Denis Leary, born 1957 in Worcester, MA, is a multi-talented writer, director, comedian, and actor.

Well known for his angsty, off-color humor, his career started on MTV during a comedy sketch where he ripped on REM. Best known as a stand-up comedian, he has released two full-length comedy albums, No Cure for Cancer and Lock'n'Load. Though admittedly not much of a musician, Leary's off-color song "Asshole" became extremely popular in 1994, reciving a great deal of noteriety both inside and outside the United States. However, the song's language kept it off of most major U.S. radio playlists, though it was huge on Australian radio stations.

Though he prefers stand-up, Denis Leary has acted in over 40 movies, even starring in some of them.

His credits include The Sandlot, The Ref, Suicide Kings, and Demolition Man. His humor has also come through while voicing the characters of animated characters in Ice Age and A Bug's Life. Leary's career hasn't only been in comedy and acting though; he has produced numerous television shows, television specials, and movies (Including Blow) through his production company, named Apostle.

Though Leary was a long time friend with comedian Bill Hicks, the two had a falling out after Leary's release of No Cure for Cancer.

Hicks accused Leary of stealing material, and their friendship ended quickly. Though Leary wanted to patch things up, Bill Hicks passed away in 1994. The issue was addressed in The Bill Hicks Story by Cynthia True, who also believed that Leary stole material from Hicks, though the controversy was never satisfactorily settled.

Denis Leary is also a bit of a philanthropist, founding the Leary Firefighters Foundation after his cousin and childhood friend were killed in a massive warehouse fire in Worchester, MA. The foundation has raised over 2.5 million dollars for fire departments in the area, providing equipment and facilities for the departments.

Though Leary's comedy is often sarcastic and full of angst, his rants rarely come down too hard on any one group. Though racial comedy has always been a hot button, Leary rarely delves into race. As he puts it, "Why hate someone for the color of their skin when there are much better reasons to hate them? Racism isn't born folks, it's taught. I have a two year old son. You know what he hates? Naps!"

Leary plans to continue to be a jack-of-all-trades in the entertainment business, bringing his humor to the stage, the big screen, and the small screen.

Maybe it’s the charming appeal of blue eyes cum rugged looks of Alec Baldwin that sets us to swooning.

Maybe it’s the extensive Filmography of a man who blazed the acting trail for brothers Billy, Daniel, and Stephen that impresses us. Maybe it’s his involvement in politics that has us leaning in his direction. Whatever it is, Alec Baldwin has made a mark on our memories and minds that is as indelible as that cleft in his beautiful chin.

Alec’s a Long Island Boy, growing up down the road a piece from Rosie O’Donnell (Baldwin in Massapequa, O’Donnell in Commack).

He was raised by his homemaker mother and school teacher father. He started studies at George Washington University, where he originally planned to study law; but “on a dare,” Baldwin auditioned at NYU’s drama program, and changed his life plans when he was accepted in 1979.

Within a year, Alec was making the credits on such shows as NBC’s “The Doctors” and CBS’s “Knots Landing.”

Not long after, he was launching his career as a film star, in “Forever Lulu,” “Beetle Juice,” and “Married to the Mob.” Over seventy film, television, and stage credits and nearly a dozen producing and directorial efforts later, Alec Baldwin has earned star status, as well as a Tony nomination for his revival of Stanley Kowalski in “Streetcar Named Desire;” Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the same role (televised); an Obie for his performance in Off-Broadway version of “Prelude to a Kiss;” a Theatre World Award, for his work in “Loot;” an Academy Award nomination for his characterization in “The Cooler;” and a Writer’s Guild Award for his production company’s, Eldorado Pictures’, collaboration on “The Confession.”

Besides being an esteemed performer, Alec Baldwin is notably one of Hollywood’s most involved proactivists, as well—vociferous and high profile is he in his efforts in and support of the arts, the environment, campaign finance reform, animal rights, gun control, breast cancer research, and those causes championed by boards and panels on which he serves.

So, Alec Baldwin’s beauty is only one part of the equation of integral contributions he makes to the entertainment world in particular and the social and political and humanitarian public in general.

A lot of household names earn their status because the stars are beautiful, sexy, cast in roles in which they deliver great lines.

One household name may not include characteristics of great beauty or indomitable sex appeal, but the gifts he brought to the silver screen are unparalleled. Bela Lugosi is the name. You recognized it immediately, didn’t you? You saw Bela Lugosi pictures in your mind, or you heard the classic staccato “I vahnt-to suck-your blud.” Or you might have gone over all the films this definitive star made in his career of acting in over 109 movies over forty-two years.

Interesting, too, are the Bela Lugosi trivia:

Bela Lugosi ran away from home (and a strict father) at the age of eleven.

Lugosi’s jobs—besides acting—included mining, working the railroad, and working for the army (which he got out of by successfully feigning mental illness).

