From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Contribution
Japan & Faux TV
From Gloria L
"...to start off, we have a request from "Friends of Foxnews," who are
working to keep Foxnews,
the up and coming challenge to CNN and BBC and the only non-edited
English language news
program on SkyPerfecTV here in Japan.
I must confess that I keep it on nearly 24 hours a day at work and at
home, although I stumbled
upon it purely by accident. It's surely the best kept secret in Japan.
Apparently Foxnews is scheduled to go off the air at the end of July
unless they can get more
subscribers and or companies to place ads on the channel, which to date
has none.
When I was going to school in Los Angeles, there were three Japanese TV
networks, all
supported by Japanese companies in the community. When you think about
it, there should be
at least one channel out of the dozens for the international community,
with local news and
information presented properly.
If you are interested in keeping Foxnews on the air, you can contact
them at E-mail....''
Faux News In Japan
~~ Gloria L
"...the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may
be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
George Washington, Address to Officers of the Army
(March 15, 1783)
Visit Home of the World Media Watch, updated M-W-F
Thanks, Gloria!
If Rupert had been in Japan in the 60's, wanna bet Yukio Mishima would have been on the payroll?
Reader Contribution
The Quiet Cartoonist
Thanks, QC
Reader Commentary
Re: John Entwistle
From Sarah M
The passing of John Entwistle is the capper of a very sad day. First, we
have the unSupreme Court deciding that it's ok to spend tax payer dollars to
send kids to private (not to mention parochial) schools, then they decide
it's ok to do drug tests on high school kids without any suspicion of drug
use (man, I'm glad that wasn't in place when I was in high school!!), then
you have an entire bunch of frigging idiots in Congress afraid to stand up
and support the 9th Circuit Pledge of Allegiance decision (not ONE of them!
although I will give credit to our local paper here in Norman, OK whose
opinion about the whole thing is what a gift to Congress in an election
year, they can stop worrying about Enron/WorldCom/terra/taxes/the
environment/etc while they spend our tax dollars approving a non-binding
resolution to keep the words "under god" in the Pledge).
When I heard the news about John Entwistle, I just had to cry. It was a very
sad end to a very discouraging day.
I can remember going to see the Who at the Forum (is it still called that?)
and hearing one of the finest (not to mention the LOUDEST) rock and roll
concerts ever. I can remember the first time I heard Tommy (yeah, I'm old
enough to have heard it when it was first released) and being blown away. I
was a Who fan from the get-go back in '65.
yeah, talkin' bout my generation.
57 is way too young to die.
~~ sarah
Shit, Sarah - 57 is too few varieties for Heinz, let alone a 'lifetime' (comparatively speaking).
Reader Commentary
Subject: Pledge of Allegiance
From Sharon
Patriotism and religious faith are NOT the same thing. Everybody seems to
be missing the point.
Why don't they just take out the "under God" part that was added in the
Eisenhower administration?
America was founded by deists who did not want a state church as they had
seen the abuses of power in the Anglican Church, and how Europe was torn
apart for centuries by religious wars.
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian religion."
-- George Washington
"I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could
never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogmas."
-- Abraham Lincoln
(Quotes from Salvation for Sale, by Gerard Thomas Straub.)
When I was in high school (1968-72) we often recited the Pledge, ending
with "with liberty and justice for all the very rich." That's probably
the way it really is.
Sharon
Thanks, Sharon. Hitting the nail on the head, again.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Watched Tatum O'Neal on '20/20'. Jeez, the poor thing's face was so botoxed her forehead wouldn't move.
Read tonight that the new 'Men In Black' runs about 80 minutes. Including the music video & credits. The original 'King Kong' ran longer.
Watched the last fresh Bill Maher, too. Arfing strange to see Adam's Apple Annie Coulter read a letter to Bill from Barbra Streisand.
On the other hand, looks like Bill has something else lined up, and Arianna will be his first guest. ; )
Tonight, Saturday, once again, CBS has a 'Trifecta' of reruns - 'Touched By An Angle', and 2 episodes of 'The District'.
NBC has the movie 'Music Of The Heart'. The rerun 'Saturday Night Live' has Cameron Diaz as host.
ABC runs out the James Bond franchise with 'For Your Eyes Only'.
The WB has the movie 'Great Balls Of Fire'.
Faux, as is tradition, has 2 reruns of 'Cops', and then an episode of 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has a night of sitcom reruns - 'The Hughleys', 'One On One', 'The Parkers', and 'Girlfriends'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Tour Will Carry On
The Who
The two surviving members of veteran rock band The Who will carry on with their North American tour despite the death of the group's bassist, John Entwistle, the group said on Friday.
In a surprise announcement issued by their management, lead singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend said the tour would open on Monday at the Hollywood
Bowl in Los Angeles "as a tribute to John Entwistle and to the loss of an irreplaceable friend."
"The Entwistle family is in full support of the decision to continue and feel this is what John would have wanted," the statement added.
Entwistle's son, Christopher, added that his father "lived for music and will always live within The Who's music. This is what he would have wished, and our love goes out to the
remaining band members and the entourage that makes up The Who family."
Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle originally were slated to launch a three-month, 24-venue tour on Friday in Las Vegas with an ensemble that included drummer Zak Starkey, son of
former Beatle Ringo Starr. That show was canceled, along with a concert slated for Saturday in Irvine, California.
The surviving band members will now launch their tour in Hollywood, with the Las Vegas and Irvine shows to be rescheduled later, the band's managers said.
A source close to the band told Reuters Thursday night that a devastated Daltrey and Townshend spent several hours in Los Angeles after learning of their bandmate's death. Entwistle had arrived in Las Vegas ahead
of the others to open a traveling exhibition of his artwork.
Tributes to the bearded, taciturn musician poured in from around the world on Friday.
For a lot more, The Who
John Entwistle Bonus Page
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Colombia's President Andres Pastrana smile during a performance by a popular music group in Rafael Nunez airport in
Cartagena, 405 miles north of Bogota, Colombia, Friday, June 28, 2002. Clinton, who arrived Friday, and Pastrana are scheduled to address a conference on
how the private sector can help Colombia resolve it long-simmering civil war, in which roughly 3,500 people are killed every year.
Photo by Javier Galeano
Re: Bill Cosby
Sharon Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, is lashing back at Bill Cosby for calling her clan "a sad, sad family."
"How dare he?" Sharon says in next week's National Enquirer. "Bill Cosby is an old fuddy-duddy from a totally different generation," she adds. "His
time has come and gone. He just can't stand to see another family get popular on TV."
But Cosby isn't alone in dissing Ozzy. Fellow Brit rocker David Bowie tells Gear magazine: "Ozzy has become this junk-culture thing. That massive
and overwhelming kind of publicity, does that exponentially do anything to the album? You become Pamela Anderson. And you don't actually do anything but you're huge."
Sharon Osbourne
Useful Link
Who Controls The Media
Digital TV Project: Who Controls the Media
2,198th Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame
Michael York
Award-winning actor Michael York touches his star, the 2,198th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Friday, June 28, 2002. York plays Basil Exposition in the upcoming ''Austin Powers Goldmember.''
Photo by Nick Ut
Steve Buscemi & Rob Schneider
Adam Sandler
There's a reason why you always see Steve Buscemi and Rob Schneider in Adam Sandler's movies. They're his friends.
Both appear in Sandler's latest film, "Mr. Deeds," and the 35-year-old comic said he prefers to surround himself with people he's worked with before.
"I trust them. I know how funny they are," Sandler told reporters. "Buscemi popping on screen for a second, you know he's going to crush. Schneider crushes."
Schneider, a fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum, has appeared in "Little Nicky," "Big Daddy" and "The Waterboy." Buscemi, an Oscar nominee this year
for "Ghost World," had a memorable turn in "The Wedding Singer" as a best man giving a very drunk toast. Buscemi also appeared in "Billy Madison" and "Big Daddy."
Adam Sandler
Original Title Was ''Notre Dame de Paris''
'The Bellringer of Notre Dame'
A British theater company has dropped the word hunchback from its stage adaptation of the classic novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to avoid offending disabled people, newspapers reported Friday.
Oddsocks Productions has renamed its touring production "The Bellringer of Notre Dame" after discussions with a disability adviser raised the possibility of offending people with spina
bifida or the disfiguring scoliosis of the spine.
French author Victor Hugo's classic 1831 novel, set in 15th century Paris around the cathedral of Notre Dame, tells the tragic story of a deformed bellringer Quasimodo and his love for a beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda.
The novel has been translated into 20 languages and adapted several times for the stage and screen -- including a 1939 Hollywood film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara.
The original title of the novel was "Notre Dame de Paris," but its name was changed when the book was translated into English and the hunchback has remained part of the title until now.
