Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history.
Cookie Monster has been in "cookie rehab" of sorts for about three years now. The View ladies finally caught wind of it and went off on a three minute tear about it using voices that are normally reserved for members of WTO protests or people who are on fire.
How bad did it get? Elisabeth Hasselbeck was the "good cop."
If you tuned in to Today this morning expecting to see Matt Lauer, you were disappointed. But Matt wasn't off on another world wind tour of Asia or South America or the Baja Peninsula.
No, the intrepid NBC host had a serious bike accident which sent him flying over the handlebars. According to co-host Meredith Vieira, Matt was biking at his Long Island home over the weekend when he had a run-in with a deer!
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.
Anyway, Williams was at times a bit too stuffy for the morning gig, but his famous sense of humor showed through a number of times, including the clips after the jump. The first one is a clip reel of some strangely homoerotic interplay between Williams and Lauer, which Al Roker called "a Whitman's Sampler of man candy." The second one is of Lauer, Williams, and Natalie Morales making their Oscar picks.
Something about Today's Ann Curry has always struck me as odd. Don't get me wrong; she seems like a nice woman and a hell of a journalist. But something about the way she answers questions, how she gets chummy and touchy-feely with people she's just met, and how she always chooses to go on needlessly life-threatening assignments makes me think that she's not quite all there.
Her November climb up Mount Kilimanjaro furthered this notion. Yes, it was nice to see how the glaciers on the African mountain were affected by climate change, but couldn't we have seen it using an airplane and a high-powered spy camera? Did Ann and her crew really need to climb the toughest route up the mountain during the most treacherous time of the year to get the story?
File this one under the category of really, wild rumors that should become reality: Desperate Housewives wants Governor Sarah Palin to appear as a guest on the show.
Like I said, this is a rumor that cropped up yesterday, saying that head-writer/creator Marc Cherry was "very hot to trot to have her appear in the season finale." That was followed by an ABC spokesman denying that there's a shred of truth to the story.
Still, what if it's not such a Lucy Ricardo idea? Sarah Palin as a visitor to Wisteria Lane would be terrific -- and probably a boost in the ratings (which are doing great anyway, but still why not do even better?).
Like a large number of Americans, I watched last night's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden with great interest. And, like most Americans, I was interested in the debate for reasons other than finding out about each ticket's policy views. I wanted to see Palin and Biden screw up. Big time.
Unfortunately (heh), both did fine. Palin spoke in complete sentences that more or less made sense, even if they didn't answer any of Gwen Ifill's questions; Biden didn't ramble on or say that FDR was the president during the stock market crash of 1929. But I don't know if you can attribute this debate's gaffelessness on the poise of the candidates alone. The format of the debate was so restrictive, it didn't give either of them time to go off on screwy tangents.
Wouldn't it have been better if both could just sit in a couple of chairs and speak freely? You know, like on a talk show?
This morning, as I watched the Today show, I noticed that they had "team coverage" of the big fire on the Universal Studios back lot. Not only did they have reporter Peter Alexander doing a live remote from the scene, but they decided to send Al Roker, who was in L.A. to tape Celebrity Family Feud, over there, as well. Matt Lauer called the fire "devastating," and Alexander went on to list all the sets that went up in smoke, including the town square from Back to the Future. Oh, and some of the video archives were destroyed, even though there are backups.
All of this was delivered in somber tones, as if this was like those wildfires that have enveloped that part of the country over the last few years. It made you wonder if anyone got hurt. Thankfully, no one did. So why the somber tone? Sure, these sets might have some sentimental value, but they're just fake storefronts. And why have a reporter there if Roker was already available? It makes you scratch your head until you realize that NBC and Universal are corporate siblings.
If you watched the network morning shows this morning, you've seen the shocking sight of the Big Three evening news anchors -- Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson -- appearing on each show ... together! Gasp! How can that happen? Don't the networks have contract clauses and armies of lawyers to prevent these things from happening?
Well, I guess the lawyers tend to stay home when a good cause is involved. The anchors went on the news shows this morning to announce a cross-network telethon called Stand Up for CancerStand Up To Cancer, which will air on NBC, CBS, and ABC on September 5. The one-hour show will have musical performances and testimonials from all three anchors about the need for furthering cancer research (remember Couric's husband and sister both died from various forms of the disease). Money raised by the telethon will go to a number of organizations and research groups.
So, AOL TV did a poll about America's favorite talk show hosts and 1.3 million people made their feelings known. Interesting results. I didn't agree with some of them, like who I like waking up with. Diane Sawyer was the top choice, but I'd go for the second place finisher, Matt Lauer. As for whom to go to bed with -- TV talk show wise, that is -- I can't believe most of the people chose Jay Leno. Is he really that popular? I prefer David Letterman; I'm a sucker for the Top Ten lists.
