Where are you monday night at 9 eastern? In front of your TV, I hope
Pee-wee Herman and Anderson Cooper, Monday on AC360. They'll be discussing Arizona governor Jan Brewer's defunding of the state's transplant program and ... oh, sorry there's been a change, they'll talk about his return to the stage and the filming of that show for HBO.
They kind of have the same smile, don't they?
These former members, many of whom dedicated their lives to Scientology, allege that the leader of the church, David Miscavige, has used physical violence against a number of Sea Organization members. The church adamantly denies these allegations, and back up their denials with numerous affidavits and testimonials defending Mr. Miscavige and attacking those who are speaking out.
(...)
For the record, I just want to point out that this series is not about the beliefs or activities of the Church of Scientology. It is not about the religion or the vast majority of Scientologists. This series simply has to do with what some former high ranking church officials say went on within the upper management of the church, and what happened to them when they left the church.
So that's the focus of the piece, but of course nothing happens in a vacuum. No one is beating the crap out of Scientologists just for kicks and giggles ... so what IS behind the abuse?
The first thing I think of, as it IS a cult (a religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader) is that they're pummeling people into submission, breaking down their value systems and rebuilding in a specific manner that reinforces Chuch teaching.
And that would more than touch on the believe and/or activities of the members of the Church.
So, why exactly is Cooper hedging? I dunno, but I will check out his reporting on this. I don't think anything he could say would be more of a hit to the Church than Kirstie Alley's A&E reality show is. I mean, she's certainly not a poster child for the good things that can happen to you if you believe.
From the press release:
In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, MTV Networks is presenting "Hope for Haiti," a global telethon to air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and 7:00 p.m. CT. “Hope for Haiti ” will also be made available to MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels worldwide.
Leading the charge for “Hope for Haiti ” will be George Clooney in Los Angeles , Wyclef Jean in New York City and CNN’s Anderson Cooper from Haiti . The two-hour telethon will be broadcast from New York City and Los Angeles , and will feature musical performances and celebrity appearances to be announced prior to the event, as well as live news reports from CNN. "Hope for Haiti " will be produced by Joel Gallen, Tenth Planet Productions, in collaboration with MTV Networks and George Clooney.All proceeds will be split evenly among five relief organizations currently operating in Haiti : Oxfam America , Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF and Yele Haiti Foundation (www.yele.org -- text to give at 501501). Facebook and MySpace have also signed on as official social media partners to help drive donations and tune-in to the telethon.
Of course, you can also click the link at the top of my second column to donate to Oxfam America's site directly.
Really? The guy who wrote Milk is now our political spokesperson? We have no one more heavyweight than that?
At least have David Mixner or John Aravosis or even someone that a lot of straight people know, but to have the Oscar-winning writer that's just been pictured on a popular celebrity blog (you know which one) having unsafe sex? (LINK)
That guy? Speaking for me and mine? Doesn't he have other things to do? Like buy condoms?
It's not that I don't like him ... hell, I don't know him. I just think we as a political force and a voting bloc need to come up with more and better spokespeople.
Why not just have Melissa Etheridge come back, she was on the show last week talking about how weed helped her get through chemo. Not that I watched all of it.
I allot 90 minutes a day for the consumption of TV news, and that's usually the half-hour BBC broadcast in the morning and then Maddow at 6 pacific. I don't have time for Anderson Cooper. If I had more time for TV news I would add Olbermann, not Cooper.
Anderson Cooper knows who the serious people in this debate are. Why isn't he calling them?
So as you might know I've joined and unjoined Twatter.
I think it's stupid. Not judging you, I just don't see a need for it. 140 characters? Please. I use more than that to say hi, and people love it.
Or I'm too large for them to tell me the truth, choose one.
Anyway, yesterday I went to delete the account and it told me I couldn't, which as funny as it was really pissed me off, so I made a point today of getting there and getting is done.
While I'm there my eyes drops down the screen to Anderson Cooper's account, and I read this: "Abducted in Mexico." And a link follows.
