He speaks to his grandson in Slovenian and stands beside him at the biggest moments of his life ❤️ Viktor Knavs was born in 1944 in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia.
He worked as a car dealer and chauffeur, while his wife, Amalija, was a pattern maker at a textile factory, and together they raised two daughters, Ines and Melania, in a small town.
Years later, their younger daughter moved to New York, married Donald Trump and welcomed a son, Barron. Viktor and Amalija eventually settled in the United States and became citizens in 2018.
Barron grew up speaking fluent Slovenian with his grandparents, GQ reported, a gift from Melania, who wanted him to stay connected to her roots. That bond has shown up at the family’s biggest moments.
When Barron graduated from Oxbridge Academy in May 2024, Viktor was the only family member there besides his parents, The Palm Beach Post reported.
A few months earlier, the family had faced one of its saddest days. Amalija passed away in January 2024 at 78.
Melania wrote a tribute that was both heartbreaking and loving. “She was entirely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson, and son-in-law,” Melania wrote on X almost three years ago.
At the funeral, Barron stayed close to his grandfather throughout, according to reports. In January 2025, when Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, Viktor stood next to his grandson, who towered over him, even though Viktor is just under six feet tall.
Now 82, Viktor is a regular at the family’s biggest events, from Thanksgiving at the table to Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago, and he’s usually the man standing next to Barron.
A language from a small town in Slovenia, passed from grandfather to grandson, now spoken in some of America's biggest rooms. Some family bonds don’t need translation. ❤️
Val Kilmer wanted the role of Jim Morrison so badly he spent thousands of his own dollars on an eight-minute audition tape. In it, he slipped between the different versions of the Lizard King—young and wild, later and heavier—singing and reading poetry until Oliver Stone had no choice but to pay attention.
He wasn’t even a big Doors fan at first, beyond the radio hits. So he taught himself roughly fifty songs by heart.
Fifteen of them ended up in the movie, and he sang nearly all the vocals himself. When the real band members listened, they sometimes couldn’t tell Kilmer’s voice from Morrison’s.
For nearly a year before cameras rolled, he lived it. He studied every scrap of footage, practiced the stage prowl (even getting tips from Paula Abdul), and absorbed endless stories from producer Paul Rothchild.
He wore the tight leather pants until they were properly gamey. Special contact lenses dilated his pupils so he always looked a little stoned—and made his balance unsteady, which helped the performance along.
Before filming began, more than a hundred people gathered around a campfire on a Malibu beach. They threw herbs into the flames, circled, and retraced Morrison’s steps in a kind of purification ritual.
Kilmer, hair already dyed and permed into the right shaggy shape, walked with them.
On set he rarely dropped character. The schedule was brutal, Stone wanted the mood, and Kilmer had already decided he was mostly playing a poet who happened to be a rock star.
Clothes stayed unwashed. People got called by their character names. When it was over, he needed therapy to climb back out of the role.
Years later, fans still sometimes tattooed Kilmer’s face thinking it was Morrison. He took it as the highest compliment.
The man who once said the leather pants probably killed Morrison had spent a year breathing in them anyway; and made the rest of us believe, for a couple of hours, that the Lizard King had stepped back into the light 🎶🎤🎸
Republicans are chanting a black man’s name because they’re not the party of hating black people.
That’s just a lie the left uses to keep black people voting for Democrats.
Get out and vote!
After Losing His Son and Then His Wife, John Travolta Found a Way Forward Through His Two Children
In 2009, John Travolta’s eldest son, Jett, died at 16 after a seizure. Eleven years later, in 2020, his wife, actress Kelly Preston, died after a private battle with breast cancer.
The losses left him raising their two surviving children, Ella Bleu and Benjamin, while carrying grief that most people never have to face.
Ella Bleu has grown into a young woman pursuing acting and music. She released her debut EP, Colors of Love, which includes the song “Little Bird,” a tribute to her mother. She has also continued building an acting career, including plans to appear with her father in the survival thriller Black Tides.
Watching her follow her own path has given Travolta moments of celebration amid the ongoing absence of both Jett and Kelly.
Benjamin, born in 2010 after Jett’s death, brought a new presence into the household. Now a teenager, he shares his father’s interest in an active outdoor life—parkour, skiing, hiking, and other adventures.
Travolta has shared glimpses of Benjamin’s activities and their time together, describing a bond built around encouragement and shared experiences.
Together, John, Ella, and Benjamin have continued their lives while keeping the memory of Jett and Kelly present.
They mark milestones, support one another’s interests, and treat ordinary days as something worth holding onto.
