Actress Anne Heche declared 'legally dead' after crash

Heche, best known for 1990s movies "Donnie Brasco" and "Six Days, Seven Nights", crashed her car into a two-storey house in the Mar Vista neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

Heche, 53, had been comatose in hospital with a severe brain injury since the fiery collision on August 5. (AP)

Hollywood actor Anne Heche has been declared legally dead, one week after she crashed her car into a Los Angeles building.

Having lost all brain function, she is "legally dead according to California law," though her heart is still beating as her family keeps her body on life support while exploring organ donations, spokesperson Holly Baird said on Friday.

Heche, 53, had been comatose in hospital with a severe brain injury since the fiery collision on August 5.

"Today we lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend," the family said in a joint statement.

"Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy.

"Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance, will continue to have a lasting impact."

Heche, best known for 1990s movies "Donnie Brasco" and "Six Days, Seven Nights", crashed her car into a two-storey house in the Mar Vista neighbourhood of Los Angeles.

The violent collision resulted in "structural compromise and... heavy fire" at the scene, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The ensuing blaze took 59 firefighters more than an hour to contain and fully extinguish, the department said.

Local media reported on Thursday that preliminary tests of Heche's blood had come back positive for narcotics, though more were needed to ensure the drugs had not been administered in the course of her treatment.

Celebrity gossip outlet TMZ, citing unnamed police sources, said Heche had tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl, with the latter sometimes used for pain relief in clinical settings.

"My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom," Heche's son Homer Laffoon said in a separate statement.

"Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom," he wrote.

Heche rose to fame with her role on the soap opera "Another World," for which she won a Daytime Emmy in 1991.

She was nominated for a Tony award for her appearance in "Twentieth Century" on Broadway in 2004.

Source: AFP

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Olivia Newton John, singer and actress, dead at 73

"Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends. We ask that everyone please respect the family's privacy during this very difficult time," her husband, John Easterling, wrote in a statement on the singer's verified Instagram account. "Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer."

The singer revealed in September 2018 that she was treating cancer at the base of her spine. It was her third cancer diagnosis, following bouts with breast cancer in the early '90s and in 2017.

Thanks to a string of country and soft-rock hits, Newton-John was already a popular singer by the late 1970s. But her co-starring role opposite John Travolta in 1978's "Grease," arguably the most popular movie musical of all time, lifted her to a new level of stardom.

 Although she had little acting experience (and turned 29 during filming), Newton-John gave an indelible performance as Sandy, a sweet-natured Australian transfer student who romances Travolta's alpha greaser Danny at a Southern California high school in the 1950s.

Their onscreen chemistry as mismatched lovebirds who undergo final-act makeovers to win each others' hearts -- she ditches her frilly dresses for heels, leather, spandex and a cigarette -- anchored the movie and inspired repeat viewings by legions of fans.

 "I don't think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it," Newton-John told CNN in 2017. "It's just one of those movies. I'm very lucky to have been a part of it. It's given so many people pleasure."

Newton-John sang on three of the movie's biggest hits: the duets "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights" with Travolta, and her swoony solo ballad, "Hopelessly Devoted To You."

Born in Cambridge, England in 1948, Newton-John moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia, when she was five. After winning a talent contest on a TV show, "Sing, Sing, Sing," as a teen she formed an all-girl group and began appearing on weekly pop music programs in Australia.

Newton-John recorded her first single in England in 1966 and scored a few international hits, but she remained largely unknown to US audiences until 1973, when "Let Me Be There" became a top-10 hit on both the adult contemporary and the country charts.

 A series of No. 1 easy-listening hits followed, including "I Honestly Love You," "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "Please Mr. Please."

Then came "Grease," which was 1978's top-grossing movie and became an enduring cultural phenomenon.

The movie gave Newton-John an opportunity to change her squeaky-clean image. The cover of her next album, "Totally Hot," featured the singer in black leather, while its songs had an edgier, more contemporary pop sound.

Her singing success

 In 1981, she took her new, sexier persona a step further with "Physical," a dance number with such suggestive lyrics as, "There's nothing left to talk about unless it's horizontally." Banned by several radio stations, it became her biggest hit, spending 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.

She also appeared in several more big-budget movies, including the musical fantasy "Xanadu" with Hollywood legend Gene Kelly in his final screen role. The film bombed, but its soundtrack sold well and spawned "Magic," a No. 1 hit.

