Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with famous

Please help.

srs — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:15:10 -0800

Are there any famous or not-so-famous epidemics with blindness as an indicative symptom? If so, which? How and/or why? Also, how could you make the argument that blindness is an epidemic, if schizophrenia were to "cure" blindness, or vice versa? I'm sorry if I should have posted that one separately in the "religion & philosophy" category.

Bob Fleischburg's Gettysburg Address, as Read By Lincoln?

Shepherd — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:46:21 -0800

When did professional speech-ghostwriting start, and how confident can I be that those who delivered "classic" speeches and letters actually wrote them themselves? I was heartily impressed by Sherman's letter to Atlanta, as linked in this Metafilter thread, and was thinking about it when it occurred to me that I assume that all speeches, letters, and discourse beyond a kind of fuzzy 1950-ish date were actually created by the person that delivered/sent it.

By contrast, I don't think anybody expects that even the most "inspirational" people in public life and politics actually write their own material these days; U.S. politicians certainly don't now, nor, I expect, do the leaders of corporations or huge social movements.

So how far back can I be confident that public figures actually did write their own speeches? Or did they ever?

You can bring a whore to culture...

thebrokenmuse — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:19:07 -0800

Are there any groups like the Algonquin Round Table around today? It seems like groups of famous friends and visionaries used to be common in the past (Anais Nin/Henry Miller/Picasso, Lewis/Tolkien, The Vicious Circle, ) but it doesn't seem to be the case today. Are there any groups like that today?

I am also accept groups of interesting friends who might be on the horizon of becoming famous in whatever field they are involved in, with their friendship helping their sucess.

Hollywood's finest?

messylissa — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:55:27 -0800

Famous examples of personality disorders? I'm working on presentation of personality disorders for a graduate class, and I want it to be slightly more interesting than the book reports I've spent the last 4 weeks listening to. I remember my undergraduate professor having some awesome pop culture examples of the different personality disorders, but I'm coming up short on several of the disorders (and yes, I know I could email him, and yes, I've tried Google).

So far, I've got examples for Schizoid, Antisocial, and Histrionic Personality Disorders. So....what are your awesome/entertaining examples of:

-Paranoid Personality Disorder
-Schizotypal Personality D/o
-Borderline Personality D/o
-Narcissistic Personality D/o
-Avoidant Personality D/o
-Dependent Personality D/o
-Obsessive Compulsive Personality D/o

Actual famous people, movie/tv characters, whatever, are all great.

Why do some actors use their own names in TV shows?

ranglin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:26:42 -0800

Why do some actors use their own names in TV shows? To clarify, I mean an actor playing a role, but using his own first name. The two examples that come immediately to mind are Michael J. Fox playing a "Michael" in Spin City, and Charlie Sheen playing a "Charlie" in both Spin City and also Two and a Half Men.

This came up between my wife and I today and we can't work it out. It seems fairly inconsistent, with some actors doing it, and others not. At first we thought it might be a fame thing (like calling it the Bill Cosby show or the Lucille Ball show, to make sure your audience knows what they're getting), but other equally-famous came-from-the-movies actors do it as well and I don't see it with them (think Keifer Sutherland in 24, or James Caan in Las Vegas).

So, what's the story here? Does anyone have any insight?

(I promise my next AskMe won't be about TV shows, my history is getting a little one-dimensional!)

How do I find a star-for-hire in London?

Elle Vator — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:52:52 -0800

How do I find a list of publicists for stars of the theatrical stage or screen? Basically, I can be a hero if I can find celebrities currently in London, England recognizable to a Canadian audience. We need to hire them for a charming bit on our show... but the ones on our short list have not turned out. Therefore, I am now looking to get in touch with an appropriate publicist who has LOTS of clients and who can make suggestions as to who we should use, and then give them to us. ...or directly in touch with a celebrity or agent or manager, or a website or a magic genie who can get me the perfect happen-to-be-in-London celebs (we actually need three) within two weeks.

