'Exorcist' Author William Peter Blatty Dead at 89
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SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2017 lifestyle FEATURES Ed Sheeran 'Exorcist' author William breaks Spotify records with new music op singer Ed Sheeran on Friday broke all-time Peter Blatty dead at 89 records on Spotify as fans rushed to hear two Psongs from his upcoming album. The British singer-songwriter's "Shape of You" became the top song ever for a single week on the world's largest streaming website, with 52,359,013 listens through 'He wrote the great horror novel of our time' Thursday. "Shape of You" shattered the previous record for a single week set by Canadian rapper Drake's "One Dance" in May. ovelist and filmmaker William Peter Blatty, a former Sheeran's track also broke the record for streams Jesuit school valedictorian who conjured a tale of in a first week set in 2015 by Adele with her ballad Ndemonic possession and gave millions the fright of "Hello." Both "Shape of You" and Sheeran's other new their lives with the best-selling novel and Oscar-winning track, "Castle on the Hill," topped previous feats for movie "The Exorcist," has died. He was 89. Blatty died first-day streams when he released them on Jan 6. Thursday at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he "Shape of You," a minimalist dance tune about pick- lived, his widow, Julie Alicia Blatty, said. The cause of death ing up a woman at a bar, and the rockier "Castle on was multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, she said. the Hill" will both feature on Sheeran's upcoming Inspired by an incident that unfolded in St. Louis and third album, "Divide." The album, which like Washington, DC, that Blatty had read about while in col- Sheeran's previous two albums is named after a lege, "The Exorcist" was published in 1971, followed two mathematical symbol, will come out on March 3. years later by the film of the same name. The 25-year-old singer and guitarist saw his Blatty's story of a 12-year-old-girl inhabited by a satanic career rise rapidly after initial struggles. He moved to force spent more than a year on The New York Times fiction Los Angeles in 2010 with little set plan, initially play- best-seller list and eventually sold more than 10 million ing at open-microphone nights in bars and cafes. copies. It reached a far wider audience through the movie Within a few years Sheeran had landed a record deal version, directed by William Friedkin, produced and written and was taken under the wing of pop superstar by Blatty and starring Linda Blair as the young, bedeviled Taylor Swift before he found global stardom with his Regan. "RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great hor- ballad "Thinking Out Loud." He won Song of the Year ror novel of our time," Stephen King tweeted Friday. "So at the Grammys in 2016 with "Thinking Out Loud," long, Old Bill." Even those who thought they had seen which broke an earlier Spotify record and remains everything had never seen anything like the R-rated "The the service's fifth most-streamed song ever. — AFP Exorcist" and its assault of vomit, blood, rotting teeth, ghastly eyes and whirlwind head-spinning - courtesy of makeup and special effects maestro Dick Smith. Fans didn't care that Vincent Canby of The New York Times found it a "chunk of elegant occultist claptrap," or that the set burned down during production. They stood for hours in freezing weather for the winter release and kept coming even as the movie, with its omnipresent soundtrack theme, Mike Oldfield's chilly, tingly "Tubular Bells," cast its own disturbing spell. From around the world came reports of fainting, puking, epileptic fits, audience members charging the screen and waving rosary beads, In this file photo released by Starpix, The Exorcist author William Peter Blatty, left, joins Linda Blair, who starred in and, in England, a boy committing murder and blaming the 1973 film and William Friedkin, the film’s director, at a screening of the re-mastered film at the Museum of "The Exorcist." The Rev. Billy Graham would allege that the Modern Art in New York. film's very celluloid was evil. which he adapted into "The Exorcist III." He also revised a lished in Collier's, and auditioned for a role in Cecil B. novel from the 1960s, "Twinkle, Twinkle, 'Killer Kane""; DeMille's Biblical epic "The Ten Commandments." He Super-natural story renamed it "The Ninth Configuration" and wrote and alleged that he was turned down because his eyes were "I was standing in the back of a theater in New York at directed a 1980 film version that brought Blatty a Golden blue. For much of the 1960s, he turned out screenplays, the first public press screening of the film, too nervous to