Buy, bye

Mike Wallace, CBS News ‘60 Minutes’
Sad, funny, undeniably authentic, Tabloid Baby tells the tale of what befell too much of mainstream television news over the past couple of decades as the bad drove out the good.

Maury Povich
Burt was there for the birthing of tabloid, he became the heart of the genre, and now he’s written the Bible.

Paula Zahn, Fox News Channel
It was a fun read. I laughed out loud!

Jim Ryan, Good Day New York, WNYW-TV
This one is terrific! This one puts you there. It gives you the flavor of being there and it gives you the kind of off-the-wall gonzo journalism that was going on there!

J. Max Robins, The Robins Report, TV Guide
Tabloid Baby is a compelling, vodka-laced chronicle that pulls back the curtain on the helter-skelter world of tabloid TV. Celebrities’ bad behavior—illicit sex, substance abuse, betrayal and revenge— are commonplace in the weird world of Tabloid Baby… Some of the incidents in Tabloid Baby are laugh-out-loud funny… I can corroborate how accurately he captures the era… Kearns does his subjective best to show how the tabloid genre stripped away pretensions from the news. He demonstrates how a bare-knuckle style of reporting often produced exclusives, while occasionally even bringing insight to the most sensational stories of the decade.

John Strausbaugh, New York Press
He helped change forever the way the news gets told on TV. Kearns is defiantly, happily unapologetic. That’s part of what makes his memoirs such an absorbing read. Tabloid Baby is a funny, brash, packed-with-anecdotes account of his role in the trashing (my usage) of TV news. If Kearns lays on the mythologizing a bit thick–his portraits of colleagues like Steve Dunleavy come straight out of 1930s hero-worship of the two-fisted, whiskey-pounding newspaper reporter–it’s probably just because he’s looking to sell HBO the movie rights, and why not. Besides, even his heroes show their warts, and portraits of powerful media figures like Barry Diller, Diane Dimond, Anthea Disney and Jeff Greenfield are boldly unattractive. On the broad scale, Tabloid Baby is a simple and familiar tale about the Aussification of the news: that is, it’s about the enormous, and many would say enormously detrimental, impact Rupert Murdoch and his piratical Aussie crew have had on news, both in print and electronic, both here and in England, over the last decade. On a more petty level, various other famous asses get satisfying comeuppances in Tabloid Baby. He tells some great Hollywood-sleaze stories.

The Straits Times, Singapore
Pop culture history of the best sort -- dishy, gossipy, delivered with the unerring ear of a TV reporter for the good soundbite and a healthy dose of cynicism. A rough and tumble, zippily-entertaining pop history of the birth of American tabloid television. In this kiss-and-tell, after a fashion, book, he provides the lowdown on how American television reporting got from the buttoned-down, WASP mentality of anchors like Walter Cronkite to the sleaze-driven mania of the Lewinsky phenomenon in the 1990s.

Today’s Librarian magazine
Tabloid Baby is a realistic account of how the medium of television emerged from the mass of “infotainment” programming it now embraces. A master at taking the reader behind the scenes, author Burt Kearns goes one better and shows in detail who’s calling the shots and the cut-throat nature of the business. Kearns relates the down and dirty to us—all first hand. The industry philosophy of “do whatever you have to do to get ratings, no matter who you hurt” is the underlying theme throughout the book, and Kearns’ experience as the former executive producer of A Current Affair and Hard Copy makes him more than qualified to give us this accurate account. The reader is given the obvious advantage of hearing about the people, the drinking, the sex, the drugs, from someone on the inside who lived, ate, and breathed tabloid TV shows. Kearns’ book has all the makings of a best-seller. It pulses and moves, and, like the medium it speaks of, presents us with a hook, teases us, and leaves us wanting more. As a former television show producer, I know many of the people Kearns writes about. Like myself, many in the industry will be nodding their heads in agreement, and the ones who won’t are those who will know they’ve been found out and that the jig is finally up. Throw away any other book you’ve ever read about television shows, and welcome to the real world of Tabloid Baby. It’s powerful, addictive reading, and despite the 500 pages to go through, I kept wanting more. Sequel?

Neal Travis, The New York Post
The navel-gazing that's going on at the TV networks right now will be enhanced by the publication of Burt Kearns' enthralling book, Tabloid Baby in which the veteran of shows like A Current Affair and Hard Copy reveals the M.O. of the programs that changed the way the medium covers news.

Steve Dunleavy, The New York Post
Con men, criminals, celebrities, politicians - all seemed to remain part of A Current Affair’s extended family, even when we beat them up. Burt Kearns, in his new book "Tabloid Baby," takes us on a delightful and raucous romp through that world. It was a world that will never be seen again. The wildest bunch of pirates imaginable. I know because I was there. In eloquent if sometimes brutal prose, Kearns, a senior producer on the show, unmasks all the usual suspects, which would guarantee that Tom Brokaw wouldn't let himself be buried in the same cemetery as any of us. "We'd taken television to a delirious and dangerous edge," Kearns writes. In varying doses of scandal, celebrity, crime, politics and morality, the tabloid television tales riveted a nation for a decade and Kearns grabs it all in print. The title of the book, "Tabloid Baby," tells you how it all went full circle until Kearns goes respectable, marries beautiful British TV anchor Allison Holloway and has a lovely son called Sam. All wrapped up in Los Angeles suburbia. Those wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of mine. Of course, I normally would have sued the son-of-a-gun for what he wrote about me, but I can't - it's all doggone true.

