Dead Pool 11th September 2016

Bit thin on the ground again this week. So I wont warble on too much. But if any of you amazing readers would like a go at guest editing or supplying a few articles, please do have a go!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Leslie H. Martinson, 101, American film and television director (Batman: The Movie, CHiPs, Fantasy Island).
• Richard Neville, 74, Australian writer and editor (Oz).
• Hugh O’Brian, 91, American actor (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Shootist, Twins).
• Darren Seals, 29, American activist (Black Lives Matter), shot.
• Prince Buster, 78, Jamaican ska musician (“One Step Beyond“, “Al Capone”).
• Lord Littlebrook, 87, British midget wrestler. 
• Greta Friedman, 92, American nurse, subject of V-J Day in Times Square.

In Other News

The Princess Royal has cancelled her public engagements next week as she  recovers from a bad chest infection, Buckingham Palace has said. A spokesman said: “On doctors’ orders she has cancelled her engagements for the coming week. She is resting privately at home.” Anne was treated at Aberdeen Royal infirmary on Wednesday before being discharged and returning to Balmoral. Last weekend, she joined the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales at the Braemar Highland Games, which are held a short distance from the royal family’s summer retreat in Aberdeenshire. The 66-year-old also spent time in Brazil at the Olympic Games as a member of the International Olympic Committee. Could it be some kind of Zika virus variant??

A death we all missed back in April was that of the first-ever person to have a face transplant, Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire. In 2005, surgeons  gave her a new nose and mouth after she was disfigured by her pet dog. But heavy use of immunosuppressant drugs weakened her and she succumbed to cancer in April at the age of 49. News of her death, announced by a hospital in Amiens, was delayed to respect her family’s privacy. She told the BBC in 2009 that when she looked in the mirror she saw a mixture of herself and the donor. “The donor is always with me,” she said. Figaro newspaper said she had suffered another transplant rejection. The strong anti-rejection treatment she was receiving led to two cancers, it added. In her BBC interview she said her disfigurement by her dog had come as a result of an attempt to end her life. After taking an overdose of sleeping pills, she awoke lying beside a pool of blood, with her pet Labrador at her side. The dog had apparently found her unconscious, and desperate to rouse her, had gnawed away at her face. The injuries to her mouth, nose and chin were so extreme that doctors ruled out a routine face reconstruction. Instead they proposed a ground-breaking face transplant. She was happy with the surgery but expressed distress at the attention from the media and passers-by that the operation brought her.

Look out all potential presidential candidates because the man who shot US President Ronald Reagan in 1981 has been released from a psychiatric hospital in Washington, DC, 35 years after his assassination attempt stunned the world. John Hinckley Jr, who is now 61, was released from St Elizabeth’s hospital on Saturday morning and returned to his mother’s home in Virginia. Mr Reagan and three others were injured in the shooting outside a Washington hotel on 30 March 1981, weeks into his first White House term. Mr Hinckley, who was obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver and its young star Jodie Foster, is thought to have been trying to impress the actress. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. In July, after several decades of treatment at St Elizabeth’s, a judge ruled that Mr Hinckley posed no further danger to himself or to the public. In recent years, he had been spending 17 days a month at his 90-year-old mother’s home, on a golf course in the gated community of Kingsmill, where his bedroom is reportedly decorated with his paintings of houses and cats. Under the conditions of his release, Mr Hinckley will be forbidden to speak to the media and from having any social media accounts. He is banned from contacting Ms Foster or any of his other victims and their families. He must see a psychiatrist regularly and will be permitted to drive no further than 30 miles from the home unaccompanied – or 50 miles if accompanied.

On This Day

• 1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon.
• 1978 – Janet Parker is the last person to die of smallpox, in a laboratory-associated outbreak.
• 1982 – The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel‘s 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
• 2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda. In total 2,996 people are killed.
• 2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of All Bombs.

Deaths

• 1972 – Max Fleischer, American animator, director, and producer (b. 1883)
• 1987 – Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (b. 1915)
• 1988 – Roger Hargreaves, English author and illustrator (b. 1935) 
• 1994 – Jessica Tandy, English-American actress (b. 1909) 
• 2002 – Kim Hunter, American actress (b. 1922) 
• 2003 – John Ritter, American actor and producer (b. 1948) 
• 2014 – Donald Sinden, English actor (b. 1923)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Beyonce (35), Bob Newhart (88), Raquel Welch (76), Michael Keaton (65), Rose McGowan (43), Roger Waters (73), Delores O’Riordan (45), Pippa Middleton (33), Idris Elba (44), Gloria Gaynor (67), Chrissie Hynde (65), Julie Kavner (66), Shannon Elizabeth (43), Evan Rachel Wood (29), Heather Thomas (59), Martin Freeman (45), Hugh Grant (56), Adam Sandler (50), Eric Stonestreet (45), Michael Buble (41), Joe Perry (66), Colin Firth (56), Guy Richie (48) and Karl Lagerfeld (83).

The Last Word

“I cannot.” – Louis Pasteur – His response when he was offered a cup of milk.

Next week peeps!

11th September 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 4th September 2016

Unsurprisingly, nobody listed Gene Wilder. Often is the case that well loved celebrities never make the list. Remember, if you want to win it, you have to be unscrupulous and harsh.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Mr. Fuji, 82, American professional wrestler and manager (WWF).
• Darrell Ward, 52, American reality television personality (Ice Road Truckers), plane crash.
• Gene Wilder, 83, American actor (The Producers, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein), screenwriter and author, complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Doris McLemore, 89, American teacher, last fluent speaker of the Wichita language.
• Joe Sutter, 95, American aeronautical engineer, chief designer of the Boeing 747.
• Jon Polito, 65, American actor (Miller’s Crossing, The Rocketeer, Homicide: Life on the Street), cancer.
• Islam Karimov, 78, Uzbekistani politician, President (since 1990), stroke.

In Other News

We were going to lead this week with the Uzbek President/Dictator, Islam Karimov, having a stroke. Alas he died. So that put a big spanner in the works for us at Death Towers, but we’ll lead with the story anyway.

It does leave central Asia’s most populous country in a state of turmoil and political uncertainty. The Uzbek government did not confirm the reports at first but played funeral music on state channels. Later on Friday the government eventually released a statement saying the 78-year-old president had died. Karimov has no official successor. The most likely candidate to replace him appears to be Uzbekistan’s long-time prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. There is little prospect that the country of 31 million will democratise, after a quarter of a century characterised by repression, the boiling of prisoners and unflinching authoritarian rule. Even by the standards of the region, Karimov treated manifestations of dissent harshly. The upheaval has sparked much uncertainty for the Karimov family, his daughter, Gulnara Karimova, was for a long time considered a potential successor to her father and was a highly public figure has disappeared. Perhaps we should be looking at listing a few Uzbek elites in the near future.

Jeremy Vine almost got run over by an irate woman in a car as he was cycling home. The lady involved in the alleged road-rage incident has said his “dangerous” cycling provoked her foul-mouthed response. Vine shared the footage of the alleged road rage incident with his Facebook and Twitter followers on Tuesday. The 51-year-old filmed the “horrible moment” on a helmet-mounted camera while cycling home in Kensington, London after hosting his show on Friday 26th August. Have a look at the video yourself and make up your own mind. One thing is for sure, don’t have a wobbly at a cyclist when they work for the BBC.

And finally, an emergency response was initiated at a school in Ohio after around 40 children ingested Bhut Jolokia peppers – one of the hottest species in existence. An unidentified student brought the peppers into Milton Union Middle School, West Milton, and apparently shared them among other students aged 11 to 14. Police and emergency responders were contacted on Friday after the students began to exhibit symptoms such as blotchy skin, hives, sweating, watering eyes and general discomfort. Five students had to be hospitalised. The students “took these peppers voluntarily”, according to a police investigation. “We all drank like 10 cartons of milk,” eighth grade student Cody Schmidt told the newspaper, adding that the pepper was “really hot”. The school’s superintendent, Brad Ritchey, said: “The response of emergency services was amazing, deputies and help from surrounding paramedics. Research conducted in 1980 found a 68 kilogram human would need to eat at least 1.3 kilograms of the hottest chillies in one sitting for the peppers to have a lethal effect.

On This Day

• 1666 – In London, England, the most destructive damage from the Great Fire occurs.
• 1882 – Thomas Edison flips the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in history, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered by many as the day that began the electrical age.
• 1888 – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.
• 1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.

Deaths

• 2001 – Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, American radio host and actor (b. 1962)
• 2006 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (b. 1962)
• 2014 – Joan Rivers, American comedian, television host, and author (b. 1933)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Paul Rubens (64), Daniel Stern (59), Shania Twain (51), Jack Black (47), Jason Priestley (47), LeAnne Rimes (34), Florence Welch (30), Elliott Gould (78), Rebecca DeMornay (57), John McCain (80), Michael Chiklis (53), Cameron Diaz (44), Warren Buffett (86), Van Morrison (71), Richard Gere (67), Chris Tucker (45), Lily Tomlin (77), Barry Gibb (70), Gloria Estefan (59), Keanu Reeves (51), Salma Hayek (50), Jimmy Connors (64), Lennox Lewis (51) and Charlie Sheen (51).

The Last Word

Now I can cross the Shifting Sands. – L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz.

• Note: Baum was referring to the Shifting Sands, the impassable desert surrounding the Land of Oz.

Next week peeps!

4th September 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 28th August 2016

No points to award this week, but we do have the joy of reading about Richard Branson falling on his face. If that’s not enough for you, then please take a moment to find a piece of your soul that cares, as the Storm Trooper who hit his head on a door frame has passed away. We’re not sure if he’s actually dead, he might come back as a ghost in subsequent sequels.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Sir Antony Jay, 86, English broadcaster, director and writer (Yes Minister).
• Michael Leader, 78, British actor (EastEnders, Star Wars – clumsy Star Wars stormtrooper).
• Steven Hill, 94, American actor (Mission: Impossible, Law & Order, The Firm).
• Walter Scheel, 97, German politician, President of West Germany (1974–1979).
• Marvin Kaplan, 89, American actor (It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Alice, The Great Race).

In Other News

Sir Richard Branson says he thought he was “going to die” after crashing his bike on Caribbean island Virgin Gorda. The businessman said he was “extremely fortunate” only to have suffered a cracked cheek and torn ligaments. Sir Richard said he was cycling down a hill when he hit a speed bump, and “the next thing I knew, I was being hurled over the handlebars and my life was literally flashing before my eyes.” His bicycle “went flying off the cliff and disappeared”, he said. In a post on the Virgin website, the 66-year-old said: “I was heading down a hill towards Leverick Bay when it suddenly got really dark and I managed to hit a sleeping policeman hump in the road head on. “I really thought I was going to die. I went flying head-first towards the concrete road, but fortunately my shoulder and cheek took the brunt of the impact, and I was wearing a helmet that saved my life. “We’ve since recovered the crumpled bicycle, completely destroyed. My cheek has been badly damaged and my knee, chin, shoulder and body severely cut.” Sir Richard said his assistant, Helen Clarke, was first on the scene as he was “lying prostrate on the road” and then another member of his team, George, “sprinted from the bottom of the hill” to assist. The accident happened on the fifth anniversary of a fire which destroyed his luxury home on Necker Island.

Phil Collins has addressed his former alcohol addiction and said he came close to nearly dying due to heavy drinking. The 65-year-old grammy-award winning singer explained he started drinking more after his third marriage broke up and his family moved away to Miami. Collins said he was in turn left with an emotional vacuum and began drinking excessively. “There’s a chapter in it about the drinking, which escalated when my third marriage broke up, and I retired,” he told The New York Times while talking about his new memoir I’m Not Dead Yet. “I was left with this huge void. I didn’t want to work because I wanted to be with the kids, but the kids weren’t there anymore, because they moved to Miami, and I was still in Switzerland.” “You start drinking, and then you start drinking too much. Then it physically hurts you. I came very close to dying at that point. I’m being honest about that. The book is honest, it’s self-deprecating. I’m not shirking my responsibilities. I apologise when I need to.” Collins has spoken about his struggle with alcohol in the past, explaining that heavy drinking nearly cost him his life and he would open a bottle of wine at 11am in the morning at the height of his drinking. Once a drinker, always a drinker.

Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong caused a scare when he fainted briefly while delivering a lengthy televised speech on Sunday, but he resumed speaking after resting. The 64-year-old cancer survivor, son of the city-state’s late founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, suddenly stopped speaking more than two hours into his speech and had to be helped off the stage. When he returned about an hour and 20 minutes later, the crowd in the packed auditorium gave him a standing ovation and thousands of well-wishers expressed relief on social media. Aides blamed fatigue and dehydration and ruled out a stroke. “Thank you for waiting for me. I gave everybody a scare,” said Lee, who has been in power since 2004. He said he fainted during the speech, part of celebrations linked to Singapore’s 51st anniversary as a republic on August 9th. “I think that’s what happened. I’ve never had so many doctors look at me all at once, they think I’m all right. But anyway I’m going to have a full check-up after this.” Lee had been on his feet for more than two hours when he stunned the audience as he slouched over the lectern before cameras cut away to his listeners during a live broadcast. Lee underwent surgery for prostate cancer last year and has received the all-clear from doctors. He survived a bout of lymphoma, a form of cancer, in 1992.

A Vietnamese woman has admitted to paying for her foot and part of her arm to be cut off in order to claim an insurance payout, police say. In May, the 30-year-old woman, named as “Ly Thi N”, pretended she had been hit by a train, the People’s Police Newspaper of Vietnam reports. But she has now reportedly admitted to having paid a friend $2,200 (£1,660) to sever her limbs. The aim was to claim more than $150,000 from her insurance company. A supposed bystander, “Doan Van D”, the same person who did the cutting, had called an ambulance after “finding” the injured woman on a Hanoi railroad. Pictures published by the official police newspaper showed the woman three months later, with her wounds healed. She is believed to run a struggling business, according to local media. Police have dropped the criminal investigation against both suspects, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reports, after all, she’s a bit armless and can’t run anywhere…

And finally, the world’s oldest man has been named as Indonesian Mbah Gotho, who is 145 years old, with documentation that says he was born in 1870. Mr Gotho said he began preparing for his death in 1992, even having a gravestone made, but 24 years later he is still alive. He has now outlived all 10 of his siblings, his four wives and his children. Though his age is impressive, Mr Gotho told a regional news network: “What I want is to die.” For the past three months he has needed to bathed and spoon-fed, and is becoming increasingly frail. Mr Gotho has official documentation which shows his age, and the Indonesian records office says it has confirmed his birth date as December 31 1870. If this is correct, this would earn him the title of the oldest person ever, a title currently held by French centenarian Jeanne Calment, who was 122 when she died – 23 years younger than Mr Gotho. If the documents cannot be independently verified, however, Mr Gotho will not go down in the record books. There are a number of people who claim to have broken Jeanne Calment’s record, such as Nigerian James Olofintuyi, who claims to be 171, and Dhaqabo Ebba from Ethiopia, who claims to be 163, but without verifiable documents they cannot be given her title. The centenarian, from Central Java, says he spends his time listening to the radio, as his eyesight is no longer good enough to watch television. When asked the secret to a long life, he said: “The recipe is just patience”.

