Nannygate

# Nannygate

## Abstract

" Nannygate " is a popular term for the 1993 revelations that caused two of President Bill Clinton 's choices for United States Attorney General to become derailed.

In January 1993, Clinton's nomination of corporate lawyer Zoë Baird for the position came under attack after it became known that she and her husband had broken federal law by employing two people who had immigrated illegally from Peru as a nanny and chauffeur for their young child. They had also failed to pay Social Security taxes for the workers, the so-called " Nanny Tax ", until shortly before the disclosures. While the Clinton administration thought the matter was relatively unimportant, the news elicited a firestorm of public opinion, most of it against Baird. Within eight days, her nomination lost political support in the U.S. Congress and was withdrawn.

The following month, Clinton's choice of federal judge Kimba Wood for the job was leaked to the press, but within a day it became known that she too had employed someone who had immigrated illegally to look after her child. Although Wood had done so at a time when such a hiring was legal, and had paid Social Security taxes for the worker, the disclosures were enough to cause the immediate withdrawal of Wood from consideration. The Clinton administration then said that the hiring practices for household help would be examined for all of the more than thousand presidential appointments under consideration, causing the whole process to slow down significantly. Determined to choose a woman for the Attorney General post, Clinton finally selected state prosecutor Janet Reno, who was confirmed and served through all eight years of the administration.

The Nannygate matter caused wealthy Americans to ask each other if they too had a "Zoë Baird problem", as the hiring of illegal aliens and the paying of household help off the books were both commonplace. Two fault lines, gender and class, were exposed in the discussion over Nannygate: in the former, a double standard was seen wherein female appointees faced a greater risk of being questioned and disqualified based upon their childcare arrangements, while in the latter, affluent professional women who could afford live-in childcare arrangements were seen as trying to get away with an illegal act. Nannygate-type controversies have subsequently affected other political appointees both in the U.S. and in other countries.

## The Baird nomination

President-elect Bill Clinton had vowed to assemble an administration that "looked like America", and it was widely assumed that one of the major cabinet posts would go to a woman. In particular, he wanted to nominate one for the position of United States Attorney General, something women's political action groups were also requesting. No woman had previously served in this post. His choice, whose nomination was announced on December 24, 1992, was Zoë Baird, a 40-year-old senior vice president and general counsel at Aetna Life and Casualty Company who had previously worked in the Justice Department during the Carter administration.

Little known before the nomination (Clinton had not met her until their interview), Baird was a skilled networker who had been the protégé of several powerful Washington insiders, including Clinton transition team leader Warren Christopher and once-and-future White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler. Picking Baird gave Clinton the ability to satisfy the women's groups' desires while still showing independence by not choosing one of their preferred selections. Despite the lack of familiarity and getting a lukewarm response from some Clinton backers – those in the legal public interest community said "Zoë who?" and her corporate sympathies discouraged liberals – Baird was expected to gain confirmation in the U.S. Senate. Baird and her husband, Yale Law School professor Paul Gewirtz, had a three-year-old son.

On January 14, 1993, a page-one story in The New York Times broke the news that Baird had hired a married pair of illegal aliens from Peru, Lillian and Victor Cordero, between 1990 and 1992. Lillian had served as the nanny for Baird's son and Victor had served as a part-time driver. Furthermore, Baird had not paid Social Security taxes for the couple, until making a lump-sum payment earlier in January 1993. Baird had brought forward this information willingly to transition officials and authorities performing background checks; she said that she had thought that the fact that they were sponsoring the couple for citizenship made the hiring acceptable, and that they could not pay the taxes for people who were not yet in the country legally. (Baird's immigration lawyer would dispute some aspects of exactly when the sponsorship request took place.)

This was the first time a presidential cabinet nominee had faced such an issue. While the Clinton transition team had found out about the matter during their vetting of Baird, they had underestimated the seriousness of its impact. Their attitude about Baird's infraction was that it was a technical violation and that 'Everybody does it'. Clinton operatives initially thought the Baird revelation was no big deal and would quickly lose the attention of the media and public.

Employment of illegal aliens was not uncommon at the time, but in Baird's case it was especially bad public relations, since the Attorney General was in charge of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Baird's wealth – she made $500,000 a year in her job and together with her husband had a combined income of $600,000 – made her, in the context of the early 1990s recession, an unsympathetic figure to not be paying taxes. Moreover, Baird and Gewirtz had been wealthy enough to afford legal child care, but instead had paid the Corderos $250 a week plus board, well below minimum wage. The news brought about an immediate and large-scale negative reaction. As Guardian U.S. correspondent Martin Walker later wrote, " were the overpaid yuppies and ubiquitous lawyers whom American voters had come to resent."

On January 16, Baird paid $2,900 in fines for the infractions to the INS. This was on top of the $8,000 in back Social Security taxes she had paid earlier. George Stephanopoulos, the transition communications director, said that "President-elect Clinton has complete confidence in Zoë Baird."

Some in the Clinton inner circle persisted in believing that Baird's offense was akin to a traffic ticket in seriousness, but Democratic senators told them otherwise; Senate Judiciary Committee chair Joe Biden of Delaware likened it more to a "freeway crash."

Baird met with Biden twice, both times leaving his office in tears, although Biden publicly stated that he did not think the matter would prevent her nomination. Baird actually had more immediate support from ranking member Orrin Hatch, who called it "no big deal." This reflected a considerable degree of Republican support for Baird, as they decided she was more in tune with their stance on some issues than a replacement would likely be.

Appearing before the Judiciary Committee on January 19, Baird apologized for having knowingly broken the law: "In my hope to find appropriate child care for my son, I gave too little emphasis to what was described to me as a technical violation of law." She added that, "People are fairly questioning if there are classes of individuals who hold themselves above the law. I do not." Baird's statement that her husband had handled many of the legal issues surrounding the Corderos' employment drew little support for her. Overall, the questioning of Baird was tougher from Democrats on the committee than Republicans, again reflecting the latter's support for Baird. At the close of the initial testimony, Baird's confirmation still seemed quite possible.

As the inauguration of Bill Clinton took place on January 20, the nomination crisis was reaching its final phase, with Biden telling Clinton at a luncheon following the ceremony that the next day or two would be crucial. But political and public opposition continued to mount. Calls opposing the nomination flooded the switchboards of members of Congress. Senator David Boren of Oklahoma reported getting a thousand calls to his office, with 80 percent of them against the nomination. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois also received a thousand calls. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said, "In 18 years in the Senate, I had never seen so many telephone calls, spontaneously, in such a short period."

Television crews staked out the New Haven home of Baird. As one top Senate official later stated, "There were phone calls to offices, local editorials. The people were just way ahead of us." The issue created a firestorm on conservative talk radio, then emerging as a potent force in American politics. Talker Rush Limbaugh was especially involved in the issue, for instance weighing in to say that Baird's "blame-it-on-the-husband" defense was a "feminazi" ploy. A USA Today / CNN / Gallup poll showed that 63 percent of the American public did not think Baird should be confirmed; the reaction was broad, with majorities of Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and young and old all opposing it.

Clinton faced a choice of either quickly jettisoning her, and risk appearing weak, or defiantly continuing to back her, and opposing a popular groundswell; he opted to wait and see a little more. There was also much confusion about when exactly Clinton had learned of the Baird problem, with Christopher saying he had informed Clinton of it in some manner during the transition and Clinton saying he had not. This led to a " What did the President know and when did he know it " grilling of Stephanopoulos on January 21 during his first news conference as White House Communications Director. The treatment of Stephanopoulos got rough and his evasive answers bordered on nonsense.

A second round of Judiciary Committee hearings were also taking place on January 21, and by then, Baird was politically isolated, with no major groups coming to her defense. A growing number of senators came out in opposition to Baird during the day, including two Republican members of the Judiciary Committee and influential centrist Democrats John Breaux of Louisiana and David Boren of Oklahoma. Baird gamely continued to smile and testify well into the evening, but as Stephanopoulos later wrote, "She didn't know it yet, but she was toast." Biden called Clinton and told him the nomination was lost.

On January 22, 1993, two days after Clinton had assumed the presidency, the White House announced in the middle of the night the withdrawal of Baird's nomination.

Clinton now publicly stated that he had been informed of Baird's hiring of the illegal aliens after discussing the position with her but before actually nominating her. He had not halted the process to gain all information but rather had erred by going through with the nomination in order to meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline for naming his cabinet. On January 23, Anna Quindlen used the term "Nannygate" in her syndicated column and it soon gained wide-scale use.

While Lillian and Victor Cordero had done their jobs well (before hiring them, Baird had made several attempts to employ U.S. citizens, but none had worked out), on January 22 the INS said it sought to question them and very likely deport them. The couple had previously separated and were about to be divorced. Lillian Cordero agreed to leave the country and return to Peru, under a 30-day "voluntary departure" program. Victor Cordero first went into hiding, hoping to stay in the country; his lawyer said he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and that, "He doesn't understand why he's being singled out." But by January 29, he too had voluntarily left the U.S. for Peru. Neither of them ever appeared in the media. Although illegal domestics were rarely deported unless they had been involved in crimes, the INS maintained that the couple were treated no differently than any other illegal aliens who were brought to their attention.

## The Wood near-nomination

On February 4, 1993, the Clinton White House made it known via deliberate background statements to several major newspapers that 49-year-old United States federal judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York would be his new choice for Attorney General. However, no official announcement or nomination was being made, pending the completion of background checks and to gauge reaction to the pick. White House officials indicated that First Lady Hillary Clinton had insisted that the position still be filled by a woman. Wood, who was prominent in New York social circles, was married to Time magazine writer Michael Kramer and the couple had a six-year-old son.

