The gay British Danny Gans found dead

A musical impressionist who can only be described as a hip, gay British version of the late Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans has, like Gans, died before his time.

Jason Wood died over the weekend at 38. No details are known about the cause or circumstances.

Like Danny Gans, Wood made his name on the corporate circuit with hilarious impressions of music stars, though, being British, his specialities dd not include the likes of Nat "King" Cole and Kermit the Frog but icons like Cher, Annie Lennox, Boy George, Elton John, George Michael and Morrisey. Being British, Wood was demonstrably more camp than the Born Again Gans. A comedy club headliner and regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Woods was best known as the first person voted off the first season of Strictly Come Dancing, the UK version of Dancing with The Stars.

Dany Gans died last May 1st from an overdose of hydromorphone, a powerful opiate.

Developing...

Is that Tom Hearn in the New York Times?

The tables are turned for legendary punk rock photographer Tom Hearn, the Tabloid Baby pal who chronicled the genre's beginnings with his classic black and white pictures of The Ramones, Blondie and denizens of the Punk magazine offices, as he finds himself the subject of a photo in The New York Times.

Hearn, who turned the tables on his subjects in the past decade as he became one of the most popular and sought-after bandleaders in Connecticut, is shown rocking the Creative Cooking New Orleans Restaurant in Westbrook, Connecticut, with his popular musical group, Big Fat Combo, in a picture accompanying a review of the joint.

The restaurant is credited and rated "O.K."; The tall ginger-haired King of Cheshire Rock and his Combo, purveyors of surf, punk and country music, are not credited by name, though the reviewer notes that "live music heats up the place on weekends."

Tom Hearn is still active with his camera-- among his subjects are those same punk rock pioneers, thirty years or so later. Click here to see and hear The Big Fat Combo in action.

Farrah Fawcett's golden hair

Two weeks after we broke the story that a celebrity auction website had been offering a lock of Farrah Fawcett's hair for $1,000.00, the item is still up for bid.

The lock of golden hair, in a snow globe casing, went in the block three days after the icon's death on June 25th. It is apparently a novelty item, first made available during Farrah's swimsuit poster-Charlie's Angels heyday, not taken from her final haircuts before her passing,and gives us the excuse to run these vintage Farrah Fawcett ads from the period.


The continued availability of the hair on hunkwithjunk.com, with the promise that it may one day be used to clone Farrah, is a surprise in light of the international publicity the story caused after another, better-financed website, took the post as its own. Our own source was a reader, Michael Europe.

Kingmaker? New rave for Antonio D. Charity

Add the influential NYTheatre.com to the tastemakers giving rave reviews to Antonio D. Charity, the young, veteran TV, movie and stage actor who wants a chance to portray Martin Luther King on film, and the ensemble cast of Black Angels Over Tuskegee.

Black Angels is the new play about trailblazing African-American World War II fighter pilots that opened days ago Off Broadway.

NY Theatre's Ivana Cullinan writes:

"Black Angels Over Tuskegee is a deeply wonderful production that takes an important historical event, presents it in a very intimate manner, and demands a personal response to its characters... The sheer depth and emotional power of this cast creates an authentically fulfilling and glorious night of theatre that honors an impressive group of men, the Tuskegee Airmen.

"...The narrator... a father talking to his son; as the character, Antonio Charity does some fine story work throughout..."

The play, and Charity, made international news when The New York Times praised the play, concluding: "By the end, when the pilots overcame their obstacles and finally got up into the air to the swelling of music, tears welled up in my eyes ..."

An Associated Press review raved that "this powerful play... is well-staged and the characters so realistic that the audience can't help but be thoroughly moved by the time the narrator reaches the end of the journal."

Hundreds of people have joined the Facebook group, "Antonio D. Charity should play Martin Luther King in DreamWorks' biopic," in support of Charitys quest to get an audition for the lead role int he film being produced by Steven Spielberg, Suzanne dePasse and Madison Jones.

“Black Angels Over Tuskegee” is playing at St. Luke’s Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton; (212) 239-6200, www.telecharge.com.

Is the producer of Farrah Fawcett sequel also Farrah Fawcett's sequel?

