What a week! The flying monkeys have certainly been busy. Lets begin by dishing out the points! With the demise of Helmut Schmidt, 54 points to Paul G, Ashley and Barry, well done all of you! And with Warren Mitchell kicking the bucket, 61 points go to me!!! I scored at last!!! Woo! With little over six weeks left to go, there’s still hope for all of us!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Yitzhak Navon, 94, Israeli politician, President (1978–1983).
• Carol Doda, 78, American stripper, kidney failure.
• Andy White, 85, British drummer (The Beatles), stroke.
• Pat Eddery, 63, Irish jockey, eleven-time Champion Jockey, four-time Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, three-time Lester Award and Epsom Derby winner.
• Helmut Schmidt, 96, German politician, Chancellor of West Germany (1974–1982), complications from surgery.
• Allen Toussaint, 77, American musician, producer, songwriter (“Fortune Teller“, “Working in the Coal Mine“, “Southern Nights“) and arranger, heart attack.
• Phil Taylor, 61, English drummer (Motörhead).
• Jihadi John, 27, Kuwaiti-born British Islamic State propagandist, drone strike.
• Warren Mitchell, 89, British actor (Till Death Us Do Part, Death of a Salesman).

In Other News

Convicted paedophile Rolf Harris has been taken to hospital amid fears about his health. The 85-year-old former children’s entertainer, who is diabetic, is feared to have fallen ill after gorging on chocolate and sweets in jail. Harris was taken from Stafford prison, where he is serving nearly six years for carrying out a string of sex attacks, to Stafford hospital, and we all know how shit that hospital is! Singer Vince Hill, 81, told the newspaper that he had heard from one of Harris’s friends that he had “sort of overdosed on chocolate”. He added: “According to him, that was the scale of the problem … he didn’t know he was eating too much chocolate.” Yeah, a diabetic not knowing that too much sugar is bad for him!

Sir Terry Wogan did not host BBC1’s Children in Need appeal for the first time in its 35-year history due to poor health. The 77-year-old presenter said he missed presenting the “wonderful, inspiring evening” on Friday night. A BBC spokesman said that Wogan was having a procedure on his back and, under doctor’s orders, cannot host a six-and-a-half hour show, adding: “We are so sorry that Terry won’t be able to host the show as we know how passionate he is about Children in Need. We wish him a very speedy recovery.” The veteran presenter recently admitted that he “probably drinks too much”, but walked for 30 minutes a day and ate a lot of fruit and vegetables. Wogan told the Daily Record he had no plans to retire: “They’ll have to carry me off stage. I do seven hours on my feet of live television for Children in Need every year, so the day that I can’t stand up is when I will stop doing it. So is this it?

Former US President Jimmy Carter is responding well to cancer treatment, according to his spokeswoman. Doctors in Atlanta have told the 91-year-old the tumours in his brain are being treated successfully and there are no signs of further cancer growth. However, the spokeswoman said that doctors will continue tests. Mr Carter, who served as president of the US from 1977 to 1981 and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, announced his illness in August. He said then he would receive radiation and chemotherapy for four tumours that had formed in his brain. Media reports have suggested that Mr Carter was not experiencing any pain or discomfort during the treatments, and that his work with The Carter Centre had not been scaled back. The former president had been planning to travel to Nepal this month for volunteer work, but the trip was cancelled due to “civil unrest” in the country, so he can’t be all that bad.

Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter is in hospital after what has been described as a “small emotional breakdown”. Blatter, 79, who has led world football’s governing body for 18 years, was provisionally suspended for 90 days last month amid a corruption scandal. He was admitted last week, initially for a check-up, said his former publicist Klaus Stoelhker. “He is very happy and he is relaxing a few days,” he said. Last Friday, Blatter’s lawyer Richard Cullen confirmed that the Swiss had undergone stress-related health checks in hospital.

