Forbes have come up with their annual list of the top earning dead celebrities for the year 2010 and the 13 stars earned a combined total of $506 million. To calculate their earnings Forbes took things into account such as royalties and licensing of the persons image.
13. Aaron Spelling, $5 million
As one of the founding fathers of modern television, Aaron Spelling spent five decades producing long-running, widely syndicated shows such as Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty and 7th Heaven. Although Spelling Television’s contemporary update on Melrose Place was canceled earlier this year, his Beverly Hills 90210 revival just began its third season on the CW. Meanwhile, Spelling Entertainment owns the rights to Republic Pictures’ archives, including classic films like High Noon and It’s a Wonderful Life.
11 (tie). Steve McQueen, $6 million
Three decades after his passing, the onetime Bullitt star continues to personify cool. McQueen’s image and likeness have been licensed for a host of signature collections for high-end brands like Dolce & Gabbana and Persol sunglasses. More recently he became the face of Tommy Hilfiger’s fall “icon collection” and UBS’ global “We Will Not Rest” campaign.
11 (tie). Jimi Hendrix, $6 million
It’s been 40 years since Hendrix died, but his music is still influencing wannabe rockers. His 1967 debut Are You Experienced has been licensed to the third version of the “Rock Band” videogame, and his estate recently released a new batch of previously unheard recordings. Fender Guitars has signed on to present the 2010 Experience Hendrix tour, featuring one of the star’s former bandmates.
10. Richard Rodgers, $7 million
In 2009 the Netherlands’ Imagem Music Group bought the rights to the collaborative catalog of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for a reported $200 million. Without those assets, Rogers still lands on our list, thanks to his earlier work with Lorenz Hart. That catalog boasts such standards as “My Funny Valentine” and “The Lady is a Tramp.”
09. George Steinbrenner, $8 million
Professional sports has never seen a more iconic franchise owner than George Steinbrenner. The New York Yankees boss carried the club back to its championship heritage, brought a new stadium to the Bronx and took the team’s famous interlocking NY logo global. Although Steinbrenner passed away during the team’s most recent season, he continues to earn as long as the Yankees continue to win.
08. Albert Einstein, $10 million
Associated with all things intelligent, Einstein’s name continues to be used to peddle Baby Einstein products, a majority Disney-owned venture designed to make infants smarter. Other lucrative tie-ins include Italy’s Banca Profilo’s “Face Value” campaign, Chrysler’s Ram brand truck ads and a collection of A.J. Morgan “geek chic” glasses. The scientist’s estate has also expanded into videogames with a Nintendo DS brain game that retails for about $50.
07. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), $11 million
With his instantly recognizable rhyming scheme, Dr. Seuss is the best-selling children’s author in history. Horton, the Grinch and his other iconic characters are now reaching audiences through iPhone apps and an attraction at Orlando’s Universal Studios theme park. According to Nielsen, Seuss’ titles are on pace to sell 3 million copies this year.
06. Stieg Larsson, $15 million
Larsson died before The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was published, so he didn’t live to see the incredible success of his series of three books, known as The Millennium Trilogy. (A fourth book has reportedly been found.) More than 40 million copies of the books have been sold in 44 languages, and Sony is producing American films based on the books. They will star Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist.
05. John Lennon, $17 million
It’s been nearly 30 years since The Beatles’ John Lennon was killed in New York City. In what would have been his 70th year, EMI has launched the “Gimme Some Truth” campaign, re-releasing much of Lennon’s catalog, resulting in several Top 10 chart appearances. His estate still earns from the “Beatles Rock Band” videogame and licensing deals with the likes of Cisco and Mont Blanc.
04. Charles Schulz, $33 million
The Peanuts brand changed ownership again this year, with Iconix purchasing the cartoon and its characters for $175 million to form Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. With the acquisition, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates will maintain a 20% stake in the new company. The late Schulz continues to earn from his comic strip, which appears in 2,200 newspapers across 75 countries.
