<![CDATA[Jezebel: r.i.p.]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png <![CDATA[Jezebel: r.i.p.]]> http://jezebel.com/tag/rip http://jezebel.com/tag/rip <![CDATA["A Woman Who Had Everything Lost Her Life For A Firmer Behind"]]> Solange Magnano, a former Miss Argentina, died on Sunday from complications caused by plastic surgery. She went in for a gluteoplasty, but the procedure somehow went wrong, and wound up killing the 37-year-old beauty queen. [CNN, MSNBC]

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<![CDATA[Police Say Daul Kim Left A Suicide Note]]> The blog penned by model Daul Kim, who died last Thursday, apparently by her own hand, has been made invitation-only — probably because the news media have been trawling it for evidence of the 20-year-old's mental state.

Details of Kim's death are still emerging. This morning, Paris Match wrote that sources inside the police investigation say the model left a suicide note. Fellow gossip title Le Parisien stated that "multiple sources" are saying that Kim's father, a Samsung executive, does not believe his daughter killed herself. Kim's mother flew to Paris on Friday, and her father arrived in the city today. An autopsy is to be performed tomorrow — standard police procedure for violent deaths — and the pathologist's findings may be known as soon as the end of this week.

Friends of the young model are also speaking to the press. Several people told the Telegraph that Kim, in the words of reporter Kim Willshire, "had become fed up with modeling and its demands, considering her life was too frenetic and incompatible with forming the sort of long-term relationship she hankered for." Another anonymous friend said Kim would sometimes dodge her agency's calls in order to carve out some time for herself. One of Kim's former agents said, "She was an excellent model, but she used to say she had hard times off the job."

But the richest source of information on Daul Kim remains her blog. The temptation of recent posts that referenced feeling "mad depressed and overworked," a poem that reads in part, "i just know / the more i gain / the more lonely it is," and, most of all, the fact that her last post was titled "say hi to forever," has apparently been too much for major news sources to resist. These mostly quote selectively, ignoring the fact that Kim said she felt depressed and overworked in Seoul and was happy to be leaving for Paris, that Kim titled virtually all of her posts with "say hi to..." and that the post in question was just a YouTube clip of one of her favorite house DJ's tracks, and that in her poem, the lines about feeling lonely were followed directly by lines about falling in love. "but when people grow together," wrote Kim, "its something that is not easy but is nice / and that is something."

It's probably a good thing Kim died in Paris, not in New York, or else we'd have to contend with Geraldo Rivera's opinions of her verse, and television cameras filming the removal of her body, as we were treated to last year, when 20-year-old Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova jumped to her death in the financial district.

It's understandable that reporters would look to a blog for insight into its author's mind when the author is no longer available for questioning, but it should be done in such a way that the excerpts accurately reflect the whole. Kim often wrote about being busy, yes, and sometimes seemed lonely — but she also wrote about loving Milan Kundera, Klaus Kinski, and Boy George, joked about how she would make a good wife one day, and posted pictures of her paintings. (She had a solo show in Seoul in 2007.) In one of her earliest posts to I Like To Fork Myself, she wrote mock-seriously about ending her life, and then immediately followed up: "KIDDING. I'm fine. Just tired." The overwhelming impression given in her blog wasn't that of a depressive lost soul crying out for help in post after tragically ignored post: it was of a smart young woman with an interesting life, managing bewildering array of responsibilities with a wickedly dark sense of humor. And some issues with insomnia. Not everything in her life should now be re-evaluated in light of her death. To try and turn it all into a series of "signs" diminishes the person that she was.

While it's natural that her next of kin would want to put a stop to quoting out of context, Kim's words have already been featured in articles published from here to Australia. The "I know I'm like a ghost" quote, the "mad depressed and overworked" quote, they're out there. They will be repeated from article to article, from broadsheet to broadsheet to tabloid to tabloid, until all context is erased. Ending access to Kim's blog, while it may tamp down interest in the short term, in essence only serves to deny interested parties a chance to glimpse the wider context of Kim's life. Or at least to see her life as she wished it to be understood. While of course, in the case of a 20-year-old's death, there are no parties more "interested" than her actual family, blogging was evidently important to Kim — she found time to write sometimes several times daily, even as she traveled to three or four countries in a week — and in my opinion, it would be a shame if the record of her life Kim chose to publish were to go permanently dark after her death.

