Baz Luhrmann, director of the Elvis Presley biopic, shared on social media that he will miss US singer Lisa Marie Presley’s “warmth, smile and love” following her sudden death.
Presley’s family on Thursday said they were “shocked and devastated” to share that Elvis Presley’s only child had died soon after being “rushed” to hospital, two days after she attended the Golden Globes ceremony with actor Austin Butler, who won Best Actor for his starring turn as her father in Luhrmann’s film Elvis.
Luhrmann posted on his personal Instagram an image of Presley and Butler giggling.
“Over the last year, the entire Elvis movie family and I have felt the privilege of Lisa Marie’s kind embrace,” he wrote.
“Her sudden, shocking loss has devastated people all around the world. I know her fans everywhere join me in sharing prayers of love and support with her mother, Priscilla, and her wonderful daughters Riley, Finley and Harper.
“Lisa Marie, we will miss your warmth, your smile, your love.”
Speaking at a pre-ceremony event at the Golden Globes, Presley said she had been “overwhelmed” by the film and the effect that it had.
“I’m very proud and I know that my father would be very proud … I’m overwhelmed with gratitude,” she said.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, called the late singer a “devoted friend” and referred to her as “my sissy”.
“You were my sissy, an amazing mother to Ben, Riley, Harper and Finley and a superbly loving daughter to Priscilla,” she posted on Instagram.
She added: “You have been my devoted friend for many years and I am here for your family to support and love them. I am deeply saddened my sissy, you are in my heart.”
Presley and fourth ex-husband Michael Lockwood lived in the UK for a good portion of their marriage and spent many a night at London’s posh and exclusive Groucho Club — a spot Fergie was known to haunt.
Lockwood acted as his wife’s music director and lead guitarist. They toured in support of her three albums To Whom It May Concern (2003), Now What (2005) and Storm & Grace (2012).
Days before her death, she visited Graceland on January 8 to celebrate her father’s birthday as is tradition with his legions of fans.
Elvis died on August 10, 1977, leaving Presley his sole heir after her 25th birthday.
PA contributed to this report
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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