BW Manilowe

It's not posturing, unfortunately. DDK & GP are officially gone. They asked for pay equity with Alex & Scott (Variety reported they make/made about 10-15% less than Alex & Scott), which to me seems at least close to fair, given how the "core four" seemed like an ensemble & the show is going into S8. They apparently couldn't work out a deal. So they're gone.

We've been discussing it in the Spoilers and Speculation thread.

Hopefully they'll just have him accept the San Francisco task force offer, & have him (& Sara & Abby) move there offscreen with no blood shed. So it looks like the team next season will be Steve, Danny, Grover, Jerry (I forgot he was made a team member last season, though I think he deserved it), & a new girl they apparently still haven't cast yet.

Damn... I thought maybe we'd lose Grace P., but I wasn't counting on DDK--either with or without Grace P. leaving. They will both definitely be missed. And so will Ian Anthony Dale, whom we presumably won't see again now since he plays/played Kono's husband, Adam. It is, however, original show canon that neither Chin or Kono were still in the cast by the time of the last season (for that matter, neither was Danny... just saying... but at least DDK said on social media, after S8 was announced, that both Alex & Scott are coming back for S8... & I'm assuming Chi McBride's Grover is too, unless they're doing some sort of massive creative overhaul for S8; otherwise Five-0 will be pretty damned short handed this coming season) but we also don't know if this is the last season or not. And most people said, if any of the original cast was gonna leave before the end of the show it would probably be Scott Caan, because of the negative attitude he expressed/was quoted as expressing towards Hawaii at the beginning of the show. Just goes to show you, I guess...

Simone Veil, French feminist politician & Nazi death camp survivor, dead at age 89.

Gary DeCarlo, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" singer, dead at 75 from cancer.

Uh-huh. I really didn't want to get this personal, nor am I looking for sympathy, but it got my Dad too, Friday night of Memorial Day weekend. The upside is he lived, I think, at least 5-6 years after diagnosis.

Variety says they're negotiating an Exec Producer credit & LIVE! scheduling logistics for Ryan's Idol return.

Afghan Whigs guitarist Dave Rosser dies from colon cancer at age 50.

OK... When Aaron Rodgers won the money for the female contestant last night, 2 things bugged me about that bonus round: 1) For "Dinosaurs", the woman said "prehistoric animals"; she didn't give a list of even 1 type of dinosaur (heck, I could've at least given "Tyrannosaurus Rex" & "Triceratops"); in my opinion, that was at least a borderline illegal clue & either might've or would've been buzzed during the Dick Clark hosting era. 2) For "Things a Baby Would Say", she actually said "I say goo-goo and ga-ga.", instead of just listing the baby talk words. In the old days, that would've been a definite illegal clue because "say" was in the category phrase. I think someone upthread said they were being a lot looser this season about what is(n't) legal in the winner's circle. I get it's a fluffy summer game show, & they do want the civilians to win the money, but last night--especially having watched the show from the beginning--I have to say I was disappointed they let 2 obviously illegal/close to illegal clues pass, resulting in big money wins. @iMonrey: Great minds think alike... I'm pissed about the ignoring of the rules in the winner's circle when Aaron Rodgers was playing with that lady too.

They allowed "closet" because it was the key word they were looking for in the phrase on the board. They've done that since the Dick Clark era & he even explained on 1 of his episodes that there is a "key word" the judges look for in the winner's circle categories & as long as the person receiving the clues says that, it's acceptable; they don't have to say the entire phrase as written on the board (if it's multiple words).

Ryan got a little flustered by hosting without Kelly this morning, it seems, & he forgot to cover his drink before the confetti flew during the trivia contest.

Did they air the same (repeat/compilation) episode twice last week, or just the same host chat segment? On Friday's show, Kelly & Ryan were talking about whether or not their respective dogs followed them into the bathroom or not; I'm positive they talked about the same thing during another host chat segment either earlier last week or during another fairly recent week.

From Variety (among other sources): Gabe Pressman, TV reporter who covered New York City for 60 years, dead at 93.

