No-one is recognised as knowing more about Hollywood and celebrities than David Hartnell MNZM. He’s not only spent a lifetime reporting on Hollywood’s trivia, gossip and scandals, but he counts many celebrities among his personal friends. Every Monday morning David will give you an exclusive weekly update on the gossip, scandals and trivia of Hollywood’s elite.
David is an award winning broadcaster and columnist and he is also the patron of The Variety Artists Club of New Zealand Inc.
Her Majesty The Queen, awarded David the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (formerly an MBE) in the Queen’s birthday Honours list 2011 for his recognition for his services to entertainment.
In 2012 he was made an Ambassador St James Saviours, the trust formed to save the iconic Auckland theatre. In 2014 he was made an Ambassador to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.
In 2016 he was made Patron of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians.
Visit David’s Website
‘Under a spell – David Hartnell’s First Love,‘ in the NZ Woman’s Weekly. View the article here on David’s website.
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Tuesday 31st January 2017
I’m not one to gossip but……………As this is my first column for the year I’d like to wish you all a very happy new year, let’s hope this year will be a great one for us all!
I was delighted to see that Broadway theaters dimed their marquee lights last month on the day that Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher were being buried in Los Angeles.They were both movie icons and they also had their triumphs on Broadway.I recently read her daughter Carrie’s book “The Princess Diarist” and read her acknowledgment to her mother. Quote “For my mother – for being too stubborn and thoughtful to die. I love you, but that whole emergency, almost dying thing, wasn’t funny. Don’t even THINK about doing it again in any form.”Unquote.
I had the pleasure of knowing Debbie over a number of years, she was a wonderful human being and if anyone earned the title of Hollywood Royalty she sure did she was the last of the golden age of Hollywood.
A date has finally been set for Carrie and Debbie’s public memorial service.The family announced that a service is set to be held on March 25 at the Freedom Theater at Forest Lawn Cemetery Hollywood Hills.“We will be celebrating their lives with friends, family members, and the people who loved them, you. The service will begin at 1:00 PM and immediately afterwards, those who want to walk to their final resting place are welcome to do so,” Tod Fisher said in a statement on his website.He added, “There are a limited number of seats available, and it will be on a first come first come, first seated basis. There will be room for overflow in the huge lobby as well as the outside with screens to watch and hear the service.”
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A New York artist has threatened to sue an African nation over a commemorative Marilyn Monroe stamp.The Central African Republic has a contract with stamp agency Stamperija, which produced stamps featuring a range of famous people including the late Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.But New York artist Jimmy James was shocked to discover one of the stamps, issued in 2014, is actually based on a famous picture of him impersonating Marilyn.The photo of ‘Marilyn’ on the stamp is actually from a 1991 advert that James took part in for the brand L.A. Eyeworks.
The artist is now threatening legal action if he is not compensated.
James’ attorney Mark Jay Heller told the New York Post: “Although the recognition and inclusion of [James] in this collection of stamps is appreciated… the publisher has not only failed and omitted to secure [consent] but has also failed to compensate him.
“Hopefully, this discriminatory conduct will be atoned for and redressed by immediately compensating Jimmy James in response to our legal demand seeking reasonable remuneration.”
The stamp appears to have been produced by stamp agency Stamperija under a contract with the nation. The agency has attempted to remove the picture of the stamps from their website, but I was able to obtain an archived copy.
It’s not the first time such a mix-up has been made.
Jimmy James explained to Huffington Post last year: “I remember threats of lawsuits from the lawyers of the Marilyn Monroe estate over the L.A. Eyeworks ad I did; I was devastated by that. The iconic image had to be stricken from the records and hidden away so that no one would ever see it… twenty two years later due to the Internet, the image was set free.
“Now it’s probably one of the most mistaken identity photos that people think is Marilyn herself.
“People are getting tattoos of it thinking it’s Marilyn – but it’s me! Kinda funny, but kinda not. That era [of impersonating Marilyn] is over for me.”
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Julian Fellowes mastermind behind the TV phenomenon Downton Abbey , which ended in 2015, has confirmed long-running speculation that the Crawley family and their domestic servants could make it cinemas.
“I’ve done some work on it because I don’t want to be caught out if they [producers] suddenly say yes and then it’s all go,” says Julian..
“But there’s a lot of things — can we round up all the cast? Can we get them?
