THE LAST DAYS OF FARRAH FAWCETT

Farrah Fawcett spent her final days in quiet resilience, surrounded by those she loved most. By 2007, her battle with anal cancer had intensified, requiring aggressive treatments, including chemotherapy and alternative therapies in Germany. She kept a strict daily routine mornings often began with a gentle walk when she was able, followed by meditation and quiet reflection. Despite her deteriorating condition, she maintained a meticulous appearance, never wanting to appear weak. She documented her journey through the 2009 documentary “Farrah’s Story,” determined to raise awareness and inspire others facing similar struggles.

Her relationship with her longtime partner, Ryan O’Neal, deepened in these last years. He became her primary caretaker, ensuring she was as comfortable as possible. Their bond, though tumultuous over the decades, found solace in their shared love. O’Neal often read to her, recounting memories of their best times together. Their son, Redmond, who was in and out of legal troubles due to drug addiction, weighed heavily on her mind. Even from her hospital bed, she expressed her deepest wish for him to find stability and happiness.

Farrah endured painful treatments, but she fought bravely, refusing to let illness define her. Some days were better than others; on her stronger days, she would spend time looking through old photographs, reminiscing with close friends like Alana Stewart. Despite the grim prognosis, she never lost her sense of humor. In private moments, she joked about how she wanted to be remembered not for her suffering, but for her spirit.

In her final hours, her breathing became labored. The room was filled with whispered prayers and quiet goodbyes. Redmond, allowed a temporary release from jail, held her hand, promising her he would try to turn his life around. Her last words reflected love and peace. She asked those around her to celebrate her life, not mourn her death. On June 25, 2009, Farrah Fawcett passed away at 62, leaving behind a legacy of strength and unwavering determination...

THE MURDER OF JONATHAN HOSS: POTENTIONAL HATE CRIME?

The husband of slain “King of the Hill” star Jonathan Joss has claimed his killer cackled and spewed a gay slur moments after allegedly shooting the voice actor in the head.

Joss, 59, was gunned down near his San Antonio, Texas, home Sunday night in an attack that his spouse alleges was carried out by a homophobic neighbor.

“Everything was really close range. It was in the head,” Tristan Kern de Gonzales told the Press of the moment the actor was fatally shot.

“While I’m holding him, [the suspect] has the gun pointed over me, and he’s laughing, saying, ‘Oh, you love him? Joto,'” de Gonzales alleged.

“‘Joto’ is Spanish for f—t. I never knew the word until I came to Texas, and then I heard it a lot.”

The suspect, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, was arrested a block away and has since been charged with murder.

Cops, however, said the initial probe had found “no evidence” that indicated Joss was killed due to his “sexual orientation.”

“We take such allegations very seriously and have thoroughly reviewed all available information. Should any new evidence come to light, we will charge the suspect accordingly,” San Antonio police said in a statement.Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez was arrested and charged with the murder of Jonathan Joss on June 2, 2025.

It comes after the husband claimed the alleged killer had approached the pair after they stopped by to check the mail at Joss’ home, which had been heavily damaged during a January fire that claimed the lives of their three dogs.

The husband said the couple had just found the bones of their dead pet dog displayed on the property — causing them both “severe emotional distress.”

“We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw,” de Gonzales said in a social media post.

“While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired.”

The husband said the couple had just found the bones of their dead pet dog displayed on the property — causing them both “severe emotional distress.”Facebook/Tristan Kern de Gonzales

Joss — best known for voicing John Redcorn on the bawdy cartoon comedy — was struck by the gunfire and killed. He also appeared on the NBC comedy "Parks And Recreation".

“He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” Joss’ husband said.

HISTORY OF A SONG: WOULDN'T IT BE NICE

"Wouldn’t It Be Nice" is a famous song by The Beach Boys, the legendary American band, released in their 1966 album Pet Sounds. This song quickly won over listeners with its cheerful, sweet melody and hopeful message about love. "Wouldn’t It Be Nice" speaks about the desire to grow up faster, so one can fully enjoy life with their loved one.