Frank DiGiacomo, The New York Observer
In the opening pages of Tabloid Baby, television producer Burt Kearns’ memoir about the rise and fall of tabloid television, he writes that New York Post reporter Steve Dunleavy, "the ageless legend with his silver pompadour, eagle beak profile and rakish charisma, was the paragon of everything that made journalism romantic and dangerous. He was friend to cops and criminals, bums and kings. He knew the words to any show tune you could toss at him." And then Mr. Kearns gets to the point: "Dunleavy, it was said, would fuck anyone, do anything–fuck anything–for a story." In journalistic parlance, that is the nut graph to Mr. Kearns’ first-person account of his immersion in the sweaty, up-all-night 120-proof world of tabloid television that media mogul Rupert Murdoch brought to America when he imported a band of Australian "wild pirates," as Mr. Kearns referred to them in a phone interview, to run the American TV and media properties that he had purchased… Indeed, if the book justifies anything, it’s that Mr. Dunleavy deserves his title as the Keith Richards of tabloid journalism.

The Sunday Age, Melbourne, Australia
Young enough to be Steve Dunleavy’s son, Kearns arrived in New York City from a sleepy suburban newspaper the night John Lennon died, and elbowed his way up in television newsrooms before getting his big break—working with Dunleavy and several other Australians to set up the hugely successful tabloid show A Current Affair. It was a rollercoaster ride, and prompted Kearns to write a book about the era—a rollicking number called Tabloid Baby. It’s during the launch that he coins the Keith Richards line about his old mate, whom treats as a loveable but eccentric uncle. There’s plenty more where that came from, in the book.

The Australian, Sydney, Australia
“What’s wrong with you?” my wife asked, as I lay in bed on Saturday morning, recharging the batteries, laughing, chortling and giggling. I was just reliving a part of my past, utterly engrossed in Burt Kearns’ book, Tabloid Baby. It tells the rip-roaring, devil-may-care, booze-fueled story of the explosive rise of tabloid TV in the U.S. Kearns tells it all in a vivid, brutally honest account that is riveting, funny, yet ultimately sad. Not only do the central characters fall, one by one, victims of booze, fatigue and Hollywood politics, but so does the genre itself… In a sense, Tabloid Baby is a tabloid history of tabloid itself; a potted, bovrilized, cut-to-the chase story about a ten-year TV subset of the wider newspaper genre that grew, blossomed, and wilted within the 20th century… The tabloid era maybe well behind us now, but that’s why Tabloid Baby is such a good read—it’s pure nostalgia; a portrait of the way we were, for those who may prefer to forget…

Ed Breslin, Seek Books Update, Seekbooks.com
Tabloid Baby provides as much high-octane entertainment as any Hollywood expose, and, in the bargain, it concerns a very serious subject, and sheds a sharp light on it: the nature of journalism at the dawn of the millennium. Every big news story of the 80s and early 90s is showcased in here. What’s more, Burt Kearns proves the old journalism adage that the story behind the story is often the best story. All of these guys would have attacked the Great Wall of China with a safely pin if a great story had been on the other side. Reading about them in Tabloid Baby, you feel that Burt Kearns has done for them as marauding journalists what Robert Louis Stevenson did for pirates in Treasure Island.

Connie Martinson Talks Books (PBS & Beverly Hills Courier)
Burt writes like a young Harold Robbins, fast paced, character descriptive and true situations that do not always speak well of the teller. It is, as Burt says, an uncensored account of the revolution that gave birth to 21st century television news broadcasting. Burt’s story of office politics from A Current Affair to Hard Copy is riotous.

LA Weekly
The best parts of the book are his candid confessions of the sleazy tactics — ranging from stealing a Joey Buttofuoco tape off a New York satellite feed to copying the infamous Rob Lowe sex tape off an Atlanta television screen— that got him into trouble. Kearns also pops off some good caps at pompous media figures, including Jeff Greenfield, who greeted a tabloid cameraman who baited him during the O.J. trial by saying, “This is the kind of lack of civility that I really think is unfortunate.” And the boozy, Vegas-stomping, strip-club-hopping, Sammy Davis Jr.–fawning life he describes, in vomit-in-the-office-trash-can detail, is emulated by mainstream media personalities today.

Tim Blair, The Australian
Kearns's book is a brutal chronicle of how exposure to the Australian tabloid ethos drove him to the brink of alcoholism.

News of the World, London
TV boss confesses… Sensationally!

The Jerusalem Post
A lively, compulsively readable account of his experiences as a producer at the American tabloid television shows A Current Affair and Hard Copy!

The Hartford Courant
Kearns relates dozens of raucous adventures in his new memoir, Tabloid Baby. It's a rollicking remembrance that romanticizes tabloid TV, as if the shows A Current Affair and Hard Copy were Hearst and Pulitzer battling over the Spanish-American War in the early days of yellow journalism. Kearns, however, suggests that the respectable press has always overstated the differences between itself and the tabs. To him, a tabloid story is simply one with a lot of emotion, real characters and a moral at the end -- a story with all the elements and drama of real life. He's started a new Web site -- tabloidbaby.com -- that promises links to the best tabloid stories of the day, and he revels in how they come from places people might not expect, like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Dallas Morning News.

The Malibu Surfside News
Tabloid Baby is as entertaining a read as the television shows it describes. The book chronicles the last great communication revolution of the 20th century, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the birth of a new approach to network news.

The Palisadian-Post, Pacific Palisades, CA
We cannot print the title of Chapter 4, but Kearns’ new book Tabloid Baby features detailed accounts of scandals involving Rob Lowe, the Kennedys and everything else he covered during his decade in tabloid television. Producing for A Current Affair and later Hard Copy, Kearns did anything, sometimes resorting to illegal measures, to get the story. Kearns never claimed that such stories were vital information to American viewers… To him, the torrid tales served a much different purpose: humor.

Victor Neufeld, executive producer, ABC News 20/20
I enjoyed the book a lot. I am a closet "Current Affair" aficionado here at ABC News… although some of what I learned happened at the program from reading the book I trust would never happen here!

The Web Page, TV Guide
A hilariously scandalous account of the birth of tabloid TV!