He wasn't abducted in Mexico, he was promoting a clip on the AC360 blog where Randi Kaye interviewed two people abducted in Mexico.
What a twit.
Won't have to read shit like that anymore, I'm left Twatter.
They can all twat without me.
I just got such a kick outta this idea that eventually, after time has passed, I'm gonna steal this idea from them.
Gizmodo (part of the Denton empire) is having a Photoshop contest where they ask you to 'Shop Woz into all your favorite TV shows.
Look, I placed him in an episode of My Life on the D List.
(Yeah, I know, that was lazy, he really was on Kathy Griffin's show.)
But there is a lot, A LOT, of scripted fare that Woz might be ripe for ... a trip with the Oceanic Six or Seven or Whatev? On Wisteria Lane next to a yet-again naked Teri Hatcher.
Or, he could hang with Walter in the lab on Fringe. (Man I miss Fringe, I'm just so sick of these breaks in the season).
I think Kathy is destined to spend many more New Years Eves with Andy Cooper.
And me? I have a great dog.
What kills me about this piece isn't so much the reporting, it's the comments under the clip at CBSNews.com.
These people don't really give a damn about the drug war, these commenters, and they certainly don't see that a failed state next door will be a huge problem for all of us, all they care about is (and I paraphrase) ...
My opinion? Special interests all around this problem will get in the middle of any attempts to fix it. Everyone will see an "opportunity" here for themselves and their agenda and no one will do anything to stop all this violence.
It makes me think a lot about the fact that I live only 100 miles from Tijuana.
So, you Spring Breakers, you steroid buyers and you 18-and-over drinking border hoppers, don't go to Mexico ignorant. I wouldn't go at all right now myself, but at least know something before you go.
Read this from MSNBC and then read the advisory from the State Dept. at this link.
The 60 Minutes segment is after the jump.
Yesterday's Mexico Drug War story from Current TV at this link.
And, lucky you, for the rest of the week I'll have a new one each day.
Man, all this stuntcasting on The Daily Show it feels like an episode of Will & Grace. Still, I'm glad it's back. 'Cause if it's not there I end up watching local news which is just the most sensationalist crap you've ever seen.
Last night in the single strangest segment I've ever seen a news celebrity take part in on this show, Anderson Cooper hosts the Obama New Dog Debate.
It's right here, click the screen below.
And tonight, the newly-coiffed Rachel Maddow sits with John, and he'll actually talk to her as opposed to making Cooper do comedy. Comedy that you might have seen in a Bonnie Hunt - Charles Grodin movie from the 1990s.
Between this and the Kathy Griffin thing, Anderson really chalking up the gravitas points, huh?
Note to Comedy Central, ever since you changed the coding on your embeds, they don't center on the page anymore. I liked it the other way.
I know, because I saw it.
Homer woke me up at midnight when the neighbors started beating on pots and pans.
Hey, at least they weren't shooting guns straight up into the air.
At about 9:50 pm pacific time, while CNN was on their way to a commercial break, Kathy yelled to someone off camera, "I don't come to your job and knock the dicks outta your mouth."
Genius!
Problem is, though the second part of that sentence wasn't said on camera, it was heard.
There was a lot of other stuff, too. At 12:30 they cut to a remote of Li'l Wayne live in concert in Atlanta and it's the part of the show (well, it might be the whole show, I dunno) with girls on the pole and on all fours tilting their pelvises in very interesting ways while making sex faces.
Then Li'l Wayne gets the cue that he's live on CNN and he shouts out to Anderson Cooper and ...
... Kathy Griffin Lee.
Kathy Griffin Lee, as in Kathie Lee and Kathy Griffin merged by some strange and wondrous stem-cell procedure.
They cut away very very quickly from that and then to the Hinder concert in Duluth, GA, and right before they cut away from that, it sounded like the lead singer was gonna drop an F-bomb.
So, CNN was a pretty freewheeling place to be working last night.
Clip after the jump.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that if you're watching this 60 Minutes segment with the Olympic gold medal winner for the shirtless in-pool appearance from the the hottest, fiercest newscrush in all of TV newsdom, you should probably wait for the sextape.
