King Arthur Movie Tristan

Saturday Fluffernutter - all the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.

Blair MacLean (1943 - 2008). So sad to hear of the death of the surviving member of MacLean & MacLean, Blair MacLean, of heart attack at age 65 last week. Canadian comedy duo MacLean & MacLean ran from 1972 to 1998, but had their greatest successes through the 1980's. It is still not Christmas around the Hespeler Towers without MacLean & MacLean Go To Hell spinning once on the turntable.

MacLean's partner, brother Gary MacLean passed away in 2001 of throat cancer. To mark the kind of man he was, Blair and his wife moved from Nova Scotia to Winnipeg to help care for Gary's sons after his death.


Note: That's all I got around to writing last week, and normally would have scrapped the whole thing, but I felt I wanted to pay small homage to Blair MacLean.

Saturday Fluffernutter - all the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.


People this week were picketing the L.A. Premiere of Tropic Thunder. Apparently actor Robert Downey Jr. used the word retard, a new no-no in the politically correct world: they are to be called protesters.


Kiddie Diddler Gary Glitter will be released from a Viet Nam prison next Tuesday after serving 2 years and five months of a three month sentence for abusing children. He will then be deported to Britain, where he will be met by police, interviewed and required to sign the sex offender registry.

Glitter has said that returning to Britain is a matter of priority for medical and dental treatment, hopefully because somebody has kicked his teeth in.

The latest Led Zeppelin news, courtesy of Ramble On: Guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Leona Lewis will be part of the "handing over" as part of the closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics on August 24th. Finally a reason, any reason, to watch the Olympics.

Isaac Hayes, performer of "Theme from Shaft," writer of "Soul Man," and voice of Chef, died last Sunday at his Memphis Home. Hayes was part of the legendary "Stax records writing and production team, along with David Porter and Booker T and the MGs, was responsible for much of Stax legendary output through the early 1960's.

Hayes was reportedly found beside his still running treadmill, yet another celebrity to die while exercising.

Three days after Warren Zevon passed away in 2003 Bruce Springsteen opened his Toronto Skydome show with the song My Ride's Here. Standing centre-stage accompanied only by violinist Suzie Tyrell on his left and keyboardist Danny Federici playing accordion on his right, Springsteen paid tribute to an old friend, and began the best of six Springsteen shows I have seen. Two days ago, Federici himself succumbed to cancer. The last Springsteen show I saw occured last October, a mere month before Federici would leave the E-Street Band to pursue treatment for his melanoma.

Federici was with Springsteen almost from the beginning, making his first E-Street Band appearance on Springsteen's 2nd release, 1973's The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. He would spend the better part of the next 35 years playing organ, and occasional accordion, with them. But he turns up before that, in an earlier Springsteen band called Steel Mill

From BruceSpringsteen.com:

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years - he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much...we grew up together."
—Bruce Springsteen

Springsteen also has a video up of the last Federici performance, on March 20, 2008 in Indianapolis:

E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici treated Indianapolis fans to a special appearance at Conseco Fieldhouse on March 20th. Danny's performance was a profound expression of the healing power of music and community, all the more poignant in light of his death just a few weeks later. Here, from the Indie show, is an excerpt from one of Danny's signature accordion performances on the rarely-played Sandy.

http://media.brucespringsteen.net/non_secure/videos/080320_1S.mov

One of my favourite Springsteen moments, a video of him playing Fire at an acoustic benefit put on by Neil Young for The Bridge, "a San Fransisco - based program that would make available vocal computers for severely handicapped children who otherwise had no way of speaking." (Glory Days, page 443). It is Springsteen on guitar and singing, Nils Lofgren on guitar and Federici on accordion:



RIP Danny Federici, and thanks for the memories.

I was staying at the Marriott
With Jesus and John Wayne
I was waiting for a chariot
They were waiting for a train
The sky was full of carrion
"I'll take the mazuma"
Said Jesus to Marion
"That's the 3:10 to Yuma
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here"

The Houston sky was changeless
We galloped through bluebonnets
I was wrestling with an angel
You were working on a sonnet
You said, "I believe the seraphim
Will gather up my pinto
And carry us away, Jim
Across the San Jacinto
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here"

Shelley and Keats were out in the street
And even Lord Byron was leaving for Greece
While back at the Hilton, last but not least
Milton was holding his sides
Saying, "You bravos had better be
ready to fight
Or we'll never get out of East Texas tonight
The trail is long and the river is wide
And my ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here"

I was staying at the Westin
I was playing to a draw
When in walked Charlton Heston
With the Tablets of the Law
He said, "It's still the Greatest Story"
I said, "Man, I'd like to stay
But I'm bound for glory
I'm on my way
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here
My ride's here

The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.

