Millionaire spends his entire fortune turning slaughterhouse into a dog sanctuary

By
Monica Pop
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The number of millionaires in this world is pretty huge. These people can afford the life they’ve always dreamed of and get to buy luxurious houses, boats, visit places, and a lot more. The good thing is that many of them give a small amount of their fortune to charities and the less fortunate.

Wang Yan is a millionaire from Changchun, China, who made his fortune in the steel industry. And now, he’s using his money to change the lives of thousands of dogs in need of shelter, love, and a fresh start.

It all started when Yan’s beloved dog went missing some years ago. In an attempt to track him down and bring him home, Yan visited every shelter there is. Unfortunately, to no avail.

That is when a friend of his suggested he should check the slaughterhouse where dogs are slaughtered for the meat industry. Yan did exactly that, and although he didn’t find his dog there, he saw something that he could never forget. A huge number of dogs living in terrible conditions waiting to be killed for their meat.

Yan knew he had to do something for those poor souls so he bought the place for $400,000 and turned it into a dog sanctuary. He spends huge amounts of money for food and other supplies, but looking at how happy all the canines are make it all worth it.

“I don’t accept monetary donations, I only hope that kind-hearted people will be able to donate a few supplies to help,” Yan told Metro.

Since 2015, Yan welcomed 2000 more dogs in his sanctuary and helped over 200 find their forever home.

What this man did and is still doing is worth all the praise he’s getting from animal lovers not only from China but all over the world. Thank you for your dedication, Yan, you are a hero.

Our favorite TV presenter Kathie Lee Gifford is dating again and looks stunning without makeup

By
Monica Pop
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68-year-old Kathie Lee Gifford is best known as the host of the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee and the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show she ran for 11 years along Hoda Kotb. This incredibly beautiful woman is no longer part of these shows but has a full plate doing other things she loves and make her happy like writing and acting.

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Five years ago, Gifford’s husband of 29-years, Frank Gifford, passed away and she was truly heartbroken.

In the meantime, she wrote the script for the movie Then Came You, released October 2nd, which is about a widow who is trying to move on and create new memories. During an interview with Daily Pop Gifford spoke of the rumors that she wrote that movie in a single night, which more or less turned to be true and said how the film isn’t an autobiography and doesn’t depict her life but is a nice reminder for those who lost their partners that they should continue living their life.

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Last year, Gifford experienced another loss when her very close friend and longtime on-air partner Regis Philbin passed away.

She took to Instagram to honor her colleague and wrote, “There are no words to fully express the love I have for my precious friend, Regis. I simply adored him and every day with him was a gift,” she wrote. “We spent 15 years together bantering and bickering and laughing ourselves silly—a tradition and a friendship we shared up to this very day. There has never been anyone like him. And there never will be.”

In an interview with Today, Gifford said how she and Regis “never had one cross word,” and added, “We had the same sense of humor, and we just took off like a rocket … we just wanted to sit there and have fun together.”

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However, some great things happened in her life as well. After she left the show a few months ago, one of our favorite TV presenters moved to Nashville. Her two kids, whom she had with husband Frank, got married. Her son Cody, 30, married his girlfriend of seven years, Erica, and daughter Cassidy, 27, married her high-school sweetheart Ben.

Their father wasn’t there to see his children creating their own families, but as Gifford said, his spirit could be felt.

In November of last year, Gifford said how she was on a few dates. She was out with friends when someone caught her attention. “I went to hear them, and this sweet guy asked me to dance, and so I said, ‘OK.’ And then he just disappeared into the crowd,” Kathie Lee Gifford recalled. “And then, you know, a couple weeks later, same band — Tim Akers & the Smoking Section — so we danced again. And then we just went out a couple times. It was fun because I hadn’t been on a date in 33 years.”

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Back then, she said she was open to falling in love again. “There’s nothing to talk about,” Gifford said in an interview with USA Today. “If there was, I’d shout from the rooftop like Maria in ‘West Side Story.’ I’d be open to falling in love again. I’d love to. But it hasn’t happened.”

Today, however, she is in a relationship with Randy Cronk, whom she describes as being very “nice, and fun, and healthy.”

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“I’ve just found somebody that is so much fun to be with,” Kathie Lee Gifford said on Today Show. “He is the smartest person I’ve ever met, and he is funny too.”

As per The Daily Mail, Randy Cronk – originally from Cincinnati, Ohio – is working as an insurance agent. He’s the President and insurance broker at RMC Insurance Group LLC and resides in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

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Recently, a photo of Gifford without any make-up on emerged online and everyone agreed that she looks stunningly beautiful. She is definitely aging with grace, and we are so very happy for her.

