The benevolent Beastie: Adam Yauch remembered

When the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just weeks ago, the New York trio was down a man.

Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz took the stage with a letter from their missing band mate: Adam “MCA” Yauch, who was too ill to attend. He was suffering from a cancerous salivary gland first diagnosed in 2009.

In the letter, which Horovitz read, Yauch dedicated the honor to his fellow B-Boys, “who have walked the globe with me.”

“To anyone who has been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to, this induction is as much ours as it is yours,” said Yauch.

It was typical generosity from Yauch, the gravelly-voiced rapper who helped make the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop and whose good-hearted nature led him to humanistic causes and made him beloved in hip-hop. One of his most famous rhymes was a sweet ode to women, which he called “long overdue”: “To all the mothers and sisters and wives and friends/ I want to offer my love and respect to the end.”

When the news came Friday that earlier that morning, Yauch, 47, had died after a nearly three-year battle with cancer, the words from his letter felt particularly apt. The outpouring of sadness at the loss, and celebration of the music Yauch helped created, was immediate and vast, shared across social media by those close to him, rappers influenced by “Paul’s Boutique” and hip-hop listeners raised on Beastie Boys videos.

The rapper Q-Tip, a member of another major New York hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, recalled that the Beastie Boys “showed us the ropes.” Sean “Diddy” Combs called Yauch “a true pioneer and a creative force who paved the way for so many of us.” The rapper Nas lamented the loss of a “brother”: “MCA was so cool,” he said.

For Eminem, Yauch was an undeniable touchstone: “I think it’s obvious to anyone how big an influence the Beastie Boys were on me and so many others.”

Yauch was an integral, founding member to the ever-weaving trio: three Jewish kids from New York who found widespread respect in a hip-hop world with few credible white performers.

In a span of more than a quarter century that covered four No. 1 albums and more than 40 million records sold, the Beastie Boys played both prankster and pioneer- a simultaneously goofy and groundbreaking act that helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream.

The demure, gray-haired Yauch wasn’t the most boastful B-Boy; he was the thoughtful one and a steady source of the trio’s innovative spirit. A practicing Buddhist, he led the group in performing concerts to benefit Tibet and, as a filmmaker, he helped create their imagery.

“The group’s music crossed genres and color lines, and helped bring rap to a wider audience,” said Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy. “Yauch was an immense talent and creative visionary.”

Adam Nathanial Yauch, born in Brooklyn, formed the Beastie Boys with high school friend Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, they played their first show on Yauch’s 17th birthday.

In the letter read at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Yauch recalled their early days at his parents’ home in Brooklyn, “where we used to practice on hot Brooklyn summer days after school, windows open to disturb the neighborhood.”

The group became a hip-hop trio soon after Horovitz joined and coalesced after Yauch dropped out of Bard College two years into his studies. They released their chart-topping debut “Licensed to Ill” in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”.

It was the first hip-hop album to top the Billboard chart, and while it remains popular, its irreverent rock-rap fusion bore few hints of an act with staying power.

“Adam was incredibly sweet and the most sensitive artist, who I loved dearly,” Russell Simmons, whose Def Jam label released “Licensed to Ill,” said on his website.

In the seven studio albums that followed, the Beastie Boys expanded sonically and grew more musically ambitious.

Their follow-up, 1989′s “Paul’s Boutique,” ended any suggestion that the group was a one-hit wonder. Extreme in its sampling and thoroughly layered, the album (produced by the Dust Brothers) was ranked the 156th greatest album ever by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.

The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instruments – a rarity in hip-hop – on the album “Check Your Head” and subsequent releases. Yauch played bass. Later, they would even release an album of instrumentals, which won one of their three Grammys in 2007.

On “Pass the Mic,” he rapped: “If you can feel what I’m feeling then it’s a musical masterpiece / If you can hear what I’m dealing with then that’s cool at least / What’s running through my mind comes through in my walk / True feelings are shown from the way that I talk.”

For many, the Beastie Boys’ lyrics – overflowing torrents of wit, humor and rhyme – were always the main draw. While other forms of hip-hop celebrated individualism, the Beastie Boys were a verbal tag team. Yauch once rapped, “on the tough guy style I’m not too keen.”

