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Jan 4
'09
Jett Travolta’s death is a tragedy people shouldn’t blame his parents for

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Jett Travolta, 16, died after suffering a seizure and a fall in the bathroom of his parents’ vacation home in the Bahamas. His body was discovered on Friday morning. Police sources have him falling and drowning in the bathtub late Thursday night, a claim his parents deny. They say he fell in the morning right before he was found and that he was well cared for and watched by two in-house nannies. Jett leaves behind his parents, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and sister Ella, 8.

Jett was rumored to have suffered from autism, which often co-exists with a seizure disorder but does not have seizures listed among the symptoms. Jett’s mother, Kelly Preston, has only stated that her son had Kawasaki disease, a rare immune disorder caused by early childhood exposure to toxic chemicals.

In May of 2007, a story came out that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were ignoring their son Jett’s autism. It was based on an interview with one of their neighbors, a restaurant owner who happened to have a four year-old autistic child and recognized some of the symptoms in Jett when the family came in to his establishment to eat. The neighbor told Hollywood, Interrupted that he asked Travolta to get involved in autism fundraisers and was rebuffed. According to this guy’s diagnosis from afar, John and Kelly weren’t getting the proper therapy for their child and were letting him eat junk food and play video games. The neighbor didn’t explain how he knew that John Travolta and Kelly Preston were neglecting Jett, and it seemed to be based on just seeing them in his restaurant and getting handed a Scientology booklet by Travolta.

Scientology does not recognize autism
John Travolta and Kelly Preston are Scientologists. Scientology is a well-documented harmful cult that does not recognize autism as a disorder, does not allow followers to use psychiatric medication, and often blames sufferers for mental illness.

We don’t know if Jett had autism or what his care was like
All we have is rumor and one guy’s questionable assessment that suggests Jett had poor care. We don’t know if he had autism, if he was receiving therapy or treatment, or if his parent’s belief system contributed to his death in any way. From the reports that Travolta’s people are giving TMZ, it sounds like Jett had very good care and that it was a terrible accident.

Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for a long time
According to the Travoltas, Jett was on anti-convulsant medication for years but it eventually stopped working for him. They say they met with neurologists who decided to take him off the medication as it was no longer effective. Even with medication people can still suffer from seizures and accidents do happen. Hunter Tylo’s son died last year at 19 after having a seizure and falling into a pool and no one blamed her or her husband for his death.

There’s little reason to blame the parents and it’s hurtful
Now that John and Kelly have suffered an immeasurable loss, people are making the unjustified logical leap that they must be responsible in some way since their “religion” doesn’t recognize autism as a disorder and preaches against the use of psychiatric drugs. I’m as against Scientology as the next person, but you can’t take some small pieces of information and jump to conclusions. It’s fine to speculate when it involves someone’s love life, but when it involves the death of child it can be hurtful to say the least.

We don’t know all the details surrounding his condition or his death, some early stories have been inaccurate, and even the medical experts among us couldn’t pass judgment without being privy to the facts.

Let’s not blame this suffering family for something we have no clue about. They’ve already lost their son and none of us know the circumstances of their home life or what happened that led to their son’s death.

John Travolta has issued a statement on his website about his son’s death. He says, in part: “Jett was the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for and lit up the lives of everyone he encountered. We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.”

Update: Many of you have pointed out that John Travolta’s brother Joey made a documentary about autism in 2006 called “Normal People Scare Me,” in which John and Jett were not involved. It was thought to have been directed in some way at his brother.

The skepticism about Jett’s treatment is completely understandable given his parent’s involvement in Scientology. Of course there needs to be a thorough investigation and maybe the increased focused on the very dangerous practices of Scientology will finally help bring this criminal organization down. They need to be tried under the RICO act in the US.

All that said, I’m very disappointed at other media outlets’ rush to judgment. Look at what happened with the Heath Ledger case. The initial details were wrong and people condemned and dismissed him as a drug addict. That was a full grown man who had died from a drug interaction, and this is a teen boy who was disabled and suffered seizures. He’s barely dead and people are already saying “His parents are Scientologists, told you so.”

Posted in Deaths, Jett Travolta, John Travolta, Kelly Preston

Written by Celebitchy         65 Comments »
Jan 2
'09
John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son Jett dies (Update)

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John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son Jett has died, according to TMZ. No details have been released about the cause of death or when it happened – all that’s known is that the family was vacationing in the Bahamas, and a hospital there has confirmed Jett’s passing.