No, I don't know that there's a sextape. I'm pretty sure that a journalist would think twice. At least I think he would.
Here's the clip.
And btw and not for nothing, but I prefer T.J. Holmes.
UPDATE: I thought I'd add this on a second read ... though I prefer T.J. Holmes, it should be noted that I most often prefer what I can't have. Weird, huh, a man being self-defeating in the romance area. And it is my understanding that T.J. Holmes is indeed IIW (interested in women).
And that's great. However ...
I am writing this directly to Sydelle Kramer, Silver's agent at the Susan Rabiner Agency.
Dear Sydelle,
First, love your name. One of my childhood friends had a mother named Sydelle (Hi, Ruth).
When your client Nate Silver goes out to the next round of TV interviews to promote anything, you must send someone with him, if only to dissuade him from wearing the glasses with the tinted lenses that do nothing more than accentuate the bags under his eyes.
Other items to consider:
a) Put a comb through his hair.
b) Posture, posture, posture!
c) Chin up (part of posture, but more than the spine. Dude was one of the stars of the 2008 Presidential Election that had BIG STARS! He should look like it)!
d) He looks better in a dark jacket. A light jacket, actually even medium gray, washes him out.
e) Has he thought about contact lenses?
f) A little voice training goes a long way.
I only mention these things because I wanna help. Personally I am even less TV ready, which is why I'm not on it, I just watch it.
If Nate's gonna be the face of his brand, he's gotta present better. People on TV, they're hot! Even on the news, look at Contessa Brewer, she's hot! Andy Cooper? Hot! And just recently on Facebook, a new group formed called Rachel Maddow is Legitimately Hot!
Just to look normal and not like something that just got pulled out from under a rock, you gotta look your best.
So, that's all I got. Good luck with the books.
Your TV Junkie,
Joe
After the jump, the clip where Nate looked the best was when he was on DL Hughley's CNN show on November 1st.
Just so Sydelle has some reference. Love that name.
Is it a silver lining behind yesterday's news?
Well, it's a silver lining if you're hot fierce newscrush Anderson Cooper. Watch the clip below, I'll meet you at the other end.
(Did you catch Anderson admitting he watches The Soup? Well of course he does, all the cool kids do.)
That's right, Denise gets picked up but Living Lohan is nowhere to be seen. They premiered on the same night and it would make sense that if they were going to, they would have announced.
When you click on a Google search of the complete phrase "season two of living lohan" you only get two results:
a) (From Defamer) While we have yet to learn whether or not they'll be a Season Two of Living Lohan, one thing is certain — whether or not Ali succeeds in her career, Dina will surely find a way to continue to keep her name in the news. After all, isn't that what living Lohan is all about?
and ...
b) (Celebitchy.com) After Dina started blabbing to the press about her “Living Lohan” show, Michael – seemingly jealous of the attention – started blabbing to the press about just how happy he was for Dina and younger daughter Ali, who will also star in the show. He told everyone just how much he was filled with positive, loving, happy thoughts for them. Now it’s back to lawsuits. Something tells me season two of “Living Lohan” will involve all three Lohan children sharing a room at a rehab facility.
You know I have to, after the jump, see Dina Lohan as "White Oprah," from Joel and pals at The Soup.

On a personal note, I’ve been off for the last couple of days. I had minor surgery on Monday. A small spot of skin cancer was removed from under my left eye. I hadn’t planned on mentioning this, but I still have stitches and you’ll no doubt notice them tonight. Don’t want you to think I got into a fist fight with Charlie Rose.
Don't worry, the guns (seen above with Jeff Corwin from Planet in Peril) are still okay.
Sunscreen, everybody! Especially if you're fair, like he is.
Speaking of moles, an old clip after the jump.
Continue reading "Hot, Fierce Newscrush Anderson Cooper Gets Cancerous Mole Removed" »
Well, his show, anyway.
