Well, At Least Jerry Knows When To Sign Off
Tacky television talk-show host Jerry Springer lasted less than a week as a news commentator on NBC’s Chicago station, quitting because the controversy around him “got too personal.”
WMAQ’s respected anchorwoman, Carol Marin, resigned in protest after Springer was hired, and her partner refused to introduce Springer’s segment on the show.
Then there were the concerns that soon arose about his, er, veracity.
In Springer’s first commentary, on free speech, he said he once signed a parade permit for neo-Nazis when he was mayor of Cincinnati - although the city manager is the one who approves or rejects such permits.
“So it wasn’t my signature on the permit,” Springer said when questioned later, calling the issue a technicality.
Loose talk
Pamela Anderson Lee, testifying in her breach-of-contract trial for backing out of a made-for-TV movie: “Nudity has never been an issue for me. Simulated sex is.”
Truth be told, we don’t give a hoot
Darius Rucker turns 31 today.
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Public Enemy rapper Chuck D has been hired by the Fox News Channel to do on-air commentaries and occasional news reports. “They are looking for those audiences that might be turned off by the news,” he explained. “It’s all about trying to inform people in the best way possible.”
All it really takes is the proper altitude
Sylvester Stallone survived a bit of a scare on his way to the Cannes Film Festival when the pilot-side windshield blew out of his private jet. Said Stallone, who finished the flight in a different plane: “I always wanted to travel to Europe in a convertible.”
Pretty soon, everybody was cracking up
Patrick Swayze was airlifted to a California hospital with a broken leg after he fell off a horse and ran into a tree while filming an escape scene for his upcoming movie, “Letters From a Killer.” Said an extra on the set: “He was in some serious pain, but he was joking a little.”
So, for Kathie Lee, it was two class acts
In a gracious gesture, Kathie Lee Gifford invited Ethel Kennedy to be her guest Sunday when she delivered the commencement address at Marymount College - even though Gifford’s stepdaughter, Victoria, recently filed for divorce from Kennedy’s son, Michael, who has been accused of sleeping with the couple’s baby-sitter.
The meaning keeps getting clearer and clearer
Meanwhile, at the Memphis Theological Seminary, Fred “Mister” Rogers told graduates that a childhood filled with sadness and ridicule propelled him into a lifelong search for meaning and purpose. Rogers says he lives by the motto on his office wall, “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” adding: “I find those words to be truer for me every day.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino