Ashley Cole Biography

Full name : Ashley Cole

Date of birth : 20 December 1980 (age 30)

Place of birth : Stepney, London, England

Height : 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)

Profession : Footballer

Playing position : Left Wing-back

Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980, Whitechapel, London, England) is an English footballer of Barbadian descent. Cole plays left back for Chelsea and for the England national team, a position from which he often uses his strong pace to try and support the forward players.

Cole started his career by joining his local club, Arsenal, whom he had supported as a child. At the age of 18, on 30 November 1999, he made his first team debut in the Worthington Cup against Middlesbrough. On 25 February 2000, he signed his first professional contract. His Premier League debut came on 14 May 2000 against Newcastle United. Before he fully broke into the Arsenal side, he spent part of the 1999–2000 season on loan at Crystal Palace, where he played 14 league matches and scored one goal, a long-range half-volley against Blackburn Rovers. Cole caught a lucky break after an injury to Sylvinho, Arsenal's established left-back, in the autumn of the 2000–01 season gave Cole the opportunity to establish himself in the first team. He remained first-choice in the position even after Sylvinho's recovery.

With Arsenal, he won the FA Premier League twice (in 2002 and 2004), and the FA Cup three times (in 2002, 2003 and 2005, scoring in the penalty shootout in the final of the latter). Although injured for much of the 2005–06 season, he recovered in time to play in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League Final defeat to Barcelona at the end of the season. In total he made 228 first-team appearances for Arsenal, scoring 9 goals.

Cole had a very good season in 2004–05. He was a regular at left-back for both England and Arsenal despite Gaël Clichy's claim for a place in the first team squad. Cole scored his first goal of the season in the seventh game in a tough trip to Manchester City in which he scored the opening and only goal to give Arsenal an important win. He scored his second goal in a 3–1 away win to Aston Villa, scoring Arsenal's third in only the 28th minute. Cole, however, was also involved in a transfer saga with Chelsea. He was found guilty of making contact with league rivals Chelsea over a possible move, without informing Arsenal. He was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a tapping-up meeting at a hotel in January 2005. Cole, his agent Jonathan Barnett, the Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon were present at the meeting. An appeal in August 2005 did not reject the guilty verdict, but his fine was reduced to £75,000. Chelsea were also fined £300,000 and Mourinho was fined £200,000, reduced on appeal in August 2005 to £75,000. Barnett's licence was suspended for 18 months and he was also fined £100,000.

On 18 July 2005, Cole signed a one-year extension to his contract with Arsenal, but just a year later departed from the club in acrimonious circumstances. On 15 July 2006, Cole launched a verbal attack on Arsenal; in his autobiography, quoted in The Sun, he claimed that the Arsenal board had treated him as a "scapegoat" and that they had "fed him to the sharks" over the tapping-up affair while Arsenal, from their part, insisted that they were legally obliged to punish Cole for his illegal contact with Chelsea. Cole was deliberately left out of Arsenal's 2006–07 team photograph, fuelling press speculation that he would leave.

On 28 July 2006, Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein confirmed that Arsenal and Chelsea had been in "civil talks" about the player. Chelsea insisted they would not raise their £16million bid for Cole, but Arsenal held out for at a higher valuation of £25 million. Negotiations continued throughout August and looked to be heading for deadlock, but eventually Cole signed for Chelsea on 31 August for a fee of £5 million, with William Gallas being transferred from Chelsea to Arsenal as part of the same deal. The deal was closed after the transfer window had officially ended, and was not confirmed until an hour and a half after the deadline had passed.

Arsenal had offered Cole a longer contract to stay at the club, but he had been left "trembling with anger" when they offered him £55,000 per week wages, whereas Chelsea were offering him £90,000 a week. His wage increased to £120,000 a week when he signed a new contract in September 2009.

Ashley Benson Celebrity

Name : Ashley Benson

Date of Birth : 18 December 1989, Long Beach, California, USA

Birth Name : Ashley Victoria Benson

Nickname : Ash

Height : 5' 5" (1.65

Occupation : Actress

Ashley Victoria Benson was born on December 18, 1989. She has been dancing competitively since she was 2 with hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. She has been singing since she was about 5 and she hopes to pursue that along with her acting. Ashley started modeling at the age of 5 for dance catalogs. Ashley was then pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency at the age of 8. She worked steadily in print and is still with the Agency. At the age of 10, she wanted to pursue acting. Ashley went on to do 35 commercials, and then on to theatrical roles. Acting was now Ashley's passion. Ashley put all her focus into acting which left little time for modeling and dancing, anymore. Ashley's most recent role is "Abby Deveraux" on the hit soap "Days of Our Lives" (1965). Ashley also had a cameo in 'Lil Romeo' and Solange Knowles's music video for the song "True Love". She did a photo shoot with Britney Spears for Vogue Magazine. She is in NLT's music video "That Girl".

