Gawker: defamer, merv griffin

Maybe It's Time For the Ed McMahon Sex Tape:...

STV — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Maybe It's Time For the Ed McMahon Sex Tape: Really, it seems like the only way out for the 85-year-old legend now that even Merv Griffin's ghost is coming around looking for payback. The late mogul's company filed suit recently to reclaim $100,000 that Griffin supposedly loaned to McMahon in 2005; the Griffin Group Inc. claims he still owes every cent (plus interest and attorney fees). It hardly seems fair under the circumstances, in which McMahon is reduced to rapping for his supper and the Griffin estate earns a few thousand dollars every time the Jeopardy! theme is so much as hummed, but business is business. All options are on the table, and let's face it: If McMahon were a midget, this all all would have been settled a long time ago. [AP]

Reasons You Don't Want Jerry Lewis Delivering Your Eulogy

Seth — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:58:31 EDT

We probably felt the same way that you did upon reading this headline from USAToday.com: Could Jerry Lewis, America's Clown Prince and host of countless muscular dystrophy telethons, have possibly uttered such callous words about recently departed friend and contemporary Merv Griffin? Well, yes—yes he did, but as in all headline-grabbing celebrity soundbites, context is everything, and what might have come off like the equivalent of fellow prostate cancer sufferer Lewis taking an intermittent pee on Griffin's freshly filled grave was instead part of a larger interview, airing tomorrow on Entertainment Tonight, in which Lewis expressed frustration that Griffin didn't immediately seek the medical care he required to beat the stubborn disease.

Still, we imagine the comic auteur will receive some backlash for the bluntness of his sentiments, but coming from a man who once directed himself playing a clown who lured Jewish children into Auschwitz with balloon animals, it's not exactly a news flash that subtlety was never Lewis's strong suit.

[ETOnline]
Jerry Lewis: Merv Griffin 'deserved to die' [usatoday.com]

The full press release:

JERRY LEWIS SPEAKS TO ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT ABOUT MERV GRIFFIN'S DEATH AND WHY HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE
August 23, 2007 (Los Angeles, CA)— ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT spoke with Telethon veteran, Jerry Lewis about his good friend Merv Griffin. Lewis expresses his disdain for the fact that Griffin did not get screened for cancer. He tells ET, "I was very angry when I heard he died. He didn't have to die. He knew he had prostate cancer and he did nothing about it. He deserved to die." Lewis adds, "You can't have cancer and say, I'll be alright. You're not going to be alright. It's a malady that has to be addressed. I had it. I went and had it addressed and got it out of there."

Jerry Lewis tells ET, "I'm going to beat George Burns. Burns died at 100, I'm going to go for 101 and I want a television special for my 101st birthday!"

Paris Hilton: Business Genius

Seth — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:39:38 EDT

· You think the insanity outside Kitson was an accident? Here's 10 reasons why Paris Hilton is a business genius.
· Today's star-studded Merv Griffin funeral featured best fag-hag Nancy Reagan (in—gasp!—white), and a Seacrest-in-mourning, working the same fierce sunglasses as his blonde companion.
· Join the crusade to halt filming downtown, possibly saving Nicole Kidman from untold injury.
· We forget: Are The Buzzcocks playing the Giant Juiced Dong stage or the Glistening Tube stage?
· And finally, enjoy this all-kitten reenactment of poorly received Body Snatchers remake, The Invasion.

Today In But You Knew That Already: Merv Griffin, Siegfried & Roy Gay

Seth — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:17:14 EDT

It's truly a day for the velvet-bound history books, for not one, but three entertainment giants harboring some of the worst-kept secrets in showbiz have been thrust from their anally-arranged, glass-doored closets. First, in a eulogy appearing in today's THR (it's on pg. 9, but has ~~gone missing from the website—screengrab of the blog version here~~), Ray Richmond matter-of-factly discusses Merv Griffin's sexuality:

[UPDATE: Via FBLA, Richmond discuss the pulling of the online versions of his piece here. OK, we know this is now getting unwieldy, but UPDATE 2: The piece has been restored on both Richmond's blog and the THR site. ]

Merv Griffin was gay.

There. Is that plain enough for ya? No gossip, no scandal, no snickering behind the back. Just reality.

We'll allow you a moment to come to grips with the fact that a man with business instincts so sharp, he managed to successfully sell average Americans vowels for decades, could have been that way. Okay, that should be enough time. Onto the Next! Not Particularly Shocking! Outing!:

Las Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy are coming out of the closet in a highly anticipated autobiography soon to be released. [...]
According to details from the upcoming book leaked to the National Enquirer, Siegfried & Roy"sie was once very much in love but have since transformed their relationship into a working partnership and a deep friendship.

Further details are available in this German article, headlined: "Ja, wir sind schwul!" (Funny—besides the sequined jumpsuits and feathered hair, they didn't particularly seem schwul.) Still, we couldn't be happier for the flamboyant illusionists, who perhaps are now one step closer towards sitting down with their albino menagerie for a man-to-man-to-tiger talk about what it really means to have two daddies.

[Past Deadline]
Siegfried & Roy: Yes, We're Gay [bgay.com]

Adieu, Merv: A Memorial Round-Up

Seth — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:43:51 EDT

You've by now likely heard the sad news that Merv Griffin—iconic American talk show host, hotelier, game show innovator, and, less illustriously, discoverer of Ryan Seacrest—died on Sunday at the age of 82. To honor his passing, a round-up:
· Griffin got his start as a big-band singer in the 1940s, and scored his first number one hit in 1949 with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," an up-tempo and innuendo-laden ditty that was not unlike the "My Humps" of its day. [YouTube]
· Sued for sexual harassment by two former male employees in the early '90s (both suits later dismissed), Merv once told a NY Times reporter who questioned his sexuality, "I tell everybody that I'm a quatre-sexual. I will do anything with anybody for a quarter"—yet another demonstration of the bold entrepreneurial spirit that made Griffin such a wealthy and well-liked Hollywood impresario. [USA Today]

· Offering a tour of the photos lining his office walls, Griffin once indicated he was on a nickname-only basis with the greatest civil rights crusader of our time: "Yes, here I am with John Kennedy...And here I am with Frank Sinatra...And here's Elizabeth Taylor...And Marty King..." [pastdeadline.com]
· The numbers you're probably wondering about: $1.6 billion, one son, two grandchildren. [LAT]
· Merv composed the Jeopardy theme music himself, which he banged out on his piano in less than 30 minutes— a melody he anticipated earned him somewhere between $70-$80 million, or what Merv dismissively referred to as "cabana boy tip money." [National Post]