Her mother, Bonnie Kay Haydon, ran the modeling agency Kay Models, and her stepfather, Charles Haydon, worked as a lawyer.

Vanessa attended The Dwight School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, where she was a tennis star, The New York Times reported. She then studied psychology at Marymount College in Manhattan.

Schoolmates and fellow members of the Manhattan scene described her as a "hard-rock in leather and baggy jeans" and "total gangster" in a 1998 New York Magazine story.

While at school, she became involved with Valentin Rivera, a gang member who later served 16 months in prison for assault, as reported by Page Six. They went to her senior prom together, per Page Six.

She was voted Most Likely to Wind Up on Ricki Lake in her high school yearbook.

Haydon started modeling in the 1990s before signing with modeling agency Wilhelmina. She later worked with Next Model Management.

She also had a small role in the 2003 film "Something's Gotta Give," according to IMDb.

New York Magazine reported the model "was seen nuzzling" DiCaprio at a premiere party for James Toback's "Two Girls and a Guy" in May 1998.

Then, from 1998 to 2001, she dated Saudi prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, the son of then-Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, People reported.

Vanessa was introduced to Donald Trump Jr. by his father in 2003. In fact, the real-estate magnate introduced the couple twice in the span of five minutes, Vanessa recalled for The New York Times.

Six weeks later, they were introduced again by a mutual friend at a birthday party.

"We talked for an hour," she told the Times. Eventually they realized they'd met weeks earlier.

Born 11 months apart, the model sisters grew up on Manhattan's club scene, and the siblings became club owners themselves with the opening of Sessa, Women's Wear Daily reported in January 2003.

The Polynesian-themed club aimed to be a place where people could "hang out without having to shout over the music," WWD wrote.

In January 2004, the club was forced to close, The New York Times reported.

In November 2004, Trump Jr. proposed to the model with a complimentary $100,000 ring from a New Jersey jeweler in exchange for popping the question in front of the jeweler's mall storefront with paparazzi present.

The couple married a year later on November 12, 2005, at Trump's Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.

The couple had five children together: Kai, Donald John III, Tristan, Spencer, and Chloe.

Their eldest daughter, Kai Trump, 17, is an avid golfer and, in 2024, committed to playing for the University of Miami. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and appeared at her grandfather's inauguration in January 2025 alongside other family members.

From 2010 to 2013, the model released a line of handbags called La Poshett, although she eventually settled into the stay-at-home mom lifestyle, homeschooling her children over the COVID-19 pandemic.

After 12 years of marriage, Vanessa filed for a no-contest divorce in 2018.

The couple separated nine months before filing for a divorce, and Trump Jr. began dating Fox News anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2018.

Donald Jr. and Vanessa have maintained an amicable relationship, spending time together at Mar-a-Lago and various official events.

The golfer, 47, and the former model, 49, both live in Palm Beach, Florida, where Vanessa is raising her and Trump Jr.'s children.

Last month, Woods was pictured arriving at the Genesis Invitational tournament with the president's granddaughter Kai. The two then played a round of golf together.

Earlier this month, Vanessa and Kai attended the TGL event in Palm Beach with Charlie Woods, the golfer's son.

People reported that the two have been "quietly dating" for several months, and an insider said the president's son is "cool" with their relationship.

Located an hour from Los Angeles, Huntington Beach is known for its beaches and surfing culture, which, according to the city's website, have earned it the title of "Surf City USA."

The city has 10 miles of beaches along the Pacific Coast Highway and a vibrant food scene.

Once a hippie capital, San Francisco is the largest city to make it in the top 10.

With 245 sunny days each year and summer high temperatures around 70 degrees, the Bay city ranked fourth in a US News & World Report ranking of best places to live based on weather.

The city was named sixth best in the WalletHub study's emotional and physical wellbeing ranking, which considered factors like depression, suicide, and adequate sleep rates, as well as sports participation and physical health index.

With a lively culture and thriving industry, the city is also walkable and has a robust public transit system, with nearly 35% of households being car-free, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority.

The city also ranked as the second best city for young professionals in a Niche ranking.

Known for its luxury spa resorts and golf courses, Scottsdale, Arizona, ranked as the eight happiest city in the US, and the best US city to find a job.

Located in the Sonoran Desert, the city has a landscape of rocky hills and cacti and enjoys sunshine year-round with 299 sunny days each year. The city has beautiful architecture with attractions such as the Taliesin West, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Scottsdale, which has become a millionaires' hub in recent years, also came 10th in the study's income and employment ranking, which looks at factors like poverty rate, job satisfaction, and commute time.

Niche also ranked it the best city to retire in the US in 2024.

The Wisconsin capital and home to the University of Wisconsin, Madison has a lively food scene, high-performing education, and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation.

The Midwestern city was ninth in the study's community and environment ranking, which looks at factors like ideal weather, divorce rate, hate-crime incidents, and average leisure time spent per day.

The city also ranked sixth for quality of life in a US News & World Report list.

The Nebraska capital and home to the University of Nebraska came No. 1 in the study's community and environment ranking.

The city, where most residents own their homes, provides a suburban feel, while also offering a lively downtown with bars, coffee shops, and parks.

Overland Park, Kansas' second largest city after Wichita, has a charming downtown with local arts and boutiques, as well as vibrant food and music scenes.

The city came fourth in the study's emotional and physical well-being ranking, and Niche named it the seventh best place to raise a family and second best place to buy a home.

The South Dakota city provides both a small-town and suburban feel and abundant outdoor activities.

The city came fifth in the study's community and environment ranking and ninth in the emotional and physical well-being ranking.

The low cost of living and thriving job market also contributed to the city's ranking as the eighth best place to buy a home in a Niche ranking.

An hour outside of Los Angeles, Irvine is home to beautiful parks, low crime rates, and well-respected schools like UC Irvine.

WalletHub reported that over 88% of adults in Irvine report "have good or better health," which is the third highest percentage in the country. Nearly 84% of residents participate in physical activities, and the city has the seventh highest life expectancy for residents.

In a Niche study, the city was also ranked the second healthiest city in the US and the fifth best city for outdoor activities.

This wellbeing also expands to mental health as well, with the city having the third lowest percentage of adults who say they have 14 or more mentally unhealthy days each month, and the eighth lowest depression rate, WalletHub reported.

The city also ranked as the third lowest for separation and divorce rate in the study, and ranked as the sixth best city in the country to raise families, Niche reported.

Known as the "Capital of Silicon Valley," San Jose fosters a vibrant and diverse community with a thriving industry and warm climate.

The city, which gets 300 days of sunshine annually, has the longest life expectancy in the country, according to the study.

It also has the third-highest share of households with annual incomes over $75,000 and the most million-dollar homes in the country, LendingTree reported in January.

According to WalletHub, San Jose has one of the best scores on Sharecare's Community Well-Being Index, which measures how much residents enjoy where they live, feel safe, and have pride in their community.

The city also had the fourth lowest separation and divorce rate, and was found the eighth best city for families in the US in a LendingTree study.

Fremont ranks as the happiest city in the US, according to the WalletHub study.

Also a Bay Area city, Fremont had the highest share of households with an income above $75,000 in the story, with nearly 80% of households making above that.

The city also had the lowest separation and divorce rate in the country, at 8.9%, and the lowest share of adults who report having 14 or more mentally unhealthy days per month, WalletHub reported.

Fremont was ranked the No. 1 city in the US for emotional and physical wellbeing in WalletHub's report. It also came fourth on the community and environment ranking.

"With our vibrant community, exceptional quality of life and abundant opportunities, Fremont has earned its reputation as a beacon of happiness and wellbeing," Fremont's then-mayor Lily Mei told Metro Silicon Valley in 2024.

The high quality of schools, community safety, and plenty of outdoor spaces also contributed to the city's ranking as the happiest city in the US.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has spread among a variety of bird species, including chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and many migratory wild birds.

There have also been cases in humans and other mammals, including dairy cows, seals, bears, and cats. Dairy cows have seen the biggest impact among mammals, with 985 confirmed cases in 17 states since March 2024, according to USDA data.

In February, the virus affected a total of 15.83 million birds, with outbreaks reported in 79 commercial and 55 backyard flocks.

The H5N1 virus has spread worldwide, hitting every continent except Australia.

