Special Quote of the Day- Oscar Wilde

I suppose since today is International Woman's Day, it may have been more appropriate to quip rock singer Sinead O'Connor, but instead we are sticking with our original plan which was to quote the late, great author/playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) for our feature quote series on famous people from Ireland.

We found this Wilde quote from a program for the Triad Stage (Greensboro, NC, stage company) production of Cormac McCarthy's play "The Sunset Limited" which concluded on Sunday. But, their upstairs cabaret production of "Billy Bishop Goes to War" about a Canadian World War II flying ace continues until March 19.

Here it is:

"Nowadays, people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

SIDEBAR: Are you curious about where your food comes from? Well, Current-TV, the station co-founded by Al Gore, is airing the eighth episode of a series we just found about called "Kill It, Cook It, Eat." Tonight's new episode, which airs at 10 p.m. (reruns of the series come before and after the new episode) focuses on rabbits. I am sure your inner Elmer Fudd will be fascinated by how ferrets are used to hunt and kill these wascally wabbits or perhaps maybe not.

SIDEBAR TWO: Your morbid side may also be intrigued to see which celebrity you have recently outlived, and you can find out at (deadoraliveinfo.com), in my case, I have literally just passed Falco by 17 days. The Austrian pop star known for "Rock Me Amadeus" died in a car accident just a few days before he would have turned 41, which is my age now. You can also find out that the likes of Phyllis Diller (age 93) and Jim Nabors (age 80) are still alive, but country singer Porter Wagoner died at age 8o in 2007.

Dead or Alive? (11 of 12)- Topol

Since we don't think Grace Jones was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in "Conan the Barbarian," we presume that Topol (pictured here) who was nominated for Best Actor for his lead performance in "Fiddler on the Roof"
(1971) is the most obscure person ever nominated for an Oscar.

Topol, an Israeli actor, was born on Sept. 9, 1935, in Tel Aviv.

He is the father of Anat Topol, an actress who played the role of Chava alongside her dad in a 1995 stage rendition of "Roof."

Topol wasan actually an active member of the Israeli Army when he was nominated, but he was granted a leave of absence to be at the Oscars. He toured the USA in a revival of "Roof" in the 1980s. And, Topol has the distinction of being nominated for a Tony for the exact same role which earned him an Oscar nomination 20 years apart (got Tony nomination in 1991).

The first Israeli actor ever nominated for an Oscar also played Dr. Hans Zarkov in the science-fiction cult clasic "Flash Gordon" (1980) and he appeared in the James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only" (1981).

Before the film version of "Roof," he was in the Kirk Douglas film "Cast a Long Shadow" (1966) and the David Niven film "Before Winter Comes" (1969).

Now, it is up to guess if he is indeed dead or alive....'course, you can find out ahead of time by going to the Internet Movie Database.......?!

The subject of our last entry Jerry Lee Lewis is alive, or at least he was at last report.

Dead or Alive? _ Entry 10 of 12 (Jerry Lee Lewis)

Since the New Orleans Saints are now Super Bowl champions, we figured we'd focus an entry on a native son of Louisiana, and one person who I honestly wasn't sure_ if there were dead or alive.

Alas, the subject of our last entry Soupy Sales died last year.

While, we can't reveal the fate of singer Jerry Lee Lewis, best known for his smash hit "Great Balls of Fire!," we can give you the following information on him:

_He was born on Sept. 29, 1935, in Ferriday, La.

_Cousing of both the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who doesn't seem to like gay people, and singer Mickey Gilley.

_Lewis was brought up in very religious home

_ Got married for the first time at age 17. It lasted seven months. He has been married a total of six times?!

_The late singer Janis Joplin took him to her tenth year high school reunion

_Played by actors Dennis Quaid ("Great Balls of Fire!" and Waylon Payne ("Walk the Line") on film.

Dead or Alive (Entry 9 of 12)_ Soupy Sales

Since we are quite behind in my plans for this blog (well, we aren't exactly The Huffington Post quite yet), I thought I would do some catching up and focus on the Dead or Alive series, which in all honesty is less enjoyable than I thought it would be.

Nevertheless, we continue on with our latest subject '60s children's tv show host Soupy Sales.

Our last subject Pat Boone is indeed alive and well, and we gather that he is still a far right wing nut.

Here is some info on Mr. Sales:

-Has been hit with over 25,000 in his show business career- perhaps, he should have been a substitute high school teacher!

-Howard Stern is an admirer of his, and Sales has appeared on Stern's ever controversial radio show.

-Sales met his wife dancer Trudy Carson while performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

-Sales was voted the most popular guy in his high school class

-Had a surprise novelty hit song "Do the Mouse"

-Guest-starred on the original version of "The Love Boat" (who didn't?!)

-First actor to voice the Donkey Kong video game character

Dead or Alive #3 - Herve Villechaize

Today, we continue our morbid and controversial series by asking viewers if Herve Villechaize, the co-star of the ABC hit series "Fantasy Island" (1978-84, remade in 1998) is dead or alive.

Villechaize was born in Paris in 1943 to Filipino parents. He made it big with "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974) and he joined "Fantasy Island" in 1978.

He got fired in 1983 for asking producers to pay him as much as his co-star Ricardo Montalban. The show was cancelled a year later.

He was famous for the line: "The plane! The plane!"

Answer to last entry: Dr. Ruth Westheimer is indeed alive and well. Her web site is drruth.com

They seem to have lots of ads for sex toys for some reason.