title: 70th Academy Awards

text: At the time of the nominations announcement on February 10, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees was $579 million with an average of $116 million per film. "Titanic" was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $338.7 million in domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by "As Good as It Gets" ($92.6 million), "Good Will Hunting" ($68.9 million), "L.A. Confidential" ($39.7 million), and finally "The Full Monty" ($38.7 million).


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 40 nominations went to 15 films on the list. Only "Titanic" (1st), "As Good as It Gets" (16th), "Good Will Hunting" (20th), and "In & Out" (24th) were nominated for directing, acting, screenwriting, or Best Picture. The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were "Men in Black" (2nd), "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (3rd), "Air Force One" (5th), "My Best Friends Wedding" (7th), "Face/Off" (9th), "Con Air" (12th), "Contact" (13th), "Hercules" (14th), "The Fifth Element" (25th), "Anastasia" (30th), and "Starship Troopers" (34th).


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: The show received a positive reception from most media publications. Television critic Howard Rosenberg of the "Los Angeles Times" lauded Crystal's performance writing that he "would earn top billing as that unusual comedian as artful at doing musical comedy as jokes." "San Francisco Chronicle" columnist John Carman raved,"It was the best Oscar show in two decades." He also gave high marks for the host, commenting, "But last night, Crystal was back in razor form." "The Seattle Times" television editor Kay McFadden praised Crystal commenting that "he possesses nearly impeccable timing and judgment." In addition, she noted that while the ceremony dragged on, "Last night was one of television's smartest live ceremonies in recent memory."


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: Some media outlets were more critical of the show. Ray Richmond of "Variety" complained that the ceremony proved to be a "Yawner of an Oscarcast." He added that Crystal's "off-the-cuff one-liners sank faster than the great ship herself." "Boston Globe" television critic Matthew Gilbert bemoaned,"There was hardly a spontaneous moment during last night's Oscarcast." Film critic Carrie Rickey from "The Philadelphia Inquirer" lamented that the inevitable "Titanic" sweep "sank a telecast loaded with montages of previous years' Oscar highlights."


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: The popularity of "Titanic" greatly increased television ratings for the ceremony. The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 57.25 million people over its length, which was a 29% increase from the previous year's ceremony. An estimated 87.50 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards. The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 35.32% of households watching over a 55.77 share. In addition, it garnered a higher 1849 demo rating with a 24.90 rating over a 44.30 share among viewers in that demographic. It overtook the network's own telecast of the 1983 Academy Awards to become, as it remains to date, the highest viewership for both an Academy Award telecast (since figures were compiled beginning with the 46th ceremony in 1974) and any live awards show airing in U.S. television history.


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: In July 1998, the ceremony presentation received eight nominations at the 50th Primetime Emmys. Two months later, the ceremony won five of those nominations for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program (Billy Crystal), Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Music Program (Louis J Horvitz), Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Series, Miniseries, or Movie (Bob Barnhart, Robert Dickinson, Matt Ford, Andy O'Reilly), Outstanding Music Direction (Bill Conti), and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special (Patrick Baltzell, Robert Douglass, Edward J. Greene, Tommy Vicari).


title: 70th Academy Awards

text: The annual "In Memoriam" tribute was presented by actress Whoopi Goldberg. The montage featured an excerpt of "Appassionata" from "The Passage" composed by Michael J. Lewis.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: White Christmas is a 1954 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film "Holiday Inn".


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film; this large-area negative was also used to yield finer-grained standard-sized 35mm prints.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: On Christmas Eve in Europe in 1944, at the height of World War II, former Broadway star Captain Bob Wallace and aspiring performer Private Phil Davis entertain the 151st division with a soldier's show. The men have just received word their beloved Major General Thomas F. Waverly has been relieved of his command. Waverly arrives and delivers an emotional farewell. The men send him off with a rousing chorus of "The Old Man". After Waverly departs, enemy bombers attack the area and everyone takes cover. Phil pulls Bob away from a collapsing wall and is wounded by debris. Bob asks how he can pay back Phil for saving his life, and Phil suggests they become a duo act. Bob is not fond of the idea but feels obliged to agree.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: After the war, the two make it big, first as performers, then as producers, launching a hit musical, "Playing Around". They receive a letter supposedly from their old Mess Sergeant, Ben "Freckle Face" Haynes, asking them to view his sisters' act. They watch Betty and Judy sing at Novello's, a Florida nightclub. Phil, who likes to play matchmaker, notices Bob is interested in Betty. After the performance, the four meet, and Phil and Judy immediately hit it off. Betty and Bob, however, argue about Bob's cynicism, and the fact it was actually Judy who wrote the letter instead of Ben.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Finding out from Judy that the girls' landlord is falsely suing them for a damaged rug, and has even gone so far as to call the police to get his money, Phil gives them tickets he and Bob had purchased to spend Christmas in New York City. Bob and Phil improvise a performance to buy the girls time, then flee to the train, where they now have to sit up in the Club Car, much to Bob's chagrin.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: The girls convince Phil and Bob to forgo New York and spend Christmas with them in Pine Tree, Vermont, where they are booked as performers. Upon arriving in Vermont, they find all the tourists have left due to no snow and unseasonably warm weather. They arrive at the empty Columbia Inn and are aghast to discover that General Waverly is the landlord of the hotel, has sunk his life savings into it, and is on the verge of bankruptcy. Phil and Bob decide to invite some of the cast of "Playing Around" to Pine Tree to stage a show to draw in the guests and include Betty and Judy in the show. Betty and Bob's romance starts to bloom.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Later, Bob discovers Waverly received a humiliating rejection letter to his request to rejoin the army. Bob determines to prove to the General he is not forgotten and calls up Ed Harrison, another old Army buddy who now has his own variety show, for help. Ed suggests they put the general on the show and make a big scene of his misfortune and Bob's kindness, which would be free advertising for Bob and Phil. Bob strongly rejects the idea. Unfortunately, the housekeeper Emma eavesdrops on the other phone for the first half of the conversation. She relays Ed's idea to Betty, who becomes suddenly cold towards a baffled Bob.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Phil and Judy stage a phony engagement, thinking Betty is trying to avoid romance because she does not want to leave Judy unprotected. However, this backfires when Betty accepts a gig in New York and leaves. Phil and Judy admit the truth to Bob, who becomes enraged and hurries to New York to tell Betty. They partially reconcile, but Bob meets up with Harrison before he has a chance to find out what really was bothering her. Betty sees Bob go on Harrison's show and invite the entire 151st division to secretly join him at Pine Tree to surprise General Waverly, at Bob and Phil's expense. Realizing she was mistaken, Betty returns to Vermont just in time to be in the show.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Once again on Christmas Eve, the soldiers surprise General Waverly with another rousing chorus of "The Old Man" when he arrives at the show, bringing him to tears. During the performance, Betty and Bob become engaged, and Judy and Phil decide to go through with their own engagement. As everyone sings "White Christmas", a thick snowfall at last blankets Vermont.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Irving Berlin suggested a movie based on his song in 1948. Paramount put up the $2 million budget and only took 30% of the proceeds.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Mel Frank and Norman Panama were hired to add material for Danny Kaye. They felt the whole script needed rewriting, and Curtiz agreed. "It was a torturous eight weeks of rewriting", said Panama. Frank said "writing that movie was the worst experience of my life. Norman Krasna was a talented man but... it was the lousiest story I'd ever heard. It needed a brand new story, one that made sense." They did the job at $5,000 a week.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Principal photography took place between September and December 1953. The film was the first to be shot using Paramount's new VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor, and was one of the first to feature the Perspecta directional sound system at limited engagements.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: "White Christmas" was intended to reunite Crosby and Fred Astaire for their third Irving Berlin showcase musical. Crosby and Astaire had previously co-starred in "Holiday Inn" (1942) – where the song "White Christmas" first appeared – and "Blue Skies" (1946). Astaire declined the project after reading the script and asked to be released from his contract with Paramount. Crosby also left the project shortly thereafter, to spend more time with his sons after the death of his wife, Dixie Lee. Near the end of January 1953, Crosby returned to the project, and Donald O'Connor was signed to replace Astaire. Just before shooting was to begin, O'Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye, who asked for and received a salary of $200,000 and 10% of the gross. Financially, the film was a partnership between Crosby and Irving Berlin, who shared half the profits, and Paramount, which got the other half.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Within the film, a number of soon-to-be famous performers appear. Dancer Barrie Chase appears unbilled, as the character Doris Lenz ("Mutual, I'm sure!"). Future Oscar winner George Chakiris also appears as one of the stone-faced black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me". John Brascia leads the dance troupe and appears opposite Vera-Ellen throughout much of the movie, particularly in the "Mandy" and "Choreography" numbers. The photo Vera-Ellen shows of her brother Benny (the one Phil refers to as "Freckle-faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy") is actually a photo of Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the "Our Gang" film series, in an army field jacket and helmet liner.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: A scene from the film featuring Crosby and Kaye was broadcast the year after the film's release, on Christmas Day 1955, in the final episode of the NBC TV show "Colgate Comedy Hour" (1950–1955).


title: White Christmas (film)

text: All songs were written by Irving Berlin. The centerpiece of the film is the title song, first used in "Holiday Inn", which won that film an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1942. In addition, "Count Your Blessings" earned the picture its own Oscar nomination in the same category.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: The song "Snow" was originally written for "Call Me Madam" with the title "Free", but was dropped in out-of-town tryouts. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed to be more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For example, one of the lines of the original song is:


title: White Christmas (film)

text: The song "What Can You Do with a General?" was originally written for an un-produced project called "Stars on My Shoulders".


