Ellen Degeneres on The Huffington Post

Lady Gaga On 'Ellen': I Was A Freak In High School

2009-11-25T08:58:08Z

"I didn't fit in in high school and I felt like a freak," she tells Ellen DeGeneres in an interview to air Friday. "So I like to create this atmosphere for my fans where they feel like they have a freak in me to hang out with and they don't feel alone."

Oprah's Replacement: Who Should Be The Next King/Queen Of Daytime TV? (POLL)

2009-11-20T15:15:44Z

Oprah's announcement that she will give up her syndicated talk show in 2011 after 25 years on the air leaves an enormous hole: who will be the next king or queen of daytime TV?

Below are some of the names that immediately come to mind as potential heirs to Oprah's throne:

Michael Bialas: No Grinch will ruin Carrie Underwood's Holiday

2009-11-19T18:11:59Z

The Fox network is wishing you -- the home television viewer -- a very Carrie Christmas. And they're gift-wrapping two hours of entertainment in a special package titled Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special that will air December 7 (8-10 p.m. ET/PT).

Of course, Fox, the network that brings you American Idol, has the gift that keeps on giving with Underwood. The country vixen from Checotah, Oklahoma, who broke through to national fame by winning the fourth season of A.I., has reason to be in the holiday spirit.

Her third album, Play On, was released November 3 (19 Recordings/Arista Nashville) and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and she's making all the talk show rounds this week, from Conan O'Brien on Monday to Ellen Degeneres (Wednesday) and Jimmy Kimmel (Thursday).

Last week, she completed her second straight stint co-hosting the Country Music Association Awards show with Brad Paisley, performing "Cowboy Casanova" in hot pants (one of her 10 costume changes), cracking jokes, and taking a not-so-subtle shot at Taylor Swift nemesis Kanye West ("Brad's idea," Underwood said on The Tonight Show).

If only those Grinches disguised as tabloid gossips weren't around to spill the eggnog. Underwood, during a Monday conference call to promote her special, took time to set the record straight when asked about the ending of the very entertaining CMAs last week.

"I just want to say that was really hurtful," Underwood said of tabloid reports and Internet gossip that she was miffed with Swift's runaway success that night and interrupted Paisley's closing comments in order to turn the spotlight back on herself. "My brain would never operate that way at all. I have so much respect for every single person that is in that room. Whether they're, I mean 'cause most of the people there are in the music industry. They are part of it. I would never dream of doing anything like that."

Underwood, 26, only received two CMA nominations this year, but had the chance to win Female Vocalist of the Year for the fourth consecutive time. The streak ended as the 19-year-old Swift won en route to sweeping all four categories in which she was nominated, including Entertainer of the Year. She became the first woman since Shania Twain in 1999 to capture the CMA's most prestigious honor. Swift's all-male competition included Underwood's co-host, along with Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Keith Urban.

At the end of the show, Underwood is seen hugging Swift in the background as Paisley takes center stage to wrap it up. "How 'bout that? Nineteen years old ... Congratulations, Taylor. What a night. I can't even imagine a better ... night than this."

Still clapping, Underwood returns. When Paisley briefly pauses after the word "better," she jumps in, "And how were we? We were awesome," she says with glee, offering a hearty laugh while the crowd applauds. Paisley ends with "Thank you for coming everybody. God bless you," while Underwood, smiling broadly and waving, adds, "Good night, everybody. Thank you so much. Good night."

It's hard to believe someone would mistake Underwood for a sore loser after watching that. Yet she witnessed a similarly misguided stance at the CMAs three years ago, when Faith Hill was taken to task for expressing mock anger after losing to Underwood in the female vocalist category.

Hill even released a statement through her publicist in response to her suddenly harsh critics. "The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me. For this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving female vocalist of the year."

This time around, it was Underwood who had to defend herself.

"Like I said, my brain does not work that way ... And it was really, really hurtful to see such a great night and such a great moment be turned into trash ... And it made me sadder for ... I feel like stuff like that kind of takes away anybody's moment more than, I don't know, more than anything else. Because that's turning somebody's great moment into a tabloid headline. And it's sad."

And it's a shame Underwood felt she needed to address it Monday while closing out an otherwise joyous occasion. After all, her variety special should be worth celebrating. The show will include performances from her new album, along with previous hits and holiday classics. Guest stars include Paisley, Dolly Parton, fellow American Idol champion David Cook and -- for comedic relief -- Kristin Chenoweth and Christina Applegate. (Underwood, middle, performs with Chenoweth, left, and Applegate.)

Earlier in the call, Underwood was asked about her relationship with Paisley, who performs on his own and with his CMA co-host for the upcoming special, although he couldn't be in Los Angeles for the taping. "Brad and I have a bit of a history together; I got to co-headline a tour with him not too long ago; he's just a great guy ... The more we're around each other, the more we get comfortable with each other. Things just get better and better ... It was a lot of fun co-hosting the CMAs again. I felt like we did a good job. I was really proud of both of us for managing to, I don't know, not cause any major problems (laughing, perhaps not knowing what was yet to come). It was just a lot of fun.

"From a host standpoint, it makes three hours fly by."

Underwood said two of her favorite moments on the special were with Parton and Cook.

Underwood was also happy to say "Hello Dolly" for the first time. Expect what she calls "an impromptu, fun moment," with the fun-loving country legend. "I never met her before this so I was so excited to get to talk to her and obviously get to sing with her. It was a dream come true," Underwood said "... [W]hen Dolly's there, you kind of step out of the spotlight, and let her do her thing because no matter how hard you try, she's going to steal the spotlight. She's great; that's the way it should be." (Parton, left, is shown with a well-endowed Underwood, right.)

Of Cook, 2008's American Idol winner, she said, "We sing together; the first time we sang together was last year -- was it last year? -- gosh, it seems like a long time ago. At the opening in Disney World of the American Idol attraction. They asked us to sing together and we did and it was like, 'Hey this is really good; this feels really good.' So, we kinda rocked out for a minute. And got to sing together again. It was probably one of my favorite moments in the show because I just love him to death."

She also continues to hold a special place in her heart for the show, even though it has been more than four years since she defeated Bo Bice for the title. Asked if she still watches, Underwood exclaimed, "Of course. I will always have just the biggest love for American Idol as a participant and as a fan. And now, you know, it's so crazy for me to watch it and think, 'Oh my gosh, I was on that show.' I love the people on it, I love the people working on it, I love to go back and talk to the contestants; and, I mean, I feel ... I vote, too, just like everybody else I sit out there and I vote. So it's great to understand being a fan and being a participant, I get to see both sides."

Among other recent American Idol performers, Underwood said she enjoys Season eight winner Kris Allen, who's from Conway, Arkansas ("He seemed really genuine and he was kinda from my neck of the woods"), and Danny Gokey ("just the sweetest person").

While her iPod includes everything from classic rock groups such as the Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival to more eclectic choices, including Ne-Yo and Thousand Foot Krutch ("They're people that deserve more credit than they get"), Underwood also said it's filled with "a lot of other Idols."

Her Idol worship notwithstanding, Underwood offers firm words of advice to those alums still trying to make it in the music business. "Any contestant that comes off Idol that does well on Idol has to make sure they know what people voted for," said the blond singer who is the best-selling American Idol winner with more than 10 million albums purchased. "I've seen it happen a few times where people are one thing on the show and then they get off the show and try to do something else. And it's really strange because Idol is one of those things that ... they're telling you what they want. People are telling you, 'We love this person as is.' And it's the best testing forum that you can possibly have.

"So I think it's really important to remember why people voted for you. And, of course, cross your fingers and say a little prayer and hope that people dig what you're doing."