03. J.R.R. Tolkien, $50 million
The last Lord of the Rings movie hit theaters eight years ago, but Tolkien is still a hot topic in Hollywood. A two-movie adaptation of his book The Hobbit is currently in preproduction in New Zealand. All that Hollywood attention has helped move his books. According to Nielsen, Tolkien sold just shy of 500,000 copies in the last year.
02. Elvis Presley, $60 million
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s income ballooned to $60 million, up $5 million from last year, thanks to Graceland admissions and the Elvis Presley Cirque du Soleil spectacular launched in Las Vegas earlier this year. His portfolio of more than 200 licensing and merchandise deals got a nice boost from the late star’s 75th birthday celebration. Among the commemorative events: Graceland exhibits, touring tribute concerts and an Elvis-themed cruise to the Bahamas.
01. Michael Jackson, $275 million
The King of Pop passed away last summer, but he’s made more money over the past year than any musician, dead or alive. Jackson not only took the No.1 spot on our 10th annual ranking of the Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, with gross earnings of $275 million, he out-earned the other 12 deceased stars on the list combined. His $275 million total was greater than the earnings of the two most profitable living acts, U2 and AC/DC, combined. Jackson’s posthumous earnings have been bolstered by shrewd negotiations by his estate, including a merchandising deal and the rights to his name and likeness for the Sony film This Is It, which grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars.
Funny how not one of these celebrities is a woman, I guess Hollywood has and always will be sexist when it comes to wages.
Lisa Marie Presley has took to her blog about the tragic and sudden death of her ex-husband Michael Jackson.
The blog is very sad you can sense the sadness and almost regret she has regarding their marriage ending, in the blog she says Michael knew he would die almost the same way as her father, Elvis Presley:
He knew
Friday, June 26, 2009
Years ago Michael and I were having a deep conversation about life in general.
I can’t recall the exact subject matter but he may have been questioning me about the circumstances of my Fathers Death.
At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, “I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did.”
I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.
14 years later I am sitting here watching on the news an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the Cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears.
A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn’t predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened. The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroners office for his Autopsy.
All of my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of hell and right now I am gutted.
I am going to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.
Our relationship was not “a sham” as is being reported in the press. It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a “Normal life” found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.
I wanted to “save him” I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.
His family and his loved ones also wanted to save him from this as well but didn’t know how and this was 14 years ago. We all worried that this would be the outcome then.
At that time, In trying to save him, I almost lost myself.
He was an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.
When he used it for something good, It was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad.
Mediocrity was not a concept that would even for a second enter Michael Jackson’s being or actions.
I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him.
I was in over my head while trying.
I had my children to care for, I had to make a decision.
The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow.
After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret.
Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.
At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now.
As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play The exact Scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted.
Any ill experience or words I have felt towards him in the past has just died inside of me along with him.
He was an amazing person and I am lucky to have gotten as close to him as I did and to have had the many experiences and years that we had together.
I desperately hope that he can be relieved from his pain, pressure and turmoil now.
He deserves to be free from all of that and I hope he is in a better place or will be.
I also hope that anyone else who feels they have failed to help him can be set free because he hopefully finally is.
The World is in shock but somehow he knew exactly how his fate would be played out some day more than anyone else knew, and he was right.
I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.
As everyone not living in a cave knows by now, pop icon Michael Jackson died yesterday at the age of 50. Below is a roundup of some of the more prominent obituaries, including the headlines, the introductory paragraphs, and the most prominent photo.
Michael Jackson’s life was infused with fantasy and tragedy – LA Times
Michael Jackson was fascinated by celebrity tragedy. He had a statue of Marilyn Monroe in his home and studied the sad Hollywood exile of Charlie Chaplin. He married the daughter of Elvis Presley.