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, including in "Sisters". (The first edition of Vera-Ellen's biography by David Soren made the mistake of suggesting that "perhaps" Clooney sang for Vera in "Sisters". The second edition of the biography corrected that error by adding this: "Appropriately, they sing "Sisters" with Rosemary Clooney actually dueting with Trudy Stabile (wife of popular bandleader Dick Stabile), who sang under the stage name Trudy Stevens and who had been personally recommended for the dubbing part by Clooney. Originally, Gloria Wood was going to do Vera-Ellen's singing until Clooney intervened on behalf of her friend.") It was not possible to issue an "original soundtrack album" of the film, because Decca Records controlled the soundtrack rights, but Clooney was under exclusive contract with Columbia Records. Consequently, each company issued a separate "soundtrack recording": Decca issuing "Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas", while Columbia issued "Irving Berlin's White Christmas". On the former, the song "Sisters" (as well as all of Clooney's vocal parts) was recorded by Peggy Lee, while on the latter, the song was sung by Clooney and her own sister, Betty.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Berlin wrote "A Singer, A Dancer" for Crosby and his planned co-star Fred Astaire; when Astaire became unavailable, Berlin re-wrote it as "A Crooner – A Comic" for Crosby and Donald O'Connor, but when O'Connor left the project, so did the song. Another song written by Berlin for the film was "Sittin' in the Sun (Countin' My Money)" but because of delays in production Berlin decided to publish it independently. Crosby and Kaye also recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve show scene, but it was not used in the final film. Their recording of the song survives, however, and can be found on the Bear Family Records 7-CD set titled "Come On-A My House".


title: White Christmas (film)

text: "White Christmas" earned $12 million in theatrical rentals – equal to $ in – making it the highest-grossing film of 1954. It was also the highest-grossing musical film at the time, and ranks among the top 100 popular movies of all time at the domestic box office when adjusted for inflation and the size of the population in its release year of 1954. Overall, the film grossed $30 million at the domestic box office.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" was not impressed: "...the use of VistaVision, which is another process of projecting on a wide, flat screen, has made it possible to endow "White Christmas" with a fine pictorial quality. The colors on the big screen are rich and luminous, the images are clear and sharp, and rapid movements are got without blurring—or very little—such as sometimes is seen on other large screens. Director Michael Curtiz has made his picture look good. It is too bad that it doesn't hit the eardrums and the funnybone with equal force." William Brogdon of "Variety" wrote: ""White Christmas" should be a natural at the boxoffice, introducing as it does Paramount's new VistaVision system with such a hot combination as Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and an Irving Berlin score...Crosby and Kaye, along with VV, keep the entertainment going in this fancifully staged Robert Emmett Dolan production, clicking so well the teaming should call for a repeat ... Certainly he [Crosby] has never had a more facile partner than Kaye against whom to bounce his misleading nonchalance."


title: White Christmas (film)

text: "Harrison's Reports" wrote: "Although not sensational, "White Christmas" is a pleasing entertainment. There are, however, spots where it becomes quite slow and boresome, the slowness in the action being caused by the many rehearsals in preparation of the big show. On the whole the action is pleasing and it puts the spectator in a happy frame of mind. The Irving Berlin songs are, of course, an important part of the attraction, and all are tuneful." Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times" positively reviewed the film as a "great, big, physically glittering, two-hour Technicolor musical that sounds like a dream production with a dream cast." A review in "Time" magazine described the film as "a big fat yam of a picture richly candied with VistaVision (Paramount's answer to CinemaScope), Technicolor, tunes by Irving Berlin, massive production numbers, and big stars. Unfortunately, the yam is still a yam." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "Certified Fresh" critical approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's consensus reads "It may be too sweet for some, but this unabashedly sentimental holiday favorite is too cheerful to resist."


title: White Christmas (film)

text: "White Christmas" was released on VHS in 1986 and again in 1997. The first US DVD release was in 2000. It was subsequently re-released in 2009, with a commensurate Blu-ray in 2010. The film was reissued in a 4-disc "Diamond Anniversary Edition" on October 14, 2014. This collection contains a Blu-ray with supplemental features, two DVDs with the film and an audio commentary by Clooney, and a fourth disc of Christmas songs on CD. These songs are performed individually by Crosby, Clooney, and Kaye.


title: White Christmas (film)

text: A stage adaptation of the musical, titled "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" premiered in San Francisco in 2004 and has played in various venues in the United States, such as Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Detroit and Louisville. The musical played a limited engagement on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre, from November 14, 2008, until January 4, 2009. The musical also toured the United Kingdom from 2006 to 2008. It then headed to the Sunderland Empire in Sunderland from November 2010 to January 2011 after a successful earlier run in Manchester, and continued in various cities with a London West End run at the end of 2014.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Brandon Emil Phillips (born June 28, 1981) is an American professional baseball second baseman and partial owner of the Lexington Legends of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox. Listed at and , Phillips both bats and throws right-handed.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Phillips was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1999. In 2002, while in the minor leagues of the Montreal organization, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians. After making his major league debut that same year for the Indians, he spent several years moving back and forth between the Indians' major-league team and the minor leagues. Phillips was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2006. After joining the Reds, Phillips developed into one of the best second basemen in baseball. During his tenure in Cincinnati, he won four Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, one Silver Slugger Award, and was selected to three National League All-Star teams. He became the first player in MLB history to record two three-run home runs, seven RBIs, and two stolen bases in one game. Following this performance, the uniform and pair of cleats he wore during that game were put on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips' father, James Phillips, runs the Phillips Baseball Center in Pine Lake, Georgia. His sister is WNBA player Porsha Phillips of the San Antonio Silver Stars and his younger brother PJ Phillips is the manager of the Lexington Legends of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips attended Redan High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where he played basketball and baseball. His #7 at Redan was retired by the school in December 2003. He was the star baseball player at his high school. Phillips' favorite baseball player growing up was Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips was selected in the second round of the 1999 MLB draft by the Montreal Expos as a shortstop after signing a letter of intent to play both baseball and football at the University of Georgia. He instead signed with the Expos on June 21, 1999.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: After several years in the Expos farm system, Phillips was part of a six-player trade that sent him from the Montreal Expos to the Cleveland Indians on June 27, 2002. Phillips was dealt with Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Lee Stevens in exchange for Bartolo Colón and Tim Drew.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2003, Phillips won the starting job at second base for the Indians. During the season, he had a season-high six-game hitting streak. Against the Detroit Tigers on May 20, he hit the first three-run walk-off home run of his career. After that he went 0-for-29 and was sent down to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons after the All-Star break. He was recalled soon after that due to an injury to one of his teammates and finished the season with a .208 average, six homers, 33 RBIs and four stolen bases. Phillips also totaled a .981 fielding percentage.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2004, he started the season in Buffalo. He hit .303 with 14 stolen bases on the season and recorded 18-game and 16-game hitting streaks. In the minor league play-offs, Phillips hit .308. He joined the Indians at the end of the season and played six games for them.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips remained with the Bisons for most of 2005. He appeared in six games for the Indians in July but was sent back down following the stint.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In his four seasons with the Indians, Phillips appeared in 135 major league games, batting .206 with six home runs and 38 RBIs.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On April 7, 2006, Cleveland's frustration with Phillips' slow progress peaked and he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later (pitcher Jeff Stevens). He made an immediate impact, starting the season by being named NL Player of the Week the same month he was acquired by the Reds, hitting .452 (14–31) with 3 home runs and 17 runs batted in for the week of April 17–23. Phillips' 17 RBI were the most for an NL Player of the Week since Sammy Sosa had 19 RBI the week of August 4–10, 2002. Phillips had his first career grand slam that month and 16 straight stolen bases. leading the Reds in hits (148) and multi-hit games (36). He also led all National League second basemen in stolen bases with 25. He produced two 9-game hitting streaks over the season and ended with a batting average of .276, 17 home runs and 75 RBI.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2007, Phillips hit 30 home runs and stole 32 bases to become the first Reds second baseman to join the 30–30 club and just the third 30–30 Red, joining Eric Davis (37 HR, 50 SB in 1987) and Barry Larkin (33 HR, 36 SB in 1996). He also joined Alfonso Soriano as just the second second baseman in the 30–30 club.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In the fourth inning on August 1, 2007, game, against John Lannan of the Washington Nationals Phillips stole two bases on one pitch while the Nationals had a shift on Adam Dunn. On August 30, Phillips made the play of the month to win the game for the Reds against the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the Reds winning 5–4 in the bottom of the 9th, Nate McLouth of the Pirates hit a single into right field. The runner from second, Josh Phelps, appeared likely to score but Phillips grabbed the ball in shallow right field bare-handed and threw Phelps out at home plate to win the game. On September 5, he hit his 28th home run of the season, breaking the Reds' single-season record for home runs by a second baseman, formerly held by Joe Morgan. On September 26, 2007, Phillips hit his 30th home run of the season.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In addition to the home runs and steals, Phillips ended the 2007 season with 187 hits, 107 runs, 26 doubles, 6 triples, 94 RBIs, and a .288 batting average. He led the Reds in runs, hits, triples, and stolen bases and was second on the team in doubles and home runs.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips received a four-year, $27 million contract extension on February 15, 2008, instead of going to arbitration.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On April 2, 2008, Phillips hit his first home run of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks. At the All-Star Break, Phillips was batting .287 with 15 home runs, 58 RBI, 18 stolen bases, and 18 doubles. He ended the season batting .261/.312/.442 with 21 home runs and 23 stolen bases.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips won his first gold glove in 2008, leading National League 2nd basemen with a .990 fielding percentage having made just 7 errors in 706 chances, in addition to a 78-game error-less streak. He also won a Fielding Bible Award as the top fielding second baseman in MLB.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2010, Phillips had his first All-Star season. He finished the season batting .275, with 18 homers, 59 RBI, and 16 stolen bases.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In early August, Phillips made national sports headlines with unflattering remarks about the St. Louis Cardinals, a team the Reds were in a hotly contested race with for lead in the National League Central division. Phillips was quoted by the "Dayton Daily News" as saying "I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they're little bitches, all of them. ... I hate the Cardinals." The next night, August 10, Phillips was involved in a large bench-clearing brawl between the Reds and Cardinals at home plate. Coming to bat in the bottom of the 1st inning, Phillips customarily tapped his bat against the shin pads of Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and the umpire. Molina kicked Phillips' bat, which led to seven minutes of pushing and shoving between both teams before both team managers were ejected and order was restored.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On November 10, 2010, it was announced that Phillips had won the second Gold Glove of his Major League career.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On May 3, 2011, against the Houston Astros, Phillips threw out speedy Jason Bourgeois by picking up the ball barehanded as it rolled to him and throwing it to first baseman Joey Votto between his legs to record the out.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On July 1, Phillips hit 2 home runs against the Cleveland Indians, the 2nd homer being his 1,000th career hit. After several great plays in the field earned him fame around the country and his average stayed around .300 the whole first half, Phillips made his second straight All-Star game. He was in first place in voting for most of the year until Milwaukee's Rickie Weeks passed him, getting the starting nod.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On November 1, 2011, it was announced that Phillips had won the third Gold Glove of his major league career. His fielding percentage for the season was .992 in 721 chances.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: The next day, it was announced that Phillips had won the first Silver Slugger of his Major League career. He hit an even .300 with 183 hits, 38 doubles, 2 triples, 18 homers, and 82 RBI. His on-base percentage was .353.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On April 10, 2012, it was announced that Phillips and the Reds had agreed to a 6-year, $72.5 million contract, through the 2017 season. Phillips was represented in contract negotiations by ACES Inc. When the All-Star game roster was announced on July 1, Phillips was not amongst those voted in by either fans or National League players and coaches. Reds manager Dusty Baker took exception at retired St. Louis Cardinals manager but the National League's All-Star Game manager Tony La Russa, claiming Phillips and fellow Reds teammate Johnny Cueto were left off the roster because they were at the heart of an on-field fight involving Baker's Reds and La Russa's Cardinals in 2010. Baker stated "it just kind of looks bad that Johnny and Brandon were at the center of the skirmish between us and the Cardinals. Some of the Cardinals that aren't there any more are making some of the selections." Phillips, who was hitting just under .290 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI at the time the selections were announced, declined to comment on the matter. "USA Today"'s Mike Jones mentioned the large number of votes for San Francisco Giants players, including Pablo Sandoval (.300, 6 HR, 25 RBI) who was named the All-Star game's third baseman over New York Mets' David Wright (over .350, 9 HR, 50 RBI) was responsible for "taking away an infield spot."