On This Day

• 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most of the British Empire.
• 1898 – Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called “Pepsi-Cola“.
• 1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.
• 1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech.
• 1963 – Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan apartment, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights.
• 1988 – Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy-five are killed and 346 seriously injured.

Deaths

• 1978 – Robert Shaw, English actor, screenwriter, and author (b. 1927)
• 1987 – John Huston, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1906)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kenny Rogers (78), Carrie-Anne Moss (49), Alecia Witt (41), Hayden Panettiere (27), RJ Mitte (24), Usain Bolt (30), Tori Amos (53), Ty Burrell (49), Kirsten Wiig (43), Barbara Eden (85), Shelley Long (67), Steve Guttenberg (58), Dave Chappelle (43), Rupert Grint (28), Stephen Fry (59), Sean Connery (86), Tom Skerritt (83), Gene Simmons (67), Elvis Costello (62), Tim Burton (58), Billy Ray Cyrus (55), Claudia Schiffer (46), Rachel Bilson (35), Alexander Skarsgard (40), Melissa McCarthy (46) and Macauley Culkin (36).

The Last Word

“Oh, what’s the bloody point?”

• Kenneth Williams, British actor and raconteur. This was the final entry in his diary.

Next week peeps!

28th August 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st August 2016

Finally we’ve had a notable  death at long last! Shân, Dave, Alex & Eliza all correctly guessed that João Havelange, the Brazilian football executive, would kick the bucket this year. 50 points each. We’re pretty much three quarters of the way through the year and the leader board is quite tight at the top so anything could happen!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dalian Atkinson, 48, English footballer (Ipswich Town, Aston Villa), tased.
• James Woolley, 49, American keyboardist (Nine Inch Nails, 2wo), Grammy winner (1993).
• João Havelange, 100, Brazilian football executive, President of FIFA (1974–1998).
• John McLaughlin, 89, American political commentator and television personality (The McLaughlin Group).
• Arthur Hiller, 92, Canadian-born American film director (Love Story, The Hospital, The In-Laws).
• Jack Riley, 80, American actor (The Bob Newhart Show, Rugrats, Spaceballs), pneumonia.
• Brian Rix, 92, British actor (And the Same to You) and activist (Mencap).
• Lou Pearlman, 62, American record producer, music manager (Backstreet Boys, NSYNC) and convicted criminal.
• Matt Roberts, 38, American rock guitarist (3 Doors Down) and songwriter (“Kryptonite“), apparent prescription drug overdose.
• Lilia Cuntapay, 81, Filipino actress (Shake, Rattle & Roll, Brokedown Palace, Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay).

In Other News

Television presenter Charlie Webster “nearly died” after falling ill with a rare strain of malaria at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, according to her mother, shortly after completing a 3,000 mile charity ride to make it to the games. At first, doctors treating the 33-year-old from Sheffield thought she was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration when she felt unwell and started vomiting at the event a fortnight ago. But over the following few days, Webster’s health sharply deteriorated and her family said that she fell unconscious last Thursday, although news of the seriousness of her condition only publicly emerged a week later. The presenter – who has worked for Sky Sports and ITV – remains seriously ill with kidney failure, but has been taken out of an induced coma and can speak to family members by her bedside, according to a family statement. On Thursday, doctors said they are “very happy” with her “neurological results” suggesting she has not suffered any brain damage. However they cautioned that her kidneys were “still not responding to treatment and she remains on dialysis.”

Pauline Cafferkey, the nurse who nearly died after contracting Ebola as a volunteer in west Africa, has been charged by a regulatory body with concealing her high temperature when she returned to the UK. Cafferkey, hailed as a hero for her work in the Ebola treatment units of Sierra Leone, could be struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council if the charges are proved against her. The NMC alleged that the Scottish nurse “allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded” on 29th December 2014 and “intended to conceal from Public Health England staff that you had a temperature higher than 38˚C”. A high temperature is one of the first symptoms of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. NHS workers who returned from volunteering were all supposed to fill in questionnaires about their exposure to the virus in their patients and have their temperatures taken by PHE staff at Heathrow airport. Cafferkey nearly died twice – the first time after being diagnosed in Scotland. She was flown to London to be treated in a special tented Ebola isolation unit at the Royal Free hospital. Last October she developed meningitis as a result of the Ebola virus and had to be transferred to the Royal Free once more. Her condition became critical but she pulled through.

Police have renewed a public appeal for information after three human feet were discovered within a few hundred yards of each other. The first foot was found in Weston Park East in Bath, Somerset, in February, the second was discovered in the garden of a property in Weston Park in July, and the third in the garden of a property in Cranwells Park earlier this month. Avon and Somerset police said the first foot was more than likely to be an exhibit from a medical or educational establishment and was not the result of a crime. The force said it anticipated that inquiries into the second and third feet, which are still undergoing tests, are likely to come to the same conclusion. Temporary DI Paul Catton said: “We are confident no crime has been committed and strongly believe the feet have come from an old private collection. “All three feet show signs they have come into contact with animals and it is likely that they have been moved to the locations they were found from a specific source. Dare I quote Arthur Conan Doyle? “Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The game is afoot!”

And finally, three people, including two children, have died after their throats were slit by glass-coated strings used for flying kites on India’s Independence Day. Saanchi Goyal, 3, and Harry, 4, were looking out through the sunroof of their cars in different parts of Delhi when sharp strings slit their throats. Zafar Khan, 22, died in the same manner when he was riding his motorbike. Glass-coated strings are used to bring down competitors’ kites, but they also end up injuring and killing people. Many Indians fly kites to celebrate festivals and important occasions like the Independence Day, which is celebrated on 15th August. But every year, there are reports of people dying or getting wounded from the kite strings – locally known as manja – treated with powdered glass or metal to sharpen them. The Delhi government has now banned the use of sharpened manja to fly kites and promised to run campaigns to educate people about the dangers of using such strings.

On This Day

• 1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
• 1897 – Oldsmobile, a brand of American automobiles, is founded.
• 1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
• 1945 – Physicist Harry Daghlian is irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. He does not turn into a superhero, he dies a horrible death 25 days later.
• 1957 – The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
• 1961 – Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.

Deaths

• 1614 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian serial killer (b. 1560)
• 1940 – Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (b. 1879)

Last Weeks Birthdays

Steve Martin (71), Halle Berry (50), Mila Kunis (33), Magic Johnson (57), Ben Affleck (44), Natasha Henstridge (42), Jennifer Lawrence (26), Princess Anne (66), Julie Newmar (83), James Cameron (62), Madonna (58), Steve Carell (54), Ulrika Jonsson (49), Belinda Carlisle (58), Sean Penn (56), Donnie Wahlberg (48), Robert Redford (80), Denis Leary (59), Madeleine Stowe (58), Christian Slater (47), Edward Norton (47), Jim Carter (68), Matthew Perry (47), Bill Clinton (70), Robert Plant (68), Andrew Garfield (33) and Amy Adams (42).

The Last Word

“Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.” – Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist and writer, member of the Anti-Nazi resistance.

• He led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office, destroying thousands of files to prevent the Nazis from identifying Jews. Within a week, Arondeus and the other members of the group were arrested. Twelve, including Arondeus, were executed by firing squad.

Next week peeps!

21st August 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th August 2016

As yet another pointless edition of the Dead Pool lands in your inbox, we can only hope that next week brings in the names we need. Although this week did have people that we have actually heard of on the list, which makes a refreshing change!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Padraig Duggan, 67, Irish folk musician (Clannad, The Duggans).
• Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, 64, British billionaire property developer.
• Barry Jenner, 75, American actor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Dallas, Family Matters), acute myeloid leukaemia.
• Kenny Baker, 81, British actor (Star Wars, Time Bandits, Flash Gordon).

In Other News

The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe is set to move out of Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and back into jail after a mental health tribunal ruled him sane enough to do so, sources said. The serial killer, 70, has spent 32 years inside the high-security institution in Berkshire after murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven more between 1976 and 1981. Sutcliffe, a former lorry driver from Bradford, now calls himself Peter Coonan. Most of his victims were prostitutes who were mutilated and beaten to death. The decision of the tribunal has been referred to the Ministry of Justice, which still needs to confirm the move. Sutcliffe was given 20 life terms for the murders and was caught when police found him with a prostitute in his car. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Peter Coonan will remain locked up and will never be released for his evil crimes. ”Decisions over whether prisoners are to be sent back to prison from secure hospitals are based on clinical assessments made by independent medical staff. And I bet their assessment was, why waste more money on him, let the prison population deal with him once and for all.

The former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance at an event to mark his 90th birthday. He appeared at a gala in Havana’s Karl Marx Theatre with his brother, President Raul Castro, and Cuba’s ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In his first public appearance since April, he appeared frail and remained seated during the event. Too frail to smoke the 90 meter cigar rolled in his honour! The masterpiece took 10 days to create with the help of several assistants who worked 12 hours a day to roll the extraordinary cigar. It was presented on long tables in an old colonial fort overlooking the harbour of Havana.

Pope Francis has surprised 20 former prostitutes by popping in for a visit at their house in Rome. The women had been rescued from their pimps and are being given shelter and protection at an apartment run by a Catholic charity in Italy’s capital. The pontiff ‘chatted’ to the women, some trafficked from Africa and elsewhere in Europe, for more than an hour! The 79-year-old cleric has repeatedly described human trafficking as a “crime against humanity”. The prostitutes were all aged about 30 and had “suffered serious physical abuse” and now lived under “Vatican protection”. Pope Francis encouraged the former sex workers “to be strong” as they started their new lives with the help of the Pope John XXIII Community. Sounds like our newish pontiff has plenty of spunk for a man of his age!

On This Day

• 1885 – Japan’s first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
• 1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
• 1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
• 1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.

Deaths

• 1951 – William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (b. 1863)
• 1988 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (b. 1898)

Last Week’s Birthdays

David Duchovny (56), Charlize Theron (41), Abbie Cornish (34), Dustin Hoffman (79), Roger Federer (35), Sam Elliott (72), Melanie Griffith (59), Gillian Anderson (48), Eric Bana (48), Anna Kendrick (31), Audrey Tautou (40), Rosanna Arquette (57), Antonio Banderas (56), Hulk Hogan (63), Chris Hemsworth (33), George Hamilton (77), Mark Knopfler (67), Bruce Greenwood (60) and Pete Sampras (45).

The Last Word

“The bastards tried to come over me last night. I guess they didn’t know I was a Marine”. – Private First Class Edward H. Ahrens

• During the Battle of Tulagi, Private Ahrens was mortally wounded while single-handedly fighting back a group of Japanese soldiers attempting to infiltrate Allied lines. After his superior officer discovered Ahrens the next morning surrounded by dead Japanese troops, he whispered these words and died.

Next week peeps!

14th August 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th August 2016

In all honesty, you almost didn’t get a newsletter this week. The lack of news and deaths nearly put a stop on us! It’s really time to send out the flying monkeys, don’t blame me if someone you adore dies this week!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gloria DeHaven, 91, American actress (Summer Stock, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Out to Sea), complications from a stroke.
• Anne of Romania, 92, French-born Romanian royal, queen consort of King Michael.
• David Huddleston, 85, American actor (The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles, Santa Claus: The Movie), heart and kidney disease.
• Gaspar Saladino, 88, American comic letterer (Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, Arkham Asylum). 

In Other News

Oscar Pistorius has denied injuries to his wrists sustained in prison were “a suicide attempt”, a South African prison spokesman has said. Pistorius claimed he fell out of bed in his cell at the prison where he is serving a six-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. “Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt. As a policy principle, we cannot further discuss a particular offender’s personal condition in the public domain,” Manelisi Wolela, a spokesman at the Department of Correctional Services, told Reuters. His brother posted on Twitter to say Pistorius was in good spirits and is “doing well given the circumstances”. He called reports the athlete had tried to injure himself “completely untrue and sensational”.

Brazil’s most recognisable celebrity Pelé pulled out of the Rio  2016 opening ceremony just hours before it was due to begin, but the director insisted this would not detract from a show that aims to be about a lot more than sport. Underscoring how nothing seems to go right for the country recently, the footballer Pelé announced his withdrawal as a result of pain to caused by his recent hip replacement surgery. Local media had reported that he was among the candidates to light the Olympic cauldron. “At this point I’m not physically able to attend the opening of the Olympics,” the 75-year-old said in a statement. “As a Brazilian, I ask God to bless all who participate in this event and to make it a great success.”

Ozzy Osbourne is undergoing “intense therapy” for sex addiction, which caused his separation from his manager and wife of 34 years, Sharon. The Black Sabbath frontman’s representatives released a statement saying he had been dealing with sex addiction for the last six years,but that since his “relationship” with hairstylist Michelle Pugh had been exposed, he had sought treatment. When Osbourne moved out of the family home in May, it was suggested he might have relapsed in his drugs and alcohol addictions. Osbourne himself said: “I have been sober for three and a quarter years. I have not touched drugs or alcohol in that time. Any reports that I am not sober are completely inaccurate.”

On This Day

• 1947 – Thor Heyerdahl‘s balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
• 1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.

Deaths

• 1957 – Oliver Hardy, American actor, singer, and director (b. 1892)
• 1999 – Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Wesley Snipes (54), Fatboy Slim (53), J.K. Rowling (51), Dean Cain (50), Joe Elliott (57), Coolio (53), Kevin Smith (46), Sam Worthington (40), Edward Furlong (39), Martin Sheen (76), Martha Stewart (75), John Landis (66), James Hetfield (53), Evangeline Lilly (37), Billy Bob Thornton (61), Barack Obama (55), M. Night Shyamalan (46), Gerri Halliwell (44) and Michelle Yeoh (54).

The Last Word

“Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel”. – George Appel, executed by electric chair in 1928.

Next week peeps!

7th August 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st July 2016

Welcome all, to what seems to be a massive list of dead celebrities. Alas, no point scorers and a slight scarcity of news. But worry not, as usual the Dead Pool Master has tried his best to make the newsletter slightly interesting. Not too interesting mind, I don’t want your expectations to elevate to stratospheric proportions.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Shawshank tree, c. 180, North American white oak featured in The Shawshank Redemption.
• Dave Bald Eagle, 97, American Lakota Chief and actor.
• Carl Falck, 109, Norwegian businessman, nation’s oldest living man.
• Marni Nixon, 86, American singer (The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady) and actress (The Sound of Music), breast cancer.
• Forrest Mars Jr., 84, American billionaire businessman (Mars, Incorporated), heart attack.
• JT McNamara, 41, Irish jockey.
• Sandy Pearlman, 72, American record producer and band manager (Blue Öyster Cult, The Clash, Black Sabbath), pneumonia as a complication from a stroke.
• Jack Davis, 91, American cartoonist and illustrator (Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Georgia Bulldogs), co-founder of Mad.
• Jerry Doyle, 60, American talk show host and actor (Babylon 5), founder of EpicTimes.
• Vivean Gray, 92, British-born Australian actress (Neighbours, The Sullivans, Prisoner).
• Ken Barrie, 83, British voice actor (Postman Pat) and singer, liver cancer.
• Fred Tomlinson, 90, British singer (The Two Ronnies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus), composer (“The Lumberjack Song“) and critic.