Rand Memorial Hospital in the Bahamas tells TMZ the son of John Travolta died today.

We’re told 16-year-old Jett was vacationing with Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. We do not know the circumstances of his death.

There have been reports that Jett was autistic, though Travolta has denied it, saying he suffers from Kawasaki Syndrome, a condition which often leads to heart disease.

[From TMZ]

We will keep this story updated as more information becomes available. Our hearts go out to the Travolta/Preston family.

Update: MSNBC said that Jett suffered a seizure during which he hit his head on the bathtub.

The teenage son of actor John Travolta died suddenly on Friday during a family vacation in the Bahamas, according to the family’s lawyer.

Jett Travolta, 16, suffered a seizure at his family’s vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island, attorney Michael Ossi said. According to Access Hollywood, Jett fell and hit his head on the bathtub in his hotel room.

Attempts were made to revive him, but he died at the scene, Ossi said.

Jett, who had a history of seizures, was the eldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston. They also have a daughter, Ella Blue, who was born in 2000.

[From MSNBC]

Here’s John Travolta, Kelly Preston with kids Jett and Ella Bleu, leaving an airport in Rome on November 5th, 2005. Images thanks to Splash.

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Posted in Deaths, Jett Travolta, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Photos

Written by JayBird         113 Comments »
Dec 31
'08
Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter passed away on Christmas day

Mia Farrow
Sad news: Mia Farrow’s daughter Lark, who had been ill for quite some time due to an undisclosed condition, passed away on Christmas day. She was 35 years old and the mother of two teenaged girls. Lark Previn was Mia’s first adopted daughter with then-husband Andre Previn. Mia adopted her along with her sister, Daisy, from Vietnam in 1973.

Lark Previn, the Vietnamese-born adopted daughter of Farrow and musician Andre Previn, died on Christmas Day, the medical examiner said Monday.

Lark Previn, 35, a mother of two girls, had been ailing for a decade. A cause of death was not released.

Her two daughters, Sara, 13, and Christine, 12, sat in the front row at her wake last night at a Brooklyn funeral home.

Robert Garcia, Previn’s live-in boyfriend, declined comment.

Neighbors in the couple’s Clinton Hill apartment building said she was somewhat reclusive and gave no hint that her mother was a celebrity.

“We never knew. She never let on,” said Lillian Rivera, 42, a neighbor. “She was a mystery.”

The young mom was obviously ailing and had grown skinny and lost most of her hair in recent months.
“It’s very sad,” the neighbor said.

Lark Previn and her sister, Daisy, 34, were the first of Farrow’s multiethnic gaggle of adopted kids.

The two sisters first made headlines in 1991 when they were arrested for shoplifting underwear from a mall in Connecticut, near Farrow’s country home.

Mia Farrow and Andre Previn also adopted the Korean-born Soon-Yi Previn, who wound up marrying Woody Allen – the actress’ one-time companion – after a scandalous affair became public in 1992.

Farrow’s children mostly sided with her against Allen in their epic feud, which included child molestation accusations against the famed director.

From NY Daily News

How sad for Mia and her grandchildren! Imagine losing a loved one on Christmas day. It would make it hard to enjoy that day like everyone else from then on. Not only are you missing the person you lost, but you are marking Christmas as the day you lost them. Condolences to the family.

Mia Farrow is shown on 10/17/08 at “Free The Children’s National Me to We Day” in Toronto. Credit:
Robin Wong / PR Photos

Posted in Deaths, Mia Farrow

Written by MSat         22 Comments »
Dec 26
'08
Eartha Kitt passes away at 81

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Legendary smoky-voiced seductress Eartha Kitt has died at the age of 81. The actress and singer passed away in her home in Connecticut on Christmas day after a battle with colon cancer. She is best known for her 1953 hit “Santa Baby” and as Catwoman on the Batman television show in the 1960s. Ms. Kitt enjoyed a diverse career, working on Broadway and in cabaret well into her later years and earning a daytime Emmy award this year for voice work on the children’s animated show “The Emperor’s New School.”

Kitt had an incredibly difficult childhood in South Carolina. She never knew her father and her mother left her in the care of a family who abused her and forced her to work in the cotton fields. She moved to Harlem at the age of eight to live with a woman she thought was an aunt, but later learned was her biological mother. Her mother would beat her and she would run away and return several times as a teen, eventually leaving to work in a factory and sleep in the subway and on the roofs of buildings at night.

