Hey Everyone:
Didn't publish last week because I was out and about last weekend. Also, been having some writer's block lately.
Didn’t have any issues with material this week.
Photo swiped from Keri-Ann Hart's FB page. Clockwise from top: Malcom Jamal Warner, Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne
This was a rough week for those of us who grew up in the 80's. We'll start off with three obits.
Malcolm Jamal-Warner (1970-2025) I've often referenced a scene in Oliver Stone's 1995 movie about Richard Nixon; the scene right after Nixon went on TV and announced he was resigning as POTUS the next afternoon.
Nixon, portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins is wandering around the White House by himself, in the room with all the presidential portraits. When he gets to the portrait of JFK, he says "People look at you and they see who they wished they could be. When they look at me they see who they are."
In the 1980's and very early 90's, people watched The Cosby Show and in a lot of ways saw the family they wished they could be.
Two loving, if stern parents both successful career people, 5 good-looking, relatively issue free kids all living in a Brooklyn brownstone.
Malcom Jamal Warner, who played the wisecracking middle child and only male heir to Dr. Cliff and Clair Huxtable Esq., was an easy character to like. Mostly because Warner was an easy actor to like.
He had a whole list of acting credits outside of The Cosby Show, the one's I'm most familiar with are when he played Al (AC) Cowlings in the FX American Crime Story opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. as OJ Simpson. I also remember him playing Lt. Chuck Cooper in TNT's Major Crimes.
But it's as Theo Huxtable that he will be most fondly remembered. He drowned in Costa Rica at the way too young age of 54.
Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025) If I sat here and wrote that I was a big fan of Ozzy Osbourne, a big fan of heavy metal music in general I'd be lying. I don't have any of his songs on any of my playlists, I never watched his reality show, quite frankly most of what I know about him I've only really learned about from reading the various tributes to him.
But I long ago decided not to knock anybody's music choices, as I don't appreciate it when people knock mine. More to the point, one doesn't have to be a metalhead to appreciate what Ozzy meant to his genre.
The reality show he did with his wife and kids was a laugh riot and millions of people watched it, regardless of their musical preferences. His lifelong battles with booze and drugs also made him a sympathetic figure, someone anybody could get behind and root for. And considering he fought those demons, and also reportedly bit the heads off flying rodents, the fact that he lived to 76 is a victory in and of itself.
The outpouring of condolences from all walks of life, from all types of musicians, actors and even a politician or two, was a tribute to just what kind of a guy he was. Was sorry to see that news as it broke this week.
Hulk Hogan (1953-2005) Celebrity deaths come in threes is the old adage. It's not always true, kind of true this week.* And of the three, it's one Terry Gene Bollea who has the most complicated legacy, the one I'm having the hardest time figuring out how I feel about this.
I got the feeling, even reading his obits, that Malcom Jamal Warner was not much different from Theo Huxtable. Ozzy was who he was as well.
Terry Bollea spent a good part of his life as Hulk Hogan. Representing a "sport" that while the outcomes were pre-determined, you still had to be in some great shape to be successful. Who he was, well, that was hard to say.
A friend of mine pointed out he was MAGA, and that was a deal breaker for them. My response was in some ways, he was the perfect MAGA.
Think about it..... What was his catch phrase back in the day? "Train hard, say your prayers, eat your vitamins."
I'm sure he trained hard to get those arms, but those vitamins he was taking were mostly anabolic steroids. And I have pointed out ad-nauseum here about how it seems like the folks who identify as evangelicals are usually the ones who are caught with the hookers and blow. Not to mention, they are also the ones who are looking to cut social programs for those who Jesus himself said "what you do to the least of my people, you do to me"
And with all that, I felt bad when I saw that he died. I still felt a part of my childhood ended. There was a song back in the 90's called "Where Have all the Cowboys Gone" by Paula Cole in which she sang. "Where is my John Wayne? The same John Wayne who was married 3 times, divorced twice, and carried on several affairs. Yet he was still looked upon as the ultimate catch in many circles.
But I got caught up in all that back in the mid 80's, and the WWF (now WWE) took off, thanks to Vince McMahon (a shady character himself) and Hulk Hogan. Wrestling went from a regional show to a national phenomenon in a matter of months, after the heavyweight title went from quiet, blue collar Bob Backlund, to the evil Iron Sheik (who was actually an Olympic medal winning weightlifter) to Hogan.
His original title run was for four years. In his third year as champ, he faced Andre the Giant in front of 93,000 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, setting a record for an indoor event. Around that time, his matches kind of became predictable and I even started hoping someone would take the title from him. In 1988, he lost to Andre, who forfeited the belt when he sold it to Ted DiBiase. When we all expected Hogan to win the belt back at WrestleMania IV, it went instead to Macho Man Randy Savage.
My interest in pro wrestling waned after that. But a few years later my sister Kate and my sister Krissy's husband Steve got me back into it for a bit. In 2002, Hogan, now a bad guy, faced off against Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson at WrestleMania 18.
As the match got underway, I turned to Steve and said "I know we're supposed to be rooting for the Rock, but is part of you hoping Hulk wins it?" He said "I was just thinking the same thing."
Sure enough as the match wore on, the fans started chanting Hogan's name. The Rock ended up winning the match, but he and Hogan shook hands afterwards and the Rock paid tribute to his hero growing up. In and interview later on, both Hogan and Johnson admitted they called an audible because of the crowd's reaction to Hogan.