In Other News

Travelling to the moon, Mars or beyond could dramatically increase an astronaut’s risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, the first research into the long-term health of Apollo spacemen has revealed. Nasa’s Apollo programme sent nine manned missions and 24 astronauts beyond  low Earth orbit during the 1960s and early 1970s, including Apollo 11, which delivered Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. But it seems such missions might have taken their toll. A team of researchers looking into the fate of the Apollo astronauts has discovered that their rate of death from cardiovascular disease is four to five times higher than that seen for astronauts of the same era who only flew in low Earth orbits, or who never flew on an orbital mission at all. That, the researchers say, suggests that venturing beyond the Earth’s protective magnetic field could cause long-lasting damage to the cardiovascular system, potentially as a result of exposure to deep space radiation. The findings come as a number of space agencies and commercial enterprises are looking to venture to the moon and beyond, with Nasa planning to send humans to Mars in the 2030’s. Time to rewrite those 2017 lists!

1990s styles may be back in fashion, but getting hold of 20-year-old technology is about to get much harder. The last known maker of video cassette recorders, Funai Japan, has announced it is to cease production of VCRs. Those whirring, magic boxes will soon be nothing but a mere memory. Worldwide a total of 900 million VCRs were produced. With nobody producing the format anymore we can officially announce its DEAD!

A skydiver has made history by becoming the first person to leap without a parachute. After a two-minute free-fall, Luke Aikins, 42, landed dead centre in the 100 x100ft net at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley, California. As cheers erupted, Aikins quickly climbed out, walked over and hugged his wife Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their four-year-old son Logan, who was no doubt fully expecting his father to end up like a pancake. ‘This thing just happened! I can’t even get the words out of my mouth,’ he added as he thanked the dozens of crew members who spent two years helping him prepare for the jump, including those who assembled the fishing trawler-like net and made sure it really worked. Aikins admitted before the jump he was nervous and his mother said she was one family member who would not watch.

On This Day

• 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
• 1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
• 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
• 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

Deaths

• 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
• 1917 – Hedd Wyn, Welsh soldier and poet (b. 1887)
• 1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
• 2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Gore Vidal, American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Michael Ansara, American actor (b. 1922)
• 2013 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (b. 1930)
• 2015 – Roddy Piper, Canadian-American wrestler and actor (b. 1954)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Lynda Carter (65), Gus Van Sant (64), Jennifer Lopez (47), Summer Glau (25), Anna Paquin (34), Matt LeBlanc (49), Mick Jagger (73), Helen Mirren (71), Kevin Spacey (57), Sandra Bullock (52), Kate Beckinsale (43), Josh Radnor (42), Paul Anka (75), Arnold Schwarzenegger (69), Jean Reno (68), Laurence Fishburne (55), Lisa Kudrow (53), Christopher Nolan (46) and Hilary Swank (42).

The Last Word

“Ik schiet beter!” – I could shoot better! – Hannie Schaft

Spoken to a German soldier after having been shot in her execution; the soldier subsequently emptied his machine gun into her.

Next week peeps!

31st July 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th July 2016

Let me apologise for the lack of deaths this week, it’s a shit week when the most famous deaths are a Swiss clown and a Tibetan beauty queen. One would think that the heatwave would have culled a few, but alas we’re left twiddling our thumbs.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Garry Marshall, 81, American director, producer, writer and actor (Happy Days, Pretty Woman, Murphy Brown), pneumonia.
• John Pidgeon, 69, British broadcaster and writer.
• Tsering Chungtak, 30, Tibetan beauty queen, Miss Tibet 2006, heart attack.
• Dimitri, 80, Swiss clown.

In Other News 

In what could have been poetic justice, a plane carrying Boris Johnson was forced to make an emergency landing at Luton airport last Sunday evening. The Foreign Secretary was travelling on board an RAF passenger jet to Brussels, for the first foreign trip he has been on since his appointment. The aircraft began experiencing mechanical difficulties, possibly with the hydraulics. All other flights were temporarily grounded while the issue was investigated. Eyewitnesses at the airport reported seeing numerous emergency services vehicles in the area around the time of the incident. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “There was a technical issue on the RAF flight on Sunday afternoon carrying the Foreign Secretary and his officials from London to Brussels that required the aircraft to land at Luton Airport. “The Foreign Secretary thanked the RAF crew for their professionalism and was grateful to Luton Airport for the brief, unscheduled welcome.

The sports scientist Stephen Dank has been  discharged from hospital after he was wounded in what appears to be a drive-by shooting. The 52-year-old sustained a minor head injury when shots were fired into his Ascot Vale home about 2.20am on Saturday. Photos from the crime scene suggest at least three bullets were fired into Dank’s house, shattering one of the windows. The biochemist reportedly told Fox Sports News he and his partner were angry but refused to be intimidated or leave their home. He has a black eye and a badly cut nose, after a bullet grazed the bridge of his nose, Fox Sports News reports.

And finally, an American woman took her dead husband’s body on road trip in Alaska, using ice from local canneries to keep the corpse cold, police have said. Officers responded to a call last week to find the body of a 78-year-old man inside an aluminium transport casket. Ketchikan police chief Alan Bengaard told the Ketchikan Daily News that during the journey, which took place over several days, the woman stopped at canneries for ice to put in the truck bed during the “rolling wake.” Bengaard told the Juneau Empire that the body was supposed to be en route to the mortuary, but “for some reason she decided to not go directly to the mortuary and had been driving around with him for a couple days.” “My understanding is kind of — leading up to the events of the last couple days — there’s been a rolling wake or viewing. It was pointed out to me that, evidently, she had stopped at a couple of the canneries and got ice and filled the bed of the truck with ice to keep the body chilled.” The woman is not facing any charges, police said. The man had died of natural causes.

On This Day

• 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.
• 1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas”.
• 1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.
• 2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.

Deaths

• 1862 – Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)
• 1962 – Wilfrid Noyce, English mountaineer and author (b. 1917)
• 1980 – Peter Sellers, English actor, singer, director, and screenwriter (b. 1925)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Donald Sutherland (81), David Hasselhoff (64), Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (69), Vin Diesel (49), Kirsten Bell (46), Richard Branson (66), John Glenn (95), Jared Padalecki (34), Benedict Cumberbatch (40), Kim Carnes (71), Louise Fletcher (82), Danny Glover (70), Don Henley (69), Willem Dafoe (61), Rhys Ifans (49), Selena Gomez (24), Woody Harrelson (55),  Alison Krauss (45) and Daniel Radcliffe (27).

The Last Word

I’m in no pain. No pain. Don’t cry for me, Rahaman. I’m going to be with Allah. I made peace with God, I’m okay… Rahaman, how do I look? – Muhammad Ali

Next week peeps!

24th July 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th July 2016

Although plenty of people have died last week, none of the fuckers were famous. We’re literally scraping the bottom of the proverbial bucket this week. Luckily for us, plenty of news to be getting on with, but I’m on the verge of sending out those flying monkeys again!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Héctor Babenco, 70, Argentine-born Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ironweed, Carandiru), heart attack.
• Qandeel Baloch, 26, Pakistani model and social media celebrity, strangled.
• Emma Cohen, 69, Spanish actress (The Glass Ceiling, Voyage to Nowhere, The Grandfather), cancer. 
• Helen Bailey, 51, British author. (body discovered on this date)
• Alan Vega, 78, American singer and musician (Suicide).

In Other News

The Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has been rushed to hospital after collapsing on stage during a gig in New York. Perry, 65, was performing with his Hollywood Vampires bandmates Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp at The Amphitheater in Brooklyn when he suddenly slumped onto the drum stage before staggering off. One witness described how Perry went behind a small wall and then passed out in a post on Instagram. “FDNY and NYPD carried him off quickly,” the user named ‘leeniepics’ wrote. Cooper said Perry is in a “stable condition” and “under the best care” in hospital. Perry, Cooper and Depp joined forces in 2015 to form the Hollywood Vampires. Perry’s agent could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Chaka Kahn and her sister have entered an intensive rehabilitation programme to tackle an addiction to prescription pain killers. The  Grammy-award winning singer said she was entering a programme voluntarily with her sister Yvonne Stevens, also known as Taka Boom. Khan, 63, said the death of her friend Prince had forced her into action. Khan’s 1984 cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You” is one of her most famous songs and the pair were friends for decades before his death aged 57 in April. Autopsy results showed the iconic musician had died of an overdose of an opioid painkiller. Khan told the press she had been struggling with an addiction to the same prescription drugs used by Prince. “Unfortunately, I will miss concert appearances over the summer,” she said in a statement. “However, it’s vital that I put my health and well-being first. I know that I am disappointing some of my fans, but I also know they would want me to recover and be well and healthy. “The tragic death of Prince has had us both rethinking and reevaluating our lives and priorities. We knew it was time to take action to save our lives. My sister and I would like to thank everyone for their support, love and prayers.”

England batsman c has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour, his county Hampshire have confirmed. The 35-year-old was sent for tests after missing this week’s County Championship match against Warwickshire because he felt unwell. He will have more examinations before receiving treatment. Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove said: “I would like to send him and his family our very best wishes at this very difficult time.” Left-hander Carberry missed an England Performance Programme tour in late 2010 and part of the 2011 season because of blood clots on a lung.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has expressed his desire to abdicate in the next few years, public broadcaster NHK reports. The 82-year-old, who has had health problems in recent years, reportedly does not wish to remain emperor if he has to reduce his official duties. But a palace spokesman denied that there is any official plan for the monarch to abdicate in what would be an unprecedented move in modern Japan. Crown Prince Naruhito, 56, is next in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne. An unnamed government source told Japan’s Kyodo news agency that the emperor, who plays a largely ceremonial role but is respected deeply by many Japanese, has been contemplating the move for about a year. His family had accepted his decision, an unnamed palace source told NHK. Emperor Akihito had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and a heart bypass operation four years ago, so there’s no wonder he wishes to take a rest.

US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning tried to kill herself in prison last week, her lawyers have confirmed. Ms Manning, who is transgender, is serving a 35-year sentence at an all-male military facility. Her lawyers accused the US military of violating her privacy by revealing that she had been admitted to hospital. The army had not disclosed the reason for the hospital admission but it was linked to a suicide attempt in media reports. Ms Manning’s legal team said in a statement: “Last week, Chelsea made a decision to end her life. “She would have preferred to keep her private medical information private, and instead focus on her recovery. “She knows that people have questions about how she is doing and she wants everyone to know that she remains under close observation by the prison and expects to remain on this status for the next several weeks.” A tweet was sent from Ms Manning’s account on Monday, reading: “I am okay. I’m glad to be alive. “Thank you for all your love. I will get through this.”

And finally, a campaign to prevent the slaughter of the mother of the bull that killed a Spanish matador has attracted thousands of supporters. Victor Barrio, 29, became the first bullfighter to die in the ring in 30 years when he was gored to death by a bull on live television while fighting in Madrid on Saturday. The matador was fatally pierced in the chest by the animal in the eastern town of Teruel. The bull was subsequently killed. According to Spanish tradition, the mother of any bull that kills a human is also destined to be slaughtered, in order to “kill off the bloodline”. But animal rights campaigners have protested against the killing of the bull’s mother, named Lorenzo, in a movement that has attracted swathes of support through social media. PACMA, a political party in Spain that defends the rights of animals, has set up a petition to oppose the killing and promoted it under the hashtag #SalvemosALorenza – “save Lorenzo” – which has been trending across Spain. Carmen Fraile Martin wrote: “It is shameful that the mother is killed because her son killed a human being. That is absurdity! The fate of Lorenzo is not clear, but Spanish media is reporting that Lorenza is already dead.

On This Day

• 1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.
• 1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
• 1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
• 1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
• 1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.

Deaths

• 1959 – Billie Holiday, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1915)
• 2003 – David Kelly, Welsh weapons inspector (b. 1944)
• 2004 – Pat Roach, English wrestler and actor (b. 1937)
• 2005 – Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
• 2009 – Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Suzanne Vega (57), Leon Spinks (63), Richard Simmonds (68), Cheryl Ladd (65), Anna Friel (40), Michelle Rodriguez (38), Patrick Stewart (76), Harrison Ford (74), Cheech Marin (70), Harry Dean Stanton (90), Jackie Earle Haley (55), Linds Ronstadt (70), Forest Whitaker (55), Brigitte Nielsen (53), Dianne Kruger (40), Jesse Ventura (65), Michael Flatley (58), Phoebe Cates (53), Will Farrell (49) and Corey Feldman (45).

The Last Word

“It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?” – Johnny Ace, 1950s rhythm and blues singer.

• Ace was playing Russian roulette (or something similar; exact accounts vary) with his revolver on Christmas Day 1954, during a backstage break in his concert that day. Contrary to Ace’s assertion, there was a bullet in the chamber, which, when he pulled the trigger with the barrel of the gun to his face, killed him instantly.

Next week peeps!

17th July 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th July 2016

Let’s start off by saying well done to Martin, 37 points for guessing that Gladys Hooper would pop her clogs this year, not many points, but that’s the gamble you take listing supercentenarian’s, you just hope for little and often. Plenty to read this week, so best get on with it!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Noel Neill, 95, American actress (Superman).
• John McMartin, 86, American actor (Sweet Charity, Blow Out, Law & Order), cancer.
• Goldie Michelson, 113, Russian-born American supercentenarian, nation’s oldest living person.
• Gladys Hooper, 113, English supercentenarian.

In Other News

Chelsea Manning, the military whistleblower serving a 35 year sentence, was rushed to hospital after reportedly trying to take her own life. A US media report said that Manning, who us being held at in a cell at the US Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was taken to hospital early on Tuesday morning. CNN said that it was believed that the 28-year-old had tried to kill herself. Manning’s lawyer, Nancy Hollander, said in a statement that she was “shocked and outraged” that an official at Fort Leavenworth provided “confidential medical information” about Manning to the media but had not shared anything with her team. She said she had been due to speak with her client at 2pm on Monday but was told she could not be connected.

Sarah Silverman says she is “insanely lucky to be alive” after developing a serious condition which landed her in intensive care. The comedian was kept  in an intensive care unit for a week after experiencing a “freak case of epiglottitis” she says almost killed her. Epiglottitis is an inflammation of the epiglottis – the flap of tissue beneath the tongue at the back of the throat. Silverman explained in a lengthy Facebook post she initially sought treatment for a sore throat. However, doctors soon diagnosed her with the condition. Silverman underwent surgery and required assistance from a breathing pipe. “When I woke up five days later I didn’t remember anything,” she told her Facebook followers. “I thanked everyone at the ICU for my life, went home, and then slowly as the opiates faded away, remembered the trauma of the surgery and spent the first two days home kind of free-falling from the meds/lack of meds and the paralysing realisation that nothing matters. The 45-year-old also thanked her friends and family, paying a special tribute to her partner, the actor Michael Sheen, who she called her “real-life hero”.

