Judge halts release of Verne Troyer sex tape

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Verne Troyer successfully shut down the distribution of a sex tape featuring the "Austin Powers" actor and a former girlfriend — for now.

The celebrity Web site TMZ posted a 25-second snipped of the video Wednesday, but pulled the clips down Friday evening after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by Troyer's attorneys.

The ruling also prevents any attempt by a porn distributor from taking orders for the full 50-minute video, and keeps TMZ from broadcasting any more clips. Troyer's lawsuit also seeks $20 million in damages and the return of all copies of the tape.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez wrote that Troyer's motion "demonstrated that he will suffer irreparable harm to his reputation" if the tape is distributed.

Troyer's attorney, Tracy Rane, said she, Troyer and others are "very pleased" by Gutierrez's ruling.

"Mr. Troyer is extremely distraught by the recent exploitation of his private life," Troyer's publicist, Melissa Bergera, wrote in a statement released to the AP.

TMZ did not return calls seeking comment on the case Friday. Although the video excerpt showing Troyer kissing his then-girlfriend was removed, another post describing the actor's lawsuit remained active.

Troyer, most famous for his role as "Mini Me" in two of the "Austin Powers" movies, claims the sex tape he made with a former girlfriend, which he never intended to become public, was stolen from his home some months ago.

TMZ reported that the video could fetch $100,000 from a porn distributor. SugarDVD wrote in a statement on its Web site that hoped to reach a deal with Troyer to distribute the full, 50-minute version. That statement was also removed by late Friday afternoon.

Kevin Blatt, a producer who promoted a sex tape featuring Paris Hilton, is also named as a defendant. Reached on his cell phone Friday, Blatt said he had not been served with the lawsuit yet, but called it "baseless."

Blatt said he never had the tape and only helped try to broker a deal.

The judge also indicated he may issue a more binding preliminary injunction in the case unless TMZ and other parties demonstrate why it should be released. His temporary order expires July 7.

Troyer is only the latest celebrity whose sex tape surfaced without consent, a phenomenon that began with the release of the infamous Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee honeymoon video. Since then, several others have surfaced, including Hilton, Colin Farrell, and rapper Ray-J with Kim Kardashian — the daughter of a prominent attorney who parlayed at least some of her newfound notoriety into reality-star status.

In Anderson and Lee's case, the couple actually agreed to have the tape distributed, which resulted in a federal judge tossing out their lawsuit after the video was widely distributed on the Internet, in adult video stores, and even in hotel rooms.

Legal experts differed on Troyer's chances of long-term success keeping the video under wraps.

"I think distributing the tape is going to be very problematic," said Jack Lerner, a professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.

"Any time you record something that has even a very small bit of original expression in it, that's going to be copyrighted," he said, noting that a videotape would apply.

David Gringas, a Phoenix attorney who specializes in Internet, intellectual property and First Amendment issues, wrote in an e-mail that the fact that Troyer hadn't yet applied for copyright protection could harm his case.

Troyer's suit states he intends to register the tape's copyright.

Gringas wrote that courts generally try to protect celebrities from "any conduct that's really offensive," but are also aware that the release of some tapes actually benefits the celebrity.

"However, when a private tape is truly stolen from the owner, most times courts will do all they can to protect the rights of the celebrity to control their name or image," Gringas wrote.

Both Lerner and Gringas said they doubted injunctions against TMZ would remain, since the site may argue it was simply reporting the news.

If past cases are any indication, Troyer's legal battle could be extremely swift or protracted: Anderson and Lee spent two years battling distributors over their sex tape; Kardashian's lawsuit was settled less than three months later for undisclosed terms.

sources frm : google news

Mini Me Who Shagged Me - By Chris Beanland

HE'S not quite PARIS HILTON or PAMELA ANDERSON - but a sordid video of MINI ME is the latest sex tape to hit the net.
The pint-sized actor - real name VERNE TROYER - stars in the vid with his ex-girlfriend.
Tiny Troyer made his name as Mini Me in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Austin Powers In Goldmember.
Stills and a short segment of pretty harmless video showing the couple kissing have turned up on the internet.
But the stomach-churning full version has reportedly been bought by a distributor who will want to make as much money out of the cheeky film as possible by selling copies of it on DVD. At 2 feet 8 inches tall, Troyer at least shows that size isn't everything in the bedroom.