However, later that day, investigations by the office of the White House Counsel and the FBI background check were completed, and Clinton and the White House learned that she had employed an illegal alien to look after her son, even though she had done it when it was still legal to do so. The immigrant, from Trinidad, had been hired in March 1986, several months before enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made hiring of illegal aliens unlawful. The nanny obtained legal status in December 1987, and overall worked for Wood for seven years.

Clinton decided the nomination could not go forward, and the next day, February 5, Wood publicly withdrew herself from consideration.

The case was different from the Baird one in that Wood had not broken immigration law and had paid Social Security taxes for the person. Nevertheless, the White House feared reaction from Congress and the public, as well as that from radio and television talk shows, in the apparent, if not actual, repetition of the Baird controversy, and asked Wood to withdraw. A further burden was the disclosure that while she was a student in London, Wood had trained for five days as a Playboy bunny. The White House was annoyed with Wood, because they said that when they had initially asked her if she had a "Zoë Baird problem," she had responded in the negatory. Allies of Wood gave a starkly different account and said that she had been fully forthcoming about the details of her dealings with the immigrant. According to a Gallup Poll, 65 percent of the American public did not think Wood should have been forced down.

## Other Clinton appointees

One of the few men to make the short list for the Attorney General selection, Washington lawyer Charles Ruff, was ruled out of consideration by the White House on February 6, because he had not paid Social Security taxes for years for a woman who cleaned his house.

On February 8, Stephanopoulos broadened the scope of the affair by announcing that the past hiring of an illegal alien would "probably be disqualifying" for applicants to any of the 1,100 presidential appointments that were subject to confirmation by the Senate. As one White House official said, "If you ever knowingly hired an illegal alien, that's a killer. If you hired someone who was legal but didn't pay Social Security taxes, you're probably O.K., but only if you come clean and pay the back taxes."

Several Clinton appointees then came forward. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown said he had failed to pay the taxes for a maid. The Brown case attracted a fair amount of attention, with 40 percent of Americans thinking he should step down as a result (he did not). Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña said he would pay back taxes owed for a part-time babysitter. Other appointees said they had examined their records and were clean. Stephanopoulos himself came under attention, but said the cleaner he had hired was from a cleaning company. The matter resulted in a slowdown of hiring for all positions, in what Secretary of Defense Les Aspin called a "chilling effect". One-third of the nominations for the U.S. State Department were held up while being examined for the question.

Some other female Clinton cabinet-level appointees escaped Nannygate by virtue of their personal circumstances. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala was unmarried with no children, while Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary and Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright had children who were grown. Carol Browner, Clinton's pick for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and someone who did have a young child, avoided Nannygate problems by simply never having used a nanny.

## The Reno nomination

On February 11, 1993, Janet Reno was nominated for the post. Clinton had known of her since her days with the groundbreaking Miami Drug Court, where as state attorney she had worked with public defender and Clinton brother-in-law Hugh Rodham, but otherwise although qualified for the job had no federal experience and was relatively obscure. Reno was 54 years old, had never married and had no children, and, as Clinton later wrote, "Public service was her life." Without the chance of a nanny problem, and with her mowing her own lawn reducing the chances for an immigrant problem, Reno was the perfect choice after the Baird and Wood failures. In addition, Reno's down-to-earth image contrasted with the wealthy corporate lawyer Baird and the socially prominent Wood. (Reno would instead face something often experienced by unmarried woman of her age, speculation about her sexual orientation.)

In making the announcement, Clinton said that he had considered men for the post and that "I never felt hamstrung by any commitment, even though I did want to name a woman Attorney General." When asked how he would have handled the selection were he to do it all over again, Clinton responded, "I would have called Janet Reno on November 5th."

Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on March 11, 1993, and thus became the first female Attorney General.

Reno remained Attorney General through both of Clinton's terms as president. Wood remained a federal judge.While the ramifications of Nannygate persisted, Baird herself quickly returned to public obscurity. Clinton subsequently appointed Baird to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and in his 2004 memoir reiterated that the fault for the failed nomination had been his, not hers. Baird hired an American citizen to be her next nanny.

## Political and cultural impact

The Nannygate matter did some damage to the Clinton administration politically.A cover of Time magazine, featuring a half-portrait of Baird, was titled "Clinton's First Blunder" and subtitled "How a popular outcry caught the Washington elite by surprise". The Baird nomination was emblematic of other difficulties Clinton had during the transition period and his early days in office, including most prominently the dropping of a promised middle-class tax cut and resistance to his proposal to allow gays in the military. Stephanopoulos later wrote that "We should have never let the Baird nomination get as far as it did, but our systems failed us at every crucial step." And the timing of the announcement of the Wood withdrawal detracted attention from the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the first legislative achievement of the Clinton administration. While a Gallup Poll showed that only 22 percent of the public said that Clinton's difficulties in naming someone for Attorney General decreased their confidence in his ability to lead the country, overall, Clinton experienced the highest disapproval ratings at the start of any presidency since such polling began. His " presidential honeymoon " period was thus extremely brief.

Clinton's desire to appoint a woman to the post engendered some criticism for devaluing the position to an affirmative action post, and Stephanopoulos later conceded that "we put ourselves in a box". The failure of the Baird and Wood picks, along with Lani Guinier 's failed nomination (for unrelated reasons) to Assistant Attorney General for Department of Justice Civil Rights Division a few months later, made Congressional Democrats cautious in endorsing future Clinton personnel choices. When federal judge Stephen Breyer was first considered for a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy in mid-1993, he was not selected, in part because he too had a 'Zoë Baird problem' (he would be nominated and confirmed the following year, following another vacancy).

The Baird case became the first national scandal over child-care arrangements, but the situation that these nominees faced was in part at least a common one to Americans. Two-thirds of American women with school-age children were in the workforce and three-fifths of married men with children had working wives. They all needed some form of day care, and with there being no organized or subsidized day care system in the U.S., many families turned to arrangements within the underground economy. That this administration ran into this problem was considered ironic, given that Bill and Hillary Clinton were the first dual-career couple to occupy the White House.

Once the Nannygate matter broke into the news, the question "Do you have a Zoë Baird problem?" became frequently asked by Americans of each other in casual conversation, with many answers being in the affirmative. U.S. Census Bureau and Internal Revenue Service data indicated that only one-quarter of people who employed household help paid Social Security taxes to the workers, and that even figure may have been higher than the real one due to people not responding to surveys honestly. Most of those doing the hiring did not think about breaking the law or getting caught.

Meanwhile, Baird had graduated within a matter of hours from anonymity to dubious icon. One employment agency head who only hired legal household workers said, "You have no idea, the frustration, sitting here, knocking your head against the wall, trying to do what's right. And then you have a Zoë Baird who exposes the fact that everybody else is breaking the law." The phrase "to have a Zoë Baird problem" became rooted for a while in the vocabulary of the American professional and political classes.

The matter exposed the practices of the barely underground economy of wealthy households and largely illegal immigrant suppliers. The owner of one Manhattan nanny agency stated, "It's just a reality of life that without the illegal girls, there wouldn't be any nannies, and the mommies would have to stay home and mind their own kids." The practice had grown as both married women with children and single working mothers entered the workforce in large numbers during the 1980s, with the extended hours and long commutes of many professional positions further exacerbating it. The Irish and Central and South American immigrant population of domestic workers was augmented by those from the Philippines, China, Ireland, and Poland. People hiring nannies may have preferred women without papers, who were thought to be easier to find, considerably less expensive, and more loyal if they worked out and easier to fire if they did not. As one Floral Park, Queens, woman said, "I want someone who cannot leave the country, who doesn't know anyone in New York, who basically does not have a life. I want someone who is completely dependent on me and loyal to my family." Americans themselves were largely unwilling to do the jobs.

While some men were affected by Nannygate, most of the public commentary revolved around its effect on women. The February 10, 1993, op-ed page of The New York Times, which carried considerable Nannygate coverage in general, was exclusively devoted towards discussing it as a women's issue. The press themselves came in for some criticism in this respect, with the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting complaining that the Times and other media outlets focused on the effect of Nannygate on white, upper-middle-class women, and excluded the perspective of the actual immigrant childcare workers. Stuart Taylor, Jr., in his March 1993 piece "Inside the Whirlwind: How Zoë Baird Was Monstrously Caricatured for the Smallest of Sins, Pounded by Press and Popular Righteousness, and Crucified by Prejudice and Hypocrisy" for The American Lawyer, concluded that Baird was done in by a political-media culture bent on populism and symbolic blood sport and that she was penalized for being honest. He also said Baird had fallen victim to "the cold, capricious cruelty of fate".

Two fault lines, gender and class, were exposed in the debate over Nannygate: in the former, a double standard was seen wherein female appointees faced a greater risk of being questioned and disqualified based upon their childcare arrangements, while in the latter, wealthy or upper middle-class professional women who could afford live-in childcare arrangements were seen as trying to get away with a white-collar criminal act. In particular, the competing gendered narratives revolved around whether the affluent Baird was considered "one of us" by women. Baird failed to gain support from some feminists, who believed that as a protégé of powerful Washington insiders, she had not paid her feminist dues. University of Michigan scholar and graduate student Diane Sampson, publishing in a collection entitled "Bad" Mothers: The politics of blame in twentieth-century America, saw Baird as trying to establish motherhood as a 'site' in elaborating her qualifications for Attorney General during her confirmation hearings, an effort that was subverted by her affluence and her earning far more than her husband did. Sampson concluded that "The dissonance between Baird's rhetorical stance and her lived life was jarring" and that her case presented "culturally accepted signifiers of a bad mother".