Michael Phelps, the American swimmer whose 22 Olympic medals make him the most decorated Olympian of all time, has revealed that he was “in a really dark place” after he was arrested last year for drunk-driving – and admitted to feelings of “not wanting to be alive anymore.” Shortly after his arrest, he entered a treatment facility in Arizona. He says his 45-day stint rejuvenated him, but at the time he felt frightened. “Hug-hug, kiss-kiss, turn in my phone and go to my room. It’s probably the most afraid I’ve ever felt in my life.” Phelps was pulled over in September 2014 after being clocked doing 84mph in a 45mph zone in Baltimore. He failed two sobriety tests and was charged with DUI, excessive speed and crossing double lane lines. Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman, said “I had been living in fear that I was going to get a call that something had happened. Honestly, I thought, the way he was going, he was going to kill himself. Not take his own life, but something like the DUI, but worse.” However, Phelps has not drunk alcohol since his arrest, and has vowed not to drink until the Rio Olympics are finished next August. After years of enduring workouts with a hangover, Phelps is training clean. So, let’s see what happens next August…

And finally, a daughter grieved over the body of a stranger after hospital nurses mistakenly told her her mother was dead. Bernadette Walsh spent almost half-an-hour stroking and holding the hand of the dead woman – until medics revealed her mother was alive on another ward. She had not been told her mother had been moved out of the room on an orthopaedics ward, where she had been for the previous week and had been replaced by a patient who later died. The dead woman was said to bear a striking resemblance to her mother. It was only when nurses told Ms Walsh that “Roy’s on his way” that the mistake began to unravel. The 53-year-old told the staff she did not know anyone called Roy and nursing staff realised the mistake, apologised and took her to another ward where her mother Elizabeth, a 82-year-old widow from Whitefield, was recovering from a hip operation. Mother of four Ms Walsh, from Droylsden, Greater Manchester, said: “No one told me she’d been moved so I went into the room to visit her, the same room she’d been in all week. “Mum’s duffle coat was on the chair. The woman in the bed had grey hair and had thin bones like my mum. She had a pink nightie like my mum. I had no reason to think it wasn’t mum. “She didn’t look right and I didn’t think she was breathing. I went out of the room to ask one of the nurses what was wrong and they said ‘don’t you know? She died half-an-hour ago’. “Well, I just lost it then. I’d only spoken to her the previous night. I was in shock and completely hysterical. They were trying to calm me down. The nurses were saying I should stroke her hand and show her some love. So I was holding her hand and stroking her. I called my sister and told her she was dead. “Then one of them said ‘Roy’s on his way’ and I said ‘who’s Roy?’. They took me into another room and said ‘that’s not your mum’. They took me to my mum on another ward and she was sitting in a chair looking at me, saying ‘what’s up?’ I told her I’d had a shock. I couldn’t really tell her ‘they just told me you’re dead’.” Oh my days!

On This Day

• 1859 – The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece.
• 1971 – Intel releases the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
• 2007 – Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

Deaths

• 1630 – Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1571)
• 1983 – John Le Mesurier, English actor (b. 1912)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Neil Young (70), Tracy Morgan (47), Whoopi Goldberg (60), Leonardo DiCaprio (41), Demi Moore (53), Ryan Gosling (35), Anne Hathaway (33), Jimmy Kimmel (48), Prince Charles (67), Calista Flockhart (51), Gerard Butler (46), Tara Reid (40), Stanley Tucci (55), Gordon Ramsay (49), Jack Osbourne (30), Gretchen Mol (43), Lou Ferrigno (64), Wallace Shawn (72) and Condoleezza Rice (61).

Next week peeps!

Afternoon all, yet another rendition of the newsletter in your inbox. Alas, no points to award this week, but some interesting deaths and plenty of news to catch up on.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Stephen Hancock, 89, English actor (Coronation Street).
• Fred Thompson, 73, American politician and actor (Die Hard 2, Law & Order, Sinister), U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1994–2003), minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, lymphoma.
• Colin Welland, 81, British actor and screenwriter (Kes, Straw Dogs, Chariots of Fire), Oscar winner (1982).
• Melissa Mathison, 65, American screenwriter (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Black Stallion, Kundun), neuroendocrine cancer.
• George Barris, 89, American custom car designer (Batmobile, Munster Koach), cancer.
• Gunnar Hansen, 68, Icelandic-born American actor (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface), pancreatic cancer.

