Jack Klugman died in his Northridge, CA home, with wife Peggy by his side, on December 24 at the age of 90, according to his son.
"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it, and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said of the beloved star of The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E.
Two adorable dogs were stolen from their masters in separate incidents — with one still missing, leaving his 7-year-old owner heartbroken for Christmas.
Marley (pictured), little Mia Bendrat’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was stolen from in front of a Washington Heights grocery store yesterday morning.
“He’s the Grinch that stole Christmas,” Mia said of the coldhearted thief who swiped Marley, which was tied to a pole in front of La Rosa Fine Foods on Broadway.
“When my mom told me the dog was lost, I started to cry. He’s my only dog,” she said of the pet she got for Christmas two years ago from her grandmother.
Mia, and her mother, Angie Estrade, put up 150 fliers around their neighborhood in hopes of finding Marley.
“Who would do this on Christmas Eve?” Estrada fumed.
In an another puppy pilfering, thieves in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home invasion stole a 6-month-old Yorkshire terrier-Maltese, stuffed her in a bag and tossed it down a trash chute, sources said.
The dog was later rescued after the super heard her barking.
“Getting the dog back was a Christmas gift,’’ said her relieved owner, who asked that his name not be printed.
The 22-year-old man said two masked men, armed with pistols and a hammer, knocked on his door and forced their way into his home at around 3:10 a.m. Dec. 15.
Jennett Leandre, 23, was arrested and charged with assault, robbery, burglary and menacing.
Florida’s ports are steaming bow-to-bow in the race to be the world’s businest cruise ship port.
Though some publications have reported Port Canaveral in the lead with 3,761,056 million for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, PortMiami officials Monday said they had hosted 3,774,452 passengers during the same period, putting it slightly ahead. Fort Lauderdale’s PortEverglades reported 3,689,000 passengers for the period, putting it slightly behind the others in third place.
“We’re all very close,’’ said Paula Musto, PortMiami spokeswoman.
PortMiami has slipped below its previous high of 4 million plus passengers because of changing ship deployments, she said. That number is expected to again cruise past 4 million in 2013 as several new ships homeport in Miami.
Jane Wooldridge
A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed while riding his bicycle in Miami over the weekend, and on Monday his family will ask for help finding the killer.
Bryan Herrera was riding his bike Saturday afternoon, going to a friend’s house, when he was shot, according to Miami police. He was struck once, near Northwest 11th Avenue and 39th Street in Allapattah, police said.
Officers found him a few minutes after 11 a.m., after receiving a call to 911 saying a person had been shot and appeared to be lifeless on the ground.
Bryan was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, police said, where he died. Sunday night, police said they had very little information describing the shooter.
Bryan’s family is scheduled to speak to reporters Monday at Miami police headquarters.
Investigators asked anyone with information to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 305-471-8477.
It's no secret that country star Blake Shelton has had an incredibly successful year, from having six number one hits in a row, being named male vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards to his win with Cassadee Pope on The Voice. And now Blake's getting candid with ET's Nancy O'Dell about a very personal aspect of his relationship with wife Miranda Lambert.
Blake is game for a ping-pong challenge with Nancy at the Langham Huntington hotel in Pasadena, California, where he reveals the craziest place he and Miranda have "made whoopee."
Video: Blake Stresses Over Miranda's XMas Gift
"Probably just like, in the truck, back at home -- back in the woods," he surprisingly answers. "We're kinky -- we like to know that wild animals are watching us."
He also admits to appreciating his fellow Voice coach Christina Aguilera's racy getups on the show.
"As much as I enjoy breathing air," he jokes about just how much he enjoys Christina's low-cut tops. "I am a normal guy after all."
Video: Christina & Blake Bring Down the House With New Duet
Check out the video to hear Blake turn the tables on Nancy, when he starts asking her the hard questions!
A man is fighting for his life after being mowed down by a drunken driver in Queens this morning, authorities said.