A friend told Kitt to audition for the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, and she was accepted and began her journey to stardom. She made her film debut at the age of 21 in the film Casbah:

Eartha Kitt, the versatile American singer and actress who died at 81, mesmerized audiences worldwide for over six decades with her sultry voice and sensuality on stage and screen.

Kitt, whose outspokenness was a mainstay of her career but also led to a self-imposed exile to Europe in the 1960s and 70s after her stinging critique of the war in Vietnam, won two Emmy television awards and was nominated for two Tony awards and a pair of Grammys.

She was being treated for colon cancer at a New York hospital, her friend and publicist Andrew Freedman told AFP.

“She was certainly a legendary performer and while I think there may have been many imitations, she was an original,” Freedman said. She was one of the few artists nominated for Tony, Grammy and Emmy awards.

A self-described “sex kitten,” Kitt famously played the role of Catwoman in the US hit TV series “Batman” in the 1960s. Her feline purr and uncanny persona won her millions of fans, among them Hollywood’s Orson Welles, who called her “the most exciting woman in the world.”

She acted in movies as well, starring with Nat King Cole in “St. Louis Blues” (1958) and with Sydney Poitier in “The Mark of the Hawk” (1957).

“I do not have an act. I just do Eartha Kitt,” she told the British newspaper The Times in April. “I want to be whoever Eartha Kitt is until the gods take me wherever they take me.”

“I Want to Be Evil” and “Santa Baby,” still a Christmas favorite today, were among her best-selling songs. She produced another hit in 1984 with the disco song “Where is My Man.”

Kitt rose to fame from humble origins as a mixed-race child who grew up in South Carolina’s cotton fields.

The performer spoke out about the rise of African-American artists.

“It’s time that people of color start to break into the area of being recognized for their work — not because of their color,” Kitt told a Washington Post online forum in 2005.

“It does encourage others of color that we’re getting there, that we’re progressing,” she said of recent Oscar wins by Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman.

But, Kitt said, “I don’t carry myself as a black person, but as a woman that belongs to everybody.”

[From AFP via Google]

Reading about Kitt’s incredible life, I learned that she was blacklisted in Hollywood in the late 1960s after she plainly told the first lady how she felt about the war. During a White House luncheon, Lady Bird Johnson asked Kitt about the Vietnam War, and she honestly responded that “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.” Mrs. Johnson was left in tears and Kitt suffered a career setback for speaking her mind.

RIP Eartha Kitt. You will be deeply missed and fondly remembered.

The header is of Eartha Kitt performing on 4/28/08. Credit: WENN. She is also shown 2/3/06 at Fashion Week, on 10/31/05 at Bette Midler’s Hulaween ball, on 8/17/04 at a Meow Mix event, on 7/10/04 at a Broadway Barks Event, and on 3/7/04 at the TV Land Awards. Credit: PRPhotos

[Some factual details from NY Times and Wikipedia]

Here’s Eartha Kitt performing “I Want To Be Evil” in 1962

“Santa Baby”

Posted in Deaths, Eartha Kitt

Written by Celebitchy         11 Comments »
Dec 16
'08
Kate Winslet admits she left her dying ex-boyfriend

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Kate Winslet has been doing a lot of press for her upcoming film “Revolutionary Road” with Leonard DiCaprio. She recently admitted that she left her ex-boyfriend, actor Stephen Tredre, when he was dying of bone cancer. Winslet said he broke up with her because he was afraid she was ruining her career by taking care of him. He died before he got to see Kate make it big – right before the premiere of “Titanic.”

Kate Winslet regrets abandoning her dying ex-boyfriend – even though he told her to. Winslet dated actor and writer Stephen Tredre for five years, until he ended their romance in 1997 – fearing her fledgling Hollywood career would suffer if she spent her days caring for him.

After Winslet finished filming Titanic, Tredre died of bone cancer. Kate was not at the premier of blockbuster because she instead attended his funeral in London. But Kate wishes never agreed to Stephen’s wishes.

The actress – who is now married to director Sam Mendes – explains, “Stephen let me go, and that as an act of love from one human being to another was overwhelming.
“When I look back, I wish he hadn’t. I wish I had just been there. To the bitter end. He was gone very quickly and – I still go over those moments in my head.

“I talk about Stephen as if I still love him. But I do. I hope I always will.

“You don’t (get over a death), you learn to live with it. I look back on it… and I still get upset when I talk about it.”

