COMING TO AMERICA - ART BUCHWALD DIES

ART BUCHWALD DIES

American satirist ART BUCHWALD has died of renal failure at his home in Washington. He was 81. The writer, who won a $900,000 (GBP461,500) legal battle in 1992 against Paramount Pictures after a judge ruled it had stolen Buchwald's idea for movie COMING TO AMERICA, had his leg amputated last year (06) and was moved to a local hospice where he refused dialysis treatment for his failing kidneys. Buchwald began his career as a Paris-based stringer for Variety magazine, and was once the most syndicated columnist in the world, writing for the New York Herald Tribune and the Los Angeles Times from 1952 until his death. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist posthumously unveiled his own video obituary for friends, family and fans, recorded in July 2006 at his summer home in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The video opens with Buchwald saying, "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died." Buchwald's ashes will be buried beside those of his wife ANN MCGARRY, who died in 1994. He is survived by his three children JOEL, JENNIFER and CONNIE, and five grandchildren.