'The Bellringer of Notre Dame'
Poor Catherine Oxenberg
Robert Evans
Legendary movie producer Robert Evans is finally 'fessing up about his bizarro 10-day marriage to "Dynasty" vixen Catherine Oxenberg. Evans attributes the quick collapse of the marriage
to his addiction to prescription drugs following his three strokes in 1998. "I was high on legal drugs, lethal drugs, and I was very romantic," Evans tells Foxnews.com's Roger Friedman. "It
wasn't Catherine's fault. I fooled her." Oxenberg has since remarried to chiseled chucklehead Casper Van Dien, while Evans is busy promoting his documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and
writing a second memoir, "The Fat Lady Sings."
Robert Evans
Fun Link
Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments
Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments
Halted Production Of ''Tough Enough''
Kelsey Grammer
"Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer has managed to halt production on MTV's World Wrestling Entertainment series "Tough Enough" in Malibu.
Grammer and his neighbors in Malibu's Broad Beach objected to MTV's request to tape the reality show -- which follows a group of young hardbodies as they train to become future
WWE stars -- at a home in the neighborhood this summer for 60 days.
"After some very unconvincing assurances that our privacy would be respected, we took this action," Grammer said.
WWE spokesman Jason Bernstein said the production had already spent somewhere in the low six figures on pre-production at the house and had pushed production back two weeks to avoid the July 4 weekend.
MTV and WWE won't be able to recoup those costs and may have to delay production further as the companies look for a new home for "Tough Enough," which is entering its third season.
Apparently, the Malibu City Council doesn't share the same respect for the WWE and MTV. According to community newspaper the Malibu Times, councilman Ken Kearsley had some choice advice for the production.
"The can go to 818 country (in Los Angeles' non-chic San Fernando Valley) and fog the window," he reportedly said. "They can put some sand in a parking lot and call it a beach."
Kelsey Grammer
(Just to let you know, that last statement is an insult of the first magnitude, in the LA-pecking-order of 'good' area codes. On the other hand, when I first moved to the Valley, it was 213, and so was the 'bu. Funny how Mr. Grammer's forgotten his North Hollywood days, with the dead cars in his front yard...)
Piggy-Back Ride Home
Space Shuttle Endeavour
The Space Shuttle Endeavour, mounted securely atop one of NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, takes off from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California at sunrise on June 28, 2002.
The shuttle is en route Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Recipient Of Marian Anderson Award
Danny Glover
Actor and human rights activist Danny Glover will be the fifth recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, which honors artists whose leadership benefits humanity.
Glover is this year's recipient because of his work as an artist and a humanitarian, Mayor John F. Street announced Thursday.
The award is named for Marian Anderson, the late opera singer and Philadelphia native who was the first black performer to entertain at the White House.
"I am both honored and proud to be acknowledged with an award that bears the name of such an extraordinary artist and role model for social change," said Glover, who has served
as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program and board chairman of TransAfrica Forum, a think tank specializing in African and Caribbean issues.
The first recipient of the award was Harry Belafonte in 1998, followed by Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor and Quincy Jones.
Danny Glover
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Admittedly Drunk On Leno
Tom Green
Jay Leno was only slightly shaken, but definitely not stirred Wednesday night when guest Tom Green got seriously drunk on "The Tonight Show."
From the moment he came on the set, the eccentric comedian - best known for his MTV series and his marriage to Drew Barrymore, both of which were short-lived - began
downing multiple shots of Jagermeister, the 70-proof German liqueur in the squarish dark green bottle.
He was well-spoken during the first portion of his appearance, but by the end of the segment, he had begun to mumble incoherently.
In the segment that followed, Leno's next guest - young actress Rosario Dawson from "Men in Black II" - had to continually fend off Green as he leaned over the arm
of her chair and made faces at the camera. He even spilled part of a shot-glassful of Jagermeister on the actress's dress.
While Leno looked surprised at times at the volume of Green's consumption, a "Tonight Show" spokeswoman said Green's plan to see what it was like to get drunk on
the show was known to Leno and his producers before the show began.
Tom Green
Fun Link
Pictorial History Of Cones
Pictorial History Of Cones
Unveil Freud Plaques
The Cleeses
In London to film his role as a nearly headless ghost, actor John Cleese was all cerebral Friday as he unveiled a commemorative plaque at the home of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.
Cleese's wife, psychotherapist Alice Faye Cleese, unveiled a second plaque at the house for her teacher, Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychoanalysis.