“Also we just need the green light at the beginning. So I don’t know any more than that at the moment to be honest.”
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Television icon Betty White celebrated turned 95 on the 17th Jan this year. Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric caught up with The Golden Girls, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Hot in Cleveland star to talk about her secrets to a long and vibrant life, her storied career and her positive outlook. Because I was on a break when her birthday happened so I thought you would be interested in seeing this interview with Betty.
I have met Betty a number of times over the years, and I’m here to tell you what you see with her is what you get. She is a wonderful person so down to earth, and she really cares about people and animals.
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Over the holiday break I found this on Youtube and thought you who are old enough to remember will get a kick out of this clip. This happened in 1974. MGM’s 50th anniversary. I’m aware that this isn’t “all” the MGM stars. I’m also aware that some of them were never MGM stars but hey who cares – what a line up.
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I’m sure you know by now that actor Gorden Kaye, who became a household name for his role in the BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo!, died on the 23rd Jan at the age of 75.
The BAFTA-nominated English comic actor also appeared in Last of the Summer Wine, Are You Being Served?, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.
In his 1989 autobiography René and Me, Kaye described himself as a ‘shy, gay and overweight boy’ who found self-confidence and self-expression through acting.
‘Allo ‘Allo! co-star Vicki Michelle led the tributes to Kaye.
She wrote on Twitter: ‘So sad to hear news of Gorden Kaye. A brilliantly talented actor consummate professional, loved the world over.
‘There’ll never be another Rene.’
But it was as cafe owner Rene Artois in ‘Allo ‘Allo! in 1982 that really put Kaye on the showbiz map.
He appeared in all 84 episodes of the series, which ran until 1992, and reprised the role in a 2007 special. He also appeared in the stage version of the series.
The actor, born in Huddersfield on April 7 1941, was seriously injured when a piece of wood smashed through the windscreen of his car during the Burns’ Day storm of January 25 1990.
While he was recovering from the brain injury, Kaye was photographed in hospital by two Sunday Sport journalists, who had dressed as medical staff to gain access to the comedy star.
The incident sparked a major debate and a court case centered on the right to privacy.
Kaye had a five-and-a-half hour emergency brain operation following the incident and said: ‘I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
I had the pleasure of working with him and he was a delight so professional real gentleman.
Yours truly, Carmen Silvera and Gorden at the studio in 1988
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If you’ve ever dreamed of Sir Elton John singing you down the aisle, you might have to get saving. The legendary singer has been releasing hits for decades, becoming one of the most famous musicians on the planet.
But if you’re ready for love with Sir Elton on the piano, you’ll need to be ready to shell out a huge pay cheque. The star recently sang at the wedding of 19-year-old Irene Kogan, daughter of a Russia oligarch. Reportedly the star took in an incredible fee – a cool one million pounds for the gig.
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Marlon Brando had a huge sexual appetite and slept with many female and male stars Like Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy and allegedly Cary Grant, but he also turned down Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. Marlon Brando rejected Liz Taylor & Sophia Loren but SLEPT with James Dean & Rock Hudson
Brando was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history.
A new BBC documentary, Imagine: Marlon Brando, will also show that he was one of the most troubled and misunderstood.
His famous sexual appetite was fuelled by his troubled childhood with an abusive father and alcoholic mother, which shaped his insecurities but also his desires.
A recent book also revealed the very specific reasons why he turned down famous beauties like Taylor and Loren.
Brando notoriously liked to have more than one lover at a time and his constant need was rooted in his intense attachment to his childhood housekeeper, Ermi. She slept naked with her young charge and he later revealed his obsession with her.
Brando said: “I sat there looking at her body and fondling her breasts, and arranged myself on her and crawled over her.
“She was all mine; she belonged to me and me alone. Had she known of my blinding worship of her, we would have married.’
Danish and Indonesian Ermi shaped young Brando’s taste for brunettes and women of Asian, East Indian, Hispanic, black or Jewish descent.
When Ermi left the family three years later, Brando was devastated and was never able to form any lasting attachments.
He wrote later: “From that day forward I became estranged from the world. I spent most of the rest of my life trying to find her
His list of conquests left many women heartbroken in his wake. Rita Moreno later revealed that their affair almost drove her to suicide.
Outside his family, Brando’s closest relationship was with another man, his lifelong friend Wally Cox, who he met at school.
