Dead Pool 10th December 2017

Afternoon all, welcome to a bumper two week edition of The Dead Pool. Seems like the evil flying monkeys decided to venture out to cull a few celebrities to make up for the dearth of deaths last week. With last minute rewrites due to the death of Max Clifford and the collapse of Chris Rea, its certainly been an interesting Sunday morning.

Lets begin with awarding some points! 154 points to Mark for correctly guessing that King Michael of Romania would finally succumb to the Winter cold; which now propels him up to the third place spot!!!

I really hope that you are working on your list for 2018, this year has been exceptional! With all but one of us scoring and many records being broken, I hope that 2018 can be as successful.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Week ending 3rd December

• Anthony Senerchia, 46, American disability activist, inspiration for the Ice Bucket Challenge, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• Jim Nabors, 87, American actor (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Andy Griffith Show, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) and singer.

Week ending 10th December

• Shashi Kapoor, 79, Indian actor and director (Deewaar, Bombay Talkie, Shakespeare Wallah).
• Christine Keeler, 75, English model and showgirl involved in Profumo affair, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Michael I of Romania, 96, Romanian royal, King (1927–1930, 1940–1947), complications from leukaemia.
• Meic Povey, 67, Welsh actor and playwright (Pobol y Cwm), cancer.
• Johnny Hallyday, 74, French rock singer (“Requiem pour un fou“, “Marie“, “Tous ensemble“) and actor, lung cancer.
• Steve Reevis, 55, American actor (Geronimo: An American Legend, The Longest Yard, Fargo).
• Max Clifford, 74, British publicist, heart attack.

In Other News 

Singer Chris Rea is said to be in a stable condition in hospital after collapsing during a performance. Fans posted on Twitter that they saw the 66-year-old “fall backwards” mid-song at the New Theatre Oxford. Rea, who is known for his hits “Driving Home for Christmas” and “Road to Hell”, is on tour to promote his new album. A concert due to take place in Brighton on Sunday has now been cancelled. A decision has not yet been made on a concert due in Bournemouth on Tuesday. Darren Fewins, who was in the audience in Oxford, said Rea had been on stage for about 45 minutes when he collapsed halfway through a song. He told the Press Association that Rea, who was born in Middlesbrough, was “playing the best I have ever seen” before his fall. South Central Ambulance Service said it was called at 21:30 GMT to an incident at the venue and that one patient had been taken to hospital. Staff at the theatre tweeted that they “appreciate everyone’s patience” and will update people with news when they have it. Rea had his pancreas removed in 2001 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He suffered a stroke in 2016, but recovered to launch an album in September and embark on his tour around Europe from October. He told BBC Breakfast in August this year that he still felt the effects of the stroke. “I’m fine when I’m sitting down. I’ve just got a little bit of balance – it’s a bit dodgy, just in case anyone thinks I’m drunk on-stage.”

Last week the production on the new Freddie Mercury biopic has been suspended so director Bryan Singer can deal with “a personal health matter”. The film, titled Bohemian Rhapsody, will tell the story of the late Queen frontman’s life. Twentieth Century Fox told the BBC work had been temporarily halted “due to the unexpected unavailability” of Singer. The director’s representative said it was “a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family”. However, since the story aired last week, the director has now been fired due to “unreliable behaviour”. In a statement, Twentieth Century Fox said Bryan Singer was no longer the director of the film. A source told DP Towers  that the main reason for the firing was “a pattern of unreliable behaviour on the set”. But Singer said his firing came while he was ill and that the studio was “unwilling to accommodate” him during his illness. The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday that Singer had clashed with lead actor Rami Malek and failed to show up for filming on multiple occasions.

A Wolverhampton man who cemented his head inside a microwave said he “doesn’t care” what people think. Jay Swingler, 22, had to be freed by firefighters after the stunt, filmed for his YouTube channel, took a dangerous turn. He said emergency services’ time was not wasted, because “they saved my life”. West Midlands Fire Service said it took an hour to free the man after they were called to a house in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton. Friends had managed to feed an air tube into the 22-year-old’s mouth to help him breathe, the service said. Watch Commander Shaun Dakin said the man “could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured”. Mr Dakin said: “He and a group of friends had mixed seven bags of Polyfilla which they then poured around his head, which was protected by a plastic bag inside the microwave. “The oven was being used as a mould and wasn’t plugged in. The mixture quickly set hard and, by the time we were called, they’d already been trying to free him for an hour and a half.” West Midlands Fire Service said it would not charge the £650 deployment fee as his life was in genuine danger.

