Rich Little’s wife left a loving note
Comedy legend Rich Little was smitten after meeting Marie Marotta on a blind date.
After two failed marriages, "all he wanted was to be in love and he found his love," according to a close friend of the 71-year-old entertainer.
Marotta made such an impression on the celebrity impressionist that before their 2003 wedding in Hawaii, Little told me, "We're going to have a party on the beach and burn the pre-nup." He joked that he planned to say "I do" in the 160 voices he had imitated over the years.
Little found a suicide note at their Lake Sahara home after she died Thursday. She was in her early 40s.
She had struggled with severe headaches for a number of years, friends said.
"She left him a loving note and said that she couldn't go on," Little's longtime friend Gord Atkinson told the Ottawa Citizen.
"They've had a tough year," said a friend, alluding to Marotta's medical issues, their purchase of a dream home at the height of the local real estate run-up and a dropoff in his headliner bookings in the last decade.
Services are set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Palms Mortuary on Eastern Avenue.
WORLD CUP MEMORIES
Trish McCrone, longtime publicist for Wayne Newton, couldn't have scheduled her European vacation more fortuitously.
She was in Madrid's Plaza Santa Ana, the city's theater district and thriving nightlife center, last Sunday with tens of thousands of her new best friends to watch the telecast of Spain's first World Cup title and the parade a day later.
There's nothing quite like World Cup celebrations. Super Bowl and World Series parties pale in comparison.
In 2006 the Leggy Blonde and I were on Paris' iconic avenue, Champs Elysees, with a horde of humanity after France's 2006 semifinal World Cup win over Brazil.
Several days later, we were in Florence, Italy, on the night Italy beat France. We watched from Michaelangelo Plaza, located on a bluff above the city center.
The only way I could see the action on the supersized screen was to join a half dozen others who had climbed halfway up a bronze version of Michaelangelo's David.
For the best view, I had to flirt with disaster. I leaned out and to keep from falling, I had to keep a firm grip on David's famously sculpted butt cheeks with my left hand.
The headline on that accident report would have been a classic.
THE SCENE AND HEARD
The Zowie Bowie duo of Chris Phillips and Marley Taylor is returning to Red Rock Resort, where they started their Las Vegas odyssey four years ago. They start their 11 p.m. Friday night gigs on Sept. 3 in the 150-seat Rocks Lounge. They jumped to the Palms in March 2009 and six months later had a deal on the Strip at Monte Carlo, where they performed a Vintage Vegas show in the Lance Burton Theatre. After breaking up, they reunited for their show at The Pub at Monte Carlo in recent months. ...
Tweet of the Week, from the Twitter feed of a local public relations executive who called out a client: "Had a publisher hold a story ransom today. Won't print unless we comp her future va-cay. Story's already written. Crazy on so many levels."...
Tom Kelly, a member of "Tom and Rick in the Morning" at KCYE-AM, 102.7, since Country Coyote launched in 2005, has left the Beasley station in a cutback move. He's hoping to stay in the Las Vegas market, where he has worked off and on in radio since 1994.
SIGHTINGS
Singer Rihanna, dining at N9NE Steakhouse (Palms) and later dancing at Vanity (Hard Rock Hotel) on Friday. Also at N9NE: Amare Stoudemire, celebrating his deal with the New York Knicks. ... NBA standouts Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook on property at the Wynn.
THE PUNCH LINE
"Before they capped the gulf oil leak, BP had to test the integrity of the well. Which is the first time 'BP' and 'integrity' have been used in the same sentence." -- Jay Leno
Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.
