Natasha Richardson

According to the news, poor Natasha Richardson was laid to rest yesterday in upstate New York. I never interviewed her, so I can't add my two cents of--yes, she was lovely--like I'm sure most people who met her can. I interviewed her sister, Joely Richardson, who looked at me very compassionately as she sat next to an ornery Timothy Hutton for a TV spot at The Last Mimzy junket. And I sat next to her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, during the roundtable for Evening, and remember thinking to myself how classy she was and more importantly, Jesus she looks good.

Josh and I were on our semi-annual family ski trip in Colorado, skiing ourselves the day that Natasha Richardson took her fall in Montreal. Having skied my whole life, I was initially very confused as to how on earth she should have hurt herself so badly on a beginner's slope. But I can only guess she must have gotten up a hell of a lot of speed for quite a dramatic fall, considering that the ski patrol had to come for her and then sled her down, and then, of course, the ultimate result. 

All I know is that for our anniversary this year, Josh got ski helmets for both of us--adamant that we were both going to break out heads and die. Being from, as another friend put it, the last generation of people who didn't use helmets for anything, I was only persuaded to wear mine by the fact that Josh got ones with ipod hookups. I will say that mine was very comfortable, warm, made wearing goggles comfortable for the first time in my 30 years of skiing, and of course I loved the ipod hookup.

In light of what happened to Natasha Richardson, it seems like an extra smart move on Josh's part and now I shall recommend doing the same to all skiers out there. You can get cheap helmets with ipod hookups. I recommend you do it.