Hulk's New Girlfriend

Terry Bollea is very happy and very well influenced by a new woman he met in November last year. Hulk Hogan the renowned film star and wrestling sensational Hulk Hogan has found himself a new girl friend. This week in Miami Beach Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) was splashing around with new girlfriend Jennifer McDaniel. Hogan who made a great star in the movie ‘Assault in the devils Island’ and who is a strong role model in modern wrestling videos was spotted shopping at a Wal-Mart with Jennifer in Clearwater, Florida.
Hogan has no hard feelings about Linda’s new 19-year old boyfriend. Hogan is married to Linda Bollea and has some great kid’s together. The couple has since along time lived in Florida. Hogan is a successful wrestler and has starred gallantly in various wrestling and movies. Hogan and Jennifer are very happy and are planning to move in together.

sources frm: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal

Harvard Goes Halal

source frm INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Islamofascism: Separate gym hours for Muslim coeds. Calls to prayer. Lectures on Shariah finance. A campus in the Mideast? Nope. It's all happening at America's pre-eminent college.

Over the past few years, Harvard University has received millions in endowments from rich Saudi and Emirate sheiks. Now it's returning the favor by Islamizing its campus and promoting the Shariah agenda of its new Arab masters.
Recently, the Ivy League school has made special accommodations for the religious needs of Muslim students, including, and rescheduling of exams to observe Islamic holidays.
And this weekend it hosted a $400-per-person conference on Shariah finance led by officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the forum — sponsored by Harvard's Islamic Finance Project — is to "integrate" Islamic finance into the mainstream economy.
That's a tough fit, because Islamic, or Shariah, finance forbids investment in major Western industries, including those that derive substantial income from interest.
Banking and insurance, as well as alcohol, tobacco or pork-related industries, are not considered "halal," or allowable, under Islam. Entertainment is also unlawful.
Shariah-compliant investments are monitored by paid Shariah law advisers who must "purify" certain returns by donating them to Islamic charities — including some that promote jihad and support suicide bombings.
With $800 billion already in Shariah assets — and $1 trillion to $2 trillion in Arab petrodollars annually looking for an investment home — the potential for billions being siphoned off for terrorism is real.
This, of course, would be a serious criminal violation of U.S. law. Yet Western bankers, including many on Wall Street who are jumping into the Shariah finance market, don't know this.
One prominent Shariah adviser is Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He's a paid adviser to Arcapita (formerly Crescent Capital), which happens to sponsor Harvard's Islamic Finance Project along with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
Al-Qaradawi is an Egyptian who has advocated suicide bombings and described Shariah finance as nothing less than "jihad with money."
He heads the Islamic American University and is a proposed trustee of the Islamic Society of Boston. The director of Harvard's Islamic Finance Project, S. Nazim Ali, is active in both the university and the Islamic Society. Ali is neither an economist nor a scholar. His background is in computers.
Another paid Shariah adviser is Sheik Muhammad Usmani, a Pakistani cleric who ran a madrassa that trained thousands of Taliban and who recently wrote a book supporting jihad and Islamic domination. He, too, has links to Harvard, according to the Center for Security Policy, a vanguard against so-called Shariah creep.
Roger Ferguson, president-elect of the university's board of overseers, joined Swiss RE in August 2006. Two months later, Usmani was named chairman of Swiss RE's Shariah advisory board.
Until recently, Usmani was listed as chief adviser to the Dow Jones Islamic Fund, which is run by the North American Islamic Trust, a recently named co-conspirator in a federal terror-financing case.
Usmani's name — along with the entire section covering the fund's "Shariah supervisory board" — mysteriously disappeared from the Islamic Trust's Web site after we exposed the fund's extremist ties in a Feb. 28 editorial ("The Risky Business of Islamic Finance"). Other key information on Shariah also has been purged. In addition, the Islamic Trust renamed its Dow fund the "Iman Fund" and amended several paragraphs in its prospectus.
It appears Islamists are trying to use such Shariah-compliant financial products as tools to get Islamic law through the back door into Western countries, including the U.S. They're enlisting our finest colleges in the project.
If Arab sheiks think they can buy American colleges and use our campuses to spread Wahhabism, Harvard only has encouraged them

