"Fred Astaire's wife sold his rights. Last rites!"
- Gene Shalit, NBC's Today Show, in reference to a commercial for a vacuum cleaner, where Fred Astaire is shown dancing with the product (1/27/97). Shalit went on the refer to this type of advertising, which uses dead movie stars to hype new products, as : advertising necrophilia.
The Other Side:
"There is nothing inherently wrong with advertising. Fred did commercials when he was alive. And Fred should be out there."
- Robyn Astaire, widow of Fred Astaire, on criticism of her decision to allow Dirt Devil to create commercials depicting her late husband dancing with a cordless Broom Vac.