Vladimir Putin has cancelled a series of scheduled appointments and meetings amid mounting speculation surrounding his failure to appear in public since July 1st. The last time the Russian president made a public appearance was at a summit in Finland, in which he warned the Kremlin could take action if the country joined Nato. According to Russian news channel RBC, Mr Putin cancelled a meeting on tourism in Altai on 5th July, postponing it for an “indefinite period”. He also failed to arrive to the opening ceremony he was supposed to attend on Wednesday at VI International Sports Games for the Children of Asia in Yakutia. This was blamed on the President having “a specific schedule that has the ability to change”. The President has also cancelled meetings on 7 July in Novogorod where he was due to visit the production site of Akron, a metal and mining company. The various cancellations had already sparked rumours as to the President’s whereabouts, and the Kremlin is yet to address the matter. Rumours abounded the last time the Russian President vanished from the public eye for a few days, back in March 2015. The lengthy list of reasons included suggestions he was dead, had been overthrown, had a bad back, that his alleged secret girlfriend was having an alleged secret baby, and the theory that Mr Putin had been recovering from plastic surgery to preserve his youthful good looks. Reuters reported at the time that the president was ill, but this was refuted by the Kremlin.

A jockey from Northern Ireland was run over by an ambulance on its way to treat him after he had been kicked in the face by a horse. Chris Meehan, from  County Down, suffered a broken leg when the vehicle drove over him during a hurdle race in Merano, northern Italy, and now faces two months out of action. He was left lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood after falling from his horse and being kicked in the face, before being placed in the recovery position by the race starter. Meehan also had his nose broken in the accident and suffered a gash to his jaw which required 27 stitches. “The racecourse ambulance came up alongside us and reversed up onto my leg,” Meehan told Racing Post. “They stopped it on top of my leg so I started screaming. It broke it straight away. “Everyone around me had to push it off me. You have to laugh really.”

And finally, if you think that chap was having a bad day, two Spanish men are in a serious condition after being gored during the fourth day of the running of the bulls at Pamplona’s San Fermin festival. The men, aged 29 and 34, were from the south-eastern town of Valencia, and were injured in an alleyway leading to the bullring. No further details were revealed. It comes the day after a well-known matador was killed during a bullfight in eastern Spain, the first such incident to occur in the country this century. Professional bullfighter Victor Barrio, 29, was killed by a bull which flipped him over with a horn, then continued to gore and push him along the ground. The fight was taking place at the festival Feria del Angel in Teruel, during an event which was being shown live on TV. No sympathy…

On This Day

• 1212 – The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
• 1553 – Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.
• 1913 – The temperature in Death Valley, California, hits 134 °F (57 °C), the highest temperature ever to be recorded on Earth.
• 1962 – Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

Deaths

• 138 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (b. 76)
• 1806 – George Stubbs, English painter and academic (b. 1724)
• 1851 – Louis Daguerre, French photographer and physicist, invented the daguerreotype (b. 1787)
• 1989 – Mel Blanc, American voice actor and singer (b. 1908)
• 2015 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor and screenwriter (b. 1932)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Montel Williams (60), Tom Cruise (54), Yardley Smith (52), Bill Withers (78), Huey Lewis (66), Rza (47), Ned Beatty (79), Sylvester Stallone (70), Geoffrey Rush (65), 50 Cent (41), Dalai Lama (81), George W. Bush (70), Ringo Starr (76), Jeffrey Tombor (72), Anjelica Huston (65), Kevin Bacon (58), Brian Dennehy (78), Richard Roundtree (74), Tom Hanks (60), Kelly McGillis (59), Courtney Love (52) and Fred Savage (40).

The Last Word

You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper. Executed in California’s gas chamber. – Robert Alton Harris, d. April 21, 1992

Next week peeps!

10th July 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd July 2016

Another shockingly early death on our list of doom this week and for one of you it’s good news! Martin correctly guessed that Caroline Aherne would succumb to throat cancer this year and thus gains himself 98 points. Well done that man!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Aharon Ipalé, 74, Moroccan-born Israeli actor (The Mummy, Fiddler on the Roof, Alias), cancer.
• Mack Rice, 82, American songwriter (“Mustang Sally“, “Respect Yourself“) and singer, complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Alvin Toffler, 87, American writer and futurist (Future Shock, The Third Wave).
• Gordon Murray, 95, British puppeteer and television producer (Trumpton, Camberwick Green, Chigley).
• Robin Hardy, 86, British film director (The Wicker Man).
• Michel Rocard, 85, French politician, Prime Minister (1988–1991).
• Caroline Aherne, 52, English comedian, actress and writer (The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, The Fast Show), throat cancer. 
• Michael Cimino, 77, American screenwriter and director (The Deer Hunter, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Heaven’s Gate).

In Other News

An American woman was arrested this week for flooding Stephen Hawking’s email with death threats, then stalking him at an astronomy festival in the Canary Islands. The woman, a US citizen who lives in Norway, sent emails to Hawking telling him she would kill him at the Starmus Festival, a legendary astronomy conference that’s happening this week in Tenerife. According to El Pais, there were over 100 emails and tweets which threatened things like “I am very close to you. I am going to kill you.” The tweets appear to have been deleted, and it’s unclear how the messages were directed at Hawking since he doesn’t have an account. Hawking’s daughter alerted Spanish police, who provided extra security during the festival, including escorting him onstage. Police arrested the woman on Wednesday at a hotel in Tenerife not far from where Hawking was speaking. She had an itinerary showing where Hawking would be each day, as well as detailed notes on his home and office and how she planned to end his life. A Spanish court issued a restraining order barring her from going within 500 meters of Hawking or sending him messages for eight months. Only eight months?

The Queen met Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at Hillsborough Castle as she began a two-day visit to Northern Ireland. When asked if she was well the monarch replied: “Well I’m still alive…” Either that was her taking the piss out of the fact that McGuinness failed to kill her during The Troubles of that HRH is starting to feel her age creeping upon her. At 90 years of age The Queen still has an active schedule that belittles some of her sprightly siblings. Maybe listing her has been a waste of time as she still seems to be showing the rest of us how it should be done!

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and President Robert Mugabe’s chief rival for the past 17 years has announced he is undergoing treatment for colon cancer. Morgan Tsvangirai, 64, who was prime minister in an uneasy coalition government with Mugabe from 2009-13, said it was important for national leaders to disclose their health status. Morgan Tsvangirai, 64, who was prime minister in an uneasy coalition government with Mugabe from 2009-13, said it was important for national leaders to disclose their health status. “As a leader and a public figure, I have taken a decision to make public my condition,” Tsvangirai said, adding that he had an operation last month and was receiving chemotherapy treatment in neighbouring South Africa.

On This Day

• 1844 – The last pair of great auks are killed.
• 1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen: The first purpose-built automobile.
• 1938 – World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
• 1969 – Space Race: The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.
• 1996 – Stone of Scone is returned to Scotland.

Deaths

• 1935 – André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded the Citroën Company (b. 1878)
• 1937 – Jacob Schick, American-Canadian captain and businessman, invented the electric razor (b. 1877)
• 1969 – Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (The Rolling Stones) (b. 1942)
• 1971 – Jim Morrison, American singer-songwriter (The Doors and Rick & the Ravens) (b. 1943)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Chris Isaak (60), J.J. Abrams (50), Toby Maguire (42), Mel Brooks (90), Kathy Bates (68), John Cusack (50), Gary Busey (72), Katherine Jenkins (36), Cheryl Cole (33), Michael Phelps (31), Mike Tyson (50), Jamie Farr (82), Debby Harry (71), Dan Aykroyd (64), Pamela Anderson (49), Missy Elliott (45), Liv Tylor (39), Carl Lewis (55), Larry David (69), Jerry Hall (60), and Lindsay Lohan (30).

Next week peeps!

3rd July 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 26th June 2016

Short and sweet this week, I’m sure you would rather be reading something about the EU Referendum anyway… No points awarded, but you have to be sad over the death of Anton Yelchin who managed to squish himself with his own car.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Anton Yelchin, 27, Soviet-born American actor (Star Trek, Alpha Dog, Fright Night), blunt traumatic asphyxia.
• Harry Rabinowitz, 100, British music composer (Reilly, Ace of Spies) and conductor (Chariots of Fire, Cats).
• Bill Ham, 79, American band manager (ZZ Top)
• Michael Herr, 76, American author (Dispatches) and screenwriter (Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now).
• Patrick Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, 86, British barrister and politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1992–1997).

In Other News

Selma Blair is feeling especially grateful on her 44th birthday. The actress celebrated her special day with her 4-year-old son, Arthur, on Thursday, and also took some time out to thank everyone on Instagram for their “spirit of loving and forgiveness.” Earlier this week, Blair apologised for having to be removed from an airplane on Monday, after she admitted to mixing alcohol with medication. The actress was coming back from a Father’s Day trip in Mexico on Monday with Arthur and her ex-boyfriend, Jason Bleick, when she allegedly had an outburst while the plane was in the air. She was reportedly taken off the plane on a stretcher. “I made a big mistake yesterday,” Blair said in a statement to Vanity Fair, taking full responsibility for the incident the next day. “After a lovely trip with my son and his Dad, I mixed alcohol with medication, and that caused me to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret.” “I take this very seriously, and I apologize to all of the passengers and crew that I disturbed and am thankful to all of the people who helped me in the aftermath,” she continued. “I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes and am filled with shame over this incident. I am truly very sorry.”

Kelly McGillis, best known for playing Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood in the 1986 box office hit “Top Gun, was a victim of a house assault last week. The actress told police she heard someone inside her Henderson County, North Carolina house when she returned home, and before she knew it she was under attack. “I was trying to get rid of the stuff in my hand to better assess what was going on when a stranger, a woman, came barreling down the hallway and began yelling at me. I asked her who she is and why she was in my house and she said, ‘You know why. You’ve been stalking me on Twitter.’ From there the woman “began punching and scratching me trying to grab the phone out of my hand.” Finally a neighbour called the cops and the woman, who had a young girl with her, was taken away. Kelly added, “I’m alright. Scratched and bruised. I feel very thankful it turned out well. But who I feel heartache for is the little girl that was with her. Mental illness takes many hostages. I don’t know her name…but I would like to ask that you pray for her and her mother.”

On This Day

• 1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.
• 1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
• 1906 – The first Grand Prix motor racing event held.
• 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
• 1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
• 1977 – The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she is the first victim who is not a prostitute.

Deaths

• 2003 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman (b. 1915)
• 2005 – Richard Whiteley, English journalist and game show host (b. 1943)
• 2012 – Nora Ephron, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1941)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kathleen Turner (62), Paula Abdul (54), Mia Sara (49), Zoe Saldana (38), Gena Rowlands (86), Salman Rushdie (69), Olympia Dukakis (85), Martin Landau (88), Danny Aiello (83), Brian Wilson (74), Lionel Richie (67), John Goodman (64), Nicole Kidman (49), Juliette Lewis (43), Prince William (34), Lana Del Rey (31), Kris Kristofferson (80), Cindy Lauper (63), Meryl Streep (67), Francis McDormand (59), Selma Blair (44), KT Tunstall (41), Mick Fleetwood (69), Carly Simon (71), Ricky Gervais (55) and George Michael (53).

The Last Word

I’ve never felt better. – Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, d. December 12, 1939

Next week peeps!

26th June 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 19th June 2016

Welcome all, another edition of The Dead Pool hits the press! This week we saw the senseless death of a Labour MP at the hands of a bigot and the passing of ALF, which should be good news to all cats. Alas, we didn’t have space to cover kids being eaten by alligators at Disney World, those rides are getting more and more dangerous I tell you, maybe you should rethink your next holiday!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Mimmo Palmara, 87, Italian actor (A Long Ride from Hell, Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis, Hercules Unchained).
• Tom Leppard, 80, British tattooed man.
• Janet Waldo, 96, American actress and voice artist (The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Wacky Races).
• Michu Meszaros, 76, Hungarian-born American actor (ALF).
• Ronnie Claire Edwards, 83, American actress (The Waltons, The Dead Pool, Designing Women).
• Lois Duncan, 82, American writer (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hotel for Dogs, Who Killed My Daughter?).
• Jo Cox, 41, British politician, MP for Batley and Spen (since 2015), shot and stabbed.
• Rubén Aguirre, 82, Mexican actor (El Chavo del Ocho, El Chapulín Colorado, Chespirito), pneumonia.
• Attrell Cordes, 46, American rhythm and blues singer (P.M. Dawn), renal disease.
• Ron Lester, 45, American actor (Varsity Blues, Popular, Good Burger), liver and kidney failure.

In Other News

Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt is in hospital after suffering a heart attack after performing with the band at Expo 2016. He is currently being treated in Antalya and is said to be in a serious but stable condition. In a statement, his management  said: ‘Whilst his condition is serious, he has already demanded his customary cup of tea with two sugars and a sweetener.’ The band’s manager Simon Porter added: ‘No further comment will be made at this stage until the completion of the next round of tests and assessments to be made over the next few days. ‘We would ask you to respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.’ A self-confessed former drug addict, Parfitt has suffered a catalogue of health problems, including a quadruple heart bypass in 1997, a throat cancer scare in 2005 and a heart attack in 2011.

Meat Loaf is stable and recovering after collapsing on stage in Canada due to “severe dehydration”. Meat Loaf, whose real name is Marvin Lee Aday, collapsed mid-way through performing his hit ballad “I Would Do Anything for Love” in Edmonton on Thursday evening. Video footage posted on Twitter showed the singer lean heavily to his right and drop his microphone before collapsing to the ground. Several members of his band and crew then rushed on stage to assist him before he was taken to Edmonton Hospital. A statement posted on the 68-year-old’s Facebook page said the collapse was caused by severe dehydration and he is now in a stable condition and “recovering well”. Prior to the incident, Meat Loaf had cancelled two planned performances due to ill health. The singer has the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and had minor heart surgery in 2003, a week after he collapsed on stage at Wembley Arena.

Lil Wayne has reportedly suffered a seizure forcing his private jet to make an emergency landing. The New Orleans rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, was flying from Milwaukee to California when his pilot was forced to land in Omaha on Monday. He apparently blacked out when the plan touched down. Carter suffered two seizures in 2012 and another in 2013. He’s previously said that he’s epileptic and has suffered seizures since his childhood. “This isn’t my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh seizure,” Carter the media in 2013. “I’ve had a bunch of seizures. Y’all just never hear about them. But this time, it got real bad because I had three of them in a row.”

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been placed in intensive care after undergoing an operation to replace a defective heart valve. The procedure lasted four hours, Milan’s San Raffaele hospital said, giving no further details. But sources told Ansa news agency the operation had been a success. He is likely to take a month to recover. Berlusconi, 79, was admitted to hospital last week after suffering a heart attack his doctor said could have killed him. He is expected to remain in intensive care for another 48 hours. On Monday, Berlusconi wrote on his Facebook page he was “concerned” by the looming operation. “But I am also very moved by the very many demonstrations of appreciation, support and affection which I have received from everywhere, even from political rivals,” he added.

