The male dancers for the new season are Lance Bass, Rocco DiSpirito, Maurice Greene, Cody Linley, Ted McGinley, Jeffrey Ross and Warren Sapp. The female dancers for the new season are Toni Braxton, Brooke Burke,  Kim Kardashian,  Cloris Leachman, Susan Lucci and Misti May-Treanor. Dancers that I think will do well are Lance Bass and Susan Lucci. By the way. Was anyone else not surprised that Lance Bass was announced as one of the dancers in the upcoming new season of Dancing With The Stars? I had a feeling that was going to happen when Joey Fatone was on the show.

Actress Estelle Getty passed away this morning at the age of 84. If you’re my age you probably remember the comedy series Golden Girls that was on in the second half of the 1980s. Estelle Getty portrayed Sophia, the mother of Bea Arthur’s character, on the successful series for more than seven years and won an Emmy for her role. I always thought she was adorable and that they gave her the funniest lines. Goodbye Estelle, you’ll be missed.

Comedian George Carlin passed away yesterday in Los Angeles from heart failure at the age of 71. George was well known for speaking his mind. Many comedians considered him to be revolutionary, blazing a trail for other comics after him. He had 23 comedy albums and wrote three books, and also appeared in several movies. It was just recently announced that the comedian was to be awarded the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will now be given posthumously. George Carlin is one of the first comedians I remember hearing. I loved his old material, such as A Place For My Stuff.  Goodbye George. We’ll miss you.

Emma Watson, the teenage actress known worldwide for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, has apparently signed a deal with Chanel.  It’s being reported that she’ll get about $6 million dollars for a two year gig as the face of the Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. Wow! Hermione’s accumulating quite the pile of cash there, with the movies and now this. I hope she has someone trustworthy managing it, because if she does she’ll never want for anything.

We frequently hear of news on celebrities on the radio, and we see that news on the internet, in newspapers and on television. I found myself thinking this morning about people on other career paths that have to interact with these celebrities in order to make a living. Let’s take a Hollywood real estate agent for example. I can’t imagine what they must go through. They have to deal with a star if they’re working with them on the purchase or sale of a house, which probably isn’t always easy. And what about someone with their head on straight looking to buy a house, not necessarily even a celeb. Their real estate agent had better do a good job of preparing them for a future of press and flashbulbs, and newsvans parked out in front. The more I thought about it the more I knew that that could never be the career for me.

It’s come out that the masseuse that found Heath Ledger’s unresponsive body called MaryKate Olsen not once, but twice, before calling 911 from Ledger’s cell phone for help. My mind is totally boggled trying to figure out what the reasoning for this could be. It really doesn’t matter what their relationship had been in the past or was at the time, it just doesn’t make sense. It was reported in the news today stated that a period of twenty six minutes lapsed between the first call to MaryKate and the 911 call. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened had 911 been called earlier. More will be known if the tissue and toxicology can come up with a tight time frame for the actual death.

Lately I have been seeing celebrities doing advertisements on television pushing different products. The ones I’m seeing frequently have a common message - they all seem to be different forms of insurance or health products targeted at seniors. All of these companies seem to be offering a low life insurance rate or health supplies. Now I’m wondering why well known celebrities have taken to selling stuff like this. Do they all need the money that badly?

Recently 25 year old actor Brad Renfro was found dead. I was watching an E! news show where they were announcing the young actor’s untimely death. I heard them give their announcement and I was quite surprised to look up at the television screen to see Brad’s last name spelled incorrectly. They showed his name as Redfro. The letter d is not near the letter n on the keyboard. Don’t these shows use some sort of quality control before they air? For all of the niceties they showed, they could have had the decency to get his name right. An autopsy was performed. The toxicology results will reportedly take up to six weeks, so no official cause of death has been made yet.

The autopsy of actor Heath Ledger was performed today. Today’s findings were inconclusive, and the coroner is calling for more tests including toxicology and tissue tests. Those results are expected to take approximately another two weeks. The most popular theory is accidental overdose, as bottles of anti-anxiety and sleeping pills were found nearby. A rolled up $20 bill was also found at the scene and will be routinely tested. It has been made very clear that no illegal drugs were found. Heath said in an interview with The New York Times given in November 2007 that he was stressed and having difficulty sleeping while filming the Batman movie Dark Knight. In that interview he mentioned he’d taken two Ambien pills to help him sleep but he had only slept for an hour.

Last week I heard that Lindsay Lohan had been sentenced to work in a morgue as part of her punishment for drunk driving. Now that got me to thinking. This was not her first dui. The July 2007 incident was her second dui in less than three months, and along with this one she tacked on some extras - driving on a suspended license and cocaine possession. Besides rehab and community service, her punishment for this dui included working in a morgue for four hours and working in an emergency room for four hours. Ooooooh. That’ll teach her. Somehow, I think it’ll be hard for her to change her ways and use her brain, since this wasn’t the first time. I don’t see the “scared straight” routine working for her. I see a third dui in her future in 2008, and maybe some drug rehab. It’s such a shame that some of these young celebs don’t use their brains and realize the impressions they give youth.