Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Star Jane Russell Dies

Jane Russell, voluptuous star of films The Outlaw and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, has died at 89, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The actress first came to Hollywood's attention as a discovery of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who attempted to capitalize on Russell's staggering figure in his controversial film The Outlaw, which was shot in 1941 but not released until 1946.

Russell was a favorite of gay audiences primarily for her costarring role opposite late screen legend Marilyn Monroe in Blondes, arguably her most famous film. Though the film was a showcase for two of cinema's sexiest bombshells, it is appreciated by gay audiences for Russell's unbelievably homoerotic number, "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love," in which the brunet actress cavorts with musclemen clad only in flesh-colored shorts.

Fitness Guru Jack LaLanne Dies at Age 96

The godfather of physical fitness, Jack LaLanne, died at his coastal California home in Morro Bay from respiratory failure due to pneumonia. He was 96.

"He was surrounded by his family and passed very peacefully and in no distress ... and with the football game on Sunday, so everything was normal," his daughter Yvonne LaLanne, 66, told Reuters.

Only two years ago, LaLanne, still a poster boy for vitality, told People magazine that young stars such as Britney Spears – who was going through physical and emotional problems at the time – needed to "develop pride and discipline" and watch what they put into their bodies, or as he put it: "the right fuel in the machine."

As for keeping body and soul together, "It's got to start with young kids," LaLanne stated.

LaLanne, who stood only 5'6", didn't start watching how he lived until he was 15. Born Francois Henri LaLanne in San Francisco (his parents were French immigrants), he felt the effects of sugar and bleached flour in his diet. After hearing a health lecture, he devoted his life to following a diet of raw, unprocessed foods. His staples: two meals a day and no snacks.

And did he ever exercise, relentlessly. At age 60, noted The New York Times, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf while pulling a 1,000-pound boat – and while handcuffed. At 70, shackled again, he pulled 70 people in 70 boats 1½ miles through Long Beach Harbor.

As he liked to say, "I can't die. It would ruin my image."

LaLanne opened the nation's first modern health club in California's Oakland, in 1936, and it featured exercise equipment, a juice bar and health food store. Eventually this developed into a 100-strong Jack LaLanne gym chain across the country. He would also market a highly successful juicer.

His syndicated The Jack LaLanne Show, which opened with his performing jumping jacks under the credits in his signature belted jumpsuits, debuted in daytime in 1959 and ran for 34 years, solidifying his reputation. After more than 3,000 shows, LaLanne, who owned all rights, repackaged the program and leased it to ESPN Classic.

Besides his daughter, Yvonne, he is survived by a son, Dan Doyle; his wife, Elaine; and their son, Jon.

David Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet Fame Dies

David Nelson, who played the elder son on the 1950s sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, has died at 74.

Nelson, the last surviving member of the idealized TV family portrayed on the show, died Tuesday in Los Angeles of complications from colon cancer, his representative Dale Olson said, according to reports.

Nelson played a fictionalized version of himself on the popular series, which started on radio, became a movie and then ran on ABC from 1952 to 1966. The family, which used their real names, was portrayed as a wholesome suburban clan, with episodes focusing on the domestic adventures of David and his younger brother, Ricky, who would later gain tremendous fame as a singer.

David Nelson's other credits included movies as diverse as the '50s soap opera Peyton Place and John Waters's satiric Cry-Baby, and he also made a name for himself as a TV director. He is survived by his wife, Yvonne, four sons, a daughter and several grandchildren.

R&B Singer Teena Marie Dead at 54

Grammy nominated R&B singer Teena Marie has died, CNN reports. She was 54.

Marie, who rose to prominence in the '70 and '80s, was found dead by her daughter in her Los Angeles home on Sunday, according to her manager, Mike Gardner.

The cause of death was not immediately known but Marie's publicist, Lynn Jeter, told CNN that she suffered a grand mal seizure a month ago.

Born Marie Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, Calif., Marie released 13 studio albums over the course of her career, which spawned the 1984 hit "Lovergirl."

She was signed to Motown Records in 1976 and was one of their most successful white artists. Marie is perhaps best known for her musical collaborations with the late funk legend Rick James.

Blake Edwards Dies

Blake Edwards, the master craftsman who gave the world such stylish screen fare as Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers, and Victor/Victoria with his wife Julie Andrews, died Thursday morning with Andrews and his grown children at his bedside, reports Variety. He was 88.

No further details have been provided.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but with a grandfather and father in the Hollywood movie business, William Blake Crump (the name Edwards came later) practically had celluloid flowing through his veins. After graduation from Beverly Hills High and World War II duty in the Coast Guard, Edwards sold two scenarios for Westerns.

Even bigger breaks were still ahead. When leading man Dick Powell was looking for a new vehicle, Edwards wrote the Richard Diamond radio series for him. From there he moved into writing and directing more B pictures and TV series, including Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky, both of which he created.

His strongest work, until a resurgence in the '80s with S.O.B., '10' and Victor/Victoria, came in the early '60s, when he directed The Days of Wine and Roses, a drama about alcoholism with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, and the first two Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers.

