CHRIS BROWN

Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is a Grammy Award-nominated American R&B and pop singer, dancer, and occasional actor who rose to fame in mid 2005 with his Billboard Hot 100 number-one, Scott Storch-produced debut single "Run It!"

His self-titled debut album spawned four successful Top 10 and Top 20 hits in the United States. To date, the album has sold 2.1 million copies in the U.S. and 3 million worldwide.

Chris was born and raised in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia by Clinton Brown and Joyce Hawkins. He is one of two children.

He was influenced by the artists his parents played on the home radio, such as Michael Jackson and Sam Cooke. Before becoming a vocalist, Brown was interested in becoming a rapper, but began to notice his singing talent by age 11.

By 13, Brown was discovered by a local production team who visted his father's gas station searching for new talent. He began his recording career and moved to New York, staying there for two years. Brown's local production team organized an audition before Def Jam Vice President Tina Davis, who currently works as his manager. At the age of 15, Brown was then sent to perform for L.A. Reid and was subsequently signed in 2004 to Jive Records.

"Run It!" was a hit, peaking at #1 in the U.S. (5 weeks) and abroad. Chris Brown was released on November 29, 2005 and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 selling over 155,000 copies in first week of sales. Five weeks later, became certified platinum, and within a year, went double platinum. Following "Run It!", "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" became Brown's second top 10 hit in the U.S, peaking at #7 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. Brown's album "Poppin" scored him three Billboard Awards in 2006.

Since 2008, Brown started to work on a upcoming studio album.

THE GOAT!

Chris Brown turned himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire station on February 8, 2009 and was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats, while under investigation for domestic violence charges, following an argument with an unidentified woman.

The police report did not name the female in the incident as is policy, but stated that the she had "suffered visible injuries." However, various news media such as the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and MSNBC said that sources had identified the alleged victim as his girlfriend and fellow R&B singer Rihanna.

Following his arrest, several of his commercial ads were suspended, his music was withdrawn from multiple radio stations, and he withdrew from public appearances, including one at the 2009 Grammy Awards. On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with felony assault and making criminal threats.

On June 22, 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to a felony and has accepted a plea deal of community labor and five years' formal probation. Domestic violence counseling is also part of the deal by Judge Patricia Schnegg in court.

ANDREW SYMONDS

Andrew Symonds (born 9 June 1975, Birmingham, England) was an all-rounder in the Australian cricket team. A two-time World Cup winner, Symonds is a right-handed middle order batsman and alternates between medium pace and off-spin bowling.

Symonds showed sporting prowess from a very early age. "Dad was cricket mad. He’d throw balls to me five or six days a week, before school, after school. And we’d play all sorts of games inside the house with ping-pong balls and Christmas decorations."

Andrew Symonds once won the Cricket Writers' Club's prestigious Young Cricketer of the Year award following a successful debut season with Gloucestershire. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut for Australia in 1998.

As an ODI player, he is known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90, with a highest score of 156. He cemented his place in the team in Australia's opening match of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where he scored 143* to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310.

Symonds won Player of the Series in the 2005/06 Australian VB Series.

THE GOAT (S)!

In January 2009, Symonds gave an interview with comedians Roy & HG, where he made remarks about the acquisition of New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum by the New South Wales Blues to play in KFC Twenty20 final against Victoria.

Sounding intoxicated, Symonds called McCullum a "lump of shit", and said that having dinner at the home of teammate Matthew Hayden was enjoyable because he could glance at Hayden's wife. He was charged by Cricket Australia with violating the code of conduct and was fined, following a hearing over the 25-minute interview with Cricket Australia chief Michael Brown.

In early June 2009, Symonds was sent home from the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England, following a late night drinking episode after a team dinner. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland called a press conference to announce Symonds' dismissal. His Cricket Australia contract was also reviewed and later cancelled.

BERNIE MADOFF

Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients: business leaders, celebrities, charities, his own relatives and even his own defense attorney. Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius.."

Born in New York in 1938, Madoff was a Wall Street legend who had been in business for nearly 50 years. According to the story Madoff told others, in 1960, at age 22, he took $5000 earned from his summer job as a Long Island lifeguard and started his own investment firm.