Rob Lowe Accuses of Extortion

7-Apr-2008
Written by: Louise Robina Happe

Lowe hits back against misconduct claims. Rob Lowe is accusing his former employee of extortion. According to People magazine, the actor claimed in a blog posted on Monday that his former babysitter is claiming “false terribles” in order to receive a $1.5 million payout. In an article on the Huffington Post entitled “Household Betrayal,” Lowe wrote, “My family is devastated at this betrayal; this woman worked in our home and traveled with us off and on for seven years, without complaint. It is an attempt to damage and humiliate not only my wife and me, but our two young sons as well.” Lowe posted text messages he claimed were sent by the babysitter in an attempt to prove his family’s innocence. “I have nothing bad 2 say about your family and really am thankful for what you guys have done for me over the years,” she allegedly wrote. “I did not leave out of spite or anger, it was just time for my heart to let go... It had nothing to do with you or rob either, this was me.” Lowe added, “Does that sound like someone who has been treated badly?” Apparently, Lowe claims that his wife “tried to mentor this young woman,” and “never saw this coming.” According to UsMagazine.com, the former employee had a secret crush on the actor, but despite the “inappropriate conduct” accusations, Lowe is not shaken, stating, “No one intimidates my family... We will defend ourselves with vigor and without fear.”

Charlton Heston Dies At 84

Los Angeles — Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson and went on to become an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84.
Heston died Saturday at his Beverly Hills home, said family spokesman Bill Powers. In 2002, he had been diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's disease.
With a booming baritone voice, the tall, ruggedly handsome actor delivered his signature role as the prophet Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 Biblical extravaganza “The Ten Commandments,” raising a rod over his head as God miraculously parts the Red Sea.
Heston won the Academy Award for best actor in another religious blockbuster in 1959's “Ben-Hur,” racing four white horses at top speed in one of the cinema's legendary action sequences — the 15-minute chariot race in which his character, a proud and noble Jew, competes against his childhood Roman friend.
Heston stunned the entertainment world in August 2002 when he made a poignant and moving videotaped address announcing his illness.

source from : TheDay.Com

£130-an-hour - Shilpa Lee aka Sufiah

SHE was a child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13—but now the only sums Sufiah Yusof is interested in are the ones she earns as a HOOKER.

For sad Sufiah the daily equation she has to solve is simply sex equals £130 as she sells her body to punters over the internet.

The gifted girl with the winning smile had the world at her feet ten years ago and should be a rich woman by now—but last week she was busy subtracting her underwear for our undercover reporter in her dingy back street flat.

“Would you like to start your half hour now?” said Sufiah, 23, as she danced on the bed, displaying her body for examination.

Then she listed all the sleazy plus points she would throw in for our man if he took up her offer.

Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers’ website, describing herself as a “very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5′5″ tall—available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm.”

She says she is a “sexy, smart student” who prefers “older gentlemen”— but a former pal who has witnessed her downfall told us: “It is all desperately heartbreaking.

“With her amazing brain she should be able to make money any way she wants. But instead her life has spiralled completely out of control.”

Life has never quite added up for Sufiah. Her descent into prostitution in Salford, Manchester, is the latest in a long line of tragedies to have engulfed her since the sunny day when she posed with her university mortar board for the world’s press outside prestigious St Hilda’s College.