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2012, Brandon Phillips had a .281 batting average, 18 home runs, and 77 runs batted in. He did not win a Gold Glove for the first time since 2009. He batted .375 in the National League Division Series versus the San Francisco Giants, despite their loss of the series.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips was the Reds' Opening Day second baseman and number two hitter; however, he became the cleanup hitter after left fielder Ryan Ludwick tore his shoulder on opening day. César Izturis was his backup. He had a 12-game hitting streak from May 12 to 25. He hit .266 with 12 home runs and 74 RBI, good enough to earn him the starting second baseman spot on the National League team in the All-Star Game.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On August 28, Phillips was moved to the second spot in the lineup, and Jay Bruce became the cleanup hitter. While hitting second in 2013, he hit .240 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI in 23 games. In 127 games while hitting 4th, he hit .265/.310/.396 with 16 home runs and 96 RBI. In 151 games in 2013, he hit .261 with 18 home runs and 103 RBI. He won a Gold Glove, having a .987 fielding percentage with 9 errors.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips was placed on the disabled list July 11, 2014, after suffering a torn thumb ligament while diving for a ground ball in a game against the Chicago Cubs. At the time, he was hitting .272 with 7 home runs and 40 RBI, and had only committed one error in 86 games at second base. He was reinstated from the DL on August 18. Phillips finished the season hitting .266 with 8 home runs and 56 RBI.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: The 86th All-Star Game was played at Great American Ball Park, and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was selected to play. In the Reds' clubhouse for the All-Star Game, he was assigned Phillips' locker. Since the brawl between the Cardinals and Reds in 2010, the two mended their schism, and Molina has a photograph of their families together. When informed of whose locker he was using, he replied, "This is Phillips' locker? How about that? I'll have to write something to him." However, during pregame roster introductions, Reds fans booed all six Cardinals players in jest who were selected, including Molina, and even former Cardinal Albert Pujols, who was then with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips hit two home runs and stole two bases against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 30, becoming only the 15th player—and second Red—to have a multi-homer, multi-steal game since 1901. Phillips finished the season hitting .294 (16th in the National League) with 173 hits (8th in the NL), 12 home runs, 70 RBI, and 23 stolen bases (10th in the NL). On October 29, 2015, he was named a finalist for the Gold Glove for second base.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2016, Phillips appeared in 141 games, batting .291 with 11 home runs and 64 RBIs. He also stole 14 bases while being caught eight times.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On February 12, 2017, Phillips waived his no-trade clause and was traded to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for minor league pitchers Andrew McKirahan and Carlos Portuondo. The Reds also sent $13 million in the deal, leaving the Braves to pay $1 million of Phillips' remaining salary. He made a late-season position switch to third base to facilitate the promotion of Ozzie Albies to the major leagues. On August 30, Phillips hit a bloop single to drive in Ender Inciarte for his 2,000th career hit. In 120 games for the Braves, Phillips batted .291 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On August 31, 2017, Phillips was traded to the Los Angeles Angels for cash considerations and Tony Sanchez. In 24 games played with the Angels, Phillips had a slash line of .255/.269/.382 in 102 at bats.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On June 27, 2018, Phillips signed a minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox, and was assigned to the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. Phillips appeared in 38 games with Pawtucket and six games with the Class A Short Season Lowell Spinners, batting a combined .304 with five home runs and 26 RBIs.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips was added to Boston's active roster on September 4. He made his Red Sox debut the following day, hitting a two-run home run in the ninth inning to carry the Red Sox to a 9–8 victory over the Atlanta Braves, completing a comeback from Atlanta's 7–1 and 8–7 leads late in the game. Phillips was the first player in Red Sox history to wear uniform number 0. Overall with the 2018 Red Sox, Phillips appeared in nine games, batting 3-for-23 (.130) with one home run and two RBIs. The Red Sox finished the year 108–54, clinching the AL East pennant. Phillips was not included on the team's postseason roster, as the Red Sox went on to win the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On June 25, 2019, Phillips signed with the Vallejo Admirals of the independent Pacific Association. The team was managed by his younger brother P.J. Phillips. Phillips played four games for the Admirals before being granted his release.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On July 15, 2019, Phillips signed with the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League. During the season he played in 36 games. He batted .267/.327/.420 with 35 hits in 131 at bats. He had 3 home runs, 11 doubles and 15 RBIs. Phillips elected free agency on October 5, 2019.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In July 2020, Phillips played in 8 games for the Baseball Brilliance of the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy. Phillips had 5 hits in 35 plate appearances for the Brilliance, with a .152/.200/.333 batting line. One of those 5 hits included a July 11 home run against the Steel City Slammin' Sammies at Washington Wild Things Park.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: On August 19, 2020, Phillips joined the Lexington Legends in their Battle of the Bourbon Trail series. On August 22, Phillips hit a walk-off homer for the Legends, his third homer in three games for the team.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: In 2021, the Legends moved to the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and Phillips became a co-owner of the club in the offseason. On May 31, 2021, the Legends announced he was officially signed as a player, thus becoming the first Atlantic League player to appear on a roster for a team they co-own.


title: Brandon Phillips

text: Phillips has a daughter, Bailey Quinn Phillips with his partner, fitness model and professional wrestler Jade Cargill.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Falcon Crest is an American prime time television soap opera that aired for nine seasons on CBS from December 4, 1981, to May 17, 1990. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the California wine industry. Jane Wyman stars as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, opposite Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew, and later David Selby as Richard Channing, the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband. Other notable series regulars include Abby Dalton and Margaret Ladd as Angela's daughters Julia and Emma, Lorenzo Lamas as Angela's grandson Lance, Susan Sullivan as Chase's wife Maggie and William R. Moses as their son Cole, and Ana Alicia as heiress Melissa Agretti. The series is set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley (modeled after the Napa Valley) northeast of San Francisco.