[From Gossip Rocks]

What a heartbreaking story. It doesn’t sound like Kate “abandoned” Stephen so much as he wanted to do what was best for her, and she went with it. Clearly she’s still upset about her decision, but it seems like she’s chosen to look at it in the right light, in terms of it being an amazingly unselfish act on Stephen’s part. I think you could only do something like that if you truly, profoundly loved a person. Nonetheless, I don’t blame her for feeling guilty. It’s hard to match the kind of gift Stephen gave her, and her career really has blossomed. Hopefully Kate will eventually forgive herself – it sounds heartbreaking, and like they both deeply loved each other.

Here’s Kate at the New York premiere of ‘The Reader’at the Ziegfield Theater in New York on December 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.

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Posted in Deaths, Kate Winslet, Photos

Written by JayBird         52 Comments »
Dec 12
'08
Bettie Page has died at 85


Betty Page was born on April 22, 1923 and from the very beginning led an extraordinary life, and not always an extraordinarily good one. Bettie was the victim of poverty & sexual abuse and spent time in an orphanage as she was growing up. The amazing thing about Bettie Page, was despite all of it, she kept that bright, unencumbered smile.

On Thursday, Bettie Page passed away in Los Angeles. Page had been hospitalized for three weeks and was scheduled to be released when she suffered a heart attack last week. After the heart attack, Bettie lapsed into a coma from which she didn’t recover.

Bettie Page is a legend, an icon, and a fascinating story. She was discovered walking on the beach at Coney Island. From that one happenstance, Bettie pioneered the fetish pin-up look that’s been emulated for more than 50 years.

Looking back on the career that followed, she told Playboy in 1998, “I never thought it was shameful. I felt normal. It’s just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day, which gets monotonous.”

Nudity didn’t bother her, she said, explaining: “God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds.”

[From MSN Entertainment]

When Bettie was 34, a congressional investigation was launched into the BDSM photography Page had started specializing in, and may I say, perfecting, so she retreated from the public eye. Bettie became a born-again Christian and worked for years for the Billy Graham Ministry.

After some violent incidents with landlords in Los Angeles in her 50s, Page was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was sentenced by the court to a mental institution and state supervision. By this time, Page was no longer known for her early modelling and had not received any further compensation for her iconic work. But as so many things do, the notoriety, if not the proper compensation, was about to come back around.

A resurgence of interest in Bettie Page as an iconic figure started in the 80s. Magazines, books, and movies chronicled her story and interest in her image skyrocketed. Newer pictures of her, however, were completely off limits as far as Bettie was concerned.

After resurfacing in the 1990s, she occasionally granted interviews but refused to allow her picture to be taken.

“I don’t want to be photographed in my old age,” she told an interviewer in 1998. “I feel the same way with old movie stars. … It makes me sad. We want to remember them when they were young.”

The 21st century indeed had people remembering her just as she was. She became the subject of songs, biographies, Web sites, comic books, movies and documentaries. A new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos, and some feminists hailed her as a pioneer of women’s liberation.

[From MSN Entertainment]

More recently, with the help of agent Mark Roesler, Bettie was successful in getting a fraction of the money people made off of her for herself. It will never be enough, but it’s comforting, as a major fan, to know that somehow, in the end, Bettie got a little piece of what Bettie Page gave the world. I hope Bettie was happy and content with her life. I have a feeling she is, and she’s smiling that fantastic smile!

Here is a video of Bettie Page doing some mild burlesque in 1950

Posted in Bettie Page, Deaths

Written by Ceilidh         24 Comments »
Dec 11
'08
Macaulay Culkin’s sister dies after being hit by a car

Macaulay Culkin’s older sister Dakota was killed yesterday. His rep confirmed to TMZ that Dakota died after being hit by a car, and that it was an accident.

Macaulay Culkin is in mourning: E! News has learned that the Culkin clan of seven siblings, including fellow actors Kieran and Rory, has lost a member.

The Home Alone star’s older sister, Dakota Culkin, 29, was struck by a car when she stepped off the curb and in front of a moving vehicle on the west side of Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.

She was taken to UCLA Hospital with massive head trauma and died from her injuries yesterday afternoon.

According to the LAPD, the driver of the car stopped, tried to help Culkin and identified himself to law enforcement. Detectives determined he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and that no crime was committed.

[From E! News]

How very sad. She was so young, too. Our hearts go out to the Culkin family.

Here’s the only photo of Dakota I could find. It appears to be taken sometime in the early nineties, since Macaulay looks to be about the age he was in “Home Alone.”

