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Sandra Bullock mourns the passing of her longtime partner after private illness

<p>Hollywood star Sandra Bullock's beloved partner, Bryan Randall, has passed away at the age of 57, with the heart-wrenching news confirmed by his grieving family in a statement shared on Monday.</p> <p>“It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug. 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS,” the statement read.</p> <p>“Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honour his request. We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours. At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan.”</p> <p>The statement was signed with a poignant, "His Loving Family".</p> <p>Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a merciless neurological affliction that ravages  motor neurons that command delicate voluntary muscle movement. Regrettably, there is currently no remedy for the condition.</p> <p>Bullock, aged 59, crossed paths with model-turned-photographer <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Randall </span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">when he was summoned to capture her son Louis’ birthday celebration in the early days of 2015. Their connection was immediate and profound.</span></p> <p>The mother-of-two, and an actress who has fiercely guarded her privacy over the years, chose to unveil fragments of her relationship's intimacy during a candid appearance on Red Table Talk in 2021.</p> <p>“I found the love of my life. We share two beautiful children — three children, [Randall’s] older daughter. It’s the best thing ever,” Bullock said at the time.</p> <p>“I don’t wanna say do it like I do it, but I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother … I don’t need to be told to be ever present in the hardest of times. I don’t need to be told to weather a storm with a good man.”</p> <p>She added that Randall was also a superb “example” to her two children: “He’s the example that I would want my children to have... <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">I have a partner who’s very Christian and there are two different ways of looking at things. I don’t always agree with him, and he doesn’t always agree with me. But he is an example even when I don’t agree with him... </span>I’m stubborn but sometimes I need to sit back and listen and go, ‘You’re saying it differently but we mean exactly the same thing.’</p> <p>“It’s hard to co-parent because I just want to do it myself.”</p> <p>"He was so happy, but he was scared. I'm a bulldozer. My life was already on the track, and here's this beautiful human being who doesn't want anything to do with my life but the right human being to be there."</p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

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Russell Crowe "put through a wall" on crazy night out

<p><span>NRL great Bryan Fletcher has opened up about his encounter with Russell Crowe that left the two scrapping on a boozy night out.</span><br /><br /><span>Featuring on Brett Finch’s '<em>Uncensored</em>' podcast, Fletcher revealed the wild night he had with his South Sydney teammates and Crowe in the mid-2000s.</span><br /><br /><span>Fletcher was the Rabbitohs captain in 2003 when he joined the club from the Roosters, however the team had suffered a nightmare season after winning only three games.</span><br /><br /><span>The 47-year-old said he'd never met Crowe before his move to South Sydney, but had heard a rumour that the Hollywood star had promised to take the 2002 team to the Playboy Mansion if they made the finals.</span><br /><br /><span>Fletcher says he was left with his mind in a scramble after Crowe contacted him near the middle of the 2003 season.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7841241/rabbitohs-1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/03710573c68e4e7699511d8951dec960" /><br /><br /><span>Fletcher however believed it was not actually Crowe on the other end of the line, and instead one of his teammates was pranking him.</span><br /><br /><span>“I said, ‘How’s Meg? Is she good in the cot?’” Fletcher told Finch, referring to Meg Ryan who Crowe was dating during that time.</span><br /><br /><span>“I said something more crude than that.</span><br /><br /><span>“Then there was awkward silence and he goes, ‘Fletch, it’s Russell. Russell Crowe’.</span><br /><br /><span>"And when he dropped his voice I knew straight away it was him and I’ve just gone, ‘F***, how do I get out of this?’”</span><br /><br /><span>It turns out Crowe had wanted the South Sydney players to bring a pair of nice clothes after their training in order to take them out.</span><br /><br /><span>“My imagination just starts going so by the time I get to Sutto (John Sutton) who’s the 17th bloke, I said, ‘Sutto, you’re not going to believe this bro, we are going to the Playboy Mansion’,” Fletcher said.</span><br /><br /><span>“Everyone is frothing, thinking they’re going to the Playboy Mansion.”</span><br /><br /><span>Sadly enough, the Rabbitohs didn’t go to LA, but instead arrived at a hotel in Woolloomooloo where cricket greats Shane Warne and Merv Hughes were waiting to kick them into gear with some inspirational words.</span><br /><br /><span>However the night took a turn around 9 pm when Crowe brought out some bottles of Absinthe.</span><br /><br /><span>“We went through 10 bottles. Ten bottles later and we’re going mad. It’s on. Blokes are cheering and carrying on,” Fletcher said.</span><br /><br /><span>He went on to say Crowe had challenged him to some footy.</span><br /><br /><span>“It was an odd time but I’m thinking, ‘You’ve got to humour Russ, he’s put this drink on for us’,” Fletcher said.</span><br /><br /><span>“So Russell comes running at me and I tackle him how I always have my whole career and I miss him. He runs behind me and dives down behind an imaginary set of posts.</span><br /><br /><span>“I said, ‘Good on you Russ’ and kept walking. I take two steps and I get pushed in the back. It’s Russ. He just stops in front of me and he goes, ‘You f***ing dog. You’re a f***ing cat. You’re a waste of money, you’re South Sydney’s worst ever captain’.</span><br /><br /><span>"He was right but he didn’t have to say it to my face.</span><br /><br /><span>“The boys have jerried to what’s going on … I got the s**ts and said, ‘Let’s just do this again’.</span><br /><br /><span>“He basically gets up and runs at me and I get under his ribs and drive him … and put him through a wall and the boys are just going, ‘What the f*** are you doing? Why are you doing this?’</span><br /><br /><span>“Russ pops up, just shakes his head and goes, ‘That’s what I want to see!’ That was his motivation, so we end up having a terrific night, getting on the p***.”</span><br /><br /><span>Crowe's motivational tactics seemed to do the job as the Rabbitohs would go on to thrash Melbourne Storm that weekend.</span><br /><br /><span>However their victory was short-lived.</span><br /><br /><span>“We beat them 42-10 and we did not win another game all year,” Fletcher admitted.</span></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