In the US, the most affected states are California and Washington, with 38 and 11 confirmed human cases, respectively.

According to CDC data, there have been a total of 70 human cases since 2024 and one death related to the virus.

Of those cases, 41 were related to exposure to infected dairy cattle, 24 to exposure to infected poultry farm operations, and two to infected backyard flocks, wild birds, or other mammals. The exposure source for three of the cases was undetermined.

Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recommends avoiding feeding household animals raw, unpasteurized milk products because of the potential for the milk to carry bird flu.

Bird flu can spread through direct contact with contaminated animals, water sources, or surfaces.

So far, human exposure to the virus has mainly come from unprotected exposure to infected animals. The virus has not shown the ability to transmit human-to-human. Mild cases may look similar to regular flu infections, with patients showing signs of fever, cough, runny nose, headache, diarrhea, chills, and teary eyes, according to the CDC.

In the poultry industry, when a bird flock becomes infected, "you have to actually put the whole flock to death," Pekosz said.

For dairy cattle, the detection of just one infection in a herd means that the whole herd is taken out of production to prevent contaminated products from leaving the farm.

The CDC currently considers the risk of H5N1 infection to the public to be low.

"The risk to the general population is essentially zero," said Dr. William Schaffner, former medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

People should exercise caution in their interactions with wild birds and products that could spread infection, such as unpasteurized dairy.

Under USDA guidelines, farmers must immediately contact authorities and test animals suspected of being infected. Once an infection is detected, the flock is put in quarantine and the infected birds are killed.

On Feb. 26, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion strategy to curb the bird flu, including expansions to the agency's biosecurity measures and funding for vaccine research.

The CDC is monitoring human infections and has released guidelines for contact with possibly infected animals at the commercial and hobbyist levels.

The biggest hit to the poultry economy has been the massive loss in chicken populations, which has resulted in a decrease in egg production in the U.S.

The egg shortage has led to rising prices and dwindling grocery store supplies.

"When this virus enters a poultry farm, it starts to kill chickens almost immediately," Pekosz said. "The eggs or the chickens never really get a chance to even leave the farm before the farmers know that there's an infection going on."

The CDC suggests minimizing or avoiding exposure to dead and sick animals unless wearing adequate protective equipment.

While there is no real risk of infection from food products like eggs or chicken, Pekosz said people who are concerned can err on the side of caution and follow USDA cooking guidelines.

"If you follow those recommendations, the bird flu virus will be killed," he said. "So even if in the very, very low possibility that you would get something that's contaminated with H5N1, if you just cook the eggs properly, that virus will be killed and won't pose any harm to you."

"Raw milk is probably the biggest thing that is a concern for people who are not working on cows or at dairy or poultry farms in terms of a risk factor," Pekosz added.

For those with backyard bird feeders or bird baths, Schaffner suggested using surgical gloves when touching water or surfaces where the birds flock and carefully disposing the gloves once done.

The virus is beginning to mutate in ways that could make it more equipped to infect humans, but we have some tools to combat it.

"With H5N1, we know we have drugs that will prevent the virus from replicating. We know how to make vaccines that work against influenza viruses. We have a lot of tests that we know work really well in terms of detecting the virus," Pekosz said. "We've had 40 years of research on this virus that allowed us to show that we have a bunch of tools that can be used to minimize the effects of this virus should it become a human pathogen."

That said, an H5N1 pandemic could be devastating.

The risk of the virus mutating to become better at infecting beef cattle appears to be low, according to Pekosz and Schaffner.

Of the dairy cows affected by the virus, most infections have been caused by improper cleaning of milking equipment, and the infection has stayed localized in the cow's milk-producing organs, removing the risk of infection for cattle not involved in milking procedures.

In May 2024, the USDA started randomly testing beef cattle for the virus.

The influenza vaccine doesn't protect humans against bird flu infection, but the ongoing flu season, which is the worst in 15 years, is a bigger threat right now.

"Bird flu is a theoretical risk. Seasonal flu is a real risk," Schaffner said.

For this test, I used Betty Crocker's Fudge brownie mix. Each box was $2.99.

The classic fudge mix calls for 1/2 a cup of oil, 2 tablespoons of water, and two eggs.

One 24-ounce jar of Mott's applesauce was $2.

Since applesauce works as a binder and an emulsifier, according to Business Insider's egg replacement chart, it should provide moisture and body to baked goods like brownies.

I had previously made oat cookies with applesauce, but I had never tried it in a box mix.

To replace the two eggs in the brownies, I used 100 grams of applesauce, which is just over a 1/3 cup.

I first mixed the applesauce with water and then added the oil, but it didn't seem to fully incorporate.

Since it wasn't fully emulsified, the applesauce mix seemed to separate a bit in the pan. After pouring it in, I saw some of the oil appearing in the corners.

I cooked each batch of brownies in this test at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes or more as needed.

At the 35-minute mark, the applesauce brownies still looked undercooked, so I left them in the oven for an additional 10 minutes.

Even then, the brownies still seemed a little undercooked when I cut them.

Despite being cooked for the appropriate time, the brownies seemed undercooked on the inside — maybe they could've benefited from staying in the oven a few extra minutes so the mix could solidify a bit more.

However, when it came to the taste, they were fudgy and rich and didn't have any apple taste.

One 16-ounce container of tofu was $2.99.

I used 160 grams to replace two eggs — just under a third of the pack — which added about 7 grams of protein to the brownies.

While I'm familiar with tofu from being a vegan in the past, I had never used it in baking, so I was intrigued by its potential.

The silken tofu was very soft, and it was a little challenging to drain the water from the container without the tofu also falling out.

I first mixed the tofu with the 2 tablespoons of water and then added the oil. The tofu seemed to emulsify a lot better than the applesauce.

At first, white clots of tofu were a little intimidating, but after mixing it more, they blended nicely.

The mix was thicker than the applesauce, but it was also smoother.

Out of the oven, the tofu brownie had a nice shiny layer on top.

It had also risen a lot more than the applesauce brownies and didn't look as oily.

Having risen a little more than the applesauce brownies, the tofu brownies had more of a cake-like texture and were a lot lighter.

They were a little crumbly — not dry — but I didn't mind it too much because of the nice lightness the brownie had.

Mayonnaise, which is made from eggs and oil, made sense as an egg replacement, although I wasn't very fond of the idea.

One 8-ounce jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise was $3.99, making this alternative the most expensive per serving.

While I can enjoy mayonnaise in savory dishes, the idea of using it for brownies was a little daunting. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I was open to having my mind changed.

I used 6 tablespoons of mayo to replace the two eggs.

I first mixed the mayonnaise with the water and then added the oil, and it seemed to emulsify really well.

Pouring it in the pan, the mix did not look as smooth as when I had used other egg alternatives. It was also the thickest, so I had to spread it out.

When I first checked on the brownies at the 35-minute mark, the mix was still completely liquid.

I let them cook until they solidified for an extra 30 minutes, 10 minutes at a time, and checked until they looked done.

When I pulled them out of the oven, oil was bubbling through the flat top.

The mayonnaise brownie was extremely oily and a little too chewy and hard.

I also thought it had a bit of a weird flavor, but that might have been more of a mental block on my part.

The chia seeds seemed expensive at $8.88 for a 2-pound bag, which was the only one I could find at the store.

Still, the large bag meant the cost per serving was actually lower than the mayonnaise.

I had used chia seeds in baking before, so I knew going in that it usually meant recipes turned out more crumbly than expected.

I first mixed 2 tablespoons of seeds with 6 tablespoons of water to make a "chia egg" — it took about five minutes for the mixture to settle in a gelatinous texture.

I then mixed it with water and then the oil.

Although you could still see the seeds, the mix itself was smooth and not too dry.

Although textured, the mix was still smooth and runny enough to cover the pan without me spreading it.

When I took them out of the oven, the brownies didn't seem to have any oil bubbling through and had a nice crispy edge and top.

With a nice crispy top and fudgy bottom, the chia brownies were my favorites by far. They were the perfect balance of rich and crunchy.

The chia seeds also added a fun crunch to the brownie, and I really enjoyed the texture.

Aquafaba, the liquid leftover from cooking chickpeas, is supposed to help with emulsifying, binding, and leavening, making it the most complete replacement, at least on paper.

