Gawker: defamer, estelle getty

Bea Arthur, Beloved Gay Icon, 1922-2009

Owen Thomas — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:12:29 EDT

Golden Girls star Bea Arthur, née Bernice Frankel, died at home in Los Angeles at the age of 86 today. She passed away surrounded by family members. She will be loudly mourned by the gays.

Her striking frame, raspy voice, and taste for one-liners made her a natural subject for female impersonators. Told of her drag following, Arthur said, "I'm flattered." Her roles as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, the outspoken Maude Finley of All in the Family and Maude, and most famously, the caustic Dorothy Zbornak of Golden Girls, gained her an avid gay audience. No funeral is planned. In wigs and wisecracks, she will live forever.

Of the four Golden Girls, Arthur is survived by Betty White and Rue McClanahan. None of the three attended costar Estelle Getty's funeral last year. White told Entertainment Tonight:

I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much.. I'm so happy that she received her Lifetime Achievement Award while she was still with us, so she could appreciate that. She was such a big part of my life.

Update: The cult of Saint Beatrice has begun. Gays are posting this blasphemous Virgin Dorothy mashup in her holy memory:

(Photo by AP/Wally Fong)

Brooke Shields Will Not Stand For You Slandering The Memory of Sophia Petrillo!

Kyle Buchanan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Though no one cared enough to actually make it to her funeral, Golden Girls actress Estelle Getty was beloved in Hollywood, where actors and agents whiling down coke benders at 4 a.m. grew to love the misadventures of her sassy Sophia Petrillo during countless late-night Lifetime reruns. Still, that didn't stop the sketch comics at Upright Citizens Brigade from trotting out their impressions of the actress — as well as those of the deceased Heath Ledger and Bernie Mac — during a 72-hour marathon at the theater. According to the NY Daily News, celebrity panelist Brooke Shields wasn't laughing:

"She was so freaked out, her eyes welled up, and she actually bit her nails at one point," says the spy. "When someone pretended to dump Estelle Getty's ashes on [30 Rock star] Jack McBrayer's head, Brooke got up and walked offstage."

"She watched the rest of the show from behind a curtain backstage, with a grimace."

Shields' spokesman said she left to talk to the writers before she was about to go on.

Content that her concerns were heard, Shields returned to the panel, only to once again storm off when a simple improv exercise solicited the suggestion of, "You're a frequent narrator! And you're in a 1997 Nissan Maxima!"

Brooke Shields balks at 'dead' gag [NY Daily News]

The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn

Mark Graham — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:15:00 EDT

· If it weren't for Dark Knight news, there wouldn't have been much news at all. After dispatching the Joker, Batman took on his toughest foe to date, the deranged Momzo The Clown (specialty: extortion). Batman denies all of the charges, which is just fine with new Oscar frontrunner Aaron Eckhart.
· NBC announced that Jay Leno will be abdicating his Tonight Show throne on May 29, 2009 while a disguised Jay Leno sat in the audience cracking wise. Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon will be spinning his wheels online for a few months before they let him loose on air.
· Miley "Slut!" Cyrus took to the YouTubes to wage war on her new rival, Selena Gomez.
· If you come within 1,000 yards of Brangelina's test tube babies, Brad Pitt will beat you to a pulp.
· We finally learned what Judd Apatow's favorite season of The Wire was.
· Surfer dude Matthew McConaughey cashed a $3 million check from OK! for baby pictures of young prince Levi.
· Maybe it's just us, but Lyons & Mankiewicz doesn't quite have the same ring as Ebert & Roeper (let alone Siskel & Ebert).
· Cuts at Vantage and Netflix made it another tough week for indie film.
· Fer sure, fer sure, we counted down our favorite Valley Girls.
· Don't bother with MapQuest, NPH can tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street.
· And finally, the passing of Estelle Getty affected everyone, from teary YouTube eulogists to our own Molly McAleer. The saddest part? None of the Golden Girls made it to the funeral. Nevertheless, the memory of Sophia Petrillo will always live on.

And Now Your Friday Downer: No 'Golden Girls' Made It To Estelle Getty's Funeral

Seth — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:50:00 EDT

Uh-oh—don't let that crying kid on YouTube see this, lest we prepare for a tsunami of waterworks that could very well short-out the entire internet: None of the surviving Golden Girls showed up to Estelle Getty's funeral. Not even her own daughter. Inside Edition tracked down two of the three to find out where they were:

Bea Arthur, who played Estelle Getty’s daughter on the show, tells INSIDE EDITION she’s been grieving for years over Getty’s long decline due to dementia, and could not deal with the emotion of a funeral.

