Celebrity Deaths and Mishaps Archives 6

NOTE ABOUT BLUE ALERT SYSTEM (3/11/03): Some of you may recall a few years back when I used "name blends" -- rhyming sounds and off-rhyme clues from part of one name to determine what the next name in the sequence might be (or later in the year). An example was the death of Layne Stahley and how "Layne" led to "Lynne" then"Linda" and the car crash death of Linda Lovelace which followed. I surmised that "Lace" in "Lovelace" might lead to a "Leese" then "Lisa" tragedy. The next day, Lisa Lopes of TLC was killed in a car crash.

Rather than create a whole other section on this page for name blends, I will intead highlight certain names in the lists below in light blue that I feel may be influenced by celebrity deaths that have occurred this year.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): John Agar, John Carpenter, John Cusak, John Davidson, John Larroquette, John Grisham, John Travolta, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, John Cleese, Johnny Depp, Johnny Cash, Johnny Carson, Johnny Crawford, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, Magic Johnson, Kathleen Beller, Neve Campbell, William Campbell, Craig T. Nelson, Willie Nelson, Tom Selleck, Howie Mandel, Danny Aiello, Mel C, Mel Gibson, Montel Williams, Denzel Washington, Lulu, Claire Goose, Reese Witherspoon, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Lisa Kudrow, Shaznay Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg, Lucy Lawless, Jude Law, Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, Sheena Easton. Additional predictions: (1/12/03): Jim Belushi. (0/0/03):

Celia Cruz is seen in this black and white print from the 1950s

Thu, Jul 17, 2003 - MIAMI (Reuters) - Celia Cruz, the Cuban-born "Queen of Salsa" whose powerful voice and shimmering smile electrified Latin music for decades, was mourned with tears and tributes on Thursday by Miami's Cuban exile community. Cruz, who died on Wednesday aged 77 in her home in New Jersey, left Cuba as a star in 1960. She became not just a grande dame of the Latin music scene whose career reached into her later years, but an iconic figure for Cuban Americans. Official Havana noted her death with a brief and acidic mention, although musicians and ordinary people on the island were saddened. The Communist Party newspaper called her an "important" performer and activist for counterrevolutionaries in Florida. The "Freedom Tower" on Miami's bay front, an ornate building where Cuban migrants were processed during the first wave of exiles after President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, flew its Cuban flag at half-staff. Mourners laid flowers at a small stone marked with the singer's name in Little Havana, the neighborhood viewed as the heart of Miami's Cuban community. Elderly patrons at Versailles restaurant -- focus of nostalgia for Cuban things past with its mirrors, gilt and syrupy coffee -- recalled a voice they grew up with. "I am sad and I miss her a lot," said a 72-year-old exile who identified himself only as Mr. Martinez, and who said he had traveled the 225 miles from his home in Orlando to attend a church service in Cruz's honor later on Thursday. Spanish-language radio stations in Miami aired hours of tributes and the daily El Nuevo Herald devoted its entire front page to a photo of the singer and an elegy to "Eternal Celia."

Cruz's music was banned in Cuba after she left the island. Her standing among exiles, and the fact she had often said she would return to sing only in "free Cuba," made her a thorn in the side of Castro's government. Havana's Communist Party newspaper Granma published a two-paragraph obituary noting she was "an important Cuban performer ... who popularized our music in the United States." But it added, "Over the last four decades she was systematically active in campaigns against the Cuban revolution ... for which she was utilized as an icon by the counterrevolutionary enclave in southern Florida." Cruz lived in New Jersey but knew Miami was a spiritual home. She is to be buried next week in New York, but first her body will be flown to Miami for public viewing on Saturday at the Freedom Tower...

Saturday, 2 August, 2003, 00:38 GMT 01:38 UK - BBC News -- Television presenter John Leslie has said he considered committing suicide after being accused of sexual assault. He told the Daily Express that after losing his job on GMTV, he was portrayed in the media as a "vile monster" and contemplated taking his own life. The former host of ITV's This Morning was cleared on Thursday of charges of attacking the same woman twice between 25 and 28 May 1997. The prosecution dropped the case after receiving unspecified "new information" from the complainant, which made prosecution impossible. The Scot told the paper his lowest point came in November as he walked on Sheen Common, near his home in south west London. He was binge eating and had stopped playing sports and the piano. He told the paper: "From successful TV celebrity, I had suddenly become portrayed as a vile monster and I could not defend myself. "I thought the best thing to do would be to do away with myself." One of the things that stopped him from suicide was the love of his parents and girlfriend Abby Titmuss. He told the Express: "In any great crisis or trauma, they say that you hit absolute rock bottom and then you have to look up. "That was my lowest moment and thereafter I turned the corner." But he said he now felt "ashamed" of wanting to kill himself. Mr Leslie said: "I fear nothing now. The worst has happened." The presenter's future career remains unclear, after Sky One denied reports it had offered Mr Leslie a return to the small screen. It is believed he is considering legal action against media organisations he felt vilified him when the allegations emerged. His acquittal has led to calls for a change in the law to preserve the anonymity of the accused.

Miss Chilcott (right) had received enthusiastic reviews

Thursday, 4 September, 2003, 18:40 GMT 19:40 UK - BBC News - Opera singer Susan Chilcott, one of Britain's leading sopranos, has died from breast cancer, aged 40. She died at her home in Timsbury, near Bath, her family said. Miss Chilcott made her Royal Opera House debut in Covent Garden in June 2003 to enthusiastic reviews, playing Lisa in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades opposite Placido Domingo. Critics variously called her performance as "glorious", "radiant" and "outstanding". One said she was "a natural - tall, beautiful and seemingly fearless on stage". She made headlines when a candle set her dress alight mid-performance and she calmly carried on singing after staff had put out the flames.

Miss Chilcott started singing lessons at the age of six and became a child chorister. Since making her operatic debut with Scottish Opera, she had appeared at Glyndebourne and sung with the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera and Opera North. Her first foreign appearance was at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1994, and she went on to perform throughout Europe. Miss Chilcott was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy. In the midst of her treatment she sang with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, later describing the performance as "probably the most important in my career". Her last public appearance was at a Shakespeare evening in Brussels three months ago. Miss Chilcott was married to her agent, David Sigall, and had a four-year-old son by a previous relationship.

COMMENT (9/5/03): How strange. Last year she appeared in the 2002 section for singing on, oblivious to the fact that her dress had caught fire (same photo from last year above). This year she is dead at the tragically young age of 40. I thought that fire was strange. And the previous year, in 2001, Jenny Grahn hanged herself, and she too had appeared in Queen of Spades.

Friday, September 12, 2003 Posted: 0922 GMT ( 5:22 PM HKT) - (CNN) -- Actor and comedian John Ritter has died unexpectedly after he was rushed to the hospital for a "dissection of the aorta," his publicist Lisa Kasteler told CNN. Ritter, who would have turned 55 next week, was the star of the ABC series "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." In a statement, Kasteler said Ritter was rushed to the hospital after suffering from an unrecognized and undetected flaw in his aorta. Surgeons at the hospital tried to save the Emmy Award-winning actor but were unable to do so, the statement said. WebMD.com described an aortic dissection as "an abnormal separation of tissues within the walls of the aorta" caused by high blood pressure, family history of the condition, disease of connective tissue, or severe trauma to the chest. "Aortic dissection results in a weakened blood vessel wall that may also rupture," the Web site says.

Ritter was best known for his role as Jack Tripper on the long-running television sitcom, "Three's Company." He was the youngest son of Western film star and country music legend Tex Ritter, according to his biography on ABC's Web site. John Ritter was born on September 17, 1948. He is survived by his wife, Amy Yasbeck, and their daughter, Stella, and three children -- Carly, Tyler and Jason -- from his first marriage to Nancy Morgan.

COMMENT (9/12/03): This is truly a dreadful shock. I can't believe it ... I don't want to believe it. It's like a nightmare ... I wish I could say it wasn't true. I hate to say this, and don't like having to say it, but, this was a PREDICTION FULFILLED (please see 2003 (Part One)) .. and more so in this instance than in the case of Nell Carter or certainly Merlin Santana (who I never heard of). This is a personal shock to me and it takes a lot to bother me these days where the death of a celebrity is concerned. A lot of people are going to miss you, John. Sorry you had to end up on this page of all places.

Bruce Kulick: 'Why didn't he shoot Gene? -- I was just sittin' in.'

Friday, October 17, 2003 Posted: 1149 GMT ( 7:49 PM HKT) - LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Former KISS lead guitarist Bruce Kulick was shot in the leg and grazed by a bullet to the head on Los Angeles' famed Sunset Strip Thursday when an angry patron started shooting into a crowd of 300 people, Los Angeles sheriff's deputies said. Another person was slightly injured in the shooting rampage. The gunman was quickly wrestled to the ground by a nightclub patron and held down by others until police arrived. Kulick, 49, was a short distance from the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset Boulevard at about 1:20 a.m. PDT (4:20 a.m. EDT) when he was hit in the leg and grazed in the head, a sheriff's spokesman said. He was treated at a hospital and released. Another man was shot in the foot, deputies said. The gunman, who was not immediately identified by police, was in jail Thursday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He had left the venue after arguing with several people, but returned a few minutes later with a 9mm automatic pistol, deputies said. The gunman fired several rounds into a crowd of about 300 people waiting outside the club or sitting in its outdoor restaurant, officials said. Kulick was leaving the nearby Key Club and was not involved in the altercation outside the Rainbow, according to a statement released by his publicist. "I was very lucky in this matter, although I am in pain and uncertain how long recovery will take," he said. "It was certainly a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, walking in a public street having no knowledge of any altercation in the vicinity." The New York-born Kulick performed with KISS from 1984 to 1995, leaving after the original members donned their black-and-white makeup to embark on a nostalgia tour. Kulick has since released a solo album and performed with the band Union and 1970s rockers Grand Funk Railroad.

COMMENT (10/22/03): Hey, Bruce, better you than me. Damn glad I was out of town. Ain't life a bloody firehouse? Whoo! Whoo!

Associated Press - October 22, 2003 - LOS ANGELES - Elliott Smith, a singer-songwriter whose dark, introspective songs won him critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination, has apparently committed suicide, his publicist and coroner's officials said Wednesday. He was 34. Smith was found by his live-in girlfriend Tuesday, Los Angeles County Coroner Records Supervisor Marsha Grigsby told AP Radio. He sustained a single stab wound to the chest that appeared to be self-inflicted, she said. Smith's New York-based publicist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed his death. Smith released five solo albums that received widespread acclaim from rock critics and garnered modest commercial success. His song "Miss Misery," recorded for the film "Good Will Hunting," was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998. Smith's songs were often compared with those of Alex Chilton, Nick Drake and the Beatles, his favorite band. They were marked by intricate melodies written over unorthodox chord changes. Lyrically, they addressed such dark subject matter as drug addiction, troubled relationships and loneliness — though Smith tried to distance himself from the label of confessional songwriter. "I don't feel like my songs are particularly fragile or revealing," he said in a 1998 interview in the Los Angeles Times. "It's not like a diary, and they're not intended to be any sort of super intimate confessional singer-songwriterish thing."

Jim Caviezel (left) was struck by lightning while filming

BBC News - Thursday, 23 October, 2003, 17:47 GMT 18:47 UK - Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion Of Christ. The lightning bolt hit Caviezel and the film's assistant director Jan Michelini while they were filming in a remote location a few hours from Rome. It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning during the shoot. Neither of them was badly hurt, according to the film's producer Steve McEveety. Michelini had previously been struck during filming in Matera, Italy, when he suffered light burns to his fingers after lightning hit his umbrella. Describing the second lightning strike, McEveety told VLife, a supplement of the trade paper Variety: "I'm about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel's ears." The Passion Of Christ, which was filmed in the ancient languages of Latin and Aramaic, is directed and co-written by actor Mel Gibson and focuses on the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus. Although it is not due for release until early next year, it has already hit headlines after Jewish figures in the United States slated it for being "dangerous" and portraying Jews in a negative way. Originally titled The Passion, the film changed its title last week after Miramax claimed the rights to the title for one of its own projects, a historical epic based on a Jeanette Winterson novel. The film now looks set to be released in the States by independent distributors Newmarket Films, who released Memento and Whale Rider in the US.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Vickie Lawrence, Victoria Principal, Victoria Adams (Posh Spice), Victoria Beckham, Dick Martin, Ricky Martin, Steve Martin, Tony Martin, Wink Martindale, Richard Marx, Wynton Marsalis, Richard Widmark, Marvin Hamlisch, Mark Harmon, Marlon Brando, Andy Garcia, James Garner, Garth Brooks, Demi Moore, Mary Tyler Moore, Julianne Moore, Mandy Moore, Roger Moore, Jim Moret, Rita Moreno, Jayne Seymour, Drew Barrymore, Ozzie Osbourne, Morgan Fairchild, Morgan Freeman, Maureen Stapleton, Maureen McGovern, Lesley Gore, Al Gore, Tipper Gore, Traci Lords, Lauren BaCall, Lauren Hutton, Gloria Loring, Florence Henderson, Cloris Leachman, Sean Combs (Puff Daddy), Francis Ford Coppola, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Jeff Goldblum. Additional predictions: (1/12/03): Sharon Osbourne. (0/0/03):

16 Jul 03 - People News - Half-woman half-lilo Jordan narrowly escaped death in a car crash yesterday, saved from her fate by her custom-fitted airbags. The model was reversing onto a busy street when a truck crashed into her car, but escaped with minor whiplash thanks to 32FF-worth of safety-features. 'The car was a bit of a mess but Jordan hot away with a stiff neck,' said manager Dave Read. 'It's obviously down to her seat belt - and her built-in airbags.' Naturally upset about her £70,000 Mercedes but glad son Harvey wasn't in the car at the time, Jordan was no doubt preoccupied with another poorly-executed manoeuvre. The U-turn performed by gap-toothed gypsy Gareth Gates will no doubt have been playing on the dirigible-breasted one's mind - and may have contributed to the accident. The singer had, until recently, denied having an affair with the busty model, but in a bid to spice up his nice-guy image came clean yesterday about their three-month romp.

'Gareth is a coward and a little liar,' fumed Jordan. 'He was too scared to own up about it at the time, which made me look really stupid.' Not that it takes much, but Gates' fresh-faced cheek in disavowing the three-month relationship did border on the tasteless. 'He was like a rabbit caught in the headlights,' the model revealed. 'It was lovely - but he was very inexperienced. I had to show him how to make love.' But Gates insisted at the time: 'I have only met her once. I don't know why she'd want to do it. It hurt me.' Bit too much information.

COMMENT (7/16/03): Wow! Imagine if they had had 'safety features' back when Jayne Mansfield had her car accident. A lot of people thought that her natural flotation devices should have protected her, but I guess they just weren't big enough ...

All kidding aside, this "narrow escape from death" has me wondering if this is a sign The Madonna-Pamela Anderson Prophecy is in danger of kicking in this year instead of last year OR if this was the UK version of the Jayne Mansfield scenario, only thwarted.

George Plimpton in 1996. The author died Thursday in New York City.

Friday, September 26, 2003 Posted: 1926 GMT ( 3:26 AM HKT) - NEW YORK (AP) -- Writer George Plimpton, the self-deprecating author of "Paper Lion" and a patron to such writers as Philip Roth and Jack Kerouac, has died. He was 76. Plimpton died Thursday night at his Manhattan apartment, his longtime friend, restaurateur Elaine Kaufman, said Friday. "I saw him the other day. He was full of energy," said Kaufman, who said she had known Plimpton for 40 years. "He was talking about a trip he took with his family to the tip of South America." Praised as a "central figure in American letters" when inducted in 2002 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Plimpton also enjoyed a lifetime of making literature out of nonliterary pursuits. He boxed with Archie Moore, pitched to Willie Mays and performed as a trapeze artist for the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus. He acted in numerous films, including "Reds" and "Good Will Hunting." He even appeared in an episode of "The Simpsons," playing a professor who runs a spelling bee.

But writers appreciated Plimpton for The Paris Review, the quarterly he helped found nearly in 1953 and ran for decades with eager passion. The magazine's high reputation rested on two traditions: publishing the work of emerging authors, including Roth and Kerouac, and an unparalleled series of interviews in which Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and others discussed their craft. The Paris Review remained more respected than read. The subscription base was rarely higher than a few thousand and the bank account seemed to descend at will. At one point in 2001, Plimpton reported, funds dropped to $1.16. Donations from various wealthy friends kept it going.

COMMENT (9/27/03): The obituary is considerably longer than what appears here. Plimpton was best known to most people as a writer who participated, briefly, in seemingly every known vocation, no matter how dangerous or physically demanding. He now participates in the final role we all will one day assume.

Sunday, September 28, 2003 Posted: 1759 GMT ( 1:59 AM HKT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Entertainer Donald O'Connor, who combined comedy and acrobatics in the show-stopping "Make 'Em Laugh" number in the classic movie "Singin' in the Rain," died Saturday, his daughter said. He was 78. O'Connor, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of heart failure, his daughter, Alicia O'Connor, told The Associated Press. It was in the '50s that O'Connor made the films for which he was best known -- a series of highly successful "Francis the Talking Mule" comedies and movie musicals that put his song and dance talents to good use. Songs in movie musicals are often touching or exciting, but O'Connor performed a rare feat with a number that were laugh-out-loud funny. The best, 1952's "Singin' in the Rain," also starred Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds and took a satirical look at Hollywood during the transition from silent to sound pictures. As he sings "Make 'Em Laugh," O'Connor dances with a prop dummy and does all manner of amusing acrobatics. "Someone handed me a dummy that was Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe dance to an Irving Berlin tune in "There's No Business Like Show Business"

Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe dance to an Irving Berlin tune in "There's No Business Like Show Business"

on the stage," he recalled in a 1995 Associated Press interview. "That was the only prop I used. I did a pratfall and we wrote that down. Every time I did something that got a laugh, we wrote it down to keep in the number." The American Film Institute's list of the top 100 American movies ever made ranked "Singin' in the Rain" at No. 10.

Among O'Connor's other '50s musicals were "Call Me Madam," "Anything Goes" and "There's No Business Like Show Business." He said it was a fluke that he landed in so many musicals, noting he started out as a "straight" actor. He also said his song-and-dance image came with a downside. "Back then, when you were typecast that way, it was very difficult to get dramatic parts," he recalled. "Look at Fred Astaire, who was a darn good actor." The "Francis" series of comedies, which featured a bumbling O'Connor and a talking mule, began in 1949. A few years later, the man who directed them created the "Mr. Ed" TV series. O'Connor quit the "Francis" series in 1955, saying, "When you've made six pictures and the mule still gets more fan mail than you do ...." O'Connor also had some success in television. He won an Emmy for "The Colgate Comedy Hour" in 1954 and appeared in "The Donald O'Connor Texaco Show" from 1954 to 1955.

Roy Horn of 'Siegfried & Roy' holds tiger pals

Saturday, October 4, 2003 Posted: 0728 GMT ( 3:28 PM HKT) - (CNN) -- A nine-year-old white tiger attacked Roy Horn of 'Siegfried & Roy' during a Friday night performance on the Las Vegas strip -- the tiger's first time on stage, and the trainer's 59th birthday. The tiger lunged at Horn's neck about half-way through the show, and dragged him off stage, audience members said. "He looked like a rag doll in his mouth," said Kirk Baser, from Pennsylvania. Emergency officials arrived at the MGM Mirage Hotel-Casino around 8:20 p.m. (10:20 p.m. ET), and treated Horn for massive blood loss before he was rushed to University Medical Center for emergency surgery. He was listed in critical condition shortly after midnight (2 a.m. ET), according to a recorded message from hospital spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger. Horn was talking at the time emergency workers arrived, but had trouble breathing, Clark County Fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said. Horn, the darker-haired member of 'Siegfried & Roy', was born in Nordenham, Germany on October 3, 1944. Combining magic with tiger stunts, the flamboyant duo has performed on the Las Vegas strip for nearly 30 years. The tiger that attacked Horn is currently in quarantine and no one else was injured in the attack, according to MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman.

Audience members were shocked to realized the attack was not part of an illusion or magic trick. Amy Sherman, who was sitting in the front row with her mother about 10 yards away from the stage, said the attack happened right after Horn introduced the tiger, saying it was the animal's first performance. "Right after that, the tiger kind of turned its head and bit him on the arm," Sherman said. "Roy started taking a microphone and started whapping the tiger on the head." The tiger, who was on a short leash, then dragged Horn to the ground and they struggled before the tiger dragged him behind a curtain by his neck, she said. Trainers on stage rushed to aid Horn, trying to subdue the tiger. "We just heard all this commotion behind the curtain and you could hear Roy scream," Sherman said. "Everyone at our table was kind of looking at each other, like 'Oh my God,'" she said. About a minute, which Sherman's mother said seemed like forever, Siegfried appeared on stage. "You could tell he was really shook up, and he just said, 'I'm sorry but the show is over, and you know, the show has been canceled'" Joyce Edenholl said. "Everyone there I think , thought it was part of the act, because no one really freaked out," Kirk Baser said. "When it grabbed him and dragged him off the stage, I thought maybe it was like some magic trick where they switch a rag doll or something." A group of Australians said they witnessed the attack from the front row of the crowded theater, and also thought it was just part of the show. "A lady ran past me, freaking out and it was then I sort of, in the back of my mind, thought now this isn't part of the show," said David Strudwick. "And then you look at the staff and they had a bit of horror in their eyes and ... it was like, wait a second, it may not be a part of the show."

COMMENT (10/4/03): I don't know what it is about October, but the strangest stuff seems to happen to celebrities during this time of year. So far there is a live suicide being planned by the rock group, Hell On Earth. A second person reportedly volunteered to commit suicide on stage. The concert appears to have been called off or re-scheduled, and police are searching for the group and the suiciders. Yesterday, Courtney Love was arrested for smashing windows and, after returning home, OD'd on drugs, passed out, and had to be taken to hospital. Now there is this horrifying spectacle in Las Vegas involving Roy Horn being mauled by a tiger. Next full moon is coming up on October 10 and Halloween not long after, for what it's worth.

Margaux Hemingway (d. 1996) - Margot, Mar, Ar, Go, Oh, Hem, Ing, Way, Ay

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Mariel Hemingway, Margot Kidder, Marjoe Gortner, Marcia Clark, Margaret O'Brien, Margaret Thatcher, Mariah Carey, Marlo Thomas, Marie Osmond, Marty Balin, Markie Post, Ann-Margret, Jean Marsh, Penny Marshall, Julianne Margulies, Pamela Sue Martin, Julie Newmar, Beverly Garland, Terri Garr, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Barbi Benton, Winona Ryder, Goldie Hawn, Sheryl Crow, Kim Novack, Tonya Harding, Peggy Fleming, Wayne Newton, Barbara Corday, Doris Day, Susan Day George, Elizabeth Taylor, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jim Nabors, Tori Amos. Additional predictions: (2/22/03): Amanda Pays. (3/11/03): Marianne Faithful. (0/0/03):

Circus star Eva Garcia moments before plummeting to her death

Saturday, August 9, 2003 Posted: 1425 GMT (10:25 PM HKT) - LONDON, England (CNN) -- A circus performer who carried out aerial stunts on ropes and silks suspended from the ceiling fell more than 20 feet to her death in front of a crowd of 800 people. Eva Garcia, 38, was just starting her act at Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth, England, on Friday night when the accident happened. Members of staff who saw the incident said she was descending from the rigging area in the roof above the circus ring when she appeared to lose her grip on the wire above her head and plunged to the ground. The experienced performer, who came from a circus family, was taken to the town's James Paget Hospital, where she later died. Peter Astle, from Norfolk's environmental health department, inspected the scene. He removed a piece of equipment called a "descender" -- used to carry performers down from the rigging -- for further examination. Circus owners Peter and Christine Jay paid tribute to Garcia, from Birmingham, saying she was "a fantastic artist." Mrs. Jay told the UK Press Association it was not clear what had happened. "We believe that she had actually got on it the descender and was coming down on it. But it just happened so quickly, it's just so sketchy."

Mrs. Jay said the performance last night was meant to have been a showcase of the best of the acts that had appeared with the circus over recent years. "We're all friends and have all worked together before -- it's a very close show. We all go out together. We are just all in shock at the moment," she said. "She was very experienced. She started in the circus at the age of seven. She was so fit and strong -- such a fantastic artist. "All the artists are very upset about it. It's a very close knit company. We are going to cancel the shows over the weekend to deal with the shock and then resume on Monday."

COMMENT (8/9/03): Although one might be tempted to think this sort of thing happens quite often in the world of circus performing, it doesn't really (except in the movies). Like stunt people, circus performers are very good at what they do and seldom make mistakes. However, this year is a very dangerous base 7 year for stunts of all kinds, especially movie stunts, due to the Vic Morrow influence from July 1982, twenty-one (3 x 7) years ago. Russian director Sergei Bodrov Jr. and his film crew, killed in an avalanche last September, have already been victims of this trend. Now, with the death of this aerialist, I wonder if we truly have seen the last of this influence. for more on this prediction, see 2003 (Part Two.

Wednesday, October 1, 2003 Posted: 1643 GMT (12:43 AM HKT) - LONDON, England (Billboard) -- Rising British singer/songwriter Matthew Jay died September 24 after falling from a seventh-story window in Nottingham, England, his label, EMI, said Tuesday. He was 24. "His act would appear to have been an impulsive gesture following a professionally difficult year and perhaps, a difficult day," said a statement. It is understood that he was alone at the time and no note was left. Jay's debut album, "Draw," was a critical success following its April 2001 release through EMI imprint Food. He went on to support such acts as Dido, Doves, Starsailor and Stereophonics. "Everyone here who knew Matthew will remember him as such a lovely guy, and a very talented artist," EMI said in a statement. "We are deeply shocked and send our sympathy to his family and friends." Jay was said to be working on new material at the time of his death.

Monday, November 24, 2003 Posted: 0509 GMT (1:09 PM HKT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Kellie Waymire, whose frequent appearances on such shows as "Six Feet Under," "Friends" and "Ally McBeal" made her a familiar face to television fans, has died at age 36, apparently of a previously undetected medical condition. Waymire died November 13 at her home in Los Angeles, according to her agent, Billy Miller. He did not disclose what medical condition she had, noting final autopsy results were pending. Although best known for several TV appearances, including a recurring role on "Six Feet Under" as Melissa the prostitute, Waymire had also gained acclaim for her work in regional theater. The Los Angeles Times called her performance as the lead in A.R. Gurney's offbeat play "Sylvia," at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in 1996, "utterly irresistible." The role, which she performed in San Francisco as well, won her a Drama-Logue Award. Waymire also appeared in a revival of Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1998 and in many other stage productions across the country.

She began her television career on the soap opera "One Life to Live," going on to appear on such shows as "Seinfeld," "The Practice," "Judging Amy," "Star Trek: Voyager," "Star Trek: Enterprise, "The X-Files" "NYPD Blue" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." The Columbus, Ohio, native attended Southern Methodist University, where she won the Greer Garson Award. Later, she earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of California, San Diego.

COMMENT (11/25/03): "Ellie Way" -- the sounds from Kellie Waymire -- sound a lot like Ellie Mae, the character Donna Douglas played in the Beverly Hillbillies. I note she is already blue-coded, but stranger word associations have happened in the past. Then there is Kellie ... Kellie ... Kylie.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Grace Slick, Ace Frehley, Tracy Shaw, Jayne Meadows, Jane Curtain, Jane Fonda, Jay Leno, Laraine Newman, Chevy Chase, Raquel Welsh, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kate Nelligan, Tori Spelling, Barbara Mandrell, Liza Minnelli, Geri Halliwell, Annette Funicello, Sela Ward, Celine Dion, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Ellen DeGeneres, Helen Hunt, Shelly Duvall, Shelly Fabares, Shelley Long, Shelly Winters, Melissa Joan Hart, Melissa Manchester, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michelle Phillips, Gisele MacKenzie, Angelina Jolie, Anjelica Huston, Danielle Steel, Brenda Lee, Spike Lee, Sheryl Lee, Lauren Holly, Mohammad Ali, Yasmine Bleeth, John Cleese, Tommy Lee Jones, Gena Lee Nolin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jerry Lee Lewis, David Lee Roth, Holly Hunter, Julie Andrews, Julie Newmar, Leslie Nielsen, Leslie Uggams, Eileen Brennan, Dolly Parton, Molly Ringwald, Lee Majors, Lee Travino, Leeza Gibbons, Kylie Minogue. Additional predictions: (0/0/03):

Friday, 11 July, 2003, 09:43 GMT 10:43 UK - BBC News - Australian pop singer and actress Delta Goodrem is suffering from cancer. Goodrem, 18, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a treatable form of lymphatic cancer, following tests last week, a statement said. She is currently receiving treatment at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, a joint statement from Australia's Ten Network television and Sony Music said. Doctors have said her cancer has been detected early and that the singer had a "good prognosis" for recovery. "I want to assure all my fans that I will be fine and I will be back just as soon as my treatment is completed," she said. Hodgkin's disease starts in the lymphatic tissue which stores infection-fighting white blood cells. It is usually treated with chemotherapy, but also radiotherapy in its earliest stages. "Knowing that I have your love and support is making a huge difference and I look forward to seeing you all very soon." The singer made her name playing Nina Tucker in soap opera Neighbours, and has had two UK top 10 hits this year, Born To Try and Lost Without You.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Vince Gill, Gillian Anderson, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Billy Preston, Billie Piper, Lily Tomlin, Cybill Shepherd, William Baldwin, William Katt, Prince William, Faith Hill, Lauryn Hill, Andy Williams, Cindy Williams, JoBeth Williams, Robin Williams, Vanessa Williams, Alicia Silverstone, Alyssa Milano, Linda Hamilton, Lynda Carter, Jane Fonda, Brad Pitt, Laura Dern, Brooke Burns, Charline Thuron, Katie Couric, Elizabeth Hurley, Kathleen Turner, Tina Turner, Uma Thurman, Christy Turlington. Additional predictions: (3/11/03): Carlene Carter. (0/0/03):

Katherine Hepburn, shown in a 1941 publicity still

Sunday, June 29, 2003 Posted: 10:49 PM EDT (0249 GMT) (CNN) -- Screen and stage legend Katharine Hepburn died Sunday afternoon at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96. Hepburn's film career spanned seven decades, and she was perhaps the most decorated actor, male or female, in the industry. She won more Academy Awards for lead roles (four) than anyone -- and her 12 nominations in the best actress category stood as a record until this year when actress Meryl Streep surpassed her nomination total with 13. Old Saybrook authorities and the executor of Hepburn's estate, Cynthia McFadden, told The Associated Press that Hepburn died Sunday at 2:50 p.m. Hepburn's health had declined in recent years. A statement from her family was expected later Sunday. In her work, Hepburn transformed herself from the key actress of a generation into thespian royalty, an uncontested icon of live theater and cinematic art. In private life, her 25-year love affair with actor Spencer Tracy is the stuff of Hollywood legend, and so are her bouts with Hollywood itself. But her performances in some of the century's top films are what stand out as enduring evidence of her power and gifts. The American Film Institute ranked Hepburn the top female star in its "50 Greatest Movie Legends," one of a handful of AFI picks that ruffled few feathers. "I'm a personality as well as an actress," Hepburn once said. "Show me an actress who isn't a personality, and you'll show me a woman who isn't a star."

Rebecca Schaeffer (d. 1989) - Rebecca, Reb, Ek, Eka, Shay, Ay (list under Hemmingway), Fer, Ur (list under Radner)

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Rebecca DeMornay, Rebecca Gayheart, Alex Trebeck, Ray Manzarek. Additional predictions: (0/0/03):

Monday, July 7, 2003 Posted: 10:52 AM EDT (1452 GMT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Buddy Ebsen, the loose-limbed Broadway dancer who achieved stardom and riches in the television series "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Barnaby Jones," has died, a hospital official said Monday. He was 95. Ebsen died Sunday morning at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, said Pam Hope, an administrative nursing supervisor. He had been admitted to the hospital, near his home in Palos Verdes Estates, last month for treatment of an undisclosed illness. Ebsen and his sister Vilma danced through Broadway shows and MGM musicals of the 1930s. When she retired, Ebsen continued on his own, dancing with Shirley Temple and turning dramatic actor. Except for an allergy to aluminum paint, he would have been one of the Yellow Brick Road quartet in the classic "The Wizard of Oz." After 10 days of filming, Ebsen, playing the Tin Man, fell ill because of the aluminum makeup on his skin and was replaced by Jack Haley. Television brought Ebsen's amiable personality to the home screen, first as Fess Parker's sidekick in "Davy Crockett." As Jed Clampett, the easygoing head of a newly rich Ozark family plunked down in snooty Beverly Hills, Ebsen became a national favorite. While scorned by most critics, "The Beverly Hillbillies" attracted as many as 60 million viewers on CBS between 1962 and 1971. "As I recall, the only good notice was in the Saturday Review," Ebsen once said. "The critic said the show possessed 'social comment combined with a high Nielsen, an almost impossible achievement in these days.' I kinda liked that." The show was still earning good ratings when it was canceled by CBS because advertisers shunned a series that attracted primarily a rural audience.

COMMENT (7/12/03): "Buddy" -- again? That's two Buddys, two Barrys, a Billy, a Herbie, a Johnny, a Gregory, a Rodney, a Mickey, a Howie, and a Suzy. Looks like it's time for another blue alert. Whheeeeee, doggies!

Well now it's time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin
An' they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin' in.
Yer all invited back next week to this locality,
T' have a heapin' helpin' of their hospitality.
Hillbilly, that is! Set a spell, Take your shoes off!
Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Jack Klugman, Jack Nicholson, Jack Nicklaus, Jack Paar, Jack Palance, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Jackie Chan, Jackie Cooper, Jackie Mason, Jackie Shannon, Jackson Browne, Janet Jackson, Kate Jackson, La Toya Jackson, Michael Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Natalie Cole, Nancy Sinatra, Nancy Allen, Nancy Travis, Nancy Wilson, Pamela Anderson, Loni Anderson, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa Manchester, Howie Mandel, Nelson Mandela, Barbara Mandrell, Chuck Mangione, Barry Manilow, Charles Manson, Marilyn Manson, Ray Manzarek, Anne Rice, Anne Bancroft, Ann Blyth, Anne Heche, Ann-Margret, Anne Meara, Anna Kournikova, Annie Lennox, Annie Potts, Annette Funicello, Anthony Hopkins, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joanne Worley, LeAnn Rimes, Lesley-Anne Down, Rosanna Arquette, Suzanne Pleshette, Suzanne Somers, Suzanne Vega, Vanna White, Andy Griffith, Andy Williams, Brandy, Candy Clark, Sandy Duncan, Randy Quaid, Randy Travis, Mandy Moore, Armand Assante, Evander Holyfield, Lisa Stansfield. Additional predictions: (0/0/03):

Tuesday, July 1, 2003 Posted: 4:19 AM EDT (0819 GMT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Buddy Hackett, the squat, round, rubbery-faced funnyman who appeared for more than 50 years as a top act in nightclubs, Broadway shows, on television and in such movies as "The Music Man," "The Love Bug" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," has died, his son confirmed Monday night. He was 78. Hackett died at his Southern California beach house either late Sunday or early Monday, Sandy Hackett told The Associated Press. His body was found Monday. "He was one of the greatest ever. He was a terrific father. He was my best friend. He prepared me very well for this day, but no matter how much you prepare it still hurts," Sandy Hackett said as he arrived at his mother's house in Los Angeles. The younger Hackett, who is also a comedian, said he had driven to Los Angeles from his Las Vegas home as soon as he got word of his father's death. Hackett was invited to join the Three Stooges when "Curly" Howard, the bald-headed member of the comedy team, suffered a stroke in 1946. But Hackett declined, believing he could develop his own comedy style. Playing for small money on the Borscht Circuit for New York City vacationers in the Catskill Mountains, he learned to get laughs with his complaints about being short, fat and Jewish. His career grew with appearances on the variety TV shows of Jack Paar, Arthur Godfrey and others. Soon he was earning top money in Las Vegas, Florida and Las Vegas. In the beginning his material was suitable for family audiences, but in later years nightclubs advertised his show "For Mature Audiences Only." His performances in those days were noted for their prolific use of four-letters words at a time when that just wasn't done. "Compared to motion pictures," he remarked in 1996, "I'm very mild these days ..." The comedian appeared on television from the medium's beginnings, starring in two short-lived series: "Stanley" (1956-1957) and "The Jackie Gleason Show" (1968). He also made guest appearances on numerous sitcoms and played Lou Costello in the 1978 movie "Bud and Lou ..."

"Hi, I am jazz flautist Herbie Mann and I do look a little bit like comedian George Carlin."

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 Posted: 1:13 PM EDT (1713 GMT) - SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- Herbie Mann, the versatile jazz flutist who combined a variety of musical styles and deeply influenced genres such as world music and fusion, has died. He was 73. Mann, who had battled prostate cancer since 1997, died late Tuesday, according to a friend, Sy Johnson. A funeral home in Santa Fe said it was making arrangements with Mann's family. Mann had moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s after spending most of his life in his native New York City. Mann always performed different styles, then combined them. He did bebop and cool jazz, and toured Africa, Brazil and Japan listening for new music. "I just think he was a wonderful Pied Piper of jazz, drawing our attention what's happening around the world and the country," said Johnson, a New York City composer who had known Mann for some 40 years. He called Mann "a guy who loved music of all kinds an and eager to explore it all." Family of Mann, formed in 1973, played world music before it was called that. Mann's best-selling "Memphis Underground" was a founding recording of fusion. If a genie offered Mann anything he wanted, he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview, he would choose a big band including three rhythm sections for straight-ahead jazz, Brazilian music and soul. "I'd be able to play all that music; I wouldn't have to play any one thing all the time," he said. "And I would always like to try to evolve the music to another step. Once you reach the point where you play it perfectly in a genre, to me it gets boring. Then I want to try to evolve by combining things."

When he left Atlantic Records in 1979 he started producing his own records, and later he launched his own label, Kokopelli. In all, he made more than 100 albums as leader. Touring, he said, was "a killer, the hours and food. I always thought if you made good records your records could do the traveling for you." Album titles reflect Mann's versatility: "At the Village Gate" (1962); "African Suite" (1959); "Brasil, Bossa Nova & Blues" (1962); "Latin Mann" 1965; "Memphis Two Step" (1971); and "Eastern European Roots" (2000). "As much as I love music, I never really thought it was my life. I thought it was the vehicle I used to express my life," he said ...

COMMENT (7/6/03): I take utmost exception to Herbie Mann being called a "flutist" in the above obituary. He was a "flautist." Flute-playing (also called "fluting") is a specialised talent that has nothing to do with modern jazz and is best practised on one's knees. Britney Spears is a good example of a "flutist." But Herbie Mann was without question a "flautist."

Friday, August 1, 2003 Posted: 1011 GMT ( 6:11 PM HKT) - PARIS, France (AP) -- French actress Marie Trintignant has died of cerebral edema at the age of 41, according to a physician at the hospital where she died. Trintignant, who had been kept alive for several days on an artificial respirator, died at the Hartmann Clinic in suburban Neuilly at 10:20 a.m., according to neurosurgeon Stephane Delajoux. The actress, who hailed from one of French cinema's best-known film families and enjoyed a successful movie and stage career of her own, was flown to Paris on Thursday from Lithuania, where she had been filming a television movie with her mother, director Nadine Trintignant. Trintignant's boyfriend, French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, is in police custody in Lithuania and is the prime suspect in her death. A Lithuanian judge on Thursday ordered his detention through Aug. 14. Trintignant -- daughter of famed actor Jean-Louis Trintignant -- was brought to the Vilnius University Hospital early Sunday from the Domina Plaza Hotel, in the medieval quarter of the Lithuanian capital. She had been staying at the hotel with one of her sons, her mother and Cantat. The actress, who had four children, was in a coma when she arrived at the hospital and underwent emergency surgery twice to ease pressure on her brain caused by cerebral hemorrhaging.

Bertrand Cantat is being held for questioning

Cantat, lead singer of France's most popular rock band, Noir Desir (Black Desire), had been admitted to the same hospital Sunday after drinking heavy amounts of alcohol, authorities said. Discharged two days later, he was immediately detained on "suspicion of causing bodily injury." Lithuanian lawyers say Cantat -- who denies beating the actress -- could face up to 15 years in prison if charged and convicted in this former Soviet republic. Trintignant appeared in 30, mostly French movies during her career. She also made some stage appearances. She was completing two months of filming a television movie "Colette," based on the life of famed French writer Sinonie-Gabrielle Colette whose novels explored the plight of women in a male-dominated world.

COMMENT (8/4/03): Actor Jack Nance, like actress Marie Trintignant, also died of injuries to the head he suffered from a severe beating by two Latinos in a doughnut shop in 1996. Note the similarity in last names: Nance and Trintignant.

Trintignant's tragic death was the second time this year that an actress died in a manner similar to that of actress Dominique Dunne in 1982 (pictured below), having been murdered by her boyfriend and then lapsing into coma for several days before death. For more on this prediction see 2003 (Part Two).

Rand Brooks - a Hopalong Cassidy sidekick

Thu Sep 4, 3:22 PM - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rand Brooks, the actor who played Scarlett O'Hara's ill-fated first husband in "Gone with the Wind" and who gave Marilyn Monroe her first screen kiss, has died at the age of 84, friends and family said on Thursday. Brooks also appeared as a sidekick in a string of Hopalong Cassidy westerns and played Cpl. Randy Boone in the 1950s TV series "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" before quitting acting in the 1960s to start up an ambulance business in suburban Los Angeles. Brooks was one of the few surviving actors with major parts in the 1939 screen classic "Gone with the Wind." But in recent years he revealed his distaste for his role as Charles Hamilton, the Confederate Army officer who marries Vivien Leigh (news)'s Scarlett O'Hara on the rebound but dies of measles before ever going into battle. "It didn't help my career. It hurt it at the time," Brooks told journalists in 50th anniversary interviews of the "Gone with the Wind" premiere. "It was such an asinine role. He was so in love it was sickening. I got typecast that way." Brooks said he hated his part so much that he voted for "Of Mice and Men" for best film in the Academy Awards race that year. Brooks went on to become a successful leading man, giving Monroe her first screen kiss in the 1948 movie "Ladies in the Chorus" -- her first feature film ...

COMMENT (9/9/03): "Oh, Rand, it has been quite a while and I'm such a mess ... I must look a fright ... does my hair look okay? ... Come on an' pucker up an' give ol' Marilyn a nice big kiss one last time ... why, everybody is staring at us ... Oh my, are my panties showing? I think I feel a breeze ... "

Marilyn Monroe poses again for famous scene from "Seven Year Itch"

Jack Bruce sold more than 35 million records with Cream

Thursday, October 16, 2003 Posted: 0638 GMT ( 2:38 PM HKT) - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Scottish musician Jack Bruce, former bass player and vocalist with short-lived 1960s "supergroup" Cream, is recovering from a near-fatal liver transplant, his label said on Wednesday. Bruce, 60, underwent the transplant in an English hospital on September 19 after being diagnosed with liver cancer during the summer, Sanctuary Records said in a statement. He almost died after his body rejected the new liver, his kidneys failed and an infection set in. "After being very critical for a period in which we almost lost him, Jack is now making a successful recovery," said the statement, attributed to Bruce's family. Bruce is best known for his two-year stint in Cream, the groundbreaking blues-rock trio he formed in 1966 with guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker. With lyricist Pete Brown, Bruce co-wrote such hit singles as "I Feel Free" and "White Room." Tension within the group contributed to its demise in 1968, after three studio albums and a farewell concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. Bruce continued to record and tour, and he reunited with Clapton and Baker in 1993 to play three songs at Cream's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
Cream

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
Asked the lord above for mercy, "save me if you please."

I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride.
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride.
Nobody seemed to know me, everybody passed me by.

I’m going down to rosedale, take my rider by my side.
I’m going down to rosedale, take my rider by my side.
You can still barrelhouse, baby, on the riverside.

You can run, you can run, tell my friend-boy willie brown.
You can run, you can run, tell my friend-boy willie brown.
And I’m standing at the crossroads, believe I’m sinking down.

Crazy Jack Elam looks on in disapproval while actor Lee Marvin sings 'I Was Born Under A Wandering Star'

Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Posted: 1331 GMT ( 9:31 PM HKT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Jack Elam, a character actor and favorite Western villain who menaced good-guy cowboys with his crazy grin, wild eyes and remorseless gunslinging in films such as "Rawhide" and "Wichita," has died, a family friend said Tuesday. Elam, who had been in declining health in recent years, died Monday afternoon at his home in Ashland, Oregon, of unspecified illness, according to longtime friend Al Hassan. Most biographies list the actor as 86 years old, but Hassan said he was actually 84, having lied about his age as a youngster to get work. "He was cantankerous in a great way, in a funny way," Hassan said. "He smoked, drank, all that stuff. He lived one of the best lives I've ever seen." Elam worked as a Hollywood accountant in the 1940s and had bit parts, usually uncredited, in the films "Trailin' West" (1949), "Quicksand" (1950) and "One Way Street" (1950). He helped arrange financing for the Robert Preston film "The Sundowners" in exchange for a larger role, as the husband of actress Cathy Downs. Then came a tough-guy part in 1951's "Rawhide," starring Tyrone Power, which helped make him a star. Elam, born in Miami, Arizona, didn't always play the mean old hombre -- he also found himself cast as dirty old men and harmless drunks, sometimes with a humorous bent in comedies like "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County."

The actor's own cockeye was the result of a childhood fight in Phoenix. The way he told it, a fellow Boy Scout stabbed him in the left eye with a pencil during a scrape at a troop meeting. He remained blind in that eye, which wandered lazily around its socket. Elam continued working into his later years in such films as "Suburban Commando" (1991) and the TV reunion shows "Bonanza: The Return" (1993) and "Bonanza: Under Fire" (1995), his last screen credit. But he complained about the modern villains that evolved in the 1970s, who had shades of psychological problems behind their bad behavior. "The heavy today is usually not my kind of guy," he said in the Los Angeles Times in 1977. "In the old days, Rory Calhoun was the hero because he was the hero and I was the heavy because I was the heavy -- and nobody cared what my problem was. And I didn't either," he added. "I robbed the bank because I wanted the money ... I've played all kinds of weirdos but I've never done the quiet, sick type. I never had a problem -- other than the fact I was just bad."

COMMENT (10/23/03): Jack assures us the new Jack Elam masks should be out in time for Halloween and promises he will be "keeping an eye out" for them.

Nov. 24, 2003 - DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Actress Yancy Butler, who starred in the canceled TNT series "Witchblade," was ordered Monday to enter a substance-abuse treatment program after her weekend arrest for disorderly intoxication. Butler was taken to jail Saturday after cars had to swerve to avoid hitting her as she wandered in and out of traffic, police said. A Palm Beach County judge ordered that Butler be sent to The Renaissance Institute in Boca Raton while she awaits a Dec. 18 court appearance. It could not be determined Monday whether she had an attorney. Butler told police Saturday that she was an alcoholic who was on medication, according to a Delray Beach Police report. At first, she said she'd been kicked out of a halfway house, but later said she was still in one, the report said. Officers took the 33-year-old actress to the Drug Abuse Foundation of Palm Beach County, a substance abuse center. When she became hostile and struggled with police, the foundation declined to admit her, the report said. Butler was handcuffed, jailed and charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer without violence.

COMMENT (11/29/03): A very good rhyme between Nance and Yance. Yancy would be wise to switch to coffee and Valium, er, coffee and vanilla.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Dom DeLuise, Don Johnson, Donna Douglas, Donna D'Errico, Donna Air, Donatella Versace, Madonna, Geena Davis, Queen Latifah, Teena Marie, Lisa Bonet, Billy Dee Williams, Amanda Peet, Rex Reed, Al Green, Bob Keeshan, Cat Deeley, Liam Neeson, Mary Steenburgen, Ben Vereen, Bruce Springsteen, Sigourney Weaver, Griffen Dunn, Kirsten Dunst, Sandy Duncan. Additional predictions: (3/11/03): Sam Neill. (4/17/03): Susan Sarandon. (0/0/03):

Singer Barry White in October 1999 photo

Saturday, July 5, 2003 Posted: 9:26 AM EDT (1326 GMT) -- LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Velvet-voiced singer Barry White, the two-time Grammy winner who inspired millions to get in the mood with such hits as "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," died Friday, his manager told CNN. He was 58. The crooner died at 9:35 a.m. (12:35 p.m. EDT) at Cedars Sinai Hospital, said White's manager since 1973, Ned Shankman. He was alone when he died. "It was just a series of things brought on by his high blood pressure, which triggered kidney failure and a mild stroke and ongoing low-grade infections that they just couldn't get on top of," Shankman said. White had been on dialysis, but had been doing some studio work. "He had a most unique voice, a most unique appearance," Shankman said. "He was just a very unique guy." Once, he said, researchers played his music to whales. "It absolutely made them mate more," he said. The singer's bass, sultry tones graced such hits as "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're My First, My Last, My Everything." White, his songs sensual, was the love machine to millions of fans. His biggest hits came during the disco days of the 1970s, with hits like, "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby," which he referred to as "my anthem."

During the 1980s and 1990s, he converted subsequent generations into admirers, too. White credited the fact that he wrote and produced the songs, and worked long and hard, for his staying power. "I sleep music, I eat music, I'm never without it, I'm never without music, that's my first lady," he once told a reporter. White insisted he was a homebody, happiest in the studio he had built in his house. "I am passionate, I am romantic, I am thrilled throughout my soul to be creating music," he said. White, who married and divorced twice, leaves eight children.

Monday, August 11, 2003 Posted: 0458 GMT (12:58 PM HKT) - LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Tony Award winner Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing actor who starred on Broadway and in movies including "White Nights" and "Running Scared," has died, his publicist said. He was 57. Hines died Saturday in Los Angeles of cancer, publicist Allen Eichorn said. The dancer, among the best in his generation, won a 1993 Tony for the musical "Jelly's Last Jam." Hines became internationally known as part of a jazz tap duo with his brother, Maurice, and the two danced together in the musical revue "Eubie!" in 1978. The brothers later performed together in Broadway's "Sophisticated Ladies" and on film in 1984's "The Cotton Club." In "The Cotton Club," Hines also had a lead acting role, which led to more work in film. He starred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1985's "White Nights" and with Billy Crystal in 1986's "Running Scared," and he appeared with Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett in 1995's "Waiting to Exhale," among other movies. On television, he had his own sitcom in 1997 called "The Gregory Hines Show," as well as a recurring role on "Will and Grace." This past March, he appeared in the spring television series "Lost at Home."

Sep 3, 7:53 AM EST - Associated Press -- It wasn't quite the birthday in paradise Cameron Diaz was hoping for. Diaz, the world's highest-paid actress, said she broke her nose Saturday, on her 31st birthday, during a surfing mishap off Waikiki Beach. On Tuesday, Diaz was wearing two tiny bandage strips on the bridge of her nose, which appeared normal with no visible swelling. "I'm fine," she told The Associated Press. "But I'm just totally bummed out because I can't go surfing any more." Diaz said she was surfing with her older sister and a couple of friends when she was involved in a collision â€” she wiped out and someone's board hit her in the face. Diaz and her sister said the mishap was caused by someone outside their group. Her sister, Chimene, said it could have been worse if the board that struck Diaz wasn't made of foam. She also said her sister's nose looked a lot better Tuesday than it did over the Labor Day weekend.

The blonde star of two "Charlie's Angels" films and "There's Something About Mary," said the worst part is that it happened at the beginning of her trip. It happened on her first day of a two-week Hawaiian vacation with her friends and entire family, she said. But all is not lost. Wearing a dark bikini, her hair tucked under a cap, Diaz was upbeat as she enjoyed the famous Hawaiian sunshine and sand â€” just not the surf. "I love this place," Diaz said. Based on earnings of $42.2 million in 2001, Diaz took the highest-paid actress crown from Julia Roberts, according to the 2004 edition of the Guinness World Records. Roberts was listed as the world's highest-paid actress in 2003 and 2002, based on her 2000 earnings of $21.2 million.

COMMENT (9/5/03): So, for the third time this year, we have the word "Di" (from "Diaz") reminding us that the seventh anniversary of Diana's death is only a year away. Of course, it's pronounced "dee" in this case. Broken-nosed Barry Manilow now has lovely snout-splintered Cameron to keep him company.

It occurred to me that there might even be a Nostradamus quatrain that applies to Barry that I overlooked (in a NostraBOBus sort of way):

For treason he will be beaten to death by [curtain] rods,
Imprisoned [lost and blind in his bedroom], he will be captured because of his disorder:
Useless counsel to the great captive is handed,
When in a fury his nose Barry will come to break.

Sep 8, 9:49 AM EST - Associated Press - Warren Zevon, who wrote and sang the rock hit "Werewolves of London" and was among the wittiest and most original of a broad circle of singer-songwriters to emerge from Los Angeles in the 1970s, has died. He was 56. A lifelong smoker until quitting several years ago, Zevon announced in September 2002 that he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had only months to live. He spent much of that time visiting with his two grown children and working on a final album.Zevon died in his sleep Sunday at his home, publicist Carise Yatter said. He faced death with the same dark sense of humor found in much of his music, including songs like "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," "Life'll Kill Ya" and "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." Zevon said he "chose a certain path and lived like Jim Morrison and lived 30 more years. You make choices and you have to live with the consequences." He released his first album, "Wanted Dead or Alive," to little notice in 1969, but gained attention in the '70s by writing a string of popular songs for Linda Ronstadt, including "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me," "Carmelita" and "Hasten Down the Wind."

His next two albums, 1976's "Warren Zevon" and 1978's "Excitable Boy," followed those songs with darkly humorous tales of prom-date rapists; headless, gun-toting soldiers of fortune; and werewolves who drank pina coladas at singles bars and were particular about their hair. They cemented Zevon's reputation as one of rock music's most politically incorrect lyricists, giving him a lifelong cult following that included gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and "Late Show" host David Letterman, who provided backing vocals on "Hit Somebody,"Zevon's 2001 elegy to a professional hockey goon who longs to be a goal-scoring hero.

"I always like to have violent lyrics and violent music," Zevon told The Associated Press in 1990. "The knowledge of death and fear of death informs my existence. It's a safe, kind of cheerful way of dealing with that issue." Other admirers included Bob Dylan, whom Zevon cited as one of his principal songwriting influences and who performed on his 1987 album "Sentimental Hygiene." Still another was Bruce Springsteen, who co-wrote "Jeannie Needs a Shooter," Zevon's tale of a lover shot to death by a woman's jealous father. Not that all of his music was dark and violent. His body of work contained some straight-out comedy as well, including "Mr. Bad Example," "The Hula Hula Boys" and "Gorilla You're a Desperado." The latter told the tale of a Los Angeles Zoo ape who escapes by locking a yuppie in his place and going off to live in the man's apartment, only to end up depressed and divorced.

His compositional style reflected a number of genres, from hard-driving rock to folk, as well as classical, polka and other influences. In his final months, he summoned the energy to complete a last album, "The Wind," released in August. It includes the poignant "Keep Me in Your Heart," a cranky "Disorder in the House" and a remake of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Zevon, born in Chicago to Russian immigrant parents, moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, making a living writing jingles for television commercials. He also composed the song "She Quit Me Man" for the movie "Midnight Cowboy." He was just out of his teens when he went to work for the Everly Brothers, first as a pianist and later as their band leader. In his last months, he told various interviewers he had no regrets, expressing particular gratitude that he had quit drinking in time to watch daughter Ariel and son Jordan grow up. "I got to be the most (expletive deleted) rock star on the block, at least on my block," he once said. "And then I got to be a sober dad for 18 years. I've had two very full lives." His family had noted that he lived far longer than was expected at the time of his diagnosis, long enough to enjoy twin grandsons born to Ariel.

Leni Riefenstahl - 'Ja, ja, meine Fuhrer ... ja, ja, ja .. ach, er ist ZEHR grosB ..'

Tuesday, September 9, 2003 Posted: 2019 GMT ( 4:19 AM HKT) - BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Photographer and filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, best known for the Nazi propaganda films "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia," has died at the age of 101. Riefenstahl, who suffered cancer, died in her sleep at her home south of Munich on Monday night, her companion Horst Kettner told the online service for the German personality magazine Bunte. "Her heart simply stopped," The Associated Press quoted Kettner as saying. Riefenstahl celebrated her 100th birthday last year amid renewed criticism of her work for the Third Reich. Cologne-based organization Rom had accused her of using 120 Gypsies from concentration camps as extras in her film "Lowlands" between 1940 and 1942. It said she then failed to prevent them from being returned to the Nazi camp system, where many died. The group also accused Riefenstahl of Holocaust denial, a crime in Germany, for dismissing the allegations as nonsense in an interview printed in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper in April 2002. The filmmaker later issued a statement saying her remarks on their survival had been a misunderstanding and that she regretted the Nazi persecution of Gypsies. She also defended her work by saying she was only filming what was happening in Germany at the time. She gained wide acclaim for "Triumph of the Will," a documentary on the 1934 Nuremberg rally, and "Olympia," a filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Riefenstahl always denied political involvement with the Nazi party or any romantic link with German dictator Adolf Hitler who selected thedancer-turned-actress to be Nazi Germany's official filmmaker. But he gave her vast resources to make movies that idealized and glorified Nazism. Although she admitted "Triumph of the Will" was used to promote Nazi ideals, she said that was not her intention. "One can use it for propaganda, but ... it is no propaganda film. There is not one single anti-Semitic word in my film," she told The Associated Press. "In 1934 people were crazy and there was great enthusiasm for Hitler. We had to try and find that with our camera," she told CNN in a 1994 interview.

Her biographer, Rainer Rother, said the filmmaker's view was simplistic though. "I think she might not have been an anti-Semitic woman, but she still was aware of what was going on." Brian Winston, a media scholar at the University of Westminster, agreed. "Riefenstahl represents a big lie and she's been lying for 50 years. She was extremely close to the regime and her only defense is that she wasn't a party member," he told CNN. Riefenstahl was acquitted twice by allied "denazification courts" after the war ended in 1945 but was jailed by French occupation authorities for helping the Nazi propaganda machine. Blacklisted as a filmmaker, she turned to still photography, although her work was boycotted by West German magazines. She was ostracized in Germany after World War II and spent an active later life protesting against condemnation of her Nazi links. In recent years she earned a partial rehabilitation and many newspapers gave extensive coverage to her 100th birthday. She rebuilt her reputation with photographs of Nuba tribesmen in southern Sudan and at the age of 72 took up diving, the subject of her last film released in 2001, "Underwater Impressions," a celebration of marine life mainly in the Indian Ocean.

COMMENT (9/9/03): 'Ja, ja, meine Führer ... er ist zehr Wunderbar! .. ja, ja, ja .. ach, das ist ZEHR Groß ... gulp, gulp ... aber, ist gut, meine Adolph ... jaaa ... jaaaaaa ... '

Der Tagesspiegel: "Hitler was fascinated by her, and she was fascinated by Hitler ... Their copulation took place in public -- through the rape of the masses, who surrendered with iron discipline."

People News - 14 September 2003 - Britney Spears has had to file two restraining orders against an obsessive 43-year-old Japanese businessman. Masahiko Shizawa is said to have faxed and written to the star on several occasions despite already being ordered not to contact her. One diatribe he sent states, 'I believe Ms. Britney Spears is a serious person and I'm sure I'm a very important person for her. I hope to find a job around her.' Given the grammar we'd be terrified too. He is also fighting the restraining order and wants Britney to give her deposition in person, which is an obvious effort to allow him to come face to face with her in court. All this, says Britney, has 'been unwanted and harassing, causing me fear. I am scared.' and so she has taken legal action again.

Spears must be feeling the heat. This week she's gained more column inches, not due to that sapphic performance, but because she's appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, near naked in a series of poses reminiscent of Brigitte Bardot. She also recently walked out of an interview with Channel 4's Popworld. The Slave 4 Love star is said to have found presenter Simon Amstell's line of questioning 'bitchy and confusing' (go Simon!) and flipped when Simon said she'd seemed to have gone a bit nuts. Knowing that the show has it's tongue firmly in cheek we're pretty sure we'll see the unadulterated results and can't wait.

COMMENT (9/27/03): Oh my, I can't believe I forgot to include Britney Spears on this page of misfortune with her "eeeee" sound. The former Mickey Mouse Club star is facing some real problems in her recent adult persona. The ever-deepening relationship with Madonna after Madge's "kiss of death" may be a harbinger of things to come. Maybe Madge is trying to direct all the bad karma that's been coming her way since 2001 towards another blonde superstar? Britney, like Madonna, is in danger next year from "the Sharon Tate" scenario and what may be a prophecy regarding the highly-publicised murder of a major blonde celebrity in Quatrain 1.39. See my prediction on Year 2004.

Friday, September 19, 2003 Posted: 1752 GMT ( 1:52 AM HKT) - LONDON, England (CNN) -- A private jet carrying the Dixie Chicks clipped a building while taxiing along a runway Friday at Glasgow Airport, a spokesman for the British Airports Authority said. No one was hurt, and the plane suffered only superficial damage, said airport spokesman Alistair Smith. The Dornier 238 twin-engine aircraft, coming from Dublin, landed in Glasgow Friday afternoon and was taxiing the runway when its wing clipped a building occupied by the Glasgow University air squadron. The 16 passengers, including the popular singing trio, walked off unharmed. Fire crews came as a safety precaution. "The fella on the ground ... directed them in at a bad angle and the plane's wing clipped the corner of the terminal building at a very, very, very low rate of speed," the group's publicist Kathy Allmand wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "All is well. Chicks and crew are safe and OK." The Dixie Chicks plan to perform as scheduled in Glasgow Friday night, their publicist said.

COMMENT (9/20/03): Well, the lovable chuckleheads from Dixie have gotten more media attention for yet another crazy stunt. Natalie Maine, Martie Maguire, and Emily Robison may be laughing now, but may not be in another 18 months. Not so funny is the possibility that this accident places them in positive peril of losing their lives in a plane crash following a concert on a stormy night in March 2005. Well, as long as they don't do a cover of Patsy Cline's "Crazy," they might be alright. See prediction on 2005 - 2012.

Friday, September 19, 2003 Posted: 0802 GMT ( 4:02 PM HKT) -- SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australian country music singer Slim Dusty, who personified the laid-back culture of the Outback in his songs, has died, his record company said Friday. He was 76. Dusty died at his home early Friday after a protracted battle with cancer, EMI Australia marketing manager Chris O'Hearne said. "He was so intrinsically and unapologetically Australian," music historian Glenn A. Baker said of the star. "He really was someone to be enormously proud of." Dusty was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in 1927 in the north eastern coastal town of Kempsey, and grew up on a dairy farm at the nearby village of Nulla Nulla Creek. At aged 10 he wrote his first song, "The Way The Cowboy Dies," and a year later renamed himself Slim Dusty.

The singer/songwriter, who performed with just a guitar and his trademark cowboy hat, signed his first recording contract in 1946. But it wasn't until 1958 that his career really took off when he recorded "A Pub With No Beer," about a stockman -- the Australian name for a cowboy -- who travels hundreds of miles to an Outback bar only to find it has run out of beer. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Dusty had created a distinctive Australian brand of country music. "We'll always remember that special style, epitomized really by "A pub with no beer," Howard said. "He was a one-off, a great bloke in the proper sense of that expression and a great Australian figure and icon," he added.

Dusty went on to be one of the most prolific and biggest selling recording artists in Australia, with more than 100 albums and a total of 5 million in sales. He performed dozens of concerts across the nation each year, often playing with his family. In 2000, Dusty performed for his largest ever audience, playing the Australian ballad "Waltzing Matilda" -- which tells the story of a homeless man who steals a sheep -- at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. "I remember an enormous smile on my face thinking, 'There are four billion people around the world sitting there wondering what this old bloke in the hat with the flat voice was singing about a sheep thief,"' Baker recalls.

Dusty had his left kidney removed after a cancerous tumor was detected in November 2001 and received continuous treatment. He was recording his 106th album when he died. Dusty is survived by his wife Joy McKean, daughter Anne Kirkpatrick and son David Kirkpatrick.

ThisisLondon - 3 October 2003 -- Courtney Love has been taken to hospital and treated for a reported drugs overdose. The 39-year-old rock star and actress is understood to have taken the overdose less than an hour after being arrested for smashing windows at a friend's house. Love, the widow of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, had been booked on an allegation of being under the influence of a controlled substance and released on $2,500 bail. She admitted breaking the glass in a bid to enter the house, Los Angeles police said. Later Beverly Hills officers and paramedics responded to a call for help at a private residence said to be her home. Love, whose band Hole broke up last year, was found at her home. "Officers were responding to a call for help that was received about 6.10am," a police spokesman said. "The woman was under the influence of a controlled substance and had overdosed." She was taken to nearby Century City hospital for treatment. No details have been released on what treatment Love received or how long she was at the hospital, but she checked out several hours later. There has been no comment from Love or her manager on the alleged overdose.

Love has previously been taken to Century City Hospital in 1994 after police were called to a Beverly Hills hotel over fears of an overdose. On that occasion she was not charged and shortly afterwards entered a drug rehabilitation centre - but left when she learned that Cobain had committed suicide. Love has also faced trouble in Britain. She was taken into police custody at Heathrow Airport in early 2002 after a fracas on a Virgin flight from LA. She allegedly attacked and shouted abuse at a Virgin stewardess during the 10-hour flight.

COMMENT (10/4/03): I am considering this as a PREDICTION FULFILLED ... so far anyway (see prediction on 2003 (Part Two). Although the event is three months late, Courtney Love is a blonde actress as specified. This was also a drug overdose, as specified. However, Love is not from a famous family, although I did say that it was only a possibility that the person would be. Love survived the overdose. That means her potential death was THWARTED by quick thinking police officers and paramedics. It is clear evidence of a thwarting mechanism that keeps this from being a prediction only partially fulfilled.

Art Carney is seen in character as Ed Norton from the classic television show "The Honeymooners", in this August 1955 file photo.

CHESTER, Conn., Nov. 11, 2003 - (CBS/AP) Art Carney, who played Jackie Gleason's sewer worker pal Ed Norton in the TV classic "The Honeymooners" and went on to win the 1974 Oscar for best actor in "Harry and Tonto," has died at 85, a funeral home manager says. Carney died Sunday, said Philip M. Appell of the Swan Funeral Home in Old Saybrook. Carney would be forever identified as Norton, Ralph Kramden's bowling buddy and upstairs neighbor on "The Honeymooners." The sitcom appeared in various forms from 1951 to 1956 and was revived briefly in 1971. The shows continue their popularity on cable TV and videocassettes. With his turned-up porkpie hat and unbuttoned vest over a white T-shirt, Carney's Ed Norton with his dopily exuberant "Hey, Ralphie boy!" became an ideal foil for Gleason's blustery, bullying Kramden. Carney won three Emmys for his role and his first taste of fame. In a 1986 interview, Carney said of his "Honeymooners" character, "As dumb-acting as Norton was, I thought he was pretty crafty. I think everything he had in his apartment was probably bought on time, but he had it," reports CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen. "The first time I saw the guy act," Gleason once said, "I knew I would have to work twice as hard for my laughs. He was funny as hell." He told a Saturday Evening Post interviewer in 1961 that strangers were always asking him how he liked it down in the sewer. "I have seasonal answers. In the summer: `I like it down there because it's cool.' In the winter: `I like it down there because it's warm.' Then I've got one that isn't seasonal: `Go to hell."'

After "The Honeymooners," Carney battled a drinking problem for several years. His behavior became erratic while co-starring with Walter Matthau in the Broadway run of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." He dropped out of the show and spent nearly half a year in a sanitarium. His career resumed, and in 1974 he was cast in Paul Mazurksy's "Harry and Tonto" as a 72-year-old widower who travels from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. He stopped drinking during the making of the film. When it won him his Oscar, Carney cracked to reporters: "You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled." "Art was, and is one of the most endearing men I have ever met," the late actress Audrey Meadows (the caustic Alice Kramden on "The Honeymooners") wrote in her 1994 memoir "Love, Alice." She called him a "witty and delightful companion who went out of his way to help each new actor find his niche in the often bewildering world of `The Jackie Gleason Show."'

Only known photo of Arthur Conley on the Internet -- and it ain't as good as this piece of work ...

Monday, November 17, 2003 Posted: 2031 GMT ( 4:31 AM HKT) - AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Arthur Conley, a 1960s soul singer and protege of Otis Redding, died Monday at his home in the Netherlands, a friend said. He was 57. Conley suffered from intestinal cancer and had grown progressively weak in recent weeks, said Gunter Giesen, the band leader of a group Conley was advising. He died in his home in Ruurlo, in the eastern Netherlands, where he had lived for several decades after fleeing the pressure of the U.S. music industry, Conley was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and started his recording career in 1959 as leader of the group Arthur and the Corvets. He was best known for his 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music," which he co-wrote with Redding based on a number by Sam Cooke. He had several minor hits in the following two years. He moved to Europe in the early 1970s after several tours of the continent, deciding that he was "fed up with the pressure" in the United States, Giesen said. In the Netherlands, he appeared on television and radio, and ran an independent record label. In the last five years he was an adviser to The Original Sixties R&B and Soul Show, which sought to reproduce the sound and look of the heyday of soul. Conley was unmarried and had no immediate family. Funeral arrangements were not immediately set.

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Robert Redford, Robert DiNiro, Robert Plant, Robert Carradine, Robert Culp, Roberta Flack, Julia Roberts, Bob Barker, Bob Denver, Bob Dylan, Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Bob Eubanks, Bobby Brown, Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, William Hurt, John Hurt, Tim Burton, LaVar Burton, Ted Turner, William Shatner, Rupert Everett, Bruce Dern, Ken Norton, Mackenzie Phillips. Additional predictions: (1/12/03): All surviving Kennedys.

Robert Palmer performs at Wembley Stadium, London, in 1997

Friday, September 26, 2003 Posted: 1538 GMT (11:38 PM HKT) - LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rock singer Robert Palmer has died in Paris of a heart attack at the age of 54, his manager said. The British star, whose chart hits in the 1980s included "Addicted to Love," suffered the attack in the early hours of Friday morning, Mick Cater said. Palmer, who had lived in Switzerland for 16 years, was staying in the French capital with his partner, Mary Ambrose, after traveling from the United Kingdom where he had been recording a TV show. "I can't say anything else at this point, I'm just in shock," Cater told CNN. The singer was born in Batley, Yorkshire, in 1949, but spent the majority of his youth on the island of Malta. At the age of 19, Palmer returned to England where he sang with the Alan Bown Set and a soul group, Vinegar Joe, before beginning a solo career in 1974. He became known as much for slick videos as for his clever combination of rock, rhythm and blues, and reggae sounds with singles that also included "Simply Irresistible" and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On."

The "Addicted to Love" video, featuring the sharply dressed Palmer and miniskirted models, became one of MTV's most-played clips and sparked protests from some feminists. "I'm not going to attach inappropriate significance to it because at the time it meant nothing. It's just happened to become an iconic look," Palmer once said of the video. He formed the Power Station in 1985 with John Taylor and Andy Taylor from Duran Duran, scoring three U.S. hits, including "Communication" and "Get it On."

Despite his chart success he shunned the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. "I loved the music, but the excesses of rock 'n' roll never really appealed to me at all," The Associated Press quoted him as saying. "I couldn't see the point of getting up in front of a lot of people when you weren't in control of your wits." Palmer was noted for his dress sense and respect for his fans. "I don't want to be heavy," he said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "I can't think of another attitude to have towards an audience than a hopeful and a positive one. And if that includes such unfashionable things as sentimentality, well, I can afford it."

COMMENT (9/27/03): On one board I visit I read someone post that cocaine had something to do with Robert Palmer's death. That is pure nonsense. Mr Palmer did not use drugs nor did he live the hard life of many rock artists. Nor was he obese or in some other way a risk factor. His heart gave out for no apparent reason. Like the case of John Ritter, the sudden, abnormal death of an otherwise youngish middle-aged entertainer is hard to explain or understand. All I know is that this year people in their 40s and early and mid-50s are dropping like flies -- not only celebrities, but people who I am related to. Something strange and frightening is going on.

The Righteous Brothers -- Bobby Hatfield, left, and Bill Medley -- after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March.

Thursday, November 6, 2003 Posted: 1008 GMT ( 6:08 PM HKT) - KALAMAZOO, Michigan (AP) -- Bobby Hatfield, who with partner Bill Medley pioneered "blue-eyed soul" as the Righteous Brothers with hits like "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," died Wednesday night of undetermined causes at a hotel, his manager said. He was 63. Hatfield's body was discovered in his bed at 7 p.m. EST, a half-hour before the duo was to perform at Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus, manager David Cohen said. "It's a shock, a real shock," Cohen said during a telephone interview. Medley, who teamed with Hatfield 42 years ago, was "broken up. He's not even coherent," Cohen said. Hatfield's body was taken from the hotel about 10 p.m. directly to Lansing, where an autopsy was to be performed, Joe Hakim, an executive with the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo, told the Kalamazoo Gazette. Miller Auditorium executive director Bill Biddle told the audience at 7:05 p.m. that the 7:30 p.m. show had been canceled because of "a personal emergency of an unspecified nature." Hatfield had been sleeping most of the day in his room, Hakim said. When he didn't answer a wakeup call about 6 p.m., hotel staff and authorities entered the room and found the singer's body. The Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. Their signature 1964 single, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," has been cited by numerous sources as the most-programmed song in radio history. Later 1960s hits included "Soul and Inspiration" and "Unchained Melody."

Martin Luther King (d. 1968) - Martin, Mar, Ar (list under Morrow), Tin, In, Luther, Lew, Thur, Ur (list under Robert), King, Ing

Possible predictions (1/10/03): Martin Landau, Martin Mull, Martin Short, Martina Hingis, Marty Allen, Ricky Martin, Steve Martin, Tony Martin, Dick Martin, Pamela Sue Martin, Wink Martindale, Louise Nurding, George Lucas, Luther Vandross, Thurgood Marshall, Lori Singer, Kim Basinger, Annette Bening, Tori Spelling. Additional predictions: (0/0/03):

Warning: If you enter this page from a 'back door' you will have absolutely no idea what is going on.

Celebrity Deaths and Mishaps Archives 6

2003

Sounds