Category: on air

Anderson Cooper takes down Florida’s Attorney General a second time

Post author By marc
Post date June 17, 2016

After an emotional statement on Monday’s Anderson Copper 360 about the tragedy in Orlando, on Tuesday Cooper grilled Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi over her anti-gay record. Mainly, he questioned her championing herself as a voice for the LGBTQ community by establishing a hotline for spouses when Bondi had actively worked to limit gay rights. Bondi’s administration had used anti-gay rhetoric to fight same sex marriage in court, and Anderson brought it up to her. Bondi grew flustered and the interview, which you can watch here, ended professionally but tersely.

After the segment aired, Bondi called in to WOR 710 radio and blamed Cooper for misleading her about the interview’s objective and editing her in a bad light. One problem, Cooper had his receipts and showed them on air that night.

Fighting words. Anderson Cooper responded on Wednesday, June 15, to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s claims that their interview in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which aired live on CNN the previous day, was edited to portray her in a bad light.

“She’s either mistaken or she’s not telling the truth,” the CNN host said on his show, Anderson Cooper 360. “Let’s be real here. Ms. Bondi’s big complaint seems to be that I asked in the wake of a massacre of gay and lesbian citizens about her new statements about the gay community and about her old ones.”

Bondi claimed during a radio interview with WOR 710 in New York on Wednesday that she was led to believe that the interview with Cooper would focus on donation scams affecting the victims and their families.

Instead, “when he posted the clip [online], he cut out the entire first portion that discussed people donating to legitimate funds,” she said, and insisted that all the interview did was “encourage anger and hate.” (CNN.com later posted the interview online in its entirety.)

“There’s a time and place for everything, but yesterday wasn’t the time nor the place in front of a hospital when we could have been helping victims,” Bondi added.

“For the record, my interview was not filled with any anger,” Cooper responded on air on Wednesday. “My job is to hold people accountable, and if on Sunday a politician is talking about love and about embracing ‘our LGBT community,’ I don’t think it’s unfair to look at their record and see if they have ever actually spoken that way publicly before, which I’ve never heard her say.”

“The fact is Attorney General Bondi signed off on a 2014 federal court brief that claimed married gay people would ‘impose significant public harm.’ Harm. She spent hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money, gay and straight taxpayers’ money, trying to keep gays and lesbians from getting the right to marry,” he continued.

“Good people can and do disagree on that issue — everyone has the right to their own opinion, thank goodness — but Miss Bondi is championing right now her efforts to help survivors. With the very right which allows gay spouses to bury their dead loved ones — that’s a right that would not exist if Miss Bondi had her way. I think it’s fair to ask her about that. There is an irony in that.”

[From Us Magazine]

I am so tired of the “time and place” argument to waylay discussions about gun and LGBTQ rights. I think when you can point to the result of these antiquated views and say, “that, right there,” it is the perfect time to hold a dialogue. Bondi did much more damage with her radio response than she did in the initial interview. Even without Cooper countering her every claim, she acted against her own argument that it wasn’t the time or place. She asserted Cooper stirred up anger and hate but she missed the point, Cooper’s questions were borne of the anger from the LGBTQ community. She could have admitted that her stance has changed and discussed what her office would do going forward but instead decided to call in for a proper pout to a radio station.

Cooper said he does not like to make himself the story but he felt strongly about addressing her claims. I’m very glad he did. Just like Connecticut’s Rep Chris Murphy’s filibuster to get gun legislation on the floor, we need to keep up the pressure to have a real discourse that brings about a solution to mass shootings.

Here’s is Copper’s full response to Bondi’s claims:

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US: Kelly Ripa may quit Live if she doesn’t get one of her friends to co-host

Post author By marc
Post date April 28, 2016

I saw Live with Michael and Kelly yesterday and while I haven’t watched this show enough to have a frame of reference it looked like things were back to normal. They came out holding hands, they were joking around about eyelash extensions and butt padding and they seemed to have a great rapport. At times Kelly looked uncomfortable but you had to be looking for it. If it wasn’t for all the stories you wouldn’t know that they were having issues and that Michael is leaving in just two weeks. They never brought it up. He’s leaving early though, whether that was due to Kelly throwing a fit or just an executive decision it’s hard to tell. Kelly’s issue seems to be more with the ABC executives who kept her out of the loop than with Michael, who was just following orders not to tell her. Kelly is said to still be playing hardball at ABC after staying away for five days. Us is reporting that she’s threatened to quit if she doesn’t get one of her friends, either Anderson Cooper or Andy Cohen, to cohost.

A source exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly that Kelly Ripa “is talking about leaving” Live with Kelly and Michael after Michael Strahan announced his exit from the show for a permanent gig at Good Morning America. (Strahan was originally supposed to make the move in September, but the show announced this week that his last day on air will be May 13.)

