Gone, gone, gone

Rather belatedly.

Ian Richardson. Actor of quality. Dead too soon. But am I the only person who never got off on "House of Cards"? Brilliant, yes but it was all a little too like reality for my taste at the time; I always needed the escape from that stuff, the quality of the production made me want to go nowhere NEAR the show; I don't gape at train wrecks, I don't like horror films and I don't want to look at monsters. But what a CV for the rest of his stuff... loved Gormenghast, Porterhouse Blue, Dark City, ironically voicing DEATH in Hogfather and as someone said on AICN today, if the BBC had ever brought The Master back to Doctor Who, I think he'd have been a natural for the role. But for me his standout role was as the traitor Hayden opposing my all time fav' character, Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy... aesthetic, sexually ambigous, ruthless, genius, arrogant in his intellect and above all a likeable upper class rogue. One of the rare multipart drama's I'll watch repeatedly for the performances alone. Damn shame he's gone.

Anna Nicole Smith. "Actress" of somewhat less quality. Might suprise a few folks that I actually felt sorry for her. If nothing else, she highlighted the truth about the American media machine... take what we want, your youth, beauty, plastic breasts... now we'll show you up as a screwhead and eat you alive. Lets face it, her recent history wasn't good. Probability of post-natal depression; plus three separate tossers claiming paternity of the child; plus continued legal hassle over the somewhat unusual marriage; plus the fact that her twenty year old son dropped dead visiting his infant sister a month or so back; plus a Monroe obsession.... Don't have to be Perry Mason to figure she chucked it in. Thing is, that was a real woman, not a cartoon. By all accounts, she wasn't any brighter than you or me... quite a lot dumber in fact, and that's a lot of crap to be in. If there's such a thing as afterlife, I hope she's getting some peace.