Top 20 celebrities and public figures predicted to die in 2026

For the second year in a row, contestants at the dead pool website Stiffs.com have chosen actor Dick Van Dyke as the public figure most likely to die in 2026.
Other notables in the top 10 include former U.S. President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump, though the inclusion of the latter is probably just wishful thinking.
The annual list contains the usual geriatrics and those suffering health problems.
Of the top 20 public figures marked for death in 2025 by Stiffs.com, only two met the grim reaper. They were actress June Lockhart and actor Gene Hackman.
What follows are the top 20 public figures (with their ages) predicted to die in 2026, according to Stiffs.com.

1. Dick Van Dyke, 100, actor
2. Mel Brooks, 99, comedian, writer, actor, director
3. Eva Marie Saint, 101, actress
4. Alan Greenspan. 99, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve
5. David Attenborough, 99, broadcaster and naturalist
6. Clint Eastwood, 95, actor and director
7. Gene Shalit, 99, film critic for NBC's "The Today Show"
8. Joe Biden, 83, former U.S. president
9. Buzz Aldrin, 95, U.S. astronaut
10. Donald Trump, 79, current U.S. president
11. Noam Chomsky, 97, academic and social critic
12. Yoko Ono, 92, Japanese multimedia artist and peace activist
13. Bruce Willis, 70, actor
14. Joanne Woodward, 95, actress
15. Doc Severinsen, 98, jazz trumpeter and band leader
16. Marv Levy, 100, pro football coach
17. Willie Nelson, 92, singer and songwriter
18. Tippi Hedren, 95, actress
19. Harvey Weinstein, 73, film producer and convicted sex offender
20. Rupert Murdoch, 94, media mogul

Here are some notable younger public figures predicted to die this year by multiple Stiffs.com dead-pool players:

22. Eric Dane, 53, actor
46. Michael J. Fox, 64, actor
56. Andy Dick, 60, comedian and actor
74. Celine Dion, 57, singer
90. Randy Moss, 48, football player
92. Britney Spears, 44, singer
103. Christina Applegate, 54, actress
124. Charlie Sheen, 60, actor
139. Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy, 56, rapper, music producer and accused sex offender
155. Amanda Bynes, 39, actress

Photo: Donald Trump mugshot from Aug. 24, 2023, at the Fulton County jail in Georgia.

The most controversial U.S. magazine covers of 2025

The most controversial U.S. magazine covers this year hit on such hot button issues as artificial intelligence, racial politics and the second term of President Donald Trump. Others were controversial just because of the ick factor.

Time magazine pissed off liberals by choosing the billionaire tech executives behind the AI megatrend as its Persons of the Year. They included Tesla leader Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta Platforms head Mark Zuckerberg. Time dubbed them the “Architects of AI.”
The magazine cover photo illustration put the AI executives on a steel beam like the famous 1932 photograph “Lunch atop a Skyscraper.”
“Nothing says ‘person of the year’ like replacing Depression-era workers with the billionaires making our skills obsolete,” writer Rhea Nayyar said in an article for Hyperallergic.
Time’s cover image “feel like a desecration of history,” Creative Bloq said.
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel tore into Time magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year cover, calling the eight-person lineup of tech CEOs “the eight dorks of the apocalypse.” (See articles by New York Post and Fox News.)
Wired magazine did a similar cover with AI executives this year but chose to imitate a different well-known work of art: “Dogs Playing Poker” by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.

In January, critics slammed New York Magazine for its cover image, which cropped black people out of a photo of a pro-Trump party to go with a story that claimed the crowd was almost entirely white.
See articles by New York Post, Daily Mail, the Hollywood Reporter, Fox News and SMU’s the Daily Campus.

Time magazine (again) stirred up controversy with its Feb. 24 cover showing tech entrepreneur Elon Musk sitting behind the U.S. president’s desk. The cover story was designed to imply that Musk had undue influence over Trump.
The Root said “Time Magazine’s new Elon Musk cover should scare the hell out of us.”
See other articles by CNN, NBC News and Mediaite.

