Diane Keaton’s nail clippers for $960: what’s behind the new boom in celebrity estate auctions?

With beloved stars’ personal items increasingly up for grabs after they die, a new generation of fans are bidding on everything from bowler hats to dog bowls From Diane Keaton’s bowler hats and polka dot scarfs, to Gene Hackman’s used paint brushes, to Terence Stamp’s love letters from Jean Shrimpton and even Matthew Perry’s black leather wallet (his credit cards and AAA membership card still inside), fans are being offered – at a price – increasingly personal items from the estates of dead celebrities. The growing trend for auctions of deceased famous people’s personal items – which has boomed ever since the hugely popular Marilyn Monroe estate sale in 1999 – has even attracted its own portmanteau: “deleb” as in dead celebrity. Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/4Yh215g via IFTTT

Who you gonna call? Meet the real ghostbusters

Ghost hunting is having a moment... in graveyards, pubs, old houses, and on social media. Meet the new spirit seekers

As far as the four-man ghost-hunting crew Paraletic Activities are concerned, ghosts have between the hours of 8pm and 11pm to make themselves known. “We’re getting too old for the paranormal all-nighters!” laughs Johnny Smith, 51, who by daylight hours is a commercial signwriter. At weekends he joins Neil, Luke and Nigel, three fellow 30- to 50-something Walsall Ghostbusters fans who have carried their childhood passion for the paranormal into middle age to form Paraletic Activities. They meet to drink real ale and explore the many reputedly haunted locations that litter the Midlands, from the ruins of Grace Dieu Priory in Leicestershire to spooky pubs such as The Four Crosses in Cannock.

The crew’s technology, honed over a decade in the ghost-hunting game, includes “Old Faithful”, a meter that measures fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, and “Carol Anne”, a 1970s portable television set that the team believes registers localised static interference. Carol Anne takes her name from the suburban child who became a conduit and target for supernatural entities in the 1980s Poltergeist trilogy.

Continue reading...

from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/OcKZPlj
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Miracle Club review – Maggie Smith can’t save this rocky road trip to Lourdes

‘I lost a friend of almost 40 years’: Nancy Meyers pays tribute to Diane Keaton

Malaika Arora scolds 16-year-old dancer for inappropriate gestures: “He is winking, giving flying kisses”