Frances Sternhagen, a seasoned stage and screen performer known for roles in films such as “Misery” and as Bunny in the HBO series “Sex and the City,” has died, according to a spokesman for Sternhagen.

She was 93 years old. Sternhagen’s representative, Sarah Fargo, issued the following statement on behalf of the late actor’s family:

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear mother, actress Frances Sternhagen, died peacefully of natural causes on November 27th, 2023, at the age of 93, in New Rochelle, NY.” Her six children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren survive her. A celebration of her outstanding career and life is planned for mid-January when she turns 94. Her love and life continue to inspire us.”

Sternhagen’s son, John Carlin, paid tribute to his mother on his Instagram page on Wednesday, adding she “was beloved by many.” I consider myself extremely fortunate to name her my mother, friend, and song and dance partner.”

Frances Sternhagen, Actress Who Appeared In ‘Misery’ And ‘Sex And The City,’ Dead At 93

Sternhagen’s career as a stage and movie actress spans nearly seven decades. In addition to “Misery,” Sternhagen participated in several Stephen King adaptations, including the tense 2007 film “The Mist,” co-starring Thomas Jane.

Other significant film appearances by Sternhagen include “Outland,” “Raising Cain,” and “Julie & Julia.”

Her most lasting impact came from her television career, notably on “Sex and the City,” where she played Bunny MacDougal, Trey’s first husband’s entitled and overbearing mother. (“Sex and the City”) is an HBO original. Warner Bros. Discovery owns HBO and CNN.)

Frances received her third Primetime Emmy nomination for the role; she was previously nominated twice in the early 1990s for her portrayal as Cliff Clavin’s mother Esther on “Cheers.”

Frances was a well-known stage performer in addition to her work on screen.

According to a Broadway World profile, she began her performing career by teaching acting, singing, and dancing at the Milton Academy in Massachusetts.

In 1955, she made her Broadway debut as Miss T. Muse in the theatrical play “The Skin of Our Teeth.”

Throughout the 1970s, Sternhagen appeared in numerous award-winning plays, including Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor,” “Equus,” “On Golden Pond,” and “Angel,” among others.

Other significant film appearances by Sternhagen include “Outland,” “Raising Cain,” and “Julie & Julia.”

She had seven Tony Award nominations, three wins, and a Drama Desk nomination for her performance in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” in which she co-starred with her son Carlin.

“We were together last week, and we spoke Monday afternoon, saying how much we loved and missed one another,” Carlin stated on Instagram on Wednesday. “She always encouraged my writing, and enjoyed my singing.”

“Take off, Frannie. “The curtain falls on a life that has been richly, passionately, humbly, and generously lived,” he added.

Frances is an American actress known for her work in film, television, and stage productions. She has been nominated for multiple Tony Awards for her performances in various Broadway plays.

Frances has also appeared in popular television shows such as “Cheers” and “The Closer,” and has had notable roles in films like “The Mist” and “Outland.”

With a career spanning several decades, Sternhagen is recognized for her versatile acting abilities and her significant contributions to the entertainment industry.

SOURCE – (CNN)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — According to Baldwin ‘s counsel, the actor did not have to pay anything to settle a $25 million lawsuit filed by family relatives of a Marine slain in Afghanistan after the actor reprimanded them on social media about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurgency at the United States Capitol.

The wife and sisters of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum of Jackson, Wyoming, filed a case with Judge Edgardo Ramos of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in August. When the McCollum family did not file an amended lawsuit by the September deadline, as Ramos requested, the case was closed in October.

Alec paid nothing to settle the dispute, his attorney Luke Nikas said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

According to court filings, there has been no activity in the matter since. When contacted via email Thursday, lawyers for both parties, including McCollum family attorney Dennis Postiglione, declined to comment further on the issue. Postiglione, reached by email Wednesday, declined to speak and claimed the McCollum family would not comment.

Family Of Marine Killed In Afghanistan Fails To Win Lawsuit Against Alec Baldwin

Rylee McCollum and 12 other Marines were killed in a suicide attack at Kabul International Airport during the final days of the United States’ war in Afghanistan in 2021. Baldwin sent the family a $5,000 check to assist them.

The lawsuit, filed in Wyoming and then New York, claimed Baldwin exposed the family to a flood of social media hatred in 2022 when she claimed on Instagram that Roice McCollum was an “insurrectionist” for attending former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., which preceded the insurgency that day.

According to the lawsuit, Roice McCollum protested peacefully and legally, was not among those who stormed the U.S. Capitol and was never arrested or charged after being examined by the FBI.

Nonetheless, Ramos decided to reject the claim that she was a “limited public figure” under the law since she spoke about her brother’s death in the news and spoke with Baldwin, a well-known celebrity, on social media.

Family Of Marine Killed In Afghanistan Fails To Win Lawsuit Against Alec Baldwin

McCollum needed to show that Baldwin acted maliciously toward her to make her case as a limited public figure. Ramos decided that Baldwin’s statements were protected by his free speech rights because she did not.

Baldwin filed the complaint as he faced legal ramifications for the murder of a cinematographer on a New Mexico film set in 2021. Baldwin was pointing a gun at Halyna Hutchins when it went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.