A modified and fictionalized account of the Baird nomination formed the core of Wendy Wasserstein 's 1996 play An American Daughter, which was later made into a 2000 television film. Wasserstein saw the episode, as well as what happened to Wood, as an example of double standards and sexism, and used it as a vehicle to explore the nature and status of American feminism as of the 1990s. She said of its role in illustrating feminist issues, "I mean, if Nannygate hadn't existed, what a great thing to make up as a way of talking about it." An American Daughter became one of Wasserstein's most ambitious works, and also her most political.

Mary Romero, Professor of Justice Studies at Arizona State University, discussed the class aspect in a new 2002 edition of her classic work Maid in the U.S.A.. She saw Nannygate as a follow-on to the long-running "servant problem", and illustrated how labor and immigration laws were still structured so as to benefit employers rather than employees. Taunya Lovell Banks, Professor of Equality Jurisprudence at University of Maryland School of Law, saw Nannygate as also having a racial dimension, in that it illustrated how the professional class exploited domestic workers of color.

In the wake of Nannygate, effective 1995 Congress changed the way taxes for household help are filed, creating a Form 1040 Schedule H that shifting the federal reporting burden from separate documents onto the main return for income taxes. (The new regulations still were more focused on employers than domestic employees.)The full procedure for handling payments of Social Security and Medicare taxes, as well as state and federal unemployment insurance premiums, for household and child-care help remained quite complex, however, and over the following two decades, self-help articles were published with titles such as "How to Avoid Your Very Own Nannygate" and "Time to Come Clean" and with admonitions like "we all know what happened to Kimba Wood and Zoë Baird."

## Later instances

Later instances of political problems caused by the hiring of nannies that were in some way illegal have also been dubbed "Nannygate", both in the U.S. and outside it.

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Linda Chavez for Secretary of Labor. She was the first Hispanic woman nominated to a United States cabinet position. However, she withdrew from consideration after it was revealed that she had given money to a one-time illegal immigrant from Guatemala who lived in her home more than a decade earlier. Chavez's claims that she had been engaged in an act of charity and compassion rather than employment, and that she was now the victim of the "politics of personal destruction", were not enough to save her nomination. The Chavez case did further illustrate the question of the status of female illegal aliens in households across the nation.

In December 2004, Bernard Kerik was nominated by President Bush to succeed Tom Ridge as United States Secretary of Homeland Security. After a week of press scrutiny, Kerik withdrew his nomination, saying that he had unknowingly hired an undocumented worker and had not paid her taxes. The Times wrote that "the curse of Nannygate" had returned to claim a fourth high-level victim. As Jim Gibbons was campaigning for Governor of Nevada in 2006, it was brought to light that more than ten years earlier, he and his wife Dawn Gibbons had employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper and babysitter. Gibbons went on to win the election anyway. By 2009 and the stepping down of Nancy Killefer as nominee for Chief Performance Officer of the United States at the beginning of the Obama administration, at least ten top-level cabinet or other federal appointees had run into trouble over failure to pay the "Nanny Tax". Despite the possible peril it brought, most Americans were still paying their nannies off the books. The problem recurred in the 2010 California gubernatorial election, where candidate Meg Whitman lost despite spending over $140 million of her own money. Her campaign suffered damage during its final two months by the revelation that she had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny and housekeeper, and by the alleged manner in which she treated (and fired) the housekeeper.

David Blunkett, a British politician, ran into political trouble for fast tracking a visa application for his family's nanny in 2004. In 2006, the Minister affair at the announcement of the Reinfeldt cabinet in Sweden included the quick resignations of Maria Borelius, a Swedish trade minister who had hired a live-in nanny without paying taxes, and Cecilia Stegö Chilò, the Swedish culture minister, who also hired a live-in nanny without paying taxes. The matter was widely reported by the international press, with the Financial Times dubbing it "Nannygate". In 2009, Canadian member of parliament Ruby Dhalla was accused of having employed nannies without proper work permits as required of anyone hiring foreign nationals under the federal caregiver program, and some newspaper headline writers dubbed the resulting controversy as "Nannygate". The 2013 arrest of Devyani Khobragade, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of India in New York City, charged with committing visa fraud and providing false statements in order to gain entry to the United States for her nanny, was referred to by some in the American press as "Nannygate".

In February 2019, the State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, who was the White House's choice for United States Ambassador to the United Nations, withdrew herself from consideration due to her having previously employed a nanny who, while legally residing in the country, was not legally permitted to do that work and did not have taxes paid for her at the time. One columnist wrote that "Nauert had a nannygate situation, which would have made the confirmation process much more difficult."


Mad TV season 8

# Mad TV season 8

## Abstract

The eighth season of Mad TV, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on the Fox Network between September 14, 2002, and May 17, 2003.

## Summary

With fan-favorite cast members Alex Borstein, Will Sasso, and Andrew Daly gone, MADtv scrambled to find new talent to fill the void. Jill-Michele Meleán and Bobby Lee were upgraded to repertory status (though Meleán left in the middle of the season for undisclosed reasons) while previous season featured performers Kathryn Fiore and Taran Killam were let go. New faces in the cast for this season include: Ike Barinholtz, Simon Helberg (who only lasted a short time on this show, but is now more popular in his role on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory), Josh Meyers (younger brother of SNL cast member, Seth Meyers, making this the only time a Saturday Night Live cast member has had a family member be hired as a cast member on a competing sketch show), Christina Moore, Ron Pederson (who would become the show's second Canadian cast member after Will Sasso), and Paul Vogt (MADtv' s only male homosexual cast member and the second cast member after season six's Nelson Ascencio to have an identical twin brother).

With Sasso gone, Frank Caliendo became the latest cast member to play George W. Bush. Newcomer Ron Pederson played Dick Clark, Woody Allen, Saddam Hussein, and Entertainment Tonight anchor Mark Steines. Vogt replaced Will Sasso James Lipton and impersonated classic sitcom stars, such as Edward Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners), and Charlotte Rae (Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts Of Life). Like their counterparts Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz on Saturday Night Live, long-time pals Ike Barinholtz and Josh Meyers would frequently appear in sketches together and play off each other's chemistry. Separately, Barinholtz performed celebrity impersonations such as Joe Millionaire ' s Evan Marriott and Nick Nolte, while Meyers offered offbeat impersonations of Eminem, Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, and some *NSYNC members. In her short time on the show, Jill-Michele Meleán was known for her Drew Barrymore impression and her recurring turn as one of the Glamazon Huntresses.

Guests this season included: former In Living Color cast members Tommy Davidson and David Alan Grier; comic actor Fred Willard, That '70s Show cast members Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson, and Wilmer Valderrama; and former MADtv cast member, Nicole Sullivan.

## Opening montage

The title sequence begins with the Mad TV logo appearing above the Los Angeles skyline. The theme song, performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz, begins and each repertory cast member is introduced alphabetically, followed by the featured cast. The screen dissolves into three live-action clips of an individual cast member. The three screens multiply until they occupy the entire screen. A shot of the cast member slightly moving appears on the screen with a caption of his/her name superimposed on it. When all cast members and guests are introduced, the music stops and the title sequence ends with the phrase "You are now watching Mad TV".

## Cast

## Writers

- Bryan Adams (eps. 1–25)

- Ike Barinholtz (eps. 3, 17)

- Dick Blasucci (eps. 1–25)

- Kal Clarke (eps. 1–25)

- Chris Cluess (eps. 1–25)

- Steven Cragg (eps. 1–25)

- John Crane (eps. 1–25)

- Lauren Dombrowski (eps. 1–25)

- Brian Hartt (ep. 20) (Season 05 Encore)

- Michael Hitchcock (eps. 1–25)

- Jennifer Joyce (eps. 1–25)

- Bill Kelley (eps. 1–25)

- Scott King (writing supervisor) (eps. 1–25)

- Karen Maruyama (ep. 8)

- Bruce McCoy (eps. 1–25)

- Michael McDonald (eps. 2, 3, 5, 7–9, 14–16, 19–25)

- Josh Meyers (eps. 3, 17)

- Sultan Pepper (eps. 1–25)

- Tami Sagher (eps. 1–25)

- David Salzman (eps. 12–25)

- Devon Shepard (ep. 23) (Season 06 Encore)

- Dino Stamatopoulos (eps. 1–25)

- Rich Talarico (eps. 1–25)

- Bryan Tucker (ep. 24) (Season 07 Encore)

- Stephnie Weir (eps. 2, 8, 9, 15–17, 19, 22)

- Maiya Williams (eps. 1–25)

- Jim Wise (eps. 1–25)

## Episodes

## Home releases

There is no season 8 complete season DVD release. However, this season's best sketches and segments have been used in the compilation DVD Mad TV: The Best of Seasons 8, 9, and 10.

Season 8 is also available on HBO Max, with episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, and 23 missing.


2024 Go Bowling at The Glen

# 2024 Go Bowling at The Glen

## Abstract

The 2024 Go Bowling at The Glen is an upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race that will be held on September 15, 2024, at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York. Contested over 92 laps -- extended from 90 laps due to an overtime finish Contested over 90 laps on the 2.45-mile (3.94 km) road course, it will be the 28th race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, the second of the 2024 NASCAR playoffs, and the second race of the Round of 16. Chris Buescher won the race, his first win since the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400. Shane Van Gisbergen finished 2nd, and Carson Hocevar finished 3rd. Ross Chastain and Zane Smith rounded out the top five, and Chase Briscoe, Michael McDowell, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece, and Austin Cindric rounded out the top ten.