Lindsay Lohan has recreated a series of Marilyn Monroe pictures done in 1962, which have come to be known as "the last sitting". In the pictures Lohan poses nude or virtually nude in a series of unprovocative pictures. Bearing in mind that Lohan is 21 and Marilyn was 36 at the time of her shoot, Marilyn looked better. It takes, really, a fair bit of hubris to decide "I can channel Marilyn Monroe. I can imitate the most enduring sex symbol of the 20th century." Unfortunately, Lohan has more hubris than the rest of the requisite talents to "do" Marilyn Monroe.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is due in theatres in three months, on May 22. The first trailer has been released and can be seen at the official Indiana Jones site:

He protected the power of the divine.
He saved the cradle of civilization.
He triumphed over the armies of evil...

Best line -
Indy's associate (could that be Marcus?): "This ain't going to be easy."
Indy: "Not as easy as it used to be."

Roswell New Mexico, Niagara Falls and those cheesy Indiana Jones special effects, this one looks like it has a bit of everything.

It is being reported that Patrick Swayze is fighting Pancreatic Cancer. Camp Swayze is denying reports that he is terminally ill, has lost 20 pounds and the cancer spread over the course of his chemotherapy. Unfortunately, far too often when rumours like this appear, the reports are accurate, the denial just that. Lets hope that Patrick Swayze truly is OK and progressing as well as his people say he is.

I am trying to decide whether Patrick Swayze's cancer reports, coming the same week as his Roadhouse co-star Jeff Healey succumbed to cancer, is ironic or just a sick twisted coincidence. Either way it's a sad testament to how pervasive this disease is. If not for Swayze saving the visual and Healey saving the audio, Roadhouse may have turned into one of the worst movies ever. Either way it was saved by two very good performers, both of whom we got bad news this week. I paid my respects to Healey when the news of his death emerged Sunday night so I won't repeat myself. But I will mention that hearing much of the Healey music this week, I was reminded in retrospect he was an amazing guitarist and musician who, if the Gods granted fame and fortune based on talent alone, would have been a huge star. Truly one of the best, and I would add, a very underrated singer.

I first saw Jeff Healey play on the New Music back in the early 80's. John Roberts was J.D., and he did a story on a blind teenage phenom who played blues guitar with the guitar across his lap. He cited Jimi Hendrix as an influence and played in a very Hendrix style.

Five or six years later, in 1988, Jeff Healey was on the charts with the album See The Light. It included the hit songs Confidence Man, the title track and perhaps Healey's biggest hit, a wonderful version of John Hiatt's Angel Eyes. His second album two years later, Hell To Pay, featured a stunning version of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It takes a man among guitar players to tackle a classic Eric Clapton solo but Healey pulled it off.

Sadly, Jeff Healey has fought cancer all his life, losing his sight to Retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer, at age one. Last January (2007) it was announced that Healey had had been diagnosed with lung cancer surgery the previous December, and had undergone surgery to remove the cancerous tissue.

Jeff Healey passed away last evening at St. Joseph's Hospital Toronto. He was 41 years old and leaves a wife and two children, 13-year-old daughter Rachel and three-year-old son Derek. At Home in Hespeler offers condolences to the family of Jeff Healey, a great Canadian talent gone far too young.

from Singles Scene

All the Fluffy news about the worlds biggest nuts.

Rosie O'Donnell announced this week she is leaving the "Chick sit" show The View. Negotiations apparently bogged down when O'Donnell wanted a one-year contract and ABC wanted her "the hell off our set today." A compromise was established and she is leaving in June.

Sheryl Crow approached Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and badgered him about global warming. Rove got angry, and Crow eventually told him:

“You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.”

A few days later, Crow posted an article on her website, in which she advises her fans:

"I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required.”

Which just goes to prove Karl Rove is just like the rest of us: his boss is an idiot.

Oh, and Crow now says the toilet paper thing was just a joke. Which leads us to the question, who was she poking fun at? Sheryl Crow?

It was an interesting week all around for Sheryl Crow, as later in the week as Archbishop Raymond Burke resigned as chairman of the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation after its board of governors refused to pull the plug on a Sheryl Crow benefit concert Saturday. The Archbishop called Crow "a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives," upon tendering her resignation. "Oh," he added, "she also has really smelly hands."

Doris Richards, 91 year old mother to Kieth Richards, died last Saturday of unknown causes. At Home in Hespeler has received an exclusive that her last words were: "For Gods Sake, Don't let him cremate me."

Hugh Grant was arrested Thursday over an incident in which he allegedly threw a Tupperware container of baked beans at a photographer. We use the word allegedly because, while there is photographic evidence, the video is not yet on YouTube.

These photographers these days are becoming complete wimps. In the old days paparazzi got hit by tins of baked beans- now that would hurt. Back in the silent movie days, actors carried a pork shoulder to make beans while they were on set. No getting smacked by a wimpy old Tupperware container for the photographers of old, but did you ever hear of them complaining?

Thursday also saw an arrest warrant issued in India for Richard Gere. His offence, a very public smooching of Bollywood starlet Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event. Gere faces three months in an Indian prison if found guilty, which, you gotta figure, is a lot worse than a tin of beans to the head.

Farewell to Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, who passed away this week at age 69. Pickett was known for his novelty hit "The Monster Mash. Picket apparently died of a "sudden surprise when his eyes beheld an eerie sight while working in the lab late one night." The Crypt Kicker Five is said to have performed the music at his wake.