Bela Lugosi began acting not in films but on stage, in Shakespearean roles, when he was a young man in Hungary (where he was born, in all places, Transylvania).

Though he was born Béla Ferenc Dezs? Blaskó (in October of 1882), he took a stage name for his work in Cinema of Hungary--Arisztid Olt—before becoming the Bela Lugosi we know.

His struggles and challenges include his being included in post-collapsed Hungarian Soviet Republic persecutions of left-wingers and trade unionists; getting addicted to morphine (which was originally prescribed for the intense back pain he suffered); having difficulties finding work (in the 30’s and 40’s), worrying him about supporting his family; divorce from a wife who announced she had divorced him by telegram; and his marrying five times throughout his life.

Lugosi’s Count Dracula debuted on stage, running for 33 weeks in 1929, two years before the movie version (which slated Lon Chaney for the part originally, only casting Lugosi after Chaney died and after heavy negotiations and pleading).

Bela Lugosi was paid much less than the star with second-billing, David Manners. He was paid $3500 for his role in Dracula.

Lugosi died at the age of seventy-three, of a heart attack which was reportedly drug-related. When he died, he was sitting in a chair holding a script by Ed Wood, the quirky but clever director who had sought out Lugosi and resuscitated his acting career.

He was buried in one of the Dracula capes he had worn in the stage productions of Horace Liveright and John Balderston’s Dracula, adapted from Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name.

Okay, so the most obvious choice is the classic Marilyn Monroe picture where she is standing over the subway grate blowing cool air up her sexy dress on a hot city day—in the movie, The Seven Year Itch, with co-star Tom Ewell.

But what if you want a more original or rare Marilyn Monroe picture, one that not everyone has plastered to the bathroom or bedroom wall?

I have seen over the years some gorgeous, stunning, and rare Marilyn Monroe pictures that seem more representative of the Marilyn Monroe who was a person, too. One of my favorites is the shot of her working out.

She is laying with her back to the bench press, holding small dumbbells up in front of her. She is dressed in jeans and a bathing suit top. The photo is black and white, shot by Phillipe Halsman in Hollywood in 1952. Simple, real.

Another staged but nevertheless telling Marilyn Monroe picture is one with her in ballerina-like dress, a strapless white and gauzy number.

She is sitting on a chair, facing the camera. She is barefoot, her painted toes crossing over each other as those of a child who would fidget with her feet. She is (nervously—pretending?) hunched inward, one hand in her lap the other moving toward her face.

Marilyn Monroe picture collectors will probably already own the pin-up, Vargas Girl photo, of Marilyn naked, stretched out on red satin that matches her red lipstick, but they may not have such unique pieces as the one of her doing a Lustre Crème ad, the magazine ad she is featured in to sell Tru-Glow makeup, or Sam Shaw’s photo of Marilyn in a bathrobe, looking wistfully out of the window of what is presumably her house?

More Marilyn Monroe pictures that have appeal are the ones where she is with other celebrities.

There is a set of photos of her with an old car, a set including one photo of Marilyn leaning on the car and Sammy Davis Jr. in the foreground doing a Mr. Bojangles-style kick in mid-air. Classic. Also in the series, Sammy and Marilyne are joined by Frank Worth.

And the true collector of Marilyn Monroe pictures will have the rarest of images: Marilyn on the cover of the very first issue of Playboy, on the cover of a May 14, 1956 issue of Time (where she is depicted in sketch illustration), and on the cover of LAFF, a “humorous picture magazine”.

But the best of Marilyn Monroe pictures may be those taken before she was Marilyn Monroe.

Norma Jean is in bathing suit, on the beach, or in vibrant red sweater, standing at the shore in Mexico and captured by the early tintype photography or the brilliant color photography of William Carrol in 1945. Of course, there’s the rarest of pics of Marilyn/Norma Jean: of her as a baby, sitting on her mother Gladys’s lap at the beach…adorable as ever.

Do you have a favorite old movie?

When I think about it, I have to go with Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" myself. This is truly one of the movie classics. I probably never would have seen it if I hadn't taken film classes in college. This just goes to prove that you shouldn't disregard something before you've given it a shot.

Where do you acquire your dose of movie classics? These days it's not so difficult with all the cable channels. I simply love to watch all the classic science fiction films that air on Sci-fi. It's amazing to watch the old and compare it to the new. The dichotomy is extraordinary. With our new-age technology there have been so many drastic changes regarding film. And I'm not just referring to the color. Computer graphics, otherwise known as CG have changed it all. Now days we can make virtually anything look and seem real.

What movie classics have you viewed lately?

Just the other day I caught a great one on TNT. This channel is notorious for playing great movie classics. The one I watched is called "North by Northwest." This is a Hitchcock film for those who didn't know, and it works like a rollercoaster ride of suspense, action, and espionage. What else could you ask for? All you young folks should take a gander at the old-school Brad Pit.