Chris O’Donnell from NCIS LA: Career, net worth, family, children

By
Monica Pop
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Most celebrities star small before they become household names adored by millions. Charming Chris O’Donnell is not an exception.

The now 51-year-old actor has always been aware of his good looks so he dreamed of becoming a model during his young years. He tried finding an agent who would represent him, but that didn’t go smoothly until one of his sisters introduced him to an agent she met at a wedding.

After doing some modeling, the Illinois native starred in his first meaningful commercial which made it easier for him to turn to acting. It was a McDonald’s commercial in which he wore a polyester outfit and served Michael Jordan breakfast.

“It was a crazy day because it rained 10 inches that day, so Jordan was six hours late for the shoot. So I was waiting around for six hours in a McDonald’s for Jordan to arrive, and then he came, and it was awesome,” O’Donnell revealed in an interview with NBC.

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Before devoting his time to building a career in the film industry, O’Donnell graduated from the Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1988, and later majored in marketing at Boston College.

While at college, he had already stared in some movies but never shared that with his college friends and roommates. However, they learned their friend was a star in the making when Barbra Streisand left a message for him.

As it turned out, O’Donnell was supposed to star in Prince of Tides, but Streisand never called him back.

“It was sophomore year, and I was living with some random people I didn’t know very well, and I hadn’t told anyone I had been making films because I wanted to know everybody without being the guy who made the films,” O’Donnell recalled on Watch What Happens Live.

“So I’m at the library, and I come home, and my roommate goes, ‘Oh hey, D, uh, Barbra Streisand called you,’” O’Donnell added. “I go, ‘Okay man, thanks.’ He goes, ‘What’s up with that?’ And I go, ‘What’d they say?’ ‘She’s calling back tomorrow at 1 o’clock.’ And so the entire hall was waiting to answer the phone.”

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It was in 1992, when young O’Donnell had his breakthrough with the film Scent of a Woman in which he starred alongside one of the biggest names in the industry, Al Pacino.

The film brought Pacino an Oscar while O’Donnell won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

Needless to say, all eyes were on the young actor who enchanted many with his raw talent. It was very obvious that O’Donnell would become a huge name in the business, and so it was.

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Speaking of the unique experience of sharing the set with Al Pacino, O’Donnell once shared, “It doesn’t get much better than Al. He’s one of the greats of his generation, maybe of all time. To have spent five or six months one on one for the majority of those scenes was incredible.

“And I would, I would just listen. He’s just a creative genius. He could do 15 takes of one scene. Every take was completely different. And at the end of those 15 takes, he knew which ones he liked, specifically.”

The two became close friends and Pacino even gave his young colleague some valuable pieces of advice.

“It was just the most nerve-wracking experience of my life, and being that nervous around Al Pacino for the majority of the film as well,” O’Donnell shared with Big Morning Buzz Live.

“I knew at the time I was doing it that this is going to be the greatest single-acting experience of my life that I’ll ever have.”

“He always told me don’t ever marry an actress,” he recalled. “He said you’ll always be second in their life.”

Well, it looks like O’Donnell listened. In 1997 he married his wife Carolina Fentress with whom he has five children.

The NCIS Los Angeles star is the youngest of seven siblings. His family was Catholic and humble, a trait O’Donnell would keep close to himself his entire life. In fact, it’s his devotion to his wife and children that caught the eye of many magazines back in the day, but instead of praising him for his values, he was dubbed “The Last Boy Scout,” “Mr. Squeaky Clean,” and “The Safe-Sex Symbol of the ’90s.” It went to the extent that the Chicago Tribune claimed that the Batman & Robin star suffered from “some of the worst press in the history of celebrity journalism.”

“They take it as a challenge to unearth some dark secret about me,” O’Donnell said. “It frustrates them that I have this clean-cut image. It’s not normal for an actor to be like this, I guess. But I’m not trying to create an image. I’m just being myself.”

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Speaking of how great of a colleague and a person O’Donnell is, Producer Frank Price told Los Angeles Times in 1995:

“He was just wonderful in a situation that could’ve turned out quite differently.

“Here’s this young actor, a budding American star, who comes into a picture that is cast totally with Europeans. Clearly, he’s getting paid more; he’s the star. That can create resentment. What was terrific about it was how unassuming he is and was, how friendly. He wasn’t doing the star thing. Everyone liked him. He’s thoughtful, considerate, just a very decent guy.”