The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt is to step down from her position after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Wyatt, who has worked at the corporation for more than twenty years, has had the condition for 25 years but was only diagnosed at the end of last year. She recently announced she had been off work because of the illness on social media. The veteran reporter said she is very sad to be stepping down but is overwhelmed by the support she has received. “I have lived with the condition for the past 25 years, so the diagnosis came as a relief as it enables me to have treatment and to do all I can to manage it. I am tremendously sad to be stepping down from my religious affairs correspondent at a time that understanding religion has rarely been more important.”

And finally, an Indian cinema-goer has died of a heart attack while watching new horror sequel The Conjuring 2. The unnamed 65-year-old male collapsed from chest pains at Sri Balasubramaniar Cinema in Tiruvannamalai, a town residing in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as the film reached its climax. The man was rushed to a nearby hospital where he later passed away. Times of India reports that a strange turn of events then followed; after doctors sent his body to Tiruvannamalai Government Medical College Hospital, both the cadaver and the person tasked with transporting it both went missing in the process. It is believed that the unknown person may have possibly absconded with the body. Fresh news is yet to be reported on the subject but we’re sure that when it arrives there’ll be a perfectly rational explanation as opposed to the supernatural forces several commentators clearly believe were at hand.

On This Day

• 1862 – The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories
• 1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom.
• 1910 – The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
• 1949 — The first ever NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• 1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
• 1978 – Garfield, holder of the Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip, makes its debut.

Deaths

• 1937 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (b. 1860)
• 1993 – William Golding, English author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• 2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor and producer (b. 1961)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jason Mewes (42), George H.W. Bush (92), Malcolm McDowell (73), Tim Allen (63), Ally Sheedy (54), David Grey (48), Steve-O (42), Olsen Twins (30), Donald Trump (70), Boy George (55), Steffi Graf (47), Jim Belushi (62), Helen Hunt (53), Courtenay Cox (52), Ice Cube (47), Neil Patrick Harris (43), Barry Manilow (73), Jason Patric (50), Will Forte (46), Newt Gingrich (73), Venus Williams (36), Paul McCartney (74), Isabella Rossellini (64), Alison Moyet (55) and Richard Madden (30).

The Last Word

Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you. – Johannes Brahms, composer, d. April 3, 1897

Next week peeps!

19th June 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

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!

12th June 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 5th June 2016

With the tragic demise off The Greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, we have some points to dispense. Well done to Sarai, Paula, Nick, Mark, Dave, Shan, Wendy, Julia and Nicola, 76 points each. Even more kudos for those of you who have managed to score for the first time. We’re more or less at the half-way point and all but ten of us have scored, which is rather unusual in itself, but the way things are going I strongly suspect that everyone will score something this year, which will be a first for us!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Harambe, 17, American gorilla, shot.
• Alan Devereux, 75, British actor (The Archers).
• Carla Lane, 87, English television writer (The Liver Birds, Butterflies, Bread).
• Muhammad Ali, 74, American boxer, three-time WBC world heavyweight champion (1964, 1974, 1978), Olympic gold medalist (1960), respiratory issues.
• Dave Swarbrick, 75, British folk musician and singer-songwriter (Fairport Convention), emphysema.

In Other News 

Richard Simmons has been hospitalised after acting strangely at his Hollywood Hills mansion, it has been reported. The reclusive fitness guru was behaving bizarrely at his home on Friday night, leading someone to call 911. Paramedics took Simmons, 67, to a Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. It is not clear if he has been discharged yet. The workout star’s Twitter and Facebook pages continued to be updated with links to news articles through Friday and Saturday, however it is not known whether someone else was in charge of the posts. All the pictures he has posted of himself recently appear to be old. Simmons has been a recluse for the last three years and in March his friends feared he had been ‘kidnapped’ by his housekeeper. Teresa Reveles, 64, was accused of of controlling Simmons using black magic, something the star was forced to deny in phone calls to two chat shows. ‘I am not kidnapped. I am just in my house right now,’ he insisted. ‘No one should be worried about me. The people that surround me are wonderful people who take great care of me.’ Of Reveles, he added: ‘She’s been with me for 30 years. It’s almost like we’re a married couple.’

Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, has travelled to the UK with family to have a second cardiac procedure in five years, his daughter has said. Sharif was in high spirits when he went into the operating theatre at about 8am, according to Maryam Sharif. Posting the information on Twitter, she did not say how long the surgery was expected to take. The operation was for a perforation of the heart, a complication from an earlier cardiac procedure in 2011, Maryam said in another tweet last week. Nawaz Sharif, 66, was prime minister for two terms in the 1990s before being overthrown in a 1999 military coup. After years in exile, he returned to Pakistan in 2007 and led his party to a victory in a 2013 election.

Prince Philip missed a commemoration of the largest naval battle of the First World War following advice from his doctor. The Queen’s husband was told to miss the Battle of Jutland commemoration which saw the Royal Navy fight the Imperial German Navy off the coast of Denmark from 31st May to 1st June in 1916. The 94-year-old, who celebrates his 95th birthday on 10th June, has not been to hospital and is not expected to need an appointment any time soon. “The background is that this is on the doctor’s order, but there are no plans for him to go to hospital,” a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace told the media. “This is a temporary health thing.”

On This Day

• 1883 – The first regularly scheduled Orient Express departs Paris.
• 1917 – World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as “Army registration day”.
• 1956 – Elvis Presley introduces his new single, “Hound Dog“, on The Milton Berle Show, scandalising the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
• 1963 – The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigns in a sex scandal known as the “Profumo affair”.
• 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. presidential candidate, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian. Kennedy dies the next day.
• 1975 – The United Kingdom holds its first country-wide referendum on remaining in the European Economic Community (EEC).
• 1981 – The “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that five people in Los Angeles, California, have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, in what turns out to be the first recognised cases of AIDS.
• 1989 – The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
• 2004 – Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, dies at 93.

Deaths

• 2004 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (b. 1911)
• 2012 – Ray Bradbury, American author and screenwriter (b. 1920)
• 2015 – Tariq Aziz, Iraqi journalist and politician, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1936)

Last Week’s Birthdays

LaToya Jackson (60), Noel Gallagher (49), Mel B (41), Colm Meany (63), Steven Gerrard (36), Clint Eastwood (86), Tom Berenger (67), Lea Thompson (55), Brooke Shields (51), Colin Farrell (40), Morgan Freeman (79), Ronny Wood (69), Jonathan Pryce (69), Heidi Klum (43), Alanis Morissette (42), Dana Carvey (61), Zachary Quinto (39), Justin Long (38), Rafael Nadal (30), Noah Wyle (45), Russell Brand (41) and Angelina Jolie (41).

The Last Word

Donald Campbell – (1921–1967) – Hallo, the bow is up… I’m going… I’m on my back… I’ve gone. Oh.

Next week peeps!

5th June 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 29th May 2016

Alas no points this week, although I could have sworn that one of you had Burt Kwouk, perhaps it was last year! So the league table remains the same for the time being. I’m rather hesitant to send out the flying monkeys, it seems rather greedy after so many stars have died of late, so for the time being we’ll just coast along with the ‘B’ List celebrities.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Lewis Fiander, 78, Australian actor, stroke.
• Buck Kartalian, 93, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Cool Hand Luke, The Rock).
• Burt Kwouk, 85, British actor (The Pink Panther, Last of the Summer Wine, Goldfinger).
• Nancy Dow, 79, American actress (The Ice House) and model, mother of Jennifer Aniston.
• Peggy Spencer, 95, British dancer.
• Angela Paton, 86, American actress (Groundhog Day, American Wedding, Lolita), heart attack.

In Other News

Calvin Harris says he feels “lucky and grateful” following his car accident last week. Last Friday, Harris, who was travelling as a passenger in a Cadillac, was involved in a collision on the way to a Los Angeles airport. He was hospitalised and has been resting on doctor’s orders since. Harris, who is the highest earning DJ in the world, was forced to cancel a number of gigs and appearances following the crash. On Thursday, a statement on his Facebook page announced he would not be performing at his Las Vegas residency on Friday night as he is still “recovering from the injuries sustained in the car accident”. On Friday, Harris returned to Twitter saying he was felt “lucky and grateful”. He also thanked fans for their well-wishes and apologised for the cancelled concerts. Following the crash, a Los Angeles police department spokesperson said a Volkswagen Beetle had collided with Harris’ vehicle. “In the other vehicle a juvenile was ejected from the vehicle for not wearing a seatbelt and suffered a broken pelvis.” According to reports from celebrity gossip site TMZ, the driver was a 16-year-old girl. Following the crash, a spokesperson for Harris, whose real name is Adam Wiles, said he had “sustained a number of injuries” from the “serious collision”.

The former BBC presenter Sian Williams has revealed she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Speaking to Woman & Home magazine, Williams explained how she felt the chances of her having breast cancer were so “improbable” that she went to get the results from a mammogram alone, despite having a family history of cancer. The 5 News at 5 anchor said: “The week after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought I was healthy. I did all the right things – I was a green tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner. “My aunt died of breast cancer, and I’d lost my mum to liver and bowel cancer – and I gradually began to realise how bewildered and scared I was.” Williams described how the shock of her diagnosis impacted upon her relationship with her husband, saying she was “horrible” to him at times as she struggled to discuss her fears.

Gordon Downie, the lead singer of Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In news that has devastated fans, The Hip confirmed Downie, 52, was diagnosed with cancer in December. A founding member, Downie has performed with The Hip for over three decades and released three solo albums. The band told their fans in a Facebook post, in which they also announced plans to tour again in his honour. “A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him. “So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours… We’ve decided to do another one. This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

The Scottish do-gooder nurse who survived  Ebola has said she has been left with permanent weakness in her leg and will probably never run again. Pauline Cafferkey, 40, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was hospitalised three times, at great expense to the NHS, after contracting the virus while working in Sierra Leone in 2014. She told BBC Radio Scotland that she was now “Ebola negative” and her health had come on “leaps and bounds”. But she said there were long-term issues, such as numbness and dizziness. Speaking on Radio Scotland’s Stephen Jardine programme, Ms Cafferkey revealed that her case was the highest viral load of Ebola ever recorded in a survivor. However, she added: “I’ve still got swelling at the base of my spine, which is very painful and dizziness – my balance isn’t too good.” Paying tribute to her medical team, she added: “Although I am negative Ebola, I still have some remnants there as a result of it. But on the other hand, I am alive and I have received the best care in the world, *for free*.”

And finally, a Thai man is recovering in hospital after a 3m (10ft) python emerged from a squat toilet and sank its teeth into his penis. Attaporn Boonmakchuay said the python was “yanking very hard” as he and his wife tried to wrestle it off. Doctors said Mr Attaporn, who lost a lot of blood in the ordeal, was making a good recovery. Workers dismantled the toilet and extracted the python which had slithered through domestic plumbing. It was released back into the wild. The incident happened as Mr Attaporn, 38, went to the toilet at his home in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, before leaving for work on Wednesday. As he used the toilet he said he suddenly felt a sharp pain. “I felt as though my penis had been severed. The snake was yanking very hard,” he said,  according to the Bangkok Post. As the python tried to pull him down, he called for his wife and neighbours to help him, the post reported. Mr Attaporn told Thai TV that his wife tied a rope around the snake and he prised its jaws open before passing out. Thai media published images of Mr Attaporn’s blood-spattered toilet. Doctors said Mr Attaporn was recovering well. “He has a really good attitude… even though his own wife and children were in shock. He’s been smiling and giving interviews all day from his bed,” said Chularat Hospital director Dr Chutima Pincharoen. Mr Attaporn said he planned to replace the squat toilet with a sitting one.

On This Day

• 1913 – Igor Stravinsky‘s ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.
• 1919 – Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
• 1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra record Irving Berlin‘s “White Christmas“, the best-selling single in history.
• 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay’s (adopted) 39th birthday.
• 1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
• 1988 – The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Deaths

• 1951 – Fanny Brice, American singer and comedian (b. 1891)
• 1997 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Gods and Monsters) (b. 1966)
• 2010 – Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1936)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Morrissey (57), Naomi Campbell (46), Ginnifer Goodwin (38), Joan Collins (83), Marvin Hagler (62), Tommy Chong (78), Bob Dylan (75), Priscilla Presley (71), Jim Broadbent (67), John C. Reilly (51), Eric Cantona (50), Ian McKellan (77), Frank Oz (72), Mike Myers (53), Anne Heche (47), Stevie Nicks (68), Bobcat Goldthwait (54), Lenny Kravitz (52), Helena Bonham Carter (50), Louis Gossett Jr. (80), Sioxsie Sioux (58), Paul Bettany (44), Denise Van Outen (42), Jamie Oliver (41), Gladys Knight (72) and Kylie Minogue (48).

The Last Word

General John Sedgwick (1813-1864) – “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”.

Next week peeps!

29th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd May 2016

Another week flies by, another Dead Pool newsletter lands in your inbox. Alas no points, although one of our members came close with Ian Watkins, had she dropped the ’s’ in the name she would have scored points, but we all knew she meant the paedophile from The Lost Prophets, not the New Zealand actor…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Roberds, 52, Canadian actor (The New Addams Family, Elf, Hot Tub Time Machine).
• Ian Watkin, 76, New Zealand actor (Braindead, Sleeping Dogs)
• John Berry, 52, American musician (Beastie Boys), frontal lobe dementia.
• Alan Young, 96, English-born Canadian-American actor (Mister Ed, The Time Machine, DuckTales). 
• Nick Menza, 51, American drummer (Megadeth), heart failure.

In Other News

Former France winger David Ginola is recovering in hospital in Monaco after a quadruple heart bypass operation. The 49-year-old former Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton player, who retired in 2002, collapsed in the south of  France on Thursday. His surgeon, speaking with authority of the family, told the media that Ginola was “extremely lucky” to be alive. “David played a sort of charity football match. All of a sudden he collapsed and people thought it was a joke but after one or two minutes they realised it was serious,” said Gilles Dreyfus, professor of cardiac surgery at the Monaco Heart Centre. “Fortunately there was one person who had been trained in CPR, because otherwise he would have been brain dead. They then called the emergency services, who arrived eight minutes later with him in cardiac arrest. “They arrived with him in cardiac arrest, he was shocked four times on site, they were able to restore a normal heart rhythm and within 10 minutes a helicopter arrived to transfer him to Monaco Heart Centre. The decision to transfer him to the operating theatre was made and he immediately underwent a quadruple heart bypass, which was very straightforward although difficult. “It was a sequence of events that at every stage went absolutely fine, that is why he is here today. Luckier you can’t be. It’s an unbelievable story.”

Sinéad O’Connor has been found safe, local police have confirmed, after a desperate hunt was launched to find the Irish singer when she disappeared on Sunday from a suburb of Chicago. News that she had not been seen since early on Sunday morning immediately sparked alarm as reports emerged on Monday that authorities were concerned for her health. Police in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette released a statement on Monday in which they said they were “seeking to check the wellbeing” of the 49-year-old. The singer has opened up about her struggles with suicidal thoughts in the past. In 2007, she told Oprah Winfrey that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday. In recent weeks, she became embroiled in controversy after the death of Prince, who wrote her breakthrough hit Nothing Compares 2 U. The talkshow host Arsenio Hall filed a $5m lawsuit against O’Connor after she posted on Facebook to allege that Hall had given Prince drugs “over the decades”.