If that's fat, then I am too, but I don't wear tacky swimsuits...
It seems like karma is hitting models in the derriere. Some have bigger ones than others and like to slap them on their syndicated talk shows. After years of inspiring legions of young women to starve themselves to attain that stick figure physique, why are you fake crying now? Did you think we'd conveniently forget that you've made your career pushing the skinny ideal in your career and on the career of others on America's Next Top Model? If you truly wanted to change the perception of American media, you would have let Toccarra win her cycle. We know that didn't happen.
But please, Ms. Bankable Productions. Spare me your disingenuous tears...
Today show host Matt Lauer and on-again, off-again wife Annette welcomed a son to the world on November 28th. The little tyke's name is Thijs (a common Dutch name which is pronounced "Tice") and he arrived at 9:37 in the morning weighing in at 7lbs. 4oz.
This is the third child for Lauer and his wife, who were married in 1998 and thought to have split up earlier this year (cooler heads prevailed, I guess). They have two other children: five-year-old Jack Matthew and 3-year-old Romy. Here's hoping that this third child isn't brought up in a divided household.
Wow. You know a marriage must have been having serious problems if the couple files for divorce while the wife is pregnant. It happened with Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, and now it's happening with Matt Lauer and his wife Annette.
According to this article, the Today anchor and his wife officially filed for divorce on September 13, but wanted to keep things secret for as long as possible. The pairing has been rocky; the Lauers separated in April, but got back together soon after. Now, with Annette pregnant with the couple's third child, things are kaput. The article states that everything is amicable, which is most definitely not like what happened with Sheen and Richards. Let's just say this: a single Lauer, loose in New York, is going to be a heck of a babe magnet. As long as he uses someone other than Al Roker as his wingman, he should do quite well.
Meredith Viera and the new Today show studio made their debut this morning on NBC. I've been an occasional watcher of the Today show for a bit over ten years now, seeing Bryant leave and Matt taking his spot, so I did want to make the time to catch the show this morning and see another new regular host take her place. This was also the debut of the new Today studio, in HD no less (though, sadly, I don't have HD yet. Boo.)
The studio is quite different looking, and the layout itself seems to have taken a bit of an alteration as well. For one thing, there's an area that I swear looks a lot like The View's seating area, with a semi-circular layout of chairs and couches. I don't watch The View, but I have seem the set before. I really thought, "is that The View studio they're showing?" when the camera panned around to show how things were laid out.
I think I'm living some kind of weird Rip Van Winkle life lately. Suddenly, without warning, there are these bizarre promos running during the breaks on the Today Show showing Matt, Al, Ann and Meredith laughing, goofing and dancing together as if they'd been on the air for ten years with Meredith. Who are they trying to fool? Who are these people? What is going on here?!
Maybe they did an excellent video editing job and stuck Meredith's head on Katie's body, and this is an old goofy video they're using. And even then, when I say the promo's goofy, I mean GOOFY. I'm trying to imagine what the director was saying while trying to get the team to feel all chummy together, as if we're supposed to believe they're really that pally with Meredith: "OK now Al, you do a little hop and shuffle, then eat a beignet. Matt, you stick out your tongue, slap Ann on the ass and dip Meredith. No, on the ass, Matt. Meredith, you flex your biceps while Ann laughs hysterically in the background. No Ann, laugh. Like this 'hahaha.' There you go."
Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history. 
If you tuned in to 
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on 
Something about Today's Ann Curry has always struck me as odd. Don't get me wrong; she seems like a nice woman and a hell of a journalist. But something about 
File this one under the category of really, wild rumors that should become reality: Desperate Housewives wants Governor 
This morning, as I watched the 
If you watched the network morning shows this morning, you've seen the shocking sight of the Big Three evening news anchors -- Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson -- appearing on each show ... together! Gasp! How can that happen? Don't the networks have contract clauses and armies of lawyers to prevent these things from happening?
So, AOL TV did a poll about 
Today show host Matt Lauer and 
Wow. You know a marriage must have been having serious problems if the couple files for divorce while the wife is pregnant. It happened with Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, and now it's happening with Matt Lauer and his wife Annette.
Meredith Viera and the new 
I think I'm living some kind of weird Rip Van Winkle life lately. Suddenly, without warning, there are these bizarre promos running during the breaks on the Today Show showing Matt, Al, Ann and Meredith laughing, goofing and dancing together as if they'd been on the air for ten years with Meredith. Who are they trying to fool? Who are these people? What is going on here?!
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