up in December, Bieber has spent the last year dominating the internet (he was the most searched celebrity in July), inspiring riots and hysterics everywhere he went (remember the riot in Long Island?) and performing in some of the most revered venues in the world. Bieber’s recent gig at Madison Square Garden was filmed for his upcoming 3-D biopic due next winter, and his new album will feature at least two songs produced by Dr. Dre. Yes, Dr. Dre -- he of gun-toting NWA fame -- is producing two songs for the grinning charmer with pearly whites from Stratford, Ontario. Is it the end of the world as we know it?

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