His brother Peter joined him in 1970 in what had become a booming business with an impressive list of clients. Madoff's firm grew famous for its reliable annual returns of 10% or more. He served as president of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock exchange, and he and his wife Ruth were popular socialites in New York and Florida , where they were members of the exclusive Palm Beach Country Club.

THE GOAT!

On 11 December 2008, FBI agents arrested Madoff at his Manhattan apartment, and the Securities and Exchange Commission said he was charged with "massive fraud" and running a "multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme."

Madoff reportedly admitted to investigators that he had lost $50 billion of investors' cash. Prosecutors say Madoff stole billions of dollars from more than 4000 victims. Investigators say Madoff's wife withdrew $15 million the day before his arrest.

Madoff pled guilty to 11 felony counts on 12 March 2009, and was jailed until a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 16th. He faces up to 150 years in prison.

WINONA RYDER

Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz and named after the town in which she was born, Winona Minnesota. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California where there was no electricity.

She started her career in 1986. Although Ryder made her screen debut in Lucas (1986), her first significant role came in 1988 with Beetlejuice as Lydia Deetz, a Gothic teenager, in a performance that gained her critical and commercial recognition.

After making various appearances in film and television, Ryder continued her career with the cult film Heathers (1989) in a prominent and critically acclaimed performance. Her subsequent roles have won her not only critical praise but numerous film awards.

In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. Ryder is known for her relationship with actor Johnny Depp throughout the early 1990s.

THE GOAT!

On December 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested on shoplifting charges in BeverlyHills, California. She stood accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories at a Saks Fifth Avenue departmentstore. Los Angeles District Attorney Stephen Cooley produced a team of eight prosecutors. Ryder hired noted celebrity defense attorney MarkGeragos.

Ryder was convicted of grand theft and vandalism, but was acquitted on the third felony charge, burglary. In December 2002, she was sentenced to three years' probation, 480 hours of community service,$3,700 in fines, and $6,355 in restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue store– and was ordered to attend psychological and drug counselling.

MATTHEW JOHNS

Matthew Johns, 37, is an Australian rugby league football commentator and former professional player. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative five-eighth, Johns played his club football primarily with the Newcastle Knights, alongside his younger brother, Andrew Johns.

After playing junior rugby league in Cessnock, he joined the Newcastle Knights in 1991. He had a very successful time of it for the Knights, the highlight of which, being part of the1997 Australian Rugby League grand final victory over the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

Johns was part of the Australian squad that won the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. He also played four State of Origin matches for New South Wales.

Most players, when their playing days end, have no idea what to do. Matthew Johns was the opposite. His first foray into entertainment began in 1999 when he adopted the persona of Reg Reagan in a low budget film, 'In Search of the Holy Grail,' which appeared at the Newcastle Film Festival. The Nine Network showed excerpts of the film on 'The Footy Show.'

The Reg Reagan character was developed further in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2000. Fans of Johns' new side Cronulla started wearing copies of the t-shirt worn by Reagan, with the slogan "Bring Back the Biff", to games.

In 2002, Johns became a regular on The Footy Show with Reagan and a new character, Trent, a gay flight attendant from San Francisco. After his retirement as a player, Johns signed deals with the Nine Network and Sony Music Entertainment.

THE GOAT!

While on a pre season tour of New Zealand in February 2002, Johns and other unnamed members of the Cronulla Sharks were involved in a group sex session with a young woman in a Christchurch hotel room.

Following an allegation of sexual assault from the woman five days later, police investigated the incident both in New Zealand and Australia but did not lay any charges. The ABC TV Four Corners program "Code of Silence", broadcast on 11 May 2009, reported on the incident.

Although Four Corners spoke to Johns about the incident, he declined to give an on-camera interview for the program. Johns admitted to taking part but stated that the act was consensual. Subsequent to the Four Corners program, Johns was stood down by Channel Nine from his role as rugby league commentator and co-host of The Footy Show. The Melbourne Storm also took the step of releasing Johns indefinitely as an assistant coach.

