meltdown
07/23/2007
Paula Abdul Has Hair and Makeup Meltdown
In this clip from the delightful Bravo series Hey Paula, America's favorite unstable singing judge learns that thanks to a snowstorm, neither her hair and makeup artist nor her "consultant" will be able to be there for her Letterman appearance. Paula's initially most concerned about Daniel, the hair and makeup artist, but it's the loss of consultant Billy that really seems to unhinge her.
Billy, apparently, basically scripts Paula's interview responses and other public appearance chatter for her. Given how often Paula's speech and behavior are rather ruthlessly mocked in the media, I can understand why she feels vulnerable without his support. Then again, given how often Paula's speech and behavior are mocked in the media, maybe Billy's support is the kind she could do without.
Paula's so unravelled here, I confess I do feel a little dirty about kicking her when she's down. Then again, given the frequent cuts to a filmed-much-later Paula cheerfully narrating the thing like it was just another day at the office, and Paula's staff displaying a complete lack of emotional response to her fit as if it's, well, just another day at the office, I'm guessing this kind of thing happens a lot around there.
06/28/2007
Mika Brzezinski Rips Paris Report
MSNBC reporter Mika Brzezinski might be cute enough to be confused for eye candy, but she's no lightweight. As a CBS correspondent, she was live at Ground Zero when the south tower collapsed. So maybe it's not surprising that she hit a breaking point on yesterday's "Morning Joe" broadcast when her producer handed her Paris Hilton's release from jail as the lead national news story three hours in a row.
It's easy to mistake this edited clip for one long hissy fit, but if you watch the clock you'll see that Brzezinski first refused to do the story at 6am EST and was handed it anew at 7 -- when she tried to set it on fire -- and again at 8, at which point she carried it over to a shredder and dispatched it, we hope, for good. (She thought she ought to be leading with the day's second story, something about some senator being all mad at the President about some war somewhere where Paris Hilton doesn't live.)
This comes the same week that US Weekly declared a Hilton news blackout, claiming the magazine, like the nation, was deep in the throes of "enormous Paris fatigue." The cover story they went with instead? Suri Cruise.
Now that's journalism.
