Latest news with #Willis'
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Willis' Quiet Struggle With Dementia During His Final Acting Days Revealed In Wife's New Memoir
Emma Heming Willis' upcoming memoir, "The Unexpected Journey," gives insight into Bruce Willis' battle with frontotemporal dementia. The book reveals how the movie star managed to act during the early stage of his dementia struggle, with behind-the-scenes support, including reduced dialogue and an earpiece feeding him lines. Bruce Willis's health decline was first publicly acknowledged in 2022 with aphasia, later diagnosed as FTD, leading to his retirement. In her forthcoming memoir "The Unexpected Journey," set for release on September 9, 2025, Heming opens up for the first time about her husband Willis' quiet but determined fight to keep working as his health began to decline. In the book, Heming recalled how the legendary "Die Hard" actor spent his last few years in Hollywood navigating the early signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and how filmmakers and close friends worked behind the scenes to support him as symptoms started to interfere with his performance. According to excerpts cited by The Daily Beast, directors began tailoring scripts to reduce Willis' dialogue. A longtime friend was even brought in to feed him lines discreetly through an earpiece during production. These quiet accommodations enabled Willis to continue acting in films like "Assassin" (2023) and the "Detective Knight trilogy" (2022–2023) without alerting audiences to the challenges he was facing. Taking to Instagram, Heming shared the deeper purpose behind her upcoming book, "The Unexpected Journey." She explained that the memoir was born out of her own experience navigating her husband Willis' diagnosis, and her desire to offer support to others facing similar challenges. "I really wrote the book that I wish someone had handed me the day we got our diagnosis with no hope, no direction … not much," she shared. "Today, life looks different for me and our family because I was able to put support into place." Heming emphasized that the book "isn't a memoir, it's a self-help guide for caregivers, written to hold space for our heartbreak and our healing." In the comment section of Heming's post, fans praised her for creating the book due to the valuable resources it contains, especially for family members of individuals with dementia. One user wrote: "I can't wait to read this! I am just starting my journey of caregiving for my husband with BvFTD. You're an inspiration." Another said, "I cannot wait to read. Thank you for writing this. When my mom was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia, I almost had a nervous breakdown from just the fear of what my caregiver journey would be." They added, "I had no guidance or support and didn't know where to turn. Your book will help so many. Sending you thanks and prayers to you and Bruce, and your family." Prior to Heming's memoir, a 2022 Los Angeles Times investigation had shed light on the cognitive challenges Willis was quietly facing on film sets before his official retirement. In the final three years of his acting career, Willis starred in 22 low-budget action movies, and as the cameras rolled, those around him began to notice unsettling changes. Once known for his sharp delivery and commanding presence, Willis had become noticeably disoriented. He relied heavily on an earpiece to be fed his lines and at times struggled to stay oriented, occasionally forgetting the context of the scene, or even why he was on set. Director Jesse V. Johnson, who worked with Willis on "White Elephant" and had known him from earlier in his stuntman days, recalled the shift. "It was clear that he was not the Bruce I remembered," he said, per the Daily Mail. Johnson recounted a moment during filming when Willis turned to the crew and said, "I know why you're here, and I know why you're here, but why am I here?" To ease the pressure on the star, the production team was advised to wrap up all of Willis' scenes before lunchtime. Willis' health struggles were finally made public in 2022, when his family shared he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that impairs communication and language. As reported by The Blast, in early 2023, the actor's diagnosis was updated to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a progressive neurological condition that affects behavior, cognition, and speech. Following the news, Willis officially retired from acting, stepping away from the spotlight to focus on his health and spend time with loved ones. While he now lives largely out of the public eye, his wife Heming and their daughters occasionally share meaningful updates with fans.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Inside Allee Willis' fabulously kitsch party house that inspired a pop-up book