One can of chickpeas was $1.25, making this the cheapest alternative. I used 6 tablespoons of the liquid to replace two eggs.

I had never used aquafaba, and while I had heard a lot of good things about it, I was a bit uncertain about how these would turn out.

Filtering out the liquid, I had to remove some chickpea skins from the aquafaba, which had a thick, watery texture, like watered-down egg whites.

I first mixed the aquafaba with water and then added the oil. While mixing it, the liquid became white and lighter. I was afraid of over-beating it, so I stopped once it felt like a liquid egg mixture.

While it emulsified well and the oil didn't seem to separate, the mixture was very runny, more than the other alternatives.

Given how thin the mixture was, I expected this brownie to be lighter than the rest, more cake-like than fudgy.

Out of the oven, the brownies looked unlike any of the others. They had a crispy layer on top and crispy edges, while the center appeared to have caved in.

While I wasn't sure what to expect from the look of them, the brownies themselves were delicious and fudgy.

The thin layer of crisp on top and the crunchy edges made for a perfect balance with the rich center.

Of the five alternatives, silken tofu, chia seeds, and aquafaba all worked well, and I could see myself using them again depending on what kind of brownie I wanted.

For a lighter, more cake-like brownie with added protein, I'd choose the silken tofu. If I wanted a decadent and rich chocolate experience, I'd choose the aquafaba.

For a perfectly balanced brownie with a nice crunch, I'd go for the chia seeds, which were my favorite of the five in this experiment.

On the value front, both the chia seeds — despite the high cost upfront — and the aquafaba offered the lowest cost per batch, and considering aquafaba usually gets discarded when using a can of chickpeas, this seemed like a creative way to use it.

Compared with the price of eggs — a dozen Grade-A large eggs cost an average of $4.95 in January — the chia seeds, aquafaba, and applesauce were all at least three times cheaper than using eggs in the recipe, while the tofu and mayo were just a little more expensive per serving.

Ultimately, the aquafaba and chia-seed brownies provide a pleasant alternative while also being significantly cheaper.

As long as you're cooking your chicken, bird-flu contamination should not be a concern.

"We had chicken in our house last night," Dr. William Schaffner, a medical doctor and former director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told Business Insider. "We don't eat it raw — we cook it first. So we didn't have to be concerned about that."

The cooking process typically kills harmful bacteria in raw foods, making bird-flu infection highly unlikely.

The USDA recommends always cooking chicken to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill harmful bacteria like the salmonella virus. The salmonella virus can be found as commonly as in one of every 25 packets of raw chicken, according to the CDC.

While chicken isn't as much of a concern for human infection since it's mostly eaten cooked, raw chicken in pet products could be exposed to the virus.

On March 1, Wild Coast Raw recalled its frozen raw chicken cat food due to potential bird-flu contamination.

While the FDA said no human infections had been reported from handling the raw food, the agency advised people who'd bought the cat food to take caution when handling it by washing their hands and avoiding contact with their eyes, nose, or mouth.

The FDA also instructed pet owners to watch out for bird-flu symptoms in their pets and themselves.

Andrew Pekotz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Business Insider that the virus' quick effects on infected birds, which die soon after contagion, means infections very rarely go unnoticed.

"The eggs or the chickens never really get a chance to even leave the farm before the farmers know that there's an infection going on," Pekotz said.

If sick birds even get a chance to lay eggs before they die, close oversight of poultry farms means those eggs don't make it to the food supply. In the cases where sick birds lay eggs on commercial farms, their eggs get destroyed as soon as the virus is detected in the flock.

Ultimately this means the eggs you buy in the store are highly unlikely to be affected.

The FDA doesn't recommend consuming raw eggs due to their increased risk of carrying foodborne illness-causing bacteria like salmonella. Instead it advises to "cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm."

However, undercooked eggs don't carry any additional risks for carrying bird flu.

"Even the consumption of raw eggs," Schaffner said. "There have been no risks associated with eating that" during this current outbreak, he said.

Currently, there is no public health warning against consuming raw eggs because of bird flu.

The CDC reported that bird flu has been detected in dairy cows, but the nature of their infections suggests that beef cattle might not be at such risk.

Still, since 2024 the USDA has started randomly testing beef cows for the virus to monitor any changes to contagion trends and strain mutations.

Currently, the virus has not been detected in beef cattle, making raw beef safe from bird flu contamination, although experts say it is risky in its own right because of its potential to carry harmful bacteria and parasites.

Food safety standards recommend cooking beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent foodborne illnesses.

Despite its growing popularity in pockets of the US, raw milk can be very dangerous, even when there's not a bird flu outbreak.

While some studies have indicated children who grew up on farms — where they have consumed raw milk and have been exposed to other environmental factors — have a lower incidence of allergies in what is known as the "farm effect," experts say the considerable dangers of consuming raw milk outweigh any purported benefits.

Unpasteurized milk exposes consumers to harmful bacteria like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria. The FDA reported the consumption of raw milk was linked to 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations from 1998 to 2018.

In light of the bird flu outbreak, experts strongly recommend against its consumption.

"That's the only product with which we're concerned at the moment," Schaffner said.

Unpasteurized milk has the potential to carry the bird flu virus as a pathogen since it can be present in dairy cattle. This has led to multiple recalls of raw milk products in California after the virus was detected in them.

In dairy farms where cattle have been infected, improper cleaning of milking machinery has often been considered the contagion point.

The pasteurization process effectively kills the virus, even prompting leading raw milk brands to process their products as a cautionary measure during the current virus outbreak.

While raw milk is the biggest consumer threat for infection, experts say the pasteurization process effectively kills the bird flu virus and many other harmful bacteria.

In dairy farms, cattle detected to have the virus are immediately taken out of production, decreasing the chance of virus contamination entering the food supply in the first place.

"Those products, at the moment, offer no risk," Schaffner said.

After shopping at farmers' markets, properly clean and cook your food according to food safety standards.

Local and small vendors can lack the structured oversight that major farms and grocery stores enforce for their providers, but most animal products — other than raw, unpasteurized milk — remain safe from contamination from the bird flu.

Academy Award winner Jane Fonda is the daughter of Hollywood and Broadway legend Henry Fonda and the Canadian-American socialite Frances Ford Seymour.

In the above photograph, Jane Fonda is pictured second from right, between her father and her brother, Peter. Left, Henry Fonda's third wife, Susan Blanchard, holds their daughter Amy.

Actor, director, producer, and humanitarian Angelina Jolie is the youngest child of Hollywood actor Jon Voight and his second wife, TV actor Marcheline Bertrand.

Jolie is pictured at the 1986 Academy Awards with her brother, grandmother, and father.

The "Doctor Strange" and "Sherlock" actor was born in 1976 to British TV actors Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton, who also had a career in theatre.

Hargitay, best-known for playing detective Olivia Benson in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," was one of the five children of Playboy Playmate and 1950s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. Her father, Mickey Hargitay, was an actor and bodybuilder famous for winning the 1955 Mr. Universe. A 1-year-old Hargitay is pictured second from right.

Born Carlos Irwin Estévez, the "Two and a Half Men" actor (center) is the child of actors Janet Sheen and Emmy-winning Martin Sheen. Martin Sheen (second from right) has had a lengthy career in Hollywood, appearing in movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "Badlands" and shows like "West Wing" and "Grace and Frankie."

In fact, all four of Janet and Martin Sheen's kids have enjoyed careers in Hollywood: Emilio Estévez (pictured second from left) was part of the Brat Pack, Renée Estevez (left) appeared in movies including "Heathers," and Ramón Estévez acts, produces, and directs.

The "Friends" actor was born in 1969 to Greek "Days of Our Lives" actor John Aniston and TV actor Nancy Dow.

The Goop founder and actor was born in 1972 to Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow. Her godfather is Steven Spielberg.

She had her acting debut in "High," a 1989 film her father directed.

Born Nicolas Kim Coppola, the "National Treasure" actor is part of the Coppola family, which includes his uncle, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. He's also related to Sofia Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, both cousins.

The "Almost Famous" and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" actor is the daughter of Oscar winner Goldie Hawn and musician Bill Hudson, and she is close with her mother's longterm partner, actor Kurt Russell.