After a stormy 14-year marriage to former actress Patricia Walker, Edwards directed Andrews – already the biggest musical box-office star on the planet thanks to Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music – in the lavish 1969 musical Darling Lili. Though critics and audiences were disappointed by the final product, "It seemed dumb not to admit we were in love," Edwards told PEOPLE in 1977.

"I kept telling him it wasn't going to work," said Andrews. Yet the marriage endured, and the Edwardses lived an enviable lifestyle, with homes in Gstaad, Switzerland, and Malibu.

When he was presented an honorary Oscar in 2004, Edwards said at the podium: "Each and every one has contributed to this moment, friends and foes alike. I couldn't have done it without the foes … My father thanks you, my mother thanks you, the beautiful English broad with the incomparable soprano and the promiscuous language thanks you, and I sure as hell thank you.''

Besides Andrews, he is survived by a daughter, Jennifer, who is an actress; a son, Geoffrey, a writer, director and editor; Andrews's daughter (with her first husband, designer Tony Walton), Emma Walton; and Amelia Leigh and Joanna Lynne Edwards, whom the couple adopted from Vietnam in the early 1970s.

"Do you know how long we've been married?" Andrews said in 2007. "Thirty-seven years. That's staggering to me. Where did it all go? I cannot stress enough what a fine director he is – and not just because I'm married to him!"

Movie audiences couldn't agree more.

Inside Elizabeth Edwards's Last Days

Two months ago, Elizabeth Edwards was laboring to climb the stairs of the old colonial house she had recently bought in Chapel Hill, N.C., for herself and her youngest two children. Separated from husband John since January, she looked forward to making a fresh start come springtime in this new home.

But even as she daydreamed on this sunny October day, Edwards, 61, gasped for breath with tears in her eyes and cursed her chemo.

"Damn these drugs," she cried. "Damn cancer."

Elizabeth Edwards would never move into that house. Instead, just days after learning that the breast cancer she had been fighting off-and-on since 2004 had spread to her liver, and that treatment was no longer productive, she died in the home she built with John.

"She's at peace," said a close friend who saw her the day she died, surrounded by friends and family, including her children and estranged husband. "After so much pain the past several years, it was an easy passing, and she deserved that."

For more on the triumphs and heartbreaks of Elizabeth Edwards's life, pick up the new issue of People, on newsstands now.

Elizabeth Edwards Dies

Elizabeth Edwards – a political wife whose personal dramas, including her husband's infidelity and her six-year battle against breast cancer, were played out on a public stage – died from the disease Tuesday. She was 61.

"Today we have lost the comfort of Elizabeth's presence but she remains the heart of this family," the Edwards family says in a statement. "We love her and will never know anyone more inspiring or full of life."

She died at her home in Chapel Hill, N.C., surrounded by her family.

"On behalf of Elizabeth we want to express our gratitude to the thousands of kindred spirits who moved and inspired her along the way," the statement adds. "Your support and prayers touched our entire family."

President Barack Obama called Edwards's husband, former Democratic North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and their daughter Cate to offer condolences.

"In her life, Elizabeth Edwards knew tragedy and pain. Many others would have turned inward; many others in the face of such adversity would have given up," Obama and First Lady Michelle say in a statement. "But through all that she endured, Elizabeth revealed a kind of fortitude and grace that will long remain a source of inspiration. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends."

Former President Bill Clinton also sent his condolences saying, "With the passing of Elizabeth Edwards, America has lost a symbol of strength, hope, and humanity. Her children have lost a loving mother, her friends a wise counselor. My prayers are with them."

On Dec. 6, 2010, it was announced that her doctors decided that further treatment for her breast cancer would be unproductive and that she only had a short time left to live.

That same day, on her Facebook page, Edwards thanked supporters and wrote, "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human."

First diagnosed with cancer in 2004, Edwards went into remission until the 2008 presidential campaign.

Her husband declined to withdraw from the race – a decision he announced at a press conference with his wife stoically standing at his side.

A few months later, however, he was effectively forced out of his bid for the White House by frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In a heartbreaking later episode that at first brought denials from John Edwards and then a frank admission, the former politician acknowledged fathering a child with a videographer who worked for his campaign. John and Elizabeth Edwards separated in January 2010, after three decades of marriage.

A native of Jacksonville, Fla., and an attorney by training (she and John met in law school at the University of North Carolina, and married in 1977), Elizabeth Edwards is survived by three children, ranging in age from 28 to 10: Cate, Emma Claire and Jack. Her eldest child, Wade, was killed in a 1996 car accident when he was 16.

As she wrote on the day it was announced she would stop having treatment, "I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful."

Leslie Nielsen Dies

Leslie Nielsen, who made audiences laugh with his ridiculous seriousness and deadpan deliveries in the absurd scenes of comedy films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun has died. He was 84.

His agent, John. S. Kelly, confirmed that the actor died Sunday near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the Holy Cross Hospital, surrounded by his "lovely wife and friends" at 5:34 pm (ET), due to complications of pneumonia.

Nielsen had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks as a result from pneumonia, his agent said.

"Just in this last 48 hours, the infection has gotten too much," his nephew Doug Nielsen told Canadian radio station CKNW. "He just fell asleep and passed away."

