Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow’s son, joins MSNBC
A book deal, tabloid attention and now a new television show – it’s a busy time in the public eye for 25-year-old Ronan Farrow.
MSNBC announced Wednesday that it had hired Mia Farrow’s son to host a weekday program on the left-leaning cable television network starting sometime next year.
Farrow, in a statement, said he was excited to shake up people’s expectations for cable news.
“This is a new generation of news show for a new, more engaged generation of viewers,” he said. “It’s a show about why the news matters to you – and what you can do to be part of the story.”
Farrow, a Yale Law School graduate, founded the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Youth Issues during President Barack Obama’s first term. On Tuesday, the Penguin Press announced that it would publish a book by Farrow, “Pandora’s Box: How American Military Aid Creates America’s Enemies,” in 2015.
Farrow also made headlines recently when his mother suggested in an interview with Vanity Fair that he could be the son of Frank Sinatra, not Woody Allen, as was long assumed. Allen has called the claim absurd.
She’s not a shot in the arm for ‘View’
Health experts already didn’t like the fact that Jenny McCarthy got a job on “The View.” Now comes word that ordinary viewers don’t like her either.
McCarthy, the former Playboy model who joined ABC’s morning chatfest this year, is proving more polarizing than Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the outspoken former panelist who left to join Fox News, according to Radar. The report says the producers are scrutinizing data about audience preferences and that McCarthy’s job is “in jeopardy.”
“Right now they’re just trying to adjust Jenny’s performance on the show so that she comes off as more appealing, but that’s an uphill battle,” an unnamed source was quoted telling Radar.
But a “View” spokeswoman told Showtracker that “there is absolutely no truth” to the report.
Whatever the case, McCarthy’s appointment caused a storm of controversy due to her claims that vaccines cause autism.
McCarthy got the job after several other prospects, including Brooke Shields, had been tried out at the panelists’ table.
The birthday bunch
Singer Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts is 71. Singer Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap is 71. Actress Margot Kidder is 65. Actor George Wendt is 65. Country singer Alan Jackson is 55. Animator Mike Judge (“King of the Hill,” “Beavis and Butthead”) is 51. Rapper Eminem is 41. Singer Wyclef Jean of The Fugees is 41. Actor Chris Lowell (“The Help,” “Private Practice”) is 29.