Kirstie Alley passed away after a cancer battle at the age of 71. [Seriously OMG]
Lainey on Prince William’s nothingburger “Super Bowl” mess. [LaineyGossip]
George Clooney was feted at the Kennedy Center Honors. [Dlisted]
Jodie Turner-Smith looked incredible in Saudi Arabia. [Tom & Lorenzo]
I can’t believe AppleTV has paid for four seasons of Servant. [Pajiba]
Jenna Ortega had Covid when she filmed that Wednesday dance scene!! [JustJared]
Kate Winslet is in Avatar 2 & she wore leather pants. [GFY]
Again, Elizabeth Debicki looked amazeballs last night. [RCFA]
Honestly, I would love a McDonald’s gold card. [Buzzfeed]
It’s about time for a queer reimagining of Hamlet! [Towleroad]
Barbara Palvin wants us to buy coffee or something. [Egotastic]
This is true – Absolutely Fabulous is an ageless classic (with thin ankles). [Gawker]
I always got the impression that under her humor and downright bitter and at times dangerous opinions, Kirstie Alley was a sad and lost soul. She was a talented actor and gone too soon. Cancer sucks.
I was really turned off by her Co$ malarkey. It really soured her. I didn’t feel a bit sad about this death compared to other celebrities.
I always feel a little depressed to see someone waste so much of their lives being in a cult and spreading hate and lies. She just never, ever seemed happy and turned that hatred towards others and now she’ll never have the chance to undue the harm.
I mourn the woman she used to be and the woman she could have been. She brought a lot of joy and comfort to my life in earlier times.
It wasn’t just the $cientology cult for me.
she was also a big trump supporter and was pretty homophobic.
I feel bad for her family who may (or may not) miss her, but as far as society goes…? eh, no big loss IMO.
I always thought so too. She had her struggles, past substance abuse, etc – which made her a perfect target for Scientology. It’s sad she ended up going that route, and devoting so much of her life to it, because she seemed rather sad and angry for so long, and put even more of that out in the world. It’s a shame she never got away from it, but maybe she would have been the same person, regardless.
She was absolutely brilliantly funny on Cheers. A real talent. Lost to Scientology, such a shame. RIP.
Well…bye, Kirstie.
I’m obsessed with the Wednesday dance scene.
My daughter is too. If it surpassed Stranger Things there’s a reason.
RIP Kirstie
Pandora Boxx had a wonderful Facebook post about Kirstie, with a screenshot of the fact that Alley had blocked her. She said that while she did not agree with her politics, Kirstie had given the world so many great characters and performances.
My mom is both a big time Star Trek fan and loved Cheers. I remember how pissed she was at Rebecca’s story resolution in the finale because it had been advertised as some big twist. I wondered how she would take the news. It was such a surprise. I don’t know if Kirstie didn’t tell people because she wanted privacy, or that her recent politics had made the media reluctant or disinterested in covering her.
Unfortunately,right now in America (and other places, I know) there is clearly a right side and a wrong side. Kirstie aligned herself with the wrong side. But she was also a talented woman and a human being. I feel sorry for her family and those that loved her for their loss. I hope she is at peace now.
it was reportedly recently diagnosed. scientology has a deep distrust of doctors and the medical profession so unfortunately a lot of them die of cancer with very little treatment. it’s horrifying.
Kristie Alley’s devotion to Scientology was a huge turn off but I did enjoy her as an actor.
I thought she was much younger than 71, guess I’m losing track of time.
For her childrens’ sake I will say RIP. Losing a parent is hard.
Kirstie was talented in her work. But for me, I can’t get past her CoS.
CoS is a cult. Period.
Me too.
I live in LA, and I drive my 12 year old son along the routes where the lowest level scientologists are out canvassing, or whatever they call it. Each and every time, I talk to him about how people who really want to help you, won’t ask for money or to test you for anything, and if he is ever asked for either, to walk away.
This is what Kirstie Alley, and the A-list actors who claim scientology brought them any measure of peace, have perpetuated.
Heads up, Tom and John, your female leads in the cult have died. You still can’t kiss boys, according to your cult.
Between her COS membership and her allegiance to Donald Trump and the Jan 6 Insurrectionists in her later years I don’t know how to feel. The absolute dishonesty, cruelty, and racism inherent in supporting that man and the disgusting coup attempt…she wrecked her legacy.
This she verbally attacked, harassed and bullied many people online sending hateful comments.
Yes, exactly, she was very abusive to people online.
I hope Kirstie is resting in peace, although Scientology states that after death, “the thetan [one’s soul] is carried to a landing station on Venus where it is reprogrammed, put in a capsule, and then sent back to earth where it wanders in search of a baby to inhabit”. I sincerely hope this is not the case and she’s in a happy, peaceful place. Cancer sucks.
Really? Oh my….how can those people believe in all that crap, I mean seriously???!!!
I mean, I personally believe that God sent a part of himself in to a young woman to immaculately conceive a child, and that child grew up to speak peace and love, before being executed and then rising from the dead.
