Wendy Williams rang out the new year by landing back in the news.  On the positive side, she was celebrating her son Kevin’s college graduation in Miami.  Paparazzi spotted her outside a restaurant on a scooter – yes, a scooter.  She was overheard yelling to someone, “And then both of you walked away leaving my shit in the street?  Just get the car, please – and make sure it’s the right car!”  When asked if everything was OK, she explained that her caretakers called the wrong car.  While they went to find the right car, they left her scooter unattended and she was not having it.  “This cost a fucking mint, and they just left my shit out here.”  At least she sounds feisty.

It’s only the first week of January and we’ve already got a story that we’re filing under Strange But True – and, no, it’s not about Blake Lively!  This is about someone I hold in almost equal esteem – Keanu Reeves.  Sidebar: a few months ago, I told you that he’s reuniting with his Bill and Ted co-star, Alex Winter, for a Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.  Didya know that production will be staged by Jamie Lloyd, who directed the hit revival of Sunset Blvd?  And, no, none of this has anything to do with the current story.  Last year, Keanu’s LA home was burgled.  Fast forward to final days of 2024, and police in Santiago, Chile seized loads of stolen property.  And what do they find?  A Rolex inscribed, “Keanu Thank you JW4 2021”.  It was a thank you gift he received at the wrap party of one of those John Wick movies that I’ve never seen.

Before we filed this column, I saw this headline: “Josh Duhamel, Dylan Sprouse & Til Schweiger To Topline Action Thriller The Neglected”.  OMG, have I fallen into a time warp?  Is it 1995 all over again???

Just before 2024 closed, a couple of deaths crept in.  The first was the beloved Linda Lavin, who died on December 29^th.  Her representative stated, Linda passed “unexpectedly due to complications from recently discovered lung cancer”.  Days earlier, she wrapped filming on the seventh episode of Mid-Century Modern – a sitcom for Hulu already being called a gay Golden Girls.  It concerns three gay men who live together in Palm Springs, one of whom (Nathan Lane) is accompanied by his mother (Linda Lavin).  When Linda learned of her diagnosis, we hear she told producers she wanted “everything out there on the show”.  There are already plans to write her character’s passing into the penultimate episode of the first season.  What will happen during season two?  Stay tuned.

Hours before midnight, Jocelyn Wildenstein died on New Year’s Eve.  Affectionately known as The Catwoman, Jocelyn was the face of bad plastic surgery – the epitome of the word “botched”.  She was also a very wealthy lady, receiving a $2.5 billion divorce settlement and alimony of roughly $100 million per year!  Her longtime companion, Lloyd Klein, said she died while taking a nap prior to heading out for the festivities – “just to look good before getting dressed”.  How’d that work out?  By the by, the 84 year-old never admitted to any of her “procedures”.