Their popularity perhaps peaked with 1994′s “Ill Communication,” which spawned several of their most famous music videos, including “Sure Shot” and the Spike Jonze-directed “Sabotage” – a hit highlighted by Yauch’s bass solo. (MTV, which played a key role in the Beasties’ rise, hurriedly assembled an hour-long tribute show to Yauch on Friday night.)

Yauch used the group’s growing fame to attract awareness for Tibetan Buddhists. He founded the Milarepa Fund to promote activism for Tibet in defense of what the nonprofit considered China’s occupational government.

In 1996, Yauch and Milarepa produced a hugely popular benefit concert for Tibet in San Francisco, which was followed by more international concerts over the next decade.

“He was a goofball and behind a lot of their prankiness, but if you wanted to talk to him about what was going on in the world and social issues and everything, you got a totally different guy,” said Rick Krim, executive vice president of music and talent relations at Vh1.

Introducing the group at the Rock Hall, Public Enemy rapper Chuck D said the Beastie Boys “broke the mold.”

“The Beastie Boys are indeed three bad brothers who made history,” Chuck D said. “They brought a whole new look to rap and hip-hop. They proved that rap could come from any street – not just a few.”

Yauch also went under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower when working as a filmmaker. He directed numerous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 concert film “Awesome: I F—–’ Shot That!” (shot entirely by fans given cameras) and the basketball documentary, “Gunnin’ for that (No.) 1 Spot.”

In 2008, he co-founded the noted independent film distribution company Osciolloscope Laboratories, named after his New York studio.

Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch.

Yauch’s illness, about which he first expressed hope that it was “very treatable,” forced the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of their last album, “Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.” He hadn’t performed in public since 2009.

But the enduring popularity of the Beastie Boys across some 28 years is one of the steadiest paths of success in pop music – a time remarkable for the constant, warm camaraderie between Yauch, Horovitz and Diamond.

“They are truly rock’s most realized group – not hip-hop but all music, really,” wrote Questlove, the drummer for the Roots, who toured with the Beastie Boys. “I mean, did we really expect the most thoughtful, mature, considerate act in music to be the same brats who gave us `Licensed To Ill’?”

 

‘Soul Train’ host Don Cornelius dead of suicide

“Soul Train” host Don Cornelius was the arbiter of cool, a brilliant TV showman who used his purring, baritone voice to seduce mainstream America into embracing black music and artists.

But the “love, peace, and SOUL!” he wished viewers as he closed each show for decades escaped him as his life descended into marital trouble, illness and, finally, a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday.

Police went to his Mulholland Drive home around 4 a.m. after receiving a call from one of his sons, who became concerned after being contacted by his father. Cornelius, 75, was found shot and was pronounced dead an hour later at a nearby hospital.

Authorities ruled out foul play, but have not found a suicide note and are talking to relatives about his mental state.

To music-hungry viewers, he was a smooth, sharp-dressed man who got them dancing to the hottest tracks going. The pop world’s biggest stars recalled him as much more: A cultural groundbreaker who advanced African-American music and culture; a black entrepreneur who overcame racism by strength of will; a visionary who understood rap’s emergence but criticized its rawness.

Aretha Franklin, an early “Soul Train” performer, called him “an American treasure.”

“God bless him for the solid, good and wholesome foundation he provided for young adults worldwide,” she said, “and the unity and brotherhood he singlehandedly brought about with his most memorable creation of `Soul Train.’”

Donald Cortez Cornelius was born Sept. 27, 1936, in Chicago. After high school, he served as a Marine in Korea. Cornelius was working as an insurance salesman when he spent $400 on a broadcasting course and landed a part-time job in 1966 as announcer, newsman and DJ on WVON radio. That’s where listeners first heard the distinctively measured and rich Cornelius rumble.

Cornelius began moonlighting at WCIU-TV when Roy Wood, his mentor at WVON, moved there, and won a job producing and hosting “A Black’s View of the News.” When the station wanted to expand its “ethnic” programming, he pitched a black music show, and “Soul Train” was born.

