Absolutely tragic.
One of our friends ended up it intensive care after slipping on wet tiles while taking her children swimming. In a moment the world pivots between laughter and trauma.
Thinking of Natasha’s family.
David Chenery-Wickens has today been sentenced to life imprisonment (minimum eighteen years) for the murder of makeup artist Diane Chenery-Wickens in January 2008.
David Chenery-Wickens was arrested in May last year, just hours after his wife’s body was discovered in woodlands near their home.
Diane Chenery-Wickens won an Emmy for Arabian Nights and was twice nominated for a BAFTA for Dead Ringers.
Claude Berri (2008)
For once I agree with Nicolas Sarkozy who described Berri as ‘the most legendary figure of French cinema’. He directed Le Poulet (for which he won an Oscar); he adapted and directed Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources; he wrote and produced Germinal; he produced La reine Margot, Tess (for which he was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar), La Graine et le mulet (winning a César for Best Picture) and Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (the most successful French movie ever) among many other movies; he also acted in more than thirty movies during a career spanning more than fifty years.
Majel Barrett Roddenberry died of leukemia at the age of seventy-six on 18 December 2008. She met Gene Roddenberry in 1964 and has always been a part of the Star Trek universe: from playing Number One in the unaired pilot to providing the voice of the ship’s computer in the forthcoming JJ Abrams movie — although this was only announced earlier this month, I understand that her work on the movie had already been completed. She married Gene Roddenberry in 1969 and after his death in 1991 she guarded the Star Trek vision, and continued to guest star in the various Star Trek series and movies. She also executive produced two other science fiction series based on unused material by Gene Roddenberry: Andromeda and Earth: Final Conflict.
Star Trek will not be the same without her.
Sadly Benoit Lestang died while I was on holiday.
Benoit was a great French makeup artist. Amongst the recent films he worked on were: Martyrs, Un secret, Le Scaphandre et le papillon, Molière, Ne le dis à personne, Manderlay, Arsène Lupin, Saint Ange, Tiresia, and Le Pacte des loups. He was also a friend to themakeupgallery.
DVDrama has an obituary (in French) with images of some of his recent work.
By one of those odd coincidences I was in the loo reading the chapter ‘The Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television’ in Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought when I heard the news.
Ah 1972, I remember it well — well hazily anyway. Hopefully, that’s a result of the chemical and alcohol smog on campus at the time rather than a sign of incipient dementia.
According to the New York Times, WBAI ‘can’t take a chance’ on rebroadcasting the programme that led to the Supreme Court case because it ‘would cost us $360,000 per incident — so those seven words would cost us $2.5 million’.
georgecarlin.com includes the Supreme Court decision and the transcripy of the ‘Filthy Words’ monologue.
Stan Winston died of cancer on 16 June, aged sixty-two.
In honor of his significant contributions to prosthetic makeup artistry Make-up Artist magazine, in conjunction with the Stan Winston Studios, will host a tribute at IMATS on Saturday, 21 June. As Michael Key said: ‘He’s left a sizable void in the industry. There’s not a prosthetics makeup artist out there who hasn’t been influenced by Stan Winston.’
His influence on special effects is attested by a shelf full of Oscars, Emmys and BAFTAs. But his impact extended way beyond special effects; he enabled filmmakers to bring new, different and stranger visions to our screens. As James Cameron said: ‘We’ve lost a great artist, a man who made a contribution to the cinema of the fantastic that will resound for a long long time.’
I can only commend the tribute at AICN which contains personal and artistic tributes from Rick Baker, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, Joe Dante, Richard Taylor, James Cameron and other effects artists and filmmakers.