Sources tell us that the woman in these pictures, who has been seen at Ryan O'Neal's side since Farrah Fawcett's funeral and around his Malibu beachhouse in the months since, is O'Neal's handpicked producer for the sequel to the Farrah's Story tabloid special.

She is identified as "Stephanie Lynn." She has been alternatively described as "Ryan O'Neal's assistant." (IMDb has entries for two Stephanie Lynns, an actress and a television talent coordinator named Stephanie Lynn, born August 23, 1977 in Tucson Arizona, most recently of the Dr. Phil show, and a former researcher for Creep Tales.)


O'Neal's publicist Arnold Robinson has confirmed that the production process is underway.

"My understanding," he says, "is that he is collecting recollections/memories of Farrah from her friends and family for archival purposes."


No word if NBC, which aided in the altering of Farrah's cancer journal, A Wing And A Prayer into the O'Neal-flavoured Farrah's Story, is involved with the sequel, though the Emmy nomination and ratings garnered by the original would seem to point in that direction.


Developing...

Ryan O'Neal shows up on Extra, being interviewed by Alana Stewart's son

Ryan O'Neal has surfaced on the syndicated television infotainment show, Extra, in an interview with "special correspondent" Ashley Hamilton, the son of Alana Stewart.

Extra is promoting O'Neal's claim that he is once again on good terms with his drug-addicted daughter Tatum O'Neal, whom, he volunteered to Vanity Fair, he "hit on" at Farrah Fawcett's funeral.

From Extra's site:

"'Extra' has Ryan O'Neal in his first television interview since losing partner Farrah Fawcett in June.

"O'Neal tells 'Extra' special correspondent Ashley Hamilton that since Farrah's death he has repaired his rocky relationship with daughter Tatum O'Neal. Ryan said, 'It's so nice to see her again. I've missed her terribly and that's a big step for me and her.'

O'Neal is keeping busy. He'll will appear on '90210' this season and is continuing Fawcett's legacy with The Farrah Fawcett Foundation.

"'I'd rather have Farrah back, but we will take what we can get,' O'Neal says. 'We talk about Farrah and we bring all those memories back and it almost makes me feel that she's still with us.'

"For more of Ryan O'Neal's exclusive interview tune in to 'Extra' on Friday!"

The day John Lennon played dead

In a flash of good taste the Daily Mail writes that the photo above "appears to forsee the moment twelve years later when Lennon would be gunned down in New York by crazed fan Mark Chapman."


It's one of a batch of unseen photos from "The Beatles' Mad Day Out,' the group's last official photo shoot, that surfaced today. Society photographer Tom Murray, who took the shots on July 20th, 1968 in London, says he'd found the originals in an envelope.


He's selling copies for £325 each or £425 with a frame but experts believe the originals are worth £100,000 each.


Click here to see more of Murray's famed photos.

Don't blame the media

WILL FARRAH DIE IN 'STORY' SEQUEL?

Click here for the latest.

Video gamer tells critics: "Kiss my ass!"

In this office, young Peyton Daley is the one most likely to be caught playing the video games and Sam Peters is the guy trying to get the hang of it ("This ain't snooker," he's been heard to complain) and the one who reminds us that President Obama, his wife and The Kaiser Foundation alike warned that the hours spent in front of the screen help create sedentary lifestyles that lead to health problems and obesity (a problem Peyton does not have to worry about but that some of Sam's female companions might, video games or not).

In any case, we've just gotten word that one of the biggest names in the industry is fighting back against the "haters." Jace Hall, video game producer, executive producer of V: The Series on ABC and creator and star of IGN.com’s hit web series The Jace Hall Show has a message for the critics:

"Kiss my ass."

He says so on a new song, I Play W.O.W.

Listen to Jace Hall's new song

I Play W.O.W

Hall elaborates: “In my opinion the parents are not witnessing a problem, but instead they are seeing the capacity for efficiency and productivity on a level that far surpasses their own. The problem solving processes presented by video games can encourage continuous cognitive growth in many. Video games and the internet culture is the new rock ’n’ roll. Of course parents hate it. They are supposed to. They don’t understand it.”

Hall continues: “When you are told that you are being lazy, or wasting your time, or being antisocial – when in fact you have just spent 22 hours working very hard with a group of people accomplishing extremely difficult tasks– you want to tell the uninformed person accosting you to fuck off!

