Peter Lefcourt (born December 19, 1941)

Peter Lefcourt (born 1941) is an American television producer, a film and television screenwriter, and a novelist.

Lefcourt's early career involved writing teleplays for primetime series such as Cagney and Lacey, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (both of which he also produced), Eight is Enough, and Remington Steele, among others. He penned the scripts for the television movies Monte Carlo, Cracked Up, Danielle Steel's Fine Things, and The Women of Windsor. In more recent years he executive-produced and wrote for Beggars and Choosers and Karen Sisco.

Lefcourt was nominated for a 1984 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for Cagney and Lacey and won the following year.

Much of Lefcourt's fiction has been inspired by his true-life experiences working behind-the-scenes in Hollywood. His first novel, The Deal, was adapted for the screen by William H. Macy and debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Several others of his books are under option or in various stages of development for feature films.

Lefcourt lives with his wife Terri in Santa Monica, California.

In a 2012 interview with Larry Mantle on KPCC's Airtalk, Lefcourt stated he signed with Amazon.com to publish and distribute his most recent book "with some trepidation". He said friends told him he was 'joining the enemy', but his backlist is selling better electronically on Amazon.com than in it did at traditional booksellers while in print.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lefcourt

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Viktor & Rolf

Viktor (born May 27, 1969) & Rolf (born December 19, 1969) is an Amsterdam-based fashion house. The company was founded in 1993 by designers Viktor Horsting (born 1969, Geldrop) and Rolf Snoeren (born 1969, Dongen).

Viktor Horsting & Rolf Snoeren met while studying fashion at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in The Netherlands. They began working together upon graduation, relocating to Paris in 1993 to launch their careers. Their first collection 'Hyères' (1993) based on distortion, reconstruction and layering won three prizes at the Salon Europeen des Jeunes Stylistes at the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie. The subsequent presentation of four collections in experimental art spaces led them in 1998 to show their first Haute Couture collection (Spring/Summer 1998).

Viktor&Rolf returned to ready-to-wear in 2000, with 'Stars and Stripes' (Autumn/Winter 2000-01). The menswear line 'Monsieur' was added in 2003 (Autumn/Winter), modelled entirely by Viktor & Rolf in a mirrored performance. The Viktor&Rolf range has since grown to include shoes, accessories and eyewear.

In addition to their own lines, Viktor&Rolf have collaborated with a number of other well-known brands, including Samsonite (2009), with whom they produced a luggage line, Shu Uemura (2008) for a range of couture false eyelashes, Piper Heidsieck (2007) for the iconic upside-down bottle and, in 2006, the line for high street chain H&M, which greatly extended their appeal to the general public.

With the desire to expand, in 2008 Viktor&Rolf entered into a partnership with Italian clothing magnate Renzo Rosso of Only the Brave (OTB), allowing the company to develop new product ranges, extend distribution and open further boutiques.





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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_%26_Rolf

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More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

David Moats

David Moats is the editorial page editor of the Rutland Herald, where he won that paper's first Pulitzer Prize for his series of editorials in support of same-sex unions. His articles have appeared in the New York Times and the Wash-ington Post. He lives in Middlebury, Vermont.

Further Readings:

Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage by David Moats
Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; Updated edition (January 10, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0156030039
ISBN-13: 978-0156030038
Amazon: Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage

In the years since Vermont became the first state to legalize civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, the issue has grown from an item for state legislature agendas to one for national debate. But David Moats tells the intimate story behind the larger public battle. In an account of unstoppable narrative power, he introduces the couples who filed the suit; the lawyers who spent years championing the case; and the one openly gay legislator in Vermont who ensured victory with an impassioned, deeply personal speech delivered to the House at a crucial moment. And in a new afterword, Moats brings the story fully up to date by detailing the latest developments in the gay-marriage debate.

Civil Wars is a remarkable drama of democracy at work on a human scale-and a critical guidebook for anyone interested in the struggle yet to come.

Cinder by Marie Sexton

This is really a gay fairy tale (no pun intended) cause it’s sweet and romantic, to an innocence level that only very young mind still have, but that also an adult could appreciate, if they wanted to dream.

The story is Cinderella, from beginning to the end. The author didn’t try to divert too much from the original, and the only major change she did is to have Cinderella becoming Cinder, the young cousin of the two twin sisters from hell, Penelope and Jessalyn. Cinder will fall in love with his Prince Charming, Xavier, but Xavier is the heir to the crown, and he needs to marry to a certain age, to meet the requirement to be eligible to the throne, and his birthday is upcoming. How Xavier and Cinder will manage to achieve their happily ever after is part of the reason why you will have to read the story, cause that wasn’t in the original Cinderella fairy tale.

I liked the author maintained the story to an “ingénue” level, just some chaste kisses; I’m not sure if the two even consummate their love, cause, well, like in the old tradition, the author says and doesn’t say, leaving to the imagination of the reader to fill the dots.

Another point that I liked is how the author approached the homosexuality; first of all this is a fantasy story, so well, isn’t like there a right or wrong way, but the author simply had Cinder admit to himself he prefers men, but in a way like he was admitting he prefer fish over meat. Of course there were troubles involved, Xavier needs to marry a woman, but well, Cinder being a man wasn’t really the main issue, in a way it was more problematic that Cinder was a servant and Xavier a prince.

Publisher: Silver Publishing (February 3, 2012)
Amazon Kindle: Cinder

Updates: http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/2156728?key=011e4dd0a1ff993d8c2322e691d6229ed9bbf74b