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!