Mon, Oct 01 2007
GOODNIGHT, MONEYPENNY
Miss Moneypenny actor Lois Maxwell exits stage
SYDNEY (AFP) - On screen, Lois Maxwell played the woman James Bond never seduced, Miss Moneypenny. In real life, she was more than his match -- an adventurous traveller, an entertainer, and a flirt to the end.
Her death on Saturday at Fremantle Hospital, in Western Australia, from a combination of lung and vascular disease, followed several weeks of treatment there. She was 80.
The Canadian-born actress, a constant in 14 James Bond movies as the starring role changed hands, took on the Miss Moneypenny role in 1962 alongside Sean Connery in "Dr No."
And she continued to play the secretary to spy chief M, constantly flirting with her 007 agent, until 1985's "A View To A Kill" with Roger Moore.
In a 2005 interview, Maxwell said she insisted when she took on the role that she be allowed to give Moneypenny a "background" and that Bond director Terence Young not "put my hair in a bun and horn-rimmed glasses on me."
The "background" was an unexplained sexual tension between Moneypenny and Bond and the chemistry worked.
"She was my lucky token," Moore told the British broadcaster Sky News after her death.
"(People) who remember the Bond films with Moneypenny will remember her with great affection. She certainly will be missed by me and I'm sure by millions of fans around the world."
Born Lois Ruth Hooker on February 14, 1927 in Ontario, Canada, Maxwell ran away from home at 16 to join the Canadian Army Show.
She ended up in London, where she met Roger Moore at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, beginning what was to be a life-long friendship.
She changed her name in Hollywood, won a Golden Globe award and worked with Ronald Reagan on "Bedtime For Bonzo."
When the first Bond movie came along, Maxwell was an experienced actor in need of an income after her husband, British television executive Peter Marriott, developed a heart problem.
"I had a husband who was desperately ill, with two small children and no money, so I called producers I had worked with before and said 'help me,'" she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2005.
Maxwell's life was as colourful as that of her screen sweetheart -- she gained her pilot's licence, went on safaris, travelled widely and sailed across the South China Sea on an armed boat in case of pirates.
She was in Fremantle, near the Western Australian capital of Perth, to visit her son and his family five years ago when she collapsed while out shopping as a result of a blood clot on her elbow.
Maxwell required emergency surgery to save her arm and was so relieved at waking up from the operation and finding her limb intact, she became a fundraiser for Fremantle Hospital and a strong supporter of vascular surgeon Professor Paul Norman.
"We used to joke that he became her new leading man. She used to flirt shamelessly with him," former hospital worker and friend to the Maxwell family Penny Young told AFP.
Young said despite failing health, Maxwell had rallied in recent days.
"The thing about Lois for the family, she was such a strong fighter and in the past she would never give up," she said.
"She had that that attitude of, 'Damn, my heart will continue beating until I'm ready for it to stop.'"
"She was just adorable, and cheeky and fun."Mon, Oct 01 2007
IRONY, THY NAME IS PEDRO
Vast US military base near border relies on Mexican labor
FORT BLISS, United States (AFP) - This sprawling US Army base located at the edge of El Paso and skirting the border with Mexico is undergoing a major expansion that heavily relies on Mexicans for its construction.
Amid growing controversy in the United States over immigration -- legal and illegal -- the military is using foreign labor to build the base.
The expansion will also mean a population boom and a big infusion of cash for the poor city of El Paso, separated by the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
But who will build the new barracks and offices at Fort Bliss, and the shopping malls and restaurants outside the base?
"All those homes and shopping malls are built by us Mexicans," said bus driver Mario Encinas, a native of Mexico who works at Fort Bliss.
"With real documents or not, we are the ones that do that work here and across the United States," Encinas told AFP, noting that he works on base "with real documents."
Fort Bliss is currently home to the army's Air Defense Artillery School and to several Patriot Missile batteries. But over the next several years most of the missile specialists will move to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Bliss will become home to the First Armored Division, which is relocating from Germany.
The changes will see the population at the 4,500 square kilometer (1.12 million acres) site more than double, from 14,122 to more than 30,000 by 2011.
New barracks, family housing and offices are needed, as are new sites for vehicle and weapons repair and maintenance.
"It's a 2.6 billion dollar expansion project, the largest current expansion of any military outpost in America," said Clark McChesney, director of the Fort Bliss Transformation Office.
The base expansion is also seen as a key for economic development in El Paso, the largest US city on the border with Mexico with a population of one million -- 80 percent Hispanic, overwhelmingly of Mexican origin.
El Paso is also one of the poorest cities in the United States, were the average annual family income is just over 30,000 dollars a year, low by US standards.
"The economic impact for El Paso will be 22 billion dollars, because of the increase of soldiers and the expansion in this base, between 2005-2013," McChesney said.
The city is expecting the Bliss expansion to indirectly create thousands of jobs off-base at shopping malls, restaurants, and myriad retail and service outlets.
El Paso and Ciudad Juarez (population 1.5 million) make a vast megalopolis separated by the Rio Grande river, which marks the border. The cities are linked by five bridges.
"We're located on the US-Mexico border, one of the largest international metro areas in the world," said Bob Cook, president of El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation.
The region "provides a unique laboratory environment for homeland security companies to develop technologies that can enhance homeland or border security," he said.
McChesney insisted that all the Fort Bliss work is being done by qualified laborers with proper paperwork.
But on September 15, the El Paso Times newspaper reported that 12 construction workers were detained at Fort Bliss because they were in the country illegally or had fake work permits. Most of them were employed by subcontractors, officials told the Times.
Some 3,800 Fort Bliss soldiers are currently based in Iraq, including the sister of a downtown El Paso Mexican-American taxi driver.
"This is my sister, fortunately she already returned," said the driver, proudly showing passengers a photo album of the woman in uniform.All news articles and images provided under the Fair Use Notice.