My media brethren really must put the brakes on the significance of Susan Boyle’s talent to…insert analogy here.
The latest: how Susan Boyle is succeeding on the world stage where Barack Obama is not! It’s INSANE. Boyle is the dowdy middle-aged Brit with the sweet voice whose audition for Britain Has Talent became THE viral video of the month. But let’s face it, at this point we can’t be assured that she’s more than a flash in the pan. All of these columns about what our support of her means to society are getting way out of hand. It’s great television and she’s a delightful discovery – end of story.
Poker player Annie Duke could easily walk away with the big money for her charity from Celebrity Apprentice. She’s an extremely effective fundraiser and relentlessly enthusiastic. But she’s also wholly narcissistic and every other sentence that comes out of her mouth (give or take, thanks to editing) is something to do with how wonderful/smart/talented/creative/helpful/brilliant she is It’s beyond annoying, like a child who can’t stand Mommy and Daddy’s attention being off her for a second. But on this week’s show the truly delusional duo of Joan and Melissa Rivers came fully into the light. Melissa was descending into deep paranoia about being forced out and Mommy Joan was riding along on the wave on her baby’s behalf. The legend and the spawn seemed to completely forget that they were playing a game whose object was to raise the most money for their chosen charity. Joan launched mean and personal attacks on Annie and on Brandy, a beautiful and brainy Playmate who’s also playing the game well. Melissa behaved like a mean, spoiled brat, treating the production crew like dirt and firing off profanity-laced tirades at them on her way out. They both took the game personally. Joan even compared Annie to Hitler and other despicable characters, essentially because Annie plays well and plays to win. I never imagined that two adult women, even these two, would behave so badly and completely forget the reasons why they were there. They’re sore – and very unfunny – losers.
I watch NASCAR races because my partner is a huge fan so I’ve become a fan by osmosis. My favourite driver is Carl Edwards, who was in a spectacular crash at the Talledega track on Sunday. (We PVR’d it while at the Green Living Show) If you can imagine packed stands and a race car at 200+ mph going end over end toward the crowd that didn’t even have time to react, you get the picture. It’s all over the web now. Years ago this would have meant several deaths in the stands but the car slammed into the high impact safety fence and literally bounced back onto the track. A few fans were slightly injured by debris. Edwards said later he was a little freaked out that his roll bar may have come down on him during the crash but it didn’t. He had been in the lead when the crash occured and after his car came to a stop he climbed out and jogged to the finish line just so he could say that he made it! The man is a total class act. At trackside a few minutes later he told reporters that was his first time rolling a race car. Still, he was articulate but disappointed to have lost when he was so close to winning and made pointed comments about the driving rule that caused him to crash, saying it won’t get changed until someone gets killed. In other words, are you listening NASCAR??