## Report

### Background

Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an automobile race track located in Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980), but the site has been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series.

Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course. In 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. In 1968 the race was extended to six hours, becoming the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The circuit's current layout has more or less been the same since 1971, although a chicane was installed at the uphill Esses in 1975 to slow cars through these corners, where there was a fatality during practice at the 1973 United States Grand Prix. The chicane was removed in 1985, but another chicane called the "Inner Loop" was installed in 1992 after J.D. McDuffie's fatal accident during the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup event.

The circuit is known as the Mecca of North American road racing and is a very popular venue among fans and drivers. The facility is currently owned by NASCAR.

#### Entry list

- (R) denotes rookie driver.

- (P) denotes playoff driver.

- (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

## Practice

Tyler Reddick was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 1:12.018 seconds and a speed of 122.469 mph (197.095 km/h).

## Qualifying

Ross Chastain scored the pole for the race with a time of 1:12.130 and a speed of 122.279 mph (196.789 km/h).

## Race

### Race results

#### Stage results

Stage One Laps: 20

Stage Two Laps: 20

### Final Stage results

Stage Three Laps: 50

### Race statistics

- Lead changes: 11 among 9 different drivers

- Cautions/Laps: 7 for 21

- Red flags: 0

- Time of race: 2 hours, 38 minutes, and 41 seconds

- Average speed: 80.226 miles per hour (129.111 km/h)

## Media

### Television

USA covered the race on the television side. as part of a Radio style Broadcast for the race. Leigh Diffey and Steve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth. MRN broadcaster Mike Bagley called the race from the Esses, Dillon Welch had the call from Turn 5 to Turn 9, and Jeff Burton called the race from Turn 10 & 11. Kim Coon, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane.

### Radio

Motor Racing Network had the radio call for the race, which will also be simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and former crew chief Todd Gordon covered the action when the field raced down the front straightaway. Dave Moody called the race when the field raced thru the esses. Kyle Rickey wcovered the action when the field raced thru the inner loop and turn 5 and Jason Toy covered the action in turn 6 & 7. Steve Post, Brienne Pedigo, Chris Wilner & Jacklyn Drake called the action from the pits for MRN.


# Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne

## Abstract

Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne is a tribute album to Jackson Browne that features various artists covering songs written by Browne. It was released on April 1, 2014 through Music Road Records and debuted at No. 44 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 8,000 copies in its first week.

## Critical reception

Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne received mostly positive reviews from music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 68, based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" feedback. Rolling Stone ' s Will Hermes gave the album three out of five stars, stating: "Not every performance is memorable, and the absence of younger fans is a missed opportunity – where's Conor Oberst? But the way that Browne's songs braid verbose emotions with melody remains magical." Allmusic 's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album a positive review, stating that "on a track-by-track basis this collection is very good" and "if there are no knockouts here, the sly, subtle approach also emphasizes the fine craft of Browne, which is a nice thing to say about a tribute album."

## Track listing

All songs written by Jackson Browne, except where noted.

### Disc one

- " These Days " – Don Henley with Blind Pilot – 3:35

- "Everywhere I Go" – Bonnie Raitt and David Lindley – 4:59

- " Running on Empty " – Bob Schneider – 4:54

- " Fountain of Sorrow " – Indigo Girls – 7:47

- " Doctor My Eyes " – Paul Thorn – 3:29

- " For Everyman " – Jimmy LaFave – 6:53

- "The Barricades of Heaven" (Browne, Jeff Young, Kevin McCormick, Scott Thurston, Mark Goldenberg, Mauricio Lewak, Luis Conte) – Griffin House – 6:00

- "Our Lady of the Well" – Lyle Lovett – 3:53

- " Jamaica Say You Will " – Ben Harper – 3:22

- " Before the Deluge " – Eliza Gilkyson – 5:58

- "For a Dancer" – Venice – 4:45

- "Looking into You" – Kevin Welch – 5:41

### Disc two

- " Rock Me on the Water " – Keb' Mo' – 4:15

- " The Pretender " – Lucinda Williams – 6:55

- "Rosie" (Browne, Donald Miller) – Lyle Lovett – 3:43

- "Something Fine" – Karla Bonoff – 4:37

- "Too Many Angels" – Marc Cohn feat. Joan As Police Woman – 4:45

- "Your Bright Baby Blues" – Sean and Sara Watkins – 6:37

- "Linda Paloma" – Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa – 3:46

- "Call It a Loan" (Browne, Lindley) – Shawn Colvin – 4:28

- " I'm Alive " – Bruce Hornsby – 4:05

- "Late For the Sky" – Joan Osborne – 5:17

- "My Opening Farewell" – JD Souther – 4:54


Nat Baldwin

# Nat Baldwin

## Abstract

Nat Baldwin (born February 21, 1980, in Rochester, New Hampshire) is an American bassist, improvisor, and songwriter known for his solo work and as a former member of Dirty Projectors.

## Career

In 2020, Baldwin released a series of experimental works for solo double bass: AUTONOMIA I: Body Without Organs, AUTONOMIA II: Recombinations, and AUTONOMIA III: Endnotes.

He has appeared on many albums such as In Ear Park (2008) by Department of Eagles, Contra (2010) by Vampire Weekend and Shields (2012) by Grizzly Bear.

## Tripticks Tapes

In 2020, Baldwin founded Tripticks Tapes, a tape label that has been recognized for showcasing a broad range of improvised and experimental music.

Tripticks releases have been named among the best in music by publications including The Wire, Bandcamp Daily, Burning Ambulance, and The Road to Sound, with notable artists including Weston Olencki, Nick Dunston, Amirtha Kidambi and Luke Stewart, Webb Crawford, Patrick Shiroishi, Travis Laplante and Jason Nazary, Phicus, and Beam Splitter.

## Solo discography

- Solo Contrabass (2003)

- Lights Out (2005)

- Enter the Winter (2006)

- Most Valuable Player (2007)

- People Changes (2011)

- In the Hollows (2014)

- AUTONOMIA I: Body Without Organs (2020)

- AUTONOMIA II: Recombinations (2020)

- AUTONOMIA III: Endnotes (2020)

- Common Currents (2021)


Margarita (2024 TV series)

# Margarita (2024 TV series)

## Abstract

Margarita is an Argentine-Uruguayan fantasy and teen comedy-drama television series created by Cris Morena that premiered on Max on September 2, 2024. It is a spin-off of the telenovela Floricienta that ran for two seasons from 2004 to 2005.

## Series overview

The story of the series is set several years after the events of Floricienta, and revolves around Margarita (Mora Bianchi), the daughter of Florencia and Máximo, who is unaware of her true origins and has gone through several foster homes.

After stumbling upon a trendy arts center that offers a series of scholarships for talented young artists, Margarita decides to audition. The place is run by Delfina Santillán (Isabel Macedo), who after the encounter begins to suspect that the teenager could be the legitimate daughter of Florencia and Máximo, her sister and brother-in-law, and therefore the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Krikoragán and all its fortune, which she stole.

From her discovery, Delfina realizes that the entire company she built based on lies, including the adoption of an orphan to pass her off as Florencia's daughter in order to appropriate the entire inheritance, is at risk of being destroyed after the appearance of Margarita, who is the true heir to the entire estate.

## Cast

- Mora Bianchi as Margarita

- Ramiro Spangenberg as Merlín

- Isabel Macedo as Delfina Santillán

- Graciela Stefani as María Laura "Malala" Torres-Oviedo

- Rafael Ferro as Severino

- María del Cerro as Yamila Puentes

- Julia Calvo as Ada

- Tomás Benítez as Pipe

- Mateo Belmonte as Rey

- Lola Abraldes as Daisy

- Joaquín Reffico as Zeki

- Pilar Masse as Única

- Pamela Baigún as Mei

- Martiniano Rodríguez as Otto

- Antonella Podestá as Alaska

- José Barbeito as Romeo

- Benjamín Rojas as Franco Fritzenwalden

- Jose Fabini as Sasha

- Trinidad Xanthopoulos as Julieta

- Valentino Petrilli as Jano

## Background and production

### Development

In June 2022, it was reported that Cris Morena had begun developing a series in co-production with WarnerMedia Latin America for HBO Max with Leandro Calderone as the screenwriter. Almost a year later, in April 2023, it was confirmed that the title of the series would be Margarita and that it would be a spin-off of the telenovela Floricienta that ran successfully between 2004 and 2005, and that it was broadcast and adapted in several countries.

### Casting

The first confirmed cast member for the series was Isabel Macedo, who reprised her role as villain Delfina Santillán. In August 2022, Tomás Benítez, a student at Otro Mundo –an artistic training school founded by Cris Morena– was cast. In April 2023, Graciela Stefani, María del Cerro, Martín Seefeld and Julia Calvo were cast. Stefani reprised her well-known role as Malala. In June, Mora Biachi, also a student at Otro Mundo, was announced as the protagonist of the series, in the role of Margarita.

In October 2023, it was announced that Benjamín Rojas would make a special appearance in the series, reprising his role as Franco Fritzenwalden. In November, once filming was completed, Ramiro Spangenberg was confirmed as the male lead, while the rest of the young cast was confirmed in December, consisting of Mateo Belmonte, Lola Abraldes, Joaquín Reffico, Pilar Masse, Pamela Baigún, Martiniano Rodríguez, Antonella Podestá and José Barbeito.

