Inspiration Josie DeCarlo Dies

'Josie and the Pussycats' Inspiration Josie DeCarlo Dies. Josie DeCarlo, the inspi­ra­tion for singer-guitarist Josie McCoy of the 1970 Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series "Josie and the Pussy­cats" and its suc­ces­sors, has died in her sleep. Her age was not imme­di­ately available. The blog Big Cartoon News filed the first report on her death, quoting car­toon and comics his­to­rian Mark Evanier. He said that Josie was drawn to resem­ble her by her hus­band, comic book leg­end Dan DeCarlo, who died in 2001 at 82. 'Josie and the Pussycats' Inspiration Josie DeCarlo Dies.

DeCarlo recalled how she became the inspi­ra­tion for the cartoon Josie in a New York Times inter­view shortly after her husband's death, .

“We went on a Caribbean cruise, and I had a cos­tume for the cruise, and that's the way it started,” Josie DeCarlo said of her cat suit.

“The hairdo came after,” Josie DeCarlo said. “One day, I came in with a new hairdo with a lit­tle bow in my hair, and he said, ‘That's it!'”

Dan DeCarlo sketched her wife in that out­fit, and he gave her first name to the “star” when he went shop­ping to sev­eral syn­di­cates for a pro­posed news­pa­per strip, said Evanier.

Josie Dumont met her hus­band in Bel­gium on  a blind date shortly after the Bat­tle of the Bulge; he spoke lit­tle French, she spoke no English.

“We com­mu­ni­cated with draw­ing, ” she said. “He would draw things for me to make me under­stand what he had in mind. He was really so amus­ing. Instead of just using words, he would use car­toons to express him­self. Right away, we knew that we were meant for each other.”

Evanier said she remained active in the comic book field and continued to promote her husband's work following his death.

“She was a lovely lady, and every one of Dan's many friends and fans loved her just as much as they loved Dan,” he added.

Funeral ser­vices will be held Mon­day in Scars­dale, New York.

Lady Gaga Going Silent

Lady Gaga Going Silent. Lady Gaga: I Don't Plan to Do Interviews For a Very Long Time. Lady Gaga says she's going silent. She made the declaration during a sit-down with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah's Next Chapter Sunday night. "Other than this interview, Oprah, I do not intend to speak to anyone for a very long time," she said. "The newest thing I do [is that] I don't read a damn thing. No press, no television ... I shut it all off." Lady Gaga Going Silent.
That statement perhaps explains why Gaga, who is usually the center of attention on every red carpet she walks, skipped the press line at the Grammys last month.


Gaga, 25, also opened up about her early singing days in New York City and talked about her hopes for the future, which apparently include several children.

"I want kids. I want a soccer team," she said. "And I want a husband." (The singer is reportedly dating Taylor Kinney.)

Lady Gaga opens up about her unique creative process. Learn why she shuts herself off from the media, television and music news while working on an album. Plus, Gaga tells Oprah that she won't be giving any interviews for a very long time.

Young Adult Director

‘Young Adult’ Director Jason Reitman Talks Charlize Theron, ‘Unhappy Endings’ and Strong Women Behaving Badly. Last fall, Charlize Theron told Yahoo!: "What I loved about the film was that Jason Reitman didn't want to hammer it down." In the Diablo Cody scripted black comedy, Oscar-winner Theron plays a desperate single who returns to her hometown to ensnare her high school boyfriend -- even though he's now married with a newborn.
Her bad! When we got Reitman on the phone this week to discuss "Young Adult," now on DVD, the admiration was clearly mutual:

Jason Reitman: When I read the screenplay, I couldn't imagine any other actress, and I based my decision to make it based on Charlize's involvement. There's an honesty in the way that she acts that's unique. We can relate to her.

JR: I think Charlize recognized how tricky a role this was to play. Frankly, it's one of her greatest performances, if not her greatest. I watched her create it day by day as she had to build the character from scratch and throw away the fear of not being loved. And that's one of the things that's great about Charlize: She's not terrified of whether people like her or audiences like her. She's ballsy and fearless when it comes to her acting. By Thelma Adams