Time magazine (yet again) angered Trump with its Oct. 10 cover photo, which “disappeared” his hair. It also drew attention to his wrinkled neck. In a social media post, Trump said the picture might be “the Worst of All Time.” (See articles by USA Today, the Hill, Fox News, People, Daily Beast and New York Post.)
After the uproar, Time changed the cover to a more flattering photo. (See articles by Deadline, TMZ, the Independent and Daily Beast.)

Miami-based rapper JT got fans talking with the cover photo for CultedXO magazine. She was photographed sporting ridiculously large lips. The concept for her photo spread was to send a message: “The story is f*ck how people view me,” she said.
(See articles by The Shade Room, Pink World Station and Instagram.)

In the yuck category of magazine covers was a digital cover for Sound Advice from the March issue of Interview magazine. It featured a photo of American record producer Benny Blanco with two feet in his face. The feet presumably belonged to his then-fiancé, now wife, singer Selena Gomez.
(See article by Parade.)

A different kind of ick was a September cover of Us magazine that featured 73-year-old football coach Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.
(See articles by Marca, Awful Announcing and the Spun.)

Actress Sadie Sink raised eyebrows with her eyebrows and strange look on the cover of Teen Vogue. (See article by Parade.)

The Hollywood Reporter faced criticism for its magazine cover depicting actress Blake Lively slinging a mobile phone at director Justin Baldoni. The two are embroiled in a bitter legal battle. Lively’s spokesperson called the cover image and accompanying story “sexist” and “offensive.”
(See articles by the Daily Mail, GB News, the Independent and the Daily Mail again.)

And finally Vogue faced a backlash for its June cover featuring Lauren Sánchez in her bridal dress for her wedding to Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos. Haters complained about celebrating the nuptials of the ultrawealthy.
(See articles by Radar and Daily Beast.)

The most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2025

Trump derangement syndrome, or TDS, played a role in some of the most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2025.

The Indian government reportedly tried to block the distribution of an issue of Indian weekly magazine Vikatan, which featured an unflattering cover of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The cover was a cartoon of Modi in handcuffs alongside U.S. President Donald Trump. The cover was a response to reports that Indians were being deported from the U.S. in handcuffs.
See article by the Daily Cartoonist.

British satirical magazine Private Eye went viral with a cover that took aim Trump’s supposed adulation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
See article by HuffPost.

The Economist cover about Trump’s first 100 days of his second term also went viral. It featured an image of a wounded and bandaged symbolic eagle under the headline “Only 1,361 Days To Go.” The magazine is counting down the days until Trump leaves office.
See articles by BuzzFeed and HuffPost.

In May, the Vietmanese government banned an issue of the Economist that featured an illustration of Vietnam’s top leader, Communist party General Secretary To Lam, on its cover.
The image showed Lam with stars on his eyes, alongside the headline “The man with a plan for Vietnam,” with the subhead: “A Communist party hard man has to rescue Asia’s great success story.”
See articles by the Guardian and Reuters.

An Irish government-funded magazine, Comhar, sparked outrage with its July cover. The cover image showed a presumably Israeli couple in swimwear lying on a beach next to a bloodied amputee with barbed wire dividing them. Jewish symbols dotted the wire that split the amputee from the bathers, prompting backlash from Jewish community groups. The article comes amid the armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
See article by the Jewish Chronicle.

And finally, Glamour UK caused controversy when it named nine males with transgender identities among its “women of the year.”
British political commentator Piers Morgan said in a post on X that the issue was “beyond parody even by ludicrous woke virtue-signaling standards.”
See articles by Fox News and the Sunday Times.