Our shock revelations today come in the week her domineering dad Farooq was jailed for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls as he home-tutored them in maths.

And he was always at the root of all her troubles— even as she passed the further maths A-Level she needed for entry to Oxford at the age of 12. In those days Sufia was a strict Muslim child who prayed five times a day and was subjected to her father’s famous Accelerated Learning Technique.

Her days involved stretching and breathing exercises in freezing rooms to keep her brain attentive.

Sufiah would then study hard and be forced to play tennis with just as much intensity as fanatical Farooq drove her on. The routine was so effective Sufiah was seeded number eight in the country for under 21s.

But three years into Oxford, the 15-year-old sparked a massive police hunt after running away.

Abuse

At the time her father bizarrely claimed Sufiah had been kidnapped and brainwashed by an organisation seeking the key to her intelligence.

But Sufiah sent an email to her family describing her life under her father as a “living hell”.

One message to her sister read: “I’ve finally had enough of 15 years of physical and emotional abuse. You know what I am talking about.”

Sufiah was missing for two weeks before being found in an internet café in Bournemouth where she had been working as a hotel waitress.

She refused to go back to her parents and instead was taken into the care of social services.

It was then revealed that Farooq had been jailed for three years in 1992 for his part in a £1.5m mortgage swindle. Before that—at the age of 19—he had been sent to borstal for his role in a conspiracy involving £100,000.

Free from the spell of her father, Sufiah returned to Oxford to complete the final year of her Masters in Maths.

But she was now more concerned with enjoying herself—and failed to finish the course after meeting trainee lawyer Jonathan Marshall.

They were married in 2004 when Sufiah was just 19 and Jonathan 24. But the strains with her family were still there.

Despite being invited, Sufiah’s parents and four brothers and sisters failed to turn up to the wedding.

Her dreams of a happy life with Jonathan were shattered when the couple divorced just a year later.

Now, in her sad little flat, she uses her body to pay the rent. Sufiah met our man, posing as a punter, at the entrance to her building wearing a tiny skirt, leather boots and a tight t-shirt. She was carrying three mobile phones.

She laughed and joked as she led him to her small apartment where a bed was already set out in the lounge.

She told him it was £130 an hour and offered him a glass of water before putting some music on to a cheap portable stereo and nervously stripping down to her red lace bra and knickers.

Sufiah then peeled off her underwear and danced on the bed. She told him she did full sex with a condom and oral sex without protection.

After our man had made his excuses, Sufiah kept him talking by telling him how she was studying for a Masters degree in Economics on a part-time two year course in London.

The former prodigy added: “I’ve got exams coming up and I’m thinking ‘Oh my God!’”

Once described by her parents as “naïve and unstreetwise”, she works alone from her flat without any obvious physical security or protection.

She even admitted to our reporter: “It’s always a surprise who you are going to meet.”

Cheerful Sufiah gave no indication of any sadness at the jailing of her father the previous day. On Wednesday Farooq, 50, was sentenced to 18 months at Coventry Crown Court for touching two 15-year-old girls when he was home tutoring them at maths.

The court heard how in May last year Farooq arrived at one of the victim’s home for a maths lesson.

He started whispering in her ear and kissing her hair and cheek. He also touched her breast and told her she was a genius and pretty before putting her hand on his upper thigh.

Destroyed

Farooq’s defence lawyer Tim Hannam said: “He’s been back in prison for over five months and knows there’ll be no more teaching and any hope he had of gaining an income from the teaching method he had developed to a high degree of success is lost to him. His reputation is destroyed.”

Now it’s clear the daughter who fled his strict regime has almost been destroyed too.

Her friend said last night: “Sufiah has suffered so many knocks in her life. I just hope she can drag herself out this life she has got herself into.

“She is a good person and deserves a much better life than this. Her gift really has been a curse.”

source from : newsoftheworld By Keith Gladdis

K.I.T.T - Knight Rider

KITT is the analog name for the fictional scifi advanture series Knight Rider character artificial intelligence mounted in a highly advanced very mobile weapons platform disguised as a sleek contemporary automobile, and that series' subsequent spin-offs and continuations.