When you walk into Willis Wonderland, your eye doesn't know where to land. The North Hollywood house, which songwriter Allee Willis first purchased in 1980 and turned into a living ode to all things kitsch, is awash in trinkets and tchotchkes. But also in coveted art pieces and stylish furnishings. The living room alone features a lavender Plycraft chair and a Sputnik chandelier as well as a Weltron Space Ball Retro stereo boasting an Earth, Wind & Fire 8-Track and a 'Sock It To Me' squished beer ashtray. It's all just the way Willis had it before she died in 2019 at 72. And now, for those who have always wished they could tour this most fabulous of L.A. houses where everyone from Lily Tomlin, Paul Reubens and Cassandra Peterson once partied, comes a new pop-up book that brings it into your own, likely less fantastical, home. 'Willis Wonderland: The Legendary House of Atomic Kitsch' was written by Willis' friend Hillary Carlip and Trudi Roth, designed by Carlip, illustrated by Neal McCullough and paper-engineered by Mike Malkovas. And, like the house it hopes to capture and mythologize in equal measure, the pop-up book is a celebration of Willis' own 'more is more' sensibility. 'When you walk in, it's full of surprises,' Carlip tells me as we walk around the house on a sunny Friday morning and admire the Jason Mecier portrait of Willis made of trash trinkets. 'You keep finding new things. I've been here hundreds of times, and I saw something today I hadn't seen before. I wanted to do that with the pop-up book. To have easter eggs and things where you pull and spin and open and that kind of thing. I just think the interactivity, where you really immerse yourself in it, is really important now, especially since so much is digital.' The tactility of the book encourages you to explore every nook and cranny of the house, which does already feel like a museum of sorts. Of kitsch, perhaps, but also of Willis herself. The more you get to learn both about this well-kept building (once rumored to be an MGM party house), you also learn more about Willis' extraordinary career. Willis is perhaps best known as the songwriter behind such hits as Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' and 'Boogie Wonderland.' But over her four-decade career, she also co-wrote the songs for Broadway musical 'The Color Purple'; penned a Grammy-winning tune for 'Beverly Hills Cop'; and worked with acts as varied as the Pet Shop Boys, Dusty Springfield, Patti LaBelle, Cyndi Lauper and Taylor Dayne. But she was also a visual artist, a designer, a sculptor and an avid collector. With her signature asymmetrical haircut, her loud, fashionable outfits and a penchant for all things off-kilter, the Detroit-born artist made little distinction between her work and her life. It makes sense her abode, a pink William Kesling single-family house (one of only 15 built in the Los Angeles area in the 1930s) dotted with bowling balls and palm trees, would serve as a continuation of her wild, wondrous aesthetic. When Willis died, the question of what to do with her Willis Wonderland was entangled with how to further cement her legacy. Her partner, animator and producer Prudence Fenton, knew the famed house would need to be cared for. And, perhaps more importantly, memorialized. When Fenton and Vincent Beggs — the executive director of the Willis Wonderland Foundation, launched in 2022 — came up with the idea of a book about the house, they knew it couldn't be just any kind of book. They toyed with a sleek coffee table book with gorgeous photos of the house. But that would've been too sterile. Too staid. Willis, they knew, deserved something bolder. The pop-up book offers as immersive a tour of the house as you can dream of. The scene at the so-called 'kitsch-en,' for instance, wonderfully captures Willis' commitment to playfulness as a central design conceit — something all too rare in a world often dressed in basic neutrals. A pink-leather dinette anchors a space that's all but drowning in tiki mugs, salt and pepper shakers and adorned with artworks (including a collection of Zel caricatures). Willis' humor is clearly prevalent throughout. That's nowhere more obvious than in her 'Rec Room.' A blue-hued linoleum floor made to look like an aquarium, replete with singing fish and turtles, brightens the dark-wooded downstairs space and echoes the nautical elements Kesling introduced into his Streamline Moderne homes. Here, this underwater space serves as a repository for 'Allee's Legendary Landfill of Esthetic Essentials.' The shelves, as the book shows, are filled to the brim with collectibles, many of them part of the collection of Black culture, which her friend James Brown first helped her curate. Lunchboxes, magazines, records, action figures and sculptures all but beg you to spend hours upon hours examining each and every one of them. This is thrifting as cultural history. Kitsch as historical remembrance. In Carlip's pop-up version of this room, you can see, among many other things, a crowned Miss America Vanessa Williams Corn Flakes box, a slew of Afro picks ready for the taking, a Harlem Globetrotters coloring book, a Diana Ross doll and a Chubby Checker Twister game. 