Akira Suzuki is now famous for his work in the theater, but his early ambition was to be a writer. In his biography, which has just been published, Suzuki is described  41  a quiet, introverted sort of man. He wrote his first play when he was in primary school, and his first “haiku” (a special kind of Japanese poem) when he was just six years old. Nowadays,  42  he still believes poetry is the highest form of art, he is better known as a playwright  43  written more than thirty plays. He has also moved into films, not as an actor but as a  44  for films such as The Fifth Samurai, which was highly successful. In the future, he plans to write a novel 45 his childhood. Is Suzuki a historian, poet, dramatist, screenwriter or a novelist?

 American talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey, has been named as the highest-paid TV celebrity and one of the world’s most powerful women, but she is also a big giver, topping a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for the second year running in 2007. 

 The second annual list, compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a group that seeks to encourage philanthropy,put Oprah in the top slot with The Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah’s Angel Network spending $50.2million in 2007 on education, health care, and advocacy for women and children worldwide. 

 Second place on the list, published in the latest edition of Parade magazine, went to trumpeter and A&Mrecord co-founder Herb Alpert with The Herb Alpert Foundation spending $13 million on education, includingthe UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. 

 Singer-actress Barbra Streisand came third in the list that was based on public records of donations madein 2007, with $11 million donated by The Streisand Foundation to the environment, women’s issues, civil rights,AIDS research, and advocacy. 

 Fourth place went to Paul Newman, who gave $10 million to the Scholarship for Kenyon College, hisalma mater in Gambier, Ohio. Mel Gibson was in the fifth slot, giving $9.9 million to the Holy Family Churchin Malibu, California.