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Tag: Valerie Harper

  • Brenda Vaccaro to Replace Valerie Harper in Maine Theater Production Following Her Hospitalization

    Brenda Vaccaro is set to replace Valerie Harper in a Maine production of Nice Work If You Can Get It at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit. Harper fell ill last week and won’t be resuming her role.

    It was Wednesday when Valerie Harper, 75, was taken by ambulance to nearby York Hospital after falling ill. Rumors ran rampant that she was found unconscious and had fallen into a coma. The Mary Tyler Moore Show star addressed fans herself this weekend via Facebook, and put those rumors to rest.

    My dear friends and fans!As always, thank you for your amazing support. I am happy to report I am not, nor have I…

    Posted by Valerie Harper on Friday, July 31, 2015

    My dear friends and fans!

    As always, thank you for your amazing support. I am happy to report I am not, nor have I been, in a coma.

    As anyone who has taken strong medication knows, it doesn’t always agree with you, even with me as this experience proves.

    I am confronting these hurdles with my usual enthusiasm and love of life.

    Much love, Valerie

    p.s.
    But I must confess that the highlight of this ordeal came when I was escorted by two handsome young men and a pilot, in a medivac helicopter, as the full moon lit the sky. Talk about movie magic!!!

    The Ogunquit Playhouse released a statement saying Valerie Harper is “feeling great right now,” and that they want her to rest and spend some time with her family, who traveled to Maine when she was hospitalized.

    Fans of the musical in which Harper was to star are in for a treat with Brenda Vaccaro. The seasoned actress has won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a People’s Choice Award. She has earned Tony Award nominations.

    Brenda Vaccaro has starred in The Pride of Jesse Hallam with Johnny Cash, The Star Maker, with Rock Hudson and Susanne Pleshette, A Long Way Home, with Timothy Hutton, Deceptions with Stephanie Powers, Stolen One Husband with Valerie Harper, Colombo, Murder She Wrote, Ally McBeal, and The Golden Girls. She has also guest starred in Friends, as Joey’s mother. She recently stared in Barry Levinson’s film for HBO, You Don’t Know Jack with Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman for which she received an Emmy Award nomination.

    Surely fans of Valerie Harper will be disappointed, but Brenda Vaccaro won’t disappoint.

    Valerie Harper was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer back in 2013, and was initially given just three to six months to live. She has not only outlived those odds, but has impressed her fans with her contagious enthusiasm for life.

    Brenda Vaccaro will no doubt do a superb job of impressing her audience.

  • Valerie Harper Addresses Fans Over Recent Hospitalization in Maine

    Valerie Harper addressed her fans in a Facebook post on Friday about rumors surrounding her recent hospitalization in Maine. Rumors had the Mary Tyler Moore Show star–known for her role as the quirky Rhoda Morgenstern–in a coma and at death’s door.

    It was several days ago when an ambulance responded to a call at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine, where Valerie Harper was starring alongside All in the Family star Sally Struthers bin the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It. Reports soon had Valerie Harper in bad shape. Now she has cleared up those rumors.

    My dear friends and fans!As always, thank you for your amazing support. I am happy to report I am not, nor have I…

    Posted by Valerie Harper on Friday, July 31, 2015

    My dear friends and fans!

    As always, thank you for your amazing support. I am happy to report I am not, nor have I been, in a coma.

    As anyone who has taken strong medication knows, it doesn’t always agree with you, even with me as this experience proves.

    I am confronting these hurdles with my usual enthusiasm and love of life.

    Much love, Valerie

    p.s.
    But I must confess that the highlight of this ordeal came when I was escorted by two handsome young men and a pilot, in a medivac helicopter, as the full moon lit the sky. Talk about movie magic!!!

    Fans are surely thrilled to know Valerie Harper is on the mend, and that her condition wasn’t as serious as some reports stated.

    Valerie Harper was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer back in 2013, and was initially given just three to six months to live. She has not only outlived those odds, but has impressed her fans with her contagious enthusiasm for life.

  • Mary Tyler Moore Show Star Valerie Harper Hospitalized, Reports On Her Condition Vary

    Mary Tyler Moore Show star Valerie Harper was starring in a musical at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine when she fell ill earlier this week. Found unconscious backstage, she was transported to a local hospital in York, where she was deemed stable and was said to be resting comfortably–at first, anyway.

    Subsequent reports have claimed Harper is not doing well and that the situation is grave. One states the Mary Tyler Moore Show star–known for her role as the hilarious Rhoda Morgenstern–is in a coma.

