Dead Pool 12th June 2016

Another week passes and several notables perish. Alas, none worthy of our listings, but interesting people nevertheless. So no points to dispense but everyone keep an eye out for your Maverick, looks like Americans have finally decided to start shooting celebrities, not just themselves.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Manohar Aich, 104, Indian bodybuilder, Mr. Universe (1952).
• Theresa Saldana, 61, American actress (Raging Bull, The Commish, I Wanna Hold Your Hand), renal failure.
• Sir Peter Shaffer, 90, British playwright (Amadeus, Equus, Black Comedy) and screenwriter, Tony (1975, 1981) and Oscar winner (1985).
• Michael Baldasaro, 67, Canadian sect leader (Church of the Universe) and political candidate (Marijuana Party), cancer.
• Bernard Shrimsley, 85, British newspaper editor (The Sun, News of the World).
• Gordie Howe, 88, Canadian Hall of Fame ice hockey player (Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers, national team).
• Christina Grimmie, 22, American singer-songwriter (Find Me) and talent show participant (The Voice), shot.

 In Other News

The former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been taken to hospital with a heart problem, according to a spokeswoman for his party. The 79-year-old’s condition was “nothing to worry about”, she added. A statement by the San Raffaele hospital in Milan said the hospitalisation was necessary after what it called a “cardiac deficiency”. The leader of Forza Italia, who had a pacemaker implanted in a hospital in the US when he was 70, would undergo tests “in the next few days”, the hospital statement said. Mr Berlusconi was Italy’s prime minister four times, but has since been convicted for tax fraud and bribery, not to mention the fornicating with young ladies, maybe this is what brought on his “cardiac deficiency’.

Eleven German MPs of Turkish origin have been put under police protection. They received death threats after supporting a move to describe the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Germany’s foreign ministry has warned MPs of Turkish origin against travelling to Turkey, saying their security there could not be guaranteed. The German parliament’s move outraged the Turkish government, which does not recognise the killings as genocide. The 11 MPs of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution have faced a backlash of negative opinion from the Turkish government and from within Germany’s sizable Turkish community. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan castigated them, saying: “What sort of Turks are they?” Ankara’s mayor showed the 11 MPs in a tweet, saying they had “stabbed us in the back”. According to German media, it was retweeted by many Turkish nationalists, some of whom made death threats. Juicy! Who thought that the Turks were such pedants over grammar.

In Royal news, The Queen’s official 90th birthday has been marked with the Trooping the Colour parade in central London. More than 1,600 soldiers and 300 horses took part in the annual event on Horse Guards Parade and she appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with members of her family, including Princess Charlotte, for an RAF flypast.

Celebrations were also held to mark 70 years since Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reining living monarch, came to the throne. The celebrations began with a religious ceremony in Bangkok, led by 770 Buddhist monks, an auspicious number. The 88-year-old king is revered by Thais, for whom he has been a figure of stability through the country’s decades of political upheaval. But he is in poor health and has not been seen in public for months. On Tuesday, he had heart surgery, with what the palace said were “satisfactory results”.  Several hundred people gathered outside the palace on Thursday morning to wish the king well. As expected, he did not make a public appearance.

Online speculation that US actor Jack Black had died was the work of a hacker who posted messages on his rock band’s official Twitter account. Fans expressed dismay after a message on Tenacious D’s Twitter page claimed Black had died at the age of 46. Subsequent messages, however, appeared to suggest the group’s account had been hacked. This was later confirmed by Tenacious D themselves, who called the hacking a “sick ‘prank'”. “WE had our Twitter account hacked,” the band tweeted on Sunday afternoon. “We can assure you that Jack is ALIVE and WELL.” It is not the first time Black, whose films include the Kung Fu Panda trilogy and School of Rock, has been the victim of an online hoax. One in 2012 claimed he had fallen off a cliff in New Zealand, while another in 2014 alleged he had died after a stroke.

On This Day

• 1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures‘ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
• 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
• 1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
• 1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
• 1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

Deaths

• 1980 – Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, founded the Butlins Company (b. 1899)
• 2003 – Gregory Peck, American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kenny G (60), Mark Wahlberg (45), Sandra Bernhard (61), Jason Isaacs (53), Paul Giamatti (49), Bjorn Borg (60), Aaron Sorkin (55), Tom Jones (76), Liam Neeson (64), Bear Grylls (42), Bill Hader (38), Anna Kournikova (35), Jerry Stiller (89), Nancy Sinatra (76), Griffin Dunne (61), Kanye West (39), Barbara Bush (91), Michael J. Fox (55), Johnny Depp (53), Natalie Portman (35), Jackie Mason (85), Elizabeth Hurley (51), Gene Wilder (83), Hugh Laurie (57), Joshua Jackson (38) and Shia Lebeouf (30).

The Last Word

Barbara Olson (1955–2001) – What do I tell the pilot to do?

Next week peeps!