Archive - 2011 - Blog entry

Merry Christmas & happy holidays

Thank you for visiting HollywoodMemoir.com.  
Thank you for sharing my passion.

I hope everyone is enjoying the season.  I am making turkey right now.  I shall watch all 5 NBA games on TV today.

I hope good things will happen to everyone next year.

* Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow,

On December 16, 2011, it was announced that Etta James was under 24-hour care and is terminally ill from the cancer she has been battling throughout 2011. Her manager, Lupe De Leon, stated to the media that she is "in the final stages of leukemia", has been diagnosed with both dementia and Hepatitis C, has been placed on oxygen, is receiving constant care from her husband, and is being visited regularly by her sons. De Leon went on to say, "We're all very sad. We're just waiting..."

Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins, January 25, 1938) is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues (R&B), rock and roll, gospel, and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best known for her version of the Mack Gordon and Harry Warren song "At Last", and for "I'd Rather Go Blind", for which she claims she wrote the lyrics.

At Last - Etta James

Barbara Orbison, died Tuesday, December 6, 2011 of pancreatic cancer. She was 60 at the time of her death. She died 23 years to the day that her husband Roy Orbison died of a heart attack (December 6, 1988). Barbara Orbison will be buried next to Roy Orbison at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter.  His greatest success came with Monument Records in the early to mid 1960s when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", "In Dreams", and "Oh, Pretty Woman".

On November 29, 2011, Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in prison.

* Thank you itsruss
Click for a complete news (& photo)

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Robin Gibb Liver Cancer – Robin Gibb, member of the music group Bee Gees, has liver cancer, a family friend confirmed Sunday.

The 61 year old was rushed to the hospital last Tuesday after a 911 call from his mansion home in Oxfordshire, central England, but allowed home after a few hours, the Sunday Mirror reported.

On November 18th 2011 the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said it had decided on a cold case review of her death after they were made aware of comments made by the yacht’s skipper that he deliberately misled investigators at the request of the actor Robert Wagner, Wood’s husband.

On November 29, 1981, Actress Natalie Wood drowned after spending several hours drinking on Catalina Island and a yacht with husband Robert Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and the ship's captain, Dennis Davern.  There was an argument between three actors.  Robert Wagner accused Christoper Walken for wanting to sleep with his wife Natalie Wood.  After the argument, Robert Wagner reportedly smashed a wine glass on a coffee table.

Yacht Captain is now saying Robert Wagner is Responsible for Death of Natalie Wood.  But he wouldn't say why.

More coming... This story will be followed and updated.  Please check back

Breaking News - 1:17pm (November 7, 2011)

Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson Doctor, Found Guilty of involuntary murder of Michael Jackson

On October 25, 63 years old Steven Tyler slipped in his hotel shower in Paraguay and injured his face, including losing 2 teeth. Tyler was rushed to the hospital, and the scheduled show was postponed for the following night.

On October 26, 2011 (3 months after her death) the coroner reported that Amy Winehouse had been found to have died of alcohol poisoning, with her blood alcohol content determined at 416 mg per decilitre (5 times the legal limit).

She woke up on her tour bus Saturday having difficulty breathing. She was treated at a Kentucky hospital over the weekend and released.

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Mikey Welsh, former bassist for the alternative rock band Weezer, has died. Welsh, who was 40, was found in a Chicago hotel room on Saturday afternoon. The cause of death is still undetermined...    

....The Vermont-born Welsh performed with Weezer from 1998 to 2001

Click for a complete news

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Jeff Conaway’s autopsy results are back and the Los Angeles County coroner is ruling his death accidental. The findings also reveal that multiple causes, including internal infection, are to blame for his tragic end.

Related story
Jeff Conaway, star of 'Taxi' and 'Grease,' dies 60

Click for a complete news

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(CBS) Comedienne Wanda Sykes made a very serious revelation during an interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

In the appearance, which is set to air Monday, Sykes admits that she was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and decided to have a double mastectomy.

"I had breast cancer," Sykes, 47, said, according to reports. "Yeah, I know it's scary."

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Wanda Sykes (born March 7, 1964. 47 years old) is an American writer, stand-up comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on The Chris Rock Show. In 2004 Entertainment Weekly named her as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on The New Adventures of Old Christine and for her appearances on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. In November 2009 The Wanda Sykes Show, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, airing Saturday nights. It ended in April 2010.

Sykes also had a successful career in film, appearing in Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Evan Almighty, and License to Wed, and voiced characters in Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Brother Bear 2, Rio, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.

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R.E.M., the underground band from Athens, Ga., that helped invent the alternative-rock sound of the 1980s, said on Wednesday that its members were splitting up after 31 years of making music together.

One must bring up "Death Comes in Threes" myth.  This time it will be "Political Death Triad" rather than "Celebrity Death Triad".

Also, both Kennedy & Mondale were 51 years old.

• September 16, 2011 - Kara Kennedy Allen, daughter of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, died Friday night at a health club in Washington, D.C.  Kennedy Allen, 51, had just taken a swim in the club, according to multiple people on close terms with the Kennedy family, who said she was found in the steam room by another gym member.

• September 17, 2011 - Eleanor Mondale Poling, 51, daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale, died at her Minnesota home early on Saturday after a six-year battle with brain cancer.

• September 17, 2011 - Charles H. Percy, a brilliant businessman who represented Illinois for nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate, once headed the chamber’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, and harbored unrealized ambitions to run for the presidency, died early Saturday. He was 91.