TV star Tim Healy is recovering in hospital after being taken ill during the filming of the ITV show Benidorm. He was flown to Manchester from Spain on Saturday after his condition improved enough to allow him to travel. The media reported that Healy was taken ill almost a month ago and had been fighting for his life. An ITV spokesman said the 64-year-old was “feeling much better” and that filming of the show had been “adjusted to accommodate Tim’s absence”. It is understood his former wife Denise Welch flew to Spain at one point to visit him in hospital, where his wife Joan has been by his side. Healy, who was born in Newcastle and found fame in the 1980s’ show Auf Wiedersehen Pet, has played the cross-dressing character Les/Lesley in Benidorm since 2010.

And finally, Chinese officials have issued an angry denial following claims the country has been marinating human  cadavers, putting them in cans and then selling them in African supermarkets. The outlandish rumour appears to have been started on Facebook, where a post featuring grisly images, supposedly of human meat being processed, went viral earlier this month. The post was picked up by Zambia’s Daily Post, among others, which published a report saying: “One cannot deny the possibilities (sic) of this being true since we all know that the Asians are among the largest population in the entire world. “Since China is so overpopulated to a point where there is no space to spit, what do they do with the dead bodies of the Chinese? Well the answer might be that they are shipping the bodies to Africa in the form of canned meat, and they make a profit during the process.” Yang Youming, China’s ambassador to Zambia, released a statement saying: “Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a rumor, claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa. This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification which is absolutely unacceptable to us,” he said in a statement. “We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act.” Zambia’s Deputy Defense Minister Christopher Mulenga has pledged that the government will launch investigations into the reports.

On This Day

• 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1762 – Trevi Fountain in Rome is officially completed and inaugurated by Pope Clemens XIII.
• 1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.
• 1888 – Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers.
• 1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.

Deaths

• 1802 – Martha Washington, American wife of George Washington, 1st First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)
• 1885 – Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1802)
• 2013 – Lee Rigby, English soldier and drummer (b. 1987)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brian Eno (68), Zara Phillips (35), Pierce Brosnan (63), Debra Winger (61), Janet Jackson (50), Gabriella Sabatini (46), Bill Paxton (61), Enya (55), Jordan Knight (46), Sugar Ray Leonard (60), Chow Yun Fat (61), Tina Fey (46), Pete Townshend (71), Grace Jones (68), Cher (70), Judge Reinhold (59) and Mr. T (64).

The Last Word

Don’t die like I did. – George Best  d. 2005

Next week peeps!

22nd May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 15th May 2016

Sorry for the lateness of this edition of the Dead Pool, life got in the way. However, we have points to award, so let’s get on with it! Seeing all of you had Susannah Mushatt Jones as a Cert or a Woman, you all score 134 points! Congratulations to Stu, Julie, Lee, Paul C and Dave! It’s certainly upset the leader board somewhat!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• William Schallert, 93, American actor (The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, In the Heat of the Night), President of SAG (1979–1981).
• Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116, American supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person.
• Tony Barrow, 80, British press officer (The Beatles).

In Other News

Anthony Kiedis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, has been hospitalised, with the band cancelling a concert at the last minute. Flea, the band’s bassist, took the stage  in Irvine, California to announce that the band would be unable to perform. “Anthony is on his way to the hospital right now, and we’re unable to play this evening,” he said. “We are devastated about it, we are really sad. We love you so much, we live to rock.” “Unfortunately there’s a medical thing that happened and he needed to deal with it,” he added. A representative for KROQ, the Los Angeles radio station hosting the concert, told Billboard that Kiedis was suffering from extreme stomach pain. Kiedis, 53, is a founding member of the band, which formed in 1983 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Sheridan Smith has pulled out of her third consecutive performance of the West End musical Funny Girl after saying she is not strong enough. Her leading role as Fanny Brice will be played by her understudy, Natasha  Barnes, leaving it uncertain whether Smith will continue for the remaining five-month run. Smith, 34, first missed a performance on Monday night after responding angrily to suggestions in the press that she had been a sore loser at the Baftas for missing out on the best actress award for her role as the cancer blogger Lisa Lynch in The C Word. Shortly before her performance on Tuesday, the Savoy theatre again stated that Barnes would play Brice because of the “indisposition” of Smith, and then repeated the same announcement on Wednesday afternoon. Smith’s representative has not confirmed when she will return to the stage. The producers of Funny Girl said in a statement that Smith was going through a difficult time.

And finally, the benefits of special diets for athletes have been well documented, but Serena Williams may have taken things too far on Wednesday when she decided to sample her pet dog’s dinner. Williams is playing in the Italian Open, and her hotel had prepared a special menu for her Yorkshire terrier, Chip, including a tempting salmon and rice dish. The world No1 sampled some of it, telling fans on Snapchat: “I ate a spoonful. Don’t judge me.” Williams’s verdict? It tasted “a little bit like a house-cleaner thing.” That was followed by an urgent trip to the bathroom a few hours later. “I don’t think it’s consumable for humans. They should have wrote that,” noted Williams. The incident did little to slow down Williams once she played Christina McHale in the third round in Rome: she won 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. Chip’s thoughts on the matter were not available at the time of publication.

On This Day

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
• 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
• 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.
• 1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.
• 1940 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
• 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Deaths

• Nobody of any importance!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Rosario Dawson (37), Billy Joel (67), Bono (56), Linda Evangelista (51), Emilio Estevez (54), Gabriel Byrne (66), Jason Biggs (38), Malin Akerman (38), Stephen Baldwin (50), Ving Rhames (57), Harvey Keitel (77), Stevie Wonder (66), Stephen Colbert (52), Robert Pattinson (30), Dennis Rodman (55), Samantha Morton (39), George Lucas (72), Tim Roth (55), Cate Blanchett (47) and Mark Zuckerberg (32).

The Last Word

Am I dying or is this my birthday? – When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside. – Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

Next week peeps!

15th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th May 2016

Another week, a few more deaths. Alas we’re back to scraping the bottom of the barrel for names we barely recognise. However, plenty to read as these celebrities seem to be very fond of doing silly things.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jonathan Cainer, 58, British astrologer (Daily Mail), heart failure.
• Kristian Ealey, 38, British actor (Brookside, Hollyoaks).
• Frank Levingston, 110, American supercentenarian, nation’s oldest World War II veteran.
• Matt Irwin, 36, British photographer.
• Margot Honecker, 89, East German politician, Minister of People’s Education (1963–1989), First Lady (1976–1989).
• Rickey Smith, 36, American singer and talent show contestant (American Idol), traffic collision.

In Other News

Little Richard has denied claims that he is “clinging to life”. According to his attorney, William Sobel, who has represented him for 30 years, reports of the singer’s poor health are untrue. “I just spoke to him today,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He said, ‘You know, I want you to talk to the press because I’m really annoyed this thing started on Facebook. Not only is my family not gathering around me because I’m ill, but I’m still singing. I don’t perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I’m healthy.’” Rumours concerning the 83-year-old rock’n’roll legend’s health were reported by several sources earlier this week, following Bootsy Collins’ seemingly misinformed message on Facebook: “A friend, a legend & some say the true King of Rock & Roll,” he wrote. “Lil-Richard needs our love & understanding right now. He is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up.” Although Little Richard continues to sing, he avoids the spotlight and hasn’t performed live in two years. “He had hip surgery,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He’s 83. I don’t know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumours, I wanted to tell you that he’s vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he’s still very active in a daily routine. I used to represent Prince and he just engaged me in all kinds of Prince conversations, calling him a ‘creative genius’.”

Several weeks ago production on the third Maze Runner film, The Death Cure, was shut down when star Dylan O’Brien was injured on set. Now, a new report says his injuries were worse than originally thought and the film has been postponed indefinitely. “His injuries are very serious and he needs more time to recover,” O’Brien’s publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story. Fox released the following statement as well: The resumption of principal photography on Maze Runner: The Death Cure has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries. We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible. According to the report, on March 18 O’Brien suffered a “concussion, facial fracture and lacerations” when a stunt in which the actor was on top of a moving vehicle went wrong.

Janet Jackson is pregnant with her first child, according to reports in the US. The singer, who will turn 50 in May, put all tour plans on hold for the foreseeable future earlier this year in order to start a family. The singer embarked on her year-long Unbreakable World Tour – her first in four years – last August, but missed shows due to medical reasons since October. Jackson had to deny rumours that she had throat cancer after worrying fans with an update on Christmas Eve saying that she needed surgery. A video posted on her Twitter account last month explained that she was “planning a family” with husband Wissam Al Mana, who she married secretly in 2012.

The former child star of ’80s film Flight of the Navigator has been charged with bank robbery in Canada. Deleriyes Joe Cramer, who was known as Joey Cramer when he starred in the 1986 movie, was arrested in Gibsons, British Columbia. The robbery took place in nearby Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a statement saying the 42-year-old had been charged with four offences relating to the bank robbery. Cramer, who lives in Gibsons, was in a number of films as a child actor, including Runaway with Tom Selleck and The Clan of Cave Bear with Darryl Hannah. His biggest film was the box office hit Flight of the Navigator, in which Cramer played the lead character David Freeman. He was nominated for the Young Artist Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 1987. Police say a disguise was used in the bank robbery. They have requested anyone with additional information, including information about a man purchasing or discarding a disguise involving a shoulder-length wig, bandana, and dark jacket with a reddish design on the back, to contact Sunshine Coast police. Cramer is facing charges including robbery, disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence, failure to stop for a police officer and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Italian composer Ennio Morricone has cancelled concerts in Rome because of health concerns. The 87-year-old has shelved three performances due to two collapsed vertebrae, according to Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra. The Oscar winner was due to perform with Santa Cecilia and its chorus. Later European concerts will still go ahead, Morricone’s spokeswoman said. Morricone, who has 500 film credits to this name, won his first competitive Oscar this year for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He had previously received an honorary Oscar in 2007.

On This Day

• 1429 – Joan of Arc lift the Siege of Orleans turning the tides of the Hundred Years’ War.
• 1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.
• 1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.
• 1945 – World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
• 1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

Deaths

• 1903 – Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor (b. 1848)
• 1982 – Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (b. 1950)
• 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, American author and screenwriter (b. 1907)
• 1994 – George Peppard, American actor and producer (b. 1928)
• 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Wes Anderson (47), Dwayne “The Rock’ Johnson (44), David Beckham (41), Ellie Kemper (36), Lily Allen (31), Frankie Valli (82), Christina Hendricks (41), Will Arnett (46), Michael Palin (73), Richard E. Grant (59), Henry Cavill (33), Adele (28), George Clooney (55) and Traci Lords (48).

The Last Word

“Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrows paper? ‘French Fries!’” – James French, convicted murderer, as he was being strapped into the electric chair.  d.1966

Next week peeps!

8th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st May 2016

Not a lot to report upon this week, after all, we have been spoiled recently with deaths so it’s impossible to keep the ball rolling unless one of us cheats and decides to kill off some names. So a quick and easy newsletter for you to digest.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Billy Paul, 81, American R&B singer (“Me and Mrs. Jones“), pancreatic cancer.
• Papa Wemba, 66, Congolese singer, seizure.
• Mark Farmer, 53, British actor (Grange Hill, Minder, Johnny Jarvis), cancer.
• Jenny Diski, 68, English writer (Nothing Natural, Rainforest, London Review of Books), lung cancer.
• Barry Howard, 78, English actor (Hi-de-Hi!), blood cancer.

In Other News

The wildlife presenter Chris Packham has spoken of having twice been on the brink of trying to take his own life during severe bouts of depression. Packham, 54, revealed he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in his 20s, and described his thoughts as a “great, hopeless vacuum”. The naturalist, who presents the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch programmes, unsurprisingly spoke of his difficulties in an interview with the Times marking the release of his memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar. He said: “I have been severely depressed, yes. I nearly killed myself twice.” One crisis came in 2003, he said, but he “didn’t have enough drugs to be sure it would work. I wouldn’t want to make a bad job of suicide”. He chose not to go through with it because he did not want to leave behind his two dogs or hurt his family, he said. Packham, who lives in the New Forest and is in a relationship with the owner of Isle of Wight zoo, Charlotte Corney, said he had no friends but was close to an ex-partner and her daughter.

Glenn Close, the Hollywood actress, has  battled back from a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised to make a triumphant return to Sunset Boulevard. Close, who had to pull out of four shows last week, spent three days in hospital and was placed on an intravenous drip after falling ill, it has emerged. Fans had been told she was “indisposed”, leading to fears for her health after nearly a month in the gruelling stage role. A spokesman for the English National Opera (ENO) later clarified Close was “unwell”, as fans who had already bought tickets seeing her alternate, Ria Jones, instead. It has now been confirmed the actress was in fact struck down by a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised. Close, who is making her West End debut in the role at the age of 69, was finally compelled to rest under doctors order last Thursday.

On This Day

• 1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.
• 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
• 1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1948 – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.
• 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
• 1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
• 2011 – Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May 2nd.

Deaths

• 1873 – David Livingstone, Scottish-English missionary and explorer (b. 1813)
• 1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer and academic (b. 1841)
• 1945 – Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
• 1994 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
• 2011 – Henry Cooper, English soldier and boxer (b. 1934)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Shirley MacLaine (82), Djimon Hounsou (52), Al Pacino (76), Bjorn Ulvaeus (71), Hank Azaria (52), Renee Zellweger (47), Joan Chen (55), Jet Li (53), Kevin James (51), Channing Tatum (36), Jay Leno (66), Jessica Alba (35), Mary McDonnell (64), Penelope Cruz (42), Jerry Seinfeld (62), Daniel Day-Lewis (59), Michelle Pfeiffer (58), Uma Thurman (46), Willie Nelson (83), Burt Young (76) and Kirsten Dunst (34).

The Last Word

I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring. – Richard Feynman, physicist, d. 1988

Next week peeps!

1st May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th April 2016

Yet another brutal week, 2016 is seemingly turning out to be a celebrity cull-fest, or is it? Read the article below. So, no points this week, unsurprisingly really as nobody should have listed Prince or Victoria Wood, both were taken away from us far too early. Lots to read today, so lets get on with it!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Morag Siller, 46, British actress (Emmerdale, Memphis Belle, Casualty), breast cancer.
• Rod Daniel, 73, American film director (Teen Wolf, K-9, WKRP in Cincinnati).
• Kit West, 79, British special effects artist (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonheart, Enemy at the Gates), Oscar winner (1982).
• Doris Roberts, 90, American actress (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele, Christmas Vacation).
• Chyna, 46, American professional wrestler (WWF) and actress (1 Night in China, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cougar Club).
• Scott Nimerfro, 54, American writer and producer (Hannibal, Once Upon a Time, X-Men), cancer.
• Guy Hamilton, 93, French-born British film director (James Bond franchise, Battle of Britain, Evil Under the Sun).
• Victoria Wood, 62, British comedian and actress (New Faces, Victoria Wood As Seen on TV, Dinnerladies), cancer.
• Prince, 57, American musician (“Purple Rain“, “Little Red Corvette“) and actor, Oscar (1984) and Grammy winner (1984, 1986, 2004, 2007).

