The sad news that actor Micheal Douglas has been diagnosed with Stage Four throat cancer comes at a time in his life when he has more than enough stress to cope with. By his own admission it has been ‘a very long year’ and revealed what we all know – that cancer feeds on stress and anxiety.
The actor has spent the past year dealing with his son Cameron’s drug problems and court appearances and the latest news has it that his ex-wife, Diandra, is suing him for half his earnings from his latest film where he reprises his iconic 80’s role as Gordon Gekko. Correct me if I am wrong, but when you have been divorced from a man for more than a decade you should have moved on, especially when you already received a sizeable chunk of his fortune. One would think the woman would be well set up financially for the rest of her life but we all know these Hollywood wives – they hang onto their married names (Priscilla Presley is a good example…) because they open doors long after their marriage has bitten the dust and they have bled their ex-spouse for every penny they could get. If this woman pursues the poor man throughout his illness – and she probably will – I hope every door she ever encounters again slams right back in her face.
Micheal Douglas, looking more like his dad Kirk with every passing year, has been happily married for ten years to Welsh beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones and is the dad of two young children – let’s hope he can defy the odds, which honestly are not that great, and live to see his kids grow up.
Copyright © 2007-2010 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.
The famous ebullient smile that Australians know so well was not there on the face of the man we have known and loved for almost 60 years, and it was sadly absent from that of his wife as well. Bert and Patti Newton have been part of our living room furniture for almost as long as television has been around in Australia and over the past five decades we have been entertained by them on tv, stage, radio and screen. We remember when they married, when their first child Matthew arrived – the image of his ‘moonface’ dad – and then followed by daughter Lauren. We watched as Matthew grew into a bubbly child who clearly was blessed with the same jolly on-camera charisma as dad Bert, and musically gifted like his mum Patti. They were our own tv royalty and we admired how they had protected their family life from the glare of the cameras, they seemed like the normal, typical Australian family.
Well, in many ways they are because Bert and Patti Newton are enduring the same nightmare faced by untold numbers of parents around the country – and the world – they have a child who has descended into the maelstrom that is mental illness and they simply do not know what to do next. Matthew Newton has been on a downward spiral of assaults, rages and court appearances over the past few years, he has been in rehab and checked out before being sufficiently recovered and it has got to the stage now where his behaviour and mental state has dangerously reached melting point after several well-publicised incidents.
Bert and Patti appeared on TV last night to discuss their son’s condition – not to publicise themselves, not for PR, not to make empty excuses for their son – they appeared on national television to explain and to question while they seek answers as to how best to treat their son. They are a couple clearly at the end of their rope as most parents in this position, anyone in fact, would understand; this is a much loved showbiz couple stripped down to the rawest essentials, in pain and grieving already it seems – let’s hope that their beloved son is able to get the help he so badly needs, before it is too late.
Copyright © 2007-2010 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.
Where did the summer holidays go! it is hard to believe we were all having our first morning lie-in of the holidays two months ago and now here we are chasing up where school bags were left at the end of June, buying new school shoes, uniforms, pencils…
The time certainly goes in but we got a lot out of our summer break with barely a day at home, lot’s of days out and about in the countryside, picnics and bbq’s. And no complaints really about the weather for once 
Last week we took the decision, a last minute one really, to enrol our two boys in a new school for this year and fortunately our very local school had vacancies and we filled all the criteria for them being accepted right at the off, which was a huge relief.
So it was new uniforms literally with a couple of days to spare and now school has started – for James at least. They were both to start today but, as luck will always have it, John came down with a temperature and cough yesterday while we were out enjoying our last day of freedom having a picnic on the north Antrim coast. We found a lovely spot outside Bushmills and had the bbq area pretty much all to ourselves for the afternoon. So John was feeling quite poorly by the time we got home and we decided to keep him home this morning, school only was in half day today so he did not miss anything important and he has recovered nicely with a day in bed and is all set to go off to his new school in the morning. That’s the way it is with kids – two months of ripping good health and then sick the day before school starts.
Copyright © 2007-2010 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.
The sad news that actor Micheal Douglas has been diagnosed with Stage Four throat cancer comes at a time in his life when he has more than enough stress to cope with. By his own admission it has been ‘a very long year’ and revealed what we all know – that cancer feeds on stress and anxiety.
And what readers had to say about things…