CNN is permanently shifting to taped programming for the second hour of "Anderson Cooper 360," scaling back an ambitious programming block created in 2005 to showcase the studio and field-reporting talents of Cooper, who it viewed as an emerging star.
(snip)
CNN's cable news competitors air taped programming at 11 p.m. ET, a cheaper proposition, and the second hour of "360" runs second in the ratings to a rerun of "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel.
Cooper averaged 747,000 viewers in his second hour in August, less than O'Reilly's 965,000 and a steep drop from the 1.1 million he averaged during the first hour, according to Nielsen.
Sources at competing networks have long speculated that CNN would cancel the second hour and revert to tape at 11 p.m.
The problem with the second hour was that you never knew what it would be. There's a lot to be said for consistency on TV. And calling it AC 360 without the AC part (which it often was) was confusing.
Plus, what can anyone do to fill up two hours of cable news airtime? That's a tough propostition for a channel that doesn't really wanna do hard news.
Doesn't wanna do hard news, Joe? Whaddya mean?
What I mean is it would be very easy to fill that extra hour daily with actual news, not medical news, not true crime, not gotcha journalism, not "TMZ Light" but with news that discusses public policy, economics, world events (in places where they don't have oil as well as the places where they do) and not the crap that we usually see (you know, like on shows from Nancy Grace to Bill-O).
But no one turns the dial for that stuff anymore. Or, they go to PBS, the last bastion of news without the requisite screaming competition between political rivals.
But I love how the paragraph from Variety, above, makes reference to CNN considering Cooper a rising star ... in 2005.
What do they consider him now? And what does he think of that line?
So, check this out, 41 whole seconds of video from Anderrson Cooper's show last night, but it has what I think will be a long train behind it:
So, Vitter (pictured right with his family -- look at all those kids -- and Dick Cheney just for those of you who need to hurl this morning) played with Deborah Jeane Palfrey's girls in DC. But wait just a minute, didn't ABC and Brian Ross say that after they examined the phone records that no one of consequence was involved? And wasn't there a mention of Cheney's name at one point?
So, is Brian Ross lying? He must be, unless ABC is muzzling him? If they are and he hasn't quit his job today, he's a tool and you should no longer watch him on ABC World News, which would be a shame for the show since Charlie Gibson just took over the #1 spot among the nets in news.
If ABC is indeed muzzling Ross, I think their license to broadcast should be reviewed immediately.
I am sure that more about this will continue to reveal itself in the hours and days ahead.
UPDATE: I'm conducting a little experiement. I just added this comment to Brian Ross' blog at ABC and it goes like this:
So when you guys said that there were no names of consequence in Palfrey's phone records, you were lying.
I guess we'll never really hear the truth about the Cheney connection, either.
Investigative team? Only when it's convenient, I guess.
I wanna see if they'll post it.
MORE UPDATE: I also sent a news tip to ABC News that they themselves are covering something up here, and this is what I got back.
Thank you for your input. We will get back to you if we decide to
investigate your lead.Brian Ross & The Investigative Team
HA!
At least the printed the aforementioned comment.
I was just looking at my stats at Typepad and noticed someone ended up here by doing a search on the phrase "Anderson Cooper married."
The answer is a very obvious no.
At least to most of the thinking person's world.
Here's Anderson hanging out with Carson Kressly, but I'm not intimating that they are a couple.
Here's something for that "search" person to read:
I don't usually go gaga for gay men but I have to admit that Julio Cesar Recio is a hot looking guy. Julio is Anderson Coopers much younger (he'll be 25 in September) boyfriend. He's the guy Anderson won't openly admit "he owns." That's right, Anderson Cooper is Julio's sugardaddy but who can blame him. He is a hot looking Latin guy and Anderson has every right to rob the cradle for this one.
There's a pic there of the man in question, but just from the head up, unfortunately.
I'm known who Don Imus was for many, many years. He was the morning drive guy on my first regularly listened to radio station, WNBC-AM in New York, which of course is now WFAN where he does this radio show which also gets simulcast on MSNBC.