The pair remained close all their lives and when Cox died in 1973, Brando kept his ashes which were mixed with his own after the star’s death in 2004.
Brando said of his friend: “I’m not sure I will ever forgive Wally for dying. More than a friend; he was my brother, closer to me than any human being in my life except my sisters. He taught me how to speak and to see in words the melodies of life.”
When Brando died in 2004, some of their ashes were mixed together and scattered in Death Valley.
Tragically, despite all his loves and relationships, Brando’s most famous sexual encounter has become the infamous butter rape scene from Last Tango in Paris.
Maria Schneider later reignited the controversy, saying that Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci kept graphic details of the sex scene from her before shooting.
Brando never hid his relationships with other men.
In 1976 he said: “I too, have had homosexual experiences.”
Although he kept comprehensive notes on all his female conquests, he never wrote down the details of his assignations with men. The list was reputed to include huge stars like James Dean, Cary Grant and Rock Hudson.
Brando also revealed his reasons for turning down some famous big screen beauties.
He bedded some of the greatest sex symbols of all time, including Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly Marlene Dietrich and hundreds more but also was very particular in what he didn’t like.
Brando filmed Reflections in a Golden Eye with Elizabeth Taylor in 1967, but didn’t sleep with her because “Her a** was too small.”
The previous year, he also resisted the bombshell charms of Sophia Loren while they were making because A Countess From Hong Kong, because her breath was “worse than that of a dinosaur.”
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The charismatic Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell is known for his long spanning and successful country music career. He launched his career in 1982 and by 2010 Daniel had achieved 19 singles and 26 album UK pop chart successes. He has now sold over 7 million albums and 3 million DVDs.
He has had concerts in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his services to the music industry.
He has had a successful chart and touring record in New Zealand for over two decades, and after a two-year break from touring he is ready to hit the road again with a revamped band and a new album.
DANIEL O’DONNELL NEW ZEALAND TOUR
Invercargill – 2nd March
Dunedin – 3rd March
Christchurch – 5th March
Auckland – 7th March
Palmerston North – 8th March
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IAN MUNE STEPS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT TO WORK WITH AWARD-WINNING NZ THEATRE MAKERS!
Nightsong Productions and Theatre Stampede with Auckland Live present:
SPIRIT HOUSE – A Ghost Story
Written by Carl Bland. Directed by Ben Crowder and Carl Bland
Iconic NZ actor and screen legend Ian Mune returns to the stage to star in one of the most anticipated theatrical events of the summer. From award-winning theatre makers Carl Bland and Ben Crowder comes the premiere of SPIRIT HOUSE playing at the Herald Theatre from 16 February – 5 March.
Two artists occupy the same studio in Nong Khai: one in 1932, the other in 2017. Yet both are visited by the same woman. Who is she? What does she want? And how can she exist in two times at once? Both men will be forced to come to terms with what they have been trying oh-so-hard to forget.
Although a regular on stage and screen it’s been 17 years since Mune has taken on the leading role in such an intimate yet epic NZ story. Alongside the mighty Mune, in this haunting and startling theatrical event are acting heavyweights Mia Blake (The Book of Everything, Angels in America), Tim Carlsen (One Day Moko, Dirty Laundry) and a giant 6-foot cat called Claude.
SPIRIT HOUSE takes audiences on a journey to Thailand where ghosts are a normal part of life. Most homes have a Spirit House in the garden where past inhabitants of the land are given a daily gift of food and drink. It is in this world that this thrilling new take on a ghost story takes place. Backed by the company’s trademark visual storytelling, expect bodies to emerge from water, cobras to haunt their victims, housecats to attack. SPIRIT HOUSE will be vivid, wild, entertaining, dramatic, beautiful, funny, provocative and will see this visionary company yet again attempt to stage the impossible.
Writer and director Carl Bland along with collaborator and director Ben Crowder have been working together on some remarkable work over the last decade. Their March 2016 NZ Festival and the sell-out Auckland Arts Festival Season of Te Pō (based on the work and life of Bruce Mason) received outstanding reviews and had audiences spellbound.