The song was inspired by Wilson's confused infatuations for his sister-in-law, who projected an "innocent aura" that he wished to capture in "Wouldn't It Be Nice". Lyrically, the song describes a young couple who feel empowered by their relationship and fantasize about the romantic freedom they would earn once married to each other. Like the other tracks on Pet Sounds, it subverted listeners' expectations, as past Beach Boys songs had normally celebrated superficial conceits such as material possessions and casual flings.

Wilson produced the record between January and April 1966 with his band and 16 studio musicians who variously played drums, timpani, glockenspiel, trumpet, saxophones, accordions, guitars, pianos, and upright bass. The harp-like instrument heard in the introduction is a 12-string mando-guitar plugged directly into the recording console. One section of the song engages in a ritardando, a device that is rarely used in pop music. The band struggled to sing the multiple vocal parts to Wilson's satisfaction, and the song ultimately took longer to record than any other track on the album.

The song achieved great success on music charts. Notably, it reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, one of America’s most prestigious charts. It's also one of the most iconic songs by The Beach Boys, solidifying their place in pop-rock music history. "Wouldn’t It Be Nice" became a symbol of the golden age of 60s rock music and continues to be widely listened to even today...

BORN ON THIS DAY: BILLY WILDER

The great director Billy Wilder was born on this day in 1906. Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.

 Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast learner and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films. His partnership with Charles Brackett started in 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of Hollywood's classic comedies, including Ninotchka (1939) and Ball of Fire (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer-director one in 1942, with Brackett producing and the two turned out such classics as Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Lost Weekend (1945) (Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Oscars for Best Screenplay), after which the partnership dissolved. (Wilder had already made one film, Double Indemnity (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.) 

Wilder's subsequent self-produced films would become more caustic and cynical, notably Ace in the Hole (1951), though he also produced such sublime comedies as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) (which won him Best Picture and Director Oscars). He retired in 1981. Once told Billy Bob Thornton that he was too ugly to be an actor and he should write a screenplay for himself in which he could exploit his less than perfect features. Thornton later collected an Oscar for his Sling Blade (1996) screenplay. Billy Wilder died in 2002...

FATS DOMINO: AIN'T THAT A SHAME

“Ain’t That a Shame” by Fats Domino is like a rock skipping across a pond, each note creating ripples that dance in the air, tugging at your heartstrings with a playful yet poignant touch. When you hear the unmistakable opening notes, it’s as if a warm summer evening sweeps in, wrapping around you like a beloved old sweater. Domino’s voice, smooth and rich, carries a sense of familiarity that feels like home, yet there’s an ache beneath the surface.

The song’s rhythm is infectious, a swinging beat that invites you to sway along, your feet tapping in time with piano keys gleaming like the sun off a calm lake. And in that delightful groove lies a bittersweet tale—loving someone who doesn’t feel the same way can feel as disorienting as a carousel spinning a little too fast. The melody rises and falls like a gentle wave, echoing the fluctuations of young love, where joy and sorrow intermingle with dizzying precision.

As Fats pours his heart into the lyrics, “Ain’t that a shame,” rolls off his tongue like honey, each word dripping with the kind of regret that’s as sticky as spilled soda on a summer day. You can almost taste the wistfulness in the air, like the hint of rain before a storm. The piano tinkles like laughter and the horns pop out with zest, underscoring that despite the heaviness of lost love, life still carries on in vibrant colors.
It’s a celebration of those moments that linger—the memories that replay in your mind like an old black-and-white film, bittersweet yet beautiful. You can picture the scenes: a lost afternoon at the diner, a soda shared over stolen glances, the exhilaration of a first crush mixing with the heartbreak of reality. Each note is a gentle reminder; even in sadness, there’s joy to be found in the music of your memories.

In “Ain’t That a Shame,” Fats Domino paints a world where love is both a thrill ride and a tumultuous sea, capturing the essence of youthful longing with an authenticity that resonates today. You can’t help but smile through your own feelings as you hum along, enthralled in the ability of music to make sorrow sing, and heartbreak feel like a dance...

