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shadowkat1. Carrie Fisher's Last Moments on Earth -- Excerpt from the Carrie Fisher Biography by Sheila Warner
I dare you to read all of that (not just the excerpt post below) and not cry ugly tears, like I just did. Of course, she was among my favs. And responsible to how my views regarding science fiction completely changed at the ripe old age of 12.
While shooting Catastrophe, Carrie’s kindness and melancholy were evident to all. One night, “when she was going up to her room after dinner, she was mocking herself for her slow pace, her ‘old lady body.’” Horgan recalls, “She looked back at me and said, ‘If I’d known back then that I had something worth looking at, I’d have looked after it better. I was in good shape.’” That regret, long privately expressed to Dreyfuss, was now too top of mind to hide. A few weeks earlier, in late November, Carrie had told Rolling Stone, “The worst part is being criticized [on the internet]. … I’m not someone that can sort of just not look.” Rushdie saw the same vulnerability. “Carrie was very sensitive about her looks,” he says. As she turned heavier, “in her later years, if you wanted to see her, you basically had to go to Coldwater Canyon.” The fat shaming had deeply affected her. “She was very aware of what people thought and said,” Horgan says. “I didn’t like that she felt so hurt by it. I didn’t like that she criticized her own looks so much. But her feelings were hurt permanently, and there was no more hiding that fact.” As Carrie lamented to Kelly McEvers on NPR. “It used to be that you’re your own worst enemy. No longer. The internet is.” For any young actress, she warned, “Eventually it’s going to say, ‘You look old. You look fat. It’s over.’”
On December 13 she appeared as a guest on her friend Graham Norton’s morning talk show to promote The Princess Diarist and shoot the breeze with the man through whom she had met her Catastrophe costars and friends. Though she was feeling ill the day before, she rallied for the show and spoke of how bad she felt that because of her book Harrison would now be asked about his long-ago affair with Carrie for the rest of his life. At her dinner with Rushdie and Horgan on her last night in London, “We sat and drank and talked till 11:15,” Rushdie recalls. “ And then she said, ‘I have to go. I have a plane to catch in the morning.’”
Fisher and daughter Billie Lourd with Debbie Reynolds. The day after Carrie’s death, 84-year-old Debbie died of a stroke
When reports of Carrie’s heart attack broke after her flight from London landed at LAX, her immediate family raced to the hospital. Meanwhile Carrie’s friends scrambled for news. Rushdie says, “After seeing her in such good shape the night before, I was shocked that this had happened. Helen [Fielding] and Bruce [Wagner] and I were on the phone constantly to try to find out what was going on.” Dreyfuss called Ed Begley Jr. “I said, ‘I’m in San Diego. If I come up now, can I get in the hospital?’ Ed said, ‘No. The family is trying to keep people away,’ ” Dreyfuss says. “I was so fucking angry at myself” for missing her birthday party because of his play.
Carrie was in the ICU for three and a half days. On Christmas Day, Debbie tweeted, “Carrie is in stable condition. If there is a change, we will share it. For all her fans & friends. I thank you for your prayers & good wishes.”
Many suspected that it was only a formality that she was kept on life support. When on the morning of December 27, Simon Halls solemnly and simply announced Carrie’s death, the cause was heart attack; no toxicology report was in the immediate offing.
Carrie’s death made war-worthy newspaper headlines and generated a social media landslide. Among the early tweets was from the usually very private Paul Simon: “Yesterday was a horrible day. Carrie was a special, wonderful girl. It’s too soon.” (Simon was criticized for calling her a “girl,” but he had known her as a girl.) Mark Hamill tweeted, “No words #Devastated.” After he had composed himself he wrote a longer tweet. Harrison Ford released a statement: “Carrie was one-of-a-kind … brilliant, original. Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life bravely.” J.J. Abrams, who directed her in the latest Star Wars trilogy, wrote, “You didn’t need to meet Carrie Fisher to understand her power. She was just as brilliant, tough and wonderful, incisive and funny as you could imagine. What an unfair thing to lose her. How lucky to have been blessed with her at all.”
Debbie had braced herself for imminent news of her daughter’s fatal overdose for four decades, and their closeness over the last year and a half had been profound. Three months later Todd would tell the media about his talk with Debbie the night that Carrie died. “She was setting me up for her leaving the planet” is how he put it. Debbie told Todd she wanted her own funeral plans changed, from a low-key cremation to a burial with Carrie. “She was, like, asking my permission to go,” Todd says. “She literally looked at me and said, ‘I want to be with Carrie,’ and closed her eyes and went to sleep.” Todd says that when the two of them left the hospital right after one of their last visits with the dying Carrie, he was the one who was crying while their mother “truly understood” what had transpired.
