Celebrity
Dame Edna Creator Barry Humphries Dies In Sydney At 89
CANBERRA, Australia – Barry Humphries, Tony Award-winning comedian known for his outrageous theatrical character, Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and thinly disguised snob whose changing character has charmed audiences for seven decades, has died. He was 89.
His family confirmed his death in a Sydney hospital where he had spent several days due to complications after hip surgery.
According to a family statement, “he was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, unique wit, and generosity of spirit.”
“He was an entertainer to the core, touring up until the last year of his life and planning more shows that will sadly never be,” they continued.
Humphries had resided in London for decades before returning to his native Australia for Christmas.
He told The Sydney Morning Herald last month that his treatment after his accident and hip replacement had been “agony.”
“It was the most absurd thing, as are all domestic incidents.” “I was reaching for a book when my foot got caught on something, and I fell,” Humphries explained his incident.
Humphries has continued to perform as a performer, touring the United Kingdom last year with his one-man show “The Man Behind the Mask.”
Dame Edna began as dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first appeared on stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. Humphries found postwar suburbia immobility and cultural blandness suffocating.
“Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius,” Ricky Gervais, a British comedian, tweeted.
Edna is one of Humphries’ most memorable characters. Sir Les Patterson, an ever-drunk, unkempt, and lecherous Australian cultural attache, is the second most famous.
Patterson reflected Humphries’ and many other renowned Australian intellectuals’ perception of Australia as a Western cultural wasteland.
Humphries, a law school dropout, had significant success as an actor, writer, and entertainer in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, but the United States remained elusive.
In the United States, he received a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway production “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the legendary comedian.
“For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone,” Albanese tweeted, referring to one of Humphries’ most enduring characters, the gloomy and meandering Stone. “But Barry was always the brightest star in that galaxy.” He was both gifted and a gift, a wonderful wit, satirist, writer, and an amazing one-of-a-kind.”
“Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius,” Ricky Gervais, a British comedian, tweeted.
“One of the funniest people I have ever met,” said Piers Morgan, a British television personality.
Morgan called Morgan a “wonderfully intelligent, entertaining, daring, provocative, mischievous comedy genius.”
Humphries was also a well-known character actor with several stage and cinema appearances, the author of novels and an autobiography, and an exceptional landscape painter.
On February 17, 1934, John Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne. His parents were content, loving, and strict, and they must have worried about their eldest son, Sunny Sam. His mother always told him not to bring attention to himself.
On February 17, 1934, John Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne.
Humphries was more interested in art and secondhand bookshops than sports before graduating from Melbourne Grammar School. At 16, his favorite author was Franz Kafka, and he subsequently stated that he “felt a little foreign.”
He studied Dadaism, a subversive, anarchic, and absurdist European art movement, for two years at Melbourne University.
“Puss In Boots,” waterproof rubber boots filled with custard, and, on the performance art side, going on a tram with a supposedly blind accomplice whom Humphries would kick in the shins while saying, “Get out of my way, you disgusting blind person,” were among his contributions.
He moved to London in 1959 and began working at Peter Cook’s comedy club, The Establishment. In 1960, he played Sowerberry in the first London production of “Oliver!” and reprised the role on Broadway. In “Treasure Island,” he co-starred alongside Spike Milligan and William Rushton.
In 1964, Humphries collaborated with New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland to create the Barry McKenzie comic strip for the satirical magazine Private Eye.
The Australian government prohibited the book version of the cartoons because it “relied on indecency for its humor.” Humphries expressed satisfaction at the attention and pleaded with officials not to relax the restriction.
Humphries’ drinking had gotten out of hand by this point. In late 1970, he was charged with being drunk and unruly in Melbourne. He finally admitted himself to an alcoholism hospital for therapy that would transform him into a lifetime abstainer.
Despite the earlier restriction, the first Barry McKenzie film was released in 1972, with financial help from the Australian government. It was panned by critics, who were worried about what the world’s first film to feature beer-induced vomiting would do to Australia’s reputation abroad.
However, it was a tremendous success, and a sequel two years later had then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam knighting McKenzie’s aunt, Edna.
He was married four times and left behind his wife, Lizzie Spender, four children, and ten grandchildren.
SOURCE – (AP)
Celebrity
Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone
Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.
In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.
As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.
Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.
“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”
“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”
Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.
Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg
— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024
Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.
Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.
“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.
The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.
The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.
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Celebrity
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.
On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.
“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.
However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.
Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”
He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.
Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.
Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.
According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.
“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.
The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.
SOURCE | CNN
Celebrity
Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79
Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”
Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.
She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.
In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.
Teri Garr, a comedian
Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”
She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.
The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.
A gift for spontaneous humor
Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.
Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.
During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.
Source: AP
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