personalities | Et Cetera: Publick and Privat Curiosities

The Megalomaniacal Matt Drudge Endangered Prince Harry’s Life

February 29, 2008 — Patrick Zimmerman

Matt Drudge Causes Abrupt Withdrawal of Prince Harry from Afghanistan

This morning, Prince Harry was quickly sent back to England from Afghanistan. While his commanders have mostly chosen to blame the “foreign media” in general, it’s very clear to everyone that it was really The Drudge Report that created the tremendous security risk for Prince Harry, as well as for the others who were serving in his military unit.

The megalomaniacal Matt Drudge had boastfully unveiled a self-congratulatory double-decker banner on Thursday, but by today British newspapers have raised many questions about what Drudge did, such as: Why did he blow Harry’s cover? Would he have done the same if it were the children of President Bush or Senator Hillary Clinton? What took him so long? (The secret had been kept safe for 10 weeks).

Neil Wallis, Executive Editor of News of the World, slammed Mr. Drudge for the “cheap shot,” considering all the publications that did obey the embargo, including his own. “Any number of newspapers or broadcasters in this country could have claimed that as far back as December,” he said.

Prince Harry Returning Home for Security Reasons

Interested viewers can read more about how Drudge’s actions endangered Prince Harry’s life in The New York Times, here.

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And to You Whoopi Goldberg, Bravo!!

February 27, 2008 — Patrick Zimmerman

As most people probably know by now, Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony featured many montages, one of which was described as a “montage of Oscar hosts” when it was introduced by George Clooney. The retrospective montage of past hosts included a moment of almost every host in the show’s history. But there was one host who was not included in that montage, the 4-time host and Academy Awards winner Whoopi Goldberg.

On Monday’s airing of the ABC television program The View, the subject was discussed ad nauseam by the “chatting-heads”, and Whoopi’s feelings of disappointment about the omission were abundantly and painfully clear. The other co-hosts spoke of Whoopi’s many historical milestones related to the ceremony: she was the first female Oscar host, the first Oscar winner to host, and only the second African-American woman to ever win an Oscar. Up until now, most writers about that particular program have described it simply in terms of how displeased the co-hosts were with the slight.

However, there is a different, possibly more plausible perspective on what actually took place Monday on The View. Consider that not only does Whoopi have to suffer the daily indignity of being reduced to just another “chatting-head” on The View, but also that her co-hosts insisted upon going on and on, in front of millions of American people, rubbing in the fact that the Oscar winning actress and Oscar hosting actress had not been shown in one of the montages on Sunday night. Dumb and dumberer Elisabeth Hasselbeck babbled on and on about how it must feel so terrible to be so slighted. Placing a cherry atop the poison pudding, the ever-duplicitous Barbara Walters unwittingly asserted that nothing Whoopi had ever done at the Oscars was really a Great Moment.

Whoopi just sat there, looking unbelievably miserable, trying to collect the remaining shards of her dignity that were being scattered around the set. When the others just wouldn’t stop, Whoopi quietly got up and gave each of them “the kiss of death” just to shut their mouths, briefly weeping when she got behind Barbara Walters.

Update: On Tuesday, the producer of the Oscar awards show apologized to Whoopi for leaving her out. The View should be interesting to watch tomorrow.