On Wednesday, December 28, the day after Carrie’s death, as Debbie was helping Todd plan Carrie’s funeral, she collapsed: another stroke—this one fatal. The entire country reacted to the tragedy of a beloved famous mother dying one day after her beloved famous daughter. That night a cross-country light-saber vigil to Carrie was held; incited by social media, thousands of Princess Leia fans lifted their sabers into the darkened sky in tribute to their fallen heroine.
2.Sort of already knew this, but interesting regardless... Industry Insiders like Jobs, junk food executives, etc don't let their families try or use their products
3. My Psychic Told Me to Date a Psychopath?
My take-away?
We spent an awkward hour going over what I already knew. He was a liar, he was sick, he was dangerous. She told me I needed to move and in the meantime I needed to be careful. That will be $120. Good luck, kid.
She hugged me at the door, but I realized then that I didn’t know her. I looked up to this woman. For years she gave me strength when I had none and guidance when I was lost. I sent her cards and gifts in celebrations of wellness and in times of grief. I let her predict my future. I was angry with her. I blamed her. I thought that if she had told me the right thing I wouldn’t be here right now. I thought she had lost her gift and her heart, but I knew that this was my mess. I gave the responsibility of making important decisions to someone else so I wouldn’t have to. At the end of the day it wasn’t personal, it was just business. She was doing what I paid her to do.
Don't ever give someone else your power in that way. I doesn't end well.
4.This Should be a Wake Up Call for the Entire World - Inside the Hong Kong Protest Movement
I hear calls for Western support in many conversations I have in Hong Kong. “I think it’s really important for Americans to think about how China is affecting democratic countries in their own territories,” Leung, the attorney, says. “Think about it. Even the U.S., which is the most powerful democracy—the Chinese are having a huge impact on what Americans can say in America.” He points specifically to Morey. “I mean, he didn’t even say anything! He didn’t say anything about China. He didn’t say anything about the government. He just shared a poster.”
He cites other recent controversies, too. Marriott fired an employee who “wrongfully liked” a tweet supporting independence for Tibet. Apple removed an app, HKmap.live, that protesters had used to track police activity. The esports company Blizzard Entertainment punished a Hearthstone player and Hong Konger who showed support for the movement during a livestream. “You guys fought so hard to get the First Amendment so that you could say what you want in your own country,” he says. “And now a foreign country is dictating what you can and can’t say on your own soil.”
Related
The NBA Won’t Be Able to Reset Its Relationship With China Anytime Soon
The NBA’s Convenient “Non-political” Stance Comes at a Cost
AtAt the march, a few protesters walk together wearing Xi Jinping masks, one of them carrying a sign that says, “Like NBA We All love RMB”—the Chinese currency, renminbi—“so Are we Good now China?” When asked about the sign, its masked holder goes straight to LeBron James. “He needs to understand, what’s happening here is important for him, too,” he says. “This should be a wake-up call to the whole world.”
A couple of nights later, I meet members of this group for dinner. Here they are unmasked, but they request that I not use their real names. There is the sign holder, who asks to be called Leo, born in Malaysia but living in Hong Kong for the past 20 years, and his friend, whom I’ll call Joe, a born-and-raised Hong Konger. Both work in tech. Joe sits next to his wife, who asks to be called Maggie, a Hong Kong native who left home to go to college in the States, before returning to start her own company, in finance.
They explain the dynamics of the protests. There are the frontliners, the most visible members of the movement. And then there are those who don’t run when the protest turns violent but who try to stay out of the way, and those who march and go home early, and even those who are too afraid to march at all, but who offer support through social media posts or conversations with family and friends. “We have a phrase here,” says Maggie. “Everyone is climbing the same mountain, but we each have our own way.” As members of the professional class, the three of them support the youngest protesters by donating gas masks or helping those who lack support from their parents to pay for meals. They also drive what they call “the school bus,” shuttling young protesters to and from events after authorities have closed public transportation.
Everyone may have their roles, but only some of those roles sometimes turn violent. Since the police began using force in June, the most radical protesters have turned up their own aggression. They throw bricks at police vans and break windows of pro-Beijing shops. Some lob Molotov cocktails at officers. This is one reason why a significant minority in Hong Kong actually oppose the protests. An August poll by The Independent showed that 39.5 percent of respondents believed the protesters had used “excessive force.” David Chu, a 40-something marketing executive in Hong Kong, says, “Everyone wants democracy, but not like this.” In casual conversations around town, I hear others call the protesters “cockroaches” or “entitled millennials” with no jobs. Some seem to draw no distinction between the frontliners and the many thousands more who march alongside them.