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.

Credits
• Photos from Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special by Michael Becker/Fox.
• CMA Awards photos by Rick Diamond/Getty Images.

Don McNay: President Obama's Entrepreneurial Mindset

2009-11-16T14:07:48Z

I can give you
anything but time

-Elvis
Costello

I'm sometimes critical of President Obama because it often seems to me that he doesn't understand people like me – an owner of a small
business in a small town.

I have not seen much evidence of Obama being in touch with
small-town
Kentucky, but
after reading David Plouffe's new book, The
Audacity to Win, I have become
convinced that he knows what it takes to run a business.

I'm a devoted student of Dan Sullivan, the “Strategic Coach" for
entrepreneurs. I went through Sullivan’s program in Toronto. Dan has devoted
his life to helping entrepreneurs become better at their craft. I am convinced that President
Obama operated his 2008 Presidential
campaign with a classic entrepreneurial mindset.

Common
traits of successful entrepreneurs include setting
seemingly impossible goals and challenging conventional wisdom.

Planning to be President of the United
States is a pretty high goal.
Especially for a guy who had been an Illinois state legislator just five years
ago.

When history goes back to studying the Obama
campaign, it will compare it to the William Jennings Bryan campaign of 1896 or
Ross Perot's in 1992. Those unconventional
styles of
campaigning set the standard for every
campaign after them.

No one focused on Larry King before Ross Perot did.
Now,
all candidates find their way to Larry, Leno, Dave, Ellen, Tyra and Oprah.

Now, every campaign is going to organize and raise
money using the
Obama model.

Like a Steven Jobs or Bill Gates, Obama changed the dynamic.

But unlike
Bryan and Perot,
Obama won.

And he
did in classic entrepreneurial fashion. He developed a campaign plan that
exploited
opportunities that seemed crazy to "Washington insiders.”

It was the same way Steven Jobs and Bill Gates seemed crazy to IBM and Xerox. Or the way that Google seemed crazy to Microsoft.

A good entrepreneur takes what "the
professionals" see as disadvantages and turns them into advantages.

Jimmy Carter had one of the most innovative
campaigns of
the modern era. People laughed when an unemployed, former governor of a Southern
state decided to be president. Carter understood that being unemployed
allowed him to campaign full time, and that being Southern allowed him to connect to a large segment of
the population who didn't want George Wallace as the primary symbol of southern
politics.

Obama took the unconventional candidate theory to a new
extreme. We have not had many senators become president, and especially not many one-term senators. I can't think of another president who was raised by an unmarried,
single mother. I’m sure
Obama is the first president born in Hawaii. He’s younger than all but a
handful of presidents and has an unusual name.

Also, did I mention that
he is African-American?

As Plouffe's book points out, Obama's
"negatives," like Jimmy Carter's negatives, turned out to be
positives.

Plouffe noted that among people who voted in the 2004 George W. Bush- John
Kerry election, Obama beat McCain by only a 50% to 49% margin. Depending on how
the electoral votes would have played out, Obama could have narrowly won, narrowly lost or faced the
same fate as Al Gore.

Instead, a huge turnout by African-Americans and younger voters propelled Obama to a landslide victory.

Obama did not run the
campaign by conventional rules. He
developed his own rules and made them work for him.

It’s tough to challenge conventional wisdom. Everyone wants to tell
you what you are doing wrong.

Programs like the Strategic Coach teach
entrepreneurs to develop written goals and to have ways to measure how people are progressing
towards those goals.

Plouffe noted the discipline exhibited
by the Obama campaign in sticking to their game plan.
The early campaign was roundly criticized by "experts" who didn't see the same
vision that the Obama people saw.

I was impressed by how they were able to use matrices to measure
every aspect of the campaign, like fundraising, organizing and coordinating, to track how successfully the campaign was meeting its plan.

It has been said that anything that
can be measured, can be obtained. In Obama's case, that
included the Presidency of the United States.

Dan Sullivan built most of his
coaching philosophy around something called the "entrepreneurial time
system." An entrepreneur's time is the
most precious resource of any business, and it needs to be treated as such.

I've seen way too many political candidates and business people
try to be everywhere, doing everything, and who wind up being nowhere and
getting nothing much done.

Until I read The Audacity to Win, I had no idea how
much campaign focus was directed
to proper use of Omaba's time. Time was also scheduled for the
candidate to relax and spend time with his family. There was a lot of pressure
to have Obama go to outside debates and rallies, but the plan called for him to stay focused on the Iowa primary and never to waver from
his central message.

His highly favored primary opponent, Hillary
Clinton, did not manage her time as
well and had a litany of campaign messages. Obama against Clinton was like
watching an energetic start-up go against a bureaucratic
mega-corporation.

We all rooted for David over Goliath. Entrepreneurs are those who
can look at Goliath and recognize
that a giant can be taken down.

Just like Barack Obama took the Presidency.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is
one of the world's leading authorities in helping people deal with “Big
Money” issues.

McNay
is an award winning, syndicated financial columnist and
Huffington Post Contributor.

You can read more about Don at www.donmcnay.com

McNay
founded McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement and financial
consulting firm, in 1983 and Kentucky Guardianship Administrators LLC
in 2000. You can read more about both at www.mcnay.com

McNay
has Master's Degrees from Vanderbilt and the American College and is in the
Eastern Kentucky University Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

McNay
has written two books. Most recent is Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers
and What to Do When You Win The Lottery

McNay
is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table and has four
professional designations in the financial services field.

A-List Celebs Line Up For Concert For Autism

2009-11-12T12:15:56Z

What do Jerry Seinfeld, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump have in common? They, along with a bunch of other A-List celebrities are making appearances at the Autism Speaks Concert For Autism on November 17 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

This year's star-studded event will feature comedian Jerry Seinfeld, with a special appearance by "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen. The evening will be hosted by NBC's Meet the Press moderator, David Gregory, on November 17, at world famous landmark Carnegie Hall. Your participation in this global cause will benefit the families and individuals who live with autism every day by supporting research, awareness and family services initiatives.

We love celebrities supporting a good cause and this one has no dearth of them: Jamie Foxx, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Conan O'Brien, Seth Rogen, Martha Stewart, Katie Couric, Meredith Vieira, Glenn Close, Celine Dion, Will Ferrell, Edie Falco, Troy Aikman, and Harry Smith are a few of the many committee members supporting the event.

Larry King even twittered about the event earlier today.

Read more about the event at Autismspeaks.org or see if you can snag a few last minute tickets by e-mailing ConcertforAutism@AutismSpeaks.org. The site has some great information about autism and how it affects children and families.

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Ellen Degeneres: I'll Be With Portia De Rossi Until The Day I Die (VIDEO)

2009-11-09T14:34:35Z

Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi visited Oprah Monday for their first interview as a married couple.

"This is the smartest, kindest, most wonderful woman that you'll ever, ever know," Ellen gushed as she introduced her wife.

Oprah asked Portia when she knew Ellen was the one.

"When I first laid eyes on her," Portia said. "But it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her, because I was on 'Ally McBeal' at the time and wasn't living as an openly gay person. I was closeted and very very afraid that if I talked about being gay it would be the end of my career. So I wasn't about to date the most famous lesbian in the world."

Ellen and Portia first planned to have a commitment ceremony, but gay marriage became legal in California in time for them to have a legally recognized wedding in August 2008--before Proposition 8 overturned the California Supreme Court's ruling for same-sex marriage.

"She's my wife, I get to say that she's my wife and that's just the way it is," said Portia.

