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Shelley Duvall passes away at 75

Shelley Duvall who starred in Stanley Kubrick's iconic horror film The Shining has passed away aged 75. Duvall died in her sleep on Thursday at her home in Bianco, Texas, after diabetes complications according to her friend and publicist Gary Springer. Her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy shared a heartbreaking statement. "My dear, sweet, wonderful life, partner, and friend left us last night," he said. "Too much suffering lately, now she's free. Fly away beautiful Shelley." Known for her thin physique, large expressive eyes and powerful performances, Duvall was remembered for her standout roles alongside Jack Nicholson in The Shining and Robin Williams in the comedy Popeye. She became Robert Altman's protégé after she was spotted by his staff members at a party in Houston, Texas in 1970, where she attended junior college, and Altman was preparing to film Brewster McCloud at the time. She also played memorable roles in some of his other films, including Nashville in 1975 and 3 Women in 1977, which won her the Cannes Best Actress Award. "He offers me damn good roles," Duvall said about Altman for The New York Times in 1977. "None of them have been alike. He has a great confidence in me, and a trust and respect for me, and he doesn't put any restrictions on me or intimidate me, and I love him. I remember the first advice he ever gave me: 'Don't take yourself seriously.'" Despite The Shining being one of her greatest roles, filming it took an emotional toll on her, after having to be in hysterics during long days of filming, with one scene reportedly requiring 127 takes, By the 1990s she began retiring from acting and retreated from public life. "How would you feel if people were really nice, and then, suddenly, on a dime, they turn on you?" Duvall told the Times earlier this year. "You would never believe it unless it happens to you. That's why you get hurt, because you can't really believe it's true." Images: Soshellyduvall Instagram

Caring

Chris Dawson's twin brother accused of underage sex

Paul Dawson, the twin sibling of Chris Dawson, who is both a convicted murderer and a perpetrator of child sexual abuse, is now facing allegations from several women claiming he engaged in sexual activity with them when they were minors during their time as students – per <a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/wife-killer-chris-dawsons-twin-accused-by-four-women-of-underage-sex/8b9b9345-e1d6-4f3d-9bcc-d3f3d4c06603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60 Minutes</a>. One of Paul Dawson's former students at Forest High School, Shelley Oates-Wilding, shared her experience on a 60 Minutes interview, detailing her time during the early 1980s when she was a teenager. Multiple women who attended schools in Sydney's Northern Beaches, where Paul Dawson taught, have also come forward, asserting that the now 75-year-old engaged in sexual relations with them when they were underage. Prior to their teaching careers, both Paul and Chris Dawson were prominent figures in the world of rugby league and modelling. However, their roles as educators have recently come under intense scrutiny as law enforcement reopened investigations into the suspected murder of Lynette Dawson. Although the focus had been primarily on Chris Dawson until now, serious questions now arise about Paul Dawson's behaviour. Shelley's public disclosure unveils disturbing details about how Paul Dawson targeted her. In an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, Shelley revealed that she and Paul spent considerable time socialising with Chris and his young mistress, forming two couples of teachers and students. Shelley alleges that Paul engaged in sexual activity with her at various locations across Sydney's Northern Beaches. The experiences she recalls were intimate and occurred within settings like fitness classes, store rooms, and pools. At the time, the Dawson twins, popular and attractive, garnered admiration from their students, making any attention they showed highly flattering. Shelley reflects on the naivety of youth, sharing that as a 15- and 16-year-old, she lacked the awareness to recognise the grooming that was occurring. She was also a babysitter for Paul's children, which sometimes led to overnight stays. Given the legal framework of the time, the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) deemed it illegal for a teacher to engage in sexual activity with a female student under the age of 17. Shelley vividly remembers an encounter with Paul shortly before the news of Lyn Dawson's disappearance emerged. Paul expressed distress, telling her that something terrible had occurred, and he could no longer maintain their connection. Shelley recalls pondering the severity of the situation at the time. As news circulated about Chris Dawson's missing wife, Shelley sensed a darker narrative than Lyn simply running away. Her personal experiences led her to believe that there was more to the story. "At the beginning of school, I vividly remember going to see him," she said on the program. "He said to me with this extremely pained look on his face that something terrible has happened and he can't see me anymore. I remember thinking, what could be that terrible?" Decades have passed since Shelley's time as Paul Dawson's student. She has since relocated to Hawaii, distancing herself from the Northern Beaches environment where she grew up. While the scars of her childhood experiences can be lasting, Shelley Oates-Wilding channels her journey into positive efforts. She founded Ikaika Hawaii, where she implements holistic programs to guide young individuals toward understanding right from wrong, cultivating perseverance, and embracing respect. She has found the confidence to speak out on Paul Dawson because she knows there are other victims who are in a worse situation than her. Shelley maintains that Paul Dawson likely remains oblivious to any wrongdoing. She perceives a tendency for the Dawson twins to deceive effortlessly, suggesting that their self-perception is intertwined with the narratives they've woven. Images: Nine / 60 Minutes

