You mean the Sharon Osbourne obit?? I wonder what the story is behind that?
Looks like a mockup for the inevitable, or she actually did die & they forgot to replace the 'XXX's.
Inner secret of the news biz. If you have a celebrity that may die unexpectedly, most reasonably competent news producers keep an obit ready on file, with only the last-minute bad news details to be filled in. This is especially true in broadcast news, where time is everything; a little less so in print where there is a more orderly (by comparison only!) system of deadlines.
It's not a complete obit, but it is a shell containing facts that no one will have much time to check when the black day comes, and it can be written and edited better when it is written in advance. Obituaries are a good assignment for bringing along a tyro or an intern -- and they are good for keeping an old pro's research and writing chops in tune.
Every once in a while an obit shell leaks out, especially onto the web. Sometimes it's a human error -- sometimes it's a cannabis-steeped webmaster's idea of funny, which is a lot less funny to (1) anybody who isn't stoned and (2) the subject of the obit, regardless of whether he or she is stoned.
Most people find the practice a little creepy, but would be more upset if an obit ran with wrong information (judging from reader complaints, the two parts of the paper that actually get read are the obits and the funnies).
Obituaries exist to note the passing of significant persons (defined a little differently at every paper or station) and to inform people of why that person was significant. For instance (and to restore the thread to track), many people knew of Christopher Reeve in the context of the Superman films but were unaware of his injury. Many of those who knew about his injury didn't know he was stil working up until his death. For instance, having neither a TV nor much of an interest in metal music, I barely knew who Ozzy Osbourne was and cannot recall having ever heard of Sharon, until this flap broke out.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F