Salon.com
Tabloid television isn't dead. Shows such as A Current Affair and Hard Copy that thrived on news, gossip and scandal and brought the world dramatic reenactments and hidden-camera scoops were simply made redundant. Burt Kearns was a producer on both of those shows. To hear him tell it, tabloid TV simply morphed into network news magazines, syndicated talk shows, ceaseless cable "news" coverage and those morning programs where the men all wear sweaters and the coffee is decaffeinated.

The Chattanooga Times & Free Press
Do you remember when the national news shows were serious, dull and only watched by your parents who felt some obligation to turn it on before dinner? Do you remember when all that changed? During the '90s, the lines that once divided real news, real life and real entertainment were completely erased and replaced by a TV gumbo that includes cop shows, paramedic shows, judge shows and more news magazines shows featuring real people than there are real people. Burt Kearns was there at the beginning, and he has written a book about tabloid TV and its rise to prominence and eventual merger with "real news." Tabloid Baby is the story of how shows like A Current Affair and Hard Copy, with their behind-the-story stories of real people, went from industry joke to industry leader to the industry norm…

The Trumbull (CT) Times
At times his life sounds as if he escaped from one of those old-time movies such as The Front Page, about newsmen who planned stunts, lied, stole stories and would do anything to get The Big Story first!

The Daily Grind, Radiodigest.com
One of the most popular radio show guests the last week or two has been Burt Kearns, author of the tabloid TV memoir. Has he got stories!

Barry Farber, nationally-syndicated radio host
Burt Kearns is one of the early revolutionaries who changed television forever and put it between the covers of Tabloid Baby. He didn’t only write about it, he lived it. He made that particular piece of TV history happen!

Art Bell, nationally-syndicated radio host
A great book!

Bill Diehl, ABC Radio Network
You ruffled some feathers with this book. You named names—you didn’t pull any punches!

Joey Reynolds, WOR’s nationally-syndicated radio host
An excellent book. I want everybody who listens to my show to buy this book. You’ll love it!

Nick DiGilio, WGN Radio, Chicago
Bridges have been burned like you would not believe with this book! It’s incredibly entertaining. You’ll rip right through this book. Very entertaining—and honest. Boldly honest.

John Carney, KMOX Radio, St. Louis
Opens up the world of tabloid television as you have never seen it!

Paul Harris, KTRS Radio, St. Louis
Burt has great stories in his tell-all book!

Bill Handel, KFI Radio, Los Angeles
I was riveted. The stories don’t stop. They are incredible! This fun book gives you a glimpse of how influential TV is and who the players were at a really fascinating time in media history. The behind-the-scenes accounts are absolutely hilarious. The folks involved are often funny, smarmy, and sometimes even pretty likeable.

Karen Grant, KSRK Radio, Monterey
Tabloid Baby really is a hoot!

Ross Stevenson, 3AW Radio, Melbourne, Australia
What a ripper book! I bought a separate copy for the programme director. He too declared it a beauty. A great read. Well done!

Chaunce Hayden, Eyada.com
It’s a great book! I swear to God, Tabloid Baby is the real deal. No one has the balls to write what he wrote, knowing the consequences. And he knew what would happen! I think Burt is the best tabloid journalist in America!

George Pennacchio, Hollywood Wrap Weekend, ABC-TV News
Explicit! Author and former TV tabloid producer Burt Kearns writes all about the rise of tabloid TV in a book guaranteed to cause a scandal!

Caslon Analytics, Australia
A tabloid-flavoured expose of the birth of the Fox television network. It replaces Alex Block's Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Rupert Murdoch, Joan Rivers & the Inside Story of America's 4th Television Network!

Willamette Week, Portland, Ore.
Hilarious exposé of the news we love to hate!

Steve Powers, Ph.D., co-author, "How To Watch TV News"
An insightful, incisive, and revealing history of the last television revolution of the twentieth century. With his combination of detailed reporting, novelistic approach and raw honesty, Kearns spins a compelling, rousing adventure that takes the reader behind the scenes of the decade’s most important as well as most sensational news events. This is the first and best insider account of a movement that changed the face of television news.

Jonathan Vankin, MediaNews Extra!
Good reading for journalists. A three-fisted insider's account of the early days of tabloid TV!

John Austin, Hollywood Inside Syndicate
Tabloid Baby could even be considered ”The Front Page” of the millennium, the “Boogie Nights” of journalism. We found it to be an utterly fascinating look at tabloid (TV) journalism that we didn't even know existed. Kearns has revealed more "dirt" than we expected. Celebrities, we are sure, will not like being exposed by such an "inside source"- nor will other members of the media. From our inside knowledge of tabloid journalism after thirty five years in the newspaper & TV business, we can assure you that Kearns has given us a really realistic account of what goes on. Believe us, this book is undeniably true and authentic. You can be rest assured that you, the reader have been given the obvious advantage of reading about the people, the drinking, the sex, the drugs, from someone on the inside who lived, ate, and breathed tabloid TV.

Anita Talbert, E! Entertainment TV & syndicated gossip columnist
A fantastic compendium of the history of Tabloid TV-- from a man who lived it. Stars better be braced! Kearns is sparing no expense on anyone and no one is safe. It is 500 pages of scathing tell-all right from the horse’s mouth… all the behind-the-scenes scandals that have never seen the light of day. Right now there are lots of celebrities squirming in discomfort. Between this book and Heidi Fleiss’s memoirs, no one in this town is safe!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D., cable TV show host
Tabloid Baby earns my highest commendation. It reveals the innermost secrets of the world of tabloid television like no other book!

Carol Vitale, The Carole Vitale Show
We are in love with this book, Tabloid Baby. Never a dull moment!

John Cluckie, Under the Covers with John Cluckie
This book is fabulous! It’s full of celebrity sleaze and scandal and gossip. A must read!

