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Looking back on the life of Barbara Eden

Step aside, Aladdin! Barbara Eden, the woman who made the world dream of genies, is celebrating her 92nd birthday on August 23, and the nonagenarian looks fantastic!

Eden–who turned fans into shameless bottle shiners hoping for their own wish-granting blonde–is still adored almost 60 years since she first appeared on I Dream of Jeannie.

But, while she was able to strike a pose and make magic happen on screen, in real life, she was unable to save her son, who died of a heroin overdose in 2001.

Born in the Great Depression, Barbara Eden, 92 as of August 23, 2023, turned poverty into luxury when, in 1956, she started appearing in film (A Private’s Affair, Twelve Hours to Kill) and TV (The Jonny Carson Show, I love Lucy).

In 1960, she played to international audiences when she cast was alongside the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Presley in the western, Flaming Star.

And then, in 1965, the stunning blonde played Jeannie, a beautiful genie that was set free by astronaut and US Air Force Captain, Tony Nelson.

Eden captured the hearts of fans with her impressive portrayal of the magical creature that she played for the five-season run of the fantasy sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, with Larry Hagman playing her love interest, Nelson.

The same year she was reaching super stardom as Jeannie, Eden and her husband, actor Michael Ansara (known for his starring in role in the 60s series Broken Arrow) had a son, Matthew Ansara, who was born August 29, 1965.

When Matthew was nine, his parents ended their 15-year marriage, a strike that Eden, who married two more times, says sent her son on the wrong path, towards drugs.

The Harper Valley PTA star explained that she first noticed Matthew was in trouble in 1984, when at 19, he moved in with his father after she remarried. Returning after she divorced a second time, Eden said he was sleeping a lot and lied about being enrolled in college.

“Matthew never told Mike and me that he was using heroin—he didn’t want to hurt us. But we figured it out because he had been acting sluggish, losing weight, staying out all night. I insisted that he enter a rehab center, and I let him come back home when he came out a month later.”

The star of The Stepford Children continued, “But he started using again. The professionals told us that if your child is using drugs, he has become the drug: He is no longer your child, and he no longer has a home with you. So, I locked him out when he was 20, which was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

Matthew, who started using drugs when he was only 10, spent the next 12 years in and out of rehab, his parents connecting to help him through.

“When he visited us, sometimes he’d laugh and say, ‘Here I am, better lock up everything.’ But when he was sober, he’d tell us, ‘I’m so sorry. I love you more than anyone in the world,’” Eden said of her son, who often stole their property when he visited.

Barbara Eden, US actress, in costume in a publicity portrait for the US television series, ‘I Dream of Jeannie’, circa 1967. The sitcom starred Eden as ‘Jeannie’. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

During a brief remission when he was 27, Matthew married and studied creative writing at UCLA, but “the cycle began again,” and his wife left.

Recalling when things turned for the worse, Eden said she confronted her son, and “he got angry, threw things and stomped out.” Finding Matthew after a months-long search, Eden learned he’d spent most of the time living on the streets.

“One day, soon after they separated, he called me, sounding half dead, and said, ‘Mom, I’m sick.’ Mike’s wife and another friend drove with me to a bad part of Venice, Calif., and we found him in his apartment, unconscious from an overdose.”

Describing his living conditions as “filthy,” Eden continued. “He weighed 200 lbs., but we three women got him up and to the car and took him to the hospital, which saved his life.”

At 29 he was diagnosed with clinical depression and was on medication, that didn’t help.

When he was 31, Matthew was clean again and following the path of his parents, he had a starring role in the 2001 film To Protect and Serve, and a supporting role in Con Games, that was released posthumously the same year.

In September that year, he had plans to wed a “wonderful girl.”

“One day he told me, ‘Life is great, Mom. I can’t believe I spent so many years not being awake to how green the trees are.’” Eden said.

Barbara Eden son cause of death

Soon after that conversation, on June 26 at 3 a.m. Eden was jolted from her sleep when a phone call came through about her son,

Six hours before the call, police found 35-year-old Matthew, an amateur bodybuilder, slumped over the steering wheel of his truck, where cops also pulled vials of anabolic steroids that he used to bulk up for competitions.