“He was able to do this in a way that you still cared very much for him,” Price added. “It’s impressive to find a guy with that kind of good grounding and instincts.”

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O’Donnell, who has a net worth of $25 million, has starred in whooping 287 episodes of NCIS Los Angeles, and he loves it.

“It’s been amazing,” he shared with ET Online. “It seems like it’s gone by very fast, but I know when I look at my kids how young they were when we started. I still had kids in diapers, and they’re all, you know — some of them are adults now.

“It’s been amazing, but I think that from an acting standpoint, it’s been fantastic because of the development of these characters and the richness to the storylines. You know, it does raise the stakes, and it does lead to more emotion and that sort of thing.

“But purely from a personal life, it’s been unbelievable,” he added. “As an actor, you know… you’re a gypsy. You’re moving around, and you’re living in different parts of the world, and you’re looking for your next job. To have a steady bit of work here while my kids are in their formative years, it’s been a great gift.

“I know I’m very grateful, and I think most of our cast has been as well to have, you know, to park ourselves here for a while and work on this amazing show.”

Confident, devoted, and very much grounded, Chris O’Donnell truly is one hell of an actor and a person.

19-year-old figure skater performs Irish Riverdance routine on ice and has entire stadium on their feet

By
Monica Pop
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I am sure there is no person who hasn’t heard of the Irish phenomenon, Riverdance. It’s a mesmerizing theatrical show of traditional Irish music and dance that never fails to take our breath away. The unique music and the ear catching rhythm make it so appealing that it is seen by millions of people worldwide and is considered one of the most successful dance productions in the world. The dancers’ moves are almost impossible to recreate because they are quick and precise and give the feeling as though they are floating, not dancing. The choreography is complex, but they do it with ease, and it’s a pleasure to watch. Now, can you imagine performing this dancing routines on ice? If you think it would be impossible, you are wrong. The U.S national champion figure skater Jason Brown and his coach decided for Jason to skate to “Reel Around The Sun” from the Riverdance show and the decision turned to be one of the best they’ve ever made. The result is incredible. Once the music could be heard, Jason starts skating and leaping, and everyone is stunned by his elegance while moving. The entire performance is elevated to a whole new level and we are glad we had the chance to see something so unique. At the end of the performance, Jason receives a standing ovation by the cheering crowd. The act has been seen by nearly 20 million people. Now it’s your turn to watch it and enjoy!

Rajee Narinesingh had her face pumped with cement and superglue– this is her today

By
Monica Pop
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Rajee Narinesingh, one of the best known transgender women in America, has gone through so much in her life. Born in 1967, before the Internet became huge part of our lives, she couldn’t understand why she felt like a woman, and she certainly couldn’t Google it and learn more as people do today.

One thing was certain, she felt like she was trapped in a wrong body.

As years passed by, Rajee started going out and met transgender women at different clubs and that’s when she knew she was one of them.

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She was eager to change the way she looked, but as all those surgeries and fillers cost a fortune, she decided to turn to the black market.

“The last thing I wanted was to look like a man in a dress. I wanted to be a beautiful woman,” Rajee told Daily Mail of her initial steps to transition.

“So I made the choice to get injections done – in our community, it is called pumping.”

Unfortunately, she met a fake doctor who destroyed the lives of many over the years, notorious Oneal Ron Morris, or better known as “toxic tush doctor,” as the media labeled her.

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Rajee received ten injections from 2007 to 2010. Each of the sessions cost her $100, which was way too cheaper compared to what legal clinics offered. Rajee was perfectly aware Morris’ injections weren’t legal, but she though she could get the look she dreamed of for little money, not knowing that her life would turn into a living hell.

“When it finally came to the day, I was more excited than nervous because I was finally going to be the woman I had always wanted to be. There was a room that she had set up where she did a lot of medical procedures. It appeared to be pretty sterile,” Rajee explained of the first time she met Morris.

“It was like an extra bedroom that she had turned into a clinical area, and I would go in and pay the money. I got injections in my face and my hips, and my buttocks, and initially, I was fine. But then the nightmare started.”

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Rajee’s body got deformed at the parts she got injections at. Large lumps formed under her cheeks, lips, and chin. She knew something was very wrong, but she was ashamed and afraid to leave her home, let alone alert the authorities of Morris’ illegal “clinic.”

“I felt like a monster, I really did,” she told Barcroft Media, as quoted by the NY Post. “A sideshow circus clown.”

