ABC's Announces Summer Line Up

David Mills Dead: 'The Wire' Writer Dies Days Before Premiere Of New Show 'Treme'

David Mills, a veteran television writer who worked on the award-winning series "ER" and "The Wire," died after collapsing on the set of his latest production. He was 48.

Mills died Tuesday night in New Orleans, said HBO spokesman Diego Aldana. Doctors at Tulane Medical Center said he suffered a brain aneurism, according to a statement Wednesday from Mills' latest production, "Treme."

Mills was on the set of the new HBO series as it filmed a scene at Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter when he was stricken and rushed to the hospital where he died without regaining consciousness, the statement said.

"He was an enormous talent," said David Simon, a co-executive producer with Mills who first met the award-winning writer in the newsroom of their college newspaper. "He loved words and he loved an argument but not in any angry or mean-spirited way. He loved to argue ideas. He delighted in it, and he was confident that something smarter and deeper always came from a good argument."

Mills was living in New Orleans while working as a writer and executive producer of the drama set during post-Katrina and slated to premiere on April 11.

Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William "Bunk" Moreland on "The Wire," and plays a musician in "Treme," said Mills collapsed on the set Tuesday.

"He was carrying on a conversation and just fell over," Pierce said. "They called the medics, but there was nothing to be done."

"Treme" is named after the Creole neighborhood known for its rich musical history.

"I'm so sorry he won't be able to see the launch of the show he cared so much about," Pierce said.

HBO said in a statement that the network is "deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague."

"He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent. David has left us too soon but his brilliant work will live on."

"Treme" cast and crew members held a memorial for Mills on the set Wednesday morning, Pierce said.

"He was very quiet and introverted, but spoke volumes when he wrote," Pierce said of Mills. "He challenged us as actors and he challenged Americans when it came to matters of race. He was one of the more talented people working in TV. He made it much more than just empty entertainment."

Mills began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post, before turning to screenwriting. Besides "ER" and "The Wire," he worked on the HBO drama "The Corner," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "NYPD Blue" and was executive producer and writer of the short-lived NBC miniseries "Kingpin," about a Mexican drug cartel.

Mills started his television writing career with Simon, a longtime friend and "Wire" creator, in 1994. The pair wrote an episode of "Homicide" that year, for which they won a Writers Guild of America award. Mills won Emmys for co-writing and executive producing the miniseries "The Corner" and an Edgar in 2007 for "The Wire."

Raves For Apple's Latest Product

iPad reviews from technology writers began surfacing Wednesday evening, with most offering glowing appraisals of Apple's latest product. However, one caveat was consistent: iPad's inability to play flash video.

Walt Mossberg, the personal technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, suggested that the iPad could help touchscreen computers overtake the mouse:

For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.

USA Today's Edward C. Baig says the "stunning" iPad is "rewriting the rulebook":

The iPad is not so much about what you can do -- browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more -- but how you can do it. That's where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch. All programs arrive directly through Apple's App Store. Apple's tablet is fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast. Inside is a new Apple chip, the A4. The machine is the antithesis of the cheap underpowered netbook computers that Jobs easily dismisses.

The New York Times' David Pogue deemed the iPad "polarizing" and wrote two reviews for groups at either end of the spectrum. One for "techies" and one review for "anyone else."

Pogue's review for "techies":

The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.

It's a half-inch-thick slab, all glass on top, aluminum on the back. Hardly any buttons at all -- just a big Home button below the screen. It takes you to the Home screen full of apps, just as on an iPhone.

Pogue's review for "anyone else":

The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they're absolutely right.

The Chicago Sun-Times' Andy Ihnatko described the tablet as "pure innovation":

The iPad user experience is instantly compelling and elegant. It's not every computer and every function. It's a computer that's designed for speed, mobility, and tactile interaction above all other considerations.

The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you're completely focused on the task at hand ... whether it's reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It's not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that's existed for quite some time.

April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is a day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, such as the UK, Australia, and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool".[1] Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Brazil, Canada and the U.S., the jokes last all day. The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 as New Year's Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.

