Tag Archives: television

Anthony Weiner Scandal: In Congressman’s District, A Chorus Of Support

I kind of thought this would roll off his back in New York….New Yorkers aren’t easily shocked by sexual affairs without sex.

And remember, Anthony Weiner wasn’t a  Republican”Family Values”  hypocrite having an affair like Republican Senators David Vitter and John Ensign were…

Weiner just might survive this if he listens to his Constituents and not to the press and the DC insiders.

The question is:  Does he really want to?  Especially  now that his fast-track political career will be stalled for the foreseeable future.

What he really wanted was to be mayor of New York and the Democratic Establishment has lined up against him- even if his constituents haven’t.  Is he content to stay a Congressman for several terms? Or does he resign and try to change careers to the Media, like Eliot Spitzer.

Time will tell….

Thursday (and for anyone not keeping track, it’s exactly two weeks into the saga known as Weinergate), a 64-year-old woman named Ann Oniszko stood in the lobby of one of the buildings of the Queens Community House and expressed undiminished admiration for her congressman. Wearing a specially-made gold pendant, her first name molded into a Star of David, she said, “I hope this doesn’t kill his political career. People just have little bad habits.”

“They just have to use technology better,” said Steve Pullano, the director of the teen program at the center.

“I just hope he salvages and builds himself up again,” said Onizsko.

Even as Weiner’s fellow Congressional Democrats have called for his resignation, the residents of New York’s Ninth District appear to stand behind their congressman in solid formation.

According to a recent poll by Marist and NY1, 56 percent of those interviewed said that Weiner shouldn’t resign, while only 33 percent said he should (12 percent said they hadn’t made up their minds).

In the Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods that make up Weiner’s jigsaw-puzzle district, the congressman has long enjoyed the kind of poll numbers generally reserved for authoritarian rulers. He won 60 percent of votes in the last election, actually a significant drop-off from the previous election, in which his constituents chose him by a ratio of 93 votes to six.

Even now, he doesn’t seem much in danger of losing local support, and nowhere is that support more evident than at the Queens Community House, a sprawling network of project buildings and community-service centers based in the Queens neighborhood Kew Gardens.

via Anthony Weiner Scandal: In Congressman’s District, A Chorus Of Cheers.

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Filed under Congress, Elections, New York, Politics

Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show Ratings Soar, Fox News Slumps in May Ratings

Good news from the Media world…

Maybe Fox News’ audience is dying off faster than anticipated…or people are finally getting wise.

And Jon Stewart has been at the top of his game this year…

Another good trend for next year’s elections if it holds….

From Rawstory.com:

Comedy Central and “The Daily Show” both surged in the May Nielsen ratings, posting their best numbers yet. “The Daily Show” dominated its time slot across all of television, cable and broadcast, and boasted a very impressive 19 percent increase in viewership in May alone.

Meanwhile, according to Mediabistro’s TV Newser, Fox News suffered an overall decline in viewers in the highly sought-after 25-to-54-year old demographic for May, with total ratings down 10 percent. Bill O’Reilly’s viewership dropped 9 percent, Sean Hannity’s 6 percent, with Greta Van Susteren and Glenn Beck suffering the steepest losses with Van Susteren’s “On the Record” losing 12 percent of its audience and Glenn Beck sliding a whopping 17 percent.

Some of the fall-off in Beck’s numbers may be attributable to the fact that his show is going off the air, but it has been a consistent loser in the ratings for several months. The drop in public interest is echoed in ratings for radio shows hosted by Beck and Rush Limbaugh, which have each lost a third of their listenership in the last year, according to the radio polling group Arbitron.

The new Nielsen numbers show that “The Daily Show” averaged 2.3 million viewers, beating every program on Fox except Bill O’Reilly’s average of 2.8 million. “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” beat all other cable and broadcast programming in a number of categories, including having the most affluent viewers and the most active web-sties.

via Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show ratings soar, Fox News slumps in May numbers | The Raw Story.

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Filed under Elections, Media, Politics, Television

And Then There’s Maude….

I can’t believe it’s been over 30 years since this show premiered.

I remember our neighbors were scandalized my parents let us watch it.

They weren’t liberal, merely lazy.

We all had TV’s in our rooms so we wouldn’t have to talk to each other….

Anyway…

Here it is…Thirty years later and it seems as relevant and fresh as can be…

Unfortunately…

You would think we would have moved farther and it would seem antiquated by now…

Still.  It was a great show and Bea Arthur was priceless….

And it was actually well written…

I had forgotten good network television was possible…

 

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Filed under Gay, Television

Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe….and Andy Griffith.

She would have been 85 today- just like Andy Griffith.

Talk about a Birthday Odd Couple…

I’ll compare and contrast below…

Here’s my favorite Marilyn Clip:

And here is my favorite Andy Griffith movie- yes, movie.  He did more than television and Mayberry…

He was great in this one and I’ve run this trailer several times…

I like to think of it as “The Glenn Beck Story”…

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Happy Birthday, Leslie Uggams

I love Leslie Uggams.  She really should have been a bigger star….

The great singer and performer is 68 years old today.

Here’s one of my favorites of her performances:

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Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Music, Television, Theatre

Jane, I mean Laura, You Ignorant Slut…

Doesn’t NBC remember they started this as parody on Saturday Night Live in the 1970’s?

And now, it’s become reality….

This is the latest bust up at MSNBC

Ed Schultz will take one week of unpaid leave from MSNBC following his controversial comments about Laura Ingraham.

On his radio show Tuesday, Schultz called Ingraham a “right-wing slut.”

