Category: people

“Four human teeth found buried outside Paul Gauguin’s hut in the Marquesas Islands are almost certainly those of the artist … But the discovery throws into question an almost universally held belief among art historians – that the French painter suffered from syphilis.”

His rare guitar went missing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. So he wrote a post about it on Facebook and…

He first became famous in the 1960s and ’70s, revitalizing flamenco music through his partnership with singer Camarón de la Isla. He went on to attract new fans by blending flamenco with jazz and Latin American music, and he was ultimately recognized as one of the world’s greatest guitarists.

“If anything betrays Whistler’s military background, it is his conception of the artist’s life as a series of frequent engagements with the enemy – hostile critics, backward-looking institutions, uncomprehending patrons, philistines in general. … Was Whistler just as belligerent toward his art as he was with the wider world into which he sent it? You might think so, judging from reports of how he went about making it.”

How David Bar Katz, the longtime friend of the late actor who found his lifeless body, convinced (that’s as good a word as any) the tabloid to endow an annual $45,000 prize called the Relentless Award.

Dominic Antonucci, one of ballet’s biggest stars, “was attacked and robbed by a group as he took a walk in a park, just before the company was due to perform on stage.”

A successful concert musician in Prague before World War II, she was interned at the Nazi’s Potemkin concentration camp, Theresienstadt, where she played in the now-famous orchestra. She is the subject of the short documentary The Lady in Number 6, in contention for an Oscar this weekend.

A major star during the 1970s, he made headlines when he abruptly retired from the stage at age 35, when many observers thought he was at his peak. He went on to direct three ballet companies – Santiago (twice), Cincinnati, and English National – where he raised standards, garnered international attention, and always seemed to bring turmoil.

Ramis leaves behind a formidable body of work, with writing credits on such enduring comedies as “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (which upon its 1978 release catapulted the film career of John Belushi, with whom Ramis acted at Second City), “Stripes” (1981) and “Ghostbusters” (in which Ramis also co-starred) plus such directing efforts as “Caddyshack” (1980), “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This.”

“Ms. von Trapp was the reason the governess came to work for the family — she needed a tutor at home because she also had scarlet fever and was too ill to walk to school.”