“…I want to rack up as many reasons as possible why you should see this show, because it’s a masterpiece.” – METRO MAGAZINE
Prior to this presentation, alongside the late Peta Rutter, the pair delivered an extraordinary experience with the much-lauded 360: a theatre of recollections. Completely sold out in Auckland and Wellington, this outstanding production enclosed the audience inside a proverbial bullring as action including pyrotechnics and giant puppets unfolded around them. It was for this work and their first production of Head in 2005 that earned the collaborators a Chapman Tripp Award, Auckland Theatre Excellence Award and the Hackman Cup People’s Choice Award for Most Original Production.
“…When you hear gasps of astonishment around you in a theatre, then realise one of them was your own, you know that what you are seeing is something remarkable.” – CAPITAL TIMES
SPIRIT HOUSE plays:
Herald Theatre Thursday 16 February – Sunday 5 March
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8pm. Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm. Sundays at 4pm.
Book at www.ticketmaster.co.nz
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Kate Beckinsale gets her close up on the cover of ES magazine’s new issue.
Here’s what the 43-year-old actress had to share:
On her ex Michael Sheen and his girlfriend Sarah Silverman: “It’s so normal for us. We split up ages ago. We have been not together far longer than we were ever together. But I really love him and like him and we make each other roar with laughter. I really love his girlfriend as well, and we are really lucky that we both get on, and Lily gets on great with her — having as many strong females in your teenage daughter’s life as possible is a good thing.”
On daughter Lily’s desire to be an actress: “I can see why she wants to do it. I don’t love the downside of it for my baby. But it’s not like she hasn’t seen both of her parents having a real experience of what it’s like. She has seen us ecstatic and miserable — she’s seen that, squared.”
On going to Oxford over drama school as a youth: “I had grown up around actors, and I thought it would be good to be around people who were passionate about things that weren’t acting. That was a good decision, but it did leave me feeling like there is a magical secret that everybody who went to drama school knows and I don’t.”
The full interview appears in this week’s issue of ES Magazine,
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Emma Watson channels her Beauty and the Beast character Belle on the cover of Total Film Magazine.
The 26-year-old actress opened up about relating to Belle, auditioning for the part and collaborating on the script. Check it:
On auditioning for the role: “It gave me a sense of ownership. I would have hated to have felt I got the part undeservedly. I had to prove I had the voice to do it.”
On why she related to her character Belle: “I just felt the character of Belle resonated with me so much more than Cinderella did. I don’t feel like I really felt like I particularly fit in when I was younger. There’s this kind of outsider quality that Belle had and the fact she had this really empowering defiance of what was expected of her. In a strange way, she challenges the status quo of the place she lives in, and I found that really inspiring too. And also, she manages to keep her integrity and have a completely independent point of view. She’s not easily swayed by other people’s perspective; not swayed by fear mongering or scapegoating.”
On working on the script with director Bill Condon: “I think Bill knew I had concerns about the script, and there were things that I needed to see. It was very collaborative.”
For more from Emma, download the magazine now at MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk.
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George Michael was a huge fan of the English TV comedy series Little Britain starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. He used to ring up and laugh at ex Spice Girl Geri Halliwell whenever she got the piss taken out of her on the show. Apparently Geri was quite upset about it all at first, but was re-assured when George told her “You really are like that, dear.”
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Madonna is iconic on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine’s February 2017 issue.
Here’s what the 58-year-old superstar had to share with the mag:
On feeling oppressed and living an unconventional life: “I’ve always felt oppressed. I know a lot of people would go, ‘Oh, that’s ridiculous for you to say that. You’re a successful white, wealthy pop star,’ but I’ve had the shit kicked out of me for my entire career, and a large part of that is because I’m female and also because I refuse to live a conventional life. I’ve created a very unconventional family. I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable. I feel like everything I do makes people feel really uncomfortable.”
On the election results and president-elect Donald Trump: “On election night I was sitting at a table with my agent, who is also one of my very best friends, and we were truly praying… It was just like watching a horror show… I went to sleep, and since that night, I wake up every morning and it’s like when you break up with somebody who has really broken your heart. You wake up and for a second you’re just you, and then you go, ‘Oh, the person I love more than anything has just broken my heart, and I’m devastated and I’m broken and I have nothing. I’m lost.’ That’s how I feel every morning. I wake up and I go, ‘Wait a second. Donald Trump is the president. It’s not a bad dream. It really happened.’ It’s like being dumped by a lover and also being stuck in a nightmare.”