Linn Taylor, Screentime Access, Sydney, Australia
A rip-snorting, page-turning, knee-slapping trip down television's memory lane--the good and the bad--written by a talented wordsmith who lived through the era--helped shape it--and came out alive! If you've ever wondered how television is made--look no further for a reference book!

Brett Hudson, star of CBS’s Hudson Brothers Show
This is one of the best books I have ever read! Burt Kearns is the author of the millennium. Having been in show business my whole life, I can honestly tell you that Mr. Kearns has written the "behind the scenes" truth of the television industry. Tabloid Baby is a winner. I can't wait to see the movie!

Luke Ford, lukeford.net
An absorbing book!

Jan Thomas, Good Evening Norway TV
Entertaining and funny! Very funny! Read this and find out what’s going on behind the scenes!

Eames Yates, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
Tabloid Baby tells a truth that I have demanded from myself and others. It is a brave and daring look at those who have given their lives, their families, their fortune and their health to bring to the American people the stories that tell them who they are, what they are, and why they are.

Joe Hamill, Court TV
This book is nothing less than an underappreciated masterpiece. Cast as a memoir, it is also, perhaps, the most densely-packed and exhaustive inside history of the phenomena of Tabloid TV during its reign.

Michael Raffaele, author, "The Editor: Steps to Saving A Dying Newspaper"
Tabloid Baby was TREMENDOUS. It is a breath of fresh air and should be taught in J-Schools (and bars) across the country.

Rafael Abramovitz, legendary Tabloid TV correspondent
Burt Kearns is a very lucky man. Because best friends don’t sue!

"Proof of life"? It's time to produce a photo of Patrick McDermott to prove he's alive

We've been investigating the case of missing Hollywood outcast Patrick McDermott for five years, since the day it was announced he'd vanished from a fishing boat off San Pedro and that his supposed lover of nine years, Olivia Newton-John hadn't bothered to report him missing or make a public plea to help find him in seven long weeks. The story, and subsequent revelations that he may have faked his death over finances (why would he need money if he was Newton-John's partner?), was either too challenging or not interesting enough to most journos, especially the Hollywood types who weren't about to topple the longstanding industry "beard" facade (see Jesse James), but we beat the drum loud and long enough for other tabloid outlets, including NBC's Dateline, to investigate.

And now Dateline's hired P.I. says he's tracked down McDermott in Baja Mexico, that he has "proof of life," "voice recordings," and a deal with McDermott's lawyer to back off, leave the guy alone and go write a book.

And people are taking his word for it...


Sorry, but we don't trust the folks at Dateline. It's time to back it up.

Here's the latest:

* McDermott is living in the Mexican village of Sayulita and working as a ship's mate on a tourist yacht;

* Residents of the Pacific coast town say they know the 'tranquil man' as Pat Kim;

* Shown a photograph of Mr McDermott, they confirmed he had been living in the town for several years;

* Local hotelier Mark Rubio said most folks knew his true identity but "nobody was bothered. This is a pretty relaxed place";

* The captain of Sayula 1, the ship Mr McDermott has worked on, said he had not seen him in some time;

* P.I. Klein received 'proof of life' by a representative of McDermott, including a voice recording and an instructions that McDermott "did not want to be hounded";

* Klein agreed;

* Mainstream news outlets are reporting his announcements without investigating for themselves. WTF??!

We believe Patrick McDermott is alive. We've spoken to witnesses and dug up important information. But if Philip Klein has the goods, we'd figure he'd come back with a video statement from McDermott or, at the very least, a photo.


Sayulita, Mexico: a fishing village about 25 miles north of downtown Puerto Vallarta in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, with a population of approximately 4,000. Hailed as a popular off-the-beaten-path travel destination, Sayulita offers a variety of activities such as horseback riding, hiking, jungle canopy tours, snorkeling and fishing. Still a mecca for beginner surfers of all ages, the quaint town attracts upscale tourists with its numerous art galleries and restaurants as well. The most well-established restaurant, Don Pedro's (since 1994), has attracted an international clientele for years, many of whom have vacation villas in the picturesque village. Sayulita has a curious eclectic quality, frequented by native Cora and Huichol peoples, travelling craftsmen as well as international tourists. Sayulita is the crown jewel in the newly designated "Riviera Nayarit," the coastal corridor from Litibu to San Blas. Its stunning natural beauty and easy access to Puerto Vallarta have made Sayulita real estate some of the most sought after in all of Mexico. With a growing ecological awareness and stricter zoning enforcement, development is being regulated to help safeguard the environment and quality of life of the community.

Set off, journos. Bring back some real "proof of life."

Report: Rehabbing Redmond rebels, refuses role in dad Ryan O'Neal's sequel to TV special about his mom Farrah Fawcett

Gossip man Mike Walker, who has pretty reliable sources, reports in this week's National Enquirer that "drug addict Redmond O'Neal" is "fed up with the money-grubbing exploitation of dead mom Farrah Fawcett by ruthlessly abusive dad Ryan O'Neal" and "finally exploded and refused to star in Ryan's sequel to Farrah's Story, the hit TV documentary that featured shocking footage of jailbird Redmond shuffling in shackles to Mommy's deathbed!"

Walker goes a step further by adding that "Redmond-- desperately fighting his drug habit in rehab-- blames Ryan for the vicious snub of Farrah by the Oscars, which cut her out of its In Memorium segment."

Ryan is quoted by a "friend visiting him in rehab":

"My dad's pissed off so many people in Hollywood that they're taking it out on my mother!"


Redmond reportedly believes his dad is "using poor Farrah's memory to grub for money he badly needs. Redmond got $4.5 million in Farrah's will-- but Ryan got zero."

According to one of Mike's insiders, Red's "residual anger" at that deathbed scene has built after "friends and fellow jailbirds convinced him that Ryan shouldn't have shot that embarrassing footage.

"And now that he's out of jail, he's told Ryan not to visit him in rehab."