The frequency of April Fools' hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on April 1.

The 1946 April Fools' Day tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii.

• The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.

• The death of King George II of Greece on April 1, 1947.

• The AMC Gremlin was first introduced on April 1, 1970.^[77]

• In 1979, Iran declared April 1 its national Republic Day. Thirty years on, this continues to be mistaken for a joke.^[78]

• On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Originally, people assumed that it was a fake news story, especially considering the bizarre aspect of the father being the murderer.

• On April 1, 1993, NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash involving Hooters of America executives inBlountville, Tennessee near the Tri-Cities Airport. The party was travelling to the Food City 500 qualifying scheduled for the next day.

• The suicide death of Deathrock legend Rozz Williams was on April 1, 1998.

• On April 1, 1999 The Canadian Northwest Territories was split, and the territory now known as Nunavut came to be.

• The merger of Square and its rival company, Enix, took place on April 1, 2003, and was originally thought to be a joke.

• Leslie Cheung, one of Hong Kong's well-known singer and actor, committed suicide in 2003 due to severe depression.

• Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fools' Day hoaxes each April 1 (see Google's hoaxes.) Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.^[79]

• The 2005 death of comedian Mitch Hedberg was originally dismissed as an April Fools' joke. The comedian's March 29, 2005 death was announced on March 31, but many newspapers didn't carry the story until April 1, 2005.

• British sprinter Dwain Chambers joined English rugby league team Castleford Tigers shortly before April 1, 2008. The athlete was attempting a return to top flight athletics at the time following a high profile drugs ban, and his apparent unfamiliarity with rugby led many people to assume this was an April Fools' Day prank.

• On April 1, 2008, it was reported that UEFA would require the Swedish fast food chain Max to close their restaurant at the Borås Arena during theEuropean Under-21 Football Championship due to a conflict with official sponsor McDonald's and a requirement that only official sponsors may operate around the arena. The arena was later replaced as a tournament site.^[80]

• On April 1, 2008,Persch announced that the GNOME desktop web browser Epiphany would be switched from Mozilla's Gecko engine to the WebKitengine used by Safari and KDE's equivalent application Konqueror ^[81]

• On 1 April 2009, Alan Shearer becomes caretaker manager of Newcastle United.

• On April 1, 2009, CBS announced the cancellation of the daytime drama Guiding Light after 72 years with the final episode scheduled to air September 18, 2009.

• On April 1, 2009, A school was almost burned to the ground in the Danish town Albertslund; apparently, the fire department refused to believe that the news was true the first two times that people called to report it.

• Also on April 1, 2009, a Virus/Worm was called Conficker and spread to millions of computers and releasing personal info and deleting files. This was supposed to be a joke, but random computers throughout America were hit. Before this happened, news media like, NBC, Fox News, ABC andCBS told the viewers to install firewalls and updates to their Windows Computers before it hit.

Lindsay Lohan Dead at 23

Hollywood stunner Lindsay Lohan, who found big-screen success after her breakout role in "Parent Trap," died Thursday after collapsing in the shower.

Los Angeles cops are investigating the 23-year-old's sudden death, but a coroner official said it "appears to be natural."

An autopsy is pending - according to the gossip Web site TMZ.

The troubled actress and singer was in full cardiac arrest and could not be revived after several attempts to administer air back into her head after loosing a great quantity in the fall. EMS at the scene state that Lohan appeared "a little bit tipsy".

Five paramedics who arrived after the 4 a.m. 911 call feverishly administered CPR as her trusted puppy wandered around in his pajama bottoms, a witness told RadarOnline. Lohan was pronounced dead at 5:04 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Lohah had been suffering from lushlike symptoms for days and was throwing up profusely in the hours before she died, TMZ said. "There were a lot ... a lot of prescriptions in the house," a source said.

Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modelled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie Kids, and appeared in over 100 television commercials,including those for Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By age 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the series Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.

Lohan played Alli Fowler for a year before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. Her last film was set to be released today called "APRIL FOOLS!".