### Filming

Filming of the series began on July 24, 2023, and took place entirely in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a co-production between Cris Morena Group and the Uruguayan company Cimarrón Cine. Some Montevideo landmarks and well-known establishments were filmed for the series, such as the Hotel Carrasco, the Rambla, the Aurelio Berro Mansion and the central business district.

## Release

In March 2024, Cris Morena and Max published the first trailer for the series, revealing that it would premiere that year. In August it was revealed that the 40-episode series would premiere on September 2 and that 5 episodes would be released per week. In addition, it was confirmed that the television station Telefe had partnered with Max to also broadcast the series.


History of King's College London

# History of King's College London

## Abstract

The history of King's College London, on its own, spans over 190 years since it was founded as a 'university college' by royal charter in 1829. However, its formation as a full 'university' would have to wait until 1836 as a part of the University of London. The full history, however, includes the medical schools that now constitute GKT School of Medical Education. This incorporates St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, one of the oldest medical schools in Britain, with a history of medical teaching that can be traced back to at least 1561. St Thomas' Hospital itself dates back to 1173, and has roots in the establishment of St Mary Overie Priory in 1106.

## 19th century

### Foundation

King's College was founded as a 'university college' in 1829 in response to the theological controversy surrounding the founding of "London University" (which later became University College London) in 1826. London University was founded, with the backing of Utilitarians, Jews and non-Anglican Christians, as a secular institution, intended to educate "the youth of our middling rich people between the ages of 15 or 16 and 20 or later" giving its nickname, "the godless college in Gower Street".

The seeds of the idea that would become King's College were planted in a sermon in October 1826 by Hugh James Rose – then Christian Advocate at the University of Cambridge, later the first Professor of Divinity at Durham University and the second Principal of King's. A year later, on 30 October 1827, a letter from 'Alpha' appeared in the Morning Post (a London newspaper of the time) which criticised London University strongly for its lack of religion and called for 'the establishment of a London University upon legitimate and constitutional principles'. This 'true and genuine "London University"' was to be established by royal charter and act of Parliament, it would have professors "attached to the natural religion of the State", and was 'to be called the " Academia Georgii Quarti quæ Londini est, " the same as the University of Edinburgh is called the " Academia Jacobi Sexti "'. The next day another letter in the Morning Post from 'Omega' promised that 'whenever such a project may be attempted, my mite shall be forthcoming'. A leading article on 1 November said that the letter from 'Alpha' had 'been the predecessor of a host of others' agreeing with him in his criticism of London University. This brought forth a response from 'Alpha' starting that 'it will soon be seen whether "The College of King George the IVth," which takes Religion as the Rock of its foundation, and the Church of England as its wall of strength, or the self-styled " University of London, "...will produce to this yet happy empire the most fertilising stream', adding that 'measures are in progress for forming a legitimate " London University "' (emphases in original).

The concept of the college was defined publicly in early 1828 by George D'Oyly, Rector of Lambeth, in an open letter to Sir Robert Peel, the then Home Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. The letter advocated establishing a second university in London, which would be like London University in teaching modern subjects but would have a distinctly Christian ethos, and was decisive in winning the backing of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, for the scheme. The King's College project was officially launched at a public meeting at the Freemasons' Hall on 21 June 1828, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by the archbishops of York, Canterbury and Armagh, Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London, and a number of other bishops (including, William Van Mildert, Bishop of Durham, who founded Durham University a few years later, and John Banks Jenkinson, Bishop of St David's and Dean of Durham, who had secured the royal charter for St David's College, Lampeter earlier that year) and two other members of the Cabinet (Peel and the Earl of Aberdeen). The meeting passed resolutions to found the college, to request permission from the King to name it 'King's College, London', to approve the general scheme that had been drawn up, to appoint a provisional committee of twenty-seven (chaired by Bishop Blomfield) to raise funds and to frame regulations and building plans, and to open books for donations and subscriptions at the major banks.

After the Duke had withdrawn, along with the Archbishops and the Bishops of London, Durham and Carlisle, the Bishop of Chester took the chair to deny reports that the college would be open only to Anglicans. While the college was to be Anglican, and its professors would have to belong to the established church, it would be open to students of any religion, although they would have to submit to the regulations of the college.

At the meeting, some £20,000 of the total of £100,000 needed (elsewhere said to be £150,000) was pledged. By the start of July, this had risen to over £50,000. However, disputes over Wellington and Peel's support for Catholic emancipation (see below) meant that many of the project's backers withdrew their pledges, leading to a shortfall in the sum raised by subscriptions and donations.

Several potential sites for King's were discussed by the provisional committee, including Buckingham Palace and Regent's Park. In December 1828, Peel proposed to the Bishop of London that the college be granted a site between the Strand and the Thames, running parallel to the yet unfinished Somerset House at a peppercorn rent in perpetuity. This was accepted, despite concerns of the effect of the nearby slums and theatres on the Strand on students' health and morals, and the grant was made in June 1829, with the condition that the river-front be completed in five years, matching the design of Somerset House, and the rest of the college in ten. The architect Robert Smirke was selected to design the building, and plans were approved (scaled back from the original budget of £150,000) in July 1829.

With the site selected and construction ready to begin, a royal charter incorporating 'King's College, London' was granted by George IV on 14 August 1829, stating the intention of the new educational institution:

...for the general education of youth in which the various branches of Literature and Science are intended to be taught, and also the doctrines and duties of Christianity... inculcated by the United Church of England and Ireland.

Now the college was established as a legal entity with a defined constitution, the provisional committee handed over the management of the project to the College Council. The charter vested the government of the college in this council, consisting of nine official governors, five of whom were clergy, eight life governors, a treasurer, and 24 other members of the corporation. King's College, as established by the royal charter, was a for-profit college with dividends payable to proprietors of up to four per cent of profits, similar (save for King's being incorporated) to the joint stock company of London University. Despite it not being a charity, the Archbishop of Canterbury was appointed Visitor to the college by the charter.

On 26 November 1829, the contract for the building work was let. Under this contract, the body of the building was to cost just under £64,000 and was to be completed by 1 December 1831. As it happened, work on the "carcass" of the building was completed by late 1830 and fitting out began. The main building, including the hall and the chapel, was finished for the opening of the college on 8 October 1831, although a lot of building and fitting remained to be completed elsewhere on the site. The cost so far had been £85,900 out of £113,600 raised.

#### 1829 Duel in Battersea Fields

The Duke of Wellington's simultaneous support for an Anglican King's College London and the Roman Catholic Relief Act, which was to lead to the granting of almost full civil rights to Catholics, was challenged by George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in early 1829. Winchilsea and his supporters wished for King's to be subject to the Test Acts, like the universities of Oxford, where only members of the Church of England could matriculate, and Cambridge, where non-Anglicans could matriculate but not graduate, but this was not Wellington's intent.

Winchilsea and about 150 other contributors withdrew their support of King's College London in response to Wellington's support of Catholic emancipation. Accusations against Wellington were published in a letter to The Standard newspaper on 14 March where Winchilsea charged the Prime Minister with insincerity in his support for King's College London. In a letter to Wellington he wrote, "I have come to view the college as an instrument in a wider programme designed to promote the Roman Catholic faith and undermine the established church." Winchilsea also accused the Duke to have in mind "insidious designs for the infringement of our liberty and the introduction of Popery into every department of the State".

The letter provoked a furious exchange of correspondence and Wellington accused Winchilsea of imputing him with "disgraceful and criminal motives" in setting up King's College London. When Winchilsea refused to retract the remarks, Wellington – by his own admission, "no advocate of duelling" and a virgin duellist – demanded satisfaction in a contest of arms: "I now call upon your lordship to give me that satisfaction for your conduct which a gentleman has a right to require, and which a gentleman never refuses to give."

The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March 1829. Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel; Wellington took aim and fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether Wellington missed on purpose. Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill. Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology. "Duel Day" is still celebrated on the first Thursday after 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout King's, including re-enactments.

### Early years

King's opened in October 1831 with the cleric William Otter appointed as first principal and lecturer in divinity. In keeping with the intention stated back in 1828, and despite the chapel at the heart of its buildings, the initial prospectus permitted, "nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely". William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, presided over the opening ceremony in which sermons was given in the chapel by the Archbishop on the importance of charity and by Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London, on the subject of combining religious instruction with intellectual culture. The governors and the professors, except the linguists, had to be members of the Church of England but the students did not, though attendance at Chapel was compulsory.

King's was divided into a senior department and a junior department, also known as King's College School, which was originally situated in the basement of the Strand Campus. The Junior department started with 85 pupils and only three teachers, but quickly grew to 500 by 1841, outgrowing its facilities and leading it to relocate to Wimbledon in 1897 where it remains today, though it is no longer associated with King's College London. Within the Senior department teaching was divided into three courses. A general course comprised divinity, classical languages, mathematics, English literature and history. Secondly, there was the medical course. Thirdly, miscellaneous subjects, such as law, political economy and modern languages, which were not related to any systematic course of study at the time and depended for their continuance on the supply of occasional students. In 1833 the general course was reorganised leading to the award of the Associate of King's College (AKC), the first qualification issued by King's. The course, which concerns questions of ethics and theology, is still awarded today to students and staff who take an optional three-year course alongside their studies.

