Famous families

Famous families

Postby Antonio Riveiro » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:03 pm

The Kennedy family

The Kennedy family is a family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and prominent in American politics and government. Their political involvement has revolved around the Democratic Party and more recently, its liberal wing. Harvard educations have been frequent among them, and they have contributed heavily to that university's Kennedy School of Government. The wealth, glamour, and photogenic quality of the family members, as well as their extensive and continued commitment to public service, has elevated them to iconic status over the past half-century.
With the election of President John F. Kennedy, he and his two then surviving brothers all held prominent positions in the Federal government, and received intensive publicity, often emphasizing their youth (relative to comparably influential politicians), allure, education and their collective future in politics.
The family has undergone (then, before, and since) a series of deaths and other reverses that could not be fully remedied by wealth, sometimes called "the Kennedy curse"; it has included the assassinations of brothers John and Robert, four aircraft crashes (Joe Jr, Kathleen, Edward, and John Jr), a failed prefrontal lobotomy on Rose Marie, carried out in the hope of calming the young woman's violent outbursts but resulting in severe mental retardation, and at least three sets of allegations against individual family members and their relatives by marriage, including a murder conviction and a controversial fatal single-car crash. Just how severely these events restricted the family's influence is unknowable, but the assumption that even the last surviving brother's role was diminished is a theory. On the other hand, a number of Kennedy family members have since held high office, and the idea that the family's influence was snuffed out in the 1960s is seen as a gross exaggeration.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons are a typical family who live in a fictional "Middle American" town of Springfield.[61] Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant—a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, a baby who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball II. Both pets have had starring roles in several episodes. Despite the passing of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays, the Simpsons do not physically age and still appear just as they did at the end of the 1980s (slight differences in animation style notwithstanding).
The show includes an array of quirky characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople and local celebrities. The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokesters or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes.


List of members of the British royal family

This is a list of current members of the Royal Family:
HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (her consort)
TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (The Queen's eldest son and his second wife)
HRH Prince William of Wales (The Prince of Wales's elder son)
HRH Prince Harry of Wales (The Prince of Wales's younger son)
HRH The Duke of York (The Queen's second son)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York (The Duke of York's elder daughter)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York (The Duke of York's younger daughter)
TRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex (The Queen's third son and his wife)
Viscount Severn (The Earl of Wessex's son)
Lady Louise Windsor (The Earl of Wessex's daughter)
HRH The Princess Royal (The Queen's daughter)
TRH The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (The Queen's cousin and his wife)
TRH The Duke and Duchess of Kent (The Queen's cousin and his wife)
TRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent (The Queen's cousin and his wife)
HRH Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (The Queen's cousin)


Osbourne has been married twice and is the father of seven children (five biological, and two adopted). He was first married to Thelma Riley (now a teacher in Leicestershire) and adopted her son Elliot Kingsley (1966); together they had Jessica Starshine Osbourne Hobbs (20 January 1972) and Louis John Osbourne (1975).


Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

He later married Sharon Arden and had three children with her. They are Aimee Osbourne (2 September 1983), Kelly Osbourne (27 October 1984) and Jack Osbourne (8 November 1985). They also took in the family's friend Robert Marcato after his mother died, but never legally adopted him. Osbourne also has three grandchildren, Isabelle and Harry from his daughter Jessica and granddaughter Maia from son Louis. He wrote a song for his daughter, Aimee, which appeared as a b-side on the album Ozzmosis. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Buckinghamshire, England.
Osbourne achieved greater celebrity status by the unlikely success of his own brand of reality television. The Osbournes, a series featuring the domestic life of Osbourne and his family (wife Sharon, children Jack and Kelly and special guest appearances from his son Louis, but not Ozzy and Sharon's eldest daughter Aimee, who declined to participate). The program became one of MTV's greatest hits. It premiered on 5 March 2002, and the final episode aired 21 March 2005.
Ozzy Osbourne, Frank Bruno and Billy Connolly provided lead vocals on The War Song of the Urpneys single and album track, although the version heard in the series was largely sung by composer Mike Batt.
In 2002, Osbourne and wife Sharon were invited to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner by Fox News Channel correspondent Greta Van Susteren for that year's event. President Bush noted Ozzy's presence by joking: "The thing about Ozzy is, he's made a lot of big hit recordings – 'Party with the Animals', 'Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath', 'Facing Hell', 'Black Skies' and 'Bloodbath in Paradise'. Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff."[18]
During 2003, a member of Birmingham City Council campaigned for him to be given Freedom of the City.
He has over 15 tattoos, the letters OZZY across the knuckles of his left hand was the first he had done as a teenager, by means of a sewing needle and pencil lead [5].
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are one of the UK's richest couples, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. They ranked at number 458 in 2005, with an estimated £100 million earned from recording, touring and TV shows. They ranked above most British music stars, such as Rod Stewart, George Michael, Robbie Williams, the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, and Pink Floyd, Queen, and Dire Straits members.
Osbourne experienced tremors for some years and linked them to his continuous drug abuse. In May 2005 he found out it was actually Parkin Syndrome, a genetic condition, the symptoms of which are very similar to Parkinson's disease. Osbourne will have to take daily medication for the rest of his life to combat the involuntary shudders associated with the condition.[19] Osbourne has shown symptoms of a mild hearing loss, as evidenced in the television show, The Osbournes, as he often asks his family members to repeat what they say.
Antonio Riveiro
 

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