Former child actress Dana Plato’s drug-overdose death was ruled a suicide Friday, not an accident as initially believed.
The former star, 34, of the NBC sitcom Diff’rent Strokes died May 8 while visiting her fiance’s parents in Moore, Okla. Police initially said she died of an accidental overdose of a painkiller and Valium.
But Dr. Larry E. Balding, deputy state medical examiner, said Friday that she had fatal concentrations of the muscle relaxant Soma and a generic form of the painkiller Lortab in her body. Balding said the death was ruled a suicide because of the high level of drugs and her history of suicidal tendencies. She did not leave a suicide note.
Rosalyn Carter admonishes Nestle
Rosalynn Carter is criticizing candy maker Nestle as insensitive toward the mentally ill for producing taffy bars with the names Psycho Sam and Loony Larry.
“Nestle says those names are just jokes, they don’t hurt — but they do hurt,” the former first lady said Thursday. “They hurt people who are mentally ill, and they hurt their families.”
Carter, author of a new book on treatment of the mentally ill, made her remarks during a fund-raising luncheon for a mental-health counseling service in East Windsor, Conn.
Nestle spokeswoman Tricia Bowles said “there’s no disrespect or ill intent” in the company’s candy names, which are “created out of humor.”
“Those names are characters on the packaging with funny faces,” she said.
Not Janis Joplin’s old house after all
A drug rehab center in the San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district isn’t in Janis Joplin’s old house after all.
The Golden Gate Community rehab center, tapping local legend, said in a news release earlier this week that it is operating out of a Victorian home where the singer who died of a heroin overdose in 1970 once lived. But her 1960s cohorts soon turned up to set the record straight: She lived next door. Indeed, Joplin’s California driver’s license listed her address as 122 Lyon. The center is at 124 Lyon.
Take these guns and destroy ’em
Sharon Stone, distressed by the Columbine High School massacre, has given her guns to police and asked that they destroy them.
The actress, who played a gunslinger in the 1995 movie The Quick and the Dead, called officers to her Beverly Hills, Calif., home on May 14 to pick up her shotgun and three handguns.
“Our world has changed and our children are in danger,” Stone said Thursday in a statement. “I choose to surrender my right to bear arms in exchange for the peace of mind of doing the right thing.”
Stone urged others to surrender their guns, too.
No cheers for this judge
Woody Harrelson and a federal judge clashed during a marijuana cultivation trial in Sacramento, Calif., and the Cheers actor nearly landed in jail. Harrelson was appearing Thursday as a defense witness for a friend accused of growing marijuana. The actor is an outspoken advocate of hemp cultivation.
On the stand, he disobeyed U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr.’s orders not to discuss certain matters that had been ruled inadmissible. “I’m just wondering why you’re keeping the truth from the jury,” Harrelson said. As he stepped down from the stand, he snapped: “How do you sleep at night?”
Up to the dancing and the singing
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now a song-and-dance woman.
The Seinfeld actress is heading back to TV, teaming up with Drew Carey for a Wonderful World of Disney musical retelling of the Pinocchio story that will be titled Geppetto. Shooting begins next month, the show will be broadcast next May.
Louis-Dreyfus plays the Blue Fairy who grants Geppetto’s wish for a son. While one Seinfeld episode portrayed her character as dance-challenged, the actress said she’s up to the dancing — and the singing. “I haven’t cut any albums, but I’m pretty capable,” she said Thursday in Los Angeles.
ALMANAC
It’s the 142nd day of the year; 223 days are left in 1999. On this day:
In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a “Pact of Steel” committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance.
In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.
In 1972, the island nation of Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka.
Thought for today: “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.” — British author Norman Douglas (1868-1952)
Today’s birthdays: Movie reviewer Judith Crist, 77; singer Charles Aznavour; 75; actor Michael Constantine, 72; conductor Peter Nero, 65; actor Paul Winfield; 58; model Naomi Campbell, 29.
