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Baritone John Raitt dies at age 88

LOS ANGELES - John Raitt, the robust baritone who created the role of Billy Bigelow in the original New York production of Carousel and sang with Doris Day in the movie Pajama Game, died Sunday (Feb. 20, 2005). He was 88.

Mr. Raitt, the father of singer Bonnie Raitt, died from complications of pneumonia at his Pacific Palisades home, his manager, James Fitzgerald, said in a statement.

After the long run in Carousel he appeared in Magdalena, Three Wishes for Jamie and Carnival in Flanders. He lacked a big crossover to film until The Pajama Game in 1954. It became a successful movie with Mr. Raitt and several others in their stage roles and Doris Day for popular appeal. The numbers Hey, There, Steam Heat and Once a Year Day, choreographed by Bob Fosse, helped make the 1957 film a delight. Despite his good notices, it was Mr. Raitt's only starring movie (he had played two minor roles while briefly under contract to MGM in 1940).

In his later years, Mr. Raitt was overshadowed by the fame of his blues-singing daughter. He delighted in her success. After she had become a big attraction in pop music, they sometimes appeared together, singing duets with her song Blowing Away and his Hey, There.

Keanu Reeves went to hell and back, but he could not unhitch Will Smith from the top of the box office.

Smith's romance Hitch remained the No. 1 weekend movie with $31.8-million, narrowly beating Reeves' demonic thriller Constantine, which debuted in second place with $30.5-million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Because of Winn-Dixie (No. 3 with $10.85-million) won bragging rights as the weekend's family-film winner over the comedy Son of the Mask , which was fourth with $7.7-million.

Best-picture contenders for next weekend's Academy Awards continued to hold well, with the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby coming in at No. 5 with $7.2-million.

The Howard Hughes epic The Aviator was ninth with $4.2-million, and Sideways finished 10th with $3.9-million.

DALLAS - The much-anticipated Simpsons episode revealing that one of its character is gay aired Sunday night. It was outrageous. It was controversial. But it wasn't funny, the Dallas Morning News reports.

So it turns out the mystery gay character was - drum roll - exactly who everybody guessed it would be.

Yep, Patty's gay.

The only way it could have been any more anticlimatic was if it had been the even more obviously gay character, Waylon Smithers.

It turns out Marge's sister has been a lesbian all along and she's all set to marry a pro golfer named Veronica when Marge discovers a secret within the secret: Veronica is actually a man.

Somewhere Comic Book Guy is muttering to himself, "worst episode ever."

[Last modified February 21, 2005, 01:32:19]