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Absolutely devastated: Man's punishment for 5-year-old turns fatal

<p>A man has been arrested after his attempt to discipline his fiancé’s son took a turn for the worst.</p> <p>The soldier in the US state of Alabama was charged with reckless murder after he allegedly forced his girlfriend’s five-year-old son to get out of a car at night along a road.</p> <p>The young child died when he was struck by a vehicle.</p> <p>Army Sgt Bryan Starr, 35, went on to surrender himself to Russell County sheriffs after he was charged with 5-year-old Austin Birdseye’s death.</p> <p>Starr admitted to investigators that the boy began acting up in the car as they travelled on a highway near their home Sunday night.</p> <p>He went on to punish the boy by pulling his vehicle over into a church parking lot and making the boy stand outside in the rain.</p> <p>The child’s mother was not in the vehicle, he added.</p> <p>Starr lost sight of Austin but knew something was wrong when cars stopped in the middle of the road, as there the little boy had been struck by an oncoming Toyota Avalon.</p> <p>Sheriff Heath Taylor said the road was dark and the driver who struck him is not at fault, in a press conference on Monday.</p> <p>“We have their information and we’ve spoken to them and will speak to them again. But at this point, there’s no indication that they had any chance of not hitting the little guy,” Taylor said,<a rel="noopener" href="https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/crime/article247505815.html" target="_blank"> as reported by the Ledger-Enquirer</a>.</p> <p>The child died in hospital and Starr was charged with murder because he showed reckless disregard for the child’s safety, police said.</p> <p>An online campaign that was created to raise funds for Austin’s death said the little boy often sang loud “at the top of his lungs” to songs but the sheriff says he still could not understand his would-have been stepfathers’ actions.</p> <p>“What do you say to that? What is your thought process when you tell a five-year-old to get out of the car on a rainy night, because they were being loud in the car?” he said.</p> <p>“It’s just heartbreaking.”</p> <p>The GoFundMe set up to support the family has far eclipsed its $5,000 target.</p> <p>“Austin was always the centre of any impromptu living room dance party, the wonderful little boy who would chat about almost anything and with anyone in the grocery store, was the one who knew all the words to every song,” the page says.</p> <p>“He was always loving and never let any opportunity pass him by to enjoy fun. We are absolutely devastated by Austin’s passing.”</p>

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Bryan Adams sets the record straight on rumoured romance with Princess Diana

<p>It is well-known that “Summer of ‘69” singer Bryan Adams was close to Princess Diana.</p> <p>Appearing on US talk show <em>Watch What Happens Live</em> this week, host Andy Cohen addressed whether there was any truth to the long-time rumours that there was a romance between the Canadian rocker and the people’s princess.</p> <p>During a game called Plead The Fifth, the 58-year-old rocker was asked by the host, “There are many rumours that you and Princess Diana were once romantically involved. Her butler [Paul Burrell] said that he used to sneak you into Kensington Palace. How would you characterise your relationship with Princess Diana?”</p> <p>The singer responded, “Great friends. And she didn’t sneak me in, I would just roll up.”</p> <p>When host Andy hinted that maybe they were “friends with benefits,” Bryan replied, “She was just… we were good friends.”</p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7819463/2-bryan-diana_500x334.jpg" alt="2 Bryan Diana (1)"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7819464/3-bryan-diana_500x334.jpg" alt="3 Bryan Diana"/></p> <p>The hit-maker’s former long-time girlfriend, model and Bond girl <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-201400/Diana-affair-rock-star.html">Cecilie Thomsen, reportedly claimed</a> she knew Bryan was having an affair with Diana in 1996, and that it didn’t make their “stormy relationship” easier.</p> <p>“I knew Diana had an affair with Bryan,” the Danish actress stated in an interview in 2003.</p> <p>“Bryan knew Paul Burrell very well and Paul was part of the inner circle around Bryan, and he also introduced him to Diana. The first time Bryan met Diana I wasn’t invited,” Cecilie continued.</p> <p>“Ours was a stormy relationship and Bryan’s affair with Diana didn’t make it easier.”</p> <p>Over a decade earlier, before they had even met, the “Everything I Do” crooner penned and released a song about the princess called “Diana”, about her marriage, how the royal drove him “wild” and how she was the “queen” of his dreams and pondered what she was doing with a guy like her husband Prince Charlies in the lyrics.</p> <p> </p>

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