In 2004, Ashley signed a three-year contract with the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Ashley played Abigail Deveraux, the daughter of one of the show’s favorite couples. This role allowed Ashley to expand her acting skills and learn more about the types of roles she wanted to play in the future. Ashley remained with Days of Our Lives until 2007.

After she left the show, Ashley accepted roles in the movies 13 Going On 30, starring Jennifer Garner, and Bring It On: In It to Win It. She also starred in Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleading Scandal, which was based on a true story. In 2009 Ashley landed a starring role in Eastwick, which follows the friendship of three girls who meet at a wishing fountain.

Ashanti Celebrity

Birth Name: Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas

Birth Place: Glen Clove, NY

Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 10/13/1980, Libra

Profession: Singer; songwriter; actress

Ashanti Douglas was born in 1980 in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York into a musical family. Her father used to sing and her mother is a dance instructor. Ashanti began to sing in a gospel choir at the age of 6. As she grew, her musical talent developed and with it, appearances followed. She danced in a show at Carnegie Hall and in the Disney television musical Polly. It was in high school that she honed her songwriting skills and harnessed her talent for creating a story that people could relate to, song after song.

Ashanti first announced her presence with the Big Pun hit "How We Roll" in 2001. Her sound was infectious and caught the attention of record producers. Irv Gotti, the polished producer with Murder Inc. Records, was credited with her discovery and what was supposed to be an initial collaboration, turned into a record contract. The demure and feminine Ashanti was hesitant at first to sign with a label named Murder Inc., but she filled a void in the company stable of talent. What was a pure rap label became stronger with the arrival of the R&B singer. The marketing team at Murder Inc. went to work to promote Ashanti in time for her debut release.

In early 2003, Ja Rule and Ashanti teamed up again and scored a massive pop hit with 'Mesmerize', the music video for which parodied the plot of the movie Grease. 50 Cent would later mock Ja Rule as being soft and 'not a true gangsta', citing the 'Mesmerize' video and its pop-culture appeal as an example. Ashanti was not spared from 50 Cent's criticism of the entire Murder Inc. family.

She would later make a special guest appearance in a season 7 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, First Date.

In the summer of 2003, Ashanti released an album called Chapter II. Its first single, 'Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)' became one of the summer's biggest hits and its steamy video, which showed Ashanti in a bikini frolicking on a beach, was nominated for a 2003 MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video. The second single and video, 'Rain On Me', was released in the fall of 2003. Even with the help of a remix version of both the single and video, it was not able to reach 'Rock Wit U''s level of success on either pop or urban radio.

Most recently, in 2004, Ashanti released the third single from Chapter II, 'Breakup 2 Makeup'; its complete lack of video play on any American music video stations, including the cable channels, VH1 Soul and MTV Jams, and almost total lack of American radio airplay had some speculating that Ashanti's career as a superstar pop diva might have run its course. However, R&B newcomer Lloyd has released a duet with Ashanti, 'Southside', as his first single; and it became a hit at American radio, as well as MTV Jams, over the summer of 2004. In January 2005, Ashanti made her feature film acting debut in the movie Coach Carter with Samuel L. Jackson.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography

NAME: Arnold Schwarzenegger

OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Governor

BIRTH DATE: July 30, 1947 (Age: 64)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Graz, Austria

ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

Professional bodybuilder, actor, California governor. Born on July 30, 1947, near Graz, Austria. Schwarzenegger first became famous as a bodybuilder. He began strength training in his teens and went on to become a world champion bodybuilder, winning numerous awards for his amazing physique. He won the Mr. Universe title five times and the Mr. Olympia title six times. He immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s.

After acting in a few small parts, Schwarzenegger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Newcomer for his performance in Stay Hungry (1976). He was also featured in Pumping Iron (1977), a bodybuilding documentary. With his intense physical strength and size, Schwarzenegger was a natural for action films. He became a leading figure in several popular 1980s action movies, including Conan the Barbarian (1982). Schwarzenegger also starred as a deadly machine from the future in The Terminator (1984).