Porn parodies of public figures, a review of X-rated portrayals

The adult film industry has a history of poking fun at politicians, celebrities and other public figures in porn parodies. It is a peculiar way of humiliating a subject by literally stripping them of their modesty.
I recently set up a pair of websites on Google’s Blogger platform to list as many porn parodies of public figures as I could find. The first website, Porn Parodies Of Public Figures, is devoted to modern public figures, essentially those in the post-World War II era. The other, Porn Movies Based On Historical Figures, is for historical figures from ancient times up through WWII.
These websites feature censored photos of promotional artwork, such as physical media cover art. They are behind an age-restriction warning because of their subject matter.
I created the two websites to salvage a collection of images I had gathered and posted on Flickr. Flickr suspended my account in April, saying it violated the terms of its free photo-hosting service.
My interest in porn parodies of public figures stems from my support of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and curiosity over all that it covers. Freedom of speech and expression extends to parody and even sexual content.
But the golden age of porn parodies is over. It ended with the decline of physical media, such as DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.
Adult entertainment companies don’t seem interested in full-length features amid the rise of OnlyFans and other sites. Now anyone with a smartphone can film and distribute porn. And consumers of these videos don’t seem to mind the lack of narratives and acting (beyond faking gratification perhaps).
The closest the industry gets to parody now are cosplay videos, often for VR headsets. Porn actresses will dress up as characters from comic books, anime and other popular fiction. Rarely do they portray real people, except the occasional historical figure like Cleopatra or Pocahontas.
I suspect another issue could be AI deepfakes. With artificial intelligence, porn lovers can virtually put any celebrity or public figure into a sex video.
As of this posting, the most popular subject for porn parodies among modern public figures is President Donald Trump, who has been parodied since his days as host of NBC’s “The Apprentice.” He has been featured in 25 porn parodies to date.

Top real-life subjects of porn parodies:

Donald Trump (25)
Charlie Sheen (20)
Sarah Palin (15)
Barack Obama (13)
Kim Kardashian (11)
Britney Spears (10)
Melania Trump (10)
Tiger Woods (9)
Justin Bieber (8)
Marilyn Monroe (8)
Bill Clinton (7)
Lindsay Lohan (7)
Ivanka Trump (7)

Among historical eras and figures, Ancient Rome is the top subject of porn movies with 13 such movies. These include movies featuring Julius Caesar, Caligula and Mark Antony.

Top historical subjects (WWII or earlier) of porn movies:

Ancient Rome (13)
Cleopatra (11)
Giacomo Casanova (8)
Bonnie & Clyde (6)
Nazi Germany (6)

If you know of any movies I missed, let me know.

Photos: Porn actress Sammi Starfish plays U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). In this political satire, AOC meets with President Donald Trump to discuss her “Green New Deal” when sex happens.

CES 2025 news in review: AI, robots, smart glasses, smart rings and more

The following is a roundup of my stories from Investors.com.

Synopsys purchase of Ansys will fulfill company’s goal. (Jan. 28, 2025)

SoundHound makes tempting offer to carmakers. AI stock surges. (Jan. 21, 2025)

Tech firms have their eyes on smart glasses as the next big thing. (Jan. 10, 2025)

Health tracking is moving to smart rings from watches. Oura leads market. (Jan. 9, 2025)

X CEO applauds Meta decision to end fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram. (Jan. 8, 2025)

SoundHound AI adds on-the-go food ordering to in-vehicle voice assistant. (Jan. 7, 2025)

Nvidia raises bar at CES 2025. But stock slides. (Jan. 7, 2025)

Nvidia expands AI reach with automotive, robotics initiatives. (Jan. 6, 2025)

AMD reveals next-generation AI PC chips, gets Dell endorsement. (Jan. 6, 2025)

Deere tackles labor shortages with autonomous tractors. (Jan. 6, 2025)

President-elect Trump poses challenge to U.S. tech sales. (Jan. 6, 2025)

AI everywhere at CES 2025 with spotlight on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. (Jan. 2, 2025)

Photo: X CEO Linda Yaccarino (left) speaks at CES 2025 with broadcast journalist Catherine Herridge. (Consumer Technology Association)

The most controversial U.S. magazine covers of 2024

Sex, religion, race and politics were factors in the most controversial U.S. magazine covers of 2024.
Of course, you could say that in practically any year. But this was a presidential election year, so sensitivities are heightened.