Arthur: “She’s been out of it so many years, not recognizing anyone. It’s a Godsend. She’s at peace.”

Rue McClanahan, Getty’s former Golden Girls co-star who is living in New York, tells INSIDE EDITION that she couldn’t attend the funeral because she recently had surgery.

McClanahan: “I’d like them to know that I didn’t {attend the funeral} because I can’t fly right now with knee surgery. I don’t know why Betty and Bea didn’t go, maybe because they, too, have said their goodbyes to her when she was alive.”

For those keeping track, that leaves the whereabouts of dotty Rose Nylund—aka Bette White—unaccounted for, but once she's gotten a hold of, we're certain she'll have a delightful story about an ancient Viking funeral custom carried over into modern St. Olaf culture that requires you to skip your fellow warrior's services in favor of a cat-neutering rally in the Valley.

Inside Edition

Still Feeling Sad About Estelle Getty? We Are, Too

Mark Graham — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:55:00 EDT

We're not ashamed to admit that we're still coming to grips with the recent passing of Estelle Getty. Although that YouTube guy certainly helped our progression along the Kübler-Ross scale, we haven't yet reached the fifth and final stage of model. If you're feeling like you're in the same boat, don't fret. While we aren't about to promise that tonight's To Do video will pick you up and then drop you off at the Acceptance stage, we're hopeful that Molls' candid chat (especially if accompanied by an In-N-Out burger) will at least let you know that others out there are feeling the same way.

· Tokyo Police Club at the Hammer Museum.
· 20 Comics a Night at The Comedy and Magic Club.
· Frank Stallone at the Malibu Inn.

Estelle Getty's Death Reduces YouTube Eulogist To Puddle Of Tears

Seth — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EDT

We'll admit to not having yet fully absorbed yesterday's news that Estelle Getty had shuffled off this mortal coil to the 1912-Sicily-in-the-sky. Stalled as we are in the early, "Why couldn't it have been someone from Empty Nest?!"-stages of the Kübler-Ross model, we hand you over now to YouTube video diarist fromthe60s. His lachrymal remembrance of "one of the funniest people I ever got to see on TV" is surely the most moving—if not the moistest—user-generated-video testimonial since Leave Britney Alone Guy beseeched us to leave Britney alone. We swear, without the courageousness of Young Gays Who Feel Too Much, there'd be literally nothing to do all day at the office besides work.

Rest In Peace Estelle Getty [YouTube via The WOW Report]

Estelle Getty, Thank You For Being A Friend

Tracie — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Estelle Getty, the actress who won our hearts playing Sophia Petrillo — Bea Arthur's salty Sicilian mother — on The Golden Girls died this morning at the age of 84. She'd been suffering for years from severe dementia. We're huge fans of GG (that shit stands the test of time), and we were so sad to hear about Estelle passing, so we put together this clip show of some of Sophia's best moments. We hope that where ever she is, she's found peace, and that the hereafter is nothing at all like Shady Pines.

And in case you didn't know, Estelle had a workout video for senior citizens.

It's Hard To Picture It Without Estelle Getty

Seth — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Estelle Getty, best known for playing The Golden Girls's stroke-disinhibited Shady Pines-escapee Sophia Petrillo, has passed away at 5:30 a.m. after a long bout with Lewy body dementia. She was 84. Her son told reporters earlier today, "She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents. She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived." That sounds about right. We leave you now with this Sophia anecdote, and encourage you to leave your own in the comments:

Sophia : In Sicily, we never went to the doctor. We went to the Widow Scarpelli. Whatever you had, she had a cure for it.

Sophia : She was most famous for her green salve to cure earaches. One day, she gave some to Salvadore, the village idiot. He misunderstood the directions and put in on his pasta instead...The stuff tasted great, so Salvadore decided to market it. At first, things didn't go so well. Ear Salve on Pasta wasn't very appetizing-but once he changed the name to pesto sauce, it sold like hot cakes! Dorothy: Ma, you're making this up! Sophia : So what? I'm old, I'm supposed to be colorful.

[AP]