Washington Post - washingtonpost -: agosto 2012

jueves, 23 de agosto de 2012

Phyllis Diller on love, beauty and the male ego

Phyllis Diller, the trail-blazing comedian whose silver tongue slung self-deprecating barbs, died Monday at the age of 95. Though she was never one to take herself seriously, Diller got serious for a story, “Private Lives: Down-to-Earth Views on Love and Sex," that appeared in the Washington Post in 1980. It’s an excerpt from Wendy Leigh’s 1979 book “What Makes a Man G.I.B.” Here, she gives some relationship advice and offers up her views on beauty and women’s liberation.

Comedienne Phyllis Diller: "I work with audiences every night and I find people are people. Everybody laughs at the same things, everybody is hurt by the same things, therefore everybody is alike — and there is only good sex and bad sex.

"The ideal man is sensitive and cares about how the other person feels. Really, men should stop being so uptight about being good lovers and just do what comes naturally. But if a man is worrying about sex and making love he should listen to instruction from a female. It's often unfortunate being a woman to teach a young man because experienced men are much better than beginners; they have been taught by many women.

"Men don't approach me. I'm not an approachable woman and I never have been; I wasn't even an approachable child. I was bright, and boys don't approach bright girls.?.?.

"The male ego is the most delicate thing in the world. It is nurtured in such a way that it is supposed to be solid rock, and isn't allowed to be human. So men assume the role of being completely impervious to any ego threats. That's why you get men who go to single bars wanting sex but no marriage responsibility.?.?.

"I'm a sucker for beauty — be it in a man, a woman, a child, a house, or a car. Both my husbands were very attractive. If there is ever a choice in anything I'll always choose beauty. The thing that gets me is an attractive man who treats me like a lady. I'm a candlelight-and-romance lady, and I can't compromise in anything because I know that you can get romance if you wait long enough for that man to come along.

"Women's liberation is never going to change relationships between men and women.?.?. I'm a third-generation career girl, so I've always been liberated and I take it for granted. And I like being a woman.

"Sex can be a great burden for men, through, because their role is still more important than women's. Men still have to act, while all women have to do is react."

Kathie Lee Gifford explains the whole Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy wedding crash for us

Taylor Swift: inadvertent wedding crasher? (John Shearer - AP)

Kathie Lee Gifford has bravely come forward to explain what really happened at the Kennedy wedding that Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy allegedly tried to crash.

During a segment on Thursday morning’s “Today” show, Gifford — stepmother of mother of the bride Victoria Kennedy and stepgrandmother of bride, Kyle Kennedy — said that Swift and her Kennedy boyfriend, a.k.a the inevitable subject of a ton of songs she will eventually write, were indeed asked to leave the Boston event after Victoria Kennedy asked them not to come.

Let’s allow Gifford, who attended, to explain, using language that sounds like it was ripped from a conversation my mother-in-law and her friends might have about a breach of wedding etiquette.

“Conor had e-mailed [Victoria Kennedy] or texted her or something like that, like an hour before and said — see, here’s the thing: he had not RSVPed,” Gifford explained while co-host Hoda Kotb assumed the appropriate “Mmm-hmm” face. “So she didn’t even know if he was coming or not. She heard that he might be. But he’d gotten in touch with her an hour earlier and said basically, ‘Can I bring my girlfriend?’ and — a beautiful sit-down dinner that had been planned for months. And he goes — ‘No,’ she said very nicely, ‘Please do not come.’ You know. And, because — guess what? Well then, they came.”

Gifford went on to note that Swift may not have realized she wasn’t invited, and that she and her Kennedy beau left the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel after being asked to do so twice. She also added that “It was the bride’s day” and that the sudden arrival of country music’s sweetheart might have yanked too much attention away from her. (This presumably is the same reason that Swift was not asked to perform at the reception. Well, that and the fact that constructing her set would have been a huge hassle.)

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Gifford’s account synchs up with what Victoria Kennedy told the Boston Herald about the whole debacle. “I personally went up to Ms. Swift, whose entrance distracted the entire event, politely introduced myself to her, and asked her as nicely as I could to leave,” she said. “It was like talking to a ghost. She seemed to look right past me.”

Swift’s rep, Paula Erikson, denied that account, saying “There’s no truth to that. Taylor was invited to the wedding and the bride thanked her profusely for being there.”

Meanwhile, an L.A. Times report says Swift and Conor Kennedy came for “a portion of dinner and returned for the reception, where they danced the night away.”

What I want to know is: Did they bring a gift? Because if they didn’t, that is just rude.

Names & Faces: Jimmy Kimmel; Shia LaBeouf; Kim Kardashian; Tim Hightower

Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearneyin 2010. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) Engaged: Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney, People reports. The late-night talk show host, 44, popped the question to his co-worker (she’s the co-head writer on his show), 34, while they were vacationing in South Africa. They started dating in 2009. It’s the second marriage for Kimmel.