In Other News

Andy Cole has withdrawn from an upcoming charity match at Old Trafford and the former Manchester United striker revealed he has been suffering from kidney failure. The 44-year-old, who won five Premier League titles and the Champions League during a trophy-laden spell with United, said he is not well enough to play in the Unicef Match for Children, which will take place on 14th November. “In June of this year I suffered kidney failure, caused as a result of contracting an airborne virus and I have been under medical care ever since,” Cole said in a statement. “I was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with a condition called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis.” Cole said he had spent close to three weeks in hospital undergoing a kidney biopsy and dialysis, and he is continuing on a course of steroids which has led to a slight change in his appearance. 0_o

In further football news, Tony Adams revealed he has undergone minor heart surgery in Azerbaijan, an operation the former Arsenal defender said had saved his life. Adams, who is director of football at Gabala in Azerbaijan, went under the knife after becoming unwell. “After feeling some acute chest pain while exercising in Azerbaijan, and liaising with Gabala club doctors, I went to the Medical Plaza hospital in Baku where I was admitted for an angiogram, and then following diagnosis of a severely blocked vein, an immediate angioplasty,” Adams said. “I know full well that without the brilliance of Dr Uzeyir Rahimov and his team I would not be alive now: a minor heart operation saved my life.” Adams, 49, is said to be recuperating with his family in the UK.

Trevor Noah, who took over as host of The Daily Show in September, has undergone emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Comedy Central cancelled Wednesday’s live show and aired a repeat, but said “the procedure went well” and Noah was “currently recuperating from surgery”. “We expect he and the show will be back with an original episode tomorrow,” said a statement on Twitter. However, Noah’s experience of US healthcare has already come under the microscope. Criticising the amount of paperwork he was asked to fill out before being attended to while in excruciating pain, Noah said, “I don’t know if ‘Emergency Room’ is the right term, because they make you wait … The lady’s like, ‘Can you fill out the form?’ I’m like, ‘Well, no, I’m dying.’” After Noah nearly fainted, he says the woman followed him to ask how he would be paying for the surgery, asking if he had health insurance (which he wasn’t sure about). Questioning whether he would be able to afford paying for the procedure without insurance, she answered her own question: “You know what, I’ve seen the billboards, you’re fine, you can pay for this.” Thank god for the NHS!

Trainer Gary Moore is out of intensive care as he recovers from being kicked in the back by one of his horses. The 59-year-old was helping wife Jayne onto a horse at their Cisswood Stables in Sussex on Thursday morning when another horse kicked out. Moore, whose sons Ryan, Jamie and Joshua are all jockeys, spent Thursday night in intensive care with fluid on his lungs and damaged ribs. “He’s a bit groggy, but nothing worse than that,” said Joshua Moore. “I think he’s pretty OK. He’s out of intensive care. He’s having a lot of antibiotics and painkillers, but he doesn’t need any operations or anything like that, as far as I know.”

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is “still fighting”, almost two years after suffering severe head injuries in a skiing accident, says FIA president Jean Todt. Schumacher spent six months in an induced coma after the December 2013 accident and is continuing his rehabilitation at home. “Michael’s a close friend,” said Todt. “His family is very close to me. We must keep him fighting with the family,” he added. So, no real news then…

On This Day

• 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.
• 1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
• 1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
• 1965 – The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
• 1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.
• 1987 – Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.

Deaths

• 1674 – John Milton, English poet and philosopher (b. 1608)
• 1887 – Doc Holliday, American dentist and poker player (b. 1851)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Emma Stone (27), Ethan Hawke (45), Sally Field (69), Lamar Odom (36), Matthew McConaughey (46), Roseanne Barr (58), David Schwimmer (59), Jenny McCarthy (43), Toni Collette (43), Loretta Swit (78), Ralph Macchio (54), Tatum O’Neal (52), Billy Graham (97), Joni Mitchell (72), Maria Schriver (60), Rebecca Romjin (43), Thandie Newton (43), Sam Rockwell (47), Tilda Swinton (55), Bryan Adams (56), Art Garfunkel (74), Larry Flynt (73), Lyle Lovett (58), K.D. Lang (54), Kate Capshaw (62), Adam Ant (61), Dolph Lundgren (58) and Famke Janssen (51).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all to the special “Day After Halloween” edition of the Dead Pool. Yes, we’re all partied out and have a hangover, so other than to award a few points, I’ll not ramble on too much. With the death of Al Molinaro, we award 54 points to Dave, well done that man. Which makes things very interesting at the top of the table. I shall take this opportunity to say thank you for the birthday wishes, I made it another year, with any luck I might be able to carry on with the Dead Pool next year too!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Sam Sarpong, 40, British-born American model and actor (Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Farm House, Anchor Baby), suicide by jumping.

