Da King Of Blogging Don't Like Da Queen Of TV

I didn't post it at the time, but my new buddy, King Shamus, added some good words to an Oprah post I did:

The Emcee asks how Oprah gets away with all the cases of malignant neglect and malfeasance she’s been involved in. I think that’s a fair question. Most media stars that fuck up to this degree would have to answer some tough questions. At the very least, for almost every public celebrity not named Oprah Winfrey, there would have to be an acknowledgement that these things happened on his or her watch. The person would have to take very visible and very definitive steps to correct the problem. How come the O gets to skate through all her issues?

I think a big reason why people don’t question this wacky broad is that too many folks need her. If you’re an author, having Winfrey give your book her stamp of approval means a serious bump in sales. If you’re in television or film, a sit-down with Oprah gives your project an automatic boost in prestige. In other words, the folks that should be doing the investigations into Oprah’s various scams and failures have a very strong incentive to look the other way.

It will be very interesting to watch what happens after the lights go out on Oprah’s daily television show. My guess is that without the massive ratings generated by her show, Winfrey will start to lose the power she has to control her own narrative. The Oprah Winfrey Network looks like a slightly glossier Lifetime TV retread. Nobody is going to care if they don’t get interviewed by Gayle King on whatever rinky-dink ten-viewer gabfest Oprah throws her way. Why? Because unlike with the syndicated Oprah program, nothing on OWN is going to pull massive ratings. After the Oprah Winfrey Show goes off the air, it will become more and more safe for people to start pointing out just how lame Oprah really is.

Don’t get me wrong. Oprah will still have a lot of influence on the culture. She is always going to sell people solutions to problems they didn’t even know they had. She will continue to spin her non-judgemental/it’s not your fault/sob story/faux-empowerment bullshit out to masses of watchers, readers and listeners. Most importantly, she will remain a prototypical soft-hearted soft-headed lefty, which will endear her to many in the MSM for years to come.

What is going to change is the kid glove treatment she’s been receiving for so long. Without those ratings to hold over people’s heads, the fear of pissing Oprah off will start to fade. When that happens, the gauzy secular saint persona she’s spent years fashioning is going to crumble and a truer picture of this woman will emerge. While there will be many Winfrey sycophants who will dismiss the inevitable scandals and embarrassments, a substantial portion of her audience might not like the unvarnished Oprah that comes out. Some of Winfrey’s former supporters might realize just how much they’ve been played for fools by this modern day snake oil merchant.

Shamus' good words, of course, are "wacky", "bullshit", "scandals" and "snake oil merchant". Agreeing with me is just gravy.

Check him out at Blog de King Shamus. He's really good.

(You can find out more about what Oprah's been up to by clicking her tag, below.)

Fran Drescher And Michelle Obama Vow To Save These Women

He keeps flying off to India. There's no sign of that longed-for baby. And gossips whisper…about her terrible temper...

As we all know, Elizabeth Hurley is quite the show pony: she loves to strike a pose. And at the Cheltenham Festival last week, she was in full hair-tossing mode, dressed in an eye-catching lilac coat. The Daily Mail

One of the most memorable -- and hated -- finalists from "Project Runway" is behind bars right now for allegedly fashioning a weapon out of a living, breathing, meowing cat ... and firing it at her ex-fiance!

Kenley Collins -- the trash-talking, third place loser from P.R. Season 5 -- was arrested in a Brooklyn home early yesterday morning, after the D.A. claims she attacked her sleeping ex-fiance with anything she could get her hands on -- including a cat, a laptop, several apples and finally ... water. It's like a design challenge turned violent! TMZ

Leann Rimes' husband should stay away from grocery stores this week.

Because the latest issue of US Weekly has some bad news for him on its cover.

According to US, Rimes, 26, who is married to former backup dancer Dean Sheremet, is getting hot and steamy with her TV movie costar, Eddie Cibrian.

Cibrian is also married, and has two children.

Sources tell the magazine that Rimes and Cibrian, 35, started their affair on the set of their upcoming Lifetime flick, "Northern Lights." Fox News

Women need no longer fear having men force them to behave like the three examples noted above.

Fran Drescher told Fox News she would be traveling with Michelle Obama to promote making the world “a more woman friendly environment”.

OK guys, you know the tune, you know the words, sing quietly to yourselves.

Getting Back At All Those Small Tippers

How a bottle-blond former waitress and self-described "55-year-old virgin" with a taste for the good life became the financial messiah for millions of Americans might be a fun Lifetime original movie. Why the masses continue to invest their faith in Suze Orman after a financial meltdown she never saw coming is a more timely question.

-- James Scurlock, on the financial "guru" who can't predict anything, on MSN Money.

Why The Lifetime Channel Is Harmful**

"Watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life, a study by a university in Edinburgh has claimed.

Rom-coms have been blamed by relationship experts at Heriot Watt University for promoting unrealistic expectations when it comes to love.

They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.

Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.

Psychologists at the family and personal relationships laboratory at the university studied 40 top box office hits between 1995 and 2005, and identified common themes which they believed were unrealistic.

The movies included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.

The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

'We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise.'"

-- The BBC

**Beyond scaring women to death.

The Lifetime Channel: Television For Twits, II

The Lifetime Channel: Television For Twits

"I have recently discovered that, along with the Lifetime Network's ridiculous programs such as "Lisa Willams: Life Among the Dead" and "America's Psychic Challenge," there is a large portion of their website dedicated to astrology, numerology, runes, tea leaves, and feng shui. There is no disclaimer that this is for entertainment purposes only. They seem to fully believe in and endorse it as a legitimate practice. I have emailed them numerous times to get them to pull their endorsement of these silly notions, with no response. Their astrologer, Christopher Renstrom, gives out advice on things such as health problems by explaining that their conditions will get better when their planet starts acting right again."

-- From a letter to the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)

I've tried to make the case (as has Steve Salerno in his book "SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless") that women and woo are a real problem. But, unfortunately, any man that says that will be accused - by women - of just being a mean ol' misogynist, so I'll now back away from the female firing squad and just let this incriminating letter, about the intellectually lazy lady's network, stand on it's own.