Posted in Deaths, Macaulay Culkin

Written by JayBird         27 Comments »
Dec 10
'08
Mark Ruffalo’s brother was playing Russian Roulette says suspect


Actor Mark Ruffalo’s family has issued a statement about the death of his brother Scott, 39, who died in the hospital a week after he was shot in the head at his condominium in Beverly Hills. They thank the public for their support and say that the funeral will be private. There is also a memorial fund set up in his memory.

The former main suspect, a 26 year-old female friend of the victim who turned herself into police on Monday, claims through her lawyer that Scott Ruffalo shot himself while under the influence of drugs and playing Russian Roulette. Shaha Adham was seen seen on surveillance tape entering the victim’s condominium before his death but says she was just stopping by to pick up her car keys when he shoot himself. Her attorney admits that she left the scene shortly afterwards.

“My client was a good friend of the victim and is very sad for the loss of his family. However, she played no role whatsoever in his accidental death,” Richards said.

Shaha Adham, 26, surrendered Monday after Beverly Hills police issued an arrest warrant for attempted murder…

Lt. Tony Lee with the Beverly Hills Police Department said he could not comment on Adham’s story, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Police knew to question Adham because she was on surveillance video at Ruffalo’s condominium along with Brian Scofield, 29, a “person of interest” in the case, Richards said.

Scott Ruffalo, a married hairdresser, died late Monday after he was taken off life support, one week after he was found with a gunshot wound to the head in his Beverly Hills condo. He is the kid brother of “You Can Count on Me” star Mark Ruffalo.

“I can confirm that my client was present when Mr. Ruffalo shot himself,” Richards said Tuesday. “She was picking up some keys.”

He said the gun belonged to Ruffalo and that Ruffalo was a known cocaine user who had used drugs and played with guns in the past in front of numerous witnesses.

[From The NY Daily News]

It sounds like a suspicious excuse. There may have been some evidence supporting Adham’s claim that it was a Russian Roulette death as she has been released and cleared by police of all wrongdoing. The other “person of interest,” Adham’s boyfriend Brian Scofield, has also been released. TMZ claims that Scofield was not at the scene and was just the first person Adham called. Another unknown person is said to have been there at the time of the shooting.

Scott Ruffalo was married and worked as a hairdresser. It’s a tragic story no matter how he died and hopefully the family will be able to find some peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Mark Ruffalo is shown at the premiere of Reservation Road on 10/18/07. Credit: Fame

Posted in Deaths, Mark Ruffalo, Photos

Written by Celebitchy         11 Comments »
Dec 9
'08
Mark Ruffalo’s brother dies from gunshot wound

Horrific news: actor Mark Ruffalo’s brother has died from injuries sustained by a gunshot wound to the head. Scott Ruffalo, 39, died late last night, just hours after the prime suspects in his shooting turned themselves in to police for questioning. He was mysteriously shot in the back of the head on Dec. 1 in front of his home, and has been in serious condition since.

Scott Ruffalo, the brother of actor Mark Ruffalo, died last night after suffering a gunshot wound last week.

Brian Scofield and Shaha Mishaal Adham turned themselves in to the Bev Hills PD yesterday. Adham was named a “suspect” and Scofield was named a”person of interest” in the shooting.

[From TMZ]

Police have been very tight-lipped in this case, particularly regarding any kind of motive for the shooting. All the police have said is that there was “suspicious activity” going on outside the home. That could mean just about anything. I’m sure that the stakes are even higher now that the victim has died. In any case, I’m sure the Ruffalo family is devastated. According to reports, Mark and his family have been spending every minute since the shooting by Scott’s bedside and were in total shock over the incident. This kind of violent ending to a loved one’s life certainly isn’t something you expect or plan for. Scott Ruffalo was a hairdresser and leaves behind his wife and a stepdaughter. Condolences to the family.

Photos of Mark Ruffalo and his wife, Sunrise Coigney, at the AFI Film Festival on Nov. 3. Photos of Mark alone coming out of a medical building in June 2008. Photo credit: WENN.

Posted in Crime, Deaths, Mark Ruffalo

Written by MSat         12 Comments »
Dec 8
'08
Socialite Sunny von Bulow dies after 28-year coma


Her mysterious collapse into a coma was international news 28 years ago, and the man who was tried twice for her attempted murder became a notorious celebrity played by Jeremy Irons in the movie “Reversal of Fortune.” Martha “Sunny” von Bulow (who was played by Glenn Close in the movie) passed away on Saturday in a nursing home in Manhattan, where she had spent the last 28 years in coma.