"The nepotism thing, I mean … I don't really care," Kate Hudson told The Independent in 2022. "I remember ['Almost Famous' director] Cameron Crowe saying that it wasn't as if Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell showed up to his door with, like, trench coats on, holding a gun to his head and making him put me in the movie. That's not how any of this works."

The daughter of musician Phil Collins, the "Emily in Paris" actor began her acting career at the age of 2. She had her breakout role in 2009, playing Sandra Bullock's daughter in "The Blind Side."

Known for her roles in "The Politician" and the satirical "Not Okay," Deutch (second from left) is the daughter of "Back to the Future" actor Lea Thompson and "Pretty in Pink" director Howard Deutch.

Her older sister, Madelyn Deutch, is also an actor and musician.

"Star Wars" actor Carrie Fisher was the daughter of "Singin' in the Rain" star and Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds and musician Eddie Fisher, who married Elizabeth Taylor after divorcing Reynolds.

Carrie Fisher was the mother of a nepo baby herself — her daughter, Billie Lourd, has also made a name for herself in acting.

The "Fifty Shades of Grey" star is the daughter of "Miami Vice" actor Don Johnson and second-generation Hollywood actor Melanie Griffith. Her maternal grandmother, Tippi Hedren, starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in 1963.

Dakota Johnson made her film debut at age 10 in "Crazy in Alabama," directed by her then-stepfather Antonio Banderas.

Johnson has called the "nepo baby" discourse "incredibly annoying and boring," People reported in 2024.

Qualley, who is known for her recent role in "The Substance" alongside Demi Moore, is the daughter of Andie MacDowell, with whom she starred in the Netflix show "Maid" in 2021.

She made her modeling debut at New York Fashion Week in 2011, at age 16, and the following year walked for Valentino and Chanel in Paris Fashion Week. She made her acting debut in 2013, appearing in Gia Coppola's "Palo Alto."

The SNL comedian and actor is the daughter of musicians Minnie Riperton and Richard Rudolph.

Her mother's biggest hit, the 1974 "Lovin' You," was written for Maya by her parents as a nighttime lullaby.

The "Schitt's Creek" star, writer, and producer is the son of Canadian actor and comedian Eugene Levy, who co-starred and executive-produced the show alongside his son.

The sisters are the daughters of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, who worked on "National Treasure" and "The Passion of the Christ," and TV actor Mary Jo Deschanel.

The "Rosemary's Baby" actor is the child of Academy Award-winning film director John Farrow and Irish actor Maureen O'Sullivan, who played Jane Parker in the "Tarzan" films.

The Academy Award-winning "Wall Street" actor is the son of actor and filmmaker Kirk Douglas, who appeared in over 90 films throughout his career, and actor Diana Douglas.

Daughter to the legendary singer Diana Ross and her then-husband, music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, Tracee Ellis Ross grew up in an artistic sphere — she was even photographed by Andy Warhol during her childhood.

When Drew Barrymore shot to fame, aged 7, for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," she was the youngest of a long line of performers — the Barrymore family has its acting roots in mid-19th-century London. Her father, John Drew Barrymore, starred in many films in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

But growing up in the spotlight was not easy, and Drew Barrymore has spoken of the challenges of stardom at a young age.

Better known for his role in "The Boys," Jack Quaid is the son of "When Harry Met Sally" star Meg Ryan and "The Parent Trap" actor Dennis Quaid.

"Jack is really talented," Meg Ryan told Glamour in 2023. "He's more of a natural than I'll ever be … That nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts, and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege."

Following her comments, Quaid told The Daily Beast of the "nepo baby" label, "I don't think it undermines my talent. I know that I work hard, and I know I've heard 'no' way more than I've heard 'yes.' But I also know that this industry is insanely hard to break into, and I had an easier time doing that than most. Both things can be true."

The "Jurassic World" actor is the eldest child of legendary Hollywood director and Oscar winner Ron Howard and writer Cheryl Howard.

The scream queen is the daughter of "Psycho" star Janet Leigh and actor Tony Curtis, who appeared in more than 100 films.

In a 2022 Instagram post, Jamie Lee Curtis criticized the nepo baby discourse.

"The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt," Curtis wrote. "There's not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars."

The "Zoolander" star and comedian was born in 1965 to actor Anne Meara and comedian Jerry Stiller, who made up the comedy duo Stiller and Meara in the 1960s and 1970s.

Estimated net worth: $8.3 billion, per Forbes

Rales, the chairman and cofounder of medical manufacturer Danaher, founded the film production company Indian Paintbrush in 2006 and has worked closely with director Wes Anderson ever since.

Rales also owns film distributors Janus Films and The Criterion Collection and has a 20% in the NBA Indiana Pacers.

He won the best live-action short film award in 2024 with Anderson's "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar," which he produced.

Estimated net worth: $5.3 billion, per Forbes

The Boston businessman purchased the Philadelphia Eagles for $185 million in 1994 and has won two Super Bowls since. But Lurie has a background in film, and has produced and executive-produced more than a dozen movies.

His grandfather founded the General Cinema movie-theater chain, which operated 1,500 screens at its peak in 1991 before it was acquired by AMC in the early 2000s.

Lurie has won three Oscars for best documentary as executive producer of "Inside Job" in 2011, "Inocente" in 2013, and "Summer of Soul" in 2022.

Estimated net worth: $5.3 billion, per Forbes

The film director and producer has worked on some of the most successful films of the past 30 years, directing films like "Jurassic Park," "Jaws," and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."

He's regarded as the most commercially successful film director of all time and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster, with his films amassing a box-office total of over $10.7 billion over 37 films, as reported by The Numbers.

He won the Oscar for best director in 1999 with "Saving Private Ryan" and in 1994 with "Schindler's List," which also won best picture that year.

Estimated net worth: $5.2 billion

Skoll, who was eBay's first president from 1996 to 1998, founded film production company Participant Media in 2004 to create films that increased awareness of social issues.

He won best picture as executive producer of "Spotlight" in 2016 and "Green Book" in 2019.

In total, Participant Media has won 21 Academy Awards over 86 nominations, including best international film for "Roma."

Estimated net worth: $5.2 billion, per Forbes

The creator of the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises founded the film production company Lucasfilm in 1971 and sold it to Disney for $4 billion in 2012.

In 1992, he won the Oscars' Irving G. Thalberg Award, which awards "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production." He was also nominated for best director and best original screenplay for "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars" in 1973 and 1977, respectively.

Estimated net worth: $3 billion, per Forbes

The TV host and media mogul has been often regarded as the most powerful woman in media and was once the world's only Black billionaire.

She won the Oscars' Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes" in 2011. She was also nominated for best supporting actress in 1985 for "The Color Purple."

Estimated net worth: $2.3 billion, per Forbes

The computer graphics researcher, founding Pixar Animation Studio employee, and computer-science and electrical-engineering professor at Stanford University has worked on groundbreaking animation software that led to films like "Toy Story."

He won a scientific and engineering Academy Award in 1993 and two technical achievement Oscars in 2004 and 2014.

Estimated net worth: $1.6 billion, per Forbes

The chairman, co-owner, and executive vice president of the New York Giants has produced over 40 films and has worked closely with Columbia and Sony Pictures.

He won the Oscar for best picture in 1995 with "Forrest Gump."

Estimated net worth: $1.5 billion, per Forbes

The "Lord of The Rings" and "Hobbit" filmmaker has written, directed, and worked on over 20 films and is the fifth highest-grossing director of all time, with his films surpassing $6.5 billion at the box office, per The Numbers rankings.

In 2004, he won Oscars for best director, best adapted screenplay, and best picture for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Estimated net worth: $1.4 billion, per Forbes

The filmmaker and playwright created the Madea character in 1999 and founded his own production company, Tyler Perry Studios, in 2006. In 2019, he unveiled the new 330-acre studio grounds in Atlanta. His films have made over $765 million at the box office.

He received the Oscars' Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2021.

Estimated net worth: $1.2 billion, per Forbes

The film producer, best known for creating the "Law & Order" franchise, founded Wolf Entertainment in 1988. It has become one of the most prolific companies in the television business.

He won the Academy Award for best short film as a producer with "Twin Towers" in 2003.

In the early days of the republic, children were most often educated in small, community-organized settings like churches, work apprenticeships, homeschooling, or in schools run by traveling schoolmasters, groups of parents, or women, per the Center on Education Policy. Wealthy children were often sent to boarding schools too.

