Daily Commentary – Wednesday, November 18, 2015 – So Charlie Sheen is HIV Positive?

• Does that surprise anyone? So is he still WINNING?

Actor Charlie Sheen Is HIV-Positive

SO MUCH FOR WINNING …

According to TMZ.com, actor Charlie Sheen is going to disclose publicly on The Today Show that he is HIV-positive.  Sources connected to NBC’s “Today” tell TMZ … Sheen will sit down with Matt Lauer on Tuesday morning to make the announcement. The 50 year old actor has long struggled with substance abuse and has admitted to soliciting prostitutes in the past.

People:

Charlie Sheen is going on the Today show to discuss being HIV-positive, sources tell PEOPLE.

According to top Hollywood publicist and crisis manager Howard Bragman, he was approached by people close to Sheen six months ago to deal with the crisis, but never dealt with him directly. “The interview could open up a lot of sympathy for him, but he has to be concerned about a fear of litigation from former sexual partners. You don’t take that lightly.”

Bragman says he was informed that Sheen “is getting treatment, and a lot of people in his life know about it.”

“It’s been going on for quite awhile. He’s not necessarily comfortable talking about it. It was very hard to get up the courage for him to talk about it.”

UPDATE I: TMZ – Charlie Sheen Threats of Lawsuits Unraveled HIV Secret.

We’re told things changed when Charlie confided in several friends he thought were confidants … it turned out they weren’t, and spread the word he was HIV positive.

That led to several of Charlie’s former partners contacting him and threatening a lawsuit because they were unaware of his status when they had interaction with him. Our sources say Charlie settled several of the cases and, in return for money, got confidentiality agreements.

We’re told one of the settlements occurred late last month.

Former Republican Tennesee U.S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson Dies at 73, RIP

FORMER US SENATOR FRED THOMPSON HAS PASSED AWAY.

Former U.S. Senator from Tennessee Fred Dalton Thompson has passed away at the age of 73 in Nashville, TN. The former Senator, Republican presidential candidate, and actor who starred in the TV series “Law and Order,” and movies “The Hunt for Red October,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Die Hard II” and “Secretariat” passed away on Sunday in Nashville, TN from lymphoma. According to accounts Thompson died peacefully surrounded by his family.

As Hot Air remembers Fred Thompson, in 1994, Thompson parlayed that familiarity to a seat in the US Senate, taking Al Gore’s seat in a special election. He won again in 1996 for a full term, but retired from the Senate in 2002 to return to his acting career. In 2007, though, with the Republican presidential field wide open, Thompson decided to run for the nomination, only to find that he’d gotten in too late to have an impact.

Fred Thompson – 1942 – 2015, Rest in Peace

Fred Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, GOP presidential candidate, Watergate attorney and actor who starred on the television drama “Law and Order,” died on Sunday in Nashville. He was 73.

Mr. Thompson died after a recurrence of lymphoma, according to a prepared statement issued by the Thompson family. Mr Thompson, who had recently purchased a house in Nashville to return to Tennessee, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004.

“It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of grief that we share the passing of our brother, husband, father, and grandfather who died peacefully in Nashville surrounded by his family,” the Thompson family’s statement reads.

“Fred once said that the experiences he had growing up in small-town Tennessee formed the prism through which he viewed the world and shaped the way he dealt with life,” his family said. “Fred stood on principle and common sense, and had a deep love for and connection with the people across Tennessee whom he had the privilege to serve in the United States Senate. He enjoyed a hearty laugh, a strong handshake, a good cigar, and a healthy dose of humility. Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of Lawrenceburg, his home.”

Fred Thompson Talks about the Reagan Revolution in 2008 and the battle for the hearts and minds of the GOP

Variety Obit – Fred Thompson, ‘Law & Order’ Actor and Former Senator, Dies at 73.

Thompson was also a GOP presidential candidate in 2008, as well as a Watergate attorney. He played D.A. Arthur Branch on “Law & Order” for five years, and also appeared on the show’s spinoffs “Special Victims Unit” and “Trial by Jury” as the character.

Thompson, who was born in Sheffield, Ala., shifted between politics and acting frequently throughout his life, but he gained a degree of visibility in 1973, when he served as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, after having managed the reelection campaign of Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), the top Republican on the committee.

At one hearing, he asked former White House aide Alexander Butterfield, “Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?” Butterfield’s confirmation of a secret recording system was a key turning point in the scandal that eventually led to President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation.

Four years later, when Thompson was working in private practice in Tennessee, Thompson represented Marie Ragghianti, former chair of the Tennessee Parole Board, in a wrongful termination case against the state’s governor. The trial exposed a scandal in which cash payments were being given to state officials in exchange for clemency.

