Fading star

The ongoing media coverage -- some of it highly speculative, all of it unspeakably sad -- of Paul Newman's battle with cancer reminds me of a line from Edward Albee's play All Over. Early in the drama, as hordes of journalists maintain an attentive vigil off-stage, an intimate of a fatally ill notable remarks: "That’s the final test of fame, isn’t it, the degree of it: Which is newsworthy, the act of dying itself, or merely the death?" To put it another way: When you're admired, the press covers your death. But when you're beloved, the press covers your dying.

And so, alas, the death watch continues...