Legal

"Absolute f***ing disaster": The Block presenter slams former contestants

Shelley Craft has ripped into two former contestants of The Block, saying the team was an "absolute f***ing disaster". The Block presenter was chatting candidly about the formula of the show on Hit radio show Breakfast with Maz & Matty, where she described what she thought was the ultimate pairing for a team to partake in the renovation show. Shelley was asked about the calibre of contestants on the upcoming season, admitting that the show’s producers generally cast for “characters,” rather than previous experience. “I always thought the best team would be an accountant and an HR manager, because you have to be able to manage your money and manage your trades,” she said, revealing her own personal pick for a successful team. “[But] we sort of had that last year and it was an absolute f***ing disaster. That was the worst team that there is, it’s not the recipe!” she continued, to laughter from the radio hosts. “We’re really after great people that are happy to give it everything they’ve got, and we’ve got five teams this year who are ready to give it a red hot crack.” The “disaster” Craft is referring to is last year’s most controversial couple, lawyer-turned actor Sharon and her accountant husband Ankur, who copped a fierce backlash from viewers over their apparent negative attitudes while filming The Block. The couple repeatedly clashed with their builders, foremen Keith and Dan and host Scott Cam, and also declared on camera numerous times that they wished they’d never signed up to do the show. The couple even had their finances frozen by Scott Cam due to their apparent inability to manage their budget during the intense renovation project. Sharon and Ankur later said they felt “ambushed” and were upset at how they’d been portrayed on the show, prompting Cam to later say in an interview that he thought the couple had “made [the experience] harder” on themselves than it needed to be. Image credits: Getty Images

Frankenstein: how Mary Shelley’s sci-fi classic offers lessons for us today about the dangers of playing God