title: Falcon Crest

text: The show was created by Earl Hamner, Jr., who had previously created "The Waltons". Hamner wanted to create a family drama involving the wine industry entitled "The Vintage Years". He offered Wyman the lead role of Angela Channing. She said, "I told him I'd heard Barbara Stanwyck had turned it down. And he said that was an untrue rumor. It had never been offered to her." Hamner said he was looking for a "sympathetic actress" for the role. He called Wyman "one of the legendary stars ... a great actress", and insisted that though she was the ex-wife of US President Ronald Reagan who was elected as president in 1980, her casting had nothing to do with her connection to Reagan. Hamner said Wyman was chosen to add credibility to the role, and noted "The character is a harsh one. Miss Wyman's nice-lady image gives Angie more dimension and sympathy."


title: Falcon Crest

text: Hamner's concept was "the flip side of "The Waltons"—this family was infected by wealth, whereas poverty had threatened his Depression story [in "The Waltons"]". After shooting the original pilot episode of the series, called "The Vintage Years" in the spring of 1981, featuring Wyman in a silver wig, the actress pushed for changes in Angela. Hamner had warned Wyman that the press would call Angela a female J. R. Ewing, the amoral oil baron from "Falcon Crest" lead-in series, "Dallas", played by Larry Hagman. Not wanting her character to simply be a J.R. clone, Wyman said, "I feel I'm representing all women in business. I may come off as a hard, tough character, but I want Angie to show she's also capable of love."


title: Falcon Crest

text: CBS requested that Hamner make the show more like "Dallas", which was the network's biggest hit at that time, and the show was retooled and the pilot reshot. The script was rewritten and several cast members changed for what became "Falcon Crest". The series first aired in December 1981, when CBS scheduled "Falcon Crest" at 10 pm on Friday nights, right after "Dallas". The "Dallas"-"Falcon Crest" double bill proved lucrative for the network and "Falcon Crest" was a top-20 show in the Nielsen ratings for several years. Both shows (like "The Waltons") were produced for CBS by the same company, Lorimar Productions.


title: Falcon Crest

text: In 2004, "Newsweek" described "Falcon Crest" as "Basically "Dallas" in the Napa Valley, with a female tyrant, Angela Channing, vineyards instead of oil rigs, a six-month coma and a plot to take over the world."


title: Falcon Crest

text: At the center of the action is Angela Channing (Jane Wyman), a corrupt, tyrannical matriarch who rules the Falcon Crest vineyards with an iron fist. When her brother Jason Gioberti (Harry Townes) dies from a fall in the winery, his son Chase Gioberti (Robert Foxworth) arrives to claim his inherited portion of Falcon Crest. The rivalry between Angela and Chase — whom Angela sees as an interloper — sets the tone for much of the series.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Surrounding Angela are her daughters, Julia (Abby Dalton) and Emma (Margaret Ladd), and her lazy playboy grandson, Lance Cumson (Lorenzo Lamas), who aids her in her battles against Chase. Julia is chief winemaker, though often feels oppressed by her domineering mother. Kind-natured Emma does not work in the family business, but is emotionally troubled. Julia's son Lance loves money and yearns for power, but lacks Angela's discipline and determination. Her ever-tightening grip on him eventually sends him to work for his grandfather's newspaper, "The San Francisco Globe". Aiding Angela in her quest for more power is her crooked lawyer, Phillip Erikson (Mel Ferrer), who would later become her second husband.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Chase's wife Maggie (Susan Sullivan) is a freelance writer who later works at "The New Globe" newspaper; their grown son Cole (William R. Moses) works at the winery with Chase, and daughter Vickie (Jamie Rose, later Dana Sparks) is just finishing school. Eventually realizing that she would not gain control over Chase's land anytime soon, Angela hopes to enlarge her empire by forcing Lance into an arranged marriage with Melissa Agretti (briefly played by Delores Cantú, later by Ana Alicia), heiress to the much-coveted Agretti Vineyards. Scheming Melissa becomes embroiled in a love triangle with Lance and Cole, even marrying Lance while pregnant with Cole's child.


title: Falcon Crest

text: In the second season, a true rival for Angela arrives in the form of conniving Richard Channing (David Selby), the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband Douglas Channing and Chase's mother. He inherits most of his father's shares in the family newspaper after Douglas dies, and uses his new wealth and power to seek retribution against both Angela and Chase for always treating him like an outcast. Richard crosses them at every turn and makes several attempts to wrest control of Falcon Crest.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Despite its reputation as merely being ""Dallas" with grapes", "Falcon Crest" soon found its niche among the primetime dramas, occupying the middle ground between the two genre extremes — being more glamorous than "Dallas", yet not quite as outrageous as "Dynasty". The distinctive location filming in the Napa Valley and the dry, wryly humorous tone of the scripts gave the series a personality of its own.


title: Falcon Crest

text: The rivalry between Angela, Chase, and Richard stayed at the core of the show for several years, as more romantic entanglements spun around them. Lance and Cole found themselves not only caught up in their family battles for control of Falcon Crest, but were also competing for Melissa's affections.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Like its counterparts, "Falcon Crest" employed memorable end-of-season cliffhangers to boost ratings. The 1982–83 season ended with the resolution of a murder mystery "whodunit" plot (surrounding the death of Melissa's father, Carlo Agretti) that had spanned most of the season. The killer was revealed in front of the entire cast, only to produce a handgun. Shots were fired as the camera panned away from the mansion, fading into the final scene of a rose-draped coffin being lowered into the ground, leaving the audience to wonder who had been killed.


title: Falcon Crest

text: The third-season cliffhanger in 1984 involved a plane crash carrying most of the major characters, resulting in three of their deaths. A bomb explosion which ended the fourth season left Richard and Maggie in peril, and an earthquake that rippled through the valley ended the fifth season. The cliffhanger of the sixth season put Chase, Melissa, Richard, newcomer Dan Fixx and Maggie's baby in danger of drowning in the San Francisco Bay area. At the end of the seventh season, Melissa had finally wrested complete control of Falcon Crest away from Angela, while Richard was apparently murdered by "The Thirteen", a powerful group of shady businessmen whom he had turned against.


title: Falcon Crest

text: "Falcon Crest" was a top ten series from 1982 to 1985 (peaking at No. 7 in the 1983–84 season), airing after "Dallas" on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. The series also frequently cast former Hollywood royalty in guest roles: Lana Turner, Gina Lollobrigida, Mel Ferrer, Cesar Romero, Robert Stack, Cliff Robertson, Celeste Holm, Lauren Hutton, Ursula Andress and Kim Novak all appeared on "Falcon Crest". This aspect to the series seemed to be well-embraced by the producers, who at one stage instituted a rotating guest-star policy. Leslie Caron, Lauren Hutton, Eddie Albert, Eve Arden, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Ursula Andress all made appearances during the 1987–1988 season, as did Rod Taylor, who would remain with the series until its cancellation in 1990. After producer Jeff Freilich left the series at the end of the 1988 season, fewer special guest stars appeared to boost ratings, one of them being Susan Blakely in the final year.


title: Falcon Crest

text: With the departures of many of the core cast, coupled with the shifting tastes of the public in the mid-1980s, ratings began to drop (as had ratings for all of the primetime soaps of that era). By the late 1980s, U.S. ratings were dominated by sitcoms and more realistic legal/crime dramas such as "L.A. Law" and "In the Heat of the Night". During its eighth season, "Soap Opera Digest" gave "Falcon Crest" the title of "Most Ruined Show" (that season finished 52nd in the annual ratings). The series attempted to revitalize like "Knots Landing" had successfully done the previous year, but by the beginning of the ninth and final season in 1989, Angela, Lance, and Emma were the only three characters left from the original cast. Jane Wyman was absent for most of that season due to her own health concerns; storylines had Angela attacked and fall into a coma for several months. The final season then revolved around a battle between Richard and newcomer Michael Sharpe for control of Falcon Crest.


title: Falcon Crest

text: CBS executives made the decision to end "Falcon Crest" when ratings during the ninth season dropped to 63rd place. Jane Wyman returned to the series for the last three episodes. The show ended happily with a family wedding taking place on the grounds of the mansion. Taking a walk outside, Angela delivered a soliloquy (written by Wyman herself) that brought the series to a conclusion, mentioning past characters and events, but looking forward to the future. The final scene of the series shows her raising her glass to the land: "A toast to you, Falcon Crest, and long may you live."


title: Falcon Crest

text: A pilot episode for the series entitled "The Vintage Years" was filmed in the spring of 1981, but never aired. The character of Richard Channing was present in the original pilot, played by Michael Swan; this alternate Richard was Angela's biological son fighting for his domineering mother's favor. Abby Dalton's character, Julia, was called Dorcas, Jane Wyman wore a grey wig as Angela, and Chase and Maggie were played by Clu Gulager and Samantha Eggar, respectively. Emma was not seen, but a subplot concerning a mysterious woman crying for her mother while locked away in one of the upstairs rooms was seen. Lamas, Moses, and Rose appeared in the same roles, and Chao-Li Chi's character was named Lee Fong.


