Dead Pool 2nd September 2018

Surprisingly, we have a points scorer today! Dave J had Neil Simon, so 59 points awarded, which propels him to the top of the leader board!! We still have around four months to go with plenty of Certs and Women that have yet to score, so there is ample time and opportunity to catch up. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Neil Simon, 91, American playwright (Biloxi Blues, The Odd Couple) and screenwriter (The Goodbye Girl), Tony winner (1965, 1985, 1991), complications from pneumonia.  
• Rosa Bouglione, 107, French circus performer.
• Silvano Campeggi, 95, Italian film poster designer (Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, Breakfast at Tiffany’s).   
• Olive Boar, 113, British supercentenarian, oldest person in Britain
• Gary Friedrich, 75, American comic book writer (Ghost Rider, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Hulk), complications from Parkinson’s disease.
• Vanessa Marquez, 49, American actress (ER, Stand and Deliver, Wiseguy), shot.

In Other News

Kirsty Young is to step down as host of Desert Island Discs due to illness. Young has presented the show since 2006 and said she would be temporarily stepping down after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, to be replaced by Lauren Laverne. “Casting away some of the world’s most fascinating people is a wonderful job – however, I’m having to take some time away from Desert Island Discs as I’m suffering from a form of fibromyalgia,” Young said. “I wish Lauren all the very best, I know she will be great. And I very much look forward to getting back to good health and back to work.” Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. As well as inducing severe fatigue, it can cause muscle tiredness, headaches and issues with digestion.    

It’s hard to imagine a worse way to wake up than catching a rat eating your foot. Unfortunately for Tottenham legend Gary Mabbutt, the nightmare became a reality while on a safari in South Africa. The 57-year-old woke to find his bed covered in blood and severe damage to his foot after the horrific incident at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Astoundingly, Mabbut claimed he couldn’t feel the rat chowing down on his toes due to a long career in football and type 1 diabetes. Mabbutt, who played 16 matches for England, was rushed home for treatment following the incident six weeks ago. “Unfortunately, due to the injuries through my career and some diabetes — I have very little feeling in my feet, so I’ve gone to sleep and during the night a rat has come into the bedroom, climbed into the bed and decided to chew on my foot. It made quite a big hole in my toe going down to the bone and ate underneath my foot so it became infected. I then got home quite quickly and then I was in hospital for a week and that was about, crikey, about six weeks ago now.” Due to treatment for an infection caused by the injury, Mabbutt has to visit hospital to get an intravenous drip for a few hours a day.    

Spice Girl Mel B says she’s entering a rehab facility to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we can only assume this is from her five tours of Afghanistan or being groped by Louis Walsh. The singer says the past six months have been “incredibly difficult” and claims she’s been drinking “to numb my pain”. The 43-year-old has been finalising her divorce from Stephen Belafonte, a relationship she says was abusive but the film producer was recently cleared of physically and verbally abusing Mel during their marriage. Mel tried to explain her reasons “Sometimes it is too hard to cope with all the emotions I feel. But the problem has never been about sex or alcohol – it is underneath all that,” she said. “No-one knows myself better than I do. But I am dealing with it. I love my three girls more than life itself.” The Leeds-born star said she was recently diagnosed with PTSD and was speaking about it because it’s a “huge issue” for lots of people. Earlier this month a US judge dismissed claims the singer had made against her ex-husband Stephen Belefonte. In court papers Mel B claimed that the film producer was abusive and that he’d threatened to destroy her career by releasing a sex tape! Although we wonder what career she’s actually talking about… After being cleared of the abuse allegations, a judge refused to grant restraining orders that the pair had both filed against each other. Mel B was ordered to pay her former husband £270,000 in legal fees and more than £3,000 a month in child support payments. 

On This Day

• 1192 – The Treaty of Jaffa is signed between Richard I of England and Saladin, leading to the end of the Third Crusade and thus declaring it a cake, not a biscuit. 
• 1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including Old St Paul’s Cathedral.  
• 1752 – Great Britain, along with its overseas possessions, adopts the Gregorian calendar. Before this, nobody knew what day it was. 
• 1792 – During what became known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops, more than two hundred priests, and prisoners believed to be royalist sympathisers. Ahh, the good old days! 

Deaths

• 1834 – Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer and architect, designed the Menai Suspension Bridge (b. 1757)  
• 1969 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese politician, 1st President of Vietnam (b. 1890)  
• 1973 – J. R. R. Tolkien, English novelist, short story writer, poet, and philologist (b. 1892)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Lily Tomlin (79), Burn Gorman (44), Steve Pemberton (51), Barry Gibb (72), Gloria Estefan (61), Richard Gere (69), Chris Tucker (47), Todd Carty (55), Cameron Diaz (46), Michael Chiklis (55), Warren Buffett (88), Carla Gugino (47), Rebecca De Mornay (59), Elliott Gould (80), Lenny Henry (60), Jack Black (49), Brian Thompson (59), Billy Boyd (50), David Soul (75), Shania Twain (53), Aaron Paul (39), Peter Stormare (65), Paul Reubens (66), Barbara Bach (71), Reece Shearsmith (49), Melissa McCarthy (48), Chris Pine (38) and Macaulay Culkin (38).