In 1983 she teamed with Travolta again for "Two of a Kind," a romantic comedy-fantasy, but it failed to recapture their "Grease" spark.

Over a lengthy career Newton-John won four Grammy Awards and sold more than 100 million albums.

"I've had many lives in music. I've had country when when I started, then I crossed over into pop," she told CNN. "I had 'Xanadu' and 'Grease,' many songs in between. I feel very grateful. I have such a large repertoire to choose from."

Overcoming tragedy

But Newton-John also faced her share of troubles and tragedy. Her breast cancer diagnoses forced her to postpone and cancel several tours.

And in 2005 Newton-John's then-boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, disappeared at sea while on a fishing trip off the coast of California. He was never found -- an unsolved mystery that haunted the singer for years.

"It's very hard to live with that," she told CNN's Larry King in 2006. "It's probably the hardest thing I've ever experienced, and I've been through a lot of things." Although her career profile dimmed in her later years, Newton-John never stopped recording and performing. Among her highlights were guest appearances on "Glee," a long-running "Summer Nights" residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas and a dance-club hit, "You Have to Believe," recorded with daughter Chloe.

 "I love to sing, it's all I know how to do," she told CNN in 2017. "That's all I've ever done since I was 15, so it's my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me."

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Nichelle Nichols, trailblazing 'Star Trek' actress, dies at 89

"Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration," Johnson said in a statement shared to Nichols' official site on Sunday. "Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all."

Nichols died from natural causes, he said.

Nichols portrayed communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura in the "Star Trek" TV series and many of its film offshoots.

When "Star Trek" began in 1966, Nichols was a television rarity: a Black woman in a notable role on a prime-time television series. There had been African-American women on TV before, but they often played domestic workers and had small roles; Nichols' Uhura was an integral part of the multicultural "Star Trek" crew.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it "the first non-stereotypical role portrayed by a Black woman in television history."

Nichols is widely known for participating in one of the first interracial kisses on US television when her character kissed James T. Kirk, portrayed by White Canadian actor William Shatner. In an interview with CNN in 2014, Nichols said the kiss scene "changed television forever, and it also changed the way people looked at one another."

After "Trek's" three-season run, Nichols dedicated herself to the space program. She helped NASA in making the agency more diverse, helping to recruit astronauts Sally Ride, Judith Resnik and Guion Bluford, among others.

George Takei, who portrayed the USS Enterprise's helmsman Hikaru Sulu, posted a touching tribute to his co-star.

"I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89," wrote Takei on Twitter. "For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."

"We lived long and prospered together," he added with a photo of the pair making the iconic Vulcan salute.

The National Air and Space Museum called Nichols "an inspiration to many, not just for her groundbreaking work on Star Trek but also through her work with NASA to recruit women and people of color to apply to become astronauts" on Twitter.

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, also posted a tribute to the actress. "Godspeed to Nichelle Nichols, champion, warrior and tremendous actor," wrote Abrams on Twitter alongside a photo of herself with Nichols. "Her kindness and bravery lit the path for many. May she forever dwell among the stars."

Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols near Chicago in 1932. (Unhappy with Grace, she took the name Nichelle when she was a teenager.) Her grandfather was a White Southerner who married a Black woman, causing a rift in his family.

Blessed with a four-octave vocal range, Nichols was performing in local clubs by the time she was 14. Among the performers she met was Duke Ellington, who later took her on tour. She also worked extensively in Chicago clubs and in theater.

She moved to Los Angeles in the early '60s and landed a role in a Gene Roddenberry series, "The Lieutenant." A number of "Star Trek" veterans, including Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett, also worked on the show.

When Roddenberry was creating "Trek," he remembered Nichols. She was in Europe when she got the call.

"(My agent said), 'They're doing 'Star Trek,' and I didn't know what a 'Star Trek' was," she said in an interview with the Television Academy.

Uhura wasn't in the original script, and Nichols was responsible for the name. She was reading a book called "Uhuru" -- "freedom" in Swahili -- and suggested her character take the name. Roddenberry thought it was too harsh.

"I said, 'Well, why don't you do an alteration of it, soften the end with an 'A,' and it'll be Uhura?' " she recalled. "He said, 'That's it, that's your name! You named it; it's yours.' "

Nichols is survived by her son, Kyle Johnson.

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