    Late on Thursday, the Ogunquit Playhouse issued a new statement, saying reports about Harper’s “grave condition” are false. In fact, they say the actress has now been released from the hospital and is expected to resume her role in Nice Work If You Can Get It, alongside All in the Family star Sally Struthers, within days.

    Valerie Harper was diagnosed with brain cancer back in 2013 and initially given three to six months to live. She has long since defied those odds, and that has no doubt led to the barrage of rumors surrounding her recent hospitalization.

    Harper graced TV screens alongside Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show for seven years, from 1970 to 1977. The two actresses played off one another–with Moore being sensible and Harper playing a fun-loving, quirky role.

    Hopefully this new report about Valerie Harper is an accurate one. It is much better to imagine the Mary Tyler Moore Show star released from the hospital, recovering, and preparing to return to the Ogunquit Playhouse stage than it is to think the worst as other reports stated.

    May Valerie Harper’s health continue to improve and may she break a leg–figuratively, of course–alongside Sally Struthers in Nice Work If You Can Get It.

  • Valerie Harper Found Unconscious, Rushed to Maine Hospital

    Valerie Harper has been in Maine, performing at the historic Ogunquit Playhouse, where she has starred alongside Sally Struthers in the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It. On Wednesday evening, however, she was found unconscious backstage and transported to a local hospital. The local fire department said they responded to a call from the Ogunquit Playhouse about an unconscious 75-year-old woman at about 8:56 p.m. She was transported by ambulance just a few minutes later.

    It was back in March 2013 that Valerie Harper received a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer and was given just three to six months to live. Now–more than two years later–she is still performing.

    In a statement from the Ogunquit Playhouse, it is noted that the hospital stay is only a precaution and that Valerie Harper is now resting comfortably.

    Valerie Harper was taken to a local hospital as a precaution before her July 29 evening performance of Nice Work If You Can Get It, at the Ogunquit Playhouse, after reporting that she was not feeling well. She is resting comfortably and will remain in the hospital for observation for the time being.

    Valerie has been performing in the Ogunquit production as Millicent Winter along with Sally Struthers as Duchess Estonia Dulworth.

    “The audiences and all of us here at the Playhouse are greatly enjoying our time with Valerie here in Ogunquit, and we are encouraged that she is feeling better,” Bradford T. Kenney, Executive Artistic Director.

    Hopefully the Mary Tyler Moore Show star makes a quick and full recovery from whatever put her in the hospital in Maine. The Maine weather has been very hot and very humid, so perhaps the actress became dehydrated.

    Surely prayers are being said by many people for Valerie Harper as she recovers from her sudden ailment.

  • Kellie Pickler Plans New Album, Helps Fight Cancer

    Kellie Pickler is mixing business with pleasure, again, as she teams up with her songwriter and producer husband Kyle Jacobs to create her fifth album.

    This isn’t the first time the partners in life have become partners in music; the pair penned songs for Pickler’s 2013 album The Woman I Am.

    “I grew up listening to traditional country music,” said Pickler in an interview. “For me, ‘The Woman I Am’ is just a collection of songs I’ve either found or written that just tell us different stories. It’s kind of like audio books, and each song is a different chapter.”

    The American Idol alum and former Dancing With the Stars winner has recently teamed up with fellow DWTS participant Valerie Harper to help fight and spread the word about lung cancer.

    The Mary Tyler Moore Show vet partnered with the American Lung Association and CVS Caremark to launch Lung Force, a new national movement aimed at educating the public about the disease.

    Watch Pickler in action:

    Harper was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009 and it has spread to her brain, causing the diagnosis to become terminal. Called leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, this cancer lives microscopically where the spinal fluid is.

    Pickler feels close to the cause because her grandmother died from the disease. At the event, the singer performed the song “My Angel,” which was written about her late grandmother.

    “She was the one that I called mom,” Pickler said in an interview. “She was diagnosed with lung cancer back in 2002 and she died instantly. She died the very next day. I got a little emotional performing a song so personal that I wrote with some friends of mine about my grandmother. Just being in the room here today with lung cancer survivors as well as other people who have lost loved ones from lung cancer, just made it more emotional.”

    Pickler hasn’t revealed when she plans on dropping her new album, but fans can catch up with the singer on her tour, which features dates from now until September.

    Image via Kellie Pickler, Twitter

  • Valerie Harper Sued For Having Cancer

    Valerie Harper Sued For Having Cancer

    Playwright Matthew Lombardo, along with several other Broadway producers, are suing Valerie Harper for not informing them that her cancer had returned.

