Goodbyes
Betty Page dies at 85
Legendary pin-up Bettie Page died Thursday at age 85.
The January 1955 Playmate of the Month suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness. Her agent Mark Roesler said she had been in the hospital with pneumonia for three weeks before that.
Roesler said in a statement: “With deep personal sadness I must announce that my dear friend and client Bettie Page passed away at 6.41pm Pst this evening in a Los Angeles hospital.
“She died peacefully but had never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack nine days ago.
“She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality. She is the embodiment of beauty.”
Page has as cult following that lasted beyond her days in the pages of men’s magazines. She had roles in many bondage films and had one speaking role in “Striporama.”
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said of the curvaceous siren: “I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society. She was a very dear person.”
Culkin’s sister killed
It’s a bad week for Hollywood siblings. Actor Macaulay Culkin’s older sister had died after being hit by a car, reports TMZ.com. Dakota, 29, was walking along a street in Los Angeles Tuesday when she stepped off the curb and was hit by a moving vehicle.
She was taken to the UCLA Medical Center for treatment, but was pronounced dead Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the accident, but no arrests have been made.
Dakota recently worked as an art production department assistant on the set of the upcoming thriller “Lost Soul.”
Death of Scott Ruffalo self-inflicted
The brother of actor Mark Ruffalo has died a week after he was shot in the head, police said Tuesday.
Scott Ruffalo, 39, died late Monday night when he was removed from life support at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Renato Moreno said.
Police cleared the woman arrested in the shooting, Shaha Mishall Adham, 26. Adham left the Beverly Hills jail where she’d been held without bail since surrendering Monday afternoon on an attempted murder arrest warrant.
Her attorney Ronald Richards said she was freed police were shown evidence that the wound was self-inflicted, the result of playing with a gun. He indicated that Adham was essentially a witness to a game of Russian Roulette.
“This was an accidental shooting by someone that plays with guns,” Richards said. Adham, who was a friend of Scott’s, came back to get keys to her SUV, then fled the scene.
Richards said no charges would be pursued against Adham. A police sergeant said more information would be released Wednesday.
Scott’s family thanked supporters and announced the creation of a fund in his honor.
“Mark Ruffalo and his family deeply appreciate the outpouring of prayers and support during this most difficult time of the passing of Scott Ruffalo, beloved son, brother and husband,” the statement read.
The family said the funeral service would be private.
Attacked anchor dies
It’s not a good weekend.
The KATV anchor who was attacked this week died Saturday evening.
Anne Pressly, 26, was a popular morning anchor in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was also known for a brief role as a TV commentator in Oliver Stone’s film “W,” out last week.
Pressly was beaten around the head, face and neck. She had been unable to communicate with her family or police while being kept sedated in the intensive care unit.
She was discovered Monday morning a half-hour before she was to appear on ABC affiliate KATV’s “Daybreak” program. Her mother went to her home after she didn’t answer her regular wake-up call.
The attack was random, part of a burglary, according to police. Her purse was missing. Little Rock police have yet to identify a suspect.
Pressly’s parents released a statement, saying they were “with her in her last moments.” They also asked for “the privacy we need at this very difficult time,” KATV reported.
Our deepest sympathies.
Mr. Blackwell dies at 86
It’s the end of a fashion era. Mr. Blackwell, the infamous author of the annual worst-dressed list, has died at age 86. His publicist Harlan Boll said the critic died Sunday of complications from intestinal infection.
Every year fashionistas lived in fear of making his list and many of Hollywood’s elite did just that. Among the celebs on his list: Britney Spears (twice on her own and once tied with Paris Hilton), Paris Hilton (once, then tied with Brit), Zsa Zsa Gabor (two years in a row), Cher (twice), Barbra Streisand, Princess Margaret, Ali MacGraw, Julie Andrews, Brooke Shields, Meryl Streep, LaToya Jackson, Glenn Close, Howard Stern, Caroline Kennedy, Joan Collins, Spice Girls (oh ye of the weird shoes and sparkly clothes), Linda Tripp (surprised Monica and her little blue dress didn’t make it…), Anna Nichole Smith, Paris Hilton, “Desperate Housewives” actress Nicollette Sheridan and, his final dictum on the state of celeb fashion: Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham last year.
Born Richard Sylvan Selzer in 1922, Blackwell recounted in his autobiography, “From Rags to Bitches,” a troubled, poverty-ridden childhood in which he was variously a truant, thief and prostitute.
Blackwell was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 – long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair. It quickly brought him the celebrity he had long coveted, and he quickly became a favorite on the TV talk show circuit. He also became for a time, in his words, “The worst bitch in the world.”
A few examples of his rhyming repartee:
Cameron Diaz: “Looks like she was dressed by a colorblind circus clown, and when it comes to fashion, it’s chaos when Cameron’s back in town.”
Madonna: “The Bare-Bottomed Bore of Babylon.” and (uh, pre-divorce obviously) “From Ghetto Glam to Rhinestone Cowgirl to Mrs. Guy Ritchie. Any way you label it, she’s still just kitschy, kitschy, kitschy.”
Christina Aguilera: “Is she a boring and body-baring bungle – or just auditioning for ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle?’” “A dazzling singer who puts good taste through the wardrobe wringer.”
Lindsay Lohan: “From adorable to deplorable.”
Britney Spears: “Her bra-topped collection of Madonna rejects are pure fashion overkill.”
Courtney Love: “When push comes to shove, no one’s fashion is tackier and wackier than funky, punky Love!”
Mary Kate Olsen: “She resembles a tattered toothpick trapped in a hurricane.”
Rene Zellweger: “A painted pumpkin on a pogo stick.”
Ann-Margret: “Marlon Brando in a g-string.”
Bjork: “She dances in the dark – and dresses there, too.”
Martha Stewart: “She dresses like the centerfold for the Farmer’s Almanac.”
Sharon Stone: “She looks like an over-the-hill Cruella de Ville.”
Elizabeth Taylor: “Looks like two small boys fighting under a mink blanket.”
Amy Winehouse: “Exploding beehives above, tacky polka-dots below, she’s part 50′s carhop horror.”
Cher: “A million beads and one overexposed derriere.”
Sarah Jessica Parker: “From ‘Sex and the City’ Sarah’s fashions are a mix-and-match pity.”
Mariah Carey: “Shrink-wrapped cheesecake.”
Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham: “Forget the fashion spice – wearing a skirt would suffice! In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty Posh can really wreck-em.”
Queen Elizabeth II: “Was she the palace Christmas tree or just a royal clown?”
Camilla Parker-Bowles: “In feathered hats that were once the rage, she resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic age.”
Barbra Streisand: “She looks like a masculine Bride of Frankenstein.”
Meryl Streep: “She looks like a gypsy abandoned by a caravan.”
