You're all familiar with the notion of celebrity [and other deaths] occurring in threes, but I gotta say this set is pretty weird: Elliott Smith, Fred Rerun Berry, and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.
Smith, of course, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Miss Misery" from Good Will Hunting. Rerun recently appeared as himself in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. And cinetrix crush Maggie Cheung starred as Madame Chiang's elder sister Ching-ling in the Hong Kong biopic The Soong Sisters, about China's answer to the Mitfords.
Here's hoping that the former Mai-Ling Soong didn't drop dead at the notion of Julia "Pretty Woman" Roberts playing a professor at her beloved Wellesley in December's Mona Lisa Smile. I'm still not certain I won't [although I'm quite excited about Maggie Gyllenhaal's character, even though I am afraid she might be playing a nervy "ethnic" [read Jewish] intellectual bohemian, based on her character's name. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But how tiresome.]