    According to documents obtained by TMZ, the lawsuit states that 74-year-old Harper failed to notify them, in 2012, when she found out that her cancer was no longer in remission. Harper was starring in Lombardo’s play Looped at the time.

    The producers claim that Harper started slurring, and forgetting, her lines during rehearsal, and immediately knew something was wrong. In January 2013, after being urged to see the doctor by the director, Harper found out that the cancer had spread to her brain and was told that she only had three months to live. She later dropped out of the play.

    Harper originally filed a claim stating that Lombardo did not plan on paying her the rest of her salary as the contract stated. In return, Lombardo and his co-plaintiffs filed a suit stating that Harper left them insufficient time to find a replacement, costing him $500,000. He is also seeing an additional $1.5 million for her negligence in telling him about the cancer diagnosis in a timely manner.

    Although Harper is not cancer free, she says that she is optimistic about her current condition. “What all parties want to be made clear now is that while the Lepto has not spread, I am still not cured,” Harper told Closer magazine. “I am a cancer patient, and I continue to fight with the hope that a cure may be just around the corner.”

    Harper became famous when she landed the role of Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and then in its spin-off, Rhoda . After receiving her lung cancer diagnosis in 2009, Harper wrote her memoir titled I, Rhonda.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Valerie Harper Sued for Cancer Non-Disclosure

    Valerie Harper has had a roller coaster year. Diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer last year and given a fatal diagnosis, the Rhoda star has since received the miraculous news that she is on the mend.

    The producer of Valerie Harper’s former Broadway show Looped is now suing her for $2 million for not revealing that the terminal illness had returned and another $1.5 million in punitive damages.

    According to TMZ, Matthew Lombardo has filed a lawsuit claiming Harper failed to notify them that the cancer had returned, forcing them to have to find a last minute replacement.

    The actress received the diagnosis that she only had months to live in 2012 after she began forgetting lines and slurring words while in rehearsals for the national production of the play.

    When she understandably pulled out of the play, Lombardo had to find a suitable replacement, costing him a reported $500,000.

    The talented actress recently revealed her prognosis has seen a remarkable improvement.

    In a recent Closer Weekly cover, the magazine claimed she was cancer free after being told a year ago she had only months to live.

    A day after the magazine hit the stands, Rhoda star was asked to explain what she meant.

    “I want to thank Closer Weekly for giving me a chance to clarify my story and, more importantly, to address the headline which states that I am cancer free. I am not cancer free,” the actress said.

    “As I have stated on many occasions, I have Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis (Lepto), lung cancer that has traveled to the meninges around my brain,” she said.

    “While speaking to the reporter for Closer Weekly, I was relaying a story where my doctor had told me that in his 30-year practice, I was the only Lepto patient he has seen without other cancers already present,” she said. “I had just had my yearly full-body scan to determine if this sneaky cancer had migrated to other parts of my body. Therefore, in completing that part of the story, I told the reporter with excitement that I was cancer-free, but what I meant to say was that my full body scan revealed that I was still thankfully cancer free.”

    “What all parties want to be made clear now is that while the Lepto has not spread, I am still not cured. I am a cancer patient, and I continue to fight with the hope that a cure may be just around the corner,” she said.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Valerie Harper Sued for Concealing Cancer, Forgetting Lines in Broadway Show “Looped”

    Valerie Harper has been sued for concealing her cancer diagnosis to an employer. The lawsuit could cost her 2 million dollars, but it hasn’t stopped the 74 year old actress from losing hope or working.

    Harper has gone through a roller coaster of hope and despair after her diagnosis of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis last year. She joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars and did her best to continue working. Just last week, it was announced that she was “getting pretty close to a remission”. Despite the good news, Harper was having trouble remembering lines, a problem that has brought forth a lawsuit.

    TMZ reported that the producers and playwright of the Broadway show Looped have filed suit against the actress. They allege that Harper deliberately concealed the cancer diagnosis in order to be hired. When she had to leave the show prematurely, the playwright, Matthew Lombardo, was left scrambling to find a suitable replacement, a situation which he says cost him 500,000 dollars. Lombardo is also asking for an additional 1.5 million dollars, bringing the entire suit to 2 million dollars. Harper also has a lawsuit against the producers and Lombardo, claiming that she was not paid her full contact when she left the show.