Inaccessible to many, these schools often ran on tuition paid by parents, although residents in some Northeastern towns helped fund free local schools. Some churches and religious groups also provided free education for low-income children.

The 1819 Civilization Fund Act provided federal funds to "benevolent societies" like religious missionaries who educated Native American children in or near their communities. The act aimed to "civilize" the Native populations.

For the next decades, boarding schools in or near reservations played a major role in assimilating Native Americans into European-American culture. At these schools, children would be removed from their families and communities, stripped of their native languages and clothing, given new names, and have their hair cut off in an effort to assimilate them into white culture.

Reports of abuse, forced labor, and hidden deaths have since come out about these boarding schools, prompting President Joe Biden to issue a formal apology in 2024 for the government's role in funding and running these schools.

During the 19th century, public schools became more common.

In 1830, 55% of children aged between 5 and 14 attended public schools, according to Johann N. Neem's "Democracy's Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America." By 1870, that number had risen to 78%.

By the late 1860s, the common school movement, which advocated for free, universal, state-funded education, had been growing in the North for decades, according to the Center on Education Policy. School reform in Massachusetts promoted universal schooling as a means to eliminate crime, poverty, and other societal ills.

After the Civil War, abolitionists and public education advocates saw the Northern model of universal education as one of the reasons for the Union's victory in the war and called for its federal expansion.

In 1867, then-Ohio representative James Garfield introduced a bill to create a federal Department of Education, which President Andrew Johnson then signed into law.

The department would collect and analyze data detailing school conditions and performance throughout the states, share information regarding education progress, school systems, and teaching methods, and promote education throughout the country.

"The idea was similar to what we think right now in terms of collecting data, that if we know more, we could improve schools based on that knowledge," Kevin G. Welner, professor of educational policy and law at the University of Colorado Boulder and the director of the National Education Policy Center, told Business Insider.

The department had a small budget and a passive role in education, yet opposition in Congress considered the establishment of the Department of Education as an overreach of the federal government.

In 1868, it became an office within the Department of Interior, where it remained for the following decades.

In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld a law that "separate but equal accommodations for the white and colored races" were legal, allowing for segregation to spread legally throughout the South.

In education, this meant that segregated schools remained the norm for the following decades, and Black children faced poor education resources such as overcrowded and underfunded schools, inaccessible facilities, and unequal transportation, the National Museum of African American History and Culture wrote.

By this point, a high school education was still not common to most Americans; only 14% of adults aged 25 and older had completed high school by 1910, according to Census data.

The Smith-Hughes Act, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, provided federal funding for vocational and technical education in areas such as agriculture, home economics, and industrial trades.

During this time of rapid industrialization, vocational education was seen as a tool to help young workers meet the needs of a changing economy while promoting the moral value of education.

The federal funding helped establish a nationwide system of vocational and technical school programs offered to young workers.

This was the first major step in establishing a federal power within education, Welner said.

"The feeling was that the war efforts and the importance of economic growth depended on preparing more students to work in non-professional vocations," he said.

At the end of WWII, the federal government recommended funding college education for veterans to help avoid a postwar depression — the Department of Labor estimated 15 million women and men in the armed services would become unemployed at the war's end.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, or GI Bill, which provided millions of war veterans with education funding and made college degrees more affordable.

The act provided funding for tuition, books, supplies, subsistence, and counseling services for servicemen seeking college education.

Within the next seven years, an estimated 8 million veterans received education benefits from the federal government, according to the National Archives.

In the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, the court found that segregating schools by race was unconstitutional, reversing the previous "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Despite the court ruling, schools, businesses, and services would continue to employ "de facto segregation" for the following decade leading to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

During this time, racial integration in schools became a controversial topic, and there were clashes between people who were in favor and those who opposed it. One example was the anger and injustice experienced by the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas.

In the Cold War space race, Americans found themselves falling behind the Soviets following the launch of the Sputnik satellite. With a newfound interest in education as a branch of national defense, Congress passed the 1958 National Defense Education Act, which provided education funding in areas relevant to the Cold War efforts, like science, math, and foreign languages

While federal education funding had previously been met with strong opposition, the threat of intellectual inferiority at the time persuaded congressmen to support the act.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act providing funding for K-12 schools with high percentages of low-income students as part of his "war on poverty."

The measure aimed to improve school conditions for students and lower poverty rates across the country.

It also provided funding for school supplies, books, training, and research in measures designed to strengthen state departments of education.

According to the ESEA Network, an organization of school administrators and staff, the act was "the most far-reaching federal legislation affecting education ever passed by Congress. "

This was the first time that the federal government provided major aid to states for public education funding.

Previous to federal protections, many children with disabilities didn't have access to public education and instead were often institutionalized in facilities lacking educational instruction.

As reported in Arizona State University's Embryo Project Encyclopedia, only about 20% of children with disabilities attended public school at the beginning of the 1970s.

In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to ensure that disabled children had access to free, appropriate public education. For this, the act provided funding for special education programs and early intervention services for children.

During his 1976 presidential campaign, Carter had run on the promise of creating a Department of Education to centralize federal education funding. In 1980, Carter unified different programs, such as ESEA and IDEA, under a federal cabinet-level agency.

"Primary responsibility for education should rest with those States, localities, and private institutions that have made our Nation's educational system the best in the world," President Carter said in his statement on signing the department into law, "but the Federal Government has for too long failed to play its own supporting role in education as effectively as it could."

Welner told BI the move was "symbolically important" for the US.

"When Congress passed the law, and President Carter signed it, I think there was a feeling that this was elevating the importance of education to our country," he said.

During his 1980 presidential campaign against Carter, Ronald Reagan criticized the Department of Education, citing concerns over federal overreach and government spending.

In 1981, after Reagan won the presidency, the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act reauthorized Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act and gave most of the education responsibilities back to the states.

This also resulted in a redistribution of funds away from urban and low-income communities, according to a 1982 RAND report.

The National Commission on Excellence in Education's "Nation at Risk " report, published in 1983, largely shook up national notions of education and the federal government's response to education research findings.

The report warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity [in education] that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people" and effectively prompted an increased government involvement in education through standards and accountability, wrote Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California.

During his presidency, Bill Clinton saw the early beginnings of the education reforms that would be prompted by the "Nation at Risk" warnings to the nation.

The Improving America's Schools Act, Clinton's 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, saw increased funding for schools.

The Department of Education also unveiled the Goals 2000 program, which aimed to prepare the nation's students and educational systems for the 21st century.

Under the IASA, states were required to draft plans that included "high-quality standards" for students in order to secure funding.

In Bush's 2001 reauthorization of ESEA, an increased focus was put on standardized testing as a measure of school performance. The act aimed to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged students by holding schools accountable for the testing performance of all students.

One of the law's most significant goals was to get every student to grade-level reading and math by 2014, reaching a "100% proficiency" goal set by the Department of Education.

At the time, 18% of fourth-graders, 17% of eighth-graders, and 11% of 12th-graders performed at or above proficiency level, according to the 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"We're gonna spend more money, more resources," Bush said at the time, as reported by NPR, "but they'll be directed at methods that work. Not feel-good methods. Not sound-good methods. But methods that actually work."

Opponents of No Child Left Behind criticized the act's increased pressure on K-12 teachers by imposing testing standards as a universal measure of progress.

While monitoring the progress of schools nationwide, the Department of Education still let each state define its education goals, which resulted in mixed performance outcomes.

Welner said during the Bush and Obama administrations there was a "scaling up" of the federal government's role in K-12 education.

"[The federal government] had a pretty heavy hand in telling states what to do," Welner said.

In 2010, more than 40 states signed onto the Common Core Standards Initiative, a plan to develop standards that could be compared from state to state.

While Obama's Department of Education did not create or enforce the Common Core Standards, it played a major role in funding schools that adopted it, The New York Times reported.

Some of the ways the government stepped in through funding were the use of test scores to evaluate teachers and incentive pay to teachers with high-performing students.

The program faced significant backlash due to its unfamiliar ways of teaching subjects and reliance on test scores, which led teachers to change coursework to prioritize tested subjects, like non-fiction reading and math, over non-tested ones like history and science.