"Anybody who's married knows there is a difference," said Ellen. "It feels like you're home. There's an anchor, there's a safety. I'm going to be with her until the day I die and I know that."

WATCH:

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Eating Animals : Jonathan Safran Foer Talks To Ellen About His New Book (VIDEO)

2009-11-04T14:17:37Z

Jonathan Safran Foer spoke with Ellen Degeneres today about his new book, Eating Animals, which uncovers the horrible world of factory farming. (Check out HuffPost's series of conversations about the book here!) He explained his mission writing the book, and how becoming a new father drove him to action. He also challenged environmentalists to step up to the plate -- factory farming, he said, contributes to global warming more than any other factor. What little steps can we take to changing the way we eat? Foer says the most important thing is to inform yourself, and learn as much as you can about what's going on.

WATCH:

First clip is an interview with Jonathan Safran Foer. Scroll down for Foer answering audience questions.

Ellen's (Hilarious) Ideas For Kids Halloween Costumes (VIDEO)

2009-10-27T15:55:46Z

Ellen knows the best way to viewers' hearts is to show some adorable kids. Here, some little ones show off their homemade Halloween costumes (most of which are pop-culture inspired) including my personal favorites, "Balloon Boy" and "Real Balloon Boy."

WATCH:

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Mario Lopez Bares Chest, Gets Dunked on 'Ellen' For Charity

2009-10-21T19:56:04Z

After much pleading and cajoling from Ellen DeGeneres, Mario Lopez finally agreed to take his shirt off on Ellen's show -- for a good cause, of course. Lopez bared some skin and fearlessly hopped in the dunk tank to benefit the Ellen for a Cure campaign, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Clarisonic Skin Care donated $20,000 to the organization for the dunking to promote Breast Cancer Awareness month.

WATCH:

Linda Buzzell: What the Heck Is Permaculture?

2009-10-17T14:08:05Z

Permaculture's popping up all over. It's really catching on with young green activists like Juno star Ellen Page, who recently took a break from Hollywood to talk on the Ellen DeGeneres show about her experiences studying permaculture design in an eco-village near Eugene, Oregon.

Teen Hollywood reports that Page "spent a month living on the settlement and learned how to live more simply -- and how valuable urine can be."

Page told Teen Hollywood "It's about living in a holistic way with the earth and reintegrating our lifestyles with the natural cycles ... It was amazing. Anyone at all who has a passion for it can learn about it and use it in their lives in so many different ways ... like peeing in a bucket and using it on your compost. Pee is an excellent source of nitrogen."

But what the heck IS permaculture, besides peeing into a bucket?

Permaculture is an ecological design system based on deep observation of nature, and can be applied to gardens, farms, landscapes, homes and also to "invisible systems" like communities, economies, societies, our psyches and even our spiritual practices. It's a path towards sustainable living that is patterned on the way nature works, and can be applied in rural, suburban and urban areas.

Permaculture was invented in Australia in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is just now really catching on around the planet. The word "permaculture" is an abbreviation for "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."

NaturalNews.com reports that "Permaculture is a way of living; it involves sustainability, ethics, community living, harmony with nature, appropriate technology, organic living, organic farming, etc. It is a way to integrate nature and people in the most sustainable way."

"In permaculture, ethics and design principles are used to help us make good decisions for the people and the environment." NaturalNews also tell us that Permaculture follows three ethics:

Care for the land: Actions to protect the environment and improve it. Earth should be seen as a whole.

Care for the people: It involves the physical and psychological aspects, for example providing food and shelter, natural medications, reduce daily hard work, and provide equal opportunities for all people.

Care for the future: It is very important if we want to conserve our resources. Some of the aspects that it involves are recycling, planning, cooperation not competition, supporting local economy, and the use of renewable energy and resources.

My husband and I took the Permaculture Design Course a few years ago and found it incredibly useful and eye-opening. (No peeing in a bucket during our class, though!) What we learned was that the permaculture principles can be applied to every aspect of your daily life as you move towards a happier, more nature-connected and sustainable way of living.

------

Here are a few resources for those who would like to learn more about permaculture:

The Permaculture Institute

"Greening the Desert:" an amazing video of how permaculturist Geoff Lawton turned pure desert into a lush oasis using permaculture.

Ellen Page talking about permaculture on Ellen Degeneres.

"Introduction to Permaculture" by Cathe' Fish is a 6-DVD set of her 2-day workshop with comprehensive, practical information and lavishly-illustrated slideshows. Cathe' covers principles, land, water harvesting, soil, zones, gardens, plants, guilds, bio-remediation, food forests, solar greenhouses, buildings, villages, and more. Available here.

Hollywood Cougars: Who Looks Best With Her Younger Partner? (PHOTOS, POLL)

2009-09-23T11:50:38Z

Courteney Cox plays a newly single 40-ish mother on 'Cougar Town,' which premieres Wendnesday at 9:30 EST on ABC. Cox is married to a younger man in real life, but the age difference between her and David Arquette (seven years) is nothing compared to some of these May-December couples. Which of them are perfectly matched, and which are just puzzling? You decide.

PHOTOS:

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Paula's VH1 Divas Outfits: Which Is Your Favorite? (PHOTOS, POLL)

2009-09-18T11:01:27Z

In her first televised gig since being unseated from 'American Idol,' Paula Abdul proved Thursday night at the VH1 Divas concert she is still an awesome dancer and delightfully unhinged host.

She kicked off the show with a (lip synched) medley of her vintage hits 'Straight Up,' 'Cold-Hearted Snake' and 'Forever Your Girl' with the help of a digitally-resurrected MC Skat Kat on the screen behind her for 'Opposites Attract.'

"I'm Paula Abdul, and this is not 'American Idol!'" she announced, maybe a tad too triumphantly.

Later on she shared the stage with the even loopier likes of Kathy Griffin and Liza Minelli, donning a series of short, sparkly outfits.

Paula also channeled her 'Idol' replacement Ellen Degeneres for a round of good natured mockery. "Nothing but love for Ellen, and I wish you the best of luck and congratulations on your new gig," she said. "And call me! You gotta call me if you have any Simon problems, 'cause you know, I know him best."

Take a look at Paula's diva wardrobe and vote on how well the various levels of crazy are working for her.

PHOTOS:

WATCH Paula's Ellen dance:

VH1 Divas | Divas Video

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Ed Martin: TV Tirade: Ellen DeGeneres on "American Idol," Kanye West on MTV, Jay Leno in Primetime and the End of "Guiding Light"

2009-09-17T11:03:00Z

The new television season officially begins on Monday -- and it can't get here soon enough. Perhaps the excitement of all those new shows, some of them quite promising, will take my mind off the bad decisions and boneheaded moves by network executives, powerful show-runners and ego-crazed celebrities that have dominated the medium in recent days.

My growing dismay began last week with the announcement from Fox that Ellen DeGeneres will fill the judges' seat recently vacated by Paula Abdul on American Idol. Perhaps I should pin the cause of this distress on Abdul herself for deciding to leave the show that so grandly revived what had been a career on the slide and made her very wealthy in the process. Of course, Paula's self-created public persona is that of a foggy ditz, so it really wasn't out of character or all that surprising for her to do what she did. But how can the executives at Fox allow the producers of Idol to bring DeGeneres on board? It seems so wrong in so many ways. As we learned during Idol's problem-plagued eighth season -- which succeeded only because of its terrific contestants, a group collectively more talented than any since Season 4 -- the four-judge format simply does not work!