HOLLYWOOD TIDBITS: VICTOR/VICTORIA

The film's screenplay was adapted by Blake Edwards (Julie Andrews' husband) and Hans Hoemburg from the 1933 German film "Viktor und Viktoria" by Reinhold Schünzel. According to Edwards, the screenplay took only one month to write. There was also a 1935 remake named "First a Girl," made in the United Kingdom and directed by Victor Saville, about a woman who stands in for a female impersonator and becomes a hit. Julie Andrews watched the 1933 version to prepare for her role. The film had been planned as early as 1978 with Julie Andrews to star alongside Peter Sellers, but Sellers died in 1980 while Andrews and Blake Edwards were filming "S.O.B." (1981), so Robert Preston was cast in the role of Toddy that originally was envisaged for Sellers.

Reportedly, Andrews struggled with her role in this movie. Andrews has said of this, "There were so many things to be worked out. As someone who likes to be in control, I felt wobbly. There was something else, too. When you get older, you kind of get on to yourself. You know the tricks you play to get by, and you like them less and less if you care about your work. I was trying hard to get away from them, and was sometimes falling back."

The costume worn by Julie Andrews in the number "The Shady Dame from Seville" is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. It was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tight to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the garment, to hide the differences in height. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, that when lit appears to have an almost wet look about it. Preston did the final musical number in one take, which explains why he was so clearly out of breath, physically stressed, and sweating profusely during the second half of the number.

Although Edwards' movies garnered numerous Oscar nominations over the years, this was the only time that he received an Academy Award nomination, for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium. However, in 2004, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in recognition of his writing, directing, and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen...

BING CROSBY AND BOB HOPE: FRIENDS OR RIVALS?

Bob Hope worked with Bing Crosby for the first time in 1932 at the Capitol Theater in New York. Bing was already a big recording star and Bob was asked to emcee a show that Bing was going to do at the Capitol Theater. They actually, to entertain themselves, they just decided to do some bits together onstage, just some funny, silly little bits together. And they worked so well together — they really loved working together. They then didn't see each other for five years because Bing went back to Hollywood where he was making movies and Bob stayed on Broadway for another five years.

When Bob went out to Hollywood in 1937, he got friendly again with Crosby on the Paramount lot and they became good friends. They entertained together at [the] Del Mar racetrack, where Bing was a part owner and Paramount executives saw their act onstage together and said, "Hey, these guys might work together in a movie."

So they geared up a movie that ended up being called Road to Singapore. This came out in early 1940 and it was just terrific. It was the highest-grossing film for 1940 in a year with a lot of big Hollywood films, and the audience responded instantly to the chemistry of the two of them on-screen together. They were relaxed, informal — they seemed to be friends authentically, not just movie characters. The movie was so much fun that it launched a series.

They were friends and they loved working together, but they were not close friends. They were very different personality types. ... Bob was someone who loved being famous and loved being out there as a star and he loved talking to fans and he was basically a happy guy. Bing was much more ambivalent about his stardom, I think. He was more reclusive. He didn't like the Hollywood scene; he moved up to Northern California halfway through his career. He didn't like showing up at things. There was a famous Friars Club Roast for Bob Hope in the late '40s and every major comedy star — from Milton Berle, George Jessel, etc. — were there. ... And [Bing] didn't show up. I think that bothered Bob a little bit.

I think there was a slight bit of resentment there. I think also Bob envied Bing in the early years, particularly. Bing was more successful and Bing was a smart businessman. Bob learned a lot from him. I think that there was a little bit of a rivalry. Like so many movie pairings, they were great on the screen but offscreen it might have been another story. They were friendly, but when Bing died in 1977, I do not think Bob Hope was one of his close friends, although Bing's wife Kathryn did invite Bob Hope to his funeral. Bing preferred the friendship of Phil Harris. With Harris, Bing could be himself. With Bob Hope, Bob always needed to have an audience and be "on". Bing did not need that...