People magazine posted another article a few hours ago, after my previous post, stating that--that he & his twin are John's nephews. And he appears to have been named for John, under his real name. http://people.com/movies/ghostbusters-ii-baby-oscar-actor-and-john-denvers-nephew-commits-suicide-after-battle-with-mental-illness/amp/

Ghostbusters II actor Henry ("Hank") Deutschendorf commits suicide at age 28. He & his twin William played Oscar, the infant son of Sigourney Weaver's character, & the target of all the supernatural happenings, in the movie. I remember reading at the time the movie came out that he (& his twin, of course) was supposedly related to singer John Denver (real name Henry John Deutschendorf), they were supposedly either his nephews or cousins, but I don't remember if that was ever found to be the truth or not. He had been battling a schizophrenia-related mental illness for a number of years, according to his linked obituary.

Former NFL linebacker Ryan Jones shot dead in apartment.

US student Otto Warmbier, 22, dies days after North Korea releases him from detention with severe brain damage.

Comedian Bill Dana dead at 92. And... Tim Hague, age 34, former UFC fighter, dies of traumatic brain injury 2 days after fight knockout.

Venus Ramey, Miss America 1944, dead at age 92.

Whether or not Kono/Grace Park will return to the show for S8 (after the S7 finale cliffhanger where she left the team to go to Carson City, NV in pursuit of another part of the sex trafficking ring involving teenage girls which Five-0 dealt with in Honolulu in 2 S7 eps), &/or what her status in the cast will be then (regular, recurring, etc.) appears to be a creative type situation, as opposed to 1 of Grace Park being tired of playing Kono after 7 seasons & wanting to move on. At least that's the way I interpreted the comments about the situation in the 4th Q&A from the top of the new Spoiler Room column from Entertainment Weekly/EW.com. http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/16/spoiler-room-riverdale-originals-htgawm/amp/ Having said that, about 10 days ago casting information came out saying the show was looking to cast a new female regular (& keep in mind, for what it's worth, that "regular" cast members on this show don't necessarily appear in every episode in a season) who might also become a new member of Five-0. That info is/should be in the 3rd Q&A from the top of this linked article. http://tvline.com/2017/06/08/hawaii-five-0-season-8-spoilers-casting-new-series-regular-female/

Playwright A.R. Gurney, author of Love Letters & The Dining Room, dead at 86. http://variety.com/2017/legit/news/a-r-gurney-dead-playwright-1202466255/

Gloria "Rapuela" Fajardo, mother of singer Gloria Estefan, dies at age 88 (the explanation of "Rapuela" is in the obit, though if you're a fan of Gloria Estefan or her daughter, up & coming singer/songwriter Emily Estefan, you probably already know the meaning behind the nickname). http://www.eonline.com/news/860904/gloria-estefan-s-mother-gloria-rapuela-fajardo-dies-at-88 And... Kent State Freshman football player Tyler Heintz, age unknown, dies after workout https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/06/13/kent-state-football-player-dies-after-workout/102831544/

Anita Pallenberg, actress & former paramour of The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, dead at 73

If you're of the same age group as I am, you may remember the then-recurring TV show Battle of the Network Stars which either aired just on ABC or rotated among the commercial TV networks at the time. It was an athletic-type competition series of specials in which stars from the different networks would compete against each other, & seemed to be connected to the popularity of the Olympics back in the day (the 1970's, if not also the early 1980's). Anyway... ABC is bringing it back this summer (the premiere date is in the article I'm linking) & 3 TWW cast members will be competing on 1 of the 10 episodes. Instead of the stars being grouped by the network which airs/aired their show, it appears the celebs will be grouped this time--at least in most cases--by the "genre" of the show they starred in. I put genre in quotes because some of the ones they used aren't among the usual TV show genres. The competitors from TWW are Marlee Matlin (pollster Joey Lucas), Joshua Malina (Bartlet Deputy Communications Director/Bingo Bob's Campaign Manager Will Bailey) & Mary McCormack (Deputy National Security Adviser Lt. Cmdr. Kate Harper); they'll be competing in the "White House vs. Lawyers" episode, for which no airdate was given. http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/battle-of-the-network-stars-abc-teams-1202462437/