People: Colbert won’t stand in shadow of Stewart
Stephen Colbert came to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York to interview filmmaker George Lucas, but the “Star Wars” creator had a question of his own.
“The perfect choice to replace that Jon Stewart fellow would have been you,” Lucas told Colbert. Why, he wanted to know, wasn’t he replacing him?
Colbert, who replaces David Letterman in September as host of “The Late Show” on CBS, tried to explain.
“ Trevor Noah is a very funny guy,” he said of Stewart’s recently named replacement.
Moreover, he said, “I don’t want to be the guy to take over from Jon Stewart. I worked for Jon Stewart at that show, and my memories will always be of him being the keenest, most intelligent, most beautifully deconstructive mind. … And I would never, however successful I’d be, get out of his shadow.”
The hourlong interview focused mostly on Lucas, however, and Colbert, sporting an ample white beard to match that of Lucas and appearing as himself, not as his retired “Colbert Report” pundit, made clear that he’s a huge fan.
At age 13, he said, his world changed when he saw the first “Star Wars” with friends, having won four tickets in a radio station contest in Charleston, South Carolina.
“We couldn’t explain to anyone how the world was different now,” Colbert told Lucas. “We had no vocabulary for what you showed us.”
Oz: Provides ‘multiple points of view’
Dr. Mehmet Oz is defending himself against 10 doctors who’ve accused him of promoting “quack treatments” on his TV show.
Oz said in a statement Friday that his show provides “multiple points of view” including his own. He added that his own views are offered “without conflict of interest.”
A group of 10 doctors sent a letter to Columbia University this week urging the university to remove Oz from its faculty. They accused Oz of an “egregious lack of integrity.”
Oz is vice chairman of Columbia’s surgery department and still occasionally teaches. He also performs heart surgery at Columbia’s affiliated hospital.
The birthday bunch
Actress Barbara Hale is 94. Actress Hayley Mills is 69. Actor James Woods is 68. Actor Rick Moranis is 62. Ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham is 53. Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 52. Actor Eric McCormack is 52. Reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian is 36.