Since its start in 2002 as a humble summer series, Idol has been all about making stars out of unknowns, and that has held true for contestants, host and judges alike. (The American viewing public had never heard of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson or Ryan Seacrest before Idol began.) Idol has never been and should never be a platform for a star of DeGeneres' magnitude. And then there is the matter of her qualifications. I am a big fan of Ellen. I think she has richly deserved every Emmy she has won for her daytime talk show. But when it comes to music and to Idol she's just another fan! What does she know about offering valuable advice to aspiring singers? I seriously do not want to hear her make jokes (or add humorous banter of any kind) after performances. That will get old wicked fast. Idol should have reverted to the three-judge format, with Cowell, Jackson and Kara DioGuardi remaining in place. DioGuardi deservedly received much harsh criticism for her wildly uneven contribution to the show last season, but as one-third of a relaxed trio (rather one-fourth of a harried quartet) perhaps she would have benefited from the breathing room and finally stepped up. For me, the arrival of Idol in January is the most exciting television event of the year. I hope Fox and friends haven't effed it up.

(On a side note, I caught the sold-out American Idols concert at the Harbor Yard Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., last week and was knocked out by the talent on stage. Michael Sarver, the first to go among the Top 10, has improved dramatically since he left the show and could have a fine career in country music. The immensely popular Danny Gokey was nothing short of spectacular and should have as successful a career as Carrie Underwood now that he has signed with a country label. Yes, he was that good. Idol winner Kris Allen was ill that evening and could not perform, though he did come out on stage to personally apologize. That made the performance by runner-up Adam Lambert the grand finale of the show. To say he didn't disappoint would be the mother of all understatements. Lambert was electrifying -- the energy he generated on stage could barely be contained in the venue, which seats 10,000. I can't imagine how Allen or anyone else could have followed him and not appeared diminished. Lambert is a super-nova. This guy knows what it takes to be an entertainer. Maybe Idol should have signed him as the fourth judge!)

Continuing with my mounting TV despair, count me among the masses that may forgive but will never forget the extremely bad behavior of Kanye West at last Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. What an ass! I have twice interviewed Taylor Swift at the CMT Music Awards in Nashville and found her to be one of the friendliest, smartest and most articulate young performers I have met during my 25 years working in and around the entertainment business, so perhaps I am overly sensitive to West's wacked behavior. But what a terrible thing for him to do to a girl who has risen to the top of her profession by doing everything right, in front of millions of her young fans, not to mention his own. MTV isn't without fault here. I don't know if West was drunk when he bullied his way onto the stage, but I have seen the footage of him swilling cognac straight from the bottle on the red carpet before the event, in front of hundreds of cameras. Where were his handlers? Where was the network? Where was security? Why was that allowed at an event that is targeted as much to teenagers as any other demographic?

West's pitiful display of egregious disrespect for all (including himself) proved to be a blessing for MTV, because it enjoyed the highest ratings in five years for the VMAs and unprecedented post-Awards publicity; ABC, because its daytime talker The View had previously booked the sublime Swift for its live Tuesday telecast; and especially NBC, because its bold and brazen experiment in primetime reconstruction, The Jay Leno Show, launched the day after the VMAs with West as a previously confirmed guest. West had been booked solely to perform (with Jay-Z and Rihanna) but was understandably asked to sit for a jiffy-quick interview during the debut show's second half hour. Believe what you will about Jay Leno's unexpectedly high opening night numbers -- millions tuned in for no reason other than to see how West would comport himself less than twenty-four hours after his public disgrace. Unfortunately Leno flubbed what could have been another Hugh Grant opportunity, never once asking West the question to which everyone wanted an answer: Why the hell did you do it?

The low energy of the West interview segment fit right in with the astonishing lack of excitement that characterized Leno's first hour as a primetime entertainer, a big disappointment well documented by almost every TV critic of note. Unlike most of those reviewers I did watch Tonight with some regularity during his 17-year tenure and thought it was lively good fun. Comparatively, I found his Monday night premiere to be shockingly dull, beginning with the inexplicably subdued title sequence. Indeed, it was such a humor vacuum that even the always reliable Jerry Seinfeld couldn't deliver the funny. (The canned appearance by Oprah Winfrey via satellite was arguably the low point of the night.) It was about as much fun as watching someone moving a pile of sand from one side of a room to another, one grain at a time.

Someone suggested to me that Leno and his crew need time to get comfortable with their new gig. I replied that the new gig isn't all that different from the old, except for the uncomfortable looking blue chairs in which Leno now conducts his interviews, and that after a 17-year warm-up Leno and his producers should have been on their game right from the start, seeing as their arrival in primetime is supposed to change the course of television history and all.

Night two showed some signs of improvement, so maybe we should throw out the first pancake, as they say. Leno was a little looser and his monologue more up-to-the-minute, though he still looked somewhat lost on that giant new stage, which affords none of the critical intimacy of his old Tonight Show environs. It's as if he's working in a half empty warehouse. (What is it with NBC and jumbo studios? Conan O'Brien seems totally adrift in his ginormous new arena.) Tuesday's guest comic, Jim Norton, was not particularly funny, but his segment wasn't as difficult to sit through as Monday's mishap featuring Dan Finnerty at a car wash. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were entertaining guests in their live remote from a movie set in Worcester, Mass.

But I'm still a long way from satisfied. Critics who complain that The Jay Leno Show is too much like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno are wrongheaded. The new Leno needs to be more like the old Tonight before O'Brien and his crew steamrolled over it.

I have saved the worst of the recent network bungles for last, in part because it has yet to happen. Friday will bring with it the end of Guiding Light, the longest-running scripted series in television history. From its humble beginnings as a radio serial in 1937 thru the dawn of the digital era, and without ever ceasing production, GL brought compelling entertainment to generations of families. It survived the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the assassination of a president, years of riots in our cities and calamitous protests on our campuses, Watergate, the resignation of a president, multiple recessions and energy crises and natural disasters, the Gulf War, 9/11 and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, among other national and international hardships and challenges. But this one of a kind broadcast entity couldn't survive the calamitous machinations of the current executive regimes at CBS and Procter & Gamble Productions. Working together, those well-compensated folks couldn't come up with a way to continue this precious and historic franchise -- not even via low-cost webisodes or basic cable movies.

Guiding Light wasn't just another soap opera. It was an American treasure, and it deserved much better. So did its millions of faithful fans.

To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, link to the JackMyers Connection Hotline.

This post originally appeared at JackMyers.com.

David Kronke: Ellen DeGeneres Named New White House Press Secretary

2009-09-16T10:15:58Z

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Less than a week after being named the newest judge on the hit TV reality show American Idol, comic and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres has added yet another high-profile job to her already busy schedule: She'll serve as the new White House Press Secretary, replacing Robert Gibbs, who succumbed over the weekend to a case of terminal tediousness.

DeGeneres announced her new position on her talk show today. "I have a big announcement to make," she said, clearly excited. "No one knows this. I just finally got the OK just moments ago to announce this to you today. I am going to be the new White House Press Secretary."

After her studio audience finished cheering wildly, DeGeneres assured them, "I'm not leaving here. Don't worry about that. I'm going to have two day jobs and a night job. The times we're living in, we're all doing that. It's just that most people who work three jobs don't earn millions of dollars in their cumulative paychecks."

Just as some assailed DeGeneres's ascension to Idol's judges' table because of her lack of a musical background, many have questioned her being positioned as the mouthpiece of the Obama Administration, given her lack of experience in politics and governance.

"Blah blah blah - we think that's silly," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "She brings something different. She brings her wit and her love of politics, or at least her love of the idea of politics. She has a vision of what she likes and doesn't like. She will share what she sees from her vantage point. Really, does it matter? It's about America voting. She's going to add a different flavor; that's the whole idea. She's a rabid fan of Obama who happens to be one of the biggest stars in the world."