<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/frankenstein-9780241425121" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus</a>, is an 1818 novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Set in the late 18th century, it follows scientist Victor Frankenstein’s creation of life and the terrible events that are precipitated by his abandonment of his creation. It is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gothic novel</a> in that it combines supernatural elements with horror, death and an exploration of the darker aspects of the psyche. It also provides a complex critique of Christianity. But most significantly, as one of the first works of science-fiction, it explores the dangers of humans pursuing new technologies and becoming God-like. <h2>The celebrity story</h2> Shelley’s Frankenstein is at the heart of what might be the greatest celebrity story of all time. Shelley was born in 1797. Her mother, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mary Wollstonecraft</a>, author of the landmark A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), was, according to that book’s introduction, “the first major feminist”. Shelley’s father was <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/godwin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">William Godwin</a>, political philosopher and founder of “philosophical anarchism” – he was anti-government in the moment that the great democracies of France and the United States were being born. When she was 16, Shelley eloped with radical poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Percy Shelley</a>, whose <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ozymandias</a> (1818) is still regularly quoted (“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”). Their relationship seems to epitomise the Romantic era itself. It was crossed with outside love interests, illegitimate children, suicides, debt, wondering and wandering. And it ultimately came to an early end in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned, his small boat lost in a storm off the Italian coast. The Shelleys also had a close association with the poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lord Byron</a>, and it is this association that brings us to Frankenstein. In 1816 the Shelleys visited Switzerland, staying on the shores of Lake Geneva, where they were Byron’s neighbours. As Mary Shelley tells it, they had all been reading ghost stories, including Coleridge’s <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43971/christabel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christabel</a> (Coleridge had visited her father at the family house when Shelley was young), when Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Thus 18-year-old Shelley began to write Frankenstein. <h2>The myth of the monster</h2> The popular imagination has taken Frankenstein and run with it. The monster “Frankenstein”, originally “Frankenstein’s monster”, is as integral to Western culture as the characters and tropes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But while reasonable continuity remains between Carroll’s Alice and its subsequent reimaginings, much has been changed and lost in the translation from Shelley’s novel into the many versions that are rooted in the popular imagination. There have been many varied adaptations, from <a href="https://youtu.be/TBHIO60whNw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edward Scissorhands</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGzc0pIjHqw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Rocky Horror Picture Show</a> (see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/11/the-20-best-frankenstein-films-ranked" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for a top 20 list of Frankenstein films). But despite the variety, it’s hard not to think of the “monster” as a zombie-like implacable menace, as we see in the <a href="https://youtu.be/BN8K-4osNb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trailer to the 1931 movie</a>, or a lumbering fool, as seen in <a href="https://youtu.be/nBV8Cw73zhk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Herman Munster incarnation</a>. Further, when we add the prefix “franken” it’s usually with disdain; consider “frankenfoods”, which refers to genetically modified foods, or “frankenhouses”, which describes contemporary architectural monstrosities or bad renovations. However, in Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein’s creation is far from being two-dimensional or contemptible. To use the motto of the Tyrell corporation, which, in the 1982 movie Bladerunner, creates synthetic life, the creature strikes us as being “more human than human”. Indeed, despite their dissimilarities, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the replicant Roy Batty in Bladerunner reproduces Frankenstein’s creature’s intense humanity</a>. <h2>Some key elements in the plot</h2> The story of Victor Frankenstein is nested within the story of scientist-explorer Robert Walton. For both men, the quest for knowledge is mingled with fanatical ambition. The novel begins towards the end of the story, with Walton, who is trying to sail to the North Pole, rescuing Frankenstein from <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Das_Eismeer_-_Hamburger_Kunsthalle_-_02.jpg/1280px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Das_Eismeer_-_Hamburger_Kunsthalle_-_02.