Today:

Gervais, who has hosted the Globes for the past two years and will do so again on Sunday night, continued his chat from last week with TODAY’s Matt Lauer on Wednesday, refusing to apologize for being offensive from time to time.

“What am I doing? I’m coming up with jokes and annoying people,” he said. “I think offense is taken, not given. If you don’t let yourself be offended, you’re not offended. Some people are offended by quality; some people are offended by mixed marriage; some people are offended by homosexuality. What are we meant to do, stop all those things because someone’s offended? No.”

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The L.A. Times tells us the plot is thickening:

One source close to the investigation said the couple produced the e-mails at the security checkpoint last Tuesday to show that they had been invited to the event. The Secret Service, which has interviewed the Salahis as part of its own investigation, has obtained copies of the e-mails.

On Monday night, the White House released a statement in which Jones said she did nothing to help the couple get into the dinner.

“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening’s events,” according to the statement from Jones, whose title is special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and White House liaison. “I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.” (more…)

The fact that I’ve needed to correct the record every time I’m involved in some sort of media firestorm (about once a month since the election, it seems), probably says at least as much about the pathetic nature of our news media as anything I put in my documentary “Media Malpractice,” a film whose truth I’ve dedicated almost all of the last year of my life to. The most recent episode involving the controversy over David Letterman’s comments about Governor Sarah Palin and her family is certainly no exception.  

First, let me tell you what really happened, and then I can explain what we should all learn from this.  Here’s the timeline… 

Monday, June 8th: Letterman uses Palin’s trip to New York to unleash a torrent of  ”comic” attacks on her and her family. The entire “Top Ten” list is devoted to the Governor and includes cracks about her updating her “slutty” wardrobe and possessing illegal drugs. The monologue includes a “joke” about Palin’s “daughter” getting “knocked up” at a Yankees game by Alex Rodriquez during the 7th inning stretch while her mother and a stadium full of spectators presumably watched.   (more…)

Charles LiMandri, Attorney for Miss Carrie Prejean, issued the following statement in response to Keith Lewis’ comments on The Today Show earlier today:

“Keith Lewis cannot deny the truth:  He did not bother to pick up the phone and tell Carrie Prejean before he alerted the media.  He did not pick up the phone and call me to let me know she was fired either. Both of us learned about it from media reports. He claims he wants to “move on” yet he continues to attack not only me, Carrie and even Carrie’s pastor, Miles McPherson.  This tells you everything you need to know about Keith Lewis and the way the pageant has treated Carrie from day one.” (more…)

Next week I plan to write more extensively on Big Hollywood about the many bizarre behind the scenes occurrences and things learned during the initial media promotion tour for my new film “Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.” However, one episode was so strange and important, that I need to briefly touch on it today.

This dealt with the set-up segment to my appearance on the “Today Show” (video below) yesterday. The “Today Show” was given exclusive access to the unreleased portions of my Sarah Palin interview and NBC reporter Norah O’Donnell was given these clips and chosen to do the story on the Palin interview that would air just before and lead into my interview with Matt Lauer.

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What O’Donnell chose to air was striking for two reasons. First, it so badly missed all the best Palin sound bites I can only conclude (despite any logic to this theory) that NBC did so on purpose. No one could be so incompetent as to take 43 minutes of great stuff and literally use the very first answer in the interview (which was hardly noteworthy) and none of the best clips. Second, O’Donnell’s editorial choices went out of their way to diminish and ignore Governor Palin’s very credible objections to very specific episodes of media malpractice. But the news media, especially NBC, trying to make Palin look bad is hardly new. (more…)

I have had the privilege of being in Tampa all week to cover Super Bowl 43, and one of the lesser reported stories of the week is the relationship between Steelers chairman and owner Dan Rooney and President Barack Obama. I wrote a quick post on the subject Friday here on Big Hollywood.

Then-Senator Obama with former Steelers star Jerome Bettis, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey Jr. and Hall of Fame Steelers running back Franco Harris

Earlier this week, President Obama told reporters that he is a Steelers fan. The truth is that the legendary Rooney, a lifelong Republican, was enraptured by Obama on the night of the Iowa Caucuses after the junior Senator from Chicago defeated heavily favored Hillary Clinton. An endorsement from the powerful Pennsylvanian was quick to follow. It’s no wonder that Obama gave his full-throated support to the legendary franchise in today’s big game.

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