The 27-year-old victim was crossing Astoria Boulevard and 96th Street at 2 a.m. when he was hit by a Jeep Wrangler, police said.
The 48-year-old driver was allegedly drunk at the time of the accident, police said. He has been taken into custody and charges against him are pending, police said.
The victim was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital, where he is in critical but stable condition, cops said.
Real estate baron Jay I. Kislak discovered a Fountain of Youth of sorts that springs from an inquisitive and acquisitive mind.
At 90, Kislak is wheeling and dealing in real estate, and he’s exploring history and art with the fervor of a man generations younger.
The patriarch of The Kislak Organization marked 74 years in real estate this year, 59 spent in Miami.
While he has long since appointed a protégé, Thomas Bartelmo, as president and CEO of the diverse family-owned real-estate businesses, Kislak remains chairman. And he is a regular at the headquarters in Miami Lakes.
That is, when he’s not off to Maine for the summer.
Or busy chairing a blue-ribbon commission named by the U.S. Interior Secretary to orchestrate the 450th anniversary in 2015 of the founding of St. Augustine.
Or jetting off to evaluate a possible acquisition. (Kislak recently looked at the potential for real estate development in North Dakota, booming with shale oil, but decided to pass.)
Kislak’s empire has gone through dramatic changes over the years. He built — and eventually sold — commercial banking, mortgage servicing and insurance firms.
Today, with annual revenue in excess of $28 million, his organization focuses on the commercial brokerage business started by his father, Julius Kislak, in Hoboken, N.J., more than a century ago; on owning a portfolio of apartments and other property (Kislak is on the prowl for more), and on managing funds of property-tax certificates, a niche created by the economic downturn.
Looking out his office window at a bustling interchange recently, Kislak mused: “I remember when they built the Palmetto Expressway and you could drive down it and never see another car.”
“The same thing with I-95: There was hardly any traffic,” said Kislak, a slender man with a signature mustache and a thick Hoboken accent that never faded.
Kislak moved to Miami in 1953 to grow the mortgage business, but his world view hardly dates to 1950s Florida. Already a book lover, he began pulling on a thread of Florida history, soon broadening his interest to the early Americas.
Over the decades, Kislak, bankrolled by a stream of brokerage commissions, mortgage fees and apartment rent, grew into a prominent collector of rare books and maps, manuscripts, artifacts and art to feed his fascination with the pre-Columbian era and the European exploration of America.
His wife Jean Kislak shares his passion for collecting. They met at a party for Andy Warhol; it would be her second marriage, his third. Their quest for art, history and collecting has taken them to all continents, even Antarctica.
“We don’t quit [collecting]. But we are going to quit,” said Jean, a former corporate art director. “Acquisition has always been a part of my life. I don’t know if it’s a sickness.”
In 2004, Kislak gave away much of the treasure. His foundation donated more than 3,000 rare maps, manuscripts, paintings and artifacts to the Library of Congress. The gift, estimated to be worth in excess of $150 million, is housed in the ornate Thomas Jefferson building in an exhibit that bears his name. Kislak also funds fellowships for studies of the collection, part of his diverse efforts over the years to support education. Among other things, his family foundation endowed the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, N.J., and has provided key support to a real estate program at Florida State University.
TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott went to college with one goal: make money.
He didn’t join a fraternity or become active in student government. He took only the classes he needed for his degree and not a credit more.
Married when he attended community college, he paid for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with help from the G.I. Bill. And he worked full time in a donut shop he purchased with a friend.
The boy who grew up wanting to be rich knew from the start he wanted to become an attorney.
For Scott, college was a means to an end. Now he wants Florida colleges and universities to have the same razor-sharp focus — rein in tuition costs and create cheaper degrees that can get graduates jobs.
It’s an approach to higher education that has put Scott at odds with educators who argue dollars and cents aren’t the only factors determining the worth of a degree.
But Scott is convinced his ideas are best for the bottom lines of both the state and students.
And he’s got his personal history to prove it.