Al Molinaro, 96, American actor (Happy Days), complications from infected gall bladder.

In Other News

Comedian Bob Mortimer has undergone a triple bypass heart operation. The star, known for being one half of comedy duo Vic and Bob alongside Vic Reeves, has had to cancel the first leg of the pair’s upcoming tour. Mortimer, 56, had been due to take to the stage in Glasgow in early November for 25 Years of Reeves & Mortimer: the Poignant Moments. Neil Reading, Mortimer’s spokesman, said: “Bob would like to thank his consultant and all the nursing staff at the hospital for looking after him so well. “He now needs several weeks to fully recover, so unfortunately the first leg of the UK tour will be cancelled. “Bob very much hopes to be fit and well enough to perform the second leg in January next year.”

The BBC news presenter, George Alagiah, has said that his treatment for cancer is over, and expressed thanks for the “thoughts, prayers and support” he has received. The journalist, a popular face of the BBC Six O’Clock News, shared the news on Twitter on Wednesday after it emerged last April that he was to receive treatment for bowel cancer. “A long time coming but the cancer treatment is finally over. Now I can look forward again. Thank you for thoughts, prayers and support,” he said. The corporation said last year that Alagiah was to undergo treatment, but “is optimistic for a positive outcome”. The newsreader, who joined the BBC in 1989 and became a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa, is expected now to make a phased return to work.

Phil Collins has confirmed he will return to making music after a 13-year break, with new recording sessions beginning next month. Collins hasn’t released brand new music since 2002 album Testify, though did release a Motown covers album in 2010. But in a new interview in Rolling Stone, he declares: “I’m no longer officially retired. The horse is out of the stable and I’m raring to go.” In 2011 he announced his retirement, “so I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis” – this was following his third divorce in 2008, from Orianne Cevey, who eventually took their sons to live with her in Miami while he remained in Switzerland. In the Rolling Stone interview he said the period “left me with a lot of time on my hands to think about what happened. I went through a few bits of darkness; drinking too much. I killed my hours watching TV and drinking, and it almost killed me. But I haven’t had a drink in three years.” He also has had to go through surgery, after nerve damage suffered on a Genesis reunion tour in 2007 left him unable to play the drums. Let’s see how he copes with his comeback, we all know what happened to Michael Jackson!

And finally, a dog named Trigger accidentally shot his owner during a hunt in the US. The chocolate Labrador retriever stepped on top of a 12-gauge shotgun on the ground without the safety on, and shot Allie Carter in the left foot. Indiana conservation officer Jonathon Boyd says 25-year-old Allie Carter laid her shotgun on the ground without the safety on during a waterfowl hunt Saturday at Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area. Boyd says Carter’s chocolate Labrador retriever, Trigger, stepped on top of the shotgun and depressed the trigger. He says Carter was shot in the left foot at point-blank range, suffering injuries to her foot and toes. She was treated at two hospitals and released. Even American dogs are batshit crazy!

On This Day

• 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
• 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
• 1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
• 1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

Deaths

• 1952 – Dixie Lee. American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
• 1979 – Mamie Eisenhower, American wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 36th First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• 1982 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1985 – Phil Silvers, American actor and singer (b. 1911)
• 2007 – Meredith Kercher, English murder victim (b. 1985)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Katy Perry (31), Richard Dreyfuss (68), Julia Roberts (48), Henry Winkler (70), Caitlyn Jenner (66), Hillary Clinton (68), Winona Ryder (44), Seth McFarlane (42),  Vanilla Ice (48), John Cleese (76), Emilia Clarke (29), Joaquin Phoenix (41), Simon LeBon (57), Bill Gates (60), Diego Maradona (55), Dan Castellaneta (58), Kelly Osbourne (31), Cary Elwes (53), Peter Jackson (54), Nancy Cartwright (58), Jon Heder (38), Annie Potts (53) and Rufus Sewell (48).

Next week peeps!