“You want to do what you’re capable of doing. If I saw (Dick Clark’s) `American Bandstand’ and I saw dancing and I knew black kids can dance better; and I saw white artists and I knew black artists make better music; and if I saw a white host and I knew a black host could project a hipper line of speech, and I did know all these things,” then it was reasonable to try, he said.

“Soul Train,” which began in 1970, followed some of the “Bandstand” format with its audience and young dancers. But that’s where the comparisons stopped. Cornelius, the suave, ultra-cool emcee, made “Soul Train” appointment viewing.

“There was not programming that targeted any particular ethnicity,” he said in 2006, then added: “I’m trying to use euphemisms here, trying to avoid saying there was no television for black folks, which they knew was for them.”

Debra Lee, who is chairman and chief executive of Black Entertainment Television, was one of those youngsters who tuned in to the show. She said she would finish her chores early so she could check out the latest music, fashions and dance moves.

“His reach is just amazing, and personally he was such a charming man,” she said, calling Cornelius a role model and “a great interviewer who knew how to connect to artists” and had “the best voice in the world.”

With that voice, he helped bring the best R&B, soul and later hip-hop acts to TV. It was one of the first TV shows to showcase African-American artists including Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Barry White.

“You have to dream,” Cornelius said in a 1995 interview. “I dreamed everything. I used to introduce Marvin Gaye in my living room. So when the time came that I was going to really introduce guys like Marvin Gaye and Steve Wonder, I had done it before.”

“Soul Train” had a whimsical cartoon train and whistle that opened each show. And Cornelius would close each show with his sign-off: “Love, peace, and SOUL!” drawing out the pronunciation of the last word with his deep voice.

The show, with his sharp eye for talent, became the cornerstone of his entertainment empire. He acted as independent producer-host-salesman to bring “Soul Train” into partnership with Tribune Entertainment Co., which became the show’s distributor in the 1980s.

The show chugged gradually onto TV screens nationwide: Only a handful of stations initially were receptive. Johnson Products Co., maker of Afro Sheen and other hair-care goods, was its major sponsor and the first black-owned company to sponsor a national weekly TV show. Years later, major advertisers including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s joined.

“Soul Train” aired nationally from 1971 to 2006. Asked why it endured, he told The New York Times in 1995: “There is an inner craving among us all, within us all, for television that we can personally connect to.” He stepped down as host in 1993, and sold it to MadVision Entertainment in 2008.

“Don Cornelius was a pioneer & a trailblazer,” Earvin “Magic” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “He was the first African-American to create, produce, host & more importantly OWN his own show.”

Though “Soul Train” became one of the longest-running syndicated shows in TV history, its power began to wane in the 1980s and `90s as American pop culture began folding in black culture instead of keeping it segregated.

By that time, there were more options for black artists to appear on mainstream shows. And on shows like “American Bandstand,” blacks could be seen dancing along with whites.

But even when Michael Jackson became the King of Pop, there was still a need to highlight the achievements of African-Americans that were still marginalized at mainstream events. So Cornelius created the “Soul Train Awards,” which would become a key honor for musicians. The series also spawned the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards and the Soul Train Christmas Starfest.

Along the way, however, Cornelius became estranged from a changing music scene that clashed with his relatively conservative taste. But while he suggested violently or sexually explicit gangsta rap should be labeled “X-rated,” Cornelius said the focus should be on eliminating poverty and violence from low-income black communities.

DJ Scratch, the DJ from the rap act EPMD, tweeted on Wednesday that Cornelius “100% didn’t like Hip Hop. But he realized that it was what the youth wanted. So again, I thank you Don.”

Cornelius’ world grew dark in recent years as he faced fallout from a divorce and other pressures. In 2009, he was sentenced to three years’ probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor spousal battery and, in his divorce case that year, he also mentioned having significant health problems.

He has two children, Anthony and Raymond, with his first wife, Delores Harrison.

Cornelius, who was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 1995 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, said in 2006 he remained grateful to the musicians who made “Soul Train” the destination for the best and latest in black music.

