Anna Gronewold

Entertainer Polina Nikolai comes up short on Wikipedia page to her name. Here are subtleties on the entertainer,…

On 11-1-1987 Jamie Vardy was born in Sheffield, Great Britain. He made his 11 million dollar fortune with…

Alan Thicke net worth: Alan Thicke was a Canadian actor, songwriter and talk show host who had a net worth of $40 million at the time of his death. He was perhaps best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver in the ’80s sitcom “Growing Pains”, but he was also a highly successful theme song writer and real estate investor. According to legend, Alan made more money during his career off theme songs than he did acting. Alan wrote and produced the theme song to “Diff’rent Strokes”, “The Facts of Life” and the original theme to “Wheel of Fortune”. Alan is also notable for being the father of singer Robin Thicke.Early Life: Alan Thicke was born on March 1, 1947 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, to nurse Shirley “Joan” Isobel Marie and stockbroker William Jeffery. His parents divorced in 1953 and his mother went on to remarry Brian Thicke and the family moved to Elliot Lake. Alan graduated from Elliot Lake Secondary School in 1965, where he was elected homecoming king. He attended the University of Western Ontario and joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.Early Career: He started his career as a game show host on the Canadian show, “First Impressions”, in the 1970s and continued on the prime-time celebrity game show, “Animal Crack-Ups” in the late ’80s. Thicke was hired as a producer and head of the writing staff on “Fernwood 2 Night”, a talk show based on characters from “Mary Harman, Mary Hartman.” In the late 1970s, Thicke was a frequent guest on the popular daytime talk show on Canadian TV, “The Alan Hamel Show.”During the 1980s, Thicke became the host of his own popular talk show in Canada called, “The Alan Thicke Show” and was also signed to do an American syndicated late-night talk show called, “Thicke of the Night,” which turned out to be short-lived.Growing Pains: Although he started his career as a host, he is most widely recognized for his work on the hit 80’s sitcom, “Growing Pains” where he played Jason Seaver, a psychiatrist and father. This role immediately turned Thicke into a household name. The show ran from 1985-1992 on ABC. Thicke reprised his role of Seaver in two reunion movies, 2000’s “The Growing Pains Movie” and “Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers” in 2004.Other TV and Film Appearances: From 1983 to 1990, Thicke co-hosted Walt Disney World’s “A Very Merry Christmas Parade” with Joan Lunden. He was succeeded by Regis Philbin. From 1987 to 1988, Thicke hosted the Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship. In 1988, Thicke replaced Bob Barker as a host of the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss University Pageant. In 1990, Thicke was replaced by Dick Clark as the most of the Miss USA Pageant.Thick continued to host a wide range of TV events, including the SCTV TV special “Opening of SkyDome” in Toronto. In 1992, Thicke made a cameo as himself in the pilot episode of the sitcom “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.”  In the early 2000s, Thicke hosted “The All-New 3’s a Crowd” on the Game Show Network. He appeared on the American TV series “Hope & Gloria” which ran for 35 episodes and played the lead role in the “Not Quite Human” Canadian trilogy of made for TV movies. In April 2006, Thicke hosted “Celebrity Cooking Showdown” on NBC. That same year, he made appearances as a talk show host on several episodes of the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful.” In 2007 and 2008 he appeared in “Alpha Dog” and “JPod.” He also had a cameo on “How I Met Your Mother” and guest-starred as himself in a few other episodes over the show’s run.In 2009, Thicke appeared on Adult Swim’s “Time and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job”, the web series “Star-ving”, the film “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” and “Attack of the Show,” and he also appeared in the season six finale of “Just Shoot Me.” In 2010, he guest-starred on “Tosh.0.” Later that year, he was a celebrity contestant on “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.” In March 2013, Alan took part in ABC’s “Celebrity Wife Swap,” where he swapped wives with comedian Gilbert Gottfried. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame and he was also part of a quasi-reality TV show called Usually Thicke that is airing on the TV Guide Network. In 2014 and 2015, he hosted a traveling dance show called “Dancing Pros Live”, which toured the United States. In 2016, he appeared as himself in the very first episode of NBC’s “This Is Us.”Other Ventures: Thicke has also had a successful career as a musician and he composed a number of pop songs, scores, and the theme songs for shows like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, as well as the original themes for game shows such as “Wheel of Fortune”, “Celebrity Sweepstakes”, “The Diamond Head Game,” “Blank Check”, and several others. He also produced a variety of TV shows including CBC Anne Murray Christmas specials in the late ’70s.Personal Life: Thicke dated 17-year-old Kristy Swanson in 1987, when he was 40 years old. They were engaged but never married. Thicke was married three times, first to Gloria Loring from “Days of Our Lives”, then Gina Tolleson (a former Miss World contestant) and most recently to Tanya Callau, who is also a former model. The couple was married from 2005 until his death. With his first wife, he had two sons, Brennan and singer Robin Thicke (both boys entered the entertainment business), and another son named Carter with his second wife.Thicke was an active philanthropist who founded the Alan Thicke Center for diabetes research. He also co-hosted Telemiracle, a yearly 20-hour telethon in Canada set up to support programs run by the non-profit organization the Kinsmen Club.Death: Thicke collapsed while playing hockey with his son Carter in Burbank, California, on December 13, 2016. He died later that day at age 69 of type-A aortic dissection at the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. His funeral was held on December 19, 2016, and was attended by the entire cast of “Growing Pains,” including Leonardo DiCaprio. Bob Saget gave the eulogy and Thicke was buried at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Jonathan Eric Faine AM (born September 21, 1956) is a previous Australian radio character who introduced the morning…

John Oliver net worth and salary: John Oliver is a British comedian, actor, and satirist who has a net worth of $30 million dollars. He is known for being part of the cast of “The Daily Show” and for hosting “Last Week Tonight” on HBO. John’s current annual salary for “Last Week Tonight” is $8 million.Early Life:  John William Oliver was born on April 23, 1977 in Erdington, Birmingham, England to Carole and Jim Oliver His mother was a music teacher and his father was a school headmaster and social worker. John graduated from Christ’s College in Cambridge with a degree in English. While in college, he served as Vice-President of the famed amateur theater troupe, the Cambridge Footlights.Career: Oliver started out doing stand up comedy and appeared for the first time on stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a showcase of new acts. His character was that of an “oleaginous journalist.” Oliver also worked frequently with members of another group of comedians who collaborated and performed together called the Chocolate Milk Gang. Oliver performed his first solo show in 2002. Throughout 2004 and 2005, he collaborated with other performers on the radio show Political Animal, with various acts revolving around political material. He also made appearances on British television as a panelist on the satirical news quiz show “Mock the Week.”In the summer of 2006, Oliver was recommended to Jon Stewart on the advice of comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, who had never met Oliver but had become familiar with his standup work, ever-growing in popularity. Oliver flew to NYC for the interview–it was his first time ever visiting the States. Two weeks after the interview, in July 2006, Oliver moved to New York City to work on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” as its Senior British Correspondent. While working on the show, he continued to do stand up in small clubs around the city and later headlined shows for larger venues. He released his first stand-up special, “John Olver: Terrifying Times” on Comedy Central in 2008.In 2013, Oliver guest-hosted “The Daily Show” for two months while Stewart was off filming his movie “Rosewater.” Oliver’s performance was met with overwhelmingly rave reviews and sparked the discussion that he should get his own show immediately. CBS even discussed Oliver replacing Craig Ferguson on “The Late Show.” Three months after Oliver’s guest-hosting stint on the “Daily Show”, HBO announced it would be giving him his own program. Oliver earned Emmy Awards for outstanding writing for “The Daily Show” in 2009, 2011, and 2012.Oliver began hosting “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on April 27, 2014 on HBO. Initially only a two-year contract with HBO, in September 2017 he signed an extension through 2020. Oliver retains full creative freedom and free