Welcome minions of the macabre, we have some points to award!! Congratulations to Wombat, Sophie and Sylvia, who correctly guessed that Maureen O’Hara would finally kick the bucket this year, 55 points each!! Quite surprising that only three of us listed her, she’s been a stalwart of the Dead Pool for years, perhaps many of you began to think she was going to live forever, like poor Shân mentioned in her email. Otherwise a quiet week death-wise, however it might be time to revisit Coronation Street for next year, there are plenty of ex-stars just waiting to be listed!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Meacher, 75, British politician, MP for Oldham West (1970–1997) and Oldham West and Royton (since 1997).
• Cory Wells, 74, American singer (Three Dog Night).
• Peter Baldwin, 82, British actor (Coronation Street).
• Kirsty Howard, 20, British fundraiser.
• Maureen O’Hara, 95, Irish-American actress (Miracle on 34th Street, The Quiet Man, How Green Was My Valley).

In Other News

Dutch legend Johan Cruyff has lung cancer, according to reports in Spain. The 68-year-old – who won three successive European Cups with Ajax before going on to play for and manage Barcelona – was diagnosed last Tuesday, it was reported on Spanish radio station RAC1 and Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo on Thursday morning. A statement on his official website said the cancer had been discovered following recent tests in Barcelona. “Over the past weeks, Johan Cruyff has been undergoing medical examinations at a hospital in Barcelona. During these examinations, lung cancer has been uncovered. The examinations are still ongoing,” the statement said. “To respect the privacy of Johan and his family, and the fact that the examinations have not been finalised, further announcements cannot be made at the moment.” Formerly a heavy smoker, he had double heart bypass surgery in 1991 while he was still in charge of Barcelona, a role he eventually left in 1996. In his prime, Cruyff was considered one of the world’s greatest players in the world at a time when Pelé, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer could all lay claim to the title. Let’s see if his former fitness makes a difference now.

Also in Cancer news, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh says he has bladder cancer and will have to postpone concerts in California later this month. The guitarist made the announcement on the website for his restaurant in San Rafael, California.  He said he was diagnosed earlier this month and has been treated at a clinic in Arizona, where he will have surgery to remove his tumours. The illness means Lesh has had to postpone his shows on the 24th and 25th October. The gigs with the former Black Crowes frontman were scheduled to take place at Lesh’s restaurant, Terrapin Crossroads. Lesh, 75, wrote: “I am very fortunate to have the pathology reports show that the tumours are all non-aggressive, and that there is no indication that they have spread.” He added that the postponed shows would be rescheduled “as soon as we can”. Lesh, one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 but underwent surgery and made a full recovery.

The Vatican has rejected as “seriously irresponsible” an Italian newspaper report that Pope Francis has a small but curable tumour on his brain. The Quotidiano newspaper said the Pope had travelled by helicopter to Tuscany to see a world-renowned Japanese brain surgeon. The Pope was diagnosed with a small, dark spot but did not need surgery, the paper said. A Vatican spokesman said the report was totally unfounded. “As everyone can see, the Pope is carrying out his extremely intense activities in an absolutely normal manner,” Father Federico Lombardi said. Quotidiano insisted that its story was true, maintaining that the Pope had visited Prof Takanori Fukushima some months ago at the San Rossore clinic in the Barbaricina area of Pisa. It quoted an unnamed employee at the clinic saying such a small tumour could be treated and did not need any kind of surgical intervention. The paper’s editor, Andrea Cangini, said the denial was understandable and had been expected. Earlier this year, Pope Francis, 78, indicated his papacy may last only a few years, and that he might retire like his predecessor Benedict XVI, who stepped down as pontiff in 2013, which sounds like his brain tumour diagnosis may be be true!

Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker has said he offered friends $1m to kill him after a plane crash that left him badly burned. In September 2008, Barker was one of the passengers aboard a Learjet that crashed while taking off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina. Four of the six people on the plane died, while the other two – Barker and Adam Goldstein, who worked together in the group TRV$DJAM – were badly burned. Goldstein died a little under a year later of a drug overdose, from a combination of cocaine and prescription drugs given to him after the crash. Barker spent four months in hospital, undergoing surgery 27 times, after being burned across 65% of his body. He appeared on ABC News and said he had pleaded with friends to take his life. “I would call friends of mine and go, ‘You know, I’ll deposit a million dollars into whoever’s bank account.’ [Hospital staff] had to take my phone out of my room.” Anyone feeling that their pockets are a bit empty should contact his agent.

For those of you who give a shit, according to search warrant records, Lamar Odom is believed to have overdosed on cocaine and other drugs before he was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel. On Wednesday, Odom and the reality TV star Khloe Kardashian filed a court petition dismissing a divorce filing from December 2013. A clerk granted the request in such a way that the divorce papers can be refiled at a later date, making sure that she get’s any money due her as a wife if he dies, and making sure she can divorce I’m if he survives. Let’s hope he survives so we can see him prosecuted for soliciting prostitutes and taking Class A drugs.

On This Day

• 1415 – The army of Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.
• 1760 – George III becomes King of Great Britain.
• 1854 – The Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (Charge of the Light Brigade).
• 1917 – Traditionally understood date of the October Revolution, involving the capture of the Winter Palace, Petrograd, Russia.

Deaths

• 1400 – Geoffrey Chaucer, English philosopher, poet, and author (b. 1343)
• 1993 – Vincent Price, American actor and singer (b. 1911)
• 2002 – Richard Harris, Irish-English actor and singer (b. 1930)
• 2004 – John Peel, English radio host and producer (b. 1939)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Bristol Palin (25), Jean-Claude Van Damme (55), Zac Efron (28), Trey Parker (46), Evander Holyfield (53), Tom Petty (65), Viggo Mortensen (57), Snoop Dogg (44), Danni Minogue (44), Judge Judy (73), Carrie Fisher (59), Kim Kardashian (35), Ken Watanabe (56), Christopher Lloyd (77), Catherine Deneuve (72), Jeff Goldblum (63), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (40), Ang Lee (61), Weird Al Yankovic (56), Cat Deeley (39), Ryan Reynolds (39), Pele (75), Bill Wyman (79), F. Murray Abraham (76) and Kevin Kline (68).

Next week peeps!

Good afternoon minions! A reasonably quiet week to report upon, no points to award and precious few celebrities have kicked the bucket. But Winter is coming, and if previous years are anything to go by, the cold snap works wonders.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Richard Davies, 89, Welsh character actor (Please Sir!, Zulu), Alzheimer’s disease.
• Joan Leslie, 90, American actress (High Sierra, Sergeant York, Yankee Doodle Dandy).
• George Mueller, 97, American space engineer, Associate Administrator of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight (1963–1969).
• Bruce Hyde, 74, American educator and actor (Star Trek), throat cancer.
• Sue Lloyd-Roberts, 64, British television journalist (BBC, ITN), leukaemia.
• Andrew Rubin, 69, American actor (Police Academy, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), lung cancer.
• Howard Kendall, 69, English football player and manager (Blackburn Rovers, Everton).

In Other News

Singer Dolly Parton has issued a statement denying she has stomach cancer,  following reports in the US that she was rushed to hospital. The 69-year-old country star made the declaration following a story in the National Enquirer that she had been rushed to hospital. “There is absolutely no truth at all that I have stomach cancer,” the statement on her website said. “It is true that I had kidney stones,” she said. “I had them removed three weeks ago and I am doing just fine!” Parton added that she was already back at work following the operation. “I am back to work and last week I was at Dollywood filming parts for my new movie Coat of Many Colours,” she wrote. “I love and appreciate everyone’s concern.” So that’s us told!

A spokeswoman for Lamar Odom’s said that the NBA star has woken up and talked, three days after being found unconscious at a Nevada  brothel. Odom had been unconscious at a Las Vegas hospital since being found Tuesday at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada. Authorities are still retracing Odom’s $75,000, three-day visit to the brothel that started late afternoon Saturday, with blood test results to determine what caused his medical episode still pending. The brothel’s owner said that he chose two women to accompany him in a VIP suite on his first visit to the ranch. Odom had said that he had taken cocaine before his arrival, and the brothel said they saw him drink alcohol and take as many as 10 supplements sold as “herbal Viagra”. The brothel also said he became upset on Sunday following a phone call where his former wife’s television show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, was mentioned. But he was generally in a good mood, even suggesting that he stay an entire week at the brothel in the rural community. Odom was then found unconscious on Tuesday with white and reddish substances coming from his nose and mouth. He was breathing and taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. Classy bloke!