Jackson met his own untimely death Thursday at age 50, and more than any of those past icons, he left a complicated legacy. As a child star, he was so talented he seemed lit from within; as a middle-aged man, he was viewed as something akin to a visiting alien who, like Tinkerbell, would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson’s life. In that decade, he became the world’s most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records — “Beat It,†“Billie Jean,” “Thriller†— and dazzling music videos. Perhaps the best dancer of his generation, he created his own iconography: the single shiny glove, the Moonwalk, the signature red jacket and the Neverland Ranch.
In recent years, he inspired fascination for reasons that had nothing to do with music. Years of plastic surgery had made his face a bizarre landscape. He was deeply in debt and had lost his way as a musician. He had not toured since 1997 or released new songs since 2001. Instead of music videos, the images of Jackson beamed around the world were tabloid reports about his strange personal behavior, including allegations of child molestation, or the latest failed relaunch of his career.
For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.
Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.
[...]
As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.
From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,†“I’ll Be There†“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough†“Billie Jean†and “Black or White†that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.
As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament. His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,†from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory†world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.
But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.
Singer Michael Jackson, the man known as the King of Pop to legions of fans around the globe, who lived most of his extraordinary life in the public eye, died Thursday in Los Angeles after going into cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old.
[...]
It used to be that Jackson’s talent was the most compelling thing about him, says music critic Jody Rosen. “I think ‘I Want You Back’ is one of the greatest pop singles I’ve ever heard,” Rosen says.
“I Want You Back” was the hit single that famously thrust a young Michael Jackson and four of his brothers from the Gary, Ind., talent show circuit to world fame. Their grimly focused father put Michael on stage at age 5. The child, says Rosen, somehow channeled the gifts of vastly more seasoned performers. “He had a very gritty voice at that time, which is strange, given that as he grew older, he started to sing more and more like a pre-pubescent little boy,” Rosen says. “And when he was a pre-pubescent little boy, he was singing like a soul elder statesman.”
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The ‘King of Pop’ Dies in L.A. – WaPo
Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday in Los Angeles as sensationally as he lived, as famous as a human being can get. He was a child Motown phenomenon who grew into a moonwalking megastar, the self-anointed King of Pop who sold 750 million records over his career and enjoyed worldwide adoration.
But with that came the world’s relentless curiosity, and Mr. Jackson was eventually regarded as one of show business’s legendary oddities, hopping from one public relations crisis to another.
In the end there were two sides to the record: The tabloid caricature and the provocative, genre-changing musical genius that his fans will always treasure. There were those whose devotion knew no bounds, who visited the gates of his private ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., arriving at Neverland on pilgrimages from Europe and Asia, and who were among the first to flock to UCLA Medical Center as news of his death spread yesterday afternoon. Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.
Then there was the other kind of fan, who preferred to keep memories of the singer locked firmly in his 1980s prime: Today’s young adults all have memories of being toddlers and grade-schoolers who moonwalked across their mother’s just mopped kitchen floors. Even the hardest rockers will easily confess to the first album they ever bought: “Thriller.”
These are fair accounts, I think, balancing Jackson’s undeniable status as a music icon as well as the bizarre spectacle of his life offstage.
There are many ways to measure talent in Hollywood. But for the authors of “Hollywood Babylon: It’s Back,” size is everything.
Borrowing the title of filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s classic scandal bible, authors Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter have dared to publish the pictures and stories too explicit and actionable for even the pulpiest supermarket tabloids.
Among those featured in full-frontal shots are Mick Jagger, Daniel Radcliffe, Ewan McGregor, John Malkovich, James Woods, Richard Gere and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. We leave it to you to decide whether all the snaps are authentic.
The authors also write about the reputed size of many other stars in the book, due June 1. Johnny Depp was known as “donkey d-”, they say. Sean Connery posed nude for art studies, and one student said:”It was the biggest I’ve ever seen. It made me drop my charcoal pencil.”
Dishing with abandon, the authors spare no one – especially not the dead, who can’t sue. Lack of sources don’t stop them from claiming:
Marilyn Monroe had an affair with Ronald Reagan. The authors also claim Monroe had a tryst with Joan Crawford but refused to make it an ongoing affair. “She had bad breath,” Monroe allegedly told roommate Shelly Winters. “Besides, she wanted to do things to me that no woman should do to another woman.”
