Julianne Moore
Her three-minute performance as Harrison
Ford's doctor colleague in The Fugitive was enough to convince Steven
Spielberg to cast her--without an audition.
Julianne Moore spent the early years of her life in
over two dozen locations around the world with her parents, a psychiatric
social worker and a military judge. She finally found her place at
Boston University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.)
degree in acting from the School of the Performing Arts. After graduation,
she found herself in Manhatten, where she also started her acting
career. Some of the off-Broadway plays she appeared in included Caryl
Churchill's Serious Money and Ice Cream With Hot Fudge. Later moving
into daytime television, Moore appeared briefly on The Edge of Night.
From 1985 to 1988 she played two half-sisters Frannie and Sabrina
on the soap As The World Turns. This performance later led to an Oustanding
Ingenue Emmy Award in 1988.
Moore's first appearance on screen came as a supporting
role (Valerie Bertinelli's friend) on a mini-series in 1987 called
Judith Krantz's I'll Take Manhattan. Several minor TV movies followed,
which had a greater strain on her talent than value for her acting
career. These movies include Money, Power, Murder, The Last To Go,
Cast a Deadly Spell, and Lovecraft.
In
1990, Moore's talents were featured in Tales From the Darkside: The
Movie where she played the victim of a mummy. She also played a real
estate agent friend of Anabella Sciorra in The hand That Rocks the
Cradle (1992). Later in 1993, the blockbuster starring Harrison Ford
and Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive, gave Moore a chance to play a short
but critical role as Ford's co-worker at Cook County Hospital, Chicago.
Moore played Willem Dafoe's wife in Body of Evidence and Aidan Quinn's
waitress girlfriend in Benny & Joon.
During
probably her most shocking performance, Moore appears nude from the
waist down while delivering a monologue in Robert Altman's Short Cuts.
Later that year she worked with Al Pacino in Strindberg's The Father.
In one of Moore's most distinguished performances, she recapitulated
her "beguiling Yelena from Andre Gregory's ongoing workshop version
of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in the late Louis Malle's critically acclaimed
Vanya on 42nd Street" (CelebSite). Director Todd Haynes gave
Moore her first opportunity to take on a lead role in Safe, where
she plays a housewife who develops an inexplicable allergic reaction
to her existence.
As
Hugh Grant's pregnant girlfriend in Nine Months, Moore finds her way
into romantic comedy while also starring with Robin Williams--the
couple's sweet, but incompetant Russian doctor. Following films included
Assassins where she played an electronics security expert and Surviving
Picasso (1996) where she played Dora Maar.
Such
was Moore's acting career--a slow but rising career nonetheless. Her
career had not sky-rocketed nor suffered from her many pivotal but
minor roles in off-beat independent films. However, all would change
in 1997.
While her name in Hollywood was well-known, she didn't
gain named audience recognition until director Steven Spielberg brought
us back to Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
Opposite
Jeff Goldblum, Moore plays his paleontologist girlfriend Sarah Harding.
Starring in a Spielberg movie was potentially one of her greatest
opportunities to rise to superstardom. And when asked to play the
lead role without an audition, she eagerly agreed to a very physically
challenging performance--hanging from rooftops and such. But Moore
was not about to let this opportunity slip away, so she roughed it
out.
In
1997, Moore followed her blockbuster movie performance with two more
features: The Myth of Fingerprints starring with Noah Wyle and Blyth
Danner; and Boogie Nights opposite Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg.
Boogie Nights is a dark comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson
which tells the story of a family of adult entertainment filmmakers
who seek to transform this industry to a form of art. The Big Lebowski
is being released March, 1998, and features Moore playing Maude in
a eye-candy treat from the director of Fargo, Joel Coen.
Her
latest movie will be starring opposite Pierce Brosnan paying an homage
to romantic comedies of the 1940s and 1950s. This is the story of
two New York divorce attorneys (Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan)
who have often competed against one another in the courtroom. Their
intensity leads to a relationship, this, in spite of their chosen
area of professional specialisation. They soon get married, and they
learn just how difficult it is to manage a healthy relationship.