Canadian In Hollywood

Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, where his father was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Nielsen began his career in television in the 1950s, after training at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse.

He found early success as a dramatic actor in the 1972 blockbuster The Poseidon Adventure (he played the captain of the doomed ship) and on TV shows like Bonanza and The Fugitive.

Lasting Sense of Humor

But behind the scenes, he was reportedly known as a prankster. Landing his role as Detective Frank Drebin on TV's Police Squad would prove to be a turning point in his career, as that became the basis for the Naked Gun movies.

In 1998, the actor told The New York Times: "It's been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type," he said, "and I'm finally getting to do what I really wanted to do."

Nielsen is survived by his fourth wife, Barbaree Lee Neilsen, and two daughters, Maura Nielsen Kaplan and Thea Nielsen Disney, both of whom appeared alongside their father in the comedies, Dracula: Dead and Loving It and Wrongfully Accused. His brother Eric was deputy prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1986.

While Nielsen "enjoyed a more than 60 year career in motion pictures and television," as Kelly noted in his statement, his signature line from Airplane! will surely be remembered as one of comedy's best: Said Nielsen, as Dr. Rumack, "I am serious . . . and don't call me Shirley."

Jill Clayburgh, Oscar-nominated Actress, Dies at 66

Jill Clayburgh, who embodied hopeful and determined women in such '70s and '80s movies as An Unmarried Woman, Starting Over and It's My Turn, died at her Connecticut home on Friday from chronic leukemia, a disease she quietly battled for 21 years, her husband, playwright David Rabe, told The New York Times. She was 66.

Earlier this week, the couple's daughter, actress Lily Rabe, took a temporary leave of absence from the Broadway show in which she is about to open, Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino. A spokesperson for the show said only that it was a private family matter that caused Rabe to take leave.

Besides her movie roles, Clayburgh was also highly visible on TV, on Law & Order, The Practice and Nip/Tuck, Dirty Sexy Money, as well as an ongoing role as mother Jeannie on Ally McBeal.

Nominated for an Oscar for 1978's An Unmarried Woman, which was arguably her best screen role, Clayburgh played a vulnerable-but-courageous abandoned wife on Manhattan's Upper East Side who finds her independence when she has an affair with a sexy artist (Alan Bates), with her character learning by the fade-out that being on her own is just fine.

The only daughter of a wealthy book-cloth manufacturer and an actress turned assistant to legendary theatrical producer David Merrick, Clayburgh grew up a poor-little-rich-girl on Manhattan's East Side. Her grandmother, Alma Clayburgh, was a prominent socialite and opera singer.

"I was very assertive as a child, verging on violence and self-destructiveness. Once I threw this short little boy down the stairs," Clayburgh told People magazine in 1979. "It was a kind of need for power at a young age that masks insecurity."

First Theater, Then TV and Movies

She got hooked on theater when a Sarah Lawrence College classmate talked her into summer stock one vacation. Then came a student film with other future lights: Brian De Palma as director and Robert De Niro as costar.

After her 1966 graduation, Clayburgh headed for Boston, where she joined the Charles Playhouse and met and began a five-year relationship with Al Pacino, who was appearing in the company's production of America Hurrah. Their struggles were cushioned slightly by Clayburgh's $200-a-month trust fund, and they soon made the move to a mice-infested walk-up in New York.

She was cast as Grace Bolton on the CBS soap Search for Tomorrow, but she mainly toiled Off-Broadway for $56 a week as Pacino's movie career began to take off. "Thank God we broke up!" Clayburgh later said, though she and Pacino remained friends. "We were all wrong for each other."

It was an unsuccessful audition for Rabe's 1973 In the Boom Boom Room that changed her luck. When the part went to Madeline Kahn, Clayburgh headed for L.A., and just when she was ready to chuck it all for graduate study in social work, she won an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of a hooker in the 1975 TV dramatization of Gail Sheehy's Hustling, followed by the 1977 big-screen sleeper hit Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.

She and Rabe married in 1978. When asked why, Clayburgh told People: "So people would stop asking me about my personal life. If you're married, they just assume you're happy."

Besides David and Lily Rabe, Clayburgh is also survived by a son, Michael; a stepson, Jason; and a brother, James.

Penthouse Founder Bob Guccione Dies at Age 79

Penthouse magazine founder and longtime editor-in-chief Bob Guccione has died at the age of 79, according to the Associated Press. A statement issued by the Guccione family says he died at at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano, TX. The publisher had battled lung cancer for several years.

Guccione launched Penthouse in the U.S. in 1969 as a more explicit competitor to Playboy. The magazine proved hugely successful and by 1982 Forbes was estimating that Guccione had a net worth of $400m. In September 1984, an issue of Penthouse which featured nude photographs of reigning Miss America Vanessa Williams sold almost 6 million copies. But over the next two decades, the magazine’s circulation declined and in 2004 Guccione lost ownership of the magazine.

Guccione also produced and financed the hugely controversial film 1979 film Caligula. The movie starred Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and Peter O’Toole and featured explicit sex scenes which Guccione himself directed.