Following a further appeal for funds in 1832, the river frontage was completed in April 1835 at a cost of £7,100, its completion a condition of King's College London securing the site from the Crown. Unlike those in the school, student numbers in the Senior department remained almost stationary during King's first five years of existence. During this time the medical school was blighted by inefficiency and the divided loyalties of the staff leading to a steady decline in attendance. One of the most important appointments was that of Charles Wheatstone as professor of Experimental Philosophy.

At this time, neither King's, nor "London University", had the ability to confer degrees, nor did the Medical schools at the London hospitals. Henry Brougham, chairman of the governors of "London University", became Lord Chancellor in 1830, in which position he automatically became a governor of King's. "London University" applied for a royal charter in 1830 that would (unlike King's charter as a college) recognise it as a university, thus giving it the right to grant degrees. This charter was approved by the government lawyers, but blocked by Oxford and Cambridge before it could receive the Great Seal. The application was renewed in 1833 and debated by the Privy Council in 1834. King's did not join Oxford, Cambridge and the Medical schools in objecting to the charter, but it was clear that if "London University" received degree awarding powers and official status as a university, the same would be expected for King's. However, before the issue could be resolved the Whig government fell, removing Brougham from office.

In 1835, following a "prayer" to the King from the House of Commons to grant "London University" their charter, the government announced that it would establish a separate examining board to grant degrees, with "London University" and King's both being affiliated colleges in Arts and Laws. This became the University of London in 1836, the former "London University" becoming University College, London (UCL). The governors at King's were offended at the exclusion of divinity from the syllabus of the university, and advised students to take the Oxford or Cambridge examinations. However, the power of the university to confer degrees marked a period of limited expansion at King's.

In early 1836, Bishop van Mildert of Durham died. The new Bishop of Durham was Edward Maltby, one of the founders of UCL and then Bishop of Chichester. William Otter was appointed Bishop of Chichester in his place, leaving a vacancy as Principal of King's that was filled by Hugh James Rose, who had been Professor of Divinity at Durham. Both Maltby and Otter were named to the Senate of the new University of London in late 1836.

Maltby had resigned as preacher of Lincoln's Inn in 1835, his replacement there was John Lonsdale, a member of King's College's Council who had been offered, but refused, the post of Principal at the foundation of the college. When Rose's health failed in 1838, Lonsdale stepped in as acting principal of King's, taking the job on a permanent basis in 1839 when news of Rose's death in Italy reached England. He held the post until 1843, when he was appointed Bishop of Lichfield. His successor as Principal was Richard William Jelf, a canon of Oxford Cathedral, who held the post until 1868.

In 1838, King's set up only the second engineering course in Britain, which was (as the course established at Durham closed after only a few years) the oldest department of engineering in the country until its closure in 2013. The study of English Literature as a distinct subject was also pioneered by King's.

Also in 1838, the Pluralities Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 106) was passed, making it illegal for Church of England clergy to live outside of their parish. An exemption was, however, made for the "Principal of King's College, London, during the Time for which he may be required to reside and shall actually reside therein", allowing the principal to hold a benefice elsewhere yet reside in the college.

### Mid 19th century development

In 1839, the first degrees of the University of London were awarded to King's and UCL students. The Principal, John Lonsdale, stated publicly at the college prizegiving that year that "it was probable that the greater number of pupils educated in King's College for the three learned professions might proceed from that place to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and that therefore it would not be a matter of surprise of but a few degrees were conferred by the London University upon their pupils". Throughout the 19th century, the Calendar of King's College listed "University Distinctions" gained at Oxford and Cambridge (and later Durham) before those gained at London. By 1845, King's had reached an agreement with the University of Edinburgh whereby medical students could spend three of the four years necessary for the degree of MD at the college, only having to pass one year in residence in Edinburgh.

In 1840, King's opened its own hospital on Portugal Street near Lincoln's Inn Fields, an area composed of overcrowded rookeries characterised by poverty and disease. The governance of King's College Hospital was later transferred to the corporation of the hospital established by the King's College Hospital Act 1851, and eventually moved to new premises in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in 1913. The appointment in 1877 of Joseph Lister as professor of clinical surgery greatly benefited the medical school, and the introduction of Lister's antiseptic surgical methods gained the hospital an international reputation.

In 1845, the Military Department was established following the identification of a need for more educated officers, the Army being "the only profession excluded from collegiate advantages". The department was advertised as "intended for the benefit of the numerous class of Gentlemen who may be expecting Commissions in the Army, or direct appointments in the Honourable East India Company's service".

King's established a Theological Department to train Anglican priests in 1846, predating those at Oxford or Cambridge. This recognised degrees from Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, and the AKC, but did not recognise London degrees. The Theological AKC, awarded by the King's Theological Department until 1976, was from 1862 marked by a silk hood lined with mauve silk by special permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury (John Sumner). This was very similar to the Durham MA hood, leading to protests. Following representations to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Edward White Benson) in 1884 by the Durham University Association, the hood was revised to conform with the pattern approved for theological colleges, with the change backdated to 1882. The new hood was poplin, rather than silk, with a 1-inch edging of mauve silk, rather than fully lined.

In 1851 F. D. Maurice, professor of theology and of English literature and history at King's, was accused of heterodoxy over his support of Christian Socialism. Jelfs suggested he should resign his professorships, but accepted Maurice's denial of some of the charges. With Lonsdale supporting Maurice, committee of investigation found in his favour. In 1853, Maurice published his Theological Essays, and once again was placed under investigation. This time, with Lonsdale having failed to receive an invitation to attend the meeting, Council agreed with Blomfield's motion that "the continuance of Professor Maurice's connection with the College … would be seriously detrimental to its usefulness". Maurice asked the council to say which of the 39 articles his teaching contradicted, bit they declined to answer and he was forced to leave immediately, without completing the courses he was then teaching. Lonsdale was very critical of the proceedings, saying there was no authority for the council's condemnation of Maurice as heretical, and Maurice's treatment was regarded by many as "a gross injustice".

In 1855, King's pioneered evening classes in London. That King's granted students at the evening classes certificates of college attendance to enable them to sit University of London degree exams was cited as an example of the worthlessness of these certificates in the decision by the University of London to end the affiliated colleges system in 1858 and open their examinations to everyone.

The controversy over the hoods did not stop the Theological Department becoming affiliated to Durham University in 1876, allowing holders of the Theological AKC to take Durham BAs with only a year of residence in Durham. This and the addition of evening classes to the Theological Department enabled it to recover from only 24 students in 1876 to 79 in 1881, overtaking the General Department, which fell to 39 students in 1884.

### Government Funding

In 1874 the fifth report of the Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science found that the pay for teaching staff at King's was inadequate and that the main obstacle to figure success was "that it is so extremely poor". The commissioners concluded that " have established a claim to the aid of government that ought to be admitted", recommending that both colleges should receive an annual grant to cover their running costs and capital grants to cover buildings and equipment. They also recommended that before King's received such a grant, the college should apply for a new charter or an Act of Parliament to remove the proprietary rights of the shareholders and to remove religious restrictions on professors of science and on privileges granted to students.

In 1882 the King's College London Act amended the constitution. The act removed the proprietorial nature of the college, changing the name of the corporation from "The Governors and Proprietors of King's College London" to "King's College London" and annulling the 1829 charter (although the college remained incorporated under that charter). The act also changing the college from a (technically) for-profit corporation to a non-profit one (no dividends had ever been paid in over 50 years of operation) and extended the objects of King's to include the education of women. The Ladies' Department of King's College London was opened in Kensington Square in 1885, which later in 1902 became King's College Women's Department.. The 1882 act did not, however, remove the religious restrictions on the staff, as recommended by the Royal Commission.

Despite this, in 1889 King's became one of 11 university colleges to be awarded funding through the "Grant to University Colleges in Great Britain". King's received £1,700, the same as UCL and more than any other institution except Owens College, Manchester.

### Reform of the University of London

In 1884, King's allied with UCL and the London medical schools to launch the Association for Promotion of a Teaching University for London. After attempts to reform the University of London failed, the idea was proposed that King's, UCL and the medical schools would join to form a federal university, to be known as the Albert University.

A Royal Commission was established in 1888 to look into the matter. This reported in 1889, recommending reform of the University of London, with a minority report favouring the granting of a charter to the Albert University. It was agreed that if reform of the existing University failed, the new university should be established.

A complicated scheme for reform of the university was drawn up in 1891 but was rejected by Convocation, leading to a renewal of the petition to form the Albert University. This was approved by the Privy Council later in 1891 and was (in accordance with an 1871 law) laid in the Houses of Parliament for comment, with the name now changed to the Gresham University after Gresham College joined the scheme. In response to opposition to the charter, a second Royal Commission was established in 1892.

The new commission recommended another attempt at reform of the University of London rather than establishment of a new body, and that this be carried out by Act of Parliament rather than by royal charter. This was accepted by Convocation in 1895 and passed Parliament (at the third attempt) in 1898. The University of London became a federal institute in 1900 under new statutes drawn up under this act, with King's becoming one of the schools of the university.

## 20th century

See also Contribution of King's College London to the discovery of the structure of DNA and Photo 51

### 1900–1939

In 1902 the college launched an appeal for £500,000. The main aims of the appeal were to pay off the debt, to maintain the quality of labs and equipment, and to secure adequate pay for the professors. The Bishop of London read a message from the king at the launch of the appeal: "His Majesty is thoroughly in sympathy with the proposal to raise by subscription a large fund for the endowment of King's College as a constituent of the newly-developed University of London, and wishes the movement for that purpose all success." At the same time, the College Council voted in favour of removing religious restrictions, except within the Theological Department. The King's College London Act 1903 (3 Edw. 7. c. xcii) effected the abolition of the religious tests for staff, except within the Theological Department, bringing King's in line with Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, where religious tests had been similarly removed by the Universities Tests Act 1871 (again, with the exception of their theological staff). At this time, King's had 1,385 students, but only 324 were matriculated in the University of London to pursue degrees, the vast majority were either preparing for professional examinations or for entry to Oxford or Cambridge.