“As long as the music stayed hot and important and good, that there would always be a reason for `Soul Train,’” he said.

Singer Leslie Carter dies at 25 in upstate NY

Singer Leslie Carter, the sister of Aaron Carter and former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, has died in upstate New York. She was 25.

A publicist for the Carter family confirmed the death, but provided no details Wednesday on where or how she died.

A statement from the family says they’re grieving for Carter and requested “the utmost privacy.”

Carter’s single “Like Wow” was on the soundtrack for “Shrek” in 2001. In 2006, she appeared in all eight episodes of the reality show “House of Carters.”

 

 

‘Spartacus’ star Andy Whitfield dead at 39

“Spartacus” actor Andy Whitfield has died, CNN has confirmed. Fans of Starz Entertainment’s original drama “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” know Whitfield as the titular gladiator.

According to the New York Times, the 39-year-old passed away on Sunday in Sydney, Australia from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Whitfield leaves behind his wife, Vashti, two children, and a sister.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Andy Whitfield,” said Starz President and CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement.

 

“We were fortunate to have worked with Andy in ‘Spartacus’ and came to know that the man who played a champion on-screen was also a champion in his own life,” Albrecht continued. “Andy was an inspiration to all of us as he faced this very personal battle with courage, strength and grace. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. He will live on in the hearts of his family, friends and fans.”

“Spartacus” creator Steven DeKnight shared his thoughts on Twitter, writing, “No words to express the depth of such a loss. You will be deeply missed, my brother.”

Whitfield rose to stardom on the Starz series, but took what was intended to be a temporary hiatus following a check-up in March of 2010, the NYT reports. Starz ended up using a variety of actors for a prequel, “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” as they waited for Whitfield to return, but he never became well enough to do so.

Australian actor Liam McIntyre was tapped to fill the lead for the second season. At the time, McIntyre commended Whitfield for his work on the show, and said that “everybody hurts that he’s had to give up that role, myself included.”

Whitfield’s co-stars are chiming in with their condolences as well. In a statement on her fan site, “Spartacus” actress (and former “Xena” star) Lucy Lawless is quoted as saying that  “Obviously, Andy Whitfield left an indelible mark on all of us in the ‘Spartacus’ family.”

“He was a gentle man who never said a bad word about anyone, a gifted photographer, engineer (no really!) and a brilliant actor,” the statement said. “Andy’s incandescent film presence made men want to be him and women want to marry him. Andy’s two babies will always know that their Daddy cherished them and their mother, Vashti, above all things. How lucky we were to have him grace all our lives. Godspeed, Andy!”

 

Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

English singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home on July 23, 2011. She was 27. Winehouse’s 2006 album “Back to Black” was nominated for six GRAMMY awards, of which she won five including Record of the Year.

Peter Falk, TV’s rumpled Columbo, has died

The best way to celebrate Peter Falk’s life is to savor how Columbo, his signature character, fortified our lives.

Thanks to Falk’s affectionately genuine portrayal, Lt. Columbo established himself for all time as a champion of any viewer who ever felt less than graceful, elegant or well-spoken.

Falk died Thursday at age 83 in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home, according to a statement released Friday by family friend Larry Larson. But Columbo lives on as the shining ideal of anyone with a smudge on his tie, whose car isn’t the sportiest, who often seems clueless, who gets dissed by fancy people.

As a police detective, Columbo’s interview technique was famously disjointed, with his inevitable awkward afterthought (“Ahhh, there’s just one more thing…”) that tried the patience of his suspect as he was halfway out the door.

Columbo was underestimated, patronized or simply overlooked by nearly everyone he met – especially the culprit.

And yet Columbo, drawing on inner pluck for which only he (and an actor as skilled as Falk) could have accounted, always prevailed. Contrary to all evidence (that is, until he nailed the bad guy), Columbo always knew what he was doing.

Even more inspiring for viewers, he was unconcerned with how other people saw him. He seemed to be perfectly happy with himself, his life, his pet basset, Dog, his wheezing Peugeot, and his never-seen wife. A squat man chewing cigars in a rumpled raincoat, he stands tall among TV’s most self-assured heroes.

