Thursday, April 6, 2006

Spotlight
Happy birthday to Scrubs' star Zach Braff who turns 31 today. Best known as J.D. on the TV sitcom Scrubs, Braff was first seen on the big screen in the Woody Allen movie Manhattan Murder Mystery, playing Allen's and Diane Keaton's son. In 2004, Braff made headlines at the Sundance Film Festival with Garden State, a film he wrote, directed and starred in. He won a Grammy for the film's soundtrack. He was the voice of Chicken Little in the eponymous animated film, and also voices one of the roles in the upcoming video game Kingdom Hearts 2.

Quote
" I always liked the story of Noah's Ark and the idea of starting anew by rescuing the things you like and leaving the rest behind." – Zach Braff

Word of the day
angst: feeling of uncertainty and anxiety; Zach Braff's film, Garden State, deals with the angst of the two central characters. (© )

Today's News

• Saddam Hussein: speaks up for first time in trial (story)
• Apple: allows users of new Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP (story)
• Dwight Gooden: former star pitcher going to jail for cocaine use (story)

Today's History

• North Pole: was visited for the first time, by Matthew Henson and Robert E. Peary (1909)
• Olympics: first modern games opened in Athens (1896)
• Twinkies: quintessential junk food was invented, originally with banana filling (1930)

Today's Birthdays

• Raphael: Renaissance painter (1483-1520)
• John Ratzenberger: Cliff on Cheers (59)
• Barry Levinson: film writer, director, producer, Diner, Rain Man (64)