Wednesday evening, the network released the following statement about the matter, saying “remarks of this nature are unacceptable and will not be tolerated”:

And this is where Dan and Jane started it all….

Seems the times aren’t a changing that much.

Except satire has now become reality…

via Ed Schultz To Take Unpaid Leave From MSNBC Following Laura Ingraham ‘Slut’ Comment.

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Mom Defends Decision To Give 8-Year-Old Daughter Botox

Instead of calling “Good Morning America” someone should call Child Protective Services…

If this isn’t technically both physical and mental child abuse, it sure sounds like it to me…

I thought we left this mentality behind in the 1960’s….

We first told you about Britney Campbell of San Francisco in March — she’s the eight-year-old aspiring pageant queen already dabbling in Botox and virgin waxes, courtesy of her mom, Kerry. The pair appeared on Thursday’s “Good Morning America” to talk about the extreme beauty regimen with Lara Spencer.

Spencer asked Britney questions worthy of a horrifying “Law & Order: SVU” episode: can you show me where you do it? Can you point on your face? Of the Botox, Britney remarked, “It hurt sometimes, but I get used to it,” and of the waxing, “It was super, super hard to deal with that…I just don’t think it’s ladylike to have hair on your legs,” however adding that she won’t do it again. At least not for a while.

Kerry confessed that Britney didn’t actually request either treatment, noting, “We talked about it. She didn’t exactly ask me about it but I know that she was complaining about her face having wrinkles and things like that,” to which Spencer said, “My son will come home and tell me he wants every Xbox game that existed…that doesn’t mean you get it for them.” Snap!

But, seriously — then came a slew of photos depicting Britney with bruises, puffy cheeks and ice packs. In the end, the child says she “looks way better, like, beautiful, pretty, like, all those kinds of nice words.” And that might be the most heartbreaking part.

via Mom Defends Decision To Give 8-Year-Old Daughter, Britney Campbell, Botox (VIDEO).

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Rupert Everett: Beyonce is Dull and Sharon Stone Unhinged

I’ve loved Rupert Everett ever since I saw him in one of my favorite movies,  “Another Country.”

He’s definitely off the wall- and very outspoken…

He kind of reminds me of someone I “dated” back in the 1980’s who was also great fun, but totally crazy…

Believe me, no matter how enthralling they are, it’s best to observe guys like this from a distance….

From London’s The Daily Mail:

‘When I got to Hollywood I had this fantasy that all these huge stars would be these amazing, fabulous creatures. I grew up devouring books on Montgomery Clift, and so much of his appeal to me lay in the gutter side.

‘But you get to Hollywood and everybody’s so boring. Being an actor in Hollywood is like joining the Army or something.When you see them in a restaurant raising an arm, it’s more likely to be to make a call to their banker than swig back a glass of champagne.

Rupert described Madonna as smelling ‘vaguely of sweat’ and being an ‘old, whiny barmaid’

‘So many of these stars today are just boring, boring, boring. Listening to Beyoncé  Knowles talking about her life, her career, is like listening to an Army general talking about a military operation. Beyond dull.’

via Rupert Everett: Beyonce is dull and Sharon Stone unhinged | Mail Online.

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Oprah on Broadway

Somehow, I just can’t see the Big O doing 8 shows a week….

I’ll wish her well and give her credit for trying….

She will surely pack the houses….

And anything that brings attention to live theatre is a good thing….

Oprah Winfrey has long said she would love to return to acting. But as her iconic, Chicago-based talk show approaches its final episode, Winfrey clearly is moving quickly to turn her dream of appearing on Broadway into reality.

“I have a stack of plays in my bag right now that I am reading,” Winfrey said with great enthusiasm and determination last week as part of a frank and wide-ranging interview on her Chicago past and professional future that will appear May 22 in a special section of the Tribune. “And just this past weekend, I was in New York meeting with producers. We were just talking about what would be the best route to take. But yes, this is really going to happen. … Life is too short.

“I think,” Winfrey said, “that an ensemble production is the way I should go.”

Winfrey was very nearly already acting on Broadway. Kenny Leon, the director of the high-profile Broadway revivals of “Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun,” came to Winfrey about two years ago and said he wanted her to appear in “Fences.” Talks, Winfrey said, progressed to a advanced and serious stage.

“I had always wanted to do “Fences,” Winfrey said. “I went through the idea of trying to take my show to New York, shoot a show during the daytime and appear on Broadway at night. But I couldn’t do it. And finally, Kenny said he couldn’t wait any longer.”

So that didn’t work out. But once “The Oprah Winfrey Show” has wrapped, Winfrey will have a lot more freedom.

via Oprah’s Broadway acting dream is on the express track – The Theater Loop.

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Arnold and Maria split: Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver to Separate

I’m amazed they lasted this long…

And it’s sad to see them split after this much time together…

Still, I can’t help but think how much Maria gave up–her career, for one thing– for Arnold.

She also is the one who gave him gravitas…

He wouldn’t have been governor without her…

I’ll be interested to see what she does with the next chapter of her life…

Him?  I don’t care too much…

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have separated, with Shriver moving out of their Brentwood mansion while the two determine the next step in their 25-year marriage.

Shriver has been residing apart from the actor-turned-politician for the last few weeks. The former first couple confirmed the separation in a joint statement released Monday after questions were raised by The Times.

“This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us,” the statement read. “After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together. At this time, we are living apart while we work on the future of our relationship.

“We are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and the center of both of our lives.” We consider this a private matter and neither we nor any of our friends or family will have further comment. “We ask for compassion and respect from the media and the public.”

via Arnold and Maria split: Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver to separate – latimes.com.

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