James Dean showed a disconcerting interest in a 12-year-old boy in the early 1950s. Director Elia Kazan believed the tale: “I’ve known many actors who have been twisted up in their sex lives, but never anybody as sick and unhealthy as Dean was.”
Elvis Presley had a gay old time with Nick Adams, who played Johnny Yuma in the hit TV series “The Rebel.”
Lucille Ball launched herself into show business as a hooker, and her husband Desi Arnaz had a fling with Cesar Romero.
Cary Grant had an incestuous relationship with his stepson, Lance Reventlow.
Sir Winston Churchill got “musical” with actor and songwriter Ivor Novello.
Strange things happened to Judy Garland’s body (this in the chapter on “Fan Worship and Necrophilia”).
Police believed Bette Davis killed her second husband, Arthur Farnsworth, by hitting him on the head and causing a hemorrhage that lead to his death two weeks later. But a grand jury – six men who confessed to being ardent fans – found her innocent.
Would you believe that Mariah Carey is bigger than Elvis? Me neither. But she has actually had more number one records than The King.
With her 18th chart-topper “Touch My Body,” Mariah Carey has passed Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 singles on the Billboard singles chart, and is now second only to the Beatles. But while the diva was in full celebration mode after learning of her latest milestone, she was also quick to put her accomplishment in perspective.
“I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world,” Carey told The Associated Press on Tuesday via phone from London. “That’s a completely different era and time … I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”
That’s both the right standpoint to take from a PR standpoint and, well, right. Still, there have been a lot of big stars and she’s in rarified company:
Carey’s single is the new No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart: The song also is No. 1 on the trade magazine’s digital download chart thanks to a precedent-setting 286,000 downloads in its debut week. She had been tied with Presley with 17 No. 1 singles; the Beatles are the all-time leaders with 20. (Madonna also beat a Presley record this week, surpassing the King for the most top 10 hits with her 37th for her hit “4 Minutes.”)
But, of course, there’s the politics of identity:
Carey said being in such company was gratifying not only because of her personal success, but what it meant for women and minorities. “For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter,” she said. “In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different … for me it’s about saying, ‘Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.’”
Goodness yes. She was 20 years old before she made it big. It’s amazing she persevered so long.
Priscilla Presley is the victim of a botched cosmetic procedure. What’s worse — it was at the hands of a gigolo who was sent to prison for perpetrating an injectable scam on Hollywood’s elite.
Dr. Daniel Serrano was injecting his clients with low-grade silicone similar to what’s used to lube auto parts. The doctor gave Priscilla the injections in 2003 and told her it was better than Botox. The feds have named him Dr. Jiffy Lube.
Several women, including Shawn King, Larry’s wife, and Diane Richie, Lionel’s wife at the time, held injection parties in their homes, with Serrano needling them with the non-FDA approved drug that he had smuggled in to the U.S.
Shawn King has said the injections created a lump in her lip that made it difficult to speak and drink liquids.
Serrano wasn’t even a licensed doctor in the United States.
What others said:
Dlisted says, “I’m waiting for the judges to tell her, “We need to see more emotion in your face!”
A Socialites Life says, “If your ass moves, your face should follow!”
source: Priscilla Presley Victim of Phony Cosmetic Doc [tmz]
Lisa Marie Presley is suing the Daily Mail for libel over publishing an article alleging she is overweight.
The 40-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley said the story, which was widely republished worldwide, forced her to confirm she is expecting a baby.
Her UK laywer Simon Smith said claims that she had an “unhealthy appetite” and is “growing like her dad” had left the star “deeply upset and offended“.
The singer, who is issuing the libel claim against the Daily Mail’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, at the High Court in London, also explained why she was forced into disclosing her pregnancy.
“I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am in fact pregnant,” she wrote.
‘Badgering and harassing’
The announcement comes days after photos of Presley eating lunch in Los Angeles emerged in some newspapers poking fun at her weight gain.