Happy Days Star Tom Bosley Dead at 83

Tom Bosley, the folksy father of Richie Cunningham on the '70s sitcom about the '50s, ABC's Happy Days, died Tuesday in his Palm Springs, California, home. On October 1st, he had turned 83.

The actor died of a staph infection, according to TMZ, which first reported his death.

Before finding fame on the small screen, Bosley won a Tony for starring as the beloved New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning 1959 musical Fiorello!. He also made a memorable mark in the 1964 Peter Sellers cult comedy The World of Henry Orient, as the too-understanding husband of Angela Lansbury's character.

After Happy Days, he would frequently costar with Lansbury on her CBS series, Murder She Wrote.

Reacting to Bosley's death, his Happy Days costar Henry Winkler expressed his sadness, telling Los Angeles's KNX-1070 News Radio, "I'm in shock, I really am. I spoke to him just a few weeks ago and he seemed to be getting his strength back."

Born in Chicago, Bosley was the younger son of a real estate broker father and a former concert pianist mother. "We were fairly wealthy until the stock market crashed," he told People magazine in 1979, during the Happy Days craze. "When I was 2, my father lost all his money." His parents divorced nine years later.

Bosley joined the Navy in 1945 at 17 ("I'm the only guy I know who went in as a seaman and came out a seaman"), then enrolled in pre-law at DePaul University. In his first year, he switched to acting.

After stock theater in Illinois (with fellow aspirants Paul Newman and Geraldine Page), he flipped a coin in 1950 to decide between New York and Los Angeles. New York won.

For nine years before Fiorello! he acted off-Broadway and in summer stock while working menial jobs to feed himself. Movie and TV roles followed, and in recent years, whenever there was a Happy Days reunion, he could always be counted upon to appear – and tease his TV son, Ron Howard, about not casting him in his movies.

Bosley married twice. His first wife, Jean, a dancer, died in 1978 (they had wed in 1962). His second wife, the former Patricia Carr, survives him. They married in 1980. He also has a daughter, Amy.

Ironically, Bosley's death comes only a few days after that of another iconic '50s TV parent, Barbara Billingsley, of Leave It to Beaver.

Leave It to Beaver's Barbara Billingsley Loved Being America's Mom

They were the Modern Family of their time, back when cars sported tailfins, Americans raced the Russians to the moon and everybody liked Ike.

They were the Cleavers, delivering a bit of sanitized Americana every week on the TV sitcom Leave It to Beaver: stalwart dad Ward, hormonal older brother Wally, trouble-prone kid brother Theodore (better known as "the Beaver," for his oversized front teeth), and the always perfectly coiffed, calm and collected mother, June, played by actress Barbara Billingsley.

Billingsley, 94, died early Saturday morning at her home in Santa Monica, California, after a long illness.

"Barbara was a patient advisor and teacher. She helped me along this challenging journey through life by showing me the importance of manners and respect for others," Jerry Mathers, 62, who played the Beaver from 1957-63, said in a statement. "She will be missed by all of her family, friends, fans and, most especially, by me."

"She was as happy as a lark being recognized as America's mom," Tony Dow, 65, who played Wally, told CNN. "She had a terrific life and had a wonderful impact on everybody she knew, and even people she didn't know."

Like a Death in the Family

Though Beaver became an iconic show whose reruns on cable networks also proved popular to subsequent generations, to Baby Boomers, Billingsley's death is like losing a close relative. Indeed, her June Cleaver was the last of a line idealized TV moms, one prettier than the next: Harriet Nelson, of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; Jane Wyatt's Margaret Anderson, of Father Knows Best; and Donna Reed's Donna Stone, of The Donna Reed Show.

Told from the boys' point of view, Leave It to Beaver made the jokes take a backseat to the moral lessons of the day. Like the later The Andy Griffith Show, what Leave It to Beaver provided was comfort – which is why Billingley's casting in the 1980 movie spoof Airplane! as the passenger who spoke jive was so jolting – and hysterical.

Born Barbara Lillian Combes in Los Angeles, Billingsley had been a model in New York before being signed as an MGM contract player. She appeared on various TV shows ranging from dramas to comedies before the Cleaver clan gathered on CBS in 1957. The following year the show moved to ABC, where it remained until the end of its run.

Billingsley was married three times, and her first husband, restaurateur Glenn Billingsley, was a nephew of Sherman Billingsley, who owned New York's famed Stork Club. Her other husbands, both of whom predeceased her, were director Roy Kelino and Dr. William Mortenson.

Glenn and Barbara Billingsley, who divorced in 1947, had two sons, Drew and Glenn, Jr., who survive her, as do four grandchildren – as well as the untold millions who will always envision her in the kitchen, wearing apron and pearls, and saying, "Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver."

Screen Star Tony Curtis Dead at 85

Tony Curtis, one the beefcake screen stars of the 1950s who went on working for the next four decades, has died, his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, told Entertainment Tonight. No further details were given.

He was 85 and had been admitted to a Las Vegas hospital for tests in mid-July after he had trouble breathing.

Curtis, who also suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nearly died when he contracted pneumonia in December 2006 and remained in a coma for several days.

