People: Touched by the amazing Gracie
Oprah Winfrey is mourning the death of her 2-year-old golden retriever, Gracie.
“Weeks have passed, and the pain has not subsided,” Winfrey writes in the August issue of O, the Oprah Magazine. “Every time I think about it, my heart starts racing and I feel like I just got stabbed in the chest.”
On May 26, Gracie choked to death on a plastic ball that belonged to Sophie, Winfrey’s 12-year-old cocker spaniel.
“I ran barefoot out of the house and found the dog walker and one of my security guys pumping her chest,” Winfrey recalls. “Just as I reached them, the security guy looked up and said, ‘I’m sorry, ma’am. We tried everything.’ “
“She never stopped moving. Was energy in motion,” Winfrey writes of Gracie, who ran amok and gulped food and treats.
“I have never seen a being, human or animal, always so full of joy. This dog lived every moment as though it were her last.”
Winfrey says she “got the message” to slow down and catch her breath when Gracie died.
“I don’t believe in accidents,” she says. “I know for sure that everything in life happens to help us live.”
Bad dog!
Nashville police charged country singer Mark Collie with driving under the influence after he was found slumped over in his car with the engine running on the Vanderbilt University campus.
Collie, 51, told campus police he had drank a beer. He failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a blood alcohol test.
Taking her medicine
Lindsay Lohan has turned herself in to Beverly Hills police to face DUI charges in connection with the Memorial Day weekend hit-and-run crash that sent her into rehab.
Lohan, 21, lost control of her Mercedes SL-65 convertible and crashed into a curb and shrubs on Sunset Boulevard.
Rocky road to recovery
Actress Brigitte Nielsen, the ex-Mrs. Sylvester Stallone who turns 44 on Sunday, has checked into rehab for treatment of an undisclosed condition.
Says her manager: “When she gets out we’ll have a big birthday party, and Coca-Cola only.”
Kramer vs. karma
Michael Richards, defrocked as a comic last year after he spewed a racist rant during a stand-up gig, has gone on a spiritual journey that has taken him to Cambodia and Thailand.
“At first, I was a little bit struck by the poverty,” the former “Seinfeld” star says, “but … I could see how openhearted the Cambodian people are, and I was touched by it.”
Quoteworthy
Comedian Drew Carey, on his negotiations to become the new “Price is Right” host: “I wouldn’t consider it to be work. All they keep doing is giving away prizes, and it’s not even my money.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Kay Starr is 85. Movie director Norman Jewison is 81. Singer Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) is 59. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”) is 59. Comedian-actor Robin Williams is 56. Comedian Jon Lovitz is 50. Actor Josh Hartnett is 29. “American Idol” runner-up Blake Lewis is 26.