Winnipeg Free Press - May 6th
SINCE losing his late-night talk show to Jay Leno in January, Conan O’Brien has grown a beard, set up a Twitter account (quickly amassing over 915,000 followers, while Leno has yet to break 50,000) and launched his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour. In his first interview since going off the air, the former Simpsons writer sat down with 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft to discuss life after The Tonight Show, his move to cable TV and Leno’s claim that he was the one who was screwed over.
“How did he get screwed again? Explain that part to me. I’m sorry. Jay’s got The Tonight Show,” explains the comedian, who was prohibited from appearing on TV or any other media until after May 1 owing to an agreement with NBC. “I have a beard and an inflatable bat. And I’m touring city to city. Who can say who won and who lost? I’m laughing ‘cause crying would be sad.”
“I went through some stuff. And I got very depressed at times” said O’Brien when asked about his mental state following the loss of the show. “It was like a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly. And I was just trying to figure out what happened.”
The full 60 Minutes interview is streaming on-demand on CBSnews.com and is actually available for Canadians to view.
IF you spend any time in the kitchen, chances are you have nicked your finger while rushing to preparing your dinner. The difference is, you aren’t a celebrity chef on live television trying to show how NOT to cut yourself.
During a recent appearance on Ellen, English bad-boy chef Gordon Ramsay took a chunk out of his finger during a vegan cooking demo on Ellen’s popular afternoon talk show. The visibly embarrassed TV chef seemed rattled after cutting himself, but powered through the segment and kept joking he hasn’t done this in over 10 years.
M.I.A. — Born Free
IF you thought it was controversial that Erykah Badu stripped down naked to walk through Dallas’s historic Dealey Plaza in front of hundreds of curious onlookers (and even some kids) for her Window Seat music video, you should take a look at Sri Lankan-born, U.K.-raised MC M.I.A.’s nine-minute video for her new single, Born Free. The not-safe-for-work clip, directed by Romain Gavras, caused quite a stir when it was uploaded last week and has already been pulled from video-sharing site YouTube. Touching on a number of themes (militarism, racism, persecution) and heavily sampling Ghost Rider by Suicide, it shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Maya Arulpragasa’s back catalogue that she is pushing the boundaries with her new video.
Without offering any spoilers, all I can say is: redheads of the world unite.
Don’t expect this version to air on MTV or MuchMusic any time soon.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 6, 2010 E3