Autopsy results showed that Matthew’s cause of death was accidental drug overdose.

“Then he was dead. He had shot up with a dose of unusually pure heroin, and it was too much for his heart,” Eden said. “Even when he was getting in shape, he did it like an addict—obsessively. He was unable to do anything in moderation.”

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Mourning the death of her only child, the author and singer, married to Jon Eicholtz since 1991, is still looking for answers.

“Matthew took it horribly. He wanted his mommy and daddy to stay together. If I had to do it over, I would have waited until he was older. But then I remind myself that so many kids from divorced homes don’t become addicts.” She continued, “He won a lot of battles. But he lost his personal war.”

The senior Ansara, who at 91 died in 2013 from complications related to Alzheimer’s, is buried next to his son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

As for Eden, who retired Jeannie’s pink harem suit, she can be seen on TV shows like Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition and the 2019 film My Adventures with Santa, where she plays Mrs. Claus. Her last stage production was 2019’s Love Letters.

First, we’d like to wish the beautiful Barbara Eden a very happy birthday!

Next, we cannot imagine a parent’s pain of losing a child and we are so sorry for her loss. If someone you know is struggling with addictions, please contact your local alcohol or drug abuse hotline–it could save their life.

Please share this story and let’s give Eden some warm wishes and the love she deserves!

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Do you wake up between the hours of 3 and 5am? The reason isn’t what you might think

Sleeping well for an entire night, without waking up once, seems to be a surprisingly rare thing, but it’s actually what’s required if you’re to be entirely productive – without feeling tired – the next day.

Many people think that simply going to bed at the right time guarantees them a good night’s sleep, only to then wake up – more often than not – between 3:00am and 5:00am. Sometimes this can cause problems, particularly when someone finds it difficult to return to sleep.

The fact that most people wake up during this window isn’t coincidence, however, nor is down to bad luck. It turns out, there’s a significance to the trend …

The hours between 3:00am and 5:00am are sometimes referred to as the hour of the wolf, after Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s psychological horror[film of the same name.

”The hour between night and dawn … when most people die, sleep is deepest, nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their worst anguish, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The hour of the wolf is also the hour when most babies are born,” Bergman explained.

According to Professor Birgitta Steene, the title is derived from Swedish folklore, wherein the “hour of the wolf” signifies the timeframe between 3:00am and 5:00am.

This period is believed to be associated with a higher occurrence of both deaths and births. It’s also precisely that time when the body often slips into its deepest rest, which is why the body’s functions can be so affected by it.

In folk traditions, the witching hour, also known as the devil’s hour, is a nocturnal period linked to supernatural occurrences. It is believed that during this time, witches, demons, and ghosts are thought to manifest and wield their greatest influence.

The hour of the wolf

For those who are able to sleep as normal, the hour of the wolf represents the period wherein sleep is at its deepest. For those who wake up, however, it supposedly represents the time when feelings of anxiety are at their most potent.

The body’s circadian rhythm (the 24 hour cycle of physiological processes) tends to follow the sun’s rise and fall, meaning that things such as body temperature, blood pressure and metabolism go down during the night.

At around 4:00am they are at their lowest, since this is when the body has entered its natural rest stage. If you suffer from anxiety, however, it’s during this period when feelings can be exacerbated, hence why you find yourself waking up.

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Animal lover finds squirrel with giant tooth, brings him home and gives him a new opportunity – thank you

Living on a ranch in rural Alberta, Canada, Jannet Talbott may be far away from people but is never alone as she is always surrounded by animals.

The animal lover is used to the many animals, both domestic and wild, who live on her ranch and looks out for them all.

One day she was watching a squirrel enjoying a snack from her bird feeder when she noticed something unusual on his face.

“I could see there was something on the side of his face,” Talbott told The Dodo. “I got closer and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a massive tooth growing out of his mouth.’”

Squirrels have four front teeth that never stop growing but their constant gnawing on nuts and seeds ensure most squirrels’ teeth are kept short. Somehow this had not happened with this squirrel and Jannet knew he was in danger.

