The romance is over between Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, and also between Chris Klein and Katie Holmes. No long illnesses. Just so sudden, so unexpected, so sad.

We also mourn the actual, mortal death of Chris Curtis, the 63-year-old drummer from the Searchers, one of the Merseybeat bands in the early days of the ’60s British invasion. He died Monday at home in Liverpool. The Searchers were responsible for the hits “Needles and Pins,” “Don’t Throw Your Love Away,” and “Love Potion Number 9” and briefly rivaled the Beatles. Curtis later formed a band that became Deep Purple. No cause of death was announced.

We learned last week that Robert Kearns, the man who invented intermittent wipers around 1967, died at home in Baltimore, at age 77. But we’re pretty sure that King Henry VIII had a couple of intermittent wipers on his household staff at Hampton Court Palace back in the 1500s.