The plaques on the Freuds' home were of the blue type placed on buildings of cultural or historic significance in the United Kingdom, usually carrying the dates a famous person lived there.
Freud was a "great anglophile," said Cleese, a patron of the Freud Museum. "He liked England enormously. He wrote that despite the fog and rain, the drunkenness and conservatism, it appealed to him."
The Cleeses
New Series On Sci-Fi Channel
Shannen Doherty
Shannen Doherty will host "Scare Tactics," a "Candid Camera"-style show from the producers of NBC's "Spy TV," that's set to debut in October as a weekly primetime
series, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
The show will film pranks inspired by sci-fi movies, with jokes ranging from alien abductions to haunted houses.
Shannen Doherty
Another Sale Completed
Faux Duopoly In 9 Markets
In a deal worth $425 million in cash, Fox Entertainment Group and Fox Television stations have acquired Chicago television station WPWR from Newsweb Corp., gaining a second station
in the nation's third-largest market.
Fox already owns and operates Fox-affiliated WFLD Chicago.
With the acquisition, Fox will have duopolies in nine markets, including the top three -- New York, Los Angeles and the Windy City.
"The acquisition of WPWR continues our strategy of creating duopolies in major U.S. television markets," said Lachlan Murdoch, News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, in a statement.
"In those markets where we already operate two stations, we've started to see the benefits of our duopoly strategy in the form of increased profit margins, better-quality news and
entertainment for viewers and improved offerings to advertisers," Murdoch added.
Faux Duopoly In 9 Markets
BartCop TV!
2nd Career
Harry Connick Sr.
Move over, son. Harry Connick Sr. is coming to New Jersey to pay tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes.
Connick, the district attorney in New Orleans, will perform in this shore town Saturday in "A Salute to the Music of Frank Sinatra." Connick will sing some of Sinatra's most
well-known tunes, including "Come Fly With Me," "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Strangers in the Night."
The elder Connick announced in March that he would not run for a sixth term, ending a three-decade career in which he crusaded against French Quarter prostitution, championed
the death penalty and fended off federal charges of corruption.
Harry Connick Sr.
National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
Coffin Of Paduamen
A member of the media studies the Anthropoid coffin of Paduamen, which is part of an exhibit titled "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt," during a
press review at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. June 28, 2002. The exhibit, which runs in Washington June 30 - October 14, 2002, represents the largest
group of antiquities ever loaned by Egypt for exhibition in North America.
Photo by Molly Riley
Bill Would Rock Radio
Russell Feingold
Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) trained his legislative guns Thursday on the rapidly consolidating radio and concert promotion industries, unveiling a bill designed to kick-start
competition in those markets and curb the power of sector giants like industry leader Clear Channel Communications.
The Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act seeks to address a host of problems that Feingold said have arisen as part of the unprecedented growth in market concentration
the last six years.
Among them are market dominance, high barriers to entry for independent players, high ticket prices for concertgoers and a "shakedown" system in radio promotion whereby radio
station owners extract large sums from record labels for playing their music.
The bill would give the Federal Communications Commission a mandate to pull the license of radio stations that use "cross-ownership of promotion services or venues" to muscle
artists or industry rivals out of the market. More broadly, it would direct the FCC to keep a close eye on market concentration and put a cap at current levels
on local-market ownership rules, preventing future expansion.
The legislation also calls for stricter interpretation of federal "payola" regulations to eliminate a station's ability to be influenced by payments from record labels or independent
promoters without on-air disclosure of the arrangement.
For the rest, Russell Feingold
Interesting Link
Scoop
Scoop
Not A T-Shirt Kind Of Guy?
Tommy Lee Jones
Loud-mouthed Longhorn Tommy Lee Jones goes ballistic if he comes into contact with T-shirts or clothing labels. In town promoting "Men in Black II" earlier this week, Jones made
some bizarre demands during a photo shoot and interview for Entertainment Weekly at the City Club hotel. "Tommy Lee's publicist walked into the room and immediately said, 'Get
rid of all T-shirts - if he even sees one, he'll walk off set,' " reports our source. After the T-shirt demand was seen to, the stylists had to snip all labels out of the clothing
Jones was to wear because "labels freak him out," the snitch adds. Once his strange requests were met the interview went swimmingly. But at an MTV shoot in Los Angeles earlier this
month, Jones' behavior was so horrific that the interviewer was overheard telling colleagues, "I wish I had the b- - -s to air the outtakes, to prove what a bastard he is." "I made
the recommendation for the EW shoot," Jones' rep admits. "Tommy Lee is just not a T-shirt or label kind of guy. [But] I thought the MTV interview went very well."