“There is no shame in this activity, in fact, we are proud taht we play! What I am doing is productive for me in many ways. So kiss my ass and get off my back!"

Okay.

I Play W.O.W. is from Hall’s EP, Video Games Arent' Bad for Ya, available on iTunes and featured on The Jace Hall Show on IGN.com.

Pulitzers accept National Enquirer noms

Congratulations to Tabloid Baby pal Barry Levine, executive editor of The National Enquirer and his team, as The Pulitzer Prize Board has officially accepted The Enquirer's submissions for breaking the John Edwards scandal.

The proud tabloid makes history being deemed qualified to compete with so-called "mainstream" news organization for journalism's tarnished yet most prestigious prize. The Enquirer is in the running for the Pulitzer in two categories: "Investigative Reporting" and "National News Reporting" for The National Enquirer staff.

A dark day for Sig Gissler

Readers of this site know that this is not the first time a tabloid organization has attenpted to be recognized by our ivy-walled, ivory tower fellow hacks.

Last April, Pulitzer gatekeeper Sig Gissler rejected our Pulitzer nominations for our coverage of the Israel Baseball League scandals out of hand, and in another history-making move, even returned our admission check-- repelled as he was by the "tabloid" moniker.

We're glad to have paid the price to pave the way.

Will Farrah Fawcett's death be included in the sequel to "Farrah's Story" now being produced by Ryan O'Neal?

Ryan O'Neal has begun production on a sequel to the maligned and Emmy-nominated Farrah's Story television special, and the question left hanging is whether Farrah Fawcett's death will be included.

Farrah's Story was a revamped version of Farrah's cancer journal documentary that aired to high ratings in May 2009, a little more than a month before Farrah's death. Cameras continued to roll through the final weeks of Farrah's life, however, and there have been whispers that cameras were there as Farrah passed.

Ratings-hungry NBC has not been shy in showing the moment of death, as demonstrated last week of in its constant replaying of the brutal luge accident death of an Olympic athlete.

As we reported exclusively in June, the sequel was in the works even before Farrah was buried, as camera crews filmed Farrah's funeral services for the project.


The sequel is being billed as a "tribute" to Farrah, whose death on June 25th was overshadowed by that of Michael Jackson hours later.

RadarOnline.com reports that a producer for the project arrived in Texas earlier this month to shoot interviews with Farrah's friends, although at least one person (not Greg Lott) has refused to participate, in protest of O'Neal's involvement.

Farrah's Story began as a video journal produced by Farrah and her production partner Craig Nevius, who sued O'Neal, Alana Stewart and business manager Richard B. Francis for pushing him out of the project and turning a serious medical documentary into a maudlin exploitative show. As the battles continue to rage behind the scenes, Francis sued Nevius on behalf of Farrah's estate, accusing him of mucking up the doco and even stealing her money.

The Man Who Would Be Martin Luther King: Antonio D. Charity opens Off Broadway, is reviewed by The New York Times

Actor Antonio D. Charity, the gifted and charismatic performer who wants a chance to portray Martin Luther King on film, gets first mention in the reviews for Black Angels Over Tuskegee, the new play about trailblazing African-American World War II fighter pilots that opened Off Broadway this week.

The New York Times leads the praise of this "uplifting, inspirational melodrama" this morning, concluding: "By the end, when the pilots overcame their obstacles and finally got up into the air to the swelling of music, tears welled up in my eyes ..."


The hosannas were echoed by the influential and world-syndicated Associated Press:

"This powerful play... is well-staged and the characters so realistic that the audience can't help but be thoroughly moved by the time the narrator reaches the end of the journal."

The Times notes that "the folksy narrator (Antonio D. Charity)... provides historical context and dictionary definitions of racism and segregation. 'You see, I believe in the principle that all men are created equal,' he says at the start."


That portion of Charity's performance could show scouts for the MLK biopic now being developed by Steve Spielberg and DreamWorks that the actor wants to star in. His quest to have his work seen by Spielberg and fellow producers Suzanne dePasse and Madison Jones has turned into a national crusade to give a deserving actor the role he has been preparing for his entire life (Charity has portrayed the Rev. Dr. King onstage off-Broadway and as far back as high school!).


Hundreds of friends and colleagues and fans have joined the Facebook group, "Antonio D. Charity should play Martin Luther King in DreamWorks' biopic," and many more have added their support.

As Antonio tells his supporters on the Facebook page:

"Thanks again everybody! I'm just looking for an opportunity to audition for the role, to compete for it. That's all I need."

“Black Angels Over Tuskegee” is playing at St. Luke’s Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton; (212) 239-6200, www.telecharge.com.

Plastic Ono Band last night in Brooklyn

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Chicken On The Hill

Jim Bibby... Jim Bibby... when we heard that former baseball All-Star pitcher Jim Bibby died at 65, there something about his name that rang a bell. Then we saw he started for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 7 of the 1979 World Series, and then we remembered that team under Pops Willie Stargell, and how it was the series in which the Pirates used that disco anthem We Are Family as their theme song long before it was appropriated officially by lesbians (a gay anthem that took the exact opposite cultural trajectory of The Village People's YMCA, an obvious gay anthem that over the years has somehow become another Take Me Out To The Ballgame).


And then we remembered the fried chicken story. Pirate radio announcer Bob Prince would call a Willie Stargell home run with the phrase "Chicken on the Hill," a reference to Stargell's ownership of a chicken restaurant in Pittsburgh's Hill District. For a time, whenever he homered, Stargell's restaurant would give away free chicken to all patrons present in the restaurant at the time of the home run. What ended up happening was that all the folks from the neighborhood would wait in the parking lot, listening to the games on the car radios, only to run inside and crowd the joint to the rafters every time Pops came to bat. That promotion didn't last long.

Kate Jackson wants to move to Australia

Suspicions that former Charlie's Angels actress Kate Jackson picked a fight with Ryan O'Neal as a way to revive her career have been put to rest by a portion of her story that has yet to receive widespread exposure in the Hollywood media: she is planning to leave the country.

Jackson raised a storm when she claimed last week that O'Neal and Alana Stewart had prevented her from visiting her dear friend Farrah Fawcett in the final weeks of her life. The uproar was kicked into hurricane status when she made a stunning reversal and backed Craig Nevius in his legal battle against O'Neal and Stewart over their commandeering of his and Farrah's cancer documentary. Jackson also suggested that O'Neal had coerced a delirious Farrah into signing over the rights to him.


As it turns out, the interview that appeared on RadarOnline.com was conducted by international journalist Dylan Howard, known recently for bringing further exposure and validity to the claims by Farrah's college beau Greg Lott that O'Neal prevented him from visiting Farrah, his recent, secret lover.

A version of the story also appeared in Australia's Woman's Day magazine, and in a sidebar, the 61-year-old actress reveals her surprise plans:

"I want to move to Australia. When I started acting school, I thought, 'Gee, I would love to go to Australia,' but then my life took off.

"I ended up going in the '80s for the Logies... and I think it is great there. Australia to me feels like America when I was growing up. It feels safe. Here, I can't let my 14-year-old son go ride his bike without supervision. You need to put a GPS chip in him to do that.

"I'll live in the city in the beginning, to meet people, and then move somewhere where I will be more comfortable.

"I'm too young to retire. I want to work and Australia is the place for me to do that."

Best album, acceptance of past 30 years

Oasis confirms its place as the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band by taking the Brit for best album of the past 30 years for (What's The Story) Morning Glory, hours after the disc was named to the Vatican's list of the Top 10 essential rock and pop albums. Accepted by Liam Gallagher. Presented by Noddy fucking Holder.

"Call Me A Liar?" Now Kate Jackson disputes Farrah Fawcett's signature that allowed Ryan O'Neal to take over her documentary

Former Charlie's Angel says Kate Jackson has upped the ante in her war of words with Ryan O'Neal, now claiming she doubts the validity of the document that gave him and Alana Stewart control of the documentary that Farrah had been producing with Craig Nevius.

As we reported exclusively in May-- a month before Farrah's death-- Nevius is using the signature on the document as evidence that he was improperly removed from the video journal project that Farrah sold to NBC and O'Neal ultimately engineered into the maudlin, exploitative (high rating and Emmy-nominated) Farrah's Story. (Farrah's and O'Neal's business manager Richard B. Francis, on behalf of Farrah's estate, countered by suing Nevius for misappropriating funds and screwing up the documentary.)

