IN: Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter and film director, whose own father was Swedish. Johansson's mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Polish and Belarusian descent. She has an older sister, Vanessa, also an actress; an older brother, Adrian; and a twin brother, Hunter.

Johansson has been called "ScarJo" by the media and fans, but dislikes the nickname, finding it lazy, flippant and insulting. She is described as a sex symbol by the media, which considers her lips, green eyes, and voice among her trademarks. The Sydney Morning Herald describes Johansson as "the embodiment of male fantasy". During the filming of Match Point, director Woody Allen commented on her attractiveness. In 2014, New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that "she is evidently, and profitably, aware of her sultriness, and of how much, down to the last inch, it contributes to the contours of her reputation." Johansson said that she disliked being sexualized, and that a preoccupation with a person's attractiveness does not last. She lost the lead role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) as its director David Fincher thought she was "too sexy" for the part.  Johansson ranks highly in several beauty listings. Maxim included her in their Hot 100 from 2006 to 2014. She has been named "Sexiest Woman Alive" twice by Esquire (2006 and 2013), and has been included in similar listings by Playboy (2007), Men's Health (2011), and FHM (since 2005). She was named GQ's Babe of the Year in 2010. Madame Tussauds New York museum installed a wax sculpture of her in 2015.  Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. In 2006, Johansson appeared on Forbes' Celebrity 100, and again in 2014 and 2015. Johansson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2012. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, she was one of the highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $17 million, $35.5  million, and $25 million, respectively. She was the highest-grossing actor of 2016, with a total of $1.2 billion. As a result, IndieWire praised her for taking on risky roles. As of May 2017, Johansson is the highest-grossing actress of all time in North America, with her films making over $3.6 billion.  Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, L'Oreal, and Louis Vuitton, and has represented the Spanish brand Mango since 2009. Johansson was the first Hollywood celebrity to represent a champagne producer, appearing in advertisements for Moet & Chandon. In January 2014, the Israeli company SodaStream, which makes home-carbonation products, hired Johansson as its first global brand ambassador, a relationship that commenced with a television commercial during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. This proved controversial, as SodaStream is based in Israeli-occupied territory in the West Bank.

what do men think of her?

OUT: She was named GQ's Babe of the Year in 2010.


IN: The Alexandrov Ensemble (Russian: Ansambl' Aleksandrova, tr. Ansambl' Aleksandrova; commonly known as the Red Army Choir in the West) is an official army choir of the Russian armed forces. Founded during the Soviet era, the ensemble consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble.

In 1948 much of Berlin was still ruined after World War II, and the city was divided into four occupation zones, controlled by the USSR, France, the UK and the United States. This was before the Berlin Wall was built, and it was still possible to travel between zones. An American officer suggested a concert in the Gendarmenmarkt (in the Soviet zone at the time), and the French zone commander supported the suggestion. The musicians were to be provided by the USSR, and the Alexandrov Ensemble was chosen. A temporary stage was set up in the square, with flowers all along the front. 30,000 people came to stand and watch for three hours. In 1994, towards the end of his life, Boris Alexandrov said:  "The visit to Germany was unforgettable. It is dominant in the history of the ensemble. It was necessary to make a new creative leap - from wartime military music to postwar relaxing harmony. It was important, and the transition had to be managed on many fronts, including getting the Ensemble back into its original pre-war role, performing the classics and singing folk songs. Before the war the Ensemble had 200 professional singers; following the war it was down to 60."  A previous tour to East Germany had been cancelled due to the sudden death of Alexander Alexandrov in 1946 in Potsdam, when in his bed was found an annotated copy of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, showing that A. Alexandrov had been preparing the final chorus for a performance. Now Boris, his son, was ready to follow his father's plan. The 1948 peace concert was to consist of German opera extracts and Russian folk songs (Nightingales, Zemlyanka and Roads); and after an intervention by the tenor Victor Nikitin, some German folk songs were also included. The people joined in, singing Heidenroslein, and Nikitin sang Kalinka three times in a row. The concert was very successful, and very moving.   A sound recording of the concert was made, and pressed in 1985 under the Radio DDR 1 label. This is listed on the Alexandrov Ensemble discography page.  However the Berlin Peace Concert did not happen in isolation. It was part of a series of punishing yearly tours to war-torn areas. The main tour season during and just after World War II appears to have run from June to October - perhaps because the large troupe usually had to perform outdoors, to accommodate large audiences. The August 1948 Berlin concert occurred two-thirds of the way through a tour to (20 June to 18 July) Prague, Most, Brno, Devin, Bratislava, Moravska Ostrava, Zilina and Kosice in Czechoslovakia; then apparently without a break (18 July to 10 October) Dresden, Weimar, Magdeburg, Stendal, Schwerin, Potsdam, Berlin, Rathenow, Leipzig, Halle, Lane, Erfurt, Chemnitz, Frankfurt an der Oder and Schwarzenberg in Germany.  In 1990, the ensemble participated in Roger Waters' The Wall concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They performed an anti-war song, Bring the Boys Back Home.

what role did Alexandrov play in the peace concert?

OUT:
The musicians were to be provided by the USSR, and the Alexandrov Ensemble was chosen.