STELLA WALSH

Stanisława Walasiewicz (also known as Stella Walsh and ‘Stella the Fella’) was a Polish born American athlete and an Olympic champion.

Walasiewicz was born April 3, 1911 in Wierzchownia, Poland. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was only three months old. Her father, Julian Walasiewicz, settled in Cleveland where he found a job as a steel mill worker.

She started her athletic career in a public school in Cleveland. Fast and agile, in 1927 she easily won the competition for a place in the American Olympic team started by the Cleveland Press newspaper. However, Walasiewicz was not an American citizen and could not obtain citizenship under the age of 21.

Walasiewicz joined the local branch of Sokol, a Polish sports and patriotic organization active also among the Polish diaspora. During the Pan-Slavic Slet of Sokół movement in Poznań she scored her first major international victories. She won 5 gold medals: in running for 60, 100, 200 and 400 metres, as well as long jump.

In the late 1920s she was already a well-known athlete. As an amateur she was also working as a clerk in Cleveland. While still not a US citizen, Walasiewicz did participate in, and won, numerous American national championships, usually under the name of Stella Walsh.

In the 1932 Summer Olympics she represented Poland. In both the heats and the semi-finals of the 100 m, Walasiewicz equalled the current world record of 11.9 seconds, a feat she repeated in the final, which she won.

The same day, she also finished 6th out of 9 in the discus throw event.

Upon her return to Poland she almost instantly became one of the best-known personalities. She appeared at the Championships of Warsaw, where she seized 9 gold medals, including one for 80 metres hurdling, one for 4x200 relay, and one for long jump.

In 1947 she finally accepted American citizenship and married boxer Neil Olson. Although the marriage did not last long, she continued to use the name of Stella Walsh Olson for the rest of her life. She won her last US title at age forty, in 1951.

She was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.

THE GOAT!

In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Stella attempted to defend her Olympic title, but she was beaten to the title by Helen Stephens of the USA. She came second in 11.7 seconds.

Ironically in hindsight, Stephens was accused of being male and forced to submit to a genital inspection to prove otherwise.

Walsh was a bystander in an armed robbery in Cleveland, Ohio on December 4, 1980, and was killed, aged 69. The autopsy revealed that the athlete who had lived her life as a woman had the genitals of a man. Detailed investigation has also revealed that she had both XX and XY pair of chromosomes.

There was some controversy whether all her records and achievements should be erased, but in the end neither the International Olympic Committee nor the IAAF commented on the matter.

TREVOR CHAPPELL

A star schoolboy cricketer and a member of Australia's first family of cricket in the 70s and 80s, Trevor Chappell made his debut for South Australia in 1972-73, before relocating to Western Australia in 1976-77 and again to New South Wales in 1979-80.

He also joined World Series Cricket and played in the Lancashire League. It was with New South Wales that Trevor played his best cricket and solid performances including a career best 150 against Western Australia led to his selection in the 1981 tour of England.

Trevor was more successful in the short form of the game, scoring 110 for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup. After retiring from first-class cricket in 1986, Chappell played several seasons of Sydney grade cricket with North Sydney and coached the Gordon Women's Cricket Club, then to Sri Lanka as a fielding coach, and Bangladesh as their national coach.

THE GOAT!

On February 1st, 1981, Trevor was instructed by his brother Greg (who also happened to be captain of Australia) to bowl an underarm delivery against New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie.

With New Zealand needing a six from the final ball to tie the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Trevor did as he was told, instantly becoming a household name - for all the wrong reasons.

While the underarm delivery within the rules, it was considered unsporting as it is almost impossible to hit a six from a ball delivered in this way.

Australia won the game, but boos were heard from the crowd as the New Zealand batsmen marched off in disgust. Since that day, the underarm incident has caused many a near punch up between Australians and New Zealanders.

DICK CHENEY

Vice President Richard B. Cheney has had a distinguished career as a businessman and public servant, serving four Presidents.

Dick earned his bachelor's and master's of arts degrees from the University of Wyoming. His career in public service began in 1969 when he joined the Nixon Administration, serving in a number of positions at the Cost of Living Council, at the Office of Economic Opportunity, and within the White House.

When Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency in August 1974, Mr. Cheney served on the transition team and later as Deputy Assistant to the President. In November 1975, he was named Assistant to the President and White House Chief of Staff, a position he held throughout the remainder of the Ford Administration.

After he returned to his home state of Wyoming in 1977, Mr. Cheney was elected to serve as the state's sole Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected five times and elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987. He was elected Chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1987 and elected House Minority Whip in 1988.

Mr. Cheney also served a crucial role when America needed him most. As Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993, Mr. Cheney directed two of the largest military campaigns in recent history - Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East.

THE GOAT!

On February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets when he turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch. Whittington suffered a ‘mild heart attack,’ and atrial fibrillation due to a pellet that embedded in the outer layers of his heart.

The Kenedy County Sheriff's office cleared Cheney of any criminal wrongdoing in the matter, and in an interview with Fox News, Cheney accepted full responsibility for the incident.

Whittington was discharged from the hospital on February 17, 2006, and characterized the incident as being quite brutal. Later, Whittington apologized to the vice-president for the trouble the event had caused him and his family.

Cheney explained that it was an honest accident. He also denied that alcohol had anything to do with the shooting, although he had had a beer at lunch.

OJ SIMPSON

Some startling stats from the man known as ‘The Juice.’

Orenthal James Simpson earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern California where he played running back for the University of Southern California in 1967 and 1968.

He was a Heisman Trophy candidate and a star in the 1967 USC vs. UCLA football game. His 64 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter tied the game, with the PAT the margin of victory. This was the biggest play in what is regarded as one of the greatest football games of the 20th century.

In 1968, he rushed for 1,709 yards and 22 touchdowns, earning the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and the Walter Camp Award that year. He still holds the record for the Heisman's largest margin of victory, defeating the runner-up by 1,750 points.

He was named NFL Player of the Year in 1972, 1973, and played in six Pro Bowls.

Simpson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

He was also the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season.

He also starred in a ton of movies: ‘The Cassandra Crossing,’ ‘Capricorn One,’ ‘The Klansman,’ ‘The Towering Inferno,’ and ‘The Naked Gun’ trilogy.

As he was such a likeable chap – with a smile to boot – OJ endorsed many products. He was a spokesman for the Hertz rental car company, as well as Pioneer Chicken; he owned two franchises, one of which was destroyed during the LA riots.

It’s fair to say, ‘The Juice’s’ personal life wasn’t as successful. On June 24, 1967 Simpson married Marguerite L. Whitley. Together they had three children: Arnelle, Jason and Aaren. In 1979, Aaren drowned in the family's swimming pool a month before her second birthday. That same year Simpson and Marguerite were divorced.

On February 2, 1985, Simpson married Nicole Brown. They had two children, Sydney and Justin, and were divorced in 1992. In 1989, Simpson pled no contest to a domestic violence charge and was separated from Nicole Brown, to whom he was paying child support.

THE GOAT!

On June 12, 1994 Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman were found dead outside Brown's condominium. Simpson was soon charged with their murders. After failing to turn himself in, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a now infamous white Ford Bronco SUV. The pursuit, arrest and trial were among the most widely publicized in American history.

The trial culminated on October 3, 1995 in a verdict of not guilty for the two murders. But it wasn’t over yet. On February 5, 1997, in a subsequent civil trial, a jury in Santa Monica, California found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman, battery against Ronald Goldman, and battery against Nicole Brown.

The attorney for plaintiff Fred Goldman (father of Ronald Goldman) was Daniel Petrocelli. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages. Then, unbelievably, just when you’d think ‘The Juice’ would retire to a small island and start a salmon farm, he releases a book titled, ‘If I did it.’

FRANCIS BACON

Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 in London. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, keeper of the great seal for Elizabeth I. Bacon studied at Cambridge University and became an MP in 1584.

However, he was unpopular with Elizabeth, and it was only on the accession of James I in 1603 that Bacon's career began to prosper. Knighted that year, he was appointed to a succession of posts culminating, like his father, with keeper of the great seal.

Bacon's real interests lay in science. Much of the science of the period was based on the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. While many Aristotelian ideas, such as the position of the earth at the centre of the universe, had been overturned, his methodology was still being used.

