I'm surprised

So, I'm on the internet for about an hour (or three), and I like to just look up different subjects. I read that Katey Sagal sang back-up on an Olivia Newton John song from 1985 so I decided to look up that song- that led me to look up different ONJ albums and compilations (when I was younger I bought Greatest Hits Volume Two- the sleeve folded out into a big picture of her, and I thought it was so cool. But the record skipped, and my parents, not wanting to make a hundred trips back and forth to K-mart decided we'd just get the money back. Really, it's just got about 4 good songs).

Anyway, I looked up the Physical LP and saw that the photographer was Herb Ritts. Well, then I scrolled back up and looked at the cover again and- normally I'm very slow, but- I noticed that the pose was very similar to Madonna's True Blue cover, also by Ritts (by the way, I'm not the only person to notice this- it's mentioned on his wiki page).

Being a big Madonna fan I knew about Herb Ritts. He did a shitload of Madonna photos, including the pictures during the Like A Prayer- era. His first music video was "Cherish" and he directed Janet Jackson's "Love Will Never Do Without You" and Chris Isaaks's video for "Wicked Game" (the second one- David Lynch directed the first).

So I go to Herb Ritts's wiki page. I'm disappointed to find that he directed a video for Britany Spears (and I don't care if I'm spelling her name right), and even more disappointed to read that he died of pneumonia at the age of 50. Wow, I thought, when did that happen? Just after Christmas, 2002.

What the fuck. I know people get distracted around the holidays and don't follow the news, and I know that his death wouldn't be a huge news story, but still. I'm not finding this out until now?




Note: The True Blue cover really is a lot like the ONJ cover. True Blue's shiny blue background looks a lot like the water on Physical.