Scientology isn’t my bag but everyone’s beliefs sound strange when you lay them out like that.
@Frippery they 100% do. It might be worth considering why.
Well, I don’t believe in any organized religion really, so it all kind of sounds crazy to me. I prefer to read what the Dalai Lama has to say and to just try to be a decent human while I’m on this earth, I don’t always succeed, but I give it a go.
The immaculate conception refers to the conception of Mary, not Jesus.
*runs and hides* (sorry, the catholic school girl in me still pops out at times.)
I’m not religious, but yeah in general, when you lay out any religion’s beliefs, it can start to look a little…..strange.
@becks Fellow Catholic here! 👋 Was about to say, Mary’s was the immaculate conception not Jesus.
I personally never found the immaculate or any other conception story weird, instead the whole “eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ every Sunday” always freaked me out. Like say no to cannibalism. Of all the messages Jesus was trying to spread, eating him was not the one I think he’d want getting this much focus, lol.
@Mellie: the Dalai Lama is the head of an Organizer religion though… an organized Religion who selects its leaders by looking for divine indicators of which child is the reborn former leader. Like, I have no problems with the current Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism or Buddhism in general, but it absolutely is an Organized religion (and as with all big organized religions also has some problematic aspects and scandals).
What???? Sigh.
Well that’s basically a more update sci-fi version of Buddhism and Hinduism so why the surprise?
Honestly, all religious belief makes no sense and can be considered nonsense or worse, but Scientology’s problems are not their beliefs but their behavior on this plane and in this form….
Alley’s death is sad only in the generic way, the way any death is sad because it is so final and the sadness comes from people who cared about the deceased. But specifically to her . . . I think she hurt people in pushing scientology, narconon, and Trump, so I’m not sad on an individual level. But that is the legacy we leave behind when we make choices.
Perfectly said. I still find it weird, only because she was a fixture of my childhood and her death was so sudden. It was shocking, but so was the change in her behaviour when Trump ran for president. That wasn’t at all what I expected from her. Not that it was some kind of personal betrayal, lol, but I think we all like to believe that the celebrities we like are basically decent people, and sometimes they aren’t.
Thank you Celebitchy, for providing somewhere for me to start to process the death of Kirstie. I met her a billion years ago when I was madly in love with and engaged to a co-star of hers in a movie. She was quirky, funny, sad, tried too hard to get me (no one important to her) to like her. Her persona never left me.
I didn’t marry the guy. He’s still a ‘movie star.’ We still talk a little. I still love him in that cute, old-times kind of way. I ponder what like would have looked like had I taken the plunge of moving to Studio City and giving my life over to his dreams and aspirations. I think I would have been as sad as Kirstie always seemed to be.
Just gonna take a day to sit in my stuff.
Thank you for sharing your personal experience with her. I’m sorry for the way her death has affected you. I hope that the perspective you gain from some reflection is a positive one.
I really wish we had a bit more of a sophisticated commenting system here because I’d say hit me up or private message me if you need to talk at all.
@ Frippery, thank you for your kind words. I think reflection most often leads us to a more positive place.
My reflection and conversations with that old love confirm that I made the right, albeit difficult, decision many years ago to not be involved in that lifestyle. Right for some, not for me.
It would be nice to be able to DM peeps on here, we are a nice group, for the most part!
Holy shit.
Evidence that intent cannot be measured online is here.
GuiltyPleasure sending hugs to you. I knew her too. I have been so upset all day. I was thinking of her two days ago. Her death has hit me hard.
Kristie dated my brother when she lived in Wichita. They stayed close even after they broke up. It was a teenage love. She was my first role model. She was so beautiful and sweet. I remember she would carry me around constantly. Giving me lots of hugs and kisses. My brother used to say she never wanted to let me go. I was young back then. All through the years every time she spoke to my brother she would ask about me and tell me she loved me. I lost my brother three years ago.
Reading some of these comments is gut wrenching. Scientology is an abusive religion that takes vulnerable people with emotional and mental health issues and abuses them. My Dad and brother tried to help Kristie. There was only so much they could do.
I remember the last time I saw Kristie I ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me close as just sweet Kristie my big “sister” not Kristie the big movie star. She truly was a sweet soul. I will miss her.
@ Geyla, I’m sorry for your feeling of loss. You had a much deeper relationship with her, I only met her a handful of times. I did try to hold a position of curiousity with regard to how her life, religion and politics played out.
We are complex creatures, aren’t we?
I hope you are feeling better.
I’m really enjoying Wednesday, but man, it makes me deeply uncomfortable that she filmed the dance scene with COVID. It sounds as though they were waiting for a test result and she was symptomatic. She shouldn’t have been allowed on that set without a mask on — such a huge risk to the others around her, and to her own health. Big fail on the part of the leadership on set.
I was thinking the same thing. I get that it’s inconvenient for the world to come to a grinding halt every time someone has a scratchy throat, but this is still where we are right now. Seems like such a risk!
The DM is reporting Kirstie had only recently diagnosed colon cancer, which is terrible. I met her briefly once and she was very polite and funny.