On censorship, equality, and sexual expression: “I believe in freedom of expression, I don’t believe in censorship. I believe in equal rights for all people. And I believe women should own their sexuality and sexual expression. I don’t believe there’s a certain age where you can’t say and feel and be who you want to be.”
For more from Madonna, visit HarpersBazaar.com.
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Judy Garland had a chronic drug addiction that caused her to slash her throat with a razor, according to a revealing memoir by ex-husband Sid Luft.
Miss Garland, who played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, died at her home in London of a drug overdose in 1969.
She was 47.
Mr. Luft, the third of her five husbands, wrote about the star’s drug abuse and depression in an autobiography he was planning before his death in 2005.
In the book, seen by the Sunday Times, Mr. Luft describes Miss Garland walking towards him with outstretched arms and slashed wrists.
In another passage he speaks about the flow of blood after she slashed her own throat with a razor, only to be rescued by doctors who saved her life.
Miss Garland’s hellish drug addiction left her screaming into her pillow for hours if she was deprived of pills and on one occasion Mr. Luft found her semiconscious after taking pills.
He told how he would stand over her at night to stop her accessing secret stashes of pills which she hid in cigarette packets. Luft’s autobiography, Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland will be published by Chicago Review Press in March this year.
Randy Schmidt, who edited the memoir, said: ‘Many people claim Judy… was an alcoholic. Sid disputes this and gives detailed testimony to her real demons, which were the pills.
‘More than any of her five husbands, [Luft] was the closest to what some might call the love of her life.
‘Even though they divorced in 1965, Sid was still the guy she most depended upon for the remaining four years of her life.’
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Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty in pink on the cover of InStyle’s February issue and she’s opening up to the mag about the public’s perception of her.
The 44-year-old Oscar-winning actress no longer cares what people think about her. Here’s what she shared with the mag.
On not caring what people think of her as she ages: “When I turned 40, I felt like I got this free software upgrade that I wasn’t expecting. It just happened. Suddenly I was like, ‘Oh, this is fantastic: I don’t care! I like myself, and I’m just going to live my life. I’m going to stop worrying and tearing myself down.’”
On her decision to start Goop and become an entrepreneur: “I’ll think, ‘Oh my god, I used to have a life of a spoiled movie star… What the f—? Why did I do this to myself?”
On why she wanted to release her new Clean Beauty book: “I mean, it’s shocking to me that the government doesn’t regulate this stuff… How many of my friend have had fertility issues? How many of my daughter’s friends have had precocious puberty? Well, maybe that’s because we are putting endocrine-disrupting hormones in everything.”
On being a pioneer of esoteric health treatments: “I’ve learned how the cycle works… It used to be that I would talk about something or write about it, and people would be like, ‘What the f— is she talking about? She’s a witch!’ And then later on it would sort of catch on. So now I just recognize it: OK, I’m going to talk about this, and people will think it’s weird, and that’s how it goes.”
On the challenge of sometimes pushing the needle on wellness issues: “I’m like, this is my role. I’m here to do this. A friend told me if you’re a trailblazer, you’re the first one through, and you get the cuts because you’re hacking the path.”
For more from the issue, visit InStyle.com!
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Burlesque will not be Cher’s final acting role! The Oscar winner will star in Flint, a Lifetime movie about the Flint, Michigan, water contamination crisis. Deadline Hollywood reports that Cher will produce along with Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, and Katie Couric. Cher has made relatively few films but many memorable ones including Moonstruck, Mask, Silkwood, The Witches of Eastwick, Suspect and Mermaids. She made her only other TV movie 20 years ago as one of the stars and a director of the HBO trilogy of abortion stories if These Walls Could Talk.
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An American super fan has had his dreams of spending eternity with Judy Garland dashed.
Earlier this month, the ‘Wizard Of Oz’ star’s body was flown to Hollywood from New York, where her remains had rested since her death in 1969. It’s a blow to the die-hard fan who’d bought the crypt next to hers, which is now empty, in the Ferncliff Mausoleum in tony Westchester, New York.
And there’s a knife-twist of irony to the cross-country re-interment saga. The man who bought the adjacent crypt ‘specifically flew in from California because he is a big fan of hers,’ a Ferncliff cemetery manager told The New York Post. Garland had been interred in crypt No. 31 in Unit 9 of the mausoleum; where nearby spaces go for up to $15,500 (US).