    The lawsuit does not seem to be a detractor for the Hallmark Channel, who recently signed Harper on for their new show Signed, Sealed, Delivered. The LA Times reported that Valerie Harper will play the supervisor of a group of civil servants dedicated to delivering lost mail. Producer and writer Martha Williamson said “Valerie is somebody who would take a challenge like this and turn it into an opportunity to encourage other people. The first thing she and Tony said to me when I told them about the show was we want to use this show as an opportunity to encourage other people.”

    The actress’s Twitter account is filled with information and buzz about the new series, just like it was for Looped five years ago. It will remain to be seen if the actress makes any statement about the lawsuit, or if any other employers come forward with suits of their own.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Valerie Harper Is Not “Cancer Free”, She Says

    Valerie Harper announced last year that she was battling terminal brain cancer, shocking her fans and those who had grown up watching her on television. But even then, she said she was hopeful for the future, as she was beating the odds after being given only a short time to live.

    “I’d say that we’re getting pretty close to a remission,” neuro-oncologist Jeremy Rudnick said on the “Today” show. “It defies the odds.”

    Despite being diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis–a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane around the brain–74-year old Harper has since been a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars” and accepted a role in the television movie “The Town That Came A Courtin’”, proving that it takes a lot more than a terminal diagnosis to keep her down.

    “[The oncologist] looked at the scans and said, ‘Oh my God, Valerie, this is very encouraging!’” Harper said. “I’m now the poster child for not believing everything I’m told.”

    Harper has clarified a rumor going around that she’s cancer free, saying it came from a misquote in Closer Magazine.

    “I am not ‘absolutely cancer-free.’ I wish I were,” she told the Hallmark Channel. “Right now what I am is cautiously optimistic about my present condition and I have hope for the future…there may come a time when I’m not feeling good. But then again, that time may never come.”‘

    Still, there have been challenges. Harper knew something was wrong last year when she was rehearsing for the Matthew Lombardo play “Looped” and couldn’t remember her lines. The role is one she’d already won a Tony for.

    “She was having problems remembering her lines,” Lombardo said at the time. “We thought, ‘That’s strange. How can she not remember?’ She knew the play inside and out. I wrote it for her. She just didn’t seem like herself.”

    Harper was initially given 3-6 months to live. Now, she’s focusing on taking her medication and taking care of herself. Considering she’s already beaten lung cancer, the diagnosis isn’t one that the actress takes lightly, but it’s not keeping her down, either.

    I take medication once a week, a lot of pills at once, what they call a pulse dose,” she said. “They can be difficult, but I try to sleep them off — I usually lay in bed very quietly to keep them down.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Valerie Harper Opens Up About Her Battle Against Brain Cancer

    Valerie Harper is the epitome of a true fighter. Last year when she publicly announced that she’d been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, doctors also gave a grim prognosis with a minimum three-month life expectancy.

    However, the bleak possibilities didn’t keep her down. Harper has become a walking inspiration for millions as she’s beat the odds of the initial predictions.

    The former Mary Tyler Moore Show actress recently spoke with Closer Weekly about some of the positive changes in her life when she revealed that her condition is actually improving.

    “My last scans have been positive, and my doctors are very happy,” Harper said. “[The oncologist] looked at the scans and said, ‘Oh my God, Valerie, this is very encouraging.’”

    While Harper’s health has taken an optimistic turn, the 74-year-old actress was also quoted by the publication declaring that she is “cancer-free.”  So, she took time to personally address the matter and offer clarity. On Wednesday, Apr. 16, she released a brief statement in regards to the “erroneous quote.”

    “I am not ‘absolutely cancer-free.’ I wish I were,” she said in the statement. “Right now what I am is cautiously optimistic about my present condition and I have hope for the future.” She went on to explain that her doctors still do not associate her condition with the term “in remission.”

    “He likes to say, ‘I give you a treatment, and it’s either responsive or nonresponsive, and you are having a phenomenal response,” she explained.  Although she is responding exceptionally well to the treatment she’s receiving, it doesn’t mean that she’s been cured. However, she’s determined not to let anything keep her down, reports People.

    “My cancer is incurable and terminal, but guess what? Not today!” Harper told the publication on Wednesday. “There is all manner of suffering in the world, not all of it by any stretch related just to cancer or to illness, but all kinds of suffering.”

    Image via Valerie Harper, Facebook

  • Valerie Harper In Good Spirits In Spite Of Cancer

    A little over a year ago, Valerie Harper told the world she was battling brain cancer. When she revealed her diagnosis, she also informed everyone that doctors had only given her a year to live and she would likely not make it to see Easter 2014.