In 2015, a sex tape involving Hogan was leaked, and on the tape Hogan used the N-word in reference to his daughter, Brooke, having relations with an African-American man. Again, there lies the rub. Hulk Hogan and Mr. T were friends and partners in WrestleMania I, and were co-headliners in WrestleMania II. Was that all fake and the real Terry Bollea the one using the N-word? Who knows?
Like most people who become famous through performing arts, whether it be through music, acting, athletics or in the case of Hulk Hogan, all of the above, it's a fine line between the performer and the performance.
Hulk Hogan, the vitamin taking, bible thumping, flag waving patriot was the character playing someone who did everything right, who we all wanted to be The reality was that he was a steroid taking, n-word spewing womanizer. We can aspire to be the man on the screen, while making sure we are not the man playing the character.
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LATE NIGHT TV- The End of the Late Show?
When CBS announced they were bringing in Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman as host of the Late Show, I have to admit I wasn't all in.
I respected Colbert, both as a performer and a social commentator, but he had made his bones spoofing Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, almost to a tee. I wasn't sure if that could transition over to a talk show.
Stephen Colbert on The O'Reilly Factor in 2007. O'Reilly had been on the Colbert Report the night before. Colbert called it the best TV crossover "since the Flintstones met the Jetsons"
He was able to keep the political edge of the Colbert Report while also keeping the main format of the late night talk show.
On July 13, CBS announced that not only would they not be extending Colbert's contract, but they were getting rid of the Late Show franchise all together, citing that it was "purely a financial decision" and also, not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." (CBS' parent company)
"Other matters happening at Paramount" most likely refers to a merger between Paramount and movie studio Skydance. And because that merger required approval from the FCC, it was widely speculated that was the reason CBS paid Captain Orange 16 million to settle a $20 billion lawsuit CFCO brought against the network claiming they had edited an interview with Vice President Harris in order to give her more favorable coverage.
Several media types called BS on that settlement, including Colbert on the Late Show, who called it "a big fat bribe."
Colbert and the Late Show were canceled three days later. Coincidence? Color me skeptical.
There were also reports that CBS was losing up to $40 million a year on the Late Show. Again, I'm having a hard time quantifying that. The Late Show has bested The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel Live since 2019. Letterman beat Jay Leno's Tonight Show the first year he moved to CBS, but then the OJ Simpson went on trial for killing his ex wife and Ron Goldman, and Leno never again relinquished the lead. And through all that, there was never any talk of replacing Dave, much less canceling the Late Show.
But then again, when Jay and Dave were duking it out in the 90's and 2000's, we didn't have the most thin skinned, pea brained wimp in the White House either.
And the fact that he came out on his X account and bragged that he helped end the Late Show, (and is aiming at Fallon and Kimmel as well) proves two things. 1) What a mental flyweight he is and 2) that Freedom of Speech in MAGA land only applies to those who use it to praise their Orange Leader.
BUSTED - CEO caught on Kiss-Cam
Andy Byron, the CEO of an AI company called Astronomer, decided to take in a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. He and the woman he took the show, were captured on the kiss-cam. Andy and his date for the evening were married. Just not to each other.
And you thought the cheating at Gillette Stadium ended when Tom Brady and Bill Belichick left.**
Indeed, Byron was caught with the head of Astronomer's HR department, Kristin Cabot, snuggling away and grooving to the music when not only did the camera catch them in the act, Coldplay front man Chris Martin remarked as they stopped hugging and ducked from the camera, "Either they are very shy or they are having an affair."
Turned out to be the latter.
And I could be wrong about this, but I can't help but think this would have been a blurb in the newspaper, maybe a quick 30 second story on a newscast or two, if not for the internet in general, and social media in particular.
Because the memes that have been coming out about this? One has been more hilarious than the other. I had two different text chains going last Friday night of people posting about this whole mess.
And look, I'm not condoning cheating on your spouse or am I encouraging making light of it, (especially since there are kids involved) but you have to admit, the look on their faces when the camera caught them was hysterical. hence the memes.
Both Byron and Cabot have resigned their positions and Astronomer has released a statement saying that they don't condone this type of behavior. Are they talking about adultery in general or CEO's getting it on with their underlings?
It sounds like Cabot's marriage was already in the proverbial crapper, and it's hard to see Byron's marriage surviving this, especially since (as I read in the Post) that Byron's wife stands to get half of his assets, which includes an almost $700,000 a year salary, plus performance bonuses. His performance at the Coldplay concert may have just cost him dearly. The Post also estimated his net worth at $70 million. As exorbitant as concert tickets are nowadays, they're still not close to $35 million a pair.
It sounds like Martin and Coldplay have decided to do away with the kiss-cam, and maybe that's for the best. I can only speak for Shea Stadium/Citi Field, they do it there and I never thought it was anything particularly clever or funny. Some people get a kick out of it though, so we'll see if it keeps up. It may produce another week of memes and news stories if they bust another power couple.
Supposed to be a hot one this week. Everyone be careful.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*Chuck Mangione also died this week. He had a number 4 hit in June 1978 called Feels So Good The friends of mine on social media who admitted they liked that song stunned me. I've always liked it, but I also once stood and watched Air Supply play at Mohegan Sun while my friends were off at the craps table.
** I am hoping upon hope that I am the first person in America who used that line. I have no doubt that if he were still the nighttime sports editor at the Post, my friend Pat (Hondo) Hannigan would have beaten me to it.
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