Live from Abu Dhabi Connect the World takes you on a journey across continents, investigating the stories that are changing our world.
Most people know her for her role opposite John Travolta in the international smash-hit film "Grease". With a soundtrack that includes the unforgettable songs, “You’re The One That I Want,” “Summer Nights” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” Olivia Newton John has been in the spotlight for over thirty years.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/17/olivia.newton.john.jpg caption="Olivia Newton-John"]
Building on her success from the film Grease, Newton-John’s 1981 record “Physical” set many trends in the 1980s. Wearing neon-leg warmers in the accompanying music video, this fashion trend soon became a staple in everyone’s wardrobe. Like the ubiquity of her leg-warmers, Billboard named the multi-platinum Physical the most recognizable and successful song of the 1980s.
Newton-John found her stardom reached heights she never even imagined. However in 1992 poised for a comeback tour, her life came crashing-down after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought and survived this episode and found a new casting call for her career.
Following her struggles, she became one of the world’s leading voices and advocates for breast-cancer research and survivors throughout the world. This is a role that she proudly reprises to this day calling for early screenings and detections.
Last year Olivia married John Easterling in South America and the two have since become involved together in a business that produces natural remedy products from the Amazon. They both regularly travel to South America to raise awareness of deforestation.
Olivia Newton John will be our Connector of the Day on Thursday and will talk about her experiences filming Grease, her music career, her fight with breast cancer and her work to save the rainforest.
Whether you love or loathe her, the self styled polemicist is arguably one of today’s most well-known conservative authors, columnists and political commentators.
Once described as the “Michael Moore of the right”, the so called ills of liberal American society have come under fire in her columns and novels which regularly top the New York Times bestselling list. During her colourful career, the vociferous republican has evoked both revulsion and praise for lampooning everything from pro-lifers to Islam.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/17/ann.coulter.jpg caption="Ann Coulter – the 'Michael Moore of the right'"]
In her most recent book ‘Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America’, the liberal left are persistently blamed for promoting single motherhood – which she opines is a “recipe to create criminals, strippers, rapists and murderers”.
An opponent of President Obama (who she refers to as ‘B. Hussein Obama’ to emphasise his Muslim background ), she claims that, along with celebrities such as Halle Berry and Alicia Keys, he perpetuates America’s “culture of victimhood” by identifying with the ethnicity of his absent black father.
Of the recent Fort Hood massacre, Coulter was quoted as saying “We have a caste system in America with different levels of victimhood. You have the feminists, gays, blacks, Jews. But the number one victims, (...starting on 9/11 when they killed 3,000 Americans), became Muslims.”
Vicious vitriol or a brazen breath of fresh air? What do you think? Send your questions for Ann Coulter and we’ll put a selection of them to her on Wednesday’s show.
Time to think laterally, it's time for the Connect The World Six Degrees challenge.
Here’s how to play: We choose two people in the news this week and ask you to connect them through the six steps.
This week we want you to link Chinese President Hu Jintao to Formula 1 champion Jenson Button.
Need some inspiration? Check out this effort by last week's winner Sonja Osterwalder from Switzerland.
She connected singer Dolly Parton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and here's how:
– In the 1980s Dolly Parton sang a duet on television with Oprah Winfrey...
– Whilst for her O-Magazine, Winfrey interviewed CNN's Christiane Amanpour...
– The Chief International Correspondent once attended a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall by Eric Clapton...
– Clapton had a short affair with the current French First Lady Carla Bruni...
– Bruni is now married to French President Nicolas Sarkozy...
– Who last week rekindled the flame of the unknown soldier in Paris, alongside Angela Merkel.
Leave your submissions for this week's challenge in the comments section below, and the team will pick the most creative connection, and we'll announce the winner on Friday's show.
Remember: you need five other people between those two: no more, no less. If you want your friends to take the challenge as well, then click the “share post” button below. To see previous challenges, click here. Happy connecting!