Farrah is with the angels now

Farrah Fawcett was another Hollywood blonde icon whose beauty and talent didn't bring her the happiness her public would assume. She withstood punches from gossips and big strong men in her life alike and in the end put up the good fight against cancer. Thanks to experimental and alternative treatments she could only find and receive outside the United States, she lived far longer than expected, and put those years and that fight to great use to help others and lead others to find the same help.


She had a tremendous fighting spirit and she inspired millions of people. She used her suffering to help others.

Rest in peace, Farrah.

She's gone

9 28 am at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

Ryan O'Neal shuts down Farrah's website

Farrah Fawcett's official website, FarrahFawcett.us, a focal point for criticism of her legal guardian Ryan O'Neal, has been shut down, allegedly on O'Neal's orders.

The publicist for Greg Lott, Farrah's partner in the site and O'Neal's antagonist in her final days, writes: "Attorney's acting on orders of Ryan O'Neal and the 'power of attorney' have served a lawsuit on the web server ordering an injunction to the website."

The site was started by Farrah and her college sweetheart Lott, as a fansite and forum for Farrah to bypass the tabloids in getting her message to the public. Lott told Tabloid Baby the site went online the same day Farrah got her cancer diagnosis, and it soon became virtual headquarters in her battle against the disease.

The site has recently become a forum for Lott, who claims Ryan O'Neal has underhandedly seized control of Farrah's estate and has blocked him and and other longtime friends of loved ones from seeing her. Lott, who's from Texas, has been in Los Angeles holding vigil for his gal, and has protested loudly that he his once open-access to Farrah was stopped after O'Neal took legal control of her affairs.

In recent weeks, Lott teamed up with a publicist named Alan Miller from a compnay called Hitman PR. Hitman's PR Blog blil itself as "THE OFFICIAL BLOG FOR FARRAH FAWCETT.US AND GREG LOTT, FARRAH'S BUSINESS PARTNER AND FRIEND WRITTEN BY ALLEN S. MILLER, PUBLICIST, HITMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DRASMILLER."

On Tuesday, Miller published "An Open Letter to Ryan O'Neal's marriage proposal," in which he made a number of lurid accusations against O'Neal and Farrah's friend Alana Stewart.

"Yesterday, attorney's acting on orders of Ryan O'Neal and the 'power of attorney' have served a lawsuit on the web server ordering an injunction to the website. After I published the "Open Letter to Ryan O'Neal, we started hearing from his attorney's. It is obvious; Mr. O'Neal does not want the truth of his activities known to the world."

The Farrah Fawcett website was a focal point for fans from around the world, and more recently as a shrine. Last motnh, Lott posted Farrah's address and urged fans to send cards, letters and packages to her home, where O'Neal, was staying, so the stacks would reach "all the way up to his neck."

Earlier this month, the Hitman site said the correspondence should be sent to O'Neal's gym.

O'Neal has reportedly continued filming a follow-up to the Farrah's Story documentary he had hijacked from its original producer, Craig Nevius. There is a report this morning that he at her bedside, repeatedly breaking down in sobs. It is not knwn whether the scene is being filmed.

Friends brawl, networks in deathmatch as Farrah slips away...

Friends of Farrah Fawcett tell us her passing is near. Her doctors confirm the sad inevitability. And as the brave, beautiful blonde takes her final breaths, the battles surrounding her are amped up amid the emotion and panic among her loved ones and those who want something from her alike. The friends and colleagues who've been kept away from Farrah since her longtime/sometimes lover Ryan O'Neal moved in and took over her affairs have taken to various websites and press releases with accusations that we can't repeat unless or until we or someone who's paid to do the work can prove them.

The most unseemly deathmatch is between the true Farrahcites, the network news buzzards who preach high standards yet grovel in the dirt as they ape the tabloid form in search of the next bug "get." Word tonight is that the good folks at NBC and NBC News are in an uproar that old Barbara Walters and her crew at ABC's 20/20 hijacked the sequel to their high-rating tabloid special "Farrah's Story" for ABC's own "Love Story," set to air Friday night and getting a lot of play for Ryan O'Neal's jocular announcement that he plans to marry Farrah on her deathbed if "maybe we can just nod her head."

Tonight we hear that NBC's biggest fear is that Farrah will pass away in the next 48 hours, leading to giant ratings for ABC. So NBC plans to counter-program with three primetime hours of Farrah Fawcett on Friday night, rerunning "Farrah's Story," the maudlin, morbid tale helmed by and starring Ryan O'Neal, followed by a "special" one-hour retrospective on Farrah's life hosted by Meredith Vieira.