'Good-Looking Kid'

Unlike another pretty face of his generation, Marlon Brando, who at least took his early screen roles seriously, Tony Curtis wasn't entirely about the performance. "I was a good-looking kid," he admitted to People magazine in 2008. "That's the only reason I got into the movies."

In all, there were more than 150 movies, which took place along with an equally extravagant Hollywood high life: six wives, romances with starlets from Marilyn Monroe to Natalie Wood and six kids he candidly admitted he often failed – including Jamie Lee Curtis. Nor did he make a secret of his real name – Bernie Schwartz – or his onetime drug use, or his trips to the shrink to deal with debilitating depression.

Tragic Childhood

Born in Manhattan's tough Hell's Kitchen, Curtis grew up in the Bronx, the son of a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant tailor. Tragedy as well as poverty stalked the family. Older brother Julius was killed at 12 by a truck. Younger brother Robert was institutionalized as a schizophrenic. A high school dropout after one year, Curtis served a WWII Navy hitch, including two years aboard a submarine – experience he leaned on for one of his favorite movies, opposite his childhood hero Cary Grant, in 1959's Operation Petticoat.

Studying acting in New York on the GI Bill, Curtis (still as Schwartz) attracted the attention of a Universal Studios talent scout and landed a $50-a-week contract (and the new name) in Hollywood. Soon posing shirtless for fan magazines and adorning costume epics like 1951's The Prince Who Was a Thief, Curtis also showed off his pronounced Bronx accent. Still, he never quite uttered the famous line most quoted by nightclub mimics: "Yonda lies da castle of da caliph, my fodder."

The late '50s brought meaty roles and memorable movies: 1957's Sweet Smell of Success with Burt Lancaster, 1958's The Defiant Ones with Sidney Poitier, and the comedy rated No. 1 funniest by the American Film Institute: Billy Wilder's 1959 Some Like It Hot, with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon – with the two leading men playing 1920s musicians on the lam. In drag.

In 2002, Curtis said of his get-up for that romp, "Panties are easy, I find. Garter belts are not disruptive, I don't think. The shoulder pads in dresses can be a little obnoxious … but by and large, I would say the brassiere [is the worst]."

Uneasy Marriages

His first marriage, in 1951, to frequent costar Janet Leigh, was widely covered by the press as a favorite Hollywood couple. It was also bitter, even more so after they divorced after 12 years. The union produced two actress daughters – Kelly, now 54, and Jamie Lee, 51 – though Curtis was to blame Janet (who died in 2004) for his long estrangement from Jamie.

"She had heard that I was arrogant, uninterested, a rake, a womanizer, a drunk and a dope-taker," he told People magazine in 1980. For her part, Leigh denied the charge. "I never knocked Tony to Jamie," she said. As for Jamie, she said 30 years ago that she had achieved a fragile reconciliation with Tony Curtis. "I understand him better now," she said, "perhaps not as a father but as a man."

"Marriage is difficult," opined the experienced Curtis. "Very few of us are fortunate enough to marry multimillionaire girls who have 39-inch busts and have undergone frontal lobotomies." As for his reputation as a lady-killer, Tony humbly admitted it was deserved: "I've left my mark on thousands of girls across the country."

To say nothing of millions of movie fans around the world.

Inside Story: A Chilling New Version of Michael Jackson's Final Days

With his sold-out concert series only four weeks away and a sickly Michael Jackson missing yet another rehearsal, the promoter gave the star an ultimatum: Start taking drugs from a new doctor to keep you going, or we'll sue you for millions.

This dose of "tough love" administered at Jackson's house is alleged in a lawsuit filed this week that provides a new account of the days before Jackson died from a dose of a powerful anesthesia.

In the suit by Jackson's mother Katherine and his children, Jackson is not portrayed as the rejuvenated King of Pop on the comeback trail, as seen in the movie This Is It, but as a tired, drug-addled 50-year-old barely able to rehearse – much less embark on a high-stakes concert series.

To protect its huge investment and the potential for even bigger profits, the lawsuit alleges, promoter AEG Live drove the entertainer – once so out of it that he was disoriented and shivering in a hot arena – into a premature death through the poor medical care from the physician hired by the promoter: Dr. Conrad Murray.

Promoter Denies Allegations

An AEG spokesman would only say that the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit "is inaccurate, unsubstantiated and meritless. Dr. Murray was Mr. Jackson's longtime personal physician. AEG did not choose him, hire him or supervise him."

The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract, negligence and fraud, provides a detailed narrative of what it claims were AEG's heavy-handed tactics in the weeks prior to Jackson's U.K. concerts, when Jackson was faltering during rehearsals.

According to the suit, the promoters went to Jackson's Los Angeles house on June 18, 2009, and insisted he stop seeing his personal physician, Dr. Arnold Klein, and stop taking Klein's medications, because they "made him sleepy and prevented him from rehearsing," says the legal papers.

"Tough love," the promoters allegedly called it: Just take the drugs from Dr. Murray and don't miss another rehearsal, the promoters allegedly said, or we'll call off the tour and sue you.

