'M*A*S*H' actress Loretta Swit dead: publicist
Swit who played the high-strung but flirty Houlihan for the entire TV run of the smash series, was nominated for 10 Emmy awards for her work, winning two of them.
Her death, at her home in Manhattan, was announced by her publicist, US media reported. AFP has sought confirmation.
"M*A*S*H," which sprang from an Oscar-winning 1970 film, aired initially in 1972 and was a hit until it finished in 1983.
The comedy was set in a mobile hospital for the US Army during the Korean War, and starred Alan Alda as Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce.
The series tackled a range of issues from the tragic to the light-hearted, and was sometimes seen as a satire on US involvement in Vietnam -- a war that was still happening when it first began airing.
© 2025 AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Nintendo aims to match Switch success with new console
Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 -- making it the third best-selling video game console of all time. But despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 "is priced relatively high" compared to the original device, company president Shuntaro Furukawa said at a financial results briefing in May. "So even if there is momentum around the launch, we know it will not be easy to keep that momentum going over the long term," he warned. Sales of the Switch, which can connect to a TV or be played on the go, were boosted by the popularity of games like "Animal Crossing" as a pandemic lockdown pastime. The Japanese company forecasts it will shift 15 million Switch 2 consoles in the current financial year, roughly equal to the original in the same period after its release. The new device costs $449.99 in the United States, over a third more than the Switch. A Japan-only version is cheaper, at 49,980 yen ($350).New Switch 2 games such as "Donkey Kong Bonanza" and "Mario Kart World" -- which allows players to go exploring off-grid -- are also more expensive than existing Switch titles. Most original Switch games can be played on the Switch 2, and some Switch blockbusters such as "Zelda: Breath of the Wild" will have enhanced editions released for the new incarnation. 'Super excited' "People were a bit shocked by the price of 'Mario Kart World', the first $80 game that we've ever seen," said Krysta Yang of the Nintendo-focused Kit & Krysta Podcast. While the company is "going to have to do some work" to convince more casual gamers that it's worth upgrading, Nintendo fans are "super excited", she told AFP. The Switch 2 will have eight times the memory of the first Switch, and its controllers, which attach with magnets, can also be used like a desktop computer mouse. Although the new console is not radically different, "a lot of people (are) saying, 'this is what I wanted, I wanted a more powerful Switch -- don't mess with a good thing'," said Yang, a former Nintendo employee. New functions allowing users to chat as they play online and temporarily share games with friends could also be a big draw, said David Gibson of MST Financial. "It's a way to appeal to an audience which has got used much more to the idea of streaming games and watching games, as well as playing games," he told AFP, predicting that the Switch 2 will break records in terms of early sales. And success is crucial for Nintendo. While the "Super Mario" maker is diversifying into theme parks and hit movies, around 90 percent of its revenue still comes from the Switch business, analysts say. Tariff trouble? Nintendo delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the United States by two weeks as it assessed the impact from President Donald Trump's global assault on free trade. But its pre-orders have since sold out in the US market and elsewhere, with the company boasting of particularly high demand in Japan. Furukawa said in May that Nintendo's financial projections are based on the assumption of US tariffs of 10 percent on products produced in Japan, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and 145 percent on China. "Hardware for North America is mainly produced in Vietnam," he added. Trump's hefty so-called "reciprocal" tariff of 46 percent on goods from Vietnam is on pause, while those on China have been slashed. Tariff uncertainty could in fact push consumers to buy a Switch 2 sooner, because they are worried that the price could go up, Yang said. Charlotte Massicault, director of multimedia and gaming at the French retail giant Fnac Darty, told AFP that pre-sale demand has been "well above what we imagined". "For us, this will be a record in terms of first-day sales for a games console," she said. The Switch 2 is "less of a family-focused product, and more of a 'gamer' product" compared to the Switch, she said. "That's what Nintendo wanted, and it works."