Beauty mogul and possibly retired singer Rihanna stirred up controversy with her spring 2024 cover photo for Interview magazine.
Rihanna wore a nun’s habit along with an unbuttoned blouse that showed off her sweaty cleavage. The sexy nun portrayal was criticized for being in bad taste.
(See articles by Fox News, ABC News and Parade.)

Actress Emma Corrin showed off her armpit hair for the cover of the June/July 2024 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Social media commentators thought the look was unattractive.
(See article by People.)

Actress Kristen Stewart went viral for her gender-bending cover for the March issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The photo showed Stewart wearing a jock strap with her hand feeling her crotch.
(See articles by The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and Us Weekly.)

Singer, dancer and actress JoJo Siwa pulled a similar stunt with her cover photo for Ladygunn magazine in September.
She wore an all-gold sequined outfit that included a male chest plate and a jock strap with a prominent bulge.
(See articles by the Daily Mail, Parade, the Independent, PopCulture.com, New York Post, USA Today, Today and HuffPost.)

The March 28 issue of Denver’s Westword magazine caught flak for the cover art for its article on youth and crime. The illustration showed a young boy with blue skin and curly, black hair wearing a hoodie. The boy had a handgun in his backpack.
Critics argued that the illustration presented harmful stereotypes that demonize black youth.
(See articles by Denver’s 9News and Westword.)

New York magazine’s March 11 issue drew complaints for its cover story subtitled “The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies.”
Critics said it was an attempt to normalize surgery for sexually confused youngsters.
(See article by R. Albert Mohler Jr.)

Speaking of the trans debate, conservatives slammed Forbes magazine for including transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on the cover of its annual “30 Under 30” issue.
(See articles by the Daily Mail and the Blaze.)

New York magazine received criticism for a June cover story and illustration, which some said insulted Republican women with ridiculous stereotypes.
(See article by the Daily Wire.)

Time magazine named WNBA basketball star Caitlin Clark as its “Athlete of the Year.” Some haters claimed Clark, who is Caucasian, earned the title because of “white privilege.”
(See articles by Daily Mail, Daily Mail again and New York Post.)

Time magazine earned disapproval from conservatives for its fawning cover story on liberal presidential candidate Kamala Harris for the Aug. 26 issue.
(See articles by Fox News, Fox News again and New York Post.)

And finally, Time magazine upset leftists after naming President-elect Donald Trump its “Person of the Year” on its Dec. 30 cover.
(See articles by Sky News Australia, Daily Beast and Variety.)

Why no porn parodies of the 2024 presidential election?

The adult entertainment industry used to like to parody political figures with X-rated videos. But porn producers seem to have lost their nerve to mock powerful figures.
There have been no political porn parodies this election season, even going back to the primaries.
Four years ago, there was just one political porn parody and it mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
But there was a plethora of porn parodies during the 2016 race, lampooning both major party candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
But this election cycle, the adult entertainment industry has not touched the presidential race with its content.
I asked Brian S. Gross of BSG Public Relations in Woodland Hills, Calif., why this might be. His clients include companies in the adult entertainment business.
“All I can do is speculate,” he said. “The industry is in a completely different place post-pandemic. The business has changed, and the industry produces a far less amount of parodies than it used to. There was little to no desire to create parodies around this election is another possible reason.”
Or maybe all that content produced for the 2016 election was not very popular with viewers.
Another reason could be possible negative consequences for the adult entertainment industry and/or sex workers if either Trump or Kamala Harris is elected.
Trump is believed to be aligned with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. And Harris is anti-sex work.

