Hey, folks! I just found out that quirky actress and former Ashton Kutcher flame Brittany Murphy has died. She was 32. I enjoyed Murphy's voice-over work on the animated TV series King of the Hill and in cutesy movies like Just Married (co-starring then-boyfriend Kutcher) and Uptown Girls (a collaboration with Hollyweird's woman-child du jour Dakota Fanning). I also think she was superb in more disturbing fare, especially in regards to her role as Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder's bulimic, suicidal fellow mental institution inmate in Girl, Interrupted. In addition, she did a good job alongside Alicia Silverstone in the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Emma, Clueless, and was pretty funny in the hilarious Kirsten Dunst beauty pageant film Drop Dead Gorgeous. Lastly, she was excellent as Drew Barrymore's character's best friend in the based-on-a-true-story vehicle (pardon the pun) Riding in Cars with Boys. So, this is a very sad story indeed.
Okay, now for some really important news: Iran's foremost dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, passed away today at age 87. Montazeri was a "spiritual father" who led the opposition movement against the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. Throughout his distinguished career, Montazeri accused fundamentalist clerics of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam. This past summer, he energized a youth-led contingent of activists and protesters-- supporters of opposition party leader Mir Hossein Mousavi-- who railed against the re-election of incumbent radical Iranian president Mahmoud Amhadinejad. Montazeri bravely and openly decried the arrests of many of these dissidents as "despotic treatment" at the hands of ruling theocrats. In addition, he denounced current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as being unfit to rule. Most importantly, Montazeri broke taboos against civil disobedience. For these reasons, his passing is a significant current event. (Note: I found so much info on Montazeri while conducting research for this post that there will be further discussions of his life and work in upcoming ones. As always, stay tuned.)
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