rein to openly criticize corporations, given there are no ads on HBO. His work is universally critically acclaimed, leading to a Peabody Award in 2018 and landing him on a list of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2015. Oliver received more than 85 million views for his segment with Donald Trump in 2016.Other Work: In addition to his work with the “Daily Show,” John co-hosted the podcast The Bugle from 2005-2016. He also appeared in a recurring role on “Community” as Ian Duncan. Oliver has done voice work over the years for several animated shows: “Gravity Falls” as the voice of Sherlock Holmes, “Rick and Morty,” “People Like Us,” “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja,” “My Hero,”, “Green Wing,” and “Bob’s Burgers,” and he guest-starred at Booth Wilkes-John in the “Pay Pal” episode of “The Simpsons.” In 2008, he made his first film appearance in “The Love Guru.” In 2018, Oliver began working as an executive producer for HBO’s documentary television series “Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas.”Influence: “Last Week Tonight” has been credited with helping to influence legislation in the United States, court rulings, regulations, and many aspects of influence culture. It’s been dubbed “The John Oliver Effect,” taken from the show’s fifth episode that dealt with net neutrality. Oliver documented the problems and argued that the FCC could resolve concerns with upcoming changes to internet regulation. He urged viewers of the show to submit public comments through the FCC’s website, which subsequently led the website to crash after being flooded with 3.7 million comments. Ultimately, the FCC enacted robust net neutrality rules that classified broadband internet service as a public utility, with Oliver credited with transforming the debate.Oliver has long maintained that he’s a comedian, not a journalist, but experts argue that his show does actively engage widely in constructive investigative journalism. Oliver was also credited with investigating the Miss America organization, which bills itself as “the world’s largest provider of scholarships for women.” Oliver’s staff collected and analyzed tax forms and claims about the organization’s scholarship program and found that it only distributes a small fraction of its claimed “$45 million funds for scholarships made annually for women.” The YouTube video of the segment has been viewed more than 15 million times.In August 2015, Oliver founded and legally incorporated his own church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, in order to demonstrate how easy it is in the U.S. to qualify as a church and obtain tax-exempt status.As far as his own personal influences, he names comedians such as Armando Iannucci, David Letterman, Monty Python, Peter Cook, Richard Pryor, and, of course, Jon Stewart, as his comedic heroes.Personal Life: Oliver and Kate Norley, an Iraq War veteran, were married in October 2011. They have two sons, born in 2015 and 2018. Oliver became a U.S. citizen on December 13, 2019. Oliver’s philanthropy includes on-air giveaways, the most memorable being when he forgave over $15 million of medical debt owed by over 9,000 people. He purchased the debt for $60,000 and forgave it on a show that aired in June 2016.Real Estate: In May 2017 John and Kate paid just under $10 million for the penthouse apartment in New York City. They paid roughly 50% in cash and financed the remainder through J.P Morgan bank.The unit, which is located atop a 40-story building, has just over 3,000 square-feet of living space, 8 total rooms (4 bedrooms) and comes with a monthly $3,700 building HOA fee. The unit has a private terrace with views of the city skyline and Hudson River. The building itself has a 40,000 square-foot athletic club, a 75-foot indoor pool, a 40-foot indoor rock climbing wall, bowling alley, basketball courts and more.Most people are aware that John has been extremely critical of President Donald Trump and tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy. For example, in a July 2014 segment on his show, John lambasted tax loopholes saying “At this point the rich are just running up the score… What sets America apart is that we are actively introducing policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.”Ironically, John and Kate used one of these loopholes when they purchased their apartment. Known as the “421-a” tax exemption, John and Kate were able to lower their annual property tax rate significantly. Thanks to that loophole, for property tax purposes their unit was reportedly assessed at $1.3 million instead of $9.5 million. As a result, when it was all said and done, their annual property tax bill was reduced from $66,390 to $27,343.