SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the The-Force-will-be-with-you,-always. dept.
Submitted via IRC for cmn32480
Carrie Fisher, the actress best known as Star Wars' Princess Leia Organa, has died after suffering a heart attack. She was 60.
Family spokesman Simon Halls released a statement to PEOPLE on behalf of Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd:
"It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning," reads the statement.
"She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly," says Lourd. "Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers."
Source: http://people.com/movies/carrie-fisher-dies/
[UPDATE:]
Submitted via IRC for martyb
NPR reports: Actress Debbie Reynolds Dies A Day After Daughter Carrie Fisher's Death.
That means that Billie Lourd, who had a minor role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and was slated for a part in the sequel, Star Wars: Episode VIII, lost both her mother and her grandmother in the same week.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday December 28 2016, @12:56AM
Same thought here. A BBC report [bbc.com] on the annual tallies of people they printed pre–prepared obits for shows:
2012 — 16
2013 — 24
2014 — 29
2015 — 32
2016 — 45 (they say 42, but that was a couple of weeks ago)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @01:41PM
Interesting trend. I was wondering if the seemingly increased rate of famous deaths was due to observational bias on my side or if there was an actual underlying reason for it.
Two ideas come to mind so far:
- the baby boomers "boom" is starting to show also in death numbers
- mass media+American expert of culture didn't take off until the 50s or 60s.
(Before then, not enough people had their own colour tv).
Not saying to American artists weren't known worldwide, but after the 60s it was way easier to reach a global audience than before.
What do you think? Coincidence? Actuarial unavoidability? Mass media-induced normalisation of death rate? A combination of all of the above? Something else?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday December 28 2016, @03:24PM
pre–prepared obits
They had obituaries written in advance for people they expected to die?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Wednesday December 28 2016, @07:56PM
Yeah, this is standard operating procedure for large news organizations. They want to be able to have a nice long "retrospective on the life of $WHOEVER" up on the web site within seconds of confirming that the person is actually dead, in order to get more eyeballs (and therefore more ad revenue) and possibly better search index positioning. So they pre-write most of the obituary and fill in details of how and when the person actually died just before publishing.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.