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  • Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence in Film to Go to Jane Fonda

    The Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence in Film is slated to go to Jane Fonda this year.

    The award is part of the Santa Barbara Film Festival and will be presented to Fonda at a black-tie gala dinner at Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara on Oct. 3.

    Jane Fonda is an obvious choice for the Kirk Douglas Award. She won two Best Actress Oscars for her work in Klute and Coming Home. Her current work includes Grace and Frankie on Netflix and the upcoming Fox Searchlight’s Youth, directed by Paolo Sorrentino.

    Since 2006, the Kirk Douglas Award has been handed to a lifelong contributor to cinema through their, whether it be in front or behind the camera. Past honorees include Jessica Lange, Forest Whitaker, Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino, Ed Harris and John Travolta.

    “Jane Fonda obviously has the right genes. Her acting performances set a standard that’s hard to follow,” Kirk Douglas, the award’s original recipient said in a statement issued by the festival.

    The gala supports educational and community programs hosted by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which will take place from Feb. 3 through Feb. 13.

  • Kirk Douglas Is Dead? Erroneous Obituary Published

    Veteran actor Kirk Douglas is celebrating his 98th birthday next week, but it appears that People Magazine already reporting about his death in an obituary that the news outlet published online.

    The obituary was dated September 29, 2014, but the posting date was not determined. The piece had a “DO NOT PUB” in the headline, signifying that the publishing of the obituary was a grave mistake. The piece read: “Kirk Douglas, one of the few genuine box-office names to emerge just as TV was overtaking American culture in the years right after World War II, died TK TK TK. He was 97 (DOB 12/9/1916) and had been in good health despite having suffered a debilitating 1996 stroke that rendered his speech difficult.”

    “The announcement of my death is premature,” said the veteran actor in a recent interview with USA Today. “I’m looking forward to turning 98 next week.”

    The veteran Spartacus star and father of Michael Douglas is releasing a book in celebration of his birthday. His eleventh book, Life Could Be Verse, features poems and stories that he has accumulated over the years.

    After starring in his first picture back in 1946, Douglas became a bonafide Hollywood star thanks to his popular roles in films like Lust for Life and Champion. He is considered to be one of Hollywood’s finest actors and was nominated for the Academy Awards thrice. Despite the fact that he never won, Steven Spielberg presented Douglas with an Oscar lifetime award for his contributions in the industry.

    News outlets typically write advance obituaries of known personalities that would be instantly published once these celebrities eventually reach the end of their lives. Back in 2008, Bloomberg made the same mistake when they published the obituary of Steve Jobs three years before his passing.

  • People Accidentally Publishes Kirk Douglas’ Obituary

    A lot of people write their own obituaries before they die or have them written beforehand so they can approve of them.

    Celebrities have even been known to send these obituaries to magazines and other publications ahead of time so they can be published at the time of their death.

    Some publications will even pre-write the obituaries themselves, so they can publish them before another magazine or newspaper without taking the time to write them up.

    People Magazine accidentally published the obituary of Kirk Douglas before his death and has been getting a lot of criticism for the mistake.

    The article was published online and even had the heading “DO NOT PUB Kirk Douglas Dies.”

    “Kirk Douglas, one of the few genuine box-office names to emerge just as TV was overtaking American culture in the years right after World War II, died TK TK TK. He was 97 (DOB 12/9/1916) and had been in good health despite having suffered a debilitating 1996 stroke that rendered his speech difficult,” the obituary read.

    Kirk Douglas is not dead and probably doesn’t appreciate a online article saying that he is.

    The article included more information about Kirk’s life as well as photos. It was online for a fair amount of time before the mistake was caught and the article was taken down.

    People has not released a statement or a public apology about the article or explained how it got published.

  • Kirk Douglas’ Obituary Accidentally Published Online by People Magazine

    Kirk Douglas, who turns 98 on Dec. 9, may have had the opportunity to read his own obituary.

    For at least several hours on Sunday, and possibly a lot longer, the magazine’s website featured a story about the legendary actor’s apparent death.

    While it is common for media outlets to pre-write obituaries so they can be quickly posted when the celebrity actually dies, the article was obviously not meant to be published.

    Under the headline “DO NOT PUB Kirk Douglas Dies,” the article reads:

    “Kirk Douglas, one of the few genuine box-office names to emerge just as TV was overtaking American culture in the years right after World War II, died TK TK TK. He was 97 (DOB 12/9/1916) and had been in good health despite having suffered a debilitating 1996 stroke that rendered his speech difficult.”

    “TK” is journalistic shorthand for “to come.”

    The article shared details of Douglas‘ life and accomplishments, accompanied by two photos and a clip from his 1956 Vincent Van Gogh biopic Lust for Life.

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, it is unclear when the story was published. The timestamp on the article reads 3 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 29, but it’s unclear if the article remained online for two months.

  • Kirk Douglas Releasing E-Book Memoir

    Actor Kirk Douglas, who is well known for his role in the 1960 film “Spartacus“, co-starring Laurence Olivier, has written an e-book at the age of 95 which will be a memoir focusing on his experience with blacklisting in Hollywood.

    The e-book–which will be released in June and features a forward by George Clooney–is titled “I Am Spartacus! Making A Film, Breaking The Blacklist” and talks about the controversial decision on Douglas’ and Universal Studios’ part to include screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s name on the film. Trumbo was blacklisted for suspected communism after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940’s and was forced to use pen names from then on.

    With the inclusion of Trumbo’s name on the credits came the end of the blacklisting practice in Hollywood, effectively changing the history of the business for the better.

    An audio version of the book will also be made available and will be narrated by Kirk Douglas’s son, Michael.