Pen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters. Occasionally, pen pals may already have a relationship that is not regularly conducted in person.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, better known as Belle Starr, was an American outlaw who gained national notoriety after her violent death.
Cherie, Lady Blair, also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is married to former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair.
Naomie Melanie Harris is an English actress. She started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series Simon and the Witch in 1987. She portrayed Selena in the zombie film 28 Days Later (2002), the witch Tia Dalma in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean films, Winnie Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013), and Frances Barrison / Shriek in Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). She portrayed Eve Moneypenny in the James Bond films Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021).
Brenda Starr, Reporter is a comic strip about a glamorous, adventurous reporter. It was created in 1940 by Dale Messick for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, and continued by others until 2011.
Waiting to Exhale is a 1995 American romance film directed by Forest Whitaker and starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett. The film was adapted from the 1992 novel of the same name by Terry McMillan. Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Beach, Gregory Hines, Donald Faison, and Mykelti Williamson rounded out the rest of the cast. The original music score was composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The story centers on four women living in the Phoenix metropolitan area and their relationships with men and one another. All of them are "holding their breath" until the day they can feel comfortable in a committed relationship with themselves.
Dalia Messick was an American comic strip artist who used the pseudonym Dale Messick. She was the creator of Brenda Starr, Reporter, which at its peak during the 1950s ran in 250 newspapers.
The Color Purple is a 1985 American epic coming-of-age period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker and was Spielberg's eighth film as a director, marking a turning point in his career as it was a departure from the summer blockbusters for which he had become known. It was also the first feature film directed by Spielberg for which John Williams did not compose the music, instead featuring a score by Quincy Jones, who also produced. The film stars Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role, with Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, and Adolph Caesar.
The Alice series is a young adult book series written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, consisting of 25 books and three prequels, and it has been frequently challenged, as documented in the American Library Association's lists of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 2019. The main character is Alice McKinley, and the Alice series covers her development through adolescence and puberty to the final book, Now I'll Tell You Everything, where Alice turns 60 years old. Through intimate relationships, jobs, disastrous accidents, and accidental parental meetings, the journey from a child into a grown woman is narrated in the Alice series. Important and notable characters are Alice's three best friends, Pamela, Gwen, Elizabeth; her first love, Patrick; her aunt, Sally; her brother, Lester; and her father. Dating, sex, friendship, familial matters, religion, and homosexuality are some of the controversial themes that Phyllis Reynolds Naylor uses to narrate the life story of Alice McKinley.
The Miss Kentucky USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Kentucky in the Miss USA pageant. It is currently directed by Proctor Productions and it was formerly directed by Connie Clark Harrison, Miss Kentucky USA 1976.
Alison Mary Owen is an English film producer. Her credits as a producer include Moonlight and Valentino (1995), Elizabeth (1998), Sylvia (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Proof (2005), The Other Boleyn Girl (2007), Brick Lane (2007), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Tulip Fever (2017) and Back to Black (2024).
P.S. Longer Letter Later is an epistolary novel written by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin in 1998. It is a novel in letters and is written as a year-long correspondence between two twelve-year-old girls, Tara and Elizabeth. The novel was followed by a sequel, Snail Mail No More.
William Edward Vickers (1889–1965) was an English mystery writer better known under his pen name Roy Vickers, but used also the pseudonyms Roy C. Vickers, David Durham, Sefton Kyle, and John Spencer. He is the author of over 60 crime novels and 80 short stories. Vickers is now remembered mostly for his attribution to Scotland Yard of a Department of Dead Ends, specialized in solving old, sometimes long-forgotten cases, mostly by chance encounters of odd bits of strange and apparently disconnected evidence.
Scarlett is a 1994 American six-hour television miniseries loosely based on the 1991 book of the same name written by Alexandra Ripley as a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. The series was filmed at 53 locations in the United States and abroad, and stars Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Scarlett O'Hara, Timothy Dalton as Rhett Butler, and Sean Bean as Lord Richard Fenton. The miniseries was broadcast in four parts on CBS on November 13, 15, 16, and 17, 1994.
Girls of Riyadh, or Banat al-Riyadh, is a novel by Rajaa Alsanea. The book, written in the form of e-mails, recounts the personal lives of four young Saudi girls, Lamees, Michelle, Gamrah, and Sadeem.
The Song of Achilles is a 2011 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is a retelling of the Trojan War as told from the perspective of Patroclus. The novel follows Patroclus' relationship with Achilles, from their initial meeting to their exploits during the Trojan War, with focus on their romantic relationship. In 2012, The Song of Achilles was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Tía Isa Wants a Car is a 2011 illustrated children's book by Cuban-American author Meg Medina. It was first published on 14 June 2011 through Candlewick Press and has won the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Award. The book focuses on the title character of Isa, a young woman that wants to save money towards a new car while also thinking of family in other countries that could also use the money.
Starr Faithfull was an American socialite and a model for the Walter Thornton Modeling Agency whose mysterious drowning death in 1931 became a much-covered tabloid story. Newspapers published allegations that she had been sexually abused as a child by Andrew James Peters, a wealthy, prominent politician and former mayor of Boston (1918–1922). Peters was reportedly suspected of murdering her. Investigators were unable to determine whether her death was a homicide or a suicide, and her death remains unsolved.
