Gawker: defamer, counterpoint

Buffalo News Team Not Exactly On The 'No Country' Express

Seth — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:28:17 EST

If you've not yet heard the tale of the Buffalo news crew Oscar night gaffe, it goes something like this: Shortly after Best Director was announced, a technical mess-up caused the audio of a conversation between a local ABC news team to be broadcast to the general public. It's the content of that exchange, warranting a statement of apology from the network, that is truly hilarious. But we'll allow you to discover that on your own, in the footage above. Once you're done watching, we invite you to provide your own dismissive, nine-word synopses of any of this year's nominees.

Alan Pergament: Ch. 7 error enlivens Oscars [buffalonews.com]
WKBW Statement
OSCAR OOPS [YouTube]

Stylist To The Stars Phillip Bloch Requests That You Give His Grieving Clients Space At This Difficult Time

Seth — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:45:01 EST

Like a pencil-moustached, beret-sporting fly on the wall of showbiz's innermost circles, celebrity-stylist to the celebrity-stars Phillip Bloch possesses a formidable amount of insight into the Hollywood condition. So much so, in fact, that ABCNews.com has granted Bloch his very own opinion column, in which he can weigh in on any number of pressing celebrity matters, from the foot-anorexia epidemic currently ravishing young Hollywood's emaciated tootsies, to his compelling treatise on how the death of gifting suites is hurtling our society towards freebieless anarchy.

In today's installment, Bloch has finally had enough of the morose fascination the public takes in every celebrity tragedy to unfold across our TVs, computer screens, and bathroom magazine racks. "Are our own lives so empty and shallow that we must invade strangers' private lives for a little amusement?" asks the man whose position on the ongoing tucked vs. untucked and python vs. alligator debates directly affects the trickle-down trend choices of millions. But where searching moral questions are posed, no hard answers are offered, beyond that of an obscure Baudelaire quote reading, "What is exhilarating in bad taste is the aristocratic pleasure of OH MY GOD THIS BELT IS FAAABULOUS! MISCHA IS GONNA POOP HERSELF!"

Celebs Ain't Family, So Stop Caring So Much [ABCNews.com]

Rosie O'Donnell Sure Doesn't Speak For This Opinionated Lesbian, Says Camille Paglia

Seth — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:31:26 EDT

We're always up for checking in with theorist Camille Paglia, whose column in Salon.com (ad view req'd) bounces from topic to topic like a post-feminist superball ricocheting off the walls of popular culture. In the current edition, she weighs in with her thoughts on everything from the Democratic presidential debates to the Virginia Tech tragedy to the lack of well-written roles for African-Americans on All My Children. But it's her staunchly pro-Trumpian take on the subject of Rosie O'Donnell we chose to single out for special recognition:

On the pop front, I greeted with relief the news that Rosie O'Donnell will be leaving ABC's "The View." Joy Behar will get some oxygen at last. What a crass solipsist, clod and yahoo O'Donnell is — and what a bad advertisement for both liberalism and lesbianism. I thoroughly enjoyed Donald Trump putting the shiv to her with his eye-opening insults of withering accuracy.

The list of O'Donnell's faults overfloweth — beginning with her stentorian humorlessness and her infantile rudeness to her cohosts and ending with her crackpot conspiracy theories and her constant flaunting of her banal regimen of antidepressants.

We somehow doubt Paglia's words will register on the departing View co-host's radar, seeing as O'Donnell's frequently overshared world view appears to be exclusively fed by a restrictive informational diet consisting of USA Today's op/ed page, Access Hollywood, and the occasional episode of Cheaters. And while a Trump/Paglia alliance isn't one we can say we quite saw coming, it's certainly in keeping with the author's frequently unpredictable track record, dolling up with 25 cent words what her unlikely land baron ally would have more folksily put as, "Good riddance to that fat, upside down, depressed lesbian pig, Rosie."

A cause they've long ago forgotten [Salon.com via USAToday.com]