DCeleb: September 2011

Thursday, September 29

Nancy Grace, Wardrobe Malfunction On 'DWTS'

Date of Birth
23 October 1959, Macon, Georgia, USA

Birth Name
Nancy Ann Grace

Nickname
Amazin' Grace

Height
5' 2" (1.57 m)

Nancy Grace suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction on Monday's "Dancing With The Stars." Grace danced her quickstep so forcefully that her dressed slipped in exactly the wrong place, accidentally exposing a nipple. Grace didn't realize it but the audience sure seemed to, looking stunned and stonyfaced as Grace finished her dance. Host Tom Bergeron alerted Grace to the problem and joked, "On the European version that would be perfectly fine." Grace buried her head in her dancing partner's shoulder, but seemed to take it in stride. The incident was edited out of the West Coast version. Grace later said she hadn't noticed anything, and she still got high scores from the judges.

UFC 135, Jon Jones fight

UFC 135: Jon Jones fight

Get a first hand look at UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones' preparation to defend his title at UFC 135 this past Sat., Sept. 24, 2011, in Denver, Colorado, against Quinton Jackson. "Bones" would go on to win the fight via fourth round submission after peppering his foe with leg kicks and unorthodox striking.

It's truly fascinating, especially in hindsight, to hear Greg Jackson devise a game plan for "Rampage".

Jim Henson

Date of Birth
24 September 1936, Greenville, Mississippi, USA

Date of Death
16 May 1990, New York City, New York, USA (bacterial pneumonia)

Birth Name
James Maury Henson

Height
6' 3" (1.91 m)

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was "Sam and Friends" (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and inspired Jim to continue using puppets for his work. He made many commercials, developing the signature humor that Henson Productions is known for. A key reason for the success of his puppets is that Jim realized he didn't need to hide puppeteers behind a structure when they were in front of a camera. All he had to do was instruct the camera operators to focus on the puppets and keep the puppeteers out of the frame. This allowed the puppets to dominate the image and make them more lifelike. This work on puppets and television would lead to separate projects that had different goals. The first one was his work on the "The Jimmy Dean Show" (1963) with the character Rowlf the Dog, the oldest clearly identified character that Henson Productions still uses. This show provided an income that allowed Jim to work on a pet project. That project was Time Piece (1965), a surrealistic short about time which was nominated for best live-action short Oscar. Henson shot to prominence when he was approached to use his muppets for the revolutionary educational show "Sesame Street" (1969). The show was a smash hit and his characters have become staples on public television. Unforetunately, this also led to Henson being typecast as only an entertainer for children. He sought to disprove that by being part of the initial crew of "Saturday Night Live" (1975), but his style and that of the creative staff simply didn't jibe. It was this circumstance that encouraged him to develop a variety show format that had the kind of sophisticated humor that "Sesame Street" didn't work with. No American broadcaster was interested, but British producer Lew Grade was. This led to "The Muppet Show" (1976). It initially struggled both in the ratings and in the search for guest stars, but in the second season it became a smash hit and would eventually become the most widely watched series in television history. Hungry for a new challenge, Henson made The Muppet Movie (1979), defying the popular industry opinion that his characters would never work in a movie. The film became a hit and spawned a series of features which included the moody fantasy The Dark Crystal (1982), which was a drastic and bold departure from the amiable tone of his previous work. The most successful TV work in the 1980s was "Fraggle Rock" (1983), a fantasy series specifically designed to appeal to as many cultural groups as possible. During this time he also established the Creature Shop, a puppet studio that became renowned for being as brilliant with puppetry as ILM was at special effects. When he died all too soon in 1990, he was indisputably one of the geniuses of puppetry. More importantly, he was a man who achieved his phenomenal success while still retaining his social conscience and artistic integrity as his work in promoting environmentalism and his brilliant "The Storyteller" (1988) series respectively attest to.

Vesta Williams, Singer Dies at 53

A rhythm and blues singer and an actress Vesta Williams who had hits in the 1980s with “Don’t Blow a Good Thing” and “Congratulations,” was found dead on Thursday in a hotel room. She was 53 year-old. The cause may have been a drug overdose, said Capt. John Kades of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. She appeared in movies and on television. She was a saloon singer in the Mario Van Peebles movie “Posse” in 1993, and she had a recurring role on the television situation comedy “Sister, Sister,” playing the actress Jackee Harry’s best friend Monica.

Vesta Williams initial success in the music industry came as a background singer for Chaka Khan, Anita Baker and Sting, among others. She released her first album, “Vesta,” in 1986. Standing 5′ 3″, she gained weight in the 1990s, ballooning to a size 26, then went on a dramatic weight loss program, losing 100 pounds and getting down to a size 6. She told Ebony Magazine in 1996 that she began gaining weight rapidly after her singing career started to falter. She blamed her size for the loss of her recording contract. “When I lost my record deal, and my phone wasn’t ringing, I realized that I had to reassess who Vesta was and figure out what was going wrong,” she said.

“I knew it wasn’t my singing ability. So it had to be that I was expendable because I didn’t have the right look.” She went on to become an advocate for the prevention of childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes.

Mary Vesta Williams was born on Dec. 1, 1957, to a disc jockey in Coshocton, Ohio. She is survived by an adult daughter. Ms. Williams had been scheduled to perform on Oct. 22 at the 21st annual “DIVAS Simply Singing!” concert in Los Angeles, held to promote AIDS and HIV awareness. The show will pay tribute to her and another soul singer, Teena Marie, who died last year.