'It's a funny thing, because Mike, the paper engineer, who's done many other books and clients and everything, kept saying, 'You can't have so much detail. You have to edit,'' Carlip shares. 'And I was like, 'Nope.' I just stood my ground. I was like, 'It's Allee. It's all got to be in there.' But then I finally relented and said, 'How about there's a downloadable poster where people can get descriptions of items and see them up close?'' In that poster, you can see 'Libby the Lovely Liberated Lady' doll, a Women's Liberation toy that's as hilarious as she sounds (you're encouraged to pull her skirt for a surprise). And you can also see a photo of the famed Riverside Market sign that adorns the house's outdoor pool next to a portable bar Willis had hand-sculpted from Motor City-found items. As the future of the house as it stands remains up in the air, with Carlip unsure what the Foundation has planned for it, the pop-up book (like last year's 'The World According To Allee Willis' documentary) hopes to make sure Willis' artistry is preserved in ways she would most enjoy. 'I just think it really captures her whimsy, her thoughtfulness, her creativity and the joy,' Carlip adds, about the house and book alike. 'Everything she created had so much joy in it. I think when people come into this house, they feel all those things, they're inspired to create. I think just the breadth of her creativity is infectious. You cannot help but be inspired by being in here.' Carlip points to a painting that sits atop the fireplace right above a Sascha Brastoff gold ceramic bull. The piece features a blue-hued woman whose irregular features (bold neon lips, perky colorful nipples) are intentionally meant to evoke a certain famed artist. It is signed 'P. Picasso.' 'People would always ask her, 'Is this …?'' Carlip recalls with a laugh. 'It's not. I mean, it's called 'Girl with Blue Period.''
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
This WWII pilot crash-landed into a field hosting a Nazi soccer match
It was supposed to be a routine mission. On April 10, 1944, Maj. Donald K. Willis, flying with the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, was tasked with escorting an Allied bombing run on a Nazi aerodrome in Gütersloh, Germany. What was expected to elicit a few hours of adrenaline, however, stretched into two months on the run. While piloting his P-38 Lightning home from his mission, one of Willis' engines was hit by enemy flak. Navigating the sputtering plane, Willis crash landed on the coast of German-occupied Holland — in the middle of a football field … with a match still in progress. In the chaos, with nearly 500 spectators and players running amok, Willis managed to slip through the crowd and commandeer a fan's bicycle as well as a long red coat to cover the pilot's flying jacket and Army-issued green trousers. German soldiers, Willis would later write in his Escape and Evasion Report #800, were kept 'busy for the first few minutes trying to keep people away from the plane. … I pedalled beside a woman who kept watching me out of the corner of her eye but she never spoke.' During the course of the Second World War, thousands of U.S. Army Air Forces pilots and crew crashed in Nazi territory and had to evade capture or managed to escape from German POW camps. Willis' saga in particular garnered interest from the higher ups within the U.S. Army, with a hand-written postscript attached to his file noting, 'This brilliant evasion was made possible by the split second appraisal of the situation and immediate action.' 'It is [commonplace] of evasion that if a man can elude search parties for the first hour or two he is well on his way out,' the note continued. 