As she did when DeGeneres was named the new Idol judge, ousted panelist Paula Abdul approved DeGeneres' new position on her Twitter page. "I think Ellen will be a great White House Press Secretary," Abdul wrote. "She is funny, talented and I wish her the best of luck! Wait - bats! Why are so many BATS in this room? Help!"

Some have questioned why DeGeneres needs so many jobs when she's already so handsomely paid, particularly with the unemployment rate in America hovering around 10%. But on her show today, DeGeneres hinted that she may not be done with her job search.

"I'm not going to be happy until I have half the jobs in America," DeGeneres declared. "If that means taking your job, then so be it. Maybe I'll hire you as one of my low-paid personal assistants."

The studio audience cheered wildly.

'Ellen' Sued For THOUSANDS Of Copyright Infringements

2009-09-10T19:12:10Z

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Some of the world's largest recording companies are suing "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," claiming producers violated their copyrights by playing more than 1,000 songs without permission.

Many of the songs were played during the "dance over" segment of the show, when DeGeneres dances from the stage to the interview area, often through the audience.

Ellen Promises Compassion On 'Idol'

2009-09-10T08:52:40Z

LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres is known for being nice. But the new "American Idol" judge said she's ready to be honest with the show's contestants, good or bad.

"I think it's going to be hard, but as my career has grown. ... I've learned how to be tougher and learned how to say no," DeGeneres said Thursday, a day after her addition to the show was announced. "I think I can do it, and I think I can do it in a respectful way."

Ellen DeGeneres JOINING 'American Idol' As 4th Judge

2009-09-09T20:48:50Z

LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres is dancing her way into the fourth judge's seat on "American Idol."

Fox announced Wednesday the talk show host and comedian, who admittedly has no formal music experience, just a passion for tunes, will join Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi for the ninth season. The announcement all but seals the departure of Paula Abdul, the original third judge who announced she was quitting amid a contract dispute in July.

Lee Schneider: The New Walter

2009-07-30T15:47:12Z

Much has been written and said about the passing of Walter Cronkite. Will there ever be another like him?

I was in a network meeting the other day, and the executive running it was explaining that during the Jurassic Era of television, there were only three networks. His group of young listeners was surprised. "Only three?" With only three networks on the air, Walter, Johnny and Barbara were oracles and earth-shakers. Walter told us that Kennedy and King were murdered. Johnny walked in the footsteps of Allen and Paar. Barbara broke barriers. Different world now. Mostly because of technology. We've lost a lot, but gained links to remind us what Paar and Allen did. We've seen the rise of the citizen journalist.

Citizen journalists, some with zero credentials, perform the most simple and powerful journalism: Show up, look around, tell what you see.

During the Paleozoic Era, when I was an intern with no credentials writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I wrote with Bic pens and typed on Selectrics and the best part of the job was showing up and saying, "I'm from the newspaper. Tell me who opened fire first." (Remember, this was Texas.) The only thing I could do was tell a story using black type on white paper - about as basic as basic could be.

News reporting today is like a guy who can't have sex with a gal unless she's wearing high heels and a wig. (No, this is not a confession.) Everybody knows news is tarted up now. Fair enough - to succeed, you have to be fascinating 24/7. Steep slope.

Yet some aren't playing that game. Got a news story you think is worth investigating? You might find the money to do it by posting on Spot.us. The editors at The New York Times say they might publish one about a giant floating patch of garbage in the Pacific -- it's fully funded by donations. There's ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative reporting unit that has delivered some big stories.

Are the only journalists icons like Walter? Somebody with a journalism degree? There's debate about whether bloggers are fake journalists, cutters and pasters really. And how's Twitter's news authority? According to Twitter these people are dead: Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Natalie Portman and Ellen DeGeneres - struck down by tragic accidents. (This just in: they're not dead.)

Citizen journalism isn't perfect. There's something unsettling about the best newsman being a comedian. Bottom line is you can't place absolute faith in journalists anymore. That's why there will be no more Walters like Cronkite. You didn't need to fact check a guy like Walter, you trusted him. Now that everybody's got their own mic, you have to fact check everybody. You need to know their motivations and who's paying them. You have to be your own Walter.

Karen Ocamb: Walter Cronkite and the Player Piano

2009-07-20T10:40:08Z

Dateline, Christmas season, 1975. A cab left me off in front of Walter Cronkite's Upper Eastside townhouse. Fresh out of college, I had joined CBS News two years earlier as a desk assistant and had become a regular substitute for Jim McGlinchy, Cronkite's clerk on the CBS Evening News. And now I was invited to his staff Christmas party.

The house was warm, filled with people, laughter and music. I found my way into the living room where Uncle Walt, sporting a Santa red vest, was playing the piano and loudly warbling some corny country song -- karaoke before there was karaoke. Of all the people gathered around him, some laughing, some just being polite, Uncle Walt was the one having the best time. I, for one, wondered why he was singing a country song for Christmas -- until he got up from the piano bench to go talk to someone and the piano kept playing by itself.

I was dumbfounded. I had never seen a player piano before and I never thought the "most trusted man in America" would have one -- let alone be a country music fan. Truthfully, I just never thought of Walter Cronkite as being fun until then.

I liked Uncle Walt. One night after the broadcast, we chatted about how he started out at a radio station in Kansas City, Missouri when my father worked for the Kansas City Star. He remembered my father's name. And curiously, just as Cronkite joined UPI and left the Midwest to cover World War Two, my father left to become one of the first Americans to join the RAF, the Royal Air Force, before the US officially declared war.

My father had also moonlighted as a local bandleader and we talked about the Big Bands, Louie Armstrong, Cole Porter and a fellow named Hoagy Carmichael. My father died just before I joined CBS News, so the exchange was poignant.

At the Christmas party, as many of my young colleagues went upstairs to watch a cool new television show called NBC's Saturday Night with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, I chatted and drank wine with Kathy Cronkite, who was around my age. She said she was thinking about going into acting -- and sure enough -- the following year she played a Patty Hearst look-alike in Paddy Chayefsky's incredible take on broadcast news -- Network. I didn't need to drop any LSD to know how psychedelic that was!

Like so many other Baby Boomers, Walter Cronkite stands out in the timeline of my life.

Though my father chose a military career instead of journalism, we always had the news on in our house. I was transfixed by John F. Kennedy and how the torch had been passed to a new generation -- a vigorous generation characterized by Jackie and Caroline and John-John playing in the Oval Office.

As a "duck and cover" kid who lived on or near Strategic Air Command Air Force bases when the Berlin Wall went up and Kennedy stared down Kruschev during the Cuban Missile Crisis, my first thought when I heard the news that Kennedy had been shot on that fateful Nov. 22, 1963 was that the Communists got him.

But the steadiness of Walter Cronkite and a young reporter named Dan Rather calmed me. For the next four days, my family was glued to the television -- including watching "live" the murder of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Dallas club owner Jack Ruby and the mournful procession down Pennsylvania Avenue of JFK's flag-draped casket on a horse-drawn caisson and a riderless horse with the stirrups turned backward.

Later, in 1967, we were riveted again as Cronkite and Rather did a four-part series -- "The Warren Report" -- that included re-enactments of the shooting to examine the conspiracy theories.

But the most powerful Cronkite moment for me was his commentary about the Vietnam War.