Obama's 2015 reauthorization of ESEA was the first change to the federal government's approach to education since No Child Left Behind. The Every Student Succeeds Act pushed schools to identify performance measures beyond test scores.

The act gave some power back to the states and narrowed the federal government's role in education for the first time since the "A Nation at Risk" report identified flaws in American schooling.

As a response to the widespread opposition to Common Core standards, ESSA also prohibited federal employees from trying to "influence, incentivize, or coerce a state to adopt the Common Core" or other national K-12 education standards.

Under ESSA, states develop their own performance standards and submit them for review and approval from the Department of Education, the department said.

The act's reduced federal role raised concerns over the proper implementation of standards that wouldn't leave disadvantaged students behind.

During the first Trump administration, efforts to reduce the Department of Education's role led to cuts in K-12 funding.

In 2018, Trump proposed merging the Department of Education with the Department of Labor to reduce the federal budget and combine the agencies' overlapping duties to better respond to market needs. While the measure, which required congressional approval, went nowhere, the idea of cutting the Department of Education prevailed.

The administration also focused on backing out of Obama-era protections in schools for vulnerable populations like transgender students.

It also advocated for school choice programs that allowed parents to choose between public, private, charter, virtual, or homeschool for their children. In 2019, Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, announced a $5 billion tax credit funding scholarships for non-public schools.

In February, Trump said he hopes his education secretary will "put herself out of a job" once the department is dismantled.

However, the administration would need congressional approval to get rid of the department, and even then, most of the programs funded through the Department of Education wouldn't be eliminated.

"If the department is dismantled, those programs still exist," Welner said. "Congress has created and funded these programs, so they have to exist somewhere."

In her Senate hearing, now-confirmed secretary of education Linda McMahon said the IDEA program would go back to the Department of Human Health and Services, where it originated before the formation of the Department of Education.

Following her confirmation on Monday, McMahon told staffers they "must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul," she wrote in an email later released on the department's website.

She described the department's mission for the coming months as "removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers" and leading an "effective transfer of educational oversight to the states."

If the department were to be dismantled, the bulk of education programs would now be under the Department of Health and Human Services while the student loan portfolio would go to the Department of the Treasury, Welner said.

The possible dismantling of the Department of Education would be a symbolic move to maintain a campaign promise, but its real effects remain to be determined.

Box office total: $5.72 billion

Number of movies: 11

Highest-grossing movie: "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) — $1.11 billion

Box office total: $6.08 billion

Number of movies: 6

Highest-grossing movie: "Jurassic World" (2015) — $1.67 billion

Box office total: $6.08 billion

Number of movies: 13

Highest-grossing movie: "Deadpool 2" (2018) — $786 million

Box office total: $7.11 billion

Number of movies: 12

Highest-grossing movie: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" (2011) — $1.34 billion

Box office total: $7.21 billion

Number of movies: 16

Highest-grossing movie: "Aquaman" (2018) — $1.15 billion

Box office total: $7.32 billion

Number of movies: 11

Highest-grossing movie: "Furious 7" (2015) — $1.52 billion

Box office total: $7.88 billion

Number of movies: 27

Highest-grossing movie: "Skyfall" (2012) — $1.11 billion

Box office total: $9.03 billion

Number of movies: 10

Highest-grossing movie: "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021) —$1.95 billion

Box office total: $10.36 billion

Number of movies: 12

Highest-grossing movie: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2016) — $2.07 billion

Box office total: $31.48 billion

Number of movies: 35

Highest-grossing movie: "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) — $2.8 billion

Award won: Best adapted screenplay

For: "The Descendants"

Year: 2012

Jim Rash may be best known for playing Dean in "Community," but he's a writer, too.

Rash put his skills to good use for "The Descendants," a dramedy starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, best actor, and best adapted screenplay, which Rash took home alongside cowriters Nat Faxon and Alexander Payne.

Award won: Best live action short film

For: "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life"

Year: 1995

Capaldi is internationally known for playing the Doctor in "Doctor Who," but fans might not realize he became an Oscar winner nearly two decades prior to taking on the role.

Capaldi won the award for best live action short film alongside Ruth Kenley-Letts for "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life." Their film actually tied for the award with Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone's "Trevor."

Award won: Best original song

For: "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from "The Woman in Red"

Year: 1985

In comparison to his 25 Grammy wins, it's easy to see how Stevie Wonder's Oscar win in 1985 could fly under the radar. The song itself was a massive hit upon its release in 1984, selling millions of copies.

Award won: Best original song

For: "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow"

Year: 2006

Three years after Eminem's win, Three 6 Mafia became the first hip-hop group to take home the Oscar for best original song for "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow."

Award won: Best original song

For: "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile"

Year: 2003

In 2003, Eminem became the first rapper to win the Oscar for best original song with "Lose Yourself" from Curtis Hanson's drama "8 Mile," which he also starred in. Though he wasn't present to accept the award back then, he gave a surprise performance of the song 17 years later, at the Oscars ceremony in 2020.

Award won: Best supporting actress

For: "The Piano" 

Year: 1994

Paquin's acting career started off with a bang, winning best supporting actress for her debut film, "The Piano," at just 11 years old.

Since then, she's appeared in the "X-Men" trilogy, "True Blood," and Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman," but hasn't received another Oscar nomination.

Award won: Best supporting actress

For: "Precious"

Year: 2010

Though Mo'Nique may be best known for her comedy, she had a standout role as abusive mother Mary Jones in Lee Daniels' "Precious" and took home the award for best supporting actress.

However, five years after her win, Mo'Nique told The Hollywood Reporter that Daniels told her she was "blackballed" because she "didn't play the game."

Mo'Nique famously did not campaign for her award, and in the opening line of her acceptance speech said, "First, I would like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics."

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Daniels said, "Her demands through 'Precious' were not always in line with the campaign. This soured her relationship with the Hollywood community."

Mo'Nique and Daniels reconciled in 2022, and she starred in his 2024 horror film, "The Deliverance."

Award won: Best original song

For: "Say You, Say Me" from "White Nights"

Year: 1986

Richie has won one Oscar from three nominations for best original song. His win came in 1986 for "Say You, Say Me" from "White Nights," starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines.

Award won: Best supporting actress

For: "Mighty Aphrodite"

Year: 1996

Before she starred as the iconic Romy White in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion," Sorvino was recognized by the Academy for her role as Linda Ash in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite."

Since then, she's appeared in other films and television projects like "Norma Jean & Marilyn," "Human Trafficking," and more recently, "Sound of Freedom."

In 2017, Sorvino was one of more than a dozen women to speak out against producer Harvey Weinstein in an article published by The New Yorker. She told the publication that she felt her career was hurt after rejecting Weinstein's advances and reporting the harassment she faced.

"There may have been other factors, but I definitely felt iced out and that my rejection of Harvey had something to do with it," Sorvino said.

In a statement in 2017, Weinstein denied he'd been involved in blacklisting Sorvino.

Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape of one woman and of first-degree criminal sex act against another in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison. His conviction was overturned in April 2024 and he was indicted on new charges in September; his retrial is set to begin in April.

Award won: Best documentary feature

For: "An Inconvenient Truth"

Year: 2007

OK, technically the award for best documentary feature was given to director Davis Guggenheim, but former vice president and 2000 presidential nominee Al Gore was its subject, highlighting his educational presentation about the dangers of global warming.

He even took to the stage with Guggenheim after its win, telling the crowd, "My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."

Award won: Best documentary feature

For: "The Cove"

Year: 2010

The "Short Circuit" and "Succession" actor won the best documentary feature award in 2010 after producing "The Cove," which detailed the dolphin-hunting industry in Japan and called for a change in Japanese fishing practices.

That same year, Stevens cofounded Insurgent Media, a documentary film company.

Award won: Best animated short film

For: "Dear Basketball"

Year: 2018

The basketball legend made history when he took home an Oscar in 2018, becoming the first former professional athlete to do so.

Bryant narrated the animated short, which features a 2015 letter he wrote for The Players' Tribune announcing his retirement.

The short was directed and animated by Glen Keane, who had previously worked on animated Disney classics like "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin." John Williams, the 54-time Academy Award nominee behind the scores for films like "Jaws," "Star Wars," and "Jurassic Park," created the score.