Although Ripa, 45, returned to the show after a four-episode hiatus Tuesday, April 26, the source says she still feels “blindsided” that producers and Strahan, 44, broke the news to her just moments before the April 19 public announcement: “She considers it a sign of disrespect.”

Now, the 15-year Live vet will wait to see who producers seat beside her to help weigh her options for the future. They’re considering actor Jerry O’Connell, says the source, but Ripa “hopes Anderson Cooper or Andy Cohen gets the job.”

Unfortunately, it’s not likely that one of Ripa’s pals will come aboard, due to their prior commitments (the CNN journalist is covering the election and the Watch What Happens Live host is under contract with Bravo), so the show may not go on for Ripa. Says the source, “Unless one of them can come on, she doesn’t really want to do it.”

[From US Magazine]

This is likely a negotiation tactic to make sure that Kelly has a say this time, because if she really means this it’s short-sighted for a couple of reason. One, just because she’s good friends with someone (she has known both Cooper and Cohen for years) does not mean they’re the best choice for a co-host. Working with a friend can bring up all sorts of problems you wouldn’t have with someone you only know in a professional capacity. And two, both of those guys are super busy with their own shows as US points out. This sounds like Kelly is just trying to get her way, but keep in mind that it could also be a planted story meant to make her look like a diva. We know the network is not above that, think of how TMZ got the news that Kelly’s finances are overextended.

People reports that both Cooper and Cohen will come on as guest hosts following Strahan’s exit and that additional hosts will include Josh Groban and Seth Meyers. It’s unknown when a permanent host will be chosen and a source tells People “They’re prepared to keep cycling people through even if its not resolved by the fall.”

E! Online has a think piece about this while debacle. (I really like their editorials lately, they seem to be going in a new direction.) They have quotes from a media expert who says that the way this has played out so far “it looks like Kelly won” against the network. Their source also gives ABC credit for letting Kelly say her piece at the beginning of her return show and not trying to censor or pre-tape her remarks. Also, Bellamy Young of “Scandal” was a guest on Tuesday’s show and she said that although there was tension backstage it all felt completely professional during her interview.

Kathy Lee Gifford, who was replaced by Kelly on Live 15 years ago after she put in 15 years with Regis, has some advice for Kelly which sounds like delicious shade. She said “Be totally professional. I would keep anything that is going on between you private. It’s nobody’s business but yours. But always, always be professional at your job. That’s what you’re hired to do.” You know Kathy does not consider it professional to take a bunch of days off work and then insist that a friend be hired to work with you.

Photos credit: WENN.com and screenshots from ABC

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Kelly Ripa is on vacation now and is ghosting Michael Strahan

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date April 22, 2016

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I’m surprised how much interest there’s been in the Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan drama happening at ABC and I’m also surprised at the sheer number of stories about it. There are a massive amount of details coming out. While I was team Kelly yesterday and am still on her side I am starting to get the impression that she’s somewhat petty too. She came out of her townhouse in New York yesterday carrying a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath, which seems to be a transparent metaphor for her situation with the big bad network. People is reporting that Kelly “jetted off to the Turks and Caicos islands to celebrate her 20th anniversary right after learning that her co-host Michael Strahan was leaving their show,” but this is not supported by paparazzi photos of her outside her townhouse yesterday. She heard Strahan was leaving on Tuesday, so maybe “right after” means the next day.

The Ny Daily News has a very pro-Strahan piece about how he was professional in announcing his exit (remember that he was allegedly under orders not to tell her) and gave her several months’ notice considering that he’s not leaving until the end of the summer. He’s also been trying to contact Kelly, according to a source, but she’s not responding to him at all.

He keeps calling, but she won’t pick up the phone.

Michael Strahan has repeatedly tried to reach out to co-host Kelly Ripa but has been rebuffed, Confidenti@l has learned.

“He’s reached out but there’s been no response,” a source close to the show said.

Strahan shocked Ripa and “Live!” executive producer Michael Gelman Tuesday when he revealed to them in a post-show meeting that he was leaving “Live! With Kelly and Michael” to join “Good Morning America” full time.

“He did the right thing and gave them a lot of notice that he was leaving at the end of the summer,” a second show source said. “He’s been there all week for the staff, she on the other hand has disappeared.”

Ripa — who called out sick Wednesday and then took what a show rep says was a “planned vacation” — looked perfectly healthy as she exited her Upper East Side townhouse clutching a copy of Malcom Gladwell’s “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.”

[From NY Daily News]

The NY Daily News also points out that Strahan didn’t attend a scheduled charity co-hosting event Tuesday night for the NYC Food Bank. He did send a video message though. Strahan, 44, was also photographed out with his 27 year-old girlfriend in their workout clothes yesterday. They’ve been dating over a year, and she doesn’t pass the “half his age plus seven” rule by a couple of years.