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sea ice</a>. Frankenstein is being led northwards by his creation towards a final confrontation. The central moment in the novel is when Frankenstein brings his creation to life, only to be immediately repulsed by it: <blockquote> I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. </blockquote> Victor Frankenstein, like others in the novel, is appalled by the appearance of his creation. He flees the creature and it vanishes. After a hiatus of two years, the creature begins to murder people close to Frankenstein. And when Frankenstein reneges on his promise to create a female partner for his creature, it murders his closest friend and then, on Frankenstein’s wedding night, his wife. <h2>More human than human</h2> The real interest of the novel lies not in the murders or the pursuit, but in the creature’s accounts of what drove him to murder. After the creature murders Frankenstein’s little brother, William, Frankenstein seeks solace in the Alps – in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog#/media/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_-_Wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sublime nature</a>. There, the creature comes upon Frankenstein and eloquently and poignantly relates his story. We learn that the creature spent a year secretly living in an outhouse attached to a hut occupied by the recently impoverished De Lacey family. As he became self-aware, the creature reflected that, “To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being.” But when he eventually attempted to reveal himself to the family to gain their companionship, he was brutally driven from them. The creature was filled with rage. He says, “I could … have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.” More human than human. After Victor Frankenstein dies aboard Walton’s ship, Walton has a final encounter with the creature, as it looms over Frankenstein’s body. To the corpse, the creature says: <blockquote> “Oh Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst.” </blockquote> The creature goes on to make several grand and tragic pronouncements to Walton. “My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy; and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change, without torture such as you cannot even imagine.” And shortly after, about the murder of Frankenstein’s wife, the creature says: “I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse, which I detested, yet could not disobey.” These remarks encourage us to ponder some of the weightiest questions we can ask about the human condition: <blockquote> What is it that drives humans to commit horrible acts? Are human hearts, like the creature’s, fashioned for ‘love and sympathy’, and when such things are withheld or taken from us, do we attempt to salve the wound by hurting others? And if so, what is the psychological mechanism that makes this occur? </blockquote> And what is the relationship between free will and horrible acts? We cannot help but think that the creature remains innocent – that he is the slave, not the master. But then what about the rest of us? The rule of law generally blames individuals for their crimes – and perhaps this is necessary for a society to function. Yet I suspect the rule of law misses something vital. Epictetus, the stoic philosopher, considered such questions millennia ago. He asked: <blockquote> What grounds do we have for being angry with anyone? We use labels like ‘thief’ and ‘robber’… but what do these words mean? They merely signify that people are confused about what is good and what is bad. </blockquote> <h2>Unintended consequences</h2> Victor Frankenstein creates life only to abandon it. An unsympathetic interpretation of Christianity might see something similar in God’s relationship with humanity. Yet the novel itself does not easily support this reading; like much great art, its strength lies in its ambivalence and complexity. At one point, the creature says to Frankenstein: “Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.” These and other remarks complicate any simplistic interpretation. In fact, the ambivalence of the novel’s religious critique supports its primary concern: the problem of technology allowing humans to become God-like. The subtitle of Frankenstein is “The Modern Prometheus”. In the Greek myth, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prometheus</a> steals fire – a technology – from the gods and gives it to humanity, for which he is punished. In this myth and many other stories, technology and knowledge are double-edged. Adam and Eve eat the apple of knowledge in the Garden of Eden and are ejected from paradise. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, <a href="https://youtu.be/RWCvMwivrDk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">humanity is born when the first tool is used</a> – a tool that augments humanity’s ability to be violent. The novel’s subtitle is referring to Kant’s 1755 essay, “The Modern Prometheus”. In this, Kant observes that: <blockquote> There is such a thing as right taste in natural science, which knows how to distinguish the wild extravagances of unbridled curiosity from cautious judgements of reasonable credibility. From the Prometheus of recent times Mr. Franklin, who wanted to disarm the thunder, down to the man who wants to extinguish the fire in the workshop of Vulcanus, all these endeavors result in the humiliating reminder that Man never can be anything more than a man. </blockquote> Victor Frankenstein, who suffered from an unbridled curiosity, says something similar: <blockquote> A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind … If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. </blockquote> And also: “Learn from me … how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.” In sum: be careful what knowledge you pursue, and how you pursue it. Beware playing God. Alas, history reveals the quixotic nature of Shelley and Kant’s warnings. There always seems to be a scientist somewhere whose dubious ambitions are given free rein. And beyond this, there is always the problem of the unintended consequences of our discoveries. Since Shelley’s time, we have created numerous things that we fear or loathe such as the atomic bomb, cigarettes and other drugs, chemicals such as DDT, and so on. And as our powers in the realms of genetics and artificial intelligence grow, we may yet create something that loathes us. It all reminds me of sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson’s relatively recent (2009) remark <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00016553" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that</a>, “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.” This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/frankenstein-how-mary-shelleys-sci-fi-classic-offers-lessons-for-us-today-about-the-dangers-of-playing-god-175520" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: Shutterstock