1908 saw the relocation of King's College Hospital from its original site on Portugal Street to its current location on Denmark Hill. This led to the separation of pre-clinical studies at the college and clinical studies at the hospital.

On 1 January 1910, the college followed UCL in being merged (with the exception of the Theological Department) into the University of London under the King's College London (Transfer) Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. xxxix), losing its legal independence. The Theological Department continued under the control of the Council of King's College and, under the same act, became a school of the university. The Women's Department was incorporated as a distinct College from King's, under the name King's College for Women.

The merger gave the college a corporate say in the business of the university that the 1900 statutes did not give to the unincorporated schools. This and other defects in the university's governance led to the Haldane Commission of 1909–1913, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 meant its recommendations were not implemented.

During World War I the Medical school was opened to women for the first time. 415 students from King's College and from Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals were killed in the war. Most of the departments of King's Culture for Women were incorporated back into King's in 1915, with the exception of the Household and Social Science Department.

The end of the war saw an influx of students, with numbers more than doubling from 1,775 in 1917–18 to 3,879 two years layer. This strained the existing facilities to the point where some classes were held in the Principal's house. A government proposal to relocate the premises of King's to Bloomsbury was considered, but finally rejected in 1925. Instead, the Strand campus was extended, including the acquisition of land above Aldwych underground station and the addition of a two-storey building atop the roof of the Main Building. It was suggested at this time that King's take over the east wing of the neighbouring Somerset House, occupied by government offices, but this was refused.

In 1928 the King's College for Women Household and Social Science Department became independent of the University of London as the King's College of Household and Social Science.

### 1939–1980

During the Second World War most students and staff were evacuated out of London to Bristol and Glasgow. Students from King's College of Household and Social Science were evacuated first to Cardiff and then to Leicester. The buildings of King's College London were used by the Auxiliary Fire Service with a number of King's staff, mainly those then known as college servants, serving as firewatchers under the leadership of Robert Hutton, the college librarian. Parts of the Strand building, the quadrangle, and the roof of apse and stained glass windows of the chapel suffered bomb damage in the Blitz. During reconstruction, the vaults beneath the quadrangle were replaced by a two-storey laboratory, which opened in 1952, for the departments of Physics and Civil and Electrical Engineering.

In 1948 the creation of the National Health Service meant the separation of the Guy's, King's and St Thomas's Medical Schools from their respective hospitals. In 1953 the King's College of Household and Social Science received a royal charter under the name of Queen Elizabeth College and admitted men for the first time. In 1956 it was recognised as a school of the University of London.

After plans to move into the east wing of Somerset House were again rejected, the Strand Building was commissioned in 1954. Planning permission was granted in 1961 and the building was constructed in 1966–71. It is described by Historic England as "a modest and relatively undistinguished example of its type, relating awkwardly to its historic surroundings and embodying – in contrast with other, more ambitious post-war university buildings – no particular innovations in functionality or architectural design".

One of the most famous pieces of scientific research performed at King's were the crucial contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, together with Raymond Gosling, Alex Stokes, Herbert Wilson and other colleagues at the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King's.

Major reconstruction of King's began in 1966 following the publication of the Robbins Report on Higher Education. The Strand Building, designed by E. D. Jefferiss Mathews, was opened in 1972. The Macadam Building was then built over 1972–75. Planning permission for further new buildings on the Strand campus, linking the Macadam Building to the Strand Building (Phase III) and the Strand Building to Somerset House (Phase IV), was refused following the listing of older buildings on the area and the designation, in 1974, of the Strand Conservation Area. Renewed efforts were made in the 1960s and 70s to acquire the east wing of Somerset House, but these were again unsuccessful.

### 1980–1999

In 1980 King's regained its legal independence under a new royal charter. In 1993 King's, along with other large University of London colleges, gained direct access to government funding (which had previously been through the university) and the right to confer University of London degrees itself. This contributed to King's and the other large colleges being regarded as de facto universities in their own right.

The college and associated institutes underwent several mergers in the late 20th century. In 1983 Guy's Hospital Medical School and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School re-merged (having previously been united until 1825) to form the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. In the same year the King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry re-merged with King's College. In 1985 Queen Elizabeth College re-merged with King's, along with Chelsea College of Science and Technology. The Institute of Psychiatry joined King's in 1997, and in 1998 the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals merged with King's Medical School to form the GKT Medical School within King's College. Also in 1998, Florence Nightingale 's original training school for nurses merged with the King's Department of Nursing Studies as the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. The same year King's acquired the former Public Record Office building on Chancery Lane and converted it at a cost of £35 million into the Maughan Library, which opened in 2002.

## 21st century

In 2002 the Academic Board recommended to the College Council that King's apply for degree awarding powers, following the proposed merger of UCL and Imperial College. The application was delayed while the UK government reviewed the criteria but when the new criteria were published in 2004 the Board renewed its recommendation. In April 2005, King's formally applied for degree awarding powers. In the same year, the Academic Board recommended that King's begin using its delegated degree awarding powers from the University of London to award research degrees in addition to taught degrees, rather than having research degrees awarded centrally.

In July 2006, King's College London was granted degree-awarding powers in its own right, as opposed to through the University of London, by the Privy Council. This power remained unexercised until 2007, when King's announced that all students starting courses from September 2007 onwards would be awarded degrees conferred by King's itself, rather than by the University of London. The new certificates however still make reference to the fact that King's is a constituent college of the University of London. All current students with at least one year of study remaining were in August 2007 offered the option of choosing to be awarded a University of London degree or a King's degree. The first King's degrees were awarded in summer 2008.

In 2007, for the second consecutive year, students from the School of Law won the national round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The Jessup moot is the largest international mooting competition in the world. The King's team went on to represent the UK as national champions.

In 2009, King's finally gained one of its objectives since 1831 – it acquired the east wing of Somerset House. King's secured a 78-year lease for the building and launched a £20M fundraising drive to pay (along with a £7.5M grant from HEFCE) for its restoration. The refurbished East Wing was officially reopened by the Queen in 2012.

In 2010, King's announced that 205 jobs were put at risk in response to government funding cuts. Among the proposed cuts was the UK's only chair of palaeography, two leading computational linguists, and the department of Engineering, believed to be the oldest in the UK (established in 1838), sparking an international campaign from academics.

In November 2010, King's launched a fundraising campaign to raise £500 million by 2015 for research into five areas: cancer, global power, neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society and children's health. Over £400 million has been raised as of March 2013. In 2011 the Chemistry department was reopened following its closure in 2003.

In April 2011, King's became a founding partner in the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, subsequently renamed the Francis Crick Institute, committing £40 million to the project.

In June 2014, King's announced plans for large-scale redundancies, potentially affecting up to 15% of staff in biomedical sciences and at the Institute of Psychiatry. Commentators noted that many senior academics as well as students were highly critical of the plans, on the grounds that they were being rushed through without adequate consultation, threatened to leave students without adequate teaching staff, and would weaken the research capacity and damage the reputation of the university. A spokesperson for King's argued that the numbers of planned redundancies were fewer than critics claimed, but in so doing came in for further criticism, because staff had not been told of this information. It was subsequently noted that the redundancy plan also went against explicit advice in a commissioned report on the university's finances. Around the same time as these developments, an article in the Times Higher Education noted that, in an apparently unrelated development, King's was contesting a freedom of information request for details of salaries of its top professors.

In October 2014, Ed Byrne replaced Rick Trainor as Principal of King's College London, the latter having served for 10 years. In December 2014, King's announced its plans to rebrand its name to 'King's London'. It was emphasised that there were no plans to change the legal name of King's, and that the name 'King's London' was designed to promote King's and to highlight the fact that King's is a university in its own right. King's announced that the rebranding plans had been dropped in January 2015.

On 10 March 2015, King's acquired a 50-year lease for the Aldwych Quarter which includes the historic grand Bush House building. King's will occupy Bush House and Strand House on a phased basis from September 2016, and adjacent buildings King House and Melbourne House from 2025. Once King's takes full occupation of the four main buildings, the Aldwych Quarter will provide approximately 300,000 square feet of additional space for student study and social space, new teaching facilities and academic accommodation

## Historical Estate

The estate of King's College London, particularly the Strand Campus, includes a number of historic buildings, many listed at various grades. These include the main King's Building, constructed in 1828 to complete the riverside frontage of Somerset House, and the current east wing of Somerset House (both Grade I listed), the Maughan Library (Grade II* listed), 152 and 153 Strand (Grade II listed), and Bush House (Grade II listed). The Strand Campus mostly falls within the Strand Conservation Area, with the Strand Building and Macadam Building having been granted certificates of immunity. The Maughan Library falls within the Chancery Lane Conservation Area.


My Old Ass

# My Old Ass

## Abstract

My Old Ass is a 2024 American science fiction comedy-drama film written and directed by Megan Park. It stars Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, and Aubrey Plaza.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 13, 2024, by Amazon MGM Studios under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer label. Other theatrical releases begin later in the same month. The film received a positive critical reception.

## Premise

Elliott Labrant, who has been advised by her future self not to fall in love, is sure she can follow the advice she has been given. That is, until she meets the boy her older self warned her about.