The original full name stood for Knight Industries Two Thousand, whereas the updated 2008 movie refers to the successive AI unit designated as the Knight Industries Three Thousand.

KITT's features

KITT is loaded with special features such as the commonly-used Turbo Boost, which allows quick bursts of speed or jumping over obstacles. KITT could also drive himself, but perhaps his most distinct and recognizable aspect was his front mounted scan bar which, among other things, allowed KITT to "see". KITT's body panels were coated with an advanced "molecular bonded shell" armor coating which would resist conventional weapon fire as well as most artillery and explosive blasts although a strong direct hit by those attacks could cause severe damage. KITT underwent a major modification during a refit in 1985 which included the addition of "Super Pursuit Mode" and a convertible top.

KITT had many features, most of which had an activation button associated with them that were on panels mounted on either side of the steering wheel or on a console mounted on the ceiling of the interior. Many of these button functions seem to change around, appearing and disappearing, or rearranging from episode to episode. Some were used once and never seen again.

~~to be continued~~

SHANON PRICE..marrying GARY COLEMAN

FROM SUN-TIMES WIRES - February 12, 2008

Gary Coleman revealed today that he’s tied the knot, and it’s not just his first marriage — it’s his first time ever being in love. The 40-year-old former child actor told “Inside Edition” that he secretly wed Shannon Price, 22, on Aug. 28 after the couple met on a movie set. “I never got the opportunity to be romantic or feel romantic with anyone,” the “Diff’rent Strokes” star said. “I wasn’t saving myself; she just happened to be the one.” Price, who’s about 5œ feet tall, said neither their height nor their age difference deterred her from falling for the 4-foot-8 actor. “He was 10 feet tall to me because he was sweet and I really liked his personality,” she said.Price, who now sells Coleman memorabilia on the Internet, said she hopes to be known for more than her household name of a husband. “She’s a great eBayer,” Coleman said. She’s a fabulous eBayer. I hope she gets famous for that.”

Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corp. has posted the largest yearly profit by a U.S. company in the country's history.

On Friday, Irving-based Exxon Mobil showed a yearly profit of $40.6 billion, numbers largely derived from soaring crude oil prices. The previous yearly record for a publicly traded U.S. company was set in 2005 by Exxon Mobile, when it posted a $39.5 billion profit

The company also set a new record for largest quarterly profits, posting net income at $11.6 billion for the three months ending December 2007, up 14 percent over 2006's fourth quarter profits of 10.2 billion. The figures represent a gain of $2.13 per share, versus $1.76 per share in 2006.

Exxon Mobil Corp. produces 3 percent of the world's oil.

Giant Spider Crab

The Japanese spider crab has 8 legs and 2 big feeding arms and generally lives under water but has been found on land. Years and years ago when one of these were initially found inland in the Jungles of Japan, naturally they caused quite a stir in the local community.

The Giant Japanese spider crab can generally be found in the Pacific Ocean around Japan. They can live at depths of 50-300m or 150-1000 feet.

They generally have a dark orange body, with white spots on its legs. In male specimens, the limbs on which the claws are located on become more extended than its legs.

Its eyes are situated on the front, and two thorns stick out between them. Younger specimens feature hair and thorns on the body, and their frontal horns are longer, but these get shorter as they grow older.

The giant spider crab is one of the largest arthropods know to man. They measure up to 3.7 m from the tip of one claw to another. The width of their body usually grows to about 37cm (15inches) They are covered with little nodules called tubercles and most of their size is taken up by their long legs.

Not quite the nicest thing to see crawling up your wall at home though. Below a 12 foot one has been made into an interesting mural !

Giant spider crabs are omnivorous and scavenge for food. They can eat algae, plants, mollusks and small fish. Catching and tearing the meat up in their powerful pincers. Their long legs enable them to move quite quickly and stalk their prey.