5. 10 Most Frightening Stories You Will Ever Hear per Jezebel
I dare you to read all of that (not just the excerpt post below) and not cry ugly tears, like I just did. Of course, she was among my favs. And responsible to how my views regarding science fiction completely changed at the ripe old age of 12.
While shooting Catastrophe, Carrie’s kindness and melancholy were evident to all. One night, “when she was going up to her room after dinner, she was mocking herself for her slow pace, her ‘old lady body.’” Horgan recalls, “She looked back at me and said, ‘If I’d known back then that I had something worth looking at, I’d have looked after it better. I was in good shape.’” That regret, long privately expressed to Dreyfuss, was now too top of mind to hide. A few weeks earlier, in late November, Carrie had told Rolling Stone, “The worst part is being criticized [on the internet]. … I’m not someone that can sort of just not look.” Rushdie saw the same vulnerability. “Carrie was very sensitive about her looks,” he says. As she turned heavier, “in her later years, if you wanted to see her, you basically had to go to Coldwater Canyon.” The fat shaming had deeply affected her. “She was very aware of what people thought and said,” Horgan says. “I didn’t like that she felt so hurt by it. I didn’t like that she criticized her own looks so much. But her feelings were hurt permanently, and there was no more hiding that fact.” As Carrie lamented to Kelly McEvers on NPR. “It used to be that you’re your own worst enemy. No longer. The internet is.” For any young actress, she warned, “Eventually it’s going to say, ‘You look old. You look fat. It’s over.’”
On December 13 she appeared as a guest on her friend Graham Norton’s morning talk show to promote The Princess Diarist and shoot the breeze with the man through whom she had met her Catastrophe costars and friends. Though she was feeling ill the day before, she rallied for the show and spoke of how bad she felt that because of her book Harrison would now be asked about his long-ago affair with Carrie for the rest of his life. At her dinner with Rushdie and Horgan on her last night in London, “We sat and drank and talked till 11:15,” Rushdie recalls. “ And then she said, ‘I have to go. I have a plane to catch in the morning.’”
Fisher and daughter Billie Lourd with Debbie Reynolds. The day after Carrie’s death, 84-year-old Debbie died of a stroke
When reports of Carrie’s heart attack broke after her flight from London landed at LAX, her immediate family raced to the hospital. Meanwhile Carrie’s friends scrambled for news. Rushdie says, “After seeing her in such good shape the night before, I was shocked that this had happened. Helen [Fielding] and Bruce [Wagner] and I were on the phone constantly to try to find out what was going on.” Dreyfuss called Ed Begley Jr. “I said, ‘I’m in San Diego. If I come up now, can I get in the hospital?’ Ed said, ‘No. The family is trying to keep people away,’ ” Dreyfuss says. “I was so fucking angry at myself” for missing her birthday party because of his play.
Carrie was in the ICU for three and a half days. On Christmas Day, Debbie tweeted, “Carrie is in stable condition. If there is a change, we will share it. For all her fans & friends. I thank you for your prayers & good wishes.”
Many suspected that it was only a formality that she was kept on life support. When on the morning of December 27, Simon Halls solemnly and simply announced Carrie’s death, the cause was heart attack; no toxicology report was in the immediate offing.
Carrie’s death made war-worthy newspaper headlines and generated a social media landslide. Among the early tweets was from the usually very private Paul Simon: “Yesterday was a horrible day. Carrie was a special, wonderful girl. It’s too soon.” (Simon was criticized for calling her a “girl,” but he had known her as a girl.) Mark Hamill tweeted, “No words #Devastated.” After he had composed himself he wrote a longer tweet. Harrison Ford released a statement: “Carrie was one-of-a-kind … brilliant, original. Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life bravely.” J.J. Abrams, who directed her in the latest Star Wars trilogy, wrote, “You didn’t need to meet Carrie Fisher to understand her power. She was just as brilliant, tough and wonderful, incisive and funny as you could imagine. What an unfair thing to lose her. How lucky to have been blessed with her at all.”
Debbie had braced herself for imminent news of her daughter’s fatal overdose for four decades, and their closeness over the last year and a half had been profound. Three months later Todd would tell the media about his talk with Debbie the night that Carrie died. “She was setting me up for her leaving the planet” is how he put it. Debbie told Todd she wanted her own funeral plans changed, from a low-key cremation to a burial with Carrie. “She was, like, asking my permission to go,” Todd says. “She literally looked at me and said, ‘I want to be with Carrie,’ and closed her eyes and went to sleep.” Todd says that when the two of them left the hospital right after one of their last visits with the dying Carrie, he was the one who was crying while their mother “truly understood” what had transpired.