 In Other News

Fidel Castro has made what is likely to be his final speech to Cuba’s Congress, telling the assembled politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution’s ideals would live on. The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party – a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018. And Fidel Castro said the time was approaching for a younger generation to take over. His declaration appeared to be less of an announcement that he was dying – he has been suffering from intestinal problems since the early 2000s – than a statement of obvious fact. “I’ll be 90 years old soon,” he said. “Soon I’ll be like all the others.” All we can say at Dead Pool Towers is HURRY UP!!

The last surviving chimpanzee from the PG Tips adverts has died aged 48. Twycross Zoo said that Choppers, the remaining character from the “tea chimps”, was put down by staff after she began to display signs of heart and liver failure. Known for her performances as Ada in the PG Tips commercials, which ran from the 1960s though until 1980, Choppers became the last surviving member of the troop after her cohabitant at the zoo, Louis, died in 2014. The chimpanzees also appeared in a number of children’s shows, including Tiswas and Blue Peter. They were often dressed up in clothes and filmed acting out messy tea parties, with lip-syncing voice-overs recorded by the likes of actor Peter Sellers and comedian Bob Monkhouse. While the commercials proved popular with TV audiences, Twycross Zoo ended its advertising agreement in the 1980s over concerns of animal cruelty. Animal experts at the zoo later admitted that the use of the apes was wrong, but chimpanzees from abroad continued to appear in tea adverts up until 2003. Choppers was taken in by Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire, after being brought to Britain by a couple who had rescued her from poaches in Liberia. Although she spent her twilight years in a shared enclosure with other chimps, she was known to prefer solitude, often shunning other apes in favour of human company. Choppers made her final TV performance in January last year, when she featured in a Channel 5 documentary looking back on the “tea chimps” and their lives in commercials.

Paul Gascoigne has insisted he is back to his “best” after suffering another relapse in his battle with alcoholism that saw him pictured with a cut and bloodied face. The former England footballer, who has had a drink problem for more than 20 years, claimed to have suffered a “two-day blip” in his ongoing struggle. The 48-year-old was last month photographed clutching a bottle of gin and being escorted by a police officer in his home town of Poole, Dorset. And more pictures later emerged of the ex-Tottenham player with a bloodied face, showing cuts and bruising to his nose, lip and forehead. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Gascoigne said that he was doing “all right” and had been clean for 11 months. Speaking openly to show presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Gascoigne was smartly dressed, with Morgan telling him: “You look good, mate.” Shrugging off his recent relapse as nothing more than a “blip”, the 48-year-old said he had been sober for months and was “back to my best”. However, he admitted that he only realised the seriousness of his recent relapse after seeing stories in the newspapers. Asked by Morgan if he felt it was right for people to compare him to George Best – the footballer who died in November 2005 after suffering from alcoholism for most of his adult life – Gascoigne said: “He’s passed away, I’m not, I’m still here.

Glenn Close has pulled out of a performance of Sunset Boulevard over ill health. Close, 69 – who plays Norma Desmond in the West End musical – was replaced by Ria Jones for the performance. The news was announced on Twitter by the English National Opera just hours before the show was due to start at the London Coliseum. Close returned to the role of Desmond earlier this month, marking 20 years since she first played the character. Speaking about the role she said: “She is one of the great parts ever written for a woman, it is infinite in the possibility of exploration and I feel totally new in this role, I feel like I’ve never done it before except I’m wearing these old clothes.” No news on what was actually wrong with Close though…

And finally, in a slight over-reaction, a furious gran has been spared jail for attacking her husband of 50 years with a meat hammer after catching him watching pornography. Lynda Holmes, 70, repeatedly bashed 78-year-old Gordon Holmes over the head at their Lancashire home after she thought he was trying to destroy the material. Burnley Crown Court heard how Mr Holmes ran out into the street bleeding and told neighbours his wife had gone ‘mad’. When police asked Mrs Holmes what happened she said: “I caught him with porn. He tried to get rid of it. I’ve seen red and attacked him. I wanted to kill him. “He hasn’t touched me for over 10 years and now he’s watching porn. How dare he? How do I go about getting 10 years of my life back?” Mr Holmes told police that he feels ‘partly responsible because of his selfishness’ by playing in a band, playing golf and ‘spending considerable time away from home and not supporting his wife’. Grandmother-of-three Mrs Holmes pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm at the couple’s home on Hornby Street in Oswaldtwistle. She was given a 10 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.

On This Day

• 1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
• 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
• 1923 – In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
• 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
• 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
• 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Deaths

• 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660)
• 1974 – Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (b. 1895)
• 1986 – Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward VIII (b. 1896)
• 2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sean Bean (57), Jennifer Garner (44), Rooney Mara (31), Victoria Beckham (42), Conan O’Brien (54), Andy Serkis (52), George Takei (79), Ryan O’Neal (75), Jessica Lange (67), Carmen Electra (44), Iggy Pop (69), The Queen (90), Andre MacDowell (58), James McAvoy (37), Charles Grodin (81), Tony Danza (65), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (50), Jack Nicholson (79), Glen Campbell (80), John Waters (70), Lee Majors (70) and Michael Moore (62).

Why are so many celebrities dying in 2016?  

It certainly seems the case. The death of the musician Prince, at the age of 57, just a day after Victoria Wood died from cancer, aged 62, has shocked their millions of fans. But it also appears to prove that 2016 is cursed in some way.  The two entertainers are the latest in a long line of celebrities to die in 2016, following Ronnie Corbett, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Sir Terry Wogan, Harper Lee, David Gest, Garry Shandling, Johan Cruyff among others.

But is it true? Are more celebrities dying than normal?

Theory 1: More people are dying

This would seem highly unlikely, unless there was a flu epidemic or a particularly harsh winter, which often causes spikes in mortality rates. According to the Office for National Statistics, which measures all the deaths registered in England and Wales on a weekly basis, 156,041 people have died between the start of this year up until the week ending April 8th. This is indeed slightly higher – just over 3 per cent – than the average over the last five years, which is 151,801. But a spokesman for the ONS says: “This is within the bounds of normal variance.”

Indeed, Wikipedia lists all the deaths of people who merit a Wiki entry. These people include celebrities, as well as far less famous people, such as academics and clergymen. Between January 1st and April 21st this year, there have been 2,109 deaths listed. Last year in the same period there were, in fact, more: 2,202 – despite there being being one fewer days because 2015 was not a leap year.

Theory 2: Celebrities are cursed

This might be possible, bearing in mind that some of the people who have died were counter culture figures of the 1960s and 1970s, who epitomised the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle of that era: David Bowie, who supposedly spent a year surviving on nothing more than cocaine, milk and red peppers; Howard Marks, the drugs dealer; Keith Emerson, one of the founding members of progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer; and Paul Kantner, the co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and prolific user of LSD. Andrew Brown, the Telegraph obituaries editor, says: “It’s possible there are more pop stars coming into their 60s and 70s. Even if they corrected their lifestyles in later life, years of hard living might have made them more vulnerable to death now.” There was even an Australian academic study in 2014, which looked at 13,000 different rock and pop stars, and found that on average they die 25 years younger than average.

Theory 3: There’s been a strange statistical blip

It is dubious there has been a glut of celebrity deaths, it’s a couple of strangely busy weeks – Bowie died the same week as Alan Rickman; Gary Shandling and Johan Cruyff both died on March 24th; Ronnie Corbett died on the same day as Dame Zaha Hadid a week later – has skewed our perception. It should even itself out later this year.

Theory 4: The bar for ‘celebrity’ has been lowered

This is possible. David Gest famous for being the fourth husband of Liza Minelli and a contestant on I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, merited a 1,120-word obituary in the Telegraph. Though this newspaper’s obituary page has always revelled in celebrating quirky lives, it’s fair to say he would not have appeared a decade or so ago. Jade Goody, who died from cervical cancer in 2009 at the age of 27 – after forging a remarkable career as the archetypal modern reality television star – did have a Telegraph obituary, but it was decided by the editor at the time not to run it in the newspaper. But Gest is about the only one of 2016’s celebrity deaths to fit this category.

Theory 5: There are just more celebrities per head of population

The pop music boom of the 1960s and the arrival of television in people’s sitting rooms from the mid-50s onwards has increased massively the pool of household names. In the era of just three TV channels the likes of unassuming, bank-manager lookalike Cliff Michelmore became woven into families’ weekly lives. The Paul Daniels magic show regularly attracted viewing figures of 15 million; the Two Ronnies hit 18 million viewers in 1980 – giving these light entertainment stars a recognition factor that would be impossible in the period before television and celebrity magazines. It would also be far more difficult to replicate in today’s era of countless terrestrial channels, Netflix and iPlayer and YouTube, which has spawned thousands of “celebrities” but few genuine household names, known and loved by two or even three generations in the way that Victoria Wood, Prince or Ronnie Corbett were. BBC Radio 4’s excellent More or Less programme, which looks at statistics behind the headlines, examined the theory that more celebrities had died this year than normal. Nick Serpell, BBC’s obituary editor, calculated that in the period January to March the corporation had run 24 obituaries on its radio stations and online, double the figure for the same period in 2015. There had been 5 in 2012, 8, in 2013 and 11 in 2014. Mr Serpell told the programme: “All these people, and the rise and growth of celebrity if you like, are reaching that period in their seventies and eighties where they are going to start to die and I think that is what’s causing this.”

Theory 6: Social media amplifies the deaths

This is a popular theory. In the old days, a celebrity death was announced on the radio, or in the obituary section. We digested the news in private. Now, within seconds of the news breaking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter is deluged with #RIP and other hashtags as we try to out-bid each other in our public statements of grief. Also, we are now more aware of the demise of celebrities with whom we have no affinity, be they a footballer, an American stand up or British television presenter. It is possible, as a result, that we now have a greater appetite for reading about the deaths of famous people. Facebook, in particular, seems to particularly encourage users to post clips or quotes of their favourite stars – a chance to wallow in a bit of childhood nostalgia. In some ways, we have all become citizen obituary writers.

So, what’s the reason for all the deaths?

The theory that there are just more celebrities – per 1,000 head of population – combined with the fact that many had a terribly unhealthy lifestyle is the most compelling reason why so many have died in recent months. This will be of no comfort to their millions of fans.

The Last Word

Go on, get out – last words are for fools who haven’t said enough. – To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity. – Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883

Next week peeps!

24th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th April 2016

Another week and yet more unforeseen deaths! Alas, no points for anyone, and a surprisingly high count of Welsh people amongst the deceased. I’ll not prattle on, lets get to it as there’s lots to read this week.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Howard Marks, 70, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer and legalisation campaigner, colorectal cancer.
• David Gest, 62, American TV producer (Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special) and reality show contestant (I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!).
• Anne Jackson, 90, American actress (The Shining, Folks!, Dirty Dingus Magee).
• Balls Mahoney, 44, American professional wrestler (ECW, WWE, SMW).
• Sir Arnold Wesker, 83, British playwright.
• Gareth Thomas, 71, Welsh actor (Blake’s 7, Children of the Stones, Star Maidens), heart failure.
• Gwyn Thomas, 79, Welsh poet and academic, National Poet (2006–2008).
• Martin Fitzmaurice, 75, English darts personality. “Are you ready? Ladies and Gentlemen… Let’s… Play…. Darts”.
• Phil Sayer, 62, British voice artist, the voice of British Railway stations and the voice of the London Underground saying to passengers “Please mind the gap”, esophageal cancer.
• Melinda Rose, Lady Woodward (Linda), 75, wife of Tom Jones, cancer. Not listed on Wiki as a notable death.

In Other News

Sir Bruce Forsyth will miss the funeral of his friend Ronnie Corbett because he is  too unwell to attend, his manager has confirmed. Corbett, who died aged 85 earlier this month, will be laid to rest on Monday. The veteran entertainer was expected to attend the service but has opted to remain at his Surrey home while he recovers from keyhole surgery. Forsyth, 88, suffered a fall last October, causing a swelling of the main blood vessel from his heart, which required him to have surgery on the abdominal aortic aneurysm. Following the operation last year, which was a “complete success”, his manager, Ian Wilson, told the media that Forsyth was “two or three weeks away” from being “out and about”. LIES!!!! Corbett’s funeral, which is by invitation only, will take place at St John the Evangelist Church, Shirley, followed by a short service at Croydon crematorium.

Singer Prince has been released from a US hospital after he was admitted with the flu following an emergency plane landing. A representative for the singer told the media that Prince had performed in Atlanta on Thursday despite not feeling well from the flu, and felt worse after boarding a plane following his concert. The plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, where the singer was treated and released at a local hospital. He then got back on the plane and returned home.  Seems a bit extreme for a bit of a sniffle, typically overblown from a drama queen of his stature! The 57-year-old singer then cancelled two show due to having the sniffles.

James Taylor, the Nottinghamshire and England batsman, described his world as having been turned “upside down” following his retirement from cricket because of a serious heart condition. The 26-year-old, capped 34 times and part of the Test side who won in South Africa over the winter, will undergo an operation in Nottingham this week to have a defibrillator fitted, having been diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. The condition, which medical experts have said is similar to that of the former Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed during a match at White Hart Lane in 2012, means the batsman is coming to terms with the fact he can no longer play professional sport. Taylor wrote on Twitter: “Safe to say this has been the toughest week of my life! My world is upside down. But I’m here to stay and I’m battling on!” He hopes…

It’s all kicking off in the West Midlands! A vigil has appeared in the middle of a Leamington Spa street in honour of some crushed chocolate digestive biscuits. Daffodils, a candle and a RIP note have been placed next to the fallen treats, left by digestive sympathisers, just days after the end to the great biscuit shortage of 2016 was announced. Warwick university students Hugh Osborn and James Taylor posted the shocking images online, with hundreds of Twitter users sharing the photos. Sadly, the vigil has since disappeared.

On This Day

• 1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as the start of the book’s pilgrimage to Canterbury.
• 1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident
• 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day. And they’re worried about a couple of muslims nowadays… 
• 1937 – Daffy Duck‘s first appearance, in Porky’s Duck Hunt.
• 1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom’s first National Park.
• 1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
• 1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
• 1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People’s Bureau (Embassy) in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
• 2014 – NASA‘s Kepler confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

Deaths

• 1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, publisher, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (b. 1706)
• 1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
• 1998 – Linda McCartney, American singer, photographer, and activist (b. 1941)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Haley Joel Osment (28), Steven Seagal (64), Joss Stone (29), Andy Garcia (60), Claire Danes (37), Ed O’Neill (70), Saoirse Ronan (22), Al Green (70), Paul Sorvino (76), Loretta Lynn (84), Adrien Brody (43), Anthony Michael Hall (48), Robert Carlyle (55), Sarah Michelle Gellar (39), Julie Christie (76), Emma Thompson (57), Emma Watson (26), Seth Rogan (34), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (69), ex-Pope Benedict (89), Ellen Barkin (62), Martin Lawrence (51), and Lukas Haas (40).