The tooth was growing toward the squirrel’s eye and Jannet suspected he was living on powdered bird food as he couldn’t chew on anything.

Now she had the difficult task of trying to catch Bucky, as she named him, so she could give him the help he needed.

“One day, I saw him in the feeder. It was like divine intervention. I just had to reach in and grab him,” she said. “Once I had him in my hand, I just kept telling him, ‘I’m going to help you, Bucky. You’re going to be OK.’”

When Jannet had the canine challenged squirrel in her hands she saw that it wasn’t just one tooth that was an issue.

“His mouth was an absolute mess. His upper incisors were curled around and growing inside his mouth,” she said. “When he ate, his teeth were rubbing on his face. He was so horrific.”

She worried that if she took Bucky to a vet they may not be able to do anything for him and the journey would stress him out too much so she grabbed her cuticle trimmers and attempted the job herself.

After watching some instructional videos on YouTube, Jannet swaddled Bucky and covered his eyes; he instantly became calm which was lucky for this talented rancher as the job took ten minutes.

Squirrels have no feeling in their teeth and even after she had finished trimming, the squirrel was in “no hurry to get away,” Jannet said, as per CBC Canada.

“I took him outside, and he ran to a branch and started rubbing his little cheeks. It was like he couldn’t believe those teeth were gone. He just kept rubbing his face,” she said.

“The next day, I saw him back in the feeder — and he had the most amazing little squirrel smile on his face. He was just so happy.”

Now Jannet hopes to inspire others to help a needy animal.

“I really feel a deep connection to animals, and they always seem to come to me when they need help,” she added.

“I’m always happy to help them, and I think if we all did a little, it would end up being a lot.”


I cannot imagine how nervous Jannet must have been attempting dentistry on this creature in distress but thank goodness she did as he may have starved to death had she not been brave that day.

Help us thank this animal hero by sharing this story.

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Jane Fonda ‘calls out Donald Trump’ during SAG award speech

Jane Fonda's speech. Credit / Getty Images
Jane Fonda’s speech. Credit / Getty Images

Jane Fonda’s hardly been a stranger to political controversy over the course of her long and storied career. Once dubbed “Hanoi Jane” after being photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in 1972, it’s fair to say she’s had her fair share of public chastisement.

The actress was also an opinion-splitting figure as far back as the 1960s, when she actively supported the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers to the chagrin of certain sections of society.

This past weekend, Fonda was awarded the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) Life Achievement Award, and used part of her speech to throw shade in the direction of President Donald Trump.

With the current political climate in the US testy to say the least, it’s hardly a wonder that many of the country’s biggest celebrities are making their voices heard.

For 87-year-old Fonda, Sunday’s SAG Awards provided the perfect platform to make a statement.

“Thank you SAG AFTRA. Your enthusiasm makes this seem less like a late twilight of my life, and more like a go girl, kick a**. Which is good because I’m not done.” Fonda said.

Though she didn’t directly namedrop President Trump, Fonda referenced Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of him in 2024’s The Apprentice.

Jane Fonda’s speech

“Though you may hate the behavior of your character, you have to understand and empathize with the traumatized person you’re playing,” she said.

The actress proceeded to then defend ‘wokeness’, stating: “Empathy is not weak or ‘woke.’ And, by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.

“A whole lot of people are going to be hurt by what’s happening, by what’s coming our way,” she continued.”‘We are going to need a big tent to resist what’s coming at us.”

“And even if they are of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and not judge, but listen from our hearts, and welcome them into our tent. Because we are gonna need a big tent to resist successfully what’s coming at us.”

Fonda’s comments come in the wake of some turbulent weeks in US politics. Many had anticipated that Trump’s second term in office would mean chaos, but few could have predicted just how fast the apple cart might be tipped upside down.

Amid a slew of executive orders and typically boisterous claims – many of which have questionable ties to reality – Trump has wasted no time at all in trying to enforce large-scale changes, for better or for worse.

His newly-founded Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, has come in for particular criticism in recent days, while Trump’s apparent siding with despot Vladimir Putin in an attempt to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine has caused concern on the international stage.

What did you make of Jane Fonda’s statement? Let us know in the comments.

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