The spectacular Total Recall (1990) and "feel good" Kindergarten Cop (1990) were both solid box office performers for Arnold, plus he was about to return to familiar territory with director James Cameron in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The second time around for the futuristic robot, the production budget had grown from the initial film's $6.5 million to an alleged $100 million for the sequel, and it clearly showed as the stunning sequel bristled with amazing special effects, bone-crunching chases & stunt sequences, plus state of the art computer-generated imagery. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was arguably the zenith of Arnold's film career to date and he was voted "International Star of the Decade" by the National Association of Theatre Owners. Remarkably, his next film Last Action Hero (1993) brought Arnold back to Earth with a hard thud as the self-satirizing, but confusing plot line of a young boy entering into a mythical Hollywood action film confused movie fans even more and they stayed away in droves making the film an initial financial disaster. Arnold turned back to good friend, director James Cameron and the chemistry was definitely still there as the "James Bond" style spy thriller True Lies (1994) co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold was the surprise hit of 1994!

Following the broad audience appeal of True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger decided to lean towards more family-themed entertainment with Junior (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996), but he still found time to satisfy his hard-core fan base with Eraser (1996), as the chilling "Mr. Freeze" in Batman & Robin (1997) and battling dark forces in the supernatural action of End of Days (1999). The science fiction / conspiracy tale The 6th Day (2000) played to only mediocre fan interest, and Collateral Damage (2002) had it's theatrical release held over for nearly a year after the tragic events of Sept 11th 2001, but it still only received a lukewarm reception. It was time again to resurrect Arnold's most successful franchise and, in 2003.

His second term in office did not run as smoothly. Schwarzenegger struggled to help the state through difficult financial times. After leaving office in January 2011, he has sought to revive his career in the entertainment industry. Schwarzenegger announced plans to work with famed comic book creator Stan Lee on a new animated series inspired by his time in office. He will voice a character known as the Governator.

Antonio Banderas Biography

NAME: José Antonio Domínguez Banderas

OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Television Actor, Director

BIRTH DATE: August 10, 1960 (Age: 51)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Málaga, Spain

ZODIAC SIGN: Leo

Actor. Born on August 10, 1960, in Málaga, Spain. Banderas studied drama, eventually moving to Madrid where he performed in plays including Historia de los Tarantos and La hija del aire. There he met Pedro Almoóvar who gave him a small part in the film Laberinto de pasiones (1982) and from then on he worked exclusively with Almodóvar in such films as Matador (1985) and La ley del deseo (1986).

His first bona fide American movie role was in The Mambo Kings (1992), and still speaking no English, he was forced to learn his lines phonetically. To his credit, his performance as a struggling musician was critically praised.

Early in the 1990s, largely due to the international popularity of Almodóvar's films, he began a film career in Hollywood. His real breakthrough to the mainstream American audience came with starring in Philadelphia with Tom Hanks (1993). Banderas played the gay lover of a lawyer with AIDS (Tom Hanks), with a sensitivity that earned him much kudos. His star was shining brightly and the following year he won a role in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles(1994). He was now working with the likes of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Banderas had truly made the grade in Hollywood.

In 2002, Banderas reunited with the cast and crew of "Spy Kids" to film "Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams". In "Spy Kids 2," the Cortez children (Vega and Sabara) set out to save the world from a genetic scientist and rival spy kid, and as expected it was a strong performer at the box office. He was then seen in director Brian de Palma visually arresting noir thriller "Femme Fatale" (2002), which also co-starred Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, a film that drew more than its fair share of negative reviews but was also touted as brilliant cinema in some circles. After a well-received stint on Broadway in "Nine," a musical inspired by Fellini's film "8 1/2" Banderas as a film director in the Fellini mold, the actor next returned to familiar territory for "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" (2003) and reprised his role as El Maiachi for Rodriguez's successful threequel "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" (2003). Tweaking his image as a sexy, macho swashbuckler, Banderas next provided the pitch-perfect voice of the rapier-wielding Puss-in-Boots for the CGI sequel "Shrek 2" (2004). More serious was his turn in "Imagining Argentina" (2004).

Banderas reprised his role as the titular masked avenger in "The Legend of Zorro" (2005), who becomes pressed to give up his swashbuckling ways and lead a responsible life or lose his wife and child. The long-delayed sequel-released seven years after the original-was a mere shadow of its predecessor, both in terms of thrills and box office dollars. In "Take the Lead" (2006), Banderas tackled the true-life story of ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine, who volunteered his time to teach a group of inner-city hard cases how to dance. Ridiculed at first, Dulaine eventually wins them over with unwavering commitment and dedication, inspiring the class to fuse classic ballroom dancing with hip-hop and participate in a prestigious city dance competition. Meanwhile, Banderas revived Puss-in-Boots for the continuing adventures of the massive green ogre (Mike Myers) and his motley band of friends in "Shrek the Third" (2007).