It's difficult for many people today to realize just how revolutionary the 1960s were -- smacking back against the dark, closeted, conformist 50s. The JFK generation was kids joining the Peace Corps and using folk songs and marches to support of the growing civil rights movement -- which Cronkite insisted upon covering. Meanwhile, however, Robert McNamara (who also died recently), one of JFK's "best and brightest," was sending military advisors to Vietnam. The practice expanded under President Lyndon Johnson and Gen. William Westmoreland who started drafting ground troops in 1965. Over the years, Johnson and Westmoreland kept up a steady drumbeat that America was winning the war, tossing out authoritative-sounding "body counts" of the enemy.

But the anti-war movement, which coincided and often overlapped with the civil rights movement, the student movement, and the Black, Chicano, gay and women's liberation movements, took to the streets, demanding accountability.

Initially, Cronkite talked about Vietnam in a stodgy World War Two style, uncritically reporting the White House's "domino theory" that if communism wasn't stopped in Vietnam, it would spread throughout Southeast Asia. But Vietnam increasingly became a television war, with reporters such as Rather, Charles Kuralt, and Morely Safer reporting from the frontlines. The country was divided: conservative response to Safer's famous report showing Marines lighting thatched village huts with Zippo lighters, for instance, was that it was a common practice during search and destroy missions when you can't tell the communist enemies from the innocent non-combatants.

Veteran war correspondent John Laurence covered the bloody battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive, a turning point. Launched Jan. 30 and 31, 1968, over 80,000 Viet Cong swarmed South Vietnam to the shock and surprise of unsuspecting South Vietnamese and American troops. The American public was totally shocked to see footage of the US Embassy in Saigon under attack.

Cronkite wanted to see what was going on for himself. He spent two weeks talking to everyone -- officials and soldiers -- and reporting on the battle of Hue. Upon his return, he did what no one expected him to do -- he dropped his renowned objectivity and outright criticized the military and the Johnson Administration.

As someone who vehemently opposed the war -- my friends were being drafted or running away to Canada or trying to figure out how to be homosexual so they wouldn't be accepted or coming home injured, crippled or in a body bag -- I watched Cronkite's Feb. 27, 1968 commentary with nail-biting anxiety.

Cronkite said in part:

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest cloud....For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate..... And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.... But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

I watched in jaw-dropped silence and then I jumped up and yelled and danced around -- catching the eye of my father who had retired from the military and joined Avco-Lycoming, an aerospace industry based in Stratford, Connecticut. Our move to Westport a few years earlier introduced me to a very liberal crowd -- and at one point I even called my father a "professional killer" over the dinner table. He slapped me and we were officially at odds. But after Cronkite's commentary, he changed his mind about the war.

He wasn't the only one. Bill Moyers reported that President Lyndon B. Johnson -- who withstood thousands of protesters screaming "Hey, Hey LBJ! How Many Kids Have You Killed Today?" -- said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

The next month, LBJ announced he would not seek re-election and New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy announced he would run in the Democratic Primary against poet and antiwar Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. My father liked RFK because he had a "strategic plan for withdrawal."

It was way past time, as Seymour Hersh's reporting of the My Lai Massacre revealed: On March 16, US Army forces murdered between 347-504 unarmed civilians, most of whom were women and children and elderly. Many of the victims had been sexually abused and tortured. Only William Calley was convicted, getting life but serving only three years under house arrest.

We came together as a family again to watch Cronkite's coverage of the assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK -- the latter on the day I graduated from high school.

We knew the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was going to be an opportunity to draw world attention to the Vietnam War. But I don't think any of us -- or at least not grunt students like me -- had any idea that Mayor Richard Daley would unleash his baton-wielding, head-bashing cops on the commie-pinko-faggot-scum demonstrators who were littering his city with unpatriotic puke. Daley was the Bull Connor of the North.

What we really, really didn't expect to see was the outside brought in when Rather got punched in the stomach and sank to the floor, yelling on air: "Get your hands off me unless you intend to arrest me!" Perched in a skybox watching with the rest of us, Cronkite was livid. "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan," he said, in a rare moment of pique. I always wondered, however, why CBS News didn't haul Daley into some TV booth and demand an explanation and on-air apology.

That unbridled hostility under the color of authority had its pinnacle at home with the May 4, 1970 shooting of unarmed students at Kent State University in Ohio. The Ohio National Guard wound up killing four students and wounding nine others. Some of the students were protesting President Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia. But others were simply walking on campus. Eight million students went on strike to protest the shootings, shutting down hundreds of universities and schools.

This is why Cronkite was so important: he was about the only person in this intensely divided America that both sides could trust. He was our no-frills common bond.

"And that's the way it is," he'd say closing each 7:00pm broadcast, as if that summed up one day, now we're on to the next. In his book A Reporter's Life, Cronkite writes that Richard Salant, the highly respected president of CBS News, didn't like the line because it ate up four seconds. Cronkite said that while he thought Salant might be right, "I was too stubborn to drop it." Thank heavens because the routine of that catch phrase was something to depend on.

I honestly can't tell you where I was or with whom the day 40 years ago on July 20, 1969 when Apollo 11's space craft Eagle landed on the moon. We all needed a break -- a moment of pure unadulterated wonder watching as NASA relayed "live" pictures from the moon. Once again, Cronkite summed it up appropriately -- rubbing his hands with glee and saying, "Oh, boy!"

I started working as a desk assistant at CBS News in late 1973 (I took the proverbial one year off for an "identity crisis"). Coverage of the Watergate scandal was already well underway and I was thrilled to be there. The Washington Post broke the story but CBS News with Cronkite at the helm -- and Salant defending him against White House power plays -- brought the story to television and the national stage in late October 1972. Then Rather, the primary White House correspondent, worked the hell out of story which had so many threads until Nixon resigned in 1974 that I even broke a story one night on the assignment desk.

The CBS Newsroom at the time was one long loud unvarnished off-white room with a bank of wire service machines clanking away, muffled only by plastic enclosures that we lifted to roll copy for the reporters and writers. Facing the Flash Studio where Douglas Edwards still did the 12:30 news, the right hand side was for radio reporters and writers -- with a bank of closed-in radio studios at the far end. The left side was TV with offices for the National News Editor (wunderkind Peter Sturtevant who told me not to get an MA in journalism but to "learn by doing") and the brilliant Foreign News Editor Bob Little, with whom I would later get drunk at The Slate restaurant when Saigon fell and Bob thought his beloved and faithful Vietnamese cameraperson who stayed behind to get the story would be summarily killed. Bob later become my boss at Syndication, now Newspath.

Beyond Sturtevant's office was a door to the inner sanctum of the CBS Evening News. On the immediate right was the "Fish Bowl" where the executive producer sat. On the immediate left was the horseshoe desk where the writers sat -- national, foreign and "everything else," supervised by editor John Merriman. Against a long desk in front of a wall sat McGlinchy (or me, when I substituted) and others who were key to putting on the show.

The newsroom was really ruled over by Cronkite's short, stern secretary Hinda Glasser. She sat right outside Cronkite's sizable office but kept an eye on everything. I think she even threw a scare into the producers. But she could also be very protective and understanding.
Being a clerk was not an easy job when it came to airtime. Cronkite would come to his anchor desk a few minutes before broadcast and if there was a new story or he didn't like the way something was written -- he'd toss it back and gruffly order -- "Do it over!"

I would quietly freak out. I had to "break down" the script, give it to Uncle Walt, and then the teleprompter guy and then run like hell out the side door between the Fish Bowl and Cronkite's office down the hall, whip a left into the Control Room, hand the pages to the directors, and dash back to give the final copy to the executive producer and get ready to do it all over again in seconds, if necessary. Falling, running into people, hitting a knee -- no excuses. It was about getting those pages to the people who needed it right now with Cronkite live on air.