Travolta’s public career has long centered on entertainment, but the years since 2009 have shown a different kind of continuity: a father who keeps showing up for the children still here, even while the people he lost remain part of the family story. 🙏
Today is another year without my daughter, Brianna Long, and the weight of it still feels impossible.
I struggle to call it an anniversary. It was the day everything broke.
Brianna was murdered by gang members while she was at work in Valdosta, Georgia. We are still waiting for a trial. Still waiting for answers. Still trying to move through a life that no longer makes sense.
I miss her in ways I can’t fully put into words—her voice, her face, the ordinary moments I used to take for granted.
I find myself wondering who she would have become and what we would have shared. Grief has narrowed my world. Most days I work and come home.
The things I used to enjoy no longer feel like mine. Learning to live without her has been the hardest thing I have ever faced.
Please keep our family in your prayers. Pray for strength, for answers, and for justice for Brianna. Nothing will bring her back. We know that.
But she deserves accountability, and we deserve the truth. We will keep holding on to the hope that it comes soon.
Brianna, not a day passes that we don’t miss you. You are loved. You are remembered. Your life mattered, and we will keep speaking your name.
My sweet Bri Bri, I love you more than words can hold. Until we meet again.
Mommy loves you always. 🌹
He dug ditches for a gas company by day and worked nights as a bouncer in Chicago clubs.
Through all of it he kept telling people he was going to become a famous actor. Coworkers turned the dream into a nickname: Hollywood Mike. Michael Clarke Duncan never laughed at it. He chased it.
When he finally moved to Los Angeles, his size helped him find work before the roles arrived.
He became a bodyguard for stars including Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, and LL Cool J. Then came a sharp reminder of how close danger could be.
He was scheduled to work security for The Notorious B.I.G. on the night the rapper was killed in 1997, but he had swapped shifts with another guard.
After that night he left security work behind for good. He wanted to act.
At first Hollywood only saw his size and cast him as guards, fighters, and other intimidating figures. A role in Armageddon changed the trajectory. His co-star Bruce Willis recognized his talent and helped steer him toward the part that defined his career: John Coffey in The Green Mile.
The character rested on the contrast between a giant body and a gentle soul—something Duncan understood. He knew what it was like to be judged before anyone heard his voice.
The performance earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. After that, more of the industry began to see the man rather than just the frame.
He appeared in comedies such as The Whole Nine Yards, action films including The Scorpion King and Daredevil, and voiced Commander Vachir in Kung Fu Panda. Friends remembered his heart most of all. Bruce Willis later called him a great actor, a great human being, and his brother.
Duncan still had other dreams, including starring in a romantic comedy so audiences could see his funny side, but that chance never came.
On July 13, 2012, he suffered a severe heart attack. His fiancée, Omarosa Manigault, performed CPR and called 911. He was rushed into intensive care and remained hospitalized for weeks.
On September 3, 2012, Michael Clarke Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 54. In her grief Omarosa said he was the love of her life.
Tom Hanks later put into words what many who knew him had already recognized: the biggest thing about him was never his physical stature. It was the immense size of his heart.❤️
Before Hollywood, I was living in a van in Hawaii and waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. One day, the incredible Rae Dawn Chong walked into the restaurant, and naturally, I went up to her table and said, “Hey, you’re a movie star! What are you doing here?”
She asked if I could act, and I said, “Fuck yeah, put me in your movie!”
She asked for my phone number. The only problem was I didn’t have one. So I gave her my buddy Mike’s number instead. A couple days later, Mike casually mentions, “Oh, by the way, someone called you.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MIKE?!
I called her back, and sure enough, she was serious. I drove over to pick up the script, went back to Mike’s house, and read all 120 pages three times in a row. First script I’d ever read. My character's name was Devon, and I remember thinking, “Sweet! I could totally play a Devon!”
I showed up to the audition with every line and inflection mapped out in pencil. Rae told me I could act and offered me the part. I asked if we were shooting in Hawaii. Nope. Los Angeles.
I had about $60 to my name, a bag of clothes, and some rollerblades.
Then Rae told me they'd fly me out. And I remember thinking right then and there, my life just changed forever. I'm going to be an actor.
That little movie was Cursed Part 3, a low-budget horror comedy that opened the door to Hollywood for me.
I'll forever be grateful to Rae for taking a chance on a kid working at a shrimp restaurant. Everybody starts somewhere, and this is where it all began for me.
This is what happens when basic competence is treated like a personal attack. Guy tries to save her drinks (and her car) and gets the full meltdown instead of a “thanks.”
Peak main-character energy: screaming and acting psychotic while actively proving why nobody wants to help you.