The case was the subject of a book and a 1985 movie, “Marie,” and started Thompson’s acting career when he was offered the part of playing himself.

After enjoying a number of character parts, Thompson ran for Senate in a 1994 special election, in a campaign in which he drove around in a red pickup truck to try to show his populist appeal. He was reelected in 1996, but declined to run for reelection in 2002.

In 2007, he was viewed as a leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination in the months before he officially announced his candidacy on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” But his campaign sputtered, and he dropped out after just a few primaries.

One of my Favorite Fred Thompson moments … Thompson responds to Michael Moore

Golden Age of Hollywood Actress Maureen O’Hara Has Passed Away at Age 95, Rest in Peace

WE HAVE LOST ANOTHER GIANT FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOLLYWOOD …

It is a sad day for those of us who love classic movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood and movies actually worth watching. Irish born actress Maureen O’Hara has passed away at age 95. One of my all-time favorite actresses and a classic beauty that represents Hollywood gone by, Maureen O’Hara, died on Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho. Her family confirmed in a statement that she passed away from natural causes peacefully in her sleep at her on home Saturday morning surrounded by family. Maureen O’Hara is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA next to her husband, US Navy pilot General Charles Blair who died in a plane crash in 1978.

She was born Maureen FitzSimons on August 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, Ireland, on the outskirts of Dublin and was the second of six children of Charles FitzSimons. But we knew her best for her tremendous acting roles in movies like “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), “The Black Swan” (1942), “This Land Is Mine” (1943),”The Quiet Man” (1952) and “McLintock!” (1963). However, my favorite is the timeless holiday classic, “A Miracle on 34th Street” (1947).

One of my favorite stories of Maureen O’Hara was the one where John Wayne, The Duke, paid her one of his highest complaints. John Wayne said, “I’ve had many friends, and I prefer the company of men, except for Maureen O’Hara,” he said. “She is a great guy.”

 Maureen O’Hara, Rest in Peace

New York Times: Maureen O’Hara, Irish-Born Actress Known as Queen of Technicolor, Dies at 95.

Maureen O’Hara, the spirited Irish-born actress who played strong-willed, tempestuous beauties opposite all manner of adventurers in escapist movies of the 1940s and ’50s, died on Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho. She was 95.

Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager, confirmed her death.

Ms. O’Hara was called the Queen of Technicolor, because when that film process first came into use, nothing seemed to show off its splendor better than her rich red hair, bright green eyes and flawless peaches-and-cream complexion. One critic praised her in an otherwise negative review of the 1950 film “Comanche Territory” with the sentiment “Framed in Technicolor, Miss O’Hara somehow seems more significant than a setting sun.” Even the creators of the process claimed her as its best advertisement.

Miracle of 34th Street, (Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn and a young Natalie Wood)

Yet many of the films that made the young Ms. O’Hara a star were in black and white. They included her first Hollywood movie, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939), in which she played the haunted Gypsy girl Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo; the Oscar-winning “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), in which she was memorable as a Welsh mining family’s beautiful daughter who marries the wrong man; “This Land Is Mine” (1943), a war drama in which she was directed by Jean Renoir; and “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), the holiday classic in which she played a cynical, modern Macy’s executive who tries to prevent her daughter from believing in Santa Claus.

The Quiet Man (Maureen O’Hara & John Wayne) – The Kiss scene

I am in 100% agreement with the PJ Tatler, in they just don’t make movies like this anymore like the ones that Maureen O’Hara acted in. Imagine a movie with a plot, movies that set up the dramatic scenes, rather than just using special HD effects. Imagine a movie where the sexual tension is set up between a man and a woman rather than they just jump each others bones in two seconds and leaving a woman’s beauty to the imagination rather than a gratuitous nude scene. If you have never seen any of Maureen O’Hara’s movies, take this moment and do so.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Irish Times: Actor Maureen O’Hara dies aged 95.

“It is with a sad heart that we share the news that Maureen O’Hara passed away today in her sleep of natural causes,” a statement from the Fitzsimons family read.

“Maureen was our loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favourite movie, The Quiet Man.”

“While we mourn the loss of a very wonderful woman, we also celebrate her remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world, especially in Ireland, to work hard to make their dreams come true and to always have the courage to stand up for themselves.

“For those who may ask what they can do to honour Maureen, we have a simple request: visit Ireland one day and think of her.”

Her manager said that Ms O’Hara had “a wicked sense of humour and never took her good fortunes for granted.”

“She was a classy, warm, feisty, funny woman and she was always so proudly Irish,” he said.

Daily Commentary – Monday, October 19, 2015 – Whether Accidental or Intentional, It’s Sad To Hear About Lamar Odom

• I always thought Lamar was more normal than the publicity seeking Kardashians

Daily Commentary – Monday, October 19, 2015 Download