Tommy Lee Jones
World Cup Soccer
Frei Bier
A number of Berlin taverns are planning to offer patrons free beer if Germany beats Brazil in the World Cup final on Sunday.
Berlin newspapers are filled with lists of local bars planning to open the kegs if three-time champions Germany beat heavily favoured Brazil.
"Beer, men, football -- they just fit together perfectly," Marlen Thiem of "Malibu Dream" told Reuters on Friday. She said a free round
of beer for all of the 200 expected fans will be tapped every time Germany shoots a goal.
Free Beer In Berlin
Andean God Of Abundance
Ekeko
Coca growers candidate Evo Morales of MAS (Movement for Socialism) holds the figure of the Ekeko, the Andean God of abundance, in this file picture taken June 10, 2002 in La Paz. Bolivia´s election was thrown into controversy after the U.S. embassy told Bolivians
not to vote for a candidate who encourages coca production like Morales. Bolivia´s election authority criticized the United States for meddling in the election.
Photo by David Mercado
A Dialogue With
Bill Maher
by Scott Collins
Even for someone paid to say provocative things, Bill Maher has had a rough year. His controversial remarks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on "Politically Incorrect," the late-night talk show he has
hosted since January 1997 on ABC (and before that on Comedy Central), led major advertisers and affiliates to abandon the program. After ABC's failed effort to woo David Letterman, the network pulled the
plug on "PI," which ends its run tonight. Maher, who recently launched his own Web site, billmaher.tv, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Collins about "PI's" cancellation, his relations with ABC and his beef with Ted Koppel.
The Hollywood Reporter: Will you have any special message for viewers on the last show?
Bill Maher: (Laughs) You mean like, my next move? Is that what you're asking, sneakily? That's what everyone keeps asking me. (The last show is) gonna be a very intimate, personal, sentimental journey, I think.
I'm gonna be sitting there with the four people who became my best friends from the show, which was hard to narrow down because I made a lot of good friends on this show.
THR: Will (ABC entertainment chairman) Lloyd Braun be there?
Maher: (Laughs again) Lloyd Braun is not my enemy. Everyone thinks he should be. But my suspicion is that he was just carrying out an order from higher than he. He's got a boss, too. I'm sure more than
one because ABC has a lot of executives. You could never quite keep track of how many executives, you know. As I've said before, I cleaned out my office in September. I just knew that they were gonna get rid of me.
THR: What did you think of the "Nightline"-Letterman fiasco?
Maher: I was insulted on behalf of my audience because the press wrote about everything except the fact that it also affected us. You would think that we weren't half of the "Nightline" hour.
THR: And about Ted Koppel?
Maher: Well, Ted Koppel was obviously never much of a friend to our show. When we were brought aboard by ABC, there was a big corporate synergy hullabaloo that was going on: "Oooh, this is gonna
be a great seamless move, right from the real hard news of 'Nightline' to the comedy news of 'Politically Incorrect.' " It was a good idea, but Ted never really played ball with that. I remember
even in the very beginning having discussions about, "Gee, maybe we should talk to 'Nightline' every night and find out what issue they're doing because then we could do the same topic." Looking
back, it's like who was kidding who? Can you imagine how David Letterman's head would explode if CBS said to him, "Dave, the show that's on before you is gonna run over pretty much whenever they feel like it."
THR: So you never really formed your own relationship with Koppel.
Maher: No. We tried at first, and it soon became apparent that the relationship was pretty much going to be: "We're gonna go over (schedule) whenever we want to, and now that you're bugging the
network about that, you're our enemy." But I refused to take it lying down. We would complain.
THR: To the network?
Maher: Absolutely. But it's funny: Ted Koppel was this sacred cow. It struck me that they wouldn't even really address it with him. And then suddenly, this year, when they're losing a fortune,
suddenly he becomes a cow that's not sacred anymore; in fact, it's one we can slaughter.
THR: How much do you think your remarks on the Sept. 17 show -- when you said that the U.S. launching of missiles from 2,000 miles away was "cowardly" -- had to do with your show being axed?
Maher: One hundred percent. I had lunch with the president of the network shortly before that, and we had a nice discussion.
THR: This is Alex Wallau?
Maher: Yes, who I like a lot also. And it was a very nice lunch. We kind of talked about some of the things that I didn't think I was getting that we needed in the show, in a very friendly way.