Books

Will and Grace star Shelley Morrison dies at 83

A veteran actress with a career spanning over 50 years, Shelley Morrison, has passed away. Morrison died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles from heart failure after a brief bout with illness, her publicist Lori Dewaal told The Associated Press. She was 83-years-old. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5lcg6kpRHb/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5lcg6kpRHb/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">U 83. godini napustila nas je američka glumica Shelley Morrison, TV publici najpoznatija po ulozi Karenine čangrizave sluškinje Rosario iz humoristične serije #WillandGrace. Počivala u miru. #shelleymorrison #inmemoriam #tv #televizija #croatia #hrvatska #tvserija</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/maliodtelevizije/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Mali od televizije</a> (@maliodtelevizije) on Dec 2, 2019 at 1:26pm PST </div> </blockquote> Morrison pulled off the role of an animated maid from El Salvador flawlessly and became such staple figure, her small role would go on to become one where she would appear in 68 episodes over the course of Will and Grace’s eight-season tenure. What was meant to be a character written for one single episode, became a staple to the show and was one of Morrison’s “all-time favourite characters.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5jbTwoliBK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5jbTwoliBK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Such sad news. Our beloved Shelley Morrison passed away today. She was absolutely hilarious and had the biggest heart. She was a part of our Will and Grace family and will be greatly missed. My heart goes out to her entire family. ❤️</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/seanhayes/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Sean Hayes</a> (@seanhayes) on Dec 1, 2019 at 6:37pm PST </div> </blockquote> In a biography she wrote before her death, she said: “She reminds me a lot of my own mother, who loved animals and children, but she would not suffer fools. “It is very significant to me that we were able to show an older, Hispanic woman who is bright and smart and can hold her own,” Before making strides on Will and Grace, Morrison was best known for playing Sister Sixto on The Flying Nun alongside Sally Field from 1967 to 1970. She guest-starred on dozens of television series starting in the 1960s. This includes The Fugitive, L.A. and Law and Murder, She Wrote. Most recently, she voiced a character, Mrs. Portillo, on the Disney animated series Handy Manny. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5jhEuQnH0Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5jhEuQnH0Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Oh, Shelley... what a loss. Our dear Rosario has passed on. Shelley had a career that spanned decades, but she will always be our dear Rosie. She was a kind soul with a huge heart and always had a smile on her face. All my love to Walter and the entire family. #shelleymorrison 😢</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/therealdebramessing/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Debra Messing</a> (@therealdebramessing) on Dec 1, 2019 at 7:32pm PST </div> </blockquote> Born Rachel Mitrani to Jewish parents from Spain in the Bronx, New York, in 1936, Morrison spoke primarily Spanish as a child. The actress majorly was cast primarily as Latina characters, but she played a range of ethnicities in theatre, television and film. Her movie roles put her in casts with Hollywood’s biggest stars over the years. She appeared with Dean Martin in 1968’s How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl the same year, with Gregory Peck in 1969’s Mackenna’s Gold, with Shelley Long in Troop Beverly Hills in 1989, and with Salma Hayek in Fools Rush In in 1997. Morrison is survived by her husband of over 40 years, Walter Dominguez. Scroll through the gallery to see Shelley Morrison over the years.

