Joan Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, were due to critique Emmy fashions on AOL.com’s fashion site, StyleList, immediately following the Sept. 21 awards show. But the mother-daughter team’s comments never saw the light of day.
What happened?
Rivers says she was “censored.” She told Page Six that her quips, which included several references to Nazi Germany, (among them: “Julia Louis-Dreyfus — luckily she waxed her mustache. I know one of her neighbors, and if she leaves it for two or three weeks she looks just like Hitler.”) were too offensive for AOL, and that’s why the plug was pulled.
“AOL is like Holocaust deniers,” Rivers told Page Six. “They want us to believe 6 million Jews spent World War II in Boca and Anne Frank was in an attic for two years looking for Christmas ornaments.”
AOL is speaking out with a different version of events, however. Rivers’ comments apparently came to editors at AOL hours later than what was agreed upon, and when they finally arrived in the wee hours of the morning, they were found to be too unfunny to be included.
“It’s hard to imagine why Joan Rivers believes that AOL denies that the Holocaust ever happened, but it’s also hard to imagine that Joan really believes anyone would think her Emmy coverage was funny,” says Colleen Curtis, editorial director of women’s and lifestyle programming at AOL. “I didn’t, and I didn’t think our audience would either, and so I chose not to use it on our fashion site.”
From ‘Galactica’ to ‘Grey’s’
Kevin McKidd joined the show last night, and now comes word that Mary McDonnell will be the next new face among the McDoctors on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
U.S. & World
News that the two-time Oscar and Golden Globe winner would be joining the cast began to leak earlier in the week, but details were still fuzzy.
A source close to the production confirms that McDonnell, who currently stars in “Battlestar Galactica,” will be joining the cast, and says she starts filming next week.
McDonnell will be playing a surgeon, says the source. Will she fall prey to the advances of the men of Seattle Grace? On that subject the source was tight-lipped; you’ll have to stay tuned.
Roseanne Barr gets in on election coverage
Wonder what Roseanne Barr has to say when we wake up to a new president in November? You’ll get a chance to find out when the outspoken comedian appears on the “We Have a Winner” panel on Nov. 5.
The panel is part of the New York Comedy Festival, and will be moderated by “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead. Co-panelists are Monica Crowley, Robert A. George, Baratunde Thurston and Ted Rall.
Do her fellow panelists know what they’re getting into?
“She’s definitely met Lizz Winstead,” says Anne Finn, one of the reps for the festival, which is in its fifth year.
Barr isn’t a stranger to the New York Comedy festival: “She’s participated in the New York Comedy Festival in previous years — at the very first one in 2004 and in Rosie O’Donnell’s show last year at Lincoln Center,” says Finn.
Weekend box office
It should be a pretty clear-cut weekend at the box office. Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan and Rosario Dawson star in “Eagle Eye,” the new Paramount/Dreamworks release. Thanks to the film’s magical PG-13 rating and the fact it’s opening in 3,300 theaters, there’s no reason it won’t be number one. “Miracle at St. Anna” also opens this weekend. The war drama doesn’t have nearly enough to overcome its genre, which historically does not do well at the box office, and it’s only opening in a little more than 1,100 theaters, so it definitely won’t threaten “Eagle Eye.” There’s also the Richard Gere, Diane Lane romance “Nights in Rodanthe.” It has solid numbers behind it — 2,704 theaters will carry it, And, if my mom is a fair sampling, Gere is a tremendous box-office draw, especially if long walks by the ocean and passionate kisses with stormy backdrops are involved. Unfortunately, none of the above will be enough to put “Rodanthe” atop the box office.
Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com.