World's Earliest
BBQ Identified
Hamburgers
and hot dogs were not on the menu at the first known barbecues, according
to recent research that suggests early outdoor diners instead feasted
on antelope, other meats and vegetarian dishes.
The research consists
of two back-to-back studies. The first concerns what is believed to
be a 1 to 1.5 million-year-old South African fire, which could represent
the earliest evidence for human-controlled fire and the world's first
known barbecue.
The second study
describes 790,000-year-old possible hearth fires in Israel. This second
study, published in the current issue of Science, presents the first
evidence for human use of fire in Europe and Asia.
Previously, the
earliest controlled fires were thought to have originated in China
around 500,000 years ago.
According to a
presentation at the International Paleoanthropology Society's annual
meeting in Montreal, the South African evidence came from a dark cave
called Swartkrans near the city of Sterkfontein in a region known
for early hominid finds.
In 1984, over
250 charred animal bones were found in the cave. The bones recently
were reanalyzed using a process called electron spin resonance, which
indicated how hot the ancient bones got when they were cooked.
Apparently, our
distant human relatives, such as Homo ergaster and Homo erectus, liked
their meat either very rare as in raw or well done.
Anne Skinner,
professor of chemistry at Williams College who, with colleague Joan
Lloyd, conducted the analysis, said the probable antelope bones fell
into three categories: unheated, slightly heated, and "calcined,"
meaning burnt to a crisp.
"Actually
the most interesting bones are not the result of cooking," Skinner
told Discovery News. "Heating something to 600 degrees Celsius
would result in a totally inedible dinner! These (calcined) bones
were either refuse after earlier cooking at a lower temperature, or
the meat was eaten raw and just the bones put in the fire."
The fire used
to heat the bones likely was man-made, she said, because the site
at the time would have been open grassland, and temperatures in grass
fires usually only reach 300-400 degrees Celsius.
Francis Thackeray
of the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa, also studied the
burned bones. Thackeray does not believe humans over a million years
ago actually made fires, but rather that they might have collected
burning branches set afire by lightning strikes and other natural
causes.
Humans, however,
probably made the fires at the Israeli site, Gesher Benot Ya-aqov.
There, researchers found seeds, cut bones, wood, flint, numerous fruit
specimens, and burnt and unburned grains, all in clusters suggestive
of hearths.
The early barbecuers
at Gesher liked to eat their meat right down to the bone.
"There are
indications that meat was consumed, and not only meat," lead
researcher Naama Goren-Inbar of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology
told Discovery News. "There are cut marks and cracked bones (indicating)
marrow consumption, and the bones were cracked very methodologically.
Having a fire around means that some roasting (took place)!"
Goren-Inbar added
that the ability to control fire marked a turning point in human evolution.
"The role
of fire in energy, warmth, cooking, more extensive diet, defense,
light, etc. is crucial in everyday life," Goren-Inbar explained.
"Some people even make the connection between the presence of
fire and the ability of Homo erectus to colonize the old world."
The Israeli researchers
next hope to study in detail the dietary habits of early hominids.
By Jennifer
Viegas, Discovery News
PC Game Review
Corvette
Review by Gokhra
Requirements:
Pentium III 700 MH, 128MB RAM, most 64B plus video cards and 650 MB
hard drive free space
If
you are a Corvette aficionado (a.k.a freak) like Mood Dude then this
game scores before even the coming out of the pirated CD cover. But
for the rest of us it requires a little more analysis.
This game was
released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette.
It lets you race virtually every corvette made in street and track
settings comprising of over 80 different corvettes. That's the blurb
on the packaging. Sort of.
So what does it
have that makes it stand out from the rest? The car featured here
is an American icon synonymous with Elvis and Coca Cola. For all you
anti Americans, don't boycott the car for its origin.
It's a racing
game pure and simple. There is a career mode and an arcade mode which
are similar in the sense that you jump into a car and race off winning
different paintjobs and brand name parts upgrades along the way. The
upgrades make the winning just that much more easier. The career mode
in more of a stroll through history documenting the different years
of Corvette glory. You end up with the year 2003 model with speeds
and handling similar to the actual eras. The menu includes a little
background information on every car.
