Just the other day I got a call from a friend of mine whom I hadn’t spoken to in a while. She was really upset as she had heard that my Mom had broken down due to the passing of our friend Peter Alexander as well as my Uncle Pietro, and that she was now in intensive care in a hospital.
I calmed her down, informing her that Mom was very well, that she was enjoying some time in her house in Utah which helped her in mourning the loss of her brother and her friend, but that as usual the whole story about hospitalization and breakdown was nothing but a hoax by the German speaking tabloids.
Since this was not the first of such calls, (in fact there were way to many similar calls and emails in the last few years as a result of the different bogus headlines in the press) I asked my office to let me have the clippings of the past months and while going through them I noticed in horror that some of the invented stories by the tabloids were actually taken as a fact by other more serious newspapers.
THIS IS SO DANGEROUS!
Isn’t thorough checking of facts part of the journalist’s job anymore? How irresponsible is it to just print anything without double checking?
This so called journalism has really reached a point of decadence that has gone out of control. Just imagine that about 2 years ago, when the stories about the failing health of my Uncle Pietro hit the headlines, a Woman journalist from Germany left a message on my mother’s answering machine that she needed to urgently talk to her, that it was really important and then she finished the message with:”…. and by the way, my condolences for the passing of your brother!” How macabre is that!!!
…. and these people say they are just doing their jobs! I wonder if inventing people’s death in order to get an interview is part of their job description?!?!

I did ask my mother if all this didn’t bother her and if she didn’t want to do something in order to shut down all these rumors and lies? She answered with one of her famous laughs and quoted Shirley MacLaines latest book:
”I’M OVER ALL THAT!”
Thank God I have such a wise Mother!

Here are some pics I took of her while visiting in Los Angeles this Easter Weekend where we were honored to share the Hotel with President Obama (that was a handful)
……guess no further comment is needed!!!