Results tagged “todayshow”

Balloon Boy Pukes On TV, But Was That Just For "A Show" Too?

Is the media frenzy over the balloon boy stunt making you sick? You're not the only one! Parents Richard and Mayumi Heene are very busy pimping themselves out to the networks, and they're not about to let their li'l star's stomach virus stand in the way of their precious 15 minutes. This morning Falcon—the six-year-old boy who was hiding in the attic while America was voyeuristically titillated worried sick that he was in a runaway helium balloon—vomited twice on two different talk shows this morning, just like a pussified wus. Here's the Today Show spew, at 5:50 in:

Matt Lauer gave it the old college try with Caroline Kennedy today, using her appearance on the Today Show (to plug the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards) as a chance to solve the ongoing mystery over why she dropped her bid to occupy Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt of the forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cited an unnamed "family adviser's" assertion that Kennedy's children had intervened and begged her to drop her campaign, telling her "that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington."

Post Questions Spitzer's "Gremlins" Excuse

The Post (of course) has fun with former governor Eliot Spitzer's Today appearance: Regarding Spitzer's explanation about his hooker flings, "I have tried to address these gremlins, confront them," the Post says Spitzer made it sound "as if he were battling the furious furballs from the '80s horror flick." So the tabloid offers helpful visual aids explaining "This is a gremlin" and "This is a hooker," plus a graph comparing gremlins and hookers. The NY Times also mentions Spitzer's "gremlins" quote but leads with how the getting caught in the act did cross the Steamroller's mind.

Spitzer Continues Comeback With Today Show Appearance

Lately, former governor Eliot Spitzer has been edging back into the public eye, perhaps beckoned by the siren song of public unhappiness with financial firms. He was, after all, the "Sheriff of Wall Street" during his Attorney General days, so he's parlayed that into a column for Slate, a Washington Post editorial, an appearance on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show and now a one-on-one with Matt Lauer on the Today Show.

In case there has been any ambiguity up until this point, Michael Mele is not a nice person. One of his employees at the Quizno's he manages in Orange County recounted to the Post today about how her boss berated her, screaming into the phone at her for revealing to police where he lived when they came by investigating the disappearance of Laura Garza.

It was an episode full of corporate synergy! Sort of reminiscent of when Project Runway designers had to create an outfit for Today Show contributor Tiki Barber, last night's episode of Top Chef had contestants develop a dish they could demonstrate on TV for the Today Show. Plus there were reminders that the chefs are using...GE Monogram appliances in the kitchen!

     

In what has become an annual tradition, the Today show hosts (and newsreader--of all four hours!) dressed in elaborate Halloween costumes. This year, the theme was a storybook Halloween: Matt Lauer was Humpty Dumpty, Al Roker was the Gingerbread Man (with a suggestively placed... decoration), Meredith Vieira was Pinocchio (she said was "high" from the glue on her nose prosthetic), Ann Curry was Cinderella ("an ethnic J-Lo Cinderella"), Kathie Lee Gifford was the Big Bad Wolf, Hoda Kotb was Little Red Riding Hood, and Amy Robach was Rapunzel.

Matt Lauer proved himself once again to have one of the best senses of humor of any TV journalist during his friar's club roast yesterday to benefit arts education and a new journalism scholarship in memory of Tim Russert. But all of the headlines today were swept up by the visit Lauer got from the man on the other end of one of his tensest on-air moments, Tom Cruise.

Sam the Cooking Guy -- who boasts on his website that "with no fancy equipment and by speaking English instead of ‘chef-speak,'" he's "sort of the everyman of television cooking" -- may want to tone down the "regular guy" routine next time he's on The Today Show. Which isn't going to happen anytime soon. Eater points out that his most recent appearance did not go well.

His record is pretty impressive, he's organized 70 "real dates," 19 of which turned into relationships that lasted over a year. The numbers could be higher but Ibrahim is selective on who he sets up.

He listens to their conversations, asks them a few questions and then, if he thinks they are suitable, explains his matchmaking services and asks for their number and e-mail.

The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks."

An AP report that Mayor Bloomberg has been "conducting extensive polling and voter analysis in all 50 states" continues to fan the flames of a possible Bloomberg '08 bid. We can just imagine it: People in Alaska, Missouri, Ohio, all getting phone calls and asked, "How would you feel if a billionaire who happened to also be a mayor of a certain urban area decided to run for President - as an independent?"

  • Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured firefighter at Ave Y and Knapp St. in Brooklyn, serious trauma at the Bryant Park ice rink in Manhattan, and a stabbing at 169th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens.
  • The New Yorker collects quotes from striking writers and their supporters regarding the strike beard phenomena. Conan O'Brien, on perhaps the only physical feature that will ever help him resemble a lumberjack: "I’m the only guy chopping wood outside his Manhattan co-op.”
  • Former Yankee Jim Leyritz was arrested on suspicion of DUI and DUI manslaughter after a crash in Florida last night (Leyritz's 44th birthday), which killed the driver of the car he struck.

An off-duty firefighter was charged with misdemeanor assault after he beat up a Brooklyn motorist in front of the driver's wife and two sons. Michael Crespo, who is a 28-year-old copier technician, says that he was driving in Brooklyn when Stephen Spagnola jaywalked in front of his car. Spagnola, who is with FDNY Engine Co. 28 and also posed as Mr. September in the 2005 edition of the FDNY's racy Calendar of Heroes, objected to Crespo's objections and soon enough, Crespo was out of his car getting brutally beaten by Spagnola and a his friend. The Daily News quotes Crespo's wife, "I was hysterical. My oldest child saw everything. He was afraid for his daddy."

Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike today after talks between the WGA and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed last night. WGA East members are striking outside of NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Plaza on 49th Street today - 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers, and the Daily Show's John Oliver were on the line, as were many other writers for other productions - and other...

We have lots of videos to get you in a Halloween state of mind while you undoubtedly are suffering from a sugar crash after too much office candy. First up, IntoTheBox has a scary New York story with a real estate twist (after all, what's scarier than Manhattan real estate?!) -- travel to Confucius Plaza on Bowery and Canal, here.

We recently visited Fox News Channel’s morning show Fox & Friends. Unlike most of the other morning shows it is a freewheeling kind of crazy romp that definitely has “Fox attitude”.

The cutest mustachioed baby in this town is definitely the new walrus at the New York Aquarium. The baby walrus, who was born on June 12 and weighed in at 115 pounds, is ready for his public, as he made his first appearance yesterday. But he needs a name, and people can vote on the Today Show's website for one of four names: Utvak (Means ice made from snow or ice cube), Ukiivak (Means king island), Utumek (Means earth), Akituusaq (Means gift given in return).

Starting on September 10th, WNBC will be making a seismic shift on the local television landscape. Live at Five is gone, with infotainment show Extra taking its place at 5 p.m. with News 4 You remaining at 5:30 p.m. However, there will be not net loss of newscasts, since WNBC will be starting a new 7 p.m. newscast, but it is not as new an idea as it would seem, since WNYW aired a 7 p.m. newscast from 1987 to 1993. WNBC’s Station Manager and Senior Vice President of News, Dan Forman, noted: “Our news at 7pm meets the needs of viewers coming home from work and is a perfect compliment to ‘NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,’ which precedes it.”

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made a repeat appearance on the Today Show this morning to share her "racy" photographs with Matt Lauer. This is how the Today Show website describes the photographs, which are apparently the ones someone took from Polumbo's Facebook profile and mailed to pageant officials:

The photos really aren’t that bad, by contemporary standards, but they aren’t necessarily good for the 22-year-old theater major’s public image, either.

If you're still reading the paper version of The New York Times, get ready to spend a little more. Cover prices will go up to $1.25 from $1 starting July 16th. Sunday prices will increase on July 15th, going from $3.50 to $4.00. The last increase for The Times in the New York area was in 1999. The increased prices are projected to add $7-8 million in revenue this year and $14-16 million in 2008. Home delivery prices will increase 3-4%. Time will tell whether the price increase will cause subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and read the paper online.

(No matter what your mode of conveyance, we hope your Memorial Day Weekend is an excellent one and that you ride or drive safely. We will be here, offering fresh content throughout the weekend.)

Last week we sat down with Maurice DuBois, anchor of CBS 2 News This Morning and fill in weekend anchor for The Saturday Early Show and The CBS Evening News. DuBois joined WCBS and CBS in 2004 after seven years with WNBC and NBC where he anchored Today in New York, reported for Dateline NBC and filled in on the Today Show.

Spider-Man Week is coming to an end. What happened out there while we weren't looking? In one of the more interesting spider events this week, Tobey Maguire got a big creature placed on his arm at AMNH by entymologist and curator Norm Platnick:

Radio shock jock Don Imus was suspended for two weeks by CBS, which owns WFAN and Westwood One (the radio outlets his show is broadcast and syndicated on) and MSNBC, which broadcasts a televised simulcast of the radio show, over remarks he made towards the Rutgers women's basketball team. MSNBC announced that Imus would be suspended first, then CBS announced a similar suspension.

You know what's awesome in high definition TV? Seeing images of huge, fat rats run around a fast food restaurant in the Village! WABC, WCBS, and WNBC descended on a Taco Bell-KFC location on Sixth Avenue at 4th Street. The restaurant had been open until 11PM last night, and someone called in a tip when they saw rats running around. While people have seen rats in restaurants, they probably haven't seen something that looked this close to the Rats of NIMH. This story also made the Today Show, in a broader piece about "Is food from your restaurant safe?" Which makes us wonder about the pros and cons of e. coli and rats.

The Rink at Rockefeller Center is 70 years old today. The rink, in the heart of Midtown and unrivaled for many years (until the Bryant Park's Pond opened), first opened on Christmas Day in 1936. Being located right by the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and the Today Show studios has helped its popularity. It seems to be open today - here are more details.

This year, the Today Show's tradition of testing its hosts' fortitude by giving them nutty Halloween costumes did not disappoint. Matt Lauer and Al Roker were Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, that is Al as Captain Davy Jones - he is squidalicious! In years past, Matt and Al have dressed as famous pairs, like Siegfried and Roy, Batman and Robin, and J.Lo and Puffy. We're surprised that NBC was cool with Matt and Al dressing as a famous Disney movie, but the Good Morning America folks didn't dress up at all. All they had were their faces carved into pumpkins and a scary interview with Courtney Love.

Of course, this recalls the Seinfeld episode, The Little Kicks, where Jerry becomes a pirated-movie auteur:

I don't care about Brody. I was up on 96th Street today, there was a kid couldn't have been more than ten years old. He was asking a street vendor if he had any other bootlegs as good as Death Blow. That's who I care about. The little kid who needs bootlegs, because his parent or guardian won't let him see the excessive violence and strong sexual content you and I take for granted.
And that's the episode where Elaine dances.

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