## Cast

- Maisy Stella as Elliott Labrant Aubrey Plaza as Older Elliott

- Aubrey Plaza as Older Elliott

- Maddie Ziegler as Ruthie, Elliot's friend

- Kerrice Brooks as Ro, Elliot's friend

- Percy Hynes White as Chad

- Maria Dizzia as Elliott's mother

- Seth Isaac Johnson as Max LaBrant, Elliot's brother

- Carter Trozzolo as Spencer LaBrant, Elliot's brother

Sources:

## Production

In March 2022, it was announced that Megan Park would write and direct her sophomore feature film, a coming-of-age comedy titled My Old Ass, with LuckyChap Entertainment, Scythia Films, and Indian Paintbrush producing.

Principal photography started on August 15, 2022, in Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, Canada. Tyler Hilton revealed in a January 2023 interview that he was scoring the film and Aubrey Plaza was starring.

## Release

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024.

The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States, originally scheduled for August 2, 2024, but delayed to September 13, 2024. It is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom by Curzon Film on September 27, 2024. Amazon MGM Studios acquired distribution rights to the film for $15 million. Following the theatrical releases, it plans to make the film available on Prime Video for streaming worldwide.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 83 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "A humorous sci-fi cocktail with a twist of drama, My Old Ass doesn't throw out the wisdom with the reckless abandon of youth and the effects are hallucinogenic." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.


Causing a Commotion

# Causing a Commotion

## Abstract

" Causing a Commotion " is a song by American singer Madonna from the soundtrack album to the 1987 film Who's That Girl. It was released as the album's second single on August 25, 1987, by Sire Records. Its Silver Screen Single Mix later appeared on the EP The Holiday Collection (1991). Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, the song was inspired by her relationship with then-husband Sean Penn, and his abusive and violent nature. Containing a dance -oriented, up- tempo groove, the song begins with the chorus and is accompanied by a four-note descending bassline and staccato chords in the verses.

Since its release, "Causing a Commotion" has received mixed reviews from music critics. The song was a commercial success, peaking within the top-ten in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Madonna performed the song on the Who's That Girl World Tour in 1987 – which was transmitted via satellite to the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards – and the Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. She also performed a brief snippet in selected shows on The Celebration Tour in 2023 and 2024. The performances were included in the home video release of the tours.

## Background and release

In 1986, Madonna was shooting for her third motion picture Who's That Girl, known at the time as Slammer. Needing songs for the soundtrack of the movie, she contacted Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, with whom she had written and produced her third studio album True Blue (1986). The song was written and produced by Madonna and Bray for the film's soundtrack. It was inspired by her then husband Sean Penn and their often tumultuous relationship. Madonna felt that her marriage to Penn was on the verge of breaking up, due to Penn's abusive and violent nature. That translated as the inspiration behind the song. In a Rolling Stone article dated September 10, 1987, Madonna spoke about Penn's impact on her life,

"I don't like violence. I never condone hitting anyone, and I never thought that any violence should have taken place. But on the other hand, I understood Sean's anger and believe me, I have wanted to hit them many times. I never would, you know, because I realize that it would just make things worse. I felt like he was 'Causing a Commotion' to purposefully distract me. I wrote this song and vented my frustration in it."

In the United States, "Causing a Commotion" was released on August 25, 1987. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on September 17, just after the conclusion of the Who's That Girl World Tour that same month. In 1991, the Silver Screen Single Mix of the song was included on the EP The Holiday Collection (1991).

## Recording and composition

"Causing a Commotion" was recorded and mixed by Stephen Bray along with Shep Pettibone, who also did additional production on the track. Junior Vasquez was the mixing engineer along with Steve Peck, the former also did the audio editing. Background vocals were provided by Donna De Lory and Niki Haris. "Causing a Commotion" has a dancey, up-tempo groove in it. The musical arrangement consists of a number of hooks interpolating with each other. It begins with the chorus, where Madonna sings the line "I've got the moves baby, You've got the motion, If we got together we'd be causing a commotion". The verses are accompanied by a four-note descending bassline and interjecting staccato chords.

The lyrics make reference to Madonna's 1985 hit single " Into the Groove " and have three parts to the vocal harmony. Andrzej Ciuk, one of the editors of the book Exploring Space noted that the proverbial status of the phrase "opposites attract" as a defining key ingredient of cultural concept of "love" and this was evident also in the song with the lyrics: "You met your match when you met me, I know that you'll disagree it's crazy, But opposites attract you'll see, And I won't let you get away so easy".

## Critical reception

"Causing a Commotion" received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, said that the song was "Perfectly acceptable, though not in the same class as ' Who's That Girl '." Christian Wright from Spin called the song celebratory. Camille Paglia, one of the authors of The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary, said that Madonna's command of massive, resonant basslines impressed her. She wrote: "I recall my stunned admiration as I sat in the theater in 1987 and first experienced the crashing, descending chords of Madonna's 'Causing a Commotion', which opened her dreadful movie Who's That Girl. If you want to hear the essence of modernity, listen to those chords, infernal, apocalyptic and grossly sensual. This is the authentic voice of fin de siècle." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic commented that "Causing a Commotion" and "Who's That Girl" were not among Madonna's best singles. Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost, placed it at number 46 of his list "The Definitive Ranking of Madonna Singles", calling it "cheerful, until you learn it was inspired by her abusive relationship with Sean Penn".

In August 2018, Billboard ranked it as Madonna's 85th greatest song; Joel Lynch wrote that only Madonna "could release a song this lightweight from a critically drubbed film and still take it to No. 2 on the Hot 100. The arresting, thick AF bass line and the sugary determination of her delivery make this a delight, albeit a relatively slight one". Slant Magazine ' s Eric Henderson called it "somehow generic and diverting in equal measure, offers one of Madonna’s most undeniable come-on lines at the center of it all". Louis Virtel from The Backlot ranked it at number 16 on a list for "The 100 Greatest Madonna Songs", and called it "jubilant and driving". Writing for Gay Star News, Joe Morgan deemed it an "absolute gem" that "unfortunately sinks in the background when it comes to Madonna’s 80s classics". The Guardian ' s Jude Rogers described it as "a slighter facsimile of the imperial 'Into the Groove', protesting too much about its abilities to coax out the noise police". For Medium 's Richard LaBeau, "there is nothing especially bad about this track, but it is profoundly forgettable, particularly in comparison with the brilliant singles that preceded and followed it".

## Chart performance

"Causing a Commotion" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 41 the week of September 12, 1987, as " Who's That Girl " was descending from the top-ten. The song quickly climbed up the chart, ultimately peaking at number two the week of October 24, 1987, blocked from the top position by Michael Jackson 's " Bad " and Tiffany 's " I Think We're Alone Now." It remained in the runner-up position for three consecutive weeks, before descending the chart. The song reached the top 40 of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and hit number one on the Dance Club Songs chart. In Canada, the song debuted at number 90 on the RPM Top 100 chart on September 19, 1987. After six weeks, the song reached a peak of number two on the chart. It was present for a total of 31 weeks and ranked at number 47 on the RPM year-end chart for 1987.

In the United Kingdom, "Causing a Commotion" entered the UK Singles Chart at number seven and peaked at number four. The song was present for a total of nine weeks. According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold 230,000 copies there. In Germany, the song debuted on the Media Control Charts at number 66 on September 29, 1987, reaching a peak of number 14 in its third week and spending 12 weeks on the chart. The song reached the top-ten in Australia and the European Hot 100 Singles, peaking at number seven and three, respectively. Elsewhere, the song reached the top-ten in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland, and the top 20 in Austria, Norway and Sweden.

## Live performances

Madonna performed "Causing a Commotion" on the Who's That Girl World Tour and the Blond Ambition World Tour. On the Who's That Girl World Tour, "Causing a Commotion" was the sixth song of the set list. Collaborating with Marlene Stewart on the clothes for the tour, Madonna expanded on the idea of bringing her video characters to life and to display a gangster theme for the song. She wore a golden lamé jacket and performed the song while accompanied by two dancers, each holding a gun. Performances of the song on this tour can be found on the Who's That Girl: Live in Japan video, filmed in Tokyo, Japan, on June 22, 1987, and on the Ciao Italia: Live from Italy video, filmed in Turin, Italy, on September 4, 1987. The latter performance was transmitted via satellite to the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards.

On the Blond Ambition World Tour, "Causing a Commotion" was the third song of the set list. The outfit she wore for the performance was described by Carol Clerk, author of Madonnastyle, as the "perfect visual combination of masculine and feminine". Madonna wore heavy makeup with thick, blackened eyebrows and heavy application of dark liner. The performance ended with Madonna wrestling with her female backup singers. Two different performances were released on video: the Blond Ambition Japan Tour 90, filmed in Yokohama, Japan, on April 27, 1990, and the Blond Ambition World Tour Live, filmed in Nice, France, on August 5, 1990.

On occasion during her Celebration Tour in 2023, Madonna sang lines from the refrain before introducing the concept of the show to the audience and launching into a guitar-driven performance of " Burning Up."

## Track listing and formats

## Credits and personnel

- Madonna – vocals, writer, producer

- Stephen Bray – writer, producer, audio mixing

- Shep Pettibone – audio mixing, additional production

- Junior Vasquez – mixing engineer, audio editing

- Steve Peck – mixing engineer

- Jane O'Neal – photography

- Jeri Heiden – art direction

- Maura P. McLaughlin – design

Credits adapted from the Who's That Girl soundtrack and 12" single liner notes.

## Charts