Dead Pool 3rd May 2015
I said last week that I’d be sending out the evil flying monkeys and they haven’t disappointed in supplying a few big names. Alas, none of us managed to score. How on earth did we all fail to name any of them astounds me! I’m a bit reticent to send out the monkeys again this week, but I shall if you moribund minions demand it!
Look Who You Could Have Had:
- Jayne Meadows, 95, American actress (I’ve Got a Secret, Undercurrent, Song of the Thin Man).
- Suzanne Crough, 52, American actress (The Partridge Family).
- Jack Ely, 71, American singer (“Louie Louie”).
- Andrew Lesnie, 59, Australian cinematographer (The Lord of the Rings, I Am Legend, The Water Diviner), Oscar winner (2002), heart attack.
- Keith Harris, 67, British ventriloquist (Orville the Duck, Cuddles the Monkey), cancer.
- François Michelin, 88, French businessman, CEO of Michelin (1955–1999).
- Jean Nidetch, 91, American businesswoman, founder of Weight Watchers.
- Ben E. King, 76, American soul and R&B singer (“Stand by Me“, “Spanish Harlem“), coronary heart disease.
- Ruth Rendell, 85, English author.
In Other News
Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is “alert and… has her full senses” and is “not in a coma”, a statement on her official website says. The statement followed reports the 71-year-old, hospitalised last month after being found unconscious at home, was not able to care for herself. A friend filed a petition this week to become Mitchell’s guardian, in which the singer was said to be unresponsive. The petition was reportedly accompanied by a doctor’s declaration stating that the singer would be unable to attend a court hearing for four to six months. All sounds very contrived…
In a creepy, ‘I can’t let go of my ex’ story, Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara is in a legal battle with her former fiancé, who wants to have children from the couple’s frozen embryos. Nick Loeb said he wants a surrogate to carry and give birth to two embryos he and Vergara created through in vitro fertilisation before they split up. He said the actress, who plays Gloria in the ABC comedy, has refused. Vergara, who has been named the highest-earning actress on TV for the last three years, declined to comment. So, we’re in a position now to finally solve the eternal case of ‘is an egg a person’. Are embryos allowed to be counted on the Dead Pool?? Over to you!
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year, including several who complained about his policies. Those executed include two vice-ministers, both were punished for opposing or complaining about Kim’s directives, the legislators confirmed, adding that a vice-minister from the forestry department was executed for complaining about Kim’s forestation plan. Four members of North Korea’s Unhasu orchestra, where Ri Sol-ju, Kim’s wife, once worked as a singer, were also executed in March. They were killed by firing squad on spying charges. Now, if only we could find out who is close to Kim, we could rake in the points!!
Alain Robert has been at it again. The self-styled French ‘Spiderman’ who has climbed some of the world’s tallest buildings without permission, scaled Paris’s tallest building, the 210-metre-high Montparnasse Tower, on Tuesday. Robert says he did the stunt to express support for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal. Robert reached the top of the tower in less than 50 minutes, putting up a Nepal flag en route, before being met by police. The guy can’t keep this up, he’s bound to slip one day…
On This Day
- 1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
- 1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as “spam“) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
- 1979 – After the general election, Margaret Thatcher forms her first government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
Deaths
- 1758 – Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
- 1969 – Zakir Hussain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)
- 1972 – Leslie Harvey, Scottish guitarist (Stone the Crows) (b. 1944)
Last Week’s Birthdays
Jessica Alba (34), Dwayne Johnson (43), Kirsten Dunst (33), Daniel Day-Lewis (58), Willie Nelson (82), Penelope Cruz (41), Jerry Seinfeld (61), Uma Thurman (45), Jay Leno (65), Michelle Pfeiffer (57), Channing Tatum (35), David Beckham (40), Ellie Kemper (35), Jamie Dornan (33), Ann-Margret (74), Kevin James (50), Sheena Easton (56), Harper Lee (89), Andre Agassi (45), Mary McDonnell (63), Lily Allen (30), Julie Benz (43), Wes Anderson (46), Burt Young (75), Jet Li (52), Joan Chen (54) and Giancarlo Esposito (57).
Next Week peeps!
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