Globe for best screenplay. In 2011, he worked in a new including for the Blake Edwards films "A Shot in the Dark" sit down," Blatty said in 2000. "And along came a woman scene for a reissue of the 1971 novel, originally acquired by and "What Did You Do In the War, Daddy?" By the end of who got up in about the fifth or sixth row. A young woman, Bantam Books for a reported $250,000. More recently, Fox the decade, he was in a state of "financial desperation" and who started walking up the aisle, slowly at first. She had announced it would revive the story as a TV series, starring finally got around to a novel he had been thinking about her hand to her head. And then I could see her lips moving. Geena Davis. Blatty was married four times and had eight for years. She got close enough, and I could hear her murmuring, children. "He was an absolutely wonderful, kind, generous, He had remembered a Washington Post report from the Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Named the scariest movie of all time by faith-filled man, and I was very blessed to be his wife," Julie late 1940s: A 14-year-old boy from Maryland was report- Entertainment Weekly, "The Exorcist" topped $400 million Blatty said. edly possessed, his condition defined by a visiting Duke worldwide at the box office, among the highest at the time University official as "the most impressive example of pol- for an R-rated picture. Financial desperation tergeist phenomena I have ever come across." "Like so Oscar voters also offered rare respect for a horror film: The son of Lebanese immigrants, Blatty was born in many Catholics, I've had so many little battles of wavering "The Exorcist" was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and New York City and remembered a childhood of unpaid bills faith over the course of my life," Blatty, who would allege received two, for best sound and Blatty's screenplay. and nonstop evasion of rent collectors. He was a scholar- numerous mysterious events while working on the book, Imitations, parodies and sequels were inevitable, whether ship student at the Jesuit high school Brooklyn Preparatory said. "And when I heard about this case and read the the Leslie Nielsen spoof "Repossessed"; the four subse- (future Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was a year details, that seemed so compelling. I thought, 'My God, if quent "Exorcist" movies (only one of which, "The Exorcist behind) and graduated as class valedictorian. He received someone were to investigate this and authenticate it, what III," involved Blatty) or a stage version performed in 2012 at another scholarship to attend Georgetown University and a tremendous boost to faith it would be.' I thought, This file photo shows singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. "When I was writing as he accepts the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo earned a master's in English literature from George 'Someday I would like to see that happen. You know, I the novel I thought of it as a super-natural detective story, Washington University. As recounted in his memoir "I'll Tell would like to do it.'"--AP Performance, for ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ onstage dur- and to this day I cannot recall having a conscious intention ing the GRAMMY Pre-Telecast at The 58th Grammy Them I Remember You," he took many detours on his jour- to terrifying anybody, which you may take, I suppose, as an ney to the top. Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, admission of failure on an almost stupefying scale," Blatty California. — AFP He sold vacuum cleaners, drove a beer truck, served in told The Huffington Post in 2011. the Air Force, was stationed in Beirut by the United States Blatty returned to the "Exorcist" setting in "Legion," Information Agency, tried and failed to get stories pub- Fadi Fawaz's family worried about his mental state he 43-year-old fine art photographer discovered his famous partner dead in bed on Christmas Day Tand, despite claims that he and the 'Careless Whisper' hit maker had split several months before, Fadi's nephew Josh Fawaz insists the pair were "very much together and in love" and he is concerned that his uncle won't be able to cope with the tragedy. Josh said: "They were very much together and in love. Two days prior to George's death I was in the pub in London with my uncle and he called him to say he'll be home soon. "They were living together, they hadn't split. I'm worried about his mental state, to be honest. I don't know how he'll cope without George." After Fadi - who previously revealed he had slept in his car outside George's home the night the star passed away - failed to revive the singer, he called police and then made a heartbreaking call to Josh.