Show Business Commentary: Heidi Oringer

June 28 -- Walter Matthau is dead, but Luther Vandross is NOT.

We at ABC received several confirmations regarding both before we released a story on either.

The Matthau news was sad and he will be sorely missed by those of us who appreciated his wonderful humor through the years. And I am certain none of us feels this loss quite as much as his pal and co-comedy-conspirator, Jack Lemmon, who must now go on as the shorter half of The Odd Couple or as the solo Grumpy Old Man.

Then there’s the Luther Vandross thing … and I call it a “thing” because it became an entity that took on a life of its own. The week before the 4th, a rumor started churning that Luther was gone, dead, finished, sans oxygen, il mortale, bagged and tagged — you get the point.

Who Started It?

We called several record companies trying to get a “yea” or “nay” on the dead thing and some specifics. Nothing! No one knew for sure. They heard “something,” but they weren’t positive. They heard “nothing,” but while they had us on the phone, they wanted us to tell them where we heard it, who from, when, how he died.

Finally, we were able to contact Luther’s management company and they confirmed that he was very much alive. They also mentioned that his family was none too happy that people made up the story, and, most importantly, that they had just seen him and he looked especially great for being allegedly dead.

But that didn’t stop the rumor mill from cranking&

As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until Luther’s LIVE appearance last weekend at the Essence Music Festival that people finally stopped spreading the tale. (Let’s face it, it’s hard to get people to believe someone’s dead when, at virtually the same time, a stadium full of people are watching the very same dead man, belting out “If Only For One Night,” at peak performance level.)

Luther jokingly addressed the story of his demise during the intro to the tune at which time he said it made him “feel good” to sing the song&”And I sound real good for someone who’s dead.”