BW Manilowe

Luke may not have been a guest with Kelly & Ryan, but he probably had to have been on in the Regis Philbin-era (with either Kathie Lee, Kelly, or a guest host) for the 90210 OG, if not other projects, or in the Kelly & Michael Strahan/guest hosts pre-Ryan-era for Riverdale &/or other projects. If Kelly mentioned his illness, I’m pretty sure she’ll mention his passing tomorrow.

Kelly Ripa’s almost gonna have to mention this tomorrow on Live with Kelly and Ryan during the Host Chat segment at the beginning of the show. For 1 reason, I’m positive Luke probably had been a guest on the show with whomever the hosts were then; also Kelly’s husband, Mark Consuelos, plays Hiram in Riverdale (I think that’s Veronica’s dad?), their eldest son, Michael, played young Hiram in an episode where the older characters/parents were teenagers, & I think I just read Kelly has been or will be on the show too.

Of course none of us knows what the “creatives” behind the show, & the CW network want to do about Luke’s passing in regards to his character’s status on Riverdale—& I’m pretty sure they don’t know either; especially given the death was only announced in the last hour & a few more minutes past that, so they’ve barely had time to process it. But it’s theoretically entirely possible they could recast Fred, if they feel they need to do that for the storyline, even though the show’s already been on for 3 seasons. Bewitched, for example, was on for 8 seasons & switched the actors who played Darrin between seasons 5 & 6. Other shows have also recast characters when they’ve been on for longer & shorter than 3 & 8 seasons.

The TMZ article/post on Luke’s death says his reps said Luke had been sedated since he was hospitalized in hopes his brain would/could recover from the stroke-related trauma. I’m sort of wondering (as the daughter of a now-deceased neurosurgeon & someone who has had way more experience in being a hospital patient than she probably wanted in her life) if that actually translates to “he’s been on life support since his hospitalization & all parties concerned (the TMZ article reads like a really large—more than I think you tend to see in a “deathbed” situation—part of his family was there when Luke died) finally agreed it was best to let him go peacefully rather than linger in whatever state he was in/going to remain in”, & so they did.

I wonder too. But the only reason (or so they’ve said, & so I’ve heard) Luke passed on the 90210 OG reboot had to do with his commitment to Riverdale; not that he didn’t wanna do it at all (but I also thought I’d read he was still trying to work things out so he could do at least some appearances on the 90210 OG reboot too, along with Riverdale—sort of like when Masi Oka was in Hawaii Five-0 & the short-lived Heroes Reborn reboot in the same TV season).

I don’t watch it, but I wonder what will happen now to his character on Riverdale? He played Fred; as I remember from my Archie comics-reading days, that’s Archie’s dad. I wonder if they’ll recast or kill him/otherwise write him off?

From USA Today: The Voice Season 13 Contestant Janice Freeman Dead at 33–Complications of Lupus and a Viral Infection

From The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN): Pritzker Prize-Winning, Irish-Born Architect Kevin Roche Dies at Age 96

From USA Today: Mac Wiseman, Country and Bluegrass Great, Dead at 93

I had been wondering for awhile what had happened to Katherine Helmond, since it had been a long time since she had been in the public eye (& I didn’t think she was the “retire & fade away gracefully” type). I suspected a battle with Alzheimer’s was the reason; sadly it appears I was right. I enjoyed her work over the years. We were “birthday twins” (I think that’s what they’re called); we shared a birthday, but not the same birth year. She had 34 years on me, if the age stated in her obit was correct. I always kinda loved that she had a husband who was so much younger than her (cougar, indeed)—I think he would be 76 now (19 + 57 = 76). I’m also happy—& sad for him, now that she’s gone—that they stayed together until her death. I can’t say it enough... FUCK CANCER & ALZHEIMER’S! We MUST find cures for both; they’re taking away way too many people!