“Once they got a glimpse of my expanding physique a few days ago, they have been like a pack of coyotes circling their prey whilst eerily howling with delight,” said Presley.
The REAL reason Lisa is mad? It’s the picture below.
If someone took a picture like that of me and published it for the world to see… I’d be pissed too.
The once statuesque Lisa Maria Presley has doubled her weight. Rumors of a pregnancy has followed her bulge. Allegedly she gotten knocked up by Michael Lockwood, husband number 4. Obviously by the look of the photos she has begun to eat for two.
At age 40 it is hard to ward off the stress of time, but this is more than just pregnancy weight. She is said to have at least doubled her size. Her father, Elvis, had a long battle with weight issues. Here is where the real problems may lie. The constant yo-yo of weight may be due to eating disorder brought on by mental issues like depression.
Lets just hope she is knocked up and will shed the pounds after giving birth. If not….Lisa…cupcakes aren’t a replacement for love. Beer is though.
Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, star of the Henry VIII soap opera “The Tudors,” has been charged with public drunkenness and breach of the peace at Dublin, Ireland Airport.
Rhys Meyers, 30, was arrested Sunday after police twice confronted him over his erratic, abusive behavior at an airport gate and at a desk of the British airline BMI, on which he was planning to fly to London.
Dublin Airport Police said they called Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochana, after Rhys Meyers refused repeated requests to calm down.
Police charged him with two counts of violating the Public Order Act, then permitted him to pay an undisclosed cash bail on condition he return to Dublin District Court on Dec. 5 for his arraignment.
Rhys Meyers – who was admitted to a California alcoholism-treatment clinic in April and checked out the following month – was in Dublin to appear on “Tubridy Tonight,” a Saturday night national talk show to promote his new film, “August Rush,” costarring Robin Williams.
Ryan Tubridy said he was surprised and sorry to hear of the actor’s arrest. He said Rhys Meyers had chatted with everybody who wanted to meet him back stage, and was drinking nothing more threatening than “a big mug of milky tea.”
“Obviously that was not on the agenda at some time on Saturday night or Sunday morning,” Tubridy said.
Rhys Meyers starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen’s “Match Point” and Reese Witherspoon in “Vanity Fair,” among other films. He also portrayed Elvis Presley in a 2005 U.S. television miniseries, and is now filming the second season of “The Tudors” for the U.S. cable network Showtime.
In an interview last year on the set of “The Tudors,” Rhys Meyers said he felt restricted socializing in Ireland because of its hard-drinking pub culture.
Jonathan was pictured with that crazy ‘drugged‘ look on his face just a week ago yesterday (November 11th). You see these things coming.
What others said:
Daily Blabber says, “Jon did a stint in rehab earlier this year saying that he felt a break was needed to maintain his recovery. Looks like he might need another break.”
Pop On The Pop says, “In most of the pictures I see of him he looks more like a crackhead, than a drunk. It’s all in those freakish eyes!”
source: Jonathan Rhys Meyers Arrested in Dublin Airport [people]
Elvis Presley has been dead for thirty years. But he’s still making more money than anyone likely reading this.
Just because you are dead, it does not mean you can’t stage a comeback. Web site Forbes.com (www.forbes.com) said on Tuesday that Elvis Presley regained the top spot on its list of the highest-earning dead celebrities, ousting Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain who had beaten him last year.
Elvis shimmied his way back atop the seventh annual list of 13 top-earning legends that he had ruled since its inception, with estimated earnings of about $49 million in the year ending this month. The rise from $42 million last year comes after CKX Entertainment, which bought part of his estate from daughter Lisa Marie Presley, embarked on a mission to renew interest in the late singer and actor.
Forbes.com said in a statement that the top 13 — who generated massive amounts of merchandising revenue — grossed a combined $232 million in the year.
In second place came Beatle John Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980 at the age of 40. He earned $44 million while the creator of Peanuts comic strip, Charles M. Schulz, took the third slot with earnings of $35 million.