title: Falcon Crest

text: The pilot was written by Hamner and directed by Alexander Singer. Though never broadcast or released on DVD, it was made available for download on the AOL video-on-demand service In2TV in 2007.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Searching for a location to use as the principal backdrop for the show, Lorimar producers decided upon Spring Mountain Vineyard, a winery located in St. Helena, in California's Napa Valley. This site contained the 1884 Victorian mansion "Villa Miravalle", the exterior of which was used as the Falcon Crest mansion where Angela lived with her daughters and grandson, as well as the winery building which had just been constructed in the mid-1970s. As a tie-in, the Spring Mountain Winery also produced a "Falcon Crest" wine during the show's run.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Wyman reportedly had had a long-running feud with fellow movie star legend Lana Turner, which dated back years. The two actresses supposedly refused to speak to each other and the producers had to film their confrontational scenes separately and then edit them together. Turner appeared on "The Phil Donahue Show" in 1982 and emphatically denied the rumors of the reported feud. "It's a bunch of bull. It's all publicity trying to drum up a feud between us. I adore Ms. Wyman. I respect her as a lady and an artist, and there is no feud." A few years after she appeared on the show, Turner stated that she believed Wyman was negative in demeanor because her ex-husband, Ronald Reagan, was elected president during the 1980s, something that Turner believed Wyman could not reconcile within herself.


title: Falcon Crest

text: In 1984, Sophia Loren was set to star in the role of Francesca Gioberti, Angela's secret half-sister, who comes to the valley to threaten Angela's control of Falcon Crest. Loren was to play 13 episodes, and producers promised a fabulous wardrobe and a dynamic character that would rival "Dynasty" Alexis Carrington. At the last minute, negotiations with Loren fell through and Gina Lollobrigida (a longtime rival of Loren's) was then cast in the role, but only signed on for five episodes. Lollobrigida earned a Golden Globe nomination for her guest role. Three years earlier, Loren had also been Aaron Spelling's first choice for the role of Alexis Carrington on "Dynasty", but was passed over when she demanded too much money and the role instead went to Joan Collins.


title: Falcon Crest

text: According to "Dallas" creator David Jacobs, before auditioning for "Falcon Crest", Robert Foxworth turned down the role of J. R. Ewing on "Dallas" because he did not want to play such an unsympathetic character. The role ultimately went to Larry Hagman.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Following the relaunch of "Dallas" in 2012, it was reported that stars of "Falcon Crest" had been approached about appearing in a revival of their show. It was proposed that the series would focus on Cole Gioberti (William Moses) and Richard Channing (David Selby). However, plans for a new series never came to fruition.


title: Falcon Crest

text: In 2018, a remake of the series was made in Turkey called "Şahin Tepesi", the same name used when the original "Falcon Crest" aired in Turkey in the 1980s.


title: Falcon Crest

text: "Falcon Crest"'s theme tune was composed by Bill Conti, who also composed the themes to "Dynasty", "The Colbys", and "Cagney & Lacey". Several variations of the main title theme were commissioned throughout the series' run, the most noticeable change to the main title theme was the version for season nine, which was done in a heavily synthetic, new-age style by musician Patrick O'Hearn.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Stylistic changes were also made to the incidental music. During seasons 1 to 5, the music was performed by an orchestra in a classical style, composed mainly by Dana Kaproff and Peter Myers. Beginning in season 6, the background music became electronic-based and was performed by single artists using a synclavier, a high-tech programmable synthesizer; Mark Snow, who later composed the theme of "The X-Files", was the main composer and performing musician from 1986 to 1988. During season 8, the music returned to a more classical style, before the composers returned to the electronic style for the final season with the score provided by new-age composer Patrick O'Hearn.


title: Falcon Crest

text: The rights to the series are held by Warner Bros., successor-in-interest to the original production company Lorimar. The first season was released on DVD in various European countries in April and May 2009, and the second season was released from October 2009 onwards, again in various European countries.


title: Falcon Crest

text: Warner Bros. has released the first three seasons on DVD in region 1. Season one was released on April 20, 2010, season two on September 24, 2010, and season three on May 28, 2013. Seasons two and three were released by the Warner Archive Collection as Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases. Season four became available digitally on iTunes in 2016.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: , officially abbreviated as , is a 2018 Japanese animated high fantasy drama film written and directed by Mari Okada and produced by P.A. Works. It features animation direction and character designs by Yuriko Ishii adapted from Akihiko Yoshida's original designs, and music composed by Kenji Kawai.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms" tells the story of the titular Maquia, a young girl who is a member of a special race called the Iorph, mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years. While escaping war, she finds a lone surviving infant and decides to raise him as her son.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: The film is Okada's directorial debut and the first standalone feature-length, theatrically-released production of P.A. Works. It premiered in Japan by Showgate on February 24, 2018, and at the Glasgow Film Festival on March 4, 2018. It was released by Madman Entertainment on June 7, 2018. It was released by Anime Limited on June 27, 2018. It was released by Eleven Arts on July 20, 2018. The film's English dub premiered on September 21, 2018, in the United States. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Northern America on February 5, 2019. The DVD has only an English track, while the BD has both English and Japanese tracks.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: The Iorph, a humanoid race, live far removed from the world of humans, spending their days weaving Hibiol, a special cloth which serves as a written chronicle of the passing of time. They age much slower than humans, and can live for hundreds of years. They are legendary to outsiders, who have dubbed them the "Clan of the Separated".


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Maquia, a young, orphaned Iorph girl, serves as an assistant to the clan's chief, Racine, who warns her about creating emotional attachments to outsiders, saying that Maquia will know what true loneliness is if she does. Soon afterward, the neighboring kingdom of Mezarte sends armed soldiers on the backs of flying dragons called Renato to the Iorph village. Unable to find the secret to their longevity, the army attacks, killing most of the Iorph and kidnapping Leilia, Maquia's friend. One of the Renato succumbs to the "Red Eye" disease and goes berserk during the attack. It becomes tangled in Hibiol, and flees the village, inadvertently carrying Maquia, who is tangled in the fabric. The Renato later crashes and dies in a forest. Maquia wakes up and meets an alcoholic merchant at the ambushed caravan, where she finds a newborn baby boy, held tightly in the arms of his deceased mother. Refusing to let him die, she pulls the baby from the woman's arms and takes him in as her son. She travels to the village of Helm, where a woman, Mido, takes them in, raising them alongside her two sons, Lang and Deol. Maquia names her adopted son Ariel.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Time passes and Ariel has grown into a child. The Kingdom of Mezarte had once built their strength and reputation on their ownership of the ancient Renato, but the Renato have started to succumb to the "Red Eye" disease, leaving them with less than ten as they begin to die out. Fearing the inevitable loss of power and influence, the king of Mezarte tries to claim ownership of another ancient and legendary power, the Iorph's longevity, leading him to attempt to introduce Iorph blood into the royal bloodline. Through a message woven into a Hibiol Maquia finds in a shop, she discovers that Leilia has been forced into an arranged marriage with the prince of Mezarte. She travels on a ship with Ariel to try to free Leilia. On the ship, she meets Krim, an Iorph. He is a friend of hers from their homeland, who was Leilia's former boyfriend and Maquia's secret crush. Krim is also seeking to free Leilia. Once in the capital of Mezarte, the two meet with a number of other Iorph, and unsuccessfully ambush a royal parade. Maquia briefly frees Leilia, but learns that Leilia is pregnant with the prince's child. Maquia flees on Leilia's orders and avoids capture with the help of the merchant, revealed to be half-Iorph. Krim, undeterred, resolves to continue trying to free Leilia, and leaves Maquia and Ariel behind.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: As more time passes, Maquia and Ariel move to the iron-forge city of Dorail, where Maquia works as a restaurant waitress. Ariel grows to be a teenage forge worker. He becomes alienated from Maquia by the ever-decreasing difference in their apparent ages. Meanwhile, Leilia, still in the palace, is a prisoner of the royals. She has been cast aside because her daughter Medmel shows no signs of being an Iorph. She has not been able to meet Medmel ever since her birth, leaving her in despair. One day, Ariel and Maquia happen to meet Lang, now a soldier in Mezarte's army. Their meeting pushes Ariel and Maquia farther apart, allowing Ariel to join the army of Mezarte. Moments after he leaves, Maquia is kidnapped by Krim.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Approximately ten years later, Ariel has returned to the capital and married Dita, a girl he knew in Helm. She is pregnant with their first child. Meanwhile, Krim has gathered the support of the surrounding nations to invade and overthrow Mezarte. He takes a still-captive Maquia with him, trying to reach the palace in the battle. They are separated in a forest outside the capital, and after a brief encounter with Ariel, Maquia goes to the town and finds Dita in labor. She helps deliver the baby, while Ariel continues to fight and is wounded in the battle. Maquia finds Ariel and they share a heartfelt conversation before she offers him an emotional goodbye, and then she heads to the palace. Elsewhere, after finally finding Leilia in the palace and being rejected in favor of Medmel, Krim tries to kill both her and himself, but Krim is ambushed and killed by the chief of the guards. As the battle ends with Mezarte's loss, Ariel returns home and meets his newborn daughter. Maquia takes the last living Renato and flies away with Leilia, who manages to reunite briefly with Medmel before departing.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Many years later, Maquia returns to the village of Helm once again with the half-Iorph merchant, finding Ariel as an old man on his deathbed, and holds his hand as he dies. Leaving their home, she shoulders the pain of her loss, crying as she remembers the moments of her life she spent with him. Maquia rejoins the merchant and continues on the road, remarking to herself, despite the profound pain of loss, that loving her son brought her happiness.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: A post-credit image shows the Iorph village being reinhabited once again by the surviving Iorph and their descendants, along with the last Renato.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: The film's score was composed and arranged by Kenji Kawai. The film's ending song, "Viator (ウィアートル)", was composed, arranged and performed by Rionos, with lyrics provided by Riya.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: The film grossed $160,988 in North America in November 2018. It grossed $4.3 million worldwide, including $1.2 million in Japan and $2.5 million in China in March 2019.