THR: Like what things?
Maher: Well, like promotion. Like the fact that there was six minutes of commercials between "Nightline" and us. The fact that we weren't cleared in Chicago, the second-biggest market. "The Oprah
Winfrey Show" was on between "Nightline" and us. We were not cleared live, which is ridiculous for an O&O. I said, "You know, the show can't ever get much bigger as long as there are no or very few
promotions for it." What he basically said was, "Look, we understand that the show can only get so big with what we're doing for it. But we're OK with that." And I said, "Well then, I'm OK with that."
THR: And after Sept. 17?
Maher: (Laughs) Well, I got fired. So obviously, do the math.
THR: What messages were you getting from the network after Sept. 17?
Maher: There were no messages. After 9/17, it was like I didn't really exist anymore. We went from very few promotions to none. Like we were some sort of mistress who they were still keeping
in an apartment but they didn't want anybody to know about. Which was a shame because there was nothing ever to be ashamed of. In fact, they should have been more proud of the show than ever.
THR: Before Sept. 17, had the network ever asked you to tone down your opinions?
Maher: Yes. There were four or five times. I don't want to go through the things I said because I don't want to dig up all the old graves. But yeah, there were times. They didn't say it
directly, but they told my producers, and my producers said to me, "They really think that that was inappropriate." And I was like, "Well, I'm sorry, I don't mean to make anybody's job
harder, but that's my belief, and I'm gonna have to say the things that I believe." That's sort of the show they bought, and I guess they thought I was kidding with that title when
they bought the show. But I wasn't kidding.
THR: As the controversy broke, how did you feel? Were you depressed?
Maher: I wasn't depressed. I was angry that (critics) were twisting my words and taking advantage of tricks to get rid of me, and that it was working and that it did work. People
should be angry about that. The thing that made me most angry was that I was probably the most pro-military commentator on television for all my years on the air, way before it was cool.
THR: What about White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who when asked about your comments said that people needed to "watch what they say."
Maher: Right. And years from now, when they forget what I said, they'll remember that much more. It's coming from the White House, and it's one of the creepiest things that
has ever come from a White House in a democracy.
THR: Do you see a parallel with the Smothers Brothers, who were canceled 30 years ago by CBS partly over their political humor?
Maher: Yeah, it's sort of similar. I think the interesting point about that and what I said is that timing, timing is really the key point when you're discussing free speech.
It's not that the Smothers Brothers said something that everyone in America doesn't agree with today. What they said was, the Vietnam War is a waste, and we shouldn't be there.
But it's funny: When you're ahead of your time with what you say, nobody really pats you on the back when they all catch up. It's not like they turn around and go, "Oh, you know
what? You actually were right. Come back to work."
THR: After 9/11, pundits said irony was dead and Americans would start caring about world events. Turns out they were wrong. Why?
Maher: Because it's gonna take a lot more than knocking down the World Trade Center and bombing the Pentagon for Americans to change. And there's a truism
that people get mad at me for saying, too, but it's absolutely true. I mean, my God, we're back to worrying about sharks and Gary Condit, for crissakes.
THR: What will you do next? There's talk of another cable series.
Maher: That is just something -- I'm not being coy -- I just can't talk about.
THR: Can't because you don't know, or can't because you don't want to?
Maher: Part of it is I don't know, and part of it is I don't want to. It's premature, and I just can't at this point. And really, what I want to do is take a long vacation.
THR: You picked four guests for the last show: Arianna Huffington, Ann Coulter, Christopher "Kid" Reid and Michelle Phillips. Why them?
Maher: Because they're the people who became my best friends (on the show). Could we have booked four bigger names? Yeah, but that was never what the show was about. People
in the press, especially, often missed the point of the show because they often criticized or looked down their nose at "Boy, they don't get the A-list celebrities." Well,
not very often, but we got A-list people.
THR: Are you sorry to be leaving ABC?
Maher: Sorry? No. I'm not sorry. But I'm not in the least bit bitter, either. I had a real good run there. And I do not lose sight of the fact that that was a great piece of real estate in television.
THR: Do you ever think you'll see a piece of real estate like that again?
Maher: I think I could see a better one.
Dialogue With Bill Maher
Still Seeking Volunteers
'The Osbournes'
Freshly updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2 !
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
C'mon....send your thoughts, your impressions, your views, your favorite quotes...
Scroll down for lots of addys to pick from (or 'from which to pick', for the truly anal retentive).
