PR-Inside.com Entertainment News

Tributes are pouring in for legendary British playwright HAROLD PINTER, who died on Wednesday (24Dec08) aged 78.
The writer, who penned classic plays including The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 for his contribution to the arts, passed away following a long battle with cancer.
And friends and former colleagues have lined up to pay tribute to Pinter following his death.
Actor Sir Michael Gambon said: "I had the privilege to know Harold well and was in many of his plays. I created a couple of parts for him in first productions. He was our God, Harold Pinter, for actors. He was the man who wrote the plays you wanted to be in." Pinter’s second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, said: "He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten." Former British MP Tony Benn said: "His death will leave a huge gap that will be felt by the whole political spectrum." And English actor David Bradley, currently starring in Pinter’s No Man’s Land in London’s West End, added: "I’m very honoured to have known him personally and professionally over the past 10 years. It’s a huge loss. People from Germany, Israel and China would come backstage saying Harold Pinter was so important to them. He wrote about oppression and people taking terrible advantage and oppressing each other on a personal level. Although he did not write the plays in an overtly political way they stood the test of time because they have universal themes. They meant so much to people in different ways." (ZN/WNWCGG) WENN - LATEST NEWS - 26 DECEMBER 2008 ————————————————————————–

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Legendary singer/actress EARTHA KITT has died aged 81.
The entertainer - famed for her 1953 hit Santa Baby - died yesterday (25Dec08) after losing her battle with colon cancer.
The sultry singer also had a glittering career on stage and screen. She was nominated for a string of Emmys, Grammys, and Tonys, and famously starred as Catwoman in the 1960s TV series Batman.
Born in a cotton plantation in South Carolina, Kitt landed her first major role in 1950 as Helen of Troy in Dr Faustus. She also made her name singing a number of classics including C’est Si Bon, Let’s Do It and Just an Old Fashioned Girl.
Dubbed "the most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, Kitt was later ostracised in America for speaking out against the Vietnam war, but after gaining fame in Europe she returned to the U.S. to great acclaim in the late 1970s.
She played the Wicked Witch of the West in a 1990s stage production of The Wizard of Oz and continued to take on Broadway roles. In later years, Kitt became a permanent fixture on the Manhattan cabaret scene and as recently as 2007 she appeared in the independent movie And Then Came Love.
She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006 but had gone into remission following treatment.
Family spokesman Andrew Freedman said: "She came back strongly. She had been performing until two months ago. We had dates booked through 2009." Kitt died on Thursday (25Dec08) in Connecticut. She had a daughter, Kitt McDonald, from her two year marriage to John Barry Ryan in the 1960s, and also had two grandchildren.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)