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Makoto Shinkai called "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms" a "fantastic film that can shake up memories within you that you normally forget."


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: The film received rating based on reviews, with an average rating of on Rotten Tomatoes. It said, ""Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms" anchors its colorfully imaginative fantasy setting in universal — and deeply poignant — real-world themes." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

text: Miranda Sanchez, for IGN, gave the film a 8.5 out of 10 and wrote that it was "a beautiful story about motherhood, aging, and loss".


title: Communitarianism

text: Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships, with a smaller degree of development being placed on individualism. Although the community might be a family, communitarianism usually is understood, in the wider, philosophical sense, as a collection of interactions, among a community of people in a given place (geographical location), or among a community who share an interest or who share a history. Communitarianism usually opposes extreme individualism and rejects extreme "laissez-faire" policies that deprioritize the stability of the overall community.


title: Communitarianism

text: The philosophy of communitarianism originated in the 20th century, but the term "communitarian" was coined in 1841, by John Goodwyn Barmby, a leader of the British Chartist movement, who used it in referring to utopian socialists and other idealists who experimented with communal styles of life. However, it was not until the 1980s that the term "communitarianism" gained currency through association with the work of a small group of political philosophers. Their application of the label "communitarian" was controversial, even among communitarians, because, in the West, the term evokes associations with the ideologies of socialism and collectivism; so, public leaders—and some of the academics who champion this school of thought—usually avoid the term "communitarian", while still advocating and advancing the ideas of communitarianism.


title: Communitarianism

text: Czech and Slovak philosophers like Marek Hrubec, and Luboš Blaha extend communitarianism to social projects tied to the values and significance of community or collectivism and to various types of communism and socialism (Christian, scientific, or utopian, including:


title: Communitarianism

text: While the term communitarian was coined only in the mid-nineteenth century, ideas that are communitarian in nature appear much earlier. They are found in some classical socialist doctrine (e.g. writings about the early commune and about workers' solidarity), and further back in the New Testament. Communitarianism has been traced back to early monasticism.


title: Communitarianism

text: A number of early sociologists had strongly communitarian elements in their work, such as Ferdinand Tönnies in his comparison of Gemeinschaft (oppressive but nurturing communities) and Gesellschaft (liberating but impersonal societies), and Emile Durkheim's concerns about the integrating role of social values and the relations between the individual and society. Both authors warned of the dangers of anomie (normlessness) and alienation in modern societies composed of atomized individuals who had gained their liberty but lost their social moorings. Modern sociologists saw the rise of a mass society and the decline of communal bonds and respect for traditional values and authority in the United States as of the 1960s. Among those who raised these issues were Robert Nisbet (Twilight of Authority), Robert N. Bellah "Habits of the Heart", and Alan Ehrenhalt (The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues Of Community In America). In his book Bowling Alone (2000), Robert Putnam documented the decline of "social capital" and stressed the importance of "bridging social capital," in which bonds of connectedness are formed across diverse social groups.


title: Communitarianism

text: In the twentieth century communitarianism also began to be formulated as a philosophy by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. In an early article the "Catholic Worker" clarified the dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ as the basis for the movement's communitarianism. Along similar lines, communitarianism is also related to the personalist philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier.


title: Communitarianism

text: Responding to criticism that the term 'community' is too vague or cannot be defined, Amitai Etzioni, one of the leaders of the American communitarian movement, pointed out that communities can be defined with reasonable precision as having two characteristics: first, a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce one another (as opposed to one-on-one or chain-like individual relationships); and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity – in short, a particular culture. Further, author David E. Pearson argued that "[t]o earn the appellation 'community,' it seems to me, groups must be able to exert moral suasion and extract a measure of compliance from their members. That is, communities are necessarily, indeed, by definition, coercive as well as moral, threatening their members with the stick of sanctions if they stray, offering them the carrot of certainty and stability if they don't."


title: Communitarianism

text: What is specifically meant by "community" in the context of communitarianism can vary greatly between authors and time periods. Historically, communities have been small and localized. However, as the reach of economic and technological forces extended, more-expansive communities became necessary in order to provide effective normative and political guidance to these forces, prompting the rise of national communities in Europe in the 17th century. Since the late 20th century there has been some growing recognition that the scope of even these communities is too limited, as many challenges that people now face, such as the threat of nuclear war and that of global environmental degradation and economic crises, cannot be handled on a national basis. This has led to the quest for more-encompassing communities, such as the European Union. Whether truly supra-national communities can be developed is far from clear.


title: Communitarianism

text: More modern communities can take many different forms, but are often limited in scope and reach. For example, members of one residential community are often also members of other communities – such as work, ethnic, or religious ones. As a result, modern community members have multiple sources of attachments, and if one threatens to become overwhelming, individuals will often pull back and turn to another community for their attachments. Thus, communitarianism is the reaction of some intellectuals to the problems of Western society, an attempt to find flexible forms of balance between the individual and society, the autonomy of the individual and the interests of the community, between the common good and freedom, rights and duties.


title: Communitarianism

text: In moral and political philosophy, communitarians are best known for their critiques of John Rawls' political liberalism, detailed at length in his book "A Theory of Justice". Communitarians criticize the image Rawls presents of humans as atomistic individuals, and stress that individuals who are well-integrated into communities are better able to reason and act in responsible ways than isolated individuals, but add that if social pressure to conform rises to high levels, it will undermine the individual self. Communitarians uphold the importance of the social realm, and communities in particular, though they differ in the extent to which their conceptions are attentive to liberty and individual rights. Even with these general similarities, communitarians, like members of many other schools of thought, differ considerably from one another. There are several distinct (and at times wildly divergent) schools of communitarian thought.


title: Communitarianism

text: The following authors have communitarian tendencies in the philosophical sense, but have all taken pains to distance themselves from the political ideology known as communitarianism, which is discussed further below:


title: Communitarianism

text: Whereas the classical liberalism of the Enlightenment can be viewed as a reaction to centuries of authoritarianism, oppressive government, overbearing communities, and rigid dogma, modern communitarianism can be considered a reaction to excessive individualism, understood as an undue emphasis on individual rights, leading people to become selfish or egocentric.


title: Communitarianism

text: The close relation between the individual and the community was discussed on a theoretical level by Michael Sandel and Charles Taylor, among other academic communitarians, in their criticisms of philosophical liberalism, especially the work of the American liberal theorist John Rawls and that of the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant. They argued that contemporary liberalism failed to account for the complex set of social relations that all individuals in the modern world are a part of. Liberalism is rooted in an untenable ontology that posits the existence of generic individuals and fails to account for social embeddedness. To the contrary, they argued, there are no generic individuals but rather only Germans or Russians, Berliners or Muscovites, or members of some other particularistic community. Because individual identity is partly constructed by culture and social relations, there is no coherent way of formulating individual rights or interests in abstraction from social contexts. Thus, according to these communitarians, there is no point in attempting to found a theory of justice on principles decided behind Rawls' veil of ignorance, because individuals cannot exist in such an abstracted state, even in principle.


title: Communitarianism

text: Academic communitarians also contend that the nature of the political community is misunderstood by liberalism. Where liberal philosophers described the polity as a neutral framework of rules within which a multiplicity of commitments to moral values can coexist, academic communitarians argue that such a thin conception of political community was both empirically misleading and normatively dangerous. Good societies, these authors believe, rest on much more than neutral rules and procedures—they rely on a shared moral culture. Some academic communitarians argued even more strongly on behalf of such particularistic values, suggesting that these were the only kind of values which matter and that it is a philosophical error to posit any truly universal moral values.


title: Communitarianism

text: In addition to Charles Taylor and Michael Sandel, other thinkers sometimes associated with academic communitarianism include Michael Walzer, Alasdair MacIntyre, Seyla Benhabib, and Shlomo Avineri.


title: Communitarianism

text: Beginning in the late 20th century, many authors began to observe a deterioration in the social networks of the United States. In the book "Bowling Alone", Robert Putnam observed that nearly every form of civic organization has undergone drops in membership exemplified by the fact that, while more people are bowling than in the 1950s, there are fewer bowling leagues.


title: Communitarianism

text: This results in a decline in "social capital", described by Putnam as "the collective value of all 'social networks' and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other". According to Putnam and his followers, social capital is a key component to building and maintaining democracy.


title: Communitarianism

text: Communitarians seek to bolster social capital and the institutions of civil society. The Responsive Communitarian Platform described it thus:


title: Communitarianism

text: Many social goals require partnership between public and private groups. Though government should not seek to replace local communities, it may need to empower them by strategies of support, including revenue-sharing and technical assistance. There is a great need for study and experimentation with creative use of the structures of civil society, and public-private cooperation, especially where the delivery of health, educational and social services are concerned.


title: Communitarianism

text: Important to some supporters of communitarian philosophy is the concept of positive rights, which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include state-subsidized education, state-subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.


title: Communitarianism

text: A common objection is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to "not" have something done for you. For example, taxation to pay for such programs as described above dispossesses individuals of property. Proponents of positive rights, by attributing the protection of negative rights to the society rather than the government, respond that individuals would not have any rights in the absence of societies—a central tenet of communitarianism—and thus have a responsibility to give something back to it. Some have viewed this as a negation of natural rights. However, what is or is not a "natural right" is a source of contention in modern politics, as well as historically; for example, whether or not universal health care, private property or protection from polluters can be considered a birthright.