There
are several glitches or rather annoyances. The camera is stuck to
the back of the car like in NFS 2 and shifts wildly with each swerve
of the car. It would have been much nicer to let it adjust gradually
like in the latest version of NFS. Also there is no damage modeling
with the only concession to a 100mph bang is a shower of sparks. Other
than this the game is graphically excellent with brilliantly detailed
cars correct right down to the last wheel nut. The environment is
also relatively well detailed although at times it seems a bit surreal
like a presentation for Eden. Everything looks nice, clean and slightly
otherworldly.
The soundtrack
isn't much of a driving inspiration. All are instrumental pieces that
act more as background fillers. It would have been nice to have some
licensed hard pounding music. The highlight in the sound section ae
the car noises. The roar of the engines is very much like the real
thing although the closes it got to the real thing are the TV shows
featuring Vettes. The cars sound very real with the more powerful
cars sounding like a proper big block V8. All this goes quite well
with the sense of speed which is well represented.
Multiplayer
is basically the same arcade and career courses, only this time for
two people. Unfortunately it's straight duels for multiplayer. No
other racers, nor civilians, nor police are present. The camera is
also forced first person, if you like to race like this, no problem
but a third person view would have been much more preferable. Other
"Bonus" modes, six of them in total, are also unlocked the
more of career you complete.
Saving
the game requires you to go to the main menu and it tells you how
much of the game you've completed. It's a nice touch. Racing fans
will like this game although it will not wow them over. You get a
heck lot of cool cars, a reasonably intelligent AI, diverse tracks,
a career, arcade and multiplayer mode and surprisingly no errors.
It's a racing game that happens to be slightly above average in all
aspects.
Netnews
by
the Hitch-hiker
The Internet is
really a world at your fingertips. Millions of web sites, tons of
information makes it very resourceful. But it can also be a weird
place. Following are some interesting sites for you to check out:
www.tie-a-tie.net
This site provides important lessons in mastering the art of tie tying,
which is not rocket science after all. Coming to the aid of people
trying to woo the opposite sex, the site offers "colored and
easy-to-follow diagrams as well as simple step-by-step instructions
to help you on your way to become a real master at tying ties in no
time." You will also find an advice section, as well as tips
on how to care for your tie. So the next time you have to be in your
formal best don't get all tied up, visit this site!
www.birthdayalarm.com
This service which started out in 2001 has gained a great deal of
popularity in recent times. The site aims to provide a simple way
for people to remember birthdays.
You have to create
a birthday book for yourself and then you can forget every birthday
of the year except of course your own! Leave it to Birthday Alarm
to remind you of "the significant other's" b-day and save
your skin. There are also loads of e-cards to choose from. Another
great option allows users to upload their own personal pictures and
send them as an e-card to their friends.
www.princeofwales.gov.uk
The official Internet web site of HRH (His Royal Highness) The Prince
of Wales. Like all other things royal this site is boring and lifeless.
Certainly not the place to go if gossip is what you have in mind.
If however, you are ever in need of a detailed description of what
the Prince did starting from birth till date, you can check out the
site. Not to be forgotten are the two other princes, William and Harry.
Each has their history in this site too, along with carefully selected
pictures. Hey, did you know Prince William's A- Level results? One
A, one B and one C!
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/main/homepage/home.html
You can't call yourself a Potter fan, if you haven't been to the Official
Harry Potter site. Enroll yourself at Hogwarts. Find out where you
belong Gryffindor or Slytherin from who else? The Sorting Hat! There
are games and downloads and other fun stuff. But it can come as a
disappointment to some Harry Potter fans. You can also find a countdown
to the release of the eagerly awaited "Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban".
Virus News Every
year on April 26th (starting at midnight), the Chernobyl (CIH) virus
is activated on infected computers (running on Win95/98/Me). This
can result in overwriting of hard drive sectors and corresponding
loss of data. If you suspect an attack, update and run your antivirus
software.