Eventually, in 2012, Rajee gathered strength to ask for help. She started visiting Dr. John Martin of Coral Gables Cosmetic Reconstructive Surgery who gave her softening injections and laser therapy to soften the huge lumps.

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Luckily, those treatments helped her regain her self-confidence. She started going out more and she even started dating.

“Now I’m feeling more confident, and with a good bit of makeup, I can achieve somewhat of an exotic look,” she told Daily Mail back then. “Recently, this guy said that being with me is like being with a sexy dragon. I didn’t know whether to slap him or kiss him.”

In 2016, Rajee received even more help when she was chosen to be part of the E! show Botched. Rajee applied the year before as well, but doctors weren’t sure how to help her. The following year, however, they believed they found a way to smooth her looks further.

“I have to make sure my plan is a conservative one, it’s a smart one, and it doesn’t take any undo careless risks with Rajee’s face,” Dr. Dubrow said on the show Botched.

Over the course of seven weeks, Rajee underwent four surgeries. Luckily, her face started looking better and better.

“My confidence has definitely improved,” she told Barcroft. “It has changed my life. It really has. I know I’m a big personality, so I’m always going to get stares, but now the stares are a little different.”

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Rajee wasn’t the only victim of the self proclaimed doctor Morris. One person died due to the injections which consisted of cement, superglue, and tire sealant, the same ones Rajee received. The victims sued Morris and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In 2021, Morris sent a letter to Rajee, asking for forgiveness. Rajee decided that accepting the apology would give her some sort of closure too. She shared the response to Morris’ letter on the social media. “What I have become more aware of as I have lived my life is that if we can get stronger from the hardships we go through and learn from the mistakes we make, then they become blessings. I feel the sincerity of your spirit, Sis, and I want you to know that I wish the very best for you,” Rajee wrote.

Today, Rajee is a wide known community activist and works with the LGBTQ community, as well as several other organizations. “I call myself a world activist or a community activist. You know, because of my advocacy for the black-market injections took me global! No, it literally did! And now I hear from people in Uganda and Australia, honey. It’s crazy! I mean, Pakistan! Wow, it’s amazing,” Rajee told The Body.

“So that’s one of the blessings. I consider the whole situation with my black-market injections and all the suffering I went through — I consider that a blessing, because it gave me a bigger platform to do my advocacy and my activism,” she added.

“You know, even before all the corrective surgery,” she added, “I thought, ‘Hey, this happened to me, and if I can share my story, educate people, and prevent this from happening to someone else, then I’ve made lemon meringue pie out of lemons.’”

One thing is certain, after everything she endured, Rajee looks awesome and is happy with her appearance.

Diver was swimming in Hawaii when a dolphin swam up to him begging for help

By
Monica Pop
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I wonder whether humans would ever become conscious of all the damage they cause to the wildlife and the creatures living in the seas and the oceans with their careless behavior.

A bottlenose dolphin found itself wrapped around a fishing line and a hook stuck into his body. Having no chance of getting out of the situation that was causing it so much pain, the creature turned to a diver for help. When Keller Laros went diving at Gadren Eel Cove in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii that January night, little did he know he would become a hero in the eyes of this dolphin who had hard time swimming.

Luckily, Laros was well-equipped and signaled the dolphin to come closer. The rescue was caught on tape thanks to another diver named Martina Wing.

This is really something worth watching. Take a look at the special moment in the video below.

Baby girl with rare condition gets heart transplant after 218 days of hospital stay

By
Monica Pop
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Little Elodie Carmen Baker, who waited a heart transplant for 218 days, finally received one.

According to her parents, the pregnancy was a normal one and nothing indicated the baby would be born with a severe heart condition. What’s most, doctors didn’t diagnose Elodie with dilated cardiomyopathy until she was seven weeks old and stopped feeding.

“Our pregnancy was normal and we had an uncomplicated delivery and actually went home with Elodie,” the baby girl’s mom, Kate Baker, told Good Morning America.

“So she was with us in Minnesota at home for seven weeks and one night, she wouldn’t feed. I was nursing and she let out this cry and my heart just sank and I said to (my husband) Collin, ‘Something’s wrong. We need to take her in.’”

Once at the hospital, they said nothing was wrong, and just as they were getting ready to send the girl and her parents home, they decided to run some extra tests, including an X-ray.

“Then the X-ray came back. They saw her heart was enlarged and that was on Aug. 21. And we haven’t been home since.”