Special prosecutors first dropped an involuntary manslaughter allegation against Baldwin, but after presenting fresh evidence to a grand jury, they are seeking to recharge him.

SOURCE – (AP)

LONDON, England – Shane MacGowan, The Pogues’ boisterous, rabble-rousing singer and lead composer who combined traditional Irish music with the intensity and spirit of punk, died Thursday, according to his family. He was 65.

MacGowan’s songwriting and persona established him as an iconic figure in contemporary Irish culture, and some of his compositions have become classics, most notably the bittersweet Christmas ballad “Fairytale of New York,” of which Irish President Michael D. Higgins stated that it “will be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.”

“It is with deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling, and dearly beloved Shane MacGowan,” his wife Victoria Clarke, sister Siobhan, and father Maurice said in a statement.

According to the statement, the musician died peacefully with his family by his side.

After being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022, the musician was hospitalized in Dublin for several months. He was released last week, just in time for his forthcoming birthday on Christmas Day.

The Pogues fused Irish folk and rock ‘n’ roll into a unique, irresistible blend, though MacGowan became known for his slurred performances as much as his passionate compositions.

Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65

His lyrics mixed scabrous and romantic elements, ranging from carousing anthems to pictures of life in the gutter to sweet love songs. “Fairytale of New York,” The Pogues’ most famous song, is a tale about down-on-their-luck immigrant lovers that begins with the rather unfestive words: “It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank.” The duet between MacGowan’s scratchy voice and the silky tones of the late Kirsty MacColl is by far the most popular Pogues song in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Nick Cave, a singer-songwriter, described Shane MacGowan as “a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation.”

The Irish president, Michael D. Higgins, stated that “his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams.”

“His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways,” added Higgins.

According to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, MacGowan’s compositions “beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.”

According to Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, “nobody told the Irish story like Shane — stories of emigration, heartache, dislocation, redemption, love, and joy.”

MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 in England to Irish parents and spent his childhood in rural Ireland before returning to London. Ireland remained the everlasting focus of his imagination and longing. He grew up listening to Irish music from family and neighbors and rock, Motown, reggae, and jazz.

He was expelled from London’s renowned Westminster School and spent time in a psychiatric facility following a breakdown in his teens.

MacGowan welcomed the punk scene that erupted in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s. He played in a band called the Nipple Erectors as Shane O’Hooligan before forming The Pogues with musicians including Jem Finer and Spider Stacey.

Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65

The Pogues blended punk’s ferocious energy with traditional Irish tunes and instruments such as banjo, tin whistle, and accordion.

“It never occurred to me that you could play Irish music to a rock audience,” MacGowan said in his 2001 biography “A Drink with Shane MacGowan,” co-written with Clarke. “And then it clicked. Start an Irish band in London that plays Irish music with a rock and roll beat. The original plan was to simply blast out classic songs, but then I started writing.”

“Red Roses for Me,” the band’s first album, was released in 1984 and contained boisterous interpretations of Irish folk tunes among originals such as “Boys from County Hell,” “Dark Streets of London,” and “Streams of Whisky.”

The band gained a loyal following and accolades from music journalists and fellow performers ranging from Bono to Bob Dylan while performing in pubs and clubs throughout London and beyond.

The songs on the following two albums, “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” (1985) and “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” (1988), by MacGowan, ranged from raucous rousers like the latter album’s title track to ballads like “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and “The Broad Majestic Shannon.”

The band also published an EP in 1986 called “Poguetry in Motion,” which included two of MacGowan’s best tunes, “A Rainy Night in Soho” and “The Body of an American.” The latter was featured frequently in the early-2000s TV show “The Wire,” when it was performed at the funerals of Baltimore police officers.

“I wanted to make pure music that could be from any time, to make time irrelevant, to make generations and decades irrelevant,” he wrote in his autobiographical book.

The Pogues momentarily ruled the world, with sold-out tours and appearances on American television, but the band’s output and appearances became more unpredictable, owing in part to MacGowan’s troubles with drink and narcotics. He was fired by the other band members in 1991 after a spate of no-shows, notably while The Pogues were opening for Dylan. Before disbanding, the band momentarily replaced MacGowan with Clash frontman Joe Strummer.

Shane MacGowan, Lead Singer Of The Pogues And A Laureate Of Booze And Beauty, Dies At Age 65

MacGowan joined a new band, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, and released two albums: “The Snake” in 1995 and “The Crock Of Gold” in 1997. Despite his well-documented drinking problems and performances that frequently included slurred lyrics and at least one stage collapse, he reconnected with The Pogues in 2001 for a series of concerts and tours.

MacGowan struggled with health issues for years and relied on a wheelchair after breaking his pelvis a decade ago. He was well-known for his damaged, decaying teeth until he received a full set of implants in 2015 from a dental specialist who referred to the treatment as “the Everest of dentistry.”

On his 60th birthday, MacGowan got a lifetime achievement award from Ireland’s president. A celebratory concert featuring Bono, Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor, and Johnny Depp took place at Dublin’s National Concert Hall to mark the occasion.

In an Instagram post, Clarke said, “There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.”

“I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures,” she wrote in an email.

SOURCE – (AP)