When I clerked for Rather, Bob Schieffer, and Morton Dean over the weekends -- my usual gig -- things were much calmer -- unless a story broke unexpectedly, of course. The paced quickened when CBS News transitioned to videotape from film, as well.

Charles Kuralt was a dream to work for when he substituted for Cronkite. He was famous for his On the Road series, which was a favorite kicker for the show. I asked him if he ever wanted to take over for Cronkite when he retired and Kuralt chuckled and said, no, he was an old hippie and he loved living in Greenwich Village and going out to meet people on the road.

My least favorite Cronkite substitute was Roger Mudd. A lot of the older journalists really liked him. But I thought he was an uncouth, arrogant sexist pig who droned the news. Now I grant you -- his documentary The Selling of the Pentagon was great. But he was really creepy to a young "everything else" writer named Carol Ross and everyone knew it -- and he just didn't give a damn.

This became a big deal for me when Cronkite was forced to retire -- not by Rather as some thought -- but by founder and chair Bill Paley's stupid rule that everyone had to retire at 65. There had been a lot of speculation about who would replace him -- with Mudd in the lead over Rather since Mudd substituted more.

I heard that Cronkite wanted Mudd -- but now -- 28 years later, I'm learning that may not have been the case. Regardless, I was a Rather fan. He was my mentor, he was smart, ambitious, generous and he created a terrific working environment. By the time they gave him the anchor job, I had been promoted and was working in Syndication so I wasn't involved with or privy to all the hoopla that happened afterwards.

But as Rather was finding his sea legs as anchor with an new administration in the newsroom and in the White House -- I got upset with Uncle Walt for what I thought was "bad-mouthing" Rather. He was saying that the news -- which had always been straightforward and headline-ish -- was now going "soft" and blending into entertainment.

But that was not what Rather was doing! One of the things I always admired about Rather was that he never forgot where he came from. He had hard-working parents during the Depression -- his father was a ditch digger and his mother waitressed. So when the Reagan White House put out unemployment numbers -- instead of just reciting the figures and showing a nice graphic -- Rather sent reporters to towns where the steel mills were shutting down. He wanted to tell the stories behind the numbers. That's not soft -- that's smart and humane.

I confess that I was miffed over that for a long time. But then Cronkite came to Los Angeles and I had a chance to chat with him after a lecture he delivered at the Wadsworth Theatre. (I moved here in 1984 -- my last assignment for CBS News was setting up a newsroom and co-producing the Olympic coverage for CBS News affiliates.)

I called him Uncle Walt -- which some of the older folks around me thought was rude. But he smiled and remembered me and we joked about that player piano and this odd little burlesque strip tease he'd done at that Christmas party.

My last best memory of Walter Cronkite was the night he opened the Emmy show after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the war in Afghanistan forced the show's postponement -- twice.

Sitting in front of the television with my family of choice, I watched Cronkite tell the audience that in the coverage of those two historic events, "television, the great common denominator, has lifted our common vision as never before."

And then on came show host Ellen DeGeneres who said she was the Taliban's worst nightmare: a lesbian in a pantsuit surrounded by Jews.

I just know that the most trusted man in America -- the guy with the player piano -- was cracking up backstage.

Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer Top Forbes' Most Influential Women In Media List

2009-07-15T11:26:52Z

Oprah Winfrey may have been bumped to No. 2 on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, but in media, she reigns supreme. Thanks to her loyal talk show audience, social media followers and, most of all, her remarkable earning power, Winfrey tops ForbesWoman's first Most Influential Women in Media list.

Sean L. McCarthy: Seeing Stars in Chicago, Just For Laughs

2009-06-19T12:49:52Z

What would happen if TBS, the cable network that claims to be "Very Funny," put on a comedy festival with the Canadians responsible for "Just For Laughs" (a long-running annual celebration of funny in Montreal, but also a Candid Camera style prank show on TV), and held it in Chicago this week?

That's what I went to Chicago to find out.

The Just For Laughs Chicago fest began on Wednesday and runs through Sunday. Here are a few of the things I have learned so far.

1) Women of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors and sexual preferences love them some Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen taped her third variety special for TBS on Wednesday night (it'll air June 27) -- take that, Rosie! (her one-and-done variety show for NBC tanked) -- and over the course of a 40-minute audience warmup series of dancing and karaoke contests and an apparent willingness to jump up and down for a T-shirt, plus close to two hours of screaming adoration seemed to prove that Ellen really is America's favorite lesbian since...

2) Did you see what I did there?

3) Robert Smigel still enjoys sticking his hand into a dog puppet and insulting famous people, particularly now that famous people are on Twitter. Such as Oprah. Yes. He pooped on Oprah. Triumph strikes again!

4) Smigel also is in awe that a little sketch he created about Chicago sports fans became a national treasure on Saturday Night Live and had people across America saying, "Da Bears."
(See a video here)

5) Andy Dick may be just as crazy sober as he was when he was drinking, so when will we get to see a co-headlining tour with Tracy Morgan?

6) Martin Short is not afraid of much, and you'll see it in his TBS special on June 26. Almost 60 (read: 59 years old), Short is willing to zing Adam Lambert for being "a fruit" and make timely jokes about Chastity Bono, when he's not completely disguised in character as Jiminy Glick, taking his pants off as Ed Grimley, or trying stand-up as Lawrence Orbach. Lawrence Orbach? Would it jog your memory if I said that was the name of the SNL character who attempted to be a synchronized swimmer, despite the fact that he could not swim? (Read all about that here)

7) Chicagoans are just as likely to not be able to hold their liquor as other Americans, judging by their proclivity for heckling.

8) Chicago turned the river green for us, even though St. Patrick's Day was three months ago. Is that green as in eco-friendly? We're not dipping our toes in to find out!

9) The Windy City's FOX station held an "American Idol" contest the other night at the House of Blues. Irony or serendipity?

10) Comedians in Chicago so far have tended to make jokes either about a) the weather being so cold (despite the fact that it's hot and thunderstormy out this weekend), b) Oprah, c) all of the fattening food, and d) jokes that somehow combine all three of those things in one punchline. Oprah is a deep dish!

Did you see what I did there? Hopefully I learn some more things about Chicago and comedy in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Or just read my blog, The Comic's Comic, for continued updates on comedy and the fest.

Jason Mannino: Kathy Griffin Speaks Up for Gay Youth

2009-06-18T11:03:20Z

Television is often touted as one of the banes of our culture, but it can also be of great service to the empowerment and uplifting of society. To honor this phenomenon I kicked off my Gay Pride weekend in Los Angeles at a star studded panel, "LGBT Youth in Television - Tweens, Teens, & More!" It was the second annual Youth pride event sponsored by the Television Academy's Diversity Committee and hosted by none other than our steadfast, LGBTQ supporter , and self-declared "divorcee who is now anti heterosexual marriage," Kathy Griffin!

The event was produced by Steven Wishnoff, Television Academy Diversity Committee member and the first person to produce their LGBT specific events. Steven was inspired to create the event in response to the alarming number of lgbt teen suicides over the past couple of years. He wanted to bring together a panel of experts currently in the field in service to identifying the challenges faced by the TV community and the impact that results from creating accurate depictions of lgbt or questioning youth/young adults. Robert Bradley Sears, Executive Director, The Charles R. Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy opened the evening. He cited alarming statistics indicating that 44% of the homeless youth in Los Angeles identify in one of the lgbt categories, and 40% of LGBT youth report experiencing rejection when they come out. He reported that LGBT youth are two times more likely to smoke, use drugs, or contract an STD and four times more likely to commit suicide.