Sir John Hurt has said he’s overjoyed and thrilled after being given the all-clear by doctors less than four months after he disclosed that he had pancreatic cancer. The 75-year-old actor, known for his roles in The Elephant Man, Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Harry Potter films, revealed he had overcome the disease to an audience at the Man Booker prize ceremony in London. “I had a final scan and it’s all gone brilliantly, I had the final scan yesterday and I saw my oncologist this morning. I am overjoyed, I am thrilled. It all looks great for the future, it’s fantastic.” Hurt had first revealed his cancer diagnosis in June, but said at the time he was “more than optimistic” about his future and kept working during his chemotherapy treatment.

Placido Domingo is to have surgery to have his gallbladder removed, forcing him to miss conducting engagements at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. “It is expected this minimally invasive procedure will allow him to resume his activities after a brief hospital stay,” the Met said in a statement. Domingo had been due to conduct four performances of Tosca in October, but will now return on 2nd November. The 74-year-old was admitted to hospital on Tuesday after suffering inflammation of his gallbladder and will have an operation early next week. He has had a number of health problems in recent years. In 2010, he underwent an operation to remove a cancerous polyp from his colon, returning to performing just weeks after the surgery. And in 2013 he was treated for a blood clot in his lung, forcing him to miss several concerts.

The world’s most-wanted drug boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, narrowly evaded security forces searching for him in the north-west of Mexico in recent days, sustaining injuries to his face and leg, the Mexican government said on Friday. Guzmán, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, escaped from his high-security prison cell in July through a specially dug tunnel, causing a major embarrassment for the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto. In a statement, the Mexican government said it had worked with international agencies to capture Guzmán, and that in recent weeks, efforts had been focused on the north-west of the country, not far from Guzmán’s native turf of Sinaloa state. “As a result of these actions, and to avoid his capture, in recent days, the fugitive engaged in a hasty retreat, which, according to the information received, caused him injuries to one leg and the face,” the government statement said.

The BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire has thanked NHS staff in a video diary recorded soon after she underwent a mastectomy to treat cancer. In a short clip, which was posted on the Victoria Derbyshire Show’s Facebook site, Derbyshire holds up two pieces of paper with handwritten messages on them. “This morning I had breast cancer,” read on the first. “This evening I don’t,” read the second. “I feel all right. I can’t believe it. The NHS staff have been awesome. I am completely in awe of them. They are so inspiring and so caring and I feel so grateful to them,” says Derbyshire from her hospital bed. Derbyshire, who has presented on BBC radio and television, announced the news of the diagnosis in August. Doctors detected her condition the previous month.

And finally, the son of the peer Lord Lucan, who disappeared almost 41 years ago, has applied to have his father declared “presumed dead”. Lord Lucan vanished from his family home in London in 1974 following the death of family nanny Sandra Rivett. An inquest found he murdered her. There has since been speculation and stories about what happened to him. His son, George Bingham, told the West End Extra newspaper the application would provide “closure”. Despite the fact Lord Lucan was officially declared dead by the High Court in 1999, there have been reported sightings of him in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand, and even claims he lived in India as a hippy called “Jungly Barry”. Mr Bingham, who was a child when his father disappeared, told West End Extra he was applying to the High Court under the Presumption of Death Act, which came into effect a year ago. He said the 1999 declaration had not proved death “for all purposes” and the new law allowed for a “more complete process”. The Presumption of Death Act was the result of a campaign supported by relatives of high-profile missing people including chef Claudia Lawrence, who disappeared in York in 2009, and Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, who went missing in 1995. So, technically Lord Lucan is still alive for our purposes.

On This Day

• 1851 – Herman Melville‘s Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
• 1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
• 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
• 1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva “Evita” Duarte.
• 1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
• 1968 – The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a “Black Power” salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.

Deaths

• 1931 – Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman, invented the light bulb and phonograph (b. 1847)
• 2007 – Alan Coren, English journalist and author (b. 1938)
• 2012 – Sylvia Kristel, Dutch model, actress, and singer (b. 1952)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Eminem (43), Angela Lansbury (90), Tim Robbins (57), Usher (37), Sacha Baron Cohen (44), Marie Osmond (56), Paul Simon (74), Hugh Jackman (47), Jane Krakowski (47), Emily Deschanel (39), Roger Moore (88), Ralph Lauren (76), Suzanne Somers (69), George Wendt (67), Wyclef Jean (46), Sarah Ferguson (56), Dominic West (46), Steve Coogan (50), Michelle Trachtenberg (30), Stephen Moyer (46), Cliff Richard (75) and Ernie Els (46).

Next week peeps!