Pin-up girl Bettie Page dies at 85
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Bettie Page, who gained fame as a '50s pin-up girl, has died in Los Angeles, nine days after suffering a heart attack, her agent said. Page was 85.
Mark Roesler, Page's long-time friend and business agent, said Page died after having been on life support since the Dec. 2 heart attack, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.
Page was one of six siblings in a Nashville family and was placed in an orphanage when she was 10, she had said on her Web site. But she graduated near the top of her class in high school and studied to be a teacher at Peabody College of Education in Nashville.
In 1950, she met a police officer and amateur photographer named Jerry Tibbs in San Francisco, who took photos of her and assembled her first pin-up portfolio. She appeared in Playboy magazine, and by the mid-1950s her image appeared on everything from playing cards to bedroom posters.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner once said Page's appeal in popular culture was "a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern," the newspaper reported.
Page suffered from depression and mood swings late in life and spent several years in a state mental institution, the Times said. She abruptly stopped modeling in 1957 and disappeared from the public eye, which contributed to her cult following in later years as a younger generation of fans speculated what had become of her, KNBC-TV reported.
Page's story was adapted for film in 2005 with Gretchen Mol starring in "The Notorious Bettie Page."
Lythgoe didn't think Goodspeed dangerous
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Former "American Idol" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says he wouldn't have let Paula Goodspeed audition if he thought she was a danger to herself or others.
Goodspeed was found dead of a suspected suicide outside "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul's Los Angeles house last month.
Abdul has since described Goodspeed as a stalker. Abdul has also claimed she was nervous and told "Idol" producers three years ago when Goodspeed arrived to audition that she had had trouble with Goodspeed in the past.
But Lythgoe told "Access Hollywood" in an interview to air Friday that he and the show's other producers weren't worried about Goodspeed auditioning.
"The producers had seen her, we'd seen her, she was an absolute fan of Paula's, so she's going to go in there to say, 'I am your biggest fan,'" Lythgoe said. "Now that gives Simon Cowell great material, which if you saw it was all things like: 'Do you sing as well as Paula?' and 'Do you copy Paula?' If we had known that she was in any way, shape or form, a danger to herself or Paula, there is no way we would have allowed that."
Lythgoe also said he doesn't think it's fair for anyone to connect Goodspeed's apparent suicide with her failed bid to compete on the show three years ago.
"To sort of tie that to an audition on 'American Idol' I find ... upsetting, and for it to continually to be raked over, I find upsetting for her family," he told "Access Hollywood."
PlayStation users can enter virtual world
NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Sony launched its PlayStation Home Beta service Thursday for the PlayStation 3 in the United States.
The service allows PlayStation users to create avatars and interact with others in a virtual world. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are providing exclusive content for the service, including interviews and video spinoffs of films.
PlayStation 3 users can get the Home service as a free download. However, those wanting to start a "club" or online community will have to pay an additional fee and some content will also require payment.
'Star Wars' stage show in the works
LONDON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The stage show "Star Wars: A Musical Journey," featuring live music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, is to premiere at London's O2 in April.
The BBC said the orchestra will perform new versions of compositions heard in the six "Star Wars" movies, while live narrators tell the tales and excerpts from the blockbusters play on a big screen.
Created by filmmaker Gorge Lucas' production company Lucasfilm and composer John Williams, the show is to be taken on a European tour after its engagement in London, the BBC said.
David Campbell, chief executive of AEG Europe, which runs the O2, said: "'Star Wars' holds memories for practically everyone. John Williams is THE composer of our times, and fans will be thrilled to know that both he and Lucasfilm have contributed fully to this new production. To have the premiere at the O2 is a real coup for us, and I know there will be a lot of very happy 'Star Wars' fans out there when they hear the news."