They move along the Ocean floor very slowly and subsequently are easy targets for hungry predators that are big enough to attack it. As some form of protection they attach sponges and smaller animals to their shells to divert predators.

The Spider Crab tends to live in Ocean vents or holes that are big enough to take it. They are now hunted by fisherman as their meat is apparently quiet delicious. The spider crab is caught using trawling nets, and is often eaten salted and steamed. It is caught in the Sagami, Tosa and Suruga bays and also around the Izu Islands. During the spring when the crab lays its eggs, the hunting of them is prohibited and most fishermen thankfully obey these rules and the spider crab will not be served as a nice dish until its extinct.

" I'm coming to get ya ! "

I for one won't be swimming inshore in Japanese waters, unless I have one of the bigger varieties of harpoon-gun with me !

Or a big pair of rubber gloves, to hold a baby one, like this guy....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it a spider or is it a crab ?

An ecology student has recently indicated via e-mail that it is indeed from the crab family as it has 10 legs, Decapoda (dec as in 10). The feeding arms presumably have been included in this number, but it doesn't use these 'arms' for walking//crawling on, so the original count of eight legs still holds. As I said in my reply " If I was to crawl on all fours would my arms be counted as legs ? "

A Mr J Harker writes,

As a recent student in the zoology of invertebrates:

"The Japanese Giant Spider Crab is indeed a crab. Spiders are characterised by poisonous fangs (chelicerates) and spinnerets for silk weaving. They also have what are called 'book gills' (folds of tracheae for respiration) and their epicuticle has become waxy. Crabs, however have aquatic gills and even land crabs have to keep these moist to keep breathing. They also require water to breed. Crabs also have a larval stage, whereas spiders do not. the taka-ashi-gani fits more criteria for decapoda ( crabs) than the arachnidan.
Furthermore, the DNA sequence for the giant spider crab is distinctly Crustacean."

Crab Families

Scientists have divided crabs into several families. I have listed them below, along with several examples of each.

Edible Crab (Deliciousidae)

• Dungeness Crab
• Snow Crab
• Edible Crab³

Crabs Large Enough To Be Truly Fearsome And Which Are Therefore Best Avoided (Crabzilladae)

• Coconut crab
• Japanese Spider Crab

Crabs Which Are Too Small To Eat⁴ (Diminuitividae)

• Thumbnail Crab
• Peekytoe Crab

Crabs Which Are Often More Trouble To Eat Than They Are Worth And Yet Are Widely Touted As The Best Tasting Crabs In The World In A Way That Smacks Of East Coast Elitism (Orientosnobidae)

• "Maryland" Blue Crab

Seasonal And Holiday Crabs (Festivusidae)

• Christmas Island Red Crab
• Halloween Crab

Other Types Of Animals Which Are Not Crabs, But Which Masquerade As Crabs, Often To The Point Of Placing "Crab" In Their Name With Intent To Deceive (Doppelcrabidae)

• Hermit Crab
• King Crab, e.g., Alaskan King Crab
• [Hairy] Stone Crab
• Crab Louse
• Krab

Allan Melvin Dies

Allan Melvin, a popular character actor who played Cpl. Henshaw on the classic 1950s sitcom “The Phil Silvers Show” and later portrayed Archie Bunker’s neighbor and friend Barney on “All in the Family,” has died. He was 84.

Melvin, who was in the original Broadway cast of “Stalag 17″ in the early 1950s, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Brentwood, said his wife of 64 years, Amalia.

During his five-decade career, Melvin made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, including playing different roles on at least eight episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show” and playing Dick Van Dyke’s old Army buddy on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

He also played Sgt. Charlie Hacker on “Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C.”; portrayed butcher Sam Franklin — Alice the housekeeper’s boyfriend — on “The Brady Bunch”; and continued playing Barney when the hit “All in the Family” became “Archie Bunker’s Place.”