On Wednesday, December 28, the day after Carrie’s death, as Debbie was helping Todd plan Carrie’s funeral, she collapsed: another stroke—this one fatal. The entire country reacted to the tragedy of a beloved famous mother dying one day after her beloved famous daughter. That night a cross-country light-saber vigil to Carrie was held; incited by social media, thousands of Princess Leia fans lifted their sabers into the darkened sky in tribute to their fallen heroine.
2.Sort of already knew this, but interesting regardless... Industry Insiders like Jobs, junk food executives, etc don't let their families try or use their products
3. My Psychic Told Me to Date a Psychopath?
My take-away?
We spent an awkward hour going over what I already knew. He was a liar, he was sick, he was dangerous. She told me I needed to move and in the meantime I needed to be careful. That will be $120. Good luck, kid.
She hugged me at the door, but I realized then that I didn’t know her. I looked up to this woman. For years she gave me strength when I had none and guidance when I was lost. I sent her cards and gifts in celebrations of wellness and in times of grief. I let her predict my future. I was angry with her. I blamed her. I thought that if she had told me the right thing I wouldn’t be here right now. I thought she had lost her gift and her heart, but I knew that this was my mess. I gave the responsibility of making important decisions to someone else so I wouldn’t have to. At the end of the day it wasn’t personal, it was just business. She was doing what I paid her to do.
Don't ever give someone else your power in that way. I doesn't end well.
4.This Should be a Wake Up Call for the Entire World - Inside the Hong Kong Protest Movement
I hear calls for Western support in many conversations I have in Hong Kong. “I think it’s really important for Americans to think about how China is affecting democratic countries in their own territories,” Leung, the attorney, says. “Think about it. Even the U.S., which is the most powerful democracy—the Chinese are having a huge impact on what Americans can say in America.” He points specifically to Morey. “I mean, he didn’t even say anything! He didn’t say anything about China. He didn’t say anything about the government. He just shared a poster.”
He cites other recent controversies, too. Marriott fired an employee who “wrongfully liked” a tweet supporting independence for Tibet. Apple removed an app, HKmap.live, that protesters had used to track police activity. The esports company Blizzard Entertainment punished a Hearthstone player and Hong Konger who showed support for the movement during a livestream. “You guys fought so hard to get the First Amendment so that you could say what you want in your own country,” he says. “And now a foreign country is dictating what you can and can’t say on your own soil.”
Related
The NBA Won’t Be Able to Reset Its Relationship With China Anytime Soon
The NBA’s Convenient “Non-political” Stance Comes at a Cost
AtAt the march, a few protesters walk together wearing Xi Jinping masks, one of them carrying a sign that says, “Like NBA We All love RMB”—the Chinese currency, renminbi—“so Are we Good now China?” When asked about the sign, its masked holder goes straight to LeBron James. “He needs to understand, what’s happening here is important for him, too,” he says. “This should be a wake-up call to the whole world.”
A couple of nights later, I meet members of this group for dinner. Here they are unmasked, but they request that I not use their real names. There is the sign holder, who asks to be called Leo, born in Malaysia but living in Hong Kong for the past 20 years, and his friend, whom I’ll call Joe, a born-and-raised Hong Konger. Both work in tech. Joe sits next to his wife, who asks to be called Maggie, a Hong Kong native who left home to go to college in the States, before returning to start her own company, in finance.
They explain the dynamics of the protests. There are the frontliners, the most visible members of the movement. And then there are those who don’t run when the protest turns violent but who try to stay out of the way, and those who march and go home early, and even those who are too afraid to march at all, but who offer support through social media posts or conversations with family and friends. “We have a phrase here,” says Maggie. “Everyone is climbing the same mountain, but we each have our own way.” As members of the professional class, the three of them support the youngest protesters by donating gas masks or helping those who lack support from their parents to pay for meals. They also drive what they call “the school bus,” shuttling young protesters to and from events after authorities have closed public transportation.
Everyone may have their roles, but only some of those roles sometimes turn violent. Since the police began using force in June, the most radical protesters have turned up their own aggression. They throw bricks at police vans and break windows of pro-Beijing shops. Some lob Molotov cocktails at officers. This is one reason why a significant minority in Hong Kong actually oppose the protests. An August poll by The Independent showed that 39.5 percent of respondents believed the protesters had used “excessive force.” David Chu, a 40-something marketing executive in Hong Kong, says, “Everyone wants democracy, but not like this.” In casual conversations around town, I hear others call the protesters “cockroaches” or “entitled millennials” with no jobs. Some seem to draw no distinction between the frontliners and the many thousands more who march alongside them.
5. 10 Most Frightening Stories You Will Ever Hear per Jezebel