User talk:Michaelwilliamrichards

Speedy deletion of Michael Billy
A tag has been placed on Michael Billy requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G12 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be a blatant copyright infringement [www.inthelifetv.org/html/hosts/10.html]. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material, and as a consequence, your addition will most likely be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. This part is crucial: say it in your own words.

If the external website belongs to you, and you want to allow Wikipedia to use the text — which means allowing other people to modify it — then you must include on the external site the statement "I, (name), am the author of this article, (article name), and I release its content under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 and later." You might want to look at Wikipedia's policies and guidelines for more details, or ask a question here.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Largo Plazo (talk) 23:34, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Michael Billy
Michael Billy is an American Television and radio personality, singer, and actor, known for his role as the host of "In The Life" on PBS and his role on the "Me and Vinnie Show" on Sirius Satellite Radio's Indie Talk Channel.

Early Life Michael Billy was born Michael William Bisogno on May 17th 1982 in Bogota Colombia. Born to an orphanage Billy was adopted as a baby to Judith and Daniel Bisogno. Billy has one brother Daniel who is approximately 4 years older then he. Billy grew up with both religious influences from his Catholic father and Jewish mother, although his current religious affiliation is unknown. Billy grew up in northern Bergen county New Jersey where he attended private Catholic school through the 4th grade. Billy's parents then made the decision to send Michael to public school so he could follow his early passions for music and theatre. In his adolescents Billy learned to play the upright bass, cello, guitar, and piano.

At age 14, a gang of 15 high school students brutally assaulted Michael in front of his school. "There goes the faggot!" one of the gang yelled, while another student threw Michael against a fence, still others carried him off and tried to stuff him in a garbage can. "Kill the faggot!" they screamed. Michael eventually escaped and later filed hate crime charges. That same year Michael was hospitalized for Major depression disorder and suicidal tendencies.

Career At the age of 15 Billy began to take control of his life by speaking out about homophobia in school's and safety for all students. After Matthew Shepard’s death in October of 1998 Billy has become a national leader for gay and lesbian youth and is an ardent advocate for an end to homophobia. He was invited by President and Mrs. Clinton to attend the White House Conference on School Safety. While there, Michael met with Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss the need for federal hate crime laws. Billy also spoke at the nation vigil for Matthew Shepard on the steps of the Capitol. It was in Washington that CNN began to film Michael for an upcoming profile on CNN NewsStand (Producer Bud Bultman)

Once Billy's profile aired on CNN Michael was invited to speak and perform his life story in University's and Highschools across the country. Billy became known for his candid humor and passion for his life's work. In 1999 Michael was asked to appear on (unknown episodes) the Ricki Lake Show where he would comment on issues affecting gay youth. One episode entitled "Walk a Day" had Michael spend the day with a homophobic southerner "Brent" who hated his lesbian twin sister.

In 1998 Michael was asked to become an executive trustee to the Board of the National 4-H Council. Michael served his 3 year seat amongst a "who's who" of American Business and Education. In 2000 Michael was approached by an independent film company to produce a film based on his life. Instead of selling the rights to his story away Michael became a partner in the film company and retained control over the production. The film "True to Life" was being optioned to HBO but never made it to production. In the films backer auditions Sandy Duncan played Michael's mother.

In 2002 Michael disappeared from the national spotlight and took time to, as he has said "be a kid." It wasn't till 2006 that Michael started to appear as "Michael Billy" on stage in New York and New Jersey as a standup comedian and musician.

After attending the Connecticut School of Broadcasting Michael got his first on air gig on the Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius radio as "Michael Billy, Man of a thousand voices."

In 2007 Michael was cast as the center panelist (one episode) on the Game Show Networks "Without Prejudice." Billy is best known as host of the three time Emmy nominated show "In The Life" on PBS reaching over 75 million homes in every major market across the US. The loveable boy next door brings his often dark and quirky sense of humor to the radio every morning on the Me and Vinnie show, weekdays 6 AM to 9AM est. on the Indie Talk channel on Sirius Radio.

PERSONAL LIFE Recently Billy has talked candidly about his fight with alcoholism and road to sobriety. 08' Billy outted himself as a recovering alcoholic on "The Me and Vinnie Show" on sirius radio who is sober and plans to remain so. Billy has talked publicly about his problem with alcoholism on "The Me And Vinnie Show." He has admitted to being a black out drunk and having long standing issues with depression. His depression dates back to the age of 14 before his problem with alcohol. Billy has used his comedy and candidness about his downfalls in his work as a TV and radio personality to separate him from the herd.

Michael currently resides in Northern New Jersey and remains extremely close to his family. Billy is currently filming his second season with In The Life.

--Michaelwilliamrichards (talk) 16:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Assuming you're considering posting this to another article about yourself, be sure to read WP:AUTOBIO. &#8212;Largo Plazo (talk) 16:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

September 2008
If you have a close connection to some of the people, places or things you have written about, you may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred from the tone of the edit and the proximity of the editor to the subject, are strongly discouraged. If you have a conflict of interest, you should avoid or exercise great caution when:
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For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have conflict of interest, please see our frequently asked questions for businesses. For more details about what, exactly, constitutes a conflict of interest, please see our conflict of interest guidelines. --Dawn Bard (talk) 16:16, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Michael Billy
A tag has been placed on Michael Billy requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an article with no content whatsoever, or whose contents consist only of external links, "See also" section, book reference, category tag, template tag, interwiki link, rephrasing of the title, or an attempt to contact the subject of the article. Please see Wikipedia:Stub for our minimum information standards for short articles. Also please note that articles must be on notable subjects and should provide references to reliable sources that verify their content.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the article does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that a copy be emailed to you. Largo Plazo (talk) 12:31, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Even though you indicated in your edit comment that you blanked the page to remove the heavily tagged material pending a rewrite, there is no reason to hang on to an empty article pending the rewrite. You can recreate the article with the new material without prejudice once it's ready. &#8212;Largo Plazo (talk) 12:34, 19 September 2008 (UTC)


 * By the way: instead of clogging your user talk page with an article you are composing, you can create a subpage, like User:michaelwilliamrichards/Michael Billy, for drafting content. &#8212;Largo Plazo (talk) 12:38, 19 September 2008 (UTC)