Brilliant political cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is putting his penguin on ice, and will pull the plug on his comic-strip career and “Opus” after Nov. 2.
“Opus,” a 5-year-old Sunday comic with a madcap political bent, stars the pudgy penguin from Breathed’s classic “Bloom County” strip. It will end just before the presidential election.
In an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, the 51-year-old cartoonist said: “30 years of cartooning to end. I’m destroying the village to save it. Opus would inevitably become a ranting mouthpiece in the coming wicked days, and I respect the other parts of him too much to see that happen. The Michael Moore part of me would kill the part of him that was important to his fans.”
On August 31, 2008, “the Creator” (Berkeley Breathed) spoke to Opus and hinted (foreshadowing) that the strip will end soon. The next week, Opus was visited by the ghost of Elvis who told Opus to find a place where he wants to be forever, because he will stay in that one spot after he “dies.” e.g., Elvis is condemned to sit on the toilet forever because that’s where he happened to be when he died.
“Opus” will end with an online contest asking readers to guess the fate of the penguin. At Breathed’s website there is a notice that “The Opus Paradise Contest” begins Oct. 12. The Times has not yet decided on a replacement for “Opus” on Sundays.
Berkeley has won a Pulitzer Prize for “Bloom County,” also writes screenplays, novels and children’s books. In a press release from the Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicates “Opus,” he said, “With the crisis in Wall Street and Washington, I’m suspending my comic strip to assist the nation. The best way I can help is to leave politics permanently and write funny stories for America’s kids. I call on John McCain to join me.”
Oh man this really hurts but it’s probably better this way for me. Nothing ever filled the void of “Bloom County” for me. I got my hopes up when Opus returned but it was not quite the same. R.I.P. Opus and Berkeley I will miss your brilliance!!
House Peters Jr., the original Mr. Clean, passed away yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 92. Peters died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles, 
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A founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd, keyboard player Richard Wright has died at the age of 65.
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With his success on the awesome 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin's been enjoying his reclaimed status as beloved funny dude for the last couple of years now. But raise the subject of his ex-wife Kim Basinger and you'll be treated to hot flashes of psycho "you're a little pig" voicemail dad. In a profile in the upcoming New Yorker, he asks, "Think I'm walking stiffly? Yeah, there's a 120-pound actress on my back." Baldwin's gripe, he says, is that Basinger is constantly trying to drive a wedge between him and their 12-year-old daughter, Ireland. 
Thousands of mourners, gathered at Chicago’s House of Hope church on Saturday for the funeral of comedian Bernie Mac on Saturday. Bernie died on Saturday August 9th at age 50, after losing his battle with pneumonia.
News of the worsening condition of Senator Ted Kennedy—currently suffering from a malignant brain tumor—made 
Pioneering singer, Isaac Hayes, has 
The death of comedian/actor Bernie Mac at such a relatively young age is a real tragedy. There are a few new details that have come out that I want to share. A few of which make me wonder about his rep. and what his motivation for making the statements attributed to him. As we reported previously Bernie was in the hospital with pneumonia, but his rep allegedly said he was in stable condition and said he would be released in a few days. In truth at least according to Bernie’s sister-in-law statements that was not true. She said in fact: “He was critically ill when he was in the hospital. He was in intensive care the whole time.” She adds that doctors kept the star sedated, although he was conscious at times and he contracted a second strain of pneumonia while in the hospital. Also Bernie was actually hospitalized on July 24, eight days before the date given for his admittance. The actor was diagnosed with pneumonia and immediately placed on a ventilator.
With heavy heart, I am sorry to say Bernie Mac has passed away this morning at the young age of 50. As we 
So you spend a good decade or so of your life contributing to the Times, making a name for yourself in the Styles section before leaving for greener pastures in 2000. Then you die, tragically young, of breast cancer. Will you get a Times obit? No. Will you even be mentioned in the paper? Nope! In fact, poor Monique Yazigi, who died last week at 45, got only a posthumous rejection letter. Which is about the most depressing thing we can think of. Sigh. That letter, from obituaries editor Bill McDonald, below.
Even though we knew this day was coming soon it doesn’t make it easy to report. “Golden Girl” Estelle Getty has died this morning at her home in Los Angeles. She was 84. Estelle was surrounded by her family and friends when she went away. She suffered from Lewy Body Dementia for years. Best known for donning a granny wig and oversize glasses to play a character 20 years older than herself, Getty won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her wise-cracking Sicilian mother Sophia Petrillo role on “The Golden Girls.” Did you know that Estelle was actually one year younger then Bea Arthur and Betty White? R.I.P. Estelle!
Just in case you've been hiking the Appalachian trail for the past seven months, there's this movie called The Dark Knight coming out today. It's a Batman movie, he of the cowl and the scowl, and it features his most nefarious foe, the Joker. That slithering baddie is played by Heath Ledger, an actor of beguiling good looks and talent who died—tragically, accidentally, hugely—in January. But his performance in this film lives on, and it's said to be the stuff of legend. Critics have been 
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Legendary screen siren Cyd Charisse 
Yves Saint-Laurent died today in Paris at the age of 71. The iconic French designer who revolutionized fashion by putting women in pants without sacrificing their femininity. Yves had a long love affair with film, including his biggest fan Catherine Deneuve whom he called his “muse”.
Brilliant comedic actor Harvey Korman died today at the age of 81.
Is this woman having an orgasm, or simply on 
Not that we're merchants of gloom, the latest figures for magazine advertising are dismal. Tallies of the number of pages carrying advertising in the first quarter, an early indicator of publishing woes, are down by double-digit percentages at news weeklies such as Time and business magazines such as Business Week. The only surprise is that Keith Kelly, who published the figures in today's Post, didn't tweak Mort Zuckerman, proprietor of a rival tabloid. Zuckerman's pet news magazine, US News & World Report, fell 37.5%. One perky spot: 