Of course, I haven't cared a wit about Imus since I left New York for California in 1985. Well, really, I haven't cared since I started driving a car with FM radio in it, and that was a long, long time ago. So, I guess it surprises me that this mess has grown to these proportions. Not because what he said wasn't hateful, it certainly was.
I just thought that like a tree in the woods, if no one heard it it wouldn't make a sound. I guess more people are still walking those woods with Imus than I thought.
Personally, I think that Imus should have been off the air years ago. I also don't understand why his radio show is simulcast on TV. Why, so we can look at him? Geez, I can think of many things I'd rather be looking at. Moldy cheese comes to mind.
From what I can tell from reading around the web this AM, no one should be surprised that Imus is capable of the remarks he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team. You know what did surprise me, however, was on last night's AC 360, Anderson Cooper brought on CNN's own race-baiter, Glenn Beck, to talk specifically about Imus.
First off, don't you love when the other media outlets pile on? Doesn't it just display such an esprit-de-corps among the press crowd? Sheesh, they are piranhas.
But Anderson Cooper should have his ethical journalist card ripped from his Fendi wallet for even being a part of a broadcast where Glenn Beck speaks about anyone else's insensitivity to bigoted comments. For example, check out this link to a MediaMatters.org page where Beck seems to apologize for calling Rosie O'Donnell a "fat witch," but then adds, "But she's just so fat ..."
(Not for nothing, Anderson, but you could also be losing your gay card, too, even though you keep it locked away in a safe deposit box in Geneva with your old boyfriends and those parachute pants you wore in the early '80s.)
So, CNN has no business getting involved here, and I don't even have to mention the Noise Channel, although I just did mention them and their hateful crew of selective Bible-spouting fools (I mean you, Doocy and crew).
So, enough with the piling on. My suggestion is just make Imus go away for good and let him take Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, John Gibson, Laura Ingraham, Rush and the whole class of them to your New Mexico ranch with you, where, if you like, you can all fight to the death.
It was there on the table and I read it, so I must have, yes?
Three things, and I'm making this quick because the first time I posted this Typepad or IE ate my post.
One: Human Giant leads "The Culture Pages." Series debuts Thursday at 10:30 on MTV. This is a great sketch from the series called Corn Maze, and it's duly twisted:
Two: Their "Intel" blog has packaged all their "24 Absurd-o-Meter" posts in a tidy package for your review.
Three: That same blog reports on Out Magazine's Top 50 Gays, and two of them TV's Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster of the parent-in-peril genre of films (at least recently) aren't even out.
At number 19, AMERICAblog's John Aravosis. Yeah, John!
(Sorry about that. One has rapport with someone, not for someone. -JB)
Just bask in the glow of utter brilliance by watching this Colbert clip:
You know, I've been wanting to write something for the longest time about how 48 Hours and Dateline and 20/20 and Primetime have ceased to be sources for actual news, opting instead to catch individuals in crimes, tell stories of inspiration or promote media properties owned by the prospective networks. Those things cost almost nothing to do and those stories don't seem to ruffle anyone's feathers, especially advertisers.
You see, everyone can get on board behind a show that catches sexual predators, but try doing an hour on the backdating of stock options and the people who got rich doing it. You know what? They run the companies that pay the dollars to put on the ads that keep the shows on the air.
Oops!
Then I was going to go into this thing about how it is only 60 Minutes these days that you can count on for at least one story of national or global significance, something that takes actual news gathering rather than regurgitating the work of some sting operation or local TV station or paper.
I just can't believe that the whole Kenny Chesney, is he gay? thing is really the best use of the talents at hand here. It's no longer timely and no one really cares. Even Anderson Cooper looks like he doesn't want to be there.
Sure, I guess some country music fans will tune in. But if that's the only reason they're tuning into 60 Minutes, they certainly aren't going to tune in next week when he's not on.
One more thing ... Hey, Kenny Chesney, you ARE bald. 1997 called, it wants it's backwards baseball cap back.
Blogger, DVR superuser, comedy fan, sci fi guy, occasional period drama enthusiast, newshound ... also at http://www.facebook.com/TVJoe.

Recent Comments