Martha (Sunny) von Bülow, the American heiress who was first married to an Austrian playboy prince and then to a Danish-born man-about-society who was twice tried on charges of attempting to murder her, died Saturday at a nursing home in Manhattan. Mrs. von Bülow, who was 76, had been in a coma for nearly 28 years.

Maureen Connelly, a spokeswoman for the family, confirmed the death. Mrs. von Bülow’s three children said in a statement that they “were blessed to have an extraordinary loving and caring mother.” The cause, as listed in the death certificate, was cardiopulmonary arrest, Ms. Connelly said.

Mrs. von Bülow’s death came 27 years, 11 months and 15 days after she was found unconscious on the floor of her bathroom in her mansion in Newport, R.I., on Dec. 21, 1980.

In her long, silent years at the Milstein Building at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, and then at a nursing home on the Upper East Side, doctors said Mrs. von Bülow never showed any signs of brain activity; she was fed through a tube in her stomach. Yet there were always fresh flowers in her room, and photographs of her children and grandchildren sat on a bedside table. She was attended by private nurses, and her room, for some time, was guarded by private security personnel.

She is survived by her daughters, Annie-Laurie von Auersperg Kneissl Isham and Cosima Pavoncelli; her son, Alexander von Auersperg; and nine grandchildren.

Her second husband, Claus von Bülow, was convicted and later acquitted of twice trying to kill her with injections of insulin so as to aggravate her hypoglycemia, a low blood sugar condition.

His trials were among the most sensational of the 1980s. News media from around the world were drawn to the drama of the beautiful heiress who lay in a twilight zone, the debonair husband accused of attempted murder and two royal children pitted against their younger stepsister, with the glittering social milieus of Newport and New York providing the backdrop.

Hollywood, too, could not resist. The trials became the subject of the 1990 movie “Reversal of Fortune” with Glenn Close as Mrs. von Bülow and Jeremy Irons as Mr. von Bülow.

The prosecutions were the result of an investigation initiated by Alexander von Auersperg and his sister Annie-Laurie von Auersperg Kneissl, known as Ala, the children from Mrs. von Bülow’s marriage to Prince Alfred von Auersperg. The accusations pitted the von Auerspergs against their stepfather and their half sister, Cosima von Bülow, and divided the loyalty of friends in Newport and New York.

In his first trial, in Newport in 1982, Mr. von Bülow was found guilty of twice trying to kill his wife and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He appealed and posted a $1 million bond believed to have been put up by his friend J. Paul Getty Jr., the oil tycoon.

The appeal was guided by Alan M. Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor, and the conviction was overturned on the grounds that certain information had not been made available to the defense and that there had been no search warrant when pills were sent for testing.

Mr. von Bülow was acquitted in 1985 after a second trial in Providence, R.I., where his chief defense counsel was Thomas P. Puccio.

A $56 million civil suit filed against Mr. von Bülow by his stepchildren was settled in 1987 with the stipulation that Mr. von Bülow agree to a divorce and not discuss the case publicly. The couple were divorced in 1988. Mr. von Bülow lives in London.

[From the NY Times]

This case always fascinated me. This case was tabloid fodder long before OJ Simpson and his “dream team” of lawyers. I remember during the trials, there was a new revelation about Claus or the von Bulow’s marriage every day. I always thought that one day, Sunny would come out of her coma and tell the world what happened to her, but I guess not. Claus has kept a very low profile since the acquittals. The lawyer who made a name for himself defending Claus had this to say about Sunny’s death:

Claus von Bulow is living in London, “mostly taking care of his grandchildren,” said Alan Dershowitz, the defense lawyer who won his acquittal at the second trial.

“It’s a sad ending to a sad tragedy that some people tried to turn into a crime,” Dershowitz said. “I hope this finally will put to an end to this terrible tragedy.”

“There are no winners in a case like this. I’m happy to have played a role in getting the criminal conviction reversed, because it was an unjust conviction, but there were no victory parties or celebrations afterwards because there was a woman in a coma,” Dershowitz said.

[From the NY Post]

Informal poll: Claus von Bulow– did he get away with murder?

Header photo from CasanovaKim’s Flickr.

Posted in Claus von Bulow, Deaths, Sunny von Bulow

Written by MSat         17 Comments »
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