He went by the name of Cary Grant. He truly knew his stuff when it came to the big screen. Therefore if you're looking for one of the eternal movie classics, this Hitchcock adventure should be right up your ally. In addition to a variety of great Hitchcock films, there are a number of other movie classics that shouldn't be forgotten. Films like "Touch of Evil," "Gone with the Wind," and "Citizen Kane" are all fabulous movie classics for anyone's collection.

Are you in search of ideal movie classics, but have no idea where to look?

Well, there are the more immediate solutions such as Best Buy, Target, and your local movie stores. Or, you can also hop online for a much larger selection. And when I say selection, I mean virtually anything you can come up with. If it's not on the World-Wide-Web, chances are no one has it.

Pop open sites like Amazon.com to browse through loads of movie classics, along with a vast selection of other films.

Yes, one of the wonders of computer technology is the ability to watch movies on our laptops or desktops.

Other boons of internet technology enables us to find said films, film clips, trailers, and the like online at movie sites.

Further, for those of us art appreciators or educators who use movies in our distance learning classes, these movie sites offer fantastic databases, anthologies, or how-to series.

The Animation Factory is one of the movie sites offering free short films—mini-animations we can watch, download, and send to friends, as the creators at the AF suggest.

For more serious viewing, there are movie sites that seek to inform, with such video materials as those available at PBS—with The Online NewsHour Video database as well as a directory of hundreds of broadcast programs and specials at PBS.org.

New movie trailers are at movie sites including RealPlayer (the same place we go to get a movie viewer—if we are not using one on our hard drive); and show highlights clips are everywhere, at such sites as the Idol forum, for example.

One of the premier movie sites is a search engine: Google Video allows users to search a collection of videos and clips that range from the NBA Playoffs to the Top 11 on AOL Music to National Archives Historical Videos.

In addition, many more sites are not specifically movie sites but feature movies or videos and clips. Try, for instance, Dartmouth College’s Academic Skills Center, wherein you will find academic success videos; the Television Commercial Database, which features a searchable database as well as a list of most popular television commercials from all over the world.

Another that fits in the movie sites category is the forum at BeliefNet, where people discuss opinions of Christian and other religiously themed films. Along these lines is the most prolific of all movie sites—one you can use for research or personal investigations: imdb.com, Internet Movie Database.

Creative independent filmmakers show model short films and clips at IAC, the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers; and educational movie sites include United Streaming. And of course there are movie sites where you can watch videos online, read about movies, and buy or rent movies on DVD.

The range and value of the movie sites, so many more than are listed here, goes from short animations to full-length feature films to news clips and movie trailers to educational films by discipline. We humans are lucky to be living now, aren’t we?

The indie [independent] film circuit is a blessing to those of us who are obsessed with movies but who cannot always wrap our brains around pop culture blockbuster type story lines, dialogues, and sets.

The indie film, that is, is like an attic in the winter: you go to it to uncover the best kept secrets of the house, to listen to just the rain on the roof, to read, to think.

Yes, indie films are for intellectuals, for the avant-garde, for the philosophical ones, for the artists—the poets, writers, painters, filmmakers, playwrights, sculptors, digital craftspeople, photogs.

Consider the works of the brilliant Todd Solonz, works which appeal in a morbid, but realistic (as in the genre) way. Welcome to the Dollhouse, for example, features the stoic schoolgirl who is burdened by the malaise that comes with living in suburbia with an anally retentive computer geek of a brother, a princess baby sister, and emotionally unavailable (or clueless) parents, and who goes to school with the typical Stepfordesque peers…save the nasty boy from the other side of the tracks (who is a terrific foil in this film).

Stuck for a choice of what indie film to watch?

Anything with Parker Posey (Sleep with Me; Party Girl; The House of Yes). Anything directed by Quentin Tarrantino. Anything directed by David Lynch (be sure to see his college thesis equivalent—what I guess they call graduate film?--: Eraserhead). Anything done by the Coen brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona; Barton Fink…). Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Memento. Anything [else] with Francis McDermond. Anything written by Eric Bogosian (Suburbia; Wonderland; Igby Goes Down). Richard Linklater works (Waking Life…). Vincent Gallo’s indie films (such as Buffalo). Spanking the Monkey. Best in Show. Chocolat. Any indie film with Simone Signoret.

I could go on, but instead, should give you some independent film databases, so you can read the blurbs and decide based on your preferences—for dark comedy, documentary, dramatic…. So here are a few sources I find wonderful:

IMDB (Internet Movie Database)
Indy Wire
About.com (though the spelling slips in a couple of places, and the “host” makes a false jab at Nicolas Cage—harrumph)
Reel.com
Microcinema International
GreenCine Daily
Screensite
Filmmaking.tv
FilmFestivals.com

That should get you started milling about the attic, where not too many people are hanging out, but where plenty of the best spirited ghosts will walk through the attic and archives with you.