Important new sidebar poll! WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BATMAN 'SPECIAL GUEST VILLAIN' TO DIE? Vote!

Ma Parker Is Dead

Actress Shelley Winters, who played the dastardly Ma Parker in episodes 43 and 44 of Batman, is dead. Of the roughly three dozen "special guest villains" who opposed the Dynamic Duo in the feature film and series, which began 40 years ago this week, 11 are still alive:

Julie Newmar (Catwoman)
Eartha Kitt (Catwoman)
Lee Meriweather (Catwoman)
Joan Collins (The Siren)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (Minerva)
Glynis Johns (Lady Penelope Peasoup)
Cliff Robertson (Shame)
Barbara Rush (Nora Clavicle)
Malachi Throne (False Face)
Eli Wallach (Mr. Freeze)
And, frighteningly, Van Johnson (The Minstrel), who must be 150.

Services: Wednesday and Thursday, 7:30 PM, Gotham Prison Chapel.



Pix: The 1966 Batman Villains - Ma Parker and this eBay auction.

Mondovi, Wisconsin, Hello.

I know, I have to stop harping on James Frey and A Million Little Pieces. But first, two great moments from the CNN transcript of his shame-sauna with Larry King:

FREY: I don't think -- I think you could probably find people who would dispute every memoir that was ever published. And a lot of them have been disputed. When Jerzy Kosinski's "Painted Bird" came out and became a big success several years afterwards, people said, "You know what? Jerzy Kosinski never went through the Holocaust." It's happened with a number of recent memoirs. It tends to happen with a lot of the more high-profile memoirs.

KING: And Jerzy killed himself. I'm not suggesting -- Mondovi, Wisconsin, hello.

Larry later helped us understand the issue as only he could:

KING: I know that the first famous person I interviewed, let's say, was Bobby Darin. Now, I have -- that's 49 years ago. Now, maybe it was Danny Thomas, you know? And someone might write and say, you know, it was Danny Thomas before Bobby Darin. And I might say, I could have sworn it was Bobby Darin. So, that could happen.

THE NEWS EXPLAINED WITH COMIC BOOK COVERS

Linked To Scandals, Top Lobbying Firm Closes



Tensions Rise As Democrats Sharpen Questions On Alito



Batman TV Series Turns 40



Author Admits Some Of His Memoir Fabricated


Covers: The Grand Comic Book Database.

I explain the news with comic book covers pretty much every week, here and at Pulse.

Links Of Fury

The Ground Meat Cookbook, via This Is Pop!

Mideast Barbie dolls don Islamic veil, via Slog

Cheney Hospitalized, Power Not Transferred to Bush

I wake to the tweeting of birds and the feeling of something warm dripping down my snout. I lift my paw to feel my face. My bowtie is askew, my whiskers are bent, and my eyes are X's. A Million Little Meeces, by Mr. Jinks, as told to Jim Treacher.

ZAP! POW! WHEEZE!

The coolest show in TV history turns 40 today. ABC broadcast "Hi Diddle Riddle," the premiere episode of Batman, on January 12, 1966.

Bat-Signal pix: Batfriend
I was going to link you all over Bat-Hell, as I did last year. Then I saw Mike Sterling's Insanely Bat-tastic Collection Of Bat-Links. He is clearly my better; go there and start Bat-Clicking. But first, here are a few that popped up since his post, and a couple I think he missed:

• Fred Hembeck's Bat-Clippings From 1966 Newspapers & Magazines
  
• Dial B For Blog's Tribute 1 2 3 4 5
  
• Zsa Zsa Gabor, Van Johnson, & Other Surviving Bat-Villains
  
• Fab Argentine Bat-Site
• 1966 Batmobile Paper Model via Broken Glass Makes Me Laugh
  and the essential
  
• McSweeney's Analysis Of The Batman Theme!

Pieces Of Larry

James Frey e-mailed me after his appearance tonight on Larry King Live:

Larry asks me if I lied in my book.

I kick him unconscious, snort coke off his cock, and run him over with my mother's car.

The whole time, Oprah is egging me on.

Does anyone have this? I missed it.

Tom's Book Club: A Million Little Pieces

Started this the other night and couldn't stop. The parts where author/criminal James Frey puked had me crying, and the parts where he cried had me shitting. It wasn't just honest; it was Five People You Meet In Heaven honest. If you, like a person Jack Nicholson once yelled at, "can't handle the truth," then you'd better stay a hundred miles away from A Million Little Pieces!

360 Degrees of Anderson Cooper: What will he feel next? by me, at Slate.

Pic: Anderson Cooper Home Page

People In The News

Vice-President Dick Cheney was hospitalized in Washington early Monday after suffering shortness of breath, the White House said. Doctors released him after his lungs responded to routine torture.