In your odd Thursday media column: an old reporter goes on a Facebook-shaming rampage, the Boston Globe is suddenly "not for sale," Dick Ebersol retires, Bill Keller is still talking, and Al Gore says News Corp's censoring his network.
After being called a 'jerk' by Shani Davis late last year, Colbert takes to the ice with one goal: To prove that with only two hours of training he can beat the three world records holder at his own game.
Tonight, while David Letterman and Jay Leno were busy insulting each other, Conan O'Brien did everything he could to piss off NBC: the return of the Masturbating Bear, a $1.5 million prop and a bombshell dropped by guest Adam Sandler.
Tonight, Jay Leno spoke seriously on the NBC late night controversy for the first time, skirting blame and saying, "Conan's show... was not doing well." Later, David Letterman continued his Leno-bashing, while O'Brien further took NBC to task. Videos inside.
NBC has drawn the long knives and dispatched NBC Sports titan and former late-night guru Dick Ebersol—who produced Saturday Night Live during the Joe Piscipo years—to strike back at Conan O'Brien in a New York Times interview.
Model, DJ, and rock star spawn Alexandra Richards turns 23 today. Former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley is turning 66. Famed television exec (and NBC Sports chairman) Dick Ebersol is 62. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, is 58. Alexis Arquette is turning 40. The rapper Soulja Boy is 19. Sally Struthers is turning 61. Garfield creator Jim Davis turns 64. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is 55. And Elizabeth Berkley, she of Saved by the Bell and Showgirls fame, celebrates her 37th birthday today.
♦ Are Madonna and Guy Ritchie really divorcing? It might be another rumor or really a Sun exclusive, but the British tabloid says they plan to announce the split as soon as today. [The Sun]
♦ Christie Brinkley is suing Peter Cook for violating the couple's confidentiality agreement by talking about their relationship on 20/20. [NYP]
♦ The "mystery illness" that's caused Janet Jackson to cancel tour dates is supposedly a vestibular migraine, which "induces the sensation of vertigo." The good news is that now she's apparently cured. [ET]
♦ Raffaello Follieri's lawyers yesterday asked a judge to "go easy" on Raffaello in exchange for his quick return to Italy where he'll "never be heard from again." Ha! [NYDN]
♦ The 40-year-old CEO of a company called Future Tech Enterprise on Long Island is actually paying $20,000 to box Michael Lohan. And Stephen Baldwin is now planning to serve as the match judge. [Newsday via NYO]
The number eight is considered lucky in China, and so everyone assumed that's why the Beijing Olympics opened on August 8, aka 08/08/08. This little chestnut gave the media a mildly exotic (but easy to understand!) piece of Chinese culture to talk about in their inevitable stories on the Olympic host country, and also something interesting to say about the opening ceremonies before they happened. But NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol explodes the myth of 8-8-08 in the Times today, saying superstition is "not really why the Olympics started then." The real reason? Money. (Duh.)
Over the course of four decades in the business, Dick Ebersol has helped create Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels, brought the Olympics to NBC, and stolen John Madden away from ABC. Currently a senior adviser and former chairman of NBC Sports, Ebersol managed of all the sports programming you see on NBC and its many sister networks. His wife is actress Susan Saint James.