Elodie’s condition, dilated cardiomyopathy, causes children and adult sufferers to have an enlarged heart chamber, which has the potential to leave the muscle unable to pump the necessary blood through the body, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“In Elodie’s case, the genetic test did not reveal an answer for why she developed this kind of cardiomyopathy and in that situation, it’s called idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, meaning at this point in time, we don’t really know why this happened to her,” Dr. Anna Joong, who has been caring for Elodie for the last few months, told Good Morning America.

Around two months after the diagnosis, Elodie was sent to the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Illinois where she was placed a pediatric ventricular assist device (VAD) through surgery.

“Her heart was so sick, that the IV medicines just weren’t enough and she needed a VAD,” Dr. Joong said.

“We use this device as a way to bridge her to transplant so it’s a way to support her heart, to help get her stronger in the time that she’s waiting for her donor heart.”

Luckily, after that many days spent at the hospital, Elodie received her new heart on March 27. The transplant was a huge success and Elodie is doing great. She still needs a feeding tube, but over time, as she gets even stronger, she is expected to start eating on her own.

“The breathing tube was able to come out within hours of coming out of the operating room. Her new heart works beautifully and is really strong,” Nora Hammond, a nurse practitioner at Lurie’s, explained to Good Morning America.

“She is getting routine immunosuppression medications to prevent rejection. She has already been transferred out of ICU level care and is sitting up. She is one strong kid and we are so grateful to the donor family.”

Congratulations, sweet Elodie. You are such a fighter.

Gilbert Gottfried, ‘Aladdin’ star and stand-up comic with signature voice, dies at 67

By
Monica Pop
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We have received the news of the passing of one of the greatest comedians of our time with great sadness. After a long illness, the person who made millions laugh with his boundary-pushing, frequently crude stand-up routines, Gilbert Gottfried, passed away at 67.

“In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor,” his family posted on the social media.

Condolences came pouring in from friends, family members, and fellow comedians.

“Gilbert Gottfried made me laugh at times when laughter did not come easily. What a gift,” Seinfeld star Jason Alexander wrote. “I did not know him well but I loved what he shared with me. My best wishes and sympathy to his family.”

“Gilbert Gottfried was never not funny,” wrote stand-up comic Dane Cook. “He was a lovely guy, always friendly & made many people happy.”

Jon Stewart wrote a tribute, recalling the “great thrill” of opening for Gottfried. “He could leave you gasping for breath…just indescribably unusually hilarious,” Stewart wrote.

“He could put you into convulsive hysterics,” wrote Judd Apatow. “He was also the sweetest man.”

As reported by NBC News, Gottfried’s close friend Glenn Schwartz, said that the comedian died of Recurrent Ventricular Tachycardia due to Myotonic Dystrophy type II.

Despite his health condition, Gottfried didn’t stop working until the last weeks of his life.

During his career which spanned 50 years, Gottfried made a name for himself as one of the best in the field. Among the rest, he landed his aggressive voice to Jafar’s talking parrot in Alladin. A role he reprised in two sequels.

Further, Gottfried worked on various other Disney productions, including The Fairly Odd Parents, Superman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – JULY 26: Gilbert Gottfried performs at The Stress Factory Comedy Club on July 26, 2018 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

This great man was never afraid to tackle topics many others were afraid to speak on. After the 9/11 attack, he made jokes of the event but many believed he did that way too soon. As a result, he said he lost a huge audience. “I lost an audience bigger than anybody has ever lost an audience. People were booing and hissing,” he recalled to Vulture. He, however, managed to win that audience back with a crude “Aristocrats” routine.

He spent many years being the voice of the “Aflac duck,” but he was fired after making a joke about the tsunami which hit Japan in 2011.

His jokes knew no boundaries.

“Maybe I’m self-destructive, maybe I’m just plain stupid,” he told Vulture. “But if someone tells me don’t do something, then I want to do it. I’ve always said tragedy and comedy are roommates. Wherever tragedy’s around, comedy’s a few feet behind them sticking his tongue out and making obscene gestures.”

Since 2014, he was running his Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast. Over the years, he made numerous appearances in a number of shows such as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Saturday Night Live, and Hollywood Squares, among the rest.

After Bob Saget passing, Gottfried posted a photo of him, Bob, and Louie Anderson, writing it was sad now and how much he missed his friends.

Looking at this photo now that Gottfried is no longer around us makes it even sadder.

2022 is a sad, sad year for the comedy world. Rest in peace, Gilbert Gottfried, your jokes will live forever.

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