Infomercial Pitchman Billy Mays Dead at Age 50

Billy Mays, the bearded commercial pitchman known for promoting OxiClean and other products, died this morning at age 50 in his home in Tampa, Florida Sunday morning. No cause of death has been identified. His wife found him unresponsive this morning.

The death of Billy Mays was mentioned this morning in several posts by his son, Billy Mays III, on his Twitter account, http://twitter.com/YoungBillyMays.

A post from Mays III made at about 11 a.m. EST reads, "My dad didn't wake up this morning. I'm sure you'll all hear about it. It hasn't yet hit me but it's about to." About a half hour later he posted, "On my way to the house. He's gone. I'm gonna be strong for him. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers everyone."

Billy Mays was known for his beard and his loud voice, and he found success doing commercial pitches for OxiClean and Orange Glo, as well as other household and cleaning products.

Recently Mays also done a series of commercials for ESPN in which he poked fun at his own image.

Billy Mays was a passenger on board a U.S. Airways jet that made a safe landing at Tampa International Airport yesterday after suffering a blowout of one of its front tires. It's not known if his death is in any way related to that incident.

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford Admits Affair in Argentina; Not On Appalachian Trail or Watching "Jon & Kate"

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford held a press conference today to explain his recent mysterious performance, and dropped a bombshell: He was not hiking on the Appalachian Trail, as he told his staff, but was having a tryst with a woman in Argentina!

Nobody would have guess this. When it turned out he had disappeared for this last weekend, he told his staff that he was out hiking on the famous 2,000-mile-plus trail... which would have been interesting, since this weekend included Naked Hiking Day or some other such occasion.

My own theory was that Mark Sanford was holed up in a cabin in the woods somewhere by himself, watching DVDs of past seasons of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" in preparation for Monday night's big season-ending finale. Which would have made for an interesting coincidence, since the Jon and Kate finale was hyped up for its inclusion of a Big Announcement... that the couple was splitting up. That would have been a case of life imitating art imitating life... or something like that.

Mark Sanford and his wife, Jenny, have not split up (although Jenny said in her own statement that she'd kicked him out of the house two weeks ago). But Mark and Jenny Sanford do have four children, which is exactly half as many as Jon and Kate.

Hmmm... I have a feeling we haven't seen the end of the Mark and Jenny reality show drama. In fact, today's Big Announcement by governor Mark may be just the beginning. Good news for Jon and Kate fans going through withdrawal! In fact, maybe the Sanfords can try to patch up their marriage by buying some of those Kids Crooked Houses, just like Jon and Kate!