Lee’s death? Bad medicine
Bruce Lee’s former producer, Raymond Chow, says the kung fu star’s sudden death at age 32 is a straightforward case of taking the wrong medicine.
Lee died of an edema, or swelling of the brain, in the home of Hong Kong actress Betty Ting Pei in 1973. The coroner described his passing as “death by misadventure.”
The circumstances of Lee’s death fueled speculation that drugs were involved and that Lee was having an affair with Ting.
Chow, one of the founders of Golden Harvest studios, said Lee died because he took headache medication that he was “hypersensitive” to at someone else’s home, refraining from referring to Ting directly.
He said Lee was sensitive to one of the three ingredients in the medication, equigesic. “The bottom line is, it was an accident,” Chow said.
Martin begins new tour on solid footing
Singer Ricky Martin, whose hits include “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” says the fame and fortune he experienced in the late ’90s left him feeling bored and embittered.
“There was a moment (in 2002) when I was onstage, and I was just so angry,” Martin, 33, tells People magazine. Soon afterward, he quit the stage and began touring the world.
Now he says he’s looking forward to his Latin American tour this fall: “When you work, work, work, something is wrong. … You need to step aside and see where you’ve been, where you are now and where you want to be.”
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One of the reasons Roman Polanski chose to interpret Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” for the screen was simple: He wanted to make a movie for children.
“I’m happy that my children and their friends to whom I showed this film gave me good reviews this time,” he said in Bangkok last week to some laughter from reporters.
Polanski’s “Oliver Twist” – an adaptation of a Charles Dickens classic – was the opening film at the Third World Film Festival, which kicked off Friday night in Bangkok.
About 40 Thai orphans saw the film.
“It’s a real pleasure to see a room full of children watching this film because it is so different from what children are offered on the cinema screen nowadays,” he said.
A daughter of New York City’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, won $16,000 in a horse-jumping event.
Georgina Bloomberg, 22, defeated Michael Whitaker of Great Britain on Friday to win the knock-out event in the Las Vegas World Invitational show-jumping contest.
“I’ve had the mare since she was 6 years old,” Bloomberg said of Nadia, a 10-year-old Dutch warmblood mare. “She’s a great speed horse.”
Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican, has a $5 billion personal fortune, which he’s using to help bankroll his re-election campaign against Democrat Fernando Ferrer.
Al Roker is going to the dogs for inspiration.
The production company of the NBC “Today” show weatherman is making what it calls the first-ever dog reality television show.
Roker has teamed with Tamar Geller, who’s built a living training celebrities’ dogs. Each show will have hidden cameras that catch dogs acting like, well, animals. Geller then swoops in with obedience training.
Roker hasn’t sold the show to a network yet.
“A former Israeli intelligence officer, Tamar will show us how to make the most of our loving relationship with dogs,” Roker said. “And if you do not watch the show, she knows 17 different ways to kill you with a paper clip. That’s television!”