This is not tribute. This is not homage to a princess. One insider tells TabloidBaby what it is: "NBC is looking to crush ABC."

"Farrah's Story," you'll remember, was a two-hour recut of the cancer journal documentary Farrah had produced with producer Craig Nevius. But as her condition worsened, O'Neal took over not only her affairs but the doco, pushing Nevius aside (Nevius sued), and with the help of the heavy hands at NBC Dateline, turning Farrah's story into Ryan's real-life Love Story.

Farrah's journals, we're told, are being turned into a book by Alana Stewart, her friend who helped film much of Farrah's treatment at cancer clinics in Germany, and who later sided with O'Neal in the doco heist after demanding a fat payoff for her work. The book, we're told will be announced after Farrah's passing, "for maximum effect."

April 2nd, 2009:

Angel Farrah

Dr. Ruehl remembers Ed McMahon

Our fondest personal memory of the great Ed McMahon is, of course, from the Jerry Labor Day Telethons. Ed was always there for Jerry, filling in on the hours when Jerry wasn't well, leading into those toteboard tallies with all the enthusiasm they deserved.

Backstage, the big Marine kept to himself, tucked away in his dressing room to emerge for his parts. We remember the afternoon the biggest, most fully-stocked rolling service carts of booze was rolled to his room, enough juice to keep the big man oiled for the entire weekend binge.

Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D., who now does his columns for his own website, Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion, does us one better. he as a costar in Ed Mcmahon's final work, a couple of comedy rap videos for a credit report company.

Dr. Ruehl filled us in on his experiences. Now, in this exclusive piece, he offers this memory of his pal, Ed McMahon:

My Fond Memory
of Working with Ed McMahon
on His Last Project

I am saddened by the dire news of Ed McMahon's death. I worked with Ed on his 'Gangsta Rap' video a few months ago (September 13,2008) and he appeared to be in excellent health! He was energetic and cordial, shaking hands with everyone on the set, and doing retakes like a pro!

He only asked, when we were dancing in a motel room, that we try to avoid bumping into him as he did not want another fall, having recovered from a previous accident.

I consider it a high honor that I was able to work with him on his last project.

In the "Gangsta Rap" video, I am seen with my repent sign and raccoon hat 38-42 secs into it, and at the very end 55-56 sec in a pirate hat dancing with others in Ed's motel room:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEO

May the Power of the Cosmos be with You, Ed, wherever you may now be!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

The winner in the Perez Hilton-will.i.am feud is... Rumor Rat

We have no problem with Perez Hilton. We like the kid. When he's linked to our posts once or twice, it's given us a boost in traffic. And we don't think anybody should respond to the written words of any blogger, Internet writer or critic or journo with violence, as apparently happened (with a little help from Perez' bitchy mouth) in the case and of him and that supposedly cultured and political Obama guy from the Black Eyed Peas.

But the incident in Toronto that threw a spanner into young Mario's plans to become a kinder, gentler and more mainstream media personality has also marked a changing of the guard in Internet entertainment journalism.

When word got out that Perez got poked, Harvey Levin, the shaved bronzed midget frontman of the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com, ran himself silly trying to kiss every ass cheek thrust in his direction-- first siding with will.i.am after he sent a denial video to the sewer site, then jumping back under Perez's sheets when the blogging queen released an epic 11+ minute soliloquy-- only to hop back into the anti-Perez line after GLAAD tried to wash Perez's mouth with soap, then-- well, basically revealing TMZ as the amoral waterboy for whoever wants to splash it in watersports.

And as these instant dinosaurs stumble-- one literally punch drunk, the other high on hate-- comes the latest shift in Hollywood entertainment reporting as the Hollywood gossip site that's done the best play-by-play and kept up with every twist in the tiff is that upstart gossip site, Rumor Rat. The mysterious site that's broken onto the scene in recent weeks is just smart and clever and nasty enough to never fall into the jealous, antagonistic smut that circles the TMZ bowl.

While we at TabloidBaby.com are getting international attention and record traffic with our breaking coverage of the Danny Gans and Farrah Fawcett stories, upstart Rumor Rat, which first nibbled into the general awareness by skittering around Perez and leaving its droppings across the TMZ bow, is taking over the Hollywood rumor and celebrity news mantle.

We know Harvey storms around his office asking who this giant mouse and Big Cheese may be. We've gotten accusatory phone calls from his sister operations. We've also learned exclusively that Rumor Rat's experienced an 800% boost in "unique visitor" traffic over last week, and is growing by the day, in part thanks to its coverage of its rivals.

Just as TMZ's shameful launch capsized the bounding Defamer and sent its correspondents to the couch in their bunny slippers to transcribe episode of Oprah and The View, so is RumorRat.com turning into the Ratatouille chef of the stew of Hollywood gossip sites.

BTW, if you haven't noticed how our criticism of TMZ has led to its neutering, check out their announcement of the death of Ed McMahon. While in the past, Harvey and his boys would ridicule the passing of elderly celebs with tasteless puns, they now bow to the powers behind the ones they taunt:

Ryan O'Neal tells Barbara Walters he'll marry Farrah before she dies

Wonder if hard-hitting news veteran Barbara Walters will get to the bottom of the controversy over Ryan O'Neal's control over cancer-stricken Farrah Fawcett in her final days? Wonder no more. The promotion department at ABC is working overtime to hype the 20/20 segment that airs Friday night, and the big "get" is O'Neal's insistence that the iconic actress has agreed to marry him on her deathbed.

Says O'Neal: "We will (marry), as soon as she can say 'yes.'"

"As soon as she can say 'yes.'"

O'Neal, who has been accused by some of Farrah's friends of engineering an "estate takeover," laughed when he added: "Maybe we can just nod her head."

"Maybe we can just nod her head."

He was still having fun when he spoke about how he'd dress for the wedding: "Like a gigolo. A little thin moustache and slicked-back hair. I don't know."

"Like a gigolo."

There has been no comment from Farrah. The 62-year-old star is said to be heavily sedated, and at last word, has been re-admitted to the hospital.

This has led to questions about the veracity of O'Neal's statements and the intentions behind the wedding. But not, apparently, from Barbara Walters.

O'Neal and Farrah were tempestuous, (on-and-off) lovers for years (they have a son, Redmond, who's jailed on drug charges), but broke up officially a dozen years ago. He came back into her life during her cancer battle and recently made headlines when he seized control of the cancer documentary she had been producing and with the help of NBC News, turned it into a maudlin, morbid elder version of "Love Story" with O'Neal reprising his role.

Said one friend: "Ryan thinks the documentary will do to his career what 'Pulp Fiction did to Travolta's."

Walters, with the 20/20 investigative unit and powerful ABC News organization at her disposal, might still surprise us and delve into the charges, mystery and uproar around O'Neal's control over Farrah in her dying days. It will be interesting to see if the tabloid babies who create her segnments dig away to find the truth, or, in more standard network procedure, make deals with public relations firms, promising to stay away from certain hot topics in exchange for "exclusives' like wedding announcements.

As for the deathbed wedding, O'Neal tells Walters: "I promise you, we will. Absolutely."

EXCLUSIVE: POLICE SAY DANNY GANS DEATH CASE IS "STILL OPEN"

"The Danny Gans case is still an open investigation."

A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department told a TabloidBaby.com producer this afternoon that the investigation into the Dilaudid overdose death of the Las Vegas strip superstar has not yet been closed, despite the "acidental" tag plaxced on Gans' May 1st demise by the Clark County Coroner.

Our man on the ground in Clark County visited the police headquarters on Water Street in hopes of getting hold of the police incident report that's been held from public view since Gans' untimely death at his home on Ricota Court in the Roma Hills estates. It was then that he was told the case is "still an open investigation."

The police report was again withheld.

The lead detective, the police spokesman said, is "on vacation." Whether he's been away the thirteen days since the Coroner and Las Vegas news media closed their books on the case, or is investigating other leads into how the supposedly clean-living, athletic Born Again Christian showman wound up dying from too much "drug store heroin" remains to be seen.

The bigger question is why no one in the Las Vegas news media has gone after the police and paramedic incident reports or questioned why the death is still open thirteen days after it was supposedly officially deemed "accidental."

Danny Gans photo: Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun

American Dunkleman makes The Globe!

The Globe, the edgy supermarket tabloid that's scarfed up by millions of Americans each week, is highlighting American Dunkleman!

You remember American Dunkleman. It's the proposed television comedy series starring former American Idol host Brian Dunkleman, was hailed as "hilarious" earlier this year when a trailer for the based-on-real-life laughfest hit the Internet. The series from our pals at Frozen Pictures got great attention from the likes of the Los Angeles Times and The National Enquirer, which had fun with the producers' tongue-in-cheek Facebook campaign.


Now the current issue of The Globe tabloid features American Dunkleman. The fact that the weekly tabloid with a finger on the pulse of Middle America chose to seek out and publish a story on the show is yet another indicator of American Dunkleman's mainstream appeal.

