Bea Arthur
Shit, you think this is tacky? They’re probably negotiating the product placement contracts for her funeral even as we speak!
Shut the fuck up about shutting the fuck up, says this avid reader of your blog. You are SO, non-self pitying already.
Anybody have the famous poster of her signed? Hold onto it…
This morning as I was getting ready to go to work I saw an ad about “The Ghost Whisperer” James Van Praagh (a man whose ethics would raise eyebrows on Professor Harold Hill, the Duke and the Dauphin, and Charles Ponzi) discusses Bea’s spirit. Link
Praagh’s razor sharp psychic clarity senses that Bea was in a lot of pain before she passed over and was actually relieved to go (the fact she was a month away from her 87th birthday and died of cancer being his only clues to this- how does he do it?). The interviewer, rather than tossing scalding hot cappucino in his face and pissing on him while the camera roles, decides to be really offensive by asking if Bea and Estelle Getty have reunited yet, to which Van Praagh says he’s sure Estelle came to get her.
Aw’ight…
You know that Estelle Getty wasn’t Bea’s real mother, right? One piece of evidence is the fact she was over a year younger than Bea.
In the second place, I don’t know how close the relationship was between Getty and Arthur, but I doubt he does either. All we really know is that they were co-workers. I think it’d be sort of horrifying if when I died some of my former co-workers came to get me. Some I’d probably think it was the scene where the bad guys get killed in GHOST and run like hell from the demons (pausing only long enough to appreciate the semantic irony), with others I’d probably smile and hug and try to remember what the hell their daughter/boyfriend/husband/son’s name was while wondering “Why him/her? I haven’t even thought of them since 1994.”.
Even if they became like sisters Bea Arthur barely knew Estelle Getty before they were in their 60s if they knew each other at all and I’m guessing there’s any number of relatives, friends, lovers, and dogs who’ve ‘crossed the shining river’ that she’d rather see in the Welcome Wagon when she rides into ValHalla.
I think “well, it’s just silly entertainment show, nobody takes this charlatan seriously”, but he earns a fortune for his readings. If only I didn’t have scruples, cause I could do the dog and pony show a LOT better than that flake.
Okay, I laughed. 
Y’know, as a reference librarian, you’re probably in as good a position as anyone to find a resource that will teach you how to ditch those…
But surely this is her choice. Probably not the way you or I would like to see our lives ending but the way she has chosen.
The majority of us would be happy to never be in the spotlight that she has lived in, but she has lived in that spotlight (albeit a spotlight kept artificialy aglow- Charlies Angels and THAT poster lasted a long time) but Farrah obviously loved that spotlight.
Now when her life is nearly over she is making us remember her (something that matters more to her than us) and given her celebrity at one time why wouldn’t she want to relive that feeling. She is probably going through her memory remembering firstly her family but undoubtly that time when she was IT.
I won’t watch her programme but if making it made a difference to her, made her feel acknowledged well good for her.
Cancer is a terrible thing, is Farrah’s cancer more or less terrible because she wants us to see it?
Thank you. Come back for the Sunday matinee. I’m here all week.
You know the question was ‘which celebrity recently died with dignity?’ and I think Bea Arthur was an answer to that question that could not be denied.
As far as knowing Estelle Getty was not Bea Arthur’s mother…well next you will try telling me that Ross and Rachel were not on a break.
Van Praagh, is that you?
It’s ANAL cancer! Now I have to see it too?? :eek:
Well obviously Farrah’s ass cancer is not a lawyer…
Oh, sorry. Dope Force of habit.
That would be IANAL cancer. Pay attention!
Of course it’s here choice – but it’s a really tacky choice, and that is what is being pitted here.
And did they have evidence that her kid recovered from autism?
There are dignified ways that she could have raised awareness of anal-rectal cancer. What she’s been doing is not one of them.
Its difficult to imagine having a public persona that so utterly dominated your existence that dying itself becomes a public exhibition. Totally creeps me out.
Its difficult to imagine that people are so hateful that they have a problem with a dying woman showcasing her situation to others who are obviously interested.
I can understand why people have a problem with Farrah Fawcett and her lifelong drama, but this, “Shut up and die already.” dehumanization of her is more disgusting than anal-rectal cancer.
I don’t think anyone is wishing death on her, merely commenting that the relentless publicizing of that death is unseemly.