"Rather than act reasonably and relax the rehearsal schedule to Michael Jackson could recuperate from his physical problems, AEG insisted that he attend every rehearsal in a grueling schedule," according to the lawsuit.

Differing Accounts of Jackson's Health

A month earlier, the suit also says, AEG had contracted Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist, to be Jackson's "personal concierge physician." For $150,000 a month and a rental house near the London concert venue, Murray would make sure Jackson got the sleep he needed and that he made every rehearsal.

Only Jackson's health worsened, the lawsuit says, as Murray pumped him full of such sedatives as Valium, Ativan, Versed and the drug Propofol, an anesthetic for minor surgeries. Under his contract, Murray was also supposed to receive from AEG a nurse and CPR equipment, but these were never furnished, the lawsuit says.

At 9:30 p.m. on June 18, hours after the "riot act meeting," Jackson showed up at rehearsal "visibly shaken" and "not himself that day," the lawsuit says. At home that night, Murray administered the usual sedative cocktail, including Propofol, still without the resuscitation equipment and nursing support.

Back at rehearsal the next day, "Jackson was upset, not coherent, and seemed drugged and disoriented," the lawsuit says.

'Had to Have a Heater'

After a Father's Day weekend break, Jackson returned to rehearsal on June 23 "freezing cold," the lawsuit says. "His assistants had to give him several shirts to wear under his long, heavy coat. Although it was warm in Staples Center that day, and although the rehearsal was vigorous, Jackson had to have a heater."

The lawsuit says: "AEG was well aware of his condition but did not postpone any rehearsals, nor did AEG relent in its demands that Jackson continue to maintain the grueling rehearsal schedule."

The suit says Jackson was in bad shape on June 24, too, shivering and seeming disoriented. This is in stark contrast to the picture of Jackson painted by other witnesses, who said he seemed enthused and healthy that night as he ran through classics like "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Billie Jean," "Smooth Criminal" and "She's Out of My Life." He and his dancers also performed "Thriller" in full costume. They worked until midnight.

According to various accounts, Jackson arrived home fatigued but had trouble sleeping that night. Murray has told police that he gave into Jackson's demands at 10:40 p.m. on the morning of the 25th, pushing 25 milligrams of Propofol into the IV. Soon, Jackson stopped breathing. Murray, still without the heart resuscitation machine he was supposed to get, was unable to save Jackson's life.

The coroner conducted an autopsy the following day and concluded that Jackson died from acute Propofol intoxication and that he had a "polypharmacy" of drugs in his system.

Charles Peckham, a civil attorney for Murray, declined to discuss the case in detail, citing civil and criminal litigation. The doctor has been sued by Jackson's father, Joe. Katherine's attorneys may go after him as well. Murray also is awaiting preliminary hearing on an involuntary manslaughter charge brought by the Los Angeles DA.

"Dr. Murray has a great deal of respect for Katherine Jackson and for Michael Jackson's children and wants to give them all the peace that they deserve as they grieve the loss of their son and their father," Peckham says. "But for Dr. Murray, it's just another day and another lawsuit."

Betty White: Rue McClanahan's Death 'Hurts More Than I Ever Thought'

She's now the last living Golden Girl. For Betty White the loss of her costar Rue McClanahan struck hard.

"Rue was a close and dear friend. I treasure our relationship," White, 88, said in a statement. "It hurts more than I ever thought it would, if that's even possible."

McClanahan died early Thursday at age 76 after suffering a stroke, following the deaths of costars Bea Arthur last year at age 86 and Estelle Getty in 2008 at age 84 .

Golden Girls producer and writer Marc Cherry also expressed sadness over McClanahan's death. "When I worked on The Golden Girls, my favorite character to write for was Blanche Devereaux," he said Friday. "In the hands of lesser actresses Blanche's vanity and sexual appetite would have been off-putting. But in Rue's brilliant hands, that character became one of the most beloved in the history of T.V. Rue's kindness, generosity and enormous talent will be sorely missed."

Golden Girls Star Rue McClanahan Dies at 76

Golden Girl Rue McClanahan has died at the age of 76.

"She passed away at 1 am this morning," her manager, Barbara Lawrence reported. "She had a massive stroke."

McClanahan, who played man-happy Blanche Devereaux on the still-popular '80s sitcom Golden Girls, had suffered a minor stroke earlier this year while recovering from bypass surgery. Lawrence adds that at the time of her death Thursday, McClanahan "had her family with her. She went in peace."

Still in syndication, Golden Girls ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992. Only last year, McClanahan's costar, Beatrice Arthur, died from cancer. Estelle Getty died in 2008. Surviving star Betty White, 88, is currently enjoying a remarkable resurgence in her career, having recently hosted Saturday Night Live.

Born in Healdton, Oklahoma, Rue lived in six towns by the time she was 8. Her father was a road builder who moved from one project to another. She found solace in acting ("the only thing I ever wanted to do") and after four years at the University of Tulsa moved to New York, where she worked as a part-time file clerk while trying to find jobs in the theater.

Her first job was off Broadway, in 1957, and she finally hit Broadway in 1969. TV work came from soap operas, until she made it on CBS's Maude, starring Beatrice Arthur, starting in 1972. She played Maude's best friend Vivian.

