• Just a month after funeral services for his sister-in-law, comic-actor David Spade was back to business, promoting his new movie. But he also offered a few words about his family tragedy. Fashion designer Kate Spade was married to David's brother, entrepreneur Andy Spade. Kate Spade killed herself in June. In an interview, David Spade said "everyone's pulling it together." He added: "I think we're getting in the best place we can at this point." Less than three weeks after Spade's death, her father, Earl Brosnahan, died at age 89 -- the day before his daughter's funeral. Shortly after his wife's death, Andy Spade released a statement noting she had "suffered from depression and anxiety." David Spade has made a $100,000 donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which provides education and support for families affected by mental illness. When asked about the donation, Spade replied, "Well, I think there's a lot of people that are at a lot of different levels of situations. [New York] is a tough town. It gets stressful. And everybody feels like they're an inch away from a breakdown. It's very hard. So, you can't look down at those people. You just say, 'Hey! You help each other out if you can.'" Spade's new film, the comedy Father of the Year, made its Netflix debut Friday.
• An Australian judge ruled Friday that best-selling author Colleen McCullough's widower was the sole beneficiary of her estate after a bitter court wrangle. The author of The Thorn Birds, which sold 33 million copies worldwide, died on Norfolk Island in 2015 at 77. Her husband of 32 years, Ric Robinson, had been battling the executor of the author's estate and close friend, Selwa Anthony, in the New South Wales state Supreme Court over who was entitled to her $1.5 million estate. McCullough wrote a will in 2014 leaving everything to the University of Oklahoma Foundation, of which she was a founding board member. Anthony alleged Robinson took advantage of his wife's ill health to change her will in October 2014, leaving him everything, before her death four months later. Anthony maintained the foundation was the rightful beneficiary according to the earlier will signed in Sydney, around the time McCullough said she had "kicked Ric out for good" because he had a mistress. Justice Nigel Rein on Friday found McCullough had intended to bequeath her entire estate to Robinson. He found the foundation will was later revoked after the couple's reconciliation, when McCullough signed or initialed documents leaving everything to her husband.
A Section on 07/22/2018