The surprising story behind Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

Angela Wright is a Professor of Romantic Literature at the University of Sheffield. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s <a href="https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/" target="_blank">Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus</a> was published anonymously 200 years ago in January, 1818. It has since become the most analysed and contested novel of all time. It is cited today in debates on the ethics of scientific progress. The “Frankenstein effect” has become synonymous with questionable advances in genetics, in vitro fertilisation and artificial intelligence, evoking the spectre of dangerous science. It has become an example of what goes wrong when science goes too far. When we return to Frankenstein’s origins, however, we uncover a different story. <a href="http://www.uwp.co.uk/book/mary-shelley-hardback/" target="_blank">As Shelley was later to document</a>, the story was forged during the Summer of 1816 in debates that took place between herself, her partner (later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, her stepsister Claire Clairmont and John Polidori at the <a href="http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/diodati-the-residence-of-lord-byron" target="_blank">Villa Diodati</a> on the shores of Lake Geneva. There, she records, the group was debating the arguments of poet and chemist <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/davy_humphrey.shtml" target="_blank">Sir Humphry Davy</a> and discussed “the nature of the principle of life, and whether there was any probability of its ever being discovered and communicated”. Shelley had accompanied her father William Godwin to hear Davy give his lectures on chemistry at the Royal Institution in 1812, and later, in 1816, she read his <a href="https://archive.org/details/elementschemica00davygoog" target="_blank">Elements of Chemical Philosophy</a> as she was composing Frankenstein. Davy’s account of science was mesmerising for the sheer excitement that it conveyed: “Science has … bestowed upon [man] powers which may be called almost creative,” he declared. Frankenstein, drawing upon the scientific advancements of its age, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Darwin" target="_blank">Erasmus Darwin’s</a> early theory of evolutionary development in the 1790s, vitality, galvanism and Davy’s quest to determine the “hidden origins” of nature, partakes of the fascination and anxiety about scientific progress. But it is wrong to read the novel as being straightforwardly sceptical of scientific advancement. ‘A torrent of light’ Victor Frankenstein’s aims in creating new life are, after all, commendable. Reflecting the mixed aspirations of his mythological counterpart Prometheus, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm#chap04" target="_blank">Frankenstein wishes to</a> “pour a torrent of light into our dark world” and in so doing “renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption”. He seeks to eradicate diseases which corrupt the human frame before its time. These are not bad ambitions. But it is the way in which he pursues nature to “her hiding places” that makes his quest so fatal. Ventriloquising Shelley’s views, Frankenstein later observes that: A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. Knowledge, Shelley argued, should always be pursued in tranquillity; creation should always be the intellectual fruit of a “peaceful mind”. The words that Frankenstein utters can be read, too, as an expression of Shelley’s approach to authorship. Much has been made of her comparative youth when she wrote Frankenstein. The novel was begun when she was 18. Despite the fact that Matthew Gregory Lewis, known to both Shelleys, published his own Gothic tale – <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93157.The_Monk" target="_blank">The Monk</a> (1796) – at the age of 21, some ask how such a young woman could have composed Frankenstein, and falsely ascribe authorship to Percy Bysshe Shelley. Sir Walter Scott, reviewing Frankenstein for Blackwood’s Magazine, was the first to commit this error, commenting that it “is said to be written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, who, if we are rightly informed, is son-in-law to Mr Godwin”. Shelley’s response to Scott’s review of her novel was swift. Writing to Scott on June 14, 1818, she pointed out his error, noting, “I am anxious to prevent your continuing in the mistake of supposing Mr Shelley guilty of a juvenile attempt of mine.” Shelley’s response to Scott’s mistake was decisive in her assertion of authorship. Her journal further illustrates the intensive work that she invested in her manuscript. Percy Bysshe Shelley may have edited her work, but this was the gesture of one who wished to support and encourage another’s authorial career. Frankenstein was the first in a line of seven novels by Shelley that she published across three decades. It may be the one for which we now celebrate Shelley, but all of her works reveal an assertion of women’s rights to create as authors and artists, associating these rights with a calm pursuit of knowledge. Shelley, author of Frankenstein, cautious supporter of scientific advancement, was much, much more than the sum of the parts of her first monster. Written by Angela Wright. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation.</a> <img width="1" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90206/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation"/>