But it was Golden Girls that put her on the map and led to fame, fortune – and several husbands. In all, she had six, including actor Morrow Wilson, whom she wed in 1997 and who survives her, as does a son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage.

As McClanahan told People Magazine in 1986: "I've always been lucky enough to marry good cooks. One cooked Greek. One cooked Tex-Mex – chili and stuff." Then, with a laugh, she added, "True, one needed a recipe to make a peanut butter sandwich ..."

Diff'rent Strokes Star Gary Coleman Dies at 42

Gary Coleman, who by age 11 had skyrocketed to become TV's brightest star but as an adult could never quite land on solid footing, has died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

Coleman died at 12:05 pm on Friday at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, where he had been in a coma.

"He was removed from life support; soon thereafter, he passed quickly and peacefully," his manager John Alcantar says. "By Gary’s bedside were his wife and other close family members."

The actor suffered an intracranial hemorrhage at his Utah home on Wednesday night. On Thursday, he was "conscious and lucid," the hospital says in a statement, "but by early afternoon that same day, Mr. Coleman was slipping in and out of consciousness and his condition worsened."

Precocious Child

Despite congenital health problems which led to his never growing taller than 4'8," Coleman experienced a towering achievement at the start of his career.

As Arnold Jackson, the plucky Harlem boy adopted into a wealthy white household on Diff'rent Strokes from 1978-86 – with his much-mimicked catchphrase of, "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" – Coleman was pulling down as much as $100,000 per episode, though it was later reported that three-quarters of the money ended up being shelled out to his parents, advisers, lawyers and the IRS.

At the pinnacle of his fame in 1979 People Magazine reported that Coleman had grown up in Zion, Illinois, north of Chicago, with nephritis, a potentially fatal kidney defect.

He underwent two transplants before the age of 14. At one stage in his life, he underwent dialysis four times a day in order to survive.

"The reason I survived is that I had a kidney that wouldn't give up," he once said. "Now I got a Greek kidney donated from a kid who was hit by a car."

"His talent," said his mother, Sue, "may be God's way of compensating him for what he's been through, and the fact that he'll never have the physical size of other boys."

Coleman's father, Willie, worked for a pharmaceutical company near Chicago, where Gary started modeling at age 5 after he wrote a brazen pitch letter to Montgomery Ward. (He could read at 3½.)

That led to commercials for McDonald's and Hallmark cards before producer Norman Lear cast him in a pilot remake of The Little Rascals, which didn't get picked up, en route to Diff'rent Strokes.

Troubled Lives

As has been chronicled, the three children on the series grew up into troubled lives. Dana Plato, 34, died of a drug overdose in 1999. (Plato's son, Tyler Lambert, never came to terms with his mother's death, and committed suicide on May 6, 2010. He was 25.)

The show's Willis, actor Todd Bridges, now 45, was first arrested in 1994 after allegedly ramming someone's car during an argument, He also has owned up to serious drug habit, which he struggled to beat.

By 1999, Coleman also faced troubles of his own. Long gone from Diff'rent Strokes, he had gone broke. His string of misadventures and humiliations included a bitter lawsuit that fractured his family, reports of erratic behavior (his father claimed Gary tried to run him over with a car during an argument in 1986) and a stint in 1998 as a security guard on a movie set.

All told, Coleman had amassed and lost an estimated $18 million fortune. Although he argued that his parents had a huge role in dissipating his wealth, he makes no apologies for having spent like a star. "I have lifestyle requirements," he said at the time. "Photos, meetings, lunches, dinners, facial care, tooth care. It requires an exorbitant amount of money."

Also in 1999, Coleman pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace after he punched a female autograph-seeker in California, for which he claimed self-defense. The previous year, he was again in the headlines, after allegedly hitting a pedestrian with his truck after arguing with him in a Salt Lake City bowling alley. In 2007, there was an incident involving a public argument with a female companion.

Married at 40

At times, there appeared to be turnarounds in his fortunes. In February 2008 – at the age of 40 – Coleman married for the first time. He'd met his bride, Shannon Price, on a movie set the previous August. She was 22.

Coleman admitted that Price was the first woman in his life. "I never got the opportunity to be romantic or feel romantic with anyone," he said. "I wasn't saving myself, she just happened to be the one.

Their relationship, they both admitted, was often rocky. "We may go a week and not speak to each other," he said, while she claimed, "He lets his anger conquer him sometimes … He throws things around, and sometimes he throws it in my direction." Still, they remained together, and Price survives him.

In recent months, Coleman suffered a series of medical problems. He had been admitted to hospitals three times this year: in January, for reasons that were not disclosed; in February, when he suffered a seizure on the set of TV's The Insider; and again on May 26.

"Thanks to everyone for their well wishing and support during this tragic time," his manager says. "Now that Gary has passed, we know he will be missed because of all the love and support shown in the past couple of days. Gary is now at peace and his memory will be kept in the hearts of those who were entertained by him throughout the years.”