Attendees supporting the critical role that TV plays in providing our gay youth with positive images spanned four decades, including Florence Henderson and Barry Williams (Brady Bunch fame), Amanda Bearse (Married With Children) all the way to the panelists who are presently creating relevant content serving our LGBT youth by broadcasting messages of love and acceptance across our TV screens (Adam Ruggiero, Degrassi; Sarah Lindman - The N/Teen Network, Martin Ritchie, Stuart Krasnow, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency; Scott Baily, Daniel Sladek - Prayers for Bobby; Patrick Sean Smith, Calvin Owens and Dilshad Vadsaria, Greek; Daniela Sea, Ken Storer, Law and Order (Transitions).

It is no secret that the LGBT community has been serving our culture in the television and entertainment industry for decades. Florence Henderson shared with me that her inspiration to support the LGBT community comes from the fact that it was gay men who took her under her wing and supported her when she arrived in New York and landed her first Broadway Show in the 1950's.

Nonetheless, the first images of gay people on TV in the 1950's were severely derogatory. Panelist Stephen Tropiano, and author of The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on Television says that those images were largely of panel psychologists on talk shows decrying gay people and discussing how to cure them. Flash forward to the seventies and the premiere of the critically acclaimed Soap, which starred Billy Crystal playing openly gay Jodie Dallas. Although the show ran for four years on ABC there were advertisers pulling out along with boycotts and letter campaigns before it ever went on the air. In the nineties Ellen Degneres provided a profound service to the LGBT community by coming out of the closet on her show. Afterward the ratings tanked and the show was canceled.

Flash forward again to today and you can count a significant number of TV shows portraying positive images of LGBT Youth on high profile networks including ABC Family, Oxygen, Logo, and Here!. Speaking with ABC Family's Greek creator, Patrick Sean Smith (creator of Everwood), I was inspired to discover that there are indeed creative people in the industry committed to serving LGBT youth by providing accurate, honest depictions of the reality of being young and gay in our society. Greek is set on a college campus where Calvin Owens, played by Paul James, deals honestly with the issues of being a young, black, and openly gay fraternity brother. James, who is straight, told us that he doesn't experience a lot of backlash in playing the gay role. Nonetheless, with an understanding of the level of intolerance and homophobia that still exists in our culture he sees the service that shows like Greek provide by educating and familiarizing people with issues they may have otherwise been unwilling to understand.

Prayers for Bobby is a true story starring Sigourney Weaver who plays a mother that could not reconcile her adherence to her Christian Presbyterian beliefs and her son Bobby's homosexuality. As a direct result when he was 20 he threw himself off a freeway overpass and died instantly leading his mother to personal transformation and acts of courage as a fierce activist for PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Jody Huckaby, Executive Director, PFLAG, shared with me, "This film is a story of the human spirit that provides an opportunity to look into the lives of these people who had to go through profound adversity to resolve ignorance, reconcile religious beliefs, and finally accept who they are. Religion is still a barrier to equality and acceptance. We saw how marriage equality played out as a result of religion here in California." Scott Bailey, who stars in a gay role opposite the title character in Prayers for Bobby, said that it was the most meaningful role he has ever done. He also said that he knows firsthand how this film is serving our culture having seen his own conservative family gain a more positive perspective on lgbt issues as a result.

I don't watch a lot of television as an adult. However, when I was a teenager I know I would have been greatly served by the message, "You are okay. There is nothing wrong with you. Others are going through what you are going through. You still deserve nothing less than total love and acceptance." Thanks to trail blazers like Billy Crystal, Ellen Degeneris, Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes (Will and Grace) and our current Television creators and actors who are serving gay youth by broadcasting this message. As a result, even If only one life is positively changed or one mother who doesn't understand becomes more understanding or suicide among gay youth is reduced by only one percent, it would be worth it.

Please comment on how positive images in media and television have personally empowered you, whether you're gay/straight, black/white and all shades in between!

In an ever-changing world Jason's coaching empowers you to start living life on your terms, creating a career and life based on personal integrity and authenticity! Learn more at www.jmannino.com and request a free copy of Jason's e-book: Mind Your Mind, Manage Your Thoughts: Tips to Turn Your Mind Into Your Ally by e-mailing info@jmannino.com

Carlos Watson: How the Prop 8 Ruling Will Help Gay Marriage

2009-05-27T10:37:09Z

I know a lot of people are saddened and angered by the California Supreme Court's 6-1 decision yesterday to uphold Prop 8. In my mind, it's not that different from Plessy v. Ferguson's tragic "separate but equal" ruling that confronted my great-grandfather and millions of other African-Americans looking for simple equality in the late 1890s.

But despite this backward decision, I am optimistic--and it's not because I'm writing for the Optimist's Daily Brief. I believe the ruling will hasten national acceptance of gay marriage. Let me explain.

Progressive Californians, embarrassed by falling behind states like Iowa and Maine, will no doubt challenge yesterday's decision at the ballot box in 2010. And next year no one--from Ellen Degeneres to the least-known supporter of gay marriage--will take victory for granted. I see an enormous grassroots effort emerging in California, the type of transformative campaign rarely seen in American politics. Think Obama 2008 or RFK 1968. I'm talking about emotions, about people reaching out to family members and neighbors because they feel so strongly, about a ballot measure that will dominate conversation in coffee shops and barber shops and gubernatorial debates--I predict that both the Republican and Democratic candidates will come out in support of the measure. Not everyone will agree, and not everyone who agrees will show up to vote. But just as in the Obama campaign, enough people will be inspired to turn the 48% loss in '08 into a 55-60% win in 2010.

And that win will have a huge impact beyond California. By that point, Cali will likely be joining a dozen other states in affirming marriage equality. And the 2010 movement against Prop 8 will garner national and global headlines, shifting the conventional wisdom in states still on the fence. Just as Iowa prompted Maine, Connecticut, and Maine to legalize same-sex marriage this spring, California's decision will push its neighbors in the Pacific Northwest to find the courage to join the Change Generation in the 21st century, as well as the remaining Northeastern states and a few Midwestern progressives like Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 2014, the movement will be so strong even states like Georgia and Florida will be forced to relent. The logic just won't hold up any longer.

A good friend of mine who covers these issues for a leading LGBTQ magazine doubts that change can happen so quickly. It took 21 years between the first thawing of anti-interracial marriage laws and the Supreme Court's historic intervention in 1967 outlawing interracial marriage bans across the country. But just as the famous Moore's law says that computing power doubles every two years, the speed of social change is increasing at an astounding clip thanks to technology. Twenty years ago, there's no way Barack Obama could have gone from newly elected Senator to President in just four years. Bill Clinton spent 16 years in politics before winning the nomination, Gore 24. Everything happens faster now--companies go public sooner, stories break earlier, stars become A-list quicker. And the same goes for political movements.

We no longer need to wait for change.

Yesterday was a bleak day in California, one among many right now for a state with 11% unemployment. But next year we'll see Cali make history by becoming the first state to legalize gay marriage at the ballot box. And that emotional victory will clear the way for an unbelievably rapid season of change--first at more ballot boxes, then in the cloaked chambers of the nation's highest court.

Cross-posted to The Stimulist

p.s. If you liked this, check out Jon Soltz's dismantling of the faulty logic behind "Don't Ask Don't Tell."

Funny & Fine: Who's America's Sexiest Comedienne? You Decide! (SLIDESHOW) (POLL)

2009-05-26T18:41:28Z

We've selected 15 of the sexiest funny ladies we know for a HuffPost poll of ridiculous proportions. They're all hilarious, they're all more comedienne than actress, and they're all smarter than you. Think we're missing someone? Complain about it in the comments section! Want the guys list? Click here and vote for them too!