    Harper recently appeared on the Today Show where she told everyone that she does still have brain cancer and it is terminal, but she is currently feeling well and is focused on living her life to the fullest.

    “I was supposed to be gone before last Easter,” she said. “But when you say ‘supposed to be,’ the doctors just give their best guesstimate. What I have is incurable and terminal, but guess what? Not today.”

    “I’m doing very well,” Harper continued. “The treatment that my doctors at Cedars-Sinai have me on is working, and I’m doing acupuncture and herbal tea.”

    Harper is even feeling well enough to work and she has some big things planned for the near future, including a two-episode guest spot on the television show Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

    Harper knows a thing or two about television shows, she starred opposite of Mary Tyler Moore on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and even got her own spin-off, Rhoda.

    Harper and Mary are still close friends and Harper says that she talks with her often and that Mary has been helpful and caring since hearing of Harper’s diagnosis. The two friends hope to spend more time together.

    Harper seemed upbeat and happy and her positive attitude is likely one of the reasons she is responding so well to her treatment and feeling so good.

    “Whenever I go, that’s when I’m supposed to go, like all of us,” she said. “But live the moment.”

    Are you surprised to see Valerie Harper doing so well?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Valerie Harper: Good News From Doctors

    Valerie Harper: Good News From Doctors

    Valerie Harper was pretty much given a death sentence when she was diagnosed with brain cancer a little more than a year ago. She was told at the time that at best she had just months to live. The Rhoda and Mary Tyler Moore Show star grabbed life by the horns and was determined to live whatever she had left of it to the very fullest.

    That’s exactly what Harper did, and now, even though her doctor is hesitant to say she is in remission, they are rather astonished by what they are seeing.

    “My last scans have been positive, and my doctors are very happy,” Valerie Harper said during a recent interview. “[The oncologist] looked at the scans and said, ‘Oh my God, Valerie, this is very encouraging.’”

    So what does her doctor say if he won’t claim she’s in remission?

    “He likes to say, ‘I give you a treatment, and it’s either responsive or nonresponsive, and you are having a phenomenal response,” she explains

    This doesn’t in any way mean she’s been cured of her cancer.

    “In response to a recent erroneous quote concerning my health, I am not ‘absolutely cancer-free,’ ” she said in a statement on Wednesday. “I wish I were. Right now what I am is cautiously optimistic about my present condition and I have hope for the future.”

    A report published in Closer Weekly claimed the actress was cancer free. Excited fans started tweeting the happy news.

    Harper was quick to squelch the inaccurate report, but happy to clarify that even if she wasn’t deemed cancer free, she’s certainly doing much better than doctors ever predicted.

    “My cancer is incurable and terminal, but guess what? Not today!” Harper told PEOPLE on Wednesday. “There is all manner of suffering in the world, not all of it by any stretch related just to cancer or to illness, but all kinds of suffering.”

    She even offered a bit of advice for those who have perhaps been given a ‘death sentence’ similar to the one she was given–more than a year ago.

    “Don’t go to the funeral before it is time. So my time is looking good today and that’s how we are all supposed to live our lives – one day at a time,” she says.

    Valerie Harper inspired fans when she appeared on Dancing With the Stars following her initial diagnosis.

    She will soon appear on The Hallmark Channel in Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

    Cancer free? Maybe not. But Valerie Harper is living one heck of a life just the same. Her amazing outlook sets a wonderful example for all.

    Image via YouTube

  • Valerie Harper Sends Message to “Carry On”

    When ABC news asked Valerie Harper why she wanted to do the physically challenging reality show “Dancing With the Stars” after her terminal brain cancer diagnosis, the TV star, responded, “Don’t die until you’re dead!”

    Here’s a look at her most recent performance:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ZZP0TQIMM

    We bid farewell to the courageous Harper, who was voted off of the reality show after a less than stellar try at a Viennese Waltz. The 74-year-old was the third contestant to be eliminated from the show, but Harper, has no regrets. She told “The Dancing With the Stars” audience after her elimination, “It has been absolutely wonderful. Completely unique, nothing else like in the world that you would ever do. And it was an opportunity for me to carry a message to folks, not just with cancer, but with whatever challenge. Carry on, carry on.”

    Harper is no stranger to dancing. She began her career as a dancer at Radio City Music Hall. She also danced as a chorus girl on Broadway. The stage and screen star transitioned into acting and cut her comedic teeth with the famous Second City Comedy Troupe in Chicago. She got her big career break in 1970 when she was cast as Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Harper went on to win four Emmy Awards playing opposite Moore’s girl-next-store type. Rhoda was Moore’s best friend and tell-it-like-it-is sidekick. The character became so iconic that Harper was given her own spinoff, simply titled, “Rhoda.”