Bryant's emotional acceptance speech ended with the athlete thanking his wife, Vanessa, and daughters Natalia, Gianna, and Bianka, telling them, "ti amo con tutto il mio cuore," which translates to "I love you with all my heart" in Italian.

Award won: Best original song

For: "Writing's on the Wall" from "Spectre"

Year: 2016

Alongside cowriter Jimmy Napes, the British singer-songwriter won the award for best original song for their 2015 Bond theme for "Spectre."

In their acceptance speech, Smith talked about being the "first openly gay man to win an Oscar," which they weren't. His comments sparked backlash from the LGBTQ community, and the singer, who acknowledged the mistake, temporarily quit X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ron Vachris was born in Staten Island, New York, but moved to Arizona with his family as a teenager, South Sound Business reported.

Today, the CEO lives in Sammamish, Washington, a city on the outskirts of Seattle, where Costco was founded.

Vachris is a father to three adult kids — two sons and a daughter — with his wife, Kim. He also has one granddaughter, whom he has pictures of all over his cubicle.

His free time is family time, he told South Sound Business.

"I'm pretty transparent," Vachris said. "It's about my family and my career."

Vachris joined Costco's predecessor, Price Club, as a part-time forklift driver during his winter break in 1982. He was studying business at Glendale Community College in Arizona at the time.

Price Club, which was founded in 1976 by Sol Price, was a wholesale supplier for small businesses. Customers paid a membership fee to access bargain prices, a strategy that remained when Price Club and Costco — then a fast-growing wholesale retailer that Sinegal founded in 1983 — joined forces and began operating as PriceCostco in 1993.

After getting the job, Vachris decided to build a career at the retailer.

He thought, "I'm learning more here in real life than I am at school about business," he told South Sound Business in 2024.

Over the next 28 years with the company, Vachris wore a lot of hats.

Growing within the company in the Arizona and Colorado regions and then rising to regional management roles in the Northeast, Vachris specialized in merchandising and operations, according to Costco's website.

Jelinek joined Costco in 1984, when he got his start in operations. He was named executive vice president of merchandising in 2004, helped the store expand in Nevada and California, and oversaw areas of the company like e-commerce, food, and pharmacy.

He took over as CEO in 2012 and in less than two years, Costco's share price had gone up by 30%.

During this time, Vachris served as the company's senior vice president, general manager of the northwest region between 2010 and 2015, senior vice president of real estate development between 2015 and 2016, and executive vice president of merchandising from 2016 to January 2022.

The move signaled the company's plans for succession.

From February 2022 until the end of Jelinek's tenure as CEO in 2023, Vachris worked hand-in-hand with Jelinek in his role as president "and for many years before that," Costco said in a statement.

The statement, released in October 2023, announced Vachris would take over Jelinek as CEO at the start of 2024. It added that Vachris' ascension to the role was "the culmination of the long-standing succession plan" executed by Jelinek.

"I have total confidence in Ron and feel that we are fortunate as a Company to have an executive of his caliber to succeed me," Jelinek wrote in the same statement.

Vachris became CEO of the company when Jelinek stepped down on January 1, 2024, just over two months after his succession plan was publicly announced.

Per SEC filings, during his last year in the role, Jelinek earned a total compensation of $16.8 million, Business Insider reported at the time. This was an increase from a compensation package of $9.9 million in 2022 and $8.8 million in 2021.

Jelinek's pay was about 336 times what the median employee at Costco made in 2023, a lower CEO-to-worker compensation ratio than Walmart (933-to-1) and Target (680-to-1) that year.

In 2024, Vachris received a compensation package of $12.2 million, according to a proxy statement the company filed with the SEC. It was a decrease from his predecessor's and less than the average compensation for S&P 500 CEOs in 2023, which was $15.5 million.

Vachris' pay ratio was 262 times what the median worker at Costco made that same year. The average S&P 500 CEO pay ratio in 2024 was 312 times the median employee.

In the 2024 fiscal year, Costco reported $254 billion in revenue compared to $242 billion in 2023 and $227 billion in 2022.

As customers' concerns about grocery price hikes continue, the bulk-buying experience has remained popular and the company continues to grow — in 2024, sales per warehouse went up by 3% on average. The company has steadily opened around 30 new warehouses a year and plans to open 29 more during the 2025 fiscal year, Vachris said in December.

On January 31, the company announced it would raise hourly pay for most workers to more than $30, with an extra $1 raise coming in each of the following two years. The raise came after union members voted to approve a nationwide Costco strike ahead of the January 31 contract expiration deadline.

During a quarterly earnings call in December, Vachris said the company was focused on reaching an agreement with the Costco union through a "fair and timely process."

"We're going to do everything we can to take care of those employees as we do all of our employees," Vachris said, referring to the 18,000 Teamsters-affiliated workers.

After returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending DEI programs in the federal government, which prompted some companies to pull back on their DEI efforts, as well.

In January 2025, Costco shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think-tank and Costco shareholder, suggesting that the company prepare a report outlining the potential risks of its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

"We have always been purposefully nonpolitical, and a welcoming workforce has been integral to the company's culture and values since its founding," board chairman Tony James said.

Days after shareholders shut down the anti-DEI proposal, a group of 19 attorneys general led by Iowa's Brenna Bird and Kansas' Kris Kobach filed a letter to Vachris urging Costco to end its DEI practices, which it called "divisive and discriminatory."

The attorneys general also gave the company a 30-day deadline to either announce the end of DEI initiatives or explain why not.

In response, Vachris said, "The overwhelming support of our shareholders' vote really puts an answer to that question."

As the February 28 deadline approaches, business leaders and consumers will be watching Vachris and the company's response to the letter as companies continue to consider Costco's example of standing with DEI.

In the latter half of the century, industries like oil, steel, railroads, and manufacturing were growing rapidly in the United States. The Economic History Association estimated that industrial output in the US had reached a value of $9.4 billion by 1890. Nearly five million people were employed by the 350,000 industrial firms operating in the country, and the rapid expansion of business generated unprecedented revenue.

The businessmen who led the expanding manufacturing economy amassed massive amounts of personal wealth, even by today's standards.

The average family's annual income was around $500 (about $18,000 in today's money), according to an 1892 report from the Senate Finance Committee, yet the top 1% of families owned over half of America's wealth. During this era, known as the Gilded Age, the wealthiest families in America, such as the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, formed a new social elite akin to European aristocracy.

The economic disparity became more obvious through the wealthy's over-the-top displays of their riches in social gatherings like the 1897 Bradley-Martin Ball in New York City, where 700 members of the country's elite gathered in a royalty-themed costume party.

Other displays of the elite's wealth included extravagant architecture and fashion.

On the other side of the wealth divide, workers and immigrants faced harsh living conditions.

The rapid increase in industrialization drew masses to America, and immigration, particularly from countries in eastern and southern Europe, changed the face of the workforce, according to the Library of Congress.

Children, who weren't protected by law from physically challenging labor, had often started contributing to their households by age 10.

In New York City, the population doubled every decade from 1800 to 1880. Tenement housing, where families packed as many people as possible into apartments by using cheap materials to create walls or add floors to existing buildings, quickly dominated parts of the city. These settlements often lacked indoor plumbing or ventilation, leading to a rapid increase in the spread of illnesses. The cramped conditions also led to many fires in major cities.

Jacob Riis' "How The Other Half Lives," a photojournalism book documenting the lives of poor Americans towards the end of the century, exposed the realities faced by millions of people, such as having 12 adults sleeping in 13-feet-wide rooms and child mortality in tenements being as high as one in 10.

An average family spent nearly 60% of their annual income on food and rent, and laborers — including children — often worked six 10-hour days per week.

One report of living standards of the time suggested that an average family's dreams would be fulfilled by owning a home valued around $36,000 in today's money, a Sunday dress and suit, a barrel of flour, 5 tons of coal, and $9,000 in today's money in savings.

The presence of disposable income led to the establishment of department stores and consumerism in the big cities.

For women entering the workforce, retail stores offered a more respectable field of work than the factory work available to them, which was mostly in textile and garment manufacturing. While job opportunities opened for women, their wages remained significantly lower than men's, who were still seen as the breadwinners of the households, according to the Library of Congress.

Prior to the adoption of the federal income tax in 1913, tariffs were the federal government's main source of funding.