'Major Willis's intelligent application of orthodox briefings is well worth study.' After following the Dutch woman into a small village, Willis silently parted ways down a side street and caught his breath in front of the town's church. There, he watched as a car full of Nazi soldiers unloaded in front of the American, with scent dogs bounding into the nearby fields to search. From a distance Willis followed the path of the Germans before seeking safety in a recently searched barn. The refuge was brief, however, as its owner, a woman toting a baby on her hip, shooed out the American almost immediately but promised that she would not alert the Germans of his presence — unless they came back to question her. Crawling through a drainage ditch to a field of high grass, Willis hid until nightfall before setting out along the many dikes and fences toward neutral territory. For several days Willis continued this cadence, dodging German soldiers and once guided by a young Dutch boy, until he approached the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium. It was here that Willis' luck almost ran out. As he tried to pass around the city he chanced on one direction and hit water. While retracing his steps the pilot mistakenly walked straight into a German anti-aircraft battery. To Willis' astonishment, however, the sentry barely glanced. Believing the disheveled red coat-wearing stranger to be a Belgian civilian, the guard motioned for Willis to be on his way. Perhaps it was the days on end sleeping in hay stacks and living off of Army rationed chocolate, but as a fatigued Willis reached the southern end of the city he became intrigued by the sight of a cafe advertising 'Bock' beer. Emboldened, he entered the cafe and said one single word, 'Bock.' 'The few people in the cafe paid no attention to me,' Willis later wrote. 'But the Belgian who gave me the beer guessed my identity.' The barkeep gestured Willis into the back room and, without a word, gave the American some eggs and bread. As Willis was leaving, 'the Belgian brushed off some straw that was clinging to the back of my coast and smiled while doing it.' Continuing on foot, Willis attempted to follow a set of train tracks that would lead him on to Brussels. However, he soon realized they were the wrong tracks. With a growing sense of desperation Willis stopped at a small train station and tried to buy a ticket to the capital. The porter, surmising that the pilot was no local, gave him food and told him he'd like to help. Those efforts were quickly dashed when the pair received word that the police had been informed and were on their way. Dashing out of the back of the platform, Willis managed to slip out without being seen and once again set out on the run. By mid-afternoon that day Willis arrived in the small Belgian town of Boom but was soon stymied by Nazi sentries who controlled the road bridge and were checking the identification papers of civilians and laborers alike. In his after-action report Willis explained that, after watching the bridge for 24 hours, his 'opportunity came when two women stopped to talk to the guards.' 'While their attention was diverted I went up to one of the labor groups and hitched onto the pole they were carrying,' he noted. 'The men looked at me but said nothing.' Yet his safety was far from secured. Upon reaching the other side, Willis discovered that the laborers to whom he had attached himself were being guarded by an armed Nazi. In a bizarre stroke of luck, a man peddling ice cream provided the distraction Willis needed. As the group converged on the seller, Willis managed to slip off while the guard had his back turned. That afternoon, Willis' second-chance encounter while attempting to purchase another beer happened to be more fortuitous. Followed out of the cafe, Willis was approached by a man who offered to arrange for his travels to Brussels and a guide to help him safely into Spain. Buried within Willis' escape and evasion account, meanwhile, is the tale of another soldier who may have escaped the clutches of the Nazis, according to the National Archives. 'During my evasion while I was living in a large Belgian city I watched a … B-17 catch fire and leave formation," Willis recalled. 'Soon after that several parachutes opened above the city and one floated down into the section of town where I was. I had a good view of it and watched this parachutist land in the walled-in garden of a house. 'Just as he touched the ground a German motorcyclist stopped in front of the house and ran around to clamber over the garden wall at the back. When the German got into the garden the American burst through the front door of the house and hopped on the German's motorcycle and tore off down the street blowing his horn as loud as he could and cheered on by the Belgian people.' Willis' after-action report ends with the pilot regretfully stating that he never 'learned how he made out, nor did I find out who he was.' On June 5, 1944, Willis arrived safely in neutral Spain. He was reunited with his squadron in England on June 28, over two months after being shot down. Willis survived the war and remained with the Air Force until 1953, receiving a Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal with oak leaf cluster and a World War II Victory Medal.
NZ Herald
23-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Budget 2025: $6.6b business tax incentive much needed but abrupt closure of pay equity door not ok - Fran O'Sullivan
More of that later. But Willis' $6.6 billion windfall for business after some years of sluggish growth is welcome. The incentive allows businesses to deduct 20% of a new productive asset's value from their tax returns. This ought to be a spur to New Zealand business to invest more and perhaps make for a more joyful spend-up on new tractors and machinery at next month's Fieldays. For foreign investors who are also benefiting from some pre-Budget announcements, it places the tax incentive in the right place. Their tax incentive will come from actually investing in hard assets rather than a special corporate rate on profits which would be more open to manipulation. The Budget also provides a welcome nudge to getting more New Zealanders to stand on their own feet (or their parents' feet in the case of late teenagers which will hopefully incentivise them to push their kids into work or more education). Means-testing Best Start – where parents get a weekly payment for their children – will be extended for all three years for those earning over $180,000. Cutting back the Government's contribution to KiwiSaver at the same time ensuring workers and employers lift their contributions to 4% each of salaries by 2028 is also a good step. But the Government has stopped short of introducing full compulsory savings as with Australia. Back in the day when The Economist used to send their economics editor down to New Zealand economy-class to report on the bold steps the 4th Labour Government was imposing to transform the economy and dig New Zealand out of a seemingly impossible debt hole, there used to be a running joke about how New Zealand was essentially a 'bunch of public servants by the sea' – looping rather unfairly into this slogan the many on welfare as well as heavily subsidised farmers and manufacturers benefiting from the fraud that was import licensing. That was pared back. But subsequent Governments have again increased welfare dependency by extending family tax credits and the like and by wilfully not facing up to a fast-growing New Zealand Superannuation impost by instituting sensible means testing and claw backs and lifting the age of eligibility over time. Unless we get surging economic growth, that super iceberg remains a major threat to our long-term livelihoods. The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union's Debt Clock on its nationwide tour. Photo / Ayla Yeoman In a second word, the Budget is 'ruthless' All finance ministers need nerves of steel to manage difficult Budget trade-offs – particularly with the enormous Government debt left over from the Covid years; the much-needed impulse to get debt down yet at the same time provide a spur to growth. Plundering the forecast 'fund' for pay equity settlements to the tune of $12.8b over four years to help finance the $6.6b tax incentive for business will stick in the craw of many New Zealand women. It gives opposition parties a stick to beat the coalition with right through to the 2026 election. Although it is commensurate on Labour in particular to explain how they will fund pay equity payouts given Willis' revelation the costs had blown out from forecasts dating back to 2020 that Labour's pay equity regime was expected to cost just $3.7b over the period. When it comes to that part of the politics of the Budget, Willis and her boss Christopher Luxon have a great deal of explaining and soothing to do. The ice-cool Brooke van Velden – Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety – recently pronounced in Parliament that she was 'strong Mr Speaker'. Strong enough to use Parliament to deflect the pay equity issue from one of fairness to the 'misogyny' she and her female Cabinet colleagues had apparently suffered from being slammed with the 'C' word. But not strong enough to take early public advice on the issue and flag the projected fiscal blowout (and start talking with the unions on options) well before the day the coalition used Parliamentary urgency to slam the door shut. It's notable that van Velden is seen by many to have operated a 'shut-door' approach to the union sector. This is something Luxon needs to reassess. He is a fan of the systems operated in small, advanced economies like Singapore and Ireland. But their successes came out of a strong consensus built by the three pillars of their economies: Government, capital and labour. It's not as if he doesn't 'get this'. He chiefed Air New Zealand at a time when labour relations were exemplary. Port of Auckland's increased financial success was also borne out of a changed labour environment. Take note. This needs to be rethought. Achieving pay equity has been and remains a long slog. Pay equity protesters on Budget Day. Photo / Marty Melville The state sector was a leader in equal pay for men and women. It took our legislators to introduce Equal Pay legislation in 1976 so that women working in the private sector were paid commensurate with men for the same job. Those of a certain age have sharp memories of working in factories, hospitals and the like and being paid two-thirds that of men doing the same job meantime putting up with bullying foremen ensuring women stayed on the job while the blokes had prolonged 'smokos'. That scenario has thankfully long changed and women are these days valued, but clearly not enough in the eyes of many. Many women – including this columnist – find the means the Government has used to slam the pay equity door shut for now unacceptable but understand the end, ie to redirect the $12.8b to either fund half the $21.4b Budget savings cuts or pony up half the cost of the $6.6b tax incentives for business – depending on your philosophical stance. Generous In a third word, the Budget is generous. Treasury forecasts New Zealand will sport 3% GDP growth by 2027 with unemployment decreasing and inflation staying within the 0-3% bounds. The economy is benefiting from high international dairy and meat prices (the lower New Zealand exchange rate particularly against the US dollar also assists). But net core debt is expected to peak at 46% in 2027/28 with borrowing costs continuing to rise and this leaves us with not much of a buffer against predictable risks like major earthquakes or flooding disasters let alone global financial crises or pandemics. Given this backdrop, the $6.6b tax incentive for business could be construed as generous. There's not a great deal in the Budget for infrastructure. But the tax incentive allowing businesses to deduct 20% of the hard costs of new assets will be attractive to that sector as well. It will also help make the shift further away from state borrowing to directly fund infrastructure to more public private partnerships and a user pay model where users also contribute via road tolls and the like to pay for new infrastructures, not simply taxpayers. Let's hope sufficient businesses do take up the new incentives, invest more and employ more in their firms. It is timely.