    Harper was initially told by doctors that she had just three to six months to live following her diagnosis of Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis, a rare cancer that affects the brain and spinal cord. But the survivor is eight months out and Harper has stated that the cancer may be close to remission.

    The Twitter World showed Harper some love after her elimination:

    Image via Facebook

  • Valerie Harper Not Sad About DWTS Elimination

    Valerie Harper is the third celebrity dancer to be eliminated from “Dancing With The Stars”, but she says she has no regrets.

    The 74-year old iconic actress went into the competition while battling brain cancer, and although doctors told her at one point that she only had a few months to live, Harper brushed it aside in the hopes that she could inspire others who are fighting the good fight.

    “It has been absolutely wonderful — completely unique, like nothing else in the world that you would ever do,” she said. “It was an opportunity for me to carry a message to folks, not just with cancer, whatever they have — whatever challenge.”

    Doctors were astounded to find that Harper was regaining her health after such a grim diagnosis earlier this year, but after fighting lung cancer–which eventually spread to the membranes around her brain–that’s exactly what she did.

    “I’d say that we’re getting pretty close to a remission,” neuro-oncologist Jeremy Rudnick said on the “Today” show. “It defies the odds.”

    Harper, who fought back knee problems and a lack of any formal dance training during her time on the show, said she leaves with no regrets.

    “I never expected to go past the first elimination,” she told CNN. “I really didn’t, and here I am! I got to dance four times with this guy and proved some things to myself.”

    Image: screenshot via CNN

  • Valerie Harper Beating Brain Cancer, May Head To “DWTS”

    Valerie Harper announced earlier this year that she was fighting terminal brain cancer and said that the doctors had only given her a few months to live, but now they say she’s close to beating it against all odds.

    “I’d say that we’re getting pretty close to a remission,” neuro-oncologist Jeremy Rudnick said on the “Today” show. “It defies the odds.”

    Harper, who has already beaten lung cancer, made headlines earlier this month when she accepted a role in the television movie “The Town That Came A-Courtin’”, and now there are reports that she’ll be joining actress Leah Remini on the dancefloor for the upcoming season of “Dancing With The Stars”.

    The show doesn’t reveal the new cast until they’re ready, so nothing has been confirmed, but if Harper competes this season she’ll be proving her already tough-as-nails outlook.

    Remini has also been in the news this year after making a break from the church of Scientology; the actress reportedly didn’t agree with the group’s methods of teaching and garnered quite a bit of negative attention from church leaders by leaving.

    The new cast of “Dancing With The Stars” will be announced on September 17 on “Good Morning America”.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons

  • Valerie Harper to Join TV Movie Cast Months After Cancer Diagnosis

    Just five months after revealing to People magazine she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Valerie Harper is going to work on a TV movie.

    Harper, who was diagnosed in January with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the brain, will be joining the cast of The Town That Came A-Courtin’.

    The actress joins Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft and Lucie Guest for production in Vancouver. The movie is based on the book of the same name by author Ronda Rich, which centers around Abby Houston, an author who finds love in a small town on her book tour. Harper’s character owns a B&B in that town and helps the main character find love with the town’s mayor.

    The movie will premeire in January 2014 on the UP (Uplifting Entertainment) Channel.

    Senior Vice President for Original Programming at UP, Barbara Fisher, said: “UP is thrilled to have the always inspirational Valerie Harper as part of our talented the Town That Came A-Courtin’ cast… The uplifting, sometimes bumpy romance showcases how a community’s spirit and good will can help people connect and find each other.”

    Though Harper is battling an incurable disease, she isn’t letting it stand in the way of her work, or her humor. In her interview with People magazine, she said, “Cancer makes real what we try to obscure from ourselves. We spend our lifetimes thinking, ‘I’m never going to die.’ But cancer says, ‘Hey, not so fast.’ ”

    Most recently, Harper shot an episode of Hot in Cleveland which will air in September on TV Land. The episode is a reunion for The Mary Tyler Moore Show cast, and will feature Harper, Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore, Cloris Leachman, and Georgia Engel.

    The actress gained notoriety after playing Rhoda Morgenstern in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and continued to play the fan favorite in the spin-off, Rhoda. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for The Mary Tyler Moore Show three years in a row (1971 – 1973). She also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, for Rhoda in 1975.