Melvin, who appeared in only one movie — the 1968 Doris Day comedy “With Six You Get Eggroll” — also did voice-over work in cartoons, including providing the voices of Magilla Gorilla and Bluto on “Popeye.”

He worked on numerous TV commercials as well, including playing Al the Plumber in the Liquid-Plumr commercials for 15 years.

After launching his show business career in the sound effects department of NBC radio in New York in 1944, Melvin began acting on radio soap operas and then moved into live television.

At the same time, he did movie star impressions in Manhattan in a nightclub act written by his friend Richard Condon, who later wrote “The Manchurian Candidate.”

Melvin’s stand-up act led to his winning “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” radio show in the late 1940s.

He was playing Reed in “Stalag 17,” the hit 1951-52 Broadway play set in a German POW camp during World War II, when he first caught Silvers’ attention.

“The Phil Silvers Show,” originally titled “You’ll Never Get Rich,” was set on an Army base in Kansas and ran from 1955 to 1959.

As Cpl. Henshaw, Melvin was the right-hand man to Silvers’ con-man extraordinaire, Sgt. Ernie Bilko.

“He was brilliant” as Henshaw, Mickey Freeman, who played Pvt. Zimmerman on the show, told The Times on Friday.

In recent years, when fans would ask Freeman how many surviving cast members were left, he would reply, “Allan Melvin and me — that’s a high mortality rate for a noncombatant unit.”

Noting that Melvin “was a great mimic of voices,” Freeman recalled an episode in which an officer arrived at Ft. Baxter to stop the men from gambling. One of the ways the officer did that, Freeman said, was to make them listen to his wife lecture on art.

But the woman had an unusual twitch — pulling on her skirt — and Bilko and the other soldiers placed bets on how many times she would do that during her lecture.

Freeman recalled that Melvin, as Henshaw, was positioned outside the lecture hall with a microphone, broadcasting to the other soldiers on the base — ” ‘She’s up to 42 now . . . 43 . . . 44, and she’s not even breathing heavy.’ He made a whole racetrack thing out of it,” Freeman said. “He was wonderful.”

Melvin was born Feb. 18, 1923, in Kansas City, Mo. His family soon moved to New York City, where he graduated from Columbia University as a journalism major.

Melvin retired from acting about 10 years ago — long after becoming a household face who was used to people spotting him in public and saying, “Hey, Henshaw” or “Hey, Sam the Butcher.”

“I’ve enjoyed the stuff I’ve done,” he told People magazine in 1996, “but the one you’re getting paid for, that’s what you enjoy most.”

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Jennifer Hanson; and a grandson.

Services will be private.

Former Steelers DT Holmes dies

PA SportsTicker

Published: Friday, January 18, 2008

Ernie Holmes, a star defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers' famed "Steel Curtain" defense, died in a car crash. He was 59.

Holmes died late Thursday night on Highway 69 just outside of Lumberton in southeast Texas when his car left the roadway and rolled over several times.

Holmes, who was driving alone and was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the car, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson. His death was first reported by television station KFDM 6 in Beaumont.

A two-time Pro Bowler, Holmes spent six seasons with the Steelers from 1972-1977 and helped Pittsburgh to Super Bowl titles in 1974 and 1975. He was a key member of a star-studded defensive which included "Mean" Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham and Mel Blount.

"Ernie was one of the toughest players to ever wear a Steelers uniform," Steelers chairman Dan Rooney said Friday in a statement. "He was a key member of our famous Steel Curtain defense, and many people who played against him considered Ernie almost impossible to block.

"At his best, he was an intimidating player who even the toughest opponents did not want to play against."

Holmes spent part of the 1978 season with the New England Patriots before retiring. A Jamestown, Texas native, he was an ordained minister and was living in Wiergate, Texas at the time of his death.

"Ernie seemed to be doing well in recent years and was always one of our most popular players whenever he returned to Pittsburgh for team events," Rooney said. "Our prayers go out to Ernie's family and loved ones. He will be missed by the entire Steelers family."