A screenshot of a Kirk Douglas obit in People magazine online.
GONE TOO SOON
Dear editors of People magazine: Your report on the death of Kirk Douglas was painfully premature.
The Hollywood Reporter details the glaringly erroneous obituary for the actor that was posted on the People magazine website over the weekend.
The offending article, since removed from the site (but not before hundreds of people took a screen-capture), featured the banner headline "DO NOT PUB Kirk Douglas Dies."
The obvious whopper of a gaffe: At last check, Douglas was alive and well and will turn 98 on Dec. 9.
The copy attached to the obviously prewritten obit stated, "Kirk Douglas, one of the few genuine box-office names to emerge just as TV was overtaking American culture in the years right after World War II, died TK TK TK. He was 97 (DOB 12/9/1916) and had been in good health despite having suffered a debilitating 1996 stroke that rendered his speech difficult."
For those not in the news business, TK is journo-speak shorthand for "to come."
The article went on to rewind Douglas's illustrious film career and included two photographs and an embedded YouTube clip of the actor portraying artist Vincent Van Gogh in the 1956 biopic Lust for Life, which earned him a best-actor Oscar nomination.
Any explanation as to how and when the obituary was published remains unclear.
The original timestamp for the People obit reads Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. – which means the obit could have been online for two months before anyone noticed.
And while it's common practice for media outlets to prepare obituaries in advance of a famous person's passing, the premature death notice naturally became a hot topic on Twitter.
Twitter user Evan Smith (@evansmith) posted a tweet stating, "Kirk Douglas: not dead yet, but @peoplemag must think he's close."
Comedian Adam Newman (@Adam_Newman) tweeted: "Rest in Peace future dead Kirk Douglas who isn't dead yet. But way to be FIRST, @PeopleMag!"
Meanwhile, Twitter user Warren Holtstein (@Warren Holstein) took the gallows humour in a different direction with his tweet: "Kirk Douglas was just named People Magazine's Corpse of the Year."
STEPPING DOWN
The Republican staffer who told the teen daughters of U.S. President Barack Obama to "show a little class" has announced she will resign today. According to NBC News, Elizabeth Lauten, who works as a communications director for Tennessee representative Steven Fincher, has told the press that her resignation is "in the works." Late last week, Lauten stirred up controversy with her Facebook post criticizing Sasha and Malia Obama for their apparent disinterest during the annual Thanksgiving ceremony to pardon two turkeys at the White House. Wrote Lauten: "Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar." Lauten later deleted the Facebook post and replaced it with an apology stating she now sees "more clearly just how hurtful my words were."
Source: NBC News
DEAL WITH IT
Christian Bale has suggested George Clooney stop "whining" about being followed by the paparazzi. In a recent interview with Wall Street Journal magazine, the Batman star called Clooney's recent complaints regarding the tabloid media as "boring" and added, "It doesn't matter that he talks about it. It's like, 'Come on, guys, just shut up. Just get on with it and live your lives and stop whining about it.' I prefer not to whine about it."
Source: New York Post
TRUE LOVE
Susan Boyle has landed her first boyfriend at age 53. The Scottish singer recently told The Daily Mail that she's in a new relationship with an American doctor whom she declined to name. "I don't want to say any more about who he is right now as that would be unfair on him," said Boyle. "All I'll say is we are around the same age and he was a very nice guy." In the same interview, Boyle also talked about her recent diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. "I'm getting better at dealing with it because I know what it is," said Boyle. "If I feel I'm going to take a mood swing, I get up and leave."
Source: People
GIRL GAMERS
It's true: Women are better at men when it comes to designing computer games. A recent study from the University of Sussex tasked a group of 12- and 13-year-old students to conceive and create their own 3-D role-playing games. To conduct the experiment, study authors Dr. Kate Howland and Dr. Judith Good created a programming language named Flip, which uses a simple interface to help the designers string together the basic programs that trigger a change within the game, such as a message to advance a player's progress. The results: On average, the girls used seven triggers within the games – almost twice as many as the boys in the group. "If girls' stories are typically more complex and well-developed, then when creating stories in games, their stories will also require more sophisticated programs in order for their games to work," said Good.
Source: The Telegraph