Strahan appeared yesterday on both Live, co-hosting with Erin Andrews, and Good Morning America, which he’s set to join full time in September. On GMA he credited Kelly with teaching him the ropes and called her “family.” There were rumors that GMA’s Lara Spencer felt shafted by Strahan’s appointment at the show because she was hoping to get a promotion to the position he’s taking as lead anchor. A source denies to E! that Spencer is upset and states “Lara and Michael are very close friends.” People is reporting that Strahan will double his salary by moving to GMA and will be making $20 million a year. Ripa reportedly makes around $15 million at Live.

CNN is reporting that execs plan to test out other co-hosts for Ripa once Strahan leaves this fall and they’re not planning on canceling the show as rumored. I wonder if they’re rethinking that now that Kelly is MIA and her people have talked to just about every outlet.

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NBC News suspends Brian Williams for six months without pay: fair?

Post author By videos
Post date February 11, 2015

Yesterday evening, NBC News announced that Brian Williams would not be returning from his “several days” off in self-imposed hiatus. At least for a while. NBC News’ president Deborah Turness has put Williams on a six-month suspension without pay following the past week and a half of rolling revelations about his very public lies and “misremembering.” Many believe that NBC News is just going to use these six months to get all of their ducks in a row and look for a new permanent anchor, and that at the end of the six months, Williams will be out completely. In the meantime, Lester Holt will be filling in as the temporary anchor. Which is awesome. Lester Holt is the best. Turness released this open letter about Williams’ suspension, and here’s something interesting: NBC’s internal investigation isn’t even completed!!

We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately. We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.

Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision.

While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position. In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.

As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.

Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years. Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization. As I’m sure you understand, this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.

This has been a difficult time. But NBC News is bigger than this moment. You work so hard and dedicate yourselves each and every day to the important work of bringing trusted, credible news to our audience. Because of you, your loyalty, your dedication, NBC News is an organization we can – and should – all be proud of. We will get through this together.

[From NBC News]

Do you think this is the right decision? I think it would have seemed stronger if this had happened last week, you know? When the first wave of controversy hit last week, Williams should have been suspended for a few weeks to allow for an internal investigation, then once the investigation was complete, they should have just fired him. But, on the other hand, I guess NBC looks loyal to their on-air talent (except for, you know, Ann Curry) and like they were giving Williams the benefit of the doubt. But it’s pretty hardcore for Williams to be suspended without pay only a few days into the internal investigation. Williams has probably been lying about a lot more, don’t you think?

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Tom Brokaw thinks ‘liar’ Brian Williams should be ‘suspended or fired’

Post author By videos
Post date February 8, 2015

This Brian Williams mess is just growing is size. It’s really bad, you guys. On Wednesday, Brian Williams apologized on air on the NBC Nightly News. He apologized for “misremembering” a story he had told literally dozens of times in the past 12 years: he had always claimed that in 2003, when he was covering the Iraq War in Iraq that his Chinook had come under RPG fire. He always told the story as a way to explain his friendships with some military men. Except that when some military personnel who were in Iraq at the time started to contradict his story, he claims he simply “misremembered” the event. Stars & Stripes has a lengthy take-down of Williams’ story here.

The fallout from Williams’ admission has been swift and terrible. Social media has been having a field day, with #BrianWilliamsMisremembers trending on Twitter, and every conservative blowhard has luxuriated in the schadenfreude of “liberal” NBC getting a pounding. But it’s more serious than that. People are going through all of Brian’s public statements and it looks like he might have always had a difficult relationship with the truth.

More heroic tales of Brian Williams‘ adventures in journalism are being questioned. The NBC news anchor… is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report. Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking flood water and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina.

However the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment. Williams recalled his bout with the bug in interview with Tom Brokaw last year, when he said: “I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery.”

The Advocate said a public health official never heard of people getting things like dysentery after the storm.

“I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Dr. Brobson Lutz told The Advocate. “I don’t know anybody that’s tried that [drinking flood water] to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”

Williams said also during an interview in 2006 that he saw dead bodies float past his window in the French Quarter.

“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” Williams said in 2006. But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city, The Advocate said.

He also said in his Brokaw interview: “Our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day.”

[From Page Six]

Yeah, it’s bad. I think Williams might have been able to survive a scandal if it was just ONE misremembered story (he would have come out it battered and bruised, but he would have come out it), but this has given critics an excuse to go over EVERY story and if there’s a pattern of misremembered stories, then he’s out of a job. Fantasists and liars don’t get to be network news anchors. Sorry not sorry.

Meanwhile, Page Six (an outlet with an extreme hate-on for all things NBC) has a massive insider-y story about how NBC has bungled this whole thing and Tom Brokaw is telling everyone that Williams must go. A source claims “Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter…He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.” That’s actually true. Sources also say Brokaw knew Williams’ story was a lie a long time ago and he was “extremely uncomfortable with it.” Another source claims that Williams isn’t even well-liked among NBC News staffers. The source claims Williams is “a real pompous piece of sh-t” and “an a—hole… He’s not a journalist. He’s a reader.”

