A website which predicted 17 celebrity deaths over the past year has revealed its morbid predictions for 2018.
The site which is called The DeathList has actually been around since 1987 and guesses which celebrities, world leaders and members of royal families are most likely to die during the year.
Above this year’s list, the site reads:
Below you will find a list of 50 celebrities which our expert committee has selected with the expectation they will die during 2018.
Ok, ‘expert committee’, sure.
The site, which is seriously poor taste, goes on to say:
In 2017, years of promise were realised when the list smashed the previous record, chalking up an astonishing 17 successes.
Does this suggest there will now be some lean years ahead for DeathList? Or has the DeathList forum become such a powerful resource now that we could see the record surpassed again in 2018?
The DeathList has a few rules, which are as follows:
The nominees must be famous enough such that their death is expected to be reported by the UK media.
In 2017, the site predicted the deaths of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, TV legend Bruce Forsyth, actress Liz Dawn (aka Vera Duckworth), murderer Ian Brady, singer Fats Domino and boxer Jake LaMotta among others.
Each year, only ’25 candidates can reappear’ from the previous year’s list.
This year, there are another 50, including:
Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood, Professor Stephen Hawking, footballer Paul Gascoigne, actress and singer Olivia Newton-John, actress June Brown (Dot, from Eastenders), Dick Van Dyke, and Prince Philip.
Looking back at 2016 – the year everybody associates as the one where loads of the great and good died – the site says it predicted 12 correctly.
In 2016, we lost the likes of David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, Victoria Wood, Alan Rickman, Sir Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett, Prince, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Caroline Aherne, Gene Wilder… the list really does go on.
The DeathList predicted the losses of Muhammad Ali, Liz Smith, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Fidel Castro, among others.
The Death List has been slammed by MediaWatch-UK.
A spokesman told Daily Star:
The idea of an annual Deathlist is not only morose and insensitive but I imagine deeply upsetting for the individuals named in it and their families.
Whilst an awareness of our mortality can have the positive effect of helping us to live each day to its fullest, this list seems to delight in making accurate predictions about another human’s demise. In some cases, forum comments openly welcome certain celebrity deaths.
The rule candidates must be famous enough to be reported by UK media is abhorrent when compared with media coverage of deaths which result from everyday tragic circumstances.
Sounds about right.