I Like To Fork Myself [Official Site]
Daul Kim: Model 'Had Become Fed Up With Work' [Telegraph]
Daul Kim, La Jolie Fleur S'est Fanée [Paris Match]
Daul Kim S'est-Elle Vraiment Suicidée? [20Minutes.fr]
Enquête Relancée Après Le Suicide Du Mannequin Daul Kim [Le Parisien]
I Know I'm Like A Ghost: A Cry For Help Before Dying [Sydney Morning Herald]

Earlier: 5 Fashion Model Blogs That Are Actually Interesting

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<![CDATA[Model Daul Kim Found Dead In Paris, Aged 20]]> Daul Kim — who penned an acclaimed and insightful blog between assignments for clients like Vogue, Chanel, and Rodarte — died this morning in Paris, her agency has confirmed. A source told New York that Kim committed suicide. [The Cut]

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<![CDATA[NOW Founder Alice S. Rossi Dies At 87]]> Alice S. Rossi, feminist scholar, noted sociologist, and founding member of the National Organization for Women, passed away on Tuesday in Northampton, Mass. Rossi was the author of several influential articles, including "Equality Between the Sexes: An Immodest Proposal." [NYT]

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<![CDATA[Saying Goodbye To "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin]]> On October 24, 10-year-old Shiloh Pepin died after spending a week in the hospital with pneumonia. Shiloh was born with sirenomelia, aka "mermaid syndrome," and was the subject of two documentaries.

Mermaid Girl showcased how Shiloh handled her condition, both mentally and physically, while Mermaid Girl: A New Chapter celebrated her 10th birthday, which extraordinary considering that doctors didn't expect her to live beyond infancy. Shiloh also made an amusing appearance on an episode of Oprah earlier this year. In the clip above, Shiloh talks about sirenomelia and her inspiring outlook on life.

Earlier: "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Appears On Oprah

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<![CDATA["Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Dies At Age 10]]> Sad news: 10-year-old Shiloh Pepin, who appeared on Oprah last month, to discuss her struggles with sirenomelia, perhaps better known as "mermaid syndrome," passed away yesterday afternoon after spending a week in critical condition at the Maine Medical Center. [SanFranciscoChronicle]

Earlier: "Mermaid Girl" Shiloh Pepin Appears On Oprah

[Image via Oprah.com]

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<![CDATA[R.I.P. Norma Fox Mazer]]> Sad news: Norma Fox Mazer, the author of several critically acclaimed books for children and young adults, including When She Was Good, Silver, and Newbery Honor Book After The Rain, has died at the age of 78. [PublishersWeekly]

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<![CDATA[Pioneering Hardhat Killed In Fire]]> Bianca Wisniewski, 44, was killed in a fire in her Queens home on Saturday. Wisniewski was a feminist female hardhat in the midst of a $20 million lawsuit against her construction company for sexual harassment. [DailyNews]

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<![CDATA[DJ Am's Addiction Series To Premiere Next Week]]> Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein had been working on a documentary series about addiction in the months leading up to his death from an overdose. Gone Too Far—which follows AM's mission to help other addicts—premieres on MTV October 12.

Before his apparent relapse, AM had been sober for 11 years, and his family has given consent to MTV to air the show, hoping that it will help others not meet the same fate as AM. In a statement, his family has said:

After careful consideration we have decided to air the show. Adam felt strongly that by doing this series he could help other addicts who were at a crisis point to get sober. Adam was fully aware that if it were not for his own sobriety he never would have achieved the level of success and happiness he had found. Helping people in their recovery was a huge part of Adam's life. It is our hope through airing this show that people will get to see the side of Adam that we knew and loved, not just the celebrity DJ, but the honest and caring person who gave so much of himself to help others.

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<![CDATA[Stuntwoman Dies At 92]]> Stuntwoman Jewell Jordan Mason, who worked unnamed alongside film legends such as Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, and Marlene Dietrich, and was the stuntdouble for Oscar-winner Luise Rainor in The Good Earth, has died at the age of 92. [HollywoodReporter]

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<![CDATA[William Safire Dead At 79]]> The New York Times is reporting that Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire, who served as a speechwriter to former President Richard Nixon and was a frequent contributor to the Times, has died at the age of 79. [NYTimes]

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<![CDATA[Author Of Whore Found Dead]]> Quebec writer Nelly Arcan was found dead late last night. Arcan, author of Putain, an autobiographical novel about her life as a prostitute, was one of Canada's most important feminist writers. Police are investigating her death as a suicide. [CBC]

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<![CDATA[Patrick Swayze: Remembered Fondly By Feminists, Dirty Dancing Fans]]> The feminist themes—abortion, autonomy, daughterhood—of Dirty Dancing were lost on me when I first saw the movie when I was in the third grade. I just liked the grinding and Johnny Castle.