Thus far, Williams is not being suspended or reprimanded in any way and NBC staffers are in a “panic” according to Page Six. You know what? If people keep Truth Squading Williams’ public statements, I’m sure they’ll find something else. And then he’ll be out.

Update: NBC News says that Williams is now under investigation. It sounds like it’s an internal, in-house NBC News investigation. Also, the people who were originally involved in the 2003 Chinook incident in Iraq have some weirdly contradicting memories – Politico tries to sum up the situation here.

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Celebs defend Renee Zellweger: is it ‘mean’ to point out that she looks way different?

Post author By videos
Post date October 23, 2014

As you know by now, Renee Zellweger had some major work done about a year ago. She emerged at an event this weekend looking much different than we’re used to, and so people naturally noticed. Renee commented on her changed appearance and she made it worse, in my opinion. Renee decried the “folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth” and she attributed her new look to aging and “living a different, happy, more fulfilling life.” Buried in a lot of BS, there was a hint that maybe she’d visited a dermatologist/surgeon. She said “I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion,” which to me sounds like she had something done and regrets it. That’s all she said about it, though.

Now celebrities have weighed in on Renee, and they’re saying “leave her alone” pretty much. Which… I mean that’s the response to a lot of a gossip stories. E! Online has more, and credit to them for this story idea:

Today show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford defended the actress Wednesday morning on-air. “Let her be and don’t be so mean spirited about her choices,” she explained. “I think she looks beautiful.”

The View co-host Nicole Wallace also thinks the chatter can open up a whole separate conversation on women and beauty. “I think the reality is that there is an unending pressure on women to look forever young,” she shared.

[From E! Online]

E! also posted some tweets from celebrities about Renee’s change and I’m cribbing a few of them here:

Personally I think Renee Zellwegger can do whatever the hell she wants – except for COLD MOUNTAIN 2.

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 21, 2014

Time to cut female stars like Renee Zellweger some slack > http://t.co/6YDBmwQ4wM

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2014

its sort of awful to see everyone have such horrible things to say about renee zellweger. i dont think she really needs our opinion world.

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) October 22, 2014

Why would Renee Zellweger change her face? Maybe because all people do is ridicule her face?

— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) October 22, 2014

Of course Renee can do whatever she wants, and I think she looks beautiful now as she did before. In fact I did say that she looked beautiful in our last story, just nothing like herself. It’s human nature to notice when someone’s appearance changes so much they’re barely recognizable. There are a small minority of people (trolls) who are being nasty about it, but that’s not the larger conversation. If an acquaintance did this in my small town, you could bet that my friends and neighbors would be talking about it. And if that acquaintance told everyone she got an eye or face lift, it’s likely that the gossip would die down and we would be like “good for her.” Renee is famous and people have noticed that she doesn’t look like herself. I think that’s par for the course and I don’t find it sexist or mean spirited, but I gossip for a living. My standards differ from the average person.

There’s a bigger conversation about the pressure women feel about aging in our society, and how that leads many of us to have surgery and injectibles. It’s still a choice that people make, and it’s something that can be done subtly as well. I’m personally not ruling it out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find it scary.

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‘Human Barbie’ Valeria Lukyanova Wants to Be a Breatharian

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date March 12, 2014

Disclaimer: Kindly take note that this article may be triggering to those struggling with eating disorders.

All the details from Daily Mail:

Ukranian model Valeria Lukyanova, who lives her life as a ‘human Barbie’ has revealed she doesn’t consume food or water anymore. Some have said she uses plastic surgery and Photoshop to create her doll-like image, but her impossibly thin waist could actually be down to not eating for weeks. The model, 23, has said she is now converting to ‘Breatharianism’ – training herself to live off only light and air.

‘In recent weeks I have not been hungry at all; I’m hoping it’s the final stage before I can subsist on air and light alone,‘ she has said. The model and singer’s new vice, Breatharianism, is a cult that believes food – and possibly water – are not necessary. A breatharian is said to be someone who never eats or drinks as they can exist on ‘cosmic micro-food’, according to the International Business Times.

The practice is criticized as potentially lethal pseudoscience, and several practitioners have reportedly died of starvation. None have submitted themselves for comprehensive medical testing. With her pinched waist, skeletal arms, enormous coloured contact lenses, thick make-up and vacant expression, Valeria believes she has become a living, breathing Barbie – something she sees as the ultimate embodiment of perfection. She has courted international controversy by turning herself into a human doll, confessing she wishes to be considered ‘the most perfect woman on the internet’. Based on the photos on her social media accounts, Valeria is sporting an increasingly thin frame.