Page Six: Olbermann Went Nuts Over First Class DC Train Ticket, Ketchup Packets At Kennedy Center; Olbermann Denies
The ongoing feud between Keith Olbermann and the New York Post's Page Six continues. The gossip column ran an item in Wednesday's paper reporting that Olbermann threw a tantrum because there were no first-class train tickets available to bring him from New York to Washington, where he would anchor MSNBC's coverage of Tim Russert's memorial. Later, when he arrived, he "went apoplectic because there were no ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center." From Page Six:
The source said Olbermann was screaming into the phone on Tuesday because there were no first-class train tickets available for that day, and he wanted to make sure he would ride first-class on Wednesday. According to the source, Olbermann berated a staffer who was coordinating Wednesday's Kennedy Center memorial by yelling, "You better hope to God there is a first-class train ticket tomorrow."
Our insider elaborated, "MSNBC was dealing with who could come to the private ceremony Tuesday and who couldn't, among the hundreds of people who worked with or for Russert - and Keith was ranting about not getting a first-class ticket."
We're told Olbermann didn't get to Tuesday's ceremony, and went to Washington by car to broadcast from outside the Kennedy Center the next day. An aghast witness there said, "As guests were making their way into the memorial, Keith went apoplectic because there were no ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center."
Olbermann was heard saying outside the service, "this place is going to hell," because his Washington staff couldn't find ketchup packets for lunch at the Center. An NBC insider claimed, however, "Keith did not have lunch at the Kennedy Center and was not eating on the set because he was anchoring a broadcast."
Continuing his new tradition of preemptively disputing Page Six items about him the night before they air, Olbermann used Tuesday's "Countdown" to name Page Six's Corynne Steindler one of his "Worst Persons in the World" (she got the bronze, while her News Corp cousin Bill O'Reilly nabbed the top two spots). Olbermann called the story "fictional" and insisted that he took a car both ways to and from DC and only drank a Starbucks at the Kennedy Center (which meant he needed no ketchup).
"You guys, you're kind of embarrassing yourself now," Olbermann said to Page Six, echoing his rep's statement: "Since whatever you're going to print is an outright lie, you can go ahead and write whatever you want. That's on the record and applies to all future items you might make up."
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Huffington Post | June 25, 2008 08:59 AM