In an effort to help the economy recover following the Civil War, the government had kept tariffs on foreign goods relatively high compared to pre-war rates, Douglas Irwin, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, wrote for the National Bureau of Economic Research.

However, by the late 1880s, a unique problem had arisen: The federal government was taking in too much money from tariffs, resulting in a budget surplus over 40% higher than its spending.

Both parties agreed to revisit tariff rates in efforts to reduce it, although each side supported a different alternative in what became known as the Great Tariff Debate of 1888.

Born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio, William McKinley was working as a school teacher when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted in the Union Army and quickly climbed the ranks. After the war, he attended Albany Law School in New York and began his political career shortly after, being elected to the House of Representatives in 1876.

By 1890, he had risen within the congressional chamber and became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, overseeing taxation and tariffs.

Authored by McKinley and later named after him, the Tariff Act of 1890 raised protective tariffs of over 1,500 products by almost 50%.

The tariff imposed duties on items like tinplate and wool while eliminating tariffs on sugar, molasses, tea, and coffee. The goal of the act was to "make the duty on foreign-tinplate high enough to insure its manufacture in this country," McKinley said in 1890.

It also protected American workers' wages from competition from cheaper labor abroad.

While miners and farmers of crops like corn, wheat, and potatoes benefited from the stimulus to American production and the rise in foreign competitors' prices, some manufacturing was hurt by the price hikes in raw materials.

The tariffs affected consumer products like shoes, clothes, and canned goods, as well as some other 1,500 products, ranging from chemicals and metals to dairy products and grains, to varying degrees.

Ultimately, it was everyday people who ended up paying the price for the tariffs, Bolt said.

"Consumers had to pay a higher price for the manufactured good they wanted," Bolt said. "So there was in fact a political backlash against the McKinley tariff."

Following the adoption of the Tariff Act, McKinley's Republican Party lost control of Congress in the midterm elections of 1890, and the Ohio representative himself was ousted as the party lost 93 seats in the House of Representatives.

Over the next two years, as voters continued to feel the impacts of the measure and other economic instabilities, the party also lost the presidential election and both chambers of Congress in 1892.

Across the country, economic unrest as prices rose turned workers against vendors and employers, leading to a rise in the labor movement.

As industries expanded, workers began to unite against industry barons to demand fair work conditions.

An 1892 strike demanding improvements in working conditions turned deadly after Carnegie Steel-hired security forces exchanged gunfire with the worker coalition.

Across the country, labor movements gained momentum, with the rising hostility between industry leaders and workers ending in fatal incidents.

In 1894, the Pullman Strike, after which Labor Day was established, led to dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in damages, pushing then-President Grover Cleveland to legitimize the labor movement by declaring the national holiday.

By 1893, the economy had contracted significantly. Production rates were far exceeding domestic consumption, leading companies to slow down production and lay off workers.

The rise in unemployment (which reached 17% by the winter and surpassed 10% for the next half of the decade), along with government spending on Civil War pensions, were some of the factors that contributed to the panic.

Following the panic, the Democrats reduced some of McKinley's tariffs with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. Tariffs on some items — including iron ore, lumber, and wool — were nixed entirely, angering US producers of those products.

Following the economic troubles, voters blamed President Grover Cleveland and his Democratic party, which didn't regain power in any branch of government until 1910.

Shortly after ending his term as governor of Ohio, serving from 1892 to 1896, McKinley ran for president on a protectionist platform that aimed to benefit American industries while discouraging trade with foreign nations.

"Free trade gives to the foreign producer equal privileges with us," McKinley proclaimed in an 1892 speech. "It destroys our factories or reduces our labor to the level of theirs."

McKinley's tariff plans heavily targeted the import of goods like tinplate, wool, yarn, steel, and sugar in an effort to encourage domestic manufacturing.

With domestic industries continuing to grow thanks to widespread industrialization and an increase in goods production, American manufacturers saw a need for exports to an international market.

However, America's tariffs on foreign imports led other nations to increase their duties on American products, limiting the domestic industries' role in foreign trade and hurting the economy as a surplus of production failed to bring in more revenue for manufacturers.

Once in the White House, President McKinley's approach to tariffs turned to a reciprocal view that would help export American products and stimulate trade rather than penalize it.

Staying true to his election promise of high tariffs, McKinley supported the Dingley Tariff Act, which raised previously lowered tariffs back to an average of 49% on imported goods, according to Lewis L. Gould, a professor of American history at the University of Texas. However, the act also granted the president the power to negotiate tariff reductions up to 20% or add products to a tariff "free-list."

Using the tariffs as a negotiating tool with foreign markets, McKinley encouraged nations to lower their tariffs on American goods to allow for more exports.

Major donations from executives from firms like JP Morgan and Standard Oil ensured that the McKinley presidency remained friendly to business interests.

McKinley was also in office for part of the Great Merger wave of 1895-1904, in which companies consolidated into larger firms, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Between 1895 and 1904, the average number of firms disappearing to mergers each year was 301; in 1899 alone, as merger activity peaked, this number rose to 1,028, per the NBER.

While the Sherman Antitrust Act — a federal law prohibiting businesses from engaging in unfair practices that restrain competition — was passed in 1890, it is understood that the McKinley administration failed to strictly enforce the law to prevent large firms from consolidating into even larger monopolies during this period.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every eight children was employed by 1870. By 1900, the rate had risen to one in every five, with almost two million kids aged 10 to 15 working full-time jobs.

In rural areas, young boys (some even younger than 14) often worked at coal mines, breaking up coal with their bare hands or performing farm labor. In cities, many earned an income through newspaper delivery. In towns, both boys and girls often worked at mills or factories.

The unregulated growth of large firms led to more workers getting involved with the labor movement. Between 1897 and 1904, union membership increased from less than 500,000 to over two million workers, according to the US Department of Labor.

Workers united to demand fair working conditions, like improved facilities and hours. At the time, the norm for a worker was to work over 10 hours a day in places like factories or mills that exposed them to dangerous chemicals and conditions.

As the labor movement gained support, tensions between workers and businesses grew more hostile. One 1897 encounter between coal miners and local authorities, which later became known as the Lattimer Massacre, resulted in the death of 19 strikers.

Sent to Havana Harbor during the Cuban War of Independence against the Spanish, the USS Maine and its accidental explosion set the stage for America's declaration of war with Spain.

Unverified reports of a Spanish attack on the ship alarmed Americans and quickly built support for the war, which Americans saw as a just cause for Cuban freedom.

On the night after the explosion alone, the Army received over 100,000 volunteers.

The Spanish-American war was perhaps the most significant development of the McKinley administration, and might've contributed to the president's shift in tone regarding foreign trade towards the end of his presidency.

The Spanish-American war greatly expanded America's reach in the hemisphere and beyond.

The 16-week war and low casualties on the American front helped raise the national spirit following the economic and political instability of the past century.

By absorbing Spain's colonial territories in the Caribbean, the United States became its own imperial power, and an era of imperialism and global prevalence quickly followed.

America's victory in the Spanish-American War and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam ended America's isolationist approach of the 19th century in favor of a globalist view, which was then reflected in the domestic politics adopted by McKinley's leadership.

Victory in the war effectively turned a page in American politics as the country was now emboldened by its newly found global power.

In a drastic change in views since his Congress days, McKinley openly discouraged the protectionist economy in favor of reciprocal tariffs, saying that "a policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals."

His speech at the Pan-American Exposition signaled a shift in the Republican Party's views of trade following the war, and opened the door for an expansionist economy.

While attending the event, the president was shot by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish-American laborer and anarchist. He died from the wounds eight days later, on September 14, 1901.

Despite the economic turmoil of the previous decade, McKinley was widely mourned by the country.

"It's a great "what-if" in American politics," Bolt said. "If McKinley wasn't assassinated, [would] we [have started] to move towards free trade a lot earlier than we did?"

Following McKinley's death, his successor, President Theodore Roosevelt, and subsequent Progressive politics brought upon changes that alleviated the social and economic tensions of the Gilded Age.

Power shifted from the barons and reforms in labor, trust busting, tax policies, and civil rights changed the landscape of American life.

While McKinley's presidency is often overshadowed by his successor's, he had a significant impact on setting the stage for a new age in the domestic economy, both through his protectionist tariffs and his undoing of them.