Related articles:

2020 presidential race gets its first porn parody (May 3, 2020)

Why are there no porn parodies yet of President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris? (April 19, 2021)

Top real-life targets for porn parodies and exploitation (March 30, 2024)

Photo: Trump 2020 campaign sign updated for 2024 in Chatham County, Georgia (photo by Jud McCranie via Creative Commons)

What T-shirts for sale on Ocean City, Md., boardwalk say about U.S. politics

On a recent trip to the Delmarva seashore, I visited the summer carnival that is Ocean City, Md. On the boardwalk, I checked out the T-shirts for sale to see what conservative America on the Atlantic Coast is thinking about national politics.
T-shirts on display portrayed President Joe Biden as a senile idiot and former President Donald Trump as an unrepentant jerk. Vice President Kamala Harris was mostly ignored.
One popular shirt was Trump flipping both middle fingers with the text “One for Joe, One for Kamala.” Others supported Trump’s planned reelection bid with “Trump 2024 – Miss Me Yet?”
The most popular phrase on political T-shirts was “Let’s Go Brandon!”, an anti-Biden chant.
Another turned Biden’s name into an acronym for “Brain-dead Idiot Destroying Entire Nation.”
And one shirt showed a befuddled Biden celebrating the fourth of July on St. Patrick’s Day.
In past years, boardwalk shops promoted a lot of pro-guns, Second Amendment T-shirts. But this year, they were nowhere to be seen. Even conservative America has lost its appetite for promoting guns after the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 and the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill.

Related articles:

Summer 2018 beach T-shirts: Fortnite reigns (July 28, 2018)

President Trump a hero in parts of America, based on T-shirts (June 13, 2017)

T-shirts show continued interest in Donald Trump presidency (Oct. 12, 2016)

The most controversial magazine covers in the U.S. in 2021

The most controversial U.S. magazine covers of 2021 were criticized for being tasteless or offering dangerous messages, among other things.
What follows are the magazine covers that generated the most news coverage and social media outrage in the past year.

Newsweek magazine was accused of fearmongering with its Nov. 5 issue. It featured a photo of a scared child wearing a face mask with the cover line “Would you give this kid a shot?” The subhead, in smaller black print, said “Health experts strongly back a Covid vaccine for children,” then in red, said “Parents aren’t so sure.” (See article by Mediaite.)

The June cover of Los Angeles magazine was too racy for Gelson’s supermarket in L.A. It covered up the image of Kim Kardashian exposing her bare bottom in a reenactment of an iconic Coppertone ad. (See article by the Hollywood Reporter.)

V magazine came under fire in late October for its cover that featured singer Madonna recreating Marilyn Monroe’s death scene. (See articles by Today, the Sun, TMZ, Uproxx, the Daily Mail and Page Six.)

Critics condemned the December issue of Newsmax for describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as the “master of the world” on its cover. The issue featured a photo of Putin with the cover line “Vlad the Great.” It claimed Putin as the de facto leader of the world now that Donald Trump is no longer in the White House. (See articles by the Washington Post and Newsweek.)

Meanwhile, partisans blasted Time magazine for its over-the-top attempt to make U.S. President Joe Biden look cool. One critic said the June 21 cover was “sycophantic.” (See articles by Fox News, the Daily Mail, and Blaze Media.)

Time magazine also was roasted for its Sept. 27 issue, which featured an awkward cover shot of Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle. The photo seemed to show an emasculated Harry cowering behind his wife. (See articles by Fox News, Page Six, the Sun, Mirror, the Daily Mail and Mandatory.)

In May, N magazine apologized for putting Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on the cover of the glossy Nantucket publication. N magazine had received backlash from readers over the cover story. (See articles by Page Six, Boston.com and Fox Business.)

The cover of February’s Vogue magazine was called disrespectful to Vice President Kamala Harris because she was photographed in casual attire, including Converse sneakers, in front of cheap-looking backdrop. (See articles by the Hill, the Daily Beast, CBS News, the New York Times, Today, Page Six and CNN.)

And finally, W magazine attempted to pull its latest issue before it could hit store shelves. The cover featured rapper Travis Scott and his partner and child but would have hit newsstands after the Astroworld Fest concert tragedy. (See articles by TMZ, Complex and the Daily Mail.)

Bonus cover:

Social media trolled People magazine for its Jan. 10, 2022, issue, which published in late December. The cover story titled “Betty White Turns 100!” hit newsstands three days before her death, which occurred a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday. She was born on Jan. 17, 1922. (See articles by Insider, the Daily Mail, and Meaww.)

Related article:

The most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2021 (Tech-media-tainment; Dec. 19, 2021)