Then:
Now:
Today was the last day for most of the 120 staffers on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” who left with an early Christmas bonus check and no guarantee of a job when the strike ended…
“We haven’t heard from [Leno] since the second or third day of the strike,” said a former Leno staffer. “He called on speakerphone while we were in our daily meeting and said, ‘Don’t look for other jobs, no one’s going to lose their house, we’ll get though this…’”
Still on the payroll are the exec producers and a skeleton crew to answer phones. Leno was not on hand for the layoffs. Instead, Leno’s assistant notified the staff yesterday that they would get their Christmas bonus early. Leno’s bonuses usually go out the week before Christmas.
“People are devastated today because we thought that he meant something more than an early Christmas bonus,” another said. “A lot of people didn’t look for other work, based on Jay’s assurances.”
And how about that, they dropped the axe late on a Friday afternoon on the East Coast. You think they’ve been planning it all week, if not longer? Nahhhhh!
In Leno’s defense, I don’t think he meant to screw over his own people all along. He’s just so conflict-averse that he thought he was doing a good thing by reassuring them and counting on the best to happen. Nice-guy Jay. But now he’s nowhere to be seen. Guess he figures the reporters won’t be so friendly this time.
Update: Conan’s staff just got laid off too, but one of them got to stick around long enough to blog about it. Announcing your own firing on the official blog, that’s gotta be a first. The unofficial Late Night blog will be interesting to watch…
For months, Sharon Osbourne has been calling out Courtney Love for getting Jack Osbourne hooked on OxyContin. Love denied it and used the f-word, which seems weird because I thought she was all class. Now Sharon retorts:
“I’m glad she doesn’t like me. I only pity her. She’s a virus. I don’t want her anywhere near people I love. The cold, hard fact is she’s a has-been.”
It’s hard to argue with that one, and Love’s rebuttal that she’d never even heard of OxyContin until she met Jack is hilarious.
But isn’t Sharon’s anger a little bit misplaced? Has she forgotten about Jack’s dad? You know, Ozzy “How about I snort a line of ants off the sidewalk, right before, during, and after I piss my pants” Osbourne? Even if only half of Ozzy’s legendary drug exploits are true, he’s obviously done some very bad things to his brain that can’t be fixed. And boys look to their dads for cues on how to be a man.
Usually I have no problem blaming any particular problem on Courtney Love, from no more new Nirvana albums to the hantavirus, but for once she’s hardly the issue. Then again, this feud will be fun to watch! This could be a battle for the ages. It’s like the Ali-Frazier of aging, demented whores.
Presidential prettyboy John Edwards got a little snarky with Keith Olbermann about the controversy surrounding the use of Democratic “plants” during this week’s CNN/YouTube Republican debate. Dripping with sarcasm, Edwards said:
“Heaven forbid. How could we possibly survive if somebody who is antagonistic or has a different point of view than you do asks you a question? We can’t possibly expect somebody who answers questions from either independents or the other party to get elected President of the United States … This whole discussion is ridiculous.”
But Edwards himself led the charge in boycotting a Fox News Channel-sponsored debate for the Democratic hopefuls earlier this year, the (possibly accurate) implication being that Fox News was too biased to conduct itself properly. Et tu, CNN?
I’m increasingly believing that John Edwards should be seen and not heard.
If you know who MySpace-spawned MTV “star” Tila Tequila is, 1) I’m sorry, and 2) You probably know that she makes a big deal about how totally bi she is. Her whole stupidriffic dating show revolves around it. But Page Six is saying it’s not true, she’s no more bi than I am (honest, Mom), and to top it off she’s a nightmare behind the scenes of her show.
To which her rep replies:
“I’ll confirm that she’s bisexual and she’s a delight to work with.”
I want to be a rep so I can say stuff like this! Not just to come up with that sentence, but to say it in public? Magnificent. Well, consider me skeptical. Tila Tequila: Flawless or faux-lez?
The World Wildlife Federation United Kingdom has just released its “Deeper Luxury” report card, which grades high-end brands on their environmental and social policies.
Coming out on the bottom with a grade F performance was Tod’s, the Italian leather company, for having no environmental policy at all and neglecting to collect data on its greenhouse-gas emissions, water use, and waste.
So Sienna Miller, the current face of Tod’s as well as ambassador for the climate-change charity Global Cool, should be outraged, right? She had this to say in July:
“Every cause is close to my heart, but I am very passionate about ‘Global Cool’ because I want to have children and I want them to live in a safe place. I didn’t know that each of us could make a lot of difference.”
Her contract with Tod’s is up for renewal at the end of the year. Hopefully she’ll have picked a side by then.
Kevin Federline’s credit card was denied while doing some Christmas shopping at Fry’s Electronics in LA this week. His contingency plan? Britney, of course.
“Kevin has asked the courts for more child support and even spousal support,” says an insider close to him. “He’s asking his lawyers to go for as much as they can.”
Which seems to conflict pretty directly with what he said via his lawyer two months ago:
“I want to put to rest these allegations we’ve heard that he wants more money … There is no request before the court for any modification of any support ordered in this case.”
Yeah, no request yet. He’s already getting $15,000 a month. That’s $180,000 a year. No wonder K-Fed doesn’t have a job — he shouldn’t need one.
Remember, all you little Hulkamaniacs out there, here’s what you gotta do if you want to be just like the Hulkster!
- Train.
- Say your prayers.
- Eat your vitamins.
- Believe in yourself, brother.
- Encourage your kids to drag-race on public streets.
- Buy your underage son and his friends $80 worth of beer right before he slams into a palm tree at 100 mph and puts a kid in the hospital, maybe for life.
- Learn this phrase and learn it well: “No comment.”
The Broadway stagehands strike has wrapped up, but those kooky Hollywood writers are still holding out for a bigger slice of your iTunes Family Guy downloads, or something like that.
Last week, according to E! Online, R&B artist Alicia Keys decided to show the striking scribblers some love ‘n solidarity:
More than 4,000 strikers and supporters—actors, directors, production staff, musicians, members of the California nurses and farm workers unions, etc.—showed up Tuesday for a WGA-organized solidarity rally …
Alicia Keys, who told the crowd that, as a writer herself, she is fully behind the cause, performed “No One” and “Go Ahead.”
“I’m a writer. Without words, there are no songs. Without words, there are no stories,” she said. “Stay strong, I’m supporting you! Let’s walk!”
And then the throng marched down Hollywood Boulevard.
Except that the throng didn’t include Keys.
Leave it to TMZ to expose the hypocrisy. Keys shouted “Let’s walk!” … and then walked to a waiting SUV so she could get the heck out of there.
It starts to get good (well, less boring) about 3 minutes in. Slate explains why Giuliani might not be in a good position to call out his opponents on whether illegal immigrants worked in their households, and points out why all the candidates are hypocrites but nobody cares.
Personally, I was too transfixed by Anderson Cooper’s journalistic integrity to pay much attention anyway.
First Lily Allen said she was going to quit music by the age of 25. Now, according to Britain’s Daily Mirror, she says she was just kidding. But the funniest thing about the Mirror story is this quote:
“I talk c**p all the time and they all know it, so how come this time they didn’t get it. Silly people. I am having the best time of my life.”
Why is “crap” asterisked out? Don’t the English use the other c-word for every part of speech? (And no, obviously I don’t mean “Colgate” or “Crest.”) There’s also the part about her “smoking a sly fag” while she said it, which everybody knows is what the British call cigarettes. I used to get called a cigarette all the time in high school. Probably because I was so slim and satisfying.
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