This Week: Sad Endings
Final chapters, both unexpected and predicted, were written this week in a number of celebrated stories. But that doesn't mean all the questions have been answered.
The most pressing questions arise with the death Thursday of Marilyn Monroe wannabe-turned-pop culture icon Anna Nicole Smith.
The 39-year-old Smith, who had been living in the Bahamas, collapsed at the Florida hotel where she had been staying since Monday and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
In addition to the cause of death, the questions to be answered involve the custody and paternity of her baby daughter and the future of her lawsuits to inherit the estate of her late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.
Similar questions are swirling around the death of Erika Ortiz, younger sister of Spain's Princess Letizia, who is married to the country's crown prince. The 31-year-old Ortiz, who was found dead in her Madrid apartment, is the mother of a 6-year-old girl. Spain's king and queen interrupted their separate visits abroad to return home for funeral services.
British author J.K Rowling has written the last chapter in the seven-book saga of schoolboy wizard Harry Potter and she says she feels as if she were in mourning. A lot of reader's questions will be answered July 21 when the final volume, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is published. The question that remains is how much this will add to the 325 million Harry Potter books already sold.
The Chicago Bears reached the end of the line in Sunday's widely watched Super Bowl, which featured a national anthem by Billy Joel and halftime entertainment by Prince.
Singer Britney Spears and boyfriend Isaac Cohen called it quits this week. It was the singer's first romance since splitting with husband Kevin Federline last fall. Magazine reports say the model broke up with Spears by phone Sunday evening, but the cause of the split remains a matter of speculation.
The Santa Barbara Film Festival, a high-profile prelude to the Oscars, wound up this week in California after honoring Oscar hopefuls Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker and Al Gore.
Fashionistas are taking down the tents in New York's Bryant Park after a Fashion Week that has focused more on the sizes of the models than those of the gowns. And, with all the celebs in the front rows this year, don't be surprised to see some of the gowns on upcoming red carpets.
And the end of Grammy Week hoopla can only mean it's time for the big ceremony to begin. You can see who takes home the trophies at Sunday's big event.
By MARY JAYNE McKAY