Is there a London 2012 Olympics ‘curse’? By Laura Gray 

It’s been reported that 18 athletes who competed in the 2012 London Olympics have died since the Games. French-language media have begun talking about a “curse”, but is there any justification for this? It seems the first mention of “the terrible curse of the London Olympic Games” was made in November last year, when the French TV channel BFMTV reported the death of the Belarusian sprinter Yuliya Balykina. Balykina, who competed in the 2012 Games in both the 100m and 4x100m relay, was found dead and covered in plastic in a forest outside the Belarusian capital, Minsk. A 28-year-old man was charged with her murder.

“La malediction olympique” cropped up again last month, after Australian rower Sarah Tait – a silver-medallist at the London Olympics – died from cervical cancer. “Sarah Tait is just the latest in a very long list of top athletes who have died after taking part in the London Olympic Games,” wrote Gilles Festor in Le Figaro on 5th March.

“This Olympic ‘curse’ has now claimed 18 victims.” But why was it in France that this idea took hold? Maybe because of the shocking deaths of two French Olympians on 9th March 2015, says Paula Kennedy, who monitors European media for the BBC.

Swimmer Camille Muffat and boxer Alexis Vastine were among 10 people killed when two helicopters collided in Argentina, during the filming of a TV survival show, Dropped, where celebrities are dropped in rough terrain and left to find food and shelter. The story had considerable impact in France. “The sudden death of our fellow French nationals is a cause of immense sadness,” said French President Francois Hollande in a statement.

All the athletes who have known to have died after competing in the 2012 Olympics are listed at the bottom of the story.

It sounds like a lot – 18 young athletes dying in four years – but is it really, when you consider that 10,568 people took part in the Games? Based on crude mortality rates “you would expect 7.89 people in 1,000 to die,” says Rob Mastrodomenico, a sports statistician at Global Sports Statistics. So in a group of 10,568 people one could expect about 333 to die over a four-year period, he says. However, Olympic athletes are young – they have an average age of 26. Taking this into account, we should expect approximately seven deaths a year, says Mastrodomenico, or 28 deaths in four years. So the figure of 18 deaths over four years does not seem quite so out of the ordinary – and definitely not the sign of a “curse”.

London Olympians who have died 

• Keitani Graham, Micronesian wrestler (heart attack)
• Burry Stander, South African mountain biker (hit by vehicle while training)
• Andrew Simpson, British sailor (sailing accident)
• Elena Ivashchenko, Russian judoka (suicide)
• Billy Ward, Australian boxer (suicide)
• Abdelrahman el-Trabily, Egyptian wrestler (shot dead)
• Jakkrit Panichpatikum, Thai shooter (shot dead)
• Christian Lopez, Guatemalan weightlifter (pneumonia)
• Besik Kudukhov, Russian wrestler (car accident)
• Elena Baltacha, British tennis player (liver cancer)
• Camille Muffat, French swimmer (helicopter crash)
• Alexis Vastine, French boxer (helicopter crash)
• Daundre Barnaby, Canadian 400m runner (missing at sea)
• Trevor Moore, American sailor (missing at sea)
• Yuliya Balykina, Belarusian sprinter (murdered)
• Laurent Vidal, French triathlete (heart attack)
• Arnold Peralta, Honduran soccer player (shot dead)
• Sarah Tait, Australian rower (cervical cancer)

The Last Word

That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted. – Lou Costello, comedian, d. March 3, 1959

Next week peeps!

17th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th April 2016

We have to start this weeks edition with a bow towards Nick M, who scores 57 points with the death of Erik Bauersfeld, talk about obscure or what! Who would have guessed that the voice of Admiral Ackbar in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi would have croaked it this year!!! I’d also like to highlight the death of actress Amber Rayne, nobody sent a klaxon, even though she’d starred in over 500 films, perhaps none of you have seen any… Sadly it is thought she died at the age of 31 due to an accidental overdose after her favourite horse died, apparently she was making a name for herself in the dressage world. On another note, Hugh Hefner’s envious younger brother has died, so there is hope for Hugh to cark it sometime, immortality doesn’t run in the family.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Amber Rayne, 31, American pornographic actress.
• Erik Bauersfeld, 93, American radio dramatist (KPFA) and voice actor (Star Wars, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Crimson Peak).
• Joe Medicine Crow, 102, American Crow historian.
• Irma Bule, 29, Indonesian pop singer, snake bite.
• Merle Haggard, 79, American singer-songwriter (“Okie from Muskogee“, “The Fightin’ Side of Me“, “Carolyn“), Grammy winner (1984, 1998, 1999), complications from pneumonia.
• Rachel Johnson, 93, Scottish woman, last native of St. Kilda.

In Other News

Dead Pool favourite, Charlie Sheen, is facing a police investigation over claims he made threats against an ex-girlfriend, who is suing him for assault and battery. The National Enquirer and RadarOnline reported a 35-minute recording, apparently of the actor, making threats about former porn star Scottine Ross. Ms Ross has taken legal action against Sheen, claiming he physically abused her and had sex with her without disclosing his HIV positive status. Sheen has not commented on the reports. In a televised interview in November 2015, Sheen said he had been diagnosed with HIV four years earlier. The former star admitted his history of drink and drug abuse was a “bad decision” but said it was “impossible” he would have passed HIV on to anyone else. In December, Ms Ross – who was engaged to Sheen in 2014 before the relationship was broken off – filed a legal action against him accusing him of “physical, psychological and emotional abuse”.

Talking of Dead Pool stalwarts, Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance, speaking to schoolchildren about his brother’s late wife and revolutionary figure Vilma Espin. The 89-year-old former president regularly writes reflections in the state media and meets with dignitaries but seldom appears in public. His last appearance at a public event was in July 2015. Wearing a white sports jacket and speaking in a scratchy voice, Castro told a room of students and teachers that Espin would be happy to see the fruits of her sacrifice at schools like theirs. Thursday’s appearance came on what would have been her 86th birthday. The revolutionary leader did not make any remarks about last month’s visit to Cuba by president Barack Obama in televised portions of the visit aired on Cuban state news media. Castro wrote a 1,500-word essay in response to Obama’s trip in his only statement about the US leader’s visit to date, reminding Cubans about a long history of US aggression against the island and stating: “we don’t need the empire to give us any presents.” Castro stepped aside in 2006 after suffering a serious illness and officially retired two years later, but his presence still casts a long shadow on Cuban government and society.

The boxer Nick Blackwell has woken from an induced coma, a week after collapsing following a domestic title fight against Chris Eubank Jr. The middleweight fighter regained consciousness on Saturday and a day later was well enough to begin talking to family and friends at his bedside, his promoters said on Monday.  Blackwell was placed in a coma after being stretchered from the ring at Wembley’s SSE Arena following his defeat to Eubank on 26th March. The fight had been stopped in the 10th round after the doctor decided he could not see from his heavily swollen left eye. In a statement, Hennessy Sports said the boxer had not been as badly injured as early reports suggested. Rather than suffering bleeding to the brain, “his bleed was outside the brain – on the skull, in fact – and was minor enough for there to be no need to operate,” it said. Speaking to reporters last week, Eubank Jr said he had realised his opponent was in trouble and reduced the ferocity of his punches after his father, who was in his corner during the bout, warned him that Blackwell could be seriously hurt.

In the first of two Darwinian award stories, two boys were taken to hospital after receiving neck wounds during an opening night performance of Sweeney Todd at a school in Auckland, New Zealand. If you don’t know, the musical features a barber who murders his customers by slitting their throats and selling their remains to a pie shop. One of the boys, both aged 16, was more seriously hurt but Auckland Hospital said both were in a stable condition. The head of the private college, Steve Cole told TVNZ, that it was an “unfortunate and isolated incident” involving “a prop that was covered in all sorts of duct tape and silver paper.” The razor did not have a sharp edge and it had been used numerous times in rehearsals, he said. The school has postponed Thursday’s performance of the play, and said the boys were expected to be discharged from hospital on Thursday. Cole admitted that, “in hindsight”, it might have been better to use a plastic prop. No shit Sherlock!!

An Indonesian singer has died after she was bitten by a cobra that was being used as a prop in her performance. Irma Bule was bitten by the cobra on her thigh during a performance in a village in Karawang, West Java in Indonesia on Sunday. An eyewitness told Indonesian news that the 29-year-old singer was bitten after she stepped on the cobra’s tail during her second song. It is believed that the singer thought the cobra was defanged, so she refused any help for the bite and continued to sing. Forty five minutes later and still performing, she began vomiting and having seizures. The singer was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Bule, who frequently performed with snakes and cobras, was a singer of Dangdut music, a genre of popular music based on traditional Indonesian folk music. Lydia Apririasari of the Tulala Snake Research Center told Rappler that dancing with snakes is very common in Indonesian villages. In the past, Bule has also used boa constrictors and pythons in her live shows.

On This Day

• 837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU.
• 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.
• 1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth’s climate for the next two years.
• 1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes bell for the Palace of Westminster had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
• 1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.
• 1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
• 1998 – Northern Ireland peace deal reached (Good Friday Agreement).

Deaths

• 1954 – Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (b. 1862)
• 1966 – Evelyn Waugh, English soldier, novelist, journalist and critic (b. 1903)
• 1991 – Kevin Peter Hall, American actor (b. 1955)
• 1992 – Sam Kinison, American comedian and actor (b. 1953)
• 2014 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Richie Benaud, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1930)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Alec Baldwin (58), Eddie Murphy (55), Leona Lewis (31), Amanda Bynes (30), Robert Downey Jr. (51), David Blaine (43), Pharrell Williams (43), Colin Powell (79), John Ratzenberger (69), Paul Rudd (47), Zack Braff (41), John Oates (67), Francis Ford Coppola (77), Jackie Chan (62), Russell Crowe (52), Robin Wright (50), Patricia Arquette (48), Julian Lennon (53), Hugh Hefner (90), Jenna Jameson (42), Dennis Quaid (62) and Kirsten Stewart (26).

The Last Word

I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct. – Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian, d. 1702

Next week peeps!

10th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd April 2016

Nil points to award this week, mainly because most of the celebrity deaths last week were very unexpected. We’re only into April and we seem to have lost a host of popular names already this year, but our problem is, we never list people we actually like, so all those points go begging! Perhaps the key to winning is to be cruel.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Terry Brain, 60, English animator (The Trap Door), cancer.
• Jim Harrison, 78, American author and screenwriter (Legends of the Fall, Wolf).
• Patty Duke, 69, American actress (The Miracle Worker, The Patty Duke Show, Valley of the Dolls), Oscar winner (1962), sepsis.
• Ronnie Corbett, 85, British comedian (The Two Ronnies, The Frost Report) and actor (Casino Royale).
• Dame Zaha Hadid, 65, Iraqi-born British architect, heart attack.
• Douglas Wilmer, 96, English actor (Sherlock Holmes, Octopussy, Jason and the Argonauts).
• Denise Robertson, 83, British writer and television broadcaster (This Morning), pancreatic cancer.
• Cesare Maldini, 84, Italian football player and manager.

In Other News

Supermodel Janice Dickinson, who is currently fighting a legal battle against Bill Cosby over comments made regarding an alleged sexual assault, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Dickinson discovered what she described as a  pea-sized lump in her breast at a routine doctor’s appointment on 12th March. Following a biopsy and mammogram, she was told that she had a non-invasive ductal carcinoma – a common form of breast cancer which usually responds well to treatment. She will undergo surgery to remove the lump, as well as radiotherapy. “Initially when the doctor found the lump it hurt, it became quite painful when you touch it, that’s the point when I knew this is serious, when the doctor touched this little lump in my right breast, about the size of a pea, and I went bingo, I have cancer,” “I’m going to get through this,” she added. “I’m going to be just fine, kiddo.” “‘Don’t feel sorry for me, this is not a pity party,” she said. “I’m Janice Dickinson and I’m gonna stick around for a long, long time. You ain’t getting rid of me yet.” Dickinson, who is 61, is often described as being the world’s first supermodel – a term she claims to have invented. She was a judge on America’s Next Top Model, and owned her own modelling agency, the Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency, about which there was a reality TV show. Unsurprisingly, her cancer treatment will also be followed by cameras; a reality TV show called The Doctors will follow her through every step of her treatment.

The band Little Mix have been forced to cancel their Belfast gigs after singer Jesy Nelson became unwell. The girl band was due to play a matinee and evening show at the SSE Arena on Thursday. The cancellation was announced just minutes after the doors opened for the afternoon performance. Fans were later informed by text message that the show would not be going ahead as scheduled. Thousands of 5-8 year olds complained profusely at how the cancellation was handled. “I’m really, really annoyed. Once again they’ve waited until we got here to tell us it was cancelled,” said Tracy, “and I’m really worried the band will re-schedule for an afternoon when were back at school and mum’s back at work!” “It’s not been handled very well,” she said. “There’s absolute bedlam down here now. Surely they could have informed us before we all landed at the place? This was minutes before the show was due to begin.” The local council is somewhat relieved as the River Legan was a tad low, now it’s full of the tears of toddlers.

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos has been charged with drink driving after she allegedly crashed her Ferrari in north London. The former X Factor star’s car collided with a Saab outside Southgate Tube station. The singer was also charged with dangerous driving, a Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed. A conviction for drink driving could see the former N-Dubz singer banned from driving for up to a year, while a conviction for dangerous driving would result in an obligatory ban of one year. The crash took place at a roundabout outside the tube station shortly before midnight. Officers were called and Ms Contostavlos was breathalysed at the scene. The singer was arrested and held in custody before being released on bail pending further enquiries. Ms Contostavlos had taken possession of the sports car just days before the incident.

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed the results of his “most dangerous stunt” ever: a bloodied nose and blackened face. The former Top Gear host, who is currently filming his new Amazon Prime motoring show, told fans he was attempting a death-defying feat on Thursday night. He wrote: “Tomorrow morning, I’m doing the most dangerous stunt I’ve ever attempted. This may well be a goodbye.” Clarkson, 55, was clearly not joking. He shared a photograph with his 6 million Twitter followers on Friday evening showing blood dripping from his nose. In response to one fan, who accused him of using makeup to create the effect, he wrote: “You’re going to feel silly when you see the show. It so isn’t make-up.”

On This Day

• 1882 – American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
• 1888 – The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
• 1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
• 1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.
• 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
• 2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.

Deaths

• 1882 – Jesse James, American criminal (b. 1847)
• 1897 – Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (b. 1833)
• 1991 – Graham Greene, English author, playwright, and critic (b. 1904)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Quentin Tarantino (53), Mariah Carey (46), Jessie J (28), Lady Gaga (30), Dianne Wiest (68), Vince Vaughn (46), Julia Stiles (35), Brendan Gleeson (61), Christopher Lambert (59), Elle McPherson (52), Lucy Lawless (48), Eric Idle (73), Eric Clapton (71), Robbie Coltrane (66), MC Hammer (54), Piers Morgan (51), Christopher Walken (73), Ewan McGregor (45), Al Gore (68), Debbie Reynolds (84), Jimmy Cliff (68), Susan Boyle (55), Linda Hunt (71), Emmylou Harris (69) and Michael Fassbender (39).

The Last Word

Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something. – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, d. 1923

Next week peeps!

3rd April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »