Death List Members in the News
May 2007
Charles Nelson Reilly
January 2007
Bobby Hamilton
December 2006
Gerald Ford
November 2006
Jack Palance
August 2006
Fidel Castro, Kirk Douglas, John Madden
July 2006
Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, Phyllis Diller,
B.B. King, Dale Jarrett, Arnold Palmer
May 2006
Keith Richards, David Blaine
April 2006
Tony Stewart, Gerald Ford, B.B. King, Queen Elizabeth, Mickey Rooney, Bob
Barker, Harry Morgan, Charlton Heston, David Blaine, Vin Scully, Muhammad
Ali, Hugh Hefner, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Lewis
March 2006
Courtney Love, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Jerry Lewis, Osama Bin Laden,
Queen Elizabeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Gerald Ford
February 2006
Walter Cronkite, Brian Dennehy, Don Knotts, Willie Mays, Vin Scully, Tony
Bennett, Courtney Love, Bob Barker
January 2006
Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, B.B. King, Walter Cronkite, William Shatner, Courtney
Love, Nick Nolte
December 2005
Richard Pryor, Ozzy Osbourne & Queen Elizabeth, Nick Nolte, Hugh Hefner,
Tony Bennett, Tony Stewart, David Blaine
November 2005
George Michael, Courtney Love, William Shatner, Muhammad Ali
October 2005
Rosa Parks, William Shatner, Joe Namath, B.B. King, Jerry Lewis, Tony Stewart,
Arnold Palmer, Richard Pryor, Jack Klugman, Michael Waltrip, Hugh Hefner,
Dale Jarrett
September 2005
Courtney Love, Ozzy Osbourne, B.B. King, Michael Waltrip, Willie Nelson, Courtney
Love, Jerry Lewis, Arnold Palmer
August 2005
William Shatner, Vin Scully, Ron Popeil, Hugh Hefner, Dale Jarrett, Keith
Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, John Madden, Courtney Love, Richard Pryor, Sterling
Marlin, Tony Stewart, Tony Bennett, Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis
July 2005
Muhammad Ali, Courtney Love, Kirk Douglas, Bob Barker, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony
Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Phyllis Diller, Michael Waltrip, Gerald Ford, Mickey
Rooney, Jack Klugman, Keith Richards, Nick Nolte, Rosa Parks,
Luther Vandross
June 2005
Jim Otto, Vin Scully, Tony Bennett, Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, Queen Elizabeth,
Muhammad Ali, Ozzy Osbourne, Jack Klugman, John Madden
May 2005
Michael Waltrip, Queen Elizabeth, Fidel Castro, Tony Stewart, Walter Cronkite,
Arnold Palmer, B.B. King, George Michael, Vin Scully, Keith Richards, Don
Knotts, Brian Dennehy, Michael Waltrip, Wilford Brimley, Ozzy Osbourne, Willie
Mays, Bob Barker, Nick Nolte, Jim Otto
April 2005
April 30 - Larry Hagman
April 27 - Richard Pryor
April 27 - Willie Mays
April 25 - Phyllis Diller
April 23 - Willie Mays
April 21 - David Blaine
April 21 - Tony Stewart
April 21 - Queen Elizabeth
April 21 - Muhammad Ali
April 19 - Nick Nolte and William Shatner
April 18 - B.B. King
April 18 - Ozzy Osbourne
April 17 - Tony Stewart
April 14 - Rosa Parks
April 12 - Luther Vandross
April 2 - Pope John Paul II, Dead at age 84
March 2005
Ozzy Osbourne, Pope John Paul II, Courtney Love, Phyllis Diller, Vin Scully,
Fidel Castro, Ed Asner, Bob Barker, B.B. King, Arnold Palmer, Keith Richards,
Muhammad Ali, Jack Palance, Jack Klugman, Sterling Marlin, Joe Namath, Charlton
Heston, Jerry Lewis, Horatio Sanz
February 2005
Pope John Paul II, Wilford Brimley, Tony Stewart, Queen Elizabeth, Willie
Nelson, B.B. King, Ozzy Osbourne, Dale Jarrett, Fidel Castro, Phyllis Diller,
Courtney Love, Gerald Ford, Larry Hagman, Rosa Parks, Mickey Rooney, Hugh
Hefner
January 2005
Willie Mays, Ozzy Osbourne, Arnold Palmer, B.B. King, Vin Scully, John Madden,
Johnny Carson, Brian Dennehy, Kirk Douglas, William Shatner, Rosa Parks, Jerry
Lewis, Courtney Love, Pope John Paul II, Willie Nelson, Mickey Rooney, Gerald
Ford, Bob Barker
December 2004
Richard Pryor, Queen Elizabeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Richards, Rosa Parks,
Nick Nolte, Don Knotts
November 2004
Kirk Douglas, Ozzy Osbourne, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Lewis, Larry Hagman, Johnny
Carson, Queen Elizabeth, B.B. King, Muhammad Ali
October 2004
Courtney Love, Keith Richards, Tony Bennett, Fidel Castro, Ernest Borgnine,
Mickey Rooney, Willie Nelson, Jack Klugman, Jack Palance, Pope John Paul II,
Hugh Hefner, Rodney Dangerfield
September 2004
Courtney Love, Arnold Palmer, Rosa Parks, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Barker,
Nick Nolte, Tony Bennett
August 2004
Arnold Palmer, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Barker, Brian Dennehy, Ernest Borgnine,
Rosa Parks, Walter Cronkite, Willie Mays, Pope John Paul II, Fidel Castro,
Julia Child, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Joe Namath, B.B. King
July 2004
Rosa Parks, Courtney Love, Fidel Castro, Nick Nolte, Don Knotts, Larry Hagman,
Kirk Douglas, William Shatner
April 30, 2005: Larry Hagman’s New Role
“J.R.”
liked being knighted.
Larry Hagman was officially designated grand marshal of the 78th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival by Queen Shenandoah LXXVIII Tessa Rose Ferrer during her Coronation ceremony on Friday.
“Oh that was great fun,” he said. “I really enjoyed that.”
Hagman, known to legions of fans worldwide as the wily oil baron J.R. Ewing on the popular CBS television series “Dallas,” said he has enjoyed his time in Winchester.
“It’s been great. The people have really been wonderful here,” Hagman said.
When he was asked to be this year’s grand marshal, Hagman jumped at the opportunity. “I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ It sounded like a fun thing to do.”
A star of stage and screen for many years, Hagman said he enjoyed his time on “Dallas,” which ran for 13 years beginning in 1977, and his role as astronaut Maj. Anthony Nelson in “I Dream of Jeannie,” the popular 1960s television sitcom.
He spoke highly of his “Jeannie” co-star, Barbara Eden. “She was great to work with. We had a lot of fun.”
Hagman had an opportunity to see Eden recently, and said she really looked “fabulous.”
He said he loves a good parade and was looking forward to riding in two this weekend:
“Parades
are always so much fun. They bring people together.”
While living in Malibu, Hagman said, he would organize parades just to have them:
“I’d have a parade on Thursday and people would ask me, ‘What’s Thursday?’ I’d say, ‘It’s Thursday.’”
For 20 years, Hagman did not speak on Sundays, which some people found odd. It started as a way to rest his voice while he was working on “I Dream Of Jeannie.”
“It’s great discipline,” he said, adding that he gave up his Sunday silence 10 years ago.
Hagman stays busy year-round with traveling and projects, noting that he just returned to the United States from London on Wednesday.
“There is so much to see and do in this world,” he said. “We all need to go out and enjoy things.”
From the Winchester Star, Kevin Killen
April 27, 2005: Death? #@%! That
He's
been married seven times, spent $1m freebasing cocaine and once set himself
on fire. Now crippled by MS, Richard Pryor is sober. But as Chris Sullivan
discovers, he hasn't cleaned up his act.
"Rumours of my death spread as far as New York newspapers," says Richard Pryor. "It's a bitch to be watching the nightly news and see the motherf**kers talking 'bout you in the past tense."
But it's not surprising that many people readily believed that Pryor had indeed finally managed to kill himself. For years, he was one of the fastest-living stars in Hollywood. He married seven times, freebased cocaine and once set himself on fire after a drug binge . "It's amazing I didn't OD on heroin, get stuffed with coke, or die from Aids," says Pryor. "I think it's remarkable that I'm still here." He's also survived a quadruple bypass and is now battling multiple sclerosis
"It was as if God had all this shit left over from the other afflictions he created and decided to throw it all into one disease called MS," jokes Pryor. "Kinda like a Saturday Night Surprise. It's a motherf**ker." He was first diagnosed with the disease in 1986 while shooting the film, Critical Condition in LA. Feeling unusually exhausted, Pryor was resting between takes when the director, Michael Apted, called for him to take his place. "My brain told my legs to get up," recounts Pryor, "but the job order got lost around my waist. Nothing moved. My legs were on vacation."
While the rest of the world thought Pryor had become a victim of his freebasing cocaine habit, he kept his ailment under raps. It wasn't until he teamed up with old cohort Gene Wilder to film Another You in 1991 that he realised it was time to tell the world. "We were doing a scene in which I was supposed to have a run in with a real live bear," remembers Pryor. "He was a trained bear, but he was a big motherf**ker with claws and teeth. He scared the shit out of me, but when the director shouted: 'Run Rich! Run!' I couldn't move. That was the beginning of me not being able to do shit anymore."
One thing he is unable to do now is to give interviews either in person or on the phone, so he's agreed to conduct our interview via email, with his seventh wife Jennifer typing for him. "It's as if God was thinking, 'Shit why did I have to go give this Pryor fellow more funny muscles than me! Think I'll slow him down a tad'." But it's failed. Pryor, now 64, is badly scarred, suffering spasms and paralysis, but hasn't lost his edge.
"When I discovered I had MS, I didn't think 'why me?' Why bother? It's the hand that was dealt me... and I've had a great life. F**k yeah!" And despite the obvious setbacks he's right.
Back in 1979, Richard Pryor: Live In Concert launched him as the voice of black America and became the most watched video of the Eighties. Since then he has been lauded and applauded by every comedian on earth. "He's the greatest of all time," says Chris Rock. He's starred in some 20 movies and was paid $4 million for Superman III, becoming the highest paid black actor in the world at that time.
Richard
Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III was born on December 1, 1940, in Peoria,
Illinois, the son of an unmarried prostitute and a former Golden Gloves boxing
champion - turned pimp. "Once I saw my mother in bed with a man. A white
dude. She didn't seem to mind. But it f**ked me up," says Pryor. "Tricks
used to come through our neighbourhood. That's where I first met white people.
They said, 'Hello, boy. Is your mother home? I'd like a blow job'."
Pryor's mother abandoned him aged ten leaving him in the hands of his father's mother, Marie, a madam who ruled her brothel with belt, buckle and brimstone. After being sexually abused by a local man called Hoss, losing his virginity to a prostitute called Penny, Pryor found himself resorting to comedy. "I first noticed I could make people laugh when I slipped in dog shit and made my grandmother laugh. Then I spent all day making up stuff. Some kids sang on the street corner. I talked."
After his expulsion from school, aged 14, for hitting a teacher, he drifted. He was at first a cleaner in a strip club, a shoeshine boy, a meat packer and finally ended up in the army where he was dishonourably discharged for stabbing a white soldier. Soon after, he turned up back in Illinois at a club claiming to be a singer and a pianist, and used the only four chords he knew, augmented by whatever lyrics came into his head. He wowed audiences and in 1963 moved to New York, with just $10 in his pocket.
"I became a regular act at the Bitter End and the Living Room and introduced myself to Woody Allen at the Cafe Go Go," recalls Pryor. "Woody said: 'Stick around, watch me and you'll learn something.' But oddly I learned more from a hooker in Baltimore." That particular lady took Pryor to her house and played him an album by Lenny Bruce. "That destroyed me," says Pryor. "I went f**king crazy." Crazy or not, it didn't stop Pryor emulating Bill Cosby - the most famous black comedian on the planet - until he became known as just another pale imitator: "I went for the money," he explains. "Even though there was a world of junkies and winos, pool hustlers and prostitutes, women and family screaming in my brain to get out."
It wasn't until after a breakdown in 1967 when Pryor, now seriously addicted to cocaine, began to perform the provocative material he become famous for. "The fog rolled in," Pryor says. "I finally asked the sold-out crowd: 'What the f**k am I doing here?' Then I walked off stage. "I shed my phoney image and started building my self-respect. I read a copy of Malcolm X's collected speeches and listened to Marvin Gayes What's Going On ? And I searched for the truth."
Pryor uprooted and moved to Berkeley - the centre of black radicalism - where he befriended Black Panthers Angela Davis and Huey Newton, while on stage his act began to border on lunacy.
"Each outing was like jazz. I was searching for the perfect note. Then one day I said 'Hello, I'm Richard Pryor, I'm a nigger.' I wanted to take the sting out of it. Nigger. Nigger. Nigger. Nigger. It was the truth and it made me feel free to say it."
He honed his act to reflect his life. He spoke about problems that the black
man could understand - "Hey, let's organise and help them white motherf**kers
get to the moon, so they leave us alone!"
With his first concert film, the seminal Live and Smokin' in 1971 Pryor single-handedly
set the tone for black comedy. He was offered a role in Lady Sings The Blues
and then wrote Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks.
After the release of the million selling album, That Nigger's Crazy, Pryor was rolling - culminating in his legendary Saturday Night Live performance with Belushi and Chevy Chase in 1975. By the time he released the Paul Schrader's Blue Collar in 1978 he had notched up some 18 film appearances. "But you know what?" Pryor says. "One if the scariest things in life is to get what you wish for."
Over the next few years Pryor's cocaine abuse escalated. When I ask about
his addiction, I get an animated email back: "Uh! I can't remember how
much I did. But sheeeeeeet! It was a lot. A lot."
Pryor estimates that he spent the equivalent of $1m a year. "It started
out innocently enough. Every now and then," bemoans Pryor casually. "Then
I fell in love with the pipe. It controlled everything I did. It would say:
'Don't answer the phone Rich - we got smokin' to do.'"
In 1978 Pryor was arrested again after he had shot his third wife's car in an attempt to prevent her well-advised departure. "I thought it was fair myself," Pryor says. " She was going to leave me so I shot the car. I shot the tyre and the motor. But the motor fell out. It said 'F**k it!' "
Looking back, Pryor explains his freebasing habit had fuelled his paranoia to unparalleled heights. "I left all my guns right out in the open so when the boogey man bust in my house... he could see 'em. I thought everyone was stealing from me. I continued to smoke until I ran out of coke. I was suffering serious dementia. I was miserable. Alone. Frightened. Then I thought. 'Okay, I'll set myself on fire." Dousing himself in cognac Pryor set himself alight dived through the bedroom window and ran down the street. "You know what I noticed. When you run down the street on fire people get out of your way."
With third-degree burns covering 50 per cent of his body, Pryor's rehabilitation was long and painful but when he was finally discharged from hospital, he was on top of the world having kicked his cocaine addiction.
His next movie Stir Crazy with Gene Wilder took $100 million at the box office, he presented an Oscar at the 1981 Awards and Bustin' Loose - became the most watched film in the States. Eeverything was looking good.
"Then one day I returned from Hawaii," sighs Pryor. "And even though the house had been cleaned of all the drugs and paraphernalia eight months earlier, I could sniff it like a bloodhound. I looked in my super, super secret stash and there it was: one perfect little rock. I found my glass pipe and climbed on board the old self-destruct roller coaster without anybody knowing."
It wasn't until 1983, that, out of the blue, he had his road to Damascus moment and saw the light. "I took my kids to Hawaii for Christmas," he remembers, "And Rain - my daughter - was standing in the doorway. 'Daddy' she said 'Come with us.' I really wanted the kids to go out so I could smoke my shit. Then the strangest thing happened: left alone, I had a moment of clarity. I asked myself what was I doing. I saw the pitifulness of my situation. So I tossed all the shit into the garbage for real.
"No hiding the pipe in one drawer, a rock in another. I chucked it. I shuffled to the sand. My kids looking at me as if I was an alien. But then it was great. Rain taught me how to float. The water slapped the shore and I was in the middle of it. And I was grateful to be there."
A few years later in the summer of 1986 he was diagnosed with MS. "I found that my life, instead of ending because of MS, has only changed. Perhaps it was God's way of telling me to chill, look at the trees, sniff the flowers rather than the coke and see what it's like to be a human being."
From the Belfast Telegraph
April 27, 2005: Hagerstown Mayor Offers Compromise To Honor Mays, Vets
Hagerstown,
Md. - Hagerstown Mayor William Breichner says he's come up with a way to honor
Willie Mays without offending area veterans.
Now that the city has scrapped plans to rename a portion of Memorial Boulevard
after Mays, Breichner says the field at Municipal Stadium should be named
for the baseball legend.
The plan to rename Memorial Boulevard was criticized by veterans, even though
it's not clear if the street was named to recognize them.
Breichner also offered Tuesday to rededicate Memorial Boulevard in honor of war veterans in a ceremony on Memorial Day. And he said the city will seek a permanent memorial to veterans, such as a plaque.
Breichner pledged to honor Mays last year after the Hall-of Famer returned to the city for the first time since he played his first minor-league game there in 1950.
From the Associated Press
April 25, 2005: Phyllis Diller recuperating from surgery
LOS
ANGELES - Phyllis Diller has undergone surgery for fractures in her neck sustained
when she fell out of bed at her Brentwood mansion last week.
The 87-year-old Diller's "prognosis is great" after surgery Saturday to insert pins in her neck, manager Milt Suchin said Monday. She was recuperating at the hospital and hoped to return home by the end of the week, he said.
"She's in great spirits and looks forward to going back to work," Suchin said.
Diller even was cracking jokes heading into surgery, he said.
"Going into the operation, honest to God with the surgeon, she looked up at him and said, `You haven't been drinking, have you?'" Suchin said.
Diller's new book about her life is titled, "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse."
From the Associated Press
April 23, 2005: Mays not offended by
decision in Hagerstown
Plan dropped to rename street for baseball great
Baseball
great Willie Mays is not offended that angry veterans blocked Hagerstown's
attempt to make amends for the racial jeers he experienced at his 1950 minor
league debut there by renaming a street in his honor.
Saying he has long since gotten over past insults, the Giants' legendary center fielder said yesterday that he understands why the blue-collar city in Western Maryland heeded veterans' objections to changing Memorial Boulevard to "Willie Mays Way."
"I think veterans who go to war and come back have the right to say what's on their mind," Mays, 73, said in a telephone interview from his home in Atherton, Calif., just south of San Francisco.
"I don't live there," he added. "They're the veterans who live there. If the veterans are saying a street shouldn't be in my name, that's fine."
Hagerstown Mayor William M. Breichner, who publicly apologized to the Hall of Famer on the city's behalf last summer and promised to a name a street after him, called Mays' remarks yesterday "very gracious."
Breichner scrapped his proposed street-name change last week in the face of a growing backlash. Yesterday, Breichner said he still hopes Hagerstown will make "some other, even more appropriate recognition," such as renaming its old-fashioned ballpark - or possibly using Mays' name as the marquee if it builds a stadium.
"I really appreciate his comments," the mayor said. "Mr. Mays is a very gracious individual, a true gentleman."
The street-name flap, which provoked two months' of petitions, letters and newspaper editorials, erupted after Breichner chose Memorial Boulevard for the Mays tribute. The mayor did so after the city of 36,687 rolled out the red carpet last August to welcome back Mays.
Hundreds of fans lined up to meet Mays at an elegant reception, and fans packed Municipal Stadium to give him a standing ovation.
Memorial Boulevard seemed a natural choice because the street starts at Municipal Stadium, the humble ballpark that is home to the minor-league Hagerstown Suns, where Mays played his first professional minor league game as a member of the visiting Trenton Giants. But the street also passes Rose Hill Cemetery, where many fallen soldiers are buried.
Upset veterans protested that the street is the only visible tribute to them in town and denounced the proposed name change as "a disgrace."
Veterans groups argued that Memorial Boulevard had been specifically designated as an honor to their service in 1934, when the city changed the name from Willow Lane.
Breichner, who is also 73, grew up in the racially segregated city, and said he wanted to put it in a better light than it has been in Mays' biographies. Mays has told interviewers that he was surprised as a 19-year-old from Birmingham, Ala., by the degree of racism he encountered in the more northern town.
Mays had just been signed by the New York Giants after graduating from high school in 1950 when he arrived in Hagerstown. He played his first game at the stadium to catcalls and racial jeers.
Not only was he heckled on the streets, Mays has told biographers, but he was forced to stay apart from his white teammates at a segregated hotel in the black section of town.
Speaking to the stadium crowd last summer, Mays said he had turned down earlier invitations to come back because he felt a lingering sadness.
"In 1950, when I was here, it was such a sad, you know, moment," he said, according to local news accounts. "But still, everything works out."
Mays is a veteran, too. He missed most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season while serving in the Army during the Korean War. In 1954, he returned, leading the Giants to the World Series, where he is remembered for a spectacular, over-the-shoulder catch at the Polo Grounds during the first game.
Yesterday, he said he would not want to be in the position of having caused any concerns with fellow veterans. "If they feel that way, that's the way it should be," he said.
By ending the proposed street-name change, Hagerstown was left in the uncomfortable position of having once again slighted Mays.
Chagrined after he and the City Council dropped the proposal April 12, the mayor said he believes some opposition arose "because of his [Mays'] race." Veterans disputed that, and argued the mayor was trying to appeal to African-American voters because he faces a tight race for a second term in the city election May 17.
Mays remained philosophical. After all, the man once famous as the "Say Hey Kid," who dominated baseball in the 1950s and 1960s, has a lifetime of tributes. His career spanned 22 seasons and included two Most Valuable Player awards and 660 home runs.
"That's the way the world goes," he said. "I was over what happened a long time ago.
"If they want to name a street, that's fine. If they want to name something else, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine, too."
From the Baltimore Sun, JoAnna Daemmrich
April 21, 2005: American magician David Blaine to perform high-wire act in Manhattan
NEW
YORK — For his next stunt, David Blaine says he’ll perform an
“easy and fun” high-wire act in Manhattan on Halloween.
“Basically, it’s something that’s been done in the circuses, based on the old high-wire acts,” Blaine told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “It’s like family entertainment, this one.”
For his last stunt, in the fall of 2003, Blaine dangled in a plastic cubicle near the River Thames in London for 44 days with only small amounts of water for nourishment. He emerged 50 pounds lighter.
The New York magician expects this next stunt will be less demanding.
“It’s my easiest one,” he said, adding that the logistics aren’t completed. “I want it to be simplistic and reachable for everybody. I was even going to call this one ‘Easy and Fun.”’
Blaine, 32, said he recently reached a deal with ABC for four more shows, beginning with the Halloween stunt. His three previous ABC specials will air on TLC beginning Sunday. The programs include “David Blaine’s Vertigo,” when he stood on a small platform atop a 100-foot-high pillar for 35 hours in midtown Manhattan, and “David Blaine: Frozen in Time,” when he suspended himself inside a 6-ton block of ice for 62 hours in New York’s Times Square.
While some have said his tricks no longer constitute magic in the traditional sense, Blaine said that’s too narrow a view.
“I think magic is whatever the individual defines it to be. I say it’s all magic.”
From the Associated Press
April 21, 2005: Stewart reflects on scary moment
Tony
Stewart lived to tell about it, but for a moment Sunday, with flames trailing
from the rear of his No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet, he looked to be in serious
trouble.
''I hadn't practiced getting out of the car in a hurry, and that's the first time I've ever been on fire,'' Stewart said on Tuesday. ''I had to stop for a second and try not to panic, because my natural instinct was to panic, because I was getting burned.''
One of his engine rods broke on Lap 297, igniting an oil fire that spewed from the back of Stewart's car as he raced more than 150 mph around Texas Motor Speedway. Flames erupted inside the car before Stewart was able to steer down to the bottom of the track and get out of danger.
''Basically, what happened was we went into Turn 1 and the crankshaft broke in two,'' he explained. ''By the time we got slowed down and got in an area where we could get down off the racing groove, we were already on fire. I got the car stopped as quickly as possible and got out.''
But not before suffering a multitude of first- and second-degree burns on his right leg.
That it was Stewart who was left scrambling to free himself from a fiery car is a bit ironic. Stewart was one of the more outspoken critics of the HANS device, the head and neck restraint NASCAR began requiring all of its drivers to wear two years ago, in the wake of the crash that took Dale Earnhardt's life.
Stewart has said in the past that the HANS is more restrictive than the Hutchens device, which he and Ryan Newman prefer. Stewart went so far as to ask NASCAR to approve an alternative device.
But following Sunday's in-car fire, Stewart said the HANS didn't hinder his escape one bit.
''I just slowed down and took the steering wheel off and got the belts undone,'' he said. ''I got hung up just a little bit climbing out, but not any more than I would have if I hadn't had [the HANS device] on. I just slowed myself down and twisted my shoulder a little different. To be honest, I felt like I got out pretty easily.''
Despite some discomfort, Stewart plans to drive in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series events this weekend in Phoenix.
''None of it is in contact with the seat itself, so there won't be any pressure,'' he said of his burns. ''The only thing we're going to have to worry about is the sensitivity to heat.''
From The Morning Call, Jay Hart
April 21, 2005: Queen Elizabeth II has quiet 79th birthday
London,
England, Apr. 21 -- Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 79th birthday Thursday
quietly, with her husband and a few family members.
Three of her four children were unavailable, with Andrew, the Duke of York, on official business in Japan; Anne, the Princess Royal, visiting Germany and Prince Charles on a Scottish honeymoon.
Observers say the queen appears to be in good health, though she is beginning to transfer more royal duties to her oldest son and heir apparent.
She is expected to remain queen until her death.
From the United Press International
April 21, 2005: Ali recognized with Great American Award
WASHINGTON
- Muhammad Ali was recognized Wednesday for a lifetime of promoting justice
and humanitarian causes by an organization that focuses on minority issues.
At its annual dinner, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies honored Ali, a former heavyweight boxing champion, with its Louis E. Martin Great American Award.
Ali, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and could not attend, was to be shown accepting the award in a video shot at his home in Berrien Springs, Mich.
The center praised Ali for "speaking truth to all Americans about American Muslims, for devoting himself to the vulnerable, the needy and those without advocates."
From the Associated Press
April 19, 2005: Nolte, Shatner Lend Voices to Ani 'Hedge' for D'Works
LOS
ANGELES - Nick Nolte will make his animated-film debut as a bear named Vincent
in DreamWorks Animation's "Over the Hedge."
William Shatner, Steve Carell, Avril Lavigne, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Wanda Sykes and Allison Janney also will lend their voices to the tale of a mischievous raccoon and his sensitive best friend, a turtle, who find suburbia encroaching on their woodland home.
Bruce Willis and Garry Shandling already have been cast as R.J., the raccoon, and Verne, the turtle, respectively.
The project is based on the newspaper comic strip "Over the Hedge," by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. Len Blum wrote the screenplay. Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick are directing.
Carell, one of the voice actors in the video game "Outlaw Golf," will voice Hammy, a squirrel. Shatner, who did voice work in "Osmosis Jones," will give life to Ozzie the possum, a thespian who plays dead better than anyone in the forest. Lavigne, making her animation debut, plays Heather, Ozzie's daughter.
O'Hara, who will be heard in Disney's upcoming "Chicken Little," will play Penny, a porcupine. Levy, her co-star in "A Mighty Wind" and fellow "SCTV" alum, plays porcupine Lew. He's also doing voice work in Universal's upcoming "Curious George."
Sykes, who worked on the animated TV series "Crank Yankers," will play Stella the skunk, while Janney provides the voice of a human character, a Realtor named Gladys. Janney ("West Wing") played the starfish Peach in "Finding Nemo."
From Reuters/Hollywood Reporter, Borys Kit
April 18, 2005: B.B. King monument in Lucille's birthplace
LITTLE
ROCK, Ark. - The Arkansas legislature has approved a $5,000 expenditure to
build a monument honoring bluesman B.B. King in the tiny Delta town of Twist.
More than 50 years ago, King's famed guitar Lucille earned its name after a dance hall brawl in Twist. King's trademark Gibson guitars have been called Lucille ever since.
"B.B. put Twist, Arkansas, on the map," said Allan Hammons, interim director of the planned B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Miss. "I think it's very important that the state of Arkansas took the opportunity to memorialize that great American story."
State Sen. Steve Bryles said he pushed the funding through for the monument because too little is known of King's connection to the state. Bryles also hopes the marker will draw tourists to the area.
"We want to make sure we do it tastefully," said Bryles, who has some of his own ideas. "You can make it look like the Gibson Lucille model or it could be something really plain that just contains some writing that explains the story."
Hammons said the $10 million museum and Delta cultural center is set to break ground June 10. He said Arkansas' efforts highlight another part of King's legacy.
"Fate was kind to him," Hammons said of the 79-year-old blues singer.
"The guitar got a name and Twist was known around the world. It is a piece of American history."
From the Associated Press
April 18, 2005: Ozzy Osbourne to leave America and retire to Britain
Ozzy
Osbourne is set to leave America for good - to retire in Britain.
The ageing rocker, who spends much of his time at home in Los Angeles, says he is fed-up with the US and once he finishes touring will move back to his homeland.
The Prince of Darkness, who also owns a mansion in Britain's countryside, said: "I'm going to go back to Britain. I can't see me spending the rest of my days in America."
The star has also dismissed rumours his English home is cursed.
In the past six months, the house has been the scene of his near fatal quad biking accident, a jewellery theft and fire.
He said: "That's a coincidence and doesn't worry me. When I've finished
touring, I'm coming home."
Meanwhile, Ozzy last month revealed he was sexually abused as a child.
In a sensational revelation, the wild rocker spoke out about how he was molested by two other boys when he was an 11-year-old growing up in the English city of Birmingham.
Ozzy revealed to British newspaper The Daily Mirror: "I was sexually abused when I was a kid. Two boys used to wait for me to come home after school.
They didn't f**k me but they messed around with me.
"They would force me to drop my pants. They felt me and touched me. It was terrible. The first time it happened was in front of my sister and that affected me even more.
It became a regular thing on the way home from school. It seemed to go on forever."
From FemaleFirst.co.uk
April 17, 2005: Tony Stewart Has Fiery Ending at Texas
Tony
Stewart made a fiery exit Sunday.
With 37 laps left in the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Texas, something broke on Stewart's car, creating a fireball from underneath. Once the car rolled to a stop on the backstretch, Stewart scrambled out quickly.
He was treated at the infield medical center and released.
"Tony has some first-degree burns," Joe Gibbs Racing spokesman Mike Arning said. "There is a small burn on the lower back of his right thigh that's about the size of a fist. The other area is on his right elbow about the size of the one on his thigh, and it's more like a bad sunburn.
"Both are minor burns, which he'll treat on his own in the coming days."
After leading the Samsung/RadioShack 500 twice for 45 laps, Stewart finished 31st.
