Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 2 March 1931) was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October Revolution of 1917.

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Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948) is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres. As songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance music. Blades has composed dozens of musical hits, the most famous of which is "Pedro Navaja," a song about a neighborhood thug who appears to die during a robbery (his song "Sorpresas" continues the story), inspired by "Mack the Knife." He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider their second national anthem. The song is titled "Patria" (Fatherland). He is an icon in Panama and is much admired throughout Latin America, and managed to attract 18% of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos for a five-year term. He holds law degrees from the University of Panama and Harvard Law School.

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Duncan Bannatyne, OBE (born 2 February 1949) is a Scottish entrepreneur, philanthropist and best selling author. His business interests include Health Clubs, Hotels, Media, TV, Stage Schools, Property and Transport. He is most famous for his appearance as a business angelon the BBC programme Dragons' Den. He has written 3 books Anyone Can Do It sold more than 200,000 copies and Wake Up and Change Your Life quickly entered the Sunday Telegraph top selling books list as did How to be Smart With Your Money. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to charity.

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Anthony Charles Edwards (born July 19, 1962) is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.

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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942), is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music. McCartney gained worldwide fame as a member of The Beatles, alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. McCartney and Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and wrote some of the most popular songs in the history of rock music. After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine. He has worked on film scores and classical and electronic music, released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist, and taken part in projects to help international charities.

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Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American film actor, screenwriter and director. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. A year later, his lead role as a reformed white power skinhead in American History X earned a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor. His other films include period dramas such as Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Illusionist (2006), and The Painted Veil (2006); and other notable films such as Rounders (1998), Fight Club (1999), 25th Hour (2002), Red Dragon (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008). Aside from acting, Norton made his directorial debut with the film Keeping the Faith (2000) and is slated to direct the film adaptation of the novel Motherless Brooklyn, set to be released in 2010. He is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing, as well as a social activist.

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Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is best known for his role as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple and as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.

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Juan Sabastian Martienez, better known as Juanes (born August 5, 1965 in Carolina del Príncipe, Antioquia) is a Colombian fusion musician. During the 1980s and 1990s, Juanes was a member ofheavy metal band Ekhymosis but disbanded the group in 1998 to pursue a solo career. His 2000 solo debut album, Fíjate Bien, had moderate commercial success and went on to win three Latin Grammy Awards. He has won 17 Latin Grammy awards, more than any other artist. Since Juanes started using the music of rural Colombia: a mixture of Indigenous, African and Hispanic rhythms, he became a successful and popular star in Colombia and the rest of the Americas. His second album, Un día normal, was certified platinum throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world, and its lead single "A Dios le pido" topped singles charts in twelve countries. Mi sangre, his third album, fared equally well with Juanes promoting it on a tour with over 200 performances. The album's third single, "La camisa negra", generated controversy after being used as a symbol for Italian neo-fascism. Juanes is one of the best-selling Colombian musicians, having sold more than ten million albums and won seventeen Latin Grammys. Juanes is also known for his humanitarian work, especially with aid for Colombian victims of anti-personnel mines.

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Barbra Joan Streisand (pronounced /ˈstraɪsænd/ STRY-sand; born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942) is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as acomposer, liberal political activist, film producer, and director. She has won two Academy Awards, nine Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and is one of the very few entertainers to have won all of these honors, although she has yet to win a competitive Tony Award. In 2008 she was inducted as a Kennedy Centre Honoree. Streisand received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2001. She is one of the most commercially and critically successful female entertainers in modern entertainment history and one of the best selling solo recording artists with over 71 millon albums sold in the US and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the highest ranking female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list. According to the RIAA, Streisand has a total of 29 Top Ten albums to her credit since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (34 years) between first and latest Top 10 albums of any female recording artist. Streisand also holds the record for most Top 10 albums of any female recording artist. Her RIAA tally shows she has released 50 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums. Currently, Streisand appears at #7 on the RIAA list of Top Selling Artists, with over 70 million albums sold, right behind Billy Joel and Pink Floyd. She is currently #1 in all-time sales among female artists.

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Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine,Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko, three of the top five highest-grossing documentaries of all time. In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising, documenting his personal crusade to encourage more Americans to vote in presidential elections. He has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth. Moore is a self-described liberal who has criticized globalization, large corporations, gun ownership, the Iraq War, U.S. President George W. Bush and the American health care system in his written and cinematic works. In 2005 Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. In 2005, Moore started the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. In 2008, he closed his Manhattan office and moved it to Traverse City, where he is working on his new film.

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