#RIP Dick Button. He completed the first triple jump in competition, then was an outstanding, forthright figure skating analyst for ABC. “Dick made the words ‘lutz’ and ‘salchow’ part of everyday vocabulary,” said fellow Olympic champ Brian Boitano. bit.ly/4aBjAeV @debwilker.bsky.social

#RIP Anita Bryant. The singer/orange juice pitchwoman railed against gay rights in the '70s & got canceled. “I got involved only because [gays] were asking for special privileges that violated the state law of Florida, not to mention God’s law,” she said. www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-n...

#RIP Linda Lavin. She marched in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and often delivered speeches in her ‘Alice’ waitress uniform “so she would speak for me,” she said. Women thanked her for showing them “that if Alice can do it, I can do it.” www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/l...

Here's your annual film history lesson courtesy of the Library of Congress: www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

#RIP The Amazing Kreskin. He was not a fortune teller, oh no; he was an entertainer, a mentalist and a Carson show regular who called himself “a scientist, a researcher in the field of suggestion and ‘extrasensory’ perceptions. I perform what I discover.” www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/a...

#RIP Thom Christopher. In true soap opera fashion, he played not one but two characters on ‘One Life to Live.’ Also appeared on Broadway and was the half-man, half-bird Hawk opposite Gil Gerard and the great Felix Silla on ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.’ www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/t...

A Kickstarter campaign at www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar... has been launched for a documentary about Kent Melton, the great ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Lion King’ and ‘Coraline’ character sculptor who died in February. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

The 1980s-1990s Big East basketball conference used to have: Lou Carnesecca John Thompson Jim Boeheim Rick Pitino Rollie Massimino Jim Calhoun P.J. Carlesimo Rick Barnes It was the best college basketball conference of them all. #RIP Lou Carnesecca at age 99.

#RIP Marshall Brickman. Woody Allen’s co-writer on ‘Annie Hall’ played the banjo — that got him a big ‘Deliverance’ check — and invented the “Carnac Saver” for ‘The Tonight Show.’ (One example: “May your Perrier water be secretly bottled in Tijuana.”) www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

#RIP Helen Gallagher. Before ‘Ryan’s Hope,’ she danced on Broadway. “I was not an Agnes de Mille dancer,” she said. “But with Jerry Robbins, I was able to catch what he wanted, which was the hyper, jitterbugging energy of what was going on in the streets.” www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/h...

#RIP Earl Holliman. He beat out Elvis to play Katharine Hepburn’s girl-crazy kid brother in 'The Rainmaker' and was great with Angie Dickinson in ‘Police Woman.’ Quite a story here about how he was adopted in the Louisiana backwoods when he was a week old. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/e...

#RIP the great Jim Abrahams. The biggest struggle [on ‘Airplane!’] was to cast straight actors as opposed to comedians,” he said. “At first, Paramount was resistant to that idea. They didn’t quite understand why we wanted to do something like that.” www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

#RIP Chuck Woolery. The onetime frontman for The Avant-Garde (“Naturally Stoned”) and husband of Jo Ann Pflug lost his job as ‘Wheel of Fortune’ host in a bitter salary dispute with Merv Griffin (he never forgave him) but rebounded with ‘Love Connection.’ www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/c...