Now the 61-year-old Jackson, who last year on NBC Today show attacked Nevius and slapped him with the "Devious" moniker, has made an extraordinary team-switch.

As O'Neal insists that Jackson is lying when she says he and Stewart kept her from "saying goodbye" to Farrah at the end of her life, Jackson has turned handwriting expert, telling RadarOnline.com that she questions Farrah's signature on the lawsuit document!

Farrah Fawcett signature, April 2008

Farrah Fawcett signature April 2009

"Farrah had such beautiful penmanship," Jackson is quoted as saying. "It caused me to become very sad and upset, when I saw that signed document, because I believed that she was not awake enough, because of the pain medication she required.

"Frankly, to me, that document didn't look like she could have a clue what she was signing."


Jackson also clarifies the "Devious" crack on the Today show:

"I was embarrassed. I was told before I did the Today Show that Craig Nevius was a crook and all this other stuff. I thought he was attempting to do all these awful things."

Jackson says it was soon after the Today interview that she Stewart told her that Farrah didn't want to see her.


"I wasn't allowed to ask Farrah if that was indeed the case that she didn't want to see me or others. "I wasn't allowed to talk to her on the phone, at all.

"Even if a person is in such pain that they sleep most of the time, if the phone was answered, or the messages weren't so full that you can't leave one, I could have had someone put the phone to her ear so I could tell her that I love her.

"Even if she was sleeping, I wouldn't have cared. I needed to do it But the phone was never answered or it was full of messages. That to me was weird.

"I am having a great deal of difficulty dealing with this. It is very, very, upsetting and I can't see myself ever getting over it."

Read more at RadarOnline.com.

Ryan O'Neal calls Kate Jackson a liar

Ryan O'Neal says Kate Jackson is a liar.

The 68-year-old actor, holder of Farrah Fawcett's legacy and father of her troubled, drug-addicted son, has remained on the sidelines, if a participant, in the battles over his on-off lover who died of cancer in June, and despite some provocative comments in the media, has had to be pulled into the fray, as he was when Farrah's college sweetheart and secret lover Greg Lott confronted him in the street with a camera crew in tow.

Now, however, he's stepped into the ring willingly to rebut Jackson, a Farrah friend of four decades as well as Charlie's Angel costar, who caused a stir last week when she claimed to RadarOnline.com that O'Neal had cut off her access to Farrah in the final weeks of her life. O'Neal tells RadarOnline that it's "not true.

"Firstly, Farrah spent the last week of her life in the hospital. Secondly, why would Kate be denied access to Farrah and then be invited to her services?"

Jackson said the last time she saw Farrah was at an intimate gathering in February 2009 for the icon's 62nd birthday. And though she had attacked Farrah's original documentary partner Craig Nevius, labelling him "Craig Devious," she recanted and is now siding with the producer in his legal battle over the doco against O'Neal, Farrah friend Alana Stewart and O'Neal business manager Richard B. Francis.


O'Neal's representative Arnold Robinson adds:

"Mr. O'Neal's only wishes are for Farrah to rest in peace and for her contributions and legacy to be remembered by the millions who loved her."

Barbara Walters Oscars® shocker!

Big news and big surprise throughout the media this morning at Barbara Walters' announcement that this year's Oscars® interview special will be her last.

Surprise?

She's f*cking 80 years old.

(And she'll soon be eighty-one. Barbara Walters was born on September 25, 1929.)

Chris Montez to star at Beatles Fan Fest

The official poster for the NY Metro Fest for Beatles Fans has been released, along with word that legendary rocker and pop singer Chris Montez wil be among the special guests performing live at the three-day fest beginning March 26th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Secaucus, NJ, a tunnel away from Manhattan.

A special Beatlescentric preview of El Viaje Musical de Ezekiel Montanez: the Chris Montez Story, the new Montez documentary from our pals at Frozen Pictures, was a surprise hit of the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago last summer. The film will also get free screenings this time around, with a special twist: Q&A and performance from the man himself.


The Fest for Beatles Fans is the original and longest-running Beatles celebration (since 1974). Ticket information here.

Montez doco information here.