Lena Horne, Hollywood Trailblazer, Dies at 92

Lena Horne, whose beauty and talent – and race – helped pave the way for future generations of African American stars, died Sunday night at Manhattan's New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, reports The New York Times. She was 92 and had been in failing health the past few months.

As she recounted in her successful, Tony-winning 1981 one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, the star – MGM's first leading actress of color, though she was often relegated to secondary scenes that could be edited out of movies when shown Down South – was born in Brooklyn and rose from the nightclub chorus to the rank of headliner, starting at Harlem's Cotton Club. Once West, her films included 1943's all-black screen musicals Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather (the latter's title song became her anthem), though she was denied the role she long coveted: the mulatto saloon singer Julie in MGM's 1950 Show Boat, which instead went to her friend Ava Gardner.

In the end, Hollywood simply wasn't really ready for a beauty of color. Though she never played a maid, Horne was also denied leading-lady roles. "They believed that audiences weren't ready," she told PEOPLE in 2005, referring to the Hollywood studios. "They didn't know what to do with me. So they did nothing."

By the mid-1950s, Horne – who in 1947 married composer and musical director Lennie Hayton in a secret wedding in Paris, because interracial marriages were illegal in California – left Hollywood, "bitter," she said, "at the whole Hollywood system," and went on to tremendous success as a stage actress and consummate jazz singer.

Hayton and she "went all over the world," Horne said in 1981. "We were the chic, to-be-seen-with couple. But I always had a wall up around me. I wasn't going to let anybody in. Part of it goes back to my childhood. My parents separated when I was 3, and later my mother, an actress, took me from our home in Brooklyn and was always leaving me with different people in the South. I never let myself love anybody because I knew I couldn't stay around."

Not until the middle 1950s did Horne begin to mellow. "When I stopped trying to break the barriers, that's when I looked around and saw white people, a lot of good white people who would hold hands with their colored sisters," she said. "I also saw that there are many people who aren't black who get kicked around too. I saw that and I softened up."

Widowed in 1971, Horne moved to New York City and continued her stage and concert work, and even did the occasional movie role, including that of Diana Ross's fairy godmother in the 1978 The Wiz. Of her early life in Hollywood, "I was a test case," she told PEOPLE. "I could never feel like I was just a person working in movies. For MGM and the NAACP, it was always, 'Look, here is our Negro woman.' "

Besides her legion of devoted fans, Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley.

Lynn Redgrave Dies at Age 67

Lynn Redgrave, a vital and popular member of Britain's Redgrave dynasty, died Sunday night. She was 67 and had waged a lengthy battle with breast cancer.

Speaking on behalf of her children – Ben, Pema and Annabel, who were with her – Redgrave's publicist Rick Miramontez, confirmed to The Associated Press that Redgrave died peacefully at her home in Connecticut.

Launching upon the scene in the early '60s, at the same time her elder (and more flamboyant) sister Vanessa made a splash, Lynn Redgrave earned an Oscar nomination for her turn as a gawky Bridgit Jones prototype in 1966's Georgy Girl. She received another nomination for her supporting role as the stunned housekeeper in 1998's Gods and Monsters.

Redgrave, born in London to thespians Rachel Kemspon and Michael Redgrave, made her stage debut in 1962 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Her movie fame brought her across the Atlantic, and she played on stage and on TV in both Hollywood and New York. She was also the first of many celebrities who served as the spokesperson for the Weight Watchers program.

In 1967, she married actor-director John Clark, and they had three children. The marriage ended in divorce in 2000.

Only last month, on April 6th, Redgrave's elder brother, actor Corin Redgrave, died at 70 at his home in London. No cause of death was reported, but Corin Redgrave had several health setbacks in recent years, including a heart attack in 2005.

Last year, Lynn's niece (and Vanessa's daughter), actress Natasha Richardson, died from head injuries sustained during a ski accident.

"Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer," her family said in a statement Monday. "She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time."

Alexander McQueen's Death Ruled A Suicide

An inquest into the death of Alexander McQueen has found the fashion designer ingested a cocktail of drugs before hanging himself at his London home in February - the tragedy has been officially ruled a suicide.

The star's body was found in a wardrobe at his apartment in the U.K. capital in February, and a post-mortem examination revealed he died as a result of asphyxiation and hanging.

At an inquest into McQueen's death, which was held in London on Wednesday, a coroner's officer told the court the designer had become depressed after his mum Joyce died earlier this year.

Lynda Martindill said, "He had been particularly close to his mother and following her death had become overwhelmed with grief."

The hearing was told McQueen had a history of depression and insomnia, and had tried to kill himself in the past. He had also researched suicide methods on the internet.

Toxicology tests on McQueen's body showed he had taken cocaine, sleeping pills, and tranquillisers prior to his death.

The fashion designer's psychiatrist, Dr Stephen Pereira, told Westminster Coroner's Court that McQueen was also feeling under pressure with his work.

Dr Pereira said, "He certainly felt very pressured by his work, but it was a double-edged sword. He felt it was the only area of his life where he felt he had achieved something. Usually after a show he felt a huge comedown. He felt isolated, it gave him a huge low."

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman recorded a verdict of suicide, ruling that McQueen killed himself "while the balance of his mind was disturbed".