From WGN-TV: Edward Nixon, Younger Brother of Former President Richard Nixon Who Stood by President Nixon During Watergate, Dead at 88

Andre Previn also is, if it wasn’t mentioned in the linked obit, the former husband of actress & activist Mia Farrow, & the adoptive father of a number of her children. This includes Soon-Yi, the Farrow-Previn daughter who went on to have an affair with, & marry & have 2 daughters with, embattled Oscar-winning director/actor/writer Woody Allen. Allen is the former longtime partner of her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, & the father of at least 2 biological children from that relationship. 1 of these children—along with Ms. Farrow & another Allen/Farrow biological offspring has long accused Allen of, still more unfounded than not, incidents of child molestation against her.

She wrote, directed, & did at least a cameo in, a movie called Rabbit Test which, coincidentally, starred Billy Crystal as the world’s first pregnant man.

From TV by the Numbers/Zap2It.com: Brooklyn Nine-Nine Renewed for Seventh (Overall) Season (Second Season on NBC)

With all due respect, a small correction here, regarding the bolded. Ellen’s last name is Burstyn, not Burnstyn.

From TV by the Numbers/Zap2It.com: NBC’s ‘One Chicago’ Lineup (Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD) Renewed

According to this article, Octavia was brought in during the filming/production process as an executive producer.

They didn’t get rid of any of the on air awards presentations after all. After they announced they were gonna do that, The Academy got letters/petitions signed by multiple members who work in branches where the awards were to be eliminated from on air presentations this year (even though the Academy branches whose awards were gonna be presented off camera supposedly volunteered to have their awards given offscreen during a commercial, according to the original announcement of that plan), as well as from multiple acting branch members of the Academy (presumably including some former Oscar winners &/or nominees), protesting moving the presentations of these 4 awards to the commercials. Once that happened, the producers backtracked & said all the awards would be presented during the telecast as usual.

Yes that was Red Buttons. Most of the celebrities they lingered on during Mr. Donen’s speech, except then-couple Arnold Schwarzenegger & Maria Shriver (& maybe a few others), sadly predeceased Mr. Donen.

OK... My copy of the Delta Goodrem CD with most/all of the songs from the movie (the de facto soundtrack for it, I suppose you could say), plus 2 duets with Olivia & a song with Georgia Flood, who’s in the Australian nighttime soap opera Wentworth (a reboot of the old Australian “women in prison” nighttime soap Prisoner, aka Prisoner: Cell Block H), arrived today. From the cover (linked at the word “soundtrack”), it appears they did intend to mention Olivia & Pat’s Koala Blue stores in the movie. In the top right pic, next to the “Physical” video 1, Faux Olivia & Faux Pat are wearing tees with the Koala Blue logo on them (& I swear I have at least 1 of those shirts); presumably the bottom half of their outfits were supposed to have been from Koala Blue too. But there was no scene with them & those clothes in either the version that aired on Lifetime or that I watched, with a little more stuff in it, on demand on Hulu a couple days later. By the way, Hulu still has it available—but you might need a subscription with Live TV added to watch it.

Regarding the bolded & italicized: Small point... When you’re using the word “Seal” (or “seal”) in connection with Steve, & now Junior, & talking about his/their position in the Navy, it needs to be written in all capitals, as “SEAL”. In the case of the Navy, SEAL is a special warfare unit & the letters in the name stand for “Sea, Air, & Land”—the 3 places they conduct their missions. And yes, I know the E in “Sea” isn’t capitalized—but the Navy still capitalizes it in the acronym “SEAL”. They probably think the acronym looks goofy, or unprofessional, with a small e, or something; I kind of agree with them.

Some people just know when to make their exits...& so Oscar-winner Stanley Donen leaves us on Oscar weekend 2019 (like the late NFL football Hall of Famer & broadcaster Frank Gifford left us on the opening day/weekend of the NFL football season a few years back). RIP & L, Sir!

REMIINDER: CBS is airing TWO episodes from 9-11PM Eastern & Pacific/8-10PM Central TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 22ND!

And, of course, there’s CBS All Access. But current eps are only free for a couple of weeks, I think. Then you have to have a subscription to watch them, as well as previous seasons.