Cobain was one of four who fell off this year’s ranking. He debuted on the list in first place last year after his widow, Courtney Love, sold part of his song catalog for a reported $50 million.
Rounding out the top five on this year’s list were George Harrison from the Beatles, who died in 2001, with $22 million, and German-born physicist Albert Einstein with $18 million. Einstein has become a key trademark in child education due to the Disney-owned Baby Einstein brand of videos and toys.
Many members of these lists are one-year wonders, who get on there because a movie came out, their estate was sold, or something similar. Presley and Lennon, though, are mainstays who continue to sell massive numbers of records decades after their passing.
Get out your checkbooks… this is an opportunity of a lifetime!
Here’s your chance to own Elvis Presley‘s very own Grand Piano! Let me tell you… I’ve been to Graceland and saw the piano there, but they had the area roped off, so I couldn’t stick it in my purse.
It’s for sale on Ebay, with a starting bid of a mere $250,000. Isn’t that a bargain?
John Travolta doesn’t suffer from lack of ego. The “Wild Hogs†star recently boasted that he was as big a star as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe — but didn’t suffer the same fate as them because of his values and religion. “I have fame on the level of a Marilyn Monroe or an Elvis, but part of the reason I didn’t go the way they did was because of my beliefs,†Travolta told the Irish Independent.
The star went on to credit his sometimes controversial religion for the difference between his fate and theirs.
“People make judgments about it [Scientology], but often they don’t know what they’re talking about,†Travolta said. “I would advise anyone who wants to know about it to read up on it. We [the Church of Scientology] are only getting bigger and we help people all over the world, from disaster zones to drug rehabilitation.â€
This was a dumb thing to say on a whole variety of levels. Travolta is indeed a big time star and has been since his national debut as Vinny Barbarino on the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back Kotter” and his emergence as a movie star with “Saturday Night Fever” (1976) and “Grease” (1977). But he’s simply not the cultural icon that Elvis and Marilyn became. The backlash from claiming that level of superstardom dimishes his legitimate status as an A-list celeb.
Scientology strikes me as incredibly dumb. Still, Travolta, Tom Cruise, and a host of truly successful Hollywood stars who are practitioners have indeed managed to avoid the tailspin that so many of their cohorts have fallen into. If Scientology is the reason for that, more power to them.
If L. Ron Hubbard suggested that dorky hat, though, all bets are off.
The Army uniform worn by Elvis Presley, which was found on a mannequin in the Mississippi Sound after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region, will be back on display at the Hard Rock Biloxi casino resort when it opens in July.
The uniform is among dozens of items strewn across the Mississippi coast after Katrina struck in August 2005.
B.B. King ‘s original guitar “Lucille” will return along with the guitars of Johnny Cash and KISS, Joe Billhimer, the casinos chief executive officer, told The Sun Herald newspaper.
Some of the rock ‘n’ roll artifacts will be in pristine condition, but others will be part of a Katrina memorial collage. Everything else will be new inside the casino resort, including a display in honor of James Brown .
“It’s a big deal for us to get back open, but we do think it’s also a big deal for people on the coast to see it back open,” Billhimer told the newspaper. “It keeps revitalization going. It shows that we and a lot of others believe in the revitalization of the Coast.”
The Hard Rock was destroyed by Katrina two days before the casino was scheduled to open.
Several women, including Shawn King, Larry’s wife, and Diane Richie, Lionel’s wife at the time, held injection parties in their homes, with Serrano needling them with the non-FDA approved drug that he had smuggled in to the U.S. 
The singer, who is issuing the libel claim against the Daily Mail’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, at the High Court in London, also explained why she was forced into disclosing her pregnancy.
Rhys Meyers, 30, was arrested Sunday after police twice confronted him over his erratic, abusive behavior at an airport gate and at a desk of the British airline BMI, on which he was planning to fly to London.
The uniform is among dozens of items strewn across the Mississippi coast after Katrina struck in August 2005. 