Cost is cornerstone
As a kid, Scott’s family didn’t have much. He vowed to become an adult who didn’t have to worry about money.
Becoming a lawyer, however, meant earning degrees his family could not afford. So he figured out a way to pay for it himself.
“I think junior college cost $200 a semester and the university cost $255 a semester. ... I could work 40 hours a week and be able to pay for my school,” said Scott, 60.
He spent a couple of years in the Navy as a radar technician, using his spare time to pass correspondence courses that earned credit toward an associate’s degree. That military experience made him eligible for financial aid through the G.I. Bill.
He returned home and attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City to earn a bachelor’s degree in 1975. But he also worked full time running a donut shop and set aside money that, along with his federal financial aid, paid for a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
As governor, cost is now the cornerstone of Scott’s higher education policy. He worries that tuition increases are putting college out of reach for working-class families like his.
“My wife and I put ourselves through college. We would not have been able to do it with tuition as high as it is today,” Scott said in a recent weekly radio address. “We must make our colleges more affordable for Florida families.”
He called on universities to halt tuition increases and vetoed a bill last year that would have allowed top-tier schools like the University of Florida and Florida State University to charge whatever they wanted in tuition.
More recently, state colleges have lined up to meet Scott’s challenge to create bachelor’s programs that cost $10,000 or less.
Universities have told Scott they are willing to hold the line on tuition, but only if the state agrees to contribute additional funding.
“I actually believe what Gov. Scott is saying about keeping tuition low is great,” said FSU President Eric Barron. “But that means then that the state has to fund the universities if we’re going to maintain the quality that the citizens in the state of Florida deserve.”
Pushing ‘practical’ degrees
But it’s not just the cost of degrees.
What had ET readers buzzing this week?
1. 'The X Factor' Crowns A Winner!
And the $5 million recording contract goes to…
Tate Stevens! The 37-year-old country crooner beat out runner-up 13-year-old Carly Rose Sonenclar for the top prize Thursday night. 35 million votes were cast Wednesday to determine victory for L.A. Reid's mentee.
Near tears, the Raymore, Missouri native thanked his fans for their overwhelming support.
"This is the best day of my life," said an emotional Stevens.
Girl group Fifth Harmony, mentored by Simon Cowell, placed third in the competition. Earlier in the night, the holiday themed finale saw performances by One Direction and Pitbull.
Auditions for an all-new season of The X Factor USA have already begun online. In-person auditions will start on March 6, 2013 in Los Angeles.
The celebrity judging panel has yet to be announced, but L.A. Reid has already taken himself out of the running. Spears has expressed interest in returning to the show for season three, but nothing has been confirmed.
2. Miss Universe 2012 Crowned
Beauties from 89 countries strutted their stuff Wednesday night in pursuit of the Miss Universe crown, but only one woman would earn the coveted title.
In the end a panel of ten celebrity judges, including Cee Lo Green and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, appointed Miss USA Olivia Culpo the winner.
The 20-year-old Rhode Island native beat out Miss Brazil (Gabriela Markus) Miss Philippines (Janine Tugonon), Miss Mexico (Irene Sofía Esser Quintero), and Miss Australia (Renae Ayris) for the distinction.
Culpo follows in the footsteps of Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, who earned the crown in 2011.
The two-hour show was broadcast live from Las Vegas with musical acts One Direction and Train lending their talents to the annual extravaganza.
3. Exclusive: Arsenio on His Late Night TV Return
Break out the Woof! Woof! fist pump: Arsenio Hall is coming back to late night TV in the Fall of 2013 after a 17-year break from the game, and only ET is behind the scenes with the timeless talk show host as he shoots his first-ever promo for The Arsenio Hall Show!
"[This is] the first time America will see anything on television about the show," says Arsenio. "Instead of a commercial where I do something like say, 'I'm baaaaack' -- and everybody's, 'Ugh' -- they've come up with a real, unique, creative angle that -- actually, I looked at dailies, and it scared me. I looked at the dailies and I frightened myself."