Books

Shelley Craft swears by this brilliant decluttering hack

Well-known TV host Shelley Craft has some tips to help us ring in the new year in a cleaner, tidier home. The star of shows such as Domestic Blitz and The Block shared her advice on <a href="http://nine.com.au" target="_blank">nine.com.au</a> to help us all declutter the whole house with a few simple rules. * Every time something new comes into the house, something old has to go. So, if you get a new swimsuit, give a t-shirt you don’t wear to the charity shop. Got a new lamp? It’s time to part with the coffee table you never use. This means you aren’t bringing more ‘stuff’ into your life to fill your home. * Set up boxes in each area of your home for donations. For instance, you might have one for clothes, toys, kitchenware etc. Then spend some time going through each room and filling the boxes as much as you can. * Try buying the kids or grandkids experiences rather than ‘things’. For example, a movie voucher or a day out at the zoo. It’s also much more memorable for them than just another toy. * If you find a container or jar without a lid in the kitchen, toss it out. Life is too short to hunt through a huge drawer trying to find what you need each day. Do you make an effort to declutter your space each year or season? We would love to hear your tips for getting rid of ‘stuff’ in the comments.

Home & Garden

Shelley Craft's secret to keeping her home organised

The Block host is like many of us – plenty of kitchen gadgets have never made it out of the box. What is your strongest memory of your childhood home? I had a few childhood homes growing up. My first home and earliest memory was of pink and green floral wallpaper. In our third childhood home, my mum and dad let me choose my bedroom wall colour – I went with Wedgewood blue and blue carpet. My brother and sisters’ rooms were much more subdued, but to get me to move, they promised that I could have a blue room. I loved it. What do you recall about buying your first home? The first home I purchased was off-the-plan. Again, like my childhood home, I was allowed to decide on the finer details and colour scheme of the house. It was a very exciting process for a first home buyer. Have you ever house-shared with flatmates? Yes, I’ve been in many house-share situations. I moved out of home when I was 17 years old and house-shared with work colleagues and friends. I also moved back in with my sister in her house for a while. I’ve house-shared everywhere from Brisbane to the Gold Coast to Sydney. Can you share any tips for organising your home? Biggest tip for organising your home is to have less things that need organising! So don’t hoard. Do you have a favourite room? I love our media room/play room for our girls. It’s got crazy ’70s palm tree wallpaper and lots of cool rugs on the floor and bean bags. And it also has a big comfy family-sized couch that I love. What is the worst piece of furniture or household item you have bought? I’d have to say it was something for the kitchen. I’m sure I’ve purchased every possible kitchen appliance from those fancy zucchini spaghetti makers to chip slicers – none of which have ever made it out of the box. What’s the best household item you own (and why)? The most used household item – so I guess that makes it the best item – is my washing machine. I do at least three washes a day and don’t know what I’d do without it. I guess it could also qualify as my favourite room because I spend so much time in the laundry. Do you enjoy gardening? I enjoy being in the garden but I’m not much of a gardener. Up here our garden is full of palm trees and succulents, so not much gardening is required anyway. If you could live in a dream house, anywhere in the world, where would it be? I’ve travelled a lot and Byron Bay is my favourite place on earth. So I’m living in my dream house, in my dream location. I consider myself very lucky. The Block airs on Sundays at 7 pm and continues Monday to Wednesday at 7.30 pm on Nine. Written by Christine Sams. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.domain.com.au" target="_blank">Domain.com.au</a>. Image credit: Channel Nine. To find your home essentials <a href="https://shop.oversixty.com.au/?utm_source=over60&utm_campaign=Over60Shop&utm_medium=in-article-link-o60shop&utm_content=over60-shop%20%20%20" target="_blank">head to the Over60 Shop for high-quality offerings</a>. <a href="https://shop.oversixty.com.au/collections/living?utm_source=Over60&utm_medium=in-article-banner-living&utm_campaign=Over60Shop&utm_content=over60-shop" target="_blank"><img src="http://media.oversixty.com.au/images/EditorialAddon/201706_Shopnow_EditorialAddon_468x60_Living.jpg" alt="Over60 Shop - Living Range"/></a>

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