Dec. 1: Sarah Silverman, comedian and singer ("I'm *ing Matt Damon") is 40 today. - ADULTS ONLY-

- ADULTS ONLY-

 

 

Sarah Kate Silverman, the youngest of four daughters, was born in Bedford, New Hampshire. Her mother, Beth Ann Halpin founded the theater company "New Thalian Players."

Her satirical comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion.

Silverman first gained notice as a writer and occasional performer on Saturday Night Live. Her stint there lasted one year and her suggested sketches were rejected more often than not.

She starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010, on Comedy Central. Her roles were usually caricatures of a Jewish-American princess, mocking bigotry and stereotypes of ethnic groups and religious denominations by having her character amplify them in an ironic fashion.

The show was a ratings success, scoring the highest premiere ratings of any Comedy Central show in three years, with 1.81 million viewers and the highest 18–49 rating of the night on cable. Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her acting on the show. At the awards ceremony, she wore a fake mustache.

Comedy Central canceled the Sarah Silverman Program after three seasons.

In January 2008 she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to show Jimmy Kimmel, her boyfriend at the time, a special video. The video turned out to be a song called "I'm Fucking Matt Damon," in which she and Matt Damon sang a duet about having an affair behind Kimmel's back. 

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Kimmel responded with his own video a month later with Damon's friend Ben Affleck, which enlisted a panoply of stars, to record Kimmel's song "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck." On September 13, 2008, Silverman won a Creative Arts Emmy for writing the song "I'm Fucking Matt Damon."

In 2006, Silverman placed #50 on Maxim Hot 100 List. In 2007, she placed #29 and appeared on the cover. 

 

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Dec. 1: Jazz musician, and, oh, yeah, film maker, Woody Allen is 75 today.

Born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in New York City, Woody is an award-winning  screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright.

Allen developed a passion for music early on and is a celebrated jazz clarinetist. What began as a teenage avocation has led to regular public performances at various small venues in his hometown of Manhattan, with occasional appearances at various jazz festivals.

Allen joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans Funeral Ragtime Orchestra in performances that provided the film score for his 1973 comedy Sleeper, and performed in a rare European tour in 1996, which became the subject of the documentary Wild Man Blues.

Allen’s distinctive films, which run the gamut from dramas to screwball sex comedies, have made him a notable American director. He is also distinguished by his rapid rate of production and his very large body of work.[1] Allen writes and directs his movies and has also acted in the majority of them. For inspiration, Allen draws heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema, among a wealth of other fields of interest.

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Woody Allen has won three Academy Awards and been nominated a total of 21 times: 14 as a screenwriter, six as a director, and one as an actor. He has more screenwriting Academy Award nominations than any other writer; all are in the “Best Original Screenplay” category. He is tied for fifth all-time with six Best Director nominations. His actors have regularly received both nominations and Academy Awards for their work in Allen films, particularly in the Best Supporting categories.

 

Annie Hall won four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Actress). The film received a fifth nomination, for Allen as Best Actor. Hannah and Her Sisters won three, for Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories; it was nominated in four other categories, including Best Picture and Best Director.

 

Despite friendly recognition from the Academy, Allen has consistently refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge his Oscar wins. He broke this pattern only once. At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2002, Allen made an unannounced appearance, making a plea for producers to continue filming their movies in New York City after the 9-11 attacks, where he stated, “I didn’t have to present anything. I didn’t have to accept anything. I just had to talk about New York City.”

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