Seriously? OMG! WTF?

Barbara Eden/Instagram

Barbara Eden was scheduled to attend the Cinecon Classic Film Festival yesterday because she was being honored there. However, they announced that she would be unable to attend due to a “sudden illness.” Needless to say, everyone was worried about the 95-year-old actress.

Today, she took to social media and gave a health update.

It’s okay everyone! I’m okay!

Oh, my goodness there has been a bit of miscommunication. I’m not suffering from an illness; my doctor very recently prescribed a brand-new medication that turned out to have some nasty side effects. Due to the discomfort, my doctor ordered me to remain at home until it can be sorted out.

What awful timing for this to happen! My deepest appreciation to everyone for the concern.

This is just a speedbump! I expect to be out and about as soon as I’m given the go-ahead!

Again, my love and thanks to everyone for all the concern.

Hopefully, her body will adjust to the medicine, and she will be feeling better shortly.

Most readers assume a celebrity car crash story ends when the tabloid moves on. The photos and the paparazzi clips are the first ten seconds of a process that usually runs a year or longer, and almost none of it looks like TV.

Forget the dramatic courtroom scene. What you get instead is paperwork, a lot of waiting, and a settlement number negotiated over email. So if you’ve ever wondered what’s happening in the months between the wreck and the payout, here’s the part the headlines skip, told straight, without the gossip filter.

Myth: The Case Starts in a Courtroom

The case starts with a claim, and a claim starts with a phone call to an insurance company. Someone (or their lawyer) tells the at-fault driver’s insurer that a person got hurt, that this insurer’s driver caused it, and that a check is expected. That’s the opening move.

From there, the insurer opens a file, assigns an adjuster, and starts asking for documentation: medical records and repair estimates, a police report, proof of any lost wages.

Myth: Everyone Sues, and Sues Fast

Almost no one sues. The vast majority of injury cases settle before a jury ever hears them, and the ones that do get filed usually settle before trial too. Civil trials are rare compared to the number of claims that get opened each year. The trial is the exception, not the rule.

Trials are slow and expensive for everyone at the table, including the insurer. Negotiating is cheaper. So most of what looks like a legal fight from the outside is months of letters, records requests, and offers going back and forth.

Myth: You Settle as Soon as You Feel Better

Settling the moment you feel okay is one of the more expensive mistakes an injured person can make. The reason has a name: Maximum Medical Improvement, or MMI. That’s the point where doctors can say what your injury looks like long-term.

Before that, nobody really knows what the case is worth. The NAIC, which represents state insurance regulators, warns consumers not to feel rushed into a settlement before the medical picture is clear.

Settle before MMI and you’re guessing. If a soft-tissue injury turns into surgery six months later, the check you already cashed doesn’t grow to match. That’s why patient people, and lawyers who represent patient people, wait. The insurer would love an early number. That’s not a coincidence.

Myth: The First Offer Is the Real Offer

The first offer is a temperature check. It’s what the adjuster thinks they can close the file for today, and it’s rarely close to what the claim is worth. Treating it as final leaves money on the table. What actually moves the number is a demand package: medical bills, records, wage documentation, and a written argument that ties the injury to the wreck.

A few things tend to shift the math in a claimant’s favor:

• Complete records. Gaps in treatment are the single easiest thing for an insurer to argue about. Consistent, documented care closes that door.
• A clear liability story. Photos, the police report, and any witness statements should point one direction. Ambiguity gets discounted.
• Proof of impact on your life. Lost wages, missed events, physical limits documented by a doctor. This is what turns bills into a number bigger than the bills.
• Time. The willingness to say no and wait is worth real money.

Myth: A Lawyer Is Optional for a “Simple” Case

Sometimes a lawyer isn’t necessary. A fender bender with no injury and a cooperative insurer can be handled on your own. Once there’s an actual injury, the math shifts.

Represented claimants tend to recover more, on average, than people who negotiate alone, even after fees. That’s not a promise about any one case, but it’s a pattern that shows up often enough to take seriously.

There’s also a deadline problem people underestimate. Every jurisdiction has a statute of limitations, and some are much shorter than others. A personal injury firm can tell you what yours is in the first phone call, which matters because missing it ends the case before it starts. If you’re not sure what your window is, ask early, not late.

Myth: When the Check Clears, It’s Over

A settlement usually comes with a release, and the release closes the door on going back for more. If the same injury flares up two years later, the check you signed for already accounts for it, at least as far as the law is concerned. That’s why the timing and the number both matter, and why the boring middle of the process, the records, the waiting, the second and third offer, is where the case is won or lost.

The headline version of a celebrity crash ends when the news cycle does. The real version ends with a signature, months later, on a document nobody reads out loud.

There was a time when an estate meant a house, a bank account, and a stack of paper in a safe deposit box. A short will handled the basics, the family knew where to look, and probate moved along without much drama.

Today, a modern estate can include streaming royalties, image and likeness rights, business interests, digital files, and a tangle of contracts, and the paperwork that governs it has to be just as layered. The old shortcuts don’t survive the new complexity.