What viewer won’t take solace forever from the lessons Columbo taught us by his enduring example?

Columbo – he never had a first name – presented a refreshing contrast to other TV detectives. “He looks like a flood victim,” Falk once said. “You feel sorry for him. He appears to be seeing nothing, but he’s seeing everything. Underneath his dishevelment, a good mind is at work.”

On another occasion, he described Columbo as “an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes.”

“As a person, he was like Columbo. He was exactly the same way: a great sense of humor, constantly forgetting things,” said Charles Engel, an NBCUniversal executive who worked with Falk on “Columbo” and was his neighbor and longtime friend.

He remembered Falk as a “brilliant” actor and “an amazingly wonderful, crazy guy,” and said a script was in place for a two-hour “Columbo” special, but Falk’s illness made the project impossible. In a court document filed in December 2008, Falk’s daughter Catherine Falk said her father was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Somehow fittingly, Falk – the perfect choice to play Columbo – failed to be the first choice. Instead, the role was offered to easygoing crooner Bing Crosby. Fortunately, he turned it down.

With Falk in place, “Columbo” began its run in 1971 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series, appearing every third week. The show became by far the most popular of the three mysteries, the others being “McCloud” and “McMillan and Wife.”

Falk was reportedly paid $250,000 a movie and could have made much more if he had accepted an offer to convert “Columbo” into a weekly series. He declined, reasoning that carrying a weekly detective series would be too great a burden.

NBC canceled the three series in 1977. In 1989 ABC offered “Columbo” in a two-hour format usually appearing once or twice a season. The movies continued into the 21st century. “Columbo” appeared in 26 foreign countries and was a particular favorite in France and Iran.

Columbo’s trademark: an ancient raincoat Falk had once bought for himself. After 25 years on television, the coat became so tattered it had to be replaced.

Falk was already an experienced Broadway actor and two-time Oscar nominee when he began playing Columbo. And, long before then, he had demonstrated a bit of Columbo-worthy spunk: at 3, he had one eye removed because of cancer.

Then, when he was starting as an actor in New York, an agent told him, “Of course, you won’t be able to work in movies or TV because of your eye.” And after failing a screen test at Columbia Pictures, he was told by studio boss Harry Cohn that “for the same price I can get an actor with two eyes.”

But Falk prevailed, even before “Columbo,” picking up back-to-back Oscar nominations as best supporting actor for the 1960 mob drama “Murder, Inc.” and Frank Capra’s last film, the 1961 comedy-drama “Pocketful of Miracles.”

Paying tribute, actor-comedian Michael McKean said, “Peter Falk’s assault on conventional stardom went like this: You’re not conventionally handsome, you’re missing an eye and you have a speech impediment. Should you become a movie star? Peter’s correct answer: Absolutely.

“I got to hang with him a few times and later worked a day with him on a forgettable TV movie,” McKean went on, calling Falk “a sweet, sharp and funny man with a great soul. Wim Wenders called it correctly in `Wings of Desire’: He was an angel if there ever was one on Earth.”

“There is literally nobody you could compare him to. He was a completely unique actor,” said Rob Reiner, who directed Falk in “The Princess Bride.”

“His personality was really what drew people to him. … He had this great sense of humor and this great natural quality nobody could come close to,” Reiner said. Falk’s work with Alan Arkin in “The In-Laws” represents “one of the most brilliant comedy pairings we’ve seen on screen.”

Peter Michael Falk was born in 1927, in New York City and grew up in Ossining, N.Y., where his parents ran a clothing store.

After serving as a cook in the merchant marine and receiving a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University, Falk worked as an efficiency expert for the budget bureau of the state of Connecticut.

He also acted in amateur theater and was encouraged to become a professional by actress-teacher Eva Le Gallienne.

An appearance in “The Iceman Cometh” off-Broadway led to other parts, among them Josef Stalin in Paddy Chayefsky’s 1964 “The Passion of Josef D.” In 1971, Falk scored a hit in Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” Tony-nominated for best play.

