Celebrity Death Pool!

[vynsane]

Dibs on Golden Girl sex kitten Estelle Getty.

Looks like we have a winner, for what it's worth.

as if the shame of predicting a celebrity's death isn't reward enough?

[Antropov]

Damn. And I never got a chance to put it in her.

[Diabolical]

Good or bad, who knows?
But I got that one in just in time.

[Double_G]

Dibs on Golden Girl sex kitten Estelle Getty.

Looks like we have a winner, for what it's worth.

I call shenanigans. She's dead just two and a half weeks after DB called dibs. I say he killed her.

[Diabolical]

I'll adding Double_G to my list.

[Double_G]

Damn. And I never got a chance to put it in her.

It's not too late. She ain't decomposed yet.

EDIT: Okay. I need to take a shower after typing that. That was just uncalled for.

[Antropov]

It's not too late. She ain't decomposed yet.

EDIT: Okay. I need to take a shower after typing that. That was just uncalled for.

First, yes, you do need to take a shower. Second, she can no longer urinate. I wanted a Golden Girl Shower.

[Ran]

It's not too late. She ain't decomposed yet.

EDIT: Okay. I need to take a shower after typing that. That was just uncalled for.

First, yes, you do need to take a shower. Second, she can no longer urinate. I wanted a Golden Girl Shower.

Dammit. I was eating when I read this.

[Rollo Tomassi]

It's not too late. She ain't decomposed yet.

EDIT: Okay. I need to take a shower after typing that. That was just uncalled for.

First, yes, you do need to take a shower. Second, she can no longer urinate. I wanted a Golden Girl Shower.

If you hurry, you might still get one of those, too!

[Newsbot]

Code: Select all

Bernie Mac's family expected him to pull through 

CHICAGO - Comedian Bernie Mac's family had expected him to fully recover from the bout of pneumonia that put him in a hospital three weeks ago, his daughter said Sunday.

However, Je'niece Childress said that as time passed she and her mother braced for the possibility that he could die.

Mac, 50, died Saturday from what his publicist said were complications from pneumonia.

Childress said Mac had been at Northwestern Memorial Hospital since the middle of July.

"Initially when he was hospitalized we expected him to come back home, but as the weeks went on, I kind of knew," Childress told The Associated Press.

Mac also suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease, but he had said the condition went into remission in 2005. His publicist, Danica Smith, has said the pneumonia was unrelated to the sarcoidosis.

Mac, born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, got his start doing standup as a child. His successful career included his own Fox television series, "The Bernie Mac Show" and starring roles in "Ocean's Eleven," "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

Childress said Mac, who maintained a home in the south Chicago suburb of Frankfort, was a loving father, husband and grandfather. Childress, 30, is his only child, and has a 1-year-old daughter. She said her mother, Rhonda McCullough, and Mac were married for 32 years.

"He was a hard man and he made no apologies for that," Childress said. "When it came to me and my mother and my daughter he was the softest."

Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him some flack when he joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Obama's campaign later said the jokes were "inappropriate."

"I kind of figured he was going to get a lot of backlash," Childress said. "Telling that joke at that time probably wasn't the best idea, but that's him."

Children said there was always laughter in their home.

"Because that's just who he was," Childress said. "I'm sad that my daughter will never know or be able to feel how much he loved her."

"I think he will always be remembered as one of the original kings of comedy," Childress said. "I think what made him so special to people was that even though he was a celebrity he just seemed so down to earth and so much like a part of your family."

She said funeral arrangements were pending. Smith said a public memorial would be held next weekend at House of Hope in Chicago.

Code: Select all

Hayes, 'Shaft' singer and disco presage, dies 

 MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose "Theme From Shaft" won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.

Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.

And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."

Hayes was about to begin work on a new album for Stax, the soul record label he helped build to legendary status. And he had recently finished work on a movie called "Soul Men" in which he played himself, starring Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday.

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

"The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor," Shular said.

The album "Hot Buttered Soul" made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

"Hot Buttered Soul" was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a "cool" style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with "raps," and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

"Jocks would play it at night," Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."

Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree.

"That was like the shot heard round the world," Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

"The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence," he said. "And they'll tell you if you ask."

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

"I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that," he said. "I think it was a matter of timing. I didn't know what was unfolding."

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Soul Man."

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album "Black Moses" and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner" besides "Shaft." He also did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage, "Ninth Street" with Martin Sheen, "Reindeer Games" starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody "I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka."

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as "a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'wack' category like everybody else in town — and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies."

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion.

"There is a place in this world for satire," he said. "but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins."

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes "has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians." A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole's "Looking Back."

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting. 

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Is it eerie that both of them were starring in the upcoming "Soul Men" with Sammy Jackson? If Sammy dies, I'm gonna be screaming Hollywood Conspiracy at the top of my lungs.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

If he dies, I'm just gonna lose my shit.

[kidhuman]

If he dies, I'm just gonna lose my shit.

You keep your shit? Do you suck on it too?

[Diabolical]

Is it eerie that both of them were starring in the upcoming "Soul Men" with Sammy Jackson? If Sammy dies, I'm gonna be screaming Hollywood Conspiracy at the top of my lungs.

I said basically the same thing elsewhere.

[Diabolical]

I hope Grimlock is next.

The Curse of Billy Bob Thornton?

The latest death watch conspiracy theory involves the many co-stars of Thornton who have have suffered death, injury or sickness. John Ritter, Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, and Heath Ledger all died prematurely. Morgan Freeman and Shia LaBeouf both suffered car accidents, and Patrick Swayze got diagnosed with cancer. And there is also Jim Varney, best known for his character Ernest, whose final film before he died was Thorton’s Daddy and Them.

Who's next?
Billy Bob was in a bunch of movies with multiple bigger name stars:
Tombstone
On Deadly Ground
Sling Blade
Primary Colors
Armageddon
A Simple Plan
Pushing Tin
Bandits
Monster's Ball
Intolerable Cruelty
Love Actually
Friday Night Lights
The Ice Harvest
School for Scoundrels
Mr. Woodcock