... has died. Yes, Martha "Sunny" von Bülow, the American aristocrat who spent the last four presidential administrations in a coma, succumbed. Von Bülow, you might recall, was memorably played to a fare-thee-well by Glenn Close in Barbet Schroeder's 1990 black comedy, "Reversal of Fortune."
Even in hospitalized repose, Close was funny. In her alcoholic stupors, she managed gauze-thin humanity. It was a delicious piece of acting. Close shamelessly overdid everything -- even closing her eyes -- but she seemed to have a modicum of sympathy for this woman. Sunny, after all, was married to Claus von Bülow, the baron who was put on trial for trying to kill her in 1980. The movie was based on Alan Dershowitz's book and focused on the legal dissection of the case. Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for playing Claus. Close, who's only in about a third of the film but serves as its otherwordly narrator, deserved something. Even when she's not on screen, she's in the movie's air.