The story is another juicy tease with an A+ tabloid headline:

'IDOL' IDIOT PLOTS SITCOM SALVATION

FORMER American Idol host Brian Dunkleman is attempting a TV comeback by shopping around a sitcom about his life.

Called American Dunkleman, the series plays on Brian's real-life reputation of having made "the biggest mistake in the history of show business" when he walked away from his role as "Idol" co-host after the show's first season.

Since leaving FOX's talent fest, his career has nose-dived, while his co-host Ryan Seacrest went on to make a fortune as a radio DJ and TV producer.

The comedy series follows the fictional Dunkleman as he attempts to get back into the television business.

A source says: "His character embarrasses himself and disappoints his friends while constantly being reminded that he could have been a millionaire if he'd stuck with the show."

So what about the show?

"We're negotiating, we're pitching and we've got one especially hot prospect we hope will become a reality soon, says Frozen's Brett Hudson. "This series will introduce America to a Brian Dunkleman who was never revealed on reality television. He's a true comedy idol!"

Chicago Tribune features "multitalented, ever-clever, never going to be halftime at the Super Bowl" Neil Innes and The Seventh Python

A week ago, we featured pictures from a Chicago Tribune photo shoot featuring music and comedy legend Neil Innes, star of The Seventh Python, the nonfiction musical feature film from our pals at Frozen Pictures. The session was part of a media blitz surrounding the historic Innes concert and film screening at the Wilmette Theatre on June 9th, and accompanied an interview with Innes by Tribune writer Marc Caro.

The feature runs in today's issue of the Trib (which has already called the film "magical, mysterious, whimsical, hysterical!"), a little late for the Wilmette show but just in time for The Seventh Python's pair of showings at the Relevation Perth International Film Festival July 4th and 10th:

Chicago Tribune
'Seventh Python' has been
making his mark
for more than four decades
But Neil Innes is far from a household name
By Mark Caro, Tribune reporter
June 21, 2009

Neil Innes was browsing the stacks at Vintage Vinyl in Evanston when the clerk brought over copies of several albums by Innes' anarchic '60s jazz/rock/comedy collective, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

The records were priced at $50 apiece, prompting the 64-year-old British singer/songwriter/pianist/guitarist to marvel, "Is that what they are? Hmm. Well, good luck."

He thought about autographing them, then reconsidered: "It would probably devalue it if I signed."

He inspected the back cover of "Gorilla," the Bonzos' 1967 debut album, on which was listed a song called "Death Cab for Cutie." "That came from an American crime magazine which I found in Deptford Street Market [in London]," Innes recalled. "It was this lurid cover; it said, 'Death Cab for Cutie.' "

Paul McCartney liked the song so much that he tapped the Bonzos to perform it in the Beatles' rambling TV movie "Magical Mystery Tour." A Seattle-area rock band subsequently took the song title as its own name and became so popular that the phrase's origins have become all but forgotten.

So it goes for the multitalented, ever-clever Innes, who has been making his mark for more than four decades without ever becoming a household name.

"I'm never going to be halftime at the Super Bowl," he dryly acknowledged.

The Bonzos had one British hit, Innes' jokey-folky "I'm the Urban Spaceman" (produced by McCartney under the name Apollo C. Vermouth), and appeared regularly on the madcap British TV series "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which featured future Monty Pythonites Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. But the band never exceeded cult status, particularly in the U.S.

Innes wound up providing musical contributions to "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975). He's the minstrel singing about Brave Sir Robin, and he's also a peasant who gets crushed by a gigantic wooden rabbit. His impact on the troupe was such that Terry Gilliam dubbed him "The Seventh Python," also the name of Burt Kearns' documentary that brought Innes to town earlier this month for a screening and performance at the Wilmette Theatre.


Post-Python, Innes and Idle created the Rutles, a Beatles parody group that debuted on the duo's British TV series "Rutland Weekend Television" before starring in their own 1978 NBC television special "All You Need Is Cash." It was the week's lowest-rated show among the major networks yet provided the "mockumentary" template for "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984) while sustaining a steady level of belovedness among Beatles and Python fans.

Innes eventually spun off a second Rutles album without Idle in 1996 ("Archaeology"), and a solo Idle cobbled together a rather lame Rutles follow-up film in 2005 (the straight-to-DVD "Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch"). When Innes performed a solo show in Los Angeles in 2003, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening was among those who showed up to pay their respects, and Kearns started work on "The Seventh Python."

Innes now has more paunch and less hair than when he played the John Lennon doppelganger Ron Nasty, but he's in anything but a retiring mood. His one-man show, which he performed at the Abbey Pub and again in part at the Wilmette, is called "A People's Guide to World Domination," a decades-spanning collection of his songs around which he wraps his theme "that the individual is being wiped out by the mass media." In typically cheeky fashion, the show climaxes with Innes leading a mock march in which he swears in the audience as "Ego Warriors," whose salute is the familiar thumb-to-the-nose gesture.

Innes is eager for 2010 to arrive because that's when his current publishing deal expires, and he's so miffed at its terms that he's waiting till then to release any new music.

"When we did the second Rutles album, I was naive enough to think if I paid a lawyer, that that lawyer would represent my best interests," he said, bursting into laughter. "No! How stupid could you get?

"I am off the hook on Jan. 1 of next year, so I will be actually doing more, being a bit more prolific. I'm just so fed up with being burgled. At the age of 65, I shall be free, so I should become a complete fame slut now."

By this point Innes was sitting outside with former Hudson Brother (and "Seventh Python" co-producer and co-writer) Brett Hudson at Argo Tea down the street from Vintage Vinyl. Neither of these two veterans was pining for the good ol' days or lamenting the demise of a record industry devoted to producing physical products.


"Quite frankly, I'm glad that part is gone," Innes said. "In many ways, what's the difference for people like me and Brett? They took all the money then."

The two of them laughed.

"I'm glad that the record business has changed and isn't what it was," Hudson said. "Because now we have a chance to make some money."

"It's gone full circle back to Woody Guthrie," Innes said.

"You're absolutely right," Hudson said.

"And, hello, we can get on street corners and say what's what," Innes said.

"You're right," Hudson said. "Woody Guthrie. We can come back. It's true."

Innes laughed. "This era is our era."

mcaro@tribune.com

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

Breakdown Pt II: Vegas writer who attacked us for questioning Review-Journal’s Gans reporting lapse hits paper for same failure in Senator sex story!

We don’t mean to harp on compromised Las Vegas writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess (we wouldn't harp on him at all if he hadn't attacked us first and then kept it up), but the signs of the name-caller's public breakdown are getting more obvious and deserve attention.

Now the man who accused us of being tabloid “vermin” and "a**holes" for asking why the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not providing any new reportage two days after the tragic, unexplained death of Danny Gans, is criticizing the Review-Journal for the very same failure in the seamy tabloid story of Senator John Ensign’s adulterous affair!

The same criticism? It's bizarre. It's troubling.

On May 3rd, we wrote:

“…The Las Vegas newspapers and national gossip and magazine media continue to troll for star tributes to the Vegas-only star, while none has yet published a follow-up on the breaking news story…his morning, there's a news vacuum regarding the death of Danny Gans-- which is odd, considering the talk around town.

“If we were running Las Vegas newspapers we'd be running fresh stories on Day Three."

Today, Friess writes on his Vegas-boosting blog:

“I did have to make a quick note that the Review-Journal, on only the third day of the John Ensign sex scandal, used the Associated Press' report on its front page and had no staff-generated material on the drama other than a 360-word commentary by columnist John L. Smith.

“That is really strange… the R-J had nothing at all to report today?”

It's all too easy to call Friess a blatant hypocrite. We fear it's something much worse. Like Susan Boyle, he appears to be crumbling under the pressure of public scrutiny.

This morning, we pointed out that Friess had dedicated his shameful and outlandish defense of the local media’s coverup of Strip superstar Danny Gans' drug overdose death to us.

We should note that the lead to Freiss’ Ensign story is again directed toward TabloidBaby.com:

“I've laid off on the local media criticism in this space for a while in part because I've learned what it's like to have some half-cocked nutjob misread and distort every little thing that happens and/or that you do.”

Again with the name-calling.


We also note that although Steve Friess and his cohorts have insisted that our coverage of the Gans overdose and criticism of the local media have been “discredited” and have gone unnoticed in Las Vegas, he has been referring to our site constantly and, sources say, is very worried about the consequences of his involvement in the media coverup.

We find it all very worrisome. The entire TabloidBaby.com staff wish Steve Friess the best, and hopes that his second unofficial husband, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, gets him the help he so obviously needs.

Exclusive: The prologue to Danny Gans' autobiography, "The Voices In My Head"

The controversy over the opiate overdose death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans has so far not impacted plans by Stephens Press, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's publishing arm, to rush-release next month the autobiography he'd supposedly finished the day before, in the words of his ghostwriter, R.G. Ryan, he "went to be with the Lord." Ryan, a poet and songwriter, includes the prologue to the book, The Voices In My Head, on his blogsite, Snapshots At St. Arbucks. A photo image of the webpage appears below:

Danny Gans photo: Ralph Fountain/ Las Vegas Review-Journal