News

Sad news in the celebrity world as TMZ is reporting that talk show legend, Phil Donahue has passed away at the age of 88.

His family has confirmed this, and his passing was announced during “The Today Show” in the morning of Monday, August 19.

Phil Donahue Was Surrounded By His Family

A statement was shared on The Today Show, written by Donahue’s loved ones, which included his wife of over four decades, Marlo Thomas.

It was said that those closest to him were by his side when he died, which was reportedly the evening of Sunday, August 18.

It was said that Phil’s passing followed a long battle with an illness, and no other information was provided in regard to the cause of his death.

Phil Donahue’s Talk Show Legacy

Donahue hosted The Phil Donahue Show for 29 years and was known as a trailblazer for television talk shows in this format.

Years removed from its original release, it can be hard to really grasp how huge "The Blair Witch Project" really was. The film was a major financial success and it popularized the found footage sub-genre. It also changed horror and cinema marketing forever. It employed a viral internet marketing campaign that made many people think the events of the film were real and the stars were actually dead — something the real (and alive) cast was not paid nearly enough for.

The film, a low-budget horror about kids trapped in the woods, was a nightmare to shoot. Though the titular witch is never seen, she is felt throughout the runtime, with a fascinating and complex mythology that remains as mysterious as it was 20 years ago. And that mythology, with all the supplementary material from the time — fake TV documentaries, an epistolary novel, and much more — forms the basis of 2016's surprise sequel "Blair Witch.