Yeah, the maesltrom around the death of Michael Jackson has overshadowed what was, at least until about 2 pm that day, the biggest and saddest story to come out of Hollywood on Thursday, June 25th. Farrah Fawcett's passing after a valiant battle against cancer put aside for the moment the unsavoury activities of her longtime beau Ryan O'Neal, includng his intentions to marry her and seal her estate on her deathbed. ABC News and NBC News, taken by surprise by Jacko's drop, went ahead with their planned dueling Farrah soap operas, and in the end ABC's Barbara Walters' "get" of Ryan O'Neal and his compatriot Alana Stewart guaranteed that the show would stick to the official party line and play the Ryan-Farrah "Love Story" script to the fullest. No need for reality to seep into a network mewsmagazine piece. We didn't see Meredith Vieira's revenge hour, slapped up against Walters by NBC in a rage that ABC was stealing the thurnder they'd paid more than a million dolalrs for when they bought (and had their way with) Farrah's documentary.
The only other real outrage in the story comes from the stately New York Times and their addled television writer Alessandra Stanley. An idiot with a reputation for getting details wrong, Stanley, in a backhanded "appreciation" of Farrah's lifework, blew off Farrah's talent as an actress and stuck in a nasty barb while mistakenly (details!) blaming her for the hatchet job NBC did on the documentary that was originally a journal about her treatment in Germany, not a sequel to O'Neal's weepy flick:
"NBC, never shy about exploiting a celebrity tragedy, overproduced and overpromoted her film in 'Farrah’s Story,' but never made the public service point that, besides abstinence, the HPV vaccine is the most promising form of prevention against this type of cancer, which in most cases is sexually acquired."
Sexually Acquired?
For the record, Tabloid Baby can report exclusively that Farrah made it clear to several Tabloid Baby sources that there was no chance she could have contracted her cancer through anal sex.
Tabloid Baby pal Ray Richmond, recently freed from the shackles of The Hollywood Reporter, writes on his indispensable, informative and entertaining website, Man Bites Tinseltown (bookmark it!), that Farrah's funeral will take place tomorrow, Tuesday at 4 pm at the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
It's private, invitation only.
The only other real outrage in the story comes from the stately New York Times and their addled television writer Alessandra Stanley. An idiot with a reputation for getting details wrong, Stanley, in a backhanded "appreciation" of Farrah's lifework, blew off Farrah's talent as an actress and stuck in a nasty barb while mistakenly (details!) blaming her for the hatchet job NBC did on the documentary that was originally a journal about her treatment in Germany, not a sequel to O'Neal's weepy flick:
"NBC, never shy about exploiting a celebrity tragedy, overproduced and overpromoted her film in 'Farrah’s Story,' but never made the public service point that, besides abstinence, the HPV vaccine is the most promising form of prevention against this type of cancer, which in most cases is sexually acquired."
Sexually Acquired?
For the record, Tabloid Baby can report exclusively that Farrah made it clear to several Tabloid Baby sources that there was no chance she could have contracted her cancer through anal sex.
Tabloid Baby pal Ray Richmond, recently freed from the shackles of The Hollywood Reporter, writes on his indispensable, informative and entertaining website, Man Bites Tinseltown (bookmark it!), that Farrah's funeral will take place tomorrow, Tuesday at 4 pm at the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels in downtown Los Angeles.
It's private, invitation only.
