11.   Hunter hopes to soon be directed by her husband, who is gaining enough clout in Hollywood to make this happen.

12.   Internet companies are starving for content, and the two struggling companies are aiming to gain more clout by joining forces.

13.   Lately, with many rivals joining forces and gaining clout with supermarket chains, the threat to Campbell has grown.

14.   Middle-class merchants were gaining economic clout, and it is the art they sponsored that dominates the second half of the show.

15.   New environmental groups are being founded and old ones are gaining clout.

16.   Other Benelux financial services companies have merged in recent years to gain sufficient clout to expand in the European market.

17.   The black middle class grew and gained clout.

18.   The combination follows a series of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, in which companies are joining to gain market clout and augment research dollars.

19.   The merger comes amid accelerating consolidation in the movie theater industry as companies seek to cut operating costs and gain more clout with studios by merging.

20.   The retiree vote has also gained political clout because it is behaving more like a swing vote.