title: Communitarianism

text: Alternatively, some agree that negative rights may be violated by a government action, but argue that it is justifiable if the positive rights protected outweigh the negative rights lost. In the same vein, supporters of positive rights further argue that negative rights, "Liberalism and the Limits of Justice", 143.</ref>


title: Communitarianism

text: Still other communitarians question the very idea of natural rights and their place in a properly functioning community. They claim that instead, claims of rights and entitlements creates a society unable to form cultural institutions and grounded social norms based on shared values. Rather, the liberalist claim to individual rights leads to a morality centered on individual emotivism, as ethical issues can no longer be solved by working through common understandings of the good. The worry here is that not only is society individualized, but so are moral claims.


title: Communitarianism

text: In the early 1990s, in response to the perceived breakdown in the moral fabric of society engendered by excessive individualism, Amitai Etzioni and William A. Galston began to organize working meetings to think through communitarian approaches to key societal issues. This ultimately took the communitarian philosophy from a small academic group, introduced it into public life, and recast its philosophical content.


title: Communitarianism

text: Deeming themselves "responsive communitarians" in order to distinguish the movement from authoritarian communitarians, Etzioni and Galston, along with a varied group of academics (including Mary Ann Glendon, Thomas A. Spragens, James Fishkin, Benjamin Barber, Hans Joas, Philip Selznick, and Robert N. Bellah, among others) drafted and published The Responsive Communitarian Platform based on their shared political principles, and the ideas in it were eventually elaborated in academic and popular books and periodicals, gaining thereby a measure of political currency in the West. Etzioni later formed the Communitarian Network to study and promote communitarian approaches to social issues and began publishing a quarterly journal, "The Responsive Community".


title: Communitarianism

text: The main thesis of responsive communitarianism is that people face two major sources of normativity: that of the common good and that of autonomy and rights, neither of which in principle should take precedence over the other. This can be contrasted with other political and social philosophies which derive their core assumptions from one overarching principle (such as liberty/autonomy for libertarianism). It further posits that a good society is based on a carefully crafted balance between liberty and social order, between individual rights and personal responsibility, and between pluralistic and socially established values.


title: Communitarianism

text: Responsive communitarianism stresses the importance of society and its institutions above and beyond that of the state and the market, which are often the focus of other political philosophies. It also emphasizes the key role played by socialization, moral culture, and informal social controls rather than state coercion or market pressures. It provides an alternative to liberal individualism and a major counterpoint to authoritarian communitarianism by stressing that strong rights presume strong responsibilities and that one should not be neglected in the name of the other.


title: Communitarianism

text: Following standing sociological positions, communitarians assume that the moral character of individuals tends to degrade over time unless that character is continually and communally reinforced. They contend that a major function of the community, as a building block of moral infrastructure, is to reinforce the character of its members through the community's "moral voice," defined as the informal sanction of others, built into a web of informal affect-laden relationships, which communities provide.


title: Communitarianism

text: Responsive communitarians have been playing a considerable public role, presenting themselves as the founders of a different kind of environmental movement, one dedicated to shoring up society (as opposed to the state) rather than nature. Like environmentalism, communitarianism appeals to audiences across the political spectrum, although it has found greater acceptance with some groups than others.


title: Communitarianism

text: Although communitarianism is a small philosophical school, it has had considerable influence on public dialogues and politics. There are strong similarities between communitarian thinking and the Third Way, the political thinking of centrist Democrats in the United States, and the Neue Mitte in Germany. Communitarianism played a key role in Tony Blair's remaking of the British socialist Labour Party into "New Labour" and a smaller role in President Bill Clinton's campaigns. Other politicians have echoed key communitarian themes, such as Hillary Clinton, who has long held that to raise a child takes not just parents, family, friends and neighbors, but a whole "village".


title: Communitarianism

text: It has also been suggested that the compassionate conservatism espoused by President Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign was a form of conservative communitarian thinking, although he did not implement it in his policy program. Cited policies have included economic and rhetorical support for education, volunteerism, and community programs, as well as a social emphasis on promoting families, character education, traditional values, and faith-based projects.


title: Communitarianism

text: President Barack Obama gave voice to communitarian ideas and ideals in his book "The Audacity of Hope", and during the 2008 presidential election campaign he repeatedly called upon Americans to "ground our politics in the notion of a common good," for an "age of responsibility," and for foregoing identity politics in favor of community-wide unity building. However, for many in the West, the term communitarian conjures up authoritarian and collectivist associations, so many public leaders – and even several academics considered champions of this school – avoid the term while embracing and advancing its ideas.


title: Communitarianism

text: Reflecting the dominance of liberal and conservative politics in the United States, no major party and few elected officials openly advocate communitarianism. Thus there is no consensus on individual policies, but some that most communitarians endorse have been enacted. Nonetheless, there is a small faction of communitarians within the Democratic Party; prominent communitarians include Bob Casey Jr., Joe Donnelly, and Claire McCaskill. Many communitarian Democrats are part of the Blue Dog Coalition. It is quite possible that the United States' right-libertarian ideological underpinnings have suppressed major communitarian factions from emerging.


title: Communitarianism

text: Dana Milbank, writing in "The Washington Post", remarked of modern communitarians, "There is still no such thing as a card-carrying communitarian, and therefore no consensus on policies. Some, such as John DiIulio and outside Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, favor religious solutions for communities, while others, like Etzioni and Galston, prefer secular approaches."


title: Communitarianism

text: In August 2011, the right-libertarian "Reason Magazine" worked with the Rupe organization to survey 1,200 Americans by telephone. The Reason-Rupe poll found that "Americans cannot easily be bundled into either the 'liberal' or 'conservative' groups". Specifically, 28% expressed conservative views, 24% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, and 28% expressed liberal views. The margin of error was ±3.


title: Communitarianism

text: A similar Gallup survey in 2011 included possible centrist/moderate responses. That poll reported that 17% expressed conservative views, 22% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, 17% expressed centrist views, and 24% expressed liberal views. The organization used the terminology "the bigger the better" to describe communitarianism.


title: Communitarianism

text: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, founded and led by Imran Khan, is considered the first political party in the world which has declared communitarianism as one of their official ideologies.


title: Communitarianism

text: Early communitarians were charged with being, in effect, social conservatives. However, many contemporary communitarians, especially those who define themselves as responsive communitarians, fully realize and often stress that they do not seek to return to traditional communities, with their authoritarian power structure, rigid stratification, and discriminatory practices against minorities and women. Responsive communitarians seek to build communities based on open participation, dialogue, and truly shared values. Linda McClain, a critic of communitarians, recognizes this feature of the responsive communitarians, writing that some communitarians do "recognize the need for careful evaluation of what is good and bad about [any specific] tradition and the possibility of severing certain features . . . from others." And R. Bruce Douglass writes, "Unlike conservatives, communitarians are aware that the days when the issues we face as a society could be settled on the basis of the beliefs of a privileged segment of the population have long since passed."


title: Communitarianism

text: One major way the communitarian position differs from the social conservative one is that although communitarianism's ideal "good society" reaches into the private realm, it seeks to cultivate only a limited set of core virtues through an organically developed set of values rather than having an expansive or holistically normative agenda given by the state. For example, American society favors being religious over being atheist, but is rather neutral with regard to which particular religion a person should follow. There are no state-prescribed dress codes, "correct" number of children to have, or places one is expected to live, etc. In short, a key defining characteristic of the ideal communitarian society is that in contrast to a liberal state, it creates shared formulations of the good, but the scope of this good is much smaller than that advanced by authoritarian societies."


title: Communitarianism

text: Liberal theorists such as Simon Caney disagree that philosophical communitarianism has any interesting criticisms to make of liberalism. They reject the communitarian charges that liberalism neglects the value of community, and holds an "atomized" or asocial view of the self.


title: Communitarianism

text: However, he goes on to show that such arguments cannot be leveled against the particular communitarian theories of Michael Walzer and Mervyn Frost.


title: Communitarianism

text: Other critics emphasize close relation of communitarianism to neoliberalism and new policies of dismantling the welfare state institutions through development of the third sector.


title: The Innocents (2021 film)

text: The Innocents () is a 2021 Norwegian supernatural thriller film written and directed by Eskil Vogt. In July 2021, the film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, in the "Un Certain Regard" section.


title: The Innocents (2021 film)

text: Little Ida and her older sister Anna have moved into an apartment with their parents in an apartment complex. Anna is autistic, so Ida has to take responsibility for her sister earlier than one would expect for a child her age. She longs for contact with her peers and gets to know Ben. They make friends. Strange things begin to happen after the two explore the facility's basement. Somehow Anna seems to be able to form a spiritual connection with little Aisha who lives nearby. Soon she begins to speak again too.


title: The Innocents (2021 film)

text: "The Innocents" had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, in the "Un Certain Regard" section, in July 2021. It later screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, in September 2021. Earlier that same month, the film's U.S. distribution rights were acquired by IFC Midnight.


title: The Innocents (2021 film)

text: Leslie Felperin of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "low-tech, high-tension", writing that "The lonely, uncanny and sometimes unthinkingly violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candor and exceptional skill". Jessica Kiang of "Variety" praised the performances of the child actors as well as the film's atmosphere, calling the film "both a satisfying genre exercise and a minute observation of the process by which young children acquire morality." "Sight & Sound"s Anton Bitel wrote that the film "uses its genre frame to show the connectedness, curiosity and cruelty of its young characters, and also asks whether the inevitable loss of innocence at this age is a slate that can ever simply be cleaned."