Yes, this is my third question alone these lines - the good news is you guys are giving me GREAT advice. What would you do if you were me and in this situation? Where would you go? Who would you call?

Thanks so much... ElleVator

Don't give up the day job

Iteki — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:05:38 -0800

Before they were stars (pre-fame jobs of celebs please) I work with young job-seekers and I want to come up with what some contemporary celebs did before they became famous. Harrison Ford. for example, is a carpenter by trade. I found a site with lot of celebs, but to be honest, a lot of has-beens, B-stars and no cites. I don't think that "kids today" are going to feel wildly inspired by Dan Akroyd or Benny Hill. Also, most of the listings are overly glamorous, such as "was a model before she was an actor" or "had a bit part in show X".

These kids are in europe, so the celebs should be world famous, but I am also open to regional superstars from non-English speaking countries. There's no age limit, but there's a freshness rating, where celebs like Harrison Ford, Bruce Springsteen etc are timelessly cool. Musicians, athletes, actors, politicians, authors, it's all good!
Ideally, I would love a link to a cite for the factoid too.

Look at me! Look at me!

barrakuda — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:57:36 -0800

What are your favorite celebrity gossip blogs?

Most famous typo

Plutor — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:51:21 -0800

What is the most famous typo in history? (And I don't mean malapropisms like "misunderestimated" or Kerry's botched joke.) Maybe "most notorious" or "most influential" would be a little easier to answer. Are there any typos that have had international consequences?

Lifestyles of the rich and stupid?

jdroth — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:29:39 -0800

What are some of the stupid things rich and famous people have spent their money on? I know about Michael Jackson and his ten AIBOs, for example. What are some other examples? Actors, politicians, athletes, past and present — tell me about their excesses. [This is lazyweb research for a future article.]

Are there famous Iranian men?

BuddhaInABucket — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:14:31 -0800

Are there any famous Iranian males who are well known among non-Iranians in the west (especially the USA)? Any kind of celebrity will do: actors, musicians, artists, authors, or other kinds of TV personalities like newscasters. It occurred to me that there are lots of famous Iranian women- Shohreh Aghdashloo, Anousheh Ansari, Rudi Bakhtiar, Christiane Amanpour, Azar Nafisi, and Marjane Satrapi, just to name a few off the top of my head- but besides the author Reza Aslan, and actor Adrian Pasdar (who is half German), I could not think of a single Iranian male who might be well-known.

Bonus points if they don't play a terrorist on TV.

Famous childless people

vizsla — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:15:47 -0800

Who are the most famous people of recent times that were married but never had (or will have) children?

Where did it all go wrong?

ChazB — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:32:46 -0800

Are there any confirmed and documented cases of famous people that have lost everything for one reason or another and ended up broke, alone, and homeless? Guns 'n' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine just played on the radio here at work and it got some of us talking about how great they were. I make a joke about how poor, crazy Axl Rose was going to end up either dead in a hotel room full of hookers and blow, or broke and homeless wandering the streets of LA singing for spare change. It made me wonder if anything like this has ever happened before.

Which historical figures can be classified as "passive-aggressive" or performed historical "passive-aggressive" acts?

jeremias — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:49:40 -0800

Which historical figures can be classified as "passive-aggressive" or performed historically "passive-aggressive" acts?

Making It Big Via Metafilter

ParisParamus — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:38:38 -0800

I'm curious which bloggers and media people have gotten their 15 Minutes (or longer) after affiliation with Metafilter. [+]

Question number 8151

MiguelCardoso — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 02:04:19 -0800

Are there any intelligent, cool celebrities (specially women, gays and intellectuals) who are conservative, quiet-spoken and traditionally-minded (and preferably non-religious) in a soft-spoken, non-libertarian, non-gung-ho, non-gun-totin' sense? Here's a list and here's another - but they both seem full of loud-mouthed, unthinking yobs or evangelists. Many thanks for any help with a list I've been asked to compile.