She was bat sh*t crazy, but she still should RIP!
I have heard more than once that she was a really nice person, we never know why people are the way they are online. People put up defensive masks a lot.
I also had a friend who was a poet in the 90s, he was as madly in love with her. I remember a performance, in a lifetime movie of all things, of hers that really stayed with me.
RIP Kirstie
I have heard the same things. Not to defend the Church of Scientology, but Kirstie defended it with her whole heart online (and interviews) and was attacked and ridiculed constantly because of it. I don’t agree with her at all, but she was in a cult for decades. ..Totally brainwashed. It must take a toll on you to be constantly attacked for something you truly believe in. I don’t blame her for defending herself. I feel pretty sad that she spent so much of her life in that cult though. She was very talented and I loved her show Fat Actress. It didn’t last long, but she was really funny in it. RIP I wish her children and loved ones well.
Her Scientology wasn’t the problem, her Trumpism was.
@Mel, I would argue that her Scientology was a big part of the problem. It’s a cult, the same as Trumpism is, only branded and official. In a way, I do feel sorry for her. Scientology brainwashing goes deep, and it’s within that framework that I’ve tried to understand and contextualize some of her behaviour. I’m not excusing her by any means. I used to like her, but her support for Trump was an instant turn-off. I stopped following her on Twitter in, like, 2009 because she was just too mouthy, even back then. I think that she was mixed up in a lot of ways. I hope her family is able to find peace.
We don’t know what she was suffering with the last years of her life to make her act differently. We do know that she died of cancer so she was in a lot of pain in the end. I don’t see the point of bashing someone when they just died. Does it make people feel better that she suffered at the end? She provided me with some great movie memories and that’s what I will remember her by.
The women was a racist, but I’m not surprised how many of you so easily over look that.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR4GuXv7/
She blocked me on Twitter after I challenged her on Scientology. But cancer sucks and no one deserves it. I’m sad for her family and friends, I really feel for Travolta, after he lost his wife to cancer too.
I grew up watching Alley in a lot of shows and movies and she was undisputedly talented. She really seemed to go full blown MAGA online, which was disheartening, so tuned her out these last few years . She’s the same age as my dad so it is sad when someone dies like this. People are complicated and messy. RIP.
I feel sorry for her children on the loss of their Mother. She showed herself to be a truly awful person nevertheless cancer is the worst, no one deserves it.
I was wondering how her Cheers co-stars would respond. Ted and Rhea wrote beautiful tributes to her. What I found sad was that they spoke of her in the past tense, not only because she had died, but because it seemed as though they had not kept in touch or stayed close over the years. I don’t know about Rhea, but Ted has always been an outspoken Democrat, and we all know which way Kirstie leaned for the better part of her life. So, it’s sad to me that they seem to have lost a friend twice, once when she was alive, and now this time forever. I could just be fictionalizing and reading too far into things, but that was the sense that I got.
Kelsey Grammer’s reaction was exactly what I would have expected from him, lol. So Frasier-like. Laughs aside, he’s absolutely right: Grief is such a private and often complicated thing. I know that when someone dies, we all want to hear from those who knew them, but I think it must be hard when you’re essentially required to collect your thoughts and put them into a tidy PR-ready package for the media. It’s a lot of pressure.
Off topic Re: Kirstie Alley.
Click on the story above for Catherine Zeta-Jones and her son Dylan.
Holy cow do I want the dress she is wearing! Gorgeous. Certainly not one I could afford or wear well but, I’d like to buy it, have it framed and enjoy looking at it every day.
Btw, Dylan is the son of C Z-J and Michael Douglas…good looking young man.
I’m one of the few people that liked Veronica’s Closet. RIP Kirstie!
She had a great head of hair.
After having enjoyed Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday, it’s upsetting to learn that she worked on a crowded set while symptomatic and ill. We enjoyed the dance scene, but we still would have enjoyed the dance scene had it been filmed safely while cast and crew were healthy.
Kirstie Alley was a deeply problematic person who I remember mostly for her views on Trump, the conspiracy-driven insurrection of January 6, anti-vaxx stance, anti-science, and inhumane Scientology. If anything positive comes from her passing, let it be improved care and treatment of colon cancer now that it’s in the news.
Jodie Turner Smith has that gift of being able to wear clothes and look spectacular! She looks brilliant in this black dress, and I loved her in the chartreuse chiffon as well.
Thanks to all of you who shared your personal experiences with Kirstie Alley. Wildly talented actress, really troubled human. I couldn’t get past the Trumpism, the Scientology and the awful things she said to strangers on social media, but hearing things from people who knew the best of her is a reminder that we do, in reality, contain multitudes.
I grew up laughing at her onscreen. And then painfully grew to abhor her and her mouth. Decades of her being a “suppressive.” She was an angry comedian who ceased to be funny then began attacking because of it.
It was such a shock to read of her passing. RIP Kirstie.
Honestly the nicest thing I can say about her based on her past behavior is she had nice hair. But this isn’t a loss I’ll mourn.