Sound true?

Poltergeist movie curse strikes again

The curse of the film Poltergeist, said to exist because of the premature deaths of people connected with it, has struck again.

Zelda Rubinstein, who played the tiny psychic in the 1982 film directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, is dead.

Curse? Actually, it is the entire Poltergeist series that's said to be damned. Four cast members died in the six years between the release of the first film and the release of the third, with one dying during production of the second film. Two of them died at young ages, 12 and 22.


Among the victims:

Dominique Dunne, who played the oldest sibling Dana in the first movie, died in 1982 at age 22 after being strangled by her jealous boyfriend (Monique's father, Dominick Dunne, died in the summer of 2009).

Julian Beck, 60-year-old actor who played Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, died in 1985 of stomach cancer.

Will Sampson, 53 years old, who played Taylor the Medicine Man in Poltergeist II, died as a result of post-operative kidney failure and pre-operative malnutrition problems in 1987.

Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne in all three Poltergeist movies, died in 1988 at the age of 12 after what doctors initially described as an acute form of influenza but later changed to septic shock after bacterial toxins invaded her bloodstream.

Louis "Lou" Perryman, who played Pugsley in the first movie, was murdered at the age of 67 in his home in Austin, Texas last April.

Screenplay novelization author James Kahn told People magazine says that that seconds after he wrote the line "Lightning ripped open the sky," the building was struck by lightning and all the arcade games in the lounge began playing themselves.

Any more doubts? The Poltergeist curse has even been the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story.


Zelda Rubinstein had been hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after her lungs and kidney failed. She was reportedly taken off life support at the end of December. She was 76.

Life is sad without Farrah

The aftermath of Farrah Fawcett's death just... gets... sadder. Jezebel reports that Vanity Fair's Farrah cover story "mainly offers the definitive portrait of what a horrible partner and father Ryan O'Neal is, without getting at who Farrah really was"; Farrah's old boyfriend Greg Lott, cut off from the inner circle and left holding the bag for paid orders from the Farrah website he ran until O'Neal shut it down, is being roasted by the public relations man he'd hired to get his story out; and as our pal The Big Cheese at Hollywood's Rumor Rat tipped us while it was happening on Larry King Live, sad Griffin O'Neal has come forward again to attack his sad father.


This is where the Hollywood tragedy becomes the sordid Hollywood saga. We figure it's good reason to watch The E! True Hollywood Story premiering tomorrow night. Word is Greg Lott makes an appearance as well.

Farrah Fawcett's life and death become an E! True Hollywood Story

When NBC Dateline took Farrah Fawcett’s cancer documentary (as was its right since the network paid for it) and turned it into a morbid maudlin “mainstream news” version of a tabloid television special, critics groaned, millions watched in horror, the original producer sued and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave it an Emmy nomination.

When The E! True Hollywood Story dedicates an hour to “the life and legacy of the iconic Hollywood beauty” on Wednesday night, there may not be awards cast in its direction, but viewers can expect they'll be able to sit down to a compelling hour of tabloid show business biography.

The E! True Hollywood Story is television’s premier entertainment biography show, turning each of its stories into a down-and-dirty Hollywood noir, laying its subjects bare while treating them with the respect and awe that their achievements and status command. Whether Natalie Wood or Ray Combs, Liberace or Jan-Michael Vincent, Rebecca Schaeffer or Joe Piscopo, all the THS subjects wind up together in the equivalent of a low-rent Sunset Boulevard motel-- not diminished but enshrined equally as True Hollywood Stars, for why else would we care so much about their personal travails?


It’s a pre-TMZ approach that comes closest to the Hollywood myth-handling of the early days of tabloid television when James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis were still fertile subject matter.

As for the series’ latest portrait of Farrah-- she was featured in 1999, in Season 3-- take it from the press release :

“In 1976, a famous hairstyle and a red swimsuit turned unknown actress Farrah Fawcett into a pop culture icon, but the Texas-born beauty never lost her girl-next-door humility and charm. Diagnosed with cancer in 2006, Fawcett was also an inspiration to many people as she waged a courageous battle with the disease that ultimately took her life. THS chronicles the complicated journey of this blonde bombshell through intimate interviews with those who knew her best…”

The hour-long episode features a rare interview with Farrah’s college friend Sylvia Dorsey, “who sat with Fawcett in the hospital during her final days, along with Farrah’s longtime stylist Mela Murphy and “Charlie’s Angels” creator Leonard Goldberg.

There are also “never-before seen photos taken by her best friend, Alana Stewart.”

In light of the turmoil among those closest to Farrah in the weeks preceding and after her death, those alone should make for a very interesting hour, while adding to the bigger picture.

“Farrah Fawcett: The E! True Hollywood Story” premieres Wednesday, August 5th at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific, and ten show up throughout the E! schedule.

Farrah Fawcett's business partner and college beau fights visit ban by inundating Ryan O'Neal with Farrah fans' cards and letters

As the Farrah Fawcett cancer plays out behind closed doors in a Beverly Hills area high-rise, one of her lifelong friends who’ve been denied access to her is striking back at her caretakers in a most unusual way.

In an action that brings to mind the scene in Miracle on 34th Street in which a judge is buried beneath sacks of letters to Kris Kringle, Greg Lott (above, with Farrah in 1999, below with Farrah at a Houston wedding in 2001) is directing Farrah fans’ cards, letters and packages to be sent to her apartment, so her longtime, on-again-off-again lover Ryan O’Neal can be “up to his neck” in them.

We’ve written about Greg Lott. He was Farrah’s football hero sweetheart in college forty-four years ago, gone down in tabloid legend as the man who lost her to Hollywood and Lee Majors, but who re-entered life in 1997 after she announced her split from lover Ryan O’Neal.

