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Leno pokes NBC again; the long tradition continues
Photo credit: Carson Entertainment Group
Jay Leno popped NBC in his monologue again last night — nothing serious, just a mild dig at the network's woeful fourth place, or rather fifth place, status. Jay, as you know, may or may not have a gig there in a year, while NBC Entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt excoriated him in private — according to a New York Times report by Bill Carter over the weekend — because of a string of NBC-is-a-flaming-disaster...
Read more »'Letterman': Did Selena Gomez REALLY make Bieber cry? (Oh come on)
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There's been a vast amount of online chatter this morning Monday night's "Late Show with David Letterman" interview with Selena Gomez, in which she jokes about making former boytoy Justin Bieber "cry." It was a joke; the clip's been everywhere; and is now one of those silly Web things that has taken on a life of its own.
But here's the question: Did Gomez really come out with that quip as effortlessly as everyone assumes she did? My bet is no -- it was fed to her. Here's how it works: Dave tells her backstage that he's going to do a brief lead-in about making JB "cry" at which point -- after two beats -- she is to say something along the lines of "you're not alone."
This does happen in late night -- where something that seems unrehearsed was in fact very much rehearsed. I'm betting this is one of those instances. Take a look:
Mayor Bloomberg on 'Late Show with David Letterman:' Video
Timing is everything (or a lot of everything) in show business, and credit David Letterman and crew for booking Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the very day his huge-container soda ban is overturned in court. The host and mayor talk about this (and you can almost see CBS's sales teams wince when Dave talks about the perfidy of major food manufacturers, many of whom advertise on CBS's air...)
Tina Fey as Oscars host? If asked, she will serve
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By now, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, the question "will Tina Fey host the Oscars," is so old and tired that it's almost as dog-eared as "How about that sexist Seth MacFarlane on the Oscars?!" But I do think I detected in Fey's latest denial on last night's "Late Show with David Letterman" the slightest opening of a door. Reason? She used the same joke about why she wouldn't do it ("too many dresses to try on") as in another interview promoting her most recent movie, "Admission."
Of course when you joke about something, that's the first sign you're deadly serious about it. Freud wrote whole volumes about this ("The Interpretation of Jokes;" "Civilization and its Discontented Jokes," and so on).
Plus, she went on and on last night about raising a very, very young child. Believe me, by next February, she'll be BEGGING to do the Oscars.
Here's the full Fey interview. Amusing.
'David Letterman': Alec Baldwin again denies racist comment
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Alec Baldwin, who tends to embrace the paparazzi (and airline attendants, and Republicans, and Shia LeBeouf and name-an-antagonist) in his own special way, has denied a recent incident in which he (reportedly) used a racial slur during a confrontation with a New York Post reporter and photographer. He's on "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday night; first clip, and then another one...
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