To this present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis.

Bacon's political ascent also continued: in 1618 he was appointed Lord Chancellor, the most powerful position in England, and in 1621 he was created viscount St Albans.

Basically, he was a bright bugger in a time when they didn’t have scientific calculators, Wikipedia or Google.

THE GOAT!

Francis Bacon was killed by a frozen chicken.

As the story goes, during the spring snow of 1626, the aging, ailing Bacon was returning by coach one night from London to his country estate when he suddenly decided to conduct a scientific experiment. He stopped the coach, bought a gutted chicken from a local villager, and stuffed the chicken with snow with his bare hands.

His aim was to show with this experiment that food could be preserved when frozen. This experiment proved fatal for Sir Francis. From the damp of the snow, he caught a chill from which he never recovered. A week later, he died.

In recounting the sad ending to this story, the historian Thomas Macaulay later declared, “The great apostle of experimental philosophy was destined to be its martyr.”

FFYONA CAMPBELL

The life and times of Britain’s best known walker:

At thrirteen, she was the Brit who dreamed to walk around the world.

At sixteen she took the first step on that journey (August 1983), walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. At eighteen she (supposedly – more on that later!) walked 3,500 miles from New York to Los Angeles. At twenty-one she broke the men's world record by walking 3,200 miles from Sydney to Perth in ninety-five days.

In April 1991 she began her monumental 10,055 mile trek from Cape Town to Tangiers, the penultimate leg in her round-the-world hike.

Ffyona was 24 when she waved goodbye to Cape Town. Finally, on 1st September, 1993, she arrived in Morocco and ran headlong into the Mediterranean Sea, her arms raised high in a gesture of triumph that was captured on front pages around the world.

Typically, Ffyona would walk 30 miles a day on the shoulder of the highway. Every ten miles, a companion would be waiting for her in the supply vehicle. She'd take a break, eat, maybe drain some blisters with a syringe.

The final leg of her crazed journey started in April 1994, from Algeciras, Spain, and, having walked through Europe, finally reached the shores of Dover. She then took a nap, drained a few more blisters, and walked the required 800 miles back to her starting point of John O'Groats in Scotland, on 14 October 1994.

Eleven years and 20,000 miles – a Sunday stroll around the planet.

THE GOAT!

It was the story no one wanted to believe. The woman who had conquered herself – and the planet – now admitted that she had lied about a walk across the United States.

During a 1,000-mile stretch, she said she’d cheated, accepting occasional rides from her companion and driver. ‘Nobody knew, nobody was hurt, I rationalized,’ Campbell wrote in her book The Whole Story. But the lie preyed on Campbell for years.

It all began back in Indiana, a little over a thousand miles into her walk across America in the mid eighties. Her pace had left her exhausted and weepy, and as she fell behind she fought with Brian Noel, her young British driver, whom she had also "bonked" (as she puts it in her book) on a pretty regular basis. Meanwhile, Campbell started canceling her appointments with reporters as she fell farther and farther behind schedule.

Then one afternoon she discovered why she was flagging: She was pregnant. ‘When things got too hard, I just got in the van till I was walking very little at all, just on the approach to a town to do the interviews.

A little farther past the town and I'd jump in again, all through Illinois and Missouri and Oklahoma and Texas.’ She had an abortion in Clovis, New Mexico, and resumed walking. When she broke her story in Britain, some in the media accused her of concocting the lie as a publicity stunt in order to sell books.

If that was the case, then her ploy failed. If anything, it seems to have hurt sales. Since arriving back at John O'Groats on 14 October, 1994, Ffyona has been back to the USA and walked the ‘missing 1,000 miles’ alone, apart from a dog for company.

MOTHER TERESA

A list of achievements by one of the humblest women who ever lived:

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910.

At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ.

At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India.

After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun.

Over the next 43 years, she set up schools, dispensaries, homes for abandoned children, for the leprosy afflicted, and for the destitute and dying.

By 1990, 456 centres were established in more than one hundred countries. During that year, 500,000 families were fed, 20,000 slum children were taught in 124 schools, and 90,000 leprosy patients were treated. Mother Teresa was once asked if there was any place she had not reached. She replied:

‘If there are poor on the moon, we shall go there too!’