Which is why the celebrity estate mess of the moment keeps mattering to the rest of us. Consider Aretha Franklin. A jury ruled in July 2023 that a handwritten note pulled out of her couch cushions counted as a valid will, overriding an earlier handwritten version her sons had been fighting over for years.

One family. Two documents. A verdict that turned on a spiral notebook. If a woman with that much money and that many advisors could leave her kids in court for the better part of a decade, the ordinary reader should probably look twice at their own paperwork.

The Couch Cushion Verdict Changed the Conversation

Aretha Franklin died in 2018 without what most people would call a proper will. What she left behind were two handwritten drafts. The 2010 version was locked away. The 2014 version, the one that ultimately won, was found in a spiral notebook wedged into her couch. Two of her sons preferred the newer document. A third preferred the older one. The estate sat in dispute while the paperwork question wound its way to a jury.

The lesson has nothing to do with whether handwritten wills are good or bad. The document you leave behind is the document your family will litigate. If it’s ambiguous, they’ll argue about the ambiguity. If there are two of them, they’ll argue about which one wins.

Aretha’s estate runs through the rest of this piece because almost every failure mode you’ll hear about, in celebrity cases and ordinary ones, shows up somewhere in it.

Handwritten, DIY, and Downloaded Wills Carry Real Risk

The Franklin verdict was, narrowly, a win for the informal will. A jury looked at a notebook and said yes, that counts. But getting to that yes took years of litigation, a parade of attorneys, and a family fracture that isn’t going to heal on schedule. Valid is not the same as clean.

The same risk applies to fill-in-the-blank online wills. They can be legally valid and still be badly written for your actual situation. Common problems include:

• Vague asset language. “My personal belongings to my children” sounds fine until three kids each want the same ring, the same guitar, or the same box of photos.
• Missing contingencies. The document names a beneficiary but says nothing about what happens if that person dies first, disclaims, or can’t be found.
• Outdated executors. The person named to run the estate moved away, fell out with the family, or passed away years ago, and nobody updated the paperwork.
• Ignored digital assets. Photos, files, loyalty points, small business accounts, and email archives can sit in logins no one else has, often under terms of service the will may not address.

Probate Is Slower and Louder Than Families Expect

Franklin’s sons have been in and out of court for years. Real estate had to be sorted, music rights had to be sorted, personal items had to be sorted, and each round pulled the family back into a public argument. The famous version plays out in headlines. The private version plays out in a county courthouse with the same slow calendar.

Two things drive the delay. First, ambiguity in the documents, which turns a routine probate into a contest. Second, missing coordination between the will and everything else, including beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance, joint titles on property, and trust language that doesn’t line up with the will’s instructions.

When the pieces disagree, the court sorts it out, and the family waits.

What the Rest of Us Should Actually Do

You don’t need Franklin-level assets to take a few concrete steps. Working with a qualified estate planning attorney is one of the fastest ways to close the gaps that turn ordinary estates into ugly ones, but there’s work worth doing this week, before you ever sit down for that appointment.

1. Find every version. Old wills, handwritten notes, downloaded forms, letters to family. Pull them together so you know what’s out there in your name.
2. Check the beneficiaries. Retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death forms override your will. If an ex-spouse is still listed, that’s who inherits.
3. Write down the digital side. Not passwords in the will itself, but a secure inventory your executor can find, covering accounts, devices, and anything you’d hate to see disappear.
4. Tell someone where it lives. A perfect plan nobody can find is a plan that failed. Your executor should know the document exists and how to reach it.

Aretha Franklin’s family didn’t end up in court because she had too much money. They ended up there because the paperwork wasn’t finished. That part is fixable, and it’s fixable long before anyone needs it to be.

Charles Sykes/Bravo

Maura Higgins and Rob Rausch became fan favorites after placing in the top two on this season of The Traitors.

Peacock is taking advantage of their success and giving them their own show. The two will co-host Get Me Out of Here, based on the format of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here.

The series is set in a dense and unforgiving jungle, pairing celebrities with a non-famous friend or family member in the ultimate test of friendship. Stripped of every luxury – and the perks, privileges, and creature comforts of celebrity – duos face a series of physical and psychological challenges, earning rewards to avoid elimination. But here, the celebrities don’t call the shots – instead, they must partner up, taking the lead or deferring to their bestie, all while the treacherous environment takes its toll. Relying on each other like never before, teams must navigate everything the jungle throws their way as their grit, stamina and resilience are pushed to the limit. With their bonds under pressure, the jungle will reveal which celebs can adapt to life without the VIP treatment, and which BFFs can handle being stuck in the jungle with a star. In the end, only one team will be left standing to claim the $100,000 grand prize.

The series is expected to premiere next year.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Wheel of Fortune’s Jim Thornton was suspended pending an investigation into an incident that happened on a plane in May. However, it was not known what that incident was.

But then yesterday, TMZ reported that another passenger claimed that she saw him looking at a message board allegedly for pedophiles and took photos of him doing so.

And with that, we knew his time with the game show was short. Today, it was confirmed by Sony: “Following a thorough investigation, Jim Thornton’s employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately.”

Variety added that inside sources told them that his voice will be replaced from the upcoming season which starts on September 14th.

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