Can the famous really postpone death?

David P. Phillips has reported evidence that famous people are often able to postpone their deaths until after a birthday. A reexamination of Phillips' data shows some aspects of his analysis to be questionable, including the lumping together of deaths that occur during the birthmonth, which does not distinguish deaths that occurred before the birthday from those that occurred afterward. A reanalysis of his data shows that there were actually a relatively large number of deaths in the month preceding and the months following the birthday. One explanation is that the anxiety associated with this milestone and the excesses associated with its celebration are sometimes fatal. Another explanation is that Phillips' results were a fluke created by a selective use of data.