Understandably, she received a ton of awards: 'Padmashree Award' (in 1962 from the President of India), 'John F. Kennedy International Award-1971', 'Bharat Ratna' (Jewel of India), 'Order of Merit' from Queen Elizabeth, 'Nobel Peace Prize - 1979' (the prize money of which, she had requested to be donated to poor people), 'The Pope John XXIII Peace Prize', 'Medal of Freedom' (which is highest US Civilian award).

THE GOAT!

It’s hard to believe that Mother Teresa was tormented by a crisis of belief for 50 years.

Her letters and diaries present a completely different picture of the nun and Nobel peace prize winner from her public image as a woman confident of her faith. Biographies would have to be rewritten to take the revelation into account, it was said in Rome just after her death.

The previously unpublished material is to be brought out as a volume in Italy. It was collected by Roman Catholic authorities in Calcutta after her death at the age of 87. Mother Teresa wrote in 1958: "My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains."

Because she was "forever smiling", people thought "my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with his will fill my heart. If only they knew . . ." She said in another letter: "The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God. "In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist.’

MICHAEL RICHARDS

Michael Richards has always been a funny man, first stepping into the national spotlight when he was featured on Billy Crystal's first cable TV special. Prior to ‘Seinfeld,’ he made numerous guest appearances on a variety of television shows including ‘Cheers,’ ‘Night Court,’ ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘St. Elsewhere.’

His film credits include ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer,’ ‘Problem Child,’ and ‘UHF.’

But before stardom, he did something far more honorable: serving in the Vietnam War. He was in the U.S. Army for two years, and stationed in Germany as one of the co-directors of the V Corps Training Road Show. He produced and directed shows dealing with race relations and drug abuse.

Richards is also a Master Mason and also holds 33° in the Scottish Rite. He was very active in preservation of Masonic research, and in his personal life is an avid reader.

Needless to say, Richard’s life really took off when, in 1989, he was cast as Cosmo Kramer (based on the real-life Kenny Kramer) in the NBC television series ‘Seinfeld.’ Although it got off to a slow start, by the mid-1990s, the show had become one of the most popular sitcoms in television history.

The series ended its nine-year run in 1998 at #1 and earned Michael Richards three Emmy awards.

THE GOAT!

On November 17, 2006, during a performance at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood, California, a cell phone video captured Richards shouting ‘Shut up’ to a heckler in the audience, followed by ‘He's a nigger!’ to the rest of the audience. (using the word 6 times altogether), and also making a reference to lynching. He was addressing a group of black hecklers.

Richards made a public apology for his remarks, during a satellite appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He described going into a rage and said, "For me to be at a comedy club and to flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry."

He said he was trying to defuse heckling by being even more outrageous, but that it had backfired. Richards later called civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in order to apologize. He also appeared as a guest on Jackson's syndicated radio show.

BILL CLINTON

A whole lot of good things about William Jefferson Clinton:

Upon graduation he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford. After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor degree in 1973. While at Yale, he began dating law student Hillary Rodham who was a year ahead of him. They married in 1975 and their only child, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

After graduating from Yale Law School, he returned to Arkansas and became a University of Arkansas law professor. A year later, in 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives.

In 1978, Bill Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas for the first time; at 32, he was the youngest governor in the country. He then became the third youngest president, older than Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

In November 2000, Clinton became the first president to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War. And on October 17, 2002, he became the first white person to be inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

THE GOAT!

In 1995, Monica Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term. The two began a sexual relationship.

As Lewinsky's relationship with Clinton became more distant and after she had left the White House, she confided details of her feelings to her friend and Defense Department co-worker, Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.

When Tripp discovered that Lewinsky had signed an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying a relationship with Clinton, she gave the tapes to independent counsel, Kenneth Star. And then all hell broke loose. At first Clinton denied the rumours: ‘I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.’

Alas, Bill was telling a porker, later admitting to having an ‘improper physical relationship’ with Miss Lewinsky. And then he was impeached. And he never touched a cigar again.