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Trump's tariff flames lick at incentives
You will not see the name Donald Trump anywhere in the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, but the United States president looms large over the financial predictions contained within. The capricious, cavalier manner in which Mr Trump has upset the global trade system in recent weeks has done some serious damage to the vehicle Finance Minister Nicola Willis planned to drive to a prosperous future — an export-led economic recovery. "Going for growth" is a terrific slogan, but for it to mean anything someone actually needs to be buying what NZ Inc is selling. New Zealand stood a fighting chance of achieving that too, back when the economy of our trading partners was growing by an average 3.3% a year and some Silver Fern Farms lamb washed down by a Central Otago pinot noir was looking more and more affordable. But then came The Donald and his tariff blowtorch. International markets have been spooked, it is now more expensive to buy New Zealand goods in our second-biggest export market, the US, and all countries are scrambling to find more accessible markets for their goods. Treasury, in its reassuringly bland language, calls all this panic "heightened global uncertainty". The numbers are scary though: that average international economic growth is now forecast to average about 2%, global inflation is expected to be higher and demand for New Zealand's goods is expected to be "dented". Whether "dented" means Ms Willis' economic vehicle cops a minor fender bender or gets T-boned will take many months to become apparent. Much will depend on another word Treasury uses in such circumstances — volatility. Undaunted, however, Ms Willis has kept the accelerator pedal down when it comes to revving up the export sector. The main new initiative in Budget 2025, Investment Boost, is a tax incentive for businesses to splash out on machinery, tools and equipment. Firms will be able to deduct 20% of the cost of that shiny new processing chain on top of normal depreciation, in a balance-sheet adjustment which Ms Willis anticipates will be worth more to firms than a drop in the company tax rate. She further anticipates those firms will use those machines to generate more economic activity, take on more staff, and sell their products to the world, improving the government's books in the process. But here is where Dodgem Donald strikes again. Price increases for New Zealand's exports are expected to slow in coming months as global supply and demand factors "rebalance" — Treasury's way of crossing its fingers and hoping everything works out all right. Rural areas should be fine — dairy prices, for one, are still on the rise — but the cities where the factories, which are meant to be taking advantage of Investment Boost are largely based, are lagging behind, and tariff uncertainty adds to the worries of New Zealand manufacturers. In other words, Ms Willis' export-driven economic vehicle is spluttering along rather than smoothly going through the gears. Investment Boost relies, too, on many external factors for it to be a guaranteed win for the government, but in a Budget short of ground-breaking initiatives it should play well to the base of each of the governing parties. That lack of a sure fire spark plug and the flickering influence of the US president is reflected in the operating balance forecasts: the government's books are predicted to return to surplus in 2029, but by such an anaemic amount that it will be a close run thing as to whether it can be achieved or not. The good news for Ms Willis is that inflation is expected to remain at about 2% and that interest rates are expected to keep falling: they are the two main indicators households and businesses care about and they are in her favour. The bad news is that tax revenues are soft, debt remains high and there are three more years of Mr Trump still to be navigated.
