Bob Hope was born on May 29, 1903 in Eltham, England although his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was four years old (“I left England at the age of four when I found out I couldn’t be king”). His first modest success in show business came in 1915 when he won a Charlie Chaplin imitation competition.

He began to work in vaudeville in the early 1920s and during the early 1930s was appearing on the stage in Broadway. His first film role was “The Big Broadcast” in 1938 in which he sang the song “Thanks for the Memory” in a duet with Shirley Ross. That song would become Bob Hope’s signature tune.

Bob Hope appeared in over 75 films throughout his career although he only won two honorary Oscars. He even joked about his lack of Oscar awards - “Oscar night at our house is called Passover!” He may not have won many Oscars but he enjoyed bringing his unique humor to the awards ceremony – he presented or co-presented them on a record 18 occasions up until 1977.

His most famous movies, of course remain the series of “road” movies that he made with Bing Crosby during the 1940s. He also starred in “The Paleface” along with Jane Russell which many consider his best film. Today, many of his classic movies are available on DVD or regularly shown on cable TV channels.

Hope took to TV fairly late in his career, not entirely convinced that the still fairly new medium would succeed. “Television – that’s where movies go when they die,” quipped Hope once. However, it was television that really made Bob Hope a star and a household name throughout the United States.

Like about 200 million other people around the world, my wife and I settled down to watch the American Idol Grand Finale earlier this week. With the benefit of satellite, we watched live from our tropical island home by the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. We were already happy, as our two favourites, Katherine McPhee and Taylor Hicks had, the previous evening, been where they belonged, singing in the final. Whoever won did not matter; we loved them both, but after Taylor Hicks final song, he did look the likely winner. However, they would both, as well as Chris Daughtry, have made worthy American Idols.

There were many memorable moments during the American Idol 2006 series, but for me one of the most memorable, and significant, came with the announcement of Taylor Hicks as the winner. I was delighted for him. He has been an inspirational entertainer all the way through the American Idol series, never flirting with the exit door (despite Simon Cowell's attempts to shove him there), and with a unique ability to take just about any song, turn it into his own, and bring the audience to its feet. Taylor Hicks is...well, Taylor Hicks; never afraid to do his own thing and entertain the audience. Even if Simon Cowell wrote a funeral dirge, Taylor Hicks could turn it into something special with his unique character, and have the house rocking.

His thirst to take over led him to start his own record label and clothing line, G-Unit, act in feature films and provide voice-over for popular video games. Not to mention owning 10% of Vitamin Water, later purchased by Coca Cola for $ 4.1 billion dollars. This man gets paid.

A true survivor, 50 Cent grew up on the mean streets of South Jamaica Queens, New York where he sold drugs at the age of twelve during the 1980’s crack epidemic. He was raised by his grandmother after his mother was killed, and he was shot nine times in front of his home on May 14, 2000. His survival gave the rapper a controversial and somewhat mythical image. His remarkable story propels him to continue making hits and building his own fortune.

Angelina Jolie, partner to Brad Pitt, is the star of several blockbuster movies. Among them Girl Interrupted and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, coincidentally where she met Pitt. But perhaps her most well known portrayal was as the buxom Lara Croft, in the Tomb Raider films. During the shooting of the first movie, much of which was shot on location in Cambodia, Jolie came to witness the beautiful environment, immersive culture, and rampant poverty of the nation. This, she says, opened her eyes and was her stepping stone into humantiarian work.

After Cambodia, Anglina Jolie took a trip to Sierra Leone and Tanzania in 2001, and it was there that she first became actively involved in humanitarium causes. The purpose of that fateful trip was to discover first hand the conditions that refugees must suffer. Angelina was so shocked that shortly after, in August 2001, she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, otherwise known as UNHCR.