Lott is partners with Farrah in a company called Relentless, which runs her official website and the merchandising that goes along with it. Lott says the site has been getting thousands of letters that are stacking up in plastic boxes at the Relentless post office box in Lubbock, Texas, so he's having the mail forwarded to Farrah's home.


Lott, who claims that he his regular access to Farrah has been cut off since Ryan O’Neal moved in around Easter, has also posted Farrahs’ home address on the website and asked fans from around the world to send their cards, letters and packages to her very unit.

“All the fans know Farrah’s address,” Lott said this afternoon. “TVLand put the address on the air and on their website when they ran the Chasing Farrah show. A lot of her mail is already going there. You know Ryan O’Neal is already going through it, He’s looking for the letters addresed to him and the ones postmarked Texas, which he knows are from me.

“I just thought, 'Why not put it all the way up to his neck?'”

O’Neal, his business manager and Farrah’s friend Alana Stewart are being sued by Farrah’s documentary filmmaking partner. Craig Nevius claims the trio unlawfully took control of the cancer documentary project he and Farrah were producing, turning it into a morbid soap opera, assembled with NBC News, called “Farrah’s Story.”

TabloidBaby.com has learned that key evidence in the suit will be a contested signature on the document Farrah supposedly signed in giving control to O’Neal.

Lott, a Texas businessman, has been in Los Angeles since Easter, holding a vigil of sorts, waiting out his ban on seeing his true love and vowing to remain in town as long as Farrah is alive.

“She’s relentless all right,” he said. "She's a fighter. I have three friends from the University of Texas football team. They called this weekend to cheer me up, and they said, ‘Don’t you remember, if she was a man she'd have made our team!?'

"I’m telling you man: she’s tough. She’s not ready to go."

TMZ exposes itself with George Carlin posting

The crass simpleton headline about the death of genius comedian George Carlin on the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com is not the same headline that the mental deficient pinheads had posted originally. That one demonstrated that they'd been admonished by their corporate overlords and AOL and Time Warner for making fun of the passings of accomplished Hollywood stars, as well as their utter lack of pop culture knowledge or any sense of the true celebrity chain of command:

George Carlin headlining in Heaven.

Anyone who's ever cracked a People magazine would know that Carlin was one of the world's leading misanthropic atheists, so "Heaven" would not be the likely place for him to be appearing with a celestial microphone.

In any case, the regular weekday web team, their banana hammocks tucked away til next weekend, obviously saw many news reports highlighting his routine on the "The Seven Words You Can't Say On Television" (on the screens at the gym), realized it was safe to slip into the vulgarity mode that Harvey Levin's sewage site is well known for ("Prince William Pitches A Tent" or "Former Celtic Has No Pot of Gold to Pee In," anyone?).

But though they changed the headline, they did not change the URL of the story, which still reads

http://www.tmz.com/2008/06/23/
GEORGE-CARLIN-HEADLINING-IN-HEAVEN/

Little sympathy for Barry in Boston

Yeah, he got his wish and now he's a liberal martyr and once again elevated near the recognition level of his former tabloid television rival Bill O'Reilly. And even though he attacked us amid his fateful O'Reilly offensive, we're the first to say it:

Boy, do we feel sorry for Barry Nolan!

After leaving Hollywood and the tabloid world for the rarified and certainly liberal Boston television market, with knowledge of enough twenty-five cent words to get himself a spot on a National Public Radio-style word quiz show, and enough wit and boyish good looks (not to mention that Mensa card) to marry a respected local documentary producer and academic, surely he felt safe-- and, perhaps, duty-bound-- speaking up against a ticket-selling ploy by the local branch of the National Academy of Television and Sciences (SATAN in reverse, by the way) of offering his former tabloid television rival Bill O'Reilly a special Emmy.

But Barry's campaign got him fired from his job hosting a show for Comcast's cable system. Whether there's more to it than the fact that he spoke his mind (as Barry's related scattershot attack on this site might indicate), we'll find out, but in the meantime, public opinion was definitely not in his favor, as evidenced by the reaction to the Boston Herald tabloid's stories of his campaign-- and its repercussions.

Barry misjudged his audience-- something his mentors back in the halcyon (Peter Brennan) days of Hard Copy would not have done. Maybe he should have gone to the more liberal Globe, where he'd have a better chance of controlling the spin. But tabloid is as tabloid does.

Here are the first fifty or so comments on the Boston Herald website story of his ouster:

gungho_guy8888

You had your say, Barry...resulting in a 'dumb move' on your part...sayonara, Barry.

kevkristy

What a maroon... This no talent was lucky to be gievn a forum on a cable-access show, and he blew that. I applaud CN8. The intolerance of these liberal clowns is getting out of control. They are the modern day McCarthys.

Kellyg

Good luck, Barry. What's next after being fired from a Wayne's World job? I see a Deval Press Relation's role in your future!

byeteddy

Enjoy retirement Barry! Next time dont bark up the tree of a guy thats 1000 times more successful than you are.

BCEagle

Barry, there is a reason why you were (formally anyway) on CN8 and O'Reilly is on FOX. Hopefully Barry you've figured that out....

DAVY

Just another Bush hating, O'Reilly hating, bandwagon hopper, that probably never seen ONE episode of The O'Reilly Factor. Go sit on Keith Olberman's lap Barry, that's the only way you'll get back on TV again.

ChrisNH

Barry Nolan despises me, and I'm glad he's out 'looking at his lawn grow' now. What a haughty elite he is for shouting his liberal bias from the mountaintop. It's people like Barry that CONVINCE everyone else of the utter liberal bias that has ALWAYS existed in the mainstream media. And here comes Fox News and Bill O'Reilly--a LONE WOLF on the 'other side'--and poor Barry gets his panties in a wad because he simply can't STAND there to be even a semblance of 'equal time.' Nolan is a bottom-feeder of the worst kind. I hope his lawn gets crabgrass and his wife tosses him aside for someone a little less cantankerous. BFD that he just got a '5-Year watch' from a media outlet hardly anyone knows about.