Falk made his film debut in 1958 with “Wind Across the Everglades” and established himself as a talented character actor with his performance as the vicious killer Abe Reles in “Murder, Inc.”

Among his other movies: “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” “Robin and the Seven Hoods,” “The Great Race,” “Luv,” “Castle Keep,” “The Cheap Detective” and “The Brinks Job.”

Falk also appeared in a number of art-house favorites, including “Wings of Desire” (in which he played himself as a former angel), and the semi-improvisational films “Husbands” and “A Woman Under the Influence,” directed by his friend John Cassavetes.

“Today we lost someone who is very special and dear to my heart. Not only a wonderful actor but a very great friend,” said Gena Rowlands, who co-starred with Falk in the latter film, and was married to the late Cassavetes.

Falk became prominent in television movies, beginning with his first Emmy for “The Price of Tomatoes” in 1961. His four other Emmys were for “Columbo.”

He was married to pianist Alyce Mayo in 1960; they had two daughters, Jackie and Catherine, and divorced in 1976. The following year he married actress Shera Danese. They filed for divorce twice and reconciled each time.

When not working, Falk spent time in the garage of his Beverly Hills home. He had converted it into a studio where he created charcoal drawings. He took up art in New York when he was in the Simon play and one day happened into the Art Students League.

He recalled: “I opened a door and there she was, a nude model, shoulders back, a light from above, buck-ass naked. The female body is awesome. Believe me, I signed up right away.”

Falk is survived by his wife Shera and his two daughters.

 

‘Jackass’ star died from Pa. crash’s impact, fire

“Jackass” daredevil Ryan Dunn and his passenger died from the impact of the violent car crash and the resulting fire, according to a coroner’s report Tuesday.

The Chester County coroner listed blunt force trauma and thermal trauma as the official causes of death for both men. Toxicology results will take four to six weeks to complete, coroner’s office spokeswoman Patty Emmons said.

The 34-year-old Dunn and passenger Zachary Hartwell died early Monday, shortly after leaving a pub in West Chester where Dunn had tweeted a photo of the pair and a third man drinking just hours before the crash. The photo has since been taken down.

Barnaby’s of America manager Jim O’Brien declined through an employee to speak to The Associated Press. He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Dunn was drinking with several friends at the bar but didn’t appear drunk.

West Goshen Township police declined Tuesday to discuss the ongoing investigation in detail but believe speed may have been a factor in the suburban Philadelphia crash.

A preliminary examination of the crash site suggested that Dunn’s Porsche might have been traveling more than 100 mph in the 55 mph zone when it jumped a guardrail, flew into a wooded ravine, struck a tree and burst into flames.

The 30-year-old Hartwell was credited as a production assistant for the second “Jackass” movie.

Dunn’s brother, Eric Dunn, said in an emailed statement to the AP that his family was “devastated.”

“We appreciate the support of Ryan’s fans during this time, and we are grateful for your thoughts and prayers,” he said. “Ryan will be greatly missed, but he will forever remain in our hearts.”

Mourners placed flowers and took photos at the accident scene in West Chester, while Facebook and Twitter were buzzing Tuesday with condolences from fans around the world and friends from Hollywood to Chester County.

Among those expressing their sorrow online were Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden, reality TV star Brody Jenner and Dunn’s “Jackass” movie and TV cohorts Bam Margera, Stephen “Steve-O” Glover and Jason “Wee Man” Acuna.

Glover tweeted, “I don’t know what to say, except I love Ryan Dunn and I’m really going to miss him.” Glover also canceled six upcoming stand-up comedy shows in Sacramento, Calif., and the venue said it was issuing ticketholders refunds.

There was also criticism, most notably after movie critic Roger Ebert posted on Twitter that “friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive.” Margera erupted in expletives on his own Twitter page. Ebert’s Facebook page was flooded with derogatory posts and briefly taken down; Facebook apologized a few hours later and said the page was “removed in error.”

Ebert responded Tuesday that he didn’t mean to be cruel and was “probably too quick to tweet” after the crash.