Pat O’Brien, 60, who’s spent most of his career covering sports and hosting tabloid TV shows, is suddenly worried about poor people and the unemployed.
“The Insider” correspondent O’Brien - who likes to sign off his e-mails, “There is more to life than increasing its speed” - sent a message to the staffs of “Insider” and “Entertainment Tonight” over the weekend that read:
“Hi, folks, I just spent a couple of days in Iowa - I’m a little bit of a favorite son there - and I spoke with maybe a thousand people and was very hands-on. Even Joe Biden said, ‘You should be running (for president)!’ But what I came away with was, these people can’t afford gas, books, food or schools or movies!
“I was approached a hundred times by people asking, ‘Can you help us?’ I tried to tell them we care, but they didn’t buy it. They wanted to, but watching Anya and Lara [Spencer] pick out accessories makes the viewers want to vomit. I’ll get killed for this, but I’m actually the one not afraid for my job. I want people to be happy.”
The segment on “The Insider” O’Brien referred to is the “Look for Less” feature, in which Spencer and her stylist show viewers how to look like her affordably. “It’s a very popular segment and gets the most hits on the Web site,” a source said, adding:
“He is very jealous of Lara because she is the sole host of the show - she has his old job. It’s amazing the show sent him to interview Joe Biden. It’s just so arrogant and comes from his insecurity and jealousy.”
O’Brien was demoted from hosting “The Insider” after a stint in rehab in 2005 when voice mails surfaced of him drunkenly asking a woman for sex. Of the e-mails, he explained to Page Six, “I’m trying to create a discourse. The American people want honesty. I just raged against the machine. We can change the world.”
The commercial wasn’t exactly for nipples, but Calvin Klein knew that the new ad for his fragrance had to push the envelope. American televisions will not be showing the ad that shows Eva Mendes naked and rolling around on a bed talking about love and madness.
The only thing stopping the ad for Secret Obsession from being aired in the US is a brief glimpse of Mendes’ nipple. The shot is brief and barely noticeable but censors won’t have it. The director for the ad was astonished at the snub.
“You must be kidding me. This country really needs a new president — this country is so messed up,” said Baron. “It’s such a joke and it’s quite upsetting, frankly, how hypocritical this country has become. It’s OK for children to see people killed by guns? Spreading a little love right now would be a good idea.
“She is being a little sexy, but they are not provocative,” added Baron. “They are really well done. The spot is really beautiful — I really can’t believe this is happening.…I don’t know what else to say.”
Eh, what’s a little nipple? I rather my kids see that than “The View.” Besides I think Eva Mendes naked is about as appealing as an ordinary commercial. The ad with the E-trades kid distracts you seconds after seeing her nipple for the 50th time anyway.
Roseanne’s originalBecky Conner, Alicia Goranson, was spotted reading tarot cards at the Gowanus Yacht Club in Brooklyn last Saturday. This is what life has come to!
I don’t know if she’s doing this for money or if it’s a regular thing, but rest assured that people will be camping at the Gowanus Yacht Club, hoping to run into her.
What others said:
TMZ says, “Somewhere on the “Scrubs” set, Sarah Chalke is laughing.”
In a year filled with comebacks, is it time for Rosie O’Donnell to stage her return to TV?
“Multiple sources” have told Entertainment Weekly that the moody media mogul might soon return to television with her own weekly NBC primetime variety show.
The news comes just as the Peacock is said to be courting exiting Tonight Show host Jay Leno for a similar gig.
It’s possible O’Donnell’s series would be a fallback in case Leno defects to ABC after his late-night reign ends next year (as many expect he will).
NBC was unavailable for comment.
I wonder what Elisabeth will think of Rosie’s grand return?
The U.S. government’s campaign against television indecency was dealt a blow on Monday when a court overturned a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp television stations for airing a glimpse of pop singer Janet Jackson’s breast during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the Federal Communications Commission had “arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy” that exempted fleeting broadcast material from actionable indecency violations.
Jackson’s right breast was exposed to almost 90 million TV viewers for a fraction of a second during the live 2004 Super Bowl football halftime show in what fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake later called a “wardrobe malfunction.” Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson’s bustier exposing Jackson’s breast during the show. Despite the brevity, lawmakers and regulators were outraged and vowed a crackdown on broadcast indecency.
The judges rejected the FCC’s argument that the “fleeting” policy had only applied to words, not images. “Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing. But it cannot change a well- established course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure,” Chief Judge Anthony Scirica wrote for the three-judge panel that heard the case.
[...]
The decision got a sharp rebuke from the Parents Television Council, an indecency watchdog group. It said the ruling “borders on judicial stupidity” and urged lawmakers in Congress to pass a bill to strengthen anti-indecency enforcement. “If a striptease during the Super Bowl in front of 90 million people, including millions of children, doesn’t fit the parameters of broadcast indecency, then what does?” the group asked.
But, of course, it wasn’t a “striptease” but rather an instantaneous “Did I just see what I thought I saw?!” moment. And, while I don’t believe for a moment that Jackson and/or Timberlake didn’t plan the incident to generate precisely the buzz they got, it’s simply bizarre to fine CBS for airing something that happened outside their control during a live broadcast.
Steven Taylor, whose post on the subject is entitled “Janet Jackson’s Right Breast Ruled Constitutional,” guesses this will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Too bad we don’t Potter Stewart isn’t around any more.
Brit Hume is going into semi-retirement, Howie Kurtz reports.
Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year’s end. But he won’t disappear entirely.
Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65, will give up his job as Washington managing editor and anchor of “Special Report.” They say he is near a deal to continue with Fox in a senior statesman role, not unlike that of Tom Brokaw at NBC, for roughly 100 days a year.
In his new role, Hume would be a senior political analyst, anchor special events, serve as a panelist on “Fox News Sunday” and occasionally substitute for the host, Chris Wallace.
This was apparently expected. Certainly, the man’s got plenty of money and has earned the right to a lighter schedule.
As I’ve noted many times, I’ve all but stopped watching television news since starting the blog. I always enjoyed Hume, though, as an anchor or as a panelist.
UPDATE: Reactions are starting to pour in.
Matt Sheffield, Newsbusters: “He’ll be missed. Special Report was a rare island of sanity in the chaotic sea of cable news.”
Matt Corley, Think Progress, reports without comment. His commenters stay classy, as always.
David Hauslaib, Jossip: “Perhaps he’ll use the opportunity to make the official transition from hard news anchor to opinionated pundit.”
Rush will be making their first U.S. television appearance in more than thirty years on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.”
The Canadian band Rush, which hasn’t performed on U.S. television in more than three decades, will play their classic “Tom Sawyer” on the Comedy Central show Wednesday (11:30 p.m. EST). The Geddy Lee-led trio, which is currently on tour, hasn’t played on U.S. television since 1975.
Rush is only the latest act to perform on “The Report,” which has steadily edged closer to “Ed Sullivan Show” territory. With increasingly frequent musical performances, “The Report” has grown a variety-show impulse, evident in other upcoming bookings. The rapper Nas will perform on July 23, Toby Keith will return for a second performance on July 28 and Crosby, Stills and Nash will play on July 30.
The Stephen Colbert-hosted comedy show was originally launched as a parody of conservative political punditry — and shows like “The O’Reilly Factor” do not make a habit of hosting music performances. But “The Report” circus has expanded into musical realms, often with its sonorous host joining in. John Legend, Neil Young, R.E.M., Tony Bennett, Peter Frampton, Willie Nelson, Barry Manilow, John Mellencamp, the Roots and Carole King have all performed on the show.
Cool. Here’s a video of Rush playing “Tom Sawyer,” albeit not on “The Colbert Report.”
Pornography is very popular these days with the American working class (Woo! Stimulus checks!).
But that does not make it FCC approved. And it certainly is not an acceptable mixer with children’s rugby in New Zealand. But that’s what parents and fans of the kid’s sport were treated to while watching a live broadcast of “Grassroots Rugby” on the New Zealand television channel Prime.
A spokesman for Prime Television on Monday blamed a mixup in “distribution processes” for the error which inserted the hardcore segment in the regular program “Grassroots Rugby.”
The segment was intended to air on an adult pay-per-view channel.
Yeah, so, um, whoops? On the bright side of things, at least it puts the whole Janet Jackson - Nipplegate thing in perspective. Because, apparently, this was not just a little side boob getting flashed, it was the full hardcore pornography.
The downside is parents are going to complain and steer their kids away from your station. The upshot, though, is that by combining kids’ sports and porn, Prime has corned the market on the coveted “creepjob” demographic.
And now the totally work safe video (sorry…) of the not so thrilled parents being interviewed.
Angelina Joliehas revealed that two of the tattoos she acquired for her latest film Wanted are a homage to Britain’s World War II leader.
The words in gothic script on her upper arms come from a speech Sir Winston made on the day he took office in 1940. In an interview for US television, Jolie said:
“We tried to focus the tattoos on themes related to this sense of justice, ‘We have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat’, I had ‘toil’ and ‘tears’.”
For Jolie, playing a trained killer called Fox in Wanted was a relief from the usual experience of having her extensive body art collection covered up.
“Instead of taking mine away, which we have to do in every film, we ended up leaving mine and adding more,” she said. “I have ’strength of will’ in one language, and we added it in four other languages on my arm. “‘Know Your Rights’ is printed in English on the back of my neck, and again in Latin as well.”
After the birth of her twins, she will have the map co-ordinates of their place of birth tattooed on her arm.
All I can say is Bizarre - yet strangely appealing.