JackTorse

While Barry is sitting on his front porch watching his grass grow, someone should walk up to him and hand him a cup of coffee . . . in an O'Reilly Factor mug.

rotinski

kevkristy- if you call someone a "maroon" when you are trying to say moron, doesn't it kind of backfire?... you are telling us more about yourself than Barry N

bf258

All is not lost, Barry. You can work again if you learn to say "Would you like fries with that".

ArtieG

Jessica, real professional and objective calling Bill O'Reilly a "Fox News blowhard". Nolan's inappropriate actions get him fired and yet you see fit to take a swipe at O'Reilly?

tappan

Good job Barry. The reason why O'Reilly is so dangerous is because the amount of idiots that believe his crap. Unfortunately they vote. To the 6 people above me in this comment thread. Go have a schlitz and bark at your wife about how many welfare mothers are stealing your hard earned cash as you watch Jerry Springer on your 200inch plasma.

ChrisNH

tappan, the very fact that there are TEN anti-Nolan posts before readers come to YOUR single post in defense of him tells us all we need to know. I suspect that you're probably the welfare mother or father that's doing the stealing, and happy to be doing so. True story.

Fredd

Interesting that the folks bashing Barry are not claiming that Barry was wrong in what he said. "He's delusional," Nolan said of O'Reilly, a former Boston TV anchor. "He's a man that mangles the facts." Do they actually believe that O'Leilly does not mangle the facts? Anyone that chooses to listen to Billo, knowing half the stuff that he says is unmitigated LIES, has a serious problem grasping reality. Good luck Mr Nolan in whatever you choose to pursue in life, hopefully you will remain in broadcasting as we could use some people with principles out there speaking the TRUTH.

GDubaUBush

Remember when this country had the right to free speach?

JackTorse

I remember that. I also remember when its citizens could spell the word "speech" correctly. C'mon man.

slickrick

"Remember when this country had the right to free speach? " Typical liberal idiot. Where was his speech denied? He spoke up and let his opinion be heard. Then his private employer fired him, blame your politicans for MA being a no fault State. How people forget you have the right to say whatever you want but there can be consequences for your actions as well.

Ziggy

Rotinsky, Generally that use of "maroon" is from Bugs Bunny cartoons. Kinda sorta more insulting that way.

Ziggy

GDubaUBush, "the right to free speech" means the goverment cannot pass any laws restricting it. You also have the right to suffer the consequences if your "speech" impacts on things like your employer as it did in this case. There is NO freedom from consequences for what you say.

Ellen

Look there's a lot I don't like about O'Riely even when I agree with him. There's a lot I don't like about a lot them. but what Barry Nolan did was just plain stupid. Talk about ego, and now he can just sit back and like the others say watch the grass grow.

tappan

To the scared and violent white suburban patriots getting ready for their "Budweiser slingfest backyard BBQ's"....Let me repeat what I said a few minutes ago.... Good job Barry. The reason why O'Reilly is so dangerous is because the amount of idiots that believe his crap. Unfortunately they vote. To the many people above me in this comment thread. Go have a schlitz and bark at your wife about how many welfare mothers are stealing your hard earned cash as you watch Jerry Springer on your 200inch plasma.

jimmc2990

LOL! As an RCN subscriber, I haven't seen Barry Nolan or Sara Edwards for years! I didn't know they were even on TV! The funny part is that he had to get fired from obscurity to land on the front page of the Herald.com...

Gooner

You have got to love all the O'Reilly fanboys in these comments typing their hatred through their official O'Reilly keyboards.

Jira

While O'Reilly sometimes comes on too strong, the fact is that he has the guts to publicly stand up to the liberals who want to open up our borders, tax us into oblivion and turn political correctness into an art form. Barry, go watch your grass grow.

troutrivers

Actually, the right to speak freely has been challenged many times in our history. Starting with John Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts...Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus and three folks in prison without charges for months...Woodrow Wilson's administration effecively silenced fight Bob LaFollette opposition to the USA entering WWI...and on and on. The current administration has been quite tolerant of dissent in comparison. And speaking of this guy - he had every right to do what he did - as he can do so again if he chooses. But any future employer will also have the right to impose professional standards on his behavior as well.

ChrisNH

You don't need a better example than this to realize that Nolan is simply a Wal-Mart door greeter who took a lucky turn somewhere along the way. He and others of his ilk are assuredly not Mensa candidates, and here's Barry Nolan just putting an exclamation point on it. Somewhere, Bill O'Reilly is asking, 'Barry WHO?'

iggyd23

Barry was just a no talent jerk trying to be the local Olberman. Passing out that literature at the ceremony was just a spineless lib maneuver

jimmc2990

Hey tappan, go back to your tofu and birkenstocks and leave your hate speech in the closet where it belongs. Liberals love the truth as long as it fits their beliefs. They have no tolerance for another viewpoint, and you just help us conservatives make that point every day. Heck, I think O'Reilly says stupid things as well, but at least he says what he feels, and there's no crime in that unless you're a liberal and then it's all hate speech. Stop your hypocrisy.

