Mar 17 2009
This Is Why I Became A Journalist—To Get The Story RIGHT … Update On Natasha Richardson
Okay first of all I just want to say that last year at the AM Benefit in NYC I had the chance to interview Natasha Richardson and not only was she beautiful in person, but she was classy and graceful. So it saddens me to report that many credible news sources are contradicting one another when it comes to the subject of her current state. Bear with me because I’m going to start with a timeline of events that just happened within the last two hours.
Time Out New York reported that the actress had passed away. However, other reports claim she was being airlifted to a new hospital and is still alive. Then they went backtracked and said she is “brain dead” and will not survive. Monday afternoon, Lindsay Kaplan of Time Out New York sent out the following press release:
http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/upstaged/2009/03/rip-natasha-richardson-1963-2009/
EXCLUSIVE: Time Out New York learns of actress’s untimely death. She will be greatly missed.
Last night it was reported that the actor Natasha Richardson had critically injured her head in a skiing accident at the Mont Tremblant resort outside of Montreal, Canada. Although public reports have not yet confirmed it, sources close to Richardson’s family and friends say they have already been told the awful news: She did not survived the accident.
This precipitate loss is a terrible one. Richardson was only 45 and had two adolescent sons; our thoughts go to them and to her husband, the actor Liam Neeson. The theater world, too, is bereft by her departure. Richardson has been the most verdant new branch of one of the great English theatrical family trees: the child of Vanessa Redgrave and the late Tony Richardson, the niece of Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, granddaughter of Michael Redgrave. She has pursued the family business with uncommon class and distinction. On Broadway—in Anna Christie, Closer, A Streetcar Named Desire and especially in her Tony-winning turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret—her work has been elegant, smart and forceful. She will be missed.
Shakespeare’s words from Cymbeline cascade to mind:
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages; Golden lads and girls all must As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Since they were the only ones reporting this at the time, Perez Hilton reached out by asking if this was 100% true to which Lindsay wrote back:
“Unfortunately, confirmed to us by friends of the family. Terrible news. I used to be their boys’ camp counselor.”
Then after more than 40 minutes, TONY e-mailed him again:
Sorry about the confusion. We spoke to source, who confirms “brain dead and will not survive”, and therefore, her friends and family are mourning her unofficial death.
My apologies with the semantics issue.
Please let me know if you have more questions — I have copied Michael Freidson, TONY’s editor in chief.
So basically they have a bunch of dumb asses over at Time Out spreading false rumors and forgetting to fact check. Then they again sent the following out:
Time Out New York sincerely apologizes for the confusion. We stand by our sources, and our friend of the family first confirmed “dead” and then called back to say “brain dead.” We find the situation incredibly tragic and obviously wish to only report the facts.
We stand by our new statement that she is brain dead and not expected to survive. Unfortunately, the article was not taken down — our website crashed from traffic. Time Out New York regrets the error.
So then after word on the street was out about Time Out reporting this shit, TMZ went to work and reported that the actress is sedated and suffering from brain swelling which is an entirely different thing than being brain dead.
But THEN the New York Post got on the bandwagon and conflicted those reports. Her family has yet to release a statement, TO is insisting she’s braindead according to family sources, TMZ claims she has brain swelling and now the NYP is also reporting that Natasha is in fact brain dead. They say:
“Actress Natasha Richardson is brain dead, after falling in a ski accident in Canada, friends told The Post today.”
Let’s just hope she’s not brain dead and wish her the best.
-C