How many people have watched Dirty Dancing since Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday? The film has a certain fan base made up of women in their 20s and 30s who were enthralled, at a young age, with its salaciousness, and grew up to appreciate the subversive nature of its storyline of a back alley abortion, thus making Dirty Dancing a pop-cultural touchstone for a new generation of feminists who like to like dancing, but also care about injustice and choice.

In the clip below, from the 20th anniversary edition of the Dirty Dancing DVD, Patrick Swayze discusses how the movie inspired his life, and made him appreciate his wife even more. You've got to love that love story.


Related: Dirty Dancing, Feminist Masterpiece [The Guardian]

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<![CDATA[Remembering Patrick Swayze, The "Cowboy With The Tender Heart"]]> In the Times' Patrick Swayze obituary, Anita Gates writes that though he was diagnosed with cancer in January 2008, six months later he'd already outlived his prognosis and was filmed at an airport, smiling and calling himself "a miracle dude."

This combination of hard and soft — vulnerable and tough — seems to sum up Patrick Swayze as a person, and as an actor. His dad was a rodeo cowboy; his mom was a dance instructor, and his roles — from Roadhouse to The Outsiders to Dirty Dancing to Ghost and Point Break — always seemed to highlight the two sides of his spirit; the rough-around-the-edges dude with a heart of gold. (Jennifer Grey called him a "real cowboy with a tender heart.")

When it came to living with cancer, Swayze told Barbara Walters during a televised interview that he wasn't interested in pursuing experimental treatments. He thought if he were to "spend so much time chasing staying alive," he wouldn't be able to enjoy the time he had left. "I want to live," he said.

In 1985, Swayze starred in the TV miniseries North And South, playing a conflicted Southern soldier. According to the New York Times, he talked to the Associated Press about his character, saying: "People don't identify with victims. They identify with people who have the world come down on their heads and who fight to survive."

More memories of Patrick Swayze below.

Patrick Swayze, Star of ‘Dirty Dancing,' Dies at 57 [NY Times]
Jennifer Grey: I Remember Being in Patrick Swayze's Arms [People]


Ghost (Unchained Melody)

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<![CDATA[Patrick Swayze Dies At Age 57]]> Actor/dancer/singer/devoted husband Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing, Ghost) died today of pancreatic cancer. He was 57 years old. The Times, which, like many news organizations, prepared an obit in advance, weighs in here. Remembrances, below; more here, tomorrow. [CNN, NY Times]

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<![CDATA[Poet Jim Carroll Dies At 60]]> Punk rock poet Jim Carroll, who is perhaps best known for his memoir, "The Basketball Diaries," has died of a heart attack. As Patti Smith told the New York Times, Carroll's "work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty." [NYTimes]

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<![CDATA[Beams Of Heaven]]> Gospel legend Marie Knight passed away Sunday at the age of 84. Knight first came to fame in the 1940s, while touring with Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The interview (left) is from the release of Knight's last album in 2007. [WWLTV]

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<![CDATA["Bag Of Crack" Found In DJ AM's Pants]]> RadarOnline is now reporting that a "bag of crack" was found in the sweatpants DJ AM was wearing when he died, according to "an NYPD source." DJ AM, a recovering addict, had been clean for 11 years. [RadarOnline]

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<![CDATA[President Obama: Kennedy Was "A Champion To Those Who Had None"]]> President Obama delivered a moving and heartfelt eulogy at Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral earlier this morning, calling Kennedy "the greatest legislator of our time" and "the soul of the Democratic Party." Clip after the jump.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Family, Leaders Pay Final Tribute To Kennedy [MSNBC]

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<![CDATA[Celebrities And Kim Zolciak Mourn DJ AM On Twitter]]> Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, 36, was found dead in his NYC apartment today. Celebrities like John Mayer, Lindsay Lohan, and Kelly Osbourne turned to Twitter to express their grief. Kim Zolciak took the opportunity to plug her topless photos.






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