THEONE

Good Luck Barry on you next adventure. The truth huts! B. O'reilly swept his harrassment case under the rug. Money talks, this b.s. is still walking on a "VERY" thin line. You should of booed him.

peterscala

Go to it Tappan. What O'Reilly does is the journalistic equivalent of Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment, in other words, it's schtick, with emphasis on the 'entertainment' part. ChrisNH can likely not appreciate the irony of his/her lock-solid, iron-clad conclusion that the posting of ten anti-Nolan posts to your one, actually proves anything. Wonder if (s)he owns a banjo? If the NH means New Hampshire, I suppose we can take the possession of that particular instrument as a given. He's sure got a purty mouth, now, don't he? huh, huh . . .

itsallonthelevel

I love "theone's" post about sweeping the stuff under the rug with money. Ever hear of the Kennedy's up there?

byeteddy

maroon is an insult just like moron didnt you ever see bugs bunny cartoons

Principled

I appluad channel 8, these mean spirited libs are way out of control. Maybe this will be a prelude to a house cleaning at MSNBC and NBC! Principled in Rangeley, Maine

reedkal

Barry, regardless of what you said, or how you said it, you are correct. Bill O'Reilly is a 'pundit'. A commentator who has little respect for the truth and ZERO tolerance for those who dissagree with him. (I notice how that is being shared by conservatives everywhere. "You're right until I say you're wrong!" I am saddened that an Emmy was presented to him. It loweres my esteem for the Academey of Broadcast Arts and Sciences. As for Savage (Weiner), well he IS a real terrorist. The first time I heard him, he was advocating the line-up of all liberals against a wall and machine gunning them! This from a man of Jewish heritage! Best of Luck Barry.

ktm400lc

Who's Barry Nolan?

spikewebbe

I wonder if Bill O'Reilly will call Barry Nolan a Pinhead or a Patriot??

Joke

Tappen, please just a few exsamples of what you speak.

heynow

It is hard to believe any one would be giving an honor to Bill O Do people still watch that channel he is on?

tappan

SHT OFF YOUR TV>>>>>THERE IS NOTHING scarier than a Northeast conservative. The bible belt conservatives are at least guided in their conscience by the Lord, and are good neighbors. Here, all it ever is, Gimme my right to have guns and lots of 'em, where's my right to kill the guy that will eventually come into my house and try to kill my family...Death penalty, Death penalty, Death penalty... Damn, look how the ACLU is killing my family...Look how the school system wants to teach sex ed that I don't appreciate, look how the town green can't have baby Jesus without having a Jewish Menorah, look how THEY say "Happy HOLIDAYS" instead of Merry X-mas.. You are ALL scared, you N'East conservatives. You are ALL tools who are making Howie and Bill LAUGH all the way to the bank.... Love your neighbor and buy more TOFU

Jira

In spite of being constantly reviled, Bill O'Reilly has the guts to publicly challenge the liberals who want to open up our borders, tax us into oblivion and turn political correctness into an art form. Barry, go watch your grass grow.

agingcynic

hey now: last time I checked, 3 times as many as watch MSNBC. Nolan is quoting Edith Freakin' Bunker and he's accusing OTHERS of being delusional? No wonder I haven't seen him in 20 years.

Jira

In spite of being constantly reviled, Bill O'Reilly has the guts to publically challenge the liberals who want to open up our borders, tax us into oblivion and turn political correctness into an art form. Barry, go watch your grass grow.

mrpickles

I bet Bill Oreilly is having the last laugh today.

BCEagle

heynow, The O'Reilly Factor has totally dominated the cable news programming over the past couple of years. That's why you have morons like Barry Nolan, Keith Olbermann and the rest of the "wine and brie crowd" lowering themselves to idiotic levels because they know they don't attract an audience like O'Reilly does...whether you love him or hate him...

peterscala

My WWE comparison stands in the matter of Bill O'Reilly. The guy's doing schtick, an act, whatever you want to call it. Somebody once said he'd rather "be loud than right" and there's the problem. A guy like John McLaughlin is bombastic and over-the-top, but regardless of the opinion, you have to admit he's entertaining. So much so that when Dana Carvey started lampooning him, the bit absolutely went to Carvey's top five. O'Reilly on the other hand, is just a mean-spirited blowhard who just happens to be an idiot on top of it. Check out his repeated references back in an '05 series of debates/discussions with Gen. Wesley Clarke to a massacre of German prisoner/soldiers by American troops at Malmedy, Belgium during WWII. Of course it just happened to be the other way around. German soldiers murdered unarmed American POWs who had their hands in the air. Hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good rant? It doesn't matter that Barry Nolan is a nobody in Bill's world. O'Reilly is deserving of honor from no one.

Tomasestinks

I don't even know where CN8 is on my TV. Hey Barry, my grass is growing as well. I'll pay you to come cut it, I figured you may need the cash and you do have the time.

slightcrazed

Tappan - your ignorance is staggering. You seem to be possessed of the same stereotypical view of we on the right that everyone on the left appears to have. Believe it or not, we ain't all gun-totin' bible-thumpin' overall-wearing hicks with bib-style overalls and mullets. If you'd but learn to diversify (and that is the word that defines a liberal, isn't it?) your political beliefs a bit and gain some respect and understanding for your political rivals you may just come to realize that, though we may think differently, we are all just people. I fully respect your right to your opinion, and will allow you to speak it without insult or injury. Will you not do the same?

SarcasticOne

"As for his future, he plans to get his lawn in good shape and spend time with his wife." It's a shame his wife will now have to suffer for his sins.

Massgopguy

Ah, CN8. The channell that BC HOckey is on when all the other sports stations have Pros. Congrats to PeterScala, over 150 words and no mention of Howie Carr. A new record.

ThreeRings

It's one thing to have an opinion, but Nolan went too far and embarrassed his employer.

penna100

Mrs.Heslam refers to Bill as a blowhard.I wish you sweeties would get it right.He\'s a commentator for the great Fox News.

ThreeRings

I guess Nolan couldn't stand the fact that no one cared what he thought, so he had to copy some lame quotes from some far-left website onto cards and put them on all the tables. That's crossing the line. That's liberals for ya: always throwing a tantrum when no one cares what they think.

troutrivers

I have a question for the folks who are so aghast at O'Reilly receiving an Emmy. What did you think when Hillary Clinton won her Grammy?

JackTorse

peterscala: The phrase you're quoting is as follows, and you'll love the author: "When the law is on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When neither is on your side, yell." Al Gore.