Garland was found dead in her London home in 1969 at age 47, after a barbiturate overdose.
Her fifth husband, Mickey Deans, made the decision at the time to bury her on the East Coast, rather than Los Angeles. ‘I didn’t want her where tourist buses and that sort of thing go through,’ he told The New York Times at Garland’s 1969 visitation in Manhattan.
Now, Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli was reportedly behind the decision to move the Golden Era starlet’s body to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where there is more space for family to be buried nearby. On the same block as Paramount Studios, the cemetery is one of the oldest in Lost Angeles.
If the Garland fan who bought the New York crypt moves forward with his plans to be buried there, it’s unclear who his new neighbor in eternity will be, if anyone.
‘We haven’t decided what to do yet but we think because she’s been here so long, we will just leave it here and memorialize her,’ the cemetery manager said.
An American super fan has had his dreams of spending eternity with Judy Garland dashed.
Earlier this month, the ‘Wizard Of Oz’ star’s body was flown to Hollywood from New York, where her remains had rested since her death in 1969. It’s a blow to the die-hard fan who’d bought the crypt next to hers, which is now empty, in the Ferncliff Mausoleum in tony Westchester, New York.
And there’s a knife-twist of irony to the cross-country re-interment saga. The man who bought the adjacent crypt ‘specifically flew in from California because he is a big fan of hers,’ a Ferncliff cemetery manager told The New York Post. Garland had been interred in crypt No. 31 in Unit 9 of the mausoleum; where nearby spaces go for up to $15,500 (US).
Garland was found dead in her London home in 1969 at age 47, after a barbiturate overdose.
Her fifth husband, Mickey Deans, made the decision at the time to bury her on the East Coast, rather than Los Angeles. ‘I didn’t want her where tourist buses and that sort of thing go through,’ he told The New York Times at Garland’s 1969 visitation in Manhattan.
Now, Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli was reportedly behind the decision to move the Golden Era starlet’s body to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where there is more space for family to be buried nearby. On the same block as Paramount Studios, the cemetery is one of the oldest in Lost Angeles.
If the Garland fan who bought the New York crypt moves forward with his plans to be buried there, it’s unclear who his new neighbor in eternity will be, if anyone.
‘We haven’t decided what to do yet but we think because she’s been here so long, we will just leave it here and memorialize her,’ the cemetery manager said.
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Big Little Lies stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman take the cover of Elle Magazine’s Women in TV issue.
Also featured on separate covers are co-stars Zoe Kravitz and Shailene Woodley. Here’s what they had to share…
Reese, on the importance of deplorables: “As an artist, I feel more strongly than ever that my job on earth is to tell the stories of the invisibles, and women have been invisible on film for a long time. Women are wives and mothers and girlfriends, but not the center of our own stories. No one’s the good guy; no one’s the bad guy. We all do deplorable things and very honorable things.”
Zoe, on Donald Trump: “There has to be something positive that can come out of [the election]. Already it’s helped me want to connect with everybody. When I go to the deli or I’m talking to a waiter or my Uber driver and they say, “How are you?,” I’ve answered in an honest way for the first time. Like, “Oof.” Even that felt good. Let’s let everything come to the surface, even with people we come in contact with for a moment. This situation can help us be a little bit more awake with each other.”
Shailene, on self worth: “When it comes to sexuality, sensuality, self-representation, self-nurturance—America fails in those departments. Women like Nicole [Kidman] trailblaze these paths of self-love and self-recognition. Not from a pretentious place or a greedy place, but from a place of knowing that in order to help those around you, and in order to even be a good actress and a good mother at the same time, you have to know your worth.”
Nicole, on shooting the show’s sex scenes: “So many of the bruises you see on me aren’t fake. I had to do a shower scene where you would see a lot of them, and I asked them not to put makeup on me. It needed to be pretty raw and out there. There’s certain choreography that you need for a scene like that, so that you don’t actually get your cheekbone shattered, but a lot of the time, they’d say, “Oh, you can put some pads in your back,” and I would say no, because you might be able to see them. I also felt that the nudity was a part of it. It wasn’t about exploitation. It really feeds into their relationship. You really get their sexuality through that.”
For more from the stars, visit Elle.com.
…………………. Until next week my lips are sealed!
David H. W. Hartnell MNZM copyright 2017
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