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
'The Matrix is everywhere': cinema bets on immersion
This new immersive experience is designed to be a red pill moment that will get film fans off their couches at a time when the movie industry is desperate to bring back audiences. Cosm, which has venues in Los Angeles and Dallas, is launching its dome-style screen and 3D sets in June with a "shared reality" version of "The Matrix," the cult 1999 film starring Keanu Reeves as a man who suddenly learns his world is a fiction. "We believe the future will be more immersive and more experiential," said Cosm president Jeb Terry at a recent preview screening. "It's trying to create an additive, a new experience, ideally non-cannibalistic, so that the industry can continue to thrive across all formats." Cinema audiences were already dwindling when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, shuttering theaters at a time when streaming was exploding. With ever bigger and better TVs available for the home, the challenge for theater owners is to offer something that movie buffs cannot get in their living room. Prestige projects like Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning" or Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning "Oppenheimer" increasingly opt for the huge screens and superior film quality of IMAX. But Cosm and other projects like it want to go one step further, collaborating with designers who have worked with Cirque du Soleil to create an environment in which the viewer feels like they are inside the film. For filmmakers, it's all about how you place the cameras and where you capture the sound, said Jay Rinsky, founder of Little Cinema, a creative studio specializing in immersive experiences. "We create sets like the Parisian opera, let the movie be the singer, follow the tone, highlight the emotions... through light, through production design, through 3D environments," he said. The approach, he said, felt particularly well suited to "The Matrix," which he called "a masterpiece of cinema, but done as a rectangle." For the uninitiated: Reeves's Neo is a computer hacker who starts poking around in a life that doesn't quite seem to fit. A mysterious Laurence Fishburne offers him a blue pill that will leave him where he is, or a red pill that will show him he is a slave whose body is being farmed by AI machines while his conscious lives in a computer simulation. There follows much gunfire, lots of martial arts and some mysticism, along with a romance between Neo and Trinity, played by the leather-clad Carrie-Anne Moss. "The Matrix" in shared reality kicks off with a choice of cocktails -- blue or red, of course -- which are consumed as the audience sits surrounded by high-definition screens. Shifting perspectives place the viewer inside Neo's office cubicle, or seemingly in peril. "They're sometimes inside the character's head," said Rinsky. "The world changes as you look up and down for trucks coming at you." The result impressed those who were at the preview screening.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Witness accusing Sean Combs of sexual assault defends online posts of 'great times'
"Isn't it true that Mr Combs never had unwanted nonconsensual forcible contact with you?" lawyer Brian Steel said to a former Bad Boys Records assistant testifying under the pseudonym Mia, during questioning that included displays of her personal social media posts. The testimony came as US President Donald Trump pondered aloud if he would offer 55-year-old Combs a pardon during a press conference at the White House Friday, saying "I don't know, I would certainly look at the facts." The facts are still unfolding in a trial that is expected to last into summer, in a case that revolves around Combs's relationship with his former girlfriend, singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura. Earlier in the trial Ventura detailed years of alleged abuse and coercive, drug-fueled sex marathons with male prostitutes known as "freak-offs." This week, Mia described how her job between 2009 and 2017 became a nightmare as she worked to protect Ventura from Combs's fits of rage, or care for her after the attacks, tending to "busted lips," "bruises" and "a black eye." Combs would tell Mia to "go take care of her," adding that "we were not allowed" to go out until her injuries healed enough to conceal, Mia testified Thursday. She also testified that she personally endured abuses, including rapes, while working for Combs, recounting the painful and traumatic episodes with her head bowed. Instagram vs reality During cross examination on Friday, Steel confronted Mia with her social media posts, where she presented a much more positive image of her relationship with her boss. On a courtroom screen displaying Mia's Instagram posts, she called Combs "an extraordinary cultural phenomenon" and shared affectionate messages on his birthdays. Steel asked how she could publish such posts about a man she now accuses of sexual assault. "Of course you post the great times," Mia said. "Instagram is a place to show how great your life was even if it's not true." After Mia read her posts aloud, Steel questioned Mia's allegations, to which she replied twice "everything I said in this courtroom is true." "Ask any abuse victim's advocate and they could explain it to you much better than I could." On Thursday, Mia testified that Combs subjected her to "sporadic" instances of sexual violence, including at the artist's 40th birthday party at the Plaza Hotel in New York and his private residence in Los Angeles. "I just froze, I didn't react, terrified and confused," Mia said about one of the assaults. "He was the boss or the king, very powerful person," she said. "This is years and years before social media, Me Too, or any sort of example where someone had stood up successfully to someone in power such as him," she added. At the conclusion of the court's proceedings, jurors will have to determine whether that Grammy-winning artist and producer has used his fame, wealth and influence in hip-hop to support a criminal enterprise and sexual trafficking.