Have you ever been so bored with sex that you have considered getting close with a ghostly spirit? That might sound utterly ridiculous and impossible, but according to a woman from Bristol, it is real. Amethyst Realm claims to have had sex with 20 different ghosts in the past 12 years and that they are better than men in the bedroom. The 27-year-old appeared on a recent episode of This Morning where she discussed her experiences. Realm, who is a “spiritual guidance counsellor” states that it all began when she and her then-fiance moved to a new house where she noticed there was a presence or entity. Talking to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Realm said: “It started as an energy, then became physical. There was pressure on my thighs and breath on my neck. I just always felt safe. I had sex with the ghost.” Although she could never see the ghost she claims that she could definitely feel it. She says that she had an affair with the spirit for three years until her partner caught her in the act. Since then she has moved on to other ghosts and has even looked into the possibility of phantom pregnancies.

Japanese authorities are trying to identify eight people whose badly decomposed remains were found on a wooden boat that washed up on a  beach. The discovery took place in the northern Akita prefecture. Crew-less boats or vessels with bodies on board, known as “ghost ships” and thought to be North Korean fishing boats, regularly wash up in Japan. They have usually been found on the western coast, which faces North Korea. In the latest incident, Japanese broadcaster NHK said the boat, measuring about 7m (23ft) long, was found on a beach near Oga city on Sunday. The vessel was missing a rotor blade and navigational devices. On Monday officials found the remains of eight people, some reduced to bones, while inspecting the boat. Kyodo news agency reported that the coast guard suspected the boat and its occupants had come from North Korea. The discovery is the latest in a string of similar incidents. On Friday, a wooden boat carrying eight men – alive and in reasonably good health – washed up at Yurihonjo city. The men said they were North Koreans fishing for squid, who had ended up drifting into Japanese waters when their boat experienced difficulties.

On This Day

3rd December

• 1984 – Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
• 1992 – A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world’s first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
• 1994 – The PlayStation was released in Japan

10th December

• 1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
• 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

Deaths

3rd December

• 1894 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist (b. 1850)
• 1919 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter and sculptor (b. 1841)
• 1980 – Oswald Mosley, English lieutenant and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1896)
• 1999 – Scatman John, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1942)
• 1999 – Madeline Kahn, American actress, comedian, and singer (b. 1942)
• 2003 – David Hemmings, English actor (b. 1941)

10th December

• 1896 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, invented Dynamite & founded the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
• 1928 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect and painter (b. 1868)
• 1967 – Otis Redding, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1941)
• 1978 – Ed Wood, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Richard Pryor, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1940)
• 2006 – Augusto Pinochet, Chilean general, 30th President of Chile (b. 1915)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Up to 3rd December – Lucy Liu (49), Britney Spears (36), Connie Booth (73), Nelly Furtado (39), Woody Allen (82), Sarah Silverman (47), Deep Roy (60), Bette Midler (72), Ben Stiller (52), Ridley Scott (80), Mandy Patinkin (65), Billy Idol (62), Diane Ladd (82), Don Cheadle (53), Jeff Fahey (65), Gena Lee Nolin (46), Simon Amstell (38), Karen Gillan (30), Ed Harris (67), Judd Nelson (58), Jon Stewart (55), Martin Clunes (56), Armando Iannucci (54), Sharlto Copley (44), Bill Nye (62), Rita Ora (27), Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (29) and Tina Turner (78).

Up to 10th December – Judi Dench (83), John Malkovich (64), Kirk Douglas (101), Beau Bridges (76), Michael Dorn (65), Donny Osmond (59), Kim Basinger (64), Teri Hatcher (53), Nicki Minaj (35), C. Thomas Howell (51), Kristofer Hivju (39), Ellen Burstyn (85), Judd Apatow (50), Tom Hulce (64), Nick Park (59), Frankie Muniz (32), Marisa Tomei (53), Jeff Bridges (68), Tony Todd (63), Tyra Banks (44), Pamela Stephenson (68), Jay Z (48), Julianne Moore (57), Brendan Fraser (49), Amanda Seyfried (32), Daryl Hannah (57), Jean-Luc Godard (87) and Ozzy Osbourne (69).