The trailer-length promo from CBS Television Distribution pays homage to horror movies and begins airing today on all Arsenio Hall Show affiliate stations, kicking off the campaign for the new late night syndicated talk show that will be seen all across the country next year.
"I'm real excited about this; so many things have changed in pop culture since I left the air," says Arsenio about his return to late night. "I can't wait."
The Arsenio Hall Show premieres on 9/9/13. Look for much more with Arsenio between now and then, only on ET!
4. Claire Danes Gives Birth
It's a boy!
Homeland star Claire Danes and her husband Hugh Dancy welcomed their very first child together on Monday, December 17, her rep confirms to People Magazine.
The proud parents named their bouncing baby boy Cyrus Michael Christopher Dancy.
Danes, 33, wed Dancy, 37, in 2009 after two years of dating.
5. President Obama is Time's Person of the Year
For 2012, Time Magazine has selected President Barack Obama as their Person of the Year.
"For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is Time's 2012 Person of the Year," Time's Managing Editor Richzard Stengel explained.
He also cited both of the president's re-elections, snagging over 50 percent of the popular vote, as one reason he received this honor.
This is the second year Time has tapped Obama as their Person of the Year -- he previously was selected in 2008 for becoming the first black president of the United States.
Time previously named the eight finalists for 2012's Person of the Year. They included: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Malala Yousafzai (the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for her crusade for better girls' education), Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and the three scientists who discovered the Higgs Boson particle.
There are certain Christmas traditions that seem like they’ve been with us forever, from putting aside December 25 to celebrate the birth of the sun, to our collective worship of the great god Woden.
On second though, maybe things have changed more than we like to admit.
“The History of Christmas,” a new e-book by Wyatt North, recounts the history of many of the Christmas traditions we take for granted, showing how so many of these customs are as amorphous as they are joyous.
Here are just some of the treasured beliefs North helps shed a bit of Christmas light upon.
AP
The Rockefeller Center tree — slightly taller than Martin Luthor’s original Christmas tree.
CELEBRATING ON DECEMBER 25
North points out that early Christians in Europe “were part of an agrarian, pagan culture,” and that their early traditions included a post-harvest winter celebration called Saturnalia which “paid homage to the gods who ruled all aspects of sowing, planting and harvest.”
Consisting of “feasts, festivities and festivals” that included “conspicuous indulgence” and “raucous behavior,” Saturnalia took place in mid- to-late December to “honor the god of the sun, Saturn.”
Several other pagan celebrations — including one praising the birth of “the unconquerable sun” and another that worshipped “Mithra, the god of fertility, who was the son of the sun” — took place on the birth date of their gods, December 25.
Early Christian converts, writes North, were torn between the massive (and enjoyable) pagan feasts they had come to know and the life of relative moral austerity to which they were committing. As such, Christian celebrations often carried pagan elements over from their prior beliefs.
Understandably, this caused dissension between strictly religious Christians and those with a more lax and nostalgic approach, especially as some Christians continued worshipping the sun. North tells of how, in the 5th century, “Pope Leo lamented in a sermon that upon entering the basilica to celebrate Christ’s nativity, worshippers turned on the stairs to face the rising sun and bowed.”
When an 8th century English bishop was “horrified” by the “pagan debauchery” he saw over Christmastime in Rome, he wrote to Pope Zacharias, who in turn unleashed a barrage of cruelty and violence in order to curb the practice, establishing a tradition of Saturnalia horror that lasted for centuries.
But within this, the holiday also evolved, with 1103 seeing the introduction of the Old English phrase “Cristes-Maesse,” meaning the Mass of Christ. That phrase eventually morphed into the word we know today.
While the celebration itself remained controversial for centuries, so too was the date of this worship, as North reminds us that “the exact date of Christ’s birth is a controversial topic.” December 25 had been revered by early pagans, but Christians long settled on January 6 as their day of “epiphany, meaning God’s manifestation to humanity.”
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