From the Associated Press, Stephen Hawkins
April 14, 2005: Settlement announced in Rosa Parks-OutKast case
Rosa
Parks and rap duo OutKast have settled a 1999 lawsuit in which lawyers for
Parks accused the group of wrongly using the civil rights pioneer's name in
a song title, Parks guardian Dennis Archer said Thursday.
Under the settlement, OutKast and co-defendants SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC and LaFace Records will work with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to develop educational programs "to enlighten today's youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races," Archer said in a statement.
Atlanta-based OutKast and other contemporary artists will perform on a tribute CD to be produced by SONY BMG, said Archer, a former Detroit mayor and Michigan Supreme Court justice who was named the 92-year-old Parks' guardian in October.
The parties also will collaborate on an educational television program about Parks' life and legacy. Archer will host the program, which will be distributed on DVDs to thousands of public schools nationwide, the statement said.
The settlement implies no fault by the defendants, Archer said.
SONY BMG attorney Joe Beck said Thursday evening that the defendants were pleased with the settlement.
"We think it will go a long way towards teaching a new generation about Rosa Parks and her accomplishments, and we appreciate Mrs. Parks' and her attorneys' acknowledgment of the First Amendment in protecting artistic freedom," he said from Los Angeles.
Details of the CD and television program "will be worked out in the
months ahead," Beck said.
Parks was 42 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city
bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. Her arrest triggered one of the modern civil
rights movement's earliest landmark events, a 381-day boycott of the bus system
organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"The sacrifices and work that Mrs. Parks has made during her life to
ensure that all people are treated fairly under the law is acknowledged and
appreciated by both sides," said Archer, who served as president of the
American Bar Association after leaving the mayor's office and now chairs the
Detroit law firm of Dickinson Wright PLLC.
The 1999 lawsuit alleged defamation and trademark infringement because OutKast used Parks' name without her permission in the song title "Rosa Parks." The chorus is: "Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus."
A judge dismissed OutKast from the suit and Parks' lawyers filed a second
suit in August 2004, naming BMG and two of its units, Arista and LaFace Records.
They sought more than $5 billion.
After the lawsuit was filed, some of Parks' relatives began questioning Parks'
well-being and the actions of her caretaker and the lawyers who filed the
suit. They claimed Parks -- who has suffered from dementia since at least
2002 -- would not mind the use of her name in the song if she were not mentally
impaired. They also said she is probably unaware of the lawsuits.
Parks rarely has been seen in public since 2001, when she canceled a meeting with President Bush.
From the Associated Press, Jim Irwin
April 12, 2005: A LUTHER UPDATE
R&B
singing sensation Luther Vandross, who suffered a major stroke on April 16,
2003, in his Manhattan apartment, is still recovering. He recently was able
to slowly walk down a long hallway and up and down some stairs without assistance
at an East Coast rehab facility.
"He's moving along. I think he is doing very well," said Mary Ida Vandross (his mom) in a recent Jet mag interview. "Hopefully, in a short while, he's going to be doing even better."
From the Chicago Sun Times, Stella’s Column, Stella Foster
April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II Dies at 84
Pope
John Paul II, the bold, humanitarian leader of the Roman Catholic Church,
has died at 84, the Vatican announced in an e-mail Saturday.
"The Holy Father died this evening at 9:37 p.m. (2:37 p.m. EST) in his private apartment. All the procedures outlined in the apostolic Constitution `Universi Dominici Gregis' that was written by John Paul II on Feb. 22, 1996, have been put in motion."
The announcement came from papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls and was distributed to journalists via e-mail.
The pope died after suffering heart and kidney failure following two hospitalizations in as many months. Just a few hours earlier, the Vatican had said he was in "very serious" condition but responded to members of the papal household.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican No. 2 official, immediately led a tearful crowd of 70,000 people in St. Peter's Square in prayers for the dead pope as Rome observed a moment of silence.
Some people held their hands to their heads in disbelief — on other faces, tears rolled uncontrollably. The pope's apartment windows were still lit up following the announcement of his death.
John Paul II was last seen in public on Wednesday when, looking gaunt and unable to speak, he briefly appeared at his window.
His health sharply deteriorated the next day after he suffered a urinary tract infection. The Vatican said the pope was suffering from septic shock, which involves both bacteria in the blood and a consequent over-relaxing of the blood vessels.
Medical experts put the chances of survival for an elderly person in John Paul's condition at no more than 20 percent, and only when hospitalized in intensive care. As the very end drew near, the pontiff refused to be taken to a hospital and instead spent his final hours in the papal apartment in Rome.
From FoxNews
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