title: Mopar

text: Mopar is the parts, service, and customer care division of the former Chrysler Corporation, now owned by Netherlands-based automobile manufacturer Stellantis. It serves as a primary OEM accessory seller for Stellantis brands under the Mopar brand. The name is a portmanteau of the words "MOtor" and "PARts". "Mopar" is also used as a nickname by enthusiasts of Chrysler-built products to refer to any product built by the company.


title: Mopar

text: The term was created by an internal activities council and was first used by Chrysler in 1937 as a product name to put on cans of Chrysler Motor Parts Antifreeze. This new branded product became known as "MoPar antifreeze" a portmanteau of the terms "motor" and "parts".


title: Mopar

text: Mopar parts are original equipment manufactured parts for FCA US LLC vehicles. The term "Mopar" has passed into broader usage among car enthusiasts as an unambiguous reference to vehicles produced by former parent company Chrysler Corporation/Chrysler Group LLC/ FCA US LLC, now known as Stellantis.


title: Mopar

text: The term has thus become an inclusive word for any Chrysler-built vehicle—most any Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Imperial, DeSoto, Fargo(Canada-only in later years) or Dodge Trucks/Ram. By extension, it is also used for Jeep and AMC vehicles built after Chrysler's 1987 buyout of American Motors Corporation, including the short-lived Eagle brand.


title: Mopar

text: In Canada, Chrysler parts were sold under the "Chryco" and "AutoPar" brands until the Mopar brand was introduced into that nation's market, starting in the late 1970s.


title: Mopar

text: Mopar does not have dedicated assembly lines. There are 13 Mopar Custom Shops that install customer-chosen accessories on their vehicles prior to delivery.


title: Mopar

text: There are also limited-edition Mopar versions of FCA vehicles. These are marketed featuring custom paint and equipped with numerous Mopar performance and cosmetic modifications.


title: Mopar

text: An example was the 2013 Dodge Dart finished in black with an offset Mopar Blue racing stripe and featuring sport-tuned steering, exhaust, premium brakes with slotted rotors, lowered sport suspension, and gloss black 18-inch aluminum wheels with low profile performance tires. The Dart had production plans for 500 units.


title: Mopar

text: A special edition Mopar 2017 Dodge Challenger was introduced at the 2017 Chicago Auto Show as part of 80th anniversary of the Mopar brand. A total of 160 were built: half were finished in contusion blue with pitch black effects and the second half in billet silver with pitch black accents.


title: Mopar

text: In 1996, Mopar sponsored the No. 30 car of Jimmy Hensley in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. From 2004 to 2007 Mopar sponsored the No. 9 car driven by Kasey Kahne in the Nextel Cup Series for the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They also sponsored his sprint car.


title: Mopar

text: In the United States and Canada, Mopar participates in Formula D. Formula Drift drivers are Samuel Hübinette, and in Canadian Drift Championship Vanessa Ozawa, Kevin Huynh, and John Yakomoto. Mopar had sponsored NHRA drag racer Allen Johnson in that series' Pro Stock division for 20 years, but for 2016 season they sponsored Jegs Coughlin Jr. and Erica Enders-Stevens.


title: Mopar

text: Mopar remains active in drag racing events. It sponsors Don Schumacher Racing drivers, such as Tony Schumacher, in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Drivers of the Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak are eligible for a variety of Mopar contingency awards and benefits.


title: Mopar

text: Mopar sponsors the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals held each July in Denver. It is the longest-running sponsorship in all of drag racing.


title: Boston Marathon

text: The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world's best-known road racing events. It is one of six World Marathon Majors. Its course runs from Hopkinton in southern Middlesex County to Copley Square in Boston.


title: Boston Marathon

text: The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) has organized this event annually since 1897, except for 2020 when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, it was held later, in October. The race has been managed by DMSE Sports, Inc., since 1988. Amateur and professional runners from all over the world compete in the Boston Marathon each year, braving the hilly Massachusetts terrain and varying weather to take part in the race.


title: Boston Marathon

text: The event attracts 500,000 spectators each year, making it New England's most widely viewed sporting event. Starting with just 15 participants in 1897, the event now attracts an average of about 30,000 registered participants each year, with 30,251 people entering in 2015. The Centennial Boston Marathon in 1996 established a record as the world's largest marathon with 38,708 entrants, 36,748 starters, and 35,868 finishers.


title: Boston Marathon

text: The Boston Marathon was first run in April 1897, having been inspired by the revival of the marathon for the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Until 2020 it was the oldest continuously running marathon, and the second longest continuously running footrace in North America, having debuted five months after the Buffalo Turkey Trot.


title: Boston Marathon

text: On April 19, 1897, ten years after the establishment of the B.A.A., the association held the marathon to conclude its athletic competition, the B.A.A. Games. The inaugural winner was John J. "JJ" McDermott, who ran the 24.5 mile course in 2:55:10, leading a field of 15. The event was scheduled for the recently established holiday of Patriots' Day, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty. The race, which became known as the Boston Marathon, has been held every year since then, even during the World War years & the Great Depression, making it the world's oldest annual marathon. In 1924, the starting line was moved from Metcalf's Mill in Ashland to Hopkinton Green and the course was lengthened to to conform to the standard set by the 1908 Summer Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.


title: Boston Marathon

text: The Boston Marathon was originally a local event, but its fame and status have attracted runners from all over the world. For most of its history, the Boston Marathon was a free event, and the only prize awarded for winning the race was a wreath woven from olive branches. However, corporate-sponsored cash prizes began to be awarded in the 1980s, when professional athletes refused to run the race unless a cash award was available. The first cash prize for winning the marathon was awarded in 1986.


title: Boston Marathon

text: Walter A. Brown was the President of the Boston Athletic Association from 1941 to 1964. During the height of the Korean War in 1951, Brown denied Koreans entry into the Boston Marathon. He stated: "While American soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea, every Korean should be fighting to protect his country instead of training for marathons. As long as the war continues there, we positively will not accept Korean entries for our race on April 19."


title: Boston Marathon

text: The Boston Marathon rule book until after the 1967 race made no mention of gender, nor did the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) exclude women from races that included men until after the 1967 Boston Marathon. Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb's attempt to register for the 1966 race was refused by race director Will Cloney in a letter in which he claimed women were physiologically incapable of running 26 miles.


title: Boston Marathon

text: Gibb nevertheless ran unregistered and finished the 1966 race in three hours, twenty-one minutes and forty seconds, ahead of two-thirds of the runners. Much later, she would later be recognized by the race organizers as the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon.


title: Boston Marathon

text: In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, who registered for the race using her official AAU registration number, paying the entry fee, providing a properly acquired fitness certificate, and signing her entry form with her usual signature 'K. V. Switzer', was the first woman to run and finish with a valid official race registration. As a result of Switzer's completion of the race as the first officially registered woman runner, the AAU changed its rules to ban women from competing in races against men. Switzer finished the race despite an infamous incident in which race official Jock Semple repeatedly assaulted her in an attempt to rip off her race numbers and eject her from the race.


title: Boston Marathon

text: Nina Kuscsik was instrumental in influencing the Amateur Athletic Union, in late 1971, to increase its maximum distance for sanctioned women's races, leading to official participation by women in marathons, beginning at Boston in 1972. Kuscsik was the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon, which occurred in 1972.


title: Boston Marathon

text: In 1996, the B.A.A. retroactively recognized as champions the unofficial women's leaders of 1966 through 1971. In 2015, about 46 percent of the entrants were female.


title: Boston Marathon

text: In 1980, Rosie Ruiz crossed the finish line first in the women's race. However, marathon officials became suspicious, and it was discovered that Ruiz did not appear in race videotapes until near the end of the race, with a subsequent investigation concluding that Ruiz had skipped most of the race and blended into the crowd about a half-mile (800m) from the finish line, where she then ran to her false victory.


title: Boston Marathon

text: In 1905, James Edward Brooks of North Adams, Massachusetts, died of pneumonia shortly after running the marathon. In 1996, a 61-year-old Swedish man, Humphrey Siesage, died of a heart attack during the 100th running. In 2002, Cynthia Lucero, 28, died of hyponatremia.


title: Boston Marathon

text: On April 18, 2011, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya won the 2011 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:03:02:00. Although this was the fastest marathon ever run at the time, the International Association of Athletics Federations noted that the performance was not eligible for world record status given that the course did not satisfy rules that regarded elevation drop and start/finish separation (the latter requirement being intended to prevent advantages gained from a strong tailwind, as was the case in 2011). The Associated Press (AP) reported that Mutai had the support of other runners who describe the IAAF's rules as "flawed". According to the "Boston Herald", race director Dave McGillivray said he was sending paperwork to the IAAF in an attempt to have Mutai's mark ratified as a world record. Although this was not successful, the AP indicated that the attempt to have the mark certified as a world record "would force the governing bodies to reject an unprecedented performance on the world's most prestigious marathon course".


title: Boston Marathon

text: On April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon was still in progress at 2:49p.m. EDT (nearly three hours after the winner crossed the finish line), when two homemade bombs were set off about apart on Boylston Street, in approximately the last of the course. The race was halted, preventing many from finishing. Three spectators were killed and an estimated 264 were injured. Entrants who completed at least half the course and did not finish due to the bombing were given automatic entry in 2014. In 2015, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the bombing, was found guilty of 30 federal offenses in connection with the attack and was sentenced to death. His brother Tamerlan died after a gunfight with police and after Dzhokhar ran him over with a vehicle.