Archive for January 4th, 2009

Here is part of the interview that John Travolta’s family lawyers gave to Us Magazine over the telephone

Us: How is John doing?

Ossi and McDermott: “John is distraught. He is trying to understand and reconcile this. He is seeking an explanation so that this makes sense to him. And his loved ones are trying to provide that to him.

“Yesterday was the worst day of his life. Today is probably equally as bad, and if not, it’s the second worst day of his life.

“John is recognizing the outpouring of support he has got from both the U.S. and the world. He can feel the love and he says it makes him stronger and hopefully it allows him to reconcile.

“He is undergoing the pain any father would if they lost his son. Generally a son buries his father, and John thought that would be the way it would go with Jett, not the other way around.

“He is in shock. He is emotionally distraught. He is going through many different feelings of disbelief and anger. It’s going to take a while for him to feel good again. This is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to him and he needs to go through a process of healing. John and Kelly are suffering total misery. They were so close to their son. This is hard to accept.

“He had set a vacation for his employees and friends. Forty-nine adults and their children were coming here [to the Bahamas] from Jan. 2nd to 4th. We were all so excited to spend some days with John. We were on the plane and we had no idea, and then we landed and we found out. Every year he holds a party for friends and employees and this year he had the idea to fly us all to his condo. We were planning to hang out on the beach, go for boat rides and spend time with the family.

Us: Have John and Kelly spent time with anyone since everyone arrived?

Ossi and McDermott: “John and Kelly have been pretty much locked away.

“We are staying here until John leaves. The autopsy should be on Monday.

Us: How is Jett’s 8-year-old sister, Ella Bleu, taking it?

Ossi and McDermott: “John broke the news to Ella. She is heartbroken. She is in disbelief, but it is starting to sink in. She has been asking where her brother is. She was so close to Jett. The whole family were so close. They went everywhere together. If John made a movie, they were all there with him.

Us: It’s been reported that Jett was left alone for several hours before being discovered. Can you clarify the timeline?

Ossi and McDermott: “Jett was not left alone. He had a nanny present at all times. The nanny was sleeping close to Jett’s room. There was a baby monitor, a chime on the door so it was known when Jett was going in and out. He was completely supervised. The nanny found him.

Us: Is it true that Jett died in John’s arms?

Ossi and McDermott: “Jett may have still been alive when John administered CPR, and then the EMT took over. Jett was pronounced dead at the hospital. I like to believe John had a chance to say goodbye. He may have died in his dad’s arms. I am not certain.”

Us: It’s been said Jett had a history of seizures. How often did he have them?

Ossi and McDermott: “I am not confident to talk about that. I know he had a history, which of course warranted the extra attention.”

Us: You obviously knew Jett well. What was his personality like?

Ossi and McDermott: “He was a wonderful boy. He had physical limitations, but when he looked in his dad’s eyes, the love was tangible. When he grabbed onto his dad, he did not want to let him go.”

During Charlie Rose’s annual New Year’s Eve tribute on PBS to notable figures who died during the year, Rose declared Filmmaker George Butler deceased. They even flashed his tombstone on the broadcast.

Butler is probably most well known for his 1977 film “Pumping Iron,” featuring a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger. What makes the story a little big more confusing is that Rose and Butler are friends, though not as good as one would have thought, and first met after they graduated from college in North Carolina.

Butler says that he even found out some of his friends in New York were planning a wake.

Anyway, the source of the confusion comes from the fact that a different George Butler, a jazz record executive, died on April 9th. Still, I’m not quite sure that is a good excuse for Rose paying tribute to his “dead friend.”

Rose apologized at the opening of Thursday’s show.

“The George Butler who is my friend is alive and well and living in New Hampshire,” Rose said. “We apologize to him and his friends, and look forward to having him on the program in the new year.”

Fashion designer Ted Lapidus died Monday at age 79 in a hospital in Cannes on the French Rivera. Lapidus’s career soared in the 1960s and 1970s with the unisex and safari look.

“He died at 2:30 pm. He had suffered for several years from leukemia and died of respiratory failure,” said Rose Torrente-Mett, his sister, also a designer.

Ted Lapidus was born on June 23, 1929 in Paris. He was the son of a Russian immigrant tailor who opened his fashion house in 1958.

His clients included French film stars Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called Lapidus “the poet of high fashion” and extended his condolences to Olivier Lapidus, the designer’s son who continues his father’s work.

What is assumed to be Rosie O’Donnell’s last blog of 2009, she wrote:

“2009

this year
unplugged
see what happens
on we go

peace out
and in ”

I have actually never been to her blog, but apparently she has been writing in Japanese haiku style since March 2007. Last year she did start some controversy with her video blogs, particularly with her comments on “The View,” but maybe it also has to do with her “variety show” on NBC that was cancelled after one taping.

I’m actually more pro Rosie than I am against, but that variety show was just about the worst thing I have seen on television in a long time. Then again, I only do watch maybe five or six different shows.

Maybe I’m not as cultured as I should be, but I really do not enjoy haiku. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have never been that good at it. Nonetheless, I just don’t like reading it either.

The new site is up at the blog’s old URL. We’re still not open for business, but at least you can see the progress we’ve had over the last few months.

T.I.L. Darling – The Online Clothing Boutique