“He told me there’s a time to be a human being and have an opinion, and there’s a time to sell cars.”

— Shia LaBeouf, recounting a tense conversation with Steven Spielberg to Hollywood Reporter in an interview posted Wednesday. Back in 2010, the actor made some critical comments about their film, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” to the press and the director was none too pleased. “I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this,” LaBeouf told the Los Angeles Times. And call Spielberg did. Looking back, the actor says, he regrets the gaffe, which allegedly strained his relationship with the summer-flick svengali. “It brought me freedom, but it also killed my spirits because this was a dude I looked up to like a sensei,”
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries in happier times. (Evan Agostini/Associated Press) explained LaBeouf, who says he learned his lesson.

Still married: Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are struggling to bring an official end to their 72-day marriage, reports the Associated Press. Before setting a trial date, the spurned NBA player’s attorneys want to conduct interviews with Kardashian’s new boyfriend, rapper Kanye West , and her mother, Kris Kardashian. As a result of the legal wrangling, a judge predicts it probably will be at least next year before the couple is granted a divorce or an annulment. Humphries’s lawyer, Marshall Waller, says he is encountering difficulty getting information from companies that produce Kardashian’s reality shows in his effort to prove the couple’s marriage was a fraud. The couple’s divorce was filed in October.

Hey, isn’t that .?.?. ? Tim Hightower dining with his family Tuesday at Legal Sea Foods in Tysons Corner. The Redskins running back ordered the fish stew, wore a T-shirt and sweatpants. Yeah, you read that right: He dined out wearing sweatpants.

— Aaron Leitko, from web and wire reports.

The Reliable Source is on vacation until Aug. 27. Names and Faces is the column that runs in its place in the Style section.

CNN hires documentarian Spurlock to super size ratings

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Lisa de MoraesThe TV ColumnCNN hires documentarian Spurlock to super size ratings

Chris Pizzello/AP - Morgan Spurlock poses at the 84th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Spurlock is coming to CNN for a new weekend series that will take a close look at areas of American life that don't normally get much attention.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Lisa De Moraes, The Washington Post

Looking to plug its sinking ratings, CNN has hired documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock to host and produce a new weekend series. “Inside Man” will give viewers an “insider’s view” into American subcultures: marijuana growers, end-of-life caregivers, migrant farmworkers, etc.

CNN did not say what troubled time slot would get the Spurlock show, but the network’s got lots to chose from. In May, CNN hit a 20-year monthly ratings low and hasn’t gotten a lot better since. The network had a slight ratings uptick in July, for instance, but sank again to 20-year lows in prime time during the Summer Olympics.

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CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton said last month that he was leaving the network.

The Time Warner-owned network did say that “Inside Man” would debut in April 2013. CNN also said Spurlock’s show would be coupled with its already announced new docu-series, hosted by chef Anthony Bourdain, which will look at food and dining cultures around the world.

Spurlock is maybe best known as the guy who made and starred in an innovative documentary take on obesity and fast food. His 2004 docu, “Super Size Me,” followed him for a month as he ate only at McDonald’s and recorded the results, which included a 24-pound weight gain. “Super Size Me” was nominated for an Academy Award in one of the documentary derbies.

The new Spurlock show seems to fulfill reports, which emerged after CNN’s ratings problems, that the network was looking for talk show and “reality” series to prop up its numbers.

Sheen waits on FX

Charlie Sheen is playing the waiting game after FX on Thursday aired the last of its initial 10-episode order of his comedy series, “Anger Management.”

Should the ratings on the 10 episodes hit an agreed-upon threshold — agreed upon by the network and producing studio Lionsgate — FX is on the hook for 90 episodes. The new episodes would be produced at a much faster clip than the usual broadcast model of about 22 episodes a season, or the even slower cable model of 13 episodes, or six episodes — or however many episodes the show’s creator is in the mood to make that season. We call it the Larry David model.

Anyway, that means Lionsgate will hit 100 episodes total in about two years — half the time it takes to snag that many episodes of a broadcast series. And that’s important because 100 episodes is the magic number needed for a truly robust aftermarket.

Last month, FX programming chief John Landgraf said the show’s third, fourth, fifth and sixth episodes exceeded the ratings threshold that’s required for the “back 90” renewal. The first two episodes, which ran consecutively on June 28, were excluded from the formula governing that pickup agreement, he told TV critics at Summer TV Press Tour 2012.

That’s a pity, because those first two episodes clocked an average of 5.5?million and 5.7?million viewers, making the premiere the most watched for a scripted prime-time comedy series in cable history